The funniest thing happened last night. Casey was outside last night, mowing the grass, so it was up to me to put the kids to bed. I put Emma to bed after reading a couple of books and went downstairs to feed Luke his bottle before bed. As soon as he finished his bottle, he went right to sleep. I was watching a DVR'd episode of Saturday Night Live and started laughing at one of the skits. At this point, Luke had been asleep for about 5 or 10 minutes. All of the sudden, while still sleeping, he started cracking up. So, I look down, and he's dead-asleep. So, I continue watching TV and start laughing. Again, Luke starts cracking up in his sleep. This went on for about 5 minutes. I'd start laughing because he was so funny and then HE'D start laughing, but the whole time, he was asleep. He opened his eyes like once, and he barely kept them open for a second. The ironic thing is that Casey went through a phase a few years back when he was doing the exact same thing! It would be in the middle of the night and he would be dead-asleep, giggling! Like father, like son! :)

Emma should be in advertising when she grows up because she is so creative! Lately, she's been coming up with new ways to delay bedtime. In the past, she usually would just throw a fit, but lately, she's been trying to talk her way out of it. Her past tricks included" (1) telling us that she wasn't tired (2) telling us that her tummy hurts (3) running to the bathroom to "throw up" (my personal favorite). The other night, I was tucking her in and she started whining that she wasn't ready for bed. Then, she started her new trick... she says, "But I don't get to sleep with anybody." I know what you're thinking - ahh, that's so cute! I thought the same thing at first. She goes on to say, "But YOU get to sleep with people. YOU always have somebody in your bed. YOU sleep with company and I don't!" Company? Company?? She makes me sound like a lady of the night! I explained that the only company that I sleep with is Daddy. Furthermore, I explain, Daddy has been snoring lately and we haven't been sleeping together. I can't wait to hear what she comes up with next.

Casey shared another funny story with me today... last night, on the way home from school, Emma was whining about more Scooby snacks. Casey wasn't feeling well and was sick of the whining, so he pulls the car over on the side of the road and jumps in the back seat. He says to me, "so, yeah, I'm sure I let some expletives fly, but she got the point to stop whining." He goes on to say that they didn't really talk the rest of the ride home. I get home around 6:30 and Casey immediately goes to bed since he's sick. So this morning, Casey asks Emma to find her shoes and she says she doesn't know where they are. Case says "that's why I said go look for them. We need to go!" Emma replies, "Okay, Daddy, I'll go look for my shoes.... dammit." He said it was hilarious! He then had to explain to Emma that sometimes Moms and Dads say bad words that they shouldn't but that doesn't mean that little girls are allowed to say that. Just a reminder that she's always listening!

Luke had a rough beginning of the week. Poor thing woke up at midnight on Monday and started throwing up. He ran a fever for all of early Tuesday morning and through early Wednesday morning. Since the little stubborn man refuses to take medicine, I wasn't really able to control his fever. He just had to suffer. Which is strange because Emma LOVED her medicine. In fact, most of the time, she was trying to figure out ways to get Tylenol.

After scanning my last few posts, I've realized that I haven't said too much about Luke lately. Its always hard to blog about babies because, unlike toddlers, its about how they look (adorable) instead of what they said. So without further ado, this post is dedicated to Lukey-the-man...

So, Luke is thisclose to crawling. He gets down on all-fours and rocks back and forth, but doesn't make any progress. Then, he gets frustrated and falls to his stomach and spastically waves his arms and legs. If he was in water, he would be zooming around at high speeds. Instead, this just aggrevates him. I'm so ready for him to start crawling! Although it will add a whole new dynamic to the house, it will make him much happier. He constantly babbles and has recently started saying "da da" and "mom mom." I've noticed that he says "mom mom" when he's stuck or needs help. I doubt that he really knows what he is saying, but its so darn cute! I've never seen such a happy baby. Most of the time, he just sits on the floor and waits for someone to look at him so he can smile and talk. It's hilarious! His most recent trick is standing up, holding onto furniture. We've also made the mistake of letting him walk around while holding his hands/arms, which he loves. We spent months and months doing that with Emma. My back isn't ready for that game quite yet. We've had two nights in a row of sleeping through the night (knock on wood) so I'm hoping that trend will continue. I'm exhausted!

Everything else is going well. I can hardly believe that its May already! I am looking forward to Casey & Emma being out of school. The summer-time is always 100% less stressful!

That's all for now!

Below is an email from Emma's teacher, Ms. Bertsch:

The good news: We were working on rhyming today and Emma loves to think of new words to rhyme.

The bad news: Emma was rhyming everything with “truck.” You can only imagine the words she came up with!

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer - Toddler Edition

Casey and I like to discuss what we think Emma will be when she grows up. As her obsession with all things medicine grows, we've discussed careers, such as Pharmaceutical Rep, Doctor, Nurse. She especially likes giving Luke "check-ups" which to me, look a little more like a light beating. But Luke is a good sport and is willing to endure any sort of attention that Emma throws his way.

Lately, we've been discussing her penchent for arguing. She always has to have the last word and usually throws out "but, mommy (or daddy)..." to any sort of direction that we give her. For example:

Stacy: "Emma, please stop poking the thermometer in Luke's ear. You can pretend that you're giving him a check-up, but please don't really poke that in his ear."
Emma: "But mommy, I need to check his ears."
Stacy: "Seriously, Emma, don't."
Emma: "But I HAVE to."

The argument will usually continue until I finally have to take away the foreign object that she's using to torture her brother.

So, last Friday, Johnny Mac came over and brought pounds upon pounds of steak with him for the grill. Casey, Emma and Johnny Mac were outside and Emma is trying to get Casey to push her on the swings. She starts dancing around, holding herself and Casey says, "Okay, Emma - I'll push you but you we need to go potty first." Emma replies, "But I don't have to go potty." And so begins the battle...

Casey says, "Seriously, Emma, let's just run inside and go potty and then we can come back out and swing." Emma's not budging: "But I don't HAVE to go!" Casey says, "Come on, Emma, you're doing the pee-pee dance. Let's just go inside and get it over with." Emma's response: "No, daddy this isn't the pee-pee dance. Its just a REGULAR dance."

See what we're dealing with?!? :)

Funny story to add... Emma spent the day at Karla & Roger's so she was dropped off today at 4:30. Emma is poking around the office and looks at my stereo and says, "Mom, do you have a CD in there?" and points to the stereo. I answer yes. She asks, "Mom, do you dance to your CDs at work?" Hmm... not a lot of dancing going on around here!

Our (rainy) Florida Vacation!

Casey & Emma's spring break finally arrived, which meant one thing: FLORIDA VACATION! I was lucky enough to find cheap tickets to Ft. Lauderdale in early January, so I had been counting down the days until we left. Casey's parents bought a house in Boynton Beach last year so we were anxious to see them both, since they had been down there since after Christmas. It took me about 3 days to pack. I'm pretty sure that I packed mostly everything in the house. The "girls suitcase" was huge, weighing 49.5 lbs when it was weighed at the airport (note: the limit was 50 lbs. Good thing I forgot to pack my shampoo & conditioner!). Our flight left early on Wednesday morning, so we spent the night at the Hampton near the Columbus airport. It was a pretty uneventful night and the kids were awesome on the flight down there. Luke slept for most of both legs and Emma watched her DVDs. It was rainy when we arrived, but that was fine since we were all exhausted from getting up at 4:15 am.

We spent most of our time indoors, since it was raining, but it didn't really matter - we were on vacation! Casey and I were able to play tennis a couple of times (don't ask the score). On Sunday, the weather finally broke and we were able to hang out at the pool all day. Emma had such a great time! We spent most of our time hanging out and doing a little of nothing (which are the best vacations). I was able to finish 3 books.

The best part of the vacation was watching Emma and Luke play together. One afternoon, Emma was playing with empty baby food containers and decided that she would pretend to feed Luke his lunch. So she grabbed his spoon and put his bib on and started to "pretend" feed him. The best part of the whole thing was watching Luke chew on air after Emma had fed him the pretend food. They both thought it was hilarious and had such a great time. Luckily, I was able to catch it on video. Karla said that it was their first time playing together!

The flight home was a little more stressful. Emma was dead tired and Luke (as we later found out) wasn't feeling so great. Once we got on the airplane to Orlando, Emma had a meltdown (can't remember why) and spent a few minutes whining and crying. Finally we got her calmed down. The flight was a short one - only 45 minutes - then we had to pick up more passengers for the leg to Columbus. Emma was still acting a bit fiesty, but I was keeping my fingers crossed that her DVD would keep her occupied. No such luck. She got her fingers pinched while playing with her seat buckle and started WAILING. You should have seen the looks that we were getting. Once she calmed down, then Luke smacked his head twice on the window and he starts in. Then, right as the plane is pushing away from the tarmack, Emma announces that she has to go potty. The flight attendants told us that she couldn't go until once we were up in the air. And the wailing started again... Luckily, everything smoothed out and both kids took a good 45 minute nap.

So, we're back in Cincinnati and the weather is finally starting to break. Its about 60 today so I can't complain. Spring can't get here quick enough. Little Luke is sick again - another ear infection AND pink eye. That kid can't catch a break. The doctor said that he will need to get tubes if he gets another ear infection. I'm hoping that we can avoid that.

Emma, however, will be having surgery #2 this summer. As the doctor put it, she has "ginormous" tonsils. Just another fun thing to prepare for!

Casey is finishing up his spring break today. We're going to mom & dad's this weekend to celebrate Kinsey, Hailey, Mike & Papaw-Great's birthdays. I'm looking forward to it.

Funny Emma story: yesterday morning she got up and was playing in the hallway and I heard her talking. I asked her what she said, since I thought she was talking to me, and she responded "I wasn't talking to you - I was talking to Susie." Oh, okay. So, she continues on, "Susie just told me that we should put on our bathing suits and I said 'No way, Jose!'" It was so cute how she said it.

Okay, I think that's it for now!