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DECEMBER 25, 2004 We spent Christmas at Joni's new house in Great Bend this year. All of my sisters and their families were there. Grandma and Grandpa Landers and my parents were there too. We opened gifts, ate lunch, and visited all afternoon. In the afternoon, we stopped by Michael's grandmas house in Great Bend. A couple of his aunts, uncles, and cousins were there along with his grandparents. Emily loved it when "Cookie Jar" Grandma gave her and Bethany dollies with dresses that she had made. Emily claimed both before Bethany had a chance. Emily has played with those dolls every time she has gone there and now they are hers. She was very excited! She loves those dollies more than any other gift she got for Christmas. That evening we had the extended Landers family Christmas at Aunt Kim's house in Hoisington. Many of my aunts, uncles and cousins got together for supper and a gag gift exchange. It was a fun day.
Bethany has been "Good...very, Very Good!" 12-25-04
Jeridy, Bethany, Jaimee, Jordyn, Emily Xmas at Joni's 12-25-04 DECEMBER 24, 2004
Grandpa Dellane and Bethany eating the cookies they decorated together 12-24-04 Christmas Eve was on Friday this year. We spent the whole day with Michael's parents out on the farm. It was SO COLD!! Emily and Bethany got to decorate sugar cookies with green and red sprinkles. The best part was eating them (see below). Uncle Matthew wasn't there for Christmas this year since he moved to Arizona. We all got to talk to him on speaker phone that day before he headed off to work. Bethany said her first official word on Christmas Eve. She waved at Grandpa Dellane and said 'hi!'. She has been waving since early November, but this was the first time the word came out with it. It was so great to hear. She has been consistently saying mama too. Yeah!
That evening we all opened gifts together. Bethany only wanted the boxes. She would reach for her toys from the box, but screamed if we took the box away. Emily really enjoyed opening gifts, taking toys from her stockings and playing with everything this year.
Emily Oetken 12-24-04
Emily, Michael, Bethany, and Jeridy 12-24-04 DECEMBER 20, 2004 Bethie is getting so pretty!! She is nearly one now and her hair is now lighter than ever. I'll just never have a child that looks a thing like me. Oh well... Looking back through pictures tonight, Bethany does look a lot like Emily did, only not as big. What dollies I have! The scar above Bethany's eye is healing well. She ended up having to get stitches twice, but it's looking much better than we anticipated.
Bethany Elena Oetken, 11months Look at the baby blues on my baby!! DECEMBER 18, 2004 Emily and Bethany are playing together now. Bethany loves for Emily to chase her. They also like to sit in the empty laundry basket and play. Tonight in Sams they sat in the two-seater cart together. Bethany kept pulling Emily's hair. That's a new thing for her and Emily did not like it. It will help Bethany learn not to pick on kids that are bigger than her! Emily is really into singing now. She is a super talker too. She says pretty much whatever she wants to now. Her vocabulary is just up there. She speaks in sentences- long sentences. It's amazing for a speech path to see since I was so used to working with preschool kids that would hardly speak at all. Click below to view Emily's "Singing Telegram". Bethany is just now starting to use the sign for 'more'. She doesn't say anything really. She understands a lot. I think she knows what she's saying when she says, 'mama' now, but I'm still not completely sure on that. DECEMBER 16, 2004 The other day I got to go spend $500 for charities for my AMBUCS club. I also made donations to the Boy Scouts and the Domestic Violence Abuse Center from OetkenDesign. The places that we delivered the goods to were so very thankful for everything. I really enjoyed that. I went shopping for Christmas stuff yesterday. Christmas somehow snuck up on us. It was so nice to have the time to shop and not feel like I was skipping out on something by doing it. However, it wasn't as fun when actually picking things out because I kept having to put things back. Those paychecks are all gone now and I have to remember that. Bethany got every other stitch out yesterday. I just held her in my lap. She didn't even cry and hardly moved, except when she wanted to reach for the scissors. That poor kid. We're back in there tomorrow to hopefully remove the rest. Emily has been a jabber-jaws lately. She is being very stubborn with the potty training. She doesn't want to do it, so she just doesn't. She is to the point now that she gives me diaper changing directions when I'm changing her and even prompts me when to change Bethany (or when Bethie is hungry or tired, etc). She's into this shoe thing now. The shiny/sparkly shoes are just the coolest thing ever. Michael's office at work is getting a make over. He's homeless today while they change out his carpet. He's lost without a computer. Tomorrow he'll go up and start his 12 week workout program. I really hope he does well. This break has done wonders for me. I'm so glad I've had somewhere to go/something to do every day. The people up there are so nice too, which makes it much better. DECEMBER 14, 2004 Bethany got her stitches out last Thursday. She did so well. I was surprised that she didn't even cry as the nurse held her arms and head still and the doctor came right at her face with scissors. There was only one tiny spot where there was a little scab and that hurt a bit, but the cut healed beautifully and didn't look like it would even leave a scar. Fast forward to the next day, Friday, when I'm in Topeka doing an interview and I get the frantic call from Michael that he was taking Bethany to the ER. Yes, she fell at the sitter's and split open the same cut. I had to calm him and tell him to just take her to the doctors office. He did. As I hurried back home, he called with a distraught voice telling me how much wose the stitches looked and how badly she was going to scar. When I got home, we had to go to the regular doctor's office and get a second opinion on if these stitches were right or not. They were as good as they were going to get for a reinjured spot. She's supposed to go back in to get the second set taken out (at least partially) tomorrow. I graduated from the 12 week exercise program at the YMCA. No, I didn't lose any weight (in fact I gained) but I look and feel a lot better. I have been lifting weights, doing cardio exercises and group aerobics. It's good to have goals and activity to fill my work void. I've been interviewing nearly every day lately. When I don't have a personal interview, I generally have phone follow ups. I think Michael and I have made a decision on what we'd like to do, but we're not totally solid yet. We'll decide soon. (We have to- my severance will soon run out!!) DECEMBER 7, 2004 Today Emily and I had a mommy/daughter outing. We went to the mall together. She had a little fit in Sears when she wanted the Care Bear instead of the tights that I was buying for her. She got to see the big fish and turtles in the aquarium. We sat on every kiddie toy ride possible (repeatedly), and even had a snack together. She wouldn't share the cookie with mommy though, until she was really thirsty and had to trade me for a drink (silly kid). Santa was at the mall. She wasn't too fond of him, but she really liked the castle he was sitting in. Mommy got some new tennis shoes and an exercise ball. Emily and Bethany just loved grandpa's ball, so I'm sure they'll have a blast with one at our house too. Thanks to all of my old RehabWorks friends for the mall gift certificate. We had fun!!
What a superstar cutie pie Emily complete with stethescope, lay, cowboy hat, purse, and Sponge Bob 12-6-04
Bethie's boo-boo turned into a black eye but it's healing just fine DECEMBER 4, 2004 Bethany is walking, but she's not so awesome about maneuvering around items on the floor. Yesterday morning she tripped as she was walking from Daddy over to see Mommy and Emily. She hit the footboard of our bed and cracked her forehead open. It was just horrible. We quickly rushed her to the ER and got 8 stitches. Poor thing!
Bethany, 8 stitches after attacking the footboard of the bed 12-3-04 Emily is quite the talker. She can explain herself a lot better now. She speaks in sentences and is quite demanding. She still loves playing with her books best, but she also takes time out to play with balls, dollies, and her other toys too now. She got to see Santa at Fantasy Village in Great Bend, but she was scared to sit on his lap. She loved petting the deer.
Emily petting the deer at Fantasy Village 11-27-04 I've been interviewing and applying for a lot of jobs. My RehabWorks position officially ended yesterday. I'm starting the unemployment process today. We'll see how that goes. I've been trying out different aerobics classes. Oh my, I didn't know I could get so sore! Michael is working on making the DVD Christmas cards. We'll get those out soon. We now have some pictures of Michael's 'best day of his life' when he went to the Eagles football game.
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