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JULY
30, 2004 Today was her 6 month checkup. Daddy took her for the visit. All went well. She fell at the 8 month level in the developmental testing. Weight= 16 lbs 1oz, 50th percentile (same %ile as 4mo visit) Height=27 1/4 inches, 90th percentile (same %ile as 4 mo visit) Emily loved going to the park and seeing the train. There were other kids there and she was intrigued by them. She enjoyed going back and forth between daddy pushing her on the swing and then going on the slide. Bethany even liked the swing- a first for her since she can finally sit up so well. It's hard to get Emily to leave the park, though, which always puts a damper on things. She's staying cute stuff like, "take a look!" "what-sa-mader-durdie?" and "my tired, no get up, lay in daddy bed". We went to get a vacuum today and the lady that demonstrated them was an older woman. Emily kept saying, "grandma, this one!" Sometimes you just have to shake your head. JULY 28, 2004 The jumping queen is going wild. You can sit Bethany on your lap and she'll do the same thing. Those jumpers are something else. Emily is a Wiggles maniac. Baby "Ontime" (Einstein) comes in second. I enrolled in my MBA classes yesterday. I have a business job but no actual business training. These look challenging, yet fun. It should all be very functional and useful. We'll see how this works into the schedule. With the credits I already had that could carry over, I will be done with the MBA hopefully by May. JULY 27, 2004 Bethany turned six months while we were away. They did well for grandma while we were out, luckily! Bethany had to go get her six month shots. Daddy had to take her this time. I hate doing that. She is eating a lot now. Carolyn really got her going on the solids while we were away. She's a little oinker and does really well. She sits up and is crazy with the flipping and propping herself up and such. She can't get herself into the seated position yet, but I'm sure that is soon to come. Emily has taken claim to Bethany. She looks right into her eyes and makes her smile and laugh. She saw a picture of herself and asked "where Bethie picture?" when she didn't see sissy's picture with hers. She says a lot of great sentences now. It's amazing how well she can combine words to communicate. She still sounds like a foreigner since she puts things together in the wrong order and leaves words out and such, but it's so cute. Her big thing now is to add no to the beginning of what we've said to negate everything. For example, we say "Emily, it's time to get ready for bed. Let's get your pajamas." Reply: "No bed. No pajamas." Silly kid. JULY 20-25, 2004 I had some business meetings at our corporate office in Maryland. Mom, Dad, and Michael came along so that we could make a vacation of it as well. Grandma Carolyn watched the girls at our house in the evenings. They continued to go to the sitter's during the day so that they could stay on schedule (and not drive grandma too crazy). Just flying was interesting since mom and dad hadn't done that in a long time. It was good practice for their upcoming anniversary trip though. They hit four airports on this go round, so they should be better prepared. We went to Washington DC and saw the major monuments and memorials. There I liked sitting with my feet in the water at the new World War II memorial. It seemed like a reverent ceremony almost. I was disappointed that there was no water in the reflection pool since that is what I wanted to see the most. I drove all around Baltimore and DC. If you can drive there, you can drive anywhere. We got lost a few times, but we always got to where we needed to go. Many times we had no idea how we actually did it, but we did. I even went the wrong way down a one way and had people follow me. A taxi cab going the right direction didn't let me get away with my mistake. That was interesting. There were also traffic jams to deal with, of course. My meetings lasted two full days. During that time, Dad and Michael went up to Gettysburg,PA and they also took in some of the local sights in Baltimore. Saturday we headed up to Philadelphia to see my friend Jerra. She and Darrell showed us their precious baby, Emily. I held and loved her- what a cutie pie! We went and saw the huge ships on the Delaware river and the old architecture down town. Michael, the big Eagles football fan, got to see the new Eagles stadium. It was our favorite day of the whole trip. The picture section will have a link for our trip pictures. JULY 17, 2004 These last few weeks have flown by. I guess they all do these days. My job has had some insane changes. One of the other directors quit and I've been covering her territory in addition to my own. They are looking to hire someone new. My territory will most likely change to include the Wichita area now. It's like starting a new job with all new staff, new facilities, new administrators and new contracts to learn. Emily and Bethany have both been sickies lately. I'm pretty sure Emily has allergies. Her eyes water as if she's crying. She's getting good at requesting a 'KEY-nex. KEY-nex PEES.' (kleenex. kleenex, please). She has been very afraid of the thunder and rain water coming through the guttering. That's no good since it's been raining many nights. She wakes up saying, 'FUNder hurt me' and 'I cared' (thunder hurts me and I'm scared). Bethany is full of coughs. She is still has a lot of stranger danger. At the Oetken reunion, she wasn't the most social child ever. Bethie enjoys her jump-up, her exersaucer, and watching the dog and sissy. She sits outside with mommy or daddy while the other mows the lawn. We started feeding her solids this week. She does very well with them now and will eat a whole bowl of food. I know she has been practicing at the sitter's for awhile. She can also sit up pretty independently now. Big sissy and Bethie can sit together and play with toys in one of the play zones. It's so cute to see. Michael has been busy with his little projects lately. He set up his office area by making his own personalized desk and decorating it in his style. He painted the shed to match the house today too. We're preparing to head out to Baltimore, MD, Washington DC, and Philadelphia this coming week. My parents are going along and Michael's mom is coming to stay at our house to watch the girls. We'll see how that all goes!
Trip to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Landers: All of the grandkids were there. 7-10-04 Jordyn Stukey (Joni's girl, 1 yr), Bethany Oetken (5mo), Matthew Short (Jennifer's boy, 9yrs), Emily Oetken (23mo) JULY 4, 2004 Last Saturday, June 26 was the first time I heard Bethany really laugh. There was a little girl dancing around while we waited for Michael to try on some clothes. Bethany laughed and laughed. It was amazingly cute to hear. She did it once briefly this past week when Emily was acting silly one night. I've tried my best to elicit this funny little act, but my best efforts always seem to fail. Tonight I recruited the dog to help, and she got her going finally. Most of the time Bethany is very serious looking. I guess I am too- maybe she will have something that resembles me? Emily is saying some sentences now. We were at Grandma Carolyn's house and Emily asked for more ice cream. Carolyn didn't hear her so she asked, "What, Emily?" Emily came back with, "I want more ice cream now, Grandma!" Emily's newest over-used (and often improperly used) phrases are as follows: "I can't see" and "I can't do it". Everything is "my" and "mine" now too. She doesn't want Bethany to have any toys and she doesn't like mommy to be too close to daddy at all. Daddy is hers and so are all of the toys. Fireworks weren't any fun for Emily. She thought they were 'thunder' (stated more like "FUN-da") and she was scared. She sunggled in daddy's arms and said, "tired, bed". I laid her down and she was out, with no regard to the booming of the fireworks shows on either side of our neighborhood. Bethany slept through the entire ordeal too. Michael stepped out back and enjoyed the show while I did the dishes and wrote out bills. Tomorrow it's back to work for me- actually I'll go down and do my payroll yet tonight. Michael has the day off to spend with the babies on Monday. |
