3 Years of Bliss!

This time three years ago, I was sipping a mimosa and getting my hair and make-up done.

Eric is always sure to interject that he was not having a relaxing day of being pampered. Nope, since his hair takes all of 35 seconds to "do", he had a little chore list for the morning of our wedding. Things like delivering the drinks to the reception location and putting together the chocolate fountain.

Does the chocolate fountain look funny to you? Yeah, I thought so. I didn't notice it until I was looking at pictures a week later, but someone put my chocolate fountain together upside down. Instead of a beautiful flowing fountain of white chocolate, I had pools of chocolate that kept getting gloppy (since it wasn't flowing down to the heating plate to stay warm.) And it wouldn't be so bad, except that he took it apart himself (after I had properly assembled it at home) to transport it. I have threatened to talk to Iowa State about revoking his engineering degree. But Eric maintains that it is a flaw in the design; the user should not be able to put it together upside down. (He also likes to point out that water fountains have tiered bowls that the water fills and then flows over.)

Lucky for my hubby, he had already redeemed himself a day earlier when he and Jimmy, one the groomsmen, drew chocolate bowties and buttons on 150+ chocolate dipped strawberries. They did a fantastic job on those! (Those two may have missed their calling. If careers in engineering don't work out for them, they could always go to culinary school! I'd write a raving letter of recommendation for either of them!)

But non-properly-assembled chocolate fountains aside, that day was incredible! It was a gorgeous day (although Georgia in August is a smidgen warm), we were surrounded by awesome family and friends, and I became the wife of the most incredible man!


I had the fairytale wedding to Prince Charming, and now I am living the perfect happily ever after. I've been supremely blessed and am so thankful for such a wonderful husband.

Three years down and 67 to go on our goal of reaching our 70th anniversary together! (And he wonders why I make him eat healthy and give him a hard time when he reaches for the salt shaker...gotta keep in him good shape to make it to 95 years old!)

Don't mock my accent, Yankee-Woman

It is only 90 degrees outside right now with a heat index of 103. Yesterday at this time the heat index was 113, hence the "only". I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant and surprisingly still being a pleasant person. Granted that's due mostly to the fact that I keep my blinds closed and the air conditioner running and that my car and all the stores I visit are air conditioned and I only go outside when I'm walking to the mailbox. But still. It's ridiculously hot and humid, I'm very pregnant, and I've yet to bite any one's head off.

Now, is that too much to ask of the very not pregnant checkout clerk at my very least favorite grocery store?

I ran over to Aldi's today seeing as how we are due for our weekly 2 gallons of milk (one for Eric and one for Gabriela). It's no secret at our house that I don't like Aldi's. Nothing about it is ever a pleasant shopping experience. It's not that I cannot appreciate a discount store, but I'm picky about what food I buy and the ingredients I use to cook. I'd say 80% of the items they sell has high fructose corn syrup as one of the top 3 ingredients, so Aldi's just really has nothing that excites me. But their milk is cheap (and does not contain high fructose corn syrup). And Eric gets all panicky if he sees that I've bought milk from somewhere else. $1.79 per gallon is hard to compete with, I give him that. And so each week I make a stop by the local Aldi's to pick up milk (and sometimes cheese) and let my husband sort of think he is married to a super frugal woman.

But never again. If my husband wants cheap milk, that is going to be his chore from now on. I'd rather pay $3.00/gallon.

I ran in for two gallons of milk. So instead of digging around my diaper bag for a quarter so that I could get a buggy (yes, in order to get you to return your buggy you have to put down a quarter as collateral), I just threw Gabs on my hip, grabbed a reusable cloth grocery bag from the car, shoved a $10 bill in my pocket, and went in. I tossed a gallon of whole milk and a gallon of 2% in my bag and went to the checkout counter. Of course, as always, there was only one lane open. There were about five people with full buggies ahead of me, but I waited patiently until my turn. I put my bag with its two jugs of milk on the conveyor belt, tossed Gabs across my ever-growing belly to my other hip, and dug my money out of my pocket. It was finally my turn, so I approached the checkout lady, smiled, and said "Good afternoon!" She looked at my bag and back at me and said, "You have to unload that so I can scan your groceries." In my most pleasant tone and with a smile I responded, "Oh, it's just two gallons of milk", thinking that it would be plenty easy for her to pull out a gallon, scan it, and place it back in my bag. "Oh, well then," said the checkout clerk, "you need to unload your two gallons of milk so that I can scan them." And she even used a fake southern accent. She mocked me!

I unloaded my two gallons and then put them back in the bag myself - which was all a little awkward with only one free hand. And given that I was fighting a serious urge to use that one free hand to smack the woman behind the counter.

Customer service is worth a little something to me. I prefer to leave a store in as good of a mood as I enter. And so in order to protect my mood and, maybe more importantly, the physical safety of the Aldi's employees, I will no longer be shopping there.

Guess who's wearing big girl panties today?

Hint: It's not me.

Wait, I mean, yes I am too. But that's not what I am about to show you pictures of.

This is much cuter...

Training pants, technically, I guess. And a purse. You can never go wrong with accessorizing.


We are far from ready to leave diapers behind forever. But this is a start! Gabs has been staying dry for longer and longer stretches and using the potty more and more. I figure taking the diaper off gives us both a little more motivation to get there even more often. So we're going to try having part of our day diaper-free and see how it goes.

Plus, I mean, really, is this not the cutest thing ever!

Loud Noises, Big Fires, and Bulimia. Just another night out with our toddler.

We try to get the Gabster to bed at 8:00 most nights. But sometimes life happens and we are out and about when bedtime rolls around. Most of the time she deals pretty well. But sometimes it makes for an interesting evening.

Last night we went out to supper with Eric's youngest sister, Kelly, and a colleague of Eric's who is visiting from Brasil. We decided to go to a Japanese Steakhouse.

Gabriela was seated in a high chair between Eric and me and happily munching away at tomatoes and cucumbers from our salads and lemon wedges from our water when our chef arrived right at 8:00. He greeted everyone seated around the grill, confirmed our orders, and then made a giant crashing noise with his knife on the metal grill. Gabs, who is rarely scared or weepy, nearly jumped out of her seat and then rolled her bottom lip out a mile as her eyes welled up with tears. She began sobbing and trying to climb out of her high chair and into Eric's lap. Like the superb parents that we are, we laughed. Really hard. And then got her unbuckled and Eric held her.

She put her little head on his shoulder and wept for a moment before turning around to glare at the guy with the big knife and funny-looking hat.

About the time she had changed from frightened to just plain mad, the chef created the giant flame in the middle of the grill. And once again her bottom lip poked out and she began crying and buried her face in Eric's chest. Because we're exceptionally empathetic towards the delicate feelings of our daughter, we laughed again. A lot.

Through all of the slicing, dicing, and shrimp throwing, Gabs was a little on edge. She went back to her high chair and didn't cry anymore, but, in between her bites of veggies and ribeye, she gave the chef her best stink eye. I'm not sure she'll trust anyone wearing a chef hat ever again.

Once the show was over and we were all finishing the last few delicious bites of our meal, Gabriela had caught her second wind and was eating tons of steak and chatting up a storm. We were mostly engrossed in our own adult conversation, paying little attention to the chatterbox at the corner of the table. Until we heard a gagging sound.

We all turned to look, a bit startled, just in time to see Gabs vomit onto herself. With her little plastic spoon shoved to the back of her throat. And laughing hysterically. I immediately grabbed the spoon from her and tried to catch/clean up the gushing bile, veggies, and meat bits. Gabriela continued laughing and trying to wrestle the spoon from me so she could do it again.

We have only recently gotten the food-throwing under control so that we no longer leave a complete disaster area around her high chair when we exit a restaurant. I'm not so sure a self-induced puke-trail is much better though.

15 Months

My Beautiful Gabriela,

Whew! These last three months have been busy, busy, busy! It seems like ever since you turned one we have been on the go! (I'm not sure how that is different from the first 12 months of your life, I guess, but still...we've been busy!) You totally roll with it though and adapt to any situation we put you in. All the while growing up so, so fast!

Just for fun, we entered a Mother/Daughter Look-a-Like Contest Mother's Day Weekend. Out of the nearly 60 participants, we didn't win, but you were definitely the cutest daughter on stage that day! (And luckily I'm not biased or anything.)

Shortly after your first birthday, we hit the road. The second week of May, you and I made the 14 hour drive to Georgia without Papai (since somebody has to work and pay the bills!) We got to spend some good quality time with Grandpa and Momo before heading over to South Carolina for Uncle Justin and Aunt Casie's wedding festivities.

You were a hit at Aunt Casie's lingerie shower and bachelorette party (although you and I called it a night before all the girls headed out to a club to go dancing.) We were planning a little family mini-vacation to Myrtle Beach after the wedding, but Papai got called away on a last minute trip to Brasil. So, you and I got a little more solo time.

After getting back to Iowa, we attended Aunt Kelly's High School Graduation Party, and then you, Papai, and I headed south to your homeland. Our trip got extended, and we ended up spending a full 3 weeks in Belo Horizonte. Papai was working, but you and I were most definitely vacationing (do you see a recurring theme here?) Then we flew back home to Burlington and left the following day for a week-long family trip to Georgia.

You spent your first night ever completely away from the parental units and got totally spoiled by Uncle Travis and Aunt Brii while we attended my 10-year class reunion. (And as a side note, we never actually meant to wait this long to leave you behind while we took a trip, but you're such an easy kid that it really is no trouble at all to take you along with us. We've never felt like we needed a "break". And so, you were 14 months old before you ever spent a night away. Lots of people were surprised that I never called to check up on you nor were we the least bit anxious or worried. We knew you were in good hands and have full confidence in you to behave with or without us around.)

A trip to Hilton Head Island, a visit to Great Uncle Ruben and Aunt Betsy in Waycross, a quick visit with Uncle Nathan in Tifton, a stopover with the Mizells in Cairo, and then we returned to Colbert to spend the 4th of July with Grandpa, Momo, Uncle Nathan, Aunt Megan, Uncle Justin, Aunt Casie, and Cousin Tyson. And then we drove 14 hours overnight back home.

After all that, I was left feeling more than ever like you are a complete rock star! In less than two months, you logged over 5,000 miles in the car, more than 25 hours on planes, slept in countless cribs/rooms, got kept up past your bedtime regularly, had to skip multiple naps, met dozens upon dozens of new people, used disposable diapers instead of your usual cloth, and Mamae got lazy and did not give you nearly as many opportunities to use the potty instead of your diaper like you're used to. Yet you still slept 12 hours every night without ever waking up, you ate like a champ, you never complained about getting put back in your car seat AGAIN, you entertained the masses with huge smiles, squeals, and babble, and we received countless compliments on what a happy, outgoing, beautiful, and well-behaved little girl you are!

Despite my mild concern that we were going to have to get you dentures, it seems you might have teeth somewhere under your gums after all. You cut your two bottom teeth simultaneously at 12 months, 3 weeks while we were at Grandpa and Momo's. More than two months later, there is no sign of any more teeth yet, but you're doing pretty good with those two bottom ones and can gum up darn near anything we feed you.

A couple weeks ago, you started crying when we lay you down for bedtime and naps. That was totally new for you! But luckily it was short-lived and only lasted a week. The first night you screamed for 30 minutes and I was almost convinced something was really wrong with you. You quickly let us know it was just that you were mad and didn't want to go to sleep though: That night, you only calmed down after Papai came in the room and took you from me. Then you looked at me, scrunched up your little face, shook your head, and said "Oooooooooooo". After that you got laid right back down and we let you cry your little self to sleep. For the next week, you continued to cry each time you had to sleep, but it was a little shorter each day until you finally stopped altogether. (Thank goodness!!!)

My goal since your birth was to wait until your first birthday to cut your hair. We made it, and your bangs and mullet got a nice trim in May. You are no longer rocking a curly mullet. You're welcome.

You are walking like a champ and even starting to run now (although your little runs usually end with you sprawled across the floor or ground!) And your latest passion is climbing. You are constantly trying to throw your leg up and over things to climb up. Your short stature limits you a bit, but you've recently figured out how to drag things around and make little steps for yourself (oh joy). You climb on and off of your tricycle over and over again and even love to take a book to read while you sit on it.

Just after your first birthday you finally started to use some sign language. "Eat" was, not surprisingly, your first and favorite sign. Then you added "Done/Finished", "Want", and "Milk". (Although we say the words in Portuguese while using ASL - yeah, I know, confusing.)

Verbally, you're still not saying a whole lot of actual words. Mama, Dada, Nana (for banana), and Nene (baby in Portuguese) are your only words right now. You are constantly babbling your own little language though. There is so much inflection in your voice it sounds like you're telling all kinds of stories. And you are able make all kinds of sounds including clucking your tongue and rolling your tongue (as in a rolling "r" in Spanish). Despite your lack of ability to speak to us, you understand nearly everything! You follow most the commands we give you now and know the names of most things around the house that you regularly play with or get into. You only understand Portuguese as that's all Papai and I speak with you, but the English will come as you get older and spend more time with extended family, friends, and playmates.

You love most foods, although you might not eat something today but eat it fine tomorrow. Your favorites right now are tomatoes (we couldn't keep you away from Grandpa's tomatoes in Georgia, every time we turned around you had picked one out of the basket and taken a couple bites!), berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries), bananas, plain yogurt, cheese, and whole wheat crackers. You also have a strange affection for lemons and limes - you don't even make a face as you happily eat away at them! You generally eat table food now, but we're careful to make sure you get plenty of fresh fruits and veggies. You still haven't had any sweets or super-processed food of any sort. You drink water with meals and throughout the day and have three 8-ounce sippy cups of whole milk each day (one first thing in the morning, one as an afternoon snack, and one at night before bed). We've started giving you a fork and/or spoon with your meals. If we load it up for you, you do a great job of picking it up and getting the food into your mouth. You haven't quite mastered getting food onto the utensil yourself though.

You love dolls, adore purses or anything with a strap you can throw over your arm as a "purse" (such as my bras), and have been totally obsessed with books the last couple weeks. While we're at home you almost always have a book in your hand. You will spend a lot of time walking around and flipping through a book by yourself, but if anyone is sitting on the floor you back up and plop your little hiney into our lap and hand us a book to read. We rarely make it through an entire book, as usually you hop up and go pick out another one about halfway through. We hope we can continue to foster your love of books and reading for many years to come!

You've become even more affectionate lately. You run to the door the moment Papai gets home and immediately want him to pick you up so you can give him a great big hug. And you love to plant huge, open mouth, slobbery kisses on us when we least expect them! Your constant chatter makes us giggle and your movie star smile and wave lights up a room the moment you enter. Attention is definitely your thing and, at 15 months, you have yet to ever show the least bit of stranger anxiety!

You hit a sudden vertical growth spurt the last month and are up to 30" tall (30th percentile). Your feet grew at an even faster pace! Size 3 shoes were huge on you at your birthday, now you fill out a size 4! (Although all your summer shoes are size 3's and so long as they are open-toed they are still working out alright.) You're a tall and narrow thing, weighing only 20.5 pounds naked (15the percentile).

You are growing up so fast and we want to savor every moment. You are a busy little toddler and into everything these days, but we love to watch as you figure out how things work and gain more coordination and confidence. Our days are filled with laughter and smiles and your Papai and I enjoy you so much!

I love you lots, Minha Princessa!
Mamae

5 Years Ago: Hello Mr. Right

On July 20, 2005, I was totally giddy. As in giggling, can't stop smiling, doing a little happy dance, excited.

In the months leading up to that fabulous day, I had:

- broken off an engagement to Mr. All-Wrong after dating on and off for 5 years.

- been on several dates with a guy who, as it turns out, was gay. (I am pretty sure his alternative lifestyle wasn't the result of a few dates with me...at least I like to tell myself that.)

- gone on a blind date with a really nice guy. Who never called. (I'm pretty sure he must have lost my number. Yeah, that must be what happened.)

-accidentally rattled off my real number to a slightly sketchy guy when I intended to give him a "fake" number. He did call. A lot.

- received a lot of "courting" phone calls from a nice, non-sketchy fella. Who had absolutely zero social skills and couldn't figure out I was trying to let him know I wasn't interested in a nice, non-direct, but still quite obvious, way.

- (I'm sure there are some other highlights that I have since blocked from my memory.)

- debated converting to Catholicism and becoming a nun. (Okay, not really. But sort of.)

But on July 20, 2005, I had a seven-hour drive to Athens, Georgia after spending five days in Tampa, Florida. Which was plenty of time to reflect on the absolutely fabulous guy I had just met. Sure, he was a Yankee. But I figured I could get past that with a little time. He was, after all, perfect in pretty much every single way (except that he lived in Iowa). And hot. Oh my gosh was he ever a hottie!

And he called. While I was still en route on my drive back from Tampa, in fact. (No "three-day-rule" games with this guy!) By the time we hung up the phone that night (sometime after I hit a deer while driving my parents' Expedition and only 5 miles from home), I had the wedding all planned out in my mind. I could barely sleep that night; I was so excited. I had met the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with!



Of course, he didn't know that yet. And I certainly couldn't let him in on the fact for many months to come. Actually, I later found out that he had a conversation that went something like this on the tarmac of the Tampa Airport:

Friend Sitting Next to Him on the Plane: "So do you think you'll ever see Emily again?"

The Future Father of My Unborn Children: "Oh, I don't know. It'd be pretty cool I guess if I did. But she lives in Georgia, ya know?"

I sure do like it when I'm right.




I am thankful that I went to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International Convention that year. And I'm glad that I accepted the invitation by my friend, Chops, to come hang out with him and all the Iowa State guys. And I thank God that out of the hundreds of guys in attendance (with only, oh, about a dozen females), Eric was able to catch my attention. And I'm happy that Eric called, even though I lived all the way in Georgia. And I'm forever indebted to whoever invented free long distance and free nights and weekends on cell phone plans. And that happily ever after that I had all planned out by midnight on July 20, 2005? A million times better than I ever imagined.

Random Thoughts From the Weekend

We spent most of the weekend at home trying to catch up on homeowner stuff: cleaning house, pruning shrubs, pulling weeds, etc. Fun, exciting stuff.

I want to post pictures from everything we've been up to since mid-May, so this week and probably next I'll attempt to catch up around here. But for today, here are a few random thoughts and observations from my weekend.

- When asked by your wife, "Hey Babe, what are you up to?" The right answer is always, always, always, "Well, I was about to clean bathrooms . . .unless you object." God bless this man I married. (And no, I don't object. Ever.)

- Why do thistles have to be weeds? They have pretty purple flowers. And they are not fun to pull - I got poked even through leather gloves!

- Would now be an appropriate time to strangle the previous homeowner who planted invasive vines (lots and lots of vines, including Virginia Creeper, Algerian Ivy, Honeysuckle, etc.) in all the beds around the house?

- I know that they are tiny and cute when you buy them, but, just like puppies, plants grow. Go ahead and ask what size to expect the plant to get before plopping it in the ground. And if it is eventually going to be 4' to 6' in diameter, how about not planting it 8" from another equally large shrub? Just a thought.

- Bradford Pears = Not Good. Besides the putrid smell of their blooms that elicit images of a cheap motel, they have a tendency to split and fall during windstorms. Especially inconvenient is when half of the tree falls during your first days away on a trip to Brasil for 3 weeks. Even less fun is when the other half falls the day after you leave for a week long vacation in Georgia. Not exactly fun to come home to. And I'm not sure the grass in our front yard, nor the neighbors who moved in next door 6 weeks ago, will ever recover.

- I used to laugh at my Dad's never-ending list of projects and improvements to make on his house and property. After spending at least an hour each day over the weekend walking around with Eric talking about our vision for different rooms and parts of the yard - I understand now.

- It doesn't matter how many times you pick up the living room while Gabriela is sleeping. Within 10 minutes of her being awake, it will return to its previous state of chaos.

- Rednecks are not restricted to residing south of the Mason-Dixon Line. We went to the Lee County (Iowa) Fair Saturday night to get out and enjoy the nice evening. I've never seen so many NASCAR hats and t-shirts with the sleeves cut off. And I've sat in the cheap seats at races in Daytona and Atlanta . . . so that's really saying something!

- After months of traveling and being a big softie and giving Gabriela her pacifier to sleep with, I decided last night was time to officially retire all pacifiers for good. We put her to bed and she screamed, like top-of-her-lungs-making-my-own-throat-hurt-listening-to-it screamed. And this is the kid who pretty much never, ever cries. I let her cry it out for 15 long minutes. Then I went in to comfort her and tell her again it was time to sleep and tuck her back in. She refused to calm down even after I picked her up though and continued screaming. After a couple minutes, I was starting to wonder if something was actually wrong (something more than just pitching a fit because she didn't have her chupeta.) About that time, Eric came in for back-up. She immediately reach for her Papai, who took her from my arms. After silently laying her head on his shoulder for a brief second, Gabriela popped her head up, spun around to look at me, scrunched up her little round face, pursed her tiny pouty lips, and said, "Oooooooooo" while shaking her head back and forth. (She was obviously very much not happy with her mother. And very much showing off an emerging little attitude.) I sort of wanted to strangle her, but mostly wanted to fall on the floor laughing. I would generally recommend avoiding either action in such great moments of parenting. (Although feel free to laugh - uncontrollably - once in your own bed later that night as you recall her too-adorable "mad face".)