The Oxenford Family Blog

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T07:08:00.009-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We so enjoyed getting to see some of our family and friends this holiday. Unfortunately, as many of you know from facebook, our much anticipated trip to Arizona to go see Grammy and Great Aunt Joyce and Uncle Jeff and hang out with Grandma and Grandpa who were driving up from South Carolina was apparently not meant to be. For the gory details of our 6 hour delay in the Philadelphia airport on the day after Christmas with two small children to only have our flight cancelled, please read the thread on facebook. After we recovered from both the disappointment and the exhaustion of the days, we ended up having a pretty nice week just hanging out at the house and visiting with some friends we don't get to see very often. Then, we rang in the New Year with a very exciting day yesterday starting out with a balloon drop for the kids and countdown to Noon and ending with a night on the Delaware River watching the family fireworks show at 6pm. Unfortunately, today Daddy has a wicked ear infection so that's not a great way for him to kick off the New Year. But, we hope you all have a wonderful 2012 filled with much happiness, good health and maybe just a little dash of prosperity for us all!

Baby Cheeses, Crayon Control and more...

2011-12-18T06:22:00.008-05:00

Wow. I wish it wasn't so long between entries on this blog anymore. I always feel like I have *so* much to catch you guys up on that I get over whelemed about posting. But, let's take a stab at a quick update.

Lets see. I am watching Emily color with crayons as I type this post. She LOVES crayons and coloring but of course, needs to be closely supervised. While she is starting to not put them in her mouth, she is in that stage where she will sneak away with a crayon and the next thing I know there is organe crayon all over my green couch, or the floor, or the table. So crayones are a closely supervised substance in our house still. But despite that it is so fun to watch Emily make her own original art. Here are a few pix of her masterpieces.

Emily also is obsessed with stickers. She LOVES them!! The other day we went to go visit Nanny in her awesome new apartment and Emily basically just sat by herself with her stickers and placed them all over her feet and her hands and in her hair and had the best time doing it. She will sit in a corner in the lbrary and pull out some stickers and just play with them for a while. No paper necessary - she loves covering her body with them. It's really cute. As is the way she says stickers which is "steeeckers"

Speaking of talking, Emily's vocabulary these days is astonishing. Every day she surprises us by using new words and even phrases. Yesterday, she was standing at the bottom of the stairs and yelling "mommy, wake up" which cracked me up. She finally says Sophie but calls her "Sobie" so she'll say "There's Sobie" or something like that. I didn't think it would be possible but Jim and I are pretty sure Emily is talking even more than Sophie was at this age. She is quite a little chatty girl most of the time. (Wonder where she gets that from, huh?)

Sophie is doing great and also surprises us at what a big girl she is becoming. She gets herself dressed and undressed and is being really kind to her sister (most of the time). You can tell that she is starting to round that corner from 3 and is getting a heck of a lot closer to 4 in so many ways.

Of course, Sophie is SOOO excited for Christmas. Last week she had her school performance which was so stinking cute we almost couldn't take the cuteness. She had been preparing for this for some time now in school and recently would start breaking out in "Go Tell It On a Mountain" getting particularly loud at the "That Jesus Christ is born" part. She is pretty obsessed with the "Baby Jesus" these days. I guess learning about him and talking about him so much in school has her really excited about his birthday coming up. Whenever we pass a nativity scene on someones lawn around town she gets very animated and screams "look mommy - baby Jesus!". The only thing is I'm still pretty sure she is actually saying "Baby Cheeses" and not Jesus.

So, as I was typing this Emily was over watching the Wiggles but here she had taken a crayon and was standing there eating it while watching the show so see, what I mean? We're still not quite in the clear with the whole coloring thing.

Anyway, we're getting very excited for our visit out to Arizona later this month. We cannot wait to spend some quality time with Grammy, Great Aunt Joyce and Great Uncle Jeff, and their family and also Grandma and Grandpa who will be there too!

In case I don't post again until the new year, Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy 2012 to all our wonderful family and friends! We love you all so much!!

Some recent phone photos

2011-10-26T07:04:00.003-04:00

I am not feeling like writing a proper post right now but here's a few photos from my phone. Just a couple of snapshots from the last week or two.

Pensive (sleepy?) Sophie

Flower girl

I have to say, and I know this is awful, but in this photo I can see what the girls would look like say after a bachelorette party and they're both puffing on cigars after have too many drinks out with the girls instead of eating pretzel rods. This terrifies me of course.

With their friend "baby" Sophia from next door!

Sophie loves her godbrother Natey.

Oxenford Sesame Place Outing

2011-10-09T06:50:00.005-04:00

I was so excited that we got an amazing opportunity to take the girls back to Sesame Place recently. Emmy is such an Elmo lover (or "Elwo" as she so lovingly calls him!). I was worried if we waited too long, she'd grow out of her Elmo phase and it would lose some of the magic for her but the place is so darn expensive it's just hard to justify a family trip there on a whim. But we lucked out and got some free passes to go enjoy a special preview of The Count's Halloween Spooktacular, Sesame Place's awesome Halloween festivities running every weekend through Halloween, and we had such a great time. Emmy got to meet Elwo. There were cupcakes and facepaint (of course) and a parade and pumpkins and lots of fun for everyone! Thanks Sesame Place!! We love you, Elwo!!

Update: When we got home, I caught Emily kissing her new Elmo toy repeatedly. Too cute!

Wait for it...

2011-09-21T13:00:00.007-04:00

Ok this is definitely the longest I've gone without updating this blog since I started it in what? 2007? When I was pregnant with Sophie. Wow. Long time... Going on almost 2 months with no updates, no photos, no videos, no NUTHIN! But after I restricted who could see it after getting freaked out about some weird comments, a lot of our friends and family werne't able to view the blog anymore. Which kind of sucked. And of course, made me not feel that compelled to update it because I knew many of you weren't seeing it anyway. But ya'all are looking at the facebook photos or the pix on instagram or twitter, right? Cuz basically these girls are all over the innerwebs. Just not on THIS blog, lately.

But since it's approaching the holiday season and since I've gotten a little less freaked out (for the moment) about who is reading the blog and why, I've opened up permissions again so everyone should be able to view it.

Now... as for catching up. Of course TONS has happened since I've last posted. And I couldn't possibly cover everything. But, I guess here is a highlights reel of sorts. Enjoy!

We went down the shore again, with Dee Ree and Pop Pop. Then we went down the shore again with GGMom this time. The Oxenfords rode a surrey. Sophie rode a horse named Flash at a 4H Fair. Daddy was on call a lot. Sophie uses the big potty now! Emmy teethed a lot. Sophie started her first year of real pre-school (last year was technically a "toddler time" program). Sophie and Emmy both got sick. Sophie started ballet. Dad and Kathy came up for a visit. Grandma Kathy got very sick. Grandpa got sick too and they left early. Mommy started back to work in the office three days. And here we are... Do you feel caught up with the Oxenfords now? I'll try to be more regular about posting. I really will! Promise!

(GGMom would KILL me if she knew this photo was up on the internet. Thank goodness she doesn't have a computer to see it!)

The World According to Emily

2011-08-09T21:00:00.003-04:00

Ok, so tonight Sophie has been whisked away by her adoring handlers and entourage (aka Aunt Pat and Caely) to have a big girl sleepover out with them. Which means that when Jim and I came home from work tonight there was only Emily in the house. And MAN was it ever quiet...

So I have been inspired to do a post that is all about Emily. Unfortunately Emily was teething and tired so we didn't get to lavish her with our undivided attention for very long tonight before she was ready to throw in the towel but man, Emily is one stinking cute and totally unique happy little creature. She is so very different from her big sister in so many ways. She wakes up happy and saying "Hi" in the sweetest, cutest voice ever. (Sophie, if you didn't, often know woke up typically fairly grumpy or even downright miserable within minutes of waking most of the time.) Emily can entertain herself and often does. Emily is messy and a walking petri dish. She picks her nose and throws her food. Sophie NEVER EEEVER did anything so beneath her as to get mussy or pick her nose. Emily rolls in sand. Emily eats fistfulls of sand. Sophie was afraid of grass touching her legs at Em's age. They are oh so different and yet both so amazing and wonderful in their own ways.

Emily's current lexicon includes:
Dada, Mama, Nana, Pop Pop, cup, car, Elmo (but she says "Elwo"), Bottle ("Ba Ba"), Stinky ("Tinky"), shoes, and I'm sure a few others I'm forgetting.

She gives kisses. She likes to hug. She adores the Wiggles. She is lactose intolerant. She is probably getting three of her molars at this very moment.

Boy do we ever love her. She is just the most incredible little being you ever will meet. We are so tickled by her joy of life and can't wait to see how Em grows and changes over the course of the coming year.

Just some pix

2011-07-18T21:06:00.001-04:00

Just a few pix from the past week or two...

Ocean City NJ Vacation

2011-07-03T06:11:00.009-04:00

We are back from a pretty amazing two weeks down the shore! We had a fantastic time frolicking by the surf, jumping waves, building sandcastastles and tidal pools, exploring sea life, and eating yummy shore food! It was pretty awesome. And even better we got got to spend half of it with our friends from Ohio, the GodSnedikers!! Sophia is completely smitten with her godbrother, Adam. In fact, I had to stop counting the number of times she said "Where's Adam?" because it just was a regularly uttered phrase for the last week. Plus, she voluntarily would say "Mom, I REALLY love Adam" or (even better), "Adam, I LOVE you.." It was just so heartfelt and so darn cute. And, speaking of cute... Emily learned to give full body hugs (you know, the kind where she wraps her arms around the other person's body and stands there hugging). It was just the most adorable thing you ever saw. We were also lucky enough to have two visits from the Pottstown crew - Aunt Pat and "Tan" came down one day and then Caely and Paul came down another day. Yay for visits from adoring Aunts and cousins. And we even got to hang out with some other Oxenford cousins, Zachary and Nathan and their folks Cristina and Todd, who just happened to be down the same week we were. We got to play in their pool and enjoy several dinners - yay for hanging out with fun cousins!!

Here's a few select photos of our two weeks. We are so lucky we got to spend that much time in such a fun and happy place. And, we're especially lucky that our beloved Sneds made the trip out from Ohio to join us!

Oxenford Girls Health Update

2011-06-13T07:06:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure where to begin this post... Do I start with the post-birthday recap or the double ear infection that landed us in the ER or the broken elbow and purple cast that landed us back in the ER? Or. do I just start with the pink eye??? Hmmm... decisions decisions.

Well, let's start with the cast.... This past Saturday night Jim and I were thrilled to be getting a date night when DeeRee offered to come over and watch the girls for us. We had a lovely dinner and were on our way home (well, actually I was on the front porch about to walk in the door) when we got the phone call. It was a slightly panicked call that Sophie had fallen and was holding her arm and seemed to be in a lot of pain. We finally got her to sleep but she had a horrible night waking up a lot until I could get some more advil in her. When she did wake up the next morning, she went downhill fast and by 8:30am we were headed to the ER. So apparently she had fallen trying to get out of bed to go to the potty. And when she fell, she landed on her elbow. Hard. Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, where my awesome step-sister Maria works, and is right down the street from us, was so amazing!! They took her back right away and everyone was so good and so sweet. They helped her calm down immensely and once the Xrays were over, Sophie was almost back to her old self. Then we went down to CHOP on Monday and the docs there decided it would be best if shegot a cast. So, a purple cast was put on our sweet girl and she handled it all so well. Well, except for the part where we had to take her band aid off before they put the cast on. That, THAT, was apparently the last straw for her. We are hopeful that she'll get the cast off early and thankful that she wasn't in much pain or discomfort once the splint and the cast were on and protecting that sweet little elbow.

Now, back track a few days to Wednesday night and Emmy and I in that very same hospital. Poor Em was fighting a bad cold with lots of really icky looking snot (sorry) coming out of her nose and I remember thinking, this is going to turn into an ear infection. But she was acting mostly fine all day and perked up with a little advil and distraction of playing with her sister. However, when we went to lay her down for the night she was in agony and was screaming her head off. Just like last time. SO, a phone call to my amazing step-sister later and the wheels were in motion to get us into Mercy Fitzgerald so a doc could just take a quick look at her and maybe get her a script for an antibiotic. It was truly amazing how quickly we were in and out of that hospital. All I can say is my step sister Maria is truly loved because we got the royal treatment there not once but twice last week! So, thank you Maria!!

And let's see... today Sophie woke up with full blown pink eye and her entire right eye shut. We had gotten drops last night she was already one half day into some medicine for it and with any luck it won't get too bad on us.

Other than that, things are completely normal. Emily is talking and communicating more and more. She now says Stinky ("gin-ky") and is starting to be heard saying lots of other words, too. She walks up to you and points and screams for things like Cheetos and water. Thanks again, Daddy for introducing our girls to that beloved snack food, Cheetos.

We hope you all are doing well. We are wishing we could go to cousin Ben's wedding in California soon and see the rest of the MacDougall and Schrank clan but air travel with the girls is just not in our cards this summer. Congratulations Ben and Pam!!

Birthday recap

2011-05-28T07:01:00.010-04:00

Hello Family and Friends!

If you are reading this, it means that you successfully were added to the access list and logged on to the site in it's new "safer" mode. After a recent potentially strange comment from someone I didn't know I decided to go ahead and restrict access to this blog from now on for the safety of our girls. I hope you all understand. If you have friends or colleagues who you would like to give access so you can do some virtual bragging, please just go ahead and send me their emails and I'll be more than happy to add them to the access list, ok?

Anyway, on to happier topics... Emily's 1st Birthday BlowOut was an amazing success. Aside from the disappointment that Grandnma and Grandpa MacDougall weren't able to make the trip up for it as they had originally hoped, it was a great time had by all - especially Miss Emily Anne "Birthday Girl" herself. Check out this grin:

We had a massive birthday bash complete with catered delicious BBQ from Famous Dave's. We had a moonbounce for the big kids (and especially big sister, Sophie), we had friends and family, we had beautiful (though slightly hot and sticky) weather after literally an entire week of monsoon-like conditions. It was grand! And of course, Emily had her first taste of cake (chocolate cake no less!) and LOVED IT!

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate our sweet little Emily Anne's milestone 1st birthday with us!! We love you! xoxo

Happy 1 Year Birthday Sweet Emily Anne

2011-05-21T04:37:00.001-04:00

One year ago on this day, our hearts swelled yet again, opened wide and filled with love for little Emily Anne.

She was born very early in the morning and very quickly. We barely made it to the birth center in time. The mid wife seemed to be caught off guard when she saw how far along Jen was. Only twenty minutes after we arrived, Emily was born.

Jen, as usual, did an amazing job. I felt slightly more capable helping her then I did when Sophie was born.

Like Emily's birth, her first year has felt as equally speedy. It only seems like yesterday when she was a newborn. She's now toddling around the house. Learning to talk and gesture and generally just enjoying her world.

She is one of the funniest babies I've ever known. She frequently tries to make people laugh by making funny nosies or moving her body in some silly way.

She's got a fiery temper and a strong will too. She balances it out with a genuine sweetness that will melt your heart. If she gives you a hug, you'll know what I mean.

I am convinced that Emily is my father born again. She looks like him and so far, their personalities seem to be almost identical. When Jen was still breast-feeding Emily she said it was it was like she was breastfeeding a tiny version of her father in law.

We've already decided that Em will be our last child. Em's first birthday is intensely bittersweet because of this. She is the last 1 year old I will Father. Her nightly feedings are that much more precious now. Nurturing her as baby, providing for her and comforting her, helping her ease into a night’s sleep (hopefully). Before we know it, she won't need us to feed her, hold her and be close with her at bedtime. She probably doesn’t need it even now, yet we do it.

Jen and I have been incredibly lucky. We've be blessed to given the opportunity to raise two smart, sweet girls. I cannot imagine our life any different than it is now. Nor would I want to. My heart pours love for my girls and my wife. Our little family feels just right.

Emily, I am so proud and grateful to be your Daddy. I hope I can do right by you. My only words of advice are the following:

Stay sweet, stay fiery, stay funny, stay curious. Make mistakes. Apologize when feelings are hurt. Treat everyone as you would want to be treated. Explore the world. Listen to lots of different music. Enjoy art. Eat your dinner. Plant a garden. Brush your teeth. Thank people profusely. Say “please” frequently. Stand up for yourself and others. Work hard at what you love. Hug your big sister. Never take love, family or friends for granted.

I love you little Emily Anne. Have a wonderful first birthday.

Love,
Daddy - xoxo

Catching up

2011-05-13T15:03:00.008-04:00

Ok, so yes... the family blog is suffering a bit, isn't it? Between me being back at work for two days a week and all the activities of Easter and Mother's Day and all the sickness with Daddy checking himself into the hospital on the night before Easter (he's fine thank goodness) and GGMom giving us all a scare (she was in the hospital for almost a week from Easter Sunday till the following Saturday) and then Emily getting the head cold and then Sophie getting the stomach bug, there just hasn't been a lot of time for blog updates, I will admit. But in honor of Emily's upcoming first birthday I'm going to really try and be better about updates, ok? I promise!!

So here goes: the whirlwind re-cap in photos of the last few weeks:

Hayride to Bunnyland

2011-04-22T20:45:00.006-04:00

Well, on Thursday we took the annual Hayride to Bunnyland trip. This time, we had DeeRee and Nevyn and Nevyn's Nana Barbara (and of course, Mommy and Emily) along with us, too! We had a lovely time and Sophie and Nevyn got to run around the playground while Emily got excited by looking at some chickens with DeeRee. After all that and some lunch (that almost went terribly terribly wrong as most events that have to do with eating in our family seem to be going these days) we finally hopped in the tractor and took off for Bunnyland. Everyone was excited but here is what Sophie's comment was, "We're taking the hayride to go to get jellybeans!!" And as I was waiting in line with her and we were watching all the other kids disembark from the previous tractor, Sophie's eyed up every single kid's goodie bag and would say "Oh see is eating a lollipop!" or "he got jellybeans!." Truly, the bunny was lost on her. She thought he was ok of course. But her eyes REALLY lit up when the young girl that preceded the bunny came over with the bags of easter candy for each kid. Sigh. My how things have changed since that first year when I took her and I was literally in tears riding in the tractor with her because she stood up and pointed at the Bunny and was so happy and excited. Those were the days when she had never had a jellybean before. Ahh... the innocence and halcyon days of 1 year old. Which (nice segue, huh?) is what we're enjoying with Emily right now. She turned 11 months old on Thursday and she is truly such a joy to be around (mostly). She is learning words (such as clock, dada, cat, car, and more) and says "hi" and waves like nobody's business. We still can't get her to say or identify "mommy" yet and in fact, when Jim asked her recently where "mommy" was she pointed to DeeRee. So... um, ahem. I'm TRYING not to take this *too* personally. What a difference compared to my little mommy's girl (Sophie). But overall Emily is "a happy little critter" as her DeeRee says. She really is sweet and funny and learning so much. It's such a delight to watch her little triumphs of learning new tricks (like coloring!) and watching her mind process and store new words and information (like the baby sign for "milk" which she now does). She still smells to high heaven like a wet smelly cheez-it from the disgusting sensitive belly formula she drinks. But though smelly, she is so totally cute that you almost forget (almost) how smelly she can be.

Overall, life is good. Sophie is having some challenges with eating lately. She has become extremely picky and very high maintenance with her eating. All she wants is juice, which of course we moderate, but I'm starting to think she still gets too much. And of course, she loves her candy. I guess the weekend of Easter is a bad time to start a no sugar diet for her but I'm thinking that pretty soon we really might try it and see if it helps clear up some of her food weirdness of late. And we're now starting to think about Emily's first birthday party which of course we are greeting with such mixed emotions as we realize that our (very likey to be last) little baby is growing up so fast.

The Girlies

2011-04-18T21:05:00.001-04:00

Another much more interesting video, I hope

2011-04-07T20:56:00.002-04:00

Ok so Jim/James said that basically those videos I just posted really are pretty boring. And though they are of my children and I could smile at them doing even the most mundane and boring things, this video is probably muuuccchh better...
http://gallery.me.com/joxenford#100075/IMG_1524

Videos

2011-04-05T20:50:00.002-04:00

Ok, I know it's been a reaaaallly long time since I've posted videos so here you go! One of each girl. I don't even know what they're doing in these videos I just put 'em up.

Happy 3rd Birthday Princess Sophie

2011-03-27T22:32:00.010-04:00

We've been partying so much this past week we have barely had a moment to even think about posting! Sophie's third birthday celebration began last weekend when we had a visit with Jim's cousins and Aunt and Uncle and Aunt Ann was so sweet to bake a cake for Sophie so she had her first official birthday singing and cake last Sunday! Then, mid-week we got to bake cupcakes for all her classmates at her school. They all sang to her and she got to wear a special crown for the day. We made Ariel cupcakes and of course, Sophie helped and thoroughly enjoyed herself licking the batter afterwards! Then on Saturday we had *quite* the birthday celebration starting with a breakfast of sausage and monkey bread, opening some presents from Mommy and Daddy and some quality time playing and then off to the toy store to pick out a few "special" presents for our big three year old girl. Then, Sophie got treated to her first trip to "the Shalon" (what Sophie calls a "salon" for some reason) where she had a mini-manicure and a makeup application. (She was supposed to have gotten a mini-pedicure too but sadly had dropped some really heavy binoculars on her big toe earlier in the day and so we bagged the pedi for the day in favor of some purple eye shadow and sparky lip gloss.) She was in pure heaven! She just thought it was the coolest thing and loved all her special "treatments" and loved being around all the glam and the other little girls getting their "sweet and sassy" spa treatments, too. Then we got to meet up with some surprise guests - Aunt Pat and Caely - for a special birthday dinner!! We had a great meal (spaghetti and meatballs for Sophie or course) and OF COURSE there was more cake and signing. Then today was Sophie's birthday party at a wonderful place called Romp n' Roll. It was a humongous success and there was much romping and rolling (and jumping and snowball fighting and princess freeze dancing and moon bouncing and so much more). What a great birthday week and weekend I think she has had!!

As for the sappy stuff, I was a blubbering mess putting sweet Sophie to bed for the last night of her life as a two year old. And, I cried yesterday and today. These three years have gone so fast. How can she be three already? It just boggles my mind. And yet she is. A big girl - already three. Getting spa treatments and telling jokes and talking about her wedding to her BFF Nevyn... Lord help us... But that's another post altogether.

I love you sweetest Sophie girl. You are our everything... I'm proud of the sweet and funny and smart and spirited and independent 3 year old you are! And Daddy and I love you more than you will ever know. xoxoxo

Happy St. Pat's

2011-03-19T22:04:00.004-04:00

Happy belated St. Patty's Day everyone!!! Here are a few shots of the girls on St. Patty's Day. And, I have to share this story with you....

We were in the post office a week or two ago and a woman with a thick Irish accent was looking at Emily and asked me if she was Irish. I said, well we're Scottish (and I'm a MacDougall, etc) and then I remember that Jim's mom is Irish and told her that too. And she said, "Ahhhh... she has the map of Ireland all over her face." Isn't that sweet? I just thought that was the sweetest comment and it made me really happy. And for some reason it made me think of both of my amazing Grandfathers - Grandpop Coll because he was Irish and stories about Ireland and Irish people make me think of him. And of my Grandpop MacDougall because he was Scottish and a MacDougall and wore a kilt and I will always have that MacDougall part of me because of him even though I lost the name, I'll never lost the heritage he passed on to me. Anyway, of course I got teary and wistful and started missing them both so much. And I was proud and happy that Emily carried on the face with the map of Ireland all over it.

Funny... then about a week later I was in the grocery store with the girls and yet another Irish lady with a thick Irish accent stopped me and asked if Emily was Irish. She commented on her face and how Irish she looked.

So I guess, our little Emily Anne is a little leprechaun at heart. I know she sure is cute and the Irish ladies sure do like her.

The Girls

2011-03-12T14:22:00.004-05:00

So.... It's been another long stretch since I last posted, huh? Let's see what has been happening... Well, both girls were healthy there for a good stretch - maybe almost two weeks! But that is over now as Sophie got sick (again) this week and now poor Emily has it too. Emily also has had a return of her reflux which has caused her to be really miserable and unhappy and of course in a lot of pain. We didn't know for sure it was her reflux back because she is also teething so we kind of just thought it was teeth. But, then we noticed that she was burping and then crying. A lot. And she was gassy. And she couldn't sleep at night for more than an hour or so at a time. So I had her back into the doctors yesterday and they seem pretty sure that yes, her reflux is probably back. See... the last time I had the girls in the doctor suggested I either stop giving Em her reflux meds or else switch her formula from Alimentum to a regular one and see how it went. So, we gradually stopped giving her the reflux meds and she seemed to be doing fine with it but I guess maybe the medicine just hadn't all worked its way our of her body yet. So poor Emily has had a tough run of it - between the teeth and the reflux and not getting a lot of sleep at night and now she's got a cold on top of all that. Hopefully now she'll start to feel much better once she has a few days of her reflux meds again.

Sophie on the other hand seems to be doing pretty well. She does have a cold but doesn't at all seem "down for the count". She is overall pretty happy and doing a bit better in general. She doesn't seem to be throwing as many tantrums as before and she does seem to be overall fairly happy and even-keel. She has been fighting us a lot lately on having her hair brushed and wearing clips or bows in her hair and she is always pushing it out of her eyes all day long so we went yesterday and got her haircut. She loves it and it is so cute on her. Hopefully it will make the morning routine a little less painful to not have the hairbrushing fight to contend with every day.

In other news, Mommy's AVON business seems to be doing pretty well. And, Mommy is going to start gong back into the office a few days a week now. We found an amazing caregiver who is a wonderful person, local, and who Sophie adores so we feel like we are so lucky to have found her!! We have been doing "test runs" of her being her to watch the girls and it's gone so much beter than anyone ever would have expected. Sophie even told me one day "You can go do some work now" so she could be with her new BFF, Miss Lynn.

We are all excited for Dayling Savings tonight so now when the girls wake us up at 5-6am it won't feel quite so awful anymore (because it will be 6-7 am)! And of course, we're gearing up for the big birthday celebration at the end of the month for our big "3 year old" cutie!

The Girls

2011-02-24T21:33:00.002-05:00

Ok, I mean really... Sophie is so big she might as well be turning 13 and not 3 soon. And, Em... Well, Em is so cute that every picture I take of her she is smiling. Seriously. What a sweetie pie... (Yes, I'm biased.)

Just another week with the Oxenfords

2011-02-11T14:11:00.008-05:00

Well, it's been exciting as usual here at El Rancho Oxenfordo... Saturday night we all went to a party and had a wonderful time seeing mommy's work people that we hadn't seen in a long time. Then later that evening Emmy woke up and was very much not herself. Nothing we could do would help her. So a few hours later, Mommy found herself in the ER with poor little Emily. After a few hours of waiting and triage and whatnot, the doctor saw her and turns out she had a nasty ear infection (not surprising given the bad colds we all had and that Sophie was being treated currently for an ear infection as well). We got home around 5am or so. Good times. Thank goodness it was nothing more serious than that but let's just say that it was surely an exciting night. On Sunday we had a lovely dinner at our favorite chain spaghetti and meatball joint, Carrabas, with Dee Ree, Pop Pop and GGMom! It was lovely to see everyone since it had been so long.

Then this week has been a bit of a blur for us all. I can tell you all that we have Valentine's cards for everyone but you will never ever get them in time. My apologies now that they're going to be so late. BUT heck - I still owe both our godsons their birthday presents from January so let's just say Mommy is a little bit behind these days.

Sophie is going through a bit of a rough patch. She seems particularly jealous of Emily lately and has been lashing out more and being very emotional and exhibiting some pretty ugly behaviors. That said, she is approaching that three year mark and I know a lot of folks have said that 3 is even worse than 2. We'll see... It's very trying for us all and we just want to do right by her but it's so hard to know whether we're being too lax, too tough, or what. We've tried time outs. They don't seem to work. (She can usually be caught smiling on the way to being carried to her time out.) We have tried emotion coaching but this often doesn't seem to help. She is still emotional and whiny and no amount of emotion coaching or hugs seem to be enough for her. For those of you that pray, please pray for us and for Sophie. I pray that we as parents can have more patience with her and somehow learn what she needs. And I pray that Sophie can feel all the love we try to show her and not be so miserable and jealous.

As for potty training, we are sort of in a holding pattern at the moment. Sophie was doing really well at going #1 on the potty but only made it to the pot for a #2 once in weeks of potty training. So we decided to take a break and go back to diapers for a while. Again, who knows if this is the right move or not. It just seems like maybe she wasn't ready since she wasn't telling us that she had gone poopy in her big girl panties and never would come and say "I have to go on the potty" like she did when she had to go pee. So now we alternate between diapers and pull-ups with panties over them. After reading and talking to some other moms, apparently this is extremely common and some moms have said their kids have been potty training for almost a year and still don't poop on the potty so I guess it's normal and we should keep going with it. Now, however when I ask her if she wants to wear her big girl panties, she said "Um, no thanks" so we're sort of waiting for her to take the lead again. At least this time, I feel pretty certain she will when she is ready.

Emily, ER visits and ear infections aside, is doing really really well and is a happy little monkey almost all the time. She is letting go of things while standing up and balancing herself really well. Jim even caught her doing a pivot the other night so I think that she will be walking pretty soon. She loves to explore and play with toys and find little specks of paper or the tiniest possible toy that might have been left on the floor and put it right into her mouth. She loves music and playing her little piano that the neighbors gave us. As for feeding, she now eats beans and pizza crust and bread and little pieces of peaches and blueberries in addition to her baby food purees and teething biscuits. She hasn't quite started to appreciate meats and the heartier food offerings but she does love to eat and always watches whatever you put into your own mouth with great interest. She adores her big sister (even when big sister is stomping on her leg or pushing down hard on her hands amazingly) and almost anything Sophie does makes Emily smile and laugh.

Don't get me wrong, I think Sophie adores Emily as well. I think Sophie just has always been a little shall we say "high maintenance" and now that she has to share the stage with an almost walking, smiling little person it does not thrill her to have the attention of the audience divided.

Anyway, I've ranted enough. It's been a long day. I wish I was more patient. At the very least, I hope I'm not messing her up too bad.

In other news, Mommy started selling Avon this week. Who knows if it will actually work out to be profitable or not or if it will be one more thing that I always feel behind on but I'll give it a shot and we'll see what happens and I guess at the very least, I'll get some cheaper lip glosses for a while, huh? If you or anyone you know wants to buy AVON, I'll be opening my online store soon and will be sure to post the url for you to share with your friends, ok?

Finally, Happy Valentine's Day to all of our family and friends. We love you all so much and while your cards might be quite late, please know we're thinking of you and sending lots of love this Valentine's and always.

Family trip to see the flowers

2011-02-03T22:36:00.005-05:00

Oh my... Did we ever have a good time at Longwood Gardens last weekend! What a great way to forget about all this cold and sickness and snow and yuck. The flowers were beautiful, the smells were delightful. Sophie ran through the entire indoor conservatory and capped off her fun with an awesome time in their new childrens garden. Emmy watched from the happy safe place of the Baby Bjorn and enjoyed all the sights and sounds, too. We will definitely be going back soon and next time we're taking Nanny with us!!!

Big fun, big ick, and big girl work

2011-01-24T06:37:00.009-05:00

Well, the long holiday weekend was a busy one for us.

On Friday we met with Sophie and Emily's cousins CJ and Madee for an awesome trip to The Franklin Institute where Sophie conquered her fear of the giant heart and actually went through it (though came out with Judi holding her but STILL big progress, right?). On Saturday Jim and I took the girls to the Academy of Natural Sciences for an awesome family time viewing the dinosaurs and walking through the amazing butterfly exhibit. Emily LOVED LOVED LOVED it! She made the funniest sounds when in the live butterfly exhibit. Even the staff were looking at her funny because they had never seen such an animated or enthusiastic reaction to it! She sort of made this guttural grunting that reached ever higher ever time she looked in a new direction. I think she was just overwhelmed by the flowers and the misty water and all the beauitful butterflies flying around. If you haven't seen the exhibit, it truly is something not to be missed! Sophie, of course, didn't really love it so much. She was nervous about how loud it was and probably by how crowded it was. I remember taking her last year and she was basically the same way. She wanted to leave way before I did (I could stay in there forever). But it was a fun trip overall and the fun didn't stop there. On Monday, I took the girls to meet up with a friend from work and her daughter that I hadn't seen in a long time who were off because of the MLK holiday. Well, guess what??? We weren't the only ones with the idea to go to The Little Treehouse in Chestnut Hill for some hands-on kid fun. Sophie absolutely loved it there, crowds and all. And, it was really wonderful but I think I don't need to go back for a while and DEFINITELY not on a major holiday in winter where everyone else is looking for fun things to do indoors with kids.

And, of course, after all that fun and exposure to any multitude of germs and icks, I started hacking on Tuesday night. Got a little worse on Wed. Got really bad on Thurs. And, by Friday I was a trainwreck. I was driving around with the girls, stopping when they fell asleep so I could snooze for a few minutes and then waking up when they woke up to keep driving until they fell asleep again. I took the girls to the grocery store and pushed them through the store while in four layers of heavy sweaters and clothes and yet still shivering and shaking from chills. When Jim came home a little early for me Friday night so I could go to bed, I gratefully took him up on the offer and went straight upstairs and didn't move for a few hours. Stupidly, on Saturday I felt a little better so I (wait for it....) went to the King of Prussia Mall with Jim and the girls to kill some time. Brilliant idea, huh? Well, I paid the price for that and by the time I got home from our mall adventure I felt like death warmed over again. Yesterday was also bad and thankfully Jim packed up the girls and took a road trip out to Pottstown to do some visiting so I could rest some more. This was very helpful and I slept most of the afternoon which had to do me some good. Today, so far, I feel better. Let's hope that trend continues and I pray that the girls don't get it. (Poor Jim already had it a week or two ago himself.)

So, here we are starting a new week. Already the end of January. Things are in such disarray around here you wouldn't believe it. I was behind before the big ick hit and now it's even worse. I haven't put up our new 2011 calendar. The laundry piles are now bigger than our bed. There is laundry in the washer that hasn't moved in, I don't know, days. Jim is exhausted from all the extra childcare duty he's willingly been taking on and now has to go back to work. But, look... aren't these girls too cute for words? Yes, they're mine and I'm bragging but give me that, will ya?

In "other" news, Sophie is doing a really great job using the potty. She wears big girl panties almost all the time that we are home except for her nap and at nighttime. She tells us when she needs to use the potty (mostly) and she sits on it and does her "thing" and then we flush, wash and jump around like maniacs and then get a treat. Next step will be to transition from the nap/bedtime to panties and to get her wearing panties to school and out and about. I wasn't sure I was ready for that next step yet but maybe in the coming days we'll start working on that, too. We are so very proud of her and all the big girl work she is going!!

2011 is a big year so far!

2011-01-15T05:57:00.005-05:00

Wow. So much has happened in the last two weeks since I haven't posted that I hardly know where to begin. Well, let's start with Emily. Emily had been getting up many many times throughout the night for several months now. It was pretty awful. Jim and I would take turns being up with her and usually the person on duty got absolutely zero sleep and was pretty frazzled the next day. So basically for months we have been walking zombies always trying to catch up on the nights we were "off duty" but sometimes feeling even worse (because after a while it's just impossible to feel anything resembling human or functioning). Now before you think we're sleep wussies here (and maybe you still will, who knows) we would put Emily to bed between 7-7:30pm and she would be up at 10pm, 11pm, 12am, 2am, 3am, 4am and then up for day at like 5am. I mean seriously. It was insanity. So it turns out we were making one humongous mistake. We would feed her. We thought she was waking up because she was hungry. We thought we needed to shove a bottle in her mouth and that she kept waking up because she needed to eat. Well, after months of this and having it get worse and not better we finally decided enough is enough. We started "sleep training" her which essentially meant that we were both resolved to not feed her and let her cry, although while trying to soothe her and comfort her and let her know we were there for her, all night long if needed. The very first night, we comforted her and she was not real happy but she slept a bit more and did not get up every single hour to eat. The second night of it she only woke up once all night long. And, since then she now only wakes up once (around 4-4:30am) to eat. Jim can get her back to sleep after that feeding but so far I can't so it still is tough to get up that early with her but man, what an incredible difference to actually get a solid stretch of sleep between 10-4am!!! It's made a ginormous difference in our world! So, yay emily and yay us!! PROGRESS!!!

Emily is also trying to master the art of standing up by herself. She will hold onto something (an ottoman, her music table, whatever) and then let go with one hand and slowly try to let go with the other. A few times she has balanced herself without leaning on anything. It's been a fascinating process to watch her go from crawling (back in November when Grammy was here) to pulling herself up, to balancing and trying to let go. I feel pretty sure this kid will be walking by 9 months if not sooner!

As for diet, Emily is eating like a champ. This morning she had cheerios, banana pieces and yogurt for breakfast! And, just within the last week we have seen her pincer grasp develop. She is also eating sweet potatoes, pears, and apples and puffs. And occasionally we have given her a roll or a mini-bagel to chew on which she seems to really love! Emily also sat in a highchair out at a restaurant last weekend and did really well with it. She has been sitting in a high chair at home for a few weeks now but that was the first she'd done it out so we are excited by the possibilities that opens up for this family that loves to go out to eat!

Now Sophie is also going through some monumental changes herself. I was going to start Sophie on Potty Boot Camp next week but of course, because she is ALWAYS one step ahead of me, Sophie asked me if she could use the potty and wear big girl panties this week. It was out of the blue and she hasn't wanted to sit on the potty in a long, long time so I had to run with it and we officially started potty training that day. She had about 5-6 outfit changes - all before even going to school that morning but all in all she did really really well. Of course, there have been accidents but there have also been many successes. She loves the thrill of triumph and of course the maniacal jumping up and down and screaming and parading and many treats that happen with each successful use of the potty. We haven't let her leave the house without a diaper on and we're not ready to do bedtime without a diaper but I'm hoping by next week we will start down that path too. The princess finally decided SHE was ready and we couldn't be happier. It's just too cute to see her little bummy in the big girl panties with no diaper bulge anymore. What a big girl!!!!

Sophie just seems to have changed so much in the last few weeks. She kind of had been going through a very emotionally turbulent time there for a few weeks. Now, I'm wondering if she was making this big developmental leap because truly she seems to have matured or something in the past few days and the fact that she wanted to start using her potty and wear big girl panties is well, HUGE, right?

So anyway, that's what's been going on here. We're sleep training and potty training and it's exciting and crazy and wonderful and exhausting all at once. Yay!!

Happy New Years

2011-01-02T21:26:00.006-05:00

Ok, so you get a two-fer tonight! Here are some photos from our time at the truly awesome Free at the Kimmel Center event for families that we took Sophie and Emily to on New Year's Day. It was a beautiful location with free walking entertainment, balloon animals, face painting, music and more. PLUS, you could get an amazing view of the famous Philadelphia Mummers parade while staying nice and warm inside.

Sophie, despite a rocky start and some pretty intensely moody toddler behavior on New Year's Day, LOVED it. She had a blast just walking around the Kimmel, swirling her cape, rocking out to the free music, and going to see the inside of the main theater where the Philadelphia Orchestra plays. She truly was in heaven - just loving it there. She walked around like she owned the place and definitely did not want to leave. It was a great time and we'll surely do it again if they offer it next year. What a great way to kick-off the new year with the girls!

More Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Yes, I'm waaaay behind on posting the rest of the Christmas photos. AGAIN. I won't bore you with more blogger woes but look at this funky thing that blogger has done to my photos THIS time. But I just can't take the time to try and re-post them differently so here they are. Some more Christmas 2010 photos for ya....

Christmas was very lovely. Despite my efforts at getting the shopping done relatively early, I was still finishing up a lot (wrapping, more shopping, baking, assembling photo gifts, etc) down to the wire but mostly it all got done. Turns out Jim ended up having off the 23rd and the 24th so we got some extra time together to prep for the holidays and our big feast at our house on Christmas Day. We also got to head downtown to Macy's for the annual Oxenford lightshow tradition (something we weren't sure we were going to get to do this year) which was really nice. Then Christmas Eve we headed over to Dee Ree and Pop Pop's as is our usual tradition. Unfortunately, our girls just can't seem to make it up late enough to see their aunts and uncles and cousins sadly but we had a nice visit with Dee Ree and Pop Pop before heading home to get the girls asleep for Santa's big arrival. Christmas Day we had about 20 family members here for dinner at our house. It all was very nice and wonderful to see family and spend time together. Then, we have had the week together (with Jim off from work) to try and recover and have a few more fun family outings. We got to go to the Aquarium and to the Mummers Parade and Free Family event at the Kimmel Center plus a trip out to our favorite smorgasboard and Amish shopping mecca - Shady Maple - with Jim's family. We got to have skype calls with Grandma and Grandpa MacDougall and also with Sophie's friend Kiera from California. And, Jim and I even managed to get an impromptu date night when Dee Ree graciously offered to watch the girls for us one night. Yes, there were some major tantrums (food throwing, juice dumping, scream fests). Yes, Emily was a screaming banshee. A lot. Yes, we are exhausted from waking up with Emmy. But all told it was a really great week and I'm so thankful to my darling husband for taking the week off from work so we could have this time at the holidays together as a family.

Macy's holiday lightshow

Sohie's letter to Santa. Whenever we asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she always said "A Purple Lollipop"

Sophie mailing her letter to Santa

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T17:15:00.001-05:00

Ok, again.... I give up. I've been trying to post a bunch of photos from Christmas but after about seven tries on two different browsers, I give up. Sorry folks. There were some cute ones too! Photos from Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning, and more. But the blog universe has given me no encouragement on this front so I'm done. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. For now here's what I could actually get posted. Sorry there's not more.

So big

2010-12-17T18:41:00.000-05:00

{Ok, another disclaimer.... I have been trying to post this post for days. I am having major issues lately with uploading current photos and videos. Now granted, I am not as quick posting as I used to be but the issues I've been having with blogger are really vexing. I am unable to upload any of the videos I have been taking of the girls. So there are videos of Emily crawling and Sophie singing Beatles songs and I can't get any of them up there for you all to enjoy. Sigh. Maybe it's time to switch blog platforms? We'll see... But I promise I will try to figure this out in 2011 so as to not keep you waiting so long.)

Another exciting week here at the Oxenfords. Emily is now sitting in a high chair and eating like a real champ. So far, she has had rice cereal, mashed bananas, pears and today some sweet potatoes. She's also had teething cookies and a few cheerios. Her appetite is much better finally and I think eating more solid foods is definitely helping her poor little tummy because she spits up a lot less now, too. Tonight we ate dinner all four of us together at the table (with Sophie and Emily both in their own special chairs). It was absolutely hilarious and ensued into a laugh fest. See... Emily cracks Sophie up and Sophie cracks Emily up and then Jim and I crack up because they are laughing. It was pretty funny. Gosh, we are either going to have the time of our lives with these two girls together or we are in sooo much trouble or probably a healthy mix of both, huh?

Emily is also crawling so fast and so determinedly that we even have had to put up "baby jail" to keep her contained once in a while. Unless you are right on top of her, she is off and running and ready to pull down that low hanging ornament on the Christmas tree if you let her. Sophia is still in the midst of Beatlemania. She demands to watch at 48 minute compilation video of combined mini Beatles documentaries multiple times a day. And she'll call out to us and say "what's that one, Mommy?" and I have to ask Jim "what's that one, Daddy" and he'll tell her what the song is (her daddy's the Beatles fan and his knowledge of all the songs on the documentaries is muuuch better than mine). Honestly, I like the Beatles, I really do. And, JIm LOVES the Beatles but to tell you the truth, we are both getting a little sick of them. The Beatles are on All. The. Time. It's all she wants to watch. Is this normal for a 2.5 year old? Who knows. But Sophie is clearly enamored with her Beatles and well, it's a heck of a lot better for her to watch that than SpongeBob (we don't watch SpongeBob in our house) or some of the other shows she is allowed to watch.

So much to tell!!

2010-12-08T20:55:00.006-05:00

Sophie and her tree

Sophie and Grammy making gingerbread cookies

Happy Emily

I can't seem to keep up with this family blog anymore... Sigh. Poor Emily. So much going on and no time to blog about it...

The BIG BIG Big with a capital "B" news in Emily's world is that she is crawling. I mean, really truly crawling. In fact, I think now she might be trying to pull herself up already. The girl moves fast. I am not even kidding. And, she's eating. A lot. She downs her bottles like there's no tomorrow. She is eating mashed cereal and bananas and even had her first evening meal (usually we have just been feeding her in the mornings) tonight when Dee Ree fed her dinner and she LOVED it. She is a messy eater and tries to grab the spoon constantly and wants to feed herself.

In other news Grammy was in town for a few days and we had such a great, albeit short, visit with her. We are SOOOO happy we got to spend some time with her while she was in town (shhhh... don't tell her that we would have kidnapped her had we been faced with the prospect of not getting to see her while she was here).

What else? Oh well, can you say Chriiiiistmaaaasss??? Yes, we are the early Oxenfords this year (VERY UNUSUAL for us, we know) and we already are decorated with our lights up, our tree up, our cards almost ready to go out and yes, the shopping almost done. Yes, you can choke on whatever food product you might be eating right now... You heard me. The shopping is nearly done! Honestly, I can't believe it either. I'm so happy about it I could just bust though. Now, all I have to do is figure out when I can wrap it all.

Sophie, because really I can't possibly have a post without mentioning Sophie now, can I???? Sophie is um, pretty darn excited about Christmas. She picked our tree and she did an amazing job helping to decorate it. Sophie seems to have gotten more mature somehow in the past week or two. We don't know what quite happened but I'm telling you, she is just getting so big. If I could only get her out of diapers.... More on that soon as we have a big potty boot camp plan that we're almost ready to implement!!! Stay tuned!

Turkey Day - Belated Update

2010-11-28T08:09:00.009-05:00

Hope all our family and friends had a nice Thanksgiving!!! We had a lovely day and went to Aunt Dee Dee's for the big feast. Here are some photos from the day. We are thankful for all our loving family and friends this Thanksgiving and always. We are also thankful for the good news about Grandpa - that his tumor is shrinkng and the treatments he has been under for many weeks are working. We are thankful for the good news about our cousin Ben who is now engaged to his girlfriend, Pam. We are thankful for the news that Jim's cousin Teresa is having another baby. And we are of course thankful for our beautiful and wonderful girls. They are both growing so fast and are the loves of our lives!!

(Note, I started this post about a week ago now. I had some trouble uploading Thanksgiving Day photos so I just haven't been able to finish the post. Sorry to keep you waiting!)

Happy 6 Month Birthday Emily Anne!!

2010-11-21T08:01:00.001-05:00

Today is Emily's 6 month Birthday!! Happy Birthday Sweet Emily Anne!!! 6 MONTHS!! 6 MONTHS???? Really? Half a year? Already????Now she is closer to "1" than a newborn. Soon she will be crawling and then walking and then running around with her big sister (who truly cannot WAIT to have a mobile plaything and partner in crime).

Already Emily is now sitting up by herself. She still is a bit unsteady but you can let go of her for longer periods of time and she balances herself really nicely. She is rolling all around on the floor and rocking back and forth on her hands and knees like she just needs that extra little push to get her going and she'll be crawling all over.

Hair beautiful fuzzy hair is growing in - more and more each day it seems! And I'm very happy to say that she is sleeping longer stretches at night a lot more, too. Some nights she only wakes up once (not too shabby!) so there is hope at the end of the sleeping through the night tunnel.

She had her first ear infection last week which was really tough. She was clearly in agony and had the worst night where you just could not put her down and she was screaming all the time. Thankfully, her sweet daddy held her and got her to sleep finally but when she woke up still screaming in the morning we knew it was time to head into the doctors office. In truth, I was a bit relieved to know it was an ear infection after all because nobody wants to see their baby in that much pain and misery and not know how to help them or what it is, you know?

And Emily now can basically get out of her own car seat. Like a tiny version of Harry Houdini, she squirms around on her left side and uses her arms to push up and peer over and try to make her way out. It's um, a little disconcerting to say the least. Last night I was pushing her around in Target and I saw her little head poking out of the side of the seat. Guess she needs to be strapped in all the time now!

Jim and I also think that Emily says "mama" now. Look people, I know it's early for her to be talking but she says it clear as a bell. Guess she is going to be verbally advanced like her big sis!!!

Other than that we are super excited for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends and then spending the next few weeks really enjoying Christmas with our two beautiful girls. Just think, NEXT Christmas Emily will be running around and talking along with her big sister - heaven help us all!!!

Emmy Bouncing

2010-11-14T21:55:00.003-05:00

I have really been meaning to post more videos for you here cuz I know the grandparents LOVE the videos but since we got our great new point and shoot camera, we've had some troubles uploading videos because they are in HD and way too large most of the time. We have to find a way to make the file sizes smaller so we can post videos more frequently for you. I promise - we'll work on it!

In the meantime, we just got back from a long weekend get away with Dee Ree, Pop Pop and GGMom. It was a beautiful weekend in a beautiful place (Peddler's Village) with some of our most favorite people. We were very lucky to have had the opportunity to go (thank you Mom and Roger!). That said, boy oh boy, traveling with two small children and staying together in a hotel room especially when the small children are on different sleep and wake up schedules is very very challenging. Add to that the fact that Sophie got a woke up with a cold the day we left to go and Emily got the same cold the day we left to come home and you have a fun mix there, don't cha? All that aside, we had a grand time in "the village" and ate like pigs and Sophie had a blast spending time with her beloved DeeRee as always.

Now, we are looking forward to Turkey Day and of course gearing up for a very magical holiday season with not one but TWO beautiful little gorgeous girlies this year. Only 40 days till Christmas!!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-03T05:33:00.007-04:00

I'd say Halloween 2010 was a huge success. We managed to pack A LOT of Halloweening fun into the Halloween week culminating on Halloween Day. For breakfast on Halloween Sophie got to have M&M pancakes to start her day off right. We took GGMom out to breakfast and then made a special visit to the Minchins (who are BIG Halloween people themselves). After our visit with the Jersey crowd, we headed home for a little real food and a nap and then geared up for the big event. All four of us went out trick or treating this year and we had a great time. Probably only were out for about an hour which ends up being the perfect amount of time to hit our street and one or two other sections of streets near ours. Sophie wanted "MORE TRICK OR TREATING" which was her gleeful battle cry as soon as she would finish saying "thank you" and come down the stairs of each house. What can I say... the little girl has a sweet tooth like her mommy and hasn't met a candy she doesn't like yet. She didn't have any major meltdowns and went to bed later than usual but not too late and with very minimal if any sugar crashing drama. It was a good Halloween for the Oxenfords.

Early Halloweening

2010-10-30T07:17:00.005-04:00

We're pretty darn excited for Halloween around these parts. It's been a busy week starting with last weekend when we went to the Harvest Festival at Reading Terminal Market on Saturday and then the Boo at the Zoo on Sunday. Then this week we had a playgroup Halloween party on Wed. at our house and a school Halloween party on Thurs. and then Fri. we went back to Beaumont Retirement to do a little Halloween parade for the residents. Shwew!! What a week, huh? So here is a preview of the girlies in their Halloween costumes for ya!! Of course, there will be more pix from this weekend's festivities soon, too. Sophie is basically a Trick or Treating pro by now and simply cannot wait until Sun. night for the big Trick or Treating bonanza. She has also discovered the pure sugar rush of candy corn (guess it was bound to happen sooner or later). Should make for an interesting Halloween tomorrow!

Happy 5 Month Birthday Emily Anne

2010-10-22T12:16:00.005-04:00

Emily's 5 month birthday was yesterday. 5 Months!!! 5 MONTHS!! Assuming that she is the last baby that Jim and I will ever have (and yes, that IS what we are assuming at this point) we are quickly progressing away from baby-hood and she is moving her way ever closer to toddler-hood. Yes, yes, I know she is not even crawling yet but think about it... In one month, she'll be 6 months old and well frankly 6 months to 12 months than 0 months. And she is closer to crawling than any of us even realize, I think. The little girl is on the go. She wants to constantly roll everywhere. She is even trying to crawl and assuming the "bridge" position and rocking back and forth! We have a feeling she will be an early crawler and will crawl a lot more than Sophie ever did. (I think that knowing Sophie's personality as well as we now do, she did not take to crawling because it was icky to get your hands and knees dirty.) Folks keep saying that Emmy is the one to watch. That she might even be *more* stubborn than her bigger sister (NOT POSSIBLE), that she might be trouble with a capital "T" and that she is more determined than Sophie (again, not possible). Only time will tell but I'll admit that she is IMPOSSIBLE to feed with a spoon because she refuses to let you hold it (she must hold it herself and get banana mush all over her face and hands and you and the floor). She is also so strong that if she has hold of your finger or your hair or hand, it truly is a challenge to try and release her death grip. She is still a happy sweet little girl although she does have something going on these few days (not sure if it's teeth or reflux or what) that is making her a little less smiley and a little harder to console than usual. When Emmy smiles she smiles with her eyes (her Daddy calls her "sparkly eyes") as well as her sweet little mouth. She laughs a full belly laugh if you nuzzle her tummy or tickle her sides. She is totally enamored with her big sister and loves to watch every single move she makes. She is the sweetest little Schmoopsie we ever did see and we love her so very very much!!! Happy Birthday Sweet Schmoopsie!

Oh, and here's a public retraction... Emily does NOT yet have her first tooth. We were apparently wrong. Or, it's been sucked back into her gums. I don't know how Jim and I both hallucinated that one. But we both thought we saw it. Jim even thought he felt it. But it sure as all heck isn't there now. Chalk it up to sleep deprivation, I guess.

Linvilla Orchards Cousins Outing

2010-10-19T06:37:00.002-04:00

Yesterday the girl cousins had a little outing at Linvilla Orchards complete with a hayride and face painting and pies. Though it was a short visit, it was a fun visit and a good time was had by all.

Sophie is completely obsessed with costumes and face painting. Ever since her butterfly transformation at Moreys Piers a few weekends ago, she is a face painting fool. So of course she was delighted at Linvilla to be the first child in line for face painting and this time was transformed into a beautiful pink and purple tiger. And now in addition to wanting to put on her princess dress immediately she now wants to wear her (warning: spoiler alert!) Super Girl costume every moment of the waking day as well. We have told her that she is not allowed to wear the Super Girl costume non-stop because frankly it's not washable and well, Halloween is still another 12 days away.

Emily was doing pretty well but seems to be going through another spit-up/reflux phase and we're thinking maybe she needs to have her reflux medicine increased. Unfortunately, this makes her cranky since she is clearly hurting again but other than that she is doing well.

Both girls went in for their check-ups last week and are doing well. Both girls also got shots which was a bummer and Sophie had to miss a day of school the next day because she wasn't feeling too hot (low grade fever, low energy, a little puffy) but by the second post-shots day seemed much improved.

Emmy is getting so big. Her long legs barely fit in the 6 month clothes I've found for her!! She has also started to make this pretty wild dinosaur sound so we call her our little Teradactyl.

Life is good and we're gearing up for Halloween 'round these parts. Sophie says on an almost daily basis,"Halloween is almost here" so yes, we're all pretty excited.

First video with new digitial camera

2010-10-14T14:50:00.003-04:00

Ok, so our old "point and shoot" digital camera died a few months ago. We didn't got it fixed or replaced for months. But we finally broke down and got a new one (on sale!) primarily because we have been missing having quality videos to post! So here is the first video taken of the girls (this am) with it. A fairly typical morning wake-up in our household. Sorry the video isn't directly embedded into this post but the camera takes HD video and the file size was too large to upload to blogger. Hope you all can see it ok anyway!

October!

2010-10-08T06:32:00.006-04:00

Really, it's Oct. 8th already??? Seriously I can't keep up....

Let's see... After two weeks of extreme sickness by at least 3/4 of our family, we are now in a holding pattern of relative health thankfully. We all seem to have slightly runny noses, scratchy throats, etc but nothing truly debilitating so I'm calling it good. Here's an update on the girls:

Emily is rolling all around and doing interesting things on her belly (like looking as though she is going to start crawling already!)

Emily started with some solid foods. Rice cereal first and now is on to bananas. Honestly, she might not be quite ready. She takes a bite or two and then she is done. Seems more interested in the bananas than the cereal. But we'll keep trying and see if she takes a liking to it.

Emily is also going through an early wake-up phase. She wakes up for the day around 4-4:30am a lot now which frankly just is so not fun. But hopefully it won't last. We are experimenting with different bedtimes and trying to help her nap better. We think it's because she is going through a big developmental phase (at least according to The Wonder Weeks) so fingers crossed it doesn't last too much longer.

Sophie had her first dental check-up. She was SUCH a big girl and didn't cry, squirm or otherwise protest the teeth cleaning, fluoride treatment or the exam from the dentist. She has no cavities (YAY!) and doesn't yet have her top 2nd year molars (she does have her bottom ones though). And she has something called hypo-mineralization which means her teeth will be particularly sensitive to decay so we have to do a really good job of brushing her teeth more. She isn't a huge fan of tooth brushing but we're working on it.

Sophie baked and decorated a birthday cake for her DeeRee (with help from Daddy). It was a thing to behold for sure! Happy Birthday to our beloved, DeeRee!

School is going very well for Sophie. She seems to enjoy it and comes home with a new piece of art each day and singing a new song or talking about a new book they read.

And finally on a sad note, I'm very very sad to say that we lost Sophie's pets, Fishy and Crabby, this week. I don't know why they both mysteriously crossed over on the exact same day. Maybe the cold rainy spell sealed the deal for them, who knows. I think we will not get a new Crabby at this point. Though I might try to sneak a new goldfish in the bowl before she notices Fishy is gone.

Some updates

2010-09-30T14:29:00.002-04:00

Let's see... the ick has now spread to Daddy who is currently upstairs resting with a fever and stomach bug. Poor Daddy. Feel better! I went to the doc this week to get checked out for my general achiness and the chills I've been getting everyday for the last few weeks and the good news is that it's not Lyme disease. Bad news is my white blood cell count was high which probably means an infection of some sort but they offered no treatment for it - just said to come back in and get blood work re-done in a week. Huh. Knock wood - Sophie seems rather in good spirits and good health for the past 24-48 hrs. Emily however, had been feeling better after cutting her tooth but now is having a miserable day and so I'm thinking she might be getting another tooth coming through. Really, we're just trying not to fall completely apart over here. And this rain... Oy.

Sophie can't decide what she wants to be for Halloween. She has vascilitated from wanting to be Jane Jetson to a cupcake fairy princess to a ladybug again to any other countless number of desires from the costume catalogue. I don't know quite how she will ever choose.

And September is over. How did that happen???

Another update

2010-09-26T15:05:00.001-04:00

Emily cut a tooth! We still think she has a cold on top of the tooth though. Double whammy, huh kid. No wonder you were so miserable.

Update on the ick

2010-09-26T06:29:00.002-04:00

Well, you *knew* this was coming, right? BUt of course Emily came down with the ick yesterday (the cold kind - not the stomach virus kind). She had a very rough night sleeping and is having a hard time breathing but doesn't have a fever and still manages to have some happy moments as well. Yes, I knew we would not escape without her getting it, too. Now we just hope she recovers as quickly as her sister did. Sophie is upstairs sleeping away and had a great night sleeping. Hopefully she will feel rested and happy again like yesterday.

Stay well, folks!

interesting week

2010-09-25T06:38:00.005-04:00

It's been an interesting week here at the Oxenford Ranch. At playgroup on Monday, Sophie experienced her first "gerbil pile." She was in the yard running around with her little buddies and next thing I look over and Sophie is on the ground with four children on top of her and her little face is looking over at me like "uh, mom... a little help here??" There were no tears until all the children got off her so I thought it was going to be all right but then she started wailing. I think the shock of having four children on top of her just hit her and she had a delayed reaction to the sheer intensity of it all. She recovered but then when any kid would chase her she would stop dead in her tracks and stand still and cry. I think she was trying to prevent another pile on.

Then Sophie went back to school on Tuesday and seemed to have a great day. But alas she woke up Tuesday night throwing up all over herself and her room. The poor girl... It was so pathetic. She has been lucky enough to not have a stomach virus for a long time (well, since Grammy was here during the great stomach ick of February 2009) so I think it was just so weird and upsetting to her. She was up with it at least 3-4 times. So there were 3-4 sheet/blanket/pajamas changes along with lots of other causalities (like her white rug). The next day she seemed pretty good in the morning though of course incredibly tired. So we thought maybe we were lucky and she was on the mend but then she got worse throughout the day and was up again all night the next night because she was coming down with a cold. Woke up on Thursday with a fever and feeling lousy. By mid-morning she had a runny nose and her throat clearly hurt. So she spent Thursday in bad shape and stayed in her PJs all day. Thankfully, Dee Ree was here so she was a big help and brightened the little patient's sick day considerably. Yesterday, after another rough night of sleeping Sophie slept until 10:45am! She has never ever slept that late in her life. But when she woke up she did seem slightly improved and I think the good resting let her recover quite a bit. Today she woke up at the normal time, got a decent night's sleep and so far seems like her normal happy self. (Already asked to put on a dress and is running around the house doing her usual Sophie things.)

I hope that's the end of it for her. If she did have a stomach virus on Tuesday and a cold virus on Thurs. and already feels pretty good by Saturday then I'd say we're pretty darn lucky. But when I talked to the pediatric nurse about Sophie this week she warned me that if this was Sophie's first time in school that "I should be prepared for her to be sick all year long." Sigh. I was pretty much a weepy puddle upon hearing that dose of reality. So, we'll see. If she does come home sick every week from school well, I might just pull her out for another year or at least a few months. Once we get Emily squared away with a good nightime sleeping routine, maybe then I could deal with a toddler who is sick all year but until then, I just don't know that our family can handle it.

In other news, Emily so far does not seem to have caught the bug. Let's hope it stays that way!!

Sophie and Emily pre-ick

Sophie in the throes of sick yesterday morning

Happy 4 Month Birthday Emily Anne!

2010-09-21T20:39:00.003-04:00

Today is Emily's 4 month birthday! To celebrate, we fed her some rice cereal for the first time. She opened her mouth up wide once she got the hang of it and seemed to be really enjoying it but then spit most of it up. Oh well. It was a good first solid food attempt.

4 months already. Where did our little baby go? She is trying to sit up all the time. She is such a sweet and smiley little girl with "sparkly eyes" as her daddy calls them. She is talking more and more and making all kinds of new sounds and starting to blow bubbles and make raspberries more now, too. She is definitely teething. Some days are pretty bad but today was a good one so I am thankful that she wasn't hurting too bad on her birthday.

We love you more than words could ever express sweet Baby Emily!! Happy Birthday!!

Update: I started this post yesterday on Emily's actual birthday (9/21). Never got a chance to finish it and wanted to post some videos of her being chatty which I hadn't gotten off my phone yet. Since then, poor Sophie was up all night with the stomach flu last night. Sophie had her first full morning of school yesterday and seemed to have a great time. I don't know how quickly stomach bugs travel but man if she got it at school and was sick already last night, that was quick, huh? Poor girl had such a rough night. I am waiting to see how she is this morning. Fingers crossed it is a quick bug and with a little TLC today she'll be feeling better soon.

Beach Babies

2010-09-14T21:56:00.005-04:00

So we're down the shore again - this time with GGMom. (I know, aren't we lucky to get to go to the beach again??!!) The weather is perfect. (Could do without the sand flies though.) We're having a pretty nice time as far as vacationing with two small children goes. Sophie has a total blast up on the boardwalk. Emily is teething so has had some pretty tough times down here so far but she seems to really like being in the baby bjorn and walking the boards.

1st Day of "School"

2010-09-10T16:29:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was Sophie's 1st Day of "school" at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. She will be going to school two days a week from 9-11:30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first day yesterday was a shortened day (only 1 hour) during which parents were encouraged to stay. Sophie was very very excited to start school and we've been talking about it for many weeks now. Everytime we drive past the school, we'd tell her that was where she'd be going to school soon. So the excitement had been really building.

After Sophie got up yesterday, the whole house was excited for the big day. Sophie barely ate any breakfast (I think she was excited). And we all had to hurry up to be sure she got to school in time! Sophie got dressed in her back to school outfit (she had two choices of outfits and chose this one!). She picked which back pack she wanted to bring (the pink kitty Dee Ree gave her) and we headed outside to take a few photos. Unfortunately, she ditched the backpack for an american flag (and never would put the back pack on again) and we snapped a few pix under her favorite maple tree.

When we got to school there were kids and parents all outside waiting on the lawn. It was very exciting! And, then her best friend Nevyn showed up! We kept the fact that her friend Nevyn was also registering and attending the very same school on the very same days as her a surprise. Both Sophie and Nevyn were literally jumping for joy to see each other. Soon, the director opened the doors to the school and school was officially opened! Sophie literally bum rushed the door (and left me and baby emily and even Nevyn in the dust) and I had to call her and stop her and get her to wait for us instead of rushing in without us. We walked up to her new classroom and once she got inside she immediately started playing with all the great toys and puzzles and books left out for the kids by her teachers, Miss Jen and Miss Chrissy.

When she met her teacher for the first time, I was so touched because Sophie stuck out her hand to shake hands with her. Isn't that too cute??? After a little while of the total chaos of kids playing and parents snapping photos, Miss Jen and Miss Chrissy kicked out all the parents for a few minutes. We all made our way downstairs and outside to wait for them to bring the kids down and dismiss them.

Well, you would have thought it was a torture chamber in there. The howls and sobs from the open windows made all the parents anxious to know whose kids were losing it. After about 15-20 minutes passed (and I STILL have no idea what they were doing during that time - for all I know they could have been torturing them!) the kids came out down the stairs into the yard. Thank goodness Sophie was fine and did not look upset at all. Poor little Nevyn had clearly been one of the screamers and was all teary and red faced - poor little guy. But not my Sophie. I had a feeling she'd be fine and quite frankly, I think she's probably thrilled to be rid of mommy and baby Emily for a little while.

Finally all the kids got to play on the outside equipment which was just great because Sophie has always wanted to play there (we drive by it a lot on our way to do errands) and I always have told her no. What a great way to end a perfect first day of school, huh? Now we'll just see how it goes when Mommy leaves for real for the full two and half hours and who cries that time (probably mommy!).

Definitely pox

2010-09-07T07:30:00.004-04:00

Well, it was definitely chicken pox in our house. Sophie had some on her arms and legs which would get worse throughout the day but then fade when she was rested. They never turned into blisters and she never seemed really itchy. Emily has about five red spots on the side of her neck which look like they might be chicken pox but probably could also just be bumps from where she gets wet from drinking her bottle or spitting up. But so far, knock wood, that is it. So thank you all for your good thoughts and prayers. It seems the worst of it really wasn't that bad at all and might be on the way out. We are so grateful it wasn't worse than that for either of them and feel extremely lucky if this is as bad as it would get for us. Considering it's now day 5 for Sophie, we feel she must be getting over it by now (most of what we read said that day 3 would be the worst). Hooray!!!

In other news, Sophie has a new princess flapper dress that she had to have at Toys R Us and will not take off. If she could she would sleep in it (but we don't let her). She immediately wants to put it on when she wakes up in the morning and prances around in it all day (going on day 2 now). Emily had some early am wake-ups this weekend which was kind of a bummer but I guess she could have been fighting a chicken pox virus and I still think she is teething, too. Thankfully, she slept until after 6am today so that was rather kind of her, I thought.

Update: some hope

2010-09-04T07:31:00.002-04:00

Sophie woke up happy as can be with no more spots anywhere, no fever and the ones on her arm look a lot better. Soooo... we are cautiously hopeful. Fingers crossed it isn't pox....

A possible plague upon our house

2010-09-04T06:29:00.002-04:00

Sophie might have chicken pox. This is what her arm looked like yesterday. We had taken her to the doctors to get a shot (MMR) and I asked the nurse to take a look at these little bumps which I had just noticed on her arm that day. She didn't have any on her belly or back. Just some on each arm and a couple on her leg. Nurse grabbed the doctor who came in and seemed pretty darn convinced they were chicken pox even though she had no fever. Of course we will be pretty bummed if it is chicken pox because she is supposed to start her first day of "school" on Thurs. and we are supposed to go down the shore again soon. Sooooo you can imagine how anxious I am sitting here waiting for her to wake up so I can see if she is covered in spots or not. We will keep ya'all poste of course...

Have we mentioned?

2010-09-01T21:00:00.006-04:00

Sophie has a BFF and his name is Nevyn

Sophie has developed a bit of a "thing" for band-aids

Emily sits in her bumbo chair sometimes now

which Sophie is thrilled by

Sophie's crib is now a "big girl bed"

Baby Liana turned 1 year old! And she had a party at the Zoo

And Aunt Pat and Caely were there

Emily is really long

And there were pot bellied pigs involved

All in the last week. Life moves pretty fast these days. Next week Sophie starts school!!! GAH!! Where is the time going??

Family Shots

2010-08-27T07:09:00.002-04:00

Well we never did get our professional family portrait as I'd hoped we would have by now but here we are dorking around on the computer last night. Notice Emily's studied look in each photo...

Happy 3 Month Birthday, Emily Anne!!

2010-08-21T07:57:00.006-04:00

Today is Emily's 3 month birthday!! Hooray! Big girl is growing up fast, huh? Honestly the last three months have just flown by so quickly - I can't believe it. We are hopeful that the Zantac is helping her with the reflux. When she's not hurting she is a happy little monkey. We all just love her so darn much. Big Sister Sophie loves Emily so much she can barely contain herself around her. In the mornings upon waking Sophie calls for her little sister and doesn't want to hug me or her daddy - she wants to "touch baby Emily." In fact most of my day I spend trying to keep Big Sister Sophie from jumping around near Emily or putting toys and jewelry on baby Emily or screaming and singing around baby Emily (you get the picture, right?)

A Retraction

2010-08-19T09:08:00.004-04:00

At the doctors on Monday waiting to be seen (isn't it pathetic - poor sweetie...)

Smiling and happy on Thursday (seems to be in a lot less pain!)

Ok, so you know as soon as I did that last post about how happy Emmy was, everything went to pot, right? She started getting miserable and fussy again and spitting up and just seemed to be hurting. So I took her back into the pediatricians office on Monday and while she checked out ok at her physical the doctor (a different one than the one we saw previously for the spitting up several weeks ago) said she sounded like she had all the symptoms of reflux. Now apparently all babies have some level of reflux (which is why they spit up so much) due to their immature digestive systems but in some babies the reflux is extreme and they call it GERD (gastrointestinal reflux disease). This is what I believe Emmy might have. The doctor put her on Zantac and we're to wait a week and see how she does on it. That was Monday. She seemed maybe a little better on Tuesday but then had a pretty lousy day Wednesday. Thursday she had a pretty happy day and did not seem to be hurting too much so that is a good sign, I guess. Who knows with these babies... All I know is that I am never going to post anything about how happy she is again.

Happy Emily

2010-08-13T21:00:00.003-04:00

Today is Emily's 11 week birthday!!! Can you believe she is almost 3 months old now?? I know I surely cannot.
We have had a few rough weeks of late, I'm not going to lie to you. Emily started to get pretty colicky even before vacation and both Jim and I were really struggling with the "oh no, what have we done - AGAIN - feelings" and stress of a screaming baby. Thankfully, some wise mommies (thank you, Mom and Pat) suggested that maybe switching her formula would help so we tried a new one for Acid Reflux. Didn't help. Then, we tried Alimentum. It worked. The very day we switched her she was soooo much happier and instead of spitting up like 15 times a day, she would only spit up a few times (under 5) a day. We are feeling so very grateful and happy to possibly have figured out that something was hurting our little baby girl and now maybe it's fixed. So, happy 11 week birthday to our happy little Emily Anne. We love you so much!!!

OCNJ Vacation

2010-08-10T06:56:00.000-04:00

I don't even know where to begin since it's been so long since I posted anything. Probably I should just start posting vacation pictures since we have so many and had such a fun time down the shore in Ocean City, NJ. We stayed with Dee Ree and Pop Pop who generously let us and the girlies crash with them for a whole week!! GGMom was there too and we also got to see Uncle Bubba, Aunt Theresa, Cousin Liana, Doris Anne, Sarah, Auntie Dee, Uncle Jer, Aunt Pat, Caely, Colin and Amber -- what a week, huh?

Oh come on...

2010-07-23T07:59:00.001-04:00

When these two get together it is too cute for words...

Elmo's party

2010-07-19T20:41:00.006-04:00

(How Emily spent her first trip to Sesame Place)

On Sunday we finally took Sophie to Sesame Place (or "Elmo's party" as Sophie called it). I wanted to go last summer when Elmo was ALL THAT SOPHIE WATCHED (side note, looking back we realize that Elmo was really the gateway drug to all other television shows) but we never made it there and so this year I was determined we'd get there. We even bought a season pass in early spring when they were discounted like 30% so we thought we had this place in the bag. Little did we know, the season pass *only* covered Sophie's admission so we still had to purchase two adult day passes! Overall It was a beastly hot Philadelphia day and quite an expensive day but the sweet, shy, ecstatic look on Sophie's face upon meeting Abby and Elmo was worth it all a million times over. She is still talking about all the fun we had and how she got to meet Elmo and see the parade and ride the rides. And I'm sure we'll go again soon, if not again this year then definitely next. Heck, by then I bet Emmy will be watching Elmo!!

Visiting MacDougalls

2010-07-16T07:22:00.010-04:00

We are so happy to have been able to have a visit this week with Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Dave and Grammy. They have been in town since Monday night and we've had a wonderful time just hanging out and enjoying time together. Today they leave to go back to Charleston and in a few hours we'll be having our traditional goodbye breakfast at IHOP. I don't want them to leave. We've had such a nice visit and we have all really enjoyed having them around. Sophie has been a little obsessed with Grandpa. She follows him around and obsessively asks where he is when he leaves the room. Grandpa has had to be the one to brush her hair at night and to read to her before bed and even help give her a bath. Last night she asked to have him get in the bath with her. I think she's pretty smitten with her Grandpa for sure. Emily on the other hand has been enjoying the never-ending love and attention of the two doting grandmas who practically fight over who gets to hold her and bath her and feed her and even change her poopy diaper. I am so grateful that they were willing to make the long drive up north to come and be with us (and Grammy even flew in from Arizona!) and feel so blessed that we have had this week together so that they could spend some quality time with us and the girls. Now, I just wonder what are we ever going to do when they are gone?

We miss you, Poppy

2010-07-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

Today marks the one year anniversary of the passing away of my amazing father in law, William Oxenford.

Dad was larger than life and so full of love for everyone in his family that sometimes it seemed that all that love was just bursting out of his skin. His kindness and gentleness and love for his family meant the world to so many of us in his life. I so wish I had been able to spend more time with this amazing man while he was still on this earth. And it rips my heart open to know that my sweet daughters will not get to know their Poppy but through our memories passed on to them. In the short time Dad had with Sophie he was truly one of her biggest fans. Everything Sophie did was a source of so much pride and so much happiness to Dad. Her every move just tickled him to no end. I know Dad would be equally in love with baby Emily. Together the two girls would probably be almost too much joy and fun for him to bear.

And yet Emily looks so much like Poppy it makes me know that he is with us forever and always and he lives on not just in our hearts and our memories but through our family line and our flesh and blood. Sometime when I see a funny expression on Emily's face or even when I'm nursing her, it's the weirdest thing but I see Poppy there and I know he is with us.

We all miss you so much, Dad... Our lives will never be as rich or as joyful without you telling us how much you love us or being in the kitchen making some delicious feast or teasing us or giving your big hugs. Our hearts ache to feel one more bear hug, to hear one more belly laugh, to see your eyes beaming. But we know you are always with us. One look at your newest granddaughter Emily and there is no doubt your legacy lives on and for this I am so very grateful. We love you, Poppy!!!!

Sister love

2010-07-09T20:53:00.003-04:00

Sophie actually giggled out loud when she was holding her sister in that second photo shoot... Too cute for words!!

The Many Faces of Emily Anne

2010-07-02T07:34:00.006-04:00

Emily Anne is a very funny little baby. She makes some really priceless faces and has great expressions. She also makes hysterical grunting sounds and burps and farts like an old man!!! Overall she is a pretty happy and even-tempered little baby (hoorah!) and I count our blessings for that daily. She does have a "happy-hour" though that usually starts in the late afternoon or right as I'm trying to get dinner together and sometimes lasts through till bedtime. During this time she can cry and scream and seem very very upset. We thought maybe she had gas or colic (because of all her spit-up) but now we're thinking she might just be hungry and not getting enough to eat at that particular time of day. So we have started to give her a little formula during that late pm feed and it seems to be helping. So here the poor kid might have been hungry and not just fussy! According to the baby books, she is likely going through a growth spurt right now (at 6 weeks) too so that probably is contributing to her being more hungry. But hopefully we have found a workable solution to keep our little belching, farting, grunting girl content. Emily has also started smiling beyond just sleep smiles. It's the most beautiful thing to see! Happy 6 Week Birthday to You, Sweet Emily!! We love you!!! xoxoxo

In other news, poor Sophie is having a tough couple of days. We think she might be teething (getting another molar perhaps) as she is waking up screaming and crying and keeps asking for her teethers (which she hasn't used in months). She is *extremely* fragile and volatile and loses it often and at the drop of a hat. This is the exact behavior she always had when teething so it's our only guess at this point (since she has no fever and no other symptoms). Let's hope our little Princess Peanut Butter is out of pain soon.

Sister love

2010-06-29T20:50:00.004-04:00

Sophie and Emily are definitely becoming fast friends. Sophie is such a fabulous big sister it just melts my heart sometimes. She loves to get Baby Emily's "paci" for her when she is crying and she loves to give her kisses and lean in and dangle her hair on her to try and tickle her. In the morning when Sophie wakes up she used to be so excited to see me and say "mommy!" with such glee. Now, she barely hugs me or acknowledges me some days and just says "BABY EMILY!!" and can't wait to see her. Sophie is often found saying/screaming "Baby Emily!!!! Is she awake????" about 3 inches from her little face while she is sleeping. But honestly I think Baby Emily is getting pretty darn used to the noise level in our house at this point. I am truly so proud of Sophie and the wonderful Big Sister she has already become. It is going to be such a hoot to watch these two in action when Emily gets walking and talking, too. Or, I will poke my eyeballs out with toothpicks because there will be double the noise, mess and drama in our world. Either way - it will be wonderful...

In other news, we took Emily in to see the pediatrician this week because she has been spitting up A LOT. Sure, babies spit up but we thought that maybe this kind of spit up (where we are changing her outfit three times in a 10 minute timespan because of all the spit up) might be unusual but apparently according to the pediatrician, it's not. Maybe we have just forgotten how much babies spit up. We don't remember Sophie spitting up quite this much but who knows... We don't remember much of those early weeks and months with Sophie to tell you the truth (which is of course how we ended up getting ourselves in this position of worrying about spit-up again). The really great news is that Emily weighs 10 pounds and is 22 inches long so she is growing like crazy. She definitely looks different, too. We are starting to see how much of her own little self she is already and we can see glimpses of what she might look like in a few months or years.

Overall, life is good. Jim is working his tail off to get the pool open for the 4th of July. Our friends the GodSnedikers are in town. We have been able to visit with lots of family lately. And my Grandma and Grandpa MacDougall and Grammy are coming up for a visit in July so we can't wait for them to see how big Sophie has gotten and meet Baby Emily.

Happy 1 Month Birthday to Emily

2010-06-22T07:21:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was baby Emily's one month birthday!! Happy Birthday sweetest girl!! She had her one month check-up and weighs 9 lbs, 2 ounces and is now 20 and 3/4 inches long. The doctor said she is doing great. She has been spitting up a lot and has a touch of baby acne but none of that is out of the ordinary for her age. She is a happy little monkey and we all love her to pieces!!!

Sophia's Joys

2010-06-15T20:19:00.005-04:00

Hats, pretty dresses and playing outside with her Daddy. Nothing makes Sophie any happier...

Happy 3 Week Birthday, Emily

2010-06-11T18:26:00.002-04:00

Happy Three Week Birthday to our sweet little Emily Anne!!! I can't believe you are three weeks old already! And even though it's only been three weeks it feels like we have had you in our lives forever... We all love you so much sweet little Baby Bird!!

First Family Trip to the Shore

2010-06-09T02:39:00.006-04:00

Ok, so this is how you know we're different parents this time around... We decided to take the girls to the shore for an impromptu mini-family trip. Yes we thought it'd be "fun" to pack up a toddler and a two week old newborn and all their various and sundry accoutrement for a little overnight in Ocean City. (Trust me, we NEVER EVER would have done this with Sophie when she was two weeks old...) While the packing was daunting and the quarters were a bit cramped for the four of us and all our gear, we ended up having a total blast. Sophie had such a great time swimming in the hotel pool and walking the boards and playing on the beach. She even got to go on several rides all by herself this year and could not have been more excited or pleased with herself for being big enough to ride them now. We also got to hang out with GGMom and Doris Anne who happened to be down in Atlantic City so that was a total extra bonus to have them around, too. And we ended up spending two nights (because once we got everything packed up an in the car we did not want to have to repack it up and leave the next morning). A good time was had by all!! Now we can't wait to go back again when DeeRee and PopPop have their place later this summer.

In other news, Jim started back to work again this week which was pretty sad for all of us. It has been so wonderful for the four of us to be together these past two weeks. Thankfully, DeeRee is off this week and has been helping out which is just fantastic. I got to take Sophie to our Lansdowne Library playgroup yesterday. It was great that she could see her friends and play and have a little bit of a return to our normal routine.

Emily is doing well. Getting bigger and changing everyday. She did really well down the shore and seemed to enjoy being carried around in the Maya wrap. She slept on me on the beach and even made it up to the boardwalk and slept on me walking along there most of the time too. On the second day she seemed to be a little overstimulated (gee, I wonder why) by about 7:30pm so she had a rough time getting to sleep but she was finally asleep by about 11pm so that's not too bad. And, amazingly being in one room together helped Sophie get used to Emily's crying so much that Sophie slept right through Emily's crying spell. Cool, huh?

Memorial Day with the Girlies

2010-06-03T06:02:00.006-04:00

We had our first Memorial Day as a family of four on Monday. We took the girls to our little Lansdowne parade which was great fun! They had on matching flag dresses and got to ride up in the new double stroller! Emily slept the whole ride and Sophie loved getting to ride in the new stroller with her little sister. It was a great little town parade and we got to see lots of our neighbors, too. Sophie got a lollipop from one of the cars throwing candy so it was pretty much a perfect family outing. Then, Monday night we took the girls to our friends' house for a BBQ which was also great. It was so nice to see our friends we haven't seen in a while and introduce them to Emily. Sophie had such a blast wearing her new summer halter dress her Aunt Dina gave her and getting to run around with all her friends outside in her barefeet for hours! All in all it was a pretty amazing day for our little family. Of course, the next day Emily had a really hard time settling all day. My theory is that all that stimulation was probably a bit much for a little newborn but eventually she settled into her groove again and all was well in the world.

In other news, Emily had her one week weight check in and she weighs 7 lbs, 10 ounces!! I'm thrilled! Not only has she regained her birthweight but she's packed on an extra 9 ounces, too! Hooray!! We also had a very nice visit from GGMom, Doris Anne and cousins Deb and Angela who came to play with Big Sister Sophie and to meet Baby Emily. What a great day!

Family Visiting

2010-05-31T07:45:00.002-04:00

Baby Emily meets her DeeRee

Hello Pop Pop!

It's my Nanny!

Ollie babysits a sleepy Baby Liana

Aunt Theresa takes a turn with Baby Emily

Dee Ree's girls

During the past week of adjustments for all of us we have been keeping visits to a minimum (thanks for understanding everyone!!!) but of course Baby Emily did have some family visitors already. We really needed that week to get acclimated to being a family of four and trying to meet everyone's schedules and needs as best we can. Dee Ree has been a humongous help (thank you Dee Ree!) and we are grateful for all who have been so wonderful to us during this adjustment period.

Sophie's sleeping and waking schedule has taken a bit of a hit through all this change. She is waking up a little more in the night (most likely due to the heat but also I'm sure because of some of the big changes to her world of late) and instead of waking up at 7am, she's been waking up an hour earlier. She also had trouble napping this week (again, could very likely be due to the hot weather in Philly we've been having) so getting her down and keeping her down for naps has also been a bit of a challenge. In fact, this morning Sophie got up at 5am. We tried to keep her in her bed and get her back to sleep till at least 6am but it just wasn't happening.

Emily seems to be falling into a schedule of her own. As far as we can tell at this early stage, she seems to have one sleepy day where you can hardly wake her up and then it's followed by a slightly more fussy day where she can't seem to settle easily and seems overtired. At night she is doing really well so far lasting 2-3 hours between feeds which is pretty great. But then again it's early yet so who knows what will happen with any sort of feeding and sleeping schedule yet. She seems to overall be a pretty darn happy baby though. If she's fed and not too overtired she is happy as a clam. We had our first family outing as a family of four on Saturday when we walked up to our local farmers market. It was very exciting!

Sister Bonding

2010-05-27T07:22:00.003-04:00

We are all adjusting to life as a family of four. Sophie requested to hold Baby Emily recently so we enjoyed the photo opp moment and Sophie seemed to be cautious but curious and very careful and interested in Baby Emily. She has even started helping and yesterday held Baby Emily's pacifier in for her and tried to get her a bottle. When Baby Emily cries Sophie very genuinely asks "She ok????" and is obviously very worried. We reassure her that babies cry and Baby Emily is indeed ok. It's sweet that she is so worried about her already. Of course, there are things we're still adjusting to like not screaming when Baby Emily is sleeping and getting used to taking turns getting held by mommy or daddy. But we're getting there... All of us are learning how to be a happy family of four (well, six if you count the cats, seven if you count "Fishy" and actually more like 12 if you count the feral family that has taken over our back deck). We know it will be an ongoing process but we're learning every day!

Welcome to the World Baby Emily!!

2010-05-23T18:55:00.006-04:00

Well, our family of three is now a family of four... We welcomed baby Emily Anne Oxenford to this world on Friday May 21st at 4:37am. She weighed in at 7 lbs., 1 oz., and was 20 inches long (just like her big sister). Labor was lightening fast - we arrived at the Birth Center at 4:17am, the midwife checked me and told me it was ok to push and by 4:37am she was born. Incredible!! Our doula, Aunt Pat, and her trusty doula assistant, Caely, didn't even make it in time. Jim was an amazing, strong and supportive coach and rock through the whole 20 minutes and it means so much to me that we did it together and he was the one to "catch" Emily and pass her to me to hold for the very first time. Big sister Sophie was adorable when we brought her new little sister home to her - very excited having prepared special surprises for us including a stork sign which she colored and special balloons and treats which she and Dee Ree went shopping for that day. It was overall a good meeting between the two of them and everyone is adjusting to our new life as an expanded family. We are so grateful for all the love and support of you all - thank you friends and family for helping our family grow and showering us all with such love. We are truly blessed!!!

If you are looking for more photos (that means you, Grammy) you can check out Daddy's photo gallery at
http://gallery.me.com/joxenford#100042

Cowgirl Sophie

2010-05-16T13:19:00.002-04:00

Sophie has a "safari" hat that her Aunt Pat made her that she started calling her cowboy hat. So of course we got her a "real" cowboy hat and she loves it. She is such an accessories girl - it's too funny. Can't leave the house without a hat, purse, keys and her "lip bong" (Sophie speak for lipbalm, of course). I love to see what mood she is in each day and which hat or purse or other accessory she will desire/require each day.

Sophie's first St. Denis Fair

2010-05-13T06:53:00.002-04:00

We took Sophie to the St. Denis Fair this past weekend and while she's no stranger to fairs (we took her to one last year and then another a few weekends ago) it is her first St. Denis Fair. Why this is significant is because this is my fair. The one I have been going to since I was in 5th grade. Lots of memories. Lots of nostalgia. Full circle - now I get to take my daughter too!!!

She had a fabulous time. It was windy and already crowded in the late afternoon on the first Saturday of the fair but she warmed up to it real quick. She had her first cotton candy (didn't like it), her first snow cone (loved it!), rode her first ride by herself (had such a good time she had to ride it again), made her first spin art (with help from Daddy), and even won a goldfish (she named him "Fishy")!!! It was quite a wonderful and successful time at the St. Denis Fair and I look forward to many many more years to come of taking the girls there in the future.

A Celebration of Moms

2010-05-10T20:03:00.005-04:00

Happy Belated Mothers Day to all the wonderful Moms out there. I am blessed to have many moms and cherish each one for her amazing unique wonderfulness and consider myself a lucky lucky girl to get to have so many moms in my world.

Yesterday we had my mom, my grandmom, my mother in law, my sister in law and my future sister in law all over for dinner (along with other non-mom family too). It was a lovely day spent with family. Sophie had a blast playing and generally enjoying all the attention of her family and was really great with her adorable cousin Liana, too. They played so nice together with Liana clearly enjoying watching her big cousin Sophie and Sophie enjoying sharing her toys (and getting lots of praise for doing so!)

Sophie waking up

2010-05-06T22:43:00.004-04:00

Sophie got new summer jammies (Dora nightgown with matching slippers) that she simply adores. The first day she woke up in them she didn't want to take them off to get dressed! This is what she looks like after coming downstairs in the morning - bed head, juice in hand, starting to play - isn't she the sweetestl??

In other news, we had our first skype video with Grammy tonight finally!! It was soooo great to see her - she turned 80 years young this past Sunday and we missed her big surprise birthday party in Arizona (because of my advanced pregnant state) so it was fantastic to at least get to see her virtually. Happy Birthday Grammy!! We love you so much! We also got to see Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dave while testing out the skype video earlier in the week - what fun!

And, DeeRee and PopPop came over and brought delicious dinner one night, too. And, Sophie had corn on the cob for the first time (but treated it like she'd been eating it all her life). What a great week so far, huh???

Happy Birth Month, Emily!!!

2010-05-01T04:23:00.005-04:00

What a typical weekend morning with Daddy looks like

Well, here it is 4:30am and I'm wide awake again. I don't remember having third trimester insomnia quite this bad with Sophie although I definitely did have it. It happens to me about 2-3 times a week I guess. Usually at least once on the weekend and once or twice during the week. I just wake up out of the blue (today at 3:30am) and try to go back to sleep but can't. I think last week was the worst - I was awake at 1:30am after only going to bed around 11:30pm and just could not get back to sleep. It makes for long days where I feel like the walking wounded by about 10-11am. Somedays I can get a nap which definitely helps. Other days, I can't. I don't know why mother nature does this to pregnant folk during the weeks leading up to having a new baby in the house. Seems so wrong but could be just a way to prepare for the sleeplessness that lies ahead or just a fluke side-effect - who knows!

Anyway enough of my complaining... Here it is May 1st! It is officially Emily's birth month. And on Monday I will be 37 weeks - officially full term!! So time to celebrate and rejoyce!! We are getting so excited to meet her soon. We've been working on her room and I'm really tickled to say that it's almost done (pix soon - I promise). I have been in nesting mode - organizing things I don't normally organize and wanting things cleaned up I don't usually see the dirt on. I've got my new washer (old one died a week or two ago) and have been washing bibs, clothes, blankets, and all the piles of old laundry that had been accumulating. My bag is (mostly) packed. All we really have to do is get the infant car seat installed and I think we are actually good to go!

Sophie has been really talking about Emily a lot, too which is so cool. I think preparing Emily's room has been helpful for Sophie as she gets to go into the room and see Emily's things and talk about where she will sleep when she gets here. Every morning after waking up pretty much without fail, Sophie will go into Emily's room and talk about her stuff and where she'll sleep. We also got a used double stroller from my neighbor's friend and Sophie loves to climb in it and says that she will sit on one side and Emily will sit on the other. It's really stinking cute. And Jim took Sophie to the toystore recently and together they picked out a cute little stuffed giraffe which will be a present to Emily from Sophie. (Of course, Emily will also have a present to give to Sophie as well.) Yesterday, Sophie told me that Emily was coming in one year. She's in for a bit of a shocker on that one I guess...

Jim has also started his own Daddy blog at http://ohsillydaddy.blogspot.com/. So please be sure to swing by and say hello!!

Outing to Smith Playhouse

2010-04-29T22:29:00.004-04:00

Today we went to Smith Playhouse in the Park which is this most amazing playground with a "giant" slide a new totlot and other fabulous play equipment - and that's just all what's on the outside!! This was a little outing with our Lansdowne Playgroup and we had a very fun, though brief, time there. Sophie got pretty wiped out real quick and we ended up not even staying to picnic with our friends but we had a fabulous time anyway and gosh, didn't she just look too cute in her shades and pigtails?

Dancing with DeeRee

2010-04-25T06:38:00.002-04:00

We had a lovely visit from DeeRee on Friday night and Sophie finally put on her awesome tu-tu that her Aunt Theresa and Uncle Bubba and cousin Liana gave her for her birthay. She and DeeRee were two prima ballerinas!!