the perfect shade of orange

like most children, Emma loves spaghetti. so that is what she had for lunch today. I attempted to help her eat, in the hope of preventing a total and complete disastrous mess, but she had other plans. so I let her at it and while I was busy ignoring her (which is the surest way of getting her to eat), she managed to create a mess the likes of which I hope to never see again. I knew I was going to have to get out the elbow grease for this one. wash, rinse, repeat. wash, rinse, repeat. and still, I was unable to completely remove that slight tint of orange from her skin. oh well, Emma is cute in any color!

a stitch in time

May 18, 2009 – a day that will go down in the annals of the Luff family history as – mostly bad, but with a shining moment of God’s grace.

Minding her own business, walking along the clean and tidy floor, little Emma tripped on her own tiny toes and BAM! was accosted by the hinge of the storage room door in the living room. At the loud THUNKing sound that Emma’s skull made upon impact, I turned from my place 7 feet away and ran the entire distance to her side to pick her up into my arms, with desperate cries of, “oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Emma’s initial screaming cry was drawn out into a long moment of silence before she was able to catch her breath. Terrified and certain of what I would find when I looked at the damage left by the offending hinge, I placed Emma on the kitchen counter and inspected the wound. Blood poured down Emma’s face and I knew immediately that there was an extremely high likelihood that the deep gash would require stitches. Predictably, I panicked, placing folded paper toweling on the cut and applying pressure with the desire to dam the flow of blood. Unable to think clearly, I tried to remember which Urgent Care office was part of our insurance plan. I shouted to big sister Jordenn to call Dad and get some guidance. “Meet me at the Gresham Urgent Care,” were his instructions. Relieved to know what my next step was, I shouted instructions to Brooke and Jordenn, and we all hurried to the vehicle and took off down the road. By the time all were settled in the car, Emma had calmed down and was gleeful at the delightful turn of events… we were going “bye-bye”. At this point, the bleeding had slowed to a manageable crawl and after picking up Braden at his baseball game, we made the trip to the Urgent Care office in relative peace. Daddy was waiting for us, paperwork already filled out and co-pay already rendered. We were whisked back to a room with a curtain for a door and a paper sheet on the bed. And then…. we waited. After we waited, we waited some more. Then, more waiting. At long last, Dr. Charles Wong entered the room and proceeded to tell us that for some reason that he does not understand, when the weather is nice, people get hurt. It did not seem to be relevant to the good doctor that Emma’s injury occurred indoors. Nevertheless, he felt the need to mention this odd phenomenon on more than one occasion. I was far too grateful that my baby girl was being fixed, however, to be bothered by the repetitive lesson on the effects of weather on injuries sustained by people indoors or out. Emma, however, would have preferred to just listen to the doctor talk than have him come near her head to clean, desensitize, and stitch it. She stayed mostly calm in the procedure room as long as no one was messing with her, but as soon as it was time to take care of the laceration, she became panic-stricken and could not be calmed down. The doctor instructed us to lie her down on the bed and hold her still so that he could begin numbing the injury site and he then proceeded to poke her with a needle at least 20 times. Emma did not like this. Who can blame her? Finally, when she was sufficiently anesthetized, he placed a paper sheet over her head with a small hole in it that he placed over the cut. Emma did not like this, either. What was the point of that sheet? I’m sure someone knows, but I am not one of them. I held it up off of Emma’s face so she could see me as I leaned over her, holding her head between my two hands to hold it still, murmuring words of love and comfort to her as her father held her two arms down to prevent her from squirming and pushing the sheet off of her head. Emma truly did not like this. In almost laugh-out-loud absurdity, the doctor had suggested that it was possible that Emma fall asleep during the procedure when she realized that the injury no longer hurt. I guess he doesn’t know Emma. There was no calming her down, until, by some miraculous gift from God, a lovely young nurse came into the room and offered her assistance to the doctor. She simply leaned down to gaze into Emma’s eyes, and Emma stopped crying immediately. She looked at the nurse’s face for the remainder of the procedure and did not so much as whimper again. What a blessing! Isn’t God kind? He took compassion on one of His littlest darlings and sent her an angel to calm her. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus!! Procedure complete, stitches in place (all five of them), we were sent on our way and Emma never again complained about her injury, even in the days to follow. I even caught the stitches a couple of times with the comb while I was styling her hair and she didn’t even flinch. What a trooper!

And as an after note, we had the stitches removed on May 28. The very same angel-nurse that calmed Emma down during the stitching procedure was the one who removed the stitches. Once again, Emma sat calmly and still for her and didn’t even so much as whine once! God is good!!

Too big for her britches!

Oh Miss Emma... I know you love your big sisters and want to be just like them. But honey, I'm sorry - you are too young to wear a thong!

superhydrator

there's no rest for superheroes. the day is long. the night is longer. so much crime to fight. so many lives to save. it's a thankless job, and messy too. but a true hero cannot deny their calling. when you were born to be the best, you sacrifice "normal" for greatness. but even the greatest of superheroes have to take care of themselves. and that's why this masked crusader makes time to stay hydrated. because you never know when the next call from the commissioner will come in. it's best to be ready.

it's in the genes!!

I’ve been wondering lately…. is silliness learned, or is it in the genes? you see, Emma is a total goofball, and she truly knows how to get us to laugh. she just makes a silly face, sits in the fridge or wears a headband across her eyes, and she gets us laughing every time. Emma also seems to know instinctively when someone in our family is being goofy – especially Braden. with just a silly look, he gets the best belly laughs out of her.




this has got me thinking… and reminiscing. I will never forget the time that my nephew Jeremy belted out his first gut busting belly laugh. he was probably around 9 months old at the time. I was lying on the couch and he was sitting on my tummy. we were playing and interacting when for some reason that I do not recall, I said, “da!” in a fairly loudish, startling voice. well, this tickled Jeremy’s funny bone because he started laughing – hard, which of course made my sister and me laugh as well. for the next 5 or so minutes, I shouted “da!” and Jeremy laughed his guts out. did someone teach him that was funny? no, he just knew it instinctually. it was one of my favorite moments.




babies laugh at the most unsuspecting moments, don’t they? you’ve probably seen the video of the little baby that thought the most hilarious thing in the world was the sound of paper ripping. or the one of the quintets that all laughed in unison when their daddy said, “boing!” (if you haven’t seen these, I will place the links at the end of this post). I absolutely love watching video clips like this. and I am thrilled when we catch Emma on video laughing her heart out, like we did on Easter (the video is still here on the blog if you want to watch it again).




all in all, I think babies are born with a great sense of humor. I think it is because they are so fresh from Heaven. and so I guess that I’ve decided that silliness is most definitely in the genes!

Here are the youtube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXm696UbKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb9RJlHvjXQ

while I was away...

I have been told that while I was away, she would point at the front door and ask, “Mommy?” And yet, knowing that she missed me only makes me feel marginally better about the time with Emma that was lost in my absence.

You see, these are the days of discovery, wonder and constant learning…. and I love to see the look in her eyes as she processes something new and I can almost hear the wheels of her brain turning as she tries pronouncing new words. I missed witnessing the joy in her body language as she encountered something new and exciting. While I was away, she grew, she learned, she experienced, she tried, and I wasn’t here to share it with her.

Coming home, I was acutely aware of the time that had passed in my absence. I felt so out of the loop. I am usually the person that tells the cute stories of the things that she does over the course of the day, and instead I was hearing them from my sister and Emma’s older siblings. I heard stories of bathtime, bedtime, mealtime, playtime…. all of the times that I am usually present. The most difficult story to hear was the story of her illness while I was away. She was sick, and I was not here to comfort her. She needed cuddles, and I was not the one to give them to her. How that wrenches the heart! I am deeply grateful that she had the next best thing, her Auntie Dawn to provide the comfort and cuddles that I was unable to provide myself.

I hope that I won’t have to be away from my littlest angel again. There is so much life in her to see that it hurts me to have missed any of it while I was away.

becki = m.night

So I find that I am the M. Night Shyamalan of the blogging world and my first blog entry titled “the perfection of the day” is the equivalence of M. Night’s movie “The Sixth Sense”. You see, as a new blogger, I feel that I hit it out of the park with that first entry, which was better than expected and full of surprises (she says, modestly). Since then, while there have been a few shining moments, I feel that I have not been up to the task of “topping” it. As a result, I find myself a victim of the most brutal case of writer’s block, fearful that my initial success will turn out to be just a blaring example of beginner’s luck.

Did beginner’s luck stop M. Night?? No, of course it didn’t! And as his fans, we have happily endured his less shining moments (“The Happening”, anyone?) in anticipation of another brilliant success like “The Sixth Sense”. Therefore, because M. Night has dared to press on through the less brilliant moments of his movie career to bring his followers modestly entertaining films, I will follow his example and press on through the less brilliant moments of my blogging career to bring those of you who kindly read these words some hopefully mildly entertaining blog entries. And maybe along the way, we will have some laughs and I will learn to write sentences that are less confusing than the last one I just wrote.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate you hanging in here with me.