Happy Valentine's Day... it's only been 12 years

Well, friends, it's been 12 drama filled years since my last post when Emma was born. Robin and I have been married 16 years and we have Evan, the Teenager, and Emma, the PreTeen.

We've all been through at least one hospitalization, except Emma (knock on wood!!). 

We now have one homeschool child. Introducing our own, Lincolnshire Hill Academy, and one still enrolled at Wesleyan Academy. Eighth grade and sixth grade. It's out of control how fast time goes, especially during these last couple years, during the pandemic.

We have been turned upside by the pandemic just like the rest of the world. Emma had COVID in the Fall of 2021. She was just short of being able to be vaccinated. I was symptomatic, but never tested positive. I'm fairly certain I had it, too, but tested negative. The fact that Robin didn't get sick was a miracle because of all of his immunocompromised issues. We were super thankful. We are all super-vaccinated.

Here's the fam at Christmas this year:

Now, it's the beginning of a new year, 2022. We can only hope this year brings unity and an end to the pandemic. I think that's something we can all get behind. 

I will try to stay a little more up-to-date going forward. When something important happens, at least.

P.S. I love Grogu, The Child from the Mandalorian. If you don't know... now you know. Also, We don't talk about Bruno.

Wow. Has it really been that long?

I didn't realize how long it had been since I blogged. My Mom didn't tell me... and she usually does!

Well, we've been fairly busy in the Parrish Family. We survived Evan's second birthday and Emma's dedication at church (Dec. 20th). We had a small disaster with Evan's birthday cake, but after a small meltdown (by me), we just bought one at the grocery store. In retrospect, it was no big deal. I'll prepare better next year.

Emma is growing like crazy (and so is Evan, actually). She started smiling really big about a month ago, I guess, and today (January 7), she laughed for the first time. I missed it. I was at work. I'm bummed by that... a lot.

Evan is 2. Yes, he definitely is. He has extreme moments of sweetness. And then there's the other stuff. Yep. He's 2. He is talking up a storm, which is SO much fun. It's amazing how much of a cute little person he is. He has an amazing personality, and we couldn't love him any more if we tried.

On the general family side... we're still praying for some financial miracle. We had a few months of reprieve from desperation, but that time is running out. Please join us in praying for a solution. We truly believe that God has something big planned and we know his timing is perfect... it's just REALLY hard to not totally freak out. So, prayers are very much appreciated.

Here are some photos of Emma and one of Evan! I'll get more Evan photos up asap!




My cute little boy, playing with his truck... or as he likes to say, 'cruck!'



My sweet girl in her overalls!



Our little Christmas present!



We like to call her... Emma Clause.

C'mon... how sweet is this?

Back to Work

I can't believe it happened already. I'm back to work after Emma's arrival. It's been just about seven weeks since her stunning arrival! Time is going MUCH faster now, I'm sure of it. 

Today is only my second day back, and actually, my first FULL day back. I will gladly admit that I am struggling. What Mom would not want to be home with her kids? I miss them so much. I don't want to miss all the cool new things Emma does, and the continued cute things that Evan's been doing. Emma made a valiant attempt to roll over yesterday. She was laying on the couch between Mommy & Daddy and was just trying to maneuver herself closer to Daddy (she's Daddy's girl already!). She made it onto her side with no problem, and would have used the momentum of the couch to get the rest of the way over, but Daddy stopped her. She's such an overachiever. 

Emma also went an amazing 5 and a half hours between feedings last night! The downside of that was that Robin had stayed up to give her a feeding so I could get a little extra sleep, making it an alarming NINE hours between feedings for Mommy. Not a good, or comfortable feeling. Bless her heart, we're reevaluating the overnight feeding schedule. Mommy can't go that long between feedings. 

Evan still really likes his little sister. It's Mommy and Daddy he's not too happy with right now. That's our impression, anyway. We think that he's acting out for attention. He will literally look us in the eyes and do exactly what we asked him NOT to do while he's doing it. He will run in the opposite direction when we call his name and he woke up at 5:30 two mornings in a row. (We actually think he might be trying to kill us... subconsciously.) Even through all that, he's still the cutest, sweetest little boy in the entire world. Both of our kids are basically, the best.   

Evan wanted to be close to his sister... just not 'too' close.

Parents of Two

The hardest thing I've found about being a parent of a newborn and almost two year old is getting enough sleep. Everything else has it's challenges, but it's pretty manageable.

Doing everything with a lack of sleep makes it just a touch more difficult. It's still wonderful, though. Emma is a complete joy. She does, however, make the most interesting noises in her sleep. My Dad says that when I was a newborn, I was sleeping in their room and I was so noisy, he needed to move me out so he could get his sleep. I understand this now. Emma isn't even really in our room. We have her bassinet in the dining room, but we can STILL hear her many noises as she sleeps. We don't know what that's all about, but it can keep a person awake.

Today (or, yesterday, I guess at this point), Robin, Evan, Emma & I made the trek to GTCC for a H1N1 vaccination clinic. Evan getting the vaccine was our priority, but I was hoping to be able to get one, too. I was shot down (no pun intended) repeatedly. I asked every health department official I came in contact with, including the Medical Director himself, but was told I was not a 'priority,' even though my OB doctor told me I was. I understand they are trying to stem the epidemic where it will be most likely spread (the children & college students), but I wanted it so I could protect my daughter, darn it! Supposedly, there will still be enough vaccines... eventually.

In other news, I only have ONE WEEK left of my maternity leave. I'm trying not to dwell on it, because I know we need the money, but I really don't want to go back to work. No surprise, there, I guess. I can't imagine any Mom wanting to leave her two kids at home. Robin doesn't want me to go back either. He will be at home with the kids, and Maw Maw (our new 'grandma' type name for Lu, Robin's Mom) will be watching them as well. Please pray for us all as we prepare to make this adjustment!

Here are a few photos, for those of you who may not see them on Facebook!



Here is Evan, embracing his Hip-Hop side.


Emma, saying HI!


Evan, sharing Mr. Penguin with Emma. After this, he also let he use his 'blankie' for a few brief seconds.


Emma, in repose...


Our outing to Barberito's, a favorite Mexican Grill in town. This was our first trip out with both kids!

WELCOME Emma Rose Parrish!

We have relocated our 'Littlest Parrish' Blog because we have a new 'littlest Parrish!' Emma Rose Parrish joined the Parrish clan a little early on Wednesday, September 30th at 6:40am! She weighed in at a petite 6 lbs. 3 ozs. and 19 inches long. She was two and a half weeks early, which caught us a little off guard.

Here's the story... in brief:

I woke up at 3am, feeling a little funny, and decided I just needed to walk around a bit. I thought my stomach felt a little upset, but didn't really think anything of it. I walked out to the living room, where Robin was still up working on his next book (due out July of 2010... couldn't resist a little publicity there). He asked what I was doing up, and I just said I needed to walk around a bit. Neither of us thought anything of it just then.

I made my way back to bed, and was laying down when I realized I was probably having contractions and they were an alarming 5 minutes apart. Gulp, I thought... this might be active labor! What happened to the first part of labor?!!

So, I came out of the bedroom again and told my husband what was happening and he immediately called our Doctor. She suggested it might be false labor and that I should drink a bunch of water and if that didn't help, I might want to come in in an hour or so.

Shortly after hanging up the phone, the contractions started getting MUCH worse, so Robin shifted into overdrive and started packing bags for himself and Evan... who needed to go to Grandma's house. So, by about 4:15am, we were all loaded in the car and heading to Grandma's first, then the hospital. The contractions were now about 3 minutes apart and beyond intense.

We dropped Evan off and skidded into the Emergency Room. They took their good old time admitting me (ok, it wasn't so bad, but as a pregnant woman in SUPER ACTIVE LABOR (note the all caps), it seemed like a lifetime.

Eventually, we made it up to the Labor and Delivery section and I got deposited into the same room I was in when I had Evan (a cool little coincidence). The nurse was also taking her good old time (ok, she, too, was pretty efficient, it just seemed like a horribly long time, since I couldn't have any drugs until she was done).

Skipping ahead in the not too far future, the anesthesiologist arrived JUST in time for the epidural (I LOVE that man), and followed shortly by the our favorite doctor, Dr. Mattern... two short pushes later (and did I mention I couldn't really feel my legs or anything else by this point? Did I also mention that I LOVE that anesthesiologist?)... Emma arrived!

In the meantime there, we had called my parents, who were on their way down... they didn't quite make the actual birth, but did make it the DAY of her birth. We had visits from Pastor Roland, Cher, and help from Aunt Susan. She brought my bag I had packed in advance, but had mistakenly left the house without because I thought Robin had it and he thought I had it. Ooops! She also brought Krispy Kremes for us. YAY!

Our parents and Evan all arrived at the same time and we also had visits from Andrew and Krista and Carolyn, a Chaplain from the church.

I wanted to write this down because it's all mostly a blur. Crazy stuff... it happening so fast. I guess Emma was in a hurry to make her appearance. We're glad he did. She's the sweetest little girl you will ever see, and Evan is still adjusting to her, but we think he's the best big brother ever, too!

Here are a few photos... I'm slacking a bit on the blogging, but don't worry, we'll do our best to stay up to date with Emma's achievements and continue with Evan's... who, by the way, is beginning to talk up a storm! Go EVAN!


Our little princess is already plotting her next move...


Emma with Grandma Sprengel!


Evan meets his little sister for the first time (with Grandma Parrish & Sprengel in attendance)


Evan is doing much better with his little sister now... he was probably wondering if we were going to send her back anytime.


Emma & Grandpa Sprengel!

Yes, we are still here!

The Parrish Family is still alive and well. We have just been ridiculously busy as the arrival of our new littlest Parrish gets closer and closer!

All is going well with the pregnancy, and today we are just about a month away from little Emma's arrival. She has been super active over the past few weeks bumping and flipping and doing general calisthenics to keep her Mommy on her toes. It's actually quite cool to experience.

We are JUST getting over the men of the house's sicknesses. That's right, both Robin & Evan were quite sick for over a week. Both are still getting over the last of the yuckiness, but overall, I'd say they are both better. Thank heavens I didn't get what they had. And no, they did not have H1N1, although the morning I called the Dr. for Robin, the lady that answered the phone to give a message to the Doctor said, "That sounds like that swine flu!" Crazy lady. Luckily, it turns out she was completely wrong and hopefully she got fired for making a poor pregnant woman freak out about her family getting the swine flu.

The wonderful folks at my place of employment were sweet enough to have a 'mini-shower' for me for Baby Emma. It was not 'officially' a shower, because this is the second baby, but they were very generous in giving the family an awesome gift card for Babies R Us. We can definitely use that. Woo hoo!

As for the goings on in Evan's little ever-changing life, his vocabulary is the most fun new thing we are experiencing. It's growing it seems like every day. We, as parents can tell what he's saying more than others, of course, and Grandma Lu can swear she hears him say stuff that I can't quite make out. Some of the more amusing words he's come up with are, 'poopy,' whether he actually has done a poopy or not,'crap,' which we try to ignore, even though it's super funny, and any word with a -y at the end always has the accent on the second syllable. So, it's not really POOP-y, but poop-EEE! Just try to imagine it... it's really cute. He of course, also says, Mommy and Daddy and a plethora of other things, like, truck (which sounds like 'cruk!'), duck, ball, cute (as in, I'm cute!), pookie (which is something I've called him since he was born), and other things, too. It's SO great hearing little words come out of that little mouth!

So, the adventures continue in the Parrish household as we prepare for Emma's arrival. We're PRETTY sure that Evan has a small idea of what's coming, but we are also certain little Emma will rock his world when she arrives.

Please pray for our family in the coming weeks! We're so excited, but we're all in for SUCH a change when we've expanded to FOUR!

The parents are coming... the parents are coming!

Tomorrow is the day my parents are arriving from PA to spend another week with me while my husband traipses off to Cali, yet again. It's actually very great to have them here. They are extremely adept at entertaining Evan, and it's really great for them to get to spend time with him. It doesn't happen nearly enough. For all you grandparents out there who live near their grandkids, please tell my parents, so they will seriously consider moving closer to us! (Did you hear that, Mom?)

Anyway, I just heard from Robin that he is thinking he's getting Evan's cold. Evan has had a mild cold for a few days. I think it's getting better, but it's not quite gone yet. But anyway, Robin is getting that cold. AND he's leaving for San Diego on Wednesday. So, if you think of it, please pray that he would feel better, that he would have a safe trip, and that he makes some good contacts with some writing proposals he is taking with him.

We are also still waiting to hear back about some of the other proposals and offers that are out there on various tables around the country. Prayers for those would be appreciated as well. We're still very much in financial need. It's been over a year and half now since Robin has had steady income, and we're feeling the stress BIG TIME!

On the plus side, we got to go on a date on Friday night. We went out to eat (and I got to hear the plot line of his new book... HA! Take that all you book fans out there!). It was really nice to just have some Robin & Karen time. It's been a LONG LOOOONG time since we last went on a date.

As far as our new little girl goes... she's doing great. Growing as she should. We just had another ultrasound last week and she was very squirmy and flexible. She had her toes at her forehead, bless her little heart. We're at 27 weeks today... the blood pressure was actually better than it had ever been with Evan, so we press on! We can't wait to meet her! The pink clothes are beginning to accumulate!

More photos of Evan soon!