50 days

In first Grade they celebrate the 50th day of school by having a fifties day. Coke floats, hula hooping, Mr. Potato Head, Old Maid, a sock hop, and lots of other cool activities marked the day. Grace had a blast. She said she ate the ice cream not the coke float, but that everything else was super fun.

The Poodle skirt was borrowed from Granma that was left over from Aunt Anna's elementary days. She picked out the shirt and "allowed" me to put her hair into a ponytail. Unfortunately I was unable to attend and take more pictures.

She was super excited too!

Nudge, Nudge

So yesterday while sitting at lunch, making our plans for the Sunday afternoon a funny thing happened.

"Grace needs to clean and dust her room. I will clean and dust Lily's and our bedroom" I said.

"I will vacuum them all when that is done, but while Lily is napping I will try to put together the toddler bed." said daddy.

"I will help daddy put together the bed while mommy cleans. Right Daddy, nudge, nudge." Grace states.

She is already trying to get out of cleaning her room. She actually said nudge, nudge and did the whole elbow motion and everything. Graceisms, they aren't as frequent any more but still hilarious. Unfortunately for her she ended up doing both, helping with the bed and cleaning her own room. We do help pick up the toys and strip and remake the bed, but she is getting bigger every week.

Happy Birthday Lilybug!

Last year One year Old!

Today Lily is two! It is hard to believe that just two short years have passed since our family of three became a foursome. Lily came into the world a little early, like 4 1/2 weeks. You see, Grandma, Papa, Grace and I had spent Sunday the 21st shopping at the outlet mall, a lot of walking. Later that evening my water started to leak, but I didn't realize it until later Monday morning. Once we realized it we were off to the hospital. She was born via c-section after a very long day and night in the maternity ward. She was so tiny in comparison to her big sister. Lily was only 6 pounds and 5 ounces. Grace had been born weighing over 8 pounds.

It was so late on that Tuesday night that we were so grateful to go to bed and get some sleep. The next morning, Grace was coming to meet her sister after school. Unfortunately the pediatrician came in before Grace could get there with some disturbing news. The new baby had a heart murmur and he was calling in the specialists. After all that we had been through with Brendan and then the perinatologists with Lily's pregnancy we thought we should have been all clear. But no, arteries are too small to see in utero with ultrasound and that is where Lily's problems were. We were dumbstruck, and the big sister was on her way. Needless to say the next four months were scary and I NEVER want to relive them.

So skipping ahead after the heart surgery in February, is when life with Lily really begins. You see only then did we start to relax a little and let her grow normally. Little did we know that she would become such a wonderful little personality.

Lily is precocious. She loves to study things and do things repetitively to see the results. For instance we have spent the past several days at the beach and she loves pouring sand. She pours sand on the chairs, on her legs, in the buckets and anything else that is still enough to see what the sand will do.

Lily loves to play chase, on the beach , in the condo, in the hallways at home, in the halls of preschool, in the bookstore, basically wherever she is. Most of the time she wants to be chased and runs in the opposite direction than where you are, but sometimes she wants to be the chaser and you can hear her say "I get you".

Lily was a good eater. I say was because within the past two weeks she has gotten quite picky and not liking her usual foods. She got strep throat and hasn't been the same since. I say it is the medication, but we will see. She currently likes, cheese slices, milk(strawberry preferably, Danimals yogurt drink, BANANAS, pretty much all fruit, COOKIES, M&M's, cheerios, honey nut cheerios, cinnamon toast waffles with syrup, eggs, sun chips, fries, mashed potatoes, soft serve ice cream, and some other stuff. But no meat, a vegetarian at 2, I wonder what the pediatrician will say to that?

Lily loves to read and look at books. Her favorite is the Mickey Mouse clubhouse Look and find book. But she is not picky and will back up onto your lap for any old book.

Lily loves to count. She doesn't quite have the hang of it yet so what she says is "two, three, two, three.....etc." Occasionally she will throw a five or a nine in there to mess with me though.

When Lily is tired she loves to give good hugs. She throws her arms around your neck and pats you back. Occasionally she will lift her head and give you a big lip smacking kiss on the lips. But this is only when she is tired.

Most of all Lily loves her sister. Grace is the light of Lily's life. She cries when Grace gets on the bus for school. She knows that when she wakes up from nap that Grace will be there. She loves to go in Grace's room, play with Grace's toys and put on Grace's shoes.

Tom and I feel so Lucky to have such wonderful little girls. I can't wait to see all the things the next year has in store for you miss Lily.

Therapy

It is so wonderful to have great friends. This week I found out just how wonderful they are. I was 12 weeks pregnant when I started to spot. My best friend dropped everything to help Tom and I. She came to school for Lily, cause of course I was at work. She had cupcakes with Lily's class because Lily will turn 2 next week and brought her home to Daddy. She brought us dinner of Spaghetti and Meatballs and bread and ice cream. She hugged me as I cried, she prayed for me when I couldn't pray. She took my children from me at 6:30 and got them to school and home again while I went to the hospital.
You see we lost the baby, it seems a few weeks ago. My body just didn't want to let go. The stress of Lily having strep, Grace having some unnamed illness and the lack of a dishwasher started the process so that I would go to the doctor to get help. This morning I had the dreaded D&C. So now I can say that I have been through infertility 3 times, a missed miscarriage and a late term loss. I can also say I lived through my 4 month olds open heart surgery that she almost crashed on the table. I have had more surgeries than most 80 year olds. My faith has been tested way too much. That is why I am writing here, to get myself back.
I will be on many, many meds for the next couple of weeks. I will have to go back to the OB/GYN in 3 weeks. And I will one day have to explain to my girls everything. Right now they are told mommy is sick and can't pick them up. I think Grace knows something more, but she isn't asking me. Lily will be confused as to why I am not picking her up or going swimming. Luckily they are both very loving and will let me cuddle them up.
Tonight my other best friend is bringing another yummy dinner and I can't wait to hug her too. She offered to drop her kids in the car and come to the doctor with me yesterday. The offer was great but I think I was able to better deal with my emotions alone. Yes, I got crazy looks at the office, in the halls and even driving, but what do I care. She also prayed for me when I couldn't.
Tomorrow we pack for a healing trip. It was supposed to be a celebration trip, but we adapt. My prayer right now is for a peace in my heart. I already feel surrounded by God's love with all the wonderful people he has placed in our lives. May they be blessed and know that we love them with all of our broken battered hearts.

So Edible!

Scrunched up booger nose and all!

The Concert of the Year!

No, no it wasn't Bon Jovi ;)

It wasn't even one of those other oldie but goodie bands.

It was Lily's first concert, THE WIGGLES!

Of course, she fell asleep in the car on the way across town and took a few moments to wake up. But oh my, she had a GREAT time. I am not sure if her favorite part was the singing, dancing, acrobatic feats, the proximity with which we were to the stage and Murray and Anthony walking by, the m&m's her supplier provided or just the $18 light stick Granma and Papa bought her. During the slower moments, Lily would put her face against the light stick and watch it spin, or put it on the floor and watch the floor light up. She almost got into a fight with the little girl sitting behind us over the light stick. The little girl was extremely jealous and pushed Lil and Lily handed her lightstick to the nearest adult as if to say, "OK, that is it! It is on now little girl!" Luckily tensions were diffused and toddlers were distracted by another great song on stage.

Lily would dance, spin, jump and do all the motions for the Wiggles songs. A few of her favorites included: Quack, Quack; Fruit Salad; Twinkle, twinkle; and Rock-a-bye your bear. She enjoyed watching Dorothy do ballet. She was in complete shock for the first few moments especially during the signature song "Toot, toot, chugga, chugga, Big Red Car!" She has never seen anything but videos and a few shows on Sprout. But once she warmed up there was no stopping her. Today she is wearing her concert t-shirt and has looked at the program and coloring sheet a bazillion times and can point to each Wiggle by name.

Grace had a great time too. She is the original wiggler in this house and had already been to 5 shows of the wiggles live, her first at almost the exact age Lily is. Grace was able to enjoy the show with her Granma, Aunt Anna, Cousin Taylor, Best Friends Josh and Caleb and Mrs. Lara and Mommy and Lily. Grace's favorite song of all time is the Shimmy Shake, performed by her crush Sam Wiggle(otherwise known as Sam Moran and always the yellow shirt wearer when we have been to concerts). She danced, she sang and had a blast too. I do see the day when the wiggles won't be her thing, but I am glad that she still has some innocence to her and can enjoy herself. (We are hoping that Justin Beiber fever does not hit her anytime soon.)

Soon I will post pictures - I did take my camera, but the battery was dead, so I am depending on Aunt Anna and Mrs. Lara to help me get some pictures for the blog and one day scrapbook. :)

What a busy first week of school...

Well of course, school started for Ms. Grace on Monday. She was so excited she was about to pop. We had to go shopping on Sat. to get new tennis shoes, a first day of school outfit and a few other needed items. She picked out a cute polo shirt type dress with several different colored stripes. She also picked out some silver and purple tennis shoes. She was very happy to get up, carry new her backpack, lunchbox and other school supplies. She loved all the attention of the first day of school. Pictures, hugs, long goodbyes at the bus stop and even mommy and Lily coming to school to get some classroom pictures.

She made it through the first day without a hitch. She loved her classroom, her teacher and first grade in general. She did have a little trouble making new friends. But by the end of the week she was able to tell me some of the girls in her class' names. On Tuesday she came home with Lily the Frog. This is a special honor awarded to the children who show excellent behavior in the class. They get to do special activities with Lily and write in her journal and take her back the next day. Luckily she is a stuffed frog, cause this is one momma who doesn't like slimy breathing things.

Grace and Lily the Frog reading at bedtime.

Grace also had her first official Sparks meeting on Wed. It is part of the AWANA group, think girl scouts with bible verses and learning about God and Jesus. She went a few times last spring with Joshua(our neighbor and BFF) and loved it. So this year we signed her up and she has already learned her first Bible verse and is itching to do more.

On Thursday, Grace started her new Ballet and Tap class with Ms. Alie. It is much longer this year. It went from about an hour to an hour and a half. She LOVED it. Her other longtime BFF, Jessica is in the class and they are the two youngest. They did great and worked their booties off trying to stick with the older more experienced girls. She will be one tired chica come thursday nights, but I think it will be great for her.

Lily and I hung out all week, working around the house, working some in my classroom and trying to get organized for the coming year.(not there yet) But come Friday it was little Misses turn. We put on her leotard(actually a hand-me-down from Grace) and headed to Mommy and me ballet class. Her teacher is 8 months pregnant and wasn't feeling well Friday, so this mommy had to wear two hats, teacher and mommy. Lily did great! She is the oldest in the class, but she listened fairly well. Touched her toes and tried to do a little of everything. She even learned how to jump(somewhat, it is hard for her to actually get off the ground). I hope to get some video of her dancing soon, it is a real hoot.

Lily dressed as the little mermaid for fairytale ballet.

Well that is the first week of school in a nutshell, hopefully we will find time to breathe, relax and unwind during week 2. Who knows?