Woo-Who!!!

Lily has started cheering for things by saying "WOO-WHO!!!" For instance, we turned on Wheel of Fortune a couple of days ago (Maybe I'm a dork, but I love this show), and the audience started clapping when Pat and Vanna walked out, so Lily looked at the tv, started clapping and saying "woo-who!!!"

She has picked up another funny little mannerism. Today, she was playing and apparently, it took some strength to move in just the right way. Once she was done, she wiped her brow with her hand and let out a big sigh like "That was tough work." She has done it a few times and I think it's hilarious to see the look on her face when she does this; being a 2 year old must be exhausting work!

Acting Up

Well, we figured it was bound to happen. Amelia turned a week old yesterday which is exactly when Lily started acting out. For only the second time in her life, I had to give her a spanking; she kept getting out of her bed at nap time. I had to reminder her today that she would get a spanking if she got out of bed at both nap time and bedtime. She has started ignoring us when we talk to her, throwing toys, climbing on everything, getting out of bed and generally pushing her limits and our patience. We knew this would happen as she adjusts to having Amelia in the picture, but it sure can be frustrating. We're trying to be consistent with our discipline, but that is difficult when we're tired and frustrated. We try to spend as much one-on-one time with her as possible. However, this is especially difficult for me as I have to take a lot of time to nurse and care for Amelia. I know Lily just wants our undivided attention. We both know that Lily is a fantastic child who is just trying to figure out what is going on; we're hoping she adjusts quickly and returns to her normal self soon.

Interesting (to me) side note about her getting out of bed...she gets out of bed to turn off her humidifier. She now hates to have it on. We think this is because of a scene in Finding Nemo where he tries to stop the machine in the fish tank that sounds like the humidifier and he almost gets hurt. Ever since she got the Nemo doll, she has been sleeping with it, and as soon as it's time for her to lay down, if the humidifier is on, she starts saying "oh no Nemo!" She becomes nearly hysterical if we don't turn off the humidifier. I guess this is just something she feels like she can control.

A Few More Pictures

Here are a few more miscellaneous pictures from our time at Northside Hospital and our first couple of days at home.

Ready to head home.

Meeting our friend, Doug Rohan

Papa loves Amelia so much!

Meme is thrilled to have another great-granddaughter.

Happy to have Bama holding her.

Thanks for visiting!

A few pictures of some of the family members that came to visit in the hospital and meet Amelia.

Sweet Girls

Just a few pictures of Lily being sweet to Amelia. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..."

Hold Her

So it's a big adjustment for a two-year-old to have a new baby sister in the house. Lily has done pretty well though. She is very gentle around Amelia, and she loves giving her kisses. She does not, however, like it when I go to another room to feed her; it will take awhile for her to get used to sharing me with Amelia. One way she copes though is asking (rather, telling) me to have Bama "hold her" (meaning hold Amelia) when I come back in the room, so she and I can play together. Well, today Lily walked over while Amelia was lying on the couch next to me fussing a little bit and wanted to pick her and "hold her." We decided to give it a try. We had her sit on the couch and put the Boppy pillow around her. Then, I laid Amelia across her lap; she really didn't have to support her because the pillow did that. Amelia was crying though (it was time to eat) which Lily didn't seem to like or understand. I am attaching some pictures of Lily getting ready to hold her and then the two of them together; it was absolutely precious to see.

Speaking Whale

Lily has picked up the funniest little bit recently. You know she LOVES the movie Finding Nemo. One of the parts she likes the best is when Dori "talks" to a whale. She has learned to talk like a whale herself. So now if you ask her to speak in whale she will say "Hel-looooo Daaaad-ddddy." And then she cracks up. She loves it if you speak to her in whale too. It's really funny to hear and watch. Lily was thrilled when Bama surprised her with a stuffed Nemo the other day. She has been sleeping with it, helping him swim around the room and generally having a great time with him. It's so cute to watch.

I am also attaching a sweet little picture of Lily from school last Monday. One of the teachers was able to get her to sit still long enough to "fix" her hair in this little braid. I was amazed she let her do that because anytime I try to play with her hair, she screams bloody murder. Anyway, I thought it was cute and thought you might like to see it too.

Amelia has Arrived!

We are so blessed to announce the safe and healthy arrival of Amelia Mary Hooks on November 18, 2008, at 11:44 AM. Ryan and I received a call from Northside Hospital last night that we could come in for inducement at 5:00 AM this morning. It was an early morning, but well worth it! They started me on potossin at 7:30, and they gave me an epidural (the most wonderful invention ever) at 10:00. Ryan's dad flew down and arrived just before 11:00. Ryan went out to talk to him and other family members who had come by, and he came back in the room at 11:30. A few minutes after he came back, Patty the nurse and Libby the midwife agreed "she was ready to walk out" so I gave 1.5 pushes and out she came. I have to say, this was a much easier experience than with Lily!

Lily came up to meet Amelia after her nap this afternoon. Ryan brought her in and she just looked at Amelia. She didn't say anything; just was taking it all in. However, Amelia had bought some presents to give Lily which made her very excited; two new books, a puzzle and an electronic game. That made Lily very happy! After she opened the presents, she just wanted to sit by me and play with them which was fine. Our families were here, so they enjoyed getting to hold Amelia while Lily and I hung out. This has been a great day!

Below are a few pictures of our sweet baby; I'm sure more will come out soon.

Calling Out

There is typically one time each night that Lily cries out for a few seconds and then she rolls over and goes right back to sleep. I'm really not sure if she is having a bad dream or if she is awake because it's usually just a little cry. Last night about 11 as Ryan and I were getting ready for bed, we heard over the monitor a little cry then "Meme! Mommy! Nemo!" So, what does this mean? Was she going in order of what comforts her? Was she dreaming about Nemo and wanted Meme or me to help him? Who knows!

Night-Night

While I always think Lily is adorable, she has picked up this little habit that I think is beyond adorable. She received a Little People lift-the-flap book for her birthday that shows the Little People on a farm. The last page of it has a night scene where all the farm animals are going to sleep and all the night animals come out to play. Lily has started lifting each flap and telling each animal "night night." It's so sweet to hear "Night night horse. Night night sheep. Night night mouse" and so forth. The cutest though is "Night night perse" which is her way of saying goodnight to the farmer. She says "perse" for person because she is learning the difference between one person or multiple people. Her sweet little voice makes me want to read this book all the time with her just so I can hear her say good-night to all the animals...so adorable!

Family of Three Outing

We wanted to have one last little family outing with Lily that would be just the three of us. So this morning, we went to the Imagine It! Children's Museum in Atlanta. It was awesome! We had taken Lily in January, and she had a great time then. However, today, she absolutely loved it! It was so much fun to watch her participate in all the activities. This museum is designed for children under 8, so everything is just the right fit for her age; of course, as she gets older, I think she will find other ways to participate in everything and still love it.

Her favorite thing today was to play on the tractor. They had a replica 1959 John Deere tractor to climb and play on. She would play it on for a little while, come down, play with something else, and then want to go back. If there was another child playing, she would wait until "my turn!" I can really see how going to school has helped her learn to take turns and share. She's really doing great with this concept. Anyway, the tractor was a big hit. You can also see she had fun playing in the little farmer's market area (puppets, play food and books), driving the bus, playing with the moon sand, growing flowers and going down the banana slide.

Unfortunately, our camera battery died about half-way through our trip, so you don't see the pictures of her playing in the area specifically for kids under 5. In here, she was able to "go fishing" with a toy rod for plastic fish which she thought was great; it got her soaked (the rain coats they provide were too big for her to wear), but she loved it. They also have a treehouse playground that she thought was awesome, especially the suspension bridge. In the rest of the museum, she was able to play with the plastic balls and watch how the kid-powered machines moved them all around. Bob the Builder was there today, but she didn't care about him since she has never seen his show. We also had lunch at the Chick-fil-a that is inside the museum; they allow you to bring in your own food and we had snacks, but we always enjoy their nuggets.

This was a great place to spend a morning. I think we will probably buy passes in another year once Amelia is on a one-a-day nap schedule too. We could have stayed longer but nap time called. We could see Lily getting tired a little after noon; the time changed has messed her up and she can't seem to get back on track with her sleeping habits. Hopefully that will change soon.

Hairy Times

Lily has a lot of fun playing under a blanket and then jumping out to say "boo!" (see the post below about "Boo!"). We thought it was pretty funny though to see what the blanket was doing to her hair. She didn't seem to mind at all though.















"Whoa, look how my hair stands up!"












Lily received these Mickey Mouse ears when she got her first haircut at Disney World in July. She didn't really want to wear them then though. However, she came across them a few days ago, and now she loves them. She wants to wear them a lot now. I have to say, she looks really cute with them on!

Boo!

Lily has been cracking me up for the last week. Ever since Halloween, she loves to say "Boo! Scare!" Here are two examples that make me laugh. First, she loves to hide in my closet while I'm getting ready. I spend a minute saying "Where's Lily? I wish she were here" and such. Then she throws open the door, smiles really big and says "Boo!" then she just cracks up and says "Scare!" as in "I scared you!" Second, she has a couple of lift-the-flap books that she loves. Well, now she lifts the flap and says "Boo! Scare!" as if she has scared the animal that was under the flap. She's a funny little thing.

We've Got Spirit...

...yes, we do. Christmas spirit that is. That's right, we put up our Christmas tree this evening which is November 1. Normally, we put up the tree and decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. However, I really don't want to worry about putting it up with a newborn and a 2-year-old around, so I asked Ryan if we could go ahead and put it up. Since we both love Christmas, it wasn't too hard to convince him! Ryan and my dad brought the tree up earlier today and put it in our living room. Lily just kept looking at it and going "Wow! Wow!" She loved it; she will be quite surprised when she gets up tomorrow and it has ornaments all over it! For those of you who don't know, Ryan and I collect Christmas ornaments from our travels. We love decorating the tree because it lets us relive a lot of great memories. We will do the rest of the decorations later, but at least the tree is there to get us in the spirit a little early this year!

Halloween Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our Halloween...

Ready to start Halloween with a cute breakfast bib!

Showing the Cinderella card to Eeks.



















Ready for the festival in Downtown Smyrna!



















Watching the fish and ducks at the Smyrna pond.


















Having fun in the Gazebo.

Lily loves the frog statue!

Enjoying the afternoon!

The Great Escape

Well, it took about three weeks, but Lily has figured out she can get out of her bed by herself. We realized this yesterday morning. Thankfully (knocking on lots of wood here), she hasn't gotten up in the middle of the night. However, she came to our room at 8 yesterday morning and 7:30 this morning. Since we typically get her up at 8:30, this is a little early. That's not ridiculously early by any means, but Ryan and I really like our sleep so I hate that this is happening! It happens very quickly too. She wakes up, talks to her Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse doll for about 30 seconds and then hops on down! This morning, Ryan immediately took her back to her bed and told her it was too early; she needed to stay there until we came to get her. She laid there and didn't make a sound for 30 minutes, but at 8:00, we heard her walking into the den. This of course also means that when she wakes up from her nap, that's it, she's done. She only naps now for 1.5 to 2 hours, but I hate that there's no wrapping up whatever I am working on. I knew this was bound to happen!

Any suggestions from other parents out there? We are debating putting a child door lock over her door handle so she can't come out of her room. Did you do that? She sleeps about 11.5 to 12 hours at night and then 1.5 to 2 hours at nap time, so I feel like she is getting enough sleep. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Happy Halloween!

We hope you all had a great Halloween yesterday! We had a very nice one. On Friday morning, Lily got dressed up in her pirate costume, and she and I went to Downtown Smyrna's "Casper's Friendly Castle." It was held inside the community center and is intended for young children who are not yet in school. There were a lot of little kids there and tons of cute costumes; of course, I thought Lily the pirate was adorable! She would point out all the animal costumes, and she got very excited when she saw a Mickey Mouse (4 of them), Minnie Mouse (3 of them) or Nemo (1 of these) costumes. They had probably 6 games that were appropriate for young kids, and regardless of if the child played or did well, they got candy (animal crackers, mini oreos, laffy taffy, suckers, etc) or a little toy (pumpkin necklace, bubbles, spider ring, coloring pages, etc). Lily was so sweet to tell the worker "thank you" after each game. They also had a magic show, a big inflatable jumper and an inflatable slide. Outside, they had a fire truck the kids could climb in and on. The best part was The Varsity was there handing out free hot dogs (naked or chili), chips and water; yummy! This was really a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Since the community center is next door to the pond and park, we went there next because Lily wanted to see the ducks and fish. She also had a lot of fun playing in the gazebo and with the big frog statute. It was a gorgeous day out, so we had a great time playing for awhile! After nap time, we spent a long time on her "prise" (her playground); she still loves it. What a great Halloween!

Lily also received a cute Halloween package from Grandpops and Grandma Jan. There was an adorable little purple bat in there named "Eeks" that Lily wants to carry everywhere. There was also a little ghost that "grows" when you put it in water. I haven't shown her that yet, but I'm sure she will love it. Her favorite part of the package though...the card! It's a Cinderella card that sings "Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo" when you open it. She keeps opening and closing it for all her animals and baby dolls as she "reads" it to them. It's so cute to watch!

I wasn't able to take pictures of Lily at the festival; it was enough to keep her nearby and hold her trick-or-treat pumpkin, her pirate hat that she didn't want to wear and the little "fire chief" hats the fire department was handing out. I managed to take a few at the park, and I'll try to upload those pretty soon.