The Birthday Girl

So today, October 4, is Lily's third birthday. I really can't believe how quickly time has flown by. We heard Lily come out of her room this morning, and she immediately went into the living room and started playing with her new toys. She stayed there for about 15 minutes before coming into our room. Ryan wished her a happy birthday, and they talked for a minute. Then Lily came over to my side of the bed, so I said "Happy birthday big girl!" She came over, gave me a big hug and said "Happy birthday Mommy!" We all got out of bed, and Ryan fed Mia while Lily and I played.

Ryan and I wanted to spend some time with just Lily today, so the Birmingham family kept Mia while we took Lily out. First, we had breakfast at McDonald's. Lily loves biscuits and hash browns, so this was a great choice. Then we headed down to the Children's Museum which Lily always loves, but we hadn't told her yet we were going. About half-way there, Lily started asking about her surprise, so I told her we were on our way to the Children's Museum where she would get to fish, play in the market and have all sorts of fun. She started clapping, kicking her feet, laughing and saying "Yea! Yea!" She was so excited!

Not surprisingly, we had a great time there. They are actually between exhibits right now (Curious George starts next week, so hopefully we'll make it back for that), so there weren't as many activities as usual to do, but she still had so much fun. As we walked in, she took my hand and said "I want to fish first. Let's go fish." so off we went. She caught lots of fish with the magnetic rod and with the net. After that, we went to the market for a few minutes, climbed on the big green John Deere tractor, climbed into the tree house playground, played with puppets, played with a train set and built with moon sand. Then, for the first time, Lily spent a lot of time at this big contraption (I really don't know what else to call it) that is filled with plastic balls that you put into different holes; then you turn wheels, pull ropes or move levers to make the balls move all around above you. She has always been a little too small to enjoy this, but this time she had lots of fun. We think it's pretty cool that each time we go, she picks a different area to concentrate on. After playing with the balls for awhile, we fished some more and then went back to the market. This time, she found a buggy and started loading it up with groceries. We then went into the kitchen area where she washed some of the fruit and the spread it out on the table. She was so excited because "we're having a picnic" which is one of her favorite things to do.

By this point, we had been at the museum for over two hours, and while Lily probably would have been content playing for hours more, we decided it was time to go to lunch (the Chick-fil-a inside the museum was closed since it was Sunday). We took a quick peak in the gift shop. I think Santa will probably pick up some things from this awesome gift shop before he comes to our house (IF there's a sale anytime before then); there were cool things there!

We wanted to treat Lily to something fun for lunch, so we headed to The Varsity. Lily enjoyed some of her cheeseburger and fries. She really enjoyed wearing the little red hat they gave her though. She let us take some cute pictures in it, and she had fun taking pictures of Ryan and me in our hats too. She wore that hat all the way home and while she played before nap time too.

She must have been wiped out because she slept for over an hour and a half (barely an hour is normal these days). After nap time she opened presents that had been sent by Grandpops and Grandma Jan, Great-Grandpa and Lois, Meme and Uncle Randy. Lily loves opening presents! We called our friends, the Lundquists, and invited them to dinner at Taco Mac with us. We always have fun with them, so that was a treat too. We played more when we got home and then Lily headed to bed.

This was a wonderful day. Lily is such an amazing girl. I could go on for hours about all the reasons she is special to us, but here are just a few of them:

-She is so smart. She amazes us daily with her reasoning and logic skills, vocabulary and memory. I hope she will always keep up her level of curiosity and love of learning new things.

-She loves to laugh. There are so many funny stories about her that I don't post on this blog. The things she says crack us up many times every single day. She is on a kick right now of changing the words to songs ("Ba, ba black puppy" was sung on the way home from dinner) and intentionally calling things by the incorrect color or shape ("It's blue...no Mommy it's yellow!"). She finds this hilarious, and it makes me laugh to see how much it tickles her.

-She loves to read. Ever since she was only a few months old, she was content to sit in your lap and look at books for hours a day. She still loves book. Not only does she want to read them with us or to us (Dr Seuss books are favorites right now), but she loves to find specific things on the pages (colors or the number of objects for example).

-She has a great imagination. One of my favorite things to do with her is eat in her "Tokyo Restaurant." Of course, this is just her little toy kitchen, but she will spend quiet awhile fixing various dishes; soups, salads, entrees, sides, desserts - you name it, she fixes it. She will ask me what I want to eat (chicken noodle soup), and she'll walk me through how she makes it..."Put the soup in the pot (pretends to pour from her blender). Put the chicken in (puts the toy fried chicken in). Put the noodles in (puts pretend noodles in because she doesn't have toy noodles). Now stir it all up. Put the lid on and cook it (turns on the toy timer and waits for it to ding). It's ready! Now here your spoon. Be careful Mommy, it really hot. Cool it off first okay? (hands me the big pot) Here's your milk too (hands me a toy carton of milk)." I hope this transfers to a real love of cooking with me later too; she loves to be in the kitchen on her step stool with me now, so that give me hope.

-She loves her family. With Mia, she gives her a hug and a kiss most nights before Mia goes to bed. She will run to give Bama and Granna hugs when they come in the house. There is nothing like getting a bear hug from her; it's the best feeling in the world. No, that's not right. The best feeling in the world is when you say "I love you Lily" and she immediately replies "I love you too!"

Lily is an angel who amazes us and lights up our world each and everyday. She is the most precious, incredible and beautiful little girl. Ryan and I feel so blessed to have her as our daughter. We remember vividly finding out our first child was a girl; what a great feeling! Within a few days of bringing her home, we could hardly remember what life was like before she arrived. She has brought us more joy than we could have ever imagined. We cannot wait to see what her future holds.

Lily's Birthday Party!

What a beautiful day to celebrate Lily's birthday! It topped out in the low 70's, and we had clear skies all day. Perfect! Here's a rundown of our wonderful day...

Both girls slept until about 8 which was definitely needed after a week of Mia waking up around 2:30 as she's been a little under the weather. I heard Lily start to come out of her hallway, but then she was surprised to see Josh and his friend, Zac, sleeping in our living room, so she turned around and shut the door. It was quiet for a few more minutes and then I heard little feet come into our room; she was holding a glue stick. We had moved all her coloring books, art supplies, etc from our dining area counters into the office to get it out of the way. Instead of going back to her room after seeing Josh and Zac, she went into the office and found the supplies. Thankfully, it did not appear that she had glued anything. We got out of bed and Lily feasted on two waffles and half a yogurt (the girl loves breakfast foods). Ryan fed Mia, and we all just enjoyed a nice morning.

About 9, we started getting the last few things ready for the Little Einsteins party. I made pigs in a blanket while Ryan went to Party City to pick up the balloons we had ordered. The guys went to Chick-fil-a, and Liz cleaned off the outside tables and straightened up the inside. We hung the "Happy Birthday" sign over the living room entryway, placed the balloons outside, took out the paper goods, drinks and goody bags and got everyone dressed. Everyone started arriving right at 11 and by 11:15, I think everyone was here. The kids had a great time playing outside; the playground was cleaned and ready, the jumpy was inflated and we had pictures of the Little Einsteins on the kid's table for them to color. It took Lily a little bit to warm up, but once Molly arrived, she was so excited and started having a great time. Our family and friends seemed to have fun watching the kids and catching up with one another.

Chick-fil-a arrived with the nuggets, chicken salad sandwiches and chargrilled chicken wraps at 11:45, so we called everyone in to fix plates at noon. We had pigs in a blanket and Goldfish in addition to Chick-fil-a; we decided to keep it very simple this year! The kids continued to play after they ate, so we brought the cake down to the outside patio about 12:30. We bought a cake from Publix (it was a vanilla cake with white cream cheese icing, a green piped border and "Happy Birthday Lily!" written in green), but then put our own Little Einstein figurines and a "3" candle on it. Lily really seemed to like it.

Lily had been a little off all day. She refused two phone calls from family calling to wish her happy birthday (she usually loves talking on the phone). Also, I know she gets overwhelmed by big crowds and since there were 40 people there, I think that made her nervous. Anyway, she climbed into the chair to see the cake and then said "No Mommy, you sit here and I'll sit in your lap." Okay, that's not a big deal, so I did. Then everyone started singing the happy birthday song. Lily immediately turned her head into my neck and started bawling; she did that through the whole song! I couldn't believe it; she loves the birthday song (she sings it to us all the time). When it was over, I blew out her candle and then walked her away from everyone to calm her down while everyone else had a piece of cake. When we were alone, I asked what was wrong. Through her tears she said "I no want to hear happy birthday song!" I just gave her a big hug and said we were done singing. I asked if she wanted cake, and she said "Yes. I sit on the wall and Mommy sit in the chair right next to me." So we walked over to where she wanted to sit and pulled up a chair. I got us some cake and she dug in. Molly came over and sat next to her, and she perked right back up. She used a fork for several bites, but then decided it would be much more fun to use her fingers to scoop up the icing and eat it that way. She was laughing and having a great time again.

After we finished the cake, we brought all her presents down. She (with the help of a few friends) had a fun time opening presents. She was so excited about each one of them and wanted to play with each one right then. I had to tell her "we'll play with them after we open all of them" after each gift. I would tell her that and she would say "okay, I want another present." She remembered to thank some people too when she opened the gifts which I appreciated. The last present was a tricycle from my parents, so we let her and her friends take turns on it (which Lily gladly shared - miracle!) while others cleaned up (I think mostly the grandparents, but I didn't see because I was watching Lily). Then it was time for everyone to go, so we went back inside, handed out goody-bags and said our thank yous and good-byes.

After most everyone had left, Lily wanted to bust open the other presents. She first wanted to play with the toy laptop Wayne and his family had given. She is fascinated with our computer (often typing in a Word document to "check my email"), so she was thrilled with this. Then she wanted to play with the Little People Princess Palace Ryan and I gave her; she played with this for a long time which made me really happy. By this time, it was about 3:00, and I could see she was getting tired. I told her it was time for a nap, and she readily went to her room. She slept for just over an hour while we finished cleaning up and relaxed with Ryan's family.

When she came back out after nap time, she wanted to put on her new chefs outfit that included an apron, hat, pot holder, tea towel and hot pad. She then cooked for me in her Tokyo restaurant. After that, she wanted to put on her new Cinderella dress; it was absolutely adorable. She kept that on and played for about an hour and a half. Our friends, the Vonderahes, even came by for a little bit; they weren't able to come to her party but wanted to drop off a present and say happy birthday which was so nice of them. When the Vonderahes left, we convinced Lily to change clothes so we could go to dinner. She said she wanted to go to Figo Pasta, so that's where we headed.

Two cute stories from dinner. When we arrived she said "We're at Figo Pasta! I'm going to eat figo." Apparently she calls the food there "figo" instead of pasta. I said "you're going to eat figo pasta?" and she replied "No the restaurant is Figo Pasta. I eat figo." Second, she told me she had a poppy diaper (we let her wear diapers instead of panties today to avoid accidents), so we went to change it, but it wasn't poopy. As we came back, Lily stood about 30 feet from our table and announced to everyone (though talking to Bama) "Bama! I not have a poopy diaper! It only wet!" Nice. I'm sure everyone wanted to know that.

As I said before, this was a wonderful day, and a perfect day to have a birthday party. We are so lucky to have great friends and family who were able to share this day celebrating our precious Lily. We absolutely adore and love her. We can't wait to see what this third year holds for her!

Parker with Ms Jill, and Molly going down the slide.

Peyton and Alexis enjoyed the slide too.

Molly and McKayla...sweet sisters.

Sofia and Anna Powell having fun.

Not so sure about the Happy Birthday song.

Happy again!

What a great day!

Lily's Prayer

Last night after we read Lily's Bible story (she has asked for Jonah's story 4 days in a row now), I told her it was time for prayers and asked if she wanted to say it or wanted me to say it. She replied "You say it then I say the words." For a couple of weeks now she wants me to say a prayer and she repeats the words after me, so I said okay and we closed our eyes. This is what was said:
Me: Dear Jesus.
Lily: Dear Jesus. Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Lily and Amelia. Thank you for all our blessings. Help us sleep good for tomorrow. Amen."
How precious is that? Of course, I realize she is reciting what we say most nights (though I usually also say something we are especially thankful for that particular day), but I thought it was so sweet that she said it all by herself. She was beaming when she finished too because she was so proud of herself. I told her how sweet that was, and how much Jesus loves it when she talks to Him. What a sweetheart.

Tuesday Morning

I stayed with the girls this morning while Ryan went to his weekly Bible study. Three fun Lily stories from breakfast...

1. While eating her yogurt, Lily looked at one of our walls that has a picture frame collage on it. She said "I'm going to watch tv on that thing on the red wall." So I said that was fine and asked what tv show she was going to watch (thinking it would probably be Charlie & Lola which she has started to love). She thought for a second and said "Football." That's my girl! After a minute, she said "Aw man. Aw man. Mommy, we say aw man when we watch football." I guess Lily has seen me watch the Vols a little too much this season.

2. At one point, Lily said "I'm going to get married, okay Mommy? I'm going to get married tomorrow like you and Daddy got married in that picture up there that's white and black." She is referring to a picture of us on our wedding day that is framed and signed by our family and friends hanging above our fireplace. I said "okay, that sounds good. Who are you going to marry? Are you going to marry Parker?" She immediately said "Yes, Parker." Then she thought about it for another few seconds and said "and Macey and Jill and Brian." I guess she really does love the Henderson family!

3. After giving Mia her bottle, I put her in her high chair to give her some jarred food; Lily finished up her cereal (she eats a container of yogurt and a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast most days) and jumped out of her seat. She said "I have a surprise for you when you finish feeding Mia Mommy." A few minutes later Mia and I finished up, so I looked to see that Lily had put her bowl with just a few Cheerios left in it and her cup of milk at my place at the table. She was beaming from ear to ear and said "Surprise! I made you breakfast!" How sweet is this girl?

Easy to Please

Lily's third birthday is this upcoming Sunday. Can you believe it?! I can't. We have a birthday party planned for her on Saturday, and I'm thrilled that lots of her little friends are coming. Of course, I start to get all anxious thinking about everything to do (clean the house, order the food and cake, get the lawn in shape and get a present are at the top of the list). Well this evening, Lily and I opened up one of the playroom windows so we could watch Ryan spray weed killer to make things outside look a little better.

Lily loved this. We stayed there for about 20 minutes just watching Ryan. She kept looking down at the ground and saying "We're so tall!" At one point, she and Ryan talked for a few minutes about the music he was listening to on his iPod and he made a comment about us being Bert and Ernie in the window. Lily absolutely cracked up; she thought calling us Bert and Ernie was the funniest thing she has ever heard. After having a big laugh for about 15 seconds, she called down "Daddy, I'm not Bert and Ernie! I'm Lily!"

I explained to Lily that Daddy was cleaning the yard to make it look nice for her birthday party later in the week. She started to get excited thinking about a party. She pointed out where the inflatable jumpie should go, and she kept saying the tables should go in the dirt (why they wouldn't go on the patio I'm not sure). She kept asking questions and talking about "my Little Einstein party." Here's how one of our quick conversation went:
Me: Is there any present you really want to get for your birthday? (Keep in mind I immediately wish I hadn't said this because I already have her present).
Lily: Yes...three balloons!
Me: Three balloons because you'll be three years old?
Lily: Yes (big smile quickly fades). I want four balloons.
Me: Oh really? How about five balloons?
Lily: (Thinks for a second) No. Four balloons.
Me: You got it kiddo. I can do four balloons.
Excellent! I can get her what she wants!

Before going to bed, I told Lily lots of her friends were coming to her party, so she asked me who. Here's how that conversation went.
Lily: Who coming to the Little Einstein party in my backyard?
Me: McKayla, Molly, Zac...
Lily: I'll see Molly. Molly can come and sit next to me (as she pats the floor on her right).
Me: Sure, she can sit next to you. And Parker and Macey and
Lily: And Parker can come and sit next to me here (and pats the floor to her left).
Me: I'm sure Parker would love to sit by you. (and then continue telling her everyone else).

She's so excited! I tell you though, there are a lot of frustrations going on right now with Mia's fussiness, my computer and hard drive crashing and some work issues; planning this party makes me anxious too. Lily reminded me though we don't need much to be happy...family, friends, cake, an inflatable jumpie and four balloons, and we're good.

Nashville!

I spent this past weekend in Nashville, Tennessee celebrating the wedding of my younger cousin, Deanna. It was a great weekend!

Wayne and I drove up on Friday afternoon. Ryan stayed behind with the girls, and Dianne planned on bringing their girls up on Saturday while Zac stayed with Dianne's mom. Wayne and I don't have much time to just sit around and talk, so this was a nice time to catch-up. I have a great big brother! It was a pretty easy drive up. Dad met us in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel. He and mom had a room on the 20th floor, and Wayne got a room on the 19th floor. For some reason, they gave me a room on the top-level club floor - 25! I had fun teasing them that the Marriott group must like me the best since they gave me card-key only access to a floor. Of course, the cool club-level amenities are only available during the work week, but it's still fun to say I had a room there!

We had a little bit of time to relax before we rode over to the rehearsal dinner with Mom, Dad and Granny. It was great to see Granny too; it's been way too long. When we arrived, we found a very excited Deanna and met her fiance, Matt. He seems like such a nice guy, and we're very happy to have him join our family. Of course, it was wonderful to see Johnny Wayne, Nancy and Jason too. I feel like we don't get to see our Tennessee family nearly enough; life gets so busy. The dinner at Valentino's was delicious; thank you to Matt's family for hosting such a nice dinner. We had appetizers that included shrimp, calamari, mushrooms and scallops. I had grilled salmon for my entree while Wayne had beef medallions; both came with mashed potatoes and asparagus. They had several other options to choose from, but we were both pleased with our choices. For dessert, we enjoyed strawberry cheesecake, but others had tiramisu or chocolate tort. It was all delicious! We sat with two of Deanna's bridesmaids and one of the girls' boyfriend. It was nice to get to know them a little better. Of course, after dinner several toasts were made to the bride, groom and their families. Overall, a lovely evening.

Once we got back to the hotel, I changed into my pajamas, read a magazine for a few minutes, then took two Tylenol PM tablets and promptly fell asleep about 1 AM. I didn't wake up until 10:45...wow, that was nice. I took a quick shower and then of course had to order some room service. You all know it's my favorite meal no matter what the entree is! However, the Renaissance's club sandwich and sweet potato fries were very good. After eating lunch, I drove over to a friend's house. Becky (Cheek) Richardson and I were sorority sisters, and she lives about 15 minutes from the hotel in Nashville. Her husband was out golfing that afternoon, and I got there right after her little boy went down for his nap. We had about 2 hours to just talk and catch up with no interruptions. It was great to see her again! It made us decide we want to try to get some of our other college friends together soon for a little reunion; we're thinking Chattanooga in January will be an easy, family-friendly spot.

I got back to the hotel at 3:45, changed clothes and met Wayne's family at 4:15 to walk over to the church; it was only about 2 blocks from the hotel. McKayla and Molly looked adorable in their dresses, and they were so excited to get to come to the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful. It was fun to see how excited Deanna and Matt were. You can definitely see they have a very special relationship, and we cannot wait to see what their future holds. Deanna looked gorgeous in her dress by the way. She's already a beautiful young woman, but she was gorgeous all dolled up! Fun little tidbit about it: the dress had pockets! I've never seen that on a wedding gown before, and you didn't notice them at all, but sure enough, there were little pockets where she was smart enough to stash a few Kleenex. The ceremony was led by their pastor, and I really liked how he made many personal references throughout the ceremony; he talked to them and not everyone in the audience.

After the wedding and a few pictures, we all headed back to the hotel for the reception. What a great choice for a reception. There was plenty of room inside the ballroom to mingle, dance and eat, or you could step just outside the ballroom if you wanted it a little quieter. They had so much good food to choose from too: a pasta bar (LOVE these!), carving stations for ham and turkey, veggies, fruits...it was all so good! Of course, my favorite part of any reception is the wedding cake and they didn't let me down...yum! McKayla and Molly had a blast dancing pretty much the whole time. I'm not much of a dancer myself, but I love to people-watch; dance floors are a great spot to people-watch so I had a blast. Of course, we received regular UT updates (yea to the Vols for winning!) which only picked up the mood even more. It was also so much fun to watch Deanna and Matt as they had such a great time together and with their friends. During their first dance (it was a nice slow song, but I don't know the name of it), the music suddenly stopped and Michael Jackson's "Beat It" started playing. They started doing his dance from that video...perfectly in sync I might add...which cracked us all up. That played for a couple of minutes and then it went back to their "regular" first dance song. How cute are they?! When it was time for the party to end, they left through a walkway of bubbles and went up the escalator. It was such a wonderful evening. Thank you so much to Johnny Wayne and Nancy for putting together this fantastic and beautiful day. I can't wait to see the pictures!

I love weddings, so I can never go right to sleep after one. I watched a little tv, read some magazines and finally drifted off about 1:30. I woke up about 9:30 and laid around in bed until 10. I talked to Mom and Granny a little before leaving and then hit the road about 11:30. I made it safely home exactly 4 hours later which was a nice drive. I played with the girls and just had a nice evening. It was a good way to come home. It was nice to have a break for a couple of days, but I always love coming home to my wonderful husband and girls.

What a Week!

Wow, last week was a little crazy for us. It had some definite ups and downs. Here's the rundown:

Friday a week ago: Ryan had to take our external hard drive to the Geek Squad super center. Over a month ago, our external hard drive (which houses all of our digital pictures, work back-ups, etc.) crashed while we were in the process of doing an on-line back-up; great timing, right? We have had two super-smart computer friends look at it and even taken it to one of the regular Geek Squads at a Best Buy. None of them had luck recovering the files. To say Ryan and I are absolutely sick about this is a huge understatement. So, last Friday, Ryan took the hard drive to the regional Geek Squad where speciality problems are sent; luckily it's only about 30 minutes away from us. We're waiting to hear a diagnose but they said it could cost up to $1,600 to fix...yep, $1,600. We can't pay that so all we can do is hope it's one of the cheaper fixes.

Saturday a week ago: Ryan went to Birmingham for the weekend. His friend, Kyle, was having a surprise 30th birthday party, and we didn't want Ryan to miss it. He had a great time catching up with several old friends who were there and going to a couple of local haunts that we enjoyed in college. Here in Smyrna, I started potty-training Lily which I wrote about in previous posts. It rained all day. Not a bad day, but not great.

Sunday a week ago: The rain kept on coming. If you followed the news last week, you know about all the flooding we had here. Thankfully, Ryan was able to make it home safely. The upside to all this rain was our friend, Allison, was flying back to Richmond, VA after a weekend in Nashville, TN. Of course, all flights go through Atlanta, but unfortunately for her, her connecting flight to VA was cancelled once she landed in Atlanta. We were delighted to have her come spend the night with us until her flight on Monday afternoon. Even though it stunk for her to be delayed another day getting home, we'll take any chance to catch up with her!

Monday: The rain just kept right on coming. We were able to get to work and back that day, but my receptionist couldn't make it; her streets were blocked, trees were down, power out...it was getting bad. While at work, one of my associates' computers crashed, so we had to start working on getting that fixed. Not a great way to start out the week.

Tuesday: I was in training all day downtown at the IRS Tax Forum. It's great training, and I'm glad I got to go, but this was bad timing. Of course, with all the flooding, my receptionist couldn't get in to the office again, and Ryan was home with the girls. My part-time associate (the ones whose computer crashed the day before) came in for her few hours, but she had to work on a different computer. I picked Ryan and the girls up after my training and we went out to dinner. When we got home, we realized my laptop had crashed. Wouldn't turn on at all. I was about to cry. I hadn't backed up anything since the external hard drive (that was sitting at Geek Squad) crashed over a month ago. Ryan started the process of calling Dell since the computer is still under warranty.

Wednesday: I was downtown all day again for more training; the upside of the day though was having lunch with a former KPMG colleague, Angie. It was great to catch up with her and remind myself again how grateful I am that I left KPMG. Ryan had a Dell-recommended guy come up to the office to work on my computer; it didn't seem to work. He got back on the phone with Dell when he got home and after several hours of working with them, he was able to recover a lot my hard drive's data. That night, I gave Mia her bottle and then just rocked her for a little bit; she actually fell asleep in my arms, and I just refused to put her down. She is growing up so quickly, and I just wanted to hold my baby a little more. After that I took a shower with Lily, and we just had fun playing together with her bath toys. I was reminded even with all the craziness of everything that week going on, I am so blessed. I have the best husband in the world and the two most precious children.

Thursday: Last day at IRS training...woo-who! We finished at 2:30, so I stopped by my nail salon and got a pedicure; that's a great way to perk myself up. Ryan spent the whole day with the girls and reinstalling my computer programs and trying to get everything back up and working. The main problem is with Outlook. My work email currently runs through Yahoo, and we couldn't get it to log in correctly. One funny little story: Lily has been potty-training all this time (and doing alright with it). She started putting her baby doll named Kaylee on the potty too. The first she did that, she exclaimed "I'm so proud of you Kaylee!" I guess she's heard that a few times recently! Oh, and Ryan had to take Mia for her follow-up flu shot. She hated it and Lily started crying when she saw Mia crying at the shot.

Friday: Ryan was with the girls all day again. I had to work in the morning, but then Wayne and I headed up to Nashville for the weekend because our younger cousin, Deanna, was getting married. I'll make a separate post about the great time we had there. At home though, Mia had developed a serious diaper rash, she wasn't eating as well and was pretty fussy which is unusual for her. Not a great way to start the weekend.

Saturday: Ryan said Mia's diaper rash was gone, but it is now on her legs and feet; we're not sure what's going on. She has been sucking on her thumb so hard, it made a blister and then the blister has popped, so her thumb is bleeding and hurting anytime she tries to suck on it.

Sunday: I made it safely home from Nashville. Mia's rash looks terrible. Lily was thrilled because Bama gave her a little t-ball stand and bat; she loves it! She can actually hit the ball pretty well too which surprised me. She loves running to get the ball after Ryan or I hit it which is a great energy-burner.

Today: I am waiting on the nurse at the pediatrician's office to call me back about Mia's rash. I don't know if it's something we can treat at home, or if she needs to be examined. I feel so badly for the little one. Mia is supposed to be napping right now, but she's having a hard time settling into her nap. She was up for over an hour last night; nothing I did seem to soothe her which made me feel terrible too. I know she's tired, and I'm just hoping she can rest some today.

So, that's been our week. Downsides: Mia's not feeling great and has a bad rash right now. Lily is still working on potty-training, and I am frustrated that she seems perfectly content to poop in her panties. My laptop is still not restored to its normal state, and I haven't received work emails in almost a week. Our external hard drive is still at Geek Squad as we await their diagnosis. Upsides: Ryan had time with good friends. I went to a beautiful wedding and saw my Tennessee family. We had a great friend spend the night. Each day our girls do something to remind us how precious they are and how blessed we are. Here's hoping we see more of that this week!

Two Notes

It made me a little sad today when I heard Lily say she had the hiccups. She has always said "hippups." Just a small, adorable part of her toddler self growing up!

Ryan, Lily and I sat down to eat dinner tonight while Mia played in the den. She quickly realized we were all in the other room, so she came in and started getting fussy, so we put her in her seat and put some Cheerios on her tray; she likes to be near us. She kept fussing so we assumed it was because she is still not very good at picking up food and putting it in her mouth, so Ryan gave her a few; that didn't make her happy either. We were really a little baffled because usually Cheerios or Puffs makes her pretty happy. Finally I was holding her and realized she was just staring at my bowl of spaghetti. I cut a little piece of the noodle and gave it to her; she immediately stopped crying. I kept giving her little bites of the noodles and some of the tomato meat sauce, and she really seemed to enjoy it. She would finish a bite, look up at me with those big blue eyes and open her mouth up for more; you just can't say no to that! We are also working on sign language with her, and a couple of times she attempted the sign for "more" which is great. I remember it was about 10 months when Lily really started wanting table food, and at the 11 month mark she started to shun baby food altogether. Since Mia hit 10 months on Friday (can you believe that?!), I guess maybe she is following a similar path.

I just can't tell you how much I love my girls. They keep me on my toes, but I couldn't ask for two better kids!

Potty Training, Part 2

So the potty-training continued today. I gave Lily some apple juice this morning thinking it would encourage her to need to use the potty. Well, it would have saved us some time if I had just poured it on the chair for her instead of letting her drink it. She was sitting in Daddy's kitchen table seat (as a special treat since he was in Birmingham) waiting on me to toast the bagels when I gave her the juice. It couldn't have been two minutes later that she said "I spilled and need to change my panties." I was a little confused and said "Did you spill your juice or did you have a little accident there?" so she replied "I had an accident." Please understand that cleaning up accidents is the second biggest part of potty-training I want to avoid (the first is the fact that when the child has to go, she has to go NOW regardless of what you're in the middle of doing). I didn't want her to feel badly though so we went to the potty where she tee-teed a little more and put on new panties. I thought "okay, I'll ask her in about 15 minutes if she needs to go again since she's still drinking juice." Wrong thought. About 5 minutes later she was playing in the den when I heard "I spilled again." All I could think was "Are you kidding me?!" Of course, we simply went back to the potty, changed panties again and cleaned up the little puddle. Oh, and I took the juice away.

So, two accidents in about the first hour of wearing panties. Awesome. Then we went to our bedroom to separate out laundry. Lily was trying on my shoes in my closet while I got the laundry ready. I realized it had gotten very quiet, so I peeked in and she was huddled in the corner with her fists clenched. I asked if she wanted to use my potty; she said no. I said "Let's go to your potty in your bathroom then" and she agreed. She stepped up on her step stool and then started to freak out. "I want to change into a diaper! I don't want to sit on the potty! I want a diaper!" I asked "Do you want a diaper so you can go poopy?" and she said "Yes! I no go in the potty!" I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to force her to sit on the potty when she appeared terrified, so I changed her into her diaper, and I could see immediate relief on her face. I took the diaper off and put its contents into the potty. Lily flushed it away. I told her she could poop in the potty in the future, but she didn't look convinced. I also told her how proud I was that she realized she needed to poop. I figure that's an important step. So, any suggestions from experienced potty-training parents on how to convince her to poop in the potty?

Let me also say that I never thought I would share my kids bathroom habits with other people. Crazy, but this is the big stuff in our life right now.

Anyway, after we took the diaper off we put panties back on, and she did well the rest of the day. We went several more times before nap time, and then put a diaper on for her nap. Ryan came home during nap time, and I couldn't wait for Lily to show Daddy her new skills. Lily however apparently could wait. She refused to use the potty in front of him. We finally convinced her to try using the potty for him by telling her Daddy thought the special soap was blue and she needed to prove to him it wasn't. He took her in there three different times during the evening; she would sit on the potty but never go. I took her a couple of times and she did everything just fine. I don't know why there's the fear of going in front of him, but that's going to have to change.

So, two days down and they're going alright. I'm done with giving juice in the morning. Juice is usually a special treat for her anyway (she loves milk and water so that's what we stick with), so there's no need to get her in a juice habit and apparently, it goes right through her leaving no nutrients behind! Now the interesting thing will be school tomorrow. I am including an extra outfit, panties and diaper for her and have written a note to the teacher telling her to use whatever is needed to get through the morning. We'll see how it goes, but here's hoping for a good, dry day!

Potty Training, Day 1

Lily started the fun that is potty training today. Ryan and I have felt for about a year now (that's right, I said a year) that she was capable of being potty trained. However, there has been one excuse after another not to do it...Mia was being born, tax season was starting, my shoulder surgery, vacation, etc. Add to that the fact that Lily would say "no" if you ever asked if she wanted to use the potty, and you get an almost three year old in diapers. Of course, potty training is also the one issue that has always made me nervous about having kids; not being pregnant, not giving birth, not sleep-deprivation, but potty training. Patience is not my best virtue. All that to say, we haven't been too excited about it and haven't pushed it all, but really, I know Lily's ready and I'm sick of changing her diapers. So, I came up with a plan...

Yesterday I had a coupon to buy Kandoo soap at Target. It's overpriced soap that makes purple bubbles so the child can see that they are getting soap all over their hands. Well, Lily loves to wash her hands (which is a good habit of course, but she only likes it because it lets her play in water), and she loves pretty much all things purple. So I bought a bottle of it. I brought it home and let her wash her hands with it a couple of times; she loved it. Then I told her it was special soap that she could use again after she uses the potty. She pondered this and went to bed for the night.

This morning, Ryan left for Birmingham leaving me with the girls. Mia was down for her morning nap, and Lily said she needed a new diaper. I asked her if she wanted to put on big girl panties so she could learn how to use the big girl potty like me; she said no. I then added "and you can use your new special soap to wash your hands." She stopped in her tracks, put a huge grin on her face and said "OK!" So I put her in Dora panties she had picked out (she doesn't watch Dora on TV but she has a fascination with her right now) and a few minutes later, she said she wanted to sit on the potty. Nothing happened. She said said she wanted to wash her hands. I told her she could once she tee-teed in the potty, but I was proud of her for trying. A few minutes later she said she needed to use the potty, so we went back in. This time, she actually used it!!! I was thrilled! I started clapping and saying "Yea Lily!" She had such a big grin on her face; you could see she was so proud of herself. I showed her how to wipe, she pulled up her panties and said "I wash my hands now, ok?" I let her go to town with the soap; she washed up to her elbows twice. We went and danced and then called Daddy who was of course, super excited for her too. Awesome!

This was about 10:45. Between then and nap time at 2, she would sit on the potty about every 15 minutes (on her own requests) and almost every time, she would use the potty a little bit, wipe, flush and wash her hands. She wanted to dance, clap and yell "Yea Lily" after each time. She loved it when Mia would clap for her too. She had one minor accident when she didn't make it to the potty in time, but we just cleaned up and put on new panties. She wore a diaper at nap time but then we put her panties on again after her nap. This time she waited about 30 minutes between each trip, but she didn't have as much to drink in the afternoon. In fact, I gave her apple juice this morning to encourage the need to use the potty.

My mom came over to stay at the house today while the girls napped so I could run to the store. Taking two kids when it is pouring rain is not fun, so I really appreciated this. I bought Lily a princess balloon and some colorful cupcakes to celebrate the big day. That made her really excited too; she loves surprises like this.

I will say that she never had to poop today. I'm hoping that doesn't happen in the middle of the night, but I'm not sure how she'll feel about pooping in the potty. Hopefully it won't be a big deal, but we'll see. Overall, I think this has been a good first day of potty training! We'll see how tomorrow goes!

One more side note...remember how I said Lily loves washing her hands and she loves all things purple? She literally used up three quarters of the new bottle of soap today. I'm on the lookout for more coupons!

Soon Enough

I'm a little surprised at Mia these days. She still can't pick up food (i.e. Cheerios or Puffs) from her tray and put it in her mouth. I say "she can't" but I'm not convinced that it's not "she won't." There's a part of me that thinks she just likes having us do the work for her. She can pick up the pieces, hand them to me or transfer them between hands, but she won't put them in her mouth. Unfortunately, she gets really frustrated because she loves both of these things and we can't seem to give them to her fast enough while we're eating dinner. She gets mad at me after she has picked one up, and I try to move her hand to her mouth. She really doesn't put much in her mouth right now which is nice because there's no telling what she could pick up while crawling around. I know that soon enough, she'll put anything and everything in her mouth, and I'll probably regret even writing this, but I wish she would figure this out already. It will make dinner time a little easier!

She is starting to take more and more steps each day, and each one seems to get a little sturdier. I know (again) that soon enough she will be running all over the place! She amazes me!

Mia!

Mia news flash...

She took her first steps today!!! After our trip to the zoo, Ryan, Lily and I were eating a late lunch, and Mia was crawling around our legs. I watched her stand up and start eyeing the fireplace which was a few steps away, so I nudged Ryan to watch. Sure enough, she balanced and then took three timid little steps to the fireplace. As soon as she put her hands down on it, Ryan and I erupted into applause and saying "Yea Mia!" She looked a little surprised but then really excited. When we stop the applause, she would wave her hand and smile really big so we would applaud some more. It was adorable. When we finished lunch, we brought her into the den where she practiced walking a few more times before her nap. Watch out world, here she comes!!!

Here's a recent picture of her on Lily's Mickey Mouse airplane that I thought was really cute. Mia is such a precious little angel. Her smile lights up my world. I could watch her flash her smile and wave her tiny hands all day. I love walking into her room to get her after a nap, and she is standing up, smiling and laughing when she sees me. I love how curious she is about how everything works. I love putting her to bed at night because she just relaxes up against me as I give her a bottle and read a book to her. I am overcome with love and thankfulness every single day because I have her and Lily as my daughters. I am so blessed.

Labor Day Zoo Trip

Since today was Labor Day, I closed my office, and we decided we wanted to do something fun. We invited our friends, the Henderson's, to join us on a trip to the zoo. Zoo Atlanta is a pretty good zoo which has some great animals. Not surprisingly, it was pretty crowded today, but the weather was lovely. We always have a great time with Brian and Jill, Lily and Parker are precious together, and Mia and Macey are fun to watch since they are so close in age. We just continued Ryan's birthday celebration with time with more friends!

Lily was very excited about seeing the giraffes because her shirt had a giraffe on it; she told me later that was her favorite animal to see. Parker's favorite was the lion which was pretty cool because he was growling when we saw it; did you know they actually make that loud growl when they are yawning? Fun fact for you if you didn't know that. For the first time, Lily actually petted the animals in the petting zoo today; she has always been too nervous to touch the animals before though she likes seeing them. Today though she pulled me right in and wanted to touch every single one of the goats, pigs and sheep. I was thrilled! She and I also road the train together; she was not so excited about going into the tunnels. Mia did well most of the time, but finally she fell asleep in the stroller; I think she enjoyed her first trip to the zoo though. Before we left, we decided to buy a family pass. Once Lily turns 3 in a few weeks, we will have to start paying for her admission; if we go one more time in the next year, the pass more than pays for itself so we thought it made sense.

Here are a few of the people pictures; I am not including the animal pictures because I assume you know what zoo animals look like. Also, they uploaded in backwards order, and it would take a really long time to rearrange them; it's already late, so you can just see our trip backwards.

Mia held out for awhile, but eventually, she couldn't fight a nap any longer.

Before the train ride.
Petting a little goat while he ate.

We both wanted to pet the sleeping pigs.

Lily and Parker as kangaroos.

Lily as a panda bear. We have taken this picture every time we have taken her to the zoo. It's amazing to see how she has grown and changed!

Lily and Ryan watching the pandas. Ford was the corporate sponsor of the panda exhibit, but they have said they cannot continue that support this year. Zoo Atlanta is trying to raise $500K by the end of the year to keep the pandas here; if they can't, the pandas will return to China. Here's hoping they stay because it's really cool to see them.

Mia liked watching the pandas too.

For some reason, Lily wanted her picture on this rock outside the panda habitat. Go figure.

Macey and Mia rode next to each other for a little while. Aren't they cute?

With my girls.

Holding Lily up to see the elephants.

Ryan's Birthday!

This past Saturday was Ryan's 31st birthday. Happy birthday!!! We started the birthday celebration on Friday. Liz was already here with us, but the rest of the Birmingham family drove over on Friday afternoon. It has been awhile since we had seen Kendall, Josh and Amy (Josh's girlfriend), so it was wonderful to have them. Lily was very excited to have them here, and Mia warmed up fairly quickly; she is definitely into the "stranger anxiety" part of life right now.

While they kept the girls Friday night, Ryan and I went to dinner at The Georgian Club. We recently became members here and were looking forward to our first official function. The experience definitely set the bar high! We were greeted and immediately taken to one of the smaller, more intimate dining rooms. There was a piano player in there playing beautiful music, and we had the room to ourselves until a group of 8 came in about 30 minutes into our meal. When we opened our menus, the middle section said "We would like to wish you a happy 31st birthday" which I thought was cool. They started our meal out with a shrimp on cucumber appetizer, and then brought out the appetizers we ordered. I had the lobster bisque which was fantastic; the best I have ever had. Ryan had three fried goat cheese croquettes with a blueberry compote...seriously, can you think of anything Ryan would like better? Of course, they brought out delicious breads, and we both enjoyed our glasses of wine with this too. Then they gave us the lemon sorbet to cleanse our palates. Our entrees came next. I had a wonderful chicken parmigiana over stuffed cheese shells while Ryan had a NY strip sirloin with potatoes and vegetables. It was wonderful, but the portions were huge; neither of us ate more than half our entree. We were so stuffed that we passed on dessert, but they brought out their signature dessert (on the house, just like Ryan's steak since it was his birthday) which is a praline basket with ice cream and berries - yum! The plate had "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate around it which was cute. It was a wonderful dinner, and we are looking forward to returning soon. After dinner, we went to my parents house and watched the movie Gran Torino that we have had from Netflix for a couple of months now; it was interesting but not exactly what we were expecting.

On Saturday, Ryan's birthday, he actually started the day at a funeral. The older brother of a friend of ours unexpectedly passed away on Thursday. Ryan wanted to go to the funeral to support our friend as he grieves this loss. Ryan said this was one of the most difficult funerals he has attended because the young man (he was 32) had two young girls; our prayers are certainly with his family as they mourn his passing. I stayed with the girls because we thought his family was going to go downtown for ESPN's Game Day which was in town for the Alabama game that evening; I actually took the girls to visit Meme for over an hour which was nice. When he got home from the funeral, he changed clothes and immediately went to see our former nanny, Kim, who is also a massage therapist. Unfortunately he wasn't going for a massage. He has been having a lot of problems with his ears and fluid backing up in them; it was making it where he could not hear in his left ear. Kim does this process called candling which is basically burning a candle in your ear, but it takes the fluid out; I don't fully understand how it works but the important thing is, it does work. Ryan felt so much better after seeing her.

When he got home from Kim's, his family had all gone downtown. We put the girls down for the naps, and he started to relax to college football. Yea! I cleaned up a little before our friends, the Casey's, came over. Kim and Slade brought some yummy chocolate chip cookies, and we had a great time hanging out with them and their two older kids, Alex and Jack, while Avery (16 months) had a blast with our toys; their newborn, Savannah, was quite content too. Lily woke up from her nap and took a little while to warm up, but then did great with them. They stayed until just after 5 which is when we packed the girls up and went to meet our friends, the Lundquists, at Taco Mac. We always have a great time with Charlie, Lisa and Charlotte. It was a lot of fun to watch the end of the Georgia game on the big screens there. As we were leaving, Lisa gave Ryan a pan of what we loving call "crack brownies." These are Ghiridelli dark chocolate brownies with homemade vanilla icing spread thick on top and the crushed Oreos sprinkled across that...oh my goodness, you just don't know how good these are until you try them.

We got home right as the Birmingham family got home too, so then we sang happy birthday and had birthday cake. I had picked up the cake from Publix the day before. I was holding both of the girls when Lily wanted to see it. As I was holding her near it, she decided to pick it up and tilt it towards her to see it better. Of course, the cake fell forward, thankfully into the container; I couldn't do anything to stop her because Mia was in my other arm. I was just about to freak out (I wanted Ryan to have a perfect cake) and Lily started to look upset that she had upset me when Liz said "Oh look, the cake's fine, you decorated the window!" That quickly reminded me this was just a minor little accident that didn't make a difference so I started laughing. Lily quickly started laughing too and became excited that she had decorated the window. She reminded me of this when we started to sing to Ryan; the cake was delicious by the way. Lily loved the cake. Keep in mind, she rarely eats or drinks sugary things, so a very small piece of cake went a long way with her. Then our friends, Doug and Julia, came over to watch the Alabama game with us. We all agreed we have never seen Lily so hyper. She was literally running in circles, singing, spinning and laughing. It was pretty funny to see. Finally, about 9:15, I told her it was time for bed (we usually put her to bed about 8:30/8:45). She crashed into bed and we didn't hear a peep from her again.

Sunday morning we enjoyed hanging out with Ryan's family here at the house. After Mia's morning nap, we all went to Mellow Mushroom for lunch which was lots of fun. For some reason, Lily started thinking about Halloween while we were there. She thought of a costume for each person. She went around the table and would say "What should (fill in name here) be for Halloween?" She would have a really thoughtful look on her face, and put her finger against her cheek; it made me think of the "The Thinker" and it was adorable. She decided Ryan should be a snake, Mia and I should both be penguins, Josh should be an angel, Kendall should be a moose, Amy should be a duck and Bama should be a dolphin. We came back home after lunch, put the girls to bed and told everyone goodbye. You can see some of the pictures with the family below.

The four of us after dinner with the Lundquists.

Ryan's birthday cake; you can see a little of the "decorated window" on the left.

After the girls woke up from their naps, we met our friends, the Bernats, at Jim and Nicks for dinner. Jeff, Kristin and Britton are lots of fun to hang out with, and we were glad they came back over to our house after dinner to catch up a little more and share some dessert. We are very lucky to have so many great friends. It was wonderful to spend so much of Ryan's birthday weekend with them!

After the Bernats left, Lily wanted to lay down with Ryan on the couch for a few minutes before getting ready for bed. You can see in the picture below that they both love this. Really, could Ryan have received any better gift?

Lily Stories

A few little stories from Lily...

1. I had my hair cut last week (just a little trim). When I walked in the door, Lily came running up to me and said "Mommy. I see your hair cut. I like it." Ryan promises me he did not prompt her to say this.

2. Last night after we read her Bible story and said her prayer, I told Lily how proud I was of her for playing so well (i.e., sharing toys and talking nicely) with her friend Britton that evening, how much I loved her and what a sweet girl she is. She just smiled at me, put her hands around my neck and gave me a kiss. What a sweetheart. Another evening last week, we finished our prayers, and Lily just leaned down, kissed my head (I sit on the floor next to her chair) and said "I love you Mommy." She melts my heart.

3. Ryan's brother, Josh, was in town visiting this weekend; he has recently joined the fire department in Fort Payne, AL, and we are very proud of how well he is doing with them. One of Lily's Little People books has a picture of a fire truck with a fireman helping to get a cat from a tree. Every time we look at that picture, I remind Lily that Josh is a fireman. We were looking at that book this weekend, and I pointed to the picture and asked "what's that?" She replied "A fire truck. OH! Uncle Josh!" then she went running over to where he was sitting. She said "Uncle Josh, you a fireman?" and he replied yes to which Lily replied "Oh, ok." I was really proud of her for putting that connection together though.

4. Grandma Jan bought the girls some gifts that we brought back from Chicago last week. There were several adorable Carter's Halloween outfits in there (Lily's shirt says "Too Cute To Spook" which is absolutely correct!), but also two cute toys. One is a little pink bunny finger puppet that I think was intended for Mia, but Lily has commandeered it and insists it sleeps in bed with her. She also gave Lily a Melissa & Doug magnetic dress-up princess. Lily LOVES this. She has played with it for hours since opening it. It's a cute little princess that has 6 different outfits that go over her petticoat: tops, skirts, gloves, hats and tiaras (though Lily calls them tee-taras which cracks me up). One of the outfits Lily designated as her pajamas because it's a one-piece dress. Each day before nap time and bed time, we've told Lily it's time for bed, and she needs to put the princess to bed. She takes her current outfit off, gives her a shower (one area of the storage box has been designated a shower area) and then dresses her in the green outfit. Then, she gives her a hug, says "I love you Princess Elise" and puts her down in the designated area of the storage box; then she goes to bed. This was a great present!

Football Season!

Saturday was a special day. Not only was it Ryan's 31st birthday, but it kicked off college football season: Ryan's favorite time of year! Of course, Florida and Tennessee had no problems with their opening day games which was nice for us, but it was also a lot of fun to watch a good Alabama game that evening. The girls are ready for football too. Check out their pictures in the adorable matching Gator dresses that Grandpa Hooks and Lois sent them!

Yea for football season's arrival!!!