Dad, Look What I Can Do!

Tonight Mike was putting things up in the attic and being our big helper she wanted to go up and use the ladder just like Daddy, but it more difficult that it looked. So...she decided that she would put his shoes on, show him and then try to head for the back door as if she was going to help him put the ladder away. If only she could put her own shoes on like this!

Daddy Daughter Morning

Daddy and Lily spent the morning together today so I could go and enjoy lunch with Trish and Steph. It was nice to get out and be with friends to catch up and it was definitely wonderful that Daddy and Lily got to spend some time together at home. Their usual together time is rushing out of the house for gym, so it was nice for them to be able to play tea party, color, play in her kitchen and read some books.

Word Count

Lily's vocabulary continues to grow daily.

She is now saying things without prompting and can say a lot more than she does on a regular basis, we just have to say, "Lily, Can you say?" or "Lily, use your words" and she does.

Here is a list that we have on our kitchen counter so that every time she says something I can write it down. (I need a list! There is so much going on that if I don't have a list, YIKES!)

Yes AND No (started with just answering questions but now has been seeping into other activities through the day)

Dada has turned into Daddy but not regularly..just when she wants something :)

May (for Maci)

Hot and Cold

Ju (juice)

Hoe (Home)

Car

Jet (should have been her first word since we have plenty of them flying over our house on a daily basis)

Key

Tie (and then usually says Dada afterwards, since he wears a tie to work)

Cheese

Cat, Dog, Pig, Du (duck), Cow, Bd (Bird)

Apple (loves this word and points to everything that is an apple)

Cha (Chase), Lie (Lorelei) and Key (Kira)

bow

One, Two (says one automatically but then two needs to be somewhat prompted but she can at least say it)

Bath, Bathtime

Bubbles (LOVES bubbles!)

Elmo, Abby, Ernie (and you can tell these are the names that she is saying!)

Baby

Emma

Do (Dora)

Why (in reference to a new show Super Why)

We are very proud of you Miss Lily!

Oh, and on a special note we had a playdate today with Steph and Zoe! We had a lot of fun catching up, so much so that I forgot to take one picture!!

Can't wait until Baby Maddie comes and Steph, you need to start a blog!!!!!

Movie Day

Today our friend Melissa hosted a movie/blanket party for the Mom's Group. Like usual it was only the three of us with our four kids for most of the time. We watched Space Buddies, well Chase did anyway. We had fun catching up and the kids had fun semi-watching the movie and playing.

It was a lot of fun and even had pizza delivered for lunch! Yummy!

Thanks M!!

On a sidenote: Mike left this morning for an overnight trip to Baltimore to have a meeting with his contractors. He'll be back sometime tomorrow, hopefully before naptime (crossing my fingers). Miss you Daddy!!!

Washing Hands

Lily loves washing her hands. She has gotten very proficient at washing between her fingers and rubbing her hands together for a significant amount of time...without playing in the water!

We are now working on drying our hands in the bathroom without taking the hand towel around the house and leaving it somewhere. We go through plenty of hand towels during the course of a day/week :). Yea for laundry!!

Had to add these pictures of Lily after bath! She got her pj's on and then insisted on putting on the Little Mermaid dress. Thankfully it wasn't a big deal to take it off when it was time for bed.

Wonder which Princess she'll want to be next?!?

Dress-up Morning

So, we had plans to go out today.

But, Lily had different plans for us.

When I asked her to pick out a shirt to wear today, you know trying to utilize the closet we did, this is what she chose.

She turned to me and said,"White".

How could I say no to that??

Stage 1: Snow White dress over pjs with princess heels on.

Stage 2: Snow White dress with only pj top and snow boots on. (no pic)

Stage 3: No dress, only pj top and snow boots on (with pull-up of course)

Stage 4: Pj top, snow boots and pink frilly tutu (no pic)

With all of Lily's wardrobe changes we found time to play puzzles, princess dolls, follow the leader, Super Heroes (thanks Daddy for this one!), color a bit and of course have snacks and eat lunch.

What a Difference

a year makes!

Feb 09

One of my all-time most favorite pictures of Lily!

Learning to walk with her shopping cart!

Feb 10

Getting ready to go to gym with Daddy.

Oh the legs! Oh the legs!

Daddy said, "We're going to have to keep an eye on this one!"

(Oh, and take notice of her shoes. Yep, they're water shoes. Thanks in part to the shoe shelf I wanted to put in and told her to go pick out a pair of shoes.)

7 Weeks To Go

How do I know there's ONLY 7 weeks til our due date??

Cause I made a paper chain to hang on our linen closet.

It's right next to the bathroom, directly across from the laundry so I see it a lot during the day.

I had to do this so I would remember that she's coming and that there are things to do!

We're getting ready for you Baby Girl Emma!!

Closet Done

Finally, Lily's room is nearing completion.

A huge project that Mike took was to rip out the old closet hardware and put in closetmaid track system. We have all through the house, doing one closet at at time.

I have since put more bins and stuff up on the top shelf but you get the idea from the picture above how it turned out.

Lily loves her big girl closet!

I wanted to have a half bar so that she could begin choosing her own clothes to wear and to help hang them up. I'm going to need all the help I can get once Emma gets here! So loving to be a big helper she has practiced and practiced and practiced taking the hangers off the rod and putting them back on. We also put her hamper and a shoe shelf so that she can eventually become self-sufficient. Hey, learning takes time so we're starting early so that maybe she'll get the hang of it before April :).

Lily's View

So, we admit that Lily gets a hold of our camera but she actually does know how to use it.

It's not that difficult.

Anyway, today while we were prepping to finish her closet she had the camera and turned it to video instead of just taking pictures. This is a set of videos that she took. At the end, you'll hear her say "cheese" because she thinks the timer is on and she needs to get ready for her snapshot. I ended up distracting her with her own camera so I could rush to put it away.

Third and Final Ultrasound

Our Beautiful Emma Grace

Earlier this afternoon we had our third ultrasound to see Emma. Well, not only to see Emma (which was the reason we wanted it of course) but to see if I had what they call Placenta Previa. PP, is a low-lying placenta that can entirely or partially cover the cervix and makes delivery impossible and very dangerous. They saw that I had a low-lying placenta during our 19w ultrasound and today was to see if it had moved upward (which it usually does) or if it was going to cause us to have a scheduled c-section.

Luckily, the placenta is compeltely out of the way and definitely high enough for me to have a regular delivery without complications. We were taking this as it came and were ready for anything. But we are ecstatic that everything has worked out fine. Plus, we got a good luck at our girl!!

Emma is now head down, directly on the cervix. She is in the 70th% which means she is bigger than average at this point weighing in at 4lbs 12oz. and we still have two months to go!! If she stays on this course she will be comparable to Lily who was born 8lbs 7oz. She is absolutely healthy and everything working and measuring as it should. So we are still on track for an April 12 due date or maybe earlier if Emma decides to come say hi. We'll just have to wait and see.

So I tried and tried to get some text on this for everyone to understand what I did but of course it didn't work and my patience is running thin with the software so I'll just describe what the picture is all about.

This is a comparison collage.

The top two images are Lily at 36 weeks

The bottom two images are Emma at 32.5 weeks

The images on the left are profile views

The images on the right are face on views

If you're like Mike and I we can't stop looking at this. And we can't believe how much they look alike! The tech also said Emma has peach fuzz on her head and getting nice full cheeks :). We can't wait until April to see how much these sisters look alike!!

Feeling Better

Today Lily actually got dressed and we went over for a playdate with our friends. (Not without a few minor meltdowns along the way, but we got there) It was wonderful. Not only for her sanity but for mine! She was great too. She was her usual sweet self giving hugs, eating (which has been a rarity the past week, I'll buy you some bagels E!), and playing with all of Lorelei's toys!

At around 1145, she began giving out hugs and saying bye-bye. She then got her shoes on and put the diaper bag over her arm ready to go. When I picked her up, her head hit my shoulder and she yawned. At this point, I knew it was time for her to go even though I wasn't.

We made it home by 1215, watched some of her favorite shows (Elmo, Sid and now Super Why are her favorites) and then headed to naptime around 2 (usual naptime and trying to get her back on somewhat of a normal schedule). She quickly fell asleep and was out for a good 2.5 hours!

When she woke up, it was like I had my Lily back!! All smiles, limited tantrums, hugs and kisses, wanted to play with her toys and was so excited when I opened the door to watch for Daddy's car to come into the driveway.

After dinner, Lily helped unload the dishwasher and caught these two dancing in the kitchen without any music.

And then posing for some pictures. Not sure where she got the second pose but as they say, pictures say a thousand words. These are the first pics that I think her eyes look "normal".

And then of course her self-portraits. Putting the camera in her cubbies and pressing the trigger as if the self-timer was activated. Too funny. And a good sign that Lily is on her way back to being Lily.

Happy Birthday

This evening we celebrated Mike's 31st birthday!

(HaHa, he's now older than me again after being the same age for a week and a half).

As you can see there were lots of candles to blow out (in the shape of the number 31) in his bday brownies and Lily got to help! So cute! We get to go shopping this weekend for our birthday gifts, together :). Should be fun!

Hope you have a wonderful, fun-filled, non-stress filled 31st year! With 3 girls in the house to take care of, I wish you a lot of luck! Love you lots!

Where's Our Lily?

Today Lily woke up regular time and had a tantrum before she even got out of her crib! By the time I calmed her down not more than two minutes later she had another meltdown. This is not our Lily. She has her moments of being a toddler but not all day long. Where's our Lily??

When I got close enough to her to calm her down and talk to her I realized that she had a rash on the left side of her forehead. I looked and sure enough she had it all over her chest, tummy and back. Knowing enough from teaching, scarlet fever is a symptom of strep throat and so I immediately called for a dr appt.

After a ROUGH morning we made our way to the dr. She fell asleep on the way there and then definitely woke up by the time we were called back. She screamed bloody murder getting weighed, while I talked to the nurse, during her temp reading and had just calmed down by the time the dr came in to see her. As I was describing Lily's symptoms from the weekend and today's behavior Lily tried to scoot her way off the exam table as if to run away. Ha Ha.

No ear infection but a RED throat and really swollen tonsils. Since a rash broke out and the fever is gone Lily is no longer contagious with some sort of virus, which is still unknown! Strep test came back negative so no meds. Just motrin and rest.

The best news of the day: Lily is acting like a terror cause she doesn't feel well not because this is the terrible two's! Thank the Lord!

We should have our Lily back by the weekend. Cross your fingers.

Already?!?

32 weeks and counting...

It's funny. I'm 32 weeks pregnant which means in about two months we will be welcoming Emma Grace. I have enjoyed being pregnant and it's gone so fast that I don't really remember much of it.

But, I do know:

*that Emma and I have fun together playing games and chatting

*that she knows Mike's voice and now will show off for him when he talks to her

*that she is very shy but also very much an instigator (kicks and rolls when Lily is cuddling before nap as if trying to wake her up)

*that I've had back lower back pain on and off but hasn't really hindered my day to day life

*that Lily is excited to meet "sissy", knows where "sissy's room" is
*that I have gained much more weight than I wanted to

*that I can still do my walk aerobics

I know all of these things and probably some more if my mind wasn't all jumbled :) but there are some things that I still don't know.

*Will I be able to deliver naturally or need a C-section?? (will find out Friday!)

*Will I be able to breastfeed longer than I did with Lily?

*What will Lily's reaction really be to her new sister?

*Will I be able to handle all of this?!?

*When will I find time to make Emma's room her own?

*When will we get the baby gear out of storage to get it ready?

And the list can go on and on and on...and until now I have not thought about any of those answers. I probably won't think about those answers until I have to, when the moment is upon me. Some may say that I'm unprepared or that I need to have a plan but I say Good. For. Me. I don't need a plan. Things are going to be the way they are supposed to be, and that's that. And I don't have the time or energy for that matter to worry about what "could be".

So for the next 8 weeks or so, I'm going to take it one day at a time.

Probably my mantra for the next year or so :).

Valentine's Day Weekend

was not so much fun here at the Check household.

Lily caught her first "bug".

Guess that means that she caught a nasty cold somewhere and it will be out of her system soon enough. Believe me, not soon enough. Stinky watching your girl not feel well.

Friday: Lily ran a low grade fever all day long and wanted to cuddle and stay home. So we did. Took a bath this evening and just sat with no playing what so ever.

Friday night: woke up a few times burning up and just feeling miserable.

Saturday: lost her appetite, highest temp recorded was 102.6 under her arm, sunken eyes, and all she wanted to do was be on the couch with Rufus.

Saturday night: Horrible night. Woke up every 4 hours when the tylenol wore off, asked for water constantly, and was burning up all night long.

Sunday: Better demeanor but not quite her Lily self yet. Somewhat of an appetite, wanted to play, took a bath and had fun, took a great 3 hour nap but had enough by dinner. No dinner, only wanted to cuddle with mom and fever came back; 101.8/102.3.

Sunday night: No bath, went to bed at 9. Woke up once but no tylenol given. Slept until 8!

Decorating

Lily decorated her door for Valentine's Day. She also decorated some walls in her playroom as well as the pantry doors in the kitchen. Watching her is so much fun. She is so deliberate and smooths the hearts down after she chooses the most perfect spot for them. Too bad they keep falling. But all she does is pick them up and say 'more' while pointing to the lame tape Mama used to hang them in the first place.

Lunch Date

with our friends :)

Party

This morning we went to Miss Elizabeth and Lorelei's house for a Valentine's Day Party. This was a Mom's Club event and we had a lot of fun. Everyone brought food, Elizabeth had her table set up for the kids to make cards and all the toys were out.

When everyone else left and it was just us regulars (Elizabeth and Lorelei and Melissa, Chase and Kira) we had fun chatting and the kids L-O-V-E playing together. Here they are in Miss Lorelei's crib jumping around but took time out to pose for a picture. If you go to their blog you can see a video of the three of them :). So cute.

Tonight we also had a mom's night out! So much fun that we definitely need to do it more frequent before the baby girls arrive this spring!!

Ready Or Not

Yesterday, since Mike had off from work, we went to our church's Day School to sign Lily up for preschool. We talked with the director, took a little tour of the small school, filled out a registration form and handed it over with a check. So it's done, it's coming, Lily will be attending school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Here are some tid bits of our upcoming fall:

*Lily will be one of six children in their two year old class that attends T/R

*School hours are from 9-1230

*Lily will need to have a lunchbox! To pack a mid morning snack and lunch

*Lily will also need a bookbag, large enough for all of her things (i.e. artwork, extra set of clothes, lunchbox and probably Rufus :) )

*The school year begins the week after Labor Day and ends the week before Memorial Day

*We need to sign Lily in and out of school each day

*The outside doors are locked during school hours

*We are to walk her to her classroom and do a "hand-off" to her teacher

*We are NOT allowed to accompany her into the classroom *tear* (but completely understand)

*They have Spanish, Music, Computer, Chapel and Art classes each week

*They play outside on their playground for half an hour each day

*The teacher, Mrs. Simonas is lovely!

*Mrs. Singer, the director, says she would be glad to offer updates through the day on how Lily is doing *smile* wonder how many she's willing to do?!?

*Lily does not need to be potty trained but the teachers are willing to help when she is ready (is it ready or stubbornness, hmmm...I think Lily is on the stubborn end of potty training)

So, ready or not September is coming and so is preschool. I'm sure Lily will be ready if she isn't already but are we??

Sara's Big Three-0

Today was not just your typical Monday, but a very special day in the Check Household ... Sara's 30th birthday. Due to Miss Emma, Sara chose to take a raincheck on a party and we just decided to celebrate as a family. I couldn't let her get by without a little party atmosphere in the house though. (Excuse the sloppiness, but I had to do this in the wee hours of the night for the surprise effect)

The original plan was to go out and eat, but since it was so cold out, we got takeout from Applebee's. Little disappointed with the service (no marinara, only one kiddie burger), but we had a good dinner. And it allowed us more room to enjoy some cake. As you can tell from the pictures, Lily had a great time celebrating Mama's birthday too! Fortunately, because Sara's friends Melissa and Elizabeth also made Sara some homemade treats, we will be well stocked in the sugar dept for the rest of the week.

Just a low key birthday, but I know Lily and Dada had a great time spending it with Sara. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful wife and mom (even a year older now).

Our Little Helper

We finally captured Lily helping us after we go shopping. During the week it's hard to video her since I have to help and guard off Maci from protecting her food in the pantry. But today, I was able to grab the camera and watch the essence of Lily!

Every time we run to the store, during the week or on the weekend, she helps us unload the groceries. Today she even carried bags from the front door to our brown throw mat in the kitchen (where I put the bags every time) and then started taking things out to put them away.

Mike told me that after I stopped videoing that she would stand there and look at the shelves with something in her hand to put away. He would ask her where it went and she'd just point up, like she knew it went up on a higher shelf but was trying to figure out how to get it up there.

Oh, we're so blessed to have such a wonderful little girl. I can only pray and hope this continues when Miss Emma arrives!!

After the groceries were all put away Lily got a hold of our camera. She has learned to actually look through the screen on the back and move the camera to see different things. This is a collage of "Lily Pictures" and some timer ones as well.

Best Pic of the morning

Hmmm...

Thought I could fit?!?

Dance Party

We borrowed Big Bird's Dance Party dvd (from 1992!) from the library last week and it has quickly become Lily's favorite to watch. We've paired it down to only one viewing per day, after dinner and we seem to think it's a great way to get out her last bit of energy before bath and bedtime.

This is the first dance of maybe a dozen different dances on this dvd and she knows EVERY single one! So funny and so cute! We try to get things done while she's watching and dancing but we seem to find ourselves just watching, laughing, clapping and dancing along most of the time. It's very contagious and the songs do get stuck in your head very easily.

Try, Try Again

Such persistence, such determination and sooo proud of herself.

Lily has been practicing jumping for a few weeks now and is getting better and better each time!

Way to Go Lil!

10 months vs. 22 months

So Mike and can't believe that we now have a 22 month old daughter. And in two very blink of an eye short months, she will turn 2! We have caught ourselves remembering last year at this time and how much she has grown in every single way.

Lily now runs instead of having the need to hold onto our fingers for help walking, she eats ALL adult food, she understands much more than we EVER anticipated, has a great sense of humor and can definitely laugh at herself, talks and tries to get us to understand everything she is saying, has a very good memory, loves her family and friends dearly and is the sweetest girl ever!

Lily, please slow down. You're growing up too fast for your Mama and Dada.

Morning Routine

Lily's morning routine remains the same pretty much day to day. Some days she wants to cuddle in the rocking chair while she gains the ability to open her eyes and sometimes she doesn't. Then, we change her diaper and talk about her dreams and how well/poorly she slept. As soon as I put her down off of the changing table this is what she does...

...runs to the kitchen to pick up Maci's food dish to put on the counter. For those of you who know Maci, this is no small feat for her to let Lily do this. Maci is old. She turned 8 this past December and still remembers how it is to be the "princess" of the family. This means that she is pretty territorial about her things, i.e. house, yard, toys, parents and definitely her food dish. So, kudos to Lily helping out every single morning and not making me bend over to get the dish off of the floor but also to Maci for learning to cohabitate with a toddler. Love my Girls!

Cute, Smart, Funny and Sweet

Mike and I discussed all the different things Lily has been doing lately so we could try to capture them in pictures and on video. (And I've even made a list, what don't I make a list for :) ). Luckily, these all happened Monday night!

CUTE:

Helping Dada pick up before dinner, such a good helper!

SMART:

Having fun with the self-timer while I finished up dinner. Lily is so good now, she can activate the timer and put it on the shelf in the correct place to take a picture!

FUNNY:

A few days ago, Mike showed her how to twirl and say this with her pointer fingers out. She did it a few times with him and then we haven't seen it since Saturday. All of a sudden she put her spoon on top of her sippy cup and tried to take a drink. It fell once and then after trying it again, knowing to balance it, the spoon stayed on. And, I guess to show us she started doing the fingers saying Ah Hah. TOO FUNNY!

SWEET:

This was definitely on our list of what to document with Lil. There are times that she just turns to us for a hug or a kiss. And, lately she'll grab our face with both hands to plant one on us. So glad that she no longer gives open mouth kisses!!

So here we have a Cute, Smart, Funny, Sweet Little Girl! We love you Lily!