MIR-March

March is over!

My Favorite March Pictures

I'm not sure I can say I did very much to accomplish my goals but we sure did a lot this month.

Review of our goals:

1. Master Bedroom- not so much but we have a huge pile of clothes to donate!

2. Fridge and Freezer- emptied and reorganized but not cleaned yet

3. Simplify- We have sold a few things on craigslist and have made some room in our shed :)

3. Swingset and Fence- HA! Not with our rainy 40 degree weather we've been having!

Lily Memories:

- She loves school and has no problem hugging me and Emma bye while blowing kisses as we leave her classroom.

-In love with Imagination Movers.

-Has her Lilytude moments but the good moments definitely outnumber the bad

-She still loves to be called Pumpalumpa

-Has started telling me that she needs some Mommy cuddle time :)

-Acts a lot older than she is...

Emma Memories:

-The most received comment about Emma is that she is so pretty

- Got the worst virus ever but was a trooper through the whole thing

- Tries to answer our questions and talks back to us. Says yah, there, mama and lots of dadas!

-Started to twirl!

- Loves to play ball with her sissy

Other things to remember about March:

- Nana's visit

- Lily's short but sweet 3rd birthday party

- Big girl school functions

So Proud

When Lily went to school on Monday she brought her book, Goodnight Moon. She asked her teachers if she could read it to them and of course they were so very excited. When I left her that morning she was hugging her book while playing. :). They got into an art project and didn't have time so it was pushed until today. Today, it was their book of the day and Lily read it to her entire class during carpet time!!! She sat in a chair, read it and even turned the book so that her friends could see the pictures. Mrs. Baksa said that she read it all correctly and everyone cheered and clapped for her when she finished!

Something I've been wanting to post a video of and very difficult to capture is Lily's extensive imagination these days. It's incredible to watch and just makes us love her more and more, something we didn't know was even possible! But, she is taking books and pretending to read them. The past few days she has favored Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse (the book where we got her name from :)). She will sit, look at the pictures and make up a story to go with them. She even pretends she is reading to a class and turns the book to show them the pictures.

During bedtime storytime we have been reading a lot of Clifford books. We have a ton. But they're great. Lily can now identify all the Cliffords in the story and even noticed that Cleo begins the same. She is learning the word dog and can find the word throughout the story as well. She now understands that there are separate words on a page, can count them and understands that the words go with the pictures.

So proud of you Miss Lily.

Video Day

While we are in the car we talk a lot. A lot. And, Lily is really curious and wants to know everything about everything including street names! So, we talk about it. She knows the name of our street, the surrounding streets, can tell you that we are on our way home just by seeing familiar things. We're working on our house number and then it's going to be Mommy's cell phone number.

Lily also can identify, spell, and write her name. We are working on Emma, Mommy and Daddy but she has seemed to remembered how to spell Nana and Pa. When she leaves the room she is running to our fridge where we have pictures of everyone in those hard plastic magnetic frames. I used alphabet stickers to put their names on them so she can see their name as well. It has really helped a lot!

And had to include this video, which is typical Emma. Fast, on the go, ready to get into something and always has something in her mouth! Yes, it drives us crazy that this is how she wants to carry things around!

Salad

What did Lily eat for dinner for the first time this evening? A salad! We also had biscuit pizzas but nothing compared to her salad. She finished the entire thing!

We Have...

...Wispies...

And...one week til this little lady turns 3!

Starting Early

:) Good job, Em!

Happy Girls

The Check girls are extremely happy when Daddy gets home from work!

Emma's Reaction

to me saying 'No' to her.

Great.

Yes, I am trying very hard to get some bows to stay in her hair. Soon, very soon!

Seriously Emma

You just turned 11 months old and you're climbing into your Sissy's bed all by yourself. You've even fallen out of it, feet first and landed with a little scare, and you got right back up and climbed in. Emma, I'm not sure if I have the energy for you to be a climber and dare devil. Actually, I know I don't :). Please be easy on us little girl.

Love, love, love you to pieces!

A Little Promise, Maybe?!?

Feeling better but still looking a bit rough. Miss Emma has decided that she is hungry again and that she may like food a little if she is able to feed herself from her own plate. We tried this awhile ago and it didn't fly but as we all know with babies and toddlers...try, try again. For this dinner she gobbled up chicken, green beans, applesauce and apple dices but left the ravioli completely alone.

We are now on the hunt for suction base plates that actually stay suctioned to the tray!

Nana Goes Home :(

We had an awesome visit with Nana this week and are very sad to see her go back to NC. Thanks mom for everything! These two little girls are extremely blessed to have you in their lives and it is awesome to watch. Their faces light up when you're around, they miss you when you're not here and they always pretend to call you on the phone. Thank you so much for being there for them and being the best Nana ever!

Miss Emma finally ran to Nana with open arms for a huge hug!

And, one more trip outside with the Princess car! Emma has her eyes on it, wonder what she will be getting for her birthday?!?

Lily's 3rd Birthday Party

Today we had Lily's party! Unfortunately since Emma had a horrible night's sleep, feeling horrible and looking worse we decided that we would go ahead and have a shortened party. It lasted about an hour, which in my mind was quick, but for Lily it was just as grand. All Lily needed were the decorations, her friends, Nana, Uncle Mark, presents, us and of course the yummy cupcakes! Lily twirled in her princess skirt and pranced around in her silver shoes all morning and everyone could tell that she was the birthday girl. It was a huge success.

This year's theme, upon request, was a Princess and Tinkerbell combo party.

How could I say no to that?!?

The playroom had swags to make it look like a ballroom. We ended up cutting the balloons from the centers due to time and energy :).

The den was made into Pixie Hollow for Tinkerbell and her fairy friends. There were flowers all over the walls, Tink hung from the fan, a long fairy mural and two trees that framed the tv wall.

The kitchen had to be a combination of Princess and Tink colors and decorations. Nana and I made many, many tissue pom-pom flowers that hung from the fan and a castle with flowers sat on the mantel.

The craft: Princess crown magnets. The kids were able to use foam stickers to decorate their very own crown to hang on the fridge at home. The Snow White apple game was cut due to time :(.

Presents: Lily loved it! She sat on her Princess couch with some balloon tied to the back and opened all of her gifts. Each and every gift has been played with every day since her party! Everything was a huge hit!

Cupcakes!

This year she requested a cake AND cupcakes but luckily she understood that only one would be at her party and the other would be for her real birthday in April. She loved every second of being sang to and when we weren't quick enough she had Nana sing to her several times while she waited :). Thanks to our guests who took their dessert to go :)

Loving her outfit and how grown-up she looks!

Nana and Pa's Gift!

Oh my goodness. A car. Lily rode for about 45 minutes on Saturday and again on Sunday and has really gotten the hang of using the foot pedal, turning the steering wheel and when she should go into reverse. We told her that she could have the Elantra when she turned 16 and she turned to us and said, "Dad, I already have a car." :) Happy early 3rd Birthday Miss Lily Katherine!

Our Poor Baby Emma

Back story:

Last Monday, the 7th, I took Emma in for a quick ear and lung check. She was having trouble eating and coughing every once in awhile. Since Mike had the day off it was easy for me just to take Emma. The result allergies and the ped saying "Welcome to Hampton Roads". Thanks.

She did end up getting her two bottom teeth later last week.

Fast forward to this week:

Miss Emma was feeling OK but not great. She was still active, happy and not eating which is typical but then she began refusing her bottle completely. Thought more teeth coming but by this morning she looked rough and sounded worse. We got an appt. for 1115 with the same dr (our dr is still out on maternity leave). It was a good decision to take her she has a horrible ear infection in her right ear and bronchiolitis (the baby form of bronchitis). She was prescribed amoxicilan, 400mg and a tsp two times a day. We did a little research and read the pamphlet that came with the meds and it's almost a full adult dose. Guess this little girl of ours has it pretty good.

Hoping that soon she'll be able to sleep, eat and have more energy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The extent of our St. Patty's Day was

bagels with green cream cheese for breakfast,

green shirts,

(did you notice the shirts I made the girls for green day at school?)

and a fed up mom of a little girl who won't eat!

So, I dumped half of a baby yogurt onto her tray and let her have at it. My hopes were that maybe some of it would end up in her mouth. But, turned out I wasn't that lucky. A bath quickly followed lunch.

Transportation Fair

This morning was the Transportation Fair at Lily's school. For the past few weeks they have learned about all forms of transportation and today was the end of their units. There were two parts to the morning, first being the transformed library/music room into a room full of transportation toys.

They had set up areas dedicated to water, land and air forms of transportation. They played with cars, trucks on ramps, a water table, space shuttles, and a very cool pirate ship.

Each age level was responsible for displaying one of the forms. The 2's had water and they all had finger painted pictures of water and dictated where they would sail to and above is Lily's artwork. Evidently, she sailed to a park :).

The second portion of the fair was the "Bike Trail". Since it was rainy and nasty outside they made their church's Tucker Hall into a make-shift racetrack. They made a median out of carpet to make a track and the kids rode their bikes, cars, motorcycles around and around and around. We were allotted 30 minutes for this part and I'm sure we took all of it since all of the adults were tired and out of breath from pushing and pulling kids around this circle.

Lots of fun!

Clothes

Whether it's a tu-tu...

or a new summer dress...

these little girls love clothes. They love to shop too. Today we went out in search for some party shoes for Lily where she ended up trying on four different pairs. After a very nice and much needed nap, they woke up and were ready to show Nana some of their new fashions. So much fun.

Pop Johnson

Early this morning my Dad got the news that my grandfather, Pop, had passed away. Since our last visit to NC back in January I have been trying to prepare myself for this news. But I'm not sure anything can prepare you for the loss of a family member that you love. I think about him and my Mimi everyday and my heart aches, not only for her but for my dad.

My memories of my Pop are more recent than those growing up. They lived in South Carolina while we were in Jersey so the visits were scattered. But, a few years ago Mimi and Pop moved to NC to be closer to my mom and dad. Since then, we have had many visits and have made wonderful memories.

Pop was able to spend lots of time with his Lily. He even tried to teach her how to drive his scooter!

And, even better he got to meet Emma! He called her Gracie and got to see her walk across his room in January. The smile and sparkle in his eye that day will stay with me forever.

I really could go on and on about his accomplishments, his wonderful sense of humor, his great spunkiness and of how incredibly smart and sharp he was. But, I think the most important thing I will take from my Pop is his very large heart and ability to love unconditionally and completely. He and my grandmother would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this year and he still referred to her as his bride. As he was in a special rehab hospital, my grandmother in their assisted living apartment and he worked so hard to get back to her. That was his driving force to get better and I've never seen anything like it. It is truly remarkable to witness a love for someone else.

This morning God added one amazing angel to His team!

Love and miss you lots Pop.

Nana Is Here!

Yay!

We got to go to the airport pick her up and had so much fun! We got to ride the moving walkway, watch planes and play in some plants :). As we saw Nana appear Lily ran as fast as she could to meet her near security. It was so sweet to watch!

Not sure we were home five minutes before Lily clobbered Nana on the couch!

11 Months?!?

Hmm. 11 months. How time flies. I don't like it. Not one bit.

Miss Emma you are acting as though you are over a year old, into absolutely everything, taking one nap a day and understand soo very much!

You:

-are not liking food very much and it is very difficult finding new things that you will eat

-are very petite and built very different from your big sister

-very smart

-now have 6 teeth (4 bottom, 2 top) and 2 more are working their way in on the top

-think you are very funny

-love to give hugs, kisses, high-fives and good ol' smacks on the head

-like to play kitchen, computer, cars or anything that will roll and with anything Lily has

-will use a play spoons and bowls, pretend to mix food and try to feed us and will not stop until we "eat"

-love, love, love Maci and will throw her ball to play with her

-always want to go outside

-knows the process of getting dress and prefers to stand up during it

-know the different rooms of the house and will go there if told

-can and will follow multi-step directions most of the time

-love music and will dance by shaking your hips and flapping your arms

One more month baby girl!

School Conference

This morning we had a conference with Lily's teacher, Mrs. Red Bow. Our conference time was 920 and since this school completely has their act together they had parent volunteers to watch kids during conferences. Lily and Emma stayed in the library/music room across from her classroom for the 20 minutes Mike and I met with her teacher. They did amazingly well without a single tear and we found them on a mom's lap reading books when we returned!

Mrs. Red Bow started off the conference by telling us how smart of a little girl Miss Lily is, how very polite and well mannered she is and how much they enjoy her during the day. She then showed us their checklist and went over each skill one by one. Lily was asked to draw herself and above is what she did! Just love her hair! :) Very impressive, as always Lil!

Going into the conference this morning Mike and I weren't sure what to expect although we knew Lily was doing well. We were so excited about our little girl that we decided to go out and celebrate...doing well in school should always be celebrated! We went to a restaurant, Ruby Tuesday's to be exact. :) Lily was so excited to order from a menu, sit in a booth, get lemonade and have an extra special dessert! We love you Pump and we're so incredibly proud of you!

Easel Drawing

Yes. We finally, finally got an art easel. Lily loves it and draws on the chalkboard all the time. She continues to draw faces and has gone into Mickey Mouse and Goofy drawings. It's funny, she loves that you can use the eraser and start all over but as soon as she gets that white chalk dust on her hands she runs to the bathroom to wash them. I'm thinking that she will soon have a tub of baby wipes to make it a little easier to get that pesky chalk off of her hands.

I'm sure that playing school is getting closer and closer :)!

One Car Wednesday

We were without a car on Tuesday and shared the Trailblazer on Wed. Great fun. :) We left for school early this morning to take Daddy to work. After nap, we got ready to go get him.

And, we got to take a trip up to see Daddy's office!

Emma loved his office chair and the wall of pictures Daddy has made of his girls :).

Happy Daddy and definitely happy little girls!

We Have...

fun doing preschool work. A wonderful, wonderful re-usable sticker book I found for $1! All about matching, but we have to begin somewhere!

huge feet that we like to chew on at dinner. Emma will put her big toe in her mouth and then just start to belly laugh like it's the funniest thing ever! :)

legs, legs, and more legs. Our girls are tall which means in a year or two the shorts, skirts and dresses will be extremely short and a certain Daddy will have a very difficult time with the warm weather wardrobe.

"Lily-tude"

Yes, our sweet little Lily is ready to turn 3, or is it 13, and developing her very own, personal attitude that we are calling "Lily-tude". There are times that this 'tude makes our jaw drop, eyes open very, very wide, and burst out laughing. Then there are those times that we shake our heads, look at each other and with our eyes say 'Oh, $#*!' What are we in for?!?. We are going to have our hands full.

Lily is smart, very smart. And, we are gathering turning 3 is going to surprise us more than it is her. She is beginning to make connections, figure out how everything works and can simply make decisions and voice her opinion. Great. Yeah, it's wonderful to raise a daughter that can do all of this, but at age 3?!? Really?!? It's coming and I'm not sure if Mike and I are really ready to handle this.

Here are some examples of Lily-tude that we are experiencing...

1. Completely ignoring us. She will zone us out and we have been broken records trying to get a response out of her.

2. Stalling. She does everything in her power to be in control of every situation. When we tell her to do something, she figures she has something better to do. I ask her to come eat lunch and she tells me she's late to her baseball game and tries to put on her shoes?!? HUH? Or she begins to draw when it's time to brush her teeth.

3. Talk back. Yep, she's starting to act like a pre-, pre- teen. I'm sure once I'm in the pre-teen years with her it won't seem so bad but she's only turning 3! I ask her questions and instead of being sweet she says, "O---K---Mommy..." and gives me a look like I'm annoying her!!!!! We were having lunch and I told her after many attempts at stalling that I was going to throw it out and she could go straight to nap (She was an extremely tired crab!) and what did she say....she said, "Go...Right...Ahead"!!

Really I think that's enough to get under our skin. And, it's going to end. The time-out mat, which she hasn't had to use in a very, very long time is going to make a very grand entrance this week. This "Lily-tude" is ending.

Here's to another battle in the war of Lily. :) Can you guess who's going to win...AGAIN?!? :)

My Little Helper

Emma has loved taking things out of baskets and putting them all back in for a few months, and this included laundry. Folded laundry. That's completely fine if it keeps her busy, entertained and happy. I will gladly fold ALL of the clothes again. But lately she wants to help me push laundry into the dryer and take it out to put in the laundry basket. And, she is now learning to follow one and two step directions!!

Examples:

1. She will go get her sippy cup and bring it to me when I ask her to.

2. She will pick up something and take it to Lily or Daddy.

3. She helps clean up toys in the playroom.

Yay!

*Oh, and I just love this little $2 consignment outfit on her, a 6-9 mth outfit!!

Soccer and Hair

Yesterday I took an entire lot of flower hair clips to the hair salon. Jessica, the owner, and I talked for a long time and have a great working relationship that I'm really excited about. When we were leaving Lily asked for a haircut. I explained that Nana was coming soon and she would love to come with us. I got her all the way to the car and Lily was quite adamant about getting her hair cut. I couldn't let this opportunity escape and since Cara, Lily's stylist :), was there I agreed.

So, we got a few inches off and it's now back to being a sweet little layered bob.

Of course, this cute little 'do' doesn't stop our girl from playing her sports. We are amazed at how coordinated she is, how she can kick with control, use both feet to kick the ball and throws the ball in front of her to begin her drill. She's going to be so excited to be on a soccer team in the fall!