An Upgrade for Emma

The converted crib to toddler bed did not go over very well with Miss Emma.

Neither did staying in her own room.

We moved her toddler bed into Lily's room a few weeks ago and Emma only woke up in there to walk into our room at about 2am. Yes, our darling little Emma stopped screaming for us to only get herself awake enough to grab a few friends and her pillow to walk into our room saying, "Hi Mom".

Hahaha...

We decided to go ahead and get Miss Emma a twin bed.

Why?

Well, when she wakes up in the middle of the night it is much, much easier to take her back in there and lay down with her instead of just letting her in our bed. And, I'm sure she doesn't feel as confined in this bed like she did the toddler bed. She even slept with Lily for about a week before we got this.

So far, so good.

Finally!

Piggy Tails!!

Emma has been requesting "bands like Mia" and finally I pulled her hair back.

To my surprise and Emma's thrilled delight, it worked!

She has been requesting pigtails ever since :)

And, the plus side...she'll sit for however long it takes me to do them!

Yay for growing blonde curls!

Lily's Reading

So... Lily's reading.

Yes...she's reading. Really, really reading.

And, she's reading everything and anything.

She reads books all the time, she reads signs and labels. She reads things that we don't even realize she notices. She likes to look at the newspaper, magazines and always asks what words are if she doesn't know them. Funny thing is, we only need to tell her once and she remembers the word!

She started reading leveled books, then moved to the Step books. They are all really different on how they level them but she's mostly on Step 2 and 3. She really does amaze us. We have books that we read to her and she'll look at the words while we read, ask questions so that she understands and after we read it twice to her, she can read it.

She reads like a teacher. I tell her that when she reads by herself a good reader puts it in front of her. But, that doesn't seem to satisfy her. She likes to read like her teacher, Mrs. Johnson, read to her class. The other day I found her in some of my heels, sitting on one of her small blue chairs, reading to her "friends".

Right now, Lily is loving Cynthia Rylant books :) Particularly, Mr. Putter and Tabby. I'm glad that there's an entire series. The other afternoon she didn't take a nap so she asked Mike if they could read. She chose a Mr. Putter and Tabby book and told him that she wanted to read together, you know, I read a page then you read a page. :) All her idea. And, so they did. They read two books like that and she did awesome and comprehended everything.

So very proud Miss Lily. Keep up the great work! Hope your Dad and I can keep up with you!

I believe the title of the book in the video is Lola Visits the Library.

NBG

Mike had to travel to DC this afternoon for another big meeting on Wed.

(Why we traveled there in Dec)

So, we spent the morning at the Botanical Gardens with him before he had to leave.

The weather was absolutely perfect, a high in the mid 70s.

We spent a lot of time in the Rose Garden.

Daddy and his girls.

We explored their new exhibit, a model of the USS Constitution to honor the anniversary of the War of 1812. They also have a pirate cove that was very busy. But, these girls hopped on the first hammock they found!

We also stayed in the Butterfly House for quite awhile too.

In school, Lily learned about the life cycle of the butterfly and she was so excited.

She kept saying, "Look, guys, a chrysalis!"

We were really excited that a few butterflies had just emerged and were still stretching their wings for the first time. They had dozens of all different kids of cocoons and they were hanging by pins on pool noodles! It was so great to see these girls so excited about science!

Matching

These girls love to match.

Yes, I have bought some well plenty of matching outfits because why not?

But, lately, Lil and Em request to wear the same exact thing.

I get a lot of comments about it too. Like...

"Awww, they're matching. They're so cute, you should take a picture."

"Awww, you dress them alike! That's great that they let you do that."

"Awww, look at them, how pretty. And, so pretty in their dresses."

That is followed by questions about them dressing alike and why??

1. First, I think it's adorable and am glad they like to dress alike. Pretty soon they will be fighting over clothes and how they don't want to be dressed alike. So I'll take it now.

2. When we go to busy places I really like it because we only have to remember ONE outfit.

3. They LOVE it. They actually discuss it. If one of them doesn't feel like wearing a dress then the other will take change just so they can match.

Love you my pretty matching girls.

Fun With Nan and Pa

We got a chance to try Pa's hammock.

Lily has been loving hammocks since AJ's Grandpa has one and she got

to use it while we were visiting.

And, she loves that her Pa has one too. :)

This made her night!

We caught lightning bugs.

For some reason, we don't see very many in VaBeach.

Not sure why, but we don't.

So the girls were very into this and

we ran around the backyard for at least 45 minutes.

Lily went to school a few weeks ago for the summer fun day of gardening.

They did fun things and their special snack was peanuts.

In the shell kinda peanuts.

Lily has been talking about it constantly so we bought some for her and Pa to share.

They enjoyed a little chat while we all enjoyed some peanuts.

We also enjoyed being with our precious Nana too.

Oh, sorry, Lily now has shortened her name to Nan.

Guess that last 'a' was just too cumbersome and lengthy.

Love you guys and loved the short 'n' sweet visit!!

A Must-Do...

go to the Children's Museum.

The girls loved playing restaurant.

They dressed up for a bit.

A lot of odd outfits and combos but this one I had to take a pic once Mike explained it to me.

Lily is dressed as George Washington!

Of course she is :).

Pretty good job at putting this together herself.

And, notice who is in the "hamster tunnel"?

It's Daddy!

The girls wanted Mike to go with them down the yellow slide you see.

Yes, he was the only adult in the tall treehouse contraption.

Gotta love ya Mike!

On the Road

We are in the Downtown Tunnel,

eating chocolate donuts,

and watching a movie...

We are all very excited to go to NC for the weekend!

"Dance Class"

Gotta love dance class before bath!

Our Maci

Nothing new on Maci these days but she and I have been

sneaking in some "us" time while the girls are in the bath.

It used to be just the two of us, for quite a few years,

and now there are a lot of us around here and our time

 has dwindled over the years.

She may annoy us, she may walk directly in front of me all the time

but I love her more than anything.

She'll always be my first "fur-baby".

Love You May-May.

Naptime

Since, the respiratory sickness stuff hit our house this is what naptime has looked like. I needed a nap when I was sick and this is how they allowed me to take one. To take a nap with me in our bed.

Yep, these girls are loving one another more than I thought possible.

July 18th

So...Miss Lily.

Lots has been happening in the past few months with you. Mostly, since you're 4 yr check up even though I've been asking, researching, suspecting for about a year or so.

Finally, we got a kick in the pants and acted on it.

First, let's back date. December of 08, when Lil was 8 months old, she had surgery on her nose to remove a dermoid cyst. Some people have these and never realize it and are located in various places in the body. Lily's, however, was in the bridge of her nose and could have had a root so deep that it reached into her brain. Luckily, it was a simple removal and God blessed us immensely. But, going through this also made us aware of the appointments and surgery. We weren't willing to do it during school and wanted to be sure there were no other causes, we wanted it to be the last straw.

My problem and concern has been that Lily can not breathe through her nose. She never has been able to. She breathes really, really loud. She snores. When she's sick, she really can't breathe. She has horrible allergies and I hate being told "Welcome to Hampton Roads". We have tried every single allergy medication available and nothing has taken that stuffiness away. It's very difficult for Lily to make nasal sounds, hear sounds, and say some letter sounds due to this.

So, at her 4yr appt. in April her dr said that we should have her speech evaluated along with seeing the ENT to get to the bottom of the problem.

Speech evaluation concluded that she has an articulation problem. She has been going to a private speech session every Wed this month to help with it, but not sure.

BUT, today we saw the ever so lovely ENT, Dr. Derkay at CHKD.

We first saw a resident, since it's a teaching hospital, and he was very, very thorough with the questions. It actually made Mike and I question if Lily was really that bad. Once the head dr came in, he said he wanted an x-ray to see what we were dealing with. He also stated that the adenoids have to occupy more than 50% to do anything. (started to panic) After a quick trip to radiology, Dr. Derkay had the x-ray images by the time we returned.

By this time, Mike and I were ready to rip up carpets, shave Maci and do whatever else to get rid of her allergies and help our girl breathe. Until, Dr. Derkay brought us to his computer screen!

As I was shaking, trying to figure out what I was looking at and trying to conclude his findings by myself, I saw it. Her adenoids. They are sooo large that her passage is 90% blocked by them.

NO wonder she can not breathe!

Her nasal passage is a tenth of what it should be.

So, she's having them removed in mid-July.

Tonsils are fine, so they stay. So it should be a relatively easy procedure and easy recovery.

We also have suspended all speech lessons to give our girl a taste of life with breathing

through her nose. I'm hoping that she'll figure out the sounds by herself and if not, we know

where to go to get help.

Here's to a month from today...

July 18th :)

surgery for Miss Lily.

Happy Father's Day and DMB!

Happy Father's Day to one amazing man.

We are so very blessed to have you

and thank God for you everyday.

Love you bunches.

And, we have fun too.

DMB, some Blue Moon, my fantastic hubby and good friends

were a great way to end the day.

Busch Gardens!!

We have attempted to go to BG three times since they opened this spring.

And, finally, no one was sick, the weather was perfect

and we got to go!!

We were so excited! Everyone was all smiles on the tram to the gate.

First stop,the carousel. We rode it twice and Emma was quite upset when we got off. She was not aware there were more rides and other fun things to do. She would have been happy to ride that all day long. We then ventured to Dragon Land to ride the kid rides and stayed for over an hour and where both sets of batteries that I brought for the camera decided to go ca-put.

We had fun eating lunch, watching a show, and going on more rides afterwards. We had the girls height checked as we entered the park to see what rides they were able to go. Lily ended up being so tall that there are only 6 rides in the entire park she can NOT go on. And, good thing, not sure I'd go on them either.

One she really wanted to go on were the swings. The swings that take you really high. She asked me to go on them with her and I agreed, happily, since she asked me and they had dual seats. Sigh. I was a nervous wreck. I am not a fan of heights, at all. Lily squealed and giggled the entire way while I gripped onto the small little bar that held me in that seat until we got to the ground. I'm so glad I went on with her especially since she states, "Mom, you want to know what my favorite part was? Riding the swings with you" Sigh.

We continued going on lots of rides. Then the Sky Ride (yep no pics cause I was busy gripping onto the side of the car) and my favorite, the train...on the ground.

We had an ice cream treat too!

My favorite pic of the day :)

Happy Early Father's Day, Mike!

Summer Fun

The girls and I have had lots of fun already in the past week or so...

All day beach day, they were so tired they wanted to rest.

Lily caught a glimpse of the back of the funny page in the Sunday newspaper. It has a Fun Kids Page with fun things to do and this particular one was all about rainbows. She read what she could and read the rest together and that was that. Until, we went to the store a few days later and she reminded me about the edible rainbow that was in the paper and asked if we could make one. But, of course!

So we scoured the produce department and ate a rainbow for snack that day :)

They played with homemade Moon Sand.

And, painted!

We are having so much fun so far!

I hate the feeling that this summer is flying by already!

Dinner with the Boyfriends :)

We were able to catch up with the Parkers for our bi-monthly family dinners!

Matt made delicious fish tacos from the Mahi-Mahi he caught in the gulf on his latest trip and they used fresh ingredients from their very impressive garden to make fresh salsa too!!

YUMMY!!

The kids loved playing together, of course, and let us all talk the evening away!

Next time, we should have Baby Girl Chloe joining us!!

Sweet Emma

It's been a few months since Emma turned 2 and she has grown up so much!

-She is truly a little girl instead of a toddler. She is sweet, emotional, attached, independent, extremely friendly, kind, talkative, somewhat demanding, opinionated, strong-willed and very smart.

-Talks and sings all day long. She is constant and asks tons of questions, her favorite is "Why?", she frequently uses hand gestures to make her questions and statements more effective. She always wants figure things out and always has answers as well. Her most frequent answer is "Because, I dunno" or she comes and tells us how she's feeling "I..." sad, sited (excited), happy, scared.

-Completely potty trained! We could probably let her sleep without a diaper on too since they are constantly dry at nap and over night but not ready to do this. Once we let her one time, there is no turning back with her.

-She is still petite but tall. She just hit the 25lb mark when she had an ear check a few weeks ago. Woo Hoo.

- She follows multi-step directions but you have to sometimes make it seem like her idea. She loves being called  "A Big Girl Helper" and to show Lily that she can do the same things. She helps set the table, loves to sit on the counter to "help" cook, likes to help put laundry away (even if I have to re-do it all while she's in the bath) and will clean up the playroom.

-She still refers to Lily as "Mia". I have heard her a few times, without prompting, call her by the correct name and my heart sinks a bit. I love hearing Emma call Lily, Mia. It's so sweet and I know one day it will finally end.

-She has become very cuddly. She will rub our faces to try to get us to go to sleep and whisper, "I take care of you, Mom" or she will rub Lily's back or head if Lily doesn't feel good or is tired. She loves taking care of puppy when she thinks he's sick.

-She is so unfazed by Maci's grumpiness. It really is funny. Lily would just walk away from Maci when she gets grumpy but Emma will just stand her ground and say, "Stop Maci, you're so grumpy" or "Maci, just stop, you're ok". They have also been pretty good buddies during meals. I quite frequently find Em sneaking Maci food and then Emma getting down to pet her and give her a quick little hug. When Emma gets back on the chair or catches me watching them, she smiles and says, "May-May is a good dog. I love her."

-Emma's manners are very impressive! She says please, thank you, you're welcome without prompting. She is very considerate (most of the time) and is finally understanding the no hitting/biting/being skunky things work. She hasn't been to the mat very often because the "we're a family and we don't do those things..." works pretty well. She is very quick to say sorry too.

-Emma is so outgoing and friendly. She will introduce herself to anyone, tell them that she is 2 and that her sissy is 4. She asks kids in the library, doctors offices, the mall, pretty much anywhere, "Wanna play?" and she will continue to ask them until they say yes!

Oh, how excited we are to watch you grow Miss Emma.

We love you to pieces!

-

Sisters

The girls have been playing so nicely together and

have really become best friends.

They do everything together and sometimes just being in the same room is good too.

Here they were playing Barbies and doll house and when it got pretty quiet we looked and this is what we saw; Emma coloring and Lily reading :)

Our Pool

Yep, we got a pool.

And, it's perfect!

We are in the process of making this yard "summer perfect" and this is

just the beginning!

Can you tell that Maci is trying to figure out how to get herself into this pool?

She LOVES to swim. She has jumped up but there is no way she'd be able to get in SO,

the girls and Mike got Maci her very own pool.

She is our first "baby" after all :).

And, Now, Up Close

Harbor Fest and OpSail 2012

This was so impressive to walk through all of the tall Norfolk buildings from the light rail to all of a sudden walk upon this sight. 135 foot tall ships will massive sails and the bigger than life feeling.

We arrived near dinner time so we only went on one ship from Mexico.

Lily loved exploring all of the parts of the ship even spying on the cook down below.

You can see all of the local boats that docked to enjoy the sights as well.

These girls ready to take this ship for a spin.

Dinner time! Found some pizza and enjoyed people watching.

Then, after walking around listening to some smaller bands we found a nice spot to hear Colbie Caillat. Emma made herself right at home and dance the night away :).

Lily joined in after her frozen yogurt was gone! Ha.

Long family evening ended with a light rail ride home and bedtime at 11!

Dinner on the Beach With the Sail Boats

What better way to spend a nice summer evening than having dinner on the beach and watching the "tall" ships line up for the night?

Every June, Norfolk has its HarborFest to celebrate all things boat.  Usually, its a weekend festival where local boaters camp out on the Elizabeth River and enjoy the weekend.  This year however, there was an extra part, OpSail 2012.  Every decade or so, "tall ships" from all over the world organize to tour around the various ports.  They hit Baltimore, Boston, New York and even Norfolk.  To kickoff HarborFest on Friday, the tall ships were going to do a sail parade.  This required all of them to stage themselves off the Lesner Bridge in VA Beach (Chesapeake Bay side).  We decided this would be a great evening to head up, let the girls play, have a dinner picnic, and enjoy the view.

Few foreign sails



US Coast Guard Cutter EAGLE (training ship for the cadets)

Emma enjoying the view and "multi-tasking"





Just a pretty nice family night!