Favorite Foto FRIDAY!!!!

Lily was put to bed just in a night gown... she got out of bed and put back on her 'princess dress' AND a pair of sweat pants!

The BEST story EVER!!!

Last night the girls and I were in the yard playing while Chris was working on clearing trees. We were running late with our evening routine, but everybody was still in good spirits. Chris wanted to get one more thing done before we went in. It was close to the house, so the girls and I hung out on the back porch steps to watch. When he was all done, I spotted a Caterpillar walking up the house. I showed it to Lily who said "ohhhh snake." This child has no fear. I picked it up and was letting it climb over my hand and arm. Lily wanted to hug and kiss the Caterpillar. So I told her that she could blow a kiss to it. She did, then she wanted to hold it. I let it walk over her hand and arm. She LOVED it! She kept "hugging" it.

So by now it is really getting late, we came inside to get dinner together for Lily (Charlotte already ate). Chris was trying to call his dad. All of a sudden Chris screams, and pushed the dogs back. I come running to see what is going on and a Caterpillar had found its way onto the back collar of his shirt.

What happened next is why this is the best story ever... remember how I said that Lily (a TWO year old LITTLE girl) and I were just outside letting the Caterpillar climb all over our arms and hands? Ok...my husband...an EAGLE SCOUT...... the fearless leader of the family... would not touch it! He was trying to pick the poor baby butterfly up with a piece of paper! I was in total disbelief of what I was witnessing. I bent down and risked life and limb to take the apparently rabid Caterpillar back outside.

The first thing I told Chris when I came back it from rescuing the terrified thing, was "I am sooooooooooooooooo going to blog about this!!" ROFL!!

Here are some of the pictures of the attack Caterpillar.....

She loved it!

Lily hugging the Caterpillar

Meeting and update

This morning during our morning meeting I needed to write a quick To-Do list. I always make sure that my Secretary (Lily) has the paper necessary to take her own minutes. The meeting goes much better that way. In my rush to get meeting started before the Chairman (Charley) razzed all over everybody, I grabbed a paper plate. I looked around for less then 5 secs for a pen, w/out missing a beat I thought... I'll just use a Crayon. In that moment, I knew that I indeed had arrived! I just shook my head and started our "meeting." :-)

There have been lots of funnies this week! That is one reason why I haven't posted! By the end of the day I am just wiped out.

I do want to take a minute and capture the highlights!

This past Friday we had Lily cry it out in her bed. We had done this after she had been home for a few weeks and it works like a charm. The first night was the worst, but the last two nights she has done so well we have put the girls to bed together! It is the best thing we have ever tried for her. We had backed down from our firm stance with bedtime when Charlotte was born, honestly out of sleep deprivation. We needed to sleep and as long as everybody was happy and semi-rested then all was good. Well, that was a little over 6 months ago and she was still getting in bed with us during the night every night. This past Friday we just went for it and she has sleep in her own bed all night ALL WEEK!! Better yet... she has slept well and is back to taking naps! The sleep has done wonders for her and us.

The girls were given their Baptism/Re-adoption gift a little early. We got them a swing set! :-) Chris put it up last Saturday for them. Lily LOVES it! Charlotte has a baby swing to swing in too! Lily waits patiently when Charlotte swings but as soon as we take her out Lily is all over it. She likes it Because she can swing higher.

Speaking of Re-adoption... Lily has her day in court this Thursday May 1st! I told her about getting to ride on a "train" and seeing a person called a Judge. I asked her what she was going to say if he asked her if she loved Mommy and Daddy. She said "I lovf Mommy, I lovf Daddy, I lovf Rdette" She had a huge smile on her face. I think honestly she is more excited about getting to wear her new Princess Dress that day!

Lily has turned into quite the Princess! I made her a dress up box (an old Diaper box), and filled it with clothes that she could use for dress up. It got a little old re-folding her entire dresser every night. I put her dress from Easter. Well, let me tell you.... she wears that dress everyday, ALL day. I put her regular clothes on in the morning, and before we are out of the room she has that dress on over her clothes! I can only get it off and meal times and bedtime!

She wanted to wear it out last night on her 'date' with Daddy. He had some errands to run last night and he took her with him. It was so sweet, Lily kept saying "Daddy date" until he got home. I was able to convince her to wear a different dress out though. Charlotte got some nice Mommy and me quiet time. I fed her dinner and she got a nice bath. She was OUT @ 620! I tried but she was out. She must have needed it... she slept until 6am! Wahoooooo!!



I am going to update with pics and a new video later... the natives are getting a little restless! LOL!

Where is MY 2 year old?!?!?!

If anyone has seen my once sweet, happy-to-help, non-slapping, 2 year old could you PLEASE return her!!! Whoever took her left us with a hormonal mess, happy, sad, non-listening, back talking child! No, no, not fair! :-)

My goodness, Lily has been giving us a run for our money this week. She is all over the map. Her biggest thing is the not listening. This has been my week...

me: no Lucy(pet name)please don't (fill in the blank)
Lil: suddenly completely DEAF
Me: Louder and more firm.. No Lil please don't (you get the idea)
Lil: Looking RIGHT at me not only does whatever it is AGAIN but LOUDER! and SMILES!
me: Lily if I have to count to you are going to have to sit
Lil: Still apparently deaf.. still doing whatever it is, but slower, and STILL looking at me. still smiling...
me: One, TWO, and move in her direction
Lil: quickly get one or two more whatevers in, and then stops
Me: go sit....
Lil: COMPLETE MELTDOWN! complete with her telling me (you'll love this!!:-) No no mommy stop it! With hand straight out!

ARGHHHHH!! I am going to pull my hair out if this doesn't pass soon. This has been ALL week with her. Not just once, or twice, it is non-stop all day. I love that child more then words could ever express, but this week she has been a handful.

She has been more clingy during the day. We play all day, and I make sure that she gets her share of Mommy lap. But this week she has been like glue.

I REALLY hope this passes soon. She did help this evening, I asked her to put her socks in the hamper. She acted like she couldn't walk, until I calmly told her that only good girls who put their socks in the hamper could wear sun-glasses. It was like a miracle happened! She was up and running!

In this week of me wanting to put my head through the wall.. there were a some pretty funny parts.

I have severely reduced Lily's TV time. She had started just sitting and staring at it, instead of watching in passing while we played. I do let her watch Dora during lunch. I put it on, and walked into the kitchen. I got out the items to make her lunch. I opened the cheese, I then hear she little voice say (like she didn't realize she was talking out loud) "Mommy, cheese" and then she came running to me! All I could think of was Pavlov's dog! LOL

Now, this one doesn't make me look good. I seriously can't help it though. Ok I will admit it.... whenever somebody or something falls it make me laugh. I laughed even typing that, just thinking about it. I really can't help it. Depending on how bad the fall, I will ask if the person is ok first, but in the end I can't help but laugh. Terrible I know. On with the story...

The Food Network was on and they were showing one of those challenges that they do. It was one with those really big show piece made out of sugar. The team had moved it to the table and as soon as they had it down it fell. The audience on TV gasped and so did I. Lily said "oops" and put her little hand to her face and laughed. Now I am trying to SOOOOO hard not to laugh, and encourage this. So I tell her that she shouldn't laugh and that they were sad. She looked backed at the TV and laughed again and said "funny Mommy." I had to turn entire self around I was so red from trying not to giggle at her at that point.

The very next day I had them in the back yard playing. Lily had hold of Charlotte's rings. She like to play tug-of-war with them. So I would let her pull a little then I would pull back, make sure she had a good footing and let go. One time she didn't have good footing, and stumbled to her bottom. Charlotte cracked up!! LOL She got us all laughing. (and yes I did check Lily before I joined in!!! :-)

I told Chris about it and he said that there was no doubt they are mine!

Stay tuned for Favorite Foto Friday!

Blogging...

I got the to thinking about that tonight, I have made such wonderful connections by sharing a small part of our family. I have learned about so many different people/places. Some I have grown quite attached too. Which if you think about it, is pretty odd considering I will probably never meet them. But they, like I share themselves and families. I have cheered and cried. I am now a Chemo Angel awaiting my first patient. I have become an Organ Donor. Because I have been so touched by these families. I find myself hugging Chris and the girls a little tighter at night.

One in particular is Confessions Of A CF Husband another Blogging Mommy introduced me to this awesome family. I checked it out (along with 3 million other people), fell totally in love with the family and became an Organ Donor. If you get a minute it is truly worth it.

Too Cute!

This is Lily's newest song!!! Chris taught it to her on Saturday and since then she has been singing it day and night!

As for the outfit she is wearing... Chris's Dad does a lot of travel for his job and he is always bring home something nice for the girls. This time he was in Hawaii for a few weeks and brought her back a Hula Girl outfit. All I can say is OMG it is beyond cute. Better yet she LOVES it!!!

Blogger wouldn't cooperate with the pictures... Everything got out of order. Ol'well at least they are on here! :-)

Foto Friday

I saw this on several other blogs and I really thought it was a good idea.


Charlotte and her keys. Probably her most favorite thing!




HA HA!!





She is shouting "Big Girl".. and yeah they are her Dora SHORTS!!





New Roof



ahhh I love that face!!





Please excuse the messy shirt, this is the best picture we have gotten of that pretty smile!





This says it all! :-)

Good news and Bad news

I'll start with the good news. All went well with Miss. Charlotte at the doctor today. We actually made it out in a little over an hour, warp speed! She weighed in at a whopping 19.12 lbs and 26.5 ins! The doctor re-weighed she b/c she could believe that she put on 5 lbs in 2 months! LOL She is in the 95% for weight and 75% for length and head circumference. Which is good. She said not to worry over her head. She got her Daddy's head. All I will say is thank God I didn't have to push that out!! LOL Other then that we are to start # 2 vegs and fruits, and we can start to give her water in her bottle. She did get her last round of multiple shots. A total of 4 today and an oral. Next time we go she only has to get one. She really cried hard this time. Next time Daddy is going to get the chance to go! She and Lily both have check-ups due around the same time so I scheduled it on off Friday!! He can't wait ;-)

So there is the good news from the day... the bad news is truly petty, but we were still steamed.

Today being Chris's off Friday we scheduled to have FIOS installed in the house. They were suppose to be here between 8-12. Before I left with Charlotte for her appointment at noon they still weren't here. Now, we had gotten 2 notices from them confirming the install. Chris called and there had been an error of some kind. Long (took all day to get it taken care of) story short no install. The bright side of all this is that because Verizon really messed up we are going to get free movie channels! They told Chris he could have whatever he wanted. I think at that point they were really afraid we were going to cancel the whole thing.

I know petty, but, it was soooo pretty here today. We were able to get the girls outside this morning while we were waiting. They both have runny noses so I know the fresh air would be great for them. So at least they got some time. There are a million other things we could have done today. I guess in the long run it was best to stick close to home with the girls not feeling well.

The funny of the day happened at dinner time. Chris was still on the phone trying to get everything worked out, Lily (my drama queen) was beyond tired and ready to eat. Charlotte had just woke-up from a nap, and really not in the mood to have to wait for anything, esp food! Chris ran to get dinner from McDonald's. We were suppose to have spaghetti, yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Once he got back, Lily was in heaven with her little happy meal and I think we were all happy just to stop for a few minutes. Chris said this was a desperation meal. I looked confused, then he said "you know, a break glass in case of emergency dinner!" We all got a good laugh at that.

One more little funny, Lily was sitting with Charlotte and I while I fed Charlotte while Chris ran to get dinner. It was so nice here we had most of the windows opened, and I thought I heard Chris clear his throat. So I hollered his name to see if it was him coming up to the door. Lily yells "Chris, ohhhwhoo." She then looked at me almost to say 'oops' and then said "Daddy ohhhwhoo" Too cute!

Both girls were well medicated and well down very peacefully. I had to suck out Charlotte's nose before I fed her though. I felt so bad for her. She had a really yucky day and here I was adding to it. But, there was no way I could even try to lay her down sounding like that. Let alone feed her. I try to remove myself from it, I do the samething when they get shots. I turn it to be so clinical so I can see past them crying. Now, as soon as I know it is over I have them in arms my faster then you can blink and my heart is completely broken for them. But for that 30 secs or so I go into total Nurse mode. We will give her Tylenol through the morning tomorrow. I always do that after shots. It really seems to help.

Busy...

Chris and I have been busy little bees the past few days. Charlotte is going to be Baptized in June (YEAH!!) and we are beginning to get everything together for that. We worked on her invitations this weekend. We did it the "Chris and Megan way." By that I mean that we tried to stretch out the left over invitations from Lily's Baptism last June. Well, we have plenty of actual invitations, but we were critically low in envelops. We have exactly enough to send out. As long as everything went as planned we were good to go. As I mentioned above it is Chris and Megan doing this.... I think that you get the idea. Sigh.... In the end they all were sent out today. I am going to brag a little here but I think that they are beautiful! We made them all on our own and I couldn't have asked for better.

We are going to have the reception for her at our house this time. For Lily's we went through a local park, and even through the party was great for her it drudges up bad memories for us. So it is best that we have it here to make sure that what happened there will not happen here. Moving right along..... It is going to be fun! Plus we won't have to worry about getting to and from, have a place for the cold food etc...

As for her God Parents.. Drum Roll please..... we have asked two very awesome people, who both readily agreed! We are happy to announce that they are my Aunt Tracey and Chris's brother Kenny. We thought long and hard and couldn't be happier with our choices!!

June 8th is going to come up quick, I just want to stay far ahead. With Lily's last year I was 6.5 months prego and it was hard to pull it together at the end. This year, I can be much more hands on and I am glad to be. :-)

The girls are doing well. Lily has a little runny nose. We are going to keep an eye on that. Charlotte had her first real dinner tonight. A stage two. It was Chicken noodle. She didn't like it. When I first put it in her mouth she looked right at Lily almost to stay "you eat this?!?!?" It was pretty funny! Charlotte has her 6 month check up on Friday. We will see how big she really is!

Before I go... I don't talk much about our family much on here out of respect. But tonight I have to say that my SIL did something very brave today. She FINALLY stood up for herself! Chris and I are very proud of you! :-) (((((hugs)))))

HAPPY 6 MONTHS CHARLOTTE!!!

Our little baby turned 6 months old today! Where did that time go? When I was pregnant I KNOW that months didn't go by this fast. Chris and I did some reminiscing about my stay in the hospital and how we equated it to "living" in the Marriott for those 11 days when we brought home Lily. I was looking at her today thinking that I can't believe that 6 short months ago she was this small, floppy, baby. Today, although still very much so a baby she defiantly isn't small anymore. She is also no longer nearly as floppy!! Her legs are so strong. We stopped in babies R us tonight and bought her a new big girl tub. Last night during her bath I was washing her hair and she planted both of those chubby little feet in the bottom of the baby tub and about threw herself out! I was right with her, she is just so strong and quick that it is dangerous to use the tub anymore if she is going to keep doing this. Chris and I agreed that we are indeed all done with the baby tub!

Mommy was able to break out this morning!! Yeah! I had several things that I wanted to go look at. I was able to us my time wisely. I completed some of the necessary errands (food,diapers etc) then I got to go play at the craft store. I have become very interested in cake decorating. So I picked up a few things and I am going to try (stressing the word TRY) to do something creative for Charlotte's Baptism cake. Fingers crossed all around please! ;-)

Side story, I LOVE it when Chris stays home alone with both girls because every single time I come back I always get some sort of compliment regarding being with them all day. Heehee Today I was greeted with a huge hug, and I was told that I am never going back to work. He later recanted and said that once the girls were in school I could think about it. LOL He said as long as he didn't have to do it! ROFL!!! Too much! But I feel appreciated! :-)

Once I got home and all of the goodies were put away we decided that we were going to re-try the park. Before we left the house I broke it all down for Lily. I told her that we needed to share the swings and that she needed to listen. When we get there Chris pulled into the same parking spot as Wednesday. I of course believing that this was NOT a good omen asked him to please pick another one. He being a man (sorry to any male readers!!) decided that it was fine since "Daddy was here!" I must admit though he was right (shhhh don't tell him I said that!! ). It was MUCH MUCH better then before.

However, this time we decided that are going to move forward with our plan of locking Miss. Lily in the basement until she is AT least 30!!! She attracted everything male on that playground. LOL Chris kept telling me that we are going to have trouble because she seems to like men twice her age. The 4-5 year old range! She is a HUGE flirt to boot! It was so cute to watch her play though. Especially because she is sooooo small! Charlotte wore a shirt today that Lily wore the day Charlotte was born! So to see her running around with these other kids is really sweet. Ohhh Charlotte and I copped a spot on a bench and celebrated her 6 months by her falling asleep in the sun! Just sitting there watching Lily and Chris play, and Charlotte nestled in my arms I just wanted to freeze that moment in time. Everything was just perfect.

I put Lily to bed tonight. We went through the routine, read the book, tug and tiss (hug and kiss), and then we stand in the door frame until she falls asleep. Tonight, while she was falling asleep she called out and I didn't understand it at first. She said it again and I realized she was saying love you. It sounds more like da u. I told her that I loved her too, then she smiled up at me and said "ahhhh pretty mommy" and blew me a kiss. I felt my eyes tear up. I blew her a kiss back and went back to standing in the door frame. Moments like that make everything sooooooooooo worth it.

Nice and slow

After Wednesday I am happy to report that everything has been nice and slow around here! We stayed in today. Whatever is Chris's last day of work for the week (Friday on the long week and Thursday on the short)I use as my house cleaning/laundry day. That way we have the whole weekend to play with Daddy! Better yet Mommy gets to go out all by herself on Saturday mornings w/out fear! LOL Lily loves to "help" me on cleaning day. The only problem is this is the day I clean the gross rooms like the bathroom. So I give her a napkin and set her loose "dusting" her Dora table. She really gets into it. Charlotte is sitting better and for longer periods everyday, so that makes it a little easier. I can set her up with a group of toys in front of her and she is pretty content for a little while. Although, today I left the room for I swear less then a second, and I heard a small thud. Lily started yelling "rdette, rdette." I come rushes back in expecting tears any second but there she was happy laying on her side! I think Lily and I were more shook up by it! :-) Ohh another time I set her up to play in her crib when I was cleaning thier room. Again left for a second, I walked back by there to look in and I saw that she must has toppled over. She sounded happy (cooing and all) and I saw her little maracca waving over her head. So I took and extra second as I was getting back to the room I heard her whinning. I get in and saw that she must have tried to roll over, and got most of herself over but got stuck on her arm. She was ok, just needed a little help with her arm!

This Saturday Chris and I are trying something new. We decided that each Saturday morning I am going to run a few errands all by self! It gives me a little total quiet time, and I can get the more difficult errands done a little easier. For Chris, it gives some good play time with the girls. Something all three of them really enjoy. So it is a win-win! Speaking of Saturday it looks like our trip to the park (with Daddy this time!!!) will be pushed off until at least Sunday. If it comes down to it we will take the girls to the mall to play. Lily really likes that as well!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

We have a date!!

This was the brightest part of the day. See the following post to understand. Somewhere between our crazy outing and my chemical burn, the mail came! LOL In the mail was the best piece of paper I have seen in a long time!! It was the scheduled date and time for Lily's re-adoption!! We are to be at the court on May 1st @ 9am. As of that day we will officially have her name changed and her adoption will re-finalized! Yeah!!!

Wow what an outing!!

Today the girls and I broke out. We had a meeting and it was decided that we would brave the park. I gathered everything up that we would need. Just the trip to the car should have set off bells and whistles that this was going to be an adventure. At one point I had Lily walking, Charlotte on my hip, the diaper bag, the shopping cart cover and the umbrella stroller. The last two items were things that were brought "just in case." Sigh... We get into the car and are off to the park. Lily is beyond excited and Charlotte is asleep. We get there and I thought it would be good to leave behind my wallet (I carry it in my diaper bag). No big deal. I get everybody out and decided to go ahead and use the double stroller. We begin the walk from the parking lot to the actual park. Now, I am not a big coat wearer. It has to be REALLY cold for that to happen. I had the girls well bundled but I really thought that I would be ok. Well, I was wrong. I get about half way down the path and turn around to go back to the car. I knew that I had a sweat-shirt somewhere in the there. We get back to the car I look all around no sweat-shirt. I look under the basket of the stroller and Ta-da there it was. I think that there should have been BIG flashing red lights telling me NOT to proceed!

Back on the path.. this time we are all warm! The park was good. Lily had a good time. Until she found the swings. She LOVES the swings. We swung for 45 minutes! She wouldn't get off. I tried all of our tricks and she wasn't having it. Finally I removed her from the swing. Boy did I pay for it! She had a mother of a tantrum. We, umm, I walked out carrying her, and pushing Charlotte. I found a bench and tried to calm her. Yeah, that didn't go over well. She just kept saying "blue, blue!!!" The swing was blue. I then made the executive decision that it was time to go. By this time Lily was screaming. We got to the car and strap her in (that went well:-) and we started home. I was treated to screaming choruses of "Mommy huggie" for most of the ride! When Lily gets to this point all she wants in the world is just to sit in my lap and be held. Kinda hard to do when you are trying desperately to get her home. As we make our way home I remember that I needed to stop off and get milk. Lily has started to calm down a little and all I needed was milk. Famous last words!!! (Where are the red lights!!!!!)

I tell Lily that we have to stop and get milk which is met with more choruses of "huggie Mommy." It is so upsetting when she does this. Because when I say melt down I mean melt down. She cry's so hard she can't think. Horrible. While sitting in at the light to turn into the supermarket at least a dozen times I talk myself out of actually going in. But then the light changes and I choose to go for it. I got myself out and opened Lily's door. We hug for a long time, give kisses and she looks better. Still not totally great, but much better. I take her out lock the car and get a cart. Come back and put the new shopping cart cover over the cart. Lily is doing great and standing on the white parking line (this is how I keep her next to me). Charlotte gets un buckled and I try to put her in the cart. In my rush to get her in I didn't put the seat part of the shopping cart down. Crap. With Charlotte dangling in my arms and trying to keep a now bored 2 year old still I get the seat down. Everything looks good. We start towards the store.... but oh yeah that is right... my wallet is in the glove compartment!!! OMG!! I JUST NEED MILK!!! This is what I am thinking/screaming in my head at this point! Back to the car we go. Oh I also forgot to mention that this store's parking lot is on a slant. We get back to the car. I back the cart in, kept my foot on the cart, Lily wrangled between my knees, and I am leaning into the car to get my wallet. Success!

Back to the store. Lily does really well considering, and I am loving the new shopping cart cover for Charlotte. We get the milk and a hand-ful of other things I thought of and I got to the cashier a quickly as possible. Once we paid Lily decide that she no longer wished to comply with holing my hand. So I pulled the old "ok Lily see you later..." and I act like I am going to leave the store. NORAMLLY she laughs and runs after me. Today she burst into tears. Once she started to cry I of course stopped the cart and practically started begging her to please come on so we could go home. Then I hear a sound like doors trying to close. When I stopped the cart I stopped it IN the automatic doors that were now trying to shut on poor Charlotte. Thankfully, she was fine. Lily came over at that point. All I could do was laugh. It was either that or cry! LOL

We made it home w/out anymore tears.

But does it end there.... really why should it!!!! Hey, if I didn't live it I wouldn't believe this day.

So part of the "other" things I bought was something called Veet. It is suppose to help remove leg hair. Please someone tell me why OH WHY I try these things. I KNOW that I have sensitive skin, I KNOW that NORMALLY these things either burn me or don't work. But still I bought it. I tried it this afternoon and was very happy with the results on my right leg. The girls were playing nicely and I went ahead and did my left. Yeah.. I have a 1-2nd degree chemical burn on my left leg now!!! ROFL!! How I couldn't tell ya. But I have spent the whole night with an ice pack on my leg. It did work REALLY well though for the rest of my legs. LOL

There was a very bright shinning part of the day that will have it's own post but for now I am going to try sort through the days events and go to bed! I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!!! LOL

SUNNY!

I was shocked yesterday afternoon to look out the window and notice that the clouds had all gone away and that it was bright and SUNNY outside! Even better it was WARM!! Chris was just about ready to get off of work, so I got the girls together and out front we went! I brought out Charlotte's uni-saucer, and Lily played with her Chalk and bubbles. We had such a nice time. When Chris got home Lily went on a hunt for flowers. She kept pushing the flowers to her face to smell and at one point was kissing them. She had yellow all over her face! Charlotte just enjoyed being out in the sunshine. I am hoping that it stays this way and we can get to the park this weekend. That would be such a nice change from the indoor mall play yards! I am keeping my fingers crossed that is for sure!



OUTSIDE FUN!










PRETTY GUS!



FASHION DIVA!!