Our Little Swimmer

Today was Lily's first day of swim classes! We found her a parent and me class at the YMCA. So today she became an Aqua Tot!

This was our birthday present for her, so we also let her pick out 2 new swimming suits. Last night when we were getting our bag ready I asked her which one she wanted to wear. Of course we had to try it on and show Daddy and Charlotte!

When we got to the Y and class got started I saw something that I think is going to be the norm for Lily most of her life... she was the shortest/smallest! :-) Did that stop her?? Not one bit! Once she got comfortable she was right in the mix! Her instructor had us all in a circle in the most swallow water then we got to be baby turtles and blow bubbles in the water. Lily took a sec to get the gist of this. She would put her whole face in mouth wide open (think Pelican!). When we were done with this he pulled out diving rings and would have the kids close their eyes and he would throw them in. Then they could all run in get them. The first time he did this Lily was a little shy to run right in. So she didn't get one. After a while he did it again, this time she took off like a bolt and came proudly gripping her ring! She told me "I got one this time!"

It was a lot of fun! She came home and told Chris how she was kicking her feet and blowing bubbles! Oh and she went under twice!! I about had a heart attack! She was in the mix trying to get a ring, this time we were in a little deeper water. She could still touch with no problems. She found a ring on the bottom and just went for it! I let her go and didn't try to stop her, it was hard not to though.

Her and I will do this for 6 weeks and then she could start the next level where she goes in the water by herself. We are going to have to see how tall she is by then, she is still .5 in short of 3 feet! I found this out after the instructor told the parents to have them jump up and give high fives to get them used to jumping in the water. We were in swallow water so I went to put her off my knees to let her do this and she went right under (oops!). She thankfully came back up laughing, and told me it was OK when I told her that I was sorry!

She told me on the way home that she would like to "go back tomorrow later and do that again!" I think it was a hit!!

Rockin' the white socks!

She was very excited to get going this morning!

Congratulations....

You have been admitted to University of Maryland University College!

That was the opening line from the email Chris received yesterday afternoon!

He was accepted and set to start as early as the summer '09!

WAY TO GO BIG DADDY!!

Your girls will cheer you all the way!!

George and Wheezie!

We have moved on up!

Now this is good actually mind- blowing for Chris and I and something we never ever dreamed of doing when we first looked into the Disney trip. That was all until a wonderful woman I spoke to last Friday opened a door for us!

Let me back up.. When we called to make the arrangements for Disney World we were extremely excited to even be able to make a trip like this let alone stay on site. We were handed a deal that was great. However, we quickly found out that planning a trip like this takes a lot of planning. There are way too many options to figure out, and of course Disney is a business and isn't going to let go of too many sweet deals. You have to know what you are eligible for.

Just about two weeks ago we made our original reservation. Since that afternoon we have called back 5 times to make changes! I also officially need a 12 step program for Disney Fan sites. I am addicted- there I said it. Chris will agree fully, but is also grateful for my new addiction.

I called back Friday evening to make the 3rd change. We wanted to make sure that our room was reasonably close to the bus stops. While I was on the phone with this wonderful woman we were talking about the Free Dining that Disney has run the past 4 or so years. She assured me that she knew nothing about this as of yet (the announcement doesn't come out until the first weeks in April) but advised me that we were not eligible! [insert my "What you talking 'bout Willis" face]

Apparently, when we first booked they we not able to let us use the buy 4 get 3 night offer because we were traveling in Sept and we could/would not change that. I didn't know that when Chris was on the phone he was informed that they had found us another discount, and applied it. Because we are using this discount we could not get the free dining unless we dropped the first one.

Confusing I know- I have literally lost sleep over the Mouse! LOL

So I asked her what was the discount they had applied. She then told me it was for 40% off of our room! Holy Crap! We were already staying at a value resort so 40% off was good but minor. My mind started clicking, I asked her to run me two different options for rooms just to "see what it might look like" (heehee). I about fell over. Chris was at school so I had to wait. This was a big choice to make and one that I wasn't going to surprise him with.

In the meantime I asked Lily and Charlotte and they both like Mommy's idea! :0-)

Chris was a little harder sell. We literally sat up Friday looking at the different options (I really think he thought I was pulling his leg!). We went to bed leaning towards one way. We woke both leaning the other. Finally, we give up decide to stay put at the first resort. About 2 hours later Chris gets reading our planning book and he starts asking questions again.

Finally he calls and we actually book it! We are staying at the (drum roll please......)

WILDERNESS LODGE!!

Talk about an upgrade!! We are still in shock that we were able to score this kind of a deal! We saw this hotel when we stayed there in 2004. We were at the Cabins and they were the first stop off the boat from Magic Kingdom. We always thought it was so beautiful!

I already have a spread sheet started for all of the things we need to pack! Six months is going to come around quicker then I think!!

Chris- you don't know that I am writing this- as I didn't read it to you :-) I wanted to say Thank You! This trip is only happening because of the provider that you are for us. I am proud of you for doing so well keeping up with everything you have going on and still finding time for the girls and I. We love you very VERY much! PS- No I refuse to buy you Lumber Jack Swimming Trucks!! LOL :-)

Poosie and Puddle Duck

I really should rename the blog the Tales of Poosie and Puddle Duck. That is what I call the girls. Lily is poosie, it morphed from silly goosie. Charlotte is puddle duck, because that is what she looks like when she dances. Chris calls them both Woman! You have to hear it. It is really funny!

Anyway, just thought I would share that little tid-bit. I am working my way up to the good news post. But before that I wanted to share about what the girls have been up too. It is amazing how quickly they change.

Lily- is 3 going on 13! She is in total princess, dress-up, prissy mode. She has been talking in full sentences for a while now. It is easy to see that she loves to be able to be better understood. She has been trying to tell knock- knock jokes! She will say knock-knock we will say who is there then she says her whole name or will say knock-knock again. She thinks it is the funniest thing in the world! She has become a little Momma to Charlotte. Sometimes we have to remind her that of that!

I think that one of the biggest and saddest things is that she has stopped calling Charlotte, Rdette :-( Instead she will call her Sralette, honey, puddle duck, or my new favorite hunny bear!She has become quite a nurturer to Charlotte.

We are doing better in the potty department but it is still day to day. Sometimes we get a few good days to even a week, and then back slide a little. She will have dry panties on her Wedding Day I am sure of it!

I almost forgot! Lily got her ears redone. We had them pierced when she was about 16 months old and it didn't work out. Over Presidents Day weekend we were visiting at my parents house and watched Juice have her started earrings taken out and new ones put it. Lily thought that she could just have my sister put them in. Then she got very excited when she realized that we needed to go to a store to have them done. In her eyes everything is MUCH more fancier when it comes from a store! So far so good this time around.

She is super excited about starting swimming classes. This is what we gave her for her birthday present. It is a parent/child class. We start this Saturday!

As for our Puddle Duck... she is really coming into her own. As evidence by nickname she loves to dance! She can now say: Momma, Dada/Daddy, EE (Lily), Dog, door, shoe, hi, bye, I love you ( sounds more like I A EWW), and Thank you (sounds more like anth eww).

She loves to wrestle with Lily! OH and they dance together now! That is the cutest!

She loves to color. I will hang large coloring pages on the wall and let them go for it, the only problem is that now she wants to color there whether there is a coloring page there or not! Sigh Thank goodness for Magic Erasers! I guess that is better then her eating the crayons! Although she still sneaks a taste now and then!

She is still in her booster seat but she can sit right at the table. She has been eating with fork with ease for a few weeks now. Good news for Grandpa C (and me) she has been favoring her left hand! I know it is WAY to early to tell but it still makes me smile!

Both of the girls are really doing great. They (Lily especially) are getting excited about Disney-hint about the good news there... Lily will get in my lap and ask to look at Disney things and whenever we see a Mickey Charlotte says "Maaakee" and points like a wild women! :-)

OK now onto the Good News post!!! Opps not yet.. Charlotte is awake from nap!! Gotta wait a little longer!!

My Sweet Baby

Look at that sweet face! Sigh... she doesn't look a thing like a pissed off Scottish man does she?

You know how sometimes kids will do things that will follow them FOREVER? Last week Charlotte did something that I cannot wait to tell her children!

We were at Playwise Kids (where we took Lily for her birthday), the girls were playing and having a really good time. It was just about time to have lunch. They have tables and you can bring your own lunch to eat before leaving. The girls were in the area that has a large playhouse. Another child had left a kid sized cart in that area. Charlotte LOVES these things. I cannot stand them! Lily was in the house playing, and Charlotte was running the cart into the walls, falling, normal things :-)

The child that had apparently left the cart in this area came back and as little children do took it from her. He wasn't mean and didn't do anything to her. He was just matter-of-fact about it and took it. Now I am FINE with this, and I try to redirect Charlotte just telling her that he was putting it back and try to get her interested in the house. I really thought she would just go back to playing with Lily.

HA HA HA Silly Mommy!

Remember the movie Braveheart? When Mel Gibson does the battle cry of 'FREEDOM'?

That was her! She shook me off, as if she was saying "oh no he didn't!" and took off after him! There was another child in the way driving a cozy coupe I swear I thought she was going to car jack him. Thankfully I was able to stop that before anything like that happened! But this kid had been "shopping" in the grocery area and was returning to the playhouse (where Lily still was) with a car full of food. Charlotte reached in and grabbed a plastic meat roll! Held it up in the air waving it around yelling! I took it back and gave that back. Still trying to shake me took off again to get her cart back!

All three of us make it into the grocery area. The Mom of the boy who took the cart was trying to tell the boy to give the cart back to Charlotte. I am trying to tell her that it is OK that he can have it. She still made him say he was sorry for taking it. Guess what? By then she had already moved onto bothering her sister.

The whole time this was happening I was trying so hard to keep her from actually getting this little boy (who was at least twice her size) I didn't realize how funny it was until we were leaving. I called Chris and told him that we were leaving and told him what had happened. He said that we are going to file this away for when she is older!

Coming Soon!!

Very good things have been happening around here...

Promise an update coming VERY soon!!

PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES!!!

Polar Bear Plunge!

11,000 of our closest crazy friends!
WE DID IT!!

We got to meet Captain Defense!!

GO RAISINS!!-Lilyism

AKA RAVENS!! Yup that is ICE on the SAND!

Pretty Girl!

At Lily's Birthday!

Lovin' Fancy Nancy!

Random Cuteness!

Charlotte cuteness!

This is my point of reference on our hard days!

I think "remember how sweet they could be?"

Little Einsteins!!

DISNEY BOUND!!!!

There was NO WAY I was going to walk away from this computer tonight without sharing this!! We booked it today! We are going in September and are THRILLED!!

For those who don't know how special Disney is for Chris and I, let me explain...

We went there in 2004 with my family and had the time of our lives (don't I sound like the commercial?!:-). During the fun of being there we also were able to have serious talks about what path we were going to take to start our family. With all the babies and kids there it is hard NOT to think about children. We could have walked down either path, Chris was a little more resistant about adoption, more for that fact that he had no clue where to even begin a process like that. So over the course of the week and amidst the backdrop of the "happiest place on earth" we had these open hearted talks. We used words like Russia, domestic, developmental disabilities, tests, needles, and drugs. Looking back Gautemala was not even on our radar.

Finally on one of our last nights there while watching the fire works something clicked in both of us we just knew we were going to adopt. We never looked back. We came home from the trip not telling a soul what we had decided to do and got to work. We saw our Matthew's picture 6 months later.

The following year for Christmas we gave our families a framed photo of Matthew in a double sided frame. On the other side we wrote out the lyrics to the song Wishes. It is what the firework display is set off to at Disney world.

I know this sounds crazy but it has been an emotional day for Chris and I. We had been looking into this for a LONG time and wanted to make sure that we timed it right with the girls, Chris' school schedule, and that we could honestly afford it. Beyond that today we were handed the deal of a lifetime and would have been true fools to walk away from it. :-)

We are going to be staying on the Disney Grounds at the Pop Century Resort. It is one of the more reasonable places on the grounds. We are going to drive down. With the gear that the girls need it just makes better sense to. Plus I am NOT a good flyer. It just scares me.

I have already started taking pictures to record our trip. We taped telling Lily! If blogger was acting right tonight I would post it. But her eyes got as big as her head when we told her that we were going to see Cinderella and Mickey. She said "wait Captain hook too?!" She has been on a Peter Pan kick lately. She calls him Peter Peter! LOL I also took pictures of Chris while he was booking our tickets.

Charlotte doesn't understand yet but by the time that we go she will be just under two. She will know who they are. I am sure Lily will help with that!!! LOL

We are so happy that we get to take the girls back to where the little seed of our dream of them started to grow!

Now I have to start making lists! :-)

Bad Mommy Bad!

Back at last! The end of January was good, but exceptionally busy! Chris started back to school right after Lily's birthday party. That has been an adjustment for everyone. Just about 4 weeks in and so far so good! He has applied for Graduation, and he is going to be talking to a UMUC advisor at the end of the this month to so he can enroll in the fall!

On January 24 we did indeed complete our Polar Bear Plunge! I get cold just thinking about that day! We did make our goal of $500.00! When it was finally time to plunge I totally freaked! I think the cold had just really gotten to me and the thought of even putting a TOE in that water. Which was 33 degrees! BRRRR!! Chris rocked it! He just got me back together and we ran in , together. It is funny though when you are in the water at the first second you touch it, it doesn't feel soo bad... but then just as quick your legs turn into lead! My toes didn't get feeling back until the next morning! I will admit for someone who HATES the cold water as much as Chris does, he manned up that day! He actually said he felt like we cheated because we didn't go under the water. We made it till about right under our hips before I couldn't take anymore.

We are planning to do this again next year... so anyone that wants to join us is more then welcome! Also a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who supported us in this adventure!! The Special Olympics is $2.5 million dollars better off!

I am just going to keep working backwards....

Chris and Lily's birthdays! Chris' turned the BIG 30 last month. He shared his birthday weekend with Miss Lily. It was a great weekend. Lily loved all of the Little Einsteins decorations. I think that best part for her was that we let her pick out her dress. She had a choice of two, a purple one (looked like June from Little Einstein) or a Minnie Mouse dress we picked up for a steal after Halloween. She picked Minnie. With her black hair she looked absolutely adorable! And she KNEW it!! LOL Another highlight was the fact that she blew out her own candle! She was surprised when it went out!

I plan to do another post to catch up everything with the girls. I will say that Lily turned 3 and suddenly we have an emotional little girl on our hands. Last week was a rough one for both of us. Hopefully it will smooth out a little. Charlotte is just as much of a ham as ever! She is turning into quite a funny girl!

We also have some BIG news that I will also share in another post... I think we gave it away already. I was too excited to NOT put it up!

I was going to put pictures up but the dang thing won't let me tonight. I will try again tomorrow. We are going to take advantage of the nice weather up here and take the girls to the Zoo tomorrow. That will be fun for all of us to get out and enjoy the sun for the day!