The Fever That Would Not End...

All throughout the day yesterday Lily still seemed a little off. She felt warm, but not burning up at all. I thought that maybe the fever had really just taken a lot out of her. I just let her call the shots on what she did. The biggest thing I noticed is that her appetite was basically gone. She would drink, but would only take a few bites and then say she was done.

Last night I made spaghetti a Lily favorite and she just picked at it. When she was getting down I was holding her under her arms helping her down and she felt really hot. ...crap...

I took her temp 103.5 at this point it was about 10 till 6 and we tired to call into her Ped's office. We got her Nurse and told her what was going on. We found out that our Ped had surgery over the weekend and had gotten an infection and was now admitted in the hospital herself. She advised us to take Lily over to the Patients First Clinic and have her seen asap.

Lily and got ourselves together and off we went. They checked everything, Strep Throat, Pneumonia, UTI, and did a finger stick. They only thing that they could come up with is it is a middle ear infection. The doctor there gave her a pretty strong antibiotic and told me give her a loading dose when we got home along with a large dose of Motrin.

Here is the funny thing... apparently when Lily's fever gets really high, so does she. She was like a little drunk person, and VERY talkative. She asked every question under the sun. She asked all about the doctor, then when he left she broke into song. At one point I found myself begging her (in my head) to NOT remember something we have been learning. You will understand when you read this chat...

L: (singing) ducky, bear, bear, I love duckies, bear, bear.
She stopped suddenly and looked at me
L: Mommy who is that?
M: I think he is the doctor.
L: No, he is a blue shirt
M: OK but I think that he is the doctor too
L: No he is a man, not a a doctor (then she started singing again) a man, a man, man manman

We have been learning what makes a girl a girl and a boy a boy. Just using simple terms. I sat planted in my seat her on my lap, and turned blood red. Silently I begged her to not in that one moment remember what he has that she doesn't. Thankfully she didn't and when she was done singing she rested on me again.

The good news is that we checked on her several times after we put her to bed and each time she was more and more sweaty. The last time we checked I took her temp again and it was 98.0. So far today she is still a little slow especially this morning. Right now she is napping. I told her the doctor said she had too, and we have to do what the doctor says :-) I think that we on the right track though.

The one thing I couldn't help but think about is how parents with VERY sick children do it. I was so scared that I was going to hear something horrible last night once the tests came back. This fever was just so out of left field and she has never once complained of ear pain, before or after going into be seen. I am very grateful that our kids and as healthy as they are.

She Gives Me Fever

We had a very nice weekend until Sunday night. I will post about the great part very soon. Tonight though I am still in very sick kid mode.

Sunday was a normal day. We said good-bye to my parents and Juice in the morning, then headed over to see Chris' sister and her very beautiful wedding dress. The girls were great. We came home from there just in time for lunch and nap. When the girls got up (yes Lily slept first red flag) and we headed out for dinner. Chris was given a gift card for Outback we went early enough that there wasn't a wait at all. It was nice and the girl's did very well. We don't do that really enough. From there we headed over to Target and then home. It was a normal night.

At 11:45 that night we heard Lily on the monitor. It sounded like she was having a nightmare. Chris went in to see what was going on. Lily was about to jump out of her bed. She was half asleep, half awake, yelling that her feet hurt. I stood her up thinking that maybe she was having a Charlie Horse. She couldn't stand. I sat her back down and started pushing down her legs and all over her feet. No pain and she started to calm down. I asked if she wanted to go to the bathroom. She did, but still wouldn't walk. She kept just saying that it hurt and that she hurt them when she stepped on a toy. I am thinking that maybe she was dreaming. That was until I picked her up out of the bed and held her close to me. She was burning up.

Lily has been home with us for 2.5 years. She has NEVER had a fever. Charlotte has never had a fever. This was out of left field. While she was on the potty Chris got the thermometer and when she was done we took into our room and I took her temp. The few times I thought they had fevers I take them rectally. It was 102.5. We got out the Motrin and a water cup. After she took that we sat on the bed with her for a little while. Then in a blink of an eye she turned a lovely shade of green and vomited all over herself, me and our bed. That earned a trip to the tub. She was not happy about that, but started to look and sound better. Once we got her out we hung out back in our room. I checked her temp again and she was down to 101.7. She was sleepy so we went ahead and put her back in her bed. She slept right through until the morning.

When we all got up she still felt a little warm but she was normal Lily. We went ahead and gave her another dose of Motrin. She played through the morning and around lunchtime she was asking me if I remembered her getting soap in her eyes. I really didn't. She plays a lot of pretend games so I wasn't sure if she was playing or not. Looking back now she was saying that because her eyes were burning from the fever. She had lunch then in for nap, she fell asleep again. 45 mins later she is thrashing in our bed. We hear her and tear off in to the room. I swear to God she felt like she was on fire. Chris went right into start another bath while I took her temp. it was 104.7 HOLY CRAP! I run to get her in the tub. She is screaming because she is soooo cold and upset. Chris is on the phone with our Ped. She tells us what to do. We were to give her a dose and a half of Motrin, keep her in the tub as long as she would let us, recheck her temp in 3 hours, if it wasn't down to give her Tylenol, wait an hour if she still wasn't down to take her the ER.

The worst part of this tub was that she had to pee. I did not want to move her in and out of the luke warm water. So I told her to just go (gross I know- I really was worried I would throw her into shock) she started SCREAMING that she could not do that. So I went against my better judgement and took her out and sat her on the potty. She was like a limp noodle. I could feel her heart beating on my hand when I reached to get her off. I was sooo scared. I put her back in the water and kept squeezing water over her and telling her that I was sorry. It was really sad.

Finally I decided that I could not torture her anymore. Chris got her out a tank and a pull up. I wrapped her in the towel and took her back into our bedroom. Got the little bit of clothes on her and made her lay down with us. We put in Nemo to watch. She asked for something to drink. We gave her a cold water cup. She took 3 sucks and promptly threw up again. Loosing all the Motrin we had just given her. I cleaned her up while Chris paged the Ped again. She changes her over to Tylenol suppositories. FANTASTIC! Chris ran out to get them while I stayed back.

I gave these things all the time when I was a Nurse. Doing it to your baby is a whole new level. Like we always do we told her that we didn't know if it was going to hurt but I was going to be as quick as I could and that Daddy would hold her hands. She didn't like it but it was in and done. We watched the rest of Nemo. I must have checked her forehead 3 million times. After the movie she came down to 103.6.

We let her play quiet things in the afternoon and evening. The sad part is trying to have her understand why she couldn't have certain things like milk and her blanket on her bed. We made a very big deal over putting her blanket back on her bed tonight.

We kept up with the Tylenol every 4 hours throughout the day. This morning I tried the Motrin again and prayed. Finally at 3pm today after 36 hours her temp was back to normal. She has been a little teary tonight, and clingy. Her appetite still isn't quite right. But that is about it. Thankfully Charlotte hasn't show any signs of this. C Bear was very sweet to her sister over the past few days. Giving extra hugs and loves to Lily.

The Big Day!!!

Tonight is Chris' Graduation! Lily is very excited for Chris to wear his 'very handsome blue nightgown' AKA his graduation robe. We also made Chris a shirt that say This Dad is a Grad! they are going to wear them after the ceremony. I am charging the camera as I am typing this so I will have tons more to share tomorrow!

Poopcasso

This is Charlotte's new nickname. She has gotten into her diaper three times now! Even through a onesis barrier! She is such a hot baby, so we have not been putting her in the heavy fleece sleepers. Thankfully we found a few light weight ones at Target. She was madder then mad the first night we put it on. She pulled at the tab/zipper. Even tried to chew through it! But she didn't get into her diaper!

I know this sounds really gross but I think that it is a texture thing for her. It has stopped for now, even on the nights that we don't use the full sleeper. We are hopeful that this was a short phase! Chris and I laugh all the time and say that Charlotte was sent to us to make sure we got the full parenting experience! I guess if nothing else she has made us immune to pretty much anything! Thank goodness she is soooo stinking cute!

Priceless

4 boxes of chocolate cake mix -$ 3.00

1 roll of paper towels to clean up the mess- $0.50

1 afternoon of sweet giggles from a 3 year old- priceless!

Chris asked me to make cupcakes to take into work as a thank you for being supportive through this past semester of school. Yesterday we got to work! I made the first half during nap/rest time. Then when Lily came out we got to work on the second half. It was a huge mess but a lot of fun! She has really been wanting to help more and more in the kitchen lately and has been very interested in what I do when I say I am 'cooking'. It was one of those moments I just wanted to freeze in time. She is getting to darn big! :-)

Ultimate Expression of Love

First off I want to thank you all for leaving such sweet comments for Matthew and us. We did have a nice day of talking about him and thinking back to those days before we lost him. Leslie asked if we know if he was ever adopted and we honestly don't know. We have thought about searching, maybe one day we will. I am afraid to do that after things about our now closed agency have come to light. It is hard to know what to believe...

Moving on to a happier topic.....

Yesterday Charlotte brought the whole big box of dog biscuits in from the kitchen and started handing them out to our dogs. They LOVE when she does this! Well of course Lily had to join in as well. I was watching them handing them out and Charlotte brought me one. I told her to go ahead and give it to the dogs and she laughed and trotted off to give it. Lily then walked up to me with a biscuit and said 'Mommy if you were a doggie I would give you a biscuit too.' I have never been told I love you quite like that! It really was the ultimate expression of love!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy

Today, somewhere in the world our Matthew turns 4 years old.

The feelings that surround Matthew's loss is hard for people to understand unless you lived through a failed adoption. We were in process (paper pregnant) for a little over 5 months. When we lost him it was as if he died. He was pulled away from us so fast it made our world spin. Until the exact time of that call we thought everything was going perfectly.

We loved Matthew, we love Matthew. We would have given him a home full of laughter and love. His loss is no less just because we didn't carry him. We never held him in our arms but that doesn't mean we aren't as broken by his absence. Some would think that with time his memory would just fade off, especially since we have our girls. Not even close to true. If anything it makes it that much harder. Not that we would trade a second with them or wish he were here instead. In a perfect world we would have them all in our arms everyday. He would be running with Chris through the boy sections of Disney this fall and love all things Star Trek. But that wasn't meant to be. Instead we are here mourning for our baby who we only ever touched through a computer screen, but love with every bit of our hearts.

This year Chris and I choose to do things a little different. We sponsored a little boy on the Salvation Army Angel Tree that was Matthew's age at Christmas. It brought us great happiness to give to another little boy. Even more Chris and I were able to shop without the girls it was nice to really be able to think about what Matthew would like at his age. It was comforting in way.

I am in a much better place with his loss then in years past. Will I ever be over it? No chance. His loss was the single saddest of our lives and marriage. I think of him everyday, even more so on May 18th(his birthday), and January 18th(the day he was taken). I will be thinking of him at Lily and Charlotte's Graduations, at their weddings. I am sure I will be blogging 16 years from now when he turns 20 and have the same tear stained face. For those 5 very short months he was our baby, our Son, and he will never be forgotten.

We love you so very much Matthew! Happy 4th Birthday sweet boy...

From Where You Are

Lifehouse

So far away from where you are

These miles have torn us worlds apart

and I miss you

I miss you

So far away from where you are

I'm out standing underneath the stars

and I wish you

were here

I miss the years that were erased

I miss the way the sunshine would light up your face

I miss all the little things

I never thought that they'd mean everything to me

I miss you

and I wish you

were here

I feel the beating of you heart

I see the shadows of your face

Just know that wherever you are

I miss you

and I wish you

were here

So far away from where you are

These miles have torn us worlds apart

I miss you, I miss you

and I wish you

were here....

Disney Websites

A few Mommy's asked where I get all of my super cool info about the 'Happiest Place On Earth" I LOVE to share sooooo here it goes...

www.disney.com
The main man Mickey's site!

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/
More centered for the vacation planning

www.allears.net
This site gives you insights on what is new and happening, also lets you preview menus in the parks before you make your ressie.

www.wdwinfo.com
By far my favorite site. It is my new Adoption.com! I go there for everything!

www.mousesavers.com
This site gives tips on how to not take out a small loan to go to Disney!

www.disneyphotopass.com
This is a program in Disney that takes your pictures and then will add in characters from the park. You can also add boarders and titles to the pictures.

www.laughingplacestore.com
A store I stumbled on looking for autograph books. I haven't bought from this site.

http://coronado_springs.tripod.com/
This is where we are staying!

http://s3.excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=9723
This is a nice way to give back. These ladies are in contact with people traveling through the Make A Wish program. They help make the trip just a little more magical for the families.

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disneysphotopass/
More info on the Photo pass program

https://www.gardengrocer.com
Since we are flying I found out that we don't have to carry so many needed items with us on the plane. This website allows you to pre-purchase groceries and then for a small fee ($12.00) they will deliver them to you. I checked them out last night and found that the items we were looking for were well within normal range price wise. I am putting our order in Friday.

http://www.magicalkingdoms.com/timers/
Where I have made tickers for a Disney board. If you want the name plate just click on it and it will take you right to the site! For Blog Spot you need the smaller one.

http://clipart.disneysites.com/
Free Disney Clip Art!

http://www.passporter.com/wdw/
The website partner for the Passporters Guide to Walt Disney World. This is the only planning book I have bought.

http://www.mousemisers.com/
Good info!

http://www.i95exitguide.com/index.php
A guide to 95

www.southwest.com
where we booked the flights!

This is how I have spent my nap times and evenings for the past 3 months! I hope you find it all as useful as I have!

Disney Update

Are we crazy?? Well maybe a little... but we also know what our parenting limits are. For that reason Chris heard words that strike fear in him... "I have been thinking..." I have no clue why he turns a different shade every time I say that. :-)

Well last night we talked, and talked, and talked about our mode of transportation to get to Disney. There were valid pros and cons for both flying and driving. We had found really cheap flights on Southwest. By really cheap I mean $49 flights cheap. In the end we chose to sleep on it and look at it again this morning. By this morning of course the flight costs had gone up. But we were determined to NOT ride 14 hours over two days in the van. We found that when we flexed our dates that just by moving it by a few days made a world of difference and made the $49 flights reappear! Plus Southwest doesn't charge for your first two bags per person. That is a bonus in itself.

I had to wait to call into Disney until this morning to see if the new dates were available. Thankfully they were! While I was on hold with Disney waiting for the confirmation I went ahead and booked the flights! OMG!

The dates have been changed to 9/7-9/14. Only a change of four days.

I don't like to fly, I dread it, but I dread hours of unhappy children even more. I will take two hours of upset over 14 anytime. Chris really didn't care one way or another, but understands where I am coming from. We don't have to rent a car, Disney picks you up from the airport and takes you to your resort. Heck, you don't even have to pick up your luggage they deliver that to you!

Needless to say Lily was VERY excited this morning to find out we were going to ride in an airplane. It was great to hear her very accurately articulate what happens "We go up up up in the air, then down down to see Mictey!"

The funny thing is that even though I don't like to fly, I feel at peace with this. Just like when we switched resorts, it was the right decision to make both times.

LISTED!

On the DEAN'S LIST that is!! My husband is a genius! He had his Math final last night. His professor didn't grade them at the end of class. Chris give him our email address and this morning I was woken up by a BEAMING hubby!

He scored over 100% and his final grade was an A!!!!!

Final score two A's on the finals and nearly perfect scores for both classes!

While Chris was taking his final I worked off some nervous energy with the girls by putting together a little surprise party for him. We blew up balloons, put up streamers, and made posters. The girls had such a good time. Lily 'wrote' all over the poster in her own language telling Chris that she loved him and congratulations. It was really sweet! We also picked up a small cake and put that out. Lily insisted on a candle! Chris was very surprised when he got home.

His graduation is next Thursday. He has off a week and a half before he starts the summer session at UMUC.

As always his girls are VERY proud of him! Go, Daddy, Go Daddy!!! :-)

Funny!

I found this on another Mommy's blog and thought it was VERY funny.

May 10, 2006

Today four years ago we met our Lily!

A Mother's Day Full of Firsts...

First of all let me recap my morning. It was amazing!! I awoke to a cool breeze blowing gently over me, and in a big warm bed. I turned my head to look out the window to see local wildlife frolicking. I listen to hear the cooing laughter of my children coming closer... I was completely content.

Then I woke up!!

The cool breeze was our old oscillating fan. The big warm bed contained Chris, Lily and I. The local "wild life"was our dogs, one of which was doing his business. The cooing was Charlotte letting it be quite known that she was awake and ready for the day! And ya know what?

I was completely content! :-)

I hope that every Mommy had a great day today!! My day was fantastic! Chris ran Lily over to get breakfast. She was thrilled to have choco-milk - I really don't think they have ever had it. I know for sure it was Charlotte's first. After we finished up breakfast we started to get ready for the adventure that is Downtown Baltimore City! Ya never know what you will see there!

My gift this year was a membership to the National Aquarium at the Inner Harbor. It will pay for itself in just two visits! Score! This is where we were headed. We ALWAYS, and every time get lost in the city. This was the first time we found our destination on the first try! We found a great place to park- very close- very public makes Megan VERY happy! Remember where we are....

Once we got it all together we made our way and for the first time we get to use the Member entrance. We felt very high class- of course we laughed about that! The next first wasn't planned for. We didn't know that we couldn't use the stroller while touring the Aquarium. So for the first time Charlotte got to ride in a backpack carrier. They offer them for free. Charlotte didn't care if it cost a billion dollars she was not happy! We tried for a while to make her happy, but in the end we took her out and she walked 90% of it. She was so proud of herself!

After we ditched (returned) the backpack the fun really started. Lily was in awe of everything she saw. There was a large pool of sting rays. She told me that they looked like butterflies and they were flying like Peter Peter (Peter Pan) just in the water. She was in heaven! We wandered for a while then we came to the spiral. It is pretty dark in there and it is a winding walk down. Lily is NOT a big fan of ANYTHING she deems spooky. Her and I just held hands and kept walking and looking at the 'fishes'. At the very bottom of the spiral is the shark tanks. These suckers were huge up close. Lily deemed them 'bigger then Daddy' FYI anything large is big like her Daddy. He is her point of reference. Charlotte was in awe as well at this point. She just kept pointing and saying 'see, see'.

When we hit bottom we walked right into a feeding session with the sting rays. That was a first for all of us! There was a little ledge that the girls could stand on to watch. Charlotte was clapping her hands and laughing. We were very careful NOT to let her bang on the tanks. We didn't want a Darla moment from Finding Nemo! Although she did squeal while in the shark tank area! Chris said he thought she might ignite a frenzy from the sound! As for Lily she swears the sting rays were smiling at her! We stood there for a long while waving and saying Hi to each one that swam by watching them eat the little 'fishes'. Thankfully Lily didn't really catch on to that!

After a while the diver ran out of fish waved a good-bye and we moved on. Next was the Dolphin show! Lily had talked about this for days! She was soooo excited. To get to that part of the building required another first for the girls... escalators! Up and down back and forth! Something I know most people do not know is my fear of these things. I can go up fine it is the down. Regular steps get to me too. I never carry the girls down steps. Chris does. When we are in the playroom upstairs I carry Charlotte and walk backwards facing Lily. I don't know why, it just freaks me out! So the thought of doing it with my child in tow was a first time I had to deal with that panic. Chris took Charlotte, and I had Lily. I must have let 5 families go first. All of whom looked at me like I was crazy! By the time we made it down I was a red face mess! Lily loved it. She really thought she a big girl today. She had no clue!

Back to the Dolphin Show....When we got right outside of the show we thought it best to have Lily and Daddy go to the bathroom. What we didn't notice was there was a restroom right in front of us DOH! It took them a few minutes to make it back, but they did and we headed in. Chris and I decided it best not to sit in the 'splash zone' we sat way up high! Which ended up being a good idea the girls got to see the dolphins jump better there.

Being this was their very first show like this we didn't know how they would react. I would have never guessed this! Charlotte LOVED it! She giggled, squealed,kicked, clapped. She really seemed to feed off our reactions to everything going on around us. She was really into it and was very verbal about it. Lily also LOVED it but she was overwhelmed by it. She had a smile planted on her face the entire time, but I don't think she said one word! She just took it all in. It was a really neat show. Chris and I loved to see their reactions to it.

After it was over we decided it was time to head out. We of course perused the gift shop! Lily picked out a dolphin who Chris helped her name Mac, for the Mackerel Fish they eat. Charlotte picked out a hot pink penguin, who I have named Peggy. I have never seen her react that way to something. She loved on that thing all the way home, all evening, and she is now sleeping in her crib! I think we might have found her nite nite bear! Chris and Charlotte headed out to redeem our stroller, while Lily and I paid for their goodies! When we were done I didn't realize that to get to where they had gone required yet another trip down an escalator. Lily missed the first step, I had her hand and grabbed her up...we found the elevator.

Chris just smiled and shook his head when he saw us coming from the elevator. We grabbed some lunch went to the restroom one more time then headed out. We pondered around the Inner Harbor for a little while and then made our way back to the van.

Charlotte fell asleep on the way home- nothing new about that! Lily though had her first roadside emergency. We were maybe 2 minutes from home when she announces that she has to pee. We tell her we are almost home just hold on tight. She at that point crossed everything and held on as tight as she could, but it wasn't to be and then her announcement changed to "oh no it is coming out guys!" Chris hit the gas and we pulled into a Burger King like a Nascar car, her and I race in there. I felt as I pulled her out of the car seat that she had wet through already. I got into the bathroom and she hopped on the potty and finished. Thankfully Chris had remember this morning to grab an extra pair of shorts just in case. I switched out of the wet into dry, and drove the 30 secs to the house.

Once we got home, we got Charlotte down for her nap and Lily in our bed for a rest. Charlotte cut her nap WAY too short but woke up happy. We didn't rush right in there because we hoped that she would just fall back to sleep. She did get quiet for a little but then started again, this time a little louder. Chris went in there, he yells out oh S$&^T!!! I holler back asking what she had done now. We found her again a few days ago partly naked at bedtime. So I thought she just did that again. He yelled back "no really S^&T GET IN HERE!!"

Miss Charlotte must have been inspired by some of the prehistoric fish we saw this morning and drew cave drawings all over herself, crib, and sheets. With-you guessed it- poop! Well now that is a FIRST for us! I guess she is just doing her part to make us well rounded parents!

Today was filled with a ton of firsts. It really was a great day!

Chris thank you for making this weekend wonderful, and for being a great hubby!

Lily and Charlotte thank you for being such good girls today and handing the day really great!

Charlotte thank you for all my kisses and hugs today!

Lily thank you for all my hugs and kisses and all the Happy Modder's Day wishes!

A special thank you to a woman who I will never meet, in your selflessness you gave me my Lily and made me a Mommy!

A Memo From the Girls

Mr Sun,

Sun, Mr Golden Sun, PLEASE shone down on me. Oh MR. Sun, Sun Mr. Golden Sun, hiding behind those trees. These little children are asking you, to please come out so they can play with you. Oh Mr. Sun, Sun Mr. Golden Sun PLEASE shine down, Please shine down on, P L E A S E shine down on me!!!

Thank you,

Lilliana and Charlotte

Happy Nurses Day!

You know you are nurse when...

You know a nurse who died and went straight to hell? It took her two weeks to realize she wasn't at work!

You know you're a nurse if... you would like to meet the inventor of the call light some night in a dark alley.

You know the smell of different diarrhea to identify it.

You've been telling stories in a restaurant and made someone at another table "sick".

You've told a confused patient that your name was that of your coworker and to holler if they need help.

Your bladder can expand to the size of a Winnebago's water tank.

You find yourself checking out other customer's veins in grocery waiting lines.

You avoid unhealthy looking shoppers in the mall for fear that they will drop near you and you'll have to do CPR on your day off.

Your finger has gone places you never thought possible.

You have seen more penises than any prostitute.

If you are not a nurse this is just to help you understand our mind set and questionable mental status/sanity. Most of the time we function in spite of this sick sense of humor, fairly normally and very responsibly.

Scary, huh?????

My Momma (also a nurse) sent this to me! Happy Nurse's Day!!!

Disney Update!

I think the last post I was writing that we could begin planning this month. Well I was wrong. Disney releases operating times 90 days ahead of time. We have to wait until 6/1 ARGH!! I will only have 5 days to get everything mapped out so that I can make our reservations for the character meals. I am sure it will be fine but I would have liked a little more time to plan it out. I have a working plan, but I need the hours for the night parades to finalize it all.

We have been working on collecting things in our Disney bucket. We now have sunglasses and hats for the girls. During our last trip to the Disney store I stumbled in to a BONUS! Bibbity Bobbity Boutique princess crown clips! I kid you not I was sooo excited. I have already figured out how they do the princess bun but I thought I was going to have to wait until we got there to get one of the clips. Now we have one that we can play with before hand!

I put her hair up last night before bed, then she played bride! The next time I am going to get pics. This time it was more to show Chris why I was sooo excited! He saw how beautiful she looked and understood! Miss. Charley is still working on growing her hair, but does have enough for some cutie pie piggy tails!

I have a countdown chain to make, but it doesn't start for another ten days. I will gladly forward it if anyone wants one! I know that I plug http://www.wdwinfo.com/ in just about every Disney post, but this forum is truly awesome. There is a whole area where if you ask very talented people will make any iron on transfer that you want! Then you just print if off iron and you got a personalized shirt! I do not like to put the girls names on their shirts but I did have ones made that are mickey heads that say Big Sis and Lil Sis! One set is purple polka dots, and the other is pirates! I will play show and tell....




How cute are they!! Oh and it was free! :-) I can't wait to make the shirts!

May, May, May....Sigh...

May is FULL of emotion for Chris and I.

5/5/05 was the first meeting with our adoption agency

5/10/06 The first time we held Lily!

5/11/06- We received Pre- approval

5/13/06- We had to say good-bye to Lily for 8 LONG months....

5/19/06- We entered PGN

5/18/05 Our Matthew's Birthday...

I remember that when we were making our plans to visit Lily I refused to go over Matthew's birthday. I just couldn't do it. Looking back I should have gone. When we got back from visiting Lily I was so sad. I just couldn't comprehend that I had left my child behind. Then right behind that we faced Matthew's first birthday. I worked myself up so bad that I ended up in the Emergency Room the day after Matthew's birthday. They said it was dehydration from a stomach bug but I know it was a broken heart. I was a mess. The four months from the time we lost Matthew and met Lily I was able to push out how distraught I was to lose him. I had to love Lily, she needed to feel it, and I sent it in buckets. It took us leaving her for my dam to burst. I dread May, I can remember that pain like nothing else. It is the month I made myself face Matthew's loss. 4 years later I am in a better place, but May still bites big time!

Language Czar

Before the girls came Chris and I both had pretty bad potty mouths. Honestly there are times when I am retelling a story on the blog that I have to go back through and make sure that I didn't get too into it. Now that we have been parents we have developed a very thick filters. While I may still think it, it doesn't make it out! Normally, mostly, hey I am only human!

Now I am writing that to say that we (believe it or not ;-) are pretty strict on what language we consider 'nice'. I know, I know pot meet kettle. But they still too little yet to figure out how flawed we are!! Thankfully! I am SURE in the years to come they will! But for right now we are trying to instill better language. Isn't that what good parents try to do? Have their kids do better then they do? I hope so! Right now it is focused on Lily because she is the only one really speaking. Charlotte can express needs and emotions right now but that is about it. Lily likes to try out new things she picks up. Sigh...

We police her pretty well and if there is something that is new we try to figure out where she heard it. Believe it or not it is normally one of us! Go figure!! Well we must be doing something right though, because Lily has turned into a Language Czar! She is the first one to tell me that I have said a 'naughty' word.. sigh... Then I have to praise her because she is right.

For us naughty words for her to say are stupid, hate, crap, mean. I understand that she could be hearing or saying a lot worse. Mommy's filter is VERY thick! Nevertheless, we don't like to hear her say these things. We are strict about it. Now when she hears us.. man oh man! We hear ALLL about it. It sounds a lot like this...

Me: (talking to another adult) I hate when that happens!
Lily: Mommy you said a naughty word
Me: Crap....!
Lily: Mommmmy!
Me: (internally) %&$(*#^$%#&$&#$%#*$%@&!!!! --- Yes Lily you are right Mommy won't use those word anymore...

If she had a penny for every time she caught saying one of her naughty words she would be at least a Thousanaire! We are trying to be better everyday. She is just too darn quick! Just think Charlotte is right behind her! I am going to have to trade my filter in for a steel door!

Full Moon Sighting!

Last night when we went into check on the girls we noticed something didn't look quite right with Charlotte. Upon closer inspection we found that the little stinker had pulled off her PJ pants AND diaper!! She was laying there nn her tummy full moon aglow!

OF COURSE we were cracking up trying to get her little half naked self out of the crib to fix her self inflicted wardrobe malfunction!! When Chris reached in to get her she rolled right over and said very clearly 'Hi you!' and giggled while still mostly asleep!

We got her all put back together again and back to bed. When we made it into our room we totally lost it laughing! She is such a funny girl!

She really does love to just be in a diaper, so last week she was in heaven as the temps soared here, but this week it has been damp and chilly. Clothes are needed! This isn't the first time she has decided that she would rather not sleep in what we have picked for her. Normally she gets stuck somewhere in the process and in frustration crys for us. We have found her more then once stuck with a shirt over her head and her arms straight up in the air. This was the first time we were greeted with a full moon! Thankfully she didn't have an accident while disrobed!!

Chats With Lily

Lily: Yelling... I want my light on!!! I want my light on!!

Chris: Lily what word are you missing?

Lily: Pauses for a sec... DADDY!!! Put the light ON!

LOL Gotta love 3 year olds!!! Right?... Just kidding :-) She is even cute when she is in a mood!

One Down, One to Go!

Chris just received via email his first of his two final grades. This class was online and required him to write 17 3-4 page essay papers, each with a max of 20 points. This is his critique from his professor on his final paper.

Factual Content
12 points maximum
Very good
12 pts

Organization of paper
4 points maximum
Good
4 pts
Use of the readings in the

Paper
4 points maximum
Good
4 pts

Total pts: 20/20

Final grade: A

HE GOT AN A!!! I told him last night that I had a dream that he did get the A. He told me he had a dream that we pretended he was pregnant to rob a bank! OK then!!!

He has one more full week of in class, class then he will take that final for Math. Right now he has 100% in that class! He is just amazing, and in my eyes a total genius!

We are VERY proud of you!!