Earthquake in Haiti

A fellow blogging Momma (http://www.michellesmiles.com/) posted this link on her blog PLEASE follow it and help if you can.

http://www.thatschurch.com/

This is the email/webforms for the Senator's Cardin and Milkulski

cardin.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm Phone : (202) 224-4524

mikulski.senate.gov/Contact/contact.cfm Phone : (202) 224-4654

Please call/write and help get these babies OUT of there! Remember how it felt for Chris and I to be powerless. What these parents are going through we can't even imagine. Please do this in Lily's name as way of celebrating her homecoming anniversary this Sunday.

Thank you!

Monster Trucks and Pixie Dust

Last week the girls and I all had nasty colds. So nasty in fact for a couple days I wanted to use the 3 letter F word. It didn't progress that far, but it was close. Lily picked it up somewhere and shared it (she is learning soo much at preschool!) with us. Thankfully, it didn't hit everyone at once. By the time Lily was showing improvement, I started. True to form Charlotte got it the worst and is hanging on the longest.

A few nights ago, she really started coughing. We rubbed her chest with Vicks, and pulled out the humidifier with a Vicks pad in that. That did help for a while, but by the time Chris and I were going to bed she started again. We pulled a pillow off of our bed and tried propping her up with it. That seemed to do the trick.

The night before last, Chris had gone into check on them and found Charlotte with her head under her pillows. He pulled her out, she was covered in sweat but ok. We took our pillow away and everything was fine. She hadn't done that with her pillow before. Then yesterday at nap time I was going to try again with the two (it really was helping with her cough). She wanted NO parts of her pillow, she wanted mine. So I put hers on the bottom and mine on top. She snuggled her little head done on that pillow and sighed saying 'momma' and rubbed her head some more!

Then last night Chris didn't put the pillows the way I had at bedtime, but she didn't complain either. I had gone into check on them and found her again with her pillow over her head, laying on mine! I think I lost my pillow! LOL

She is just getting sooo big! I can't believe in about 6 more weeks she is going to 2 1/2! We are sitting on pause with potty training. She still likes the idea of it and will void on it sometimes, but she still likes the convenience of her diaper.I am fine with this, it is her last attachment to babyhood. She still prefers to eat with her hands. Chris and I were talking one night at dinner while we watched her eat with her hand while holding her spork. We decided right then that we are going to continue to encourage to eat with the spoon/fork, but not sweat over it. We know that at her wedding she will be eating with a fork!

This weekend Chris looked right at her and told her she was the prefect mix of Monster Trucks and Pixie Dust. This is so true! It is not uncommon to find her fully dressed in a princess ball gown playing with her tools 'fixing' something. She got a purse for Christmas to use for dress up. She loves to get it out and fill with her cars or trains and then put it on her arm.

She loves to play Wonder Pets. She will run up to Chris, and shout 'oh no, Gracie puppy in trouble!' Chris will ask her what they should do, she says 'I know, rescue!' Then he will ask her what she needs she says 'rope!' Then she runs out of the room to go start rescue. She could play this for hours!

One of her favorite things right now is Ela Fun! Who knew? I have to get this on video! Chris said she plays it like she is going for Gold in the XGames! It is Extreme Ela Fun in our house! She lets Lily have one of the nets then she must have the rest, she doesn't get it to try to catch the butterfly's, she hits at them. Oh my it is funny!

We are working on her dressing herself. This has been a slow milestone for her. Again I think she just likes the convenience of me dressing her. She does have opinions on what she likes to wear though! This morning we were running a little late to get Lily to preschool, so I sent her in her room to get out a pair of soft pants (what we call sweats/yoga pants). Well on her first attempt she came out with shorts, uhh no. I told her to try again and find pants. Second attempt she came out with pants, she was just trying to put them on legs by putting it over her head! It really helped to lighten up a stressful morning. Oh then she got them off of her head sat down and put two legs in one hole. Of course she stood up to check out her work just to fall. Lily and I were laughing so hard! Charlotte was laughing as well. Finally, she got her feet right and pulled them up! Lily and I cheered for her! Oh please don't think I was just sitting there watching her struggle, I was putting Lily's hair up.

She loves to cuddle again, she went through a Miss Independent phase. But now I guess it is cool again to snuggle! Kissing has also made a huge come back! Lily has always been a Daddy's girl, now Charlotte is starting to be one as well. Chris is in heaven! Everyday when he comes home from work it is like a rockstar has come to our house!

She and Lily are so tight, Chris and I don't have a chance! They love to play together, for the most part. Daily there are small issues, but I think it that over all they are Best Friends.

Ohh this is a funny one... she is sneaky! Charlotte loves to get out of her bed at night time. Normally Lily is still awake and rats her out! The other night though, I was on my way to the shower, and I walked past their room. I saw a small movement out of the corner of my eye. There she was up out of bed, standing by the dress-up area putting purses on her arm completely unaware I was watching her. I of course called Chris to see how cute this was! Once he saw we swung the door open talk about deer in the headlight!!

She is very demanding! We are constantly saying 'did you forget something?' Yesterday she was timed out for not putting the shoes away. I try to have the toys picked up before Chris gets home (keyword try). I wanted her to put the shoes that were scattered from playing dress up. She refused and actually told me 'never!' LOL It took two, two minute spats in time out for her to get the point!

She loves to sing! Row Row Your Boat, is her newest. Verbally in general she has exploded. There is very little I don't understand. My favorite thing she says right now is 'ummm, Momma?'

I can't wait to see what else is next for Miss. C!!

Back to the Grind

** I guess it would have been great if I included the name of the movie we went to see!! Yes, it was The Princess and the Frog! **


Holiday vacation is over for Mr. Henry :-( The girls both woke up asking where Daddy was. We spent the morning trying to get back on schedule and get things put up and away. Basically trying to make sense of all the things that were laying about. Lily's nose is still running, Charlotte is also now starting a little drip. We just got Charlotte's cough gone, hopefully this will stay a minor thing. Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow the girls and I are going to venture out to the store to get a few things to make cupcakes for Lily to take into school for her birthday. Chris and I told her she could invite 2 friends from school, she picked her little boy she is going to marry (her words not mine!) and another little girl. This is going to be our first little friend party. Next year we are going to let her invite all 12 kids from her class. We are going to have to figure out somewhere ELSE to have it. LOL But it is for her 5th, so we will see...

One on One Time

If you haven't already noticed what one of my resolutions this year is to try to blog as much as possible. I have a lot of undone posts I am working on getting finished as well as finishing off the videos and posts from Disney.

Another resolution Chris and I have made as a parenting team is to try to spend a lot more quality time with the girls. Not just be in the same room, but really engage them. I have read TOO many blogs this year written by parents who have lost their spouse or child. We really want these remaining cool years count. Before we know it Lily and Charlotte will be too cool to go the movies with Mommy, or on a special dinner date with Daddy. This year we are going to do much more of things like this. Today was the beginning.

I took Lily to see her very first movie in a theater! Chris and I were going to take her together but were afraid that time was running short, they just don't keep the movies in the theaters like they used to. Today was the perfect day! We told her that we were going to go as long as she wasn't running a fever (she still has that yucky runny nose, and she threw-up a ton of mucus over night) that we would go. She must have asked us to check her forehead at least 20 times this morning. She stayed cool and didn't vomit anymore. We were good to go! She was treated to a full on big girl morning. She got a shower and got to pick out her clothes it is amazing what a 4 year-old finds cool! :-) She took her Tiana baby doll on the ride over as well.

We had been talking about the movie and what to expect, hers and our main concern was when the lights go out- she is still having dark issues. On the way over she asked 3 million questions about the movie and what was going to happen. Once we got there she was in heaven! She got to have a Sprite- I think that is the first time she ever had a soda of her own!

Before I forget, I have to add this... Last year Lily shared with me a bag of popcorn as a snack in the afternoon. This was at the same time (although we didn't know it at the time) we were all brewing that horrendous stomach bug. Long story short Lily threw it all back up. She has never forgotten, and will tell anyone who asks that she doesn't like popcorn because she threw it up. All that background for this. The other day while I was getting her ready for her rest I asked if she was going to get popcorn at the movies. She told me no, she wanted broccoli!! LOL Only Lily!

Today just as I was about to pay for our drinks she asked for popcorn....sigh.... I asked for the smallest bag they had, it was still bigger then she was!! I think in total she ate 4 single popcorn! :-) She LOVED the Sprite though!

The movie itself was very sweet! Lily sat like a movie going pro. The end of the movie has a certain few scenes I didn't expect, I looked over at her to see a single big fat tear rolling down her cheek. Then when the movie was over I looked over at her again and she had her face all rolled up like she was going to really get crying. I asked her what was wrong and she told me 'I not crying Momma, it was just such a sweet movie'. I just wiped up her face and promised she could take her still mostly full cup of soda home and that seemed to help!

When we got home she told Chris all about her crying and again reassured him that she wasn't sad! He got a kick out of that! To make up for Chris not going to the movie he is planning their first dinner date!

Don't think we have forgotten Charlotte! Right now she loves having the extra one on one time with us. She and Chris stayed in and watched all the Star Trek (BIG SIGH) movie trailers together on the DVR. Chris is happy to report she is well on her way to Trekhood! She and Chris made lunch together and played with her new toys.

A very nice way to spend our last day of holiday vacation!

Not a Party Until Somebody Vomits!

Today for Lily's birthday we told her that she was in charge (within reason!) and she could call the shots! We celebrate Lily's birthday (with a party) farther in the month of January for a couple reasons. 1) It is REALLY close to two major holiday's, and 2) Lily shares her birthday with her Cousin Juice and 3) if we wait just 2 more weeks she can celebrate not only her birthday but also her homecoming day! We have done this since she has come home and works very nicely.

Last year we started letting her pick where she wanted to go/do with a little help. This year, I asked one afternoon and she told me she wanted to go see the Dolphin Show at the Aquarium! So this morning after she picked her breakfast of toasted PB & J, with milk. We headed out to the Aquarium.

We were literally about 2 blocks from the garage on a one way street and a Mini-Van came barreling around the corner coming at us head on!! Chris blared the horn and the man (also with his family) looked about as shocked as we did, gave the obligatory hand of 'oops my bad!' backed out onto his road. I was upset that this had happened, but I had to giggle when I saw his wife's mouth moving a million times a minute and looked like she wanted to crawl under a rock!

The rest of our 2 block journey was quite uneventful! We parked and headed in. We only had about 45 minutes to wait for the Dolphin Show so we didn't want to get too involved with the anything. We let the girls play on the bubble tubes for a few minutes and then headed over to watch the Dolphins in their tank before the show. Lily was in heaven!!

The show was great! Charlotte was MUCH more into it this time. When we had gone over the summer she was not too impressed at all. This time though she was clapping, and waving at the dolphins for the whole show. I don't think we even pulled many snacks out. Lily loves the show and just sat there fascinated by it. Every time one would jump out of the water she would gasp and her mouth would fall open!

When the show was over we made our way back down to the underwater tank to say our last good-byes to the dolphins. Lily then wanted to see the Jellies, and the Sharks. The line for the Jellies was quite long, so we headed over to find the sharks. If you haven't been to the Baltimore Aquarium, the area they keep the shark tanks in is very dark and ominous. Lily has, in the past, had problems dealing with the darkness of it. She has never flat out refused to go through it, she didn't love it. I was surprised when she said she really wanted to go see them. We made it all the way to the top of the escalators. We told her that we were at that the sharks and she told us 'ok, I am a little scared, but I have you guys so I won't be too scared.' :-) She did really great! Even walked by herself at some points!!

After that we headed back to Jellies! The lines were all gone. Charlotte really likes this! She just stood in her spot and stared! Lily walked right up to the one tank and literally talked to the Jelly. She told the Jelly it was her birthday, apparently it was the Jelly's birthday as well and the Jelly smiled at her. It was soo cute, her exchange even made a hardcore-tween aged boy smile a little.

After we were done with the Jellies it was well past time for lunch. The only other request Lily made for her birthday was to eat out somewhere for dinner. We promised her Pizza Hut. However there was no way we were taking them anywhere for dinner after having walked them most of the day with no nap. We thought quick on our feet, we needed to sell to her that lunch at the Aquarium was just as nice as Pizza Hut. In the end we think she just wanted to eat out. She was very excited that we were going to have lunch there and was just fine having a 'big girl pizza' brought to our house!

I will admit the girls really kept it together for the day. We knew we were on borrowed time when Charley ate her lunch with her head on the table. After lunch was all done we wiped everybody up and headed for the gift shop. We left Lily pick out a new doll she picked a Jelly Fish she is calling Flounder, and Charlotte won Chris over when she picked up a baby seal and said, 'Look Daddy a Sea Puppy!' We paid and headed for the van.

Charlotte didn't make it out of the city before she literally collapsed in her car seat. Lily though was up and wired! We were about 5-10 minutes from home and she started singing a song over and over and over again. After about the 7Th time, we asked her to please pick a new song. She started giggling, and kept singing, and laughing. What really can you do about that?! We teased back with her and she would just keep singing, and laughing. At one point she got herself laughing really hard and then she got quiet. She has had a runny nose (again) for about 2 days...yeah singing + laughing + snot = you guess it vomit! sigh....

The great news is that it really was just that, she was completely normal the rest of the afternoon/evening. We did get our pizza ordered in and she was sung a beautiful albeit, off key version of Happy Birthday by her loving family! She had a bath (as she requested) and had two books at bedtime.

All in all I think that Miss Lily enjoyed herself just a tiny bit more then we did today!

Happy 4th Birthday Lilliana!!

Dear Lilliana,

This year just has zoomed right past us! You hit the ground running at 3. This was your year for sure! You took swim and dance class, upgraded to a big girl bed, went to Disney World, started pre-school, became fully potty trained, got glasses, got your ears pierced, saw the ocean and was a flower girl. It has been a fun-filled year for sure! Your Daddy and I really understand why parents warn each other about the 3rd year! You could have been the poster child for a 3 year old! Such a mix of sassy and sweet! Although we had our share of hard days, I wouldn't trade one. To do so would be losing a day with you. Daddy and I love you through the good days right along with the extra whiny ones.

We are so proud of the little lady you are growing into. You are such a great big sister. You are so patient and kind with Charlotte. There is this gentle grace you have about you. I was listening to you laugh while you played tonight with Daddy and Charlotte. I just let it wash over me. It is the sound of pure happiness.

Lilliana, you are one of the two best gifts Daddy and I have ever been given. We can't wait to watch you grow. You aren't our fragile little Lily anymore. You are smart, strong, and the most beautiful chocolate eyed little (big) girl we have ever known!

We love you as high as the sky and as deep as the ocean, it will never end. Happy Birthday Sweet Lily!!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Not to be Forgotten

Something happened at dinner that I don't ever want to forget. It was one of those moments that your child says something that just stops everything. Tonight it was Lily's turn. Lily is in the know-it-all stage. She knows everything about everything. If you try to correct her she has been been known to say 'actually, it is Momma'. Yeah, the teen years are gonna be great! LOL Well tonight she was an expert on America.

We have NO CLUE where this came from. She started off telling us that we (Chris and I) could go to America because we were grown-ups. She and Charlotte couldn't yet. Then she went onto say that America was 'very far away, it is right next to Disney World'. Chris and I asked her where were now since we were not in America. She told us we were at home. Obviously!

Then she says... 'we can't whine or cry or we can't go to America.'

I asked her where she heard this from. She told us from A.

(Lily's Birth mother shares the same name as a female character in a cartoon that she likes... this will help explain why we questioned her)

So I asked her if she meant A from (insert name of show), or she is talking about her Birth Mommy. She told me she meant her birth mom.

THEN SHE SAYS...

'A told me not to cry when I go to America it is ok.'

I looked at Chris he looked back at me with the same WTH mixed with tears expression.

Where does this come from? It isn't the first time she has said something profound like this about her birth mom. It normally happens just like this completely out of left field!