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!

Last Post of the Year!

2009 I think will be year we look back to and remember as a year of growth. Growth for the girls in so many ways it is easy to loose count. We were eating dinner tonight and Chris and I were talking about Charlotte and her big girl bed, he had totally forgot that Lily too upgraded this year. Growth for Chris and I not only as a couple but also as individuals. He and I hit a large bump in our road this year. While I am not happy that we had to go through that period, in the end I think we came out stronger for it. I know that we are only going to keep growing as a family as we enter into this next year.

2010 has a lot of wonderful things already waiting for us. First of all Chris and I will be celebrating our 10Th wedding anniversary, and a total of 15 years together as a couple. In September we will be heading back to Walt Disney World to celebrate our anniversary along with my parents who will celebrating their 35Th wedding anniversary!

This time next year Charlotte will be potty trained! Wahoo! Hopefully so will Gracie Puppy! Double WaHOO! :-) Chris will be rounding home with his Bachelor's program.

I am working on a video for the whole year. I normally try to do one for each of them on their birthday but time just got away from me, so I am going to wrap them both into one!

I hope that you and yours have a wonderful happy healthy New Year!!

Bye-Bye Baby

About 6 weeks ago, Charlotte decided that during her nap time she would no longer be sleeping in her toddler bed. The first time she did this about scared me to death because when I went in to check on her I didn't see her right away. Lily doesn't nap in her bed, she likes ours to nap/rest in so she really thought it was funny that 'silly Charlotte' was using her bed. Ever since that very first day she has flat out refused to nap in her little bed. Charlotte would sleep in her bed at bedtime. Lily made it quite clear to her on those first few attempts that Charlotte made that she didn't find it that funny.

Chris and I knew that she wouldn't last very long in her little bed, and were very glad we didn't invest too much money into it. But we were very concerned as to how two twin beds would fit into their bedroom. At first we looked at bunk beds, but we were very uncomfortable with it. We kept thinking it over trying to figure out the spacing. In the meantime she just kept napping away in Lilu's bed!

Then Christmas week came. Chris and I had been talking about what we would do over his break from work and school. We had nothing at all planned. This is not a good thing for us, as we seem to get into projects. This week has been one huge project.

We realized that the only way to get their two beds in the room was to not have the last two remaining pieces of the nursery furniture in the room. Not really what we wanted to do for a couple of reasons; 1) it cost a lot for it, and 2) I am not ready for it to be gone. What to do? What to do?

Then it hit us in the back of the head... re purpose! Both pieces were saved, just moved out of the room. In their place is now two (much smaller) dressers, TWO big girls beds and two very happy little girls!!

Bye-Bye Baby Charlotte :-( Hello to our newest Big Girl!! :-)

Here is the video from our adventure!

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Best.Christmas.Ever!

The title of this post says it all! Today was simply blissful. Chris and I were hard at work until about 1:30 this morning. I think the few glasses of wine didn't help our progress! Before we went to bed we had the great idea to run Lily into the bathroom to pee, to maybe help her sleep just a bit longer. It did help a little. She got up at her normal time. But not early! We will take that!

We heard her rolling around on the monitor, we wanted to hear her reaction to Santa bringing the girls their very own little tree for their room. We were laying in our bed giggling listening to her reaction. It was a huge gasp, followed by thumping of little feet. She had announced pretty late in the Christmas present gathering that Little Mermaid was now a favorite (?) and she really wanted a Little Mermaid doll. Thankfully Santa got our message and right beside her already stuffed stocking was her Ariel doll! When she found it she whispered 'Charlotte wake up, Charlotte WAKE up! I got Ariel!' Then we started to hear Charlotte stir more thumping of more little feet, and squealing that she has found her 'tinter bell!'

We opened up the stockings in their room. We sent them into our room to watch a show. Chris and I really think that they thought that was it! I will let the pics do the rest of the of story.


This is what happens when you tell a 3 year old to throw the reindeer food into the yard! :-)

Leaving our food for the reindeer!
Putting out the key just for Santa!

Ohh they are sooo darn cute!! :-)
Christmas Morning!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I love her faces! Everything is just such a surprise for her!

Charlotte was not into it right away... ohhh but she got into it soon!

Too cute!

Charlotte and her train! She LOVES this! Santa got it just right for her!

Lily proclaimed that this 'was just what I always wanted!!'

The girls LOVE to play salon.. I have the bruised scalp to prove it!! So they HAD to have a vanity!

Getting ready to play salon!

Charlotte in her new pink satin Princess night gown, high heel dress up shoes, playing train!!

Lily with her Leapster game!

There is NO way this day could have been better! The girls played ALL day! They didn't even take a nap (oh we tried!)! I will say this evening if we had our camera out we could have won 10,000 from America's Home Videos. Charlotte and Chris were playing with the train on the floor, Chris put another little car on the tracks. He tells Charlotte to stop the train with her train controller. What does she do? What any other two year old would.... she hit the train with all her might with the controller, then yelled out 'Yeahhh!! I did it!!' OMG it had us rolling on the floor!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Tomorrow we got to visit with Chris' family in the afternoon! We are excited to see everyone!

3 It's Our Magic Number...

A friend of mine once wrote on her blog that when she couldn't get the thought of another child off of her mind, she asked God "to change her mind, or change her heart". I must have read that line years ago and it has stuck with me all this time. I have asked for the same thing, so far the only thing that has happened is that the little seed in my heart has grown.

This past month made it quite clear what we wanted. We thought that by some medical miracle we had become pregnant. I stayed VERY quiet about it (sorry mom). I didn't want to think too much into it knowing full well it more then likely I wasn't- it just isn't possible. But thought we did, excited we got. Just to be told what we already knew. It really happened for a reason, Chris and I talked a lot about what having another child would be like and in the end it made it crystal clear to us that we indeed have room in our hearts (though maybe not our house) for another child.

While growing this little seed in my heart, it has seemed to become rooted on a specific spot. Really no different then when we choose Guatemala for Lily. My heart was sold on those beautiful faces. My heart has fallen in love with Special Need population. Chris wasn't too blown out of the water when I told him this. I worked for 12 years as a Nurse with adults with Special Needs. I grew up with a best friends whose brother and sister were living with Downs Syndrome. The only thing I couldn't really express why. That was until tonight and I was left to entertain myself (dangerous!;-) while he worked on homework. I stumbled onto the story of the Starfish.

Once upon a time there was a wise man that used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer.He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn’t dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.As he got closer he called out, “Good morning, what are you doing?” The young man paused, looked up and replied, “Throwing starfish in the ocean.” “I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?” “The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in they’ll die.”“But, young man, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!” The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said, “It made a difference for that one.”There is something very special in each and every one of us. We all have a gift – the ability to make a difference. And as we become aware of this gift, we strengthen our vision and power to shape the future. We must each find our starfish. And if we throw our starfish wisely and well, the world will be blessed.

So far this is just in the talking phase and not a step past that. We really can't do anything anyway until Chris is done with school. In a way the wait is just what we need to really think it all the way through. I do admit there is a large part of me that wants Guatemala to get itself together and for adoptions to reopen. That is our very first choice. 3 will be our magic number though. Chris has always just wanted 2 and I wanted 4. So 3 is just perfect for us!! :-)

Craft Time This Morning!

This morning while working on a our Thanksgiving Turkey Hand Crafts, Charlotte surprised Lily and I! She started naming colors. Before today she had only been saying red. This is why I love I get to stay home with them!

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