Ballerina Time

Well Lillian loves to dance so I got her a little tutu for Christmas because she is always saying she is a 'dancing girl, music girl, singer, or ballerina'.......this is of course when she is not too busy being a 'PRINCESS' (please pray for us now LOL). I showed her a video on YouTube of some kids doing a recital and she was very excited. Here is her first 'debut'.

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Craft Day & Organizing Project #1

Lillian and I decided to have a craft day yesterday (despite us both being a bit under the weather I just LOVE being home with her). The motivation on my part was partially selfish, I dont have the energy to be running around doing house cleaning and we definately aren't going out since everyone around us has cold/flu reports BUT organizing I can definately do.


Lillian got some safety scissors for Christmas and was excited to practice with them so we started out with a paper craft which was great because she got alot of time in cutting which she didnt need help with and I got alot of organizing started. Here is her finished work of art which according to her is "a cookie monster (because he has big googley eyes) and she drew his head with marker and then the blue marks next to his head are a cookie since that is his favorite but its blue because he is blue and that's his favorite color"---so there you have it!

Next up she wanted to pull out all the stuff we use to make crafts and make something. She decided on popsicle sticks. We haven't made anything completely out of those before they are usually just an accessory to our foam work and the only thing her non-creative mommy could think of was a cup or box since I have seen those made before so thats what we set out to do. Originally I was thinking a tall cup that we could put pencils in or something but it morphed into more. Lillian picked out the sticks she wanted in what order and helped to lay them down and I manned the glue gun and stuck it all together as best I could. She decided this was a box for Daddy. She was very pleased to be making him a present since she has been pretending to wrap up her stuff and give it to me as a 'surprise' ever since her birthday. I asked her if she wanted to decorate the outside and boy did she, other than the suggestion of adding 'Daddy' it was all her doing and it turned out so cute! Here is her finished product which she is BURSTING with pride over (excuse the crummy pictures)

Unfortunately, an injury was obtained in the making of this product! I had been adding the glue and Lillian was carefully adding the decorations. Before I could tell her I should do the letters she went to jab down the D and well..........here was the result (her finger is fine now):

:

Oh and let's admit it is the last and certainly the least, given the fun we had and that it helped the afternoon go by quickly even though she was not feeling good, but the organizing was a side bonus. This is especially documented for a friend of mine who thinks I am 'so organized' which I like to be but I am not there yet. So this is my feeble attempt.

I should have taken pictures of all the 'craft' junk I had but here is the table when I was part way into it. I have these stackable wooden mini-trunks that I had packed with stuff, a front closet with the green bins which were my initial organizing attempt, her gray treasure chest full of odds and ends, and junk drawers packed with paint brushes, plus bendaroos and more art stuff from Christmas.
Before: a partial story.......

After: I just bought this rolley cart for her closet that I wanted to store puzzles and blocks so, at least for now I found the purpose for the third drawer. Each little plastic zip bag is labeled with the contents and divided according to type of stuff so *hopefully* if we want to do stickers I can just pull out that zippie case etc. And yes, Mel I do need a p-touch for labeling :-)

Medicine Scare

Well just so that things dont get boring around here Lillian decided to keep us on our toes. Jared had went out to pick up a clients laptop for repair (Speaking of which I think we are going to start charing a 'smoker' fee, he has to wash all his clothes and shower when he gets back from a house where chain smokers live---it is so bad and then you start up the computer and UGH its horrible he actually blows them out before bringing them in the house with an air gun they are so full of JUNK---eew).



Anyway smoking rant aside he stopped to get her some tylenol cold for kiddos. We were already cheating just a bit since it starts at 4 years old and so per weight we gave her 1/2 of a normal dose. She didnt want to take it but I had her smell it and it was cherry so then she thought it sounded great and liked it. She took them medicine easily and then proceeded to run around in a circle yelling "I feel better now, I feel better now" since we told her it would help her feel better.

We tried to explain that she wouldnt feel better right away and then she started coughing horribly again and we explained how it would just 'help' but she wasnt all better.



Evidentially we didnt do a very good job of explaining or being protective parents. Jared went upstairs to work on the computer and shower and I went to get him some food. I must not have closed the bottle tightly as I remember having trouble with the lid. I was gone for 5 minutes getting Jared a plate ready and Lillian is always so good at entertaining herself I never thought anythign of it when she was quiet.

I entered the living room just in time to see Lillian finish drinking out of the medicine cup----again. She had gotten the bottle open and poured herself an entire dosing cup on children's tylenol. She was actually looking pleased with herself until she looked up and saw my panic-stricken expression. I about had a heart attack and started yelling "GET DOWN HERE JARED" despite his projections of being 'half naked' he came running down. I was telling him how its tylenol which is most dangerous to overdose due to liver damage and fumbling for the box to see who to call.

Jared started asking her if she got more herself and she said "Yes, I still had more coughs" after earlier that day saying "Mommy I just cant stop (coughing) poor thing". As in most situations Jared calmed down the tone and suggested first seeing how much she had taken, which since it was a new bottle was pretty easily done. When I first saw it the bottle looked like it had alot more gone than it did since it was the top of the bottle that was gone. In actuality she had 'only' drank one dose cup of it and the half a dose cup I had given her the first time.

I was still very worried and wanted to call the number on the box since it said basically to call if any extra was ingested. Jared said guaranteed they will tell us to go to ER even if its not needed which I knew he was right. We decided I would see what I could find on the internet for poison control in toddlers with tylenol. Luckily mayo clinic and poison control sites agreed and calculating out what she had ingested she was just under a quarter of the 'seek medical help' amount which is calculated in mg/lb of body weight for her age. Thankfully I do stuff similar to that all the time at work so I felt very safe knowing I was right but I was still very very worried about her.

It was nap time which was why I was giving her the medicine and I KNEW she needed her nap but I was scared to put her to bed and I knew if I put her in bed with me I would fall asleep. So I decided to put her in her bed on her own and then went down and cranked the baby monitor up so I could hear each breath. She was absolutely fine and she *did* take a good nap adn get some rest but my security level with medicines and such has definately raised a good deal. I was very upset with myself.

We did take the time to teach her a lesson or two about it and dramatized it a bit so hopefully we never have to worry about it in the future but I am raiding and organizing any area with medicines to make sure there are no other mishaps since I do have alot of different medications for myself around. We let her know it was serious the whole time by talking about going to the hospital and trying to decide what we were going to do. She started crying, "No I dont want to get stitches in my belly like Nikko" *Aside: Nikko is the small dog at our daycare lady grandma Sharon's and he was neutered LOL* I told her that she wouldnt have to have stitches in her belly but we MIGHT have to go to the hospital. While I was upstairs looking up the information previously Jared had a conversation with her about it.

Once I came downstairs and said we didnt have to go she looked a little to relieved for my comfort so I told her I wanted to talk to her Jared mentioned what he had said to her and we decided on a bit of impromptu scare tactic. I told her when I talked to the doctor he said she didnt have to go to the hospital but mommy had to make her some medicine that was going to taste very very yucky and she had to drink it if she didnt want to get sick and go to the hospital. She ran to her princess castle and hid inside chanting "no, no, never, never, never, not going to drink yucky medicine" Jared said ok that he was going to finish getting dressed so he could take her to the hospital which of course started a similar chant coming from the princess house. Jared came out to consult with me in the kitchen and we were amusing ourself a bit at this point. We pondered over what we should do. I told him I just didnt want her thinking she got off 'scott-free' and since she absolutely hates horrid tasting medicine the idea popped into my head. Mean mean mommy yes I know I know. I didnt want to make her sick but I did want it to taste a bit yucky, though in actuality I was going for the 'fear' factor of anticipating the taste more than anything since Jared was popping his head in the castle telling her the 'rules' on taking her choice. I brought out a small dose of water with some balsamic vinegar in it. She cried and said she didnt like yucky medicine and we talked to her about how she can never ever EVER take medicine on her own again yada yada this is what we have to do now and I gave it to her and told her she could pick to drink it or Jared chimed in that he could finish getting dressed. She chose to drink it, I wish I had gotten a picture of her face with the awful anticipation. Afterward when Jared asked she said it wasnt that yucky and now she would 'be better' and I really didnt add that much vinegar as I didnt want an upset tummy on top of it all (yes I tried it before I forced it on her LOL).

So, that is our story and we're sticking to it. Yes I made a dumb mistake, now I will try to prevent future occurences by being more diligent about having medicine put out of reach BUT hopefully we taught her a lesson well enough it shouldnt be a problem!

Note: all that day and the next she is STILL talkign about "mommy and daddy have to give me the medicine" and when I have brought her more tylenol she asks if its ok LOL

Attack of the.........?

Tonight Lillian went to go to the bathroom and came running back in the kitchen I could tell she was very excited about something....."mom, mom, MOM there's some things in our house, and they are coming in and COME ON I'll show you" so I followed her because by the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice I could tell there was both genuine concern and intrigue.

She was pointing to icicles that are hanging down off of our roof right above our bathroom window and are now long enough they are making a nice silhoutte in the window. She was so worked up over them. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I then tried to explain how when the snow melts or it rains that the water freezes on the roof and hangs down.

She then proceeded upstairs (after deciding she didnt need to use the bathroom so badly after all mind you) to tell Daddy that she thought "there were rain clouds climbing in to come in our house" LOL.

It is so funny and adorable when you see how their little minds work!

Christmas Time

We have been so blessed this year, looking over the year I am not even sure how to put it into words. So, at least for now, I will reflect on our Christmas 'days'. We have all been under the weather lately and taking turns at it so we decided the need to be low-key and because I am on antibiotics allow me to rest while still trying to have a good time.





This is the eve-eve-eve LOL but had to post she had such a great time and was enamored with him. She danced for him even since it was at an intimate setting in a coffee cafe and she was the only kid at the time.



Christmas Services


The service also happened to be on Lillians birthday which for her made it extra special because she could wear her birthday crown AND her Christmas dress! I loved the Christmas service because it incorporated so many of the children and parents with singing and caroling into it. The message was carried out via a play surrounding a real member of our congregations life and family which was turned around. The sermon portion focused on how to 'be the gift' in so many different ways to so many different people. I found it moving. The rock band did a spectacular show with lights and my favorite song out of the trans siberian orchestra which definately didn't hurt!

Crown says Birthday Girl and she's all prepared to go to Church in her Christmas Dress

Christmas Eve-eve


We finally got around to decorating the tree, which had been up for a week and we just hadn't gotten to it. I called Jared and work to make sure he'd be able to make it home from his clients house after his regular work day in time.


I ran out to pick up Lillian from daycare, she had been going to daycare so I could rest. It was their Christmas party day and she had clearly had a blast as had all the kids who couldnt wait to share their excitement by showing me their gifts and telling me all about their day....which in the end, resulted in me barely being able to understand any of them! They had done a cute treat where she cut marshmallow rice krispy treats and dipped them in chocolate and then the kids decorate them, they also made too cute pretzel wreaths--both of wish I had thought to get a picture of before they were eaten!


After settling in at home I got us ready for a nice evening, tidying up the house and preparing some goodies. Lillian was excited to decorate the tree. I set up sugar plum herbal tea, hot chocolate, egg-nog, and a pile of Christmas treats sent home by our daycare lady who is just to good to us. She made two kinds of breads, carmel puffs (a new favorite of ours), peppermint candies, chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter cookies and more!


The snafu in the plan was when my port for my IV antibiotics quit working in the middle of my treatment and I had to call to have someone come out and try to 'jump start' it so I could get through my next dose of IV's. We decided not to let this dampen our time so I just invited her in and asked her what she wanted and explained what we were doing. She was so upset at 'intruding' but so sweet, she offered to go sit in her car while waiting for the meds to work but we insisted she stayed and Lillian had an even better time having someone to 'show off' for since she is a real ham these days. I enjoyed the chat with her, she has 3 year old girls herself and a 6 year old boy....(I knew she had rushed over as soon as she shut down her station at her job as a cancer nurse) so I commented AND two jobs wow! We got into a discussion about how this night nurse job pays for her sons treatments since he is autistic and the treatments have made all the difference for him in his quality of life---amazing! I hope to hear from her again, she was very nice--though hopefully not in a nurse-like setting! The process worked, we all got the tree decorated and had a good time........and a few too many treats in the process!



Christmas Eve


I kept Lillian home with me this day, despite still being on the IV's I wanted some special Christmas time. We had an easy morning since she loves to watch disney movies lately I let her lay in my bed watching one on the lap top while I 1/2 snoozed. My mom was going to bring our niece and nephew over to have some fun with Lillian while she did some shopping so we got up and ready for that. I had planned to make cookies but decided that might be a bit more labor intensive with 3 kids under 5 than I was up to. So I pulled out some pretzel rods and marshmallows, melted white chocolate in a mini-crock. I gave them each large pieces of foil and piles of decorations and as I dipped they decorated. They had a blast and as my nephew Darryn said "This is so MUCH fun..isn't it guys" with such enthusiasm it melted my heart. After each new thing I woudl send them back off to play and clean up while getting out the next thing. All in all we did the pretzel rods, marshmallows, and then lastly after reinforcements showed up i.e grandma we decorated a pre-baked ginger-bread house. I definately wouldnt recommend the houses as edible but the kids had fun and I enjoyed seeing their 'team-work' once I set out the ground rules....we are all about rules around here but having fun doing it.

Cousins...what a trio

That evening Lillian and I went to visit a couple neighbors and take goodie bags. Our last stop was to visit our neighbor 'Grandma Jean', because we have all been taking turns with illness and since she's 100 I was afraid of giving her something it had been over a month since we had seen her. She was SO pleased to see us and I heard about how she had called information trying to get our number (we only have cells) because she was concerned (she did have our name and number and address somewhere but it must have gotten lost). I was struck by how caring she is and how she kept telling us how much she missed and loved us. I did find out she was going to be alone on Christmas much to my dismay. She just isnt able to 'get out' to come to our house so she pleaded with me not to worry because she is recovering from a fall and needed the rest and they had their Christmas two days earlier. Lillian was very unhappy about leaving but it was getting late so I whispered in her ear that we go to open two presents when we got home--she lit up like a Christmas tree and started throwing on her coat and boots!


We all gathered around the Christmas tree with Lillian begging to open the biggest present which was of course not on the agenda. We had left the part of the Christmas tree skirt featuring santa open because that is where Santa would leave his gifts (we dont like making the Santa gifts a huge deal so it was just a few). She was yearning to open what we later learned was the princess castle from Grandma Becky & Grandpa Jared which would have resulted in her NEVER going to sleep LOL. We had already had the tradition of opening PJs on Christmas eve so the video would look nice, this year I got the idea from a friend to add a family game to the mix so we opened the 'cootie bug' game. After playing a round it was time for bed and Lillian was actually a very willing participant after making it clear that when she woke up that meant "it will be Christmas".

The Santa we visited specifically asked for 3 peanut butter cookies (he's lucky Grandma Sharon sent some over because Lillian remembered) and 1/2 a glass of milk and we always add something for the reindeer too! Then Lillian in her new tinkerbell PJ's left her 'love note' I figured we'd leave the 'letter' tradition until next year.

After she was in bed we watched a pretty boring movie while I wrapped the last few 'Santa' presents. Then it was off to bed but I had a hard time sleeping, I was pretty excited to see her reaction. The difference between her at 2 and 3 is so amazing I was excited to see what was in store.


Christmas Day


It was going to be just the three of us at home so I planned a small meal, much of which I was able to get prepared the night before with a bit of help from Jared so that I could enjoy the day too. We had a bone in turkey breast, a ham end from our hog, green bean casserole & mashed potatoes (Jareds favorites), Becky's sweet potato pecan casserole (my favorite) and rolls---I figured no sense in making anything other than our favorites and that was more than enough. I also made bread pudding (Jareds favorite) and then I made a pudding dessert that combined pumpkin pudding, cheesecake pudding, and whip cream in a graham cracker crust.


Christmas Eve Lillian was coughing alot and so ended up sleeping in. I started doing my medicine and then her and Jared woke up. We went downstairs and let her open her stocking on the couch while we had coffee and 'woke up' probably the last year we will be able to set the pace before she catches on! In general she wanted to open the presents and inspect them and/or use them before moving on, sometimes depending on the present we prodded her along and others we let her do as she wanted, for instance she couldnt be pried away from putting on the cinderella dress up gear immediately---and who would want to stop her, what is more adorable than cinderella with a magic gleam in her eye on Christmas morning?
She got a bit tired of stopping to take pictures with her gifts though!

It took a while to get everything open then I went off to the kitchen to get the rest of everything in the oven and Jared played with Lillian and some of her new treasures while cleaning up the paper, and paper, and boxes, and oh yeah more paper----I dont even think we buy that much compared to most and we have only ONE kid---wow I cant imagine large families!



While Jared was setting the table I ran down some hot food to Jean since I know she eats dinner so early. I wasnt scolded too badly (since I had told her the day before I wouldnt come down *I had said I wouldnt *visit* not exactly that I wouldnt stop by LOL) and another neighbor was there visiting who looked happy that I had brought down the food and I was able to get in and out quickly--which can be a feat with Jean.


We had a nice dinner and left dessert and leftovers for later that night. The rest of the evening we spent playing games . My mom and sister Anita came a bit after dinner to visit and bring Lillian MORE presents, Lillian enjoyed the visit and didnt want them to go of course. Before bed we were all beat and we watched Lillians new enchanted evening princess.


It was a very very nice and relaxing Christmas, the best ever in my book!

A nice CF awareness bracelet Jared got me, the angels with wings are for the ones we have lost, unfortunately with all these flu's our community has suffered greatly and I wanted something commemorative of that.

This was the t-shirt I got Jared in lieu of actual pajamas--couldnt resist as you dont know how true this is and thankfully he loves it.

The Day After

Yesterday we had alot of leftover food so I made a small spread and we were pleased to have over Grandma Donna, Grandpa Coop, and Great Grandma Jan. We had such a nice visit and Lillian had her top 'ham' material out between her ballerina slippers and her dress up stuff and her princess castle, oh and not to forget the microphone that sings she was an entertaining delight---0y. I warned Jared he was making a monster when he kept telling Lillian "No you dont just look like a princess YOU ARE a princess" and you could see the proof in the pudding so to speak with her little show. Though I do think it delighted the grandparents. I was happy that the Amish Friendship lotion I made was well received and Coop seemed to enjoy the cream rum and eggnog concoction! All in all a nice relaxing day visiting with family.

I'm just having a bad mood

Lillian hasn't been sleeping well off and on for the past month or so. We have tried just about everything. She has been doing really well for the past week or so and then last night was bad. She was so upset. I went in to talk with her and the conversation went something like this:

M- what's going on why are you so upset
L-I'm just having a bad mood, I want to sleep in your bed, I'm just having a hard time and a bad mood. Sometimes little girls cant help it. When I get big I can because big girls can but I'm just a little girl.

OH BOY. She sure knows how to pile it on. It worked.

December Update

Lillian is doing great and looking forward to 'ecember' December for the rest of you for her birthday and then Christmas. I told her once it snowed it was close so since the snow has been here for a week now she is asking constantly.


Mom has been better but am taking care of my health which is the important part. Since end of October I have had the flu, stomach bug, and then a horrid head cold. My lungs are not pleased with the situation so I have had to bring out the big guns in the way of IV antibiotics. I will be off work for the rest of the year. The good news is that I had vacation starting the 24th anyway, the bad news is that I will be on IV's for some if not all the holidays. I am fortunate that I can log in from home with my laptop and stay up on at least some stuff while resting and sticking to my 'sick' routine.

Reading Material

I have been keeping tabs on my reading this year and I thought I would post it here. Maybe some of you have read these or would like to read these, we can chat. Or maybe you can get a peek into what interests me these days.

Well I wanted a quick/easy read this past weekend while I was sick so I read The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause it is a first hand account of a WWII escape. I had read it about 10 years ago or so and remembered loving it but not much else. I am not a history buff and my goal was to read a history book before the year is up so I guess this counts. I have two more of his books ordered!

I went ahead and ordered 5 other books from paperback swap which is an awesome site by the way where you get a 'credit' for sending out a book you dont want and then you can use that credit to 'buy' a book or you can just pay $ for credits so it will run you 2-3.50 for a book. Now I have some reading material on hand for winter.

edited to add: just read Taming the Nueces Strip - Durham (2nd history book in as many weekends)

Reading:
Bondage Breaker-Anderson

Next Up:
Hiding Place -Corrie Ten BoomPurpose Driven Life - WarrenGuerrilla Marketing in 3o Days
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to.....
Harriete Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army form the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender
Power Praying Wife

2009 Read:
Taming the Nueces Strip - Durham
The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause-Ambrose
5 Love Languages - Gray
Power Praying Wife - Omartin
Dare to Discipline - Dobson
123 Magic
When Bad Things happen to Good People - Kuhner
Scientist in the Crib--Science meets how babies brains work--this just interests me
Happiest Toddler on the Block
Millionaire Next Door - Stanley
Love Dare
Home Safe Home (alternatives to toxic laden household products)

'One of these Days'
Skinny Bitch in the Kitchen (wholistic eating)
Omnivore's Dilemma
Power Spoken Word
Power Spoken Tongue
Sacred Marriage
Butekyo Breathing Shut your Mouth
The surrendered Wife-Neumans
"Better' - Atul Guande
Woman Power - Schlessinger
Priceless - Ramsey
Proper Care and Feeding Marriage - Schlessinger
QBQ - Miller
Raising Girls - Dobson

Flu bug don't bother us

Well unfortunately its a bit too late for him not to bother us but I SURELY wish he would go away. We have had a string of events here that I do not wish to re-create ending in this flu that Lillian and I are not enjoying....though I am enjoying all the time with Lillian.



Last week monday we had memorial for Grandpa Keith who passed away due to heart attack & stroke with subsequent complications at only 60 years of age. Sharon, our daycare provider, is only 59 and its so young to loose your spouse. They are such a sweet, caring, kind & loving couple. They are so simple and honest and they just love kids. All of their daycare kids call them grandma and grandpa and Lillian has been seeing them every week day for as long as she can remember (since she was 10 months old in fact). She of course doesnt understand that he's actually gone and asks alot of questions, many of them heartwarming. I initially didnt know how to explain a stroke and since it resulted in him getting in a car accident I told Lillian he had an accident and explained that instead but now I am worried that I shouldnt have explained that because she asks about car accidents alot while we are driving.



I wasn't feeling well tue&wed and then thursday we had the devastating news at our 8 week ultrasound that the baby no longer had a heart beat and wasnt any bigger than at the 6 week ultrasound. I was planning on which OB I should be released to and instead ended up calling to schedule a D&C. Friday the OB that did the D&C came in sick and you guessed it that, I believe, led to me and Lillian getting ill.



Lillian I thought felt a tad warm on saturday and that night she woke up and clearly had a fever. She is eating and drinking ok though not eating alot. She has had a bit of diarhea but no vomiting. Overall its just a fever and the aches & chills. Tuesday I had doctor appointments as well so Jared took her to the doctor, I told them she had been running fever of 102 and a wet/deep cough. They told Jared she was behind on a shot that there was a national shortage on and they just got more H1N1 vaccines in and told Jared they should vaccinate. Of course since they said it was best he did it and now, two days later and she is worse not better--go figure. She has been running a fever of up to 103.5 now which has me worried. I did not give her any tylenol today hoping the fever will terminate itself. Since its against their policy to vaccinate I am very angry they woudl do that when she had been feverish for so long.



I am not bad some nausea/headache and low grade fevers which for me is 99.5 since I run 97 normally. The pulomologist today started me on tamiflu and levaquin a heavy duty antibiotic since often viral issues will end up letting the bugs in my lungs go awry. Happily though my lung functions were still at 100%



I have been enjoying the extra time with Lillian and her letting me and actually wanting to cuddle, she is normally such a busy body.

Goofy Girl

Ok these are supposed to be in order but they got all goofed up so you'll have to scroll around blogger is not being friendly to my re-order attempts.


Well I am sort of bored and looking to kill time while finishing up a breathing treatment and getting ready to go to the gym sooooo I was reviewing/editing pictures. I always post my favorite pictures so I decided to do a post about Lillian being goofy and I'll post one from each month or so because I always think thats fun to see the differences month to month. (start at the bottom)

September-too cool cutie


August-Monkeying around on the bars with Daddy

July-Great Grandma V's house means yummy treats she doesnt normally get and this had to have been altime favorite--little mini dove chocolate coated ice cream bars--she was in heaven.

June-I am trying to get a picture of how long her hair is and Lillian is NOT into it

May-Canoe'ing is NOT for 2 year olds

We decided to take her canoing-mistake #1, we convinced her there were no bathrooms on a river and really big girls wore diapers she was absolutely mortified, crying and REFUSED to wear a diaper. So finally we were off on the trip she was freaked out at first when it was rocking as we got in etc. She didnt want to sit down. Finally we were off for real and going down the river, we got a VERY reluctant 'yes' when we talked about how much fun it was and precisely 2 minutes into the trip she was 'done' and for the REST of the time she talked about wanting to go play on the toys and have the picnic which was mistake #2 in telling her that was next mistake #3 was going early in season before we had much rain and the water level in the river was low i.e we got stuck and Jared had to pull us and then of course Lillian had to go to the bathroom--sorry to the rest of you in the river that day. What a day!

April-Shiny face little fish We had butter bread with our dinner, she proceeded to butter her face after I told her to quit licking it all off and then once her face was shiny make fish faces it was hilarious, we couldnt help but laugh so of course this was repeated throughout the week.

March- A get together with Grandma Donna and family Lillian is making faces with Uncle Jim and trying to outdo him

February-This is at a restaurant with Great Grandma Jan

Lillian got a set of three lifelike plastic animals brought back by daycare for her and she loved this lobster and was always acting like it was 'getting you' and then you had to act like it tickled or like you were scared--you had your choice LOL.

January-Lillian decided she wanted to sled 'on her own'

This is a shot of her before we tried to get her down the hill, with all the fluffy snow we had to push her hard enough she couldn't remain upright, she wasnt a fan. After that she wanted to go only with Jared because the one time she went with me snow sprayed in her face. I think her most memorable part of the whole winter let alone sledding was hot chocolate, it was August and she is still asking when we get hot chocolate and is looking forward to the snow and sledding so we can have that again.

Family Park Day

Thanks to our friend Femi, my old boss, who likes to take pictures and tagged along with us for an afternoon at the park. Its not too often we can get pictures of all of us. When Lillian sees these pictures she says "where is Femi in my picture" LOL she knows he was there and just isnt understanding WHERE he is, I tried telling her he was behind the camera taking the picture but she just says "Let me see". Next time we will have to get a picture with Femi for her to keep.

Life's a journey and I love black and whites of us walking

She doesnt appear interested :-)

The bird was scaring her a bit but she wanted him to eat

Peek-A-BOO

Windy day for family picture

I love shots of her and flowers

I know someone else who stands like this ALL the time--another bad habit from mommy

Lillian's BIG Sister'isms update 9/25

I think I want to keep a running tally of all the funny things Lillian says and thinks throughout the pregnancy because we were on the first day of telling her Saturday September 19th and she already had two cute ones.

We told her together and said that there was a little tiny baby down in mommy's belly right now and that it had to grow bigger and bigger in there and then it could come out. We asked her if she wanted to be a big sister and of course she does, she has been talking about it for months (ever since someone at daycare got a new sibling). She first said she didnt want the baby to get big she wanted an "itty bitty one in her hand". We explained how it worked and that they had to get bigger before they came out. Then she seemed to accept it and slid down out of Jared's lap but continued on talking about her being a big sister and what babies cant do etc etc.

Her big sister'isms came when I went to take my morning allergy pills/vitamins and I set aside the prenatal for night time. She asked me what that one was for and I told her it was for the baby. Lillian decided it was the baby's medicine and I had to take it so it will get down to them which was cute.

Next I went to take a shower and in a very alarmed voice she shouted "NO, No, dont get the baby wet" LOL it was so funny. We explained how the baby was on the inside and wouldnt get wet. After I got out she asked me if I "got water in the baby's eyes because SHE doesnt like that" LOL.

9/25

so Lillians new ones are so many hard to put but here's a few--none as profound as the shower though!

M: Lillian do you want a baby brother or sister
L: a baby brother (this changes daily and is sometimes both--oh boy)
M: what do you want to name him
L: no just a baby
M: I know you want a baby but what do you want his name to be
L: No name, he's just a BABY
M: so you are a girl and your name is Lillian but he wouldnt get a name, like baby Ty is a baby boy and he has a name, do you want to name him Ty?
L: NO (exasperated by this point) just a little baby, only baby
*different conversation*
M: so if we have a baby boy his name will be Jared
L: NO, not Jarrreeeddd
M: why not
L: just a little baby, he's not a daddy!

*so I guess in conclusion she wants a baby to be more like a baby doll and NOT like a person and she most definately does not get the naming thing

she also has told me that SHE is going to be the mommy, I re-directed iwth her being the mommy's helper but she said something along lines of baby not coming for a long time and THEN she will be the mommy and I will be an 'itty bitty little baby' and she will take care of me

she has seen people with babies in their belly's and I have siad that is what mommy will have when the baby gets bigger and she is now talking about the fact that she will get bigger and then SHE will have a baby in her belly

The BIG Sister

Well we have been wanting to expand our family and working towards that since the spring and we can FINALLY say we have another one on the way. I was so positive it did not work this time that it was a very nice surprise when she called to say congratulations. Jared was coming home from Indiana where he had been working for a couple days and so Lillian and I rushed to beat him home and made this sign. What was funny was Lillian didnt know what it said she just knew it was to 'surprise' Daddy so she was screaming "I MADE YOU A PICTURE" so Jared looked at it said how pretty it was, gave her a hug and then it 'clicked' and he looked at me saying "really, REALLY" because I had already told him I 'knew' it didnt work.

We had a 5-10% chance of twins with putting back two embryos. When they did our bloodwork this week (to test for pregnancy hormone) they want the # to double in 48 hours and ours almost tripled so it will be an interesting first ultrasound in a couple weeks to see if we have a 'bonus' baby in there as a surprise.

With Lillian I was feeling very ill a couple days before my pregnancy test so I expected to be able to tell. This time although I am really tired I feel overall really good which is a nice surprise. So far very little nausea and no migraines like last time.

Jared is betting on twin boys so stay tuned.........

What Color is a Puma?.....Purple Of Course

One of the best things about being a parent for me is not only seeing the innocence and imagination in the games they play and things they come up with but also in seeing and remembering the games that we used to play as kids. Jared went in to pick up Lillian from daycare and when he came out he retold a story the daycare had relayed............

Lillian and one of her 'older girls' i.e. school age girls she gets dotted on by during the summer were sitting in the recliner together, the little girl, H went to get down and Lillian said "don't there is a puma down there" after inquiring by S the daycare lady also known as "grandma Sharon" Lillian told them there was a puma on the floor and it would "get them" this went on for a bit.

So on the way home we were asking Lillian questions about a puma and here is the jest of the conversation:

N-there was a puma on the floor
L-yes, it will get us
N-what color is a puma
L-purple (said in a tone as if to say what other color would a puma be??)
J-what does it look like
L-a dinosaur
N-what does it do
L-at this point she twisted her face up into this awful looking pinched expression while hissing and then fake spit and then followed it up by saying "they spit on you and they are bad and they will spank you" LOL

This conversation went on for a while and then after telling us how horrible they were proclaimed there was one in the back seat with her, she then picked it up and 'threw' it at me yelling that I need to get rid of it. So then the question of how to get rid of a purple puma? I did what any good mother would do and rolled down the window to throw him out LOL. Trying to have an imagination is not very easy for me--at all but this one was 'Lillian approved' because we played that game for the next 10 minutes or so! It was an interesting ride home for sure and she continued to talk about purple puma's for the next couple of days. At one point the next day she decided that SHE was a purple puma.....then when she got tired of us being 'afraid' of her she decided that she was a nice purple puma and we had to 'pet' her because she wasn't like a dinosaur she was like a cat LOL. Ah the imagination!

4th July

I will fill in the events of the day later but for now..........

here are the pictures:http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=da79dd6a317c1f69&sid=0AaN27Vk5bMWLCkA

the carriage is a friend of ours that plans to use it for doing weddings etc they offered to have us ride with them and since to me it looks like a princess carriage I dressed Lillian up in the Cinderella costume and everyone yelled "look its a princess" it was alot of fun and we enjoyed throwing everyone candy

we came home and Lillian took a long nap so that we got the chance to watch a fun movie uninterupted (a rarity), afterward we had a bon fire in our little fire pit, made some smores, roasted some corn, and then dashed off to see the fireworks which Lillian loved and due to the long nap actually did really well staying awake for

Lillian'isms

There are so many funny things Lillian says or does alot that all kind of fell into one day yesterday and I hope I never forget them so I wanted to get them down before they faded away because sadly this age doesnt last forever and it just seems to be my favorite. Before having kids I always said 2 was my favorite age and everyone warned me that would not be the case when I had my own because of the 'terrible' twos but so far so good and it is still my favorite age---until next year of course when she's 3!




we are fairly strict about not saying "NO" to us so the other day there was an instance where I did not like how she said NO so I told her she didnt say no to mom/dad and that she needed to say "no thank you" i.e in instances where no is truly appropriate since that was our problem before is I would say not to say no so then when it was truly appropriate she wouldnt have anythign to say i.e "do you want milk" and she woudl just look at me unsure what to do--which is funny in and of itself. So now when we say something that would sometimes ollicit a typical 2 year old Noooooooooo we get a whiney small voice saying "No thank you" which is absolutely hilarious in some situations. She has extended this to most areas, even when Jared is teasing her and goes somethign like this

Jared: do you want a nap instead of going to the park

Lilllian: no thank you 'very adamant with head shaking'

Jaerd: do you want to sit on the couch

Lillian: repeat

Jared: do you want to have a poop sandwich (his favorite thing to tease her about)

Lillian" nooooo thankkkkk youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu whining

A famous one around here lately is "SACHI get out of my BUTT" when the dog is sniffing her

everything that has ever happened in the past is now "yesterday"

one cute thing she does right now is replay conversations 'playing' both people in the conversation it goes somethign like this: "yesterday Daddy told me no" and I said "Daddy I want to go outside I want to play with my toys" and then Daddy said............and on and on it goes while she tells you the whole story--even if you were the other person in the story. She does this same thing to tell me stories about what happened at daycare or about a TV show that was watched. This practice of hers got Jared into an embaressing situation at home depot a couple weeks ago. She was recalling a story of looking for him and as you may guess part of it was her whining in a loud voice "where's my Daddy, WHERE's MY DADDY" LOL as he is holding her hand trying to quickly get her to walk into the next department so people will quit looking at them--which probably made it look even worse. I think he was afraid he would have someone asking if he had just stolen this cute little child from somewhere.

Lillian has also learned to tease. The first example of this that sticks out in my head is one night when I had a bad headache so Jared took Lillian outside with him to work on the car. He told me later that she looked at him and smiled as she was saying "Daddy is inside sleeping and Mommy is fixing the car" and then when he would question her about it she would laugh. She also likes to look at me and say "where is my mommy"

on of the cutest things she has done for a while but she is more verbal about expressing it now is to love on the dogs. She goes up to them, wraps her little hands around their muzzle and kisses them, or she lays down on the floor with them and lays on top of them and snuggles and pets them. She says "awww, I love her, I love my Nala (the main one of her affection and by far the one that is most patient with her), I loooovvvveee her, I need Nala, Nala lay down, Nala give me kissies". It really is cute and she absolutely loves her dogs. She lets Sachi kiss her IN the mouth and Sachi licks rapid fire---it is so disgusting and Lillian thinks its hilarious.

One of her big things right now is "everyone can't see my butt" when changing into her underwear or pulling her pants down to go to the bathroom etc.

There are so many more cute moments around here that I want to capture but for now I am out of time.

Annual Church Picnic

Today was the annual church picnic for our new church home. It is a large church for such a small town just over 1000 in attendance each weekend. This is a very kid centered church with great youth groups and activities. It showed at the picnic which right after the baptisms at the river turned into a kid carnival of fun. Lillian had a blast.

The service today was very emotional, 6 of the 80 people being baptized got on stage to give their testimonies. Normally every person that gets baptized gives a testimony but obviously with 80 people you would be there all day. I have given up wearing mascara to church and today it was a really good thing.

We enjoyed a nice lunch and then we were off to the fun and games, here are a few pictures of Lillian enjoying her 'paaarrtttEY" as she told her sunday school teacher. It was so cute the lady came up to me and said during service today Lillian kept telling us when her mom got back she was going to a PARTY all exaggerated and excited. To hear her say it is adorable.

Summer Fun

Lillian's one big fear is having water in her eyes so she is a bit leery with water. Overall she is a fairly cautious child but in the water I would say she is more than cautious and a bit scared. So we have been trying to let her 'swim' in her kiddie pool alot. She is starting to get more adventurous and not so scared though she does run out and wipe her eyes every time she gets her whole face splashed. If she is not better by the end of the summer there is a water babies class I will probably enroll with her in the fall, right now its so nice out the last thing I want to do is take her into the gym for the evening at the pool, especially when we already spend every tuesday night at church that would make for a busy week night.


Here is a link to the pictures of her most recent adventure and YES that is a frog you see swimming in her pool with her. Its her 'friend' and she seems to find the thing every day---well Nala finds it every day and Lillian rescues it. She then continues the poor creatures torture by carrying it around and making it swim with her before finally depositing it into its 'home' the garden which is fenced off and safe from Nala. You would think the darn frog would learn but every day he makes his way back under our porch where Nala finds it. The swimming with a frog is kinda gross but all well, we have to balance out her love for painted nails, 'twirly' dresses, and high heels somehow :-)


http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=6f7197f7ceb3e1accf4ab00f16ca9e1e&sid=0AaN27Vk5bMWLCfg

Making Bird Feeders---dog snacks

I read a cute craft to make home made bird feeders for our little friends (that seem to be invading our hous this year). You use pine cones, coat them in peanut butter and roll them in bird seed. This sounded like an easy fun thing for Lillian to do and she could hang them by the bird house that I reconditioned after bringing it back from my grandparents property up north. The bird house reminds me of my grandfather since he made it.

I explained to her how the birdies would eat them and we hung them at the top of our 6ft privacy fence right around the bird feeder. Luckily she forgot about them because much to my dismay two days later all that remained on the fence was red shreds of ribbon and no signs of the pine cones. Both of our dogs love peanut butter and one of them used to be able to jump really high----I guess she remembered how! So much for feeding the birds.

As for the invasion. I have a bird that must be really really slow because for the past two years it has tried to build its nest in the top corner of our front porch, there is not enough room there and so I keep getting mud and debris all over my porch and swing every couple days as the stuff falls down. I try everyting to keep that bird away and it only works for a short period of time. I finally hung a wind sock there right by the corner adn it worked for all of about 2 weeks now there is stuff there again.

Well it must have been late in the season for this poor bird not to have a nest because now she has roosted herself on the ledges of our upstairs office window under the air conditioner. I finally figured out what was going on yesterday because guess what---there are babies and they are LOUD!! On top of the loudness the bird hits the bottom of the A/C occasionally when coming in for a landing. After a half hour of constat chirp chirp chirp I went over to investigate, knocked on the AC and sure enough out the mom flew to a nearby branch and I imagine she was giving me the equivalent of a bird scowl as she stared me down only to return a few minutes later.

I have also seen her flying around the AC in the downstairs window---I am pretty sure this is the same 'not smart bird' so maybe she gets confused on where her birds are? I dont know but up until the past couple days I was thrilled when I heard birds chirping now I just hope they hurry up and grow up and fly off as the chirping is CONSTANT! And of course Lillian just wants to 'see' and the dogs are sniffing non-stop all around the A/C--its not enough they had their 'snacks' now I think they are more interested in the birds themselves.

Grandma Gene

Lillian has grown fond of a lady that lives on the next block but just one house between us. Her name is Gene, she is a real sweet lady that we met last year. When we met her last fall she was so very friendly and wanted us to come back and see her again and so we have. Lillian can see her house from our yard so when all else fails (in trying to get to go somewhere/do something) she says she wants to see Gene, she also wants to stop whenever we walk past etc. Since she has white hair Lillian instantly started calling her grandma Gene which of course thrills Gene even more. We visit her probably a few times a month. Gene is totally crazy about Lillian. She has a great grand daughter Lillians age but she lives far away so I think she uses Lillian as her substitute.

A couple weekends ago Gene turned 100 YEARS OLD. That is so hard to even fathom turning 100 and here she still lives on her own and refuses to do otherwise. She is pretty quick still too, she forgets some day to day things but has details on families, stories about the community and other things down pat. She gets around with a walker and someone comes and does a good portion of her housework for her and of course buys her groceries etc. I enjoy taking a meal down to her whenever we are eating something I think she will like and I used to get scolded for this but finally I won her over using the Bible and telling her it was a commanment to love thy neighbor. Sooooo that finally got me off the hook. Her family comes and stays with her on some weekends and other bring her food too but I dont like it when I open her fridge and see swanson dinners. She always appreciates it and it is fun for me to cook for others, especially someone so easy to please---who eats so little anyway that it is no trouble at all.

Gene's family came down and invited us to an 'open house' as she didnt want a party i.e gifts. I printed out a happy 100th birthday in block letters from the printer and I put in a picture of Lillian so on bottom it said from and then her picture, Lillian colored it and of course Gene loved it and it hung on the cart where everyone got their beverages from etc.

On the day of the party Lillian had a frog she had caught so we built her a 'frog house' since she was trying to keep the dogs from eating the frog--it was a bucket with a piece of screen tied over it. Well of course Lillian refused to be separated from it and had to carry it with her everywhere---including the party. I planned to leave it on the porch but some of the ladies saw it on their way in and thought it was an absolute hoot and assured me it would be "the only one of those she woudl be getting to see today" so in the frog house went to make its rounds at the party---pooor frog.

Then it was back outside for mr.frog while we all ate cake. Gene got a framed large placard and hand written note from the govenor which I thought was really neat. It was probably a good thing we arrived when we did because Gene was up walking around greeting everyone and offering them her chair. I wanted to get a picture of her with Lillian so she was finally willing to oblige us and sit so everyone was giving me the thank you wink. I about had a heart attack when Gene must have decided that havign Lillian stand in front of her wasnt enough and she hoisted all 27lbs of Lillian up onto her lap before any of us realized what she was doing!! It was a very nice party, Gene had all her collected cards up around the living room---well what would fit, she later told me there were over 70 of them from as far away as Japan!

Here is Lillian and her adopted 'Grandma Gene'

Another on the way?

Jared and I are trying to get pregnant again, hoping to give Lillian a brother, sister, or both. Jared has been wanting to try again for some time but I have been dragging my feet a bit. The second baby part I am thrilled about and while overall I like the idea of being pregnant and there are some parts I enjoy the actual day to day pregnancy was not a bowl of cherries for me. There is about a 10% chance of twins coming into play and about a 40-50% chance of success of one.





We did in vitro fertilization the first time and we had 11 remaining frozen embryos. This time we did what is called a frozen embryo transfer which is where they follow a similar process to last time but then instead of retrieving the eggs, inseminating them, allowing them to become embryos and transfering those back they just transfer back two of the embryos that were frozen last time.





This time things went well and the emrbyo's looked very healty again, unfortunately they had to thaw 4 in order to get 2 to transfer back as the first two did not survive the thaw. We had frozen two or three that were not great quality so I would anticipate that the first thaw was two of those. Here is what everyone looks like when they are two days old, one is 4 cells and the other is 5, Jared is affectionately referring to them as 'the twins' not surprisingly he is a little more eager to for twins than I am. Although I would love to have twins I would be worried for their health and safety during the pregnancy.

We have been very open about how we have obtained our family. I think there is alot secrecy around these things often because you think you are the 'only one'. When we decided to be open about it we found out we know ALOT people who used some form of fertility treatments. I have many friends at work that used the same doctors as me, I find that because I am open about it others have sought me out when undergoing treatments. My hope was to be able to help someone else and I have been able to do that so its really wonderful. Jared works with a guy who has twins that used the same doctors we use, one of my good friends at work is using the same doctors and we actually both have been trying this month.

This time the 'protocol' was much less intense. In April I had to go for a test to make sure my tubes were open and that everything looked ok after giving birth. Then this time I just had to do a low dose of one injectable medication to help make a high quality egg. While that egg isnt used they want to make sure you have one. Fortunately I respond well to meds, unfortunately I respond really well to meds meaning I had two big/good eggs and about 16 others--yikes. The hormone flux that puts me in makes me really ill.

We transferred the two good quality embryos on May12th and then we waited to see if they implanted which is torture. For me being so impatient is really really torture. You never really know why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. I think its in Gods hands and it is not about my timetable its about his. Some people think that doing fertility treatments evades Gods planning and while I respect this and can see why they believe this I feel when it is used to overcome a medical obstacle it is just like treating say my cystic fibrosis and allowing me to overcome that and live. The treatments allow us to overcome the medical obstacle that makes it difficult to impossible to conceive whether or not it works is not up to medicine/science. I do believe fertility treatments are abused by many and there are some irresponsible doctors out there but that is a topic for another day.

Unfortunately for us this time it didnt work. The process is not really easy for me and I would like to enjoy my summer and focus on getting back in shape so we will try again in the fall with two of our 7 remaining frozen embryos.

Milestones

So I was curious as to the 'developmental milestones' for a 2.5 year old. When they are 0-18months there are references everywhere you look saying what they should be able to do and what to encourage. Once they get 2 it seems kids vary so widely and the information isnt everywhere you look anymore. I dont know if this source is very good but here is what one site had to say. In general I think she is off the charts verbally but physically not as advanced as some of the others, not surprisingly, especially the little boys that I see.


Play & Cognitive Skills
Pretends to write and talk on the phone - yes

Slaps hand in response to “Gimme 5” - yes

Sorts and matches colors and shapes - she does sort and she knows all her colors very well and some of her shapes. She always gets triangle and then sometimes circle and square depending. She can say the rest of them because of her little video but doesnt always get them right.

Shows an understanding of two location concepts such as ‘under’ or ‘in’ - yes she has a cute book that does these and she will do on/off, up/down, big/small, and a couple others.

Language & Speech Skills
Points to action words in pictures and books - yes

Understands concepts of big and little -yes

Uses the following sounds in words: t, n, k, g, p, m, h and begins to place the end sounds on words - definately

Names one color (perhaps favorite color) - knows them all

Refers to self by using pronouns (mine, my) - yes and will now switch/correct it if we say something referring to us that she copies she will switch the pronouns back and forth appropriatley

Uses some past tense words (jumped) - definately

Uses negation (ie. I no want) - yes but generally now she always says dont, doesnt etc

Fine & Gross Motor Skills
Jumps off the floor - yes for a long while only one leg came off the ground but she finally got it

Walks a line - yes and enjoys walking backward in a line which she finds hilarious

Stands on one foot alone - I have no idea, will have to try a game of this

Jumps off the first step - yes this is a favorite of hers though often it looks more like she is running down off of it since she is not an expert jumper yet

Stacks 8 blocks - yes

Snips with scissors - haven't tried it

Strings beads - haven't tried this either

Folds paper in half - hmm looks like I need to get some activities going to try this too

Other Skills
Understands early math concept of just “one” – will bring just one block versus all the blocks when asked - yes, she will also count objects up to 4-5 but sometimes continues right on counting higher and higher.

Adding my own here to mention some of the things she does that I just love

She says her abc's and generally it goes abcdefghiJJl..lala..Pqrstuvw..nox..yz

she counts to 14

she sings: twinkle twinkle, ring a round the rosie, 1-2 buckle shoe, hush little baby and then a number of others ones partially, to hear her sing bingo or old mcdonald is a hoot since she comingles them

she knows left and right fairly well though she does still sometimes get them wrong, this is from Jared dressing her by making a game out of it

She also knows her fruits and vegetables very very well it started with Jared killing time with her when we went grocery shopping by telling her what stuff is, now he quizzes her on the entire produce department and she loves playing that game and then going to see the lobsters

she can match pretty well as far as animals with babies and the front of an animal with the back, color matching and pattern matching etc

There is so much more she does every day that just amazes us but its always hard to think of and capture in writing, its all the small details that I just really want to capture and remember. She amazes us every day and being a parent is such an amazing opportunity.

Lillian @ 29 Months

Lillian's personality has really developed at this point. She has very obvious preferences and dislikes, is very opinionated and has a knack for entertaining and amusing---she has no problems being the center of attention and often demands it!

Some of her preferences include:

Food-chocolate, candy, pizza, any fruit, blueberry pancakes

Some of her favorite hobbies/pass times that she always request include visiting "grandma's"--Jean is just down the road so since that is within site I get that one ALOT--she is 99, grandma nina is another one (my mom Tanya is always with my sister Anita so somehow she became grandma nina), she also asks to visit grandma Becky Grandpa Jared and Uncle Jason now with the increased frequency she has seen them (I havent yet figured out how to described the Florida thing, she knows they live in Florida but still asks to go 'just for a bit' so we have been talking about airplanes lately), she also always asks to go visit grandma Sharon (ie daycare) and if that doesnt work she asks to go to Katie's house (her 3.5yo playmate).

She also loves to read books and she can read them for a looonggg time (longer than my attention span can be held by curious george and the like) she will sit through reading 10+ books in a setting and ask for more, during a weekend if we are just around the house we will do this 3-4 times if I am willing---dont get me wrong I am the one that tried very hard to instill the love for reading and well I guess it worked. She also loves to paint and draw, especially if she can draw overtop of whatever you just did.

She always wants to be on the go and her typical list of requests goes something like: shopping, library, gym, church, grandma Gene's, Sharon's, Katies, Grandma Nina's. She seems to have a hard time understanding that sometimes we just want to stay HOME.

Activities-being outside, going for walks, going SHOPPING (i.e meijer), going to the library, going to church, digging for worms in our new garden, going for walks, and just generally playing with the dogs--especially Nala who loves her and will take just about anything from her with glee including being jabbed in the eyes and having her mouth examined.

She is absolutely obsessed with school buses right now, and tractors. She will count how many school buses she gets to see on the drive in to daycare. She gets really excited when she sees one and will tell you "when I get bigger I get to go on a school bus".

We recently got her two videos from the library, they are preschool prep type videos for ages 1-3 and one goes over shapes and the other numbers. she LOVES these videos and with no TV otherwise who can blame her. Yesterday may have been the first day she didnt beg to watch them and that is because we were outside literally all evening. She still wanted to watch it before bed which of course I couldnt let her so she replied in her new fashion of "just a teeny one, just a little bit". Anything she wants and cant have she asks for 'just an itty bitty' or just a teeny little bit" it is comical.

Now with all those likes what doesnt she like? Short sleeves! Evidentially it was winter while she was developing a preference for what to wear and now she HATES short sleeves she will try to pull them down and go around with a coat or sweater over top of them if we do put them on her. We tried every which way but sunday to convince her that is what you wear once it gets warm as did her peers and daycare lady but she wants none of it. Occasionally you can get her to wear them but then she is back to hating them so for now we are going to let her figure it out on her own.

I also think that somehow great grandma Horvath was re-incarnated in Lillian for a period of a week or so as she suddenly declared she "doesnt like those blue jeans" so she was refusing to wear short sleeves and blue jeans, typical kid apparel 24/7 go figure. She doesnt have alot of jeans so that wasnt a problem and the dislike was short lived. She is also VERY particular about her socks and the little line and where it has to be (on top of her toes).

She also cant stand to have her pant legs rise up like when she is in her car seat and you can see her leg between the end of the pants and the socks. She throws a fit and wants me to pull them down because her 'legs are naked' and her 'pants got short' Geez. Jared said maybe we should encourage this habit of wanting to be completely covered in the hopes it will translate into her teen years given all the clothes we see the kids today wearing.

She also doesnt like any food that leaves a 'skin' in her mouth. She will eat beans when mixed in with stuff but these are the biggest thing I can think of. She is a really good eater overall and not picky however if you asked her what her favorite food is she would undoubtedly tell you either 'candy' or chocolate. She also gets pretty excited over pizza, this is a 'daddy thing' since he loves it and I cant stand it.

I dont have any good pictures to post right now, I need to get some new ones off of the camera and we plan to get her pictures taken soon as well.

Susan Boyle AMAZING

http://www.susan-boyle.com/

Go to the top video from you tube and watch the video of her appearance on Great Britains "Got Talent" or scroll further down and listen to her song, released in 1999 on a charity CD.

I so want this woman to be an instant sensation so that those who dont feel pretty or perfect enough realize that ANYTHING is possible. Our culture is too hung up on 'perfect presentations' and I hope she helps BLOW THAT OUT OF THE WATER.

I dont want her to be endeared despite her appearance I want her to be applauded and endeared because of her status and appearance. She deserves to be endeared based on her singing alone but we all know in our culture today they are pressuring the 'total package' not just the singing.

Forever N Ever N Always

Whether its the adoption stories, the spiritual side of things or the great photography this blog I recently discovered is really capturing my interest, mind, and heart so I thought I would share.

http://forevernevernalways1.blogspot.com/

Easter

Of course last year Lillian discovered jelly beans and painted eggs as you can see here: http://jnhfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/easter.html. Has she ever grown since last year? Amazing I tell you.

We really had fun painting eggs today, daddy even painted a couple. Lillian went down to see 'grandma Gene' who is the 99 year old down the road. She took her easter purse she got from Grandma Becky and hid the egg in there and gave it to Gene who was thrilled. Lillian told her all the colors that were in the egg.

Church service was very nice today. They didn't do plays or special singing they really gave a good message about the resurection of Jesus Christ and what it means to our faith and how it sets Christianity apart. I was happy to see that. Dont get me wrong, I like the plays, and the kids and the singing I have partaken in at other churches but we have so much of that on a regular basis I was happy to have a solid message today. Lillian really enjoys going to church and tonight was the first time they had the new kids rooms open now, I have to get some pictures of these rooms they are so wonderful. They dont teach in the 2 year old room so I cant wait until next year when she learns a bit more.
Why church on saturday you may ask? Well they had already added a saturday service to cater to those who need a sunday alternative but they have now for easter weekend added a second saturday service because they are normally bursting at the seems and are afraid they will be standing room only on sunday. They asked anyone who could to attend saturday I was a bit down on the idea at first being its not easter but with easter dinner and a cousin egg hunt at our house it works out fine. I am going to find an age appropriate easter story on the internet and talk with her tomorrow since we went to church tonight and then she has an easter packet and coloring pages from the church.

This is my favorite picture from the weekend of Lillian being 'attacked' by the baskets we were collecting for the easter egg hunt.

This year she is 'getting it' a bit more and talking about the easter bunny, she even drew him a picture complete with stickers. Lillian left the 'rabbit' some carrots and the picture tonight before bed.

Easter morning Lillian let us sleep in which was nice, no doubt on account of all the fun the day before and the late bedtime. Jared slept in and Lillian was actually very patient about waiting to find her basket, I am sure its just because she didnt 'get' it. We all took showers and got dressed before she 'found' her basket that I had put a blanket over just so she wouldnt see it on her way down the stairs. She was happy that the 'rabbit' ate all her carrots.

Here is a picture of her basket. She immediately went to the 'flip flops' her little friend at daycares brings dress up clothes for them and Lillian LOVES the little fake shoes so I couldnt resist when I found them at the dollar store. She also got some headbands and a john deere tractor. We went to TSC a few days ago and she just loves tractors so I let her ride the lawnmower of her choice and then she looks over at the big john deere tractors and asks to ride them. Since they sell the miniature ones I figured she would like it. She also got to see baby bunnies and 'chick-chicks' she liked looking at the chicks and using a finger to pet their back but wanted nothing to do with them hopping around or their feet.

We had a nice small dinner for just the three of us, we still had a small ham left from the 1/2hog we had bought in the summer. I tried not to go overboard this year since it was just the three of us. All in all it was a very nice relaxing Easter and with my recent baptism I was happy that it had a deeper meaning for me this year.