My girls. i love saying that.

Beauties & the Bugs

We played outside a lot this weekend.

We had a great time...

with lots of smiles.

We also had some discoveries. Lillianna and her Daddy found two new PETS!

Cara the Cricket & Roly Poly the Roly Poly Bug were found

and kept in her really excellent bug box.

She was so proud.

Then, we couldn't believe our lucky stars when a ladybug was discovered on the birdbath and Lillianna coaxed her to come sit with her.

So when I was little, my sweet grandmother, Yetta, taught me the rhyme:

"Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home

Your house is on fire and your babes are all alone."

Well, that's just tragic. Is that really the words or is that just my family's version?

Any other versions I could teach Lillianna so she won't be scared for the baby ladybugs?

The ladybug is cute but those lashes! I can't stop staring at those GORGEOUS lashes.

(i'm biased i know.)

Steamroller

So I just need to document this before I forget to write it down in her baby book.

Ellenie is rolling from her back to her right side and then *poof* on to her belly. Now, she really just likes to stay on her side and suck her finger and look at her toys or Lillianna waving the toy in her face. But sometimes she rolls her legs on over and suddenly is there.

She can roll/fall from her belly onto her back but she doesn't like to...I think it's sheer physics that her little giant head is bigger than her teeny body and ker-plunk...she just falls over when it gets too heavy to hold up.

She really doesn't like it.

Just talking

Overheard the other afternoon:

Lillianna: So Sam, I made the leap to the potty.

Sam: You did?

Lillianna: Yeah, I was losing alot of sleep over the amount of space my diapers were taking up in land-fills. I just wanted to be a little more green, you know?

Sam: Oh I know. I have been examining what steps I can take and I've decided to start drinking out of the hose instead of using sippy cups. Plus, I told my Mom to buy only organic french fries.

Anna Kate: Can you hear them over there? They think they are so old and cool.

Ellenie: Are they trying to make us feel bad about our diapers? Give me a biodegradable disposable diaper and I'll wear it. But I'm NOT wearing stained cloth ones. How embarrassing.

Anna Kate: Let's talk about something more interesting...Did you know I can grab my feet?

Sam: So anyone wanna play baseball, football, golf, soccer? Anything with a ball? Come on Lillianna, let's play!

Lillianna: Uh Sam, I will play but I, like, cannot mess up my toenail polish inside my shoes.

Best Birthday Buddies: Ellenie & Virginia

THEN:

NOW:

A poem I read and liked

ME

As long as I live

I shall always be

My Self - and no other,

Just me.

Like a tree.

Willow, elder,

Aspen, thorn,

or cypress forlorn.

Like a flower,

For its hour-

Primrose, or pink,

Or a violet -

sunned by the sun

And with dewdrops wet.

Always just me.

- Walter de la Mare

Potty Talk

Quote of the Week:

Lillianna: Hold on Poop, I'll let you out in just a minute.

Ellenie Lane

My dear Ellenie,

I don't get to write about your antics, your clever sayings, your funny ways of exasperating me like I do your sister. But just wait...I will and I can't wait. For now though, I get to enjoy you in the perfect bundle of sweetness that you are at 3 months.

How is it that a baby can be as good as you? So happy, content and predictable. Predictable!? But you are and it melts my heart because I just feel so thankful to you for making life a little easier. But that's only the beginning.

Because what you do the very best of all is make us smile.

Lately you have reminded me that we don't smile enough, any of us. You smile at me when your eyes first open after a long sleep. You smile at me when I turn back around after just 5 seconds of smiling at me the first time I looked at you. You smile at me as your heavy eye lids are sinking to sleep. Your smile eases me and lifts me at the same time. It reminds me that I should do the same for everyone around me. Just smile.

I was nervous about being a Mom of a 2 year old and a new born. I thought each moment of each day would be chaotic and overwhelming. And there are definitely those moments. But honestly, they are few. Instead, I have found it to be busy but very, very sweet.

And I'm starting to think that's how you'll be. Busy with life but very sweet about it all.

I can't tell you how much I have loved these first three months with you. As my dear friend Ginny and I have talked about our second daughters, we can only seem to describe you both as our gifts and treasures. Such pleasant surprises that have truly made life better.

I am soaking up these days with you. I know it won't be long until we are hunting for treasures on walks and talking about how to poop. I know I will look back and wish I could hold you just inches from my face and see you smile.

I'm going to go do that right now.

(thanks to my dearest Stephanie for the pics!)

Ice cream and caterpillars

I love this age....

I keep saying that for one day I'm going to write down all of Lillianna's hysterical, precious, precocious, wise, and nonsense quotes. I keep trying to tell people how she starts a sentence with one thought and finishes with another but I can't always remember the exact quote. I keep promising myself that I'll always remember what she just said because it's so priceless and so memorable....that I'll always remember where we were, what she had on, and the adorable look on her face when she said it. But now I can't remember what she said in the photo above just a few days ago when I treated her to a mini ice cream cone picnic in her room when Ellenie was asleep and we could steal a few moments for just the two of us.

But just now, after she recited EVERY WORD of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to me, ( I didn't know she knew it like that!) we were talking about how caterpillars turn into butterflies and she kept saying that bugs do too. And I kept gently suggesting that only caterpillars do...

Then she said, "Well we have a lot to discover Mom."

That's what my 2 year old just said to me.

How preciously priceless.

Two BIG firsts....

So here's when Ellenie woke up from her first nap in her crib...

"I did it! I slept in my own bed instead of that little bouncy chair with a kick-stand thing"

"I'm still sorta sleepy since I only slept a little while. Maybe I like the bouncy chair with a kick-stand thing. "

Mommy painted Lillianna's piggy toes!

(After the first coat of a very subtle pale pink)

Lillianna: Um...now I think that we can paint them purple.

(After the coat of purple as shown above)

Lillianna: That's good. Now I think we can do red.

"Dude."

Dude!

a little fresh air

We have missed our walks and our hunt for treasures.

Now that the weather is starting to warm up, we've been back outside, talking and walking.

It always amazes me how much better we all seem to feel when we're outside on a pretty day.

Lillianna swings her arms and starts chattering away the moment we leave the drive way.

She hasn't ridden in a stroller during a walk in over a year...she just loves to walk. Now Ellenie rides in the stroller and Lillianna tells her about the treasures we find.

We only have a few routes - Lillianns doesn't like to deviate from them very much at all. Therefore, we have some of the same conversations at the exact same places at her request. We walk past the mailbox with a picture of cardinals painted on them and...

Lillianna: Look Mom, cardinals!

Me: I see the pretty cardinals.

Lillianna: The brown one is the girl and the red one is the boy.

For a while we had to walk down the alley behind our house every single time we walked. We HAD to because there were two trampolines along that path that she wanted to just look at. In one of her Maisy books, Maisy jumps on a trampoline and breaks her leg (nice.) and so even though Lillianna has never been on one, she is fascinated by them. So we walk past them and point at them and say, "Look at the trampoline."

Although since Christmas it's been, "Maybe I could have one of those for Christmas."

Today's walk again centered around the trampolines because for the first time a owner was jumping on one so we stopped and watched. Which was mesmerizing for one of us. But we also took note of all the wonderful Springtime stuff around us. Lillianna had lots of questions but more factual statements about Spring - like why the trees dropped the wormy things and didn't I think that it was still just Winter.

I've missed our walks.

Wabi-Sabi

The Wabi-Sabi photography critique is still going on over at imollie. I have been amazed at the beauty, thoughtfulness, and creativity of them all. The phtotographers live all around the world so the subjects range significantly and yet there are some similar themes in all of them. It's been a great way to regain perspective on the beauty that surrounds us at all times, especially the beauty that we take for granted. My pics were up yesterday and my talented sister, Courtney, was featured last week (on Tuesday I think). Go check them out and vote too.

Potty Talk

Quote of the week:

Lillianna: But my poop doesn't like to swim.

CreARTive

This week I hosted a painting party with hopes of stirring up some creativity in all of us as we got together to talk and laugh. I think all goals were met.

I was so impressed with my artistic friends who dove right in.

We all painted small canvases using acrylics and different sizes and sorts of brushes...

I had it all laid out which fascinated Lillianna who kept asking if she could paint. Then she wanted to "help get ready" so she laid out some utensils from her drawer...

Here are some of the masterpieces in process:

Thank you Ladies for making our first Sips & Strokes so much fun! Let's do it again soon!

Then the next day, with all the supplies still out on the counter, Lillianna insisted that we paint.

So...

So today I Mod Podged it and promised her that her gorgeous work of art will hang in her room. She really is proud of it.

And I'm so very proud of her.