Erkel

Lillianna has been using the word "cool" alot in the last week.

I figured she heard it at school although I also heard Diego use it yesterday.

She often inquires whether she is using it correctly, saying, "Is that cool Mama?"

Of course, most of the time I say,"Yes, that's cool because it's really colorful (insert any other actual adjective)," trying to teach her to use more descriptive words.

Anyhoo, she also is very into pulling up her pants. Not her fault since most of them are too big.

All this to say, how do I tell her that this look is not very...umm...well....COOL?

Me Likey

officially 4 months old.

rice cereal for the first time.

loved it!

thought we might bulk her up a bit.

she's a whopping 11 pounds, 60z. and 23 inches tall/long.

the pedictrician called her "scrawny".

So then I called him scrawny.

Sweet sweet sweet

We had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Complete with country ham biscuits, a drawing from Lillianna, church, a picnic at the river, lots of playing, and only one trip to Timeout.

Plus, I got a beautiful necklace and earrings from Brad and the girls.

Loved it all!

Last week at school Lillianna, with help from her teachers, completed a fill in the blank sheet entitled My Mom is Special! It is so sweet I just had to share.

Her answers are in bold:

My Mom's name is: Mama

She is special because she plays with me.

I like it when my Mom plays marbles with me.

My Mom can do many things! I think she's best at cooking

My Mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by tickling her.

My Mom is as pretty as a princess. My Mom is smart! She even knows how to drive a car.

I'd like to tell my Mom that I think she is beautiful.

Happy Mother's Day to Me

One year ago this Sunday, I received the best (and most surprising) gift on Mother's Day.

A positive pregnancy test!

Here we are one year later with that best gift...

Miss Ellenie.

And with her big sister, Lillianna, they are truly the best gifts I will ever receive...

better than all the beautiful flowers in the world,

better than all the chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies in the world combined,

better than any long, extravagant vacation

with all the books, beach, sun and fruity drinks I could ever want,

better than the longest nap I could dream of right now!

You two darling, delicious loveys are the best gift, that keeps on giving, I could ever ask for.

To steal your phrase Lillianna, you are the best daughters "I ever seen in the whole world."

I love you.

And I thank you for the privilege of being your Mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

Potty Talk

Quote of the Week

Warning: May be too much information

(Peering into her Elmo potty at her job well done)

Lillianna: Look Mom, that one looks like a carrot but the other two little fellas look like poop.

Small Things with Great Love

We can do no great things, only small things with great love.

- Mother Teresa

Two years ago in April, I started this blog. Two years! Lillianna was just 8 months old and I was taking pictures of her everyday and trying to remind myself to write down all the adorable stuff she was doing. Then at a birthday party for our sweet friend Lydia, I talked to her Aunt, my friend iMollie about her blog. At the time, I didn't know much about blogging and had never heard of a parenting/mom/family-ish blog. But it sounded like a great way to journal, share, and most of all to connect with others. I was really excited about the opportunity to easily share pics and stories about Lillianna with our family since we live away from all of them. So I started one and started writing to Lillianna'a grandparents, Aunts and close friends that I knew would love to see adorable her and hear about all the predictable antics of parenting.

Two years later, I am amazed at how much blogging has become an invaluable way of involving our family and friends in our daily life as well

as a wonderful source of community for me as a Mom.

When I started it, I didn't think about what would become of the blog, I was just happy to know my Mom had pictures for a new screen saver at work each week. Then I realized that it was the best (or only!) baby book, scrapbook, journal, or love letter I was keeping for Lillianna. So then I began to worry about what would become of my blog. Should I start printing the posts and putting them in binders? Then I came across the perfect (I hoped) solution: blurb.com

This company has free software that downloads your blog so that you can edit it, send it back to them, and then they print it in a hard-back book in less than 2 weeks! I had to try it.

So I worked on one that encompasses my first year of blogging and it arrived in the mail last week!

Overall, I was very pleased. The software was user friendly and the quality of the book is awesome. I didn't think the templates or lay-outs for the pages were great, especially if your post includes many pictures. The editing options were also a bit limiting but I didn't explore all the options either. I will say that I am very excited about starting Volume 2 which will include my whole second year of blogging. Most of all, I'm just so glad I started this and so very glad to know that the girls will have it forever.

Thanks Mollie!

Pajama party

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.

Little things like a getting your first sleeping bag (that came with a water bottle and flashlight too!) to watch Cinderella FOR THE FIRST TIME with your best friend in your pajamas while eating pizza and cupcakes!

Lillianna looked at me at one point and whispered,

"This is the best night ever."

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.