Baby Jonas

Baby Jonas is adorable. He's a stunning little boy. I loved holding him. It made me remember how little my girls used to be...although it's harder to remember Sophia than it is Lilly (or Aubrey, I should say).

I flew down to meet Jonas and to give some moral support to Claire and Craig after Jonas returned home from his stint in the hospital. I was there for 3 days. I did a bit of this and a bit of that to help them out. Seriously, they barely took me up on my nap suggestions. Also, Claire's work is calling her and has come by twice to drop off a laptop and some cds & paperwork. Crazy. Jonas just celebrated his 7 day old birthday while I was there. Come on, people.

The girls were glad that I was home, but I wasn't! It looked like a whore-i-cane ripped through every single room.

Sidenote: Whore-i-cane is how Sophia says hurricane. She knew that our town was freaking out about Hurricane Earl. I guess it was pretty bad at the beach, but at our house it drizzled all day. I think we got some heavier rain overnight though. The girls went outside with their umbrellas today


I spent the entire day yesterday cleaning the house! I hired a babysitter to watch the girls during the days (from 10-6) and then Will took over the nightly routine.

Anyway, back to Jonas.. He's still sleeping all the time and he's just a little bundle of warm, cushy baby. So sweet. (Can you tell it made me kind of want another baby, but now that I'm home I kind of like the fact that Lilly is almost potty trained?) I warned them that at two weeks he's going to be awake a lot more. (smile) and need constant attention. I also warned them that life kind of stinks when babies start crawling.

I was able to help out with his first bath and that was quite interesting. He decided to poo and pee several times. Um, yucky.

Jonas is a good eater and sleeper right now. He doesn't wail out at all. He might give a small whimper once a day, but not much more. He's definitely what you call an easy baby, but I wonder if that means that they will have a hard toddler? Gosh, I hope not.

Yay Lilly!

Lilly went pee pee in the potty! She took off her diaper this morning so I pulled out the potty seat and told her that if she had to go she needed to sit on the potty and go. And she did. Right then and there. We all cheered and jumped up and down. What a big girl.

What a disaster!

Addie and her 6-week old brother, Aiden, came over this morning for a playdate. Their mom, Amy, and I had a great time catching up, but while we were busy chatting Sophia and Addie tore the house apart. They literally pulled everything out of Sophia's dresser and threw all her clothes all over the floor. They came downstairs wearing underwear on their heads and layers and layers of clothes! If that wasn't bad enough, they pulled out four board games and mixed all the pieces together. They played marching band and marched around the house shouting and playing kazoos, harmonicas (thanks Uncle Mike!) and tambourines. Lilly followed them around copying everything they did...especially the shouting part.

Lilly was also very curious about the baby. She rocked him in his car seat, covered him with his blanket and tried to give him his paci a hundred times.

The girls had a great time, but man the house was a wreck. When they left I sent Sophia to her room for quiet time and told her to clean everything up. She actually did! I was really proud of her.

Her robot

Lilly has a cute little robe that she calls her ROBOT. It used to be Sophia's when she was younger, but now it belongs to Lilly and she loves wearing it after her baths. It's so cute when she says I WEAR MY ROBOT, MOMMY.

Body painting

Sophia begged me to get out the finger paint this morning before we went to the gym. I obliged. I got both girls set up at the kitchen table. They had blue, red, yellow and green paint. Sophia was mixing blue and red to get purple and red and yellow to make orange. The next thing I knew she was covered in paint. Everything but her face was painted! Luckily Lilly didn't follow Sophia's lead.

Sophia was thrilled with herself because not only did she get to paint all over herself, but then she got to take a shower which is her new favorite thing to do. She's turning into quite the shower hog.

All alone at the botanical gardens

The botanical garden has story hour every Wednesday and since there are only a few Wednesdays left before school starts I took the girls today. It was just the three of us and we had a fun time without anyone else tagging along.

We didn't spend much time in the sprinklers, but instead walked around the grounds trying to "rescue Snow White" (a made-up game of Sophia's) and then spent some time in the Enchanted Storybook Forest.

They have seven houses for the kids to play in:
The Three Little Pigs
Little Red Riding Hood
Huck Fin
Alice in Wonderland
The Crooked Man
The Old Lady Who Lived in the Shoe
Old MacDonald

The girls liked exploring every nook and cranny of the houses since there wasn't a whole lot of people there today. At the very end of the day they finally made a friend and had a tea party with her for 1/2 hour in the Alice in Wonderland house.

Partners in crime

Lilly has a PAPPY (paci) in her crib. It's supposed to be used only at night, but she often runs up to her room and tries to reach it in the crib. Sometimes she succeeds. Sometimes she doesn't. She asks me for it and I always tell her NO! When I don't give in she immediately calls out Sophia's name to see if she'll cave and give her the PAPPY. Sophia thinks she's clever whenever she helps Lilly out with the paci.

Here's the photos taken at the Botanical Garden earlier today. Once again, we had a great time. Lauren (10) and Olivia (8) came with us. Lauren also brought her friend, Randy.

Sophia got to plant a flower seed in a bio-degradable flower pot (basically it was newspaper rolled up to look like a flower pot). Lilly planted one too, but her pot fell apart before we left.

Take a look at the photos. Lilly had a great time playing and running around with Olivia. Sophia was really brave and actually went into the big sprinkler this time.

Botanical Garden

We're off to the Botanical Garden today with the neighbor girls, Lauren and Olivia. I ran into their mom, Michelle, yesterday at Walmart and since we have barely seen each other this entire summer we decided to take a trip to the sprinkler garden today. Look for some photos later today.

A visit to the doctor

Both girls had to visit the doctor yesterday for their annual appointments. We were there for exactly 2 hours. Boy was Will irritated that it took so long.

Both girls had to get shots. Lilly didn't even cry when she got hers, but Sophia screamed bloody murder and is still limping around the house complaining that her leg hurts.

Sophia is charting at the size of a 6-yr old, but we already knew that and the doc predicted that she'll be 5 ft 11 inches tall. She currently weighs 51 pounds and is 46 inches tall. After her shots she got to pick out a few stickers. She took every single Snow White sticker in the bin (seven in total).

Lilly is in the 90% percentile in height which surprised us. She had a major growth spurt and grew 4 inches since her 18-month appointment. She weighs 29 pounds 3.5 ounces and is 36 inches tall. Lilly picked out a Thomas the Train sticker and I grabbed a few Hello Kitty ones for her too.

Lilly has to go back at 2.5 years old. Sophia doesn't have to go back until she's 5.

Both girls enjoyed receiving their free book or BOOKY, as Lilly called it. Lately she's been adding the EEEEE sound to the end of everything. BOOKY, DRINKY, BLANKEY, etc.

Birthday Party

Sophia was invited to a birthday pool party yesterday. All four of us went since we know the whole family.

Will spent the entire 2.5 hours in the pool throwing the girls around and was exhausted when we got home. He also got a lot of color from the sun reflecting off the water.

Sophia was like a fish in the water. She got to play with Haley the entire time too. The two of them swam their little butts off, ate pizza and cake, and squirted each other with a bazooka water gun.

Lilly had two pieces of cake. She swam for 1/2 hour and then ate lunch. After that she didn't want to get back into the pool, but she didn't mind sitting on the steps.

I got to talk to Haley's mom, Michelle. We haven't seen much of them this summer because of our busy summer travel schedule.

My family...they're so cute

More pictures

Here's a link to many, many more pictures that I took when we were in Pennsylvania.

Out for the night

Will and I recently had our 6th wedding anniversary. Tonight we're going out to celebrate. We've got a sitter coming to watch the kids and we're going out to dinner and a movie. Aren't we lucky?

______________UPDATE_______________

We're back from our night out. It was really nice to have some alone time, adult conversation and a beverage or two. We tried a new Greek restaurant (thumbs down) then walked to the movie theater. We saw Inception. It was a fast paced drama with tons of twists and turns. We really enjoyed it. - Will a little bit more than me.

The sitter, Amy, told us that Lilly helped herself to the dinner that she brought for herself. She thought it was hysterical. Lilly ate her fries and her pickles. Cute.

Another first

No, I'm not writing about any of Lilly's firsts, but Sophia made me very proud this morning when she took her very first shower. I've offered countless times before for her to join me, but she's always seriously been too scared to take me up on it.

This morning she decided it was time for her to take a shower. She announced that she wanted to take a shower and then marched right upstairs into her bathroom, got in the shower and then asked me to leave the room so she could have some privacy! I didn't, of course. She even washed and rinsed her own hair.

My little baby is growing up. Yesterday she got her first hair cut that wasn't straight around in the back. Because her hair was getting so tangled and it really hurt her when I brushed it, I decided it was time for her to get her hair cut. I'm thrilled with the results. I took her to her "kid" salon and asked to keep the length in the front, but to have the back stacked with layers. It looks really cute. I do wish I would have asked the girl to cut it a little bit shorter. I'll probably take her back for a trim just before school starts in a month.

Our Visit to Nana & Poppy's House

We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and left the following Monday morning. It was a great trip. We managed to pack in a lot of activities while still affording the girls some quiet time almost every day.

Nana and Poppy both went to work on Wednesday so the girls and I were on our own. We ended up going to Target and then McDonald's so the girls could play on the outdoor playground. They really enjoyed it and the weather was beautiful. It was nice and hot. When we got back home my Aunts came for a short visit. Shirley and Donna are my mom's sisters. Sophia performed for them the entire time. At one point she was falling on the ground and Lilly was laughing her head off at the commotion. This continued for a long time..(smile)..making it hard to hold a conversation.

After they left I wasn't sure what we were going to do, but I quickly decided it was time for some "water play" - outside. What kid doesn't like to play in water? I apparently did... My mom saved my old sink (it's over 30 years old and she still has the Christmas photo from the year Santa brought it for me!) and the girls got to use it to wash my old, plastic dishes. They loved filling up two Nana's two watering cans using the outdoor spigot and dumping the water into the sink, or more honestly, on themselves. Once they were almost entirely wet I let them play with the hose and sprinkler. Sophia couldn't get enough!

The following day we went to Aunt Carole's pool. She gave us a tour of her new condo which is really nice. I absolutely loved the openness of the floor plan. After the tour we hopped in my car for a quick ride to the pool which, at the deepest spot, was 5 ft. Sophia could swim around no problem. Lilly liked jumping from the top of the steps into the water. Nana's arms were probably hurting after the day she had playing in the water. Aunt Carole prepared an awesome snack for us (fruit salad, Cheetos, iced tea, and Dots candy). I think Lilly ate half the bag of Cheetos! We stayed at the pool for a few hours that day and Lilly fell asleep in the car on the ride home. Boy was she tuckered out. It really was a lot of fun. We don't have access to a pool where we live so it was really nice to take advantage of Aunt Carole's pool.

My mom took the day off on Thursday and our plan was to let the girls play. We might have originally planned a trip to he playground too, but that didn't happen. Instead we had guests visiting for most of the day. My Aunt Donna and my cousin, Carly, came first thing in the morning. It was fun to catch up with Carly and get the scoop on her 17-yr old perspective. She's an amazing girl, smart, beautiful, athletic, etc. The total package if you ask me and this will be her senior year of high school. She's trying to decide on a college now. I should have plugged Allegheny.

Anyway, after they left, my mom's other sister and my namesake, Aunt Shirley, brought two of her grand kids down for some play time with Sophia and Lilly. Immediately after they left my mom's cousin called and asked to come over for an impromptu visit. We sure did get to see a lot of family in one day. It was early to bed because we had a big day ahead of us. Friday was Idelwild Park day.

I was excited to take the girls because it would be their first time at an amusement park and I was curious to see their reaction to all of it, especially the rides. When I was a little girl my parents took me to Idelwild. My dad also frequented the park with his parents when he was a little boy. Wow. I guess it's some sort of a tradition. Hopefully some day Sophia and Lilly will want to take their children to the park.

I thought both girls would be thrilled about the Story Book Village stroll. Maybe it's because it was the first thing we did and the girls were trying to overcome their confusion about where they were, what they were supposed to be doing, and why there were so many people milling around, but the girls didn't really care for this part. We walked along the path and saw the homes of The Three Bears, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood and walked by or in about 25 other nursery rhyme displays. I was certain the girls would love it. Shows you what I know. Sophia fained a bit of interest, but mostly acted bored/aloof and Lilly wouldn't get out of my arms to look at anything. I thought it was going to be a flop of a day, but it immediately got better when we rode the train and then went to explore other parts of the park.

I was a little worried that Sophia would be scared of the rides. I was actually prepared to spend all day in kiddie land (or Raccoon Lagoon as it was called) just to build up her confidence to ride some of the rides. I thought Lilly would be ready and willing to ride and I was right. She got right on and loved every minute of it. Smiling and waving each time she rode by. What I couldn't have imagined was that Sophia would also love the rides and would get so bored with the kiddie rides so quickly. Well, maybe I could have guessed it when I saw her mocking another girl holding her hands up in the air on the mini roller coaster. Oh my gosh! My head must have done a full 360 when I saw her. Was this child really Sophia? Was she seriously not holding on AND enjoying it? Incredible.

After that we decided to hit the adult rides in "Olde Idelwild". She was tall enough to ride everything with an adult and so was Lilly in some cases so all five of us eventually did get to ride a few things. As it turns out Sophia loves all the rides. She really doesn't have a preference between the spinning rides and the roller coasters. She actually rode her very first "Rollo Coaster". She sat in the very first car with Poppy. I sat behind them. After she tackled that one with ease, I took her on the Log Jammer. That was the last ride we did before leaving the park. I thought we would get really wet, but as it turns out only our legs got wet. Sophia jumped off the ride and shouted I GOT SOAKED! (Ha ha ha) We left the park around 7 pm and got home at 8:30.

Saturday was a lazy day. We let the girls play all day. They mostly played in the water - either in the sprinklers or with the play kitchen sink. Lilly also filled up the bottom of her stroller with rocks and pushed it around for hours with either Sophia, a baby or Lamby on board. Around dinner time my mom and I left Poppy in charge while we went to pick up fish sandwiches for dinner. We weren't gone for very long. When we left Sophia was worn out in the living room watching Beauty and the Beast and Lilly was outside having a tea party. Poppy was chilling in a chair in the shade. When we returned all three of them were in the exact same spots, doing the exact same things they were doing when we left. What a relief!

On Sunday afternoon my mom and I took the girls to the annual church bazaar that I used to love going to each year. I fondly remember the penny candy table which sadly doesn't exist anymore. The girls still managed to get their fair share of penny candy anyway. They also brought home 8 stuffed animals and two plastic necklaces. They literally won a prize for each and every single game they played. Sophia got balloons painted on her cheek and a flower tattoo on her arm. Before we left the bazaar we got to ride in a 1914 Buick that belonged to my dad's brother, Uncle Alan. Sophia loved the fact that the car didn't have any windows or seat belts.

We also briefly ran into Aunt Carole again, but we got separated in the crowds and never managed to hook back up. We bought our bbq chicken and then went home. The girls were completely exhausted from the hot sun beating down on them all day and from waiting in the long line for chicken. Sophia resorted to rolling down a grassy hill and got grass stains all over her pants and then decided it was fun to push Lilly down the hill too. A small price to pay for the hours of fun we had.

We had a great trip and got to spend some quiet time with Nana and Poppy. They loved seeing the girls and vice versa.

On Monday morning we headed back to Northern VA for Grancy's birthday and to see and congratulate Uncle Rob and Aunt Christina. They just got engaged and have asked the girls to be the flower girls in the wedding. I can't wait.

We're glad to be home and don't have any travel plans for a while plus school starts in three and a half weeks. Time for some back to school shopping....and time to sign off for the night.

Idelwild Park

Voted #2 in children's amusement parks. My parents and I took the girls there on Friday during our vacation in Mars.

The trek to PA was a bit of a spur of the moment idea. Will and I were initially heading to Fairfax for Claire's baby shower and I decided to continue on to PA for a visit with my family. We stayed for almost a week. After the shower Will went back to Virginia Beach and was by himself for 7 days. The girls and I were gone for a total of 10 days. We're all glad to be back together.

Here are some pictures of our first few days at my parent's house and a few pictures from our trip to Idelwild Park. Sophia rode her first "Rollo Coaster" as they call it. She sat with Poppy and I sat behind them in the very first seat. I think she was terrified, but she really enjoyed it! She got off smiling and was so proud that she rode it. The last ride of the day was the Log Jammer. We went on it together and barely got wet. She remembers getting SOAKED.

Life is good

Visitors

We've got company this week. Uncle Dan and his girlfriend, Meg, are visiting through Thursday. I'm pretty sure our only plans are to go to the beach, but there are no better plans if you ask me. I think Will is going to take off from work tomorrow and join us. I've got a sitter coming tomorrow evening so the "adults" can go out to dinner. Fun. Fun.

Just peachy...I'm mean beachy.

We went to Sandbridge Beach again this past weekend. Lilly had a blast jumping the waves with Will. So did Sophia, but every time Will did anything with Lilly he had to do the same with Sophia.

Will plays a game with the girls. They wait for a big wave to come to the edge of shoreline and then they turn around and make a bee line for the beach. It's really cute.

Take a look at all the pictures.

Somebody wrote on the wall!

I'll give you one guess which girl it was! Nope, wasn't Sophia. It was Lilly. She found her flower pen and decided to draw all over one of the kitchen walls. And then she looked at me with this adorable face and I couldn't be angry with her anymore.

Playing violin at princess camp

Sophia's princess camp recital photos

Here's a slide show of the pictures I took at the princess camp dance recital. Sophia smiled the entire time and really got into every dance they performed.

I was so proud of her.

She kept waving to Will throughout the show.

Dancing Lilly

She still loves to dance! Here's a video of her shaking her groove thing. (Not a very good video, but you can see her in action a little bit.)

Puzzles

Sophia is a pro at puzzles now. All three of these are 25 piece puzzles. She can put them together with ease.

Videos from Princess Camp

Be prepared, these movies are almost three minutes a piece.

Here's the tap dance:



Here's the ballet dance (Under the Sea):



Here's the cheerleading part:



Here's the gymnastics routine:

Lilly and her Lamby

Here's a picture of Lilly the day she found her Lamby. She was 100% happy.

Child care at church

Ms. Mikey, Sophia and Lilly's surrogate grandmother, took these pictures for me while I was at church decorating for vacation Bible school. She works in the nursery at church and sees them every Sunday.

On the day this picture was taken Ms. Mikey also gave each of the girls a Beany Baby. They carried the bears around with them all day. Sophia's is bright pink with a heart on it's chest. Lilly's is green with a shamrock on it's chest.

Princess camp recital video

I'm still trying to upload some of the videos, but wanted to share at least one. Here's the video of Sophia walking in for the tap dance at princess camp and there is a great close up at the end of the video.

I did it.

Yesterday I stopped the gas pump exactly on $20.00.

I've tried to do it for years, but have always been a penny or two off.

Maybe it means good luck???

Playing guitar at Princess Camp

Day 1 of Princess Camp

Sophia wore her Cinderella dress to the first day of Princess Camp. In the morning she told me she didn't want to go, but when I picked her up she cried that she didn't want to leave.

They played with a parachute yesterday, played guitar, danced and did a cute handprint craft.

They practice a few dance routines and then perform them on Thursday.

Today is "Under the Sea" day so she's wearing her Ariel costume.

She found Lamby

Lilly found her Lamby this afternoon. She found him by accident I think.

I heard her saying I FOUND LAMBY MAMA. I went to see what she was talking about and she was right! There he was shoved into a drawer of the entertainment center cabinet.

Her face had the hugest smile. She hugged Lamby so tight. She insisted on carrying him around all day and she fell asleep tonight without so much as a whimper. Ahhhh, things are back to normal.

Lilly's Lamby

Lilly's Lamby is GONE!!!! We have no idea where it may be...except that it has to be in our house.

She had it Saturday morning before we left for Northern VA. We forgot to bring it with us so she was forced to sleep with Big Daddy's spare Lamby. It worked, but she wasn't very happy about it. She cried herself to sleep.

When we arrived home last night I searched the entire house, but couldn't find her Lamby. I searched again this morning and simply cannot find her.

Lilly loves the tag part of her Lamby, so luckily I was able to find a Taggie Blanket for her to sleep with last night. This morning she decided to carry it downstairs with her so I think it might be an OK substitute for now.

But where the heck is her Lamby???

All of her friends

Sophia lined up all of her stuffed animals on her bed during quiet time. When quiet time was over she proudly showed me her hard work and bragged that she was going to sleep with her friends. She told me she wanted to leave them on the bed until Christmas.

UPDATE (Sunday night): She went to bed with all the animals that night, but when I checked on her around 11pm all the animals were at the foot of her bed and she was back "on her side". At least that's the reason she gave in the morning.

They were speechless

For 20 minutes on Sunday night the girls were absolutely speechless. Will and I just looked at each other - in total disbelief. We took them to see fireworks at Mt. Trashmore and they sat there in awe watching the sky light up and sparkle.

The Beach

We hit the beach again today. The sand sure was hot! Sophia whimpered and complained the entire walk (both ways) because her feet were hurting.

We had a lot of fun. Sophia and Will played in the water and ran up and down the shore line the entire time we were there. Lilly ate a snack and worked up the nerve to join them in the water. Once she got wet, she had a ball. I enjoyed my time basking in the sun.

Damaged Key

Damaged Key...that was the message that appeared on my dash yesterday when I tried to turn the minivan key in the ignition. Of course Chrysler couldn't make a regular key with teeth! No. They had to make a computer chip key that can break! Who ever heard of a car key that is damaged? Unbelievable.

I'm taking it into the shop for repair on Wednesday.

Our stay with Grancy and Big Daddy

We overstayed our original visit by 4 whole days because the transmission died in our minivan. We barely made it to Grancy's house. It's a miracle we didn't break down on the highway. By the time we got to their house our car wouldn't get into gear and seriously wouldn't move.

Grancy and Big Daddy were so accommodating, gracious and really made us feel right at home. And if I can be blunt, we definitely moved in and made ourselves comfortable. The girls had toys and clothes strewn all over the house. I took over half the refrigerator and Will created a home office for himself in the basement.

We got to visit with Christina and Rob every day too. They came over for dinner every night after work except the one night that we went out to dinner with them. It was so nice to catch up. We met their new dog, Jaxster (on the right). He was a sweet puppy, but it took Sadie a few days to really get used to him "invading" her territory. She's always very protective when we're at Grancy's house.

We arrived on a Wednesday night. The girls and I stayed home without a car on Thursday. We made the best of it and found lots of fun activities to pass the time. We played outside with the water hose for a while, played on the playground, made some playdoh, read lots of books, drew with sidewalk chalk, and watched Snow White for the 100th time. Sophia even tried to eat jello with chopsticks.

On Friday Christina came over in the morning. We went to breakfast at a bagel joint then stopped at Kohls so I could get a pair of sunglasses. I also got Sophia and Lilly the most adorable princess folding beach chairs (can't wait to use them at the beach this weekend). Christina bought Lilly a super cute onesie jumper. Sophia told Christina that she didn't want anything. That's a first! After that we hit the neighborhood pool. We stayed for hours! The girls had an incredible time floating and swimming around in their floaty rings. Not surprisingly Lilly was scared at first and needed to feel secure holding onto an adult, but by the end of our stay she was kicking around all by herself.

On Saturday I had lunch with Courtney, my friend from college. Grancy and Christina took the girls to the park. They rode on the carousel, the train and the playground equipment. I know Sophia had a great time because when Grancy asked her what her favorite part was she answered ALL OF IT. I think it was Saturday afternoon when we went to the pool with Rob and Christina.

Sunday (Father's Day) was supposed to be our departure day, but instead I spent the afternoon doing laundry so we could make it through the week. Late in the afternoon I took the girls back to the pool.

We hung out with Courtney and her three kids (Ben, Katie and Gavin) at their pool on Monday. The rest of the week kind of blends together. I took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese one day, but other than that we went to Grancy's pool almost every day. Lucky us!!!

WHEELWEE

WHEELWEE - this is how Lilly says her name now. It's so cute when she says it. She "finds" herself in the mirror and then says WHEELWEE with the cutest grin because she's so proud of herself.