Sleep

Ella has learned how to sleep on her belly and I think it's the cutest thing.

She has been rolling around for a while now but I kept a wedge in her crib to keep her on her back. Lately she's been trying to roll around in the wedge so I removed it. The beauty of a thumb-sucker is that I don't have to replace the binky all night long! She rolls onto her belly, pops in her thumb and voila!

Homework

Today we hung at home. Thank goodness I looked through some papers because Lilly had something very important to do today! She had her very first homework assignment! Her Gymboree class gave her a coloring page to color and return for class tomorrow. She was very excited to do her homework. She worked very hard and took her time.

Ella just hung out in her pajamas today.

Andy's been working late this week for various meetings and events at his school so I've been doing the nighttime alone. It's 9 p.m. Both girls are bathed and in bed and it's time to sit back, relax, and enjoy some American Idol. It's the only show I follow consistently and I look forward to it! It's my reward for getting both girls into bed on time. The small things...

Weekend

This weekend my great friend Krissy and her daughter Savannah visited us from Minnesota. We had a lovely time and I'm very sad that they went home. The weather was awesome - in the nineties. We had fun at the park...

And I tried to get the girls to look at me for a cute picture but they were hot and tired so this is all I got.

Lilly and her hugs... Savannah was less than thrilled and rightfully so.

Playing dress up with necklaces.

Savannah is so beautiful. I love this picture.

We were so sad to see them go. Lilly rode home from the airport in "Savannah's seat" and kept saying, "Mommy we go on apwane to see Veenah?" so I know that a trip will need to be in the works sometime soon!

Yesterday Andy surprised me by showing up at home very early. He left something early (shame shame) and had to go back at 6pm for a meeting. It was nice to have him home in the afternoon and even nicer that he went to Toys R Us and got Lilly an alligator pool and Ella a jumperoo acitvity center (for jumping)! When Lilly woke up from her nap she went right in the pool even though it was freezing.

Ella hung out in her jumperoo with her new (and yes, ugly) headband on. I will not be putting these on her ever again. I thought they looked cute in the package at Target but, not so much!

This morning Lilly did something so sweet. I was in the shower when Ella woke up. Lilly was in my bed watching TV and heard her on the monitor so she went in. Ella loves seeing Lilly hanging over her crib in the morning. She coos and laughs and squeals. After I got out of the shower I could tell Lilly was in there from the noises Ella was making. Then I noticed Lilly had gotten back in my bed. I told her not to leave Ella in there alone because she'd be sad after seeing Lilly and then being left alone. I figured she'd go back over the crib and talk to Ella until I got in there. This is what I found when I went in to get Ella up...

I almost started crying. How sweet is this? I had told her not to leave her alone so she didn't. She got herself a blanket, her binky, and her lovey and she sat in there with her until I came in (and no, Ella had no idea she was there so essentially it was like she was alone which defeats the whole purpose but...). I don't know why I just found this so very endearing on Lilly's part. She loves her baby so much and I am so grateful for that.

*Sidenote: Yesterday when Lilly woke from her nap I told her Daddy was bringing her a surprise home and she said, "Is it a baby bruhter?" She's always asking me to get her a bruhter. I told her I would try...

Are You There God, It's Me Rabbit

*This post is graphic. It's real. It's our crazy wild animal life.*

We are in bunny hell.

Last night I ended up getting up and finding the enclosure to our cat door so that I could let Stella out of the bedroom but she couldn't get out of the house.

Today was a gorgeous day and in the late afternoon I set out to mow the front yard (FYI: Andy is severely allergic to grass and many trees and is currently ill because of this). I was a wreck about the baby bunnies. Andy once told me a story of a time when he was a young boy and mowed over a bunny hole and all the bunnies died. It was traumatic for him and knowing that we had/have babies in our yard was rattling my brain. I slowly mowed the perimeter of the yard and then moved on to the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. I was looking for bunnies and thinking about stopping and getting Andy to come out and check the yard when ... I ran over one of the babies. All I saw was a baby hop up after I went over it. I immediately stopped and reached for the baby and it hopped so I called for Andy. He came out and checked it and told me I had (in his words) "chopped off it's ears and tail!" I was freaking out asking Andy why they hide low in the grass and would he have done the same, etc. Andy moved the baby over to the mulch where Lilly began to play with it and I walked over to the old bunny hole in the yard and started feeling around to make sure this wouldn't happen again when ... "EEK" I stepped on another baby (they scream a high pitched scream) with my foot!!! I quickly lifted my foot and the bunny hopped off toward our house.

It was at this time that Andy said he should mow because he has "spidey senses" and I do not. The mower was nowhere near the bunnies. I had left it near the driveway. I went to sit on the porch with Lilly and process what was going on when Andy started up the mower. He pushed it one foot when I saw a baby bunny fly up into the air. I ran inside screaming with Lilly behind me. She said, "They dead Mommy?" and I said, "No Lilly they're all alive!" and she said, "Yes Mommy they all awive alwight!" After a few minutes of trying to gather myself I stepped onto the porch and Andy looked at me and told me it was decapitated. I kid you not.

In five minutes time I had mowed over one baby bunny, stepped on another, and Andy had mowed over and killed a third.

I ended up watching Andy carefully mow the rest of the yard. At one point I felt like we should check the grass carefully and asked him to turn off the mower. We walked the rest of the yard and again, "EEK!" I stepped on one that was in the line of the mower. We moved it to the mulch and then we knew they were all accounted for and Andy finished mowing.

Here is the one that I hit with the mower. Notice the ear :-(
Here is the other one that I stepped (lightly) on.
Can you believe this? I cannot. Horrible.

Happy Ending: Andy and Lilly went out to get dinner tonight and when they came home they saw the mother bunny nursing one of the babies in our yard!! Andy said he saw the white of the belly and the feet kicking. He placed the second bunny nearby so the mom would nurse that one as well.

The Circle of Life

Around this time last year (actually, it was June) you'll remember that we had a bunny hole in our backyard. We watched the bunnies every day and even roped off the area. One morning when we went outside all the bunnies were gone. I was so upset thinking they had been snatched by ... ? Well, this year we have a new bunny hole in our front yard. Andy found it and mowed around it leaving tall grass in a circle around and over the hole. We watched and finally noticed bunny fur mixed in with the dirt and debris. I knew that the babies were probably inside.
I peeked one afternoon while the girls were sleeping and as soon as I lifted some of the grass and dirt I felt a baby hop up against my hand. It freaked me out and made me nervous so I quickly covered it back over. That night I told Andy that the babies were in there so he took Lilly outside to see them.
I was shocked when he picked up one of the babies for Lilly to see! I do know however that the whole 'human smell on babies fur thus making mother abandon baby' deal does not hold true for baby bunnies. Lilly was excited to see the baby and pet its head.

Andy put the baby back in the hole and covered it over holding the grass in place until they stopped hopping up against his hand.

We figured they were about done with their nesting spot and that we would leave them be until they were ready to leave their hole.

This is where the story was going to end. I tried several times today to upload these pictures and publish the blog but Blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures (this very frustrating event happens from time to time) and by the time I was able to get the pictures to upload (now) there were two more parts to this story...

We spent this afternoon outside. Stephy came over to stay with us as she often does after school and we went to the park and then home to play soccer in the front yard. Stephy and Lilly were kicking the soccer ball and I was nursing Ella on the porch when the ball landed in the grass and suddenly a tiny baby bunny went scurrying across the yard and into the street. Stephy (she's 11) went running after the bunny and tried to catch it. At one point she had her hands around it and it started screeching so she got scared and let go. I am secretly terrified to touch/hold wild animals as we've had many birds and bunnies in our house thanks to our cat Stella. Lilly totally broke down in hysterics worried about the bunny, Stephy was chasing the bunny down the street, I was instructing Stephy, and Ella was in my arms watching it all unfold. Finally the bunny ended up in my neighbor's yard behind her hose. At this point Lilly was sobbing her eyes out yelling, "THE BUNNY POOR BUNNY HIS HEAD..." and I felt like I better "man up" and get the damn bunny. I set my fear aside and went behind the hose and picked up the adorable (and soft and scared) bunny rabbit. I showed Lilly it was ok so she stopped crying and I took it back to the bunny hole in our yard to put it down. At that time, two other tiny baby bunnies took off running in different directions!! They weren't in their hole but were nearby in a tuft of grass. It was hysterical. I ended up putting the bunny into the tuft of grass where it stayed, figured the other two bunnies would make their way back to their sibling, and went on with our day.

Fast forward to 9 p.m. Ella was in bed and I was in Lilly's room putting her to bed when I heard the all-too-familiar screeching of a bunny. It was upstairs. I shut Lilly's door but it was too late and she had heard it. She knew right away what it was having heard the same cry hours earlier. Andy was running up the steps to find it. It was the baby bunny (damn cat) and Andy was very sweet and put it in a rubbermaid container thinking we'd hand raise it. I vaguely remembered reading at one time that it was near impossible to successfully raise a wild cottontail bunny and I went back online and confirmed what I had thought. So Andy let the bunny go in hopes that the mother will nurse the baby tonight (mothers nurse babies only at nighttime or in the wee early hours of the morning).

I am left sitting in bed writing this blog entry with the cat locked in here with me scratching at the bedroom door and crying.

Toes. Yummy.

I'm sorry for the constant thumb-sucking pictures but I can't help myself...
Sucking the big toe is a lot of fun too! Ella and Lilly both started sucking their toes within 5 days of one another (yes, I actually have the dates and photos and find some odd sort of pleasure in comparing when they did little things such as this and NO I'm not comparing in a competitive sort of way).

*Ella in the first picture and Lilly in the second in case it wasn't clear.

Sisters

I thought when we had our second child I'd take adorable pictures of the two girls together. Add in a 3 year old that won't look at the camera (when I'm behind the lens) and a squirmy, non-sitting baby and the image I had in mind is nearly impossible to capture.

Ella is really changing. She reminds me of Lilly more and more with her looks and with her strength. She's become very physical rolling around, not wanting to sit in one spot, etc. And she's very strong.
This one is good of Ella but...
And Lilly has a funky look but there's a sort of smile there somewhere. She loves to hold Ella and is enjoying Ella as she becomes more mobile and playful.
And would you believe I didn't even dress them the same on purpose?? I realized it about halfway through the day...

Soccer Day!

Today is soccer day #2! Lilly is pretty excited and we've talked about how she has to stay for the whole class.
She's really excited to see Mr. Mark.
She even let me put her hair in a pony tail ("Onwy for soccer!") but said she had to have a bow too.

My goal is for her to learn to listen to her teacher/coach and to have fun. It's sunny and gorgeous without a cloud in the sky and is supposed to hit 70 degrees. Gotta go wake Ella so we can go!

Ella Found Her Feet

Happy Birthday

Today, our sweet Ella is 5 months old.

I set out to do an outdoor photo shoot with her since it's gorgeous today...

She loved the grass but she didn't love looking up at Mommy. I think it was too sunny. We tried many different locations (front and back yards) and angles but between the grass and sucking her thumb, we didn't accomplish much.

Stella got in on the action...

She did enjoy the weather and having her feet bare for the first time in... well, in her life.

Happy birthday to my mom today too! How great it would be to see her and Ella together on this special day.

What Not To Do

Yep, go ahead and freak out; I did.

More blogging to come for today is the birthday of two very special people...

Baby Stellan

Baby Stellan still needs your prayers as he's now headed to Boston for better care and most likely surgery that is very very risky.

Son

I always wanted a son.

This is surely as close as I'll ever get! Yes, this is sweet Ella posing as a little boy. She was given this outfit by our neighbors who clearly either don't know we had a little girl or think the brand "Laura Ashley" is automatically for girls.

Easter Sunday

This Easter was so very special to me. I loved having my sister and my nieces with me this weekend. I especially loved having them join us for church to celebrate Jesus Christ's victory over death. To think that He died so we would have another chance at salvation and eternal life is really amazing. What an awesome day!

In preparation for Easter, Lilly and Bailee dyed Easter eggs.

Andy enjoyed the metallic crinkle that he was able to create with fancy foil paper.

Lilly's hands turned a nice shade of green so I gave her some stickers to decorate the eggs in order to give her fingers a chance at recovering before church the next morning.
The Easter Bunny was very busy this year. He had no problem finding Brooke and Bailee in NJ.
Easter morning the girls awoke and were ready to see what goodies the bunny brought.

The Easter Bunny was crazy this year and brought the girls a very large chocolate bunny. Lilly went after its nose...

Poor, poor bunny.
Easter morning was so calm and easy with Stephanie here to help! I was able to take a nice shower and take my time getting ready. I had Andy and Stephanie (Brooke and Bailee too!) to help me with the girls. Of course Lilly would not allow me to get a nice sisterly shot so this is as good as it gets...
Lilly wore the dress we bought her for Ella's baptism and Ella wore an adorable outfit given to her by Krissy.


Sweet baby girl...

I can't resist sharing this picture of our baby girl's legs. They are so cute and chunky (and long)!!
After church we headed home and had brunch (sausage, egg, and cheese casserole and fruit) and hung out. The girls did a few Easter egg hunts, played at the park, and I made a ham and green beans for dinner. It was wonderful being with Stephanie and her girls and we're really missing them now! Lilly told everyone we saw today about her cousins! She adores the girls and they are such good girls. As I have always said - I would love to live next door to them...