Dancing Lilly

Today was the dress rehearsal for Lilly's dance company. Since she's only 3 they don't have her attend the dress rehearsal but told us they'd be there from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. if we wanted to bring her by to get up on stage to see what it's like.

Lilly was so excited when we walked in. It's actually in a high school but it doubles as the TD Bank Center for Performing Arts and it's gorgeous and BIG. When we walked in Lilly said, "This is a fwaightest!" Her teacher found us and was so excited to see her.

Lilly handed her a present we'd bought for her and then Miss Tiffany swooped her off to see the stage. They love Lilly so much; all the teachers were yelling, "Lilly! Hi!!! Come with us!!" It's because she cracks them up in class each week probably saying 'inafrofriate' things.

Lilly had her hands/fingers in her mouth at first (her sign of nerves) but once Miss Tiffany put her down on the stage she started dancing! It was really cute. And the greatest news of all - our seats are AWESOME! Remember Andy's guest blog? Well we're in the center section, 8th row back. I sat there while Lilly was on stage so she could see where we'd be.

After she came down from the stage she wanted to watch the performances. She was so cute and was mesmorized dancing in our row along with each routine. (My Flip doesn't pan back so I couldn't get Lilly's whole body in the screen since I was sitting right next to her.)

I will be taping her dances on Wednesday night so Thursday (hopefully) you'll see her dancing (and not running off the stage, crying, stripping, pushing...) and having a great time.

*And yes, I did have Ella with me though you'd never know because she's so freakin' good all the time. She was on my lap while I was videoing both of these clips. She was playing with my sunglasses. The music was so loud and it didn't even phase her. Top all of that off with the fact that she is so very sick. Poor little boo boo - I'll take a picture of her tomorrow. She has (Andy's) nasty cold and her eyes are red and watery and her nose is just oozing all the time.

Summer Saturday

Last night Lilly flipped off the couch (I think) and hit the coffee table (there is padding along the edges thank goodness). I wasn't in the room and Andy really wasn't either - he was on his way into the family room with Ella and caught the tail end of the accident. She was pretty brave and let us ice it.

Today was an awesome day; it felt like summer. We woke up and hung out this morning and then Lilly and I headed to the pool when it opened while Ella stayed home and napped with Daddy (well, Daddy didn't nap but Ella did though Daddy is very sick with a cold/allergies and should have napped).

The weather was great and it wasn't very hot. Lilly did a really good job sharing and listening at the pool (we talked to her about this before we went) and Andy and Ella joined us a couple hours later. Then we all headed home around 2 for the girls to nap. The best part of the day was cooking out and eating on the deck. Ella went to bed around 6:30 so it was just me, Andy, and Lilly. I enjoy having one-on-one time with the girls. We had a summer feast - burgers, dogs, corn, fries, salad, watermelon...

(Not A) Waste

UPDATE: Andy came home and saw the pictures and agreed to return them (they have a satisfaction guarantee). He doesn't like the lighting. I am a wimp and can't return them but he will. I feel better. I've been stressing about the waste of money.

Today, on a whim, I took the girls to Sears to get a portrait taken. I had these portraits taken when Lilly was almost 8 months old and they are hanging in our hallway.
Andy has wanted me to duplicate this for Ella and I figured I'd have our photographer (Bruce) come to the house once Ella was sitting up well on her own. But Lilly's pictures were taken at Sears (before we knew Bruce!) and I figured I should try to duplicate it by using Sears again. I also thought I could get away with going earlier since Ella is so much bigger than Lilly was. So today I woke up and made the appointment.

There's a reason I stopped going to Sears, Penney's, Babies R Us, etc. for portraits. It's such a pain in the ass. And now with 2 kids it's even worse - especially with Lilly's unwillingness to look into a camera. So we went and I showed her Lilly's pictures and we tried to duplicate them. First of all Ella can't sit well on her own yet so that was a problem. Secondly she drools like she's a faucet so the lady kept saying, "Wipe her mouth quick!" and I'd swoop in an wipe it only to watch it start pouring out again (she leaves her mouth open most of the time). When we put Ella on her belly to duplicate the second shot she tried to crawl off the platform and wouldn't lay still... If I haven't already shared with you about Ella's eyes - one of them is weaker so it's pretty evident in pictures so that was another issue. When we put the girls together Lilly would look great and then we'd try to get Ella to smile and Lilly would be bored and look away. It was so ridiculous. Oh and Ella's dress was soaked from drool.

I bought 2 8X10's and 2 5x7's (they wouldn't let me buy just one). I don't really like any of them. And I'm really unhappy with the price I paid.

Lesson learned. I will call Bruce and pay bigger bucks for much better pictures and much less work on my part. For now, we have semi-matching pictures for the hallway.

When I came home I realized I could probably get a better picture and turn it into sepia, fuzz the edges, and print it. Oh well. I have been playing around with the AV mode on my totally awesome camera. One of the blogs I follow gave a photography lesson on how to blur the background when taking a photo (I really need a different lens for this which I hope to have soon!) and so I played around with it today. I love taking pictures. Here are some of my favorites from today.

While these pictures look very bright I like them because it's all natural light from the slider behind me. I love natural light. I used to love flash but not anymore!

Lilly

Here's sweet Lilly. She's 3 years and 3 months old. She is very funny. She is very charming. She is very mischievous. She is also very smart.
This morning we were lying in bed together. Lilly grabbed my hand and said, "We're holding hanes." She then continued...

"You my best fwiend, not Daddy. He infropriate. Him let me watch Spean Bob and Spean Bob infropriate. Him let me do monkey bars. Not fropriate. Him let me eat ice fweam afore dinner. Not fropriate. But I yike it."

Later in the day we were hanging out in the front yard when 6 police cars with their lights on (but no sirens) sped down our street.

I love police action so we of course loaded into the car to follow them. That's a normal reaction, right? Lilly was excited. I was too but was also wondering what was going on in our safe neighborhood.

As I almost drove past my friend Kristen's house she was flagging me down with her 2 kids standing beside her. She said, "Let us in!" Six speeding police cars at noon on a Thursday causes excitement in our stay-at-home-mom lives. She was trying to follow them too but couldn't find her car keys so they jumped in.

We hardly passed 10 houses when we came upon all of the police cars. We stopped in the street and watched an episode of COPS in real time. There was a car parked cockeyed in the middle of the street with the driver door open. The policemen were coming from a back yard walking with 2 handcuffed preppy teens (17, 18, 19?). One officer was carrying a shoe and as I looked down one of the boys was missing a shoe. That made me laugh. I don't know why. I'm sort of sick in this way. I love watching police drama unfold (car accidents included). They threw them up against a car and started patting them down. I decided we should turn around and leave at this point; which we did. But the excitement wasn't over yet...

We got home and I started preparing lunch when I saw a large (cute!) groundhog walking across our deck. Of course my camera was within inches of my reach so I grabbed it but Lilly got excited and ran to the slider and he took off so I missed the shot (darn!). Then Lilly said, "Mommy, them fweece main gonna get that frownhog?" I explained that police men only get people who are breaking the law or running from them and she said, "But that frownhog him wunning!" Hee hee. She cracks me up.

Birthday Suit

Lilly still loves to be naked. We only allow her to be naked in the house. The minute she gets home she strips down to her birthday suit. And this makes her very happy.

Ella thinks it's funny too.

And I have mentioned Ella's trying to crawl?

Happy Memorial Day

Tomorrow's the official day but I think it might rain so for picture's sake Happy Memorial Day a day early. We're headed to a cookout at 4 and hoping to beat the rain that is threatening to drop at any minute. I hope everyone's out relaxing and enjoying the weekend but first and foremost honoring our nation's war dead.

I feel when Congress made Memorial Day into a three-day weekend, it made it easy for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. Among all the flowers that evoke the memories and emotions of war is the red poppy, which became associated with war after the publication of a poem written by Col. John McCrae of Canada. The poem, "In Flander's Field," describes blowing red fields among the battleground of the fallen. Here is the poem:

In Flanders Fields
John McCrae, 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

From this poem came the idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. The memorial part of Memorial Day is all but forgotten and I hope that you'll think about the real reason we can play on this weekend in May each year.

I will explain to Lilly that it is a day where we give thanks to the people who fought for things we (Americans) have. And for that, I am very very grateful

First Day at the Pool

I hemmed and hawed and finally broke down and we joined the pool. Today was opening day. I had many issues with joining - the cost, amount of times we'll use it, difficulty in juggling both girls, wearing a suit (ok very vain but it was a concern), Ella's nap schedule...the list goes on. But in the end we joined. And we had a nice time today.
I was worried about what to do with Ella while watching Lilly. Ella spent the first half hour doing this...
Lilly had fun. We had to go over some pool rules such as no splashing and no pouring buckets of water over other kids' heads but once we had them established she was pretty good!
Yes she swam in her bow.
No, no other kids in NJ wear bows like Lilly (well none that I've ever seen).
No, I don't force the bows on her, she likes them and asks for them.
Yes, I intend on continuing to put them in her hair to match her various suits.
And no, I cannot wait until Ella has hair and they can wear matching bows.
Daddy did a lot of the work today while I actually sat in a chair for a while looking out over the pool and thinking about nothing at all.
See? I told you I didn't do much work. Stephy asked me if she could take Lilly into the big pool and Ella was passed around from one eager-baby-holder to the next.
Finally Ella did pass out...
...but she woke 20 minutes later. So we stayed another hour and then I headed home with Ella while Andy stayed with Lilly. It was fun but I'm going to have to get the whole packing and juggling things/kids thing down to a science before I can breathe easy. Here's to summer!

Sunny Day

This morning Lilly asked to go to the park and I wanted to get some exercise so we headed out to a park that is on the other side of the neighborhood. We packed snacks and set out. Lilly was very excited. She loves "the park with dinosaurs!" Ella was of course along for the ride...
We were the only ones there and it was (is) a gorgeous day. Lilly seesawing (can I make that a verb?).
The dinosaurs...

Ella chilled out on a blanket with some toys.
Lilly loves climbing (and hanging, flipping, sliding, jumping, running...).
"Boo!" She's only looking at the camera because I hid at the top while she was climbing up the back. I surprised her and she laughed. I'm getting sneaky in my ways.
Ella's second time in a park swing. She's so content and chill. Did I mention she's almost 18 lbs? We had her 6 month check-up yesterday and she's 97%tile for height and 90%tile for weight.

Ella got hungry and tired (the *only* time she fusses).
This playground has a really cool little cove created by Mother Nature herself. You can walk in and it's a big circle surrounded by trees and vines. It's very pretty in there and Lilly thinks it's neat.
Lilly got tired (after running laps) and wanted to go home. We had a great time. I enjoy hanging out with the girls alone sometimes. Friends are great to have around but having each other is nice too.

Lilly

Lilly wrote her name for the first time today! This makes her teacher mommy very proud. I told her which letter came next but she did the writing! Way to go my sweet girl!

Family Time

Last Saturday we headed to Ryan, our great nephew's, first birthday party. I was looking forward to getting a cute picture of the girls in matching dresses...

*Undoing Ella's button.

Once again, I failed. This is why people hire photographers. At least it's why I do. I will pay big bucks to someone who is willing to get the girls to look at them for a picture. Really, I'd pay a lot. And I will be calling Bruce ("The Traveling Photographer") sometime soon to do just that.

It was a nice day for a road trip and the party was at a beautiful park on the water. We all took turns holding Ella (who of course was very very well behaved and went with the flow even though it meant very little sleep for her).

Here's our niece Alicia with her son Ryan. He was the birthday boy.
Ella chilled out on a table while everyone talked.
Lilly played football with Uncle Bill. I tried to get Ella to nap in her carrier but she wouldn't have any of that.
When it came time to cut the cake Lilly insisted on "the mouth!" and Bill nor I knew what she was talking about but she began to throw a semi-fit about it. I finally told her she could eat the piece of cake I was offering her or she could have no cake at all. She said, "I'll wait until affer dinner." I figured she was just being stubborn and we all went on to eat cake and be merry. Michele (my sister-in-law) then came over and said, "Lilly, here's the mouth!" and I was totally confused. Lilly wasn't however and sat down and happily ate her cake. Come to find out there was a picture of Ryan on his cake and Lilly and Michele had worked out a deal that when the picture was cut Lilly could have the mouth (no clue why she picked that part). So Lilly had decided to just wait and hold Michele true to her word even though I was clueless and frustrated that she wouldn't just eat the damn cake. Here's the mouth.
The kids collected candy from a pinata and filled their own goody bags (clever). Lilly loves pinatas.

Ryan loved his John Deere motor bike that his Mommy and Daddy gave to him.
We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with family that we rarely get to see.