Sick Day

Lilly's home sick today. She's watching Christmas movies and snoozing. My poor baby girl.

Shake It

Lilly loves to dance. Dance, dance, dance.
She picked out her own outfit.

She would dance all day long with or without music.

Ella watches Lilly dance. She claps when she's done. It will melt your heart.

A Break

This weekend I did something I've never done before. I became stressed and said (out loud for Lilly to hear), "I need a break. I need a break. I need a break! Mommy needs a break!" As I was saying it I thought to myself, 'There's no need to voice this' but I kept saying it. Lilly followed me to the front storm door as I stood and looked out and said, "Daddy needs to come home. Where's Daddy?" Then I made a decision that Ella would go down for her nap, Lilly would play quietly in her room, and I would take the break I needed. And that's just what I did.

What prompted this break that I so desperately needed? There were several things and then there was the icing on the cake. Andy worked the last couple weekends on the front porch and of course he works during the week. Ella likes to be held by yours truly all day long. She weighs somewhere around 23 pounds. It was Saturday and Andy was working all day on the porch again so there had been countless days in a row of very few breaks (not complaining, I love the porch and Andy hasn't had any breaks either!).

Lilly wanted to go to Target to get popcorn so we headed to Target. I wrote a list and got some things that we needed while we were there. Ella was strapped into the cart as tightly as I could make the lap belt but the one time I ventured 2 ft from the cart I returned to her standing in the cart with the belt around her ankles. I began to sweat (I do this when I'm flustered) and Ella began to fuss. Lilly was melting down because she wanted to buy something/anything. I headed to the check-out and got the heck out of there. As I was unloading the bags Lilly was wanting to open M&M's that I bought to make trail mix and I told her that she had to wait for me to finish unloading the bags. She didn't listen and ripped the bag open and M&M's went all over the floor and into 2 other rooms. It was at that moment that I just sort of broke down. Ella was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor whimpering for me to hold her when this happened and quickly began scarfing down M&M's as fast as she could. Lilly was upset and apologizing in between eating handfuls herself. I was on my hands and knees frantically trying to clean them up before Ella ate them all. I just hit a wall. I couldn't do it anymore. I wanted a break and I wanted it immediately. I even left all the M&M's on the kitchen floor when I went upstairs and put the girls to sleep (Lilly fell asleep on the chair in her room while I was putting Ella down). Then I promptly crawled into bed and watched TV until I felt like myself again.

The funniest part of the story is that Andy came home and was putting beer in the fridge (we were having friends over for dinner) and one of his beer bottles hit a can and the can exploded. I had left the M&M's all over the floor so we were left with wet, beer-soaked M&M's. Nice.

My Man

Andy has a lot on his plate.

He's working on his dissertation. He has a very full-time job. He's a good father and husband. He does laundry! And he's building a front porch complete with ceiling fans and lights, and a new sidewalk. He works very hard in every area of his life.
I love my hard-working man.

Here's a sneak-peak of our soon-to-be completed porch.
Andy laid the mahogany and stained it. I love it.

We recycled bricks from our driveway to lay a new sidewalk. Andy's vision...

I love having a talented husband and I cannot wait to spend many days and nights on our new porch!

Falling Behind

I have fallen behind on my blog because I have spent my days doing 2 things other than caring for our children.

1. Taking care of Marcel (old man neighbor).

2. Finding the h1n1 vaccine for the girls (specifically Lilly who has asthma).

I don't know that the Marc situation will ever be resolved but I did finally get the girls vaccinated today! More details tomorrow when my head isn't throbbing.

One quick story for the road...

Tonight Lilly was continually kicking Ella (softly but progressively becoming harder). Ella was still in the laughing and enjoying-the-game stage. I asked Lilly to stop. I asked her 3 times nicely. She did it again and I told her she'd have to go sit on the steps for a time out. She put her face down on the couch and balled up and didn't go to the steps. This is her way of "hiding" so that the consequence will go away. I told her she needed to get to the steps for the time out by the time I counted to three or I'd have to spank her (no, we don't spank but sometimes I'm guilty of threatening this when she is not listening or cooperating - I'm only human and our days are long...). She popped right up and said, "Ok then just go ahead and spank me so it's done."

That's our Lilly. Willing to take the consequence so she can move on.

Fall

Today we helped our neighbor rake her leaves. She has done many favors for me so we owed her one. It was super nice weather and Lilly loves to help people.

We had a great time.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!
Lilly loved Halloween this year. She was so excited to go to her preschool Halloween celebration and to trick-or-treat as Super Girl. We picked out fabric that she wanted for her cape and had a neighbor make the cape and belt. It was a fun process making the costume and Lilly was very happy (and cute!).

Ella was a ladybug and was also adorable if I don't say so myself! Too bad it was 72 degrees on Halloween and her costume was quite warm. She didn't mind...

I took the girls to Babcia's house to surprise her.
Lilly rang the doorbell and said,

"Frick or Feet!"

Getting ready to trick-or-treat.

Giggling...

Ella chilled in the stroller while Lilly ran up to every house. They were both happy as can be.

Super Girl!

Every year we stop at the DiNunzio's for a Halloween party/dinner. We don't stay long since the girls have to go to bed but Lilly loves hanging with the big kids. She was nervous to walk up to the door this year because they had some spooky music and decorations.

Lilly has already announced that she'll be a unicorn next Halloween.