Ocean City, NJ

This afternoon when Lilly wakes up from her nap we're headed to the boardwalk in Ocean City so Lilly can ride some rides and experience the yummy food and fun. I'm excited! Will update tonight with pictures.

This morning while I was showering Lilly took off her diaper and found some Pooh panties and said, "No diapy Pooh panties" so I went with it and she wore them all morning! We even went out to breakfast and then to Babies R Us. We were gone about 3 hours and she did great - no accidents. We put her little potty in the back of the van and had her try before and after each store. She also used the potties in the stores. She will be wearing a diaper to Ocean City though...

I'm sure she could wake up tomorrow and be uninterested but at least she showed the interest today and did a great job. Acted like she'd been wearing them forever. We just told her to keep Pooh dry and that was that. Hopefully it will be this easy (yeah right) and she can go to preschool in panties!

While at Babies R Us we bought the new baby a crib mattress and Lilly got a new crib sheet and bumper. We are passing Lilly's bumper and crib bedding on to the new baby so we got her some inexpensive transitional bedding until she's ready to move out of the crib (which I hope is no time soon since she loves it and sleeps so well in it). Though she surely is able to climb out of her crib (and often climbs in) she has never attempted it. Guess when you love your bed you love your bed!

Pics and updates on our day later.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Yesterday Lilly and I had a dance party! She dressed for the occasion (including Daddy's tie) and we took turns bustin' a move. It was a lot of fun.



Today the crib arrived for the new baby so I took out some seats in my van and headed over to pick it up. The guy came out with the huge box and tried to fit it in my van. We decided he'd have to open the box and put just the pieces in the van. As he was doing this I thought to myself, "I better make sure they include the hardware!" and then Lilly decided to run and jump in a huge puddle with her pants and shoes on. As she was doing this I was getting flustered thinking I probably needed to tip the guys and only had a twenty so I was trying to lure Lilly inside to get change. Got inside, asked for change, when wet Lilly hides in the corner and announces (loudly), "I pooping, don't see me I pooping!!!!" Everyone laughs. I get my change and take her outside. Still thinking about the hardware for the crib when Lilly spreads her legs wide and starts screaming and crying, "Get the poop out, get the poop out Mommy!!!" so I put her in the car and start changing her diaper. At this time the guys finish up, I tip them and thank them and we leave.

Get home and unload all the pieces to the crib and...

...no hardware.


Argh. Call the store, lady puts me on hold forever, comes back and tells me she found them.

Guess we're headed back (across town) when Lilly wakes up. But at least she found them. I figured they were long gone.

Fun at the Park

Today we headed to the park to meet Lilly's little friends from music class (all boys). Every couple of weeks we try to get together with Caden, Will, Collin (baby) and Jordan. It's been really nice watching them all grow up together. We met when our kids were about 9 months old - give or take several months. We will not be doing music together in the fall so we've all made an effort to still meet every other week or so. Of course I always have my camera and come home and email them all pictures of their kids! Either they think I'm nuts (I am) or they are appreciative of the pictures taken of their kids. I haven't decided which it is yet.

Lilly and Will enjoying the big kid swings on their bellies. They were having a good 'ol time.
Lilly had Will giggling because she was saying, "Oops, I fall down" over and over again until Will was cracking up. Two year olds...
Here's the gang - "The Fabulous Four" as we like to call them. Caden, Will, Lilly, and Jordan.

Lilly and Mommy enjoying a snack and some juice at the park. Yummy.

Allergy Testing

Lilly was allergy tested for cats, dogs, dust mites, trees (several), and grass. Last winter she struggled to fight off each and every cold. Just like her Mommy all of the colds she caught went right into her chest and she would wheeze horribly. The pediatrician wasn't aggressive enough so I took her to my allergist's partner who's a pediatric allergist. She quickly was able to control the illnesses and help Lilly breathe again. This was after 5-6 horrible colds; some of which went into her chest. As soon as they put Lilly on a plan last March she was never sick again. So now she will be on a maintenance nebulizer treatment every night from November 1 - May 1. If she gets sick we hope the maintenance nebulizer will help her fight the cold and if it doesn't we'll add a steroid via nebulizer and nasal spray. The doctor says many kids outgrow this by the age of 6 (though it was my main issue as well so I'm hopeful but not super confident). They wanted to skin test her today to make sure some of her difficulty last winter wasn't due to allergens and we found that she is allergy-free. Yay!

She didn't even care about the pricks up and down her arm (I think 11 pricks and an itchy control prick) nor did she mention the huge red control welt that surely itched. When Dr. Coo came in she said, "I never heard a peep! I can't believe it!" After she had all her pricks (you have to wait 20 min to see if any react) Lilly said (to the nurse), "Thank you doctor!" So cute!!! Here she is outside the office after the visit. I go weekly for cat shots so she's used to going and they always give her a sucker.

If you click on this picture below (from the blog itself) you can see her arm.
On our way home Lilly's best friend in the whole wide world (Stephy) was outside with her friends selling lemonade. Lilly joined in and helped them sell. They thought they'd get more customers if the plopped Lilly on the corner with Stephy. They stood there yelling, "Lemonade!!!" for quite some time. I think they had earned $10.68 when we left.
Posing with "my fwiends" at the lemonade table. Ice cold lemonade for $.50.
Doing airplane in the yard with Stephy - sound effects and all.

Fun Times

Today I babysat Braden. Lilly was excited to have him over. While we were waiting for him to arrive Lilly retold the story of The Three Bears to me. She loves books. And notice the pig tails! Yay, her hair is long enough to pull up! Now if I can get the front pieces to grow out that would be even cuter.

Braden's here - yipee!

Headed to the park.

Freedom! Such a beautiful day today - low humidity and sunny.Two cutie pies. Such a great age.

My friend's house backs up to the park and they have bunny rabbits. We ran through the field to visit the bunnies. Lilly, Lindsay, and Braden feeding the bunnies leaves.

Lilly had a great time with Braden. A good morning together. This afternoon she has an allergy appointment where she'll be skin tested for a bunch of allergens. It doesn't really hurt but I don't think she'll be a huge fan... Will blog about it later.

Scared Shitless Update

When Lilly woke up I asked her about our Panera Bread experience. She said, "I go to bathroom Mommy. I wash my heends." I asked her what the man was doing in the bathroom and she said, simply... "pooping." I then asked her how she got to the bathroom and she said, "I walk with my feet siyee Mommy."

So there you have it. She heard me tell her we had to go to the bathroom before we left and she went. How she got out of sight so quickly I'll never know (unless I looked left first and she went right).

Scared Shitless

Every mom or dad has their story of losing their child in a department store or in a busy place. You always hear about the fear that takes over and the anger/relief when they finally find their child... Well now I can add that feeling to my list of mothering moments.

Went to Panera Bread with Lilly for lunch. Had a very nice lunch together. Told Lilly I had to use the bathroom before we left. Pulled her out of the high chair and reached for my diaper bag. Stood up and no Lilly. Vanished. No sight of her. No sound of footsteps. No wild hairdo as she rounded the corner. Nothing. It was possibly 3 seconds from when I took her out of the high chair and grabbed my bag. She has not run off for quite some time - she usually hangs right beside me. I immediately went toward the front of the store (didn't want to lose sight of the front door) and started circling the restaurant looking for her. I was not yet panicked but was very perplexed as to how and why she'd take off that quickly and how I could not see or hear her. It was very very crowded with the lunch crowd and I was trying to be casual and not cause a scene. After about 6 loops around the restaurant I headed toward the bathroom to see if she was waiting back there. Went in the women's bathroom and called her name and looked under stalls. Not there. Went back out and circled the place and finally went out the front door to the outside side walk to see if she had gotten outside. At this point, I went into full, 'someone has taken her' panic mode. Too panicked and rushed to even stop and tell someone or ask for help. Didn't want to waste time. Kept looping, and looping, and looping the store. I was covered in sweat. It had been over 5 minutes and I hadn't heard or seen her.

Finally I head back to the bathrooms wondering why all these people staring at me making circles weren't asking me what was wrong or telling me they saw her run past. Every time she's ever run from me in a store (we went through this phase some time back) I could hear her giggling, hear her feet, and people were always smiling and pointing as I went along. Not this time.

I threw open the mens bathroom door and there she was. Standing very still by the sink rubbing her hands together. Beside her was a middle age Arabic man. He smiled at me and said in a very thick accent, "I was just getting ready to bring her out" and I said, "I don't know how she could have gotten this door open! She must have slipped in here when someone came in" and then I noticed no one else was in there. I thanked him and picked her up and quickly took her into the women's bathroom and hugged her and told her Mommy was scared because I thought she was lost. She gave me a great big hug back but seemed calm and unfazed by it. I asked her if she had run and she said, "No" and then I let it go and we left the store.

I am now left with many thoughts and questions in my mind, none of which I will share here. I will talk to Lilly and ask her some more questions when she wakes up today.

This was the scariest 5-10 minutes of my life. I thought for sure she was gone. Taken. I am very grateful I found her and that she's sleeping peacefully in her crib right now.