Lily's 3rd Birthday.

Happy, happy birthday!  Feliz Cumpleanos! 

That's what I sang when I got Lily up this morning.  She was not in to it and was a bit crabby in spite of it being her birthday.

 We baked cupcakes yesterday and Lily and helped decorate them.  We made them to take to her daycare class and Joel already had them loaded in the car before the kids got up.  When Lily came out to the kitchen, she panicked a little.  "Where's my CAKE?!?"  I reminded her that we were going to have the cupcakes at school.

Joel and I met up at the school for her little party.

 

Lily was acting SUPER shy.  I mean ridiculous shy.  She wouldn't talk.

 

She wouldn't blow out her candles.  They were even pink candles with pink flames. 

I guess If I had found purple candles with purple flames, maybe she would have blown them out.  She finally told me to do it. 

 I held out for a long time, thinking she would come around, but the wax was dripping on her cupcake and the other poor kiddos were completely salivating over their cupcakes.  So I blew them out.

Even then, Lily hesitated for a while before she finally dug in to her cupcake.

 Some of her other friends had NO trouble getting started.

 

 

Then Lily passed out the Doc McStuffins themed treat bags.  I think the kiddos were pumped.  There were cookies and such in the bags and the kids were trying to devour those in addition to the cupcakes they'd already had.

 

After that, we headed home to open presents!

Lily was patiently waiting in her "birthday chair" while I got her presents from the secret hiding spot.

Which was just my office but I had kept the kids out of there since I wrapped Lily's presents.

And then her patience was running out.  Way out.  Who could blame her?

Ok, one more picture with your presents.

Can't go with out the bear grin shot.

 

"Mommy, now can I open them?"

"Go for it, honey!"

 

"I got new boots!"

"What's in this bag?" 

"A Doc McStuffins cup!"

"A Doc McStuffins shirt!!"

"What's in this one?  Let me shake it."

"What is it Mommy?"  "I don't know, open up the zipper."

"Oh-KAY!"

"A camera!!"

"It's a camera mommy!!  Who got me that?!"

 

"There's still one more present!"

 And then it was back to the camera.

"Say cheese Mommy!  Say Cheese Daddy!"  "Tyler, come here.  Say cheese!"

 I wish I would have gotten her camera from her before she took it to bed with her so I could have taken some of the pictures off of it.  She took a blue million of them.  I suspect that the quality is really terrible.  It was a super cheap camera.  But I don't think she cares. 

 

Pacis, Blankies, Vocabulary, Oh My!

The kids are sick.  Again.  Hand Foot and Mouth disease this time.  So I can't take them to daycare.  Again.  We are having a rough few weeks here between sickness and weather preventing us from taking the kids to daycare.  So tomorrow I'm burning a half a vacation day because last time I tried to work from home, with both kids here, I was so stressed out and it's not worth it.  Joel will relieve me in the afternoon so I can go in to work for a bit.

 

 

Here's a little bit of a status report on Tyler....

 

He's picking up some additional vocabulary these days.  At sixteen months, this is what he can say:

 

Mama

Dada

Ball (baw)

Bye-bye (bah-bah)

Tree

Car (caaaahhh)

Night-night (nye-nye)
Baby (bayyy-be)

 

He also communicates pretty well by pointing at things.  On his body, he knows belly, nose, eyes and ears.  He's gone to the fridge and pointed to it if he wants his milk.  If we ask him "Where's Lily?" he finds her and points to her.  Same with "Where's Mama?" and "Where's Dada?"

 

He's walking pretty much exclusively now.  Finally! 

 

We're trying to break him of the pacifier.  About a month ago, we poked a bunch of holes in his paci, hoping that would make it less appealing since he wouldn't get a good suck from it.  He's been unphased by that.  He still wants the dang thing.  We've read on the internet about cutting the end off of the paci....that may have to be our next step.  Or I may have to take a more direct approach - like permanently lose the thing. 

 

He still really, really loves his blankies.  He will go to his room and pull it out of his crib.  If we're doing laundry and it's in the dirty clothes pile waiting to be washed, he'll drag it out.  He gets very upset if you take it away from him.  I regularly call him Linus. 

 

He and his sister sort of play well together.  When they aren't fighting over the same toy, that is.  It's pretty funny to watch them wrestle.  Or rather, to watch Tyler attack his sister.  Lily thinks is funny for a few minutes and then she's pretty well over it.

 

 

 

There's too many houses in this house.

Weekend before last, Joel went to the Colts game with his brother and parents. 

 

 

 I had the kiddos.  Tyler wasn't feeling so good.  Poor fella had been sick since the day before Christmas Eve. 

 

 

But later that day, he was feeling better.... better enough to climb up on the kitchen table - one of his favorite activities.

 

By Monday morning he was looking good!  Finally healthy after 8 days of sickness.

 

The rest of our week off was nice.  Joel and I rang in the new year with a Breaking Bad marathon.  Our latest TV show addiction.  Big excitement.  We were pretty pleased we even managed to stay awake until midnight. 

 

Back to work on Thursday and Friday, but a few hours in to Friday, I got a call from the daycare to come pick up Tyler because his eye was watering excessively.  I about lost it.  They were concerned that Tyler was sick again and had pink eye and they wouldn't let me keep him at daycare until I had a doctor's note saying he was not contagious.

 

So I luckily got an appointment for later that day with the doctor and I took Tyler home.  His eye never watered a drop all afternoon.  I took him for the appointment and of course, he did not have pink eye.  That'll be $57 please and thank you. 

 

I like the daycare that the kids go to.  And I understand that they try to be extra careful about possible contagious sicknesses.  But I was really, really frustrated that Tyler was sent home over a watery eye.  Not just sent home, but that I had to take him to the doctor, spend an hour and $57 dollars for a piece of paper that said he was fine - when I already knew he was fine.  Uhhgg. 

 

On Saturday, Joel wanted to take the kiddos to the Commons to play.  They love that place.

 

 

Then we hit up Walmart with the rest of the crazies who were preparing for the 6-10" of snow and ridiculous frigid temperatures we were supposed to get on Sunday. 

 

I don't know where I was when this was happening on Sunday afternoon.  Lily said she was making Daddy pretty like a princess.

 

 

The kiddos are in to building forts... well "houses" - that's what Lily calls them.  Joel built one on the couch the other day.

 

 

 

Sunday evening, we got a phone call saying that daycare was going to be closed on Monday due to the ridiculous cold temperatures.  And it was cold.  Negative 14 degrees with windchill something like negative 35.  Crazy.  So I stayed home with the kids and did my best to try to work.  Ever "worked" with a 16 month old sitting on your lap?

 

 

I got the kiddos on to coloring.  Lily asked me where her crayons were.  I told her in her house.  She went to the fort and looked and said they weren't there.  I told her, no the house in your room.  She went to her room and brought out a "house" we had made of Legos.  She said they aren't in there.  I said, no, the doll house that's in your closet that has books in it.  She said, "There's too many houses in this house!"

 

I laughed so hard I cried.

 

That lasted about 15 minutes before they were over that and ready for something else.  They were bickering all morning and driving me bonkers.  I think I told Tyler "no" at least 47 times.  On top of that that, he was fussing and whining and generally not acting right.  I'm worried he's getting sick again. 

 

I was willing lunch time to get here cause nap happens soon after that! 

 

I put Tyler down for nap immediately after lunch and waited a bit for Lily.  She didn't fight me at all to take a nap, but once she got back to her room she just sang at the top of lungs for an hour.  At one point, she woke up her brother so I told her to her hush and that was the end of her nap.  She got up and joined me on the couch.

 

She "helped" me work by asking me while I was on the phone "Who are you talking to Mommy?  MOMMY!  Who's that on the phone?  Mommy, I want to call somebody.  Mommy, who's talking to you?  Mommy, can I have your phone?"

 

I love her.

 

 

Sisters.

Over the years, I've come to appreciate my relationships with my sisters more and more.

 

We've been through things together that would have been completely unbearable alone. Things that no one else in the world would understand in that moment, but we had each other. 

 

We've laughed. We've cried. We've administered black eyes. We've created potions, ATMs, fashion shows and forts using our imaginations and creativity - feeding off of each other. 

 

We're so alike and so different all in the same breath. We're competitive. With each other and the world.  We've won championships and had seasons with no wins what-so-ever. 

 

We teach each other things.  All the time.  For a long time, growing up, I felt like I was always the one paving the way.  Teaching them.  Looking back, that wasn't true at all.  We've all been learning from each other since forever. 

 

 

Sometimes, I sit have a good cry because I can't just pop over to my sister's house for a coffee (wait, neither of them drink coffee.....so how about a Polar Pop or an Oreo Blizzard?). Or that we can't each dump our kids on our husbands and have a girls night. Or that I can't dump MY kids on THEM and have a date night with my husband. 
 

 
 

Then, after I cry about that, I have a cry because I don't think I do a good enough job of keeping up with them. Life gets so damn busy and there's never enough time. But if I get started on time, this post will quickly move away from the subject of sisters and in to a rant about that. 

 

 

We're jealous and joyful over what each of us has accomplished. I say "we're" jealous but maybe they aren't and that's just me. 

 

 

They look at me like I'm a nut job when I talk about wanting another baby. And I look at them and I know EXACTLY why I want to have another baby.

 

We are lucky. So, so, so lucky to have each other.