Lily's Lady BUG Graduation

Last night we celebrated Lily's graduation from the Lady BUG (Believe Upon God) class at her daycare.  Actually, the pre-K kids were graduating and getting their pre-school diplomas but many of the other kids will "graduate" to the next class when school starts in the fall, including Lily.  She gets to spend the summer with Ms Stina and then she move up to the threes with Miss Beth Ann!

We had a mad scramble when I got home from work to get the kids their baths since we knew we would be getting home right at bed time.  Then we headed off to get some supper before the program.

All through dinner, I just kept hoping that Lily would at least stay up front with her class.  I mean I hoped she would sing, but I was going to be super happy if she just didn't cry!

She looked so pretty in her dress!

I am very happy to say that there were no tears from Lily during the entire performance!  And she stayed up there with her class the whole time!

I think I spent the whole first song trying to get over how much taller Lily is than the rest of her class!!  She's a half a head taller!! 

Joel said, "She better get used to it."  I've seen some of his school pictures...If Lily is to follow in his footsteps, this is going to get way worse before it gets better!

The kiddos sang "Skidamarink,"

"Baby Bumble Bee"

and "Jesus Loves Me." 

Lily sang approximately 7 words toward the end of Skidamarink and she sang the first little bit of Baby Bumble Bee and that's about it. 

But she didn't cry!

After the singing, we had cookies and punch which Lily thoroughly enjoyed.

And then.....

In true Lily fashion, we couldn't end the day without a meltdown!  She refused to leave the daycare.  Joel had to drag her out literally kicking and screaming.  She screamed the whole way home.  She screamed after we got home.  She screamed while I was getting Tyler to bed.  She screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed.  Sigh......

Tyler's Infant Seat Graduation

I finally broke down an bought new car seats for Tyler so we will be rid of the infant carrier!  I've been delaying this as long as possible for several reasons:

1)  The infant seat is just soooo convenient when I'm getting the kids ready in the mornings by myself, especially now that Tyler is mobile.  I can strap him in the car seat, then load up the car and Lily and then come back for him (and he's safely in the same place I left him).  I know what you're thinking...."Why don't you just do that in reverse and put Tyler in the car first instead of last?"  Because Lily has a COMPLETE AND TOTAL MELTDOWN if I don't "carry her first" to the car.  Every morning, it's "Carry me first!  Carry me first!!"

2)  I can carry the infant seat by the handle in the crook of my arm, freeing up both of my hands.  This is pretty "handy" when I'm walking through a parking lot and need to carry Tyler, plus something else, plus hold Lily's hand.

3)  Tyler still falls asleep in his car seat from time to time and it's convenient to be able to bring him in the house (or a restaurant or where ever) and let him finish out his little nap in the car seat.

4)  I'm in total denial that my baby is approaching the 30 inch length limit for the infant seat (if he hasn't hit it already).  Why is he growing up so fast???

5)  Car seats are expensive!!  $300 in additional car seats.  Crazy! 

6)  Having a forward facing and a rear facing car seat in Joel's truck is going to cause someone to become contortionist.  Either Joel's going to have to figure out how to bend over backwards to strap Tyler in or Lily's going to have to figure out how to crawl in and around car seats or center consoles to get her to car seat.  And you can forget about any passengers riding in the front seat because it has to be scooted all the way forward.  Maybe we will have to buy Joel a new vehicle (or he can take mine and I'll get a new one)!  At least we only have to keep Tyler rear facing for 3 months or so. 

So, is it any wonder I've been delaying it?!  But it's not all bad news!  Tyler + infant seat = 29 pounds of solid heaviness.  And I'm pretty wimpy so I'm really not that sad to stop lugging that thing around.

What else has been going on with Tyler?  He's my little doll baby and I love him more and more every day, if that's even possible.  A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I had finally cut out the late evening feeding but I've had to add it back in.  He wasn't sleeping all night and I'm not a fan of that.  Honestly, that sleep feed is probably the best nursing session of the day right now!  At the other nursing sessions, he often only nurses well on one side and by the time I get to the second side, he's pretty much lost all interest in eating and is ready to play.  He gets distracted very easily - which frankly, wouldn't you be distracted if your sister was batting at your head, using your body as leverage to climb and is screaming "Tyler's not sleeping!  He's AWAKE!  He's FEEDING!" right in your ear??

His reduced nursing time is wreaking havoc on my pumped milk supply.  It's dropped dramatically in the last two weeks.  I was consistently getting about 15-16 ounces a day (he was consuming 18 ounces/day at daycare so I was already at a deficit every day but was supplementing with frozen milk).  Now I'm getting only about 11-13 ounces of pumped milk a day.  I'm still sending 18 ounces to daycare but in the last several weeks he's rarely finished a 6 ounce bottle.  So in light of the reduced milk supply and given that he almost never takes a full 6 ounces anymore anyway, I need to start sending less.  It's been so nice to not have to worry about milk supply all this time, but looks like for the next ~3 months, until the coveted 1 year mark, I will have to watch more closely to try to prevent any formula supplementing at the very end. 

He's really starting to get the hang of crawling especially when he wants to get to me.  Which, is so sweet and pitiful at the same time.  He'll be totally bawling and crawling one little "step" at time and looking at me with these BIG sad eyes.  "Mama, I need you!  Come get me!!"

Watching Lily and Tyler together is getting interesting!  Each one wants whatever the other one has.  I completely understand why there was always three of EVERYTHING in my house growing up!!

I painted Lily's finger nails the other day.  Can you believe she's old enough for this??  She's pretty cute about it but the sitting still while it dries part at the end is a little bit of a challenge for her.  And, within a couple hours, she picks off all the nail polish and wants me to paint them again. 

 

 

Also, my new favorite Lily saying is "....to feel me better."

 

"I need Ellie to feel me better."  

 

"I need a Band-Aid and mecidine to feel me better."

 

And the best one.....

"I need some chocolate to feel me better."

 

Girl!  Don't we all?!

Midnight Snack Tribute to My Daddy

When me and my sisters were kids, my Dad made the best sugar toast in the whole wide world!  Tonight I had a hankerin' that couldn't be stopped.

 

Bread slathered with butter, sugar and cinnamon, cooked under the broiler (or in a toaster oven) for a couple minutes until it's a toasty, crystalized sugar delight.  Combine with a glass of milk that's so cold, if it were 1/2 degree colder it would have ice chucks and you have arrived at heaven.

 

I love you Daddy.  Thank you for showing me some of the finer things in life!  I can't wait for the day when I introduce this culinary delight to my babies.  Maybe they will have as fond of memories about it with me as I do about you. 

 

Now, if you'll excuse me.... nom, nom, nom......

Tyler crawls and claps on the same day!

When I walked in to Tyler's room at daycare today, Tyler was sitting on the floor smiling so big and clapping his hands!  It was adorable!!  I don't know if he has clapped before at daycare but he hasn't at home.  So I'm going to just assume that today is the first day he's figured out how to clap - that way I can claim to have seen this milestone on the day it happened!

 





And if that's not enough for one day, Tyler's officially on the move!  It's slow going with just one, two or three little "crawls" at a time before he moves back to his butt, but he's definitely on his way!  Tonight we were on the floor playing with the kids - I was focused on something Lily was doing and Joel says, "He's crawling!!  He's crawling!!" and I look up and sure enough he took a little crawl move.  I scrambled around trying to find my phone so I could capture it on video.  I didn't get a very good one but at least it's something!

He's so stinkin' cute.  I can't even stand it.  He went from about zero interest in crawling to getting on the move in just over a week.  By the weekend, he'll be moving so fast I won't be able to keep up!

I have to also write down a few things that Lily has been saying that is so cute and I don't want to forget them.

1)  Lasterday.  "Remember lasterday when we ... (fill in the blank)?"

2)  Same same.  "See, Dora on my panties and Dora on my shoes.  Same same!"  "Daddy has an apple and I have an apple.  Same same!"  "Mommy has a flower and I have a flower.  Same same!"

3)  Boops.  I've mentioned this one before but today she said, "I put milk in this bottle so the baby can drink it.  It's pretend.  But Tyler drinks milk from your boops.  This boop and this boop [as she points to each boob].  I don't drink milk from your boops, Mommy."  I totally should have gotten one of those books that helps you describe to older siblings what you're doing when you're breastfeeding.  Maybe then I would have been smart enough not to use words like "boobs."  Ha!

4) Pretend.  See above for example but she's very big on "pretending" these days.  "It's for pretend."  "We can pretend."  "Just pretend, Mommy."  She always uses it in the right context and it's so cute.

Bad Mommy!

First thing I did when I got the kids to daycare today was check for my flower from Tyler which I had accidentally left in Lily's cubby in my hurry to get home last Friday.

Sadly, I think it dried up too much over the weekend and I don't know if there's any saving it, though I will try.  I was sooooo upset.

But isn't that footprint butterfly just the most precious thing you've ever seen?

Happy Mother's Day!

I am such a lucky Mama!  I have two of the cutest kids on the face of the earth!

Lily told me "Happy Mother's Day" many times throughout the day and even threw in some "Happy Birthdays" while she was at it.  I guess she was a little confused about why the day was special for me - but the bottom line was that she knew it was my day!  That baby makes me smile  at least  once a day.

I had a very wonderful Mother's Day.  First off, Joel cooked ALL THREE MEALS today.  All three.  By himself.  Completely.  I think I put water in glasses for one of the meals.  We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Lunch was amazing.  New York strip steak purchased from the awesome butcher shop downtown, baked potatoes, asparagus, grilled onions and rolls.  Oh my....a Mama could get USED to THAT!  And for supper we had Velveeta cornbread chili pie (it was from a box, but it was still amazing and my amazing husband cooked it).

Speaking of amazing husbands......

.....yep, that's my husband mowing the grass in socks and flip flops and wearing ear muffs.  Some day, our kids will be sooooo embarrassed!

Joel got this really neat card that allowed him to put the kids' handprints inside.  I guess there was some solution he put on their hands that reacted with the paper in the card.  So cool and what a neat keepsake.

I showed the flower I got from Lily the other day and I got one from Tyler too but I forgot it at the daycare on Friday.  I'll have to add a picture of that later.  Lily made me a picture too.  So stinkin' cute!!  I love these crafts that have their hand and foot prints. 

I don't know yet what I'm getting from Joel.  It didn't come in the mail yet.  But he wrote me the funniest note I think he's ever written.  It's almost 3.5 pages long and he's written down what a day in the life of this Mama can look like.  At the end he says "There isn't any wonder you are tired."  It's super cute.  It made me laugh and cry simultaneously.  I love that man. 

Some Tyler Milestones and a Random Act of Kindness

Tyler pulled himself up to standing at the daycare on Monday!  He was playing in front of this cube that is about 18 inches tall and apparently wanted to get to something on the top side of it and pulled himself up!  This coming from the boy that has shown very few signs or interest in crawling! 

We've tried recreating this event at home but, so far, Tyler will just pull himself up to his knees.  But he can stand a long while, though, once he's up!

Another milestone that's happened in the last week or so is when you approach Tyler and put your arms out to him, he raises his arms up to be picked up.  I love this milestone but I think Joel loves it even more than me.  He's been waiting for it for a while now (he did the same thing with Lily).  It's so simple, but for some reason, just pulls at my heart.  Maybe it's the recognition (in a non-screaming way) from the baby that he wants you or needs you.  So sweet.

And lastly, Tyler's other bottom front tooth FINALLY poked through the gums today!  Yay!  That poor baby has been working on those teeth forever.  At least 6 weeks, if not longer.  So on the one hand, I'm happy they are finally through the gums and might not bother him so much now.  On the other hand, I'm nervous for "the girls" - hopefully I don't lose any body parts!! 

Speaking of, some interesting Lily conversation tonight...
Lily:  "Are those your boops, Mommy?  Daddy, do you have boops?" 

I received a Mother's Day gift from Lily today!  I tried to get a picture of her with it, but she couldn't be bothered to tear her eyes away from Dora.  We only let her watch one per day so I guess she didn't want to waste the opportunity.  That light colored thing is a sprig of lilac from the bush in our front yard.  It smells SO good.  You can smell it all the way across the room!

This morning I had a craving for a sausage biscuit from McDonald's, so I hit the drive through on my way to work.  They have dual ordering lanes and myself and the lady next to me approached the "merge" point at the same time.  I waved her on in front of me.  She smiled at me and nodded her head.  When I got up to the window, the cashier told me that the lady in front of me bought my meal! 

I couldn't believe it!  "Wow!!  That was so nice!! People actually do that?!" I said to the cashier.  "It happens all the time." she said.  By the time this all sinks in, the lady in front of me had gotten her food and drove away so I didn't even get to give her a "thank you wave" in her rear view mirror.  Then I pull up to the food window and it occurs to me that maybe I should have paid for the person behind me!