Special Surprise

Lily has some big news. Not only is she about to turn the big T-W-O, but she also has a big job ahead of her...





need a closer look?


That's right...we. are. pregnant. We are so excited we can't stand it. And we're officially out of the vulnerable first trimester (after LOTS of work, some tears, some fears and lots of cheers) so that is like the candles on top of birthday cake. (can u tell I have birthday on the brain) But, this pregnancy is so much different. I think more of the excitement is for Lily, as she will have a sibling. A. lifelong. friend. When we were trying for Lily, it was such a sense of desperation; more about David and I having a baby and becoming a true family, but this time it feels different; like it's all for Lily when I know it's so much more than that too.



To say she's excited is an understatement. She pokes my tummy regularly and says "mommy-baby" and thinks everyone has a baby in her tummy just for her. She thinks there's a baby for her in daddy's tummy. In her tummy. In Papa's tummy. She even poked the server, Rachel's belly at Applebee's saying "baby". We all turned red. Server-Rachel stuttered out something like "no, not yet, im married, but we don't have a baby yet" as she scurred off to the next table. I apologized explaining how she has baby on the brain quite a bit lately. I'm not sure who was more embarrassed. Of course, she doesn't know what all this really means, but it's neat to see an almost 2 year old process it all.



When asked to point to Lily on her shirt....



And she wants to hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler everyday. She'll point to the doppler and "baby-hotbeat-peez" and then make the "shhhhh" sign because she know she needs to be super quiet while listening to the galloping horses. Too bad she says "baby-hotbeat, baby-hotbeat" the whole time over and over so no one can hear anything, but she still gets uber giddy not knowing what she's listening to, but it's a fun game with a cool machine she can't usually touch.

Then she insists on cleaning up my gel covered belly, pulls my shirt down, waving while saying "night-night baby" like she's tucking him/her in. As she walks away, she'll tap her wrist for "wait" like she knows she needs to wait 6 more months to see her brother or sister. Oh and she requests a sister consistently and sometimes says "Katie" like she wants her very own Katie to come home from the hospital. We'll find out the gender around 20 weeks and then she'll know the name of the baby she can babble about. Again, totally cool to watch an almost 2 year process it all.



So yea, we're all pretty excited for our bundly of joy to arrive; hopefully right on our due date of 10-10. That was our due date when we did IVF#1 so it's ironic that with try #3, it's the same date! (gasp) There are no accidents. Maybe it's all one big coincidence, but it's more fun to think of it as a sign. Can you imagine having a bday of 10-10-10? Lily thinks that's pretty cool too.





life is good.

WPB

Guess who turned 6 in January? That's right, it was Douglas who turned the big S-I-X!! I still can't believe it! We started trying just as he was born so every birthday is a friendly, heartwarming reminder of how far we've come. Now we have an almost 2 year old to play with him. Both he and Grace are so cute with their littlest cousin and still call her "Baby Lily" like it is her birth name and I never want that nickname to change, although Lily might someday. teehee Douglas is not a fan of pictures because he runs when he sees the camera and you can see here that I caught him bc he looked for at me for a split second, I snapped and then rolled off the bed and ran for his life.

Before:


after: (2 seconds after-lol)





Katie is like the big sister to all the younger cousins and it's so sweet to see her natural motherly ways come out around them. I still remember her toddling around like it was yesterday. sniff, sniff.





and on a short trip from Molly's to my mom's house, we were out of seats so my trooper mom hopped in the back like it was where she wanted to be.





Douglas and Grace hopped in too for the picture, but of course didn't join Grandma in the back. The bday boy was all smiles for this shot :)





sometimes I think they're sisters because they resemble each other so much; especially when you look at younger pictures of Gracie.


Gma and Lily having a heart to heart...




looking on as Douglas opened his gifts. She doesn't know it, but this will her very soon.


Life is good

Irish Eyes

Mom, Molly and Grace came over for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Being that my mom is 100% Irish, it only seemed apprapo that she come over for one of the biggest parades ever! Lily was dressed from head to toe and green and loved wearing her green hat even though she looked like she was wearing a construction hard hat. The parade was much more fun this year because Lily was taking it all in and entertained by all the songs, sirens, candy throwing, and hooplah! Every time a band would walk by and be finished, she'd bat her hands together like mad and say "mo songs". I can't get enough of her.












She makes this face all the time now. The first time I saw it was when she saw her tricycle on Christmas morning from Santa. Since then it'll come out when something really fascinates her and always comes out when her baby doll cries. She'll stop in her tracks, make this face and run over to soothe her, patting her back, rocking her, giving milk or a nuk or giving her her pink blanket. Be still my heart.







I had my hair in 4 buns trying to lighten it with the sun which finally shone after a too long coldsnap and I looked like Princess Leia.







someone is skipping over the yellow brick road looking for the leprechaun...







the green clan...what a beautiful day it was - so fulfilling!







Wishing you lots of luck, love, 4-leaf clovers and rainbows on this fun-filled day from our little leprechaun :)



Life is Good.

park

More pictures from my drafts of the park when Molly and the crew were here a few weeks ago. Lily is borderline obsessed with the slide and becoming quite brave going on the big ones all by herself. I guess she needed a little rest or was gearing herself up for the big climb here.



She's always been a careful little girl; never a daredevil, so to see her grunting, working so hard while climbing on her own is sweet to watch.



here i go...


She wants to go in the water aka "adu", but we kept telling her it was too cold. A girl can dream. I stand like this all the time with one foot up too. Probably a coincidence, but cute nonetheless :)



a trip to the park isn't complete without a little game of chase with Gpa


and some snuggles...




I'm so tall...funny part about this picture is that I got Douglas in the background mid-run like he's playing peek-a-boo or "pee-boo" as Lily would say...



taking a break for a music lesson...

Now come to think of it, these pictures are from Christmas; hence the Christmas jammies with gma...(paying late picture posting fine)


Oh, how I love this little girl...




Hi, I'm going to deliver some newspapers...

and the famous I dunno shot in isolation. The less she matches the better and the cuter. I could never pull off this outfit mixing plaid, dots, and colors, but when you're 1, you can pull off anything. Wylie said "she never matches, but she always does". Profound. lol



My heart skipped a beat when I saw this jacket. Some things talk to me when they're on the hanger, but this was screaming at me. I had to put it in my cart just to quiet the shouting so security wouldn't come over. I actually went to the adult's section to see if they had one in my size. No such luck. I bought a year bigger so this will be one of those jackets that will symbolize her childhood when she's older.





This was her new reading chair she got from Santa. It's now been moved to the great room, but she's knows it's hers and knows it's special. (lol on the book propped up like she's trying to show off for the camera she's reading the bible)




Dan and Douglas on the playground...I'm not sure who is having more fun here. If you could've seen Dan on the playground playing like a little kid; it was so cute and endearing to watch.





case in point. Yes, that is Dan at the top.





He played a game of hide and seek with Douglas that would make any kid jealous. Dan popped out and surprised Douglas with this booming roar that made everyone jump on the playground.



here's Douglas trying to be just like Daddy...





and then he brought Grace up for some snuggles...





then it was Douglas' turn.





and Grace getting jiggy with it on the see-saw thingamajobble :)


Life is good :)

Crop Til I Drop

Here are just a few things Lily has been up to the last few months - I've had this in my drafts forever and want to get all of them posted before I print the next volume of her blog book. We're also gearing up for the printing of her (clearing throat, sniffing smelling salt to avoid passing out) 2nd year scrapbook. I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since this sweet little soul entered our lives, but it also becomes VERY foggy to try to remember times before her. It's like our life began when she was born, but I always thought we had a pretty fun life before she was here too (other than the bouts of depression searching for this big, giant, huge, ginormous piece of the puzzle missing in our lives-forced laugh).

I don't know when to stop writing down every new word she says because they're coming out left and right lately that I can't keep up. I wonder if she'll be scarred as an adult if I forgot to document the day she says "tunnel". Hearing her string words together is so adorable and it's as if I never want to her to speak full complete, coherent sentences because this way is oh so much cuter.

Here are the pages from when we visited Sharon for a Thanksgiving/Christmas combo trip.





and her Christmas pages...

I truly don't think there will ever be a day when she falls in love and sits on Santa's lap telling him what she wants. She is so scared of normal beards lately; if a bearded man says hello to her, she goes straight to meltdown mode and holds onto me like a vice. When said bearded man leave she says "bye-bye" over and over and sighs a breath of relief. I can predict it everytime. I say to myself "uh-oh, here comes a bearded man, please don't coo with my daugther" lol. Then Santa has a beard 5 times the length and she doesn't cry as long as we're holding her, but I think she'd call the police on us if we put her in his lap and walked away asking for her to smile for the camera. We'll see next year, but my money is not on Santa.

December seems so long ago...

Her saying "I dunno" when she looks for something and can't find it is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Top left she's looking for the moon and is perplexed she can't find it. Top right, I guess she didn't like David's book choice because she brought one of her own.

Referring to 12/18, "said good-bye to mommy during prayers" was one night I suppose she was particularly tired because as I was tucking her in saying prayers and all the things we love about her (which she usually loves) and she starting waving saying "mommy bye-bye" like she was trying to tell me to get the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of here because this girl has got to get some beauty sleep. She makes me laugh everyday and my heart is smiling from shoulder to shoulder just thinking of the joy she has brought to our lives and the innocence of how she has no idea how all 26 lbs of her has lifted the weight of the world off of our shoulders and made everything sweeter.

Life is good.