Marco Dress Up

Have I mentioned that Lily loves dressing herself now?  In addition to her coming up with some pretty interesting clothing choice combinations, Lily also loves to "dress up" Marco.

Here's some of my favorite "dress ups" that I was able to capture on photo.

This particular day I was in the shower.  I came out of the shower to witness Lily having gotten into her bows and making sure that they were all in her hair and all over Marco.  She sure didn't want him to feel left out.

I'm absolutely horrible at remembering to do tummy time.  And this is why... 

Every time I do tummy time with Marco he get smothered by Lily.  Today Lily wanted to make sure that Marco felt loved by giving him her princess stickers that were on her hands and putting them on his hands.  If you look closely you can see Lily's generosity on the back of Marco's hands.

I can't tell if he wasn't happy to have tummy time, or to have princess stickers on his hands... but Lily made sure that Marco was a happy baby once tummy time was over.

Lily also has an obsession with hats lately.  And by obsession I mean sometimes she has to go to bed wearing a hat.  (or when we take a bath, or go to church, etc.)  

This particular day she wanted to make sure that we didn't feel left out by not having a hat. Lily had her winter had on from Babcia, I had a summer hat on, and Marco had a swimming hat on that Auntie Bailey gave Lily last year.  This is what Michal came home to.  He walked in on us "dressed up" and took a photo right away.

Each day is filled with surprises and you never know what you're going to get!

Monday's Garbage Truck

Every Monday the Garbage Truck comes at around 9:30 in the morning.  And to help motivate me to get up and going on a Monday morning... we go and chase the garbage truck.  Lily just loves finding the garbage truck.  Normally when we go on walks I have to give her treats, or my phone in order to get her to sit still.  But the only times where she is able to sit and be complacent with just looking is when we are at the zoo - or when we are searching for the "Big Truck."

The Monday mornings that are the best are the ones where the recycle and the regular garbage truck comes.  Usually if we hit it just right (on a regular Garbage only day) we can see the truck about 9 times.  When we go on the recycle day (if we are lucky) we will see the truck about 14-15 times.  Lily has such an ear for when the truck is right around the corner because she will make sure that I know the garbage truck is coming.

Every time the garbage truck passes us he gives us a nice little honk on his horn... and Lily waves as he goes by.  We don't get the same kind of "love" from the recycle - but we are working on it.

Monday May 18 Lily was so disappointed because we searched for 90 minutes and didn't find either the recycle or the garbage truck.  Normally we only go out an hour, but I wanted to make her happy.  There must have been a different garbage man collecting in our neighborhood that day since we didn't run into him once and he didn't take the usual "normal" route we always see him take.

Until Next Monday...

Marco 3 Month Pictures

Marco is now 3 Months old.

I really wish that I could be better at writing down his milestones and achievements, but I try to make up for it by taking photos.

He now smiles and sleeps and smiles and sleeps and if he is every unhappy we just have to make sure Lily gives him some love and it makes him forget why he is upset.  

Even though Marco's eyes look dark in this photo, they are still a light grey... and I'm convinced that he has red hair (from how many people have commented on it).

I do know that Lily just adores and loves him... sometimes a little too much... but I think that he adores and loves her back.  It just warms my heart when I watch Marco watching Lily.  He looks at her with such amazement and it makes me so happy to know that they feel connected and love for each other. 

Marco Doc Appointment

Little boy had his 2 month doctor appointment on April 8, 2015.  He was truly older than 2 months, but I guess that's the way they do it around here.

Here are Marco's 2 Month Stats:

Weight: 12 lb 11.5 oz (5.769 kg) 37%

Height: 24" (61 cm) 68%

Head Circumference: 40.6 cm (15.98") 73%

He was a healthy little boy and such so cooperative for his appointment.  (In order to get Lily to behave I had to give her an apple).

At least he was cooperative until it was time to go.  I'm not quite sure what happened, but he had a blowout where NONE of it was contained or captured inside of his diaper.  It all ended up on Mommy's lap.  I couldn't go home like this, and I didn't want to get it on the seat of my car.  So I found a nice nurse who gave me a towel to go home in.  Such an interesting, interesting day at the doctors! Thank you Marco for keeping me on my toes!

Marco's Baby Blessing

On April 26, 2015 Marco received his baby blessing.

It was a beautiful blessing and we wanted everyone to feel welcome to come join us on this special day since family couldn't make the trip out here.  So we created a birth announcement, and included an invitation to his baby blessing in every birth announcement that we sent out via mail.

Although we had anticipated more people joining us for this special day, we really felt blessed and grateful to those who did come and "celebrate" with us.

Lael wins the prize for traveling the furthest to support Michal.  He came out all the way from DC and we loved having him stay with us!  He brings out such a fun side of Michal and Lael has such a different and interesting perspective on life! 

Michal wasn't the only one who was grateful that Lael came.  It appears that Lily and Marco were both happy about his appearance. 

A big thank you to anyone and everyone who came over and supported us since we weren't able to have family present.  Your love shows us that we have family here in NC!

Nursery - Part 2

When we started coming back to church after Marco was born I was nervous for how Lily would "adapt" back into Nursery.  She was extremely clingy and didn't want me to leave.  And then all that disappeared when it was "Singing Time."  

Lily squealed with delight when they sang the "Wise Man and Foolish Man" for when it rains, the teacher sprays water out of a water bottle.  The kids LOVE it.

And Lily was so eager to put the sun on her face for one of the songs.

I forgot to get pictures of the wheels on the bus... but I did happen to get one photo of "Five Little Speckled Frogs."  Lily loved having a froggy on her hands and she loved copying the singing teacher.

I was so grateful that Lily was clingy this particular day because I was able to stay in Nursery with her and it gave me such a good appreciation of Nursery and how much they care for my little girl.  I loved watching her light up when it was time to sing.  I loved church this day. And it helped me to love singing more often with my little girl.

Little helper

This little girl really is such a good helper.  Even when she makes a mess, she feels bad and chimes, "Lily made a mess."  She is trying so hard to make me proud and I just beam at times where she is trying so hard to learn and it backfires.  For example, she wants to have "Mommy Juice" (water), but somehow each time she drinks it "Mommy Juice" spills... either on her whatever is nearby.  The particular picture below she reached onto my nightstand and spilled my water everywhere.  I was nursing and so frustrated and didn't want to interrupt Marco's meal to clean up her mess so quite sternly I told her, "Go get a towel and clean it up."  I figured she's get a towel off the back of her bathroom door.  Or she'd grab an old towel in her laundry basket and bring it back.  I was wrong.  Lily went downstairs and climbed up on top of the kitchen table's chairs to grab a heavy beach towel that I had downstairs. (I thought it would be a fabulous idea to try to do Yoga outside on it.  My idea wasn't so fabulous.) She lugged the heavy towel all the way upstairs... and then proceeded to wipe up her spilled "mess."  I mean... how can you be upset when a little girl puts forth that much effort to clean up after herself?  It brought a huge smile to my face and I couldn't help but snap a photo so I could always remember how much of a great little helper she is.

She is also overly eager to make sure that Marco receives enough hugs each day and that any of his needs are met.  Whenever he is crying Lily announces to the household, "Marco crying. Marco crying."  And it warms my heart that she is so concerned about him and wants him to be happy.  Sometimes when Marco is crying she brings him his pacifier. She thinks it will help him by happy again.

And other times that he is crying she brings him her toys.

(Like her Doc McStuffin's stethoscope).

But don't get me wrong... she is into a lot of mischief as well and sometimes her help inhibits us from doing what we need to get done. 

One specific day I was showering and drying my hair.  As I was showering Lily was in my room "organizing" papers and batteries.  And then as I dried my hair she proceeded to take as many items as possible out from underneath the sinks and line them up along side the bathtub.  And, bless her heart, its probably because she saw me organizing or cleaning earlier that day and wanted to help.  (She just didn't realize that I had already completed that task and didn't need to do it a second time).

This specific day I was making dinner.  I look down and notice that Lily has pulled every utensil out from inside the bottom drawer (I put safe utensils down there so she can play with them instead of getting into other things I'd rather not clean up after). I was exasperated.  I almost got after her for "making a mess" until I looked at the mess I had created from making stuffed shells for dinner.  I can't blame her for taking everything out when she was just trying to "be like Mommy" (even if Mommy is a slob when cooking).

Lily also likes to help out Daddy.  When he was fertilizing and seeding the lawn, she had to feel like she was helping out also by "mowing" the lawn with her toy lawnmower.  She doesn't understand that her lawnmower has no effect on the lawn whatsoever.  But it is so adorable to watch her try and help her daddy.

And this one is my favorite.  I bought Lily a kite at Wal-Mart for $1.39.  It was a "Frozen" kite with Anna pictured on it.  We went outside and tried to use it.  It was a bust.  It didn't work.  But I did happen to get the kite all dirty.  Well... since the kite was dirty she wanted to give "Anna" a bath.  So she went and pulled down the bath that we use to bathe Marco, and put "Anna" (the kite) in the bath.  Then she got a cup from her kitchen and filled it with water (from the fridge).  She went back and forth and back and forth doing this a million times (as her cup was extremely small).  All she wanted was to give Anna a bath and I couldn't stop her because she really, truly felt like she was helping. She really is such a good girl!

As she continues to grow (and possibly frustrate me) I hope to be able to look back at these endearing moments and smile.  I hope it will help me to be more laid back and easy going and appreciate the small things in life.  She sure helps me to laugh and love her.