tippy toes

Everywhere I go I have strangers stop me and say, "Did you know your little girl walks on her tippy toes?" (I did know this, it's the reason it took her so long to learn to walk because she learned to walk on her toes instead of her whole foot.) But I never know how to respond to strangers. 

This is how not to respond: 

"Duh."

"You think I didn't notice?"

I've thought about this:

"I've never noticed, I'm glad you pointed it out." 

(But that would be lying)

So usually this is my response:

"Can you believe it?"

"Yeah. She is going to have some amazing calf muscles when she grows up."

"I'm pretty sure we'll put her in ballet lessons soon."

"I know! Her grandma even bought her ballet shoes because she loves walking on her tippy toes so much."

So, then I was thinking... I wonder if I have any pictures of her walking on her tippy toes. So I looked back over the last six months of photos, and here are all the photos I was able to find of her exercising those calf muscles.

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

At night, when I can't sleep, I think about things... and one of the things I've thought about is what Lily will grow up to be. I wonder if she will grow up to be a ballerina. I wonder when I should put her in ballet lessons. I wonder what I can do to develop her talents. 

In any case, I love the little quirks that she has and how I am able to capture and document these memories so that they will never be lost or forgotten.

Other July Outings

In July we tried to pack a lot of fun things in for the kids, but not all of them merited their own blog post.

On July 4, we headed out to the Disney Store at the Concord Mall about 60-90 minutes away from where we live. It was either this or watching a parade, and we thought that Lily might be more excited to see Disney Characters than classic cars drive down the street. Boy were we right! She immediately found Sulley (from Monsters Inc. and Monsters University) and hugged him and wouldn't let him go. She also found Woody and the whole Toy Story gang. She was our own little personal shopper and tried to collect as many things as possible. I believe that she thought the more she put in her bag, the more we would buy for her. Even though her bag was full when we went to check-out we only left the store with Sulley in her arms. She was so happy and talked to him the whole way home and made our life awesome the whole rest of the month because of how much she loves her monsters!

At the mall Lily found an Ice Cream Truck and wanted to drive it. This truck was a great source of entertainment while Daddy checked out his favorite stores (J. Crew, Nike, Adidas).

We were invited to go splash in the pool with Marianne Dunn (plus some). I've been really nervous about taking kids to the pool because I don't have enough "me" to take care of both of "them" in the water. However, this particular pool near Marianne's house has a little kiddie pool and it only comes up to Lily's waist. It made it significantly easier for me to watch two children while Lily was able to splash and play away her day.

Tanglewood park - With it being so, so hot (and humid) outside, it's not fun to go walking and I drag my feet. Tanglewood park is a nice alternative because it has a lot of shade and you aren't drenched in sweat by the time you come home. The only problem is that it's about 15-20 minutes away from where we live. The other problem is that there's not as much to see as other walks we normally take. But, this particular day - we were in luck! We saw some deer and it captured Lily's attention and the whole rest of the walk she was looking for the deer. We didn't find any, but that didn't stop her from seriously looking for them!

July 14 was "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chick-Fil-A. If you dressed up like a cow you got a free meal! So we double dipped and went for lunch and dinner. For lunch we met up with Asher and ate sandwiches (Lily had chicken nuggets) and for dinner we met up with the Ashton's and had salads (Lily again had chicken nuggets). Michal refused to dress up. But I made him his very own costume with spots all over the front and back. He loved them so much that they stayed on his whole meal! I was lucky enough to be sitting next to Lily and because she is such a good little helper, she decided to take all of my spots right off of me and stack them in a pile. From my Neck to my Ankles I was covered in white spots, but by the time I left I was like a sneaky black ninja!

Eli and Noah (and Eliza) Sloop were kind enough to have us over for a play date at their house and we made homemade pizzas. Lily wasn't too sure about how to make them, and I had my hands full with Marco. Luckily, the other moms helped her decorate her very own fancy schmancy pizza. (And it tasted just as good as it sounds).

The very end of the month we decided to get together with Caleb and AJ for a play date at Chick-Fil-A. I LOVED this play date! Let me tell you why...

Lily has always been very scared and nervous to go play in the play place by herself. She doesn't want to let me out of sight and is very cautious and afraid to climb all over things. But cute AJ guided her through the whole play gym and helped her climb up to each level and encouraged her to slide down. She was in heaven. Normally when we leave a play date Lily asks to go back and see "[insert name here] again", so I was surprised she didn't say "See Caleb again," but rather "See AJ again." Actually, I'm not surprised, AJ was so cute with her and it really just warmed my heart. I'm ready to hire him as a babysitter!

But the very, very best part about going to Chick-fil-a was the news that I received from Marin. She surprised me with some "utterly" good news that she is expecting a baby come February 2016. "Holy Cow." How moo-rific is that? I'm just tickled for her and couldn't be happier. I'm already planning on what I can buy this baby and how I can spoil him/her.

Kinder Surprise

While Emily was in Serbia on a "workcation" she texted me and asked me if there was anything that our family wanted from Europe that she could bring home with her. I said, "Kinder Eggs for the kids to open." I feel like Kinder Eggs today are the equivalent of prizes in cereal boxes, or cracker jack boxes, in my day. There is a yummy treat and a small surprise to go with it. 

July 31, Emily had the day off - and the kids took super early naps -so we decided to go and play and open up our Kinder Surprises!

Lily's grandma in Poland usually sends over a Kinder Egg every once in a while and both times the surprise inside was an airplane. These kids had much different surprises in store for them!

Lily's surprise was a character from the movie: "Penguins of Madagascar." I think that the character is "Short Fuse" and he throws some sort of something. Eliza got a dragon. And I completely forgot what Harrison's surprise was because he was napping and opened his up at a different time than these two.

Eliza was more excited about the prize, Lily was more excited about the Chocolate, both moms were excited about how quiet it kept them for ten minutes.

Thank you Emily for going to Serbia and bringing Kinder Eggs to America for us. 

I think that next time we get together with the Sharpe family it's our turn to bring them a fun surprise... 

Dun, dun, dun... 

To be continued!

Marco's 6 Month Doctor Appointment

On July 29, Marco had his six month wellness check up.

 His stats quite surprised me.

Height = 25.83" (65.6 cm) 13%

Weight = 15 lb 9 oz (7.059 kg) 12%

Head Circumference = 43.5 cm (17.13 in) 51%

Because he is so small for his age I have to start bringing Marco in monthly to make sure he's growing properly, they just don't want his weight to drop but steadily increase.

The doc checked out his new tooth and made sure everything was in order.

Marco was a happy baby throughout the whole check-up, but Lily was a little jealous that she didn't get the same kind of attention. She found the doctor's tag and wanted to wear it. She was really sad that she, personally, wasn't able to give the tag back to the doctor.

I really like going to the wellness checkups because it's fun to see how much your baby is growing and developing and comparing it month to month. However, doctor appointments can be tricky. Making sure that one kid is adequately checked and all questions are answered, while balancing giving the older child attention and making her feel like she is helping and not being left out. Lily's in for a treat because next month it's her turn!

Asher's Birthday Party

Birthday Parties are the BEST! Don't you remember going to the best birthday parties as a kid? You would play the funnest games and eat the best food and open the coolest presents - all with your friends surrounding your side? Lily and I were so excited to be invited to Asher's Birthday Party on Saturday - July 25. 

The party was themed around the Disney movie "Cars" so our first "pit stop" was to the local fire department where we were taken on a tour of the facility and got to inspect the fire truck!

I was so proud of this little girl for getting in the Fire Truck.  This is the sixth time she's had an opportunity to climb in and explore the inside of this truck and each time she has really been nervous and hesitated to climb inside, but this time she was brave and ventured in.

The firemen wanted to tell us all about day-to-day life, and cool facts, and blah-blah-blah. But the kids were just interested in wearing their own fireman hats and looking at the truck.

Our next pit stop was to Asher's house where everything was decorated like a race track. The table was awesome. There were streamers draped everywhere and some were meant to look like you were going through a car wash. Red and black balloons covered the floor. It was pretty awesome. 

But not as awesome as this super fancy cake that Asher's mom made! 

It looked pretty fantastic and the inside was even checkered like a race-car flag!

It's a good thing that there are places where you can buy cakes like that because I sure don't have the time, energy, or talents to pull something off that fancy!

And the very best part about birthday parties is saved for the very last! It's opening presents! Kids are so excited about anything and everything that they get and they open up gifts and share their toys and everyone gets to play. It's so fun to watch all the kids take pleasure out of simple things!

Thanks for having a super-duper fun birthday party Asher. And thanks for inviting Lily! Everything was fancy-dancy and we can't wait until next year to see what kind of a party your awesome mom can pull off!