Lily 2.5 Year Dr. Appointment

August 14 - Lily had her 2.5 year wellness checkup to make sure that she is aging properly.

She was such a champ at getting measured. She didn't put up a fight and kept saying, "Look at me Mommy. Getting checked." 

For some reason I didn't get a print out of her stats, so I don't know what percentile she's in and I'm going to have to edit this post when I do find out what they are.

Height = 36.75 in (93.345cm) %

Weight = 29.2 lb (13.245 kg) %

Head Circumference = cm ( in) %

Marco also got weighed in. Because he is so small, they want to make sure that he is gaining enough weight proportionately. He only gained 1.5 ounces in 16 days. That made me worry, but the doctor didn't seem to concerned about it. Instead, she just gave me suggestions about high caloric foods to feed him now that he is not solely breastfeeding.

Meeting with the doctor is the best part. You get to hear how awesome/smart/adorable your children are - from a medical professional! Plus, this doctor makes checkups fun. Little kids don't like it when foreign objects are stuck in their ear, so she tells them that she is looking for the princesses. In our case, Lily only let her look in one ear to find the princesses - the other ear Lily wanted us to check and see if we could find Nemo. When she listens to her heart and lungs she makes it into a game and says that she is measuring her for a princess dress. Lily loved her appointment so much she had to give the doctor a hug good-bye before she left.

I used to dread doctor appointments, but now that Lily has so much fun and just adores our doctor, I look forward to them and can't wait to see each child's progression.

Kids Morning Out

August 11

This month's 'Kids Morning Out' was in historic Old Salem. And since the weather was overcast and didn't look too friendly, we thought that it would scare away most of the crowd - so we headed on over to check it out. 

This specific site was more intriguing for adults, but there wasn't as much for children to do.

The activities included:

 - Making clay marbles

- coloring

- eating one Moravian cookie

- story time

- tossing rings on a stick and bean bags in rings

- and touring the gardens

(and yes, that is my child who was trying to eat a jalapeño pepper while I was busy chatting with another mom).

To make this day more entertaining I decided to round up all the mothers and see if they wanted to do Chick-Fil-A lunch together. (Who doesn't just love chick-fil-a?) Unfortunately, the closest one didn't have a play area. 

I heard a bunch of the other moms saying that this particular KMO was a bust. It wasn't as fun and there weren't a whole lot of activities for the kids to do... but... I loved it. I love getting out. I love experiencing new things. I love watching Lily play with other children her age. I love interacting with other moms. My child's head was wet from her sweating. And the whole time she was running around squealing with delight. That to me is a successful morning. If she had fun it was all worth it.

Harrison's Birthday / Going Away Party

On August 8th the Sharpe family hosted a going away slash Harrison's second birthday part-ay! We love Harrison. We love the Sharpes. We put this on our calendar weeks in advance and started the count down for our last summer evening with this incredible family. 

In preparation for this party, Emily and John bought a huge water slide for the kids to play on. It was a hit. 

And in addition to the slide they had a huge blow up pool and lots of other activities (sidewalk chalk, cupcake eating, and swings) to keep the children entertained long enough for the adults to sit back and enjoy the company of everyone else present.

At first Lily was super nervous to climb up on her own and wanted Daddy there to make sure she was safe. But as soon as all the other kids were distracted by eating cupcakes, sidewalk chalk, and playing with all the toys Harrison opened - Lily took advantage of the empty slide and became brave. I had no idea that she would do this on her own. But she loved it. In fact, from how much she loved it, it kinda makes me want to get one of these slides just for her (and Marco).

This evening was perfect. Perfect food. Perfect company. Perfect weather. It was just so nice and relaxing and easy. I wish all Saturday evenings could be this entertaining and beautiful, but since they're not it sure makes me appreciate the ones that are!

Thank you Sharpe family for hosting a fun filled evening at your house and for inviting us to tag along. Happy Birthday Harrison! Thanks for being such a good friend to Lily!

Sharpe Family

The Sharpe Family

On August 13 this family left North Carolina to start a new adventure and chapter in their lives.

We didn't get to meet them right away when they moved into the ward, however, John was assigned to be our home teacher. Because of how open, honest, funny, and talented he seemed - we wanted to get to know his wife also, so we asked them to come over for dinner at our house. Not only is Emily extremely smart and kind but she and John compliment each other very well. Every time we spend time with them we have learned all sorts of interesting things about saving money, cool iPhone apps, how to take better pictures, cooking skills, unique gadgets, great Costco finds, and (most importantly) everything you ever wanted to know about anesthesia.  

Once we got to know them better we were always coming up with excuses to get together and play. We had countless Sunday dinners together, several date nights, great text message wars, and kept each other awake during Church when lessons weren't particularly interesting.

We cannot wait until we get to go on an epic adventure overseas together. We couldn't think of anyone else we'd rather travel with and go exploring other lands with.

Thanks for being such great friends! And thanks for all the memories we created together! We are really going to miss your family! 

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.