Enjoying the Weather!

We have been spending time outside every day because it's just too pretty not to. Yesterday, we were outside playing with Collin when Chris, Johanna, and Anna also dropped by. Collin and Lily got into the wheelbarrow by themselves, and we soon added Anna in on the fun as well. I have always called Johanna "Jo" to Lily because I figured it's easier to say, but I guess I must still call her by "Johanna" and Lily has picked up on that because last night, Lily started referring to her as "Hanna" which we thought was quite cute and funny! We had a great time playing with cousins!

Dancing Queen!

Anyone who knows Lily, knows how much she loves to dance--she'll do it anywhere at anytime. She now also likes watching horse videos on Youtube--there is one set to an Ally and AJ song that she frequently asks to see. Here she is rockin' out to it. Please pretend you don't see the toy explosion all over the floor.

Happy Birthday, Lily!!

On Lily's actual birthday, we had a very casual lunch at Chuck E Cheese with some friends. Lily enjoyed it a lot, and I enjoyed seeing my friends but I'm not sure I want to return to Chuck E Cheese for a very long time! It is chaotic, crazy and overstimulating! And fun!

Lily on a helicopter ride that she and the other kids LOVED! It only took 4 of us parents and a random dude walking by to figure out how to use it.

Lily's friend, Ethan, on the same ride--how cute is he?!? Ethan is exactly 4 months older than Lily and is the son of one of my co-workers.

Lily enjoying the carousel.

Lily and Ethan on the carousel.

Marley taking a turn.

The ride with the mouse--the kids loved this one too, especially because it took your picture--however it also seems to be a spreader of pink eye! Good thing Ethan was on it before the contaminated kid. Unfortunately, Anna wasn't so lucky!

Anna on a ride that none of us could ever figure out how to work.

Whose enjoying this game more?!?

By the way, at Lily's doctor's appointment, she got measured and weighed for the first time in a long time--for height and head circumfrance, she is in the 75-90 percentile and for weight, she is in the 50-75 percentile. No longer a lolly-pop with a giant head! It will be interesting to see if she gets her daddy's height as she grows up.

March 7th--Lily's Tea Party!

For the second year in a row, we had Lily's birthday party in Greenville at my parents house. We like to have it there because all of Bryan's extended family lives in North Carolina and it gives them an opportunity to see Lily and the other babies in the family without having to drive to Georgia. It also allows us to celebrate with my sister's family, who would probably not be able to drive to Atlanta for a party what with 3 kids and all! This year we had a very girly tea party--I figured it may be my last year to plan it with the theme I want and so I went all pink! Hopefully she'll like pink, but in the event she wants a sports themed party, at least I've done the girly party one year. It was a wonderful day! The weather couldn't have been better. We were thrilled that all of Bryan's family on his Mom's side came to the party. We made it a joint party with Lily's cousin, Anna, whose birthday is 3 weeks before hers and they wore super-cute coordinated dresses. My sister-in-law, Johanna, had an absolutely precious cake made and my mom handled the rest of the food, which was totally delicious. We played for a bit, then ate the yummy food, and opened presents. As you can imagine, Lily tore into hers--she has certainly reached the age where she gets how fun it is to open presents. We then ate the yummy cake and put the girls down for a nap--when Lily and Anna got up from their naps, they played outside and swung. It was perfect! We really couldn't have asked for a better 2nd birthday party for our little girl.

The yummy food.


The desserts!!

The cool cake--the top was a table set for a tea-party. Too cute!

Lily's individual cake--this year, she ate it with a fork!

The table setting.

We asked everyone to wear hats--of course, I'm the only one who ended up wearing one--don't I look gorgeous?

Elmo blew bubbles and Lily LOVED him!!

The birthday girls!!! So cute in their coordinating dresses. They were laughing at Aunt Johanna making funny faces.

The cousins on Bryan's side of the family--Allison, Lily, and Anna. Anna hated the grass poking her and Lily was interested in a blade of grass that was on her hand. Allison was the only one being good for the cameras!

After the above failed attempt, we decided to get a pic of the cousins with their mommies holding them.

Aunt Jo and Anna opening presents--After Lily got finished with hers, she wanted to open Anna's too! Why not?!? She didn't want to steal them, just assist Anna with the unwrapping! :)

David digging in the dirt!

Lily and her Daddy--after the nap, just playing outside.

Update

Wow! I've been a little negligent lately when it comes to updating this! We are still under contract with the house--set to close March 26th! It has been one thing after another and I'm so ready for the closing to be down, so we can start enjoying the fun part of buying a house--decorating!

Lily turned 2 on March 14th--we celebrated at a birthday party for her in Greenville and on her actual birthday, we went to Chuck E Cheese with some friends and then spent the night in the mountains with Ramsey, Robin and Marley. I do plan to post pics from all of those things, but have to get them from other people as, being the genius that I am, I didn't have my camera at either activity.

She did go for a bladder/renal ultrasound and VCUG on Monday and had her 2 year check-up on Wednesday, at which we got the results from her tests--she does have bladder reflux and will have to be on antibiotics for a year. Once she turns 3, she will need a follow-up VCUG and hopefully will have out-grown everything. Poor thing!!

I have also put her on waiting lists to start going to Mommy's Morning Out in the fall 2 days a week. We thought it would be good to give her the opportunity to be with other 2 year olds and socialize a little. She was mad I didn't let her play when we were there looking, so hopefully she'll like going!

House Update

We are finally officially under contract!! In true banker-style, they took 32 days to give us an answer and now have moved up the closing date to March 26th, so we only have 2 weeks to get everything finished. We are having the inspection done tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed. Because it's a short-sale, we can't request anything to be fixed, so if some bad info comes back from the inspection, then we would just have to back out of the sale, which we REALLY don't want to do. I'll keep you posted!!

This is the front of the house. I'll post more pics when I get them. There aren't any on the MLS listing.

Blue-Eyed Girl

Lily had what I was hoping to be her last pediatric opthamologist appointment today. She went for the first time when she was about 8 weeks old because her eyes were not alligned properly. I noticed and though everyone told me I was crazy, I insisted she see the opthamologist about it. The first time that he saw us, he felt like she was just having trouble figuring out how to coordinate them because she'd arrived early and had us come back several weeks later for another check. At that time, he felt like they were better but that they sometimes looked misalligned because she has a wide nasal bridge. He wanted to see Lily at a year of age. We moved to Mississippi prior to her first birthday and we saw a doctor out there, who thought the same thing as the doctor here, but wanted her seen at 2 years of age just to be certain. I feel like her eyes look great now and I thought for sure that the doctor was going to clear her to not come back anymore. However, he still noticed some possible misallignment and though he feels it's just psuedomisallignment because of her wide nasal bridge, because there is a family history of some eye issues and because eye issues are genetic, he still wants us to come back in 12-18 months for another follow-up. I am of the "better safe than sorry" school of thought, so I'm fine with it, though a little surprised.
By the way, Tyra Banks said that supermodels tend to have wide nasal bridges, so I think I have picked out Lily's future career. Today when Bryan asked her if she was a supermodel, she nodded "Yes" so there you have it!!
I also scheduled Lily's kidney testing for next week, so everyone say a prayer for us please.

I am including a pic of Lily in May 2007 for those of you who always say I'm lying when I talk about how her eyes used to be. I am aware they are not that bad, but because we are still being seen, I feel like we were right in seeing someone about them. When I first brought it up to the ped, she said you can tell if they are actually misalligned or just look that way by ensuring that when you shine a light at the eyes, it should reflect back in the same spot on both eyes. You can see by the flash of the camera that it is not in the same spot on both eyes. The problem with getting the ped to give us a referral to an opthamologist was that it wasn't like this all of the time, it only wandered every so often.

Just a cute pic of Lily taken the same night as the one above. It was my 30th birthday and she was my little present!

Update on Lilster!

Wow!! The last 4 days have been something! As I wrote before, on Friday I took Lily in to see the MD with a low fever and a sleepless night and we thought it was just teething. However, her fever got higher all weekend long and on Monday I took her back in and my hunch was confirmed--she had a UTI. Poor thing. We got her started on antibiotics on Monday a.m. and she is already feeling better. The doctor did say that about 1/3 of the kids with UTIs actually have undiagnosed kidney problems and so they are sending us for kidney testing in a couple weeks. I am only thinking positively about it, but I hope everyone will also say a prayer for Lily.

She is doing a lot of cute stuff right now as well!! When she wants to be picked up, she now holds her arms up and says "Hold this." referring to herself! So funny and cute!! She also sings a lot now--she'll sing lalalalala or she has started singing "I love you" over and over sort of to the tune of Barney's sing mixed with "It's raining, It's pouring"--so cute. I just love hearing her sing "I love you" so many times!! It makes me feel loved! She says so many words and understands everything we talk about. She has started to understand families and who goes with who, so if I talk about going to visit Heather and Kai, she'll add Matt or if I say Anna and Jo, she'll add Chris, but if I say Anna and Austin, she'll add D. She has also (finally) bonded to a lovey, which she calls blanket and asks for him when she's tired. We are busy getting ready for her 2nd b-day party!!

Happy Birthday, Bryan!

Today Bryan finally turns 30!! What a youngin'!! We went out to eat last night with some friends to celebrate and while I would like to make today special too, I'm having a hard time doing so because I'm taking care of a not-feeling-well Lily! She's been running a fever for a few days, and I initially thought it was teething, but now I think it may be more than that. She's been up all night the past 3 nights, taking very short naps, and very whiny and clingy all day. Anyhow, I am feeling sort of bad that Bryan isn't having a fab birthday today. We may have to do a rain-check b-day at a later date. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Bryan!!