This is Lily in her starsuit at therapy. It's very stretchy, so it requires her to work her arms and legs to keep it open. Apparently a lot of Lily's issues deal with her spatial and body awareness - and this gets her to seek a lot of input from her legs and arms. I'm still getting my head around the science of a visual motor delay.  

 

Imogene loves to sit in a baby doll stroller! 

 

And had to share (I hope I haven't already) this is me and the gorgeous, brilliant, fun Jessica Herrin - the founder of Stella & Dot. Had to give her a little shout-out, considering what a gift I feel like her company has been in my life.

And while I am shouting-out, let me again say thank you to Bill who has absolutely been the absolutely best husband/best friend/teammate in the world. It has been an insane month for me - 6 shows, 5 new people on my team - and he has kept all the trains running, and cooked some very delicious meals in the process. I know how lucky I am that he supports me 100%, and that he actually misses me when I'm away working!!!

pretty in pink

 

Imogene and I got to go watch Lily's ballet class for "observation day" this month. Lily loves her class and her teacher, and I have to say - despite the million times I day I have to ask her to focus or get back to what we were doing (like getting dressed!) she was really very attentive to everything she was doing! So fun to watch her dance!

So behind

I am just behind in my life in general right now, and the blog is just another example.
But I wanted to share this story about Lily. Even though she is a complete pain and will do absolutely nothing we ask her to do no matter how we ask or tell or plead, she's a pill right now.
But, we were sitting at chickfila the other night and there was a couple sitting close to us at a booth and they were so sweet and affectionate with each other. It wasn't obscene, it was just really dear. So as they were getting up to leave Lily looked at me and said, "Mom, do you think they are really married, or just really in love?" It was a very cute observation!

Check-Up Check-In

Today was Imogene's 2 year-old check-up with Dr. Baldrate. For once, it was completely routine. She weighs 23 lbs 8 oz - still in the 10th percentile. She is 32 1/4 inches long, still in the 25th percentile. She's just going to be a little thing! Her only rough patch at the appointment was getting one shot. She really only cried for a minute or two. Last year she had bloodwork which showed a slight protein C deficiency, so at some point in the next month or two, we'll need to run that again. We just weren't up for getting the full blood draw today. When Dr. Baldrate told us last year we should repeat it at age 2, that seemed so, so far away. It's already here! She ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich today and loved it! Yeah for no more food restrictions!

It's Her Birthday...

 

A few pictures from our little party we had today for Imogene. It was just the right thing ... she wasn't too overwhelmed and seemed to be very happy the entire time! She loves, loves, loves reading books to herself and dancing!

 

She loves balloons.

 

Dancing and Singing.

 

This is our sweet, sweet 2 year-old!

 

Loving the balloon.

 

Kiss for Charlie.

 

Happy with Daddy.

 

Kisses with Grunny.

 

Loving the new laptop! Thank you Lola & Lucy.

 

Reading her new book about Elmo. 

 

Instruments from Naney.

 

Lily did a good job putting up with it not being about her ... some "big sister/unbirthday" presents helped,  and she basically opened all the presents for Imogene :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Imogene!

Dear Imogene Blanche,
Two years ago this moment, Daddy and I were just minutes away from meeting you for the first time. You made a statement right away, and let us know that while you were gorgeous, you were going to make a name for yourself. Daddy would get to hold you for a few minutes, and then it would be a few hours before you were ready to come and be in mommy's arms. Funny, thinking about it now, maybe that's why you make me hold you all the time - making up for those first few hours! You have taught us so much about ourselves, and what it means to love with your whole, entire heart - every single ounce of it. You turned our little two, almost three-year-old, into the best big sister in the world (most of the time!). She loves you, and you love her, more than I ever dreamed you would. You remind me that life is not always what you plan it to be, but sometimes that it's just exactly the way it was supposed to be anyway.  What a happy, loving and precious baby you are ... but now I guess you aren't a baby are you? A two-year-old! walking around the house in your pajamas that are way too big for you, with your purse on your arm, telling everyone 'bye' as you go off on your trip to the kitchen. You sit next to Lily and imitate every move she makes, but you also march to the beat of your own drum, and boy do you like making sounds! My heart is truly over-flowing with how cute you are in this age. We all love you more than you will ever know, and are so excited to watch all that you will do when you are "TCHU!"

Home!

Thanks to Bill and Bunny & Charlie, I have returned from an AMAZING three nights in Dallas with Stella & Dot. It was supposed to be 2 nights, but thanks to the crazy weather the south and northeast are having, I was delayed a day. It was great to have that time to focus on my business. and Not have to take anyone to the bathroom or change any diapers! But am I exhausted. We were up late and early! And my brain was swimming the entire time. So much to grow with and so much fun to be had with this amazing job I have found. Promise to update more on the family this weekend.
Imogene is going to be 2 on Sunday! And she can say 2 - 'tchu.'

ESPN Here She Comes

Lily is a sports-lover. She woke up Tuesday morning, and the first thing she said to me was, "Did the Hokies win?" Alas, they did not. Poor kid, disappointment comes early. Tonight we were talking about how she can sign up to play soccer soon (Side note: there is a team of boys and girls going into kindergarten at her future elementary school. So many aspects of that sentence make me want to cry or throw-up. We'll leave it at that.) So she says, "Mom, I don't have a costume!" "Well Lily, I think we'll get the shorts and shoes, and they'll give you a shirt." "What will our team be?" "I don't know yet sweetie." "Oh gosh, I hope we aren't going to be blue. I really don't want to be blue like Chelsea." Her daddy has trained her well. Chelsea is a rival of Daddy's beloved Manchester United Red Devils, of the English premier league. She is so well-trained, that when Susan started talking about her trip to London, and how she and Matt looked for Chelsea tickets but they were too expensive, Lily says, "We don't like Chelsea Aunt Susan."

Please Be Kidding Me...

Imogene is back to terrible sleep. Up for four hours the other night. Waking up a bunch. Terrible to get down. And she's not napping. Since Sunday, she's napped 40 minutes. I cannot tell you how panicked I get from the thought that a)terrible sleep is back again or worse b) she's dropping her nap!!!!!!!!! She's  not yet 2. I CANNOT.HANDLE.NO.NAPS. I need that break from her. I love her, but we need the break. Plus it makes her a nutcase by dinner time.
But Lily is dealing with this fine. While I was upstairs trying to get Imogene to sleep, she took the high chair Imogene's baby doll got for Christmas and climbed up on the counter, got her own cup and lid out of the cabinet, then went over and repeated the process for the apple juice in the fridge. I am trying not to think of how badly that could have gone. She's very proud of herself.

One of These Days

There are just so many pictures from Christmas, I cannot sit down and get them posted! We are settling back into the grind after a wonderful week of resting at home, traveling to SC, and then resting and hanging out at home again. One day over the weekend Imogene stayed in her pajamas the entire day. What a way to celebrate the holidays! Lily is so very happy back at school. Imogene and I picked her up today and we ended up staying and chatting with Miss Pam Miss Carey Miss Patty and the Burke (what we call Carolyn, the director, thanks to Lola)... Imogene was laughing so hard at all of them and was clearly thrilled to be back with her favorite ladies. Of course makes my heart sing. Not as much as it did one day last week  - we can neither one remember how it started, but the conversation ended with lily saying, "but I'll still be your little girl right?" Lily did pretty well with the holidays and all the commotion and no routine.
She's especially in love with the Wii game console we got. She Loves playing tennis on it, and even when it looks like she's doing terrible at something, she usually does pretty well. The best is the Glee Kereoke game that we all love playing. Imogene is a big fan of holding the microphone and singing her heart out. And asking for "gee." She really loves singing and dancing. There is no way I can put into words how cute this is ... she just sings and sings so loudly and so happily. Is there anything better than watching your child find joy? She is also talking up a storm, although admitedly very little of it makes any sense. She has come up with her first real sentence, "Mommydobe" ... which is mommy do bed. Wonderful, loving, best dad ever Bill usually puts her to bed because she just does better when he does it. But she's been pitching a fit for Mommy to do it. It's frustrating for everyone. But it does lighten the mood when she pulls out , "mommydobe mommydobe."
She is also now in love with wally, the green monster. yes, that wally the green monster, mascot of the Boston Red Sox. She says "wajee" ... and then calls every player in the book we read "daddy."
Her birthday is in 12 days! Where in the world did the last 2 years go? We are going to have a very, very little celebration for our little girl. Mostly because we want Imogene to have her own thing, and most of the kids we know are 4!!! And really, after what we saw at Christmas - she really doesn't care much right now. She is just happy dancing around the house to "gee."