Easter 2011

 

So here it is! A blog post the same day the pictures were taken. AMAZING! 

We had such a wonderful day. The weather was perfect - it almost felt weird to be that warm after such a cold start to Spring.

 

The Easter Bunny brought the bubbles that they love to play with when DeeDee the speech therapist comes. Imogene was REALLY excited about this. 

 

Lily loves her new blue sunglasses. Blue is her new first favorite color, just so you know. Lily said, "what a nice Easter Bunny. He knew just what I wanted!" 

Notice that Imogene is  holding onto her chocolate bunnies. Kid loves chocolate.

 

This is her new elephant. "Ella" - we thought she'd be more excited to see her. Elephants are her favorite animal. She's forever talking about the elephants at the zoo. She picked it out the basket and threw it on the ground. Well, then.  I have high hopes for this elephant. Really want her to have something she attaches to so that it MIGHT make me leaving her easier. I said MIGHT.

 

Isn't always more fun to play with paper grass than toys?

 

Helping with the Easter pancakes.

 

Loving their little water color sets. Who knew???

 

The carnage that is Imogene and Easter grass.

 

She would not make a normal smile.

 

Nor could we get those blue sunglasses off. 

And if Lily squats to be next to Imogene, Imogene squats too! 

 I love this picture of them. Even if Imogene isn't smiling or looking at me! 

 

Imogene again - not happy to be in a picture. But I got the bow in! 

 

Please look a those curls and that precious little face. She can be such a cute, dear little thing.

 

Both girls both big fans of how twirly their dresses were.

 

The best shot I got of them together all day.

 

Again with the dress.

This one I just had to include. She is cute.

Will I Ever Catch Up?

I'm so behind on the blog I don't know where to start.
We have Lily's Special Week at school from two weeks ago, plus our Spring Break trip last week to Columbia. But since I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get to those pictures - I thought it might be fun to see what the girls looked like last year on Easter, so that we can compare tomorrow!
Lily definitely looks older, but not that much different - if that makes any sense. And Imogene - at least she has a lot more hair! And she can walk and run around and talk so much! A big change for her.
We are looking forward to a very nice day tomorrow - even if we do have the duty of the 4 year-old room at church :) !!!!

I Just Had to Help

So I wanted to share a way you can shop for Mother's Day, and help out a really courageous mom. Through Stella & Dot I have come to learn about a young mom in my area recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I am so impressed by her spirit and attitude, and decided to do something! She loves jewelry, so we've set up a trunk show on my website for her. I am going to donate 50% of my commission to help her family. If you'd like to do something fun for yourself (and take care of Mother's Day!) go to my website www.stelladot.com/laurensigler and when you're shopping, enter Danielle H. in the hostess box. Thanks for letting me talk business on the blog :) But what a deserving way to talk business right?

Deep Thoughts from Lily

When I told Lily we could only do one book tonight because it was late, she said "Then can I talk to you about something?" So after we read our one book, she said "Okay, I want to talk to you about something. Yesterday, I realized that I was being nice to my friends. And last night it was interesting me that I couldn't sleep because I don't want those things on my room anymore." (the pink Christmas balls we hung up 2 years ago a la Fancy Nancy.)" And that was all she needed to talk to me about. And for a second I had worried that it was going to be something big.

Baseball Bat Singer

These are from a couple of weeks ago. Imogene runs around the backyard holding a baseball bat like a microphone. Lily always says, "Oh Imogene it's a baseball bat!"

 

I was particularly "proud" of this outfit Lily put together. Note from what everyone else has on that it is NOT warm outside.

Fashion Designer In Training

Lily put on the cutest fashion show ever this afternoon. Unfortunately it was inspired by a Barbie movie (I try, but I'm just not a fan) - but it was so fun to watch her. She laid out a long piece of tape from when I tried to make a tablecloth hem (don't ask) and that was her "fashion row." She did the hand on the hip and twirled in the middle with her wrists bent just so ... she would nod her head at me before she started, as if to say "okay, I'm ready. Are you ready?"She had the music up really loud and loved telling me how she had designed all the clothes herself and wasn't I just so impressed? When she told Naney about it (she arrived tonight for her spring break), she said "Naney, I am a fashion line designer. And I am also a Power Ranger. I have a lot of business." I took a lot of pictures. This may be the only time I get her to wear all the dresses I got her from Just Ducky.

Meanwhile, instead of changing clothes, Imogene decided she'd rather just dump all of her clothes. Including her diaper. At one point she was wearing her little pink winter boots and a diaper. And nothing else. And she wanted to change her diaper, but didn't want one of the ones we had downstairs. She had to go upstairs and pick out an Elmo diaper from her room. She is SO two years-old. 

All she wants to do is take her own clothes off and put her own shoes off and on, and she gets so, so frustrated by all of it. 

Uncle Ryan is headed on a Caribbean vacation for a wedding tomorrow morning. 

Safe Travels Uncle Ry!

Sunshine Again

So I'm going to be a little less doom and gloom now.
It was 86 degrees here today. CRAZY warm - I was talking to Tracie, and it was almost too warm too fast, it made the little ones totally crazy outside at the park. Of course tomorrow it is going to be 54 and raining. Our weather has just been so unpredicatable - I'm really ready for steady warm weather.

Lily had her very first soccer game on Saturday. I was in Kentucky spending a wonderful weekend with some girlfriends, and of course, Stella & Dot. Bill reports that Lily had a great time, and thanked him for helping her not feel too nervous. How cute is that!?! It started raining right at the end, and apparently was pouring and hailing and just a big mess. But fun nonetheless. When I asked her about it, and she immediately told me - "There were no scoreboards."

Imogene has not been sick for so long, and of course got a high fever Friday night when I was away! She was fine the next day, but is still coughing so much and really not herself. Leave it to the Siglers to let the entire winter go by without any major illnesses,and then the first day of warm weather get sick!

A friend of mine today told me Bill should be cloned. I agree :)

It's Just the Way it Is

Going to therapy can be depressing. There I said. It's depressing. Not necessarily about Imogene's progress specifically, but about all that is going on there with so many kids. And I feel guilty for how well she is doing, and ache for the parents who have children who will never walk and never talk and I just want to hug and cry with them. And then I want to switch places with the moms who are there for what will certainly be short-term therapy. Not that I don't want Imogene, I just don't want the cards we've been dealt lately. I want a child who can go to sleep on her own, and stay asleep for longer than 3 hours, and one that will still take a nap. I know I'm complaining a lot lately and I KNOW we have so much to be thankful for. It's just one of those days when I'm so tired of therapy, and so tired of all the bad luck kids are dealt before they even have a chance to fight it. And I hate that Imogene can't walk up the stairs or down the stairs on her own. And that she can't really sit and look at books like other kids because her hand won't open the way it should. And that when she wants to wash her hands (Which she LOVES) she can't reach the water with her right hand because her arm is so tight that she can't get it forward enough.
So yes, she's doing great, but it can be really overwhelming thinking about how far she has to go.


I promise I'll be back later with a more positive post. You are all so kind to read, but this is also in a way my journal, and so sometimes you have to deal with the good and the bad.