Settle In!

There is so much to update our loyal readers. So settle in for a long winter's read!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Naney, Susan & Ryan were all here to help us celebrate. Church on Christmas Eve, followed by dinner with our friends Stephen, Lindsay & Sydney. We opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift - pajamas for everyone. This year Lily, Imogene and Mommy all received matching pj's. Lily loved this! Poor thing though - she had known for several days that she got to open that one present on the 24th. One day she actually said, "Mom, I'm opening this now. I know I can't, but I'm going to." Her head was about to explode with excitement by the time she finally opened it.

Both girls actually slept past 7 on Christmas morning. Lily came right into our room and said "Merry Christmas!" Keeping yet another tradition, everyone has to be awake and ready before anyone can go see what Santa brought. So, Lily had to wait for all of us to be up and ready to go! When she did start down the stairs, I said "Lily, Santa came." She stopped dead in her tracks, with this look on her face of fear. I think she thought he was still in the living room! She walked right up to her new doll, Emily, and gave her a hug and then said "Why did Santa give this to me?" At one point during the morning she took Emily into the playroom to meet her other dolls. She actually had Emily shake hands with one of them! She was really sweet all day - kept talking about what a wonderful, amazing Christmas it was. She thanked everyone and made the day so magical. Right up until Imogene opened her new baby doll and Lily took it right away. The pictures from the day are much more fun than my ramblings, so I'll get some posted soon.

Imogene had lots of fun too - except for about 15-20 minutes during present-opening where she just bawled. She was either miserable from the FIVE new teeth that are coming in, or just overwhelmed by all of it. Her daddy, who she loves the most, got her to calm down, and the rest of her day was great. She especially loved getting to eat her breakfast and her lunch in the living room. What's not to love about being entertained while you partake in your favorite pastime - eating!?! Imogene received several of her favorite toys that she plays with in therapy.

Lily was just fun on Christmas. During dinner she said "Wow this a great Christmas dinner, wow, isn't this great Mom?" She would only eat crescent rolls and brown rice by the way! She even handled the end of the presents pretty well, but definitely wanted to open as many gifts as possible.

Aunt Susan and Mommy took Lily to see "The Princess and the Frog" Saturday afternoon. Lily sat so cute in her own seat, feet touching the edge of the chair with popcorn in between her legs and for the first 1/2 of the movie just watched and ate her weight in popcorn. Then she moved and sat in my lap and drank a juice box. With just a little bit left in the movie, and probably not coincidentally when it got a little scary, Lily started sobbing. When I asked her why she was crying, she wimpered all pathetically, "I am crying because my juice box is empty." We had to try very hard not to laugh. I really think she was just overwhelmed by all of it - the big theater, the loud-nature of the movie, and the fact that it was a just a tiny bit 'dark' - lots of voo doo and scary shadows. So we might not be ready for Disney just yet, and may stick to the classics, like "White Christmas." I mean really, what almost 4 year-old doesn't chose Bing Crosby over Snow White?

Sunday was our day to stay in the 3 year old church-school room. Naney and Aunt Susan stayed home with Imogene. Lily of course had to take Emily the doll with her (and then did not touch her the entire time). She was a riot with the other kids. One interchange between Lily and a boy named Colin, upon seeing a picture of the Princess from the movie.
Colin: "I saw that movie with my mom and my sister."
Lily: "I went to that movie at the movies with my mom and Aunt Susan yesterday. Did you see Calista (another girl at church) there? She saw it too. I'm three and a half. How old are you? Okay, let's go play with those blocks now, Colin."
At which point Colin follows.

I don't get what it is that makes Lily the little bossy-pants. I'm sure she gets it from her mother a little bit, but she used to be so afraid of other kids. At one point over the holidays, when we had neighbors over, Lily and her two friends Owen & Will come up from the basement and Lily is leading them around the house while they hold onto a jump rope. When asked what they are doing, they reply, "Following Lily." Boys, come on! Stand up to the bossy-pants!

Imogene has had some rough nights of sleep lately. We took her to see the pediatrician yesterday. Since she's had a runny nose for almost 2 months, and a cough off and on during that time, they decided to put her on antibiotics. Last night she had one of her best nights of sleep of her entire 11 months of life! Not sure if it was the antibiotics, or the tiny bit of benadryl the doctor also recommended! A huge milestone for Imogene is that she can sit herself up from laying down! What a big, big deal this is for all of us. As she gets more comfortable with this, we're hoping it will help her be less frustrated. She really wants to get up and get around more than she can. She loves to take your phone and hold it up to her ear. How quickly these babies pick up on what's going on around them! At her OT appointment today, Amy (her OT) wrapped her left arm in an ace bandage and "constrained" her so that she had to use the right. Bill reports that she handled it pretty well the first two times, but the third time she had enough! It is really hard to believe that she is going to be one year old in just two weeks!


Lily is very into having babies in her belly. She will show you her baby doll, and say, "would you like to meet my born-baby? You are supposed to say 'gratulashun' to me Mommy." At one point she told me that there was no daddy for the baby (I think this was because Bill was not here.) and I told her how that sounded tough to be by herself with a 'born' baby, and she replied "Yes, I'm trying hard to keep it up." So funny with she comes up with.

Bill took the girls out for a little bit while Naney and Mommy took the Christmas tree down. Jokingly on the way out the door Bill said "maybe they'll even have the lights off when we get back." Lily opens the door upon returning and her most disappointed/critical voice says "Oh Dad, the lights are still on the tree."

Bill and I were talking last night about how unbelievably sweet it is when Imogene reaches out/jumps out of your arms to hug Lily and love on her. She makes this cute little 'oh' sound and is just so happy to be with her favorite person. It really makes every trying or difficult moment as a parent worth it ten-fold. What lucky parents we are to welcome in 2010 with our girls!

Happy New Year!