Bubbles!

We had a blast with DeeDee at our last therapy session before Christmas. Imogene was so, so tickled by the bubbles. She loves them, but that day for some reason she loved them even more! There are a lot of pictures to look at - I just couldn't pick from them - they were all so precious of her.

Christmas Fun

Lily made poor, sweet Erin pretend to be Santa, and the girls were reindeer. By the way, that is the Virginia Tech Hokies on the tv winning yet another ACC Championship.

Imogene investigating baby Jackson Basford trying to take a nap.

Our first Christmas presents of the season. Cute little purses from Jackson! 

The bag was very exciting.

Modeling, of course.

Had to post this for Uncle Ryan. It wasn't the same without you, but we survived.

At home haircut! I found a fabulous woman who cuts hair in the comfort of your own home!

Someone really likes to wear mommy's scarves.

This is how hard she laughs when she quotes Miss Pam saying, "It's so cold outside it's like ice cubes in your underwear!"

The Little Green thing on the shelf is "Walter" our "elf on the shelf" ... I resisted this whole thing very hard, but I think Lily was starting to worry that we were the only people without an elf from Santa. 

It has changed her behavior not one bit at all. 

Someone got into a Rolo. 

Our first real snow of the season - in Mid-December. What are we in for this year? Imogene did not like it at all. Probably because she can't walk around comfortably. They don't really make size 4 snow boots. Since most kids who are size 4 aren't big enough to walk yet! 

Pretty with the Christmas decoration covered in snow isn't it? Lily is convinced that you can only have Christmas if it snows. They are calling for snow here on Christmas day. If it doesn't snow hopefully we'll have enough left on the ground to make it okay for her! 

Un.Happy.Imogene.

The street in the snow. How many pictures do I have like this? And how many more are on the way?

Pause It!

We took Lily to a Nutcracker Tea on Sunday. I have pictures to post but had to share this story. I told her she needed to go to the potty before we left. She would not of course. (Why would she do anything I asked her to do?) I asked her what she was going to do if she had to go in the middle of the show. Her deadpan response: "Can't they just pause it?"

Dear Santa, By Lily, Age 4 1/2

Santa's Shopping Style

So Lily is obsessed with getting underwear "with stuff on it" like we got for the little boy we adopted through church. His were Spiderman, by the way. Today she was talking about it again and I said, "Lily, maybe Santa could put something like that in your stocking - we can put it on your list." Lily responds, "WHAT??? There's a Target at the North Pole?" "Santa Shops at Target? That's CRAZY, Mom!" So then we had to talk about how Santa can't make everything... which she really just didn't believe. Which I kind of like.

By the way, we are living in Minneapolis these days (I always wanted to move there after travelling to and from for work several years ago. I'm getting my wish.) It was 10 degrees with the wind chill today. Bitter, bitter cold. 30-40 mile an hour winds. Bitter, Bitter, BITTER Cold.
Imogene kept saying what I thought was "naney" every time we went outside today. I could not figure out what was triggering that for her, until I realized she was trying to say "Windy" - which is what I say when she laughs about wind in her face.
Church on Sunday was Lessons & Carols, and every time the singing would stop Imogene would say "moh, moh" ... then "seee" (for sing I think.) She loved it.

And finally, I will never, ever write down or talk out loud about Imogene's habits during the night-time hours EVER Again.

The World Goes Round...

I am belated in wishing congratulations to the Sowell family. The Sowells are practically our oldest friends ... from before I was born, and we grew up next to them. They are family! Carson and her husband Ashley welcomed a new baby boy in November. So excited to meet him at Christmas.
And today, my dear, dear friend Lauren and her husband Steve welcomed their new baby girl Lindsey, who joins her two older sisters. I'm definitely making a trip to Raleigh early in 2011 to get my kisses on those three!

Sometimes

Sometimes Lily can be sweet as sugar.
Tonight we were reading this very dear book about a little girl and her brother who get swept away by the wind. (Flora's Very Windy Day). They see the moon, who asks Flora if she will leave her brother with him because he (the moon) is lonely. Lily asked to go back to that page when we were done. She said, "Do you think the moon is sad?" We talked about how he said he was lonely ... and she said, "Yeah, that's because the stars don't talk."

It's just that...

So I've been horrible at keeping up the blog. There are many reasons for this ...
WARNING: This part is about business. I'll admit that first and foremost, it's just that I cannot stop Stella & Dotting :) It's going so well, and I'm so thrilled with the gift it has been in my life. It really wouldn't be taking up as much time as it has, but I've been working my tail off since October to reach a sales goal that would enable me to attend a leadership conference in Dallas in January. I really believe S&D is the best way for me to have a 'career' until Imogene is in kindergarten and doesn't require so much driving around because she may be getting more of her therapies in school. (I love to you to pieces Imogene - not blaming you at all!)
So I'll put this out there - if anyone is looking for a wonderful gift for a woman or girl in their life - you know where to find me (www.stelladot.com/laurensigler). No, I do not have any shame at this point. I have made it my goal to get to Dallas and I don't want to fail!

So enough of that stuff ... the other reason that I haven't blogged. It's just that I feel like I would not have much positive to say about Lily. There. I said it. She's driving me insane. We have had some good mornings, but a lot of mornings are just so excrutiating it's like I'm being tortured ... seriously it can be that bad. And then she turns around and does this ... I went around the house one night looking for "lamby" who she usually doesn't even care about sleeping with, but it had been one of those days. As I was leaving her room that night at bedtime she whispered, "Thank you Mama for finding lamby for me." Oh the heartstrings.
But most of the time she's so whiny and argumentative ... and CONSTANTLY asking for things for Christmas. We did go yesterday out shopping, the four of us, for the family we 'adopted' through church, and the boys we adopted from the Angel Tree at school. She had some trouble in Target not getting anything for herself, and again at the mall, but she seemed to understand what we were doing and why (as best as she could) we were doing it. She really enjoyed making a gingerbread house yesterday with Bill and me. Especially the part where we had to lick the icing off our fingers all the time.
I just want so much for her not to fight me on every last thing we do during the day (that doesn't involve the TV!) Lily can be such a dear, sweet soul, and I truly believe she'd rather not be like she is most days, but she just doesn't have the skills within herself to handle it all right now.

Imogene is so stinking cute these days. (When the girls read the blog one day it will really sound like I'm pitting them against each other, won't it?) She is running all over the house all the time and talking about "Ehmo" on the Christmas tree. She says "annta" for Santa and "o-o-o" for "Ho-Ho-Ho." She is so loving and sweet - giving out hugs and letting people hold her a lot more these days. She is still impossible to get to sleep, but that's just part of our life since she was born!

Bill and I have even been on two dates this month. That's more than we'd been on this entire fall (I think!).
Have I told you how much I love Christmas? We will be making lots of baked goodies soon to share with our friends and neighbors. Lily gets to celebrate at school on Thursday and we are taking her to a Nutcracker tea on Sunday!

Bloggers Please Help

To my fellow bloggers. I cannot get the "template design" from google off the page.
Any help! Thank you.

Grapevine & Rudolph

We had Grapevine T Elephant again today. Only Lily didn't remember to bring him home, so Miss Pam brought him over while we were having lunch. Can I just tell you that the 10 minutes she was in the house were the best of my entire day? I felt human having another adult in my presence with the girls. (Bill was out of town Mon-Wed.) It was such a nice little surprise to have her with us for that short amount of time. And Lily - buddy does she love her Miss Pam. I swear she cannot talk about her without bursting into giggles. I LOVE IT! 

 

She asked to take GTE to ballet with her, and so of course he had to have a tutu. Then when she realized what would be required of her keeping up with him for that entire time, she decided to leave him at home.

So he went with Imogene and I to have the orthotic checked. 

Again, he stayed in the car.

 

Imogene insisted on drinking water without a top. And then got soaking wet. And then insisted on having her clothes taken off. And it was close to bedtime, so I didn't bother going to get her new clothes. Which was good, because she ran around in her tights and reindeer antlers ... like the good little redneck baby she is. She loves those antlers! 

Here is how cute she looked when she had the clothes on. 

 

 It's the cutest little red jumper and polka dot shirt that were Lily's. 

I've been waiting for December to put her in it. She really looked precious.  

And finally, from the random pictures file (AGAIN)

More of Bill's Birthday.

 Bill's cake. (Tiffany I know you are appalled at the appearance - trust me I can do better :))

But Lily wanted vanilla, but knew daddy would rather have chocolate. So we made him a cake with both. And then you can guess who did the sprinkles. It was out of a box  - which is not my favorite thing to do - but things are nutty around here. And it tasted really, really good. :)

 My best attempt at a picture of Bill and the girls. In keeping with tradition of the last three years, we had dinner and cake with the Jones family that night. It's not a birthday for the Joneses or the Siglers if we haven't had cake together. What lucky people we are to have them next door! 

The kid likes dessert. That's my girl!