Rolling By...

Yes, it has been 2 weeks since I last posted. We have been on the go all day every day.
Between my work, Bill's never-ending work, the girls' therapy schedule, Lily at K-prep, trips to the pool and all the other stuff that I feel like sucks the time out of every day, I just haven't posted on the blog. And this week doesn't look too good for me having time to blog - between the two of them the girls have 6 therapy/doctors' appointments. Plus a playdate, a visit from some wonderful old friends, and haircuts! All before we leave Friday to head to SC for our week at the beach!

Bill did get a cute picture of Lily at the DC United game last night.

  

We have spent a ton of time re-organizing the basement with an amazing new shelving system that came in 9 boxes ... Bill spent hours building it, and then I spent hours getting all the stuff into it. It has made a HUGE difference in how we all enjoy playing in the basement. I'm so glad we finally decided to get what we needed! It actually looks even better than this now ... but you get the idea.

 

The boxes before ... (There were two others that arrived three days later!!)

 

So here are some random pictures from our last few weeks.

 They had a blast at our friend Emory's birthday party - a music teacher came and did a little music together class. Both of course loved that. And Lily was very attentive to imogene the entire time.

 These two are loving their cake!

 Lola and Imogene, such sweet pals. 

 Another set of pals ... 

 Someone absolutely loves chocolate. 

 

Wouldn't want to leave any behind! 

 And finally, Lily and her buddies from K-prep camp. They had so much fun that week I think! 

(We took them out for ice cream on the first day. And of course had them line up to preserve the moment. In front of the cooler. :)

 

Kindergarten Prep Has Begun!

She's there right now! And we get to go back and get her in an hour! YEAH! I miss her and I'm feeling a million emotions. For now I will say that despite the fact that there was not a single familiar face in her classroom, and that the two kids sitting at her table neither one spoke a ton of English, she did really well at the drop-off. I am bursting to hear what she thought. This is not her regular class or maybe even her teacher for the year. They use these two weeks to assess the kids and see where they would fit best. But the kindergarten is in a pod- so they are all right there together. KINDERGARTEN!!! Ahhh.... I did pretty well today - but when we drop her off with all the other kids in September and she is there from 745-235 I know I'll be a wreck.

 

Walking with her buddy Will. 

 

This is in the classroom. 

I could not get her to smile ... or take a good picture all morning because she could not stop talking!

Aquarium

Bill took the day off Friday, and after swim lessons, we headed to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium. We were there for over 2 hours, and we saw everything! About 20 minutes into it Lily looked at Bill and said, "daddy I did not think this was going to be fun, but this is great!" Apparently she thought we were going to see a shark, a turtle and a fish and turn around and head home! Imogene wanted to see turtles, which she saw plenty of ... we saw the divers feeding the fish and the dolphins swimming around.  It really could not have turned out better - but wow, taking those two anywhere for

 almost 3 hours wears mommy and daddy out! :)

 

Her last day of swim lessons.  She improved drastically and will stick her face in and swim around! We were so thrilled with the progress. She's going to do lessons with the instructor again this week.

 

She sees a turtle!

 

This is kinda freaking me out looking at it! 

 

Lily loves to look at maps and tell us where we are going.

 

Not really the best picture taking opportunities,  but I like how it shows how much Imogene wants to be just like Lily. All. The. Time.

Half-Birthday

Lily really wanted to give Imogene a present for her half-birthday. So we got her one too :)

The big two and a half year-old celebrated with  Minnie Mouse doll and a set of little elephants to go with a set they have called Calico Critters. She was really tickled and I was so impressed by Lily wanting to make it a nice day for her!

It's Almost Here...

Alexandria does a k-prep camp for kids going into kindergarten. it starts August 1.

August 1 is THIS MONDAY!!!!!!! Argh how in the world are we going to send our first born child off into ELEMENTARY SCHOOL? Granted, she'll only be there for 4 hours, but it's for two straight weeks, and then three weeks later we send her into that massive building full of BIG KIDS for almost 7 hours a day. My poor head and heart can hardly stand it. I mostly just worry that she's not independent enough to be without a parent (or her loving preschool teachers) for that long - especially at mealtimes. I know I'm going to be a basket-case next week. And I know my stress is coming out in the things I say to her. She just is so helpless sometimes. At her OT session this week they 'practiced' getting ready for school. We brought her clothes, her toothbrush, her backpack - everything she needed to get ready for the day. I think they even pretended to eat breakfast, and I know they practiced opening containers and Ziploc bags, which she had a hard time with. Amy said it's due to her decreased fine motor skills, and her belief that she cannot do anything on her own. DID WE CREATE THIS? I fear that we did. Amy reported that during the 'test-run' Lily needed prompting or prodding for every single step. We've got lots of work to do with this kid.
But she's sweet as can be when she wants to be, and despite the fact that she's ridiculously whiny lately, I think she's a little bit more than nervous/anxious/excited about being in K.
(notice I am not typing out the word anymore.)
She has been doing swim lessons this week (she writhed in pain all night Sunday night because her stomach hurt - all due to anxiety about the lessons.) and she even got the swim instructor to buy her distraction techniques.
"Lily, try putting your face in to get your feet off the ground."
"Watch me - I can hold my nose and go under water."
And wouldn't you know that 17 year-old just let her distract him. I'll be speaking to him about letting her run him around like that! (And maybe I'll listen to myself!)

Wonderful Weekend

 

This is a really good representation of what a nice weekend we are having. Bill had to be in Chicago yesterday, but the girls and I had a nice dinner out followed by ice cream at our beloved Dairy Godmother. Imogene absolutely loves all things chocolate. This is how much - she literally drinks the 'soup' leftover at the end. 

Bill had a very unenjoyable night at the O'Hare airport, but got home around 1030 pm. 

We took the girls to see Winnie the Pooh this morning, which they both really liked. Mommy & Daddy liked it too. A lot of the humor really isn't on kids' levels anyway! 

It was packed - there isn't much else to do when the heat index is over 110 degrees.

And my day was made complete when we had lunch at Chick-Fil-A.

We have been putting off cleaning up an absolute disaster area in the basement where my "office" used to be. Leave it to that 110 degree heat index to get us motivated. It's finally cleaned up and we both feel so much better about it. The girls (with the help of a little Backyardigans and Dino-Dan) even let us work and didn't try and play with everything we were cleaning up - for the most part! 

We even had the chance to make a nice meal together, thanks to Lily talking to naney on the phone and Imogene running around playing in her diaper with her pull-toy doggies. (She had an incident with some chocolate milk, and I never put clothes on her again! Yes, very classy I know.)

We had an absolutely wonderful meal (thank you Real Simple) and a fun conversation with Lily at dinner. She told us the longest story that combined just about everything she has come across in the last week. It was pretty funny and clever, and then again made no sense at all. Meanwhile, Imogene was making a complete disaster of herself eating, what else besides chocolate. She spilled some on her belly and was trying to lick it off. Hysterical. And so typical of her eating habits! 

It was a completely great day and we really feel lucky tonight to be where we are.

(and I am only partly thinking of being in air conditioning :) and partly about being mom and dad to these precious children!)

It takes a Village

Thanks to our absolutely wonderful neighbors Delaine & Blanton, Lily had her first sleepover last night. Bill was called to Chicago last minute, and I had a show I really didn't want to cancel. After trying 7 people to babysit, Delaine was kind enough to offer to keep the girls. Everyone did so well! Lily had a hard time going to sleep - but Imogene was asleep on the couch with her boyfriend Blanton kindly watching over her in the dark when I came in. How lucky are we to have such great friends next door? Imogene came home with me, and Lily stayed the whole night - and then played with Will the entire morning. Such sweet pals they are. Of course Lily is exhausted today and really fussy. But since it's over 100 degrees outside, I have no problem letting them have a movie day and going for ice cream later.

Our Life In Pictures

Hi my blog family!
I'm just back from the most amazing week in San Francisco for Stella & Dot.
Best part of being back, I slept for 10 hours last night, and Imogene now says "I love you so much!"
I do have a lot of pictures of the girls from the last few weeks, so thought I would share!

 

Fun at therapy. They played with jewelry too in my honor :) 

 

This kid loves to play in a sprinkler.

 Lily and I got our haircut that day, and Imogene wanted in on the action. We didn't actually cut any hair, but she felt very big!

 

Family trip to the DCUnited Game.

 

Has to be one of the only times she has fallen asleep anywhere.

 

Visiting with Uncle Ryan while we were in SC

 

Very, very classy kids playing with water in Naney's backyard with no clothes on.

 

Post Cheer leading camp "Show"

 

We visited the butterfly exhibit at the Children's Museum in Columbia.

 

Both girls really loved it. 

Fourth of July parade in downtown Fairfax, VA

Happy Fourth of July!

Probably the best part of today is when Larry the Cable Guy came on TV, and we said, "Lily, close your eyes and tell us who that is talking." "HEY THAT'S MATER!!"
We are so proud.

Although later when she got to stay up way too late and watch the fireworks on TV, she said, "Hey, this guy is on the first Cars soundtrack." It was James Taylor. And then she said, what is this song called, and we said, "The Star Spangled Banner." She responded, "It sounds just like the National Anthem."
Whew, we are redeemed :)

We took a trip to Fairfax for their parade, which was fun - although next year we will get there earlier and with chairs! The girls had to be held and our backs and necks were aching by an hour in! Imogene did not like the band at the beginning and wouldn't even open her eyes. "I go home. I go my house." And then she was okay and said "Hi Mama. I open eyes!!"

We went to a party this afternoon and Imogene had an ice cream cone and we put sprinkles on it "like Lily." She looked at me after she made Naney eat the sprinkles off and said, "I no like pinkles." Clearly she liked the rest of it!

Hope you had a wonderful Independence Day. It's yet another day where I just can't get over how lucky I am to be this mom, this wife, this daughter, this sister, this friend, this business-owner!!, this lady living this life!!!

And CONGRATULATIONS to my amazing husband for a huge win at work last week. It was a really big deal for him and the team he works with, and an even bigger deal for our family because it looks like he won't have to go to trial at the end of the month!!!!

We're Still Here!

The girls and I spent a week in SC for Lily to attend Spring Valley cheer camp last week.
Sorry for the lack of posts! She had a great time again this year. Asked if she could grow up and be a cheerleader at Spring Valley. She also asked me "What do they call Spring Valley in the winter when it snows?" I will get a video of her 'show' on the last day up soon.

How cute is this picture our sweet sitter Megan took before she went to France?!?!

 

We finally made it to the pool this weekend. We've been twice already - it's only been open for a couple of weeks because of the fire. Lily should be a pretty decent swimmer by the end of the summer. Imogene wants to be a swimmer! She can't really hold herself up with water wings or an intertube, so I'll be looking for something that will hold her up and allow her to be without me holding on. She so wants to just go on her own!