My Girly Girl

That Lilah, she's as rough and tumble as they come.  She falls down and jumps right back up.  Brian knocks her over and she laughs.  She hangs like a money from the rings on the playground.  Her legs are covered in bruises and if she doesn't have some sort of scrape on her face, she just doesn't look like Lilah. 

BUT...

She is also as girly as they come.  She loves to have her nails painted...which I also LOVE.  She asks daily to wear a "pretty dress." She adores shoes and purses and jewelry and loves to shop. 

And I LOVE it.

The hair accessories...let's just say that's a work in progress.  Please note that none of the hair accessories pictured below were forcibly placed.  They were, however, removed by some little Lilah within moments of the pictures being snapped.   

Cool Down

This week we have had a break from the heat we typically experience in the summer.  Morning temperatures in the 60s, highs in the 70s and low 80s, I'll take it!  We have been outside A LOT. 

At the park...

 Playing in the new playhouse...

 Bubbles...

 And playing babies out front...

Waiting Rooms

We spend a lot of time in waiting rooms.  Less than we used to, for sure, but still a lot.  Often it's just me and Lilah while Brian is in a speech or occupational therapy appointment.  We have to find ways to stay entertained.  Recently we have been doing Lilah's manicures and pedicures during OT.  We play around on the IPAD sometimes and we have a friend (another mom who is waiting for her kid too) who we often chat with.  She has a sleeve of photos in her purse just for Lilah to look at.

We had to see the ENT at the Main campus a few weeks ago and we had to wait a looooonnngg time.  The kids were loosing it (and so was I) so I pulled my camera out of the diaper bag.

In case you ever wondered how we stay entertained in waiting rooms?

Selfies...

An-der-roo and Chopped Liver

Last weekend Brian got his long awaited visit from An-der-roo.  Andrew is my cousin and godchild who lives in Chicago.  He is the middle child of three boys and Brian adores him.  He had been asking for months about Andrew and when we would see him.  Norma, his mom and my aunt, had been trying to make it happen, and finally it did!  Norma came too, of course, and dubbed herself "Chopped Liver" although Lilah may have made up for Brian's lack of interest in her because Lilah was pretty enamored with Norma.  This thrilled Norma because when I was a baby, I cried whenever Norma was around!

I waited to tell the kids until Friday morning that our visitors would be coming.  Of course this was all we talked about from Friday morning on, hence the reason I waited.  Brian tried to explain to his speech teacher Kathy about An-der-roo.  By the way, I told Kathy she can fix all other speech issues, but she is to allow him to say An-der-roo as long as he wants to because I LOVE it.  Anyway, because Andrew is a teenager Brian was having a hard time explaining "what" he was.  He kept saying, "well he's not a kid, but he's not a grown up either."  Too funny!

The excitement was almost more than the kids could bear by the time we arrived at the airport to pick up Norma and Andrew.  We went in so that the kids could greet them properly.  The next two days were filled with normal cousin stuff...eating out, swimming, playing in the toy room. watching TV.  Andrew graciously watched the Disney Channel and Nick even though I know that's not his cup of tea! Brian and Lilah had so much fun with our visitors and are already asking when they are coming back and when we are going to Chicago to see them. 

Thank you An-der-roo and Chopped Liver for your visit!  We had a blast!

Lilah's Two Year Check Up

We actually went to Lilah's 2 year appointment last week, but I haven't had a chance to post her stats.  She was 28 lbs (68th percentile) and 36 inches (94th percentile).  She was NOT HAPPY to have to lie down to be measured, but consented because Nurse Kim told her it was the last time she would have to do it.  She so wants to be a big kid! 

Lilah is talking like a three year old, which we already knew.  She has about a 200 to 300 word vocabulary (or more) and uses complex sentences.  After all we have been through with Brian's speech, I think we deserve it! 

I mentioned Lilah's night awakenings to Dr. Price and he confirmed what I already knew...she is having night terrors.  This isn't a big surprise since Shawn had them as a child (and still has them now) and Brian had them for a time when he was younger.  He suggested that we work on getting her to go to bed earlier, so I have been trying really hard to get her to nap earlier and/or for a shorter period of time so that she will fall asleep earlier at night.  I also consulted Dr. Google and found a couple of tricks.  One that has been working is to have her drink cold water when she has an episode.  This can be a big fight, but once I get her to take a sip or two she usually calms down within a minute. 

The terrors can be really scary for me and Shawn, but according to research they do not affect her.  She has no idea she is having them and isn't really waking up at all.  I have also been trying really hard to track when they are occurring because some studies show that if you can pin point it and wake the child up 15 minutes before an episode for a period of time, you can change the sleep cycle and eliminate them.  For the first few nights hers were within 1 to 1.5 hours of falling asleep, but since then, they have been more erratic.  Therefore we haven't tried waking her up yet.  Knock on wood-the last two nights we have been terror free, so maybe we are heading in the right direction! 

Lilah is TWO

My sweet girl,

Happy 2nd birthday!  You were so excited for this day to come that you had a hard time settling down to sleep last night.  You were greeted with the same treatment as your brother-steamers and balloons.  Pink and purple, of course.  You kicked the balloons around for a time this morning and said, "it's my birthday!"  You made me sing "Happy Birthday" to you multiple times today.

We had a morning of errand running and then spent our after-nap time at the pool.  You had a crowd for your birthday dinner at Buca and ate it up...the food and the attention!  We may have had to light your candles a second time so that once again you could hear the happy birthday song :)

When I think about you turning two, I'm sad, of course because I'm quite certain that you are my last baby.  However, it's really hard to picture what life was like before you, so in some ways it's hard to believe that it's only been two years since you entered our lives.

You are such a joy to us.  You are quite simply the most hysterically funny, impish and devilish, beautiful and unique baby girl that there ever was.  Sometimes I look at how gorgeous you are and marvel at the fact that you are mine.  And sometimes you say things like, "MOM LOOK MY NIPPLES," and I wonder how in the HELL you are mine!!

Your little attitude has always been a force to be reckoned with and most of the time this is quite entertaining.  Your strut can have me in tears from laughter.  And your tantrums send your Dad and I both into a fit of giggles.  (Of course we turn away...) The way you kick your little leg and swing your arms when you are mad is just about the funniest thing I have ever witnessed.  Sorry, but it is!

You are strong-willed just like your brother and you are a tough little cookie.  You have to be HURT to cry for long.  You always make a big deal out of an injury...making sure I kiss the exact body part ("No, my ELBOW!") and making me put band aids in the weirdest place (today it was your cheek), but you rarely cry over getting hurt.

You can be super sweet when you want to be and super sassy pretty much the rest of the time.  You still love to cuddle-especially when you are sleepy or just waking up.  I treasure the cuddle time.  You care a lot about the feelings of others and show a ton of concern when someone is upset or hurt.  You made friends super easily.  You really have a way of drawing people in and keeping their attention!

Your brother is your best friend in the world.  You love him unconditionally which is exactly what I hoped for for the two of you.  You certainly bicker and "troll" him as Daddy says, but mostly you play well together and I love it.

You are very, very verbal.  In fact, Nana recently said you may be more verbal than I was at your age, which according to legend is a pretty big deal!  Your receptive language is quite impressive.  You follow directions impressively well and get so much of what is said to you and in your presence.  Things come easily to you, but even so you work hard to keep pushing to achieve more.  I hope you will always be this way.

Lilah Vivian...or Lilah THOMAS depending on who you are talking to, we love you so, so much.  You will always be our baby, our sweet girl who completed our little family.  I am so excited to continue to watch you grow and change into a little girl.  Watch out world, this little girl is destined for greatness!

Happy Birthday, Miss Lilah.

Love,
Mama

Kiss

I just kissed my (last) one year old goodnight for the last time.

Tomorrow.  She will be two.

And the tears, they fall.

Combo

We held Brian and Lilah's first joint birthday party a couple of weeks ago.  The way their parties fall, it wouldn't have made sense to put the party exactly in the middle because of the 4th.  It turns out we would have had terrible weather this year if we had done that anyway. 

We didn't have the best weather for their outdoor party.  It rained.  But it didn't rain the whole time, just little pop up showers here and there.  The kids (mine and other kids at the party) didn't care at all and the adults stayed dry in the shelter, so no real harm.  Trying to set up for the party was a huge challenge because the wind decided to be crazy at that exact time.  I eventually just gave up on the table cloths and bowls of snacks.  Life goes on.  We did get to see an awesome rainbow near the end of the party which made up for all the weather trouble!

The kids were soooooooo excited about the party.  Lilah would jump up and down and say "Minnie party" every time someone asked her about her party.  Brian had picked his theme-Super Why-11 months ago.  A funny theme really considering he doesn't really love that show, but he stuck with it no matter how much I challenged him on it, so I'll give him that. 

We started the day with a very early appointment at Children's.  Brian's pedi had noted that one of his tubes was out and that fluid was already building.  I don't mess around with that so I took the first available even though it was the morning of the party.  It turns out the pedi was WRONG and we rushed the appointment for nothing, but I guess it's better to know.  We also did a hearing test and the results were the same, which is always a good thing. 

Following our trip to the main campus, we headed to the Northern Kentucky site for Brian's speech appointment.  Poor kid, he was sooooooo excited for the party and was forced to go to appointment after appointment all morning long.  He survived.

Around 1 we were lucky enough to have our friends Kristal and Maggie arrive so we had a fun afternoon of playing and catching up with them.  Plus I had the added bonus of help with party prep-thanks girls! 

At the party the kids ate (a little) pizza (too excited), opened a ridiculous amount of presents (wow this was CRAZY with two tearing in to the gifts at the same time) and ate yummy cake made by Auntie Lauren.  There were a ton of kids so they all enjoyed the play area and each other.  Even with the rain, it was  fun night for everyone. 

The beautiful cake.

The Creekwood babies.

My friend Erica who is moving to Texas next week :(

The rainbow!