Lily isms 6

Lily is playing with/braiding my hair:
"uh oh. I better call Emily! But my cell phone is dead, I've been using it all morning."
"Wait a minute. I'm gonna try something. It's not working very well.."
"This hair is just struggling!"

Playing doctor:
*looks in my ear* "oh! There's Pez in there..."

As we look for our car in the store parking lot, Lily and I play the "oh, which car should we take?" game. So today as we were leaving..
"Oh, which car...THAT one! *points to our car* That dirty one, right there."

The girls have been tearing around the living room all morning. After telling Lily several times to calm down and be careful (and many bumps, bruises and crashes), she smashes into a side table we have and sends it flying.
"Uh oh! It's ok, Mommy, it was an accident!"

Ultrasound tech looked at Lily and asked if she was the boss.
"No, Daddy is."
Neither of us are admitting to teaching her that.

Lily and Jesse were playing and Lily says:
"I wanna do a flip so Momma will laugh!"
-heart melted.

"It smells like ice cream in here!"

happy birthday and happy fall!

Guys.  Lily turned 3 yesterday.  How is that possible?  I don't want to be and won't be one of those obnoxious people who says the same thing every year about how hard labor and delivery were, how unprepared I was for motherhood or any of the typical things.  I refuse to be so repetitive!  Instead, I WILL brag about how awesome of a daughter I have.  Lily is hilarious, imaginative, smart (of course!), and an absolute gem.  She is a great big sister to Emma, and I have no doubt she will be loving and helpful with the new baby.  Jesse and I are incredibly blessed to have her as our firstborn.  She had her 3 year old check up today at the doctor and measured in the 75% for both height and weight.  So to the people who have told me my girls seem small for their ages...what?!  And just to record before I forget, Emma was in the 95% for height and 75% for weight.  Again: what?  I really don't think my girls are small.

I have no doubt that all my other friends will tell me that their 3 year olds are equally brilliant, and that's great.  But this is MY blog.  Lily knows the common shapes, and I think she particularly likes the octagon; she's also a color, animal, alphabet and counting champ.  We've started working on letter recognition and improving her dexterity.

We didn't do anything over the top for her birthday, but we did improve on last year since we felt that this year she really would begin to understand how exciting birthdays can be.  We made a big (for us) deal about her 2nd birthday, but still didn't feel she'd completely grasp it, so we made a bigger deal this year.  I still need to try and talk Jesse into a birthday party one year...but he and I both agree that as opposed to doing a party every year, we'd rather wait until we think she'll understand it and be more appreciative of it.  Good for you parents who have your act together enough and want to make birthday parties a priority: that's just not our thing.  Anyway, this year.  Unfortunately, I forgot to ask for the day off, so we started off by going to the Y.  Ok, so I can't go over the top yet with birthdays apparently.  I asked her a month or so ago what she wanted on her birthday cake, and she requested Curious George and has been looking forward to her birthday for that reason since.  So when Jesse and I woke her up yesterday morning, we told her it was her birthday and her face lit up and she exclaimed "I GET MY GEORGE CAKE!!!!!"  And then proceeded to ask me about it all day.  Jesse got to come home from work a bit early yesterday, and he stopped by the store to pick up a balloon bouquet for her since she absolutely loves balloons.  And since Daddy knows Lily well, he picked out Mickey Mouse balloons.  I think she was a huge fan.  She carried them with her all over the house and had full on conversations and play time with the giant Mickey head balloon.  After dinner, we finally had the George cake, and I was just thrilled she thought it actually looked like Curious George; when we finished cake, we brought out the presents we'd actually kept until her birthday.  I think Jesse and I both feel accomplished about that, as we both love to give presents and love surprises, so we barely can keep any present until the appropriate day.

All in all, I think she had a good day and had a lot of fun.  She even shared her toys with Emma.  

And onto other things.  My mom and grandma came to visit last weekend!  They got in Friday and had to leave Monday morning, but we had a lot of fun playing and visiting with them while they were around.  Jesse and I had a slightly stressful weekend, because when else would we have water issues but when people are visiting?  But it seems one has resolved itself at least somewhat and the other will be worked on later...

We had a short discussion with Mom and Mama about the first day of fall, and apparently it started on the 22 of the month this year, but changes periodically.  Ridiculous.  But, the good news is that fall can officially count as started because Jesse and I got the best thing that Starbucks has to offer: Caramel Apple Cider.  Don't even get me started on Pumpkin Spice Lattes...but they're low on my 1-10 scale of deliciousness.  Because really, if you're going to ruin the tastiness of coffee with fake flavoring, may as well make it chocolate.  But that's a different rant.  Jesse and I (maybe more me) have a fondness for the Caramel Apple Cider's from Starbucks and typically on the first cool fall day we can manage, we go and get one.  The reason I look forward to it, besides how yummy it is, is because the first time we hung out in college was a cool fall day and Jesse picked me up from my dorm, drove me to Starbucks and bought us each one before we went and watched football in his apartment.  In sweatpants.  Ah, love.  But we've had them and now fall may officially begin.

I had more I was going to share when I stared this post, but I have since forgotten.  So hopefully I'll just be back soon!  And I updated pictures (here).

about halfway!

Well folks, I had another ultrasound on Monday and everything looks good!  Monday marked 19 weeks according to my count and the baby is measuring about 3-5 days behind that, making it about 18.5 weeks.  Apparently there is some new theory/formula about due dates and something about 7% something difference, blah blah blah...but my midwife said since whatever this difference in dates and sizes is now, it's less than 7% so my due date is staying at 2/3 ish.  I'll have to go back amd get another ultrasound at 28 weeks (shucks!) because my placenta is close to being "too low" and the tech saw something on the brain she wants to look at again.  I'm not concerned, the tech saw something on Emma, too, and the doctor said that was common now because the technology is so much better, they are just seeing a lot more "stuff" than they used to.  This baby also was head up, which I believe is a first for ultrasounds for me.  I definitely remember the tech commenting how low Emma's head was and that she struggled to get an accurate head measurement, and I vaugely recall that with at least one ultrasound with Lily...And the answer to everyone who has asked, yes, we're going to be "surprised" by gender again!  For me at least, I guess at the start of this pregnancy, I just had in the back of my mind already that I didn't want to find out, so not knowing hasn't been a struggle at all.  I've just had a different mind set I guess.  With Emma, until we got past 20 weeks, I was still tempted to find out.  After 20 weeks, it was a breeze.  Jesse is on board with not finding out obviously, but I think he'd be absolutely fine knowing and asked on Monday if I had found out.  Yes, we would love a boy but Jesse is certain he is just destined to have a house full of girls and no sons.  I just want a good sleeper and a calmer kid than my little.cyclone, Emma!

I've been feeling good, just tired.  No surprise there!  All my regular clothes still fit, though my smallest pair of jeans are getting snug.  My midwife commented on my weight gain since the last appointment and I laughed and said "yep!  I have been feeling good and went on vacation!  I ate everything!"  She just laughed and said "ok!"  With both girls, I lost weight in the first trimester, gained a tiny bit in the second and then gained most in the third.  That's just not the case this time and I'm not worried yet.  I may just have to work a little harder come March than I needed to when losing pregnancy weight with the girls.

Sorry about formatting and such, I had planned on finishing this post much earlier I

in the week, but never got to it.  Now, Emma and I are the only ones awake and I felt if I hurried, I could get this done.  The girls are well...Emma has been difficult these past two weeks and when I looked in her mouth on Thursday, I saw why: 3 new teeth I didn't even know about, 2 are molars!  Lily has been very tired this week, but still trying to power through with no naps.  I miss them, but she really is doing great transitioning.  Speaking of transitions, Jesse is going to build the girla bunk beds!  I'm not sure who is most excited: Jesse for having a great project, me for finally having bunks and moving the girls to "big girl beds," or Lily, who thinks she'll be helping make them and can't wait for the ladder!  I told her she could help assemble, so Jesse can look forward to that, too!

a vacation and some catching up...

It turns out, my follow through isn't the greatest.  But here I am again.  Jesse told me it was time.

So.  Jesse and I got to go on a long weekend to Florida.  Just us.  The girls went and stayed in Findlay with my parents, and Aunt Jess, Uncle Rich, Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Joel all popped in to help out/say hi to the girls.  Really, Aunt Jess and Uncle Rich went for the weekend and Uncle Joel and Aunt Kimmy were passing through, but there was a party at my parent's house, and Jesse and I are SO thankful they took the girls and let us have some "us" time.  He and I talked about it, and this was our first vacation just us since we've been married.  The only other one was an overnight camping trip to the Grand Canyon before we moved to West Virginia.  

We flew to Orlando on Thursday and Aunt Lynn was gracious/kind enough to let us crash at her house for a few days.  And oh, the fun we had.  It was relaxing in the way all time away from your kids can be: you miss your children but at the same time, you can actually relax.  I don't know how to explain it any better than that to my friends and family who don't have kids...there's something about being able to turn off the (major) section of your brain that runs 24/7/365 as a parent that is running nonstop wondering/worrying/encouraging/caring for/teaching/feeding/changing/managing/etc. your child and just sit quietly.  And go to the bathroom by yourself.  I suppose I speak mainly from a stay at home mom's standpoint (obviously), but Jesse was able to really relax as well.  

Aunt Lynn had to work on Friday, so Jesse and I took that day to go to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure.  While I couldn't ride any of the actual roller coasters (BOO!), Jesse did and was able to get on all of them in about 5 minutes.  Woohoo for going when kids are in school.  I did ride several of the simulation rides, and after we waited in one line for a little over an hour (it broke down while we were waiting, otherwise I don't think it would have taken as long), we looked at each other and said "listen, I like you, but I don't have to sit next to you in a 3 minute ride" and opted for the Single Rider Lines.  Which cut our wait/ride time down from 45-60 minutes to 5.  Five minutes meaning walking through the line, riding and exiting.  Bam.  Like pros.

Saturday, we took off early for Crystal River which is on the Gulf side of the state so we could go scalloping.  I think Jesse is secretly regretting not planning our entire trip to be spent this way.  Of course he was a natural and was able to haul in way more than I was at any given stop, but I thoroughly enjoyed the hunt for scallops, while also just relaxing floating in the water, snorkeling, watching the fish and other sea/Gulf life and baking to a nice red crisp.  As I had never been to the Gulf, I didn't know what to expect...but I can guarantee that I did not expect to be hunting through tall grass.  I was kind of picturing more of a sandy beach bottom where I just floated along and would occasionally dive down to pick up a scallop.  No, no.  This was much more like looking through a bazillion three leaf clovers for the occasional 4 leafer: you watch for pattern changes in the green floaty grass that aren't fish, aren't sponges, aren't other random assorted life but are that tiny ridge of blue eyes staring up at you.  It was great fun.  After we had our limit of scallops, we headed to a fresh water spring that was FREEZING, but Aunt Lynn showed how much she loved us by taking us back through the arctic temperatures to snorkel in some truly gorgeous spring areas (if you ever get a chance, I'd love the pictures you took!), hoping we'd see some manatee.  I was bummed we didn't, but it was pretty anyway.  Next time!  And we'll take wet suits!

Sunday was more scalloping for a few hours and then we headed back to Orlando to clean up, refresh and then head off to a Blue Man Group Concert/show.  Jesse and I had never been and really enjoyed it, though I was more impressed/interested in the actual music portion than the comedy.  To each their own!

Monday, as a holiday, ended up just being a veg day.  We hadn't decided what to do and we ended up doing very little.  Aunt Lynn and I went off to be pampered with pedicures/manicures and some shopping while Jesse just lounged around at her house.  We had a cook out that night and I ate entirely too much food.  Which was a recurring theme on the trip.  Tuesday morning came too soon/not soon enough when we headed back to Ohio to meet up with our girlies and then head to WV.  By the time we got there, I was incredibly antsy to hug my little kiddos.  

Huge thanks to Mom and Dad for taking such great care of the girls, Jess and Richard for helping, Mom and Dad H for willing to chauffeur us around and take care of us and Aunt Lynn for the wonderful time and hospitality!  

I took very few pictures on my camera and most on my cell phone, which I think you probably have already seen if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook...but hey, here are some of what a scallop looks like!

yummy.

cleaning

cleaning with a shop vac!  brilliant.

there go the guts!

This past week has been busy as we've been getting back into the swing of things.  Today was very productive though, and Jesse supervised while I learned how to change the oil in my car "all my by self" and then I supervised him while he put a new battery in my 4 wheeler.  Both are back in business!

great shirts.

The girls are doing well.  Keeping busy!  Lily was thrilled to help pull carrots from our garden-- incredibly wimpy as compared to last year-- and we need to go bring our squash in and pull beets.  Maybe we'll do that tomorrow.  Regardless, you may remember back in the day when I posted about Easter (you can read it here) that Aunt Lynn had brought Rascas for the girls.  Well, we pulled those bad boys out again to harvest carrots!  Lily even remembered and said "we used these for eggs!"

Emma felt wearing the Rasca superhero style was better...

Aunt Lynn, I am sending these to you when Jesse stops hogging the internets!

That's about it folks.  Go check out my (pathetic) picture blog...I really am still taking pictures, I'm just so behind in organizing them and figuring out which ones to post and actually posting them...ah, pregnancy.