June 2015

June was an incredible month!  Our schedules calmed down a lot so we were able to breathe and relax more, and we got to spend a lot more time with our beautiful Lillypad.  It's also a big month because it's Lilly's birthday, the start of summer weather, father's day and the end of the school year!

June started with a special package from Grandma and Grandpa Poole!  Lilly was so excited to open her first birthday present.  Darren has affectionately been calling his mother "Grandma Buzzkill" to Lilly for a little while now, so when he told her who the present was from, he said it was from Grandma Buzzkill.  Lilly now refers to her as Grandma Buzzkill!  My voice student and her mom were on their way out and Lilly told them that she got a birthday present.  They asked who it was from and she told them, "Grandma Buzzkill" and they both cracked up!  Now she knows that it's funny, she likes to say it even more :-)

Lilly loved her "Sophia" mermaid doll (sorry for the blurry picture!) and she absolutely loved the beautiful quilt that Grandma made for her!

We had Lilly's birthday party on June 6 from 10-12 a.m.  We like to have Lilly's party in the morning because it's usually not as hot and it works great for Lilly's schedule since she naps after lunch.  Lilly and I got up and made mini blueberry muffins and started getting things ready.  She was so excited for her party to start!  We had a jungle themed party with jungle decorations and food.  We managed to find jungle print balloons, zebra print table cloths and plates and we made "vines" from crepe paper.  It was a really fun theme!

We were particularly proud of the food :-)  We tried to give everything a jungle/Jungle Book name and Darren hand drew name cards for each of the foods.  I know it was unnecessary, but it's those little touches that I think are fun and add a little whimsy to the party.  I really loved the name cards Darren made so we had to take a picture of each one :-)

I was pretty proud of the food and the name cards, but they palled in comparison to the AMAZING cupcakes made by our dear friend, Kelly.  We told her Lilly was doing a jungle party, I shared a few pinterest ideas with her and she created the most adorable, beautiful, creative and DELICIOUS cupcakes!  Everyone was incredibly impressed and the kids were SO excited!  Can you believe how amazing these look?

Apparently 10 a.m. was not early enough to escape the heat, because it was a very hot day!  Luckily, we had the pool, water table and sprinklers out for the kids and they had a blast!

Our little water baby loved splashing in her kiddie pool with her friends.  Darren caught this awesome mid-splash picture!

We had so many awesome friends come to celebrate with Lilly!  I haven't been the best in the past of documenting, so I am going to try right now (skip if you're not interested, hehe): Michelle, Kristin, Carissa, Jared, Addie, Drew, Kari, Jason, Zoey, Addy, Lauren, Maribeth, Dave, Ryan, Ryley, Kathryn, Rob, Grace, Eryka, Michael, Knox, Amber, Gracen, Jace, Shanequia and Kelly.  I think I got everyone!

We had a lot of great food!  Lilly was very excited for bagels and cream cheese (one of her favorites) and for the fruit.  She liked licking the peanut butter and raisins off of her ants on a log, but she was not interested in the celery ;-)  She also thought it was such a treat to have lemonade!  I am kind of strict about what Lilly drinks, so she pretty much drinks water or sometimes milk.  She was so excited that I let her have lemonade!

It never ceases to impress me how well these kids get along and how much they love each other.  Birthday parties could end up being a mess of tears, arguments and tantrums, but they never do (knock on wood!)  We love all of these kids so much and are so grateful that our family has so many amazing families to celebrate with.

How cute are these two?   Addie and Gracen loved the see-saw :-)

Lilly and her best buddy, Zoey, were cracking each other up in the pool by dumping water on or squirting each other's feet.  Darren caught their joy and silliness perfectly in these pictures.

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, we gathered all of the kids into the screened porch where the cupcakes were hiding from the heat.  We started by having Lilly pick out her cupcake.  She wanted an elephant.  She had actually told Kelly a few nights before when Kelly was babysitting her that she wanted a special elephant cupcake, so it was no surprise that she chose this one.  We had zebra striped candles that we stuck in the cupcake.  I was worried that the wind would blow the candles out...

little did I know I needed to be worried about Lilly blowing them!  She kept on trying to blow them out before it was time!  Haha!  I managed to stop her while everyone sand Happy Birthday.  She was so happy!

Then when we wanted to blow them out, they wouldn't go out!

She thought it was funny and just smiled through it!

I leaned down to "help" her, but I didn't actually blow, I just pretended.  She blew them out all on her own :-)

We were so happy that Kristin and Michelle were able to come to celebrate!

Lilly definitely enjoyed her special elephant cupcake!  All of the kids were so excited that they got to pick out their own cupcake animal!  It was very cute to watch!

Kids + cupcakes = pure happiness!

YUM!

After a nice nap, we took Lilly to downtown Fuquay for the Celebrate Fuquay festival.  We didn't get there until about 3:15 and the event ended at 4, which we now know is the perfect time to go!  There were minimal lines for the rides and the crowds had diminished, so we were able to push Lilly around in her stroller without feeling like we were going through an obstacle course.  Other than riding a carousel with one of us holding her, Lilly has never been on a ride before.  I wasn't 100% positive if she would want to go, but when we showed her the ride, she wanted to go on.  I helped her get in and told her that she would have to ride by herself, and she was ready!  It was incredibly cute to watch her on her first ride!  Even though the ride didn't do much, it was thrilling for us!

After that we asked Lilly if she wanted to go down the big slide with Mommy and she did.  So we waited in a short line and then climbed the steps up the big slide.  I sat down and the ride monitor at the top helped Lilly to sit on my lap.  The other mom at the top was with her two kids, so we all slid down together.  I don't know if Lilly enjoyed it as much as the other ride, but she seemed to like it.

Then we went over the the strawberries.  I hadn't seen this ride "in action" yet, so we got in line.  We figured we would have to wait, but the guy said he had room for 2, so Lilly and I got in with another family.  As soon as the ride started, I was worried I had made a mistake.  I thought it was just the ride that went around, but it's more like the Mad Tea Party at Disney, where you can also spin your individual strawberry.  The little girls we were riding with wanted to spin fast.  I felt like a terrible mom because I knew Lilly would not like that, but I didn't really think about it before we got on.  Luckily, the girls' parents were either really sweet or also didn't want to spin because they told the girls it was their job to spin and since they were so small, we barely spun at all.  Phew!  Lilly held on to me the whole time and I don't think she loved this ride, but she was smiling when we got off, so I guess she didn't hate it!

We bought Lilly a balance bike to try to teach her how to hold her body while riding a bike, but she hasn't been very interested in it.  Today she wanted to ride her tricycle, and we were so proud of the progress she is making on it.  Admittedly, Darren and I are not big on bikes (neither of us have ridden a bike since middle school), so we probably should encourage her to ride more ;-)  Plus she looks so cute on her little bike!

Lilly has always loved the water, but lately she LOVES the water!  She wants to go to the pool almost daily and she has an absolute blast.  She uses her puddle jumper most of the time, but she is becoming very adventurous and has started to enjoy "swimming" without her jumper on.  She also loves to jump in, put her face in the water and use her new kick board.  I was considering putting her in swimming lessons this summer (and I still am!), because clearly she has a strong desire to swim.  

All of that swimming is hard work!  It's important to take a break for a snack ;-)

Lilly was SO excited to use her new princesses in her bath!  Her imagination has really developed because she plays with them so differently now.  She makes up stories and acts them out with the dolls.  It's really awesome to watch!

Bubbles!

Our friend Amber got Lilly a baseball mitt and ball for her birthday.  Lilly LOVES it!  She can throw pretty well and she catches well (with a Velcro mitt and ball that is!)  She started closing her eyes when I would throw the ball back at her, but we are working on that.

If you look closely at the first picture, you can just see Lilly's little toes in the top of the picture.  Darren was throwing her up in the air in the pool and he threw her so high she was out of the shot of my picture!  Nervous mom alert!

Not quite there...

There she is!

I love how much fun she has with Darren in the pool.  Lilly has a permanent smile on her face when they are playing and they are such goof balls together.  Their laughter together might be my favorite sound in the world.

We were getting ready to go to the store, so Lilly needed to make sure she had her new purse to take with her ;-)

Lately, Lilly has started asserting herself and mimicking a lot of the things we say to her.  For example, she will say, "Mommy, I need you to listen to me," to get my attention, or she will tell Maggie, "Maggie, we don't do ______________."  I also love that she has learned to say, "excuse me" when she wants to speak and adults are talking.  Her communcation skills seem to grow more and more each day.

We have been spending a lot of time at the pool and we almost always have someone there to play with.  Today Lilly's friend Grace was there with her friend.  Grace's parents brought watermelon and shared some with Lilly.  The girls loved siting in the pool and munching :-)

We bought Lilly ice cream cone holders that catch the drips around the cone (or Popsicle) to help avoid a huge mess.  Lilly loves having an ice cream cone, so this way she can have a cone instead of a dish and we don't have to worry about sticky hands.  She was on cloud nine eating her ice cream on the back porch with her new holder.

It helps with sticky hands, but can't do much about a sticky face ;-)

Something that I love about this age is Lilly's independence.  She has no problem going into her playroom and establishing her own game.  Today she was putting her mermaid doll to sleep on the floor.  She followed her own bedtime routine by reading books to her, telling her a story and then singing her songs.  It was adorable!

Lilly got another haircut this month!  She has beautiful blond hair, but it's still growing in, so it was a bit thin on the ends.  Plus, she does NOT like having her hair done, so it was constantly in her face and getting in the way.  I took her to Wellspring Salon in Fuquay (where I go to get my hair cut) and Miss Diana cut her hair.  I wanted to cut it into a "baby bob" so that it would be easy to manage and still look cute :-)  She loves her haircut and so do we!

Lilly has recently started to show a lot more interest in her play kitchen.  She will frequently go into her playroom and start "cooking" things for us.  Today she made us a tray of muffins.

Lilly loves to color and draw, which is a special bond that she shares with Darren.  They love to sit in her playroom and draw together.  They will both work on the same picture and have a ball doing it.  Today they were using the lap desk we borrowed from Addie for our trip.

Lilly got a surprise birthday present from Aunt Susan, Brianna, Nick and Anthony today!  She was SO excited to use her new microphone!  She put on one of her dresses and asked for (you guessed it!) Let It Go :-)  She loved putting her lips right up to the mic and hearing how loud her voice could get and then hitting the buttons on the bottom which play an applause sound effect.

We created a game of "basketball" at the pool the other day by attaching Lilly's bucket to the hand rail and throwing her splasher balls into the bucket.  She was getting the biggest kick out of tossing them in and throwing her hands up and cheering for herself.  I was also proud of her because she asked me if I wanted to play and then said, "Here!" and handed me two of the four balls.  I love that she is learning about fairness and that sharing is not just something we do because Mommy and Daddy make us but because it's the right thing to do.

Lilly made this adorable picture at Learning Time for Darren.  He loved it so much!  I think Darren has a special appreciation for Lilly's artwork since he is an artist.  It meant so much to him :-)

It's no surprise that Darren and I have a very expressive little girl.  We are both actors and performers at heart, so Lilly is always around larger than life personalities.  Darren captured some of her "Lilly faces" the other day and they are just too cute not to share:

So serious!

But not for long!  Time to be silly and crazy!

But still sweet and adorable, too!

What?  You don't dress up like a princess to go grocery shopping at Harris Teeter?  ;-)
I am not one to stifle Lilly's creativity and fun-loving personality, so when she wants to wear dress up clothes out and about, I have no problem with it.  She got a lot of compliments on her beautiful dress!  One of the stock men at HT gave her a little bow and said he didn't know a princess was coming today.  She got a huge kick out of that :-)  Then we passed two little girls who both oooed and ahhhed and told her that they loved her dress and her crown.

Kari and Jason had a cookout at their house today and we had a great time!  They brought out the kiddie pool and sprinkler, so the kids had a blast playing in the water.  

I loved watching them climb around on the playground together and play with their imaginations.  I have been so overjoyed watching Lilly play lately because her imagination has really taken off.  Even in the pool today, she was pretending that she and Zoey were Sophia and Oona from Sophia the First.  She has been obsessed with the Floating Palace episode where Sophia meets a mermaid.  We have also seen her playing pirates at school the past few days that we picked her up.  She and her friends at school are all wearing bandannas on their heads and various dress up clothes and playing Jake the Pirate.  Lilly always tells me that she is captain Hook.  

The girls were playing Mommy and baby and big Addie picked Lilly up and put her in the chair, then she picked up little Addy and put her on Lilly lap.  It doesn't look like it, but Lilly was hugging Addy, not putting her in a head lock!  

After dinner the kids wanted to join the dads at the cornhole boards.  Lilly walked over to be with Darren and then the rest of the kids joined in.  While Lilly wasn't great at cornhole, I was impressed that she was very good at sharing and making sure everyone had a bean bag to play with.  :-)

I had to pick Lilly up from preschool today because she had a 101 fever.  I was nervous at first because the last time she had a fever, it lasted for four days.  Since we are going up to New York in a couple of days and we have mandatory work days coming up, I started to stress about what we would do if she was really sick.  Luckily by dinner time her fever broke and she was back to her old self, dressing up and getting ready to go to the store :-)  We are so thankful because Michelle stepped in and offered to take Lilly tomorrow so that neither Darren nor I would miss our last day of school.  I don't know how many times I have said it or written it in this blog, but I am SO incredibly thankful for the amazing people we have in our lives.  We are so blessed!

May 2015

One of my favorite memories from this month was putting Lilly to bed one night.  We always read two books, then I tell her a story and sing her a song.  She likes to pick the stories and songs, so I always ask her what she wants to hear.  I was shocked one night when I asked her what song she wanted and she said, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!"  I didn't even know she knew what the teenage mutant ninja turtles are, let along that she knew the song.  I sang it for her that night and then every night for a month!  She even started singing along.  It was hilarious.

We learned this month more than any other how true the old saying is: "It takes a village to raise a child."  We had to lean on our friends a lot this month to help us watch Lilly and it meant the absolute world to us.  We were so happy to be able to help Chad and Michelle the day they needed us to watch Ryan and Kristin!  Lilly was so excited and told everyone at preschool that she Ryan and Kristin were coming home with us.  We had a blast playing outside and having dinner together.

Our neighborhood block party was rained out, so Jason and Kari decided to have people over instead!  It was Chad's birthday, so we had cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate.  I think the kids were excited!

We had a coupon for Ruby Tuesday's and decided to give them a try one night when I didn't feel like cooking.  We were so proud of Lilly for sitting nicely at the table the whole time, coloring on her kids menu and being polite to our server.  Sometimes you feel like you can't do anything right as a parent, and other times you just have to give yourself credit for the little "wins" you experience.

We were thinking of going out for ice cream one night but then Kari told us that she had bought her girls Frosty's from Wendy's and we should just come on over.  It was very sweet of the girls to share their Frosty's with Lilly.  She clearly enjoyed it!

I love hearing Lilly sing.  She started singing Twinkle Twinkle in the car and when I started taking video, she kept singing a verse I had never heard before.  I am not sure if this is an actual verse of the song, or if she made it up, but it's cute either way!

The absolute joy that Lilly shows when she is out playing on her playground is so contagious.  Even after a long day of work, Darren and I get a burst of energy when we go outside and play with Lilly.  Her smile just lights up our world and reminds us of all we have to be grateful for.

Darren took this video of Lilly on her playground.  It perfectly shows how silly and joyful Lilly is!

We had our neighborhood block party on a Sunday afternoon and it was an absolute blast!  A lot of people came out, there was tons of great food and the kids had a blast playing with water and bouncing in a bounce house.  The only negative was it was the hottest day of the summer so far!  Kari's Mom and I took Lilly and Zoey to Kari and Jason's house to take a cool off break for a bit and on our way back, the girls held hands and "marched" to the song "Marching, Marching".  I wish I had video, but at least this picture captures how adorable the moment was.

Lilly was sick for a few days this month.  It's so hard to see your little girl sick and in pain :-(  Lilly is usually so bubbly and silly, but when she is sick, all she wants to do is sit on the couch and cuddle.  Don't get me wrong, some extra cuddle time was amazing, but I would much rather have my healthy, happy little girl.  Darren and I took turns taking days off of work to be with her.  It's hard to be a working mom when your kid is sick and all you want to do is be home with them, but you have responsibilities at work as well.  I will never look back and regret the days I missed work, but I would look back and regret not being with my baby girl when she needed me, so the choice becomes simple.

Lilly and I went to the clinic at the doctor on the third day of her high fever.  Normally I don't like to treat a fever, but I was getting nervous with how high it was and for how long.  The clinic is very well run and we were in and out pretty quickly.  You can see in Lilly's face that she doesn't feel well :-(  The doctor said neither of her ears "looked perfect" so it seemed like an infection was coming.  Luckily the antibiotic knocked it out quickly and Lilly was back to herself.  

When Lilly was feeling better, we wanted to treat her to some Sunni Sky's!  Lilly loves ice cream cones, and frankly, so do we :-)  It was great to meet some friends out that night and to let the kids play together after some ice cream.   

As we were getting ready to leave one day, Lilly was playing in her playroom.  I heard her talking and playing in her kitchen.  Then she walked out with her electric mixer and a tiny spaghetti spoon.  She was "mixing" something in the tiny scoop of the spoon!  It might not seem that funny, but it was very funny.  Check out the video.

When I put her to bed that night, she wanted her Elmo doll with her.  This Elmo talks and tells stories when he is on.  I usually turn him off, but Lilly knows how to turn him back on.  So I went downstairs and on the baby monitor I heard Elmo start talking.  Lilly then said, "Shhhh!  Elmo, be quiet.  It's time to rest."  Of course, the doll kept talking, and Lilly told him to be quiet several more times.  Eventually, the doll turns itself off and stopped talking.  Then Lilly said, "Good job, Elmo!  I'm proud of you."  She did this two nights in a row!  So cute!

Lilly has had this water table since her first birthday and she loves it more and more each year I think!  She is so imaginative now and pretends that the characters are driving the boat or surfing in the water.  It's so cute!

Last night we had an awesome time at a BBQ at Kari and Jason's house.  The kids all played in the kiddie pool, the adults hung out, we had a great dinner and it was a beautiful day!  Lilly started getting tired around 6:45 and asked to go home (she is still playing catch up from being sick).  When we got home she looked up at me and asked, "Mommy can we watch a movie and cuddle?"  I literally melted into a puddle.  Her sweet little expression and those adorable words took my entire heart!  We sat on the couch, Lilly curled up in my lap, and watched an episode of Sophia the First.  

I love that the kids (ages 2-7) can all play together!  We have the best friends!

These two are like two old ladies.  They bicker with each other and then 2 seconds later they forget and are giggling.  They love each other so much!

Darren and Jason went golfing the next day, so Kari and I took the girls to the pool.  After we figured we'd go grab dinner and eat at the park or playground.  As we were ordering some pizzas, the guys called and were on their way home, so we all went together!  We grabbed a couple pizzas and ate dinner at Mineral Springs park in Fuquay.  The girls loved eating outside and were so excited to explore the park.

Zoey and Lilly were fascinated by the squirrels in the trees and were determined to find one :-)

We found some gigantic leaves to play with!

After dinner we needed to take a shower, and as we were getting ready, I had music playing.  Lilly started dancing like crazy (naked!)  I wanted to get a video of her, but that meant that my music turned off.  She danced for a few more seconds and then noticed the music turned off (as you can see in the video...haha).  I am storing these videos and pictures in a special place in case for when she gives us trouble as a teenager.

It's pretty clear that Lilly loves music and loves to sing.  What I didn't know is how perceptive she is to music and how quickly she picks it up!  One of my voice students was playing Ursula in The Little Mermaid, so we were frequently working on her song, "Poor Unfortunate Souls" in her voice lessons.  Lilly was home during these lessons, but she was usually playing in her playroom.  Apparently she was also learning the song right along with us!  This is the first time I ever heard her sing it!

This month was also memorable for us because it was our first trip as a couple away from Lilly.  One of my best friends, Jess (also known to Lilly as Aunt Jekka) was being ordained as a Rabbi in Boston and there was no way we were going to miss it.  Kari and Michelle offered to help watch Lilly, so we booked our tickets and planned the trip!

I missed Lilly, but it was great to get time to be adults and to put down the Mommy and Daddy hats for a couple of days.  We had an amazing time!  We saw some of our oldest friends who also live in the Boston area and we were thrilled to be there at this momentous occasion for our friend.