Bowling

Lily and I went bowling tonight with Patti, Emily and Bryan at the swanky new alley that opened nearby. It was lot of fun (I didn't get to bowl, although I probably could have). Lily LOVED it. It was actually her first time ever bowling. We've talked about it and even tried to take her before (too long a wait, so we left), and finally today she got to bowl! She picked it up immediately and I only had to help her for her first roll. She knew when it was her turn, got her own ball every time and just bowled -- I just sat back and drank my icee! She even put her fingers in the holes properly -- even though she was just pushing the ball down the lane. :) The girls used the bumpers, so gutter balls were out which was nice. It took about 20 minutes for their balls to make it all the way down the lane (I am exaggerating -- but only a little), but they got SO excited when they knocked down pins. I was cute to watch them jumping around and high fiveing.

Rolling the ball down the lane.

She'd wait and watch it go.

By the end of the second game she got tired and used the kiddie ball thing that helps them get the ball down the lane. Emily used it through out both games, but Lily refused until the end. I was proud of her for not "cheating" most of the time.

Bowling Buddies.

I loved her little shoes. :)

Lily got 45 her first game and a 72 her second game! I tried to take a photo of the score sheet, but since Bryan only got a 75 he was embarrassed and erased it before I could document it forever.

Puzzle Time

Lily has been obsessed with puzzles lately. I even had to set up two TV tray tables in the living room, so she can sit on the couch and do her puzzles all day. Thursday morning we spent a good hour tackling this 100 piece Princess puzzle. It is a lot for her. She did get frustrated at times, but we hung with it and finished.

Above is the "Mom, you are driving me crazy" look. I get it a lot.

Teeny tiny pieces.

Swim Lessons!

Signing Lily up for swim lessons has been on my to-do list for literally two years now. But I usually don't think of it till half way through the summer and then I figure it is too late and we'll just do it next year. Well, I finally did it!! Matthew and Carys had never had lessons either and we thought it would be fun to all go together. After researching a few places, I got a whole class time a local gymnastics/preschool/swim place (that I had heard very good things about). The classes only have 4 kids and since they had a whole slot open, we booked the whole class for Lily, Carys, Matthew and Emily! It is almost like having our own private lessons. Sweet! Lily LOVES going to the pool in the summer, but is usually a little timid the first few times out and she was very vocal in the fact that she was scared of swimming in the big pool without me. But as soon as she saw all her friends there she seemed ready to go.

Matthew, Carys, Lily and Emily.

They have to wear swim caps in the pool.

Lily out in the water with Ms. Lacey.

Not so sure about floating on her back . . . .

She has a death grip around poor Ms. Lacey's neck.

I was inside watching through a window and I could hear her loud and clear screaming, "I want my Mommy! I am afraid!!" But Lacey calmed her down and got her to relax some.

Learning to climb out the side of the pool.

When the 30 minutes was over they all left with big smiles and I think they had fun. Lily is not too excited about going back next week, but I am sure that will all change again when she sees her friends there.

Party Sunday

We had two birthday parties on Sunday. First was Luke's party at the gymnastic place and 30 minutes later was Christie's at a pottery painting place. Needless to say -- it was fun, but exhausting. Two parties, all Lily's best friends and lots of sugar can get pretty tiring for everyone. :)

Lily bouncing at Luke's party.

Playing with Makayla at the gazebo while killing time inbetween the parties.

Painting her princess cup.

Spring Break

Our Spring Break has been pretty mellow and relaxing, which is fine by me! The best part, which actually makes it feel like a break is that Lily has slept in until 9am every morning (as compared to 7am). Timing Daylight Savings right before break was genius!!! She still goes to bed at her normal time, but keeps sleeping. It is wonderful. Of course, next week when we get back to reality and our schedule it may suck, but I am enjoying every dream filled second of it now! :)

Chip and I started the week off on Saturday night with a date night at the Mavericks / Lakers game. He got the tickets from a member at the course and the seats were amazing. 16 rows off the floor at center court. Chip was in heaven since it was way better than a Laker game at Staples Center -- there you just see Hollywood celebrities, but here we were surrounded by Dallas Cowboys! :)

...........

Monday was nice since Chip was home and Lily didn't have school. We thought about going and doing something fun -- but all of Texas gets Spring Break at the same time and we did not want to deal with the crowds at the zoo or museums. So we went out to a big breakfast, played at the park, went to dinner and out for ice cream. It was a nice family day!

Lily and her ice cream.
...........

Wednesday Lily and I were out and about running errands when we both got hungry, so we stopped for a lunch date. It was the first time ever Lily and I went out to eat just the two of us. We usually just eat at home or out with friends. It was fun and she has been begging to go out to eat every lunch since.

We went to Freddy's -- the frozen custard place, since I was craving ice cream. But by the time we both ate our matching grilled cheese sandwiches we were too full for dessert! Crazy, huh? :)

............

Thursday (St Patrick's Day) we went back to the park to meet our friends. Didn't want Matthew, Carys, Lily and Makayla to go through withdrawals -- a whole week apart is a lot!!

Carys, Lily, Emily, Makayla, Madison and Matthew.
........

While I have enjoyed sleeping in, I would give up those extra hours and go back to more darkness in order to have Chip home earlier. I always dread the summers since that means the golf course is open later and Chip gets home much later. It has always been a drag, but is even worse now that Lily doesn't nap during the day and therefore has to go to bed earlier. By the time Chip gets home it is bedtime. In fact Lily and I have started bathing and getting ready for bed earlier so that when Chip gets home we can eat dinner at a record pace and hurry off to bed. Since Lily only gets to spend about 20 minutes a day with Chip now, he has started tucking her in at night and reading her a bedtime story instead of me. It is sweet and I am glad they have that extra time together.

I took this photo off the video monitor with my phone -- so it goes without saying that the quality is not the best. But it is still sweet.
...........

Friday morning Lily had an appointment for her 2nd ever haircut. It was just a trim, to clean up the ends. Nothing drastic. She insisted we go back to Sweet and Sassy and I think she really enjoys being pampered -- which is not surprising since she is such girly girl.

Ta Da! All pretty and with glittery stars on her face!

Woo-Hoo for Poo!

I haven't really blogged much about our frustration over the last year and a half with Lily's refusal to go poo in the potty. When she potty trained a year and a half ago, she did it all without problems. But soon after something happened and she started waiting until nap or bed time, when she knew she would get a diaper, to go poo. I have no idea why -- she had done it before in the toilet, but suddenly refused. I decided not to push the matter and knew she would go back when she was ready. Since she was so good at holding it until bedtime, I never had to worry about her having issues when we were out or she was at school -- it was like it was our little secret. But after a year of patiently waiting for her to work it out herself, I realized that she wasn't making any progress or showing any interesting in going in the potty. We started offering her the world -- toys, dolls, shopping sprees at the Disney Store, ponies, a Ferrari . . . nothing seemed to be enough to really motivate her. She claimed she really wanted a Baby Alive doll and checks them out every week at Target, but even the promise of that didn't get her going. Then we started talking things away -- TV, Computer time, Katy Perry videos, goldfish crackers (gasp!). That didn't even work!!!! I promised her a big girl bed when she went poo and told her she couldn't go to Mardi Gras with us until she went. And she always just said she'd do it later. I did internet research and there are TONS of kids out there who are doing EXACTLY the same thing as her -- it is kinda crazy. It is a separation anxiety/loss of control issue. Even knowing that, it was still annoying. She claimed she was scared of the splash -- so we dropped grapes into the toilet to demonstrate that the splash wasn't that big of a deal. We bought a tiny training potty (since she had trained with a seat on the normal toilet) since there would be no splashing. Got a cartoony anatomy book and tried to explain the digestion and waste process and how poo was supposed to be flushed down the toilet. I cut holes in her diaper and made her sit on the toilet every time she went -- but she knew the holes were there and wouldn't go. Even her pediatrician had no advice for us. I mean, I tried EVERYTHING.

Then last week as we were packing up for New Orleans, she just went. It wasn't a lot, but she pooed in the potty!!! I was ecstatic!! She was pretty excited and proud of herself. She said, "I did it! I did it! I pooed in the potty! Now I can go to New Orleans!" I even took a photo of it and sent it to Chip since he wasn't home (don't worry, I am not going to post that here). She wanted to go out and immediately get her Baby Alive, but I told her she had to continue to do it -- and she has!!! She went one night in her diaper when we were in New Orleans and Chip and I were out, but then used the toilet ever since. In fact, she has been so excited about the whole thing that she goes poo every chance she gets!! It is crazy (and gross, sorry), but I think she is so proud of herself that she actually did it -- and we are pretty damn proud of her too! So now after 5 (LONG) months without any fish crackers, she got her favorite treat back and we got her a baby alive.

She named it Abby, like all her babies now, after Matthew and Carys' baby sister.

The ironic thing was that after the baby was done eating, she made ME change the dirty diaper -- I thought I was done with that for now! :) Next step for Lily is finally starting her night potty training. I couldn't really do it before since she needed the diapers for #2. It will be nice to have all this done with my the time the new baby gets here. But it is a little bittersweet that my baby girl is done with her diapers.

Mardi Gras Part 2 and Extravaganza!!

I got the pictures from Chip's phone and Patti's camera, so some of this is a repeat of the last post, but with different photos!

The first couple pictures are floats from the parades we went to on Thursday night:


Lily in the minivan:
Breakfast at Camellia Grill:


Riding the street car:
...........

Like I mentioned in the previous post, Saturday night was the big night for Endymion. They were supposed to have their parade (but it got rained out and moved to Sunday) and then the big party/concert Extravaganza. We dropped the guys off downtown earlier in the day and didn't see them again until the parade rolled through. But I have Chip well trained and he took lots of photos for me from behind the scenes. :)

Walking through the staging area at the Convention Center to their float.

Their float is a huge three part steam boat. They were on the last section.

Getting all their "throws" in order. They had beads, cups, footballs, etc . . .

One of the Grand Marshalls, Kelly Ripa, going by on her float.

Chip in his costume all ready to go. Everyone on all the Mardi Gras floats have to wear masks. Not sure why -- they are pretty freaky looking.

Me and Dana inside the party waiting for the parade to start.

Patti, Dana and I.

Me and my water. I drank SO much water.

Here comes the parade!!

Anderson Cooper

The beginning of Chip's steam boat float.

Chip is on the top right. He is the second guy in -- the first in the blue costume.

I LOVE this photo. Chip spotted me in the crowd of 20,000 (since he knew where we would be sitting and Patti and Dana were standing on chairs to wave them down). So he pointed me out and tossed me a big stack of beads -- which I caught and of course, kept. The above photo is him pointing and you can see the beads flying through the air towards me. (again, Chip is the second from the right on the top -- in between the two guys in red)
You have to look really closely to see Chip leaning back and pounding his chest. He was SO crazy and animated up there!! If he hadn't pointed me out and tossed just to me, I would have never guessed that was him! He had the time of his life up there!! The experience and adrenaline rush was amazing. He said he felt like a rock star with the huge crowds screaming and waving for him. I know if he gets the chance he will ride again and I am so happy that he got do this (and a little jealous!) :)

Bryan, Chip and Tim at Extravaganza

It was such a fun night!

Pat Benetar and Train were great and it was just nice to get all dressed up and go out.

.................

Sunday night Chip finally got to ride through the streets of New Orleans. Again, he said it was amazing and the crowds were WILD. They rode from 7 to midnight -- so they got all the late night, drunk crazy people! :) It is a long parade route (not sure exactly of how long, but they go for 5 hours without really stopping) and the crowds were constantly thick the whole way. Here are some photos he snapped of the crowds: