Mrs. Roper

In the late 70's and early 80's there was a television program called Threes Company. One of the characters in the show was Mrs. Roper - the muumuu loving landlady. My mother was definitely not a fan of the show (way too risque for Mom)...but, unfortunately, she was a fan of Mrs. Roper's fashion sense!

Yes, my mother loved muumuus...caftans...call them what you will...we kids called them U.G.L.Y. Mom had a variety of these awful things. All of them were shapeless, wild patterned, and hideous.

Not only were the muumuus ugly they were made out of a terrible, shiny, snaggy kind of polyester material. Do you know the kind of fabric I mean? Anyway, there was one muumuu in particular that was Mom's favorite. We kids affectionately called that one "the oil slick".

On Christmas Eve, when Patti got to Mary Beth's and learned I wouldn't be there she called and said she needed to drop by for just a minute. Apparently, Patti had a special present that she had hoped to give Mary Beth, Don, and I at the same time. Unfortunately, my stomach bug derailed her original plan.

When Patti walked in our house she was carrying a large gift bag. From the top of the bag I could see a little bit of "the oil slick" peeking out. I recognized it instantly! When I opened the bag there she was...Mrs. Roper...a teddy bear made out of Mom's oil slick muumuu. You know the tears started flowing!




A co-worker of Patti's had had a beautiful "heirloom bear" made from her mother's old fur coat. When Patti saw the bear she thought...why not??? Mom may not have had old furs but she sure did have old muumuus!

I really wish I could have been at Mary Beth's when Patti gave the bears to Don and Mary Beth. It would have been so much fun to relive some of the funny Mom's Mrs. Roper muumuu stories together.

I absolutely love this gift...the thoughtfulness behind it...and the fact that Patti had one made for each of us. Each of us...that is...but herself. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough oil slick fabric to make 4 bears...so, Patti didn't get one for herself. Patti's selflessness makes the gift even more special.

I have hugged Mrs. Roper countless times since Christmas Eve. I'm sure you will think I'm crazy but she smells like coffee, cigarettes, and Cinnabar. She smells like memories. She smells like home. She smells like Mom.

Lily Hendrix

During the summer Lily and I went to see a children's performer at a local children's theatre. "Uncle Pete", the performer, had a red star-shaped guitar. At that moment Lily's love affair with the guitar began. Add in the fact that Christina and Sadie play guitar and we're talking our girlfriend has a borderline obsession with the stringed instrument!

Lily loves pretending everything and anything is a guitar. A shoe, a book, a fork, all of it is fair game. Here is a picture of Lily from a few days before Christmas using a roll of cellophane as a guitar:


Needless to say when it came time to decide what to get Lily for Christmas the decision was easy! I looked at area stores and online for a guitar for Lily but they all looked too big...even the guitars designed for toddlers. Then I saw a little pink ukulele that looked like it would be perfect...and it was. Please, just don't tell Lily it's not really a guitar!

Here's a short video clip of me opening the box after Lily unwrapped it. As you can see Lily is just about to jump out of her skin waiting to get her hands on her "Tar"!



The night before Christmas Eve I asked Tony to go out at the very last minute and buy Lily some picks for her guitar. I really think he thought I was crazy...but 2 seconds after Lily had the guitar in her hands she said she needed a pick. The next thing she said was, "Rock and Roll!". Honestly. Where does she get this stuff?? Tony and I just about hurt something laughing so hard!

Along with the guitar we bought Lily a microphone. We thought we had all our bases covered...guitar, picks, microphone. Think again! Lily looked at us dead serious and said, "I need a stage." A stage?? Why didn't we think of that?!? Thank God Tony was quick on his feet and grabbed the stool Lily uses in the bathroom. Now she was ready to perform.



Here's a little video clip of our future rock star performing an original number. As for the lyrics...I can understand the important parts...Lily loves Daddy and Mommy. Other than that...you're on your own! I think for a moment Lily is about to break into one of her favorite songs..."Apples and Bananas"...and then decides to go back to her original number!

Sorry the video is so dark...I didn't want to ruin the moment by getting up to turn on more lights.



Is it just me or do you think someday this clip is going to appear on one of those 'Before They Were Rock Stars' shows? And how about those earrings? Aren't they a hoot? One of our neighbors gave them to Lily Christmas Eve and she has hardly taken them off since then!

Like the song says...Lily loves Daddy...Lily loves Mommy...and we couldn't love her more! Christmas was so great this year...filled with so many happy, funny memories! Hope yours was, too!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Who Needs Santa...

...when you have Nai Nai and Aunt Sheila??? Oh, and let's not forget Aunt Mary and Aunt Peggy, too!

If you've heard reports about Santa's sled being hijacked you don't have to look any further than our living room. Seriously. Tony is on the phone right now with a contractor getting quotes for adding an addition to our house to store all the Christmas gifts Lily received!

All kidding aside, the 3 of us received so many really thoughtful and wonderful gifts. Tony and I loved our gifts and Lily was beyond excited by everything she received! She loved her sunglasses, jewelry, purses, clothes, books, ornaments, crafts, stuffed animals...and more!


After the gift opening extravaganza we all went to a train garden. As I've mentioned before Lily absolutely LOVES trains and enjoyed sharing the train garden with Nai Nai and Aunt Sheila. Lily could have stayed at the train garden all day...but we hadn't had lunch! So, the 5 of us headed out to lunch together. It was really a great day from start to finish!

Merry Christmas

Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was wonderful although we didn't spend it like we expected! We made a point to lay low and make sure that Lily had an opportunity to recover fully from her pneumonia before Christmas. What we didn't plan for was Mommy getting a stomach virus (or food poisoning) the afternoon of Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve morning Lily and I met Dad at the diner for breakfast. Lily literally hadn't been out of the house for days/weeks and Mommy was getting a little house bound, too!

Lily and I came home from breakfast and started cooking for Christmas morning. We were having a great time and then I started to feel not quite right. By about 1:00 I was sick...really, really sick. It would probably be more accurate to say I was violently ill! Honestly, I don't ever remember being that sick.

Thank God Tony got off early on Christmas Eve. As I counted the minutes until Tony came home I wondered how on earth single parents do it?!? I was in no shape to take care of Lily and don't know what I would have done if it weren't for Tony!

As the afternoon progressed I was trying to make deals with myself that I wasn't really as sick as I was. You see, I just couldn't imagine missing Christmas Eve at Mary Beth's. But, miss it...we did. It is without a doubt one of my favorite holiday traditions! The good news about traditions is that there's always next year!!

Several years ago we began having Suzy and Sheila over Christmas morning for brunch and to exchange gifts. It's a fun part of our Christmas tradition and was even more fun last year with Lily! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that either. I felt awful cancelling at the last minute but there was just no way I could do it. I was only sick for about 12 hours...but on Christmas day I felt (and looked) like a dish rag!

Christmas night we normally head up to Patti's for dessert. I love this part of Christmas, too. It's fun to get together with everyone and share about our day. Again, there's always next year!

For this year Christmas was a low key, lazy, lovely day. We spent the whole day in our pajamas! Lily had a blast playing with her gifts and Tony and I had so much fun watching her! It still seems impossible that this is our second Christmas with our sweet girl.

Sorry about all the whining. Please know that I realize having a stomach bug is a minor inconvenience and that many people suffer real hardships every day and especially during the holidays.

I mostly wanted to blog about this so years from now when we look back at our pictures from this Christmas we'll remember why Mommy was the same color as the Christmas Tree! Speaking of pictures...here are some of the outtakes from the 'photo session' that provided the beautiful picture above:




I think this picture pretty much sums up how Lily felt about the 'photo shoot'!

Over the next few days I'll post some more about our Christmas and our little rock star in the making! I've got some great video I can't wait to post!

A Spoonful of Sugar

Lily has been EXTREMELY healthy during the 18 months we've been a family. Until this recent cold...turned croup...turned pneumonia we've had little to no experience giving Lily medicine.

To treat Lily's pneumonia the doctor put Lily on 10 days of an antibiotic called Biaxin. To put it mildly we've learned Lily is not a big fan of taking medicine. Our normal, happy, easy going, little sweetie turns into a holy terror when she sees the medicine bottle!! The fact that Biaxin is nasty, bitter, grainy, yuck with a terrible after taste certainly doesn't help!

Getting Lily to take the first dose was not fun! After that experience I did a little research on how to get your toddler to take medicine (short of using a straight jacket!) and came across a flavoring that can be added to liquid medicine (for a nominal cost) to make it taste better. There is a huge list of flavors you can choose from. Think the list of flavors at a snowball stand...and you've got the picture!

I'm not a big fan of giving Lily artificial flavors/dyes...but at the same time I'm not a big fan of waging a battle every time Lily needs a dose of medicine. So, we decided to flavor the medicine with bubble gum flavoring.

We explained to Lily how much better the second dose would taste. Turns out all the flavoring did was turn the Biaxin into Bazooka flavored nasty, bitter, grainy, yuck with a terrible after taste! You should have seen the look on Lily's face. She looked so betrayed. It broke my heart.

The third dose didn't go any better and to put it mildly the fourth dose was a NIGHTMARE! Lily was HYSTERICAL and Tony and I weren't much better. We promised Lily fig newtons and ice chips after she took her medicine. They are two of Lily's absolute favorite things...but that wasn't nearly enough! The drama went on for more than 2 hours. Not sure if that is more a testament to my ineffective parenting or to Lily's amazing will power...or should I say won't power!

Honestly, I thought we were going to have to get a straight jacket...for all 3 of us! Then suddenly it occurred to me...we have M & M's left over from Halloween in the storage room. I asked Tony to go downstairs and get a pack of them. Lily had never had an M & M...but she took one smell and was hooked! I told Lily if she took her medicine she could pick out 3 M & M's. She opened her mouth and swallowed that vile stuff like a little bird. I don't want to think what she would do for 4 M & M's!

I'm sure the purist out there would tell me you shouldn't bribe your kids with food...much less candy. I agree. However, there is just no way we could go through this struggle for 16 more doses. Anyway, is it just me or does it seem like if we can land a man on the moon we should be able to invent a liquid antibiotic that doesn't taste so terrible??

The good news is...now, when we are about to give Lily a dose of medicine we have her pick out 3 M & M's (yes, even for the morning dose) and away we go. No drama, no hysteria, and she's getting the medicine she needs! I'd say that's a win-win.

You two have known about these M&M's things all along??

Boy, We Had A Great Day...Didn't We?

This weekend our calendar was scheduled full of holiday fun. Instead, we had a very quiet weekend at home. Lily seems more and more like her old self everyday and we didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that! The mom side of me knew the right thing to do was to stay home but I would be lying if I didn't say the selfish side of me was feeling pretty bummed about missing two of my favorite holiday activities.

Our friend's Bonnie and Rick have an annual "Cookie Exchange" party. Bonnie and Rick are wonderful entertainers and no matter if it's a Summer barbeque, Halloween Party, or a Cookie Exchange, it's a guaranteed good time with plenty of yummy food and drinks and tons of laughs!

Also on the calendar this weekend was my mom's side of the family's annual Christmas party. As the years have passed we don't see each other as often as we once did. So, I really look forward to the few opportunities we have to get together. I'm a self confessed family nerd. I love family get togethers...always have...always will!

Even though the weekend didn't go exactly as originally planned we really had a great time at home. We did Christmas crafts, assembled a gingerbread train, wrapped gifts, and had fun hanging out just the 3 of us!

Lily loved assembling the "gingerbread man train". However, she and Tony had some artistic differences. Okay, not differences as much as anything that Tony did...Lily changed! Lily has a few control issues. I have no idea where she would get that from!!

Last night as we were having dinner Lily said, "Boy, we had a great day. Didn't we?" You know, the weekend didn't turn out like we had originally planned...but I have to agree. We had a great day...and a great weekend!

The Nativity

Many, many years ago my Mimi and Granddad (my mom's parents) gave my parents a beautiful Nativity Set.

Before Christmas each year we set up the nativity as a family. The manger sat empty until we were ready to go to bed on Christmas Eve. Each year we alternated which one of the four kids got to place Jesus in the manger. When it was your turn it was a very big deal! Trust me. We even have some of these moments captured on old home movies. The four of us never looked so angelic!

The other day Lily helped me to set up our nativity scene. It was so much fun to see the wonder in her face as she unwrapped each piece. I loved the conversations Lily and I had as we set up the nativity. She asked the sweetest questions like, "Why did Jesus sleep in a barn?", "Mommy, was Mary scared when it was dark?", "Do you think Jesus was cold?".

For now, the manger in our nativity sits empty. On Wednesday evening, before Lily goes to bed, we will have her place Jesus in the manger. I love that we are carrying on this tradition with our daughter. I hope some day it will mean as much to Lily as my memories mean to me.

Oh Poop...It's Pneumonia

Okay, Okay, I know that doesn't even come close to rhyming. But remember, I'm on a Dr. Seuss strike! So, you'll just have to trust me that it's much nicer than what I really wanted to type!

As the title of the post indicates our sweet little Lily has pneumonia. I really thought she was getting better...she seems better. No cough, no runny nose, no fever. Just one little problem...no sleep...for Mom and Dad that is!!

Tuesday night Lily had a really rough night. She tossed, turned, whimpered, cried out and basically had a miserable night...though she appeared to sleep right through it all!

Wednesday morning Lily was her usual happy self. As the day progressed she became pretty fussy about...everything! I chalked it up to the sleepless night she had before.

Then came Wednesday night...it was a mirror image of Tuesday night. More tossing, turning, whimpering...you get the idea. Again, Lily appeared to sleep through it all. Though obviously not restfully! I can't say that Lily is always the best sleeper but this is definitely not her norm.

I called the doctor first thing this morning and she saw us right away. I really expected the doctor to find that Lily had an ear infection. The doctor said Lily's ears look fine but that she has pneumonia in her right lung. That wasn't at all what I was expecting to hear! The doctor said that Lily is probably having a little difficulty breathing while she's sleeping and that's why she's so fretful. Our poor baby!

Lily is now on an antibiotic for the next 10 days. I'll post about how much she's enjoying taking the new medicine in a separate post!

For the last week and a half Lily and I have rarely left the house. We plan to do more of the same with the hope that this nasty cold...turned croup...turned pneumonia will be good and gone by Christmas!

Here are some cute pictures of Lily playing "Beauty Parlor" and "Story Time". Is it me or is she just the cutest little pea pod?!?! She sure doesn't look like she has pneumonia does she?

Trim The Tree And Pass The Tissues

Just keep a box of tissues handy...and let's get busy!

The plan was to wait until Lily was back to feeling 100% before we decorated the tree...but Lily had other ideas. Even though Lily still has a bit of a stuffy nose I think last night she simply got tired of seeing the "naked" tree and wanted to decorate it. A sure sign she must be feeling better!

Lily found a package of "apples" in the ornament box and decided to hang them all right next to each other. Perfect! Just the way I like them! Oh, and another thing...I always thought they were hearts but I guess it's one of those...you say tomato, I say tomata kind of things.

I put Tigger right here so he can bounce from apple to apple.

Lily stayed interested in decorating the tree until we unpacked the Fisher Price nativity set. Then forget about it...it was all about playing with the animals and pushing the button to play "Away In A Manger" a million times!

When I was putting the lights on the tree I discovered a tiny bird's nest nestled in the branches. I probably think that's a whole lot cooler than it actually is but I must admit...I just love it! What I thought was a bird's egg in the nest is actually a really tiny acorn. So sweet. I liked it so much that I decided to just scoot the nest a little further out on the branch so it can be more easily seen.

Mommy just loves this little nest!

The nest fits in perfectly with my idea of a Christmas tree. Before Tony and I got married all of my Christmas ornaments were handmade. (Not by me...of course!) There wasn't a single Christmas ball on my tree. The first time Tony and I decorated a tree together was a bit...um...challenging...for both of us! Tony had a pretty big collection of store bought ornaments...including a few Seahawk ornaments. A lot of them just didn't say "Christmas" to me...and I can assure some of my handmade "treasures" didn't say "Christmas" to Tony either! It's taken us some time but now I think there's a good balance of the handmade ornaments I prefer and the collectible ornaments Tony prefers. In fact, I think our little tree turned out just beautiful this year.

However, I am sad to report that one of Tony's coveted Seahawk Christmas ornaments met an untimely demise. What? You think I did it??? Honestly, I had nothing to do with it! I can't believe you would even think such a thing!! Remember I said...Tony's coveted Seahawk Christmas ornament. Do you really think he would let anyone else touch it?! Much less someone who can't even name 3 Seahawk players???

Poor Daddy!

If you want to look back at our first tree trimming with our sweet Lily click here. I have to confess that I got pretty emotional last night thinking about the two Christmases that passed while we waited to bring Lily home and realizing that we are about to spend our second Christmas together as a family of 3. To me, it's just still so unbelievable!

Mommy and Daddy say I'm their Christmas angel!

Oh Poop....It's Croup!

Sorry about the title of this post. It's just that after 6 days of reading Dr. Seuss books over and over again I can only think in rhyme.

Our super healthy girl has now been sick twice in a month. This latest bout started this past Tuesday. 'Tis the season!

Tuesday morning we went to our usual My Gym class. Lily had a great time and ran around like her happy little self. After class we went to a shower/luncheon for one of the other Moms in our class and you could almost watch Lily getting sick.

Honestly, it was like watching a time elapsed photo. Lily asked me for a tissue and said, "I'm not crying...but my eyes are." Sure enough, Lily's eyes were running...and then her nose joined in on the fun. I cannot exaggerate enough how much Lily's nose was running. Seriously. It was pouring!

Tuesday night Lily was pretty miserable with a runny nose but that was about it. Wednesday the coughing started and by Friday evening Lily sounded exactly like a seal. I had read that if a child has croup their cough sound likes a bark so I figured that's what Lily had. I also called Mary Beth and asked her to come over for a quick diagnosis. Mary Beth agreed...and just so you know...so did Lily's doctor!

I had called Lily's doctor earlier in the week and the doctor said if Lily wasn't running a fever (and she wasn't) not to bring her to the office. However, once the barky cough began we didn't have a choice. The doctor wanted to confirm it wasn't something more serious than croup. The doctor told us what we already knew...no cough medicine or decongestants for children under 4. The doctor recommended we give Lily Benadryl and plenty of fluids. Not only did the Benadryl not touch Lily's runny nose it didn't help her sleep either. The poor little thing has been up for several nights coughing her head off!

We have spent quite a bit of time in a steamy bathroom and in the cold air. We've also been using a cool mist vaporizer. It seems to have helped a little bit. The doctor said it is one of those "things" that has to run its course. The good news is I think the course is almost over. Today Lily seems much, much better.

That's a good thing...for more reasons than one. It appears that we are raising a mini me. Since Tuesday, Lily hasn't left the house and it's driving her crazy! Like me, Lily loves to be out and about. On Thursday Lily begged me to go outside and play. When I told her we couldn't go outside because she wasn't feeling well and the weather was too nasty Lily thought for a minute and then said, "Mommy, do you want to go out to lunch?" How cute is she???

For the last week we've been painting, doing crafts, playing with Play Doh and reading, reading, reading! The good news is we have tons of books...thanks to Mary Beth the thrift store queen! Regardless of the fact that Lily's home library contains 100's of books I asked Tony to go to the library on Saturday for an emergency "new reading material" run! Not so much for Lily...but for ME!

Lily LOVES Dr. Seuss! I mean REALLY loves him!! She walks around making up her own funny words and rhymes. It really is quite cute...but I honestly can't bring myself to read another Dr. Seuss book. I am officially on a Dr. Seuss strike!

In closing, here's my litte diddy dedicated to Dr. Seuss:

I cannot read one more book today,
I cannot read one more book I say.

I want a book with no made up words,
No strange people, animals, or birds.

All I want is a book that doesn't rhyme
Oh...and...maybe...a big glass of red wine!

Ok, ok, maybe rhyme and wine don't exactly...um...rhyme...but I think it's obvious I need to get out of the house, too!

Timber

Last Sunday we went out to cut down our Christmas tree. We found the "perfect" tree in record time. Of course, the fact that is was bitterly cold may have helped us to be a tad bit less discriminating!

All kidding aside, maybe we should go tree hunting every year when it is brutally cold. The three of us had so much fun and the tree is absolutely perfect!

After the frigid tree hunt we went to the same Mexican restaurant we went to last year for lunch. I think we've started a new family tradition!

A family tradition...the three of us...can I just tell you how exciting that is! I still can't believe that there are three of us...not to mention that we are celebrating holidays with Lily for the second time and starting our own family traditions!

I Don't Like Christmas

I don't like Christmas...but I love a good party!

Saturday was my dad's side of the family's annual Christmas party. Despite the icy/snowy weather there was a great turn out and we all had a wonderful time!

Over the last few weeks Lily's mantra has been, "I don't like Christmas." It's not the birth of Christ that Lily takes exception to...it's that jolly little man in the red suit!

I love to see Lily spend time with all of her cousins. Charlie was really cute with Lily and made her a special pretzel sculpture. He also made a special snowman and snow castle and requested that Lily come outside several times to check his progress. I love to see Charlie's tender side with Lily!

Christina was her usual sweet self. She even showed up on Santa's "Good List" as a super big cousin and Lily would definitely agree!


This year something really special happened at the party. Lily 'clicked' with one of my cousin's kids, Maggie. Maggie is 6 years old and was absolutely wonderful with Lily!

It was amazing to watch Maggie interact with Lily. At 6 Maggie was able to figure out how to relate to Lily better than many adults! Maggie got down on Lily's level to speak to her, never came on too strong, always asked Lily if she wanted to do whatever it was Maggie was interested in doing...basically she never pushed Lily beyond her comfort zone and the two became fast friends! In fact, Lily went off and played with Maggie for quite a long time and never once checked in with us. That's a MAJOR step for our sweet girl!

Speaking of major steps, at the Christmas Party Lily watched her first video. It was a Christmas video with a few short segments with Winnie The Pooh and Spot. Two of Lily's favorites! Lily was so excited to see Pooh and Spot and their friends actually come to life on TV!

Tony told me later he was surprised that I let Lily watch the video. Honestly, I was a little bit, too. But, hey, it's Winnie the Pooh and Spot and more importantly it was just so sweet to see Lily and Maggie hanging around together. I didn't want to do anything to disrupt that!



As you saw above in the picture with Christina, again this year Santa stopped by the party for a visit. Unfortunately, Tony was out of the room again and missed Santa completely. I wish that didn't happen every year! I would love Tony to see that he and Santa have the exact same beautiful blue eyes. Oh well, there's always next year!

As I mentioned before Lily "doesn't like Christmas" so there wasn't a chance she was going to sit on the Big Guy's lap (even if Mommy went with her). She did shake Santa's hand and blow him a kiss.





To be honest, if Lily never sits on Santa's lap...that's perfectly fine with me. I totally get it. I'm 43 years old and I still hate clowns. Maybe I should say I loathe clowns. Seriously. There isn't a chance I would sit on a clown's lap. Nope. No way. Never!

Papa Tony

Showing Daddy the ropes.

On Saturday our parents group hosted another pizza making session at an area restaurant. Since Tony didn't have to work he was able to join me and Lily. Lily had a great time making pizza with Daddy and afterwards Tony even got a guided tour of the pet store nearby!

See Daddy, you go like this.

Daddy, now it's your turn!

Daddy, if you eat a good lunch we'll go to the pet store after we're finished eating.

What Is The Nature Of Your Emergency?

Lily LOVES the telephone. I don't mean her toy telephones (of which she has several). I mean our real cordless telephones. Lily loves to walk around with the phone held between her shoulder and ear while she "talks" to a variety of people. I can't imagine where she's picked this up! Can you?

Lily also loves to push the buttons on the phone...lots and lots of buttons. Often when Lily is playing with the phone I will hear that little recorded voice saying, "We are unable to complete your call as dialed. Please check the number and dial again."

I've often told Tony that one of these days Lily is going to end up making a transatlantic phone call. Well, this morning Lily didn't make a transatlantic phone call...she made a 911 call! Yikes!

There isn't a button preprogrammed on our phone to call 911...I guess Lily just happened to enter that sequence of numbers. What I do know for sure is that the phone rang this morning while Lily was holding it. The poor thing just about jumped out of her skin! I checked the Caller ID and answered the phone and heard something to the effect of, "This is 911 dispatch. We just received a call from this number. What is the nature of your emergency?"

Umm...does allowing your 2 1/2 year old to play with the telephone while you are getting breakfast on the table qualify as an emergency??? Thank God the dispatcher was as nice as she could be!

What is the nature of my emergency? Can't you see my shoes don't match!?!?!?

Mom's Night Out...with kids

Mommy and I are the Snowflake Twins.

Tonight was our FCC (Families with Children from China) Mom's Night Out family holiday dinner. We had a good time and it's fun to see how much all the kids have grown since last year...including our own.

Say Cheese!

The FCC Mom's Night Out group meets for dinner every other month...with just the moms. I don't always make it but when I do I really enjoy myself. It's fun to learn from the "been there done that" moms. For instance, I've heard that Lily is going to ask me the "tough" questions about how we became a family while we're driving in rush hour traffic or preparing Thanksgiving dinner for 20 guests (Yeah, right...like that's ever gonna happen!). The point is...apparently your children don't ask you the questions that make your heart skip a beat on sleepy Saturday mornings when you have nothing to do but sit around in your pj's and talk! I'm sure you experienced parents out there already knew that!

Hmm...I can't wait to hit Mommy with the tough questions!

Holiday-a-rama

When I talked to Patti about what we did this past weekend she said, "Wow! Holiday-a-rama." She's right. We really did pack in a lot of fun in the 5 days that Tony was off.

On Friday we went to the Festival Of Trees. We had a great time. Lily loved all the decorated trees, the train gardens, riding the carousel...the kiddie train...and even a pony!

Mommy and Daddy were surprised that I got on here all by myself!

I wasn't crazy about the scarf Mommy found while I was on the train...but she loved it!

On Saturday we went to the B & O Railroad Museum. Lily loved the train gardens but her absolute favorite thing was playing in the red caboose!

Saturday evening we went to the tree lighting in our community and to watch Santa arrive on a fire truck. That's just the way Lily likes Santa...from a distance!


Sunday we went to see another holiday train garden. Have I mentioned that Lily absolutely LOVES trains?!?

It was so great to have Tony off for 5 days. The 3 of us had so much fun together. If it weren't for those darn bills we have to pay...I think it would be so much fun if Lily had a stay at home Mommy...and Daddy!