Three Cheers for Babies

Sick :(

2012-01-29T07:28:00.002-05:00

Nothing more to say about our week than that! On Tuesday night, Charlie woke up around 9:30 throwing up. He threw up 3 more times that night before we managed to get him (and Lily, who woke up from all the commotion) back in bed around 1:00am. The next morning I took Charlie to the pediatrician for a lingering cough unrelated to the stomach bug. The nurse pracitioner we saw said the cough was from a combo of leftover cold and allergies, and we had to wait it out. The next day, Thursday, began with Lily throwing up and Charlie still weak, lethargic and coughing. As the pictures on this post prove, the poor boy could not stay awake for more than half an hour. On Thursday and Friday, both kids took a 4 hour nap, woke at 4:30 and were back in bed at 6:30. When they were awake, there was a lot of dozing, whimpering and begging for milk, which of course they couldn't have. And Thursday afternoon, I went down for the count with the stomach virus as well. (And oh, was it horrible!! I feel even worse knowing just how bad poor Charlie and Lily felt!)

Thankfully, Joe managed to avoid the virus (so far, at least!) and was able to stay home on Friday and take care of us all. But by yesterday morning, while the vomiting had stopped and the kids were eating a bit, they both were coughing, Charlie worse than ever. So off to the pediatrician we went again. This time, the doctor we saw said she heard wheezing in Charlie's lungs and diagnosed him with a sinus infection. She put him on an amoxicilin and prescribed nebulizer treatments for him every four hour. Lily gets nebulizer treatments for her cough as well, until it goes away.

I'm glad that we got some help for Charlie, and as of last night he seemed to be perking up a bit, so fingers crossed! Is it spring yet?!?!

(On another doctor note, Lily returned to Dr. Wasserman on Tuesday (before the plague hit, lol) to have her eyes re-checked. Dr. Wasserman has been following Lily since her NICU stay for a few pigment spots on her eyes. Lily was such a good girl at the doctor (she especially liked how we got to go walk around the mall while we waited for her eyes to dilate) and Dr. Wasserman determined that the spots are absolutely nothing and she's all cleared.)

Full of excuses

2012-01-22T13:26:00.009-05:00

I have been a terrible blogger as of late, I know. Things have just suddenly gotten so busy around here that I haven't had much time to spend online. The biggest distraction of the moment is the fact that we're moving next month. (Yes, AGAIN, lol.) So a lot of our time and energy has been devoted to getting everything straightened out with that. Then there's my part-time job, which eats into a lot of my free time, and the fact that as they've gotten older, Charlie and Lily's daily naps have gotten shorter (sob!).

We've also been out and about a lot. The fight against wintertime cabin fever has kept us busy. We have Charlie and Lily's beloved music class once a week, and make frequent trips to the library. Both kids love books!
Charlie and Lily have, thankfully, decided that they love going to the kids' club at my gym, so we go there usually twice a week, on Mondays when I teach my Body Attack class and on Fridays. Fridays are their favorite day to go because we stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way home to get donuts for Charlie and Lily and coffee for Mommy. Donuts make Charlie very happy.
The kids are also big fans of Cracker Barrel, where I work. We regularly meet my coworker and her son, Dominic, there for breakfast.
Oh, and sometimes when we're leaving or entering the house, this goes on:
We also are still trying to get outside when the weather permits it. Yesterday we got our first snow of 2012, so we had to go check things out. Charlie and Lily had a blast!

High Five Routine

2012-01-09T16:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

2012-01-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to the most wonderful father and husband we could ever ask for. All three of us are so lucky to have you in our lives. You spoil us, you make us laugh, you shower us with love and you make us happy each and every day. We love you with all our hearts!

The Letter J and Daddy's Birthday

2012-01-07T19:31:00.004-05:00

This week was all about the letter J. Charlie and Lily practiced doing jumping jacks and sang "Jack Be Nimble." We sorted jelly beans by color, then used the jelly beans for a little art project. Charlie and Lily really enjoyed deciding where to place the jelly beans on their J's.
We also took a little field trip this week to Junglerrrific. Charlie and Lily absolutely love to play at Junglerrific and had a blast. We met Joe there when he was done school, and the kids played until dinner time. Then we left and headed to Perkins for pancakes and chicken fingers. While we ate, Lily recounted for Joe the events of nap time. Since Christmas, Lily has been fighting nap big time. I had been putting them down for nap around 12:45, right after lunch. But since Christmas, Lily has been talking, jumping around, singing and kicking in her crib until at least 2:00, and sometimes not falling asleep at all. The day we went to Jungelrrrific, she somehow managed to get her arm stuck between her crib mattress and the crib side while she was messing around during nap time. She screamed and cried and I, of course, sprinted upstairs to rescue her. All through dinner, Lily kept telling Joe, "Lily's hand stuck! Lily cried. Mommy help you!" Lol! (Since then, I've pushed nap back until 1:15ish and have had much better results!)

Charlie and Lily have also been enjoying playing with all their new Christmas presents, including their easel. Lily especially loves drawing and coloring on it.
This week we also celebrated Joe's birthday by having our families over for pizza, pie and cake. (Joe only really wanted pie for dessert, but Charlie and Lily refuse to believe that you can have a birthday without a cake, so we made this one special for Daddy.)Happy birthday, Daddy!

Welcome, 2012!

2012-01-03T20:05:00.012-05:00

2011 was a pretty good year for us, so we made sure to give it a proper send off on New Year's Eve. Once I got my work schedule and saw I had a morning shift that would allow me to be home on New Year's Eve night, Joe decided that we should have a little party with Charlie and Lily at 7:00pm. He called it "Happy New Year's, London!" since 7:00pm would be midnight there. Joe went shopping for decorations and came back with a giant bag of goodies - streamers, balloons, hats, glasses, noise makers, and even sparkling cider. Charlie and Lily had a lot of fun helping him decorate - they dictated where each balloon should be placed.

We asked the kids who they wanted to invite to the party and Charlie's response was, "Cake!" So we made some cake. I gave Charlie and Lily each their own 9" round cake and let them go to town frosting and decorating it.
This was bound to happen.
The mini M&Ms were fun to place on the cake, but both Charlie and Lily preferred to decorate with sprinkles.
Yay, cake! (And yes, that jar of sprinkles wound up on Charlie's cake.)
Watch out, Cake Boss!
And they tasted good, too!
After cake, it was time to party!Glow sticks are apparently an awesome form of toddler amusement. Lily chose to wear all hers as necklaces and bracelets.While Charlie enjoyed taking his out of their packaging and them putting them back in over and over.
Then 7:00pm arrived! Happy New Year!
We ended the night with a sparking cider toast, and by calling our family members so that Charlie and Lily could wish them a happy new year. Charlie started each and every call off with, "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year, Mom-Mom/Pop-Pop/Crackers/Aunt Jill, etc."

We're excited to see what 2012 has in store for us, and we wish you all a happy and healthy new year!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-28T20:49:00.024-05:00

Here we go...lots of pictures from our Christmas celebrations! Charlie and Lily had a great weekend and were spoiled, spoiled, spoiled. ;) We kicked things off on Friday the 23rd with a visit from Daddy dressed as Santa. Each year Joe buys them each a special gift and brings it to them dressed as Santa. This year, however, Lily has entered her "scared of Santa" phase and was not so happy to see Santa Daddy walk into the room. (When Joe went and changed out of his Santa suit, causing Lily to proclaim, "Oh good! Daddy got changed!")
Charlie thought it was a fun game, though!
Both Charlie and Lily loved their special gifts, regardless of their feelings on Santa Daddy. Lily got a Dora the Explorer backpack complete with Map and Boots.
Charlie got a big firetruck. And I got a gift too! Charlie and Lily went to Build-a-Bear (with a little help from Daddy and MomMom) and made me a polar bear. When I press the bear's paws I hear recordings of Charlie and Lily singing "Jingle Bells" and proclaiming "Merry Christmas, Mommy!" It's pretty awesome. After spending some time with their presents, Charlie and Lily painted the salt dough ornaments we had made earlier in the day, and then we went to our favorite restaurant for dinner before driving around to look at Christmas lights.
Christmas Eve was spent at Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike's house. Charlie and Lily kicked off the night by seeing Santa come by the house on the fire truck and then munching on the candy canes he gave them.
After dinner it was time to open Santa gifts. Charlie was much more interested in handing out the gifts and seeing what everyone received than he was in opening his own presents.
Oooh, Uncle John got a pie plate!
Lily was so excited that she just had to dance!
They both also enjoyed spending time with family. They were happy to see their great-grandfather, "Big PopPop."
When we got home from celebrating Christmas Eve, Charlie and Lily made sure to leave out some cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer before going to bed.
Then it wasn't long before Santa came!
Gifts were opened on Christmas morning while wearing our awesome matching pajamas made by my friend Amber (go to Facebook and "like" Piper's Closet for more info).
Santa left Charlie and Lily a special letter along with their gifts.
Lily was very excited to see her new doll house.
And they both really liked the double-sided easel. Charlie's big gift was a workbench complete with tools.
But the little light-up marble racer cars were his favorite gift from Santa.
The books were well received too!
Once the presents from Santa were opened, it was time for our families to visit. MomMom, PopPop, Uncle John and Aunt Bec arrived first with lots of wonderful gifts. Uncle John and Aunt Bec gave Charlie a fire truck and fireman's hat, and Lily received a new doll stroller and an Abby Cadabby doll and book. MomMom and PopPop spoiled them as usual with clothes, an Alphie, a music learning tablet, a Let's Rock Elmo with all the pieces to form an entire band...and that's just to name a few things. They also received some great gifts from their great-aunts and cousins. Next, Crackers, Grandad, Nana, Aunt Jill and Uncle John arrived with MORE gifts. There was a Thomas train set for Charlie and a Minnie's house playset for Lily from Aunt Jill and Uncle Aaron, great V-Tech number and letter writing toys from Nana, and a fun Fridge Phonics set from Crackers, along with a train table for Charlie and a baby doll care station for Lily.
After a (all too short) nap, it was off to Nana's house to visit with Aunt Diane, Uncle John and cousin Adam and to get some more gifts. Diane, John and Adam gave Charlie and Lily Magna-Doodles, Memory, Puppy Bingo and great animal-themed hat/glove sets. They also gave each of them a personalized Santa hat, which Lily insisted on wearing the rest of the evening. Finally it was on to Uncle John's for Christmas dinner. At this point Charlie and Lily reached an over-stimulated, over-tired high that left them giddy and racing from room to room of Uncle John's house. The fact that there was a bowl of M&Ms left within their reach also added to their wackiness.
But there are much worse ways to end Christmas than with smiling, chocolate covered kids :)

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-27T07:12:00.004-05:00

Happy holidays, everyone! I have a million pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to share but with all the holiday hustle and bustle I haven't had a chance to post them on here yet. But I wanted to share Charlie and Lily's Christmas card pictures, because I think they came out great (Thank you, Target. You never disappoint me.) and wanted to wish all our friends, family and readers a very happy holiday. We hope you are enjoying every second - we are!

Thank you, Sandra Boynton!

2011-12-22T07:43:00.008-05:00

Just when we thought we couldn't possibly love Sandra Boynton anymore, she sends us this amazing gift! A few months ago Joe was on Sandra Boynton's website, seeing if she had any new books coming out. He came across the contact page and decided to send Sandra an email, telling her how special her books are to us. I fell in love with her books while working in a daycare center in college, and one of the very first things we did when I found out I was pregnant was go buy some Sandra Boynton books so we could read to the babies in utero. Joe read to them every night while they were in the womb, and we read them a Sandra Boynton book every single night of their NICU stay. We read them Birthday Monsters on the 27th of every month for the first year of their lives. When Annaleigh passed away, we used the verses of Personal Penguin on her funeral prayer card. Now, Charlie and and Lily are huge fans themselves. Just yesterday, Charlie started randomly reciting What's Wrong, Little Pookie? to himself. They can both recite The Going to Bed Book from memory and they sing Snuggle Puppy and Personal Penguin.

Anyhow, Sandra's sister Pam, who handles all of Sandra's fan correspondance, wrote Joe back and forwarded his message on to Sandra... and a few days later, Sandra personally responded, which was exciting enough in itself. But then she went ahead and sent us these amazing gift bags! Charlie and Lily each got an autographed copy of one of her book/CD combos and a stuffed animal - and aardvark and a rhinoceros. A gift bag for Joe and me contained two ties (which Joe can't wait to wear to work), coffee, a mom's calendar (that I had put on my Christmas list!) and birthday planner, CD and book.
But our favorite item was one for Annaleigh - an autographed copy of Personal Penguin. Both Joe and I cried when we opened it up. It's something we'll always treasure. Thank you so much, Sandra (and Pam)! You are wonderful! And if you haven't read Sandra's books, you are missing out big time...get thee to a bookstore! I recommend Moo, Baa, La, La, La and But Not the Hippopotamus (two of my personal favorites!). Charlie and Lily are currently big fans of Let's Dance, Little Pookie.

Reindeer and Snowmen

2011-12-17T17:17:00.006-05:00

As I mentioned in last week's post, I am totally dedicated to Christmas right now! So this week's "lesson" focused on two holiday staples: reindeer and snowmen. We made these awesome reindeer cookies using just Nutter Butters, some vanilla frosting, pretzels, M&Ms and chocolate chips. (Thank you again, Pinterest!) Truth be told, I did most of the reindeer assembly because Charlie and Lily were way more interested in trying to sneak chocolate chips and M&Ms when they thought I wasn't looking. At one point during this project I got a phone call, and while my back was turned for two seconds to pick up the phone they both shoved handfuls of candy into their mouths. I looked back to find them both slyly chewing with chocolate all around their mouths.
For art we made these snow globe snowmen. We used paper plates for the snowmen, then filled plastic baggies with sparkles and taped them to a cut-out in the center of the snowmen. Lily insisted on using the sparkles to decorate her snowman's hat too. (I got this idea from No Time for Flash Cards - I've said it before and I'll say it again: that is the BEST blog!)
We also made these reindeer hats. Lily LOVED her hat and wore it all afternoon. When Joe took the kids downstairs to play, Lily got a glimpse of herself in the mirror wearing that hat and stood there totally fascinated by it. We also watched Frosty the Snowman on TV and sang Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Charlie has become obsessed with buckles. He is always going over to his booster seat to buckle and unbuckle the straps. He loves all things mechanical.
He also loves a good cuddle! But I think I was actually enjoying it more :)

The Letter I and A Very Furry Christmas

2011-12-11T11:23:00.013-05:00

Last week we learned about the letter I. I've decided that this will be our last week of alphabet-themed learning until after Christmas, because all I really want to do between now and then is Christmas themed crafts, activities and baking. This week, even though I meant to focus on the letter I, things still managed to morph into holiday activities so why fight it? 'Tis the season! We did stick to the theme with our craft and made these letter I ice cream cones.
We read If You Take a Mouse to the Movies and sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." We also attempted to make igloo cupcakes by topping vanilla frosted cupcakes with lots of mini marshmallows. Unfortunately, the Christmas sprinkles I found in the dollar bin at Target proved much more enticing to Charlie and Lily than the marshmallows, so we mostly ended up with green, red and white cupcakes instead. Topped with lots and lots and lots of sprinkles.
Yay Christmas!
Last night we took Charlie and Lily to Sesame Place for A Very Furry Christmas. They had the best time! Upon walking into the park, before we even got to the main entrance, we came upon these groves of character-themed Christmas trees. Charlie and Lily had a blast running between the different color trees and exclaiming over each one.
We saw the 1-2-3 Christmas Tree display - they loved the music and the way the tree lights "danced" to the songs.
And we saw The Count! Charlie and Lily love The Count and raced right up to him to give him hugs.
Then they took a break under the giant mistletoe. We tried to get them to kiss, but they weren't feeling the love.
We also saw Santa! Well, Charlie saw Santa. Lily decided he was best admired from afar. However, she did work up the courage before we left to give Old Saint Nick a high five and snag a candy cane from him. We didn't manage to make it to any of the shows, but Charlie and Lily did get a ride on the carousel which they thoroughly enjoyed.
And of course, we visited the gift shop! Charlie was so happy when we bought him not only a toy bus but also an Elmo ornament for the Christmas tree. (Elmo riding a TRAIN - what could be better for Charlie?)
Lily chose a Murray doll to add to our collection. She carried him around the rest of the night saying, "Oh, Murray" and kissing him. If you're in the NJ/PA area, I definitely recommend visiting Sesame Place for the holidays.

Letter H and the Christmas Spirit

2011-12-04T07:45:00.016-05:00

This week Charlie and Lily learned about the letter H. I'm not going to lie - once again our poor letter of the week was kind of eclipsed by holiday things. We did manage to squeeze in a few H related activities though, like making these handy little H's. We also read But Not the Hippopotamus and Hippos Go Berserk.
The weather has been much cooler this week, but we still tried to squeeze in some playground time. Here's Lily encouraging Daddy to get his shoes on so he can take her out.
Charlie and Lily have also become obsessed with Dora the Explorer. They caught it for the first time on Monday and have been begging for it daily. They sing the songs and Lily is in love with Boots the monkey. She says, "Where Boots go? Oh, there he is!" about 50 times an episode. On Saturday morning the introduced Joe to Dora too.
Now that December is here we've started doing some Christmas activities too! This weekend our town had a great Winter Wonderland celebration in a local park. They had tons of lights and decorations, a Santa's village, a train ride, treats, and lots of costumed characters walking around. Charlie and Lily had a great time!
Charlie's favorite part was the train ride!
We even saw Elmo!
But strolling along looking at the lights (while eating giant cookies) was also nice!
Yesterday we put up our Christmas tree. We thought Charlie and Lily would be very interested in decorating it, but they really weren't all that enthralled. They were more interested in the fact that we moved their toys to a different spot in the living room to make room for the tree. The only part of decorating they really cared about was hanging up the star, so Joe made sure he did it twice.
The tree became much more interesting to kids, however, once Joe put the gate around it. Forbidden fruit and all that...
Charlie and Lily did enjoy decorating these paper trees though. First they decorated them with with dot paints to make lights, then sprinkled on lots of sparkles. Pinterest has given me tons of great Christmas craft ideas, so I know we'll be churning things out from now until the holidays are over!
If you're feeling the holiday spirit as well, I encourage you to please support The Jackson Malia Fund's 4th Annual Toy Drive. The fund was established by my friend Megan in honor of her son Jack, who passed away too soon, leaving behind his fellow triplets Katie and Charlotte. The organization offers support to special needs children and their families. The toy drive is for a wonderful cause and helping is simple! Just visit the toy drive's Amazon wish list , select a gift and send it directly to drive. Charlie and Lily are super excited to attend the drive's breakfast with Santa this year, which is next Saturday! Details can be found on the Fund's website if you are in NJ and would like to attend!

Fun with Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T19:54:00.006-05:00

These past few days have been a lot of fun for us, since we've packed them with Thanksgiving activities. I've found so many cute holiday crafts and treats on my new addiction, Pinterest, that I couldn't wait to try them all out.

We kicked things off on Monday by making sugar cookie turkeys. We just used some store-bought cookie dough and baked it up in circle shapes. Then I put a line of vanilla frosting across the top of each cookie and gave Charlie and Lily candy corn to put on top of it. Charlie and Lily have recently discovered that they LOVE candy corn (as do I!) so it was challenging at first to keep them from eating it all. Charlie got mad at me for telling him he couldn't eat any more, so he half-heartedly tossed a handful of candy corn on some cookies and stalked off. But Lily enjoyed the activity.
Later that day we made Indian headbands. Charlie and Lily colored some paper, then I cut it to fit around their heads. They picked out feathers and I stapled them onto the bands. In hindsight, I should have had bigger feathers and made the bands thinner, but Charlie and Lily didn't care. Lily wore her "hat" ALL evening.
The next two projects are by far my favorites. We made these hand print turkeys this morning. I painted Charlie and Lily's hands with the different colors and they pressed them onto the paper to make turkey feathers. Once the paint dried, they glued on the pieces of the turkey body and their favorite element, the googly eyes. I just think they're so cute!
And finally, for lunch today we made these turkey peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They were a huge hit and both kids ate nearly every bite.
Today I saw a quote floating around the Internet that I really liked - "It's not that happy people are thankful, it's that thankful people are happy." It struck a cord with me because I feel like it describes Joe and I perfectly - we live happy, thankful lives. We are thankful for the wonderful family and friends who have stood by us during the hardest years of our lives. We are thankful for our blog readers who offer constant support, and who love our children even though they've never met them. We're thankful for each other and the fact that we are still happy and in love after all we've been through. And most of all we are thankful for our amazing, beautiful children, who give us so much joy each and every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Letter G

2011-11-21T14:08:00.000-05:00

Due to a busy social calendar, family obligations and random doctor appointments, G Week ended up spanning two weeks instead of just one since I was unable to find time in just one week to fit in the activities I'd planned. And even going two weeks I still had to leave a few things out, but we managed to cover the letter G. We were lucky enough to have Uncle John visit one morning, and while he was here he helped us make some goldfish bowl G's. For days after, every time Charlie saw them he would say, "I make goldfish with Uncle John!"We sang "The Green Grass Grows" and practiced naming objects that start with the letter G. We also made a special graham cracker snack. Charlie and Lily spread peanut butter on graham crackers, then decorated them with sprinkles and a few chocolate chips.This picture is up just because it make me laugh. Both Charlie and Lily love to wear Mr. Potato Head's glasses. Perfect fit, right?

This past week we also took Charlie and Lily to get their Christmas pictures taken. We actually went twice - attempt one at our usual Picture People was a flop and none of the pictures were any good. We gave it another try a few days later at the Target Portrait Studio near our house and got much better pictures! Here are a few shots of Charlie and Lily in their festive attire before we left.

National Prematurity Awareness Day

2011-11-17T01:00:00.000-05:00

If you listen to any of the popular Top 40 type radio stations, you've heard the Lady Gaga song "Born This Way." It always makes me think of Charlie and Lily because of the line, "I was born to survive." I feel like those 5 little words sum up our miracle babies perfectly. From the moment they were born they had to fight to survive. There was no cuddling in a cozy bed with their mommy and daddy or being held by their loving, adoring relatives for the first time. Instead, there was air being pumped into their tiny, underdeveloped lungs. Tubes being jammed down their throat. Needles being shoved into their minuscule arms. It would have been so easy for them to give up - after all they were born 15 weeks early. Everyone would have understood. But Charlie and Lily, like many preemie miracles, were born to survive.

Unfortunately, their fight is a not a unique one, but they are fortunate enough to be counted among those who won the fight. Their sister, our beautiful Annaleigh, was among this terrible battle's many, many casualties.

Today, November 17th, is National Prematurity Awareness Day. Every year, half a million babies in the United States are born too soon, too small and very sick - that's 1 in every 8 babies. Since 1981, the rate of premature birth has risen 36%, and in half the cases it is not understood what went wrong. The March of Dimes is leading the fight for answers, and ultimately, prevention.

Please visit the March of Dimes' Prematurity Campaign to see how you can help. We fight, so babies don't have to.

Charlie at birth - 1 lb, 13 oz.
Charlie now, 28 months old
Lily at birth - 1 lb, 8 oz

Lily today, 28 months old
Our Annaleigh, just days before she was diagnosed with the NEC that took her life.

Rest in Peace, Mom-Mom Lucy

2011-11-12T15:01:00.001-05:00

Early yesterday morning Mom-Mom Lucy passed away. Lucy was Joe's paternal grandmother and Charlie and Lily's great-grandmother. To say that Lucy will be missed is an understatement. Never again will there be such a unique, funny, kind, strong, loving woman.We regret that Charlie and Lily will not have the chance to get to know her better, but Joe and I are both incredibly happy that Lucy was able to know her great-grandchildren before she died. I truly believe that right now Lucy is in a better place, and in that place she is very busy doing great-grandmotherly things with Annaleigh. We love you, Lucy.

Trick or Treat (and other holiday prep)

2011-11-05T20:26:00.000-04:00

Charlie and Lily had a wonderful Halloween! We started it off in the late morning at Crackers' office. I got Charlie and Lily into their costumes and they trick-or-treated at the doors and cubicles of my mom's coworkers. Everyone in the office was so sweet and kind - they were armed with treats and happily responded to every little shout of "trick or treat!" Charlie and Lily loved it. When we went home for lunch Lily kept saying, "I trick or treat again!" For dinner, Charlie and Lily helped me make mummy dogs, which they had a lot of fun with. We even made up our own mummy dance.

After dinner it was back in the costumes for trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

By this time. Charlie and Lily were Halloween pros. They charged right up our neighbors' front doors, knocked and happily accepted their treats.

Then it was time for the best part - checking out their loot!

This past week we spent recovering from our Halloween fun and starting to prepare for the upcoming holidays as well. On Tuesday we made cereal acorns. I drew an acorn onto a paper bag and covered it with glue. Charlie and Lily glued Cheerios to the acorn's cap and sprinkled oatmeal onto the bottom. The oatmeal sprinkling was by far their favorite (and the messiest) part.

Later in the week Charlie and Lily broke out their painting skills to make these paper plate turkeys for us to use to decorate the house for Thanksgiving. At least, they're supposed to be turkeys. Charlie keeps insisting they're suns, lol.

And then we did a tiny bit of Christmas prep - we browsed the Target toy catalog together! Charlie and Lily enjoyed pointing out all the toys they liked...lucky for them, Grandma Anne has already bought them most of the things they want ;)

Halloween Fun

2011-10-30T07:40:00.013-04:00

Tomorrow is Halloween, and we are ready! We spent the past week doing lots of fun Halloween activities to get in the spirit. We started with a costume dress rehearsal. I present the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who.
Last Sunday morning Charlie started asking to bake cupcakes. I don't know why he had that idea in his head, but I had all the ingredients on hand so I figured why not. I dug out some Halloweeny decorations from my cabinets and let Charlie and Lily fancy up the cupcakes. Lily felt it best to dump all the sprinkles on just two cupcakes.Next up were paper plate jack-0-lanterns. Charlie and Lily painted their plates orange, then we glued on faces made from black construction paper.
We also made hand print bats.Then it was time for trick-or-treat practice. I wanted to make sure that Charlie and Lily knew what to do on Halloween, so I shut myself behind the basement door and told them to knock on it. Then I opened it and waited for them to say "trick-or-treat!" When they did, I put a Teddy Graham in their buckets. Needless to say, they caught on very quickly to this new game, and now whenever anyone goes in the basement they run to the door, knock and yell, "trick-or-treat!"
Yesterday it snowed! In New Jersey in October. Blah! We refused to let the wintery weather deter us from our Halloween activities though. I cleaned the snow off our pumpkins and we turned them in to Cookie Monster and Elmo.
On Thursday we attended Haunted High School at Joe's school. It was so cute - all the classrooms were done up with different activities. Charlie and Lily did a pumpkin craft, got Halloween tattoos, picked up some treats, decorated a cupcake and dug through hay in search of mini pumpkins. It was so much fun! We took our little pumpkins home and Charlie and Lily painted them yesterday. They love to paint!We're very excited for Halloween tomorrow! Hopefully we won't be trick-or-treating in boots and snowsuits...

NICU Graduates

2011-10-21T14:41:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday, Charlie and Lily had their very last NICU clinic appointment at St. Peter's. As always, they met with an occupational therapist, a speech therapist and a physical therapist to be evaluated. I am so proud to say that at not quite 28 months actual, both Charlie and Lily scored ABOVE their actual age in perceptive language and fine motor, somewhere in the 30-32 month range. I get teary just typing that. Two years ago when we left the NICU, Joe and I were fully prepared for Charlie and Lily to be developmentally delayed, even beyond their adjusted age. To say that they have by far exceeded our expectations is an understatement. Today we have two toddlers who talk to us in full sentences (full paragraphs, sometimes!), sing entire songs, can identify every letter of the alphabet, can count to 20, know all their colors and all their shapes (including things like hexagon and octagon), jump, run, dance, who tell us not only what they want for breakfast, but what they want us to have so they can mooch....

I could go on, but now I'm gushing. But anyway, Joe and I feel like the the luckiest parents in the world right about now. And even though we will no longer be visiting St. Peter's for appointments, our hearts will always remain there. Dr. Hiatt will always be our hero, and the wonderful nurses will always be our angels. And we will always be proud, proud parents, no matter what :)

The Letter F

2011-10-16T07:37:00.009-04:00

Letter F Week! To celebrate, we sang "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" and talked about the different members of our family. Charlie and Lily also got to visit with lots of family members this week - they saw Crackers, Mom-Mom, Pop-Pop, Uncle John, Aunt Bec, Nana, Great-Grandma Lucy and Great-Grandpa Fred all in one week!

For art, Charlie and Lily decorated Fs with feathers. Feathers are fun!
They also tore tissue paper squares and used them to decorate fish. I had forgotten, however, that our cat Roger has a serious addiction to eating tissue paper. Two toddlers tearing tissue paper creates a colorful buffet for a cat :P
Lily likes it when her baby doll does whatever she does. So I have to wash the baby's hands before lunch, the baby goes down for her nap when Lily does, etc. Lily also asks me to change the baby's diaper often, so the other day I handed Lily a diaper and told her to go ahead. Even with a little help from Charlie (and a Pluto figurine) it was a little tricky to figure out.But we got it ;)
I recently moved Charlie and Lily's arm chairs from their bedroom down to the living room. They love lounging in them with a snack and some Elmo.
And they love to play with Daddy! Here's everyone "sleeping". Too bad it was just pretend ;)

Another Thank You

2011-10-12T17:30:00.002-04:00

I know I have posted this before, but I have no other way to thank your mysterious benefactor other than on our blog, since I have no idea who it is! Almost a year since the first envelope arrived we still continue to receive cards in the mail on a fairly regular basis containing very generous cash amounts. The cards are never signed and we do not know where they are coming from. My friends and family love to hear about the arrival of the envelopes, because they say it helps restore their faith in people and reminds them that there is still good in the world. Joe and I remain deeply touched and grateful (and humbled) by this amazing person. We try to use the money solely for Charlie and Lily, to give them things that enrich their lives and make them happy (as you can see below!). The money we've received has gone to Music Together classes, which Charlie and Lily simply adore and have gotten SO much out of, day trips to the farm, art supplies, breakfasts with the characters at Sesame Place, etc.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I just wanted to again express our gratitude to this generous and caring person. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!

The Letter E

2011-10-09T08:01:00.009-04:00

Last week was E Week! We read Green Eggs and Ham and sang "Do Your Ears Hang Low." For our art project, Charlie and Lily made E elephants. We used the dot paints again for these, which I are just so great for toddlers. Charlie and Lily love them.
I also hard-boiled some eggs for Charlie and Lily to check out. My plan was for us to dye them orange and put jack-o-lantern faces, but I got lazy and decided to skip the dying :P Instead we attempted to color the eggs and put stickers on them, but the stickers wouldn't stick and the crayon didn't really show up. So we ended up just sending the eggs rolling down Charlie's car ramp and hiding them under cups and guessing which cup had the egg. They also tasted the eggs. I knew they would hate the texture, but Lily insisted we "open" one, so I did. She took a giant bite with a ton of enthusiasm...and then spit it right out, lol. But I had some delicious egg salad for lunch that afternoon.
And now just a few random pics! After Lily finished her lunch the other day she came back to the table to bug Charlie while he was still eating. They were so cute though - Charlie kept leaning down and putting his head on hers. Of course, I didn't catch that on camera.Lily reading one of her and Charlie's favorite books, Raindrops: Showers of Color. They pretty much have it memorized and can "read" it to themselves.
Within the last few weeks Charlie has fallen in love with his "binket." It no longer can stay in his crib during the day - he has to bring it downstairs with him and carry it around.
After music class on Wednesday, Charlie, Lily and I stopped at the farm market to get some mums and pumpkins. Charlie and Lily had a great time picking out the pumpkins, and were wonderful helpers when it came to pushing the cart. We also picked up Daddy's favorite caramel apple walnut pie, and the whole way home Charlie and Lily were yelling, "Daddy pie! Daddy be happy!" And he was :)

The Letter D

2011-10-01T07:46:00.011-04:00

This week Charlie and Lily learned about the letter D. We read Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs and sang "Five Little Ducks." We went outside to dig in the sand table, and practiced on of their favorite activities - dancing! For art, Charlie and Lily made ducks.
We also made drums. To decorate the drums, I had Charlie and Lily do some finger painting. I also gave them cookie cutters to dip in the paint and stamp on the paper. Charlie loves stamping!
Once the paintings were done and dry, I wrapped them around empty oatmeal canisters to make drums. But of course, before I could do that, the activity had to end as it always does - with some body painting (this is why we paint in just diapers...).
This time they were so messy that we had to go right to the bathtub. No one seemed to mind though.
On Monday Lily had a follow-up orthopedist appointment. After 2 hours in the waiting room (2 hours!!!), Lily had another x-ray which showed that her fracture is healing but is not fully mended yet. She has to wear her sling for another 2 weeks and then we go back for another x-ray (and hopefully a shorter wait). The sling doesn't slow her down a bit, as you can see. She can still easily feed her baby doll while wearing two stacking rings on her feet like high heels. Can YOU do that?!?And a big thank you to Pop-Pop! He watched Charlie all on his own for me while I took Lily to the doctor. This was the longest stretch that Pop-Pop has ever flown solo and he did an amazing job! He stepped right up and fed Charlie lunch when I realized that Lily and I were at the doctor for the long haul, and he even changed a poop diaper. Pop-Pop rocks! Miss Lily deserves some props too, as she was an absolute angel at that appointment. We know that 2 hours is equal to about 3 days in toddler time, but Lily was such a good girl in the waiting room, charming the other patients, playing make believe games and turning the chairs into her own personal jungle gym. She didn't even mind that her lunch ended up being a package of peanut butter cheese crackers from my emergency snack stash.

Lily and Charlie's Version of "C is for Cookie"

2011-09-25T21:02:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is the Lily and Charlie rendition of the Sesame Street classic, "C is for Cookie." Pay no attention to the one-second tantrum from the Bug.

The Letter C

2011-09-25T07:42:00.009-04:00

Charlie and Lily's current favorite song is "C is for Cookie" - they sing it all the time. Joe got a cute video of them singing the other night that I need to ask him to post. But anyway, we were naturally excited about C Week! We started out by reading If You Give a Cat a Cupcake and then of course we had to make some chocolate chip cookies. Charlie and Lily were very enthusiastic about baking the cookies. We were finishing up as Joe was coming home from work, and Lily stood in the door and yelled out to him, "I making cookies! I making cookies!" They were a little afraid of the mixer, but had no problem stirring the ingredients up by hand.
And for some reason Lily felt it necessary to sit on the cookie sheets.
And then the hardest part - waiting for them to bake. Charlie kept a watchful eye the entire time.
For art we made caterpillar C's. We used dot paints, which are kind of like Bingo markers and these were a big hit. Very little mess, and Charlie and Lily loved pounding them down on the paper.
We also celebrated the first day of fall on Friday by making autumn trees. The sister of a friend of Joe's works at a job that requires her to order from Oriental Trading Company often, so they frequently send her gift cards. She passed a bunch of the cards on to me, so I was able to purchase a ton of great art supplies, including the dot paints and a big bag of felt leaves. (Thanks, Alison!) Charlie and Lily used some of the leaves on Friday, gluing them to construction paper tree trunks. Lily loaded her tree with leaves, but Charlie took a more minimalist approach.
Charlie and Lily have also started playing pretend a lot. They have frequent conversations on their play phones with Nana, Crackers, Pop-Pop and Mom-Mom, and they love to go on "trips", a game where they say ""Goodbye, I miss you!" then walk around the corner, come back and say "I back!" Lol. Lily also spends a lot of time with her baby. She puts her down for naps (which involves slamming her face down onto the top of our portable air conditioner, for some reason), asks us to change Baby's diaper and feeds her a bottle. The other day Charlie and Lily were sharing their Goldfish crackers with Baby and Charlie went right over and got Baby's bottle to feed her. He usually has no interest in dolls, so I thought it was cute!
And then there's Lily's new sense of style. She's become very opinionated on what she wears, and frequently asks for bracelets, hats and certain shoes. Yesterday she paired these awesome rainbow pants with a purple hat and Elmo shoes. Fierce! And then later in the day, after we took Charlie and Lily shopping for new shoes, Lily exchanged the Elmo shoes for a pair of sequin-encrusted pink sneakers that she picked out herself. Charlie tried to take home a pair of pink party shoes, but we talked him into a more rugged pair of navy blue sneakers instead ;)
Thank you for all the concern for Lily's arm! She's been doing great wearing the sling and judging by the way she's climbing the furniture, her arm is feeling better. We have an appointment with the orthopedist tomorrow morning for another x-ray and hopefully her arm will be all healed and we can ditch the sling - I'm tired of finding peas and Teddy Grahams inside it....

Apple Festival and the Letter B

2011-09-18T07:36:00.014-04:00

Yesterday was a beautiful fall-like day, and it also happened to be apple festival weekend at Terhune Orchards. We were excited to get out in the beautiful weather and kick off the fall season with some apple and pumpkin picking. The first place we stopped was the gourd patch to pick some gourds. Charlie and Lily had no idea what a gourd was, but they enjoyed hunting for them.
We then had to explain the Charlie that the gourds were not edible.
Then it was off the orchard to pick something that Charlie actually could eat - apples! There were tons of apples right at toddler height, which made them perfect for Charlie and Lily.
We took home about 8 apples, but paid for closer to 14, since Charlie and Lily felt the need to take bites out of almost every apple they picked.
Charlie was so caught up in the moment that he forgot that he actually does not like apples.
Lily loves them though, so she and I took a break for a little snack while Joe and Charlie did the picking.
Yay for apples!
Last week we also learned about the letter B. Lily's accident on Monday threw me a bit, so I didn't get to everything I had on our lesson plans, but we did bake banana chocolate chip muffins, which they really enjoyed. It's nice now that they understand what's going on in the kitchen a bit - they put the liners in the muffin tins, dumped in the flour and milk, stirred the batter and stood in the front of the oven looking in the door and waiting for the muffins to finish baking. I used this recipe from Weelicious - she has so many great, healthy recipes for kids. These muffins are so sweet and delicious and they have no sugar! We also made bumble B's for art.
I also decided to break out the Play-Doh for the first time this week. They weren't quite sure what to make of it, but they were interested enough that it passed the morning nicely!

Lily's Fall (and the Letter A)

2011-09-13T07:40:00.010-04:00

Yesterday was quite a day. I had taken Charlie and Lily to the playground in the morning, and while Lily was on the climbing structure about to walk across the wobbly bridge, a little boy raced across and plowed right into her. The climbing structure was completely enclosed on all sides, however the platform she was standing on had a hole cut out of it with a circular ladder underneath. Lily had been standing a good ways from the hole, but when the boy ran into her she was shoved back and just happened to tumble down the hole. I saw her fall and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped beating. I scooped her up and she was sad and scared, crying and asking "What happen? What happen?" I didn't see any obvious injuries, but after calming her down I noticed that she was not raising her right arm at all. She would let me move it for her, but she would not use it herself.

So we headed to the car and drove right to the pediatrician, who sent us to the radiologist for x-rays. (I have to praise Charlie here, because he was dragged along with me and Lily to all these places and was a total angel, even though we were out WAY past lunch and nap time and he had to be starving and tired. He's such a good boy!) The x-rays showed a fracture in Lily's right shoulder and the doctor told us we needed to see an orthopedist. I was able to get Lily an appointment with one for that very afternoon, so after rushing home to feed the kids lunch and to drop Charlie off to stay with my mom (thank you for leaving work, Crackers!) Lily visited the orthopedist. She was such a good girl for the entire 2 hours we were there, and was happy when her Daddy came. After looking at the x-rays, the orthopedist told us that he could not put a cast on her arm due to the location of the fracture, so all she needs is a sling. She should be healed in about 2 weeks, which is great news! She's been good so far about wearing the sling and does not seem to be in any pain. So that was our adventure...I think we'll be staying away from the playground for awhile.

In other news, now that fall is here and school has started we are back to our weekly lessons. I decided that we'd go through the alphabet again, since Charlie and Lily have a much better understanding of all of this now. We started, of course, with A. Charlie and Lily ate apples...well, Lily ate apples.
We sang Mr. Alligator and made Alligator A's.
But by far, the week's favorite activity was the making of edible acorns. I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine and couldn't wait to try it. Here are the ingredients - Hershey's Kisses, vanilla frosting, mini cookies and pretzel sticks.
This craft also doubled as snack time.
Using the frosting as glue, we attached all the pieces together.

Ta da! Delicious!

A Miracle?

2011-09-10T21:32:00.000-04:00

So today has been a long day, to put it mildly. But the story of today's stress is not the point of this blog, nor even of this particular post. I want to tell you a story, and I want to say "thank you" to some very important people.

We still own the house we moved out of last December, but that's a long story and if you don't already know it you probably don't need to know the details. Suffice to say, I stopped by the house we own but don't live in today and, low and behold, the basement is flooded. We've owned it for five years and never had water and now, less then a week before we're finally supposed to close on a sale, this happens. Needless to say, I was upset.

I called my mother in law (Crackers) to make sure she could stay with Charlie and Lily so I could work at the house (Brooke is away for the weekend); I called my brother (Umple John) to bring his tools and his handy self to help me clean; I called my parents (Mommom and Poppop) to bring a shopvac and more hands; I called my sister in law (Aunt Jill) to bring another shop vac. Nobody hesitated, nobody complained that their Saturday was ruined. Everybody dropped what they were doing and came right over.

It's nice, but how is this a miracle? I was supposed to go to my cousin Amy's housewarming party with Charlie and Lily this afternoon but was pretty sure I was going to be preoccupied at the house all day and unable to attend (I was able to go; congrats Amy and Anthony!), so I texted her sister Melissa to pass it on to Amy so they knew not to expect us. Melissa asked if I needed anything and I responded "an extra miracle would be nice."

About thirty seconds after hanging up, Umple John pulled up with all his tools. About ten seconds after that, Mommom and Poppop got there with all sorts of things I hadn't thought to ask them to bring. About five minutes after that, Aunt Jill arrived, having brought us not only the promised shop vac but also some extra supplies from Home Depot that she bought for us on her way over. And we spent our day ripping up gross wet carpet and scraping linoleum flooring.

It didn't occur to me until finally sitting down around 9pm this evening that maybe Melissa sent me that miracle after all. Think about it: how many people are lucky enough to have a family who will literally drop whatever their doing to suddenly and without notice come and help do gross, smelly, physical labor on a beautiful Saturday morning? I asked Melissa for a miracle, and our family came.

Perhaps there is something to this after all. Looking back on the two-plus years of Charlie and Lily, on Annaleigh's sickness and death, on extreme prematurity, on a nightmare pregnancy, on infertility, I'm realizing that our family has done more for us then anyone has any right to expect. I can't possibly tell you everything that they've meant to us and every way they've helped us, but I can tell you that we wouldn't be here-- none of us-- without them. Their love and support and shop vacs have kept us strong and made us the family that we are.

So to Crackers and Mommom and Poppop and Aunt Jill and Umple John (and everyone else, too), we thank you for everything you've done for us and we love you very, very much.

Is it a miracle to have a wonderful family? I don't know. But even if it's not, on days like today, it feels like a miracle to me.

Thank you, Daddy!

2011-09-01T07:37:00.010-04:00

Dear Daddy,

Thank you so much for the most fun summer ever! We had the best time! The pool, Sesame Place, Junglerrrific, the playground, Wildwood - we loved every minute of it, especially the fact that we got to do all of those things with you. You are the best Daddy ever and next summer will be here before we know it! Good luck at school this year - we will be here waiting and ready to play every afternoon when you come home. We love you!

Love,
Charlie and Lily

Love those Wildwood Days

2011-08-27T07:39:00.026-04:00

This week we were lucky enough to spend 3 days in Wildwood. And not just Joe, the kids and I - Mom-Mom, Pop-Pop, Crackers, Uncle John and Aunt Bec all joined us! We had the BEST time! A huge thank you to the fantastic Acropolis Oceanfront Resort in North Wildwood, which is owned by my mother-in-law's uncle. They are always so wonderful about letting us stay in their hotel, which has great big rooms and is right on the beach!

We lived it up while on vacation and crammed a ton of fun into our 3 days. Charlie and Lily didn't waste any time getting into things. Here they are helping us unpack the car.
Checking in!
Joe and I were afraid that Charlie and Lily wouldn't like the waves and sand at the beach. We couldn't have been more wrong! They LOVED everything about it. Lily wanted to spend all her time in the ocean, and kept yelling "BACK! Ocean, back!!!" whenever we made her get out.
We also spent a lot of time on the boardwalk.
Although he's been scared of rides all summer long, Charlie put his fears aside on vacation and joined Lily in the fun. He just couldn't resist the allure of the choo-choo ride.
And what's a trip to the boardwalk without some ski-ball?
We apparently need to work on the concept of "rolling"...
On Thursday morning we rented bikes and went for an early bike ride on the boardwalk. We loved this surrey bike, even if it was incredibly hard to peddle!
Ridin' in style.
We also visited the Cape May zoo. Charlie and Lily weren't super interested, but they did take some time to check out the birds, llamas and monkeys. And wearing Pop-Pop's hat made it all the more interesting.
Hello, goat.
We were also lucky enough to avoid Hurricane Irene, which is making its way right towards us. Wildwood was evacuated Friday morning, which was thankfully when we were scheduled to leave anyway. The entire town was shutting down as we were pulling out, so we're very grateful we got our trip in when we did. We felt bad for all the people who just arrived and had to turn around and go home!

Thank you again to Uncle Jim, Nick and Jen for having us at The Acropolis, and thank you to Mom-Mom, Pop-Pop, Crackers, Uncle John and Aunt Bec for cramming yourselves on to too-small boardwalk rides, patiently building sand castles and holding little hands in the surf and for allowing two toddlers to burst into your hotel rooms whenever they felt like it. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Love, Annaleigh

2011-08-22T00:00:00.001-04:00

Two years ago today we said goodbye to our beautiful daughter. It feels like ages ago, but at the same time it feels like yesterday. I think both Joe and I could recall for you just about every second of Annaleigh's last day with us. In fact, I bet we could recall just about every second of her entire 8 week life, because those memories are all we have left of our precious Annaleigh, and we cherish them dearly.

Last week Joe and I were talking about today, the anniversary of Annaleigh's death. It is so important to us that this date mean something, not just to Joe and I but to Charlie and Lily as well. We want them to know their sister as they grow. To know that they are two of three. To never forget her. We want her memory to live on.

And then we had an idea. An idea we are very excited about and can't wait to move forward with. So, allow me to announce our new organization, called Love, Annaleigh. Love, Annaleigh will be dedicated to supplying the NICU at St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ with items they need to continue their exceptional care of premature and sick infants, such as blankets, clothing, hats, toys, etc.

We're still in the early stages of planning and are currently talking with the St. Peter's Foundation to get the ball rolling. The idea, however, is for the NICU to supply Joe and I with a list of items that they need. We will then seek donation of these items and on August 22 each year our family will deliver them to the NICU. We will be helping the St. Peter's NICU, which as you all know is dear to our hearts, especially since it was the only home Annaleigh knew, and we will be helping Charlie and Lily to remember their sister and honor her each year.

We are so excited about this endeavor! A friend is currently working on a logo for us, and we plan to set up a website and lots more. We'll keep you posted on our progress.

Annaleigh, you will never be forgotten, and we will continue to remind the world how special and amazing you were. You've already touched countless lives, and we know you're not done yet. We love you with all our hearts, today and always.

My Farm-Filled Birthday

2011-08-18T07:42:00.014-04:00

Last Friday we celebrated my birthday with a trip to Johnson's Farm. My friend Trish had been recommending it to me for almost a year, and my birthday seemed like the perfect day to take Charlie and Lily on a trip there. We started off by hitting the discovery barn, where Charlie and Lily rode tractors and tried out different "jobs." Lily apparently wants to be a construction worker.
Then we stopped to feed the animals. The farm had sheep, chickens and pigs, but Charlie and Lily were mostly interested in the goats.
We ended our visit with a hayride to the fields, where we picked corn and nectarines. Charlie and Lily weren't too interested in the corn (but I'm glad we got some because it was SO delicious), but they enjoyed picking the nectarines from the trees.
After nap, Joe, Charlie and Lily gave me some great gifts, including a beautiful, cozy photo blanket (I need to get a good picture of it!) and a cookbook of recipes to get kids involved in the kitchen. That evening Joe and I got out for a nice dinner and saw The Help (a really good movie and an even better book, FYI!).

The next day our families came over for some cake and presents! Charlie and Lily loved helping me open my gifts.
Charlie was very interested in my Bath and Body Works soap. I kept trying to teach him how to smell it, but he kept trying to eat it instead.
And of course, I got some help blowing out my candles!

Local Friends and Family: Please Vote!

2011-08-13T07:58:00.003-04:00

If you are out and about this weekend (and next weekend too!) please stop by the Quakerbridge Mall between 12:00 and 6:00 to vote for Charlie and Lily in the March of Dimes Beautiful Baby Contest. $1.00 per vote with all proceeds going directly to the March of Dimes. Thank you!

"Most beautiful?!? That's me!"
"Eh, whatever. I'm already a star."

Happy Birthday Mommy!

2011-08-12T07:53:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday to a wonderful wife and mother! (Or, as Charlie and Lily say, "Happy Mama!")

Making a splash

2011-08-02T07:44:00.009-04:00

One of the best things about our development is that we have a great pool within walking distance from our house. It's big, clean, quiet and has a nice baby pool, which is perfect because Charlie and Lily love, love, love the pool. Here are a few pics from our recent swim.

Suited up.
I have to wear a hat when we go out in the sun because I have skin discoloration on my face (technical term is "malasma" I think) from hormone surges during my pregnancy. Since I wear a hat, Lily insists on wearing one too, and insists that Charlie wear one also. Charlie is not so keen on the hat, but Lily likes hers. Even if she does spend more time taking it off and making me put it back on her than she does actually wearing it.
Arriving in style.
Flying with Daddy.

Summer colds

2011-07-27T07:38:00.007-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, but there hasn't been a whole lot going on around here in the past week and a half or so thanks to the nasty summer colds that we all managed to catch. The never-ending summer colds - it's been over 10 days and we're still on the mend. Lily got an ear infection, Charlie got an ugly cough, I lost my voice for days and Joe suffered terrible nasal issues. But after going through boxes and boxes of tissues and using the bulb syringe on Charlie and Lily so much that Lily actually started requesting it, we seem to be reaching the end of the snot. We mostly laid low last week - the colds coupled with the extreme heat we were having here in NJ didn't give us much choice! Thankfully yesterday we were all feeling much better, so we celebrated with a day at Sesame Place. Nothing lifts the spirits like a hug from Bert, or "Burp" as Lily calls him ;)

We still managed to have fun at home though, while fighting the colds. Charlie and Lily worked on their balance. This kept them busy for a loooong time ;)
And then there as this....
And this! You never know when the papparrazi may pop up, so it pays to eat all your meals incognito, just in case!
And now I need to brag a little bit, because hey, it's my blog and I'm allowed to do that ;) Charlie and Lily have been learning SO much lately. Charlie can identify every letter of the alphabet, and Lily can sing her ABCs up to the letter E. They can both count to 3, and fill in the numbers when we count to 10 with them. They know all their colors and their shapes too. They love to sing - we've been taking them to Music Together classes since the spring and they LOVE them. Charlie constantly asks us to put on "mu-ZIK" for him and sometimes we'll just hear one of them start singing a song to themselves. It's so cute. And the talking! They are talking SO much. They repeat everything, but also say plenty on their own. Lily will say phrases like, "I see you!" and Charlie utters, "Come on!" all the time, lol. The other day I sneezed and Lily said, "Bless you, Mama." Every day they're saying something new and it's so fun!

In other news, I recently started working again. Not full time - it's important to me and Joe that I stay home with Charlie and Lily during the day, so I started waiting tables in the evenings at our local Cracker Barrel. Serving is exhausting, but luckily my role as a mom to two toddlers has me more than used to taking orders, fulfilling odd requests and cleaning up from messy people, so I'm doing okay! And Joe is doing awesome holding down the fort at dinner time and bedtime. He's even become and expert with bath time - not an easy feat!

2 Year Stats

2011-07-19T14:01:00.001-04:00

Today we took Charlie and Lily for their 2-year well visit at the pediatrician. We are so happy with their stats! Charlie weighs 25lbs 14oz and is 33 1/2" tall. He is in the 22nd percentile for both weight and height on the chart for his actual age. Lily weighs 26lbs 14oz and is 34" tall. She is in the 50th (!) percentile for both height and weight for her actual age. It's still amazing to us that these teeny preemies are now so big and strong!

Out and about

2011-07-15T21:13:00.011-04:00

This past week Charlie and Lily have been hitting the town! Last weekend they attended two birthday parties - happy birthday, Ava, Sofia, Gia and Danny! They went and played at Kid Junction, attended the March of Dimes March for Babies awards reception and topped it all off with a trip to Friendly's. Here are some pictures from all the fun!

First thing first - ice cream! This afternoon we met Aunt Jill at the park to play, then went to Friendly's for dinner with Jill and Uncle Aaron.
After they ate their dinners, we treated Charlie and Lily to cone head ice cream sundaes. This was the first time they've ever had their own sundaes, and they certainly enjoyed them!
At their friend Danny's birthday party, Charlie and Lily had a blast using the swing set, splashing in the water table and running on the slip n' slide. And of course, Lily managed to get hands on her favorite toy - a ball.
Danny is the son of my good friend Lauren, and she and I decided that it would work out nicely for us if Lily were to marry Danny one day. And Lily and Danny seem open to the idea - here they are on their first date ;)
Tuesday night was the March of Dimes March for Babies awards reception. I gave my speech (the one I gave at the actual walk) again before the awards were presented, and Charlie and Lily spent a lot of time charming all the guests. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to or was a member of Team Three Cheers for Babies - we won 3rd place family team in Mercer County after raising over $5,000 for the March of Dimes. Thank you all so much!

Soaking Up Summer

2011-07-10T07:38:00.012-04:00

So far, our summer has been very fun and very busy! There has been lots of swimming, a few trips to Sesame Place, lots of birthday parties and plenty of playground time. We're also trying to fit in some one-on-one time with Charlie and Lily, which is something we're rarely able to do. This past Friday was one of those days, however, and it was a lot of fun! The morning kicked off with some monster cookie pancakes (mix from Target!) that Joe whipped up for us. Charlie approved :)
After breakfast, Joe and I headed out with our dates - me and Charlie and Joe and Lily. Charlie and I made our first stop at Crackers' office for a quick visit. After greeting everyone in the office and mooching cookies off my mom's co-workers, Charlie and I were off again. We went to Barnes & Noble to read some books (and pick out a few new truck books for Charlie) , then to PetSmart to see the animals. Then it was lunch at Chick-fil-a. Friday was "Dress Like a Cow Day", and while we weren't dressed like cows ourselves we did enjoy watching all the other patrons in their get-ups. Plus the Chick-fil-a cow made an appearance and visited Charlie at our table, which he loved. We also discovered that Charlie likes ketchup - he had a great time dunking his waffle fries in it.

Lily and Joe made their way to the mall. Lily rode the escalators, which she loves to do, and went on a carousel ride. Then she and Joe hit Build-a-Bear (thanks for the gift card, Aunt Rhea and Uncle Larry!) and made her very own, wonderfully tacky, monkey. She chose Monkey all by herself and also chose Monkey's outfit of black spandex pants and sparkly pink t-shirt. After the mall, Lily and Daddy hit Wendy's for a kids' meal and a Frosty.
Between all our activities, we try to spend a little time at home. Apparently we need to invest in a second pink princess ride-on toy.
I've put our weekly lessons on hold for the summer since we have so many other things going on. Still, Charlie and Lily have been excelling! They are talking up a storm - they repeat everything and say words that we had no idea they knew. Lily even said her first sentence the other day - "I in the pool!" Charlie can identify all of the letters up to "J" and when we sing the ABCs and stop at random points he can fill in the next letter. If we ask Lily how many of something there are, she can count them...well, up to 2! And they both know all their colors. We're so proud of them! (As a side note, I highly recommend the Pre-School Prep DVDs. After just two viewings of Meet the Colors, Charlie and Lily could identify all the colors and spent an afternoon walking around the living room pointing to various things and calling out their color.)

We've also done a few art projects, including letting Charlie and Lily paint for the first time. Messy, but fun!

And of course, we've been to Sesame Place! On this trip we spent our time in the Teeny Tiny Tidal Wave Pool, which Charlie and Lily adored. Lily and I also went on the tube slide (Charlie freaked when we tried to put the life vest on him). She LOVED it! We also saw the Elmo Rocks show. When the characters came on stage Lily started yelling and shrieking and waving her arms around and screaming out their names...apparently she's a groupie ;)

4h of July Fun (and happy birthday, Kim!)

2011-07-04T07:46:00.006-04:00

What's 4th of July weekend without a cookout? Yesterday we headed over to Aunt Patty's to celebrate cousin Kim's birthday (and the 4th).

Lily was happy to show off her American pride in this adorable outfit from Grandma.
Charlie is patriotic too!
The weather yesterday was really dicey - pouring rain, thunderstorms, sunshine, then more thunderstorms. But we managed to sneak in a little time in the pool at the cookout between rain showers.
After swimming, it was time for birthday cake! Lily stopped to take a picture with Kim, the birthday girl, but you can tell that her mind was on all the desserts on the table!
"Wait a minute, I get to eat cake AGAIN?!!? I love all these summer birthdays!!"

2nd Birthday Recap

2011-06-28T19:32:00.026-04:00

It's June 28, and Charlie and Lily's birthday festivities have come to an end. I'm happy to report that they seemed to enjoy every minute of celebrating their birthday! We kicked things off with a big party on Sunday. We held the party at the same park as last year, but scaled back a tad. The theme of the party was Bubble Guppies, which is Charlie and Lily's favorite show.

(Their awesome shirts, along with Lily's tutu and starfish hair tie, were made by my friend Sara at Peanut and Pumpkin Designs.)
We had a lot of busy toddlers in attendance at the party, so I thought it would be a good idea to provide them with some entertainment to keep them occupied. The park has a big playground, which was great, and I also hired Jessie from Little Rockers to come in and do an interactive musical show with the kids. It was a lot of fun!
After a lunch of pizza, panninis and peanut butter and jelly, it was time for cake. I love, love, love the amazing Bubble Guppies cake my friend Lucy made.
And I made some cupcakes to go with it.
We sang happy birthday twice so Charlie and Lily both got their own their own special moment.

"Happy birthday to ME!?!!? Yay!"
Lily's turn!
Thank you so much to all our wonderful friends and family who attended the party and celebrated with us!

The next day, Monday, was Charlie and Lily's actual birthday. Since they are both currently obsessed with Elmo and the Sesame Street gang, we thought that the perfect way to start their special day would be to attend Breakfast with Elmo and Friends at Sesame Place. The breakfast was great! Charlie and Lily got so much one-on-one time with the characters (they must have each visited with Elmo, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie and Zoe at least 5 times) and were so happy.

Look at Lily's face! She was shocked when she got a load of Big Bird. And to be fair, that is one freakishly giant bird.
"Lily, look, it's Zoe!!"
After breakfast we hit their favorite part of the park - the water attractions. They had a blast!
After playing in the water and having a snack, Charlie and Lily were exhausted so we decided to head home and let the recuperate from all their birthday fun. But first we hit the gift shop and let them pick out a little birthday treat. They chose some stuffed toys to add to their Sesame Street collection - Ernie, Bert, Super Grover and Oscar.
After a nap and dinner, Pop-Pop, Mom-Mom and Crackers joined us for some ice cream cake (and more presents, of course!). All in all, Charlie and Lily seemed to find turning 2 quite enjoyable :)

Happy 2nd Birthday!

2011-06-27T00:02:00.001-04:00

Dear Charlie and Lily,

How is it possible that you are already 2?!? Time is flying by, but Daddy and I are trying to cherish every single second because it's all been so wonderful. You are the happiest, sweetest, funniest, smartest, most amazing children in the world (at least we think so!) and every day Daddy and I marvel over how we managed to get lucky enough to be your parents. Two years ago we had no idea if you were even going to survive, and yet here you are today totally kicking butt and taking names and we are so amazingly proud of you both. We love you so, so much and wish you another wonderful year of Elmo, Mickey, playgrounds, pools, cupcakes, ice cream cones, Bubble Guppies and everything else that makes you smile - just say the word and it's yours! Happy 2nd birthday, beautiful miracles. We love you so much!

Love always,

Mommy and Daddy
Dear Beautiful Annaleigh,

Even though you are not here with us today, sweet girl, you are always in our hearts. We know that while you are not in our arms, you are in a place that is even better than we can imagine and is all that you deserve. Happy birthday, baby girl. We love always and forever.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Photo Session Pics

2011-06-22T07:43:00.011-04:00

Joe and I were so excited to get back the pictures from our photo session with Tears of Joy Photography a few weeks ago, and we could not have been happier with what we received. These pictures are exactly what we wanted and we love every single one of them! Thank you so much, Mary! And friends in the NJ/NY area, please consider Mary at Tears of Joy for your next photo session - she is truly amazing!

Pop Pop Videos: Happy Father's Day, Pop Pop!

2011-06-19T13:56:00.001-04:00

Dear Pop Pop,
Thanks for being the best pop pop ever! We tried to make a Pop Pop Video of our own to thank you for all the videos you've made for us. We love you!

xoxo
Charlie & Lily

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband, the very best daddy I know. There was never any doubt in my mind that Joe would be an amazing father, but after two years of seeing him in daddy action I am still blown away every single day by the amount of love and devotion he showers on Charlie and Lily. They are the luckiest babies in the world to have him as a father, and I am the luckiest woman to be able to call him my husband. Happy Father's Day, baby! We love you!

Father's Day flashback: 2010.

Five Senses: Taste and Smell

2011-06-18T07:41:00.023-04:00

This week we focused on the senses of taste and smell. This was a fun week! Charlie and Lily started the week by smelling different spices from the kitchen - cinnamon, garlic, nutmeg and oregano. They took a whiff of each, then I recorded their reactions in a little smell chart. As you can see, Charlie liked all the smells except oregano while Lily only liked the smell of cinnamon.

Our art project was yogurt finger painting. Charlie and Lily really liked this! I put vanilla yogurt into a muffin tin and used food coloring to dye the cups different colors. I spread out a towel, gave Charlie and Lily some paper and let them go to town.

Masterpieces!

We also baked brownies together. Joe was home early from work on Tuesday so he was able to help us out in the kitchen. Charlie was very excited to see the box of brownie mix.

Tasting the chocolate chips before adding them to the batter. Quality control is very important.

Stir it up!
Is it time for the tasting part yet?!?! This lesson rocks!"

Five Senses: Touch

2011-06-12T07:38:00.008-04:00

For the next few weeks we'll be focusing our little lessons on the five senses. I started with touch, because Charlie and Lily have definite aversions to certain textures when it comes to touching and eating and I want to work on that. We read a few of our touch and feel books, like That's Not My Bear and Baby Einstein Touch and Feel Farm Animals and learned the names of the different textures. We also played with a lot of pasta!

We started with dried penne. I gave Charlie and Lily some pasta in a big container, along with some measuring cup scoops and some smaller containers and showed them how to transfer the pasta from one container to the other with both their hands and the scoops. Lily really enjoyed this activity. She was pretty good with the scoops!
Later in the week I boiled the pasta, buried some Mickey and Sesame Street figurines beneath the noodles and showed Charlie and Lily how to dig them out. (Actually, I only buried Goofy, but Lily decided her other figures looked lonely and she added Ernie, Cookie Monster and Elmo to the pasta.) Charlie HATED this activity. He poked one finger into the pasta, made a terrible face and refused to touch it again. So more work is needed there! Lily touched the pasta enough to rescue her friends, but basically moved the noodles one at a time instead of digging in them.

For art we did ice cube painting. I froze some washable paint and water in a cupcake tin, then gave the colorful cubes to Charlie and Lily to paint with. Charlie really liked this activity and got pretty into it. Lily wasn't too thrilled with the cold - she sort of pushed the cubes, or circles I guess, around with one finger and then got annoyed when she got paint on her hands. Lily has fallen in love with the Cookie Monster and Elmo dolls we bought her and Charlie at Sesame Place. She carries them around, talks to them, hugs them, and plays with them all the time. Here they are joining Charlie and Lily for a tea party, complete with Teddy Grahams.

Elmo and Cookie also join us for meals. When I say, "It's time for breakfast/lunch/dinner" Lily runs and grabs Cookie and Elmo and puts them in "their" seat at the table. At first just Elmo joined us, but now Cookie dines with us as well. This provides a slight problem at dinner, when both Joe and I want to join Charlie and Lily at the table and Elmo and Cookie's seat is actually MY seat...

Photo Session Sneak Peek!

2011-06-05T07:39:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we had a photo session in a local park with Mary from Tears of Joy Photography. Mary was kind enough to donate a session to a giveaway on the blog It's a Preemie Thing, and I was lucky enough to win! Mary is just amazing, and we had a wonderful time shooting with her in the park. Last night she sent us a sneak preview of the pictures she took, and all I can say is that I can not WAIT to see the rest. Aren't these wonderful?!?

Fruit and Veggie Week

2011-06-04T20:14:00.010-04:00

Well, Fruit and Veggies Weeks, actually. I stuck with this lesson for two weeks because the weather has been so incredibly nice that we've spent a lot of time outside. As the first week came to an end I realized we'd barely done any of the things I planned, so I decided to just extend it by a week.

This was a fun lesson though! We read L, M, N, O, Peas (a super cute alphabet book) and watched the "Veggies Revolt" segment on Sesame Street. Charlie and Lily learned to identify all the fruits and vegetables in their play kitchen and we made a chart categorizing items as fruits or vegetables. Charlie did all the gluing here - he loves to glue!
For art we made torn paper apples.

This past week we also got rid of the high chairs and moved Charlie and Lily to booster seats at the table. They really like sitting at the "big table" and dinner time is so much nicer now that we all sit together as a family.As I mentioned above, we've been spending a lot of time outside since the weather has been so nice and warm. We had a lot of rain the week before, which brought out the ducks, so Charlie, Lily and I tried hard to make friends with some. We found a few in our front yard and ran out with some bread, but the ducks wanted nothing to do with us. But then, as luck would have it, the next evening a duck came right into our backyard to eat from our bird feeder. This duck was much friendlier and happily ate our bread.
And now my public service announcement to toddler moms everywhere: If you don't have a water table for your child(ren), get one. Now. Charlie and Lily LOVE their water table - it amuses them endlessly. In fact, one day last week I was able to sit in a chair next to them and READ while they played happily for almost an hour. And look how happy it makes them!
In contrast to fruit and veggie week, Nana brought Charlie and Lily some yummy bakery cupcakes on Friday. That evening we took them outside and let them go to town on the treats. Yum!
Thanks, Nana!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-30T21:08:00.013-04:00

Memorial Day weekend this year was HOT, but that didn't stop Charlie and Lily from hitting some cookouts! Thankfully, we travel with our trusty water table so they stayed nice and cool while joining in the fun.

Sunday was the annual turkey fry at Crackers' house.
Crackers set up the sprinkler too, so there was lots of wet fun. Lily loved the sprinkler, but Charlie needed a little help from Aunt Jill to get into it.
Charlie liked spending time with my mom's neighbors, Carmel and Norma. He's such a ladies' man!
Shoulder rides are fun!
And so is Nana!
Today we went to our friends Lauren and Pat's house for a little cookout with them and their two sons, Ryan and Danny. More water fun was had by all!

And Charlie and Lily enjoyed checking out Ryan and Danny's awesome swing set.

After dinner, Charlie spent some quality guy time with Danny.

But Lily made herself at home with all the boy toys. Football? Great!
And after a few trips up and down Lauren and Pat's stairs, it was time to call it a holiday weekend.

23 months and Sesame Place!

2011-05-27T19:29:00.028-04:00

Today Charlie and Lily are 23 months old. What better way to celebrate than with their first trip to Sesame Place? Joe had off today, so we decided to check out Sesame Place before the summer crowds hit. It turned out to be the perfect day to go - great weather and no crowds at all! We walked right on to the rides and there was no wait to see any of the characters. Charlie and Lily had a FANTASTIC time - they liked it even better than I hoped they would! I sense season passes in our future...

The first ride we attempted was the carousel.
Charlie was NOT a fan of this, and they ended up having to stop the ride so he and Joe could get off.

Lily seemed to enjoy it though!
Right outside the carousel was the gift shop, and of course we had to check that out. Charlie and Lily each got a small stuffed character (Elmo for Lily and Cookie for Charlie) and a t-shirt.
Then we headed to the water section of the park. We checked out Ernie's Water Works first. Lily was in her glory! She loves the water and was charging through all the fountains and faucets getting soaked.

When we finally managed to tear Lily away from the water works, we checked out the sand slides. Charlie really liked these - he went up and down a million times!
After the slides we started making our way over to the Elmo's World Live show, and ran right into Bert and Ernie!
"Woah - they're so much bigger than on TV..."
Then right across the street we found Cookie Monster!
The Elmo's World Live show was a big hit with both Charlie and Lily. Afterwards, we took a much needed break for some lunch.
While we were eating we spotted Elmo posing for pictures, so we hurried over as soon as we were done. Charlie was SO excited to see Elmo. He ran right to him and tried to get Elmo to pick him up.
Lily made sure to get an Elmo hug too.
Next was Cookie's Mountain. Lily managed to climb pretty high on this thing!
After the mountain, we decided to call it a day. The usual start of nap had long passed and everyone was getting tired. But we all had a wonderful day and can't wait to go back!

NICU Reunion 2011

2011-05-25T14:16:00.014-04:00

This past Sunday we attended St. Peter's annual NICU reunion. We were so excited to see some of our favorite nurses and doctors, as well as some of our old friends.

Charlie and Lily with Daddy, getting ready to head inside.
Chatting with Dr. Hiatt, the head neonatologist. Lily freaked when she saw him - I think she remembers freaking when he examined her at her last clinic appointment. Must be a trend. Dr. Hiatt worked very hard to win her over though, and before we left for the day she rewarded his efforts with a smile and a high-five (which she followed by applauding for herself).
Lily catching up with her good pal, Nurse Julia.
Charlie and his NICU nighttime buddy, Nurse Sue.
Lots of cookies were consumed at this reunion. Hey, it was a celebration, right?
Charlie and his NICU roomie, Ethan. Charlie and Ethan, a 23 weeker, shared an isolation room for about two months during their NICU stay.
With Ethan and his family.
The reunion took place 12:00 - 4:00 in the afternoon, smack in the middle of nap time. Miss Lily can NOT skip a nap. By 2:15 she was clinging to me, crying, and falling asleep on my shoulder.
Charlie, on the other hand, could have partied all day long!

Playground warriors!

2011-05-22T07:35:00.014-04:00

After 5 days of essentially non-stop rain, the sun finally came out yesterday and we took advantage of the nice weather by hitting the park with Aunt Jill and Uncle Aaron. We'd never been to this particular park before and it was great - so many different play structures to choose from! Charlie and Lily had a blast!

Charlie and Uncle Aaron rock climbing.
Lots of things to spin = a happy Charlie!

Slides! Lily loved crawling into and through the tunnel, but she'd wait at the end every time for Aunt Jill to pull her out.
Bye, park!

The week's lesson focused on the numbers 4 and 5. We didn't do anything too exciting this week - we played our numbers-in-eggs game again, practiced counting our fingers and toes and made counting hand prints for art. We also remembered JW Blakey this week. JW was the son of a friend of mine who passed away on May 20, 2010 at the age of 20 months. Charlie and Lily wore blue on Friday, the one year anniversary of JW's passing, to remember the sweet boy who was taken too soon. (Like "Justice's Stocking" on Facebook for information on what is being done in memory of JW.)

Nana came over for her usual Friday morning visit, bringing with her a new llama book (Llama, Llama Red Pajama) for Charlie and Lily. Lily enjoyed snuggling with Nana and her stuffed llama to hear the story.

Smile! The sticker on Charlie and Lily's Friday morning banana said "Place on forehead and smile" so naturally that's what we did :)

This is crazy Lily after lunch yesterday. She makes an epic mess with every meal, rubbing food in her hair and throwing things around. She's insane!

But we love her anyway ;)

Spinning Lily

2011-05-19T21:03:00.000-04:00

Every now and again, Lily gets into a mood and decides to be completely wacky. See video for filmed evidence.

Insect Week

2011-05-15T07:40:00.007-04:00

This week Charlie and Lily learned about insects. We read The Very Busy Spider and The Very Quiet Cricket and sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "The Ants Go Marching." Pop-Pop made us an Itsy Bitsy Spider video as well...I need to get it from Joe and see about posting it! We looked for bugs outside (we found a lot of gnats - ick!) and tried to learn the names of some different kinds of bugs. Charlie and Lily also played with pasta "worms." I boiled some thin spaghetti for them to touch and play with. Both of them currently have an aversion to the texture of pasta, so this activity was also aiming to work on overcoming that.

Lily didn't mind the feel of the pasta too much. And she enjoyed bringing it to Pop-Pop strand by strand. :)
Charlie was not a big fan. As soon as the "worms" started sticking to his hands he was over it!

For art we made colorful caterpillars. Charlie and Lily are doing a great job with their colors and can name and identify several. Purple and green are their favorites!

Lily has been in rare form recently. Talking up a storm and completely asserting herself. Here she is distracting Charlie as he was trying to finish his lunch (I don't think he minded though!).

And a shot of what it usually looks like when I try to eat breakfast in the mornings. Little mooches!

Just relax...and help!

2011-05-14T14:08:00.002-04:00

This post is for a brave fellow mom who I know from an online community, Jen of the blog Maybe If You Just Relax.

Like me, Jen is an infertility veteran. It took 3 years for Jen to get her successful IVF cycle that ended with the birth of her daughter Olivia on Valentine's Day 2009. Last year, she again went through treatments to add to her family and wound up pregnant with identical twin girls. She had a rough pregnancy where there were concerns about her Baby B while her Baby A thrived in utero. She ended up in the hospital towards the end, and received steroid shots with a planned c-section 48 hours later. The night before her c-section Jen and her husband received the devastating news that they had lost their precious Baby A. On December 30, 2010, beautiful baby Evelyn was born still and her sister Ainsley was equally beautiful but small and mighty and taken straight to the NICU.

Ainsley has proven to be a fighter. She has been in the NICU since the day she was born. She has been through multiple surgeries including one on her spine, her heart, g-tube surgery and most recently a traecheotomy. Her main issues seem to be eating and growing, and it may be months until she is home. In the meantime, her family has been adjusting to a new kind of normal, including work, spending time with Olivia and traveling back and forth to the NICU to be with Ainsley. A local group of moms had gotten together and organized help for her family as much as they can. They have done meal delivery, collected money for gas and grocery gift cards, paid for their parking at the hospital (their hospital does not offer free parking for NICU parents, even after 5 months of multiple trips a day!), etc. As a small group they've done what we can but now are now asking bloggers to reach out to the online community in a plea for help for this deserving family.

Friends of Jen and her family are asking for monetary donations and are also asking for raffle items for a "Reverse Raffle" event to be held in Jen's home town on July 23. All proceeds will benefit Jen's family, and donations of items and services would be greatly appreciated!

CLICK HERE for event details and how you can help!

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T07:39:00.017-04:00

Yesterday I celebrated a wonderful second Mother's Day. I am incredibly lucky to have a wonderful husband who always goes above and beyond on every holiday to make sure I have the most special day possible, and yesterday was no exception. The day started with a little present opening.

"Don't forget this card, Mommy! It's great!" Then Lily helped me open the quesadilla maker that I asked for. She even brought over her maracca for a little Mexican flair - ole! My other gift was a beautiful photo book called "Why We Love Our Mommy, Part II" (I recieved the original book last Mother's Day). It was full of pictures of me with Charlie and Lily plus a wonderful poem/story inside. So sweet!

"There's Lily, and there's Lily, and there's Lily..." After opening my presents I went to the gym, and when I got home Charlie and Lily were wearing these awesome shirts that Joe made for them. How great are these?
(I'm having problems with the picture of the back of Charlie's shirt, but I'll try to get one up soon.)

Joe even made a shirt for me too! The three of us wore our shirts all day and looked mighty fine, if I do say so myself.Later in the afternoon we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner (thanks for cooking, John and Bec, and for hosting, Anne!), then to Aunt Jill's for dessert with Crackers and Nana. Charlie and Lily helped me make these flower pots as gifts, and Joe got the beautiful flowers to put in them. I must say, these pots are sporting Charlie and Lily's best hand prints ever. I think they're finally catching on to all my little art projects ;)
All in all, it was a wonderful day. I am so thankful that I am able to celebrate Mother's Day as a mom, and am thankful that I have such an incredible husband who did so much to make it a special day. I'm also grateful for my own wonderful mother, who is also my best friend; my fantastic mother-in-law, who treats me like her own daughter; and my Nana, who has always been there for me. Love you all!

"Why We Love Our Mommy: Part 2"

2011-05-08T10:30:00.001-04:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Weather and 1, 2, 3

2011-05-07T19:36:00.016-04:00

We've had so much going on recently that I haven't had a chance to post about our last few lessons, so I wanted to catch up! A few weeks ago (4, maybe?!?!) we did weather week. We sang, "Mr. Golden Sun" and read the Sesame Street Book of Seasons. We also charted the weather for the week. Charlie and Lily really enjoyed putting the weather symbols on the chart each day.
For art, we made storm clouds. It was during this project that I learned that Charlie and Lily do NOT like things stuck to their hands, and glue and cotton balls together makes for lot of hand sticking.
After weather week we took two weeks off for Easter and our own little spring break. This week we were back in action, focusing on the numbers 1, 2, and 3. I created this little number game that I discovered on one of my very favorite blogs, No Time for Flash Cards. I wrote the numbers 1, 2 and 3 on several pieces of paper, folded the papers and put them into leftover plastic Easter eggs. Charlie and Lily then opened the eggs, unfolded the paper and then we talked about which number they had found. They both really liked this game, and Lily especially loved unfolding the paper. For art, we attempted a number garden, but it sort of turned into a mess. But we tried! We also sang "Mr. Alligator," which just may be one of Charlie and Lily's new favorite songs.
And now here's a glimpse at what else Charlie and Lily have been up to. Lily has been enjoying doing my hair for me. She likes to climb up on the couch to brush and play with my hair.

"Oh Mommy. You really must do something about these split ends!"

In fact, anything that involves climbing on the couches is a LOT of fun.

Good thing they're cute!

Charlie and Lily also like to color, but the activity usually evolves quickly into crayon-eating and coloring book-tearing.

Then there's this. I have no idea what this is either!
div>And anything involving stuff on people's heads, even hoods, is really, really funny.

So that's what our little Super Babies have been up recently ;)

Thank you to our friend

2011-05-04T15:40:00.002-04:00

We don't know who you are and therefore have no way of contacting you, so I'm posting this here on the blog in hopes that you're a reader. Thank you so much for the generous gifts you've been sending us in the mail. I just received the Mother's Day card - your kindness and generosity is overwhelming and we are incredibly appreciative. You are an amazing person, whoever you are!

March for Babies 2011

2011-05-02T14:53:00.014-04:00

On Saturday we participated in the 2011 March for Babies. We were lucky to have a beautiful day for the walk, as opposed to last year's pouring rain, and even more lucky to have so many of our wonderful friends and family with us. As you can see from the photo above, Team Three Cheers for Babies was well represented!

Charlie and Lily wore special shirts in honor of the day. If you can't quite see, the shirts say, "You're Looking at a Miracle."

Our team wore the same shirts as last year - we liked them too much to change them!

Enjoying the sunshine before things kicked off.
As this year's ambassador family, Joe, Charlie, Lily and I kicked off the walk. I gave a speech to all the attendees, sharing our story and letting everyone know just why the March of Dimes is such an important organization. (My speech is at the end of the post, if you'd like to read it.)
After the speech, we hopped in our special golf cart and led everyone to the walk route.
Once out of the golf cart, Charlie and Lily still got to cruise in style. Armed with lots of snacks and drinks, Charlie and Lily made it through the entire 5K walk with no complaints. We got them out as we approached the finish line and they walked to the end with us. Lily was clapping and cheering for herself as she got her "I Did It!" sticker, and Charlie was grinning like crazy.
After the walk everyone enjoyed dancing to the DJ and jumping in the bounce house. We even had an impromptu baby picnic for lunch. Charlie spent most of this little "picnic" walking around and mooching eveyone else's lunch. It was his own little buffet.
We had a wonderful time, but all that walking sure was exhausting ;)
Thank you so much to everyone who joined us at the walk, and to everyone who donated to our team. I'm waiting for a final fundraising report from the walk coordinator, but right now I'm showing that we've raised $4,931 for the March of Dimes. Our goal was $5,000 and I'm hoping we hit it. If you'd like to donate, there's still time - just VISIT OUR TEAM PAGE.

Finally, as promised, here is the speech I gave before the walk:

Every parent hopes that they will never need the services of the March of Dimes. But speaking as parents who did need their services, we’re here this morning to tell you just how important the March of Dimes really is.

When we found out that we were expecting triplets, we knew that there was a very good chance they would arrive early. We decided to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, but even we weren’t prepared for them to arrive as early as they did. The pregnancy was a difficult one from the start. I required surgery at just 9 weeks pregnant, then needed another procedure when I was 21 weeks along in an attempt to stop impending pre-term labor. At 24 weeks my water broke, and I was admitted to the hospital in an attempt to keep the babies in as long as possible. The doctors did everything they could and held off labor for 9 days, but still the babies arrived 15 weeks early.

I wish I could say that the birth of my children was the happiest day of my life, but it wasn’t. It was the most terrifying. The c-section was rushed and panicked. The room was full of NICU doctors and nurses waiting to care for the babies. We had no idea if they would even be born alive. As each baby was delivered there was no joyful cry of, “It’s a girl!” or “It’s a boy!” just “Here’s Baby A/B/C” as the doctor immediately handed my newborns off to the NICU staff. I never even got to see them in the delivery room. I remember lying on the table and all I could see was the team of doctors working on my daughter Lily, standing over her pumping air into her lungs to make her breathe. It seemed as if they worked on her forever and I was terrified that she wasn’t going to make it.

All three babies did survive delivery though and were whisked to the NICU. Our son, Charles Ferdinand (Charlie) weighed in at 1 lb 13 oz and was 13” long. Annaleigh Lucy was 1 lb 9 oz and 13 ¼” long and Lily Kevynn weighed 1 lb 8 oz and was 13 ½” long. I was finally able to see them a few hours after delivery, when my bed was wheeled into the NICU. I remember a nurse putting Lily’s tiny foot in my hand. They were by far the smallest babies I had ever seen, each not much larger than a can of soda.

The entire NICU stay was filled with scary moments, unsure hours and close calls. It was always one step forward, two steps back. In the beginning, all three babies would have countless episodes where they would stop breathing, or their heart rates would suddenly drop. There is really nothing scarier than hearing alarms sound and watching your child turn blue as nurses rush to their side to try to make them breathe again. The babies required the assistance of a ventilator to help them breathe, and feeding tubes so that they could eat. They were treated for unclosed vessels in their hearts, and Charlie developed a case of MRSA, an infection of the skin and blood, which forced him into isolation for his entire NICU stay.

Annaleigh was our strongest baby and our toughest fighter. At just 2 weeks old she underwent surgery to remove an obstruction in her bowel, and came through it unfazed .We were certain that she would be the first of our three babies to come home – she was even the first baby to be able to breathe all on her own - but the universe had other plans. On August 21, 2009 Annaleigh was diagnosed with Necrotizing Enterocolitis, a gastrointestinal disease that every preemie parent fears, as it is often fatal. This proved to be the case for our Annaleigh, because though they tried there was nothing the doctors could do to help her. Annaleigh died in my arms the very next day after her diagnosis, after having lived just 8 weeks and never leaving the hospital.

Charlie and Lily, however, began to thrive and after 95 and 99 days in the NICU and against all odds, they finally came home. And they’ve never looked back. Today Charlie and Lily are happy, healthy, energetic toddlers.

We are lucky that our story has a happy ending. We wish it were happier – we wish that we had all three of our children standing here with us today. We miss Annaleigh with all our hearts every day. But still, we are one of the lucky families. The fact that our son and daughter are alive today is a true miracle. One of the things that strikes us most about this walk is the number of miracles in this park today. Did you ever think you’d actually see a miracle? Look around – there are dozens of them standing right here. And they are here thanks in large part to the work done by the March of Dimes.

The March of Dimes has made huge strides in the fight against prematurity, but there is still so much work to be done. One day, no family will have to go through what ours did. No baby will have to go through what ours did, and no baby will lose the fight the way that our Annaleigh did. Thank you for being here today to join the fight against prematurity and support the March of Dimes.

22 months!

2011-04-27T12:02:00.004-04:00

22 months today! And only 2 months until Charlie and Lily turn 2 - where does the time go?!!

Happy Easter! (and a NICU evaluation)

2011-04-26T07:19:00.024-04:00

We had a wonderful Easter this year! The whole day was just so nice and so much fun. It started after breakfast when Charlie and Lily received their Easter baskets from the Easter bunny. The baskets were filled with toy cars, travel Magna Doodles, sidewalk chalk and a little chocolate bunny each (which they ate before 9:00...hey, it was a holiday!).
"Mommy, where are you going with those?!?!"
A new use for the Easter baskets. Lily came down with roseola last Wednesday and battled several days of fever, then a full body rash. She wasn't quite herself yet on Easter, but still tried to get into the spirit.

Later that morning, Grandma and Pop Pop came for a visit, and Charlie and Lily were treated to another set of Easter baskets. Cars! Charlie's new favorite thing in the world.
After checking out all their goodies, Charlie and Lily headed outside for an Easter egg hunt. They did a great job finding all their eggs.
Making a final sweep for eggs with Pop Pop.
Two bonus eggs at the end of the hunt!
After lunch and a nap, Charlie and Lily put on their Easter best to go to Aunt Diane's for Easter dinner.

"Seriously, how gorgeous am I?!!?"
Being admired by Nana.
Charlie and Lily received yet another set of Easter baskets from Aunt Diane, which were filled with toy cars, sidewalk chalk, magic coloring books, mini M&Ms, books and lots more. They also got an Aqua Doodle mat from Crackers and a Lego pirate ship from Aunt Jill. After checking out their gifts and having dinner, we headed outside to play. We had gorgeous weather!

Charlie and Lily swinging with Crackers and Uncle Aaron. Winding down the day with a little sidewalk chalk art. With all we've had going on recently, I've forgotten to mention the NICU clinic appointment that Charlie and Lily had last Wednesday. At St. Peter's they were evaluated by a speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist and the head neonatologist, our beloved Dr. Hiatt. We are so happy to report that Charlie and Lily did exceptionally well!

Both of them were right on target for their adjusted age, and actually scored a little above average on their fine motor skills. They even did things with total ease in the evaluations that I honestly had no idea they could do, like putting pennies in a piggy bank. So no therapy required at this time. I honestly can't believe how far they've come.

Oh, and their weights were good too. 24 lbs 9 oz for Lily and 24 lbs 1 oz for Charlie.

Things they did tell us to work on were getting Charlie and Lily to ask for things more, and do identify actions like running, riding, eating, sleeping, etc. I asked the speech therapist about their aversion to certain food textures like pasta, rice, etc. She said that they get used to things like that through feel first, so that I should try more things like finger painting and even cooking up pasta and putting it in a big container for them to dig through and explore. Time to add those to the lesson plans ;)

Support the March of Dimes this Easter

2011-04-23T07:46:00.005-04:00

Candy is good (Okay, who are we kidding? Candy is great.), but this Easter a donation to the March of Dimes would be even better! Joe, Charlie, Lily and I are the ambassador family for our local March for Babies this year, which takes place one week from today. We'll be giving a speech before the start of the walk, telling our story to all the walkers and encouraging everyone to continue to support the March of Dimes. Then we'll be kicking off the walk by leading everyone to the route. We're very excited to have this opportunity to work with the March of Dimes and help raise awareness about prematurity.

But we need your help too! If you would like to join our team and walk with us next Saturday, we'd love to have you! If you can't make the walk, please consider making a donation to our team to support the March. CLICK HERE to sign up to walk or to make a donation.

Two little somebunnies thank you in advance! Have a happy Easter!

"I'm hiding until we reach our team donation goal. Don't test me people, I can stay like this a loooooong time...."

Birthday Party at Kid Junction

2011-04-18T19:57:00.016-04:00

Yesterday Rebecca, the daughter of our friends Ryan and Stacey, celebrated her 2nd birthday at Kid Junction and Charlie and Lily were lucky enough to be invited. They've never been to a place like Kid Junction before, so we were excited to see what they thought. They LOVED it! All four of us had the best time there, so I wanted to share some pictures of all the fun. Happy birthday, Rebecca! Thank you for having us at your fantastic birthday party! Charlie was in heaven with all the things to spin and move.Miss Adventurous immediately began climbing.

But it didn't take Charlie long to get the hang of things either.

Eventually we moved from the toddler area to the main climbing structure, where Joe and I got to join in the fun.

About to go down what may be the world's fastest kiddie slide.

Kid Junction also has all kinds of rooms for kids to play pretend in. Here are Charlie and Lily going grocery shopping.

And Lily, after a minor shoplifting incident... ;)

What's a birthday party without cake? The birthday girl gets ready to blow out her candles.

"Look Mommy, we got cupcakes!"

Apparently they were really, really good.

Annaleigh's Garden

2011-04-17T16:34:00.002-04:00

I had to share this picture of the beautiful garden that Joe planted for Annaleigh at her grave. It's so gorgeous, and there is nothing like it anywhere else in the cemetery, at least not that we've seen. I love Joe so much for many, many reasons, but one of those reasons is definitely the way that he makes time to do special things for Annaleigh. And today he even came home with hyacinths and tulips for me and Lily to match the ones growing in the cemetery.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-16T13:25:00.013-04:00

This morning Charlie and Lily participated in their very first Easter egg hunt! The community we currently live in is wonderful with doing special activities for the kids. There's a new, free activity every month, and this month was an Easter egg hunt. Joe has been taking a poetry class on Saturday mornings, and today was his last class so Crackers came along to help us with the hunt. The weather was a little less than spring-like, at a chilly 45 degrees, but that didn't stop the fun. Armed with their baskets and ready to find some eggs."Mommy, why am I standing out here in the cold holding this basket?"

They're off! Crackers and Lily on the hunt.

Lily took to the egg hunt right away, but Charlie was a little intimidated at first by all the kids running around. I helped him pick up a few eggs, then after things calmed down we sort of re-created the Easter egg hunt for him.

"Oh, so THIS is what I'm supposed to do!"

Lily lends a hand.

Once all the eggs were collected we went into the community center for some cookies and party favors. All in all, the egg hunt was a lot of fun and good practice for the egg hunt that Joe and I are planning at home for Charlie and Lily on Easter morning :)

Pop-Pop Video: You Are My Sunshine

2011-04-12T19:44:00.002-04:00

Since the first was so very popular, I present to you this week's Pop-Pop video. Our theme this week is weather, so here we have Pop-Pop (with a special solo by Grandma) performing "You Are My Sunshine." Enjoy :)

Y and Z Week

2011-04-09T07:36:00.006-04:00

This week Charlie and Lily learned about the letters Y and Z. I can't believe we're through the entire alphabet! I'm not sure what I'll do next. Colors? Numbers? Go through the alphabet again? Any other suggestions are more than welcome! But anyway, this week was Y and Z. We read Good Night Gorilla, and as you can see from the previous post, our song for the week was Zippedy Doo Da (and, as you can see, I spell it different every time I write it and am too lazy too look up the correct spelling). Crackers bought Charlie and Lily the Fisher Price Little People zoo for Easter, but gave it to the them early so they could enjoy it during Z week. They love all the animal sounds that the zoo makes, and there are lots of cool animals like a giraffe and zebra for them to play with. For art we made zebra striped Zs. Hmmm...Y kind of got the shaft this week. I still may make yogurt pops though, so that will make up for it.

We were lucky to have a few nice days this week (weather in NJ is so unpredictable this time of year - 38 degrees one day, 65 the next). Whenever it's nice enough we get outside (or as Charlie says, "owwssiiii!") and play at the playground or in the yard. After a long day of tackling the slide and swings, Charlie and Lily enjoy relaxing with Daddy and an episode of Bubble Guppies.

On Friday mornings I clean the downstairs. It's not my favorite thing to do, but luckily I have two helpers who really lighten my work load.

Look at Lily! She finally has enough hair for a little ponytail! (And ignore the scratch on her nose. She fell into the wall before nap the other day. She loses all coordination when she's tired.)

And I just like this picture! Charlie is very cooperative with my self-portraits.

Pop-Pop videos!

2011-04-05T19:47:00.001-04:00

Every week or so, Pop-Pop Fred sends Charlie and Lily a little video of himself singing to them. They love to get their Pop-Pop videos, and Pop-Pop tries to tie his songs into our weekly theme. This week we're working on the letters Y and Z, so here's Pop-Pop performing "Zippa Dee Doo Dah" with a little help from Grandmom.

Spring Week

2011-04-02T19:32:00.006-04:00

I really need to consult the weather forecast before I plan my season-themed weeks. I never get it right! Autumn week was like 90 degrees, Winter week brought rain and this week's Spring week came with temperatures in the low 30s. But we soldier on! To celebrate Spring, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Five Little Ladybugs, and sang "Mr. Golden Sun." For art Charlie and Lily made hand print butterflies and decorated them with their fingerprints. When they were all said and done they didn't really look much like butterflies - Joe thinks they resemble crabs. But we tried! We're going to bring them to Annaleigh at the cemetery, and we know she'll appreciate the effort by her brother and sister. For a special snack we made dirt pudding. Charlie and Lily helped me mix up a batch of chocolate pudding, then we topped it with crushed Oreos. Mmmm!

Chocolaty! (And look at Lily's hair! Finally long enough for a barrette! Yay!)

Now THIS is the life. Someone to feed you your pudding while you sit and watch Bubble Guppies.

The other morning, when it was raining/snowing on our Spring week, I decided to combat cabin fever with a little cushion climbing. I pulled all the cushions and pillows from the couches and let Charlie and Lily climb all over them. They really enjoyed this activity at first, but then they started falling off and bumping their heads, so the cushions went back where they belong!

Once a week or so Joe leaves for work a few minutes early and runs to Dunkin Donuts to bring back coffee for me and munchkins for Charlie and Lily. Needless to say, munchkin mornings are a BIG hit around here!

How far we've come....

2011-03-31T07:58:00.009-04:00

Looking at the two happy toddlers that Charlie and Lily have become sometimes makes it easy to forget how they began their lives. Today they are healthy and energetic, smart and active. But less than two years ago, both were figthing for their lives in the NICU. Weighing less than 2 lbs each they needed help to breathe, eat and just survive.

Those days are never far from my or Joe's mind. Which is why we're once again supporting the March of Dimes at the 2011 March for Babies. Team Three Cheers for Babies is marching on April 30. Already many friends and family members have signed up to join us - thank you! If you live nearby and would like to join our team, please SIGN UP HERE. If you can't march but would like to MAKE A DONATION, we would greatly appreciate it. We fight, so babies don't have to.

Lily, a few hours after birth. Charlie at a few days old. Our beautiful Annaleigh, June 27, 2009 - August 22, 2009.

21 months!

2011-03-27T12:54:00.006-04:00

Happy 21 months, Charlie and Lily! I am simply amazed at how much they've been growing and learning recently. They know a ton of animal sounds, are saying so many new words, are doing so many new things...they impress me every single day. :) On a side note, I just got back yesterday from a trip to Savannah, GA. I went for a national get-together of an amazing group of mothers of multiples who I know from an online community. These women have been such an incredible support system for me for the past two years and it was wonderful to finally meet so many of them in person. Plus, I had a fantastic, relaxing vacation. Joe did the best job at home with Charlie and Lily - I don't think they even realized I was gone! So thank you to my great husband for giving me the chance to get away, and thank you to Crackers for your baby-sitting help and John for getting me to the airport. I can't wait to do it again next year!

Just a few of the great ladies I spent the trip with - all moms of twins or triplets!

Savannah was so beautiful! And warm - around 80 degrees while I was there! A nice change from the 30 degree temps we're having in NJ.

W and X Week

2011-03-20T07:42:00.010-04:00

This week Charlie and Lily learned about the letters W and X. I'll admit that I had a hard time coming up with lesson plans for these letters. Luckily, the week fell at the same time as St. Patrick's Day so I sort of added that to the mix to bulk things up a bit. We read a book called Wally the Whale and made watermelon W's. I had plans for us to make an X art project, but we had two amazing days of warm sunny weather this week and spent all our free time outside at the playground, which Charlie and Lily love.For St. Patrick's Day we read a poem called Five Little Shamrocks and used our little paper shamrocks as visual aids. On Thursday we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with some Irish soda bread. Yum! Lily loved it immediately and didn't even realize that she was eating raisins.
Charlie was a little suspicious of the bread at first, but as soon as he tasted it he was cramming the entire slice in his mouth.

Crackers came over and led Charlie and Lily in their own little St. Patrick's Day parade.Joe invented a game that he calls "choo choo," in which Charlie and Lily sit on his legs and he bounces them up and down. Charlie and Lily LOVE this game, and it is definitely helping Joe build up his leg muscles.

I have no lessons planned for this upcoming week, because I'm going away! I'm heading to Savannah, GA with some amazing fellow moms of multiples for a few days. Joe is going to be in charge at home while I'm gone, but I have no worries. I think they'll be just fine :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T13:25:00.007-04:00

Our little leprechauns wish you the luck o' the Irish today!

Ocean Week

2011-03-12T13:28:00.011-05:00

This week Charlie and Lily learned about the ocean. Joe kicked the week off for them by bringing them home a giant balloon shaped like a fish, which he dubbed "Funky Fish." Lily LOVES Funky Fish - the first time she saw it she laughed her head off. We read Good Night Ocean, sang "Baby Beluga" and watched Baby Neptune. I also got out the jellyfish lamp that my father bought Charlie and Lily for Christmas. He has a giant fish tank that they like watching when we're over their house, so my dad thought they'd like a fake tank. The lights change color and the jellyfish "swim" around. They were both fascinated with it. Especially Charlie.

Which is how, after only 5 minutes, he somehow managed to knock it to the ground and break it. That's what I get for underestimating his determination to reach things that I thought were OUT of reach.
For a special snack, we made Goldfish trail mix. We added cupcake-flavored Goldfish (holy yum!), Cheerios, Craisins and some white chocolate chips to a Tupperware container, then Charlie and Lily took turns shaking the container to mix their snack. They thought this part was lots of fun.
Mmmm! This snack proved to be educational as well as tasty, since it helped me learn that Lily does not like Craisins. Not in her trail mix, not in her mouth and not even on her tray, since she pelted me with them instead of eating them :/

For art, Charlie and Lily glued pieces of tissue paper to paper plates to make fish. And keeping with the theme, we also watched a few episodes of Bubble Guppies. Charlie and Lily LOVE Bubble Guppies! Lily even mimics the theme song by singing "Bu bu bu bu!" She has great rhythm.

This morning Joe made a run to Dunkin Donuts for us, and got donuts for Charlie and Lily. They each had half a donut after their banana and scrambled egg. Lily spent a good 20 minutes on her donut. First she licked off all the frosting, then she nibbled the donut until it was gone.

And in his typical fashion, Charlie jammed as much as possible in his mouth at once and was finished in about two minutes.
Also this week, to celebrate the start of Mardi Gras, we made masks with construction paper and feathers.

Charlie wants you to know that they do not taste as good as they look.