Lilly's Second Birthday

It has been almost 6 weeks since Lilly officially turned two, although it doesn't feel like it since we spent the better part of May celebrating her birthday. Between family gatherings and her birthday party, it seemed like Lilly was opening birthday presents daily and she became an expert at singing, "Happy Birthday to Wiwwy!" I think it has finally hit her that the celebrations have come to an end for this year. She has stopped asking for presents and birthday cake and the last of the balloons came down this weekend, so we're all moving forward.

It was a month-long celebration full of cakes, presents, bubbles, trips to the park, singing and dancing, and lots of balloons. I don't know what more this little two-year old would want. She has seemed to enjoy every second of being two.

Being two brings new experiences with it. New teeth (especially good for eating corn on the cob at barbecues), new vocabulary (with which to assert independence), new opinions (like only wanting to wear her yellow tutu, reminding me a lot of her godmother, who also used to express such opinions), and new knowledge (she currently points out every "L for Lilly" that she sees while we're out. They're especially prevalent on the "Left Lane Must Turn Left" signs)!

The pictures of her from her birthday and her party tell the story better than I could, so I'm going to let them do most of the talking today. The video of Lilly dancing at her birthday party sums up our little girl. Bouncy, full of energy, happy and loving TWO!

From April 11th: Lilly's Second Birthday!

Lilly loved waking up to balloons on her crib!

Watching for Dad to come home from work to celebrate!

And then, her Birthday Party, one month later.

Red and pink, because she loves Olivia the Pig.

24 months of Lilly!

"Olivia" cupcakes

Some quick legos with Claire before the party starts

Ready to sing and dance!

Dancing with Dad

Cleaning up the egg shakers

Here's the video. These are just a few of the songs Natasha, Lilly's music teacher, sang with Lilly and her friends. Pop Goes the Weasel is Lilly's favorite! Excuse all the adult legs in the video; I was trying to get the little ones dancing. And dance Lilly did--for a solid 45 minutes. She's definitely got her Dad's dancing genes :)

Opening her "princess kit" from Claire...her best buddy, complete with a purse, lipstick and a cell phone.

Rain, Rain, STOP!

Today was one of those days that went downhill fast. It started off on a high note, and by high note I mean, not raining. I woke up to go to the gym and upon seeing the lack of rain, decided to go for a walk/run outside instead. When Jim asked what Lilly and I were doing today, I told him that we were definitely going to the park on such a beautiful day. Such a beautiful day? Who was I kidding...it was foggy, overcast, humid...downright muggy...but the rain had stopped. Even Lilly noticed. Yesterday morning when she woke up, I opened her blinds and her first words were, "Ugh, Mummy...nother rainy day," and then proceeded to sing, "rain, rain, go away...rain, rain, stop." Unfortunately the incessant rain has left everything outside soaking wet, which made the park idea short lived. We met up with some friends instead and Lilly had a great morning playing with Claire. Lilly and Claire absolutely adore each other. Lately, Lilly has been carrying her princess phone (a birthday present from Claire) around the house pretending to call Liz (one of my good friends and Claire's mom). The conversation goes something like, "Hello, Lizzie, Claire coming over to play? Okay thanks. See you later. Bye." Occasionally she'll insert a, "this is Lilly Grace Clark" in there, although it comes out sounding like, "Wiwwy Gwace C-wack." As my Dad said, he's never heard our last name pronounced with two syllables before, but somehow, Lilly does it.

After lunch, I put Lilly down for her nap, with the intention of having a little nap in there myself too. And then the day took a turn for the worse. I called to sign up for my prenatal yoga class that I love going to on Tuesday nights only to find out that it has been permanently cancelled due to a teacher conflict. It wasn't the end of the world but I look forward to it so much. I took the same class when I was pregnant with Lilly and the timing is amazing. At the end of a busy day that used to be filled with teaching and coaching and being on my feet all day, and is now filled with talking, talking, and more talking, that hour and fifteen minutes of peace and quiet and relaxation where I get to think about me and this new little baby was one of my favorite parts of the week. I know there are plenty of other classes out there and I plan on finding another one but I was sad to hear it was cancelled. Oh well, on a positive note, I got an unplanned night at home--tutoring free.

A few minutes after finding out about yoga, I went to lie down when Jim called to tell me that our dentist could fit us in this afternoon. We've been trying to reschedule our missed appointments from April for awhile now and couldn't pass these up--as much as I can't stand going to the dentist. Not to mention the fact that pregnancy does a number on my mouth. It's one of those things that makes no sense to me, but apparently it's common. My gums and teeth are so sensitive when I'm pregnant, making dentist appointments that much more fun. Ugh. So, in a matter of minutes, I went from this great day with no real plans, culminating in peace and quiet to a day full of teeth and dentists and cancelled yoga classes. I've written about perspective before, and believe me, I understand this is by no means a really bad day. I know what those are. This was just a day that started off on a high note and had a few unplanned road bumps. But it's ending with a quiet night at home. And today marks 21 weeks down...19 weeks to go until the newest little Clark arrives :) Today, Liz asked Lilly if she was excited to have a baby in our house, and have her own little brother or sister, and Lilly responded with a resounding, "OH YES!"

Here are some pictures from this past weekend. It was a relaxing weekend--a much needed break after a very busy weekend last week. These are from Saturday morning, where I tried out my new lens...and it is amazing!!

My favorite!

Just doing a little jumping.

Back from a 3 hour ride...I'm sure the jumping felt great on those tired legs.

Little Miss Chatterbox

One of these days in the not too distant future, I will sit down and write and post pictures about Lilly's birthday month...yes, her second birthday festivities lasted an entire month and she loved every second of it. I think she's in denial that it came to an end. Actually, I know she is. We called Jim's sister Sarah to wish her a happy birthday yesterday. When we were leaving her a message, I told Lil to say happy birthday to Aunt Ween, and she promptly replied, "no, this is MY birthday." It's going to take a little getting used to. Luckily, in the eleven months that she has to wait until her next birthday, she's got some pretty exciting things happening, including the arrival of a little brother or sister, which I'm sure will be just as much fun as a birthday.

Everyone asks me what Lilly thinks about a new baby coming into our family. She's still so little so she has no real understanding of what is happening. But she's big enough to provide a running commentary. Like the other night after dinner, when she pointed to my stomach and said, "Oh my goodness, Mummy, HUGE baby." Ahhhh. Nothing like a two-year-old reminding you that your stomach is quickly expanding. Wait until she sees me in September! I can't wait to hear what she has to say then. She's also been coming to my doctor's appointments with me this time. She's a pro at the whole doctor routine now. The appointments are nice and quick...a little conversation with doctor, a quick check of the baby's heart beat and we're on our way. When we get situated in an exam room, Lilly takes her place in a chair with a snack and tells me to "lie back Mummy." When they put the gel on my stomach to listen to the baby's heartbeat, Lilly provides the play by play..."Lotion, Mummy? Lotion on tummy? Baby's heart beep? (my personal favorite...she calls the heart beat a heart beep). Whoosh, whoosh (making the sound of the heart beat). Baby in Mummy's tummy? Mummy, all done? All done, Mummy? Bye Dr. Harma (Dr. Sharma), see you later." My appointments aren't quite as relaxing as they were the first time around, but it's quite entertaining to see my pregnancy through the eyes of a two year old. Lilly's excited about having a baby brother or sister, but when asked if she's going to share her room with the baby, she'll reply, "no, this is MY room." She's still got a few months to get used to the idea, and like it or not, she's going to be a big sister this fall. I have a feeling she's going to love it (after an initial shock period, of course).

Lilly's expanding vocabulary was the reason I wanted to sit down and write something tonight. This evening, we took advantage of the fact that it wasn't raining (it has rained all day, every day this week), I wasn't tutoring (which has been exceptionally busy given that it's finals time) and went and met Jim downtown for dinner. We sat outside and had pizza and pasta and enjoyed our Friday evening. Jim and I tried to chat, only to be interrupted by, "excuse me Mummy, excuse me Mummy, excuse me Daddy, excuse me..." until we acknowledged her. She told Jim how we went to the park today...how she saw her friends Claire, Stella and Christopher...how she played on the slide and dug in the sand. Then she'd get sidetracked by a car or a truck driving by and we'd hear, "Car like Big Bird, Daddy...oh look, car like Grover..." Yellow cars are like Big Bird, blue ones are like Grover, and red ones are like Elmo. Next time you're by a busy street, have a look at how many yellow, red and blue cars there are. You'll be amazed. With Lilly to provide the commentary, it seems like pretty much all the cars out there are those three colors. She opened her menu at the dinner table, and when we asked her what she was going to have to eat, she scrunched up her face and sat there saying, "hmmmm...ummmm...pasta?" Is there even another option? While we were eating, and Jim asked her if she'd like some more of his pasta, Lilly replied, "Ummm, no. Got some. Thank you though." Thank you though? Apparently that's an expression that we use and Lilly has picked up on, because she says it all the time. She also said to me today, "Sorry bout that" when she was holding onto my leg while I was walking and I tripped. She's such a little person with such great expressions. And just like the main character in one of her favorite books at the moment, Little Miss Chatterbox, Lilly's expressions never stop. She's got something to say about everything!

These two are always pretty excited to see each other at the end of every day :)

My favorite expressions are the ones that result from genuine excitement. Like today, when I asked Lilly if she wanted to go to the park. She started jumping up and down and gave me a hug and said, "I'm so glad to go to the park!" I was excited that it wasn't raining and we could get out, but Lilly was ecstatic. She kept saying, "I'm so glad! I'm so glad!" over and over again. She's my own little Pollyanna--possibly my all time favorite movie--so it seems appropriate that Lilly enjoys the littlest things in life.

I'm going to go and enjoy a relaxing Friday night with a sleeping toddler, a husband who's home from work, no tutoring, and a movie on the couch. This picture of Lilly sums her up pretty well at the moment. There's a giant green dog in Stamford, on one of the main corners. Every year, Stamford has some kind of street art exhibit, and this is the one from last summer: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/It-s-Reigning-Cats-and-Dogs-in-downtown-515075.php#photo-2 If you flip through the slide show at the beginning, you'll see some of the dogs and cats that lined the streets. Anyway, all of them have been taken down, except for this one dog, perched on the corner by the library, and Lilly adores him. She waves and says hi every time we drive or walk by him, and loves the opportunity to go up to the dog and say hi and pat him. Well, we walked by the dog on our way to dinner tonight, and here is Lilly, giving him a hug goodbye. Happy Friday!

"Hey, this is MY tutu"

This is one of those weeks when I feel like our little Lilly isn't so little any more. Over the weekend, we went and bought Lil a bed, which should be arriving any day now. She tested out all the beds and seemed to enjoy climbing up on them more than anything else. Lilly loves her crib, so we're not sure how this transition is going to go but we know it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Amazingly enough, she has never tried to climb out of her crib. If she had, there's no doubt that she'd be out by now. The girl can climb her way onto or out of anything. Remember when she climbed up on the changing table while I was out of the room? She can also climb up onto Jim and my bed without assistance. She's a little monkey. Our only theory as to why she's never tried to climb out of her crib is because simply, she loves it! When she wakes up in the morning, she lounges. Lilly used to jump up as soon as she woke up and whenever playing took place, it usually involved all her stuffed animals, books and blankets...and making a huge mess. Now, she lies in bed, rolling around in the blankets, chatting and singing, and finally, calling out to us when she has to go to the bathroom or when she decides that she wants some company. If she's awake, we usually go in around 8 so that Lil and Jim can see each other before Jim goes to work. So even if she's happily chatting, we've started knocking on the door, and this little voice yells, "come in!" at the top of her lungs. We walk in only to find her bundled up in blankets, rolling around with her one in her mouth, talking to a stuffed animal or two, but demonstrating no desire to actually get out of her crib. One day, when Lilly is 16 and needs convincing to get out of bed in the morning, and says something like, "I wish I remembered being little when I didn't have to get out of bed and go to school...I would totally have enjoyed that time more," we'll be able to tell her that she took full advantage of this time, and loved every second of it.

Yesterday morning, Jim and I were both in her room talking to her while she was still deciding if she wanted to get up. One of us asked her if she was excited that her new bed was going to be here soon, and her reply way, "No, this is my bed." Jim and I looked at each other and knew that Lilly has to be well and truly settled in her bed months before this new baby arrives, as she probably won't react too well to an impostor in her bed, unless she is happy in her new one.

"Hey, this is my ___________." You can fill in this blank with whatever word you choose, and Lilly does. If she's sitting on your lap and you give her knee a tickle, she'll say, "Hey, this is my leg." When I was sitting in her bedroom, going through her pajamas the other day, folding and reorganizing them and taking out the ones that didn't fit, she came over to me and said, "Hey, this is my clothes." Like I was trying to steal her pajamas! I'm well aware that they're her clothes, but Lilly is intent on reinforcing who everything belongs to. It is about possession at the moment. But only when it suits Lilly. If you ask for some of her pasta, you'll be told, "No, this is my pasta." But if she wants some of yours, she'll ask for "some pasta, peeeese". And then ask you to share. Convenient, isn't it? Jim likes reminding Lilly who bought these things of hers. He and I have a good chuckle. Lilly looks at us like we're crazy.

We learn daily how much Lilly absorbs. Lil and I were sitting outside at Starbucks the other day; she was eating her pink donut and I was having my iced coffee. We were watching the cars drive by, pointing out the different colors and saying hi to them, and out of nowhere, Lilly pointed to my iced coffee and said, "no foam, decaf Mummy?" I did a double take. I was sure I misheard her. So I asked her what she said, and she repeated it again. When I repeated it back to her, she said, "yes," with a huge grin on her face. I couldn't believe it. Lilly has heard me order my "no foam decaf latte" so many times that she associates it with my coffee. And I hadn't even ordered that this time! Just a plain iced coffee for me. She's a little sponge.

We got another reminder of this when we went to the Westchester Mall this past weekend. We hadn't been there since Christmas, when Lilly sat on Santa's lap. Jim and I made no mention of that, but as we were walking around the mall, Lil turned to Jim and said, "where Santa is, Daddy?" 5 months later! Lilly has a memory like a steel trap.

In addition to picking out her bed (and a comfy glider as well), we took Lilly to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. For Christmas, Joseph gave us gift cards to use there and we thought that Lilly is at an age where she'll love building her own bear. When we walked into the store, Jim and I both picked out a teddy bear that we thought was cute and we assumed that Lilly would think it was cute too. Lilly had no such intentions. She saw a bunny in the distance, and once she had her mind made up, there was no changing it. So a bunny she made. And she named the bunny, Judy. We're pretty sure it's her favorite girl name. She loves Judy in Pat the Bunny, and when we read her Paddington, she's only interested in the pages that have Judy on them at the moment. I didn't even know that Judy existed in Paddington books until Lilly discovered her.

Pushing the pedal to stuff Judy.

Rubbing Judy's heart and giving it a kiss before putting it inside

Fluffing Judy up under the "bath". This was her favorite thing to do, by far.

The finished product, complete with a pink tutu, chosen by Lilly of course.

Finally, to reinforce how quickly Lilly is growing up, she had her two-year doctor's appointment yesterday. She now weighs 26 pounds and is 35.5 inches tall. Half an inch more and she's 3 feet tall! Very cute. She grew 3 inches and gained 3 pounds in 6 months. Dr. Brown said she's growing perfectly and gave me what I think is an extremely accurate definition of a two-year-old. He said they are, "little people who don't know what they really want but are determined to argue until they get it. And it's always the opposite of what you suggest." Yes...he summed up the majority of conversations that take place in our house! If we offer Lilly one pair of shoes, she wants the other. If we offer her apple juice, she wants milk. If we suggest going to have a bath, she wants to play outside. If we suggest playing outside, she wants a bath. Dr. Brown told me the peak of all of this is two and half...so we've still got a good 5 months of this progressing. This is how Lilly is asserting her two-year-old independence. It could be worse; it could be temper tantrums and refusing to follow directions; it could be misbehaving. Luckily, we've just got an extremely opinionated two-year-old on our hands. Opinionated, but well behaved. She's definitely a keeper.

Playing with her friend Claire--they're like two little peas in a pod and adore each other!

Determined to walk her stroller up the hill.

Holding hands with Parker--one of her favorite past times.

Showing me her "pruny toes" after a bath. She'll tell you it's because she was in there for "AGES!"

On Pregnancy

15 week ultrasound--giving us a "thumbs up!"

In approximately five months, we will be welcoming a new little Clark into our family! Jim and I are thrilled, and Lilly has no idea what is happening, although she loves pointing to my stomach and saying hi to the baby. Just when you think she’s starting to understand what is going on, she’ll point to Jim’s stomach and say, “Daddy’s baby,” and then to her own and say, “Lilly’s baby.” So while she likes to talk about the baby (what doesn’t she like to talk about?) she doesn’t really understand there’s a baby on the way.

Today is the first day, since we found out I was pregnant back in January, that I feel like I can really breathe. And relax. And just enjoy being pregnant. The past few months have been like a roller coaster ride, full of excitement and anticipation, and then worry and nervousness. I’ve had moments where I’ve been overjoyed, and then minutes later found myself immersed in a world of “what ifs.”

Losing a baby at any point during a pregnancy is not easy. When that point happens almost half way through a pregnancy, it takes its toll. It has tested me mentally. For the first 18 weeks of this pregnancy, I kept thinking back to last time. I wouldn’t let myself get excited. As much as I wanted to be, I kept reminding myself that I made it this far last time thinking everything was great, only to find out that it wasn’t. I wouldn’t let Jim tell Lilly about the baby--I didn’t want her pointing to my stomach just yet. We only told family and close friends. Even going out to tutor at night, I didn’t say anything to my families, despite the fact that my expanding waistline was becoming pretty apparent. I knew that none of them would ask me about it. It has been a difficult few months for me, because I am not a negative person, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t put the past behind me.

I’m officially past that point now. Yesterday marked the turning point for me. We had our anatomy ultrasound, and even though this baby has been monitored more closely all along, it took yesterday’s appointment to put my mind at ease. We got to see our little one, and as far as the doctors could see, he or she is perfect. We don’t have to see a high risk doctor any more, and I get to be me again. Of course, I’ll feel 100% okay when the baby is born, but for now, I’m back to myself--just with a little bit of a rounder stomach than usual.

I have been hoping that this day would come, because I loved being pregnant with Lilly. I loved everything about my pregnancy. I loved how I felt; I loved my stomach (even as it grew beyond what I physically thought was possible). I loved feeling Lilly kick and move around and hiccup. I even loved my labor, and how I was able to have the natural childbirth experience that I had hoped for--with Jim’s help (and a quick hair cut), of course. Well, on second thought, I won’t say I loved all of my labor, but I will say that the second time around, I hope everything goes the same way it did with Lil.

So, I’m happy to say that today, I love being pregnant again. I didn’t love the nausea that accompanied this pregnancy (does that mean it’s a boy this time?!) but I love all the “firsts” that take place, and that I still have to look forward to this time. That first moment when you find out that you’re pregnant is an unforgettable feeling. It’s surreal; I will never get sick of that moment and that feeling; of telling Jim and seeing his face light up in disbelief. The first kick, which I felt a few weeks ago, but have yet to feel consistently. The first baby hiccup. The first person who stops me and says, “whoa, must be coming any day now, right?” to which I get to reply that I’ve still got months to go. I heard that with Lilly in January, and she wasn’t born until April.

I love the bizarreness of how pregnancy affects my tastes. Everything is so extreme. With Lilly, I couldn’t stand basil. We had to get rid of our basil plants because the smell of them as I walked into the kitchen made me sick. I went off coffee altogether--one of my favorite pastimes just vanished because all of a sudden, I couldn’t stomach coffee any more. I loved tea, however, and African Rooibos tea became my new favorite drink. I went through a huge Chinese food phase, which I think Jim enjoyed more than I did. My sense of smell was heightened. Actually, I think that heightened is an understatement. I could smell a glass of wine on the other side of the restaurant. When Jim came home from the office, I would always tell him what he smelled like--something different every day. Finally, Jim asked me if I could stop updating him on his smells, so unless it was extremely apparent, I kept that running commentary to myself.

This time, it’s different. I like basil. I didn’t like coffee for the first 15 weeks or so. I started drinking tea, but stopped liking that shortly after I started. I switched to hot water with lemon, which started to upset my stomach, so finally, the only hot beverage I was drinking was plain hot water. Thankfully, I like coffee again, which means that I get to have my iced coffees this summer! Maybe not in the quantity that I would like, but I don’t have to forego them altogether. Hot water just wasn’t cutting it. I don’t have any strong food aversions, but I do have some pretty strong preferences. Just ask Jim. When we’re deciding what to have for dinner, some meals sound amazing (namely anything that includes pasta or pizza), and some sound disgusting (usually any meal of substance). Early on in my pregnancy, Jim told me that he was pretty sure we’d had every pizza in a 5 mile radius of our house during the past two weeks, and I couldn’t argue with him. I’ve cut back on the pizza and have started to want normal meals again, but as Jim says, it’s always fun to see what I come home from the grocery store with. One day, it was a Costco size bag of pistachios. I couldn’t tell you the last time I had pistachios, but that was all I wanted, so I bought a never ending bag and as a result, Lilly has learned to love, “sistachios”. Other spur of the moment purchases have included marshmallows, animal crackers, cadbury creme eggs, kettle cooked potato chips, dried mangoes...the list goes on and on and gets more random with each addition. Our cabinets are full of these things, because I tend to like them for a day or two, and then never want to see them again. Ahhhhh, the rational mind of a pregnant woman. Luckily, I have the perfect husband for this phase of pregnancy. Jim loves the food phases (although I’m pretty sure he’s sick of pizza). He finishes off whatever strange purchases I bring into the house while hypothesizing what my next food item of choice will be.

I love working out when I’m pregnant. It’s an entirely different feeling than the one I am accustomed to. I’m not training for a race or to fit into smaller clothes. It’s not at all competitive. I’m working out to feel good about myself. I think that staying in shape helped my labor and recovery with Lil and am continuing to do whatever workouts I enjoy during this pregnancy. Sometimes it’s a swim or using the elliptical. Sometimes it’s a workout on my trainer. Sometimes, it’s just a nice walk with Lilly. And sometimes, it’s an extra hour of sleep in the morning instead. I enjoy just listening to my body and figuring out what will make me feel good each day. And with the workouts come some of the best naps. Pregnancy naps are amazing! Early on, when I was exhausted for no reason in the middle of the day, Lilly and I would take 3 hours naps at the same time. And now that the exhaustion has passed, I see how the day is going and if I feel like having a nap, I have learned to leave everything else. I can clean, do laundry, cook dinner...all those productive things...while Lilly is awake. I cannot sleep while she is awake. So I’ve been taking advantage of this quiet time in the middle of every day.

I’m 19 weeks pregnant now, almost half way. I’m excited and relieved. I’ve returned to my positive self. I’ve stopped asking myself all the “what ifs.” I’m happy again and am going to let myself enjoy the next 5 months. I loved them with Lilly and I’m ready to love being pregnant again.

8 weeks

12 weeks...the baby and me!

Yesterday's pictures! The little foot and hand above are amazing. And a full profile below. They estimated that the baby currently weighs 8 oz :)

4/24/2011

Happy Easter! Lilly decorated my stomach with Easter egg stickers!