Look, I found it! There's Wisconsin!

A little bit less than a week ago, after two 16 hour car rides and an Ironman, Mum, Dad, Lilly and I all returned safely and soundly from Wisconsin.  As nice as it was to be away, Mum and Dad breathed a pretty loud sigh of relief to drop me off in Stamford, where I was no longer their responsibility should the baby arrive.  I too, was relieved to be home, although I didn't think this baby would arrive 3 weeks early.

It was a fantastic road trip--Lilly's first road trip over 6 hours--and I have to say that the drives there and back were some of my favorite parts of the week.  We took Dad's truck (even a week later, Lilly still asks to go for a ride in Papa's truck), and I was sprawled out in the back seat with pillows, blankets and my trusty backseat companion, Lilly.  Dad drove and Mum directed...and did quite a bit of knitting along the endless highways.  We split the drive up into two days each way, stopping to spend the night in Toledo, Ohio.  Or, as Lilly calls it, "Opio".  She now asks to go back to Opio frequently, although I really can't imagine why.  We spent our time there in a hotel, rest stops and on the highway.  Nothing that exciting, but apparently it stuck with her.  The drives were hysterical.  Between Dad's stories and hypothetical situations and Lilly's constant narration of the trip, there was little silence on the road.  Except when Lilly was sleeping.  And when Lilly slept, we all enjoyed the hours of silence.

We learned about the "Move Over America Law" when an Indiana State Trooper pulled us over and lectured us for a good half hour about the importance of the law, which apparently is a law in every state but Hawaii and DC.  Who knew?  He let Dad off with a warning.  I think it might have had something to do with the Australian accents, a woman knitting in the front seat, a 2 year old asking constant questions about the policeman and a pregnant woman in the back.  Dad made sure to follow the law closely for the rest of the drive and has educated everyone he has come into contact with since then about the law.  

Lilly perfected her ability to ask "Whyyyyyyyy?" in almost any situation.  She spent hours reading a variety of books, although her preference when given the choice was to read her princess book--a gift from the girls next door that is more popular than I could possibly have imagined.  In particular, Lilly became enamored with Tarzan, who for some reason, she calls "Johan".  I have no idea why, as she's perfectly capable of saying Tarzan.  She'll actually correct me when given the chance...something along the lines of, "No, Mummy, not Tarzan...Johan."  So, she became an expert on the story of Johan.  We had the same conversation about Tarzan about a dozen times.  It went like this:

Lilly:  Why is Johan nuny nuny Mummy?
Me:  Because he lives in the jungle.
Lilly:  Why does Johan live in the jungle?
Me:  I'm not sure why.  (I didn't want to tell her his parents were killed so he was raised by the apes).
Lilly:  Why is Johan wearing undies?
(after we all stopped laughing...every time...it never got less funny!)
Me:  Because everyone wears undies.
Lilly:  What is Johan saying?
Me:  (I made my best Tarzan noise, complete with chest pounding)
Lilly:  Whyyyyy?
Me: Because Tarzan is happy.
Lilly:  Whyyy?
Me:  Because he lives in the jungle with Jane and the monkeys.
Lilly:  He's nuny nuny Mummy?

.....

You can see how we would go around and around in circles.  Sometimes Mum and Dad would chime in but eventually, the only way out was to change the subject...or stop for a bathroom break, which were very frequent indeed.  Lilly learned to go straight to the "big bathroom" (aka the handicapped stall), so we could both fit.  She learned to recognize the Dunkin Donuts logo and to ask for a pink donut with Halloween sprinkles, which she would eat off one by one, followed by the frosting, leaving only the bottom of the donut which she so kindly offered to Papa every time.

We listened to music, which Lilly expressed her opinions on.  She often asked who was singing.  While we were listening to Mozart, Lilly told Dad, "I no want to listen to Wolfgang, Papa.  I want to listen to Prince Ali."  Prince Ali, from Aladdin, is currently her favorite song.  She and Jim sing it together every night and Lilly knows more of the words than I do.  I hear her singing it to herself (rather loudly) before nap time most days.  While we put on the Disney playlist once in the car (at the end of our first day driving, when we'd been in the car for 11 hours), Lilly spent most of her time telling Dad what music of his she preferred.  When she didn't like something, we'd say, "If you don't like it, you don't have to listen to it," to which she responded, "okay" and sat there looking out the window.  Here is a snippet of Lilly singing Prince Ali in the car.  You have to know the song really well to understand anything other than "Prince Ali."  And I think Lilly takes after Jim.  She makes up the words when she doesn't know them!

Lilly is generally very good in the car on trips, but I had no idea how the 16 hour drive each way would go.  I have to say that this was one of those times when I was extremely proud of her.  There was no crying or whining.  She was happy to read, look out the window, have snacks, take naps, talk and talk and talk, and do it all over again.  She made the trip entertaining and fun for all of us.  We drove well past her bed time and ate at restaurants when it was way too late for her, but she was happy.  She slept on a toddler aero bed in our hotel room, and loved it.  We kept telling her we were going on an expedition to Wisconsin, and every time we got in the truck she was just as excited as the first.  Mum and Dad chatted and sang with her, and we all enjoyed the drives much more than we thought.

Here are some of the pictures I sent to Jim while we were on the road.  They're a pretty good recap of our time in the car.

Wearing Papa's hat

My lopsided (huge!) stomach.

Lilly's aero bed, next to my pull out couch bed, next to Mum and Dad's bed.  We were nice and cozy in Toledo, OH.

While the time in the car was memorable, the real reason for going all the way to Madison in the first place was for the Ironman.  While some of us spent two days in the car getting there, others flew in with about 4 hours of total travel time.  Mum, Dad, Lilly and I arrived in Wisconsin on Wednesday afternoon.  Jim and Brogan flew in on Thursday morning, and Joseph and Liana flew in on Friday.  Similarly, they all flew out after the race, and we (well, really Dad and Jim) packed up the truck for the two day journey home.  There may have been a little bit of bitterness; when Jim mentioned that he had a crying two year old on the flight, Dad looked like he was about to punch him, and said he hoped that nothing awful happened, like running out of pretzels or something equally catastrophic.

When we arrived at the house, Lilly pointed to the house and said, "Look, I found it!  There's Wisconsin!"  And from then on, she referred to the house as Wisconsin.  Once again, like all the Ironman houses we've stayed at, this one had its quirks.  Describing them won't do them justice.  Mum and Dad's pictures and some of the ones from my phone will.   (I lost my camera charger so have NO pictures from this trip...)  It had a beautiful balcony and was right on a lake, so we all enjoyed the time there and spent the majority of it outside.  These are the lead up pictures to the race.

Lilly claimed this full size bed as hers.  Lucky Brogan, her roommate who is at least 6'3", slept in a twin bed.  Lilly was obsessed with Brogan and woke up in the morning, would walk over to his bed and ask him to read her princess book to her :)

Mum's personal favorite.  On our first night there, Mum was lying on the floor with tears pouring down her face because she was laughing so hard after discovering this!

Lilly and Gigi sitting on "the beach," as Lilly called it.  Lilly quickly learned that she was only allowed to go to "the beach" with a grownup.

Playing with her new buddy, Brogan, at the park.

"Brogan, why do you have a kangaroo (tattoo) on your leg?  I no have a kangaroo on my leg?"

There's something not quite right about this picture!

And I officially lost Jim to the world of triathlete fashion.  Shaved legs, compression socks and shorts.  I sent this picture to Ellie with a plea for help, as she is disgusted by the fashion, or lack thereof, at an Ironman.

Lilly and "Wiana," as she calls Liana, on an expedition because Liana is a grown up.

Gigi, Liana and Lilly, hanging out on "the beach"

Loved her morning bagel and cream cheese!

Off to test out their bikes

Helping get the transition bags ready.

And of course, the reason we were there...Race Day.

Joseph wrote about what it was like to race in Wisconsin here.  He also has some great blogs leading up to the race.  I loved reading about race day from Joseph's point of view.  In particular, his description of Mum on race day is perfect.  I read it a few times and every time, loved it more, because it describes Mum and all that she does so beautifully.  We spent the week missing Edward and Ellie.  It felt strange to have all the boys racing an Ironman and for Edward not to be there.  I know it was hard for Edward not to be there.  We talked to him daily and he wrote a letter to the athletes that made me cry (I've cried more in the past few weeks than usual, and I'm blaming it on the pregnancy!)  And Ellie is the most fun spectator to have with you during the long spectating day, so she was sorely missed on the course, by athletes and spectators alike.

As I said, the emotions for me on race day were running high.  Hearing the cannon go off. Mike Reilly's voice and U2's Beautiful Day playing, as the athletes started swimming made me burst into tears.  I thought of Jim out there with the other 2799 athletes.  I knew how much time he put into training for this race.  I thought of him fighting to find space to swim, getting kicked and punched until the field of athletes spreads out.  I heard this little voice next to me yelling, "Go Daddy!" over and over again.  Not only was I cheering for my husband, who I love more today than when we first started dating almost 11 years ago.  But I was cheering for a Dad, who along with my Dad is the best Dad I know.  And I couldn't help but cry.

These are the only videos I have from race day.  And they're ones that we'll keep forever.  I meant to get video of them all as they passed by, but it turned out that being nine months pregnant and looking after a toddler proved to be quite the job.  I couldn't manage the flip video as well.

I wish I had captured Lilly's face as she was cheering.  She thought the man in the kayak was Jim, so she wondered why he wasn't going anywhere!  Lilly was so excited to cheer and to "see" Jim out there.

Joseph's recap of the race sums up most of the day.  It was a tough race for everyone--especially Dad.  When I learned from Mum that she'd seen Dad come into T2 and that he could no longer keep any liquids or food down, I did what I do well these days and burst into tears.  It's one of those things that doesn't seem fair to me.  Dad loves this sport more than anyone I know.  He puts so much time and effort into his training and epitomizes everything great about triathlons.  He's raced them from the very beginning, and even as these Ironman races get more and more extravagant, Dad remembers what they're all about.  He doesn't set out to break records; he sets out to enjoy himself and have a great race.  So it doesn't seem fair that someone who loves the sport so much encounters insurmountable obstacles like this on race day.  Dad handled this as he handles all situations--with integrity, and with nothing but supportive family by his side.  I know there are many more races in Dad's future, and I'll be there cheering.  

While we were out on the course, Lilly and I met up with Butter, a good friend from BC who Lilly now talks about daily.  Butter spent the day on the course with us and I wouldn't have survived without him.  He played with Lilly, and we spent lots of time chatting while we waited for the athletes.  Butter kept checking to make sure that Lilly and I were both okay and just made the day more fun overall.  Sarah and Ross were out on the course too, and it was fun to see familiar faces and cheer with them on the bike course.  Lilly was thrilled to see her Aunt Ween, Ross and of course, Blue the dog.  Lilly and I took a cheering break in the middle of the day to go back to the house and rest, and then came back out onto the course to cheer during the run.  We saw everyone out there, and as it was a hot day, we got to chat with everyone racing as they came by.  They were more than happy to stop and catch up for a few minutes before starting the run again.  Lilly loved seeing Brogan, Dad and Jim out on the bike and run courses, but for some reason, she didn't react too well to Joef.  I think it may have been the spikey hair...or the the beard...or his entire outfit.  I'm not too sure.  Either way, she backed away from him and protected her apple until she was sure he was safely out of sight.

We saw Jim many times on the run course and were there when he finished, after what was a long, hot day of racing.  I couldn't have been prouder of Jim and what he accomplished out there on what I know was a difficult day.  Every time we saw him, he smiled, gave us both kisses, and went on his way.  He was in great spirits after he finished.  It meant a lot to me that Lilly see her Dad accomplish what he did that Sunday.  She's seen him come home from countless hours of training, and even though I don't think she'll remember Ironman Wisconsin, I'll always remember hearing her cheer for Jim at the start, and seeing her face light up every time she saw him on the course.  She even offered to share her smoothie with him on the run, and Lilly doesn't often share smoothies.  She loves her Dad, and I love my husband.  Jim made us both proud that day.  When it was all over, we gave him hugs and Lilly promptly fell asleep in her stroller.  We sat by the finish line until close to midnight while Jim and I chatted and laughed and he filled me in on the race day details that you only experience by being out on the course.  And so ended Ironman Wisconsin 2011.

Our amazing little spectator, proud of her dad and sleeping by the finish line.

Why?

Who knew that one word could slowly drive a person insane?  I've been waiting to write a blog dedicated to the word, why, for awhile now, and apparently the right time for this is at 6:30 on a Sunday morning, while Jim and Lilly are sound asleep and the baby is doing gymnastics and hiccuping in my stomach, thereby preventing me from joining them.

I've always heard about the dreaded "why" phase that children go through, and a few weeks ago, I was thinking about this phase and (wishfully) thought that we had skipped it.  I assumed that Lilly talks to too much to slow down and ask, why?  It was a short lived wish, and within days, Lilly (and as a result, Jim and I) were fully immersed in a world of "whys".  Jim thinks it's great!  He loves making up answers every time Lilly asks why we're going to the grocery store or why she can't read one more book before bed when they've already read 8 books or why the bathroom isn't the best place to built a fort out of pillows from our bed (see picture above) or why she can't have a popsicle for breakfast or why Jim works at "UPS" and not "RPS".  It's constant entertainment for him and Lilly just goes along with it.  I have learned that the goal of any successful why conversation ends with Lilly nodding her head and saying, "oh."  That means the whys, for the time being, have come to an end.

Sometimes we have simple why conversations, like the ones mentioned above.  Sometimes, they're a little bit more involved.  With all of the unusual things going on around us lately (earthquakes, hurricanes, stock market woes), we decided one evening to put on the news before dinner.  Lilly ran to claim her favorite seat on the couch, one chosen for its prime television watching position.  It doesn't matter what is on TV--Lilly becomes mesmerized.  Jim and I were wandering in and out of the living room, watching bits of the news while getting dinner ready, but Lilly didn't move.  Once we all sat down for dinner, the following conversation ensued.

Lilly:  Who's Qaddafi, Mummy?  (Jim and I looked at each other with a, "where is this going?" smile.)
Me:  He's not a very nice man.
Lilly:  Why?
Jim:  He ran a repressive regime so the Libyans don't like him.  (smug smile coming from Jim...)
Lilly:  (Who now turned to me with a confused look on her face...Lilly does not just drop a conversation)  Why is Qaddafi not a nice man Mummy?
Me:  He hurt people so lots of people don't like him.
Lilly:  Oh.  Did he hit them?  (again, Jim and I shared a smile as we saw the world through the eyes of a two year old)
Me:  Yes, and he did other things too.
Lilly:  Why?
Me:  I don't really know why. (that is often enough to put an end to a typical why conversation, but not this one).
Lilly:  Where's Qaddafi?
Jim:  He's hiding.
Lilly:  Why?
Jim:  (In an effort to avoid the whole, "the rebels are in the process of hunting him down and would like him dead" conversation, we circled back to the whole, 'he's not a very nice man" train of thought)  Because he was mean to people and he didn't have any more friends and so he went away.
Lilly:  Oh.  Did he hit them?
Jim:  Yes.
Lilly:  Why?

I don't remember what brought this conversation to an end.  It was probably changing the subject to talk about green popsicles--Lilly's favorite summer dessert.  And since that evening, Lilly will throw a, "Where's Qaddafi?" into a random conversation.  It just goes to show how absorbent little ones are, even when you think they're just watching and don't really understand.

There's no easy way to transition away from a conversation about a Libyan dictator, so I'm going to drop it and finish by saying, we have decided to go to Wisconsin!  It might be completely crazy, and on paper, I know it sounds crazy.  I'm due to have a baby one month from today (!) and technically could have that baby at any time.  But I feel great, my doctor said it was fine, and it will be so much fun to spend a week at a lake out in Wisconsin, cheering on people that I love as they race the Ironman out there.  It's Joseph's tenth Ironman, Dad's twelfth (I think!) and Jim's third.  As I have been here for all of Jim's training and know how much effort he has put forth preparing for this race, I am looking forward to cheering him on out there on race day.  We did our first Ironman together, and will always have a special Ironman bond.  If I can't be racing with Jim--and I most definitely cannot be out there at the moment--I certainly want to be there supporting him.  Lilly understands enough this time around to know that her dad has done a lot of training for this race.  Usually, she sees him as he comes back from a ride or a run and gets so excited, jumps up and down, runs over to him and stops short of giving Jim a hug saying, "You're all sweaty Daddy...you go and have a shower?"  I can't wait to see her out on the race course, and hear her words of advice for all the athletes, especially her dad.  

Mum and Dad are going to drive up here today and then on Tuesday, Mum, Dad, Lilly and I are going to embark on a 15 hour drive across the country, which I'm sure will be full of "why" conversations.  I can see Dad's face already. (Jim is noticeably absent from that list.  He is flying out on Thursday; a short, peaceful flight.  Seems a little unfair, doesn't it?)  Joseph and Liana are meeting us there.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I have a feeling that a certain Uncle Joef is going to absolutely love these why conversations.  As Dad said, between the drive over and the incessant questions from our little two-year old, race day might be the most relaxing time for those racing.  He told me they're all going to drag it out and see how close to the 17 hour cutoff they can all finish.  My response: Why?

Adventures at the Doctor's Office

I'm not a worrier.  At least, I try not to be, but it's really hard to always stay positive when there's a little person growing inside you, who depends on you for so much.  Well, today is one of those days where I breathed a big sigh of relief.  At my doctor's appointment two weeks ago, the doctor said that she thought the baby was breech--it's little butt was down where his or her head is supposed to be.  She just said it in passing, mentioned that it was no big deal because babies flip all the time, sometimes even during labor, and said we'd know for sure at my ultrasound today.  I tried to tell myself it wasn't a huge deal, and that worst case scenario, the baby refused to flip and I'd end up having a c-section.  At the end of the day, we'd still have a baby.  It wasn't my ideal situation, especially given the ridiculous number of surgeries my stomach has been through with hernias and my appendix, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.  Even after I told myself this, I worried.

I spent the past two weeks doing everything I could to get this baby to flip.  I talked to Mum, who gave me yoga to do and points to hold.  Mum had even found Youtube videos for me to watch!  I discovered that there are tons of websites out there with suggestions on how to get babies to flip.  My favorite one was http://spinningbabies.com/.  It's amazing all the things you can do.  Jim would just look at me and shake his head as I was crawling around the living room with Lilly, or doing handstands in the pool (which I can imagine was quite the sight, seeing that I'm rather rotund at the moment), or lying in any number of positions suggested to provide the baby with maximum room to move.  And then this morning, we found out that the baby is, as the ultrasound technician said, "head down, face down and ready to go!"  Granted, this baby moves a lot so could flip around but, once again following Mum's suggestions, I'm spending lots of time doing "squats, squats and more squats" to get this little one to stay down.  The ultrasound estimated the baby's current size as just over 6 lbs, which would make it a much bigger baby than Lil when he or she is born (closer to 9 lbs if they're right), but they overestimated for Lilly (who was 6 lbs, 13 oz one day past her due date) so I'm guessing they're overestimating this time too.

So, huge sigh of relief aside, I have to share our waiting room experience this morning.  Jim, Lilly and I were all at the doctor, and spent quite a bit of time in the waiting room between the ultrasound and seeing the doctor.  In that time, all the nurses came out to say hi to Lilly.  She even went back into their offices with them (without so much as a glance back at Jim and me) to go and get stickers.  Once again, she came out with a huge bag of them...everything from Mickey Mouse, to Hannah Montana, to Tinkerbell and this time, she even got some Batman stickers.  She was chatting away in the waiting room and was thrilled to discover a fly that had been trying to escape for sometime and seemed to be giving up on life, which meant that it wasn't going anywhere.  She sat there watching this fly, and called Jim over every few minutes so that he too could experience the fly.  The other people in the waiting room were smiling and laughing, and eventually, started talking to her as well.  As Jim and Lilly were sitting on the floor watching the fly, the following conversation took place with the lady next to them.

Lady:  (to Jim) She's absolutely adorable!
Lilly:  Thanks.
Lady:  What's your name?
Lilly:  Wiwwy.  What's your name?  (Lilly asks everyone what their names are now...it's only natural seeing as how everyone asks her what her name is.)
Lady:  I'm Holly.
Lilly:  Oh.  This is Jim. (pointing to Jim).  Everyone in the waiting room started laughing.  Jim later told me that nothing makes him feel less like a dad than his two year old daughter calling him Jim.  He definitely felt like "the boyfriend" here.
Holly:  Is Jim your Dad?  (said with a huge smile on her face)
Lilly: Oh, yeah.
Holly:  What's your mom's name?
Lilly:  Oh. That's A-maya (close!  Amelia's a tricky one to say).
Holly:  How old are you Lilly?
Lilly:  I'm TWO (trying to hold up two fingers...sometimes it's one, sometimes it's four. You never know)
Holly: Wow!  You're two!  When's your birthday?
Lilly:  April (WHAT?!?! Jim and I were floored.  We had no idea that she knows her birthday is in April.)
Holly:  When's Jim's birthday?
Lilly:  Ummm.  On Friday.  (We explained to Holly that Jim's birthday is in fact in March.  When Lilly's not sure when something is, she makes up a day!)

Lilly proceeded to show everyone her stickers and was definitely the morning's entertainment.  She has gone from not wanting to say hi to anyone when we're out to having conversations with everyone, which means that I'm meeting a lot of people while we're out these days.  She started talking to the lady in line in front of us at the deli today, who I subsequently learned still doesn't have power after the hurricane and is living on her boat for the week.  All these things I'd never know about the people around me if I didn't have Lilly by my side.

Anyway, after being in the waiting room, she came back to see the doctor when I was called, got more stickers, a cupcake from one of the nurses, and left with a cup of water from the cooler (which may as well be magical water to her, probably because she gets to pull the lever and pour it herself).

For me, this morning would have just been a doctor's appointment.  Seeing the morning through Lilly's eyes, it became so much more.  For her, this morning was an adventure.  Maybe even an expedition, although those usually involve heffalumps.

Now that I have the all clear from my doctor, do I go to Wisconsin for the Ironman or stay back in Stamford with Lilly?  As Mum and Dad's plans depend on my decision, it's got to be made soon.  I'll talk it over with Lilly and see what she thinks.

Here's our little character at breakfast yesterday, after "getting dressed" which involved changing from short sleeved pajamas into long sleeved ones, with Jim's help of course, thus creating even more work for me once he headed off to work...

Very proud of her newly discovered ability to display "hook em horns".  Papa taught her how to do this when she was in DC last, and she's been practicing.  When she gets it by herself, she's pretty excited.  Wait until her uncles see this :)  I think a trip to Texas should happen in the not too distant future.  

         

Goodbye August!

Another month is coming to an end, and once again, as so many of the months that have come before this one, I am amazed with how quickly August has come and gone.  Not that this baby didn't seem real before, but as we get into the final weeks (I'm due in less than 5 weeks), it seems more real than ever.  My stomach is huge--I wish I could have recorded the look on Edward's face when he saw me on skype yesterday.  It had been awhile, and his shocked expression was priceless.  He asked things like, "How do you stand up?  Does your back hurt?"  and I think he said "Wow" about 10 times before we moved on and started talking about something else.  I often look down at my stomach in disbelief, or catch a sideways glimpse when I walk past a mirror, and am just amazed that it is possible to get so big, and then to shrink back down to normal once the baby is born.  It's pretty unbelievable.  I have an ultrasound tomorrow and am excited to have a quick look at this little one.  It's been 17 weeks since I last had an ultrasound so it will be fun to see how big the baby is.

As I look forward to the birth of this baby, I get more and more excited to see Lilly as a big sister.  She seems more grown up by the day and I look forward immensely to watching her with a little one.  She's ready; well, as ready as she can be without completely understanding what's going on.  Lilly seems to have everything at home under control.  This morning, she was lying on our bed with me while Jim was getting ready for work.  Jim picked up a folder off my dresser that he needed to take with him today, and Lilly removed her one from her mouth to inform Jim, "No Daddy, that's Mummy's book.  She needs it for tutoring."  And when he proceeded to take it out of the room, she called after him saying, "Jim, put Mummy's book back on her dresser."  She has real conversations.  She calls Jim, "Jim" when she is saying something to him that I would say.  She "helps" with everything.  Here is Lilly helping Jim clean his bike the other evening:

Lilly and I always spend lots of time together but I find myself appreciating even more the time the two of us (and before and after work and on weekends, the three of us) have by ourselves.  We have some nice little routines that I know will change in the weeks ahead.  In the past few weeks, we've gone to the aquarium where Lilly saw her first Imax movie--a movie about dolphins, which she still talks about.  While she enjoyed the whole aquarium, she was especially excited to see an exhibit on frogs, sponsored by UBS.  Most two year olds would prefer the frogs to the UBS slogan painted on the wall.  Lilly, however, couldn't believe her luck.  She kept saying, "UPS Mummy...where Daddy works...not RPS."  This topic deserves it's own blog because it is a constant source of amusement for Jim and me.  But, as I seem to be writing less frequently these days (and in turn, sleeping more frequently), I'll take a second here to emphasize how much Lilly loves talking about UBS.  Every time we drive by the building, she says hi to Jim and "UPS" (Lilly thinks that Jim works for UPS and as a result, also gets very excited when she sees UPS trucks driving by).  She knows that he doesn't work in the RBS building across the street, so she can't mention UBS without saying, "Not RPS" in the same sentence.  We had lunch with Jim at UBS one day last week and since then, a day has not passed without Lilly asking to go back to UBS for lunch.

(I'm not sure why there are meerkats at the aquarium, but Lilly loved them!)

 
We've been spending a few mornings a week at different parks, where Lilly now loves climbing up rope ladders to get to the slide.  Her fearlessness when it comes to climbing often gives me minor heart attacks but I guess that's all part of being a parent.  We go to the library once a week and Lilly loves picking out books for "Daddy to read to me before bed."  We seem to leave each time with more and more books.  We were at the library on Monday morning and when I asked Lilly to choose some books to bring home, she came back with a stack of books we had checked out on previous occasions, or books we already have at home.  While Jim and I relish in the idea of having new books to read, Lilly loves reading the same ones over and over again.  When I tried to explain to her that we had already checked out those ones, it just didn't make sense to her.  And why should it?  If Lilly loves reading and singing Yankee Doodle, Michael Finnegan, Miss Mary Mack and Mary had a Little Lamb (which she calls Miss Mary Lamb, as she read Miss Mary Mack first), then in her mind, why not check those books out again?  Lilly adores all of those books, where you (well, actually, Jim) sings the story.  I love seeing her excitement when we walk into the library.  I love snuggling up in bed with her and reading books before her nap.  And I love watching Jim read to her at night.  Mum and Dad instilled in all of us a love of reading.  We were surrounded by books we loved and were allowed to stay up later at night if we wanted to read.  As a result, we all love books today.  Jim and I both think that developing a love of reading is important, so Lilly is always surrounded by books that she loves.

We've been going out for walks together.  As my walks are getting shorter and shorter, I let Lilly bring Judy in her stroller, and we go out on "expeditions, looking for heffalumps."  Dad wrote one of my all time favorite blogs, about Lilly and heffalumps, here so I won't go into too much detail, except to say that when Lilly hears the word "heffalump," her eyes light up.  She spent all weekend asking Jim and me if we would go on expeditions with her to find Lumpy, her heffalump.  Jim would hide Lumpy behind a cushion on the couch, and Lilly squealed with delight every time she discovered it.  Yesterday, while we were talking to Mum and Dad on skype, Lilly asked Papa to go on an expedition with her to find a heffalump.  So, Dad and Lilly both went their separate ways, and both returned with heffalumps!  Lilly cannot believe that Dad has a heffalump too and is so excited to go and visit "GigiPapa" (as she likes to call Mum and Dad) because now they have a Lumpy too.  Mum and Dad have been cleaning out their storage unit and have come across lots of toys and books from when we were all little so every time we chat on skype, there are new things for Lilly to see.  The latest of these was the heffalump.

Taking a walking break to balance.

On one of our expeditions!

Lilly and I have also been spending a lot of time at Trader Joe's, or as Lilly calls it, "Trader Joef's."  She is convinced it is named after her Uncle Joef, and asks to go almost daily.  Whether it's the name of the store, or the appeal of the Lilly sized shopping carts, or the plethora of stickers that the cashiers there give her, she can't get enough of the place!  The other morning, Jim turned to me as Lilly was jumping up and down saying, "Hippeeee, Trader Joef's!" over and over again and asked me what exactly she thinks Trader Joe's is.  I don't really know, except to say that if it makes grocery shopping more fun, I'll take it.

Lilly even wheels one of the bags out to the car in her cart!

It's impossible to capture how quickly Lilly is growing up and to write down all the moments and conversations that Jim and I want to remember.  We have so many pictures and stories, a lot of which are recorded here.  And thanks to our iPhones (where all of the pictures from this blog entry are from) we always have a camera at our fingertips.  For moments like this, when Lilly said,  "Daddy, lie down and lift up your shirt.  I'm going to measure your stomach, like Dr. Sharma does for Mummy's baby."

Or like yesterday, when I walked in to check and make sure she was asleep during her nap, and found this:

Lilly had fallen asleep, but not before getting off her bed and moving Daisy and Daisy's pack 'n play onto her bed.  It's sweet that there is so much empty space in her bed, so a little pack 'n play doesn't make a difference.  You can also see Spot up next to her, and Lumpy, the heffalump, next to Daisy.  Lilly's bed is just like her crib used to be--a very busy place.

Finally, here are some pictures of Lilly's first carnival.  We lost power a few weeks ago (amazingly we didn't lose it during the hurricane though) and we decided that since we didn't have power, it was the perfect night to meet up with some friends and take Lilly to a little carnival in Greenwich.  It was so cute and there were a few perfect rides.  Jim went on all the rides with her--I wasn't sure I would fit too well, so Jim really lucked out there.  And to top it all off, the poor guy was in his work clothes because he asked me to bring him shorts and a t-shirt when I picked him up and after telling him I would, I completely forgot.  (I also forgot to bring his contacts to Steph and Austin's wedding a few weeks ago, as well as multiple other things that Jim has asked for.  At least he expects it now, and just shakes his head and smiles when I forget the one thing he has asked me to bring.  Pregnancy really does a number on my memory!)

Goodbye August!  Bring on September.

(yes, Lilly decided to wear her rain boots down to the pool on a gorgeous, sunny day.)

    

A Brother Named Lisa

I'm sitting here writing while Lilly sleeps, and by doing so, there is a laundry list of things that I'm choosing not to do.  Over the past few days, when I should be doing things like cleaning out closets and rearranging furniture, I've chosen instead to knit hats and make blankets for my friends that are having babies this fall, make necklaces that I'm currently obsessed with (in every color), finish my book, and now, write this blog.   As this baby's arrival gets closer, I find myself sitting and thinking a lot more.  Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, or maybe it's just the natural feelings that come with being a mum.  Whatever the reason, I enjoy these quiet moments that allow me to reflect, and I've been enjoying them more often lately.  Whether I'm out for a walk by myself or swimming alone in the pool, or lying in bed in the morning while Jim is out training and Lilly is still asleep, or passing time in the middle of the night when I'm finding it harder and harder to sleep, I think.  And wonder.  Lilly seems so grown up at moments and then so little to me at the same time.  Last night, Jim and I went in to check on Lilly before we went to bed, as we do every night.  And in that instance, she looked so tiny, and so perfect, in her bed.  We started hypothesizing about this new baby.  Do we even remember how to take care of a newborn?  What if this baby doesn't sleep?  Will this baby have hair?  Do you think we'll have another active baby or a baby that prefers sitting to running laps?  In a nutshell, how is this little baby going to compare to Lilly, the only baby we really know and love?  Even though we know that in a year, we'll look back on our life before this baby and be amazed that there were ever just three of us, and we know our love will increase exponentially once this baby is born, it's hard to imagine one year down the road right now.  It was just as impossible to imagine how Lilly would become such a central part of our lives before she was born two years ago.  We know that there are no two Lillys in this world!  So what is this baby going to be like?  No doubt, he or she will be unique, just as Lilly is.  Only time will tell...

I think that Lilly is starting to understand more and more what is going on.  She talks about the baby in my tummy all the time, although she still tells people that she's going to have "a brother named Lisa."  Whenever she tells anyone this, they always look at me with a confused face, like Lilly is speaking the truth.  Unless Lilly knows something that we don't, her prediction will probably not come true, but it's sweet that she arrived at this conclusion on her own.  Lilly comes up and gives my stomach kisses all the time.  She puts her one on my stomach and says she's sharing it with the baby (I'm sure she'll feel differently about sharing one when the baby is here!)  When I ask her to sit on the couch instead of the ground so we can put on her shoes, she responds by saying, "Because it's hard for you to bend over Mummy?  Because the baby in your tummy is so big?" She points to the box that contains her old crib packed away and tells us that it's a crib for the new baby because she's a big girl and sleeps in her "huuuuuuge bed."  Lilly loves my doctor's appointments--I'd even venture to say that she enjoys them more than I do.  And why not?  I go in and get shots and blood taken and she comes away with a roll full of princess stickers.  When we get home, she takes out her doctor's kit, takes my blood pressure and tells me that "it's good, Mummy," and then tells me to lie down so she can listen to the "baby's heart beep" which goes, "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."  Whenever I tell her that we're going to the doctor, her eyes light up, she jumps up and down and yells, "hippeeeee" (Lilly says hippeee instead of yippee, and I corrected her once so she said yippee for a little while but went right back to hippee.  I've decided that I like hippee much better!)  Although I don't think she'll really understand what is going on until the baby comes home, she knows there's something different.  She snuggles with us a lot more and asks for more "huggies."  Both Jim and I are very happy to oblige.

One of our favorite Lilly expressions at the moment is, "Oh yes, of course not."  Somehow, she has confused two expressions (I'm not sure how or why, but confusing expressions does tend to run in our family.  Mum and I are both pretty good at mixing up idioms, and Joseph just wrote a blog about how Liana does the same thing...so maybe it's a girl thing?)  Anyway, I'll ask Lilly if she wants to help make dinner and she'll run into the kitchen yelling, "oh yes, of course not."  You only have to look at her to realize that she means, "of course!" but somehow, the "not" has just slipped in there.  Jim asked her last night if she wanted to go to bed so he could read her some books and again, we heard, "oh yes, of course not!"  We gave each other one of those looks--one of those smiles that says this is a priceless moment, and then Jim went in with Lil to read her books.      

Lilly's favorite afternoon pastime: "making Daddy a card."  It requires markers, crayons and stickers.  And a lot of concentration.

Steph and Austin's Wedding 8/11/11

32 weeks pregnant!

This is one of the necklaces I'm loving making at the moment :)

Weddings, Pregnancy and Toddlers

I haven't written for awhile.  I was sure that once summer arrived and I finished tutoring and teaching SAT classes that I would spend a lot more time on my blog, but over the past few months, I've actually written less than normal.  I'm not sure why.

It could be the weddings--so far this summer, Jim and I have been to five weddings, all of our really good friends from high school and college, with one more to go next week.  This means that we've found ourselves away for most weekends.  We come back just in time to unpack, get groceries for a few days, and then pack everything up again for a weekend away.  We've had a great time, but are definitely looking forward to a few quiet weekends to ourselves.

It could be the pregnancy.  I'm almost 32 weeks pregnant (in the picture to the right, I'm 28 weeks along, so have grown quite a bit since then!) which means that our little one will be arriving in about 8 weeks.  In the past few weeks, I've gone from feeling "cute and pregnant" to "huge and really pregnant."  I've said all along that my stomach is bigger this time, and Jim has agreed.  A few months ago (I was exactly 22 weeks pregnant, as I remember statements like this), Jim casually remarked to me that he was sure my stomach wasn't this big with Lilly until much closer to the end.  Jim is great like that.  He can say things that make the casual observer grimace in disbelief, but knowing him and some of the things that he comes out with, I knew he meant no harm.  And he quickly redeemed himself by making sure I was aware that only my stomach was bigger this time.  Words every pregnant woman wants to hear, whether they're true or not.  Dad has also contributed to my feeling of "hugeness".  While Mum and Dad were up in Lake Placid a few weeks ago, I asked them to be on the lookout for a Lake Placid sweatshirt to replace the one I got up there in 2007 when Dad and Joseph were racing.  Mine has seen better days.  After informing me that they couldn't find it, Dad followed up by telling me that there were ones that zipped all the way down, but he figured I wouldn't want one of those as it would be "like trying to zip up an overstuffed duffel bag" if I thought about wearing it in the upcoming weeks.  Nothing like having a supportive family by your side when you need them most.  But, today, my doctor confirmed that I am indeed "measuring bigger" this time.  When I was pregnant with Lilly, whenever she measured my stomach, I was always a week or two behind (I still don't understand how they have standard measurements that apply to everyone, but they seem to know what they're doing so I go with it.)  This time, I'm measuring a week ahead.  Not huge, but bigger.  It could level out in the next few weeks so we'll see what happens, but words like, "bigger, August, heat, humidity..." don't really go that nicely together.

It could be the extremely busy toddler who is more opinionated than ever, chattier than ever, and asks more questions than ever.  Unless Lilly is asleep, she is talking.  She talks right up until the second that she falls asleep.  As I'm sitting here writing this, Lilly is in bed for the night, talking and singing away.  As soon as the talking stops, you know she's asleep.  Imagine if adults did that!  Imagine if I got into bed and started singing songs at the top of my lungs before embarking on a stream of chatter that encompassed whatever thought was running through my head at the time.  That's exactly what Lilly does.  I don't know how much longer she will talk herself to sleep, but I hope it lasts for awhile.  It's so sweet and innocent, and Jim and I never get sick of listening to it.  A second ago, an ambulance went by, so Lilly is now saying, "eeeaaaawwwwww, eeeeeaaaaawwww...ambulance, Judy...Daisy, ambulance.  It's helping people who are sick."  The conversations with her stuffed animals and dolls are my favorite.  As far as opinions go, this was Lilly's pile of books for Jim to read to her last night.  How could he say no to that smile?

Last week, Lilly and I drove back down to DC with Mum and Dad, as they stopped in Connecticut on their way home from Lake Placid (where Dad finished his 10th Ironman...no big deal really.  I'm sure all two-year olds can say their grandfathers are competing in their 10th Ironman, with number 11 in the not very distant future).  I was thrilled at the prospect of being a passenger on the drive to DC instead of driving down by myself, as I usually drive down mid week with Lilly and then Jim takes the train down after work on Friday.  After driving for about 15 minutes (we'd gone two exits on 95), Dad just started shaking his head in disbelief.  It was a shake and a sigh that I remember so well from growing up, but this time, I was pleased that sigh was directed at my daughter instead of me.  Lilly had talked non stop for those 15 minutes, saying things like, "green means go, Papa," (as if Dad didn't know that a green light means go), "not this lane, Papa, move to that lane, " (repeating directions I was giving Dad),  "D for Daddy...I see a D for Daddy!" "Where are we?", "Who are you talking to, Papa?" "Who sings this song? What song is this? You have Hakuna Matata on your iPod, Papa?"...you get the point.  If the thought entered Lilly's head, she verbalized it, and Dad seemed to be the person she was directing most of her comments and questions towards.  Thankfully, on long drives, Lilly has her talking phases, her quiet phases (because her one is in her mouth), her sleeping phases, and once again, her talking phases.  On this trip, the talking phases outnumbered the others, but the first 15 minutes were definitely the chattiest.  

The past few months haven't been the most relaxing.  But, weddings and pregnancy aside, it's hard to have your typical relaxing days with a two-year old present.  We have, however, managed to work in some time at the pool, some quiet days here and there, and we've had a lot of fun catching up with family and friends that we don't often get the opportunity to see.  As the summer is winding down, I'm looking forward to some time at home before the fall, and with it the tutoring, begins again.  Oh, and we'll be having a baby in there too :)

Relaxing outside with her "yogurt ice cream"