A corner piece....

Kay pointed to the area right below her chin and asked what it was. I answered telling her it is her chin. She said I was wrong. Her answer...it is a corner piece to attach her neck to her face.

In honor of GG (Iris)

First sleepover..

Craig was out of town this week on business. These days I have to spend a lot of one on one time with Marissa because she will not take a bottle. I thought it would be fun to have a sleep over with Kay (I would sleep in her bed).  She talked about it for weeks leading up to Craig going out of town. Turns out she is like a magnet at night. No matter how far away I would scoot she was right beside me. I would feel a little foot rubbing my leg to make sure I was still there. It was very sweet. I did not get much sleep but it was worth every second. My girls are growing up too fast!!

Here is a picture of the girls watching me get ready while craig was gone and Marissa hanging out in our big bed.

In the land of English and STILL can't get it right....

I can't blame any language barriers now...I decided to pack a "sweet treat" for Kay's lunch as a special treat because they were having an outside picnic at school. Instead of a "thanks for the sweet treat mom" I got "why did you not know Lilly had sweet treats for everyone today? No one had sweet treats from home. Only sweet treats from Lilly."

10 minutes later..."I will warn you next time to not pack a sweet treat since you don't know"

10 minutes later..."I forgot to make an ad that says don't bring sweet treats. Lilly will bring. Why did you not know mom?"

10 minutes later..."no one brought sweet treats from home mama"

As soon as Craig got home from work..."mama packed a sweet treat from home. No one else had one from home"

I quit!  ;)

Slow going...

I took the girls on a walk this week. Kay wanted to ride her scooter. She has only recently mastered pushing off with her foot and has not really mastered steering. I probably don't have to say this, but we were slooooow going...  Everyone had fun and that is really all that matters!

Goggles...check!

Yes, Kay insisted on wearing them all the way to swim lessons.

Sisters...

Hanging out with dad...

Marissa is 5 months!

Marissa has moved past constantly grunting and blowing raspberries.  She is no onto high pitched squeals.  She loves her exerciser and doorway jumper.  She is really figuring out how to put weight on her feet.  We have officially given away the play mat.  She kept rolling off it.  She is really good at flirting at strangers.  She giggles and smiles at them at the store or doctors office.

The doctor said to start trying to only feed her one time at night.  This is not going well.  We are on week two and she is still waking up every few hours.  We are trying some reflux medicine to see if it helps her tummy.  She weight 13.9 pounds at her last doctors appointment.

Marissa is still not taking a bottle.  The doctor suggested having Kay give her the bottle.  She thought Marissa might think it was fun and four year olds usually don't give up easily.  Kay did not give up, but Marissa still is not taking it.  We have since switched to attempting a sippy cup and she is not fighting it nearly as much.  I can still only get her to take about an ounce, but that is progress.

Marissa is wearing 6-12 month clothes.  I am trying to use Kay's summer clothes so they are a bit big on her.  She is sleeping on her side now and has discovered her thumb- oh no, another one!

Marissa is really good at rolling from back to belly.  She is pretty good at belly to back.  When I leave a room she has often rolled several feet and is off her play mat or blanket.  She has found her feet and think they are great fun.

She really likes to be part of the action.  If we leave the room she gets upset until we bring her with us.   I think she has already figured out that she doesn't want to miss out on anything!

Scheduling has been a little tough.  She always falls asleep to/from Kay's school for naps.  It is making it hard to get her on a schedule.  I have tried to transfer her several times and it seems to be working ok.

My friend brought over her two month old baby.  I can't believe how much babies change in a few months.  It already seems like Marissa is getting so big.  I want to bottle up the baby phase and save it forever!

Kay helped with the five month photo shoot again.  As you can see, her sticker is upside down.  The girls are really having fun playing together now that Marissa can interact a little.

Technology today...

I am trying to use this blog as a way for my girls to some day be able to look back and see what life was like when they were little.  I thought I would post about a group I started up. When we moved to Hong Kong there was a Facebook group called "Hong Kong Moms"  this was a forum for Moms in Hong Kong to help each other with advice, where to find things,  favorite doctors etc. I really don't know how I would have survived without it. When we were getting ready to move back I was really disappointed nothing like this existed for our area. I decided to step out of my comfort zone and create a group. The little group I created about three months ago now has over 200 members and it is all women in the community supporting each other. Two lost dogs have been found,  doctors recommended, and child/baby advice given.  I am excited to see what happens with the group in the days to come....

Best Friends in the making...

My childhood best friend brought her little girl over to play. We hope our girls will be best friends too...

Lazy mornings...

Kay and Marissa snuggled in bed this morning.  It was wonderful...

Stealing snuggles...

Craig cracked the code on how to get a busy three year old to sit and snuggle for more than 10 seconds. Have the Easter Bunny bring nerds. Kay ate the whole box...one...nerd...at...a...time...

Before nerds, Kay was giving us tickets to "ride on the train" (kitchen table) to Admiralty station.

She found it...

Marissa has officially found her thumb. She has found it and sucked on it several times. Here we go again....

Sister fun

Kay showed Marissa how to play in the exercauser.

Sleepover!

Kay loved packing her suitcase to have a sleepover with Grandma. Craig and I loved having some one on one time with Marissa.

Five under 5 = One busy House!

We celebrated Easter at my brother's house.  Between our two families we have five kids under the age of five right now.  Charlie (age 4), Kay (age 3), Natalie (age 2), Darby (age 10 months), Marissa (age 5 months). Both girls are wearing Easter dresses my mom made for me when I was little.  We were not able to get together on Grandma's 60th birthday so we celebrated over the weekend.  The kids had a blast dying Easter eggs (complete with old t-shirts from Uncle Scott).  A few of them survived after being dropped onto the ground repeatedly!  The Easter Egg hunt was also a big hit.  Charlie found the "golden egg".  Good thing as he talked about it all weekend leading up to the hunt.  The littles (Darby and Marissa) enjoyed watching the chaos from the sidelines. 

Craig took Friday off work so we could spend some extra time as a family.  A 4.5 hour drive turned into a 8 hour drive after having to stop at urgent care for Kay.  She was not acting herself and by about 10 am on the drive she said her "ear hurt".  She quickly got worse so we took her to urgent care before the holiday shut everything down.  Poor girl had a double ear infection.  One of her ears ended up rupturing on Saturday and she started to feel much better once the pressure was down.  Craig and I have done a lot of traveling with kids and one thing we can say for sure... it is ALWAYS exciting.  You never know what to expect each trip.