Lilly Jeanne's Age 2 Photos

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited my parents, and I took the opportunity to take Lilly Jeanne's pictures in the mountains.  There was no shortage of beautiful scenery!  She was such a ham and was totally into it.  Here are a few of my favorites. She's just too cute!

Last Day of MOPS...

I have been coordinating the MOPS group at my church for the past three years.  It has been a very fulfilling, rewarding, and fun role to have.  I'm proud to say that over the past three years, our group has tripled in size and we have a strong group moms who have found friendship and support for their vocations as mothers.  Our group has also discerned a more Catholic focus through our speakers and fellowship over the past year and a half or so.  We have decided to drop the MOPS affiliation and move towards a Catholic moms group.  We will now be called Magnificat Moms, and we are working with another parish in the area who has also gone through this same path.  I have officially passed the baton of the coordinator role to my good friend and assistant coordinator for the coming year.  However, I feel called to grow the Magnificat Moms ministry and will be working on making our resources available to other parishes this year.  I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be part of this Mom's ministry and to grow it and to make it available to other moms in the same boat as myself.  I too have developed friendships that will last a long time through this group.

Memorial Day Weekend

We headed up for some much needed mountain time at my parents house for Memorial Day weekend this year.  Cecilia was SO excited to go, that on the Monday before we left (a full 5 days before), the first thing she did with Jon was to make her packing list.  I was still in bed and could hear her listing things to Jon.  It was so cute!

It was a low key weekend, which was just what we needed.  My parents hosted a BBQ for their friends in the area and the girls "helped" wash the deck off.

We made s'mores on Sunday night around the campfire with the girls.  Cecilia was all about the chocolate (that's my girl!).  She went to all the effort of making her s'more, just to pull the chocolate piece out and eat it first.

I love the view from my parents home.  These are just a few of the changing scenes we witnessed this time from their deck.  Simply beautiful!

28 Weeks

How Far Along: 28 Weeks

Size of Baby: 2.25 lbs. and almost 15 inches long.  Think butternut squash.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 10 lbs

Maternity Clothes: The last time I grew a tiny human in the summer was when I was pregnant with Cecilia and working.  I've realized how much my style (or lack there of) has changed since then.  All of the summer maternity shirts I pulled out are "professional".  I've started to purchase a few t-shirts, and I received a few as gifts for Mothers Day.

Baby Movement: ALL the time!  This kid moves constantly, or so it seems.  Also, when this baby moves, there is movement all over, not just in one spot.  Baby has also started to have some ferocious hiccup spells.  We're talking close together and full belly jumping hiccups.  

Sleep:  So far, so good.  It is definitely getting harder to change positions once I've laid down.

What I miss: A Margarita!  MMMMMM that sounds sooo yummy right now.

Cravings:  Peanut Butter.

Aversions:  Not too much.  I guess it depends on the day, or time of day.  

Symptoms:  Heartburn!!!  I've increased my Zantac dosage up to the maximum allowed- 150mg, twice a day.  That is four times the amount I took with the girls.  Sciatic pain.  Leg and foot cramps that make you cry in the middle of the night.  

Best Moment:  Cecilia actually feeling the baby move!  "Whoa!!" was her response :)  And reading books to the girls about new babies and being a big sister.

Last Day of School

Cecilia's last day of school was on the 22nd.  She has enjoyed school so much this year, and grown so much.  I attribute a lot of her growing toward working through her speech issues.  She has matured tremendously and is on track with her peers.  She will move up with her class in the fall to the Pre-K room, and we are excited for this new adventure for her.

She can almost write her name.  She's got the C's and L's down, although she very recently started writing her C's backwards.  Totally normal, from what I've been told.  She counts to 20, knows all of her letters in upper case, and 90% of them in lower case.  She knows and loves all the colors, purple being her favorite.  She can name at least ten different shapes.  She loves to sing.  "Oh Say Can You See!" and "Itsy Spider" have been favorites.

I captured her on the last day of school in her favorite dress.  Lilly Jeanne wanted in on the action too :)

Lilly Jeanne: Age 2!

My sweet snuggle baby is two.  Lillian Jeanne is 2 years old.  How else can I say this??  {Waaaaaaaaaa! Sniffle. Pass the tissues, please.}  But seriously.  She is still my snuggle baby, and she is so sweet.  She has been "practicing" for age two for about two months now.  I think she's got it down.  She's practically perfected the tantrum.  "NO!" is a new favorite word, promptly followed by a very ornery looking smirk.  "Mine!" has made several appearances.  She has learned how to raise her arms up when she gets picked up so that she slides right through your hands back to the ground.  Yup, she's two.

We celebrated on Mother's Day with my family.  She picked out a picture of her cake in a cute kids cake book I have and I went from there to create her very own carousel cake.  It was delicious- white chocolate raspberry with cream cheese frosting.  She dove head first into her cupcake, it was pretty cute, and she actually managed to not get too messy.

Her two year old check up at the doctors went well.  She has started to show signs of having seasonal allergies   We have started her on Claritin to reduce her symptoms.  She weighed in at 24.8 lbs, and measured 32.25 inches.  Both, in the 25th percentile.

Here are some things about Lilly Jeanne at age two worth writing down for memory lane:

• She has developed an aversion to being messy, sticky, dirty, etc.  She wants to have her hands and face washed the minute they get dirty.
• When you ask her what she would like for lunch (or snack, or any other meal) her answer is always "pickles and cheese".
• She is quite the backseat driver.  If the car stops for more than about 7 seconds I will hear this tiny little voice behind me say "Go people!" 
• She has a wonderful sense of humor.  She will crack jokes and bust out laughing for no apparent reason.  If you ask her to laugh, she will.  Its hilarious.
• She loves babies.  She will point them out everywhere, carry dollies around with her, talk to Tater Tot, and kiss my belly all the time.
• She is still a wonderful little snuggler.  Especially when she first wakes up in the morning or after her nap.
• She loves her sister and will mostly comply with whatever Cecilia orders wants her to do.  I wonder how long this will last.
• She thinks she is ready for school.  She carries around her little backpack, and talks about going to school like sister.
• She has become interested in going potty like a big girl.  We've had many successful trips to the potty for #2.  She tells me she needs to go, and we go.  For the record, I'm in absolutely no rush to fully train her at this point.  I think it is great that she is showing initiative  but I am not forcing the issue at all.
• She is such a girly girl, and loves to wear shoes.  She adores shoes.  She will often ask to have shoes on as soon as she wakes up in the morning.  She loves her little pink loafers, or "oafers" in Lilly Jeanne speak.  
• She wants to wear jeans or a skirt every day.  
• She likes to watch Dora and will interact with the show as Dora asks her to.
• She loves to have "bows" in her hair, also known as pig tails.  She will ask for them just about daily, and pull me into the bathroom to have me do her hair.
• She knows her birth date!  If you ask her, she will tell you, "May tirteen" in her sweet little voice.
• If you ask her her name she will tell you "Lilly Jeanne".  Cecilia will call her Lilly Jeanne all the time.  I'm 90% sure this is the name that will stick and she will go to school with this as her primary name.
• Her vocabulary is insane.  I can't even count how many words she has.  She will regularly speak in 3-5 word phrases, and communicates well with her sister.  

Minnie

Meet Minnie, the minivan.

She is the newest member of the Fries fleet. We traded Sam, the Pilot, in for Minnie (2009 Honda Odyssey) on Saturday and I am still in shock that I am officially a minivan mom.  I feel like I've become my Mother overnight, in a good way.  I just really feel like a "grown-up" now.

 The vehicle situation has been the only thing this pregnancy that has had me in a tizzy. I've been stressing about getting a larger car for months now. Really, since before we were pregnant with Tater Tot. For the longest time I said I would never drive a minivan and that we would upgrade to a Suburban or Expedition EL. Never say never, right? The more comparison I did, and the more looking around a friends' vans, the more convinced I became that this was the right car for us. The main reason for getting a larger car was because of the dog. Yup, the dog. The Pilot had plenty of seating with the third row, but no room for Stella to sit when we went to my parents house. And, even with three kids in the pilot, it was going to take some effort and hoop jumping to get all of them buckled in on a day to day basis.

The minivan appealed to me for so many reasons: price, gas mileage  practicality, space, etc.  I love the sliding doors.  Cecilia is big enough now to open her own door to get in and out of the Pilot, however she's not quite big enough, or aware enough, to make sure that her door doesn't slam into the car next to her.  Also, even if I parked with plenty of space between my car and the person next to me, chances were that the next car would park so close to me, leaving me without a choice but to door ding them in order to get Lilly into her seat and buckled.  And, that is all going to change here in August when I am placing an infant seat in and out of the car and I'll need more space.  So, the sliding door option was a big plus.  Another plus to the sliding doors- they are automatic.  Push a button and magically they open or close.  Cecilia thinks its the coolest thing ever.  I tend to agree with her on that. Another bonus, it is lower to the ground, so even Lilly can climb in all by herself.

There is plenty of space in Minnie.  Even with all three rows of seats up, the trunk is plenty big for all of our stuff and Stella will be able to comfortably ride up with the kids.  The trunk has a well that is quite deep, and if we don't have all three rows up, the third row lays flat, making the total cargo space much more than the Pilot was.  It is super easy to get in and out of and all the way to the back to buckle Cecilia in the back row too.  You should have seen me at the dealership.  The sales people thought I was crazy, I'm sure.  We brought the double stroller, the umbrella stroller, and the infant seat with us to test drive it.  I directed Jon as to where all the seats should be placed, Lilly on the passenger side, Cecilia in the back, and baby on the driver side.  Then, I made everyone get out, and I did a dry run of putting all the kids in the car and buckling them in.  It was way easier than I expected.  Oh- another thing I really like is that the middle row can be either captains chairs OR a bench seat.  Right now it is configured for captains chairs but if we needed to haul that many people we could, and as the kids grow and we start hauling their friends we can change it to the bench seat.

So far, I'm really happy with it.  It is so practical with a family, and it was totally designed with kids in mind, DVD player and all.  So, say what you will, go ahead... "grocery grabber", "mommy missile", "soccer mom"...  I prefer "Swagger Wagon" and, in the words of my youngest brother, "I bet my sister is hot in that dual rear-view mirror, sliding side door, hatch back, silver beast of vanness!"  Why, yes, yes I am totally hot in it (thanks to the heated seats!) :)

For the record, Jon grumbled quite a bit about the minivan option.  He wanted a truck frame.  Suburban or Expedition EL were his top choices.  I talked him into the minivan.  After all, this is my car, that I will drive 95% of the time, and I will be toting kids and grocery's and stuff in and out of.  He was worried about his Man Card.  After we signed all the paper work at the dealership, he asked the finance guy if he should surrender his Man Card to him??  It was hilarious!  Not to worry, Jon, the best Man Card is the one that says DAD on it, right?