F & W

Cecilia has been making so much progress in speech therapy.  Brianna, her therapist, has been working with her on the 'F', 'W' and 'K/G' sounds.  She is so close to mastering the 'F' sound; meaning she knows how to say it, and says it well with other sounds to complete words, but it is not quite automatic for her.  So, we have begun playing dumb with her to help her recognize the difference and start saying the 'f' automatically.  For example, she will say "uh-oh, shall boom!" instead of "uh-oh, fall boom!".  In this case we play dumb and ask her what "shall" is.  She is pretty quick to correct herself.  The "W' sound is coming along too.  We say "stick your lips out" a lot around here.   Here is a short video from therapy this week.  Brianna and I were cracking up, and trying not to Cecilia see us laughing.

As for the Child Find program through the school district, I am NOT in the least impressed.  We are STILL waiting for her to be evaluated.  We went back for what was supposed to be her evaluation in early August, but it turned out to be a pre-screening to see if she would qualify for the evaluation.  Guess what- she qualifies for an evaluation, duh!  When we first got pulled back they tried to do the hearing and vision screening again.  I sharply told the lady that we had already done this.  Then the pre-screening was done in the middle of an empty bank of cubes with construction going on around us and people coming in to start their work day.  Not exactly what I would call an environment conducive to evaluating a three year olds cognitive and verbal abilities.  When the lady came out with the results of the screening, I was biting my tongue so hard because everything she told me was written in the form they had me fill out back in May.  I was pretty livid when we left.  Supposedly she will have a full evaluation done on September 14.  That will be over four months from when I first called to have her evaluated.

Zoo Day

Admittedly, I'm not a zoo/museum kind of person.  Although, as I get older, I do find myself enjoying these activities more and more.  When a friend of mine, Melissa, and I made plans to get together on Monday, she suggested the zoo.  We haven't been in about two years, and Lilly has (obviously) never been.  So, I jumped at the chance to go.  It was the perfect day because it was the first day of school for the rest of of the schools that hadn't already started.  No one was there.  It was perfect!  It was a hot day, but the girls didn't seem to mind.

We saw lots of animals, and even a few baby animals.  The baby leopard and mama leopard were playing a ton.  The tigers were playing in their pool.  We saw the new elephant exhibit, which is really very beautiful, and even got to see the elephant show.  Bodie, the elephant, gave us a little more than just a show too.  Lots of poop, which Cecilia pointed out over and over again.  And lets just say that Bodie really enjoyed the dip in the pool at the end of the show, if you get what I mean.  There was also a baby chimp who's mother was just trying to get away from him.  (I could totally sympathize with her.)

 

 The girls loved it.  Cecilia had so much fun with Leah.  Leah is just a tad younger than C, but they have become fast friends, and loved to hold each others hands as they walked through the zoo.  So cute!  I also have to mention that Melissa went into labor that night and had her baby boy the next day.  I do take partial credit for her going into labor :)



It really was a fun day.  Perhaps a zoo membership is in our future??

Firefly 5K Finisher

I did it!  I ran the entire way!  I finished my first 5K!

The race was on Friday night.  My neighbor Rhonda, was the catalyst for doing the race, and we put a team together of seven ladies: Myself, Rhonda, Rhonda's friend Erica, my Mom, my cousin Chelsea, my friend Emily, and my uncle's girlfriend, Tanya.  It was so much fun!  I ran the whole way with my Mom and Emily.  It was definitely a stretch for me.  I was feeling it after about 2.5 miles, but I made it. I am so glad that I had Emily and my Mom with me.  I think we all pushed each other, and I know if I didn't have them I would have walked part of it.  I finished in 33:43, that's a 10:53 mile.  Pretty darn good for my first time!  I can totally see myself becoming slightly addicted to running :)  Here are some photo highlights from the race, courtesy of my cheerleader hubby, Jon.

Pre-race.  See the ducks, they were courtesy of Mom and glowed in the dark.

Half way through and going strong!

At the finish line!  I did it!!

Post race high!  

On a side note:  The race was also the last time we were with our friends Emily and Shawn before they move to Houston.  Shawn got an awesome job offer and they move this week.  We will miss them so much, and hope they return to CO very very soon!

Butterflies

We went to the Butterfly Pavilion at the beginning of the month with my Aunt, and cousin Andrew, and Ma.  I had way too much fun photographing the pretty little invertebrates.  Cecilia held Rosie, again.  Lilly was totally enthralled with the butterflies, and she loved playing in the "hands-on" area.  

 

Growing Girls

The girls had their milestone checkups recently.  Here are the stats for the record book:

Cecilia, Age 3

30lbs, 40th Percentile

37 Inches, 40th Percentile

Lillian, Age 15 months

19lbs 9oz, 25th Percentile

28.75 inches, 25th Percentile

(As a side note, when is it no longer appropriate to talk about your kids weight via the internet???)

They both checked out just fine.  Well and healthy, and thats all a Mama can ask for.  I feel like I've been slacking on keeping track of what they have been doing and saying.  So, let me count the ways I love them right now.

Cecilia

• She is talking up a storm, finally!  Speech therapy is going very well, and she is practicing her 'f', 'w', and 'k' sounds all the time.  These sounds are still not natural for her, and we remind her often to "use your 'f' sound, bite your lip", but she is getting it, and she is really liking therapy.
• She is 100% obsessed with Buzz Lightyear and Woody.  Its a little ridiculous.  
• She loves to sing in the car to the Wee Sing CD or the Toy Story Soundtrack.  It really is adorable to hear her little voice in the back seat.  I think that all of the singing has really helped her talking and her ability to put more words together.  
• She is so my type-A daughter.  She is always concerned with what Lilly is doing, and will not hesitate to correct her, or "help" her do something.  
• She is still having about 1 accident per day, and wears a pull-up at night.
• She still loves her blankie.  At nap time and bed time she wants me to put her "gee" on her pillow, but when I go to kiss her before I go to bed she has wrapped herself in her blanket like a mummy.  
• She is all about coloring right now.  I love it!  She is getting really good at coloring lines and circles, and coloring specific areas of a coloring page different colors.  
• She calls her sister "Jeanne" most of the time.  I think its because "Lilly" is hard for her to say, so she defaults to "Jeanne".
• She will call her friends on the toy phones and have conversations.  It cracks me up!  She will also take pictures with her toy camera all the time.  The other day she lined up most of the shoes in the house and stood on the ottoman and took pictures of them.  (I wonder where she learned these things...)
• She loves to stack and line up things.  She can be very orderly when she wants to be.
• She has started to do this awkward smile thing.  It has made getting 3 year pictures of her very difficult.
• She insists on wearing her shoes on the wrong feet and her sunglasses upside down.
• She still takes a glorious 2 hour nap everyday.

Lillian

• Lilly is also talking, talking, talking.  I think we are up to about 50 words.  She amazes me with her speech.  She is also starting to put two words together, on occasion.  Its usually "bye-bye, Dada" or the like.
• She loves her sister, and calls her "sisser".  She will follow Cecilia around, and mimic just about everything that C does, for better or for worse.
• Lilly is not a big fan of the bath tub.  She's a get in, get clean, get out NOW, kind of gal.
• She is so snuggly.  I love it!  She will cuddle with me at just about any time of the day.  She is getting so big, and I try to commit to memory how her little body feels snuggled with me, because I know it won't last forever.  
• She is trying to give up her morning nap, again.  I can't figure it out.  She will go 3-4 days without a morning nap, and then 2-3 days with a morning nap.  I'm just going with the flow.  I'll take a morning nap from her as long as I can.
• She loves babies.  She will spot them everywhere and get so excited and tell me "Baby! Baby!"
• She is such a good eater.  She will regularly eat more than her sister, and sometimes finish what C doesn't eat. 
• She is getting so stable on her feet.  Walking is her primary mode of transportation, and she is able to navigate small obstacles too.
• She loves books.  She will bring me books all the time and tell me "book" and crawl in my lap and flip the pages.  
• She knows where her eyes, ears, mouth, noes, feet, and belly are.  She particularly likes her belly, and will pull her shirt up to show us her round belly after she eats.  
• She has 10 teeth with 11 & 12 coming in fast.

July is over??

Somehow we are already 7 days into August.  How did this happen??  Did you change the calendar on me??  I haven't even finished telling you about what happened in July.  Geez.  So here's what I missed.

There have been signs of fort making in my living room.  Who needs toys??

I love pinterest.  I found this activity for Cecilia.  She is quite the chemist.  She did this for about 45 minutes.  It was awesome!

Lilly has taken a liking to her blankie.  She calles it "gee" just like her sister.  

I asked Cecilia if she wanted to make a card for Grandma.  She proceeded to draw on every page of her  coloring pad and then "wrapped" it up.

Cecilia has been promoted to a big girl seat.  She now sits in this seat with just a seat belt.  It has been so nice to buckle her in now.  She had to buckle her baby in one last time.

I've kept up with my running.  I'm 5 weeks in now, and Friday will be my first looong run for 20 mins with out walking.  Here's a pic with me and my girls after a morning run.

We got some rain in July.  It was so wonderful.  My girls were totally fascinated with the water falling from the sky.

Daddy and Cecilia built a pretty amazing castle.  Cecilia tried to get inside it because she's a princess.

 Lilly is such a good eater.  She regularly eats more than her sister.  Messy dinner's are fun, she really gets into it.

Speaking of Lilly.  Her hair is really starting to grow.  Its very light and strawberry-blonde in color.

The Great-Ma came to visit us a few times.  We are lucky enough to live close to the wholesale flower place where she goes to purchase her flowers.  She's been here for lunch and story time.  I just love that my girls get time with their Great Grandma.

There was a PARTY!!  My Uncle Bob got married back in October, and he and his new wife, Wendy, came to town for a family celebration of their wedding.  Pat & Sarah aslo came to town to celebrate.  There were lots of family photos taken.

At the party, Lilly and Eva got into some shenanigans.  Oh, these two are going to give us some trouble in the future.  They found the ice chest!  HA, get it, ice?!?!  Can't you hear them saying, "Here, cousin, its so good.  This is the best!"  "Oh, yeah, its so good when it hits your gums.  Its totally magical!"

I snapped this one of Cecilia at the party too.  She's such a dolly to me.  I love her.

This is a picture from the party too, but I singled it out because we got to spend a lot of time with Petey this summer.  He left yesterday to travel all over Europe and study in Florence, Italy, for a semester.  We will miss him so much!

The day after the party, we celebrated my parents 30th wedding anniversary.  Their actual anniversary is today, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!  We went to mass as a family and they renewed their vows at the same church they were married at.  The church has since added on and has a brand new worship space, but it was still cool to be at the same church.  Then we took Mom and Dad out for a wonderful brunch at Ya Ya's.  They have the best. brunch. ever. 

Cecilia's received so many birthday presents.  They all had the same theme: Buzz Lightyear.  She is a little obsessed.  Just a tad.  She got Buzz and Woody jammies from Grandma and Pops.  Grandma Cheryl brought her a Buzz Lightyear doll with all the bells and whistles.  His helmet even does that woosh thing!  And her Godparents, Uncle Pat & Aunt Sarah, got her a full Buzz costume complete with wings.  Cecilia loves to say "to infinity and beyond!" and then she puts her hand up in the air.  Too cute!  Buzz Lightyear, to the rescue!