The Last Post for 2012: Memory Jar

I started a memory jar for our family last January.  Throughout the year, Jon and I would randomly add  little notes of things we wanted to remember to it.  I loved going back through them.  It was fun to remember these moments, and to realize how much our girls have grown in just a year.

We finally went through them, and this is what we found:

• 1/12/12- Date Morning :)  Breakfast at Rialto Cafe, Ice Skating at Skyline Park, and a visit to The Tattered Cover.  Perfect!  I love you, Jon!
• 2/3/12- SNOWSTORM/ BLIZZARD  20+ Inches of snow.  We got Cecilias new car seat from UPS and the girls played in the big box together for hours.
• 2/21/12- Lilly is teething.  Mom and her were up all night.  Jon got her out of bed this morning and she said "Mama" :)
• 2/25/12-  Fantastic Date Night with SOC WCC at Indian Tree.  Good drinks, bad food, good people, great dancing!  Mary C. watched the girls.
• 2/26/12-  Lillian Jeanne figured out how to drink from a sippy cup.  Next week she will teach Daddy...
• 2/26/12-  Cecilia and Lilly were TERRIBLE at church!  They both had to be hauled out durring the Eucharistic Prayer.  After Mass, Cecilia planted a sweet little kiss on Robbie.  Too Cute.  Little Stinkers.
• 3/1/12-  Chelsea and John came for dinner.  We remembered Aunt Lisa's death, 15 years later.
• 3/2/12-  Cecilia wore big girl panties all day and did great!  Only a few accidents and she initiated all day long.  WOOOOHOOO!
• 3/6/12- Close to 80* today!  Cecilia insisted on wearing her swimsuit and begged to have her pool filled up.  I filled it with two kettles of boiling water and a few inches from the hose.  She was happy as a clam in July.
• 3/7/1-  Cecilia was in Big Girl Panties all day with NO accidents for the first time!  YIPEEE!
• 3/14/12-  Pi Day 2012- First family bike ride, high of 78*
• 3/30 - 4/1/12 -  Cecilia went to Grandma and Pops' house and we had a Lilly, Mommy, and Daddy weekend.  80+*, swings and a walk.  Lilly fell asleep in the stroller.  
• 4/8/12-  Happy Easter!  We had a wonderful day at Ma & Pa's.  The weather was perfect,  Cecilia filled 2 big baskets full of eggs and we flew kites on the hill.
• 4/28/12-  Jon and I had and amazing date shopping for Mother's Day and eating at Bloom!  Jon had the pork tenderloin, and I had the Ciopinni.
• 5/12/12- Happy Wedding Day to Kirsten and Greg!  It was a beautiful ceremony and super fun reception.
• 5/13/12-  Happy 1st Birthday Lillian Jeanne!  We had a backyard party with family and friends.  It was bee themed.  You loved the black frosting on your cake and got lots of wonderful gifts.
• 5/22/12-  Cecilia sang Johnny Appleseed at dinner tonight: "the sun, and the rain, and the A B C".  Too Cute!
• 6/2/12-  2nd day of yard work on the new playground.  Took the family to Roadhouse for dinner and learned that at 1+, Lilly does not like eating out.  She melted down before our food even arrived and we had it boxed up as soon as it was delivered.  Check please!
• 6/4/12-  Cecilia went to Grandma's with Uncle Pete last night.  She was so cute waving goodbye to us! Bonus: Lilly slept through the night!  Wooohoo!!
• 6/4/12-  Lillian Jeanne walked 10 steps to her Daddy by herself tonight!  Walking: age 12 months 23 days.
• 7/5/12-  Cecilia started speech therapy today.  When Brianna showed her the front of her tongue, she pointed to it.  When Brianna asked where the back of her tongue was, Cecilia turned around. Hehehe :)
• 8/4/12-  Jon was right!  (about the weather)
• 8/17/12-  Beth ran her first 5K and finished in 33:43!  Ran the whole way!  Raced the Firefly race with Mom, Emily, Chelsea, Tanya, and Rhonda.
• 9/12/12-  It rained all day!  I put Lilly in long sleeves this morning and she freaked out and was so confused.  She cried and pulled on her sleeves for most of the morning until I changed her shirt to short sleeves.  It was actually quite funny :)
• 9/20/12- Rest in Peace, Eva Eby.
• 9/20/12-  Cecilia: "Mom, my hair, MATCH!"  While holding my hair and her's next to each other.
• 9/25/12-  At dinner, Cecilia interjects in conversation and tells Dad, "No hunt Dad, hurts!"  Jon asked why, and she very seriously said "No Dad.  Hurts. No Hunt. NO!"
• 10/7/12-  Fantastic weekend getaway in Manitou Springs!
• 10/13/12-  Fun, wet morning at Miller Farms with he Strassners' and Trenck's.
• 11/22/12-  Pops wins tow consecutive games of Mexican Train on Thanksgiving Night.
• 12/8/12-  Yesterday, Jon, Lilly, and I were all really sick!  Yuck!  We were starving by lunch time today and treated ourseves to Panera.  On the way home we all sang "Woody's Round Up".  It was a good day.
• 12/12/12-  Headache, nauseous, and TWO PINK LINES!!!
• 12/20/12-  At dinner, Cecilia says "the sun is upside down!"

Christmas in the Mountains

We had such a wonderful time in the mountains with my family this year.  Pat and Sarah were in town and we all got to spend 4 days together at my parents house.  Seriously, you can't beat this view.

We drove up on Christmas night and celebrated Christmas morning on the 26th.  Jon finally got to put the angel on the tree this year.  He has been married into the family the longest, but has never had the honor of this until this year.

The girls dug into their stockings to find all sorts of fun goodies.  And then we started with presents.  Lots and lots of presents- mainly for the girls.  They were spoiled by Mammaw and Pops, and all of their Uncles and Aunts.

The weather was so beautiful while we were there, and there was just enough snow to sled down the driveway.  The girls loved it.  They were pretty darn cute all bundled up.  I was on camera duty and Mom and Aunt Sarah took turns pulling them up the driveway while Jon and Aunt Megan played goalie at the bottom so they didn't run into the cars.  The men folk played bow and arrow while the ladies watched the girls sled.  Annie, Pat and Sarah's little dog, had so much fun sledding too.  At the end, Cecilia even pulled Lilly all the way up the driveway all by herself.  It was adorable.

Gingerbread houses are a tradition, and this year was no exception.  The girls even got to decorate their own houses.  I'm pretty sure they ate as much candy as was put on their houses.  My siblings and sister-in-laws, and I had a great time decorating the cottage this year.  Pat put the finishing touches on with a lighting mis-hap scene.

There was lots of play time, snuggle time,  tea parties, dress up, baking and cooking.  

 

Lillian was doing her absolute best to rub off her baby germs on to Aunt Sarah :)

We all brought our technology with us.  It was quite remarkable.  Between all of us, we had 4 PC laptops, 1 android phone, 1 macbook, 5 iPads, 1 iPod Touch, and 5 iPhones.  No wonder the internet was running so slow ;)

It was a wonderful trip and we feel so blessed to have been able to spend quality time with my whole family.   

Christmas Eve

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we love Christmas Eve at Ma & Pa's.  So many wonderful people, and wonderful traditions.  The house was full of love and people.  I think my brother said it best when he said, "Didn't this house used to be bigger?"  HA, no, never was it bigger, we've all grown and there are more people that have joined the fun.  My girls were adorable in their Christmas dresses.  Cecilia was not into the photo thing, so you'll have to take my word for it.  Cecilia's grab bag gift from Uncle John and Aunt Michele was a hit- she got Cinderella dress up clothes, complete with a light up dress.  The young men took over dishwashing duty this year, and they were very serious about it.  White elephant was great this year, although, I wish I would have stolen that sandwich press.  My cute mug got stollen and I got stuck with a Clapper.  Pa got a Justin Bieber Holiday CD, just what he's always wanted, hehehe!

Christmas Day

Santa came!!  I swear his bag of toys exploded in my living room.  We had a wonderful Christmas morning with our girls.  They got to open their stockings and see what Santa brought- a puppet theater, and sleds.  Then we went to Mass and back home to open the rest of the loot.  Jon's Mom joined us for dinner and brought more lovely gifts.  It was a beautiful day.

Speech Update

Cecilia had another speech evaluation recently to check her progress and see if we needed to reapply to continue speech therapy into the new year...  Wait, did I every catch you up on what happened with the school district???  I don't think so.  Long story short- they finally got around to evaluating her at the school district and guess what, they qualified her for services.  However, when I went and checked out the preschool, and met the speech therapist, I was not in the least impressed!  The speech therapist had way to many kids on her case load, and she had a speech impediment herself.  Not sure how she got that job.  Needless to say, we have kept Cecilia in private therapy, and at the same preschool, and she has been making wonderful progress.

As I was saying, she had another evaluation done in mid December to check her progress.  For comparison, her scores on the evaluation have improved, all though she is still below where we know she could be.  The tests generates three scores.  The first score is an overall score.  The average range is 85-115, in June, she scored a 78, this time she scored an 84.  The second score is a percentile.  In June, she scored in the 17th percentile and now she is at 22nd percentile.  The third number is an age equivalent.  In June, Cecilia was scored to be speaking at a two year old - zero month level, or 10 months behind.  This time, she scored at age 2 years 8 months, or 8 months behind.  The other number they give us the number of errors made.  In June she made 47 errors and this time around she made only 36 errors.  So while she is improving, she is still needing help.  And although it looks like she has not progressed a lot, she really has, and she is right on the cusp of making some major breakthroughs. 

As far as her sounds go, she has mastered the 'w' and starting 's' sounds (st, sn, sp, sm, etc.)  The 'w' was huge for her.  The 'w' is a very early sound that most kids master by age 2.  She is talking and talking all the time now, and we don't really have any further concern with her putting words together.  She has also come a long way as far as marking the middle and ending sounds of words.  We still have some issues in this area, but not nearly as much as we did.  She is now working on the 'k' sound.  This is a more difficult sound, and some kids don't master this sound till closer to age four, but it is important that she get the help she needs to learn it now.  Once she learns the 'k' sound, 'g' follows pretty quickly.  Same with 'f' and 'v'.   She knows the 'f' sound, but will not use it regularly.

She loves going to speech and playing with Brianna.  Brianna has been so impressed with her progress and is confident that she will be able to "graduate" within a few months.

Santa

For the first time ever (besides this time, which doesn't really count), my girls met Santa!  We took them to the Bass Pro Shop this morning.  We had heard that the lines can be down right horrendous, so we arrived just as the store was opening to get in line- an hour before Santa arrives.  They actually do a good job because you get a ticket with your time on it, and then you can shop or play the fun games that they have set up for the kids.  Cecilia was very sweet with Santa, and was very excited to meet him.  Lilly cooperated, too.  Also, they give you a free 4x6 print and let you take your own photos.  It was a great deal!  We were in by 9 and out by 10:30 and finished our Christmas Shopping (except for that thing that Cecilia told Santa she wanted...).

Stars = Sticker

Although, Cecilia has been potty trained durring the day for Months now, she hadn't mastered staying dry through the night until recently.  I was tired of buying pull-ups, and I was convinced that she could do it.  Despite our efforts to limit her liquids in the evening, and having her go right before bed time, she would still be wet in the morning, or soak through her pull-up in the middle of the night.  That's when I thought that maybe she just needed to know that it was ok to get up and go to the potty in the middle of the night.  Her pull-ups have stars on them that disappear when they get wet, so we talked to her about waking up and going pee in the potty at night time so that her stars would still be there in the morning.  Then we made "The Sticker Chart".  If she still had her stars in the morning, then she got a sticker.  I was shocked at how quickly she understood this concept.  She only had two nights right at the beginning when she was wet in the morning, every other night she has gotten up and gone potty and gone straight back to bed.  She still needs me to come with her for motivation/encouragement/help, but I'll take it over having to buy more pull-ups or having to change her bed three times a week.  We are so proud of her!  She filled up her sticker chart, (15 stickers!) and got a special present.  Cinderella the movie.  She has been all about Cinderella recently, so the fact that it was on sale at Costco recently was perfect.