Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Three Year Well Visit

Sometimes when I'm going through the pictures Brent takes I see pictures like this and think - "It's a good thing I leave for work pretty early in the morning!!" Some days there is no telling what goes on in the morning!A little over a week ago we finally took Lilli in for her three year well visit (more like 3.25 years!) I had made the appointment pretty close to her birthday, but to get a first thing in the morning time slot it took forever to get in. Must be nice to not work and be able to squeeze in any old appointment!! Plus we both like to go, and since Brent works out in the suburbs it really only works for us to have first or last thing appointments.
Lilli really wasn't nervous about going, and thankfully she hasn't had to go to the doctor since her two year visit last year. It's really crazy to think that the only thing she's had in the last year (plus some) is a light stomach virus (maybe two) that hasn't even required a doctors visit or missed school. That's pretty amazing for a kid who is in a room full of other kids every day!
She got weighed and measured like a big kid. She's grown a couple of inches since last year and her growth charts predicts she'll be a whopping 5 foot four lady one day, and she gained about three pounds since last year putting her right at 28 pounds. She's in the 20th percentile for weight, woo hoo!! (I wish I was!)
She did some coloring while we waited for Dr Rauth.
And then Dr Rauth came in and asked her lots of questions - about food she likes, things she likes to do, names, and so forth to judge her skill set. My favorite part was when she "listened" to Lilli's stomach to hear what she had for breakfast - I had gone into work before hand so Brent had been in charge of breakfast, and normally she just has a few crackers since they have a breakfast snack at school. Dr R was going through all these healthy options like eggs, cereal, yogurt, etc and I'm thinking PLEASE don't let her say he gave her a sucker or candy this morning for any sort of bribe!!!
She even took her blood pressure for the first time.
Also for the first time she had to pee in a cup. Yes, a small cup. No, it did not go well. The first time we went in to try it she wouldn't even do it at all, so we tried again before we left and she did have to go but didn't want me to try and catch it in a cup. So I did what all great parents do and once she started going I rushed her with the cup. I think it was an impossible assignment and I'm glad we had this practice round because Lilli was incredibly amused by my hand getting peed all over and the fact I got about three drops in the actual cup.

Lilli got a perfect bill of health and Dr Rauth feels like she's a great candidate for a gifted child program here in Metro Davidson county and said she'd write the recommendation for us if we wanted to enroll her. It sounded a lot like the CLUE program I was in in Memphis where one afternoon a week she would get to do some special learning activities. Dr Rauth felt like based on her verbal skills, as well as how advanced she is with alphabet and some of the things she can already read and write she's functioning at more of a 5 year old level than a 3 year old! That's my girl!
This dress is about the cutest thing ever. My purse is probably overkill though.
"Shoneys" is the third word Lilli can spell (without even seeing the letters). (She can also spell and write Lilli and Mommy, and now she can also spell Nemo). We pass it every afternoon on our way home and she always says it and spells it, and then asks to eat there. We're just not Shoneys people, but she wore us down and it is SO close to our house!! We were actually so surprised - the food and service were both really good! And they had mac n cheese on the menu which is her current favorite food.
And the hot fudge sundae?? Who can say no to that? We even had them replace the middle ice cream section with whipped cream so Brent and Lilli could eat it without worrying about the lactose!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Days in the Life

About a month ago during nap time Lilli discovered an ant on her pillow. Brent and I were outside working in the yard and we don't carry the baby monitor with us anymore (she knows she can't get up until 4 - her clock tells her when it's ok to leave her room and she can handle things herself and some days she just plays quietly in her bed and doesn't sleep.) so we didn't hear whatever amount of drama happened. The only fall out that has ensued is that she refuses to sleep on ANY pillow since then. We've swapped out pillows, killed imaginary ants, nothing will get her to sleep on a pillow again. Loving her new Batman hooded towel the Easter Bunny brought her.
Looking all cute and 1980's before school one morning! All that's missing is some leg warmers.
I ordered Lilli a playhouse off a good deal on Amazon.com. I figured if she was going to enjoy something like that we needed to get it pretty soon before she outgrows them. It was a huge pain for Brent to put together.
But she's very proud of her little house! It even has a little mailbox where we put our fake letters, kitchen sink,pretend phone and lots of little tools so she can assemble and disassemble her fence and little flower boxes.
I had a girls night out with the ladies at church recently. We went to eat at Chuy's and do some shopping at Opry Mills. That automatically means chicken nuggies and fries for the home team!
And lots of self portrait taking.

One Wednesday night Lilli was cracking us up with an "older" girl (Vivian). She was sitting in her lap and letting her baby her.
Pretending to offer Julie some Rice Krispy treat (hardly!!)
She always gets some sort of candy and snacks in Wednesday night class. This night it was suckers and she, Audrey and Zach were most certainly entertaining the "crowds" with some sort of crazy stories.
When I picked up Lilli today one of her little best friends ran over and told me Lilli had invited her to church and she was going to come with us. And not only was she going to come with us she was going to wear her pretty Easter dress. HA! I guess she's been evangelizing at school today!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Easter Sunday

Easter morning excitement....she was so thrilled that the Easter Bunny had been to visit her!
Her fave gift - a pose-able Batman!
Our family Easter pic after church. Bunny ears are our tradition (2009, 2010, 2011).
What we usually end up with......
Me and my girlie....
Posing in her Easter dress...we were all complimentary colors this year and not so matchy matchy.

Picking flowers next door.

Daddy-daughter pic.
Mommy-daughter pic.


We had a great Easter!!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Easter Weekend

A few more pics from Easter weekend....

Good Friday late afternoon, post zoo, Lil wanted to play in the front yard and hunt eggs. And be a princess. So out came her awesome Sleeping Beauty costume one of her friends passed down to her.Complete with crown. That's when you know she means business.
That evening we went out to Pei Wei for dinner. Chopstick master extraordinaire. We also hit the Green Hills mall to do some Easter dress shopping for me, and then while we were there Brent got a tie to match my dress.
Saturday morning Lilli had some fun with the cash Grandma put in her Easter card. Luckily those scissors don't cut much of anything (unlike her new scissors we've discovered will cut everything).
We went to Home Depot and got some flowers and plans for the yard. It appears princesses prefer the giant, no turn radius carts. We got a few looks.
We even let her pick where we would eat lunch and princess wanted mac n cheese so we went to Panera. She got a collective "awwww" from the ladies working behind the counter when we walked in. Princesses get a lot of attention.
That evening we had movie night and I picked up The Smurfs from Redbox. What a terrible movie. Pippin slept through the whole thing.
Before bed we put together some treats for the Easter Bunny. Lilli thought he likes cookies so she was sure to leave him some sweets to go along with the carrots.
We've designated the main fireplace in the living room as where both Santa and EB leave their goodies, so she carried her goodies in there (in some adorable babyGap bunny PJs I found for $5 at a consignment sale this spring!!)
I had lined all her baskets and stuffed bunnies and lambs up in there while she was in the tubby and she thought that was pretty much awesome. 4 baskets designating the 4 Easters she's had so far. (Leaving treats in 2011, 2010 Easter morning, and 2009).
Once again the Easter Grinch got into the treats.....
And this is what the Easter Bunny left!!
Pics to come of all the Easter day excitement!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Good Friday at the Zoo

 On Good Friday Lilli and I met some friends at the zoo.  The unfortunate thing about that was that most of Nashville was also off that day (with the exception of Brent and Tim, Wendy's husband) and had the same plan.  We got there about 9:30, 30 minutes after the zoo opened, and the line stretched way into the parking lot.  We braved the line and it actually thinned out significantly inside the zoo and the kids had plenty of space to see the animals and run around.  Here they are at the meerkats - Lilli on the left, Zach in the middle and Audrey on the right.  From behind, Lilli and Audrey have very similar hair!










In the petting zoo giving the goat some attention.
Looking for some alligators! I can't believe Audrey is taller than Lilli - she's about ten months younger!






I know this picture is totally blown out, but Lilli and Zach had the strangest conversation while they were looking at the zebras.  There was also an ostrich in there and some antelope.  When Lilli saw the antelope she got SO excited and said "Zach, there's a DINOSAUR out there!" Of course he was excited to and said "Where!!??" and she kept pointing to the antelope, telling him to look behind the ostrich and poor Zach kept getting so frustrated and telling her he couldn't see it.  He finally said "Lilli, can you carry me out there and show me the dinosaur?" Of course she laughed and said she couldn't carry him and their dinosaur convo was over.










 Pulling Zach along in the wagon.  Now that's service!









By this point it was nearly noon and we were all getting hungry.  We grabbed some food from the snack bar but the zoo was SO crowded we could only eat on a grassy hill nearby.  The kids loved it and chased each other all around while we sat and visited.   There was a constant line of people coming in and out of the zoo, and by this point when Wendy took Zach to the bathroom there was about a 10 minute wait.  She ran into someone she knew and they said there was still a line that stretched into the parking lot to get into the zoo!



Lunch of champions!!! Lilli wanted cotton candy and they wanted popcorn, so they all shared and were very happy!















After they got to play for a long time we went to see one last animal, the elephants, and oh my goodness - it was so crowded it was 100% miserable.  Thankfully between the wagon and stroller all three of them had somewhere to ride because literally it was so crowded one of them could have easily gotten lost very quickly.  Once we saw the elephants we high tailed it out of there and couldn't believe the parking lot.  All the parking lots were filled, and then cars were parallel parked all the way to Nolensville Road - and it's a very, very long drive into the zoo.  Police were directing traffic into the zoo and Nolensville Road was backed up about a half a mile of people wanting to get in.  INSANE.  I would've never stayed if I saw that when we were coming in! I think Good Friday 2013 will be the park and she'll be every bit as happy!


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 And not surprisingly - this was what was in the backseat when we got home!

I have no clue why Blogger suddenly and abruptly changed my format but I really don't like this!