In an attempt to get caught up on my blogging, this post is going to be filled with random thoughts and pictures from the last few months.
Friday "work" days with Mama. Lily is quite the little dentist!
Cora's first ponytail
Tea parties
Christmas Festivities
Lily loved playing Mary and she would pretend Cora was Baby Jesus
Christmas crafts!
Vacation fun! We made the same stops we do every year with a an extra day in Pittsburgh and a visit to the Botanical Gardens.
Glade Springs, West Virginia
We have picture with Lily in the same outfit Cora is wearing, around the same age, standing in this same spot! :)
Bowling!
Lily helping the puppies get comfortable
Pittsburgh
Ice Skating!
Cora started randomly lying on the floor - it finally, dawned on me she wanted her diaper changed.
Hopefully this is an indicator that potty training is in our near future.
Phipps Conservatory Botanical Gardens
We are NOT early risers. (You can tell by Lily's face in the following picture) Even when we plan to get going early, we don't but this particular morning we did! We were the first ones at breakfast and we were able to watch the beautiful sunrise. (After a few minutes we realized the reason we were the first and only ones at breakfast was because it was Christmas Eve, but either way we were proud of ourselves!)
Port Allegany, PA
CHRISTMAS! I have struggled with how to handle Christmas. As I have mentioned before, we aren't big on presents but we splurge on memories. We like to take little trips here and there throughout the year. We explained to Lily that her present from us was the trip to Disney so her only presents would be from Santa. I thought it would be fun to do a video message from Santa (with an app) but my first attempt failed because he said he would be visiting our home in SC. Ahhh! You can't review what is going to be said before you purchase so if it's wrong you have to pay again! So next, I decided to do a call from Santa. She was excited when we answered! He talked a bit then he and his elves check to see if she was on the good list. They really work you up! We waited.....and Santa said, "Try better next year". (or something along those lines) What?!!! She looked at me, I looked at Pat and I tried to smooth it over by saying, " I think you are on the nice list." What did I do wrong?! When setting up the call, I was given 3 options: Naughty, Almost, Nice; I must have clicked 'Almost'. Epic fail! I immediately deleted the app and we will be going to see Santa himself next year! Anyway, I wanted to make an impact on Lily about behavior and the idea that Santa is always watching so I came up with an idea. Cora didn't need anything and doesn't understand the idea of presents
and she can be quite a stinker so in her stocking was a lonely lump of coal. Not even real coal, a brick from a bag of charcoal in the garage. Well, it worked! To this day when Cora is misbehaving Lily says, "I think she is going to get another lump of coal!"
Snow! The best gift of all!
What Christmas vacation really looks like....
Ellicotville, NY
We took a mini trip to Ellicotville, NY. We decided against Lily skiing due to the extremely cold temps (I'm talking in the negatives!). She and Pat rode the mountain roller coaster and we spent some time in at the ski resort lodge while Pat took a few runs but we enjoyed most of our time in the warm, indoor pool!
Mountain roller coaster!
There is nothing better than a white Christmas but extended periods in freezing cold weather gives me cabin fever. I don't know how people do it?! The girls didn't seem to mind being inside day after day, soaking up every second with Grammy and Pa and the rest of the family!
Back to Reality
The day after we got home Lily seemed whipped. The cold temperatures made this, by far, one our least active trips and being away from home makes for poor sleeping arrangements which equals terrible sleep for all of us so I didn't think too much of her inactivtity. The following day she perked up a bit, then that night she threw up. I was still thinking she was worn out until I woke up the next morning feeling like I'd been hit by a bus. Oh no, I knew what it was -- THE FLU! No!!! Lily and I quarantined ourselves to my bedroom and Pat only came in if he had to. When I would need something from the kitchen I would let him know and he and Cora would high tail it to the other side of the house, I would Lysol all surfaces before returning to my dungeon. I was down for 3 days. The last day, Pat had to work so I wore a mask and gloves all day, trying to stay in one spot on the couch and touch as little as possible. All of our precautions paid off, no one else got it! I returned to work on Wednesday after the doc said I was no longer contagious although, I really needed another day to recuperate. Talk about getting back to reality! Sheesh!!
Letting Cora eat chips for breakfast, sitting on the counter.
Not my best parenting but we all made it through.
Celebrating
By Saturday I was pretty much back to my old self and we were able to celebrate the marriage of our friends, Miles and Beattie. The service and reception were beautiful and the food was out of this world. I'm talking candied bacon, chicken and waffles and deviled eggs topped with fried oysters! Mmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!
January 27th is Christie's birthday. Her family and close friends gathered at Camp Christie to celebrate. She always threw the best birthday parties (I wasn't around for any of them but I've heard); not at the newest or hottest location but right in their backyard. She called it "fun and games". We tried to recreate some of her kids favorites. I know Christie would have executed everything much better than we did but the grandkids enjoyed themselves and I know she was smiling down on us, happy to see everyone together!
The next morning my sweet girl came out of her room, holding tightly to her "Grandma Christie Bear" saying, "I miss Grandma Christie. I wish she was here to swim with us and go to the beach." You and me both baby girl. There have been times my sadness is triggered by the most simple thing at the most surprising time. I take a few minutes then gather myself and continue on. We miss her everyday.
