Rain, Rain Go Away?

I love the rain. And I am so happy that the sun decided to take a day off. But man, I wish this rain would let just for a few minutes today. It's rainy, cold, and windy. Those words are not really uttered when you think about this part of Turkey. It just goes to show us that we'll need to be a warmer wardrobe collection once we get to my mom's house in Pennsylvania.
I wanted to make sure I posted yesterday and today's photos for my Project 365, er Project 366 since it's a leap year this year.
My dog sleeps in the funniest positions. She usually does it at night, but today she must have been extra tired. Silly Sophie dog!



And today we had two dentist appointments. First up was Lilly. While in the process of getting a loose tooth out, we found what we thought was a cavity. Turns out where we thought one was, wasn't, but she did have one on the other side. It's small but we need to get it filled as soon as we get to Offutt. I asked if she thought it would be better to see a dentist now about- an off base, Turkish civilian dentist- but she said she'd rather us wait until we're in the states. Apparently the Turkish view on kids with cavities is to just pull the tooth out instead of filling it. I'd much rather - and Steven too- her have it filled and not pulled. Ruby was the next appointment. The child has 3 chipped teeth. I kid you not! Three. She leads with her head just like her daddy :) We've noticed that one of her chipped teeth had started to discolor. We were worried that she may have damaged the nerves, but she's fine. The dentist said she just 'bruised the inside of her tooth'. She'll be fine but the tooth will stay that color until it falls out in a few years. Ruby did so much better that I thought she was going to. She even let them take an x-ray. She was much quieter than she normally is, but she was so calm and well behaved. I am so relieved that their appointments went so well. I was ball of nerves thinking it would be worse than it was.



-K

Reading Time

Lilly's biggest school dream was to learn how to read. Here we are half way through kindergarten and she is learning new words everyday. As part of her homework during the first semester was to read these short, one sentence per page stories. She has accumulated quite a few of them so far so I've been trying to encourage her to read them during the day instead of taking one of the shelf to look at the pictures. I also thought they would be great for her to read at night before she goes to bed. Most nights, after she gets tucked in, we left her read for up to 30 minutes with a small light. She loves it and we love the fact she doesn't come to our room every 5 minutes instead.
This morning I was trying to find as many as I could so that she could take them upstairs, she decided she wanted to read one. Ruby jumped at the oppurtunity to listen to a story. These two spent awhile sitting together and reading. And not yelling, fighting, whining, or crying either! It was bliss :)

I swear I took this photo this morning, but it was so rainy and cloudy that it looked like it was the evening!

-K

Who is this big girl and where did Lilly go?

Lilly lost her very first tooth this past Monday! She was so excited for it to finally fall out and would ask if Steven or I would give it a tug to help it out. Monday night she asked me again to check and tug on it so I tried again. I knew it was ready to pop out so when I tugged on it came right out, but just after it came out Lilly started whining about how it hurt. Steven and I started laughing because we knew it was already out. A few seconds later her eyes bugged out and she stuttered, "You got it out? My tooth came out!!!" All we could do was laugh. We were all so excited for her.

That night we went to the Christmas tree lighting on base where all the elementary school kids sang some Christmas songs. It was really nice. And I just have to mention this part. If you know me you know I love Boondock Saints and so does Steven. One of our favorite parts is when the detective asks Agent Smecker what the "symbology" of the evidence is. Then Agent Smecker says "I think you mean symbolism. What is the symbolism?" We always crack up at that. Well someone said a few words at the tree lighting ceremony talked about the symbology of the what the Christmas tree meant for everyone on base. Steven and I couldn't help but crack up.

Back to Lilly. After the ceremony we were walking to the car and Lilly was talking about what she was going to get with the money from the tooth fairy and she finally decided on a horse. We asked her how much she thought she was going to get and she said 1 coin. Unfortunately we had to tell her that was not enough. The tooth fairy ended up giving her $2 and she was thrilled! After a walk around the BX and explaining how all the things there cost a lot more.

She was such a good sport about and maturely decided to save it. We tried to find her a nice, decorative box to save her money in, but we had no luck. Hopefully we find something good soon because I think she is going to loose the other bottom, middle tooth sooner rather than later. Her big tooth broke through the gums yesterday and she is just as thrilled about it as she was when the baby tooth fell out.
And she has been growing like crazy. It is really nuts. She has never grown this much this fast. In August while we were at my parents' house we did some school shopping for Lilly. We always try to buy the girls clothes that are a little big so there is some room to grow. We bought size 5 clothes for her and a size 10 in shoes. Everything we bought was big for her. In the past month she has gone into a size 6x and almost an 11 in shoes. We bought some corduroy pants for her in a size 6 and when we got home and tried them on the fit perfectly, like a glove. We returned them the next day for the 6x ones. This was the first time we bought clothes for one of the girls and thought it would be big but we were completely wrong. She just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She's starting to read and help out more. It is crazy to us how big she's getting, I just wish it didn't happen so fast. She impresses us more and more everyday. At her Thanksgiving Feast at school, she tried everything. She sat at her table and ate while the parents sat at bigger tables. The whole time she was giving us the 'thumbs up' after she tried her food. She isn't picky when it comes to eating, so she more than willingly tries new foods and usually loves them. She also did a 5 Little Turkeys song and did great. She also made a Thanksgiving decoration that we can hang every year.

And on top of that Ruby and Sadie are turning 2 and 4 in a week. Pretty soon they won't look like babies or toddlers anymore. More on those two another day. It's time to pick Lilly up from school :) Oh and Daddy, aka The Sucker because he's a sucker when it comes to the girls, picked up a hot pink Hello Kitty Christmas tree for them even though he told them last year there was absolutely no way we are buying a pink Christmas tree ;) Ha! He cracks me up! And pay no attention to our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Since we'll have Christmas in the good 'ole USA next year we'll have the big beautiful Christmas tree we've always wanted :)

K

Golf Lessons: Week 2

Lilly has been LOVING her golf lessons. She gets so excited to go every week and talks about all the time. This week she learned, as she called it, "a new type of golf". AKA putting. From what I hear she has great form and can really play well.



Daddy is especially proud of the picture on the left out of the two below!



She's the "Magic Man". Cause now you see the ball and now you don't! Hahaha!



She was so proud when she sunk this putt! She's actually jumping up and down because she's so happy!



She can't wait until this Saturday's lesson!

-K

A Lunch Date and Lilly Starts Golf

I know I have mentioned this before, but Steven has been working nights for over 9 months now and has had a weird work schedule. It was upsetting everyone, but Lilly most of all. He would have just1 day off at a time and then be sleeping most of the day and up all night, and the day off was usually a week day.
Last Saturday we all had a lunch date at the bowling alley and then Lilly started some golf lessons at the golf club. She loved them, plus it was an hour with just her and Daddy. Steven said she did really well. He said she did get frustrated once though. When she put the tee in the ground she didn't put it in straight, so when the she put the ball on it it kept falling off. Other than that she loved it.
Lilly will go to golf lessons every Saturday for the next 5 weeks for an hour or so. I don't know who is more excited for it, Lilly or Steven. I'm sure that in the next few years she'll be playing golf with Daddy a lot.










-K

I Heart Faces- Tickled Pink

Lilly and the playground merry-go-round, you can't get more tickled than that!





Check out more tickled pink photos or join the fun at I Heart Faces.

-K

Kids Say the Darnedest Things & iPod Dump

Whenever someone asks Lilly how old she is she first tells them that she is 5 and that she is in kindergarten. Miss Thang thinks she is seriously hot stuff being in kindergarten. Well, I guess Sadie got tired of just saying that she is 3 and she felt a little left out. So the other day at the commissary, they were asked again how old they are. Here's how it went:
L- I'm five. (puts a hand on her hip) And I'm in kindergarten.
S- Yeah. And I'm 3. And I'm in Story Time.
Got to the love the them! What spunk they have :)


I was on the phone talking to Cindy and Ruby started talking to her Minnie Mouse stuffed animal. She was telling Minnie that she was "cute cute". Then she looked at me and said "Roo Roo cute." I
Me - Ruby's cute?
R- Uh-huh. Momma cute cute.
Me- Mommy's cute too?
R- Uh-huh.
Me- What about Ninny? (That's how she says Cindy.)
R- Ninny cute cute.
Me- Aw! Ninny's cute cute too.
R- More.
Me- More cute?
R- Uh-huh.
Me- Ninny's more cute?
R- Uh-huh.

Sadie has really been into science fiction lately. Yes, I know she's almost 4 but the heart wants what the heart wants, ha! She was watching a show with me and it had a giant bug creature looking for it's babies and it attacked people if it thought it was a threat. Sadie watched it and when it was over, she turns and looks at me and says, "Dat was da scarweiest thing I eber saw in my life!" I tried so hard not to laugh, but I told her again that if it was too scary I would turn it off. She said no because she knew it was fake, it just scared her heart out of her, aka startled her.



Lilly and Sadie were talking to each other in the car and Sadie started telling Lilly to stop saying that because it freaks her out in the head. She often says that when she wants Lilly to stop talking. She then told her to stop saying those "freaking words because they freak me out." We asked her what she was talking about and she meant that they were words that freak her out. NOT trying to use the f-word, thank the Lord, that would have been a whole other story about where she heard and why she can't use the that word.

Since the day we got our cat, Milo, and our dog, Sophie, the girls have been asking for one more cat and one more dog. They want another boy cat and to name him Figueroa because Minnie Mouse has a cat named Figueroa. Sadie told us yesterday that she needed another cat and dog again, and what to name the cat. She took it one step further and told us the dog had to be named Pluto because Mickey Mouse has a dog named Pluto. And that Mickey and Minnie Mouse come together, so the animals came together like that too. Sometimes I think that girl is too smart for her own good.

Lilly may be in kindergarten, but her maturity level is way above that. She'll come home and tell us that someone called her ugly and that wasn't very nice. She's just letting us know what happened and that she knew it wasn't true, because she's beautiful. She just seemed annoyed that kids actually act like that and she has to hear instead of doing something productive. Poor kid has too many years ahead of her to have to listen to foolish things like that. We're just grateful she has such strong head on her shoulders.



Sadie keeps asking when we are going to live in a hotel again, aka moving. But she not only wants to live in a hotel, she wants to live in a hotel near Memaw and Papop. "You know where Memaw and Papop have to drive two cars?" I think she's missing Memaw and Papop!

I was clearing out my ipod pictures and realized I've never shared any of the photos on it. The camera on it is one of my favorite features. These photos are all within the past year. And the ones of Ruby and Steven are some of my all time favorite. These little girls really love their Daddy♥ And yes, those are Starbucks cups in Lilly and Sadie's hands. The best part about this base is that there is a real Starbucks. Not a coffee shop that 'proudly brews Starbucks coffee', but a real Starbucks. It's at the club complex which also happens to house the base barber as well. When Steven stopped shaving his head for a while, we would got and get treats while he got his hair cut :) Those two girls are Starbucks snobs. The are so proud walking around with those cups of warm hot chocolate!

-K

I Heart Faces- A Touch of Sun

This week's challenge is A Touch of Sun. You can join in the fun or view other entries at I Heart Faces.

-k

Kids Say the Darndest Things

We try to use kid friendly cleaners around the house because the kids and the pets put everything in their mouths. We usually make a vinegar/water spray and use it to clean tables and the counters. Sadie walked into the dining room and Sadie, "Hey! It smells like chips in here! I want some chips now." Can you tell one their favorite kind of chips are salt and vinegar? It must be because they're English ;)

One of the things we brought home from the states are some old American Girl dolls that we got when I was like 8. Steven and my dad searched high and low in the basement for them and all their accessories. And since the day they got them, they have played and dressed at least once a day. Sadie was sitting on the couch trying to dress her Felicity doll into a hospital gown, and asked me for help. Since I try not to get sucked into dressing their dolls because it's a never-ending cycle of taking one outfit off to put on another one, just to take that one off 2 minutes later. I told her, "I'll give you a hint. The arms go into the arm holes." And she perks up, "Oh! That's what you have to do! I think I can do that, put the arms in the arm holes."

When Steven arrived in the states in July, the girls had a plethora of things and stories to tell him. These things ranged from what we did without him to random crazies to how much they missed him. Well one night Lilly, out of nowhere, says "Dad, you know sometimes you screw yourself." And Steven who is learning patience with them and to ask what they are talking about before punishing her, looked at me half laughing/half mad and says, " What do you mean Lilly?" And she explains, "You know when you are hanging stuff on the wall and you put the screw in your finger instead of into the wall, you screw yourself in the finger." One word- PRICELESS.

We got rid of Ruby's binky as soon as she was over the croup. The only reason she kept it over the summer was that we wanted her to have it for the flight to and from the states. It was just easier on everyone involved that she keep for the long flights. We didn't have any problem getting rid of it at all, we just did the same as we did for the other two. We threw them all way and told her that little babies needed it because she's a big girl now. Now she doesn't stop talking. The worst part is that she parrots everyone, all the time. She follows movies and stories and understands what's going on. When she sees vehicles she shouts, "Drive, drive, drive!" But when she sees cats, she goes NUTS. She screams "kiddies!" at the top of her lungs and when the cat is bad she screams, "Kiddie! Bad kiddies. Kiddie bad!" over and over and over and over and over and over again. It drives me bonkers! I love that she's talking a lot more now but man I wish you could install a filter on her.

We went to the BX after school one day and noticed the Halloween costumes were out. For those of you who don't know, when there is something at the BX who want, need, or even think you may need you have to buy it right there on the spot. If you don't and you go back even just later in the day, it more than likely won't be there anymore.
Small base + Overseas = Not a lot of stuff. The girls picked out the princesses costumes obviously :) Lilly will be Ariel, Sadie will be Belle, and Ruby will be Cinderella. Ruby went to her new go to word of the day, cute. She just kept screaming, "Cute! Cute! Cute!" Lilly asked Daddy what he wanted to be and he said nothing the costumes were for them. Ruby says, "But cute!" meaning but Daddy you'll be cute. Her talking is getting better and better everyday.

We were looking around the toy section and we stopped at the puzzles. They have been pretty much obsessed with them since Yiayia got them some to do over the summer. They found some Disney ones that were 300 pieces and they were amazed by all the pieces. Lilly picks one up and says, "Oh Momma! What kind is this one?" I told her it was a Diary of a Wimpy Kid puzzle and she says, "Oh a Diarrhea of a Wimpy Kid puzzle! Cool!"

Maybe Ruby is going through a growth spurt or I don't know what, but every time Steven or I go into or even near the kitchen Ruby starts screaming, "Eat! Eat! Eat!" and runs to her seat at the table. Sometimes she actually eats other times she just plays or tries to feed the dog.

We've been watching "Only in America with Larry the Cable" and the girls like Larry is just awesome. They figured out that he's the voice of Tow Mater and now they think he's hillarious. They had the DVD of the show at the BX and Sadie screams out, "Hey Mom! They have that Cable Guy here!!!"

The weekends here have been about sitting with/on Daddy. They love the days he's home with them!


-K

Lilly's First Day of Kindergarten

I seriously have no words. When did she get this big?

Oh and she's not really "big" by any means. She was only shoulder height to all the other kids in her class. So small, in fact, that we thought she may have wandered off for her class' line because we couldn't find her. She was in the middle of the line and all the other kids were much taller than her so we couldn't see her from the back of the line. Yup, she's tiny, like itty bitty for her age.

As they started to walk into the building to start their day, and I saw Lilly start to choke up. I didn't see her actually cry. When we got home this afternoon she told me she got upset but she was able to hold herself together and calm down. We're so proud of her for that because she occasionally has panic attacks. But she worked this one out on her own and avoided it.

She had a great day, but she was so tired. Poor thing woke up early, like 6am early. She was so excited that nap time in kindergarten is much shorter than pre-K. She saw some old friends for pre-K and made new friends too. I made her favorite for lunch which she was so thankful for- a salami, cheese, and mayonnaise sandwich. When we got home we had some popsicles for a snack to cool off and vegged for a little bit. She does get homework and her assignment this week is an "About Me" sheet that she started while I made dinner.
I think she is going to have a great year. Oh and Sadie and Ruby missed her today. They made sure to give her a hug and a kiss when we got home. All day Ruby kept saying, "Bear Bear cool."- She calls Lilly bear bear. She would come up to me every few minutes and tell Lilly was at school.
Now all I need to do is find some fun. learning activities to keep Sadie-Mae busy! Any suggestions?

-K

Bethlehem

A couple of weekends ago we ventured out to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for some fresh air and some exploring. My parent's live about 20 minutes from there and we had a pretty good time. It was a nice change of scenery and a whole lot of fun for me to take some photos. I feel like a kid with a new toy every time I get the chance to photograph something new. I hope and pray that the feeling never goes away or gets old.





Just driving around was nice. Once we got there we parked and walked around. We found a nice little deli and had some lunch. The weather was beautiful and we were able to just enjoy our walk.





After lunch and a walk we headed out for Party City. Papou needed some costume pieces for work and Party City was just down the road. He found what he needed as well as some dress up stuff for all the little girls. We even managed to find Ruby a coveted Batman mask. We had been trying to find a replacement for the one at home that broke. She wasn't feeling good so she didn't wear it for a few days, until she started to feel a lot better. And when she rediscovered it at Papou's house she was so excited.






Little did we know that Ruby would end up at the hospital latter that day. Our kids never act sick unless they are throwing up or have a fever. It makes it very hard to judge just how sick they really are when they're still running around a playing. And I kid you not, you would never ave guessed that Ruby was battling a bad case of strep throat. The hospital was nice and even had a Children's ER separate from the main Er. The nurses and doctors were really nice and we got taken care of pretty fast.




On our way out of the parking lot I got a call from my sister Gabbie that Sadie wasn't feeling good and she thought that she had a fever as well. Great! Now I have two sick kiddos. When we got back o the house, Gabbie took me to a pharmacy that was still opened as it was going on 7:30PM. We didn't get home until after 9 and by then Sadie was burning up. I gave her and Ruby some medicine, set up camp in the living room and prayed for a good night of sleep. At this point we were all still jet lagged. Thankfully the Tylenol and Motrin kept the fevers down and we had a pretty good night of sleep, considering.




Oh the joys of military life. I'm just thankful we were with family that helped the best they could. Dealing with jet lagged kids is hard enough. Add strep throat and all it does is make life miserable for days. I'm grateful were over that hump though. I'll finish this in another post, this one is long enough!

-K

Where has the last 5 years gone?

On Monday we celebrated Lilly’s 5th Birthday! I can still remember 5 years ago, when Steven’s family visited us in England for Mom’s birthday and Lilly’s impending  birth, like it was yesterday. She went from a 7lb 3oz. bundle of joy to a 35lb ball of fire in what seems like overnight.

 Here she is today-

She is the smartest,  sweetest, strongest 5 year old I know. She is already reading and writing, but sometimes gets really frustrated because she wants to read novels, she doesn’t want to go slow and sound out each word. She can add and subtract, she can ride her bike to school (with Daddy) in 7 minutes, and she now has her own room.  She is simply amazing!

Since her birthday was on a Monday, meaning she had to go to school, we shopped, baked, and decorated while she was at school. She was so excited to get home to see what kind of surprises were waiting for her.
That afternoon we had a LOT of rain, thunder, and lightning. Thank the LORD for the US Air Force  because they could really care less about thunder when they’ve heard fighter jets, bombers, and cargo planes taking off their entire lives. It’s kinda sad when I jump and grab Steven when thunder cracks and the girls don’t even notice the thunder, ha! Needless to say, Steven thoroughly enjoyed my squirms while the kids played.

The first present she opened was some clothes from Sadie. I knew I wanted to take some pictures before we got into anymore presents and cupcakes, so she changed into her new outfit and pictures we took.
Then we went and started watching her favorite movie – Transformers. We got maybe 30 minutes into the movie when she couldn’t contain her excitement anymore, so she opened her presents. She got toys from Ruby, and a gift card from Mommy and Daddy.  All she wanted was a “card” so she could buy something all by herself- so we happily obliged.

So then it was off to the BX, in the rain and thunder. Luckily it was about done when we left. We walked around the whole  store several times. She would pick something and then change her mind, pick something and change her mind, and pick something  and change her mind again. She finally settled on Zhu Zhu hamster, a pretty purple pillow for her bedroom, and a Crayola story coloring thing. When we got home, it was time for dinner. Then cupcakes!

Happy Birthday Lilly! I still can’t believe you’re 5!
♥krissy

Grace, in Spanish?

Before we eat we always say a little prayer. We started when Lilly went to nursery school and she and her class would say a prayer before lunch. She would come home and want to say it before dinner too but we didn’t know all the words  to her school one so we started saying the one I grew up saying.
It goes:
Bless us oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

I have no idea where this came from, but Lilly was in the kitchen coloring one afternoon. She came into the living room and told me she knew how to say grace  in Spanish. I was really curios because it came out of no where and Steven and I don’t speak Spanish.  Sure enough she had something to share so I asked her to say it. Before I died laughing, I asked to say it on camera so we could share with Daddy and the grandparents.
ENJOY! The password is Spanish.

Bless Us Oh Lord from kristen todd on Vimeo.

♥krissy

Sick day, part 2

First off, Thank you for all your sweet comments they really are appreciated. 
Secondly, Lilly is still sick. I think she has what Ruby had a couple of weeks ago. It started off with sinus issues. Then Lilly got a cough and started to lose her voice.  Yesterday she woke up with a fever and didn't have another issue with it until last night. I went in to check on all of the girls before I went to sleep and Lilly was very warm. I woke her up and sent her in to our bed while I got her some medicine. I didn't want to go to sleep while she had a fever so I sat up with her(she was sleeping) until it came down. I gave her some motrin 30 minutes later, and finally got it down another 30 minutes after that. Then when Steven got up for work I asked him to check on Lilly and send her in if she needed more tylenol. Sure enough she was getting warm again. Thankfully the other two didn't wake her up this morning so she was able to get almost 2 extra hours of sleep this morning. And in true Lilly form, she woke up happy as can be. Hopefully she is over this virus by Monday, I know she is desperately wanting to go back to school.
Today I go back to University Hospital to get the results of a blood test that was done last week. Right before we took our COT(continuous overseas tour) leave, I had asked my doctor if there was anything we could test because I felt my hormones were going crazy. My body just never went back to normal after I had Ruby. When we got back to Turkey he told my that my thyroid was acting a little funny. Basically my brain was telling my thyroid that it wasn't making enough thyroid hormones, but the thyroid was making enough. In short he thinks that I may have nodes on it that may or may not have to be removed. The clinic here is very small and lot of tests that have to be done are done in Turkish hospitals, and thankfully someone from Tricare will drive you to the appointment and serve as an escort and translator. I was really nervous about going to the first appointment but it went really well. I would like Steven to come with me but I would much rather him stay with the kids, especially when Lilly is sick. So off to the doctor's I go and hopefully back with good news.
And who could go a day without seeing the sweet faces of our monster children! 

Obviously I annoy them with the photos I take of them. Oh they joy of sarcastic children. The teenage years will surely be loads of fun :/
♥Krissy

Sick Kids

I guess I can be grateful that since we left England our kids really haven’t been sick. Well except for Ruby, but her ailments were not some bug she caught  from others. When we lived in England it seemed that we were always sick with a virus that was going around. Lilly had a lot of ear infections and colds or a stomach bug she caught at school. Even the month we  left, Lilly and Sadie had a stomach bug that was going around and left vomiting with fevers for  at least 2 weeks.

Since we’ve been in Turkey it’s been a-whole-nother story. They’ve been good and healthy. So when Lilly started up with some cold symptoms I got worried. I didn’t want to send her to school just for all the other kids to get sick. Oh, and did I mention that most of Lilly class has been sick? At one point last week there were only 6 kids that attended class. I kept Lilly home one day last week and all I heard from her was, “When can I go back to school?” I knew she was feeling cruddy, but since she was a baby she really hasn’t let being sick slow her down. I kept second guessing my decision to keep her home.

Well when she woke up yesterday she had a cough, so when Steven took her to school they went to visit the nurse. She said that as long as it was affecting her ability to learn, she could stay. And when she came home yesterday she was losing her voice and start coughing junk up. Last night Steven and I decided to keep her home today. I have been telling her all morning that she needed to just relax and try to get better. The result was her and Sadie, cuddled up in a blanket, looking at books and magazines together. And at one point Sadie pulled out a stethoscope  and gave Lilly a “doctor appointment”.

Hopefully she gets over this soon so that she can go back to school and enjoy it. I know she really doesn’t like missing school, and she really enjoys learning. Sometimes I think she is just too smart for her own good. But I know I won’t have problem with faking illnesses. Although I know Sadie is LOVING having Lilly home today. Yesterday when Steven went to pick her up, she said, “Yay! Daddy is going to pick up my sweetie!” Get better soon Lilly!

♥krissy

Sick Day

Lilly has had her first sick day from school today. And I am trying to decide whether it was a good idea or not. Yesterday she came home with a very runny nose and she said she actually slept during nap time. That rang a bell for me, she never sleeps unless she is sick. She doesn't have a fever but feels warmer than usual. And last week we got an email from her teacher telling us to make sure we keep our kids home if they have any symptoms, so when Steven left for work I decided to keep her home just in case.
Well she wasn't too happy about staying home. She really wanted to go this morning and kept asking when she could go back. She still has symptoms which seem to be her sinuses, but Lilly never acts "sick". She has never let an illness  keep her doing all the things she wants to do and I know she is frustrated. She wants to keep busy and play. I just couldn't get her to understand that she needs to rest and get better. So I decided to let her watch movies today so that she will actually sit still and relax. Hopefully she feels better tomorrow and can go back tomorrow. On the plus side, I am glad she is really enjoying school again. She didn't like until a couple of weeks ago. Between this school being so different than the one in England and taking a month of leave in the states, she just wasn't all too thrilled with it. So thank God she is liking it!

Lilly, Lilly, Lilly!

 Lilly is just getting so big and smart. She truly is one of the most clever kids I think you'll ever meet. She is strong willed, strongly opinionated, and beautiful. She wears her heart on her sleeve and defends the little guys. We couldn't be more proud of our first born. Lately she has just been blowing us away with what she says.
• When we were at the commissary the other day, Lilly had to go to the bathroom. Steven took and when she came running back to me and the girls, she was yelling how she did go potty and that she tried to wash her hands but there was a large spider so she turned around and ran out. She said she needed some hand sanitizer for her hands. When we were in the car she told us she is only scared of spiders and frogs. She got the frog thing from. And yes, they terrify me.
• I was making dinner the other night and the big girls usually sit at the counter with me. We'll turn on some music and they will color or practice writing letters. Lilly pulled out her activity book and asked me to read the instructions for. They said to look at the picture and write the first letter of the word down. Well Lilly is busting her butt trying to learn  how to read, so she decided to try and spell out the whole word. Normally,m if I wasn't making dinner, I would help her sound it out and write each letter down. But since I was cooking she kind of just said a bunch of letters and asked me if she was right. They weren't right but she kept trying. She got to the picture of a dog:
 L - "Dog starts with a D. Mom, I know how to spell dog."
M- "Oh yea. Did you learn it at school today?"
L- "No."
M- "Then how do you spell it?"
L- "D-A-M."
And this is where I almost fell over laughing.
• We were at the shoppette and Lilly unbuckled her seat belt thinking we were all going in. I told just Daddy is going in because he's going to go quickly. She said okay and we told her to try and buckle herself back in. She is in a booster seat now and the buckle is hidden behind Sadie's carseat. She can still be buckled properly, it's just that Sadie's seat obscures the view of it. She said she couldn't get it buckled so I told her Daddy would do it when he came back. Now go back to where I told you she is dying to learn how to read and spell.
L- "Mom, I know how to spell cat."
M - "Okay."
So I get ready to help her sound it out.
L - "C..."
I'm about to help her, but she surprises me!
L-"A-T. Cat."
I start telling  her how awesome she is and how proud I am of her.
L- "Great. I can spell cat, but I can't buckle myself."

We l♥ve this little girl.