Is 3 a crowd?

Once a week I get the privilege of watching my nephew for a few hours in the morning. I've decided to just make that our 'field trip day.' Last week we went strawberry picking with some friends from church. The kids had a great time, especially getting samples along the way. That's mainly why I didn't get any pictures. Between Bella picking the small, green, unripe ones and Lily wanting to eat every red one in sight...I didn't have time to whip out the camera. But Timmy was great, he really got into finding the yummy, red ones under the leaves. He tried to help by carrying the bucket, but eventually it got too heavy. For a kid who is usually pretty shy, he jumped right in playing with everyone and had a great time.



So I didn't fear when today came, the plan...Playtime Village & McDonald's for lunch. (I know horrible food, but I was expecting to have to bribe them to leave the village). So off we went, smushed into Nana's car again. We got there and the three of them ran off to find toys. Even though Bella is 19 months, she handles herself well on the climbing toys and seems to get the idea of being careful and sharing -although she doesn't always want to. I actually got to relax a bit while the kids played. Bella found a baby doll (of course) and took her around playing on various toys, down the slide, on the car-car. Lily found the dress up room and was in heaven. She got a kick out of dressing up as blue's clues (she doesn't like to watch that show-so I'm not sure what the appeal was). Timmy found the big basketball hoop. He tried so hard to get the ball in the net. Miss, miss, miss, then whoosh! one finally went in. He threw his hands up in the air in victory and screamed "YES!" Lily was right next to him and did a cheer leading dance for him "Way to go Timmy, yooooouuuuu did it!" add a kick at the end. (I'm not sure where that came from.) The day was going great...yes you hear an "and then" coming up.



It was time to leave, we all agreed we were hungry so exiting the building was not an issue. Then I found out that Timmy likes to walk with his eyes closed "because he's tired". How did I find this out? As we walked threw the parking lot, BANG! pause WHAAAAA! No he didn't get hit by a car, he walked into a Suburban. Oh Timmy! He got a small cut in his mouth, but other than that he was fine...but don't tell Timmy that. It created a downward spiral of crying and whining. Bella started crying because, well that's what Bella does. Lily cried because she couldn't be the first to get into the car. I hoped our McDonald's trip would distract them, but it wasn't until we were in line deciding on drinks when Bella said she wanted "Chocolate Juice". Well Lily and Timmy thought that was the funniest thing on earth. Kids were happy again, chanting "Chocolate Juice, Chocolate Juice, Chocolate Juice." My smooth morning was back in swing. Kids were fed and ready for naps.



Back to my question, is three a crowd? When someone is sick, hurt or tired...yes it definitely is. But the 10 minutes of crying was well worth the fun times we had. Now the question my mom and mother-in-law are wondering, do we want a third? No...well, maybe someday:) Do they get less expensive?

School's Out

Friday was Lily's last day of school :( Although, she doesn't seem to understand what that means because she keeps talking about her friends she'll see next weekend. Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. O had a little party and the kids got 'goodie' bags with a cool new cup that Lily only wants to use and photo albums of the year. All the hard work she put into them for each kid in the class; she's an amazing teacher. I'm going to miss my 6 hours 'off' a week, but now there's more time to go to the beach! Whoo Hoo!

Above are "Ian's babies" I've mentioned before. Lily and Bella spent a long time playing with them at the party, reading them stories and bringing them toys. Bella brought over all the baby dolls from the class and laid them down with the girls. They are so cute...all of them.

Summer Fun

We've been having alot of fun at the beach these past few weeks. Today we are in the middle of a heat wave so I invested in a kiddie pool so we could hop inside when needed (pictures to come).

Lily and Bella love the beach as much as I did as a kid. Bella could play in the sand for hours. We went to the Catskills with some friends this weekend (post to come) and they both got quite brave in the water-I got a little nervous. Looks like there is a 'fish' gene in my family.

Here are some of the photos...

Looking for Horseshoe Crabs...oh there's one!

Making Castles and Holes

Trip To Emie and Addie's

Even with gas prices as they are, we ventured to PA this memorial day weekend. What a beautiful weekend to spend with the family. We got to meet the latest member of our family, "baby Addie". Isn't she a cutie? Bella was a bit smitten with her and is already asking for her.

Lily found a new love: dressing up, she wore that purple dress and the pink princess shoe everyday-literally. Today Lily wanted to play dress up (we don't own dress up clothes). So Lily came down wearing her black sparkle shoes and butterfly underwear (that's the best she could find). They all gave us "concerts" on Emie's mini piano. It was very cute. Lily 'played' the wonder pets theme song and Bella 'played' eieio.

We got to visit Great Grandma Ayres, aka "daddy's grandma", who has a booboo on her arm. There was a bit of a discussion about why she couldn't take that thing off her arm. Grandma was in her usual joyful spirits. Lily seemed fond of her and Bella warmed up relatively quickly. I think her pink bracelet and pretzels won the girls over quickly.

We also went to the Pittsburgh Zoo. This was a special treat even for the adults. We are used to the Beardsley Zoo, which is more local wild animals (wolves, deer, bears, farm animals...) but PA has lions, rhinoceros, giraffes, elephants, gorillas, zebra, polar bears, the list goes on. It was really neat. The timing was alittle off with naps and all so we breezed through the last half. But it was a fun outing.

It was a great weekend. The drive wasn't too bad either. We learned that Lily needs to get up and move around every 2 hours and eating 2 go-gurts before driving 8 hours, isn't a good idea:) On the way home, we heard a cute conversation between the girls about reading books and when we turned around we saw this...

A few more pictures from the weekend:

Thanks Uncle Mark and Auntie Marlo!

Bella's Goals

Me: Bella, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Bella: ME!

Lily's Goals

Me: Lily, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Lily: A butterfly
Me: Oh
Lily: or a Kitty Cat
Me: Oh
Lily: or a Princess Doctor
Me: What should I be when I grow up?
Lily: A Ladybug
Me: that's interesting
Lily: or a mommy butterfly, bella is going to be a baby butterfly and I'll be the sister butterfly.
Me: what about daddy?
Lily: He'll be the daddy butterfly.

And last night Lily told me she wanted to go to Africa next weekend. I guess Pittsburgh and Africa are similar?

Lily's Surgery

Lily woke up this morning in good spirits, which was nice. She wasn't anxious at all and was actually looking forward to the 'bubble gum mask'. She went through the surgery well. It turns out she had two hernias, a bigger one and smaller one, so the doctor cut the connective tissue between to make one big hole. Unfortunately, this will make recovery alittle more uncomfortable for her but it was the only way to repair them both.

Recovery was supposed to be one hour and around us kids were waking up and heading home but Lily wasn't responding well to the anesthetic. She slept on and off for 5 hours. Waking up several times in fits of rage. The first time was the scariest because the tube in her mouth irritated her throat and she was having trouble breathing. Actually her lips were white and she was rolling around trying to catch her breath but couldn't, it was very scary. Eventually she was better and went back to sleep. She woke up several more times in rages. I can't really explain it but they said it happens in either 1% or 10% of kids. They're delerious and in pain but can't be comforted. She calmed down when Tom would lay on the bed with her, which he gladly did many times. Eventually she got a good long rest and woke up, looked at me and said, "mom you can't talk with things on your mouth". Our old Lily was back. I think she was remembering me in the O.R. with a mask on telling her to breath and make mountains. Anyways, it was another hour after that and finally we headed home, 6 hours later than expected. Our nurse, Kim, was fantastic and gave lily a puppy dog toy for being so brave. She was very comforting and helpful to me when rage moments came on us. I was afraid all this scarred my sweet girl and turned her into a monster. But she's back to her old ways and doesn't seem to remember those raging moments except to say she was alittle upset. Praise the Lord.

We are home and she is having alot of discomfort at the site. She is eating and drinking, but complains that it hurts too much when she sits. We were also told that she has enlarged tonsiles and should have them looked at. That seemed to be the cause of all the problems because kids with that condition don't sleep restfully and so she was waking up before her body was ready to. And the tube in her throat irritated them, causing them to enlarge more and thus hard to breath. They so nicely informed us (between rages) that she'd probably have to have them removed. I said maybe when she's 30.

Some of you have asked about Poke-A-Dot Puppy, who was scheduled for a hernia repair too. Well, there was a miraculous healing, mainly because the doctors were less willing to play our reindeer games this time around. He went in with lily and got to try the 'bubble gum' mask because Lily was alittle scared. But other than that they didn't have time to pretend, Lily wanted to know why he didn't get a check up and I said God healed him.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. We felt God's comforting presence during all this and give Him much praise for helping her recover and giving us peace through the whole process.
Our love to all,
Tiffany & Tom

Pre-O.R. room Lily dancing away the gitters

Mommy reading away the gitters Daddy drawing way the gitters

Time to go in