Lily & Eric at the same age

Eric woke up at 6 then went back to sleep. I had managed to get 6 hours of continuous sleep so I just stayed up and wrote that last blog post. Then, I started looking through my blog's old posts of Lily at the same age that Eric is now. It is easy because their birthdays are only about a week apart. Friday night was the Marlin's home opener so I put Eric in Lily's old Marlins jersey. Lily got to go to the opener when she was a baby, but unfortunately, Ross is out of town, and I'm not organized enough to take two kids to a baseball game solo, so we didn't go. (First one I've missed in 5 years!)

I didn't get Eric smiling, maybe he was sad that he didn't get to go to the game :(
but I love being able to compare these pictures. Eric has much more hair than Lily did and although he is a little chunkier, has a thinner face. I'm also glad that it was the girl child that got the Carney ears so that they can be covered by hair. Lucky Eric got Mitchell ears!

Lily's Monster comes to Life

I've wanted to do this project for ages, and finally made time to do it last week. Lily always draws monsters, I'm not sure why, I've tried to get her to draw other things, but for some reason, it is always a monster. Ever since she started doing "art", I've picked a few here and there and put them in a box to save. I usually put the date on them and sometimes a description. I came up with the idea to turn her work into a stuffed animal (or more than one, so I can sell them.... you know me... always out to make a buck) so I chose this one:
As you can see, it is on the paper from the Race for the Cure. At the race, they give these papers to the runners to pin to their backs. Some say "In Memory of" and some say "In Celebration of" and you write the name of the person for whom you are running. It is very powerful as you are running to read these, but back to my story. There was some confusion last year pre-race and we ended up coming home with several of these, so they went into the stack of paper that Lily is allowed to draw on. It doesn't really have any significance to the monster story, just thought I'd explain.
Lately, Lily has come up with this new thing that she has to sleep with my pillow and since I can't sleep without MY pillow, I go in her room every night and take it back. Well, the night I finished the monster, I took my pillow and replaced it with the monster. Here is Lily in the morning when she found it.
She was so excited. She loves the monster, but I think I was just as excited about it as she was. I told her that he needed a name and she named him "Monster". Very original right?
She carries him around and told me that he is her 'helper' and when I asked her to explain what she meant, she said that he is her helper just like she is my helper.
Monster details: He is blue, because the plans were drawn in blue. The face and hair are made from scraps of the fabric used to make Lily's curtains. It is stuffed with fiberfill and PVC pellets (like a beanie baby). One arm is longer than the other and he only has one ear.
It was a lot of work actually, so I don't think I'm going to go into the child-designed-monster business. It was kinda funny that just this week my friend Jaz posted a blog about her daughter's artwork as well, and one of her friend's posted this site in the comments section where they take kids art and make it into jewelry!

Recycling

The city changed their recycling program last month and now has a program with Recycle Bank where we get points for the amount that we recycle. They replaced the little plastic box with a huge can with a lid. Our recycle bin is now the same size as the big trashcan!
I've always recycled, but Ross never really got into it. I was always pulling things out of the trash and moving it to the recycle bin. I guess this program was the kick in the pants that Ross needed because now it is the other way around. I'm pulling things out of the recycle bin and moving it to the trash.
We are now recycling more than we are throwing away!
I haven't really found anything really great that we can redeem our points for, but it is kinda cool to track. As you can see from our widget, we haven't quite saved a whole tree yet but we sure have saved quite a bit of oil!

First Sleep Over

Lily had her first sleepover at our house a few weeks back. Well, I don't know if it really counts being that it was her cousin, but we are counting it anyway. Sandy dropped Allison off on her way down to the keys on a Saturday and then they stopped back in on Sunday and Aunt Charlotte took us all out to dinner.

Lily is so in love with Allison. Ever since, she has been saying "I miss Allison" and putting on her sad face.

Lily & Eric share a bedroom and although there is a bunk bed in there, we had the girls sleep in the pool room on the futon instead because we weren't sure if Eric's mid-night wake up would bother Allison or not.

We spent Saturday shopping and then made our own Pizzas and the girls stayed up about two hours past Lily's regular bedtime. They giggled and giggled on that futon forever and then fell asleep holding hands. It was so sweet.

The next day we went and had lunch on the beach. Allison didn't have her suit so Lily didn't wear hers either. It is great beach weather but I think it is still too cold to swim (although both Ross & Lily usually do)

Lily, although very shy with strangers, is so proud in her own house. She took Allison around and showed her everything. Kinda funny hearing a 3.5 year old explaining things to a 9 year old. I love this pic because it looks like Zelda is playing the game too.

Totally unrelated to the sleep over. I told Lily to go get her shoes on because we were going to the store. She took a while to do this (totally normal.... she is easily distractable) and when she came back this is what she looked like.

I asked her if she had been playing with my makeup and she told me that she couldn't go out with no eyebrows!

dance dance dance

I bought Lily some new shoes for Easter and when we came home, she told Ross that I bought her 'Dancing' shoes. So we got dressed up to dance. Eric likes to dance too.

Trying to stand

This morning I woke up and went into the kids' room and Lily was up building a fort out of blankets on the floor and Eric was STANDING up in his bed.

They are so independent.

Playdates, pictures, carnivals & parades

We went to a playdate at Chuck E Cheese and this game cracks me up. The game has a camera on the kids so if you stand behind them, the screen is above. I guess Lily thought the game was too loud.

Then I caught all three of them in the game together! They even had the seatbelt strapped across all of them! Lily wasn't smiling for the camera, they don't know that it is there, she was enjoying the game.

Eric doesn't have any friends his own age, so I thought maybe he'd like to talk to Lily's baby. He stares and stares at this baby. Probably because it walks & talks. But it is funny.

Just some cute pictures I took in the yard one afternoon when we were playing ball.

There are two churches in Hollywood that throw carnivals every year and we love to go to both. The one, is across the street from our house but for some reason, I don't have any pictures from that one even though we went 3 times! They are Catholic churches so there is beer there and the food is awesome so we pretty much ate there all weekend.

Lily really enjoys the rides, we can tell that she is going to be a roller coaster freak like Ross & I because she wasn't scared of anything. She isn't tall enough for the big rides yet, but I'd bet she would ride them if they let her.

She is so cute because she knows all about how things work. She stands in line and hands her tickets to the ticket man then waits to have her seatbelt checked. It is cute because she is so shy and if you watch closely you can see how hard it is for her, but she does it anyway.

Eric just waking up. Thought it was a funny face.

Aunt Marie sent us a bunch of Girl Scout Cookies that my dad bought from my cousin's kids.

We celebrated St. Patrick's day on Sunday because there was a parade. We started the day with green eggs. We didn't have any ham though.

I left Eric in the middle of the floor in their room while I ran to go get something and came back to find he had crawled all the way over to the book stash and was checking out some books. I think this is a good sign.

Lily's attire for the parade. I made her this "dress" last year for the parade when I woke up the morning of and realized that she didn't have a single article of green to wear! I'm too busy and too lazy to make her anything this year so we just threw some shorts on under and called it a shirt. As you can see, she has acquired many more green things in the past year.

This next picture touches my heart so much. I was so painfully shy as a child and I see myself in Lily. This woman, dressed as a princess was reading stories to the kids and Lily was so excited to go hear her. She ran right over at the very beginning before the woman had even sat down. BUT, she froze. Stood there wringing her hands while all the other kids crowded around. Then, Lily walked around behind the lady and sat down with her back to her. When Lily first sat down there weren't any other kids around the back, only her. It broke my heart because I know how hard it is to be shy like that.
Later that night Lily and I were discussing the day's events and talking all about the parade and the games and everything and she told me that her two favorite parts of the day were listening to the princess tell stories and getting her face painted. I couldn't believe that what I thought was the worst part for her was really her best.

Eric liked the princess's story too.

Ross missed out on all the fun at the parade because he was working. He does it every year. There is a little Irish pub that a friend of his owns that is on the parade route and they put up a temporary bar outside and Ross tends it. Last year he made some extra spending money, this year he made what I make in a month!

As we were leaving, one of the floats, an old fire engine, was parked on the side street and I asked the man if Lily could check it out. He said sure so she climbed up....

As I'm watching her, these two women come over and walk up to the side of the truck and pour themselves a beer! What?!

Those ingenious firefighters had built a tab right into the side of the truck! I was looking right at this and never even spotted it.

There were face painters at the parade but by the time I found the booth they weren't taking any more people and Lily was really sad about it so I told her that we'd paint faces when we got home.

To me, this was one of the best parts of the day. We sat out on the back porch and painted each other's faces. I painted Lily a Shamrock, and she painted me a smiley face. Then she look my phone, lined everything up and took this picture.

We had so much fun that we wanted to keep going..... so we did.

Some Video catch ups

I've been taking a bunch of videos to catch Eric and his new talent for crawling. The following one is about a week ago back when he was doing more of a scoot. I think his technique looks like the guys in military boot camp.

He does a proper crawl now and can go from crawling to sitting with ease. He can get up the step in our pool table room, but we haven't allowed him to attempt going DOWN the step just yet. I remember all the knots on Lily's head from that stage!

This next video is really dark, I'm not sure why, but my camera takes awful video in artificial lighting. Eric jamming out to Lady Gaga.

And lastly, again, a really dark video, but the sound is great. Ross sets Eric on the futon and throws a burp towel on him and he thinks it is so funny.

2 Teeth and today's stats

Today is Eric's 7 month birthday, and on this day, he...

• weighs 20 lbs.
• is 28" long
• has a head in the 95th percentile
• has 2 teeth
• can roll front to back, and back to front
• when put into the sitting position, he can sit all by himself for over half an hour
• can do a scoot-crawl hybrid maneuver to get around the room
• can go from sitting to scooting unassisted
• cannot go from laying to sitting
• knows his name
• eats pureed food from a spoon
• takes 2 naps
• goes right to sleep every night at bedtime
• does NOT sleep through the night
• can spot his dummy (pacifier) anywhere and goes right for it
• can get his dummy into his mouth the right way all by himself
• cries when people talk to him

Lily is 3 years and 7 months old. On this day she...

• weighs 36lbs.
• is 40" tall
• can write her own name
• can recite her parent's names (first and last)
• can recite her address
• can count to 29 (she then starts to go to 20-10, 20-11, 20-12)
• makes her own bed
• takes out the recycling
• brushes her own teeth
• can crack an egg
• knows how to use scissors & a glue stick

Ross is 34 years old and recently he ran a half marathon in just under 2 hours.

I am also 34 years old and I can run 4 miles. It takes me almost an hour, but I can do it non-stop. Yay me!

Ross's birthday

Ross's birthday was on Thursday. We didn't plan anything big and I didn't get him any gifts because, as you may already have heard, he is being laid off at the end of the month. We've been living on an extremely tight budget for what seems like forever, and with the economy putting a real hurting on my business, we have been holding onto every penny in anticipation of having to go a couple of months living off our savings until Ross got another job. Well.... he got the best birthday gift ever.... a job! Horray, no lapse in income!

There were two different positions that he had been interviewing for and he got the one that he wanted. The other one was a slightly different job than he is currently doing, slightly less desireable but would have been more money. However, this one is basically doing the same thing as his current job, which he loves, but repping a different beer and a little better pay than his current salary. Yay!

So starting March 1st, you all have to start drinking Magners CiderNot nearly as cool as the peace of mind about being gainfully employed, but Lily and I made Ross a cake. Last week I asked Lily to run and ask Ross what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. Either she messed up and left out the word "cake" when she asked, or Ross misunderstood what she was asking because she came running back to me screaming "he wants steak"

So.... even though I knew he wasn't really asking for a steak-cake, he got one anyway.

Eric's faux-hawk

The cool thing about doing Eric's his hair funny is that it stays that way! At night I put lotion all over him (including his head) and whatever way I comb his hair, that is the way it is the entire next day.

Lily can't be left out of anything and she insisted on getting in the photo too. I'm getting pretty strong because Lily wants to be carried almost as much as Eric.

Eric likes to imitate. If you make noises, he makes noises. If you blow on him, he blows back. If you squeal, he squeals. It is so much fun.

Toys, siblings, movies, tea parties and the value of money

Eric loves to watch Lily. He is so entertained just sitting and watching her trying his best to get his hands on her toys. He is in a Bumbo seat in this picture but he is also starting to be able to sit up on his own. He can do it for awhile but can't be trusted to sit alone because he loses focus and falls back on his head.
Lily likes to have him play with her but she gets frustrated that he doesn't play right. Notice how she has the potato heads lined up? Well, she is very particular about what goes where and Eric tends not to be able to do that. Not long after I took the picture, Lily took Eric's potato head away from him because he didn't have the right accessories on it.

But, as you can see by the shoes on the head, she isn't always that much of a stickler for normalcy.

After that cold snap ended the weather is back to being the South Florida weather that makes us put up with the high cost of living and the snowbirds' driving habits. Lily is really great at riding her bike but gets bored/tired after about half a mile.
Before Christmas I told Lily that during the holidays when there were other people in town that we would sneak off and go see the Princess and the Frog. Well, you know how hectic things get, and we never got around to it so weekend before last, we had a girls day and I took her to the movies. We had so so much fun. It was perfect. The weather was raining and freezing but since she had gotten a new raincoat for Christmas we were set. It gave me an indication that I'm raising a typical Floridian when, after walking through the parking lot and the long stretch of outdoor shops before getting inside the mall, she says to me "Mommy, my toes feel funny". The poor child had never had her toes go numb before!

We had a stack of clothes that Santa had delivered (via my dad) that didn't fit and needed to be exchanged at Gymboree so Lily got all sorts of new clothes along with her morning at the movies. I couldn't be left out and since I still had some birthday money left over, I bought myself a new sweater too.

Well, because Lily and I had a girls day, Ross invited Lily to have a tea party with him this past Saturday and there were no mommies and Erics allowed. Apparently, you must be dressed funny to attend. Unless you are a unicorn, of course.

Ross and I got Lily a Bugbsy for Christmas. It is a little computer wand thingy that reads stories when you run it accross the page. It is awesome and Lily loves it so much.

She had one book for it and wanted another. In trying to teach her about money and earning things, I made her save up her own money. I know, it may sound mean to do this to a 3.5 year old, but I was pretty generous with what I gave her money for doing and it was more an exercise in teaching her to quit asking for M&Ms every time we are in line somewhere. It was awesome to hear her say one day in line "I'm not gonna buy a treat today because I need that dollar for my bugsby book". Oh, if I didn't mention it before, I make her buy her own treats too. She has her own wallet and if she leaves it at home, no treat. (at Joann's she even uses a coupon! ... I'm so proud)
So, day before yesterday, she traded me 20 quarters out of her purse that Grandad gave her (are you kidding me? I got ONE quarter in purses I got from my grandparents!) for a $5.00 bill and yesterday I took her to Target to get her book. She makes me so proud. She had already picked out the exact one that she wanted during the last trip to the store so she lead the way through the store and right to it. She put her book up on the conveyor belt and counted out $11.00 from her wad of money. She even knew that the one with the 5 on it counts as 5! Explaining the tax to her was difficult though. In hindsight, I should have thought of that in advance and told her that the book was $11 instead of $10. She was a little confused why she had to hand over more of her money than she had planned.

I love her so much.

New Years Eve - Florida family style

Ross and I both being retired bartenders really have no desire to spend new years eve out amongst the crazies so we celebrated by going to our favorite place... the beach.
Crazy Ross went swimming but being a true native, it is just too cold for me to swim this time of year. Lily is crazy like her dad and swam too. Eric and I chilled out in the shade.

New bikini from Santa

Eric trying to eat the camera

Crazy thing I found

I was looking to see where my eBay listings would fall in the search of items being sold for earthquake relief in Haiti and ran across a listing for Zimbabwe money. I just thought it was funny and figured I'd share. This is for 10 - 500,000,000 dollar notes. What the hell is someone thinking when they give the approval to print a 500 million dollar note? Can the concept of how large that number really is even make sense?
And you see what the bidding is going for right? so sad, so so sad.

Christmas pics to come

Daddy bought me a new computer for Christmas and I love it so much that I haven't really been on the laptop much. But, all the Christmas photos are on the laptop because I loaned my photo software to Michael and haven't had a chance to get it back to load on the new computer. So, Christmas pics will have to wait. Sorry.
Christmas rocked though! Lily must have been very good because Santa brought her some really nice things. We opened the gifts from one another on Christmas eve and Lily was so funny because every gift that she opened she screamed "this is just what I always wanted!" and if there were more than one thing in a gift bag together she would scream "this is ALSO just what I always wanted!"
Sweetest thing in the world!
These pics were taken with my phone at the mall a few days before Christmas when we went to go have our pictures taken with Santa. You'll have to wait on the Santa pic because I haven't figured out how to get my scanner to work in windows 7 yet.
Eric was really cute because he didn't scream when we put him on Santa's lap. We really figured he would. He must know that he has to be nice to that guy so he can get some good loot next year.

This bear is mechanical and rocks back and forth. It was sweet because Lily walked up and put her arms up for a hug and waited for him to lean down to her. She usually hugs the characters that have people inside so I'm not sure whether or not she thought this one was one of those. She kept hugging him over and over so I think she may have thought he was real.

Meeting Grandad

Eric first meeting his Grandad

He didn't cry which is suprising because he has begun doing this thing where he cries if anyone other than me holds him.