Questions

Lila:  Mommy do we say, "Oh my gosh or oh my goodness."

Me:  Oh my goodness.

L:  Why?  Do people not like oh my gosh?

M:  It makes Jesus sad.

L:  Oh.  Jesus is up in heaven?

Adeline:  Yes Lila, he isn't a baby anymore!

L:  Is it dark up there?

A:  No there is a light bulb!

Special Night Out with Daddy

We try to find time to take each girl out individually for some quality Mommy and/or Daddy time.  It is important to shower them with our love in the absence of their sisters.  Just recently, it was Lila's turn.  A couple weeks back we decided to purchase Elmo Live tickets for Lila and Daddy.  To put a new spin on the outing, we purchased tickets for Lila's good friend and her daddy too.  It was a double date!  I am trying to pay more attention to friendships and play dates for the little ones now that they are nearing Kindergarten age.  This was a perfect opportunity. 

Unfortunately, Lila's friend and daddy backed out which left Alex and Lila with two spare tickets.  As many of you know by now, Lila has an affinity for Ernie.  While most children of this age are growing out of Sesame Street, my Lila is not.  This left us with few options when trying to decide who else to invite.  Then, much to our surprise, Adeline piped up with a, "I want to go.  I like Elmo.  Lila, I go with you?  It will be fun Lila!"  Well that decided it.  Lila's special night out was going to include Adeline.  Luckily, the two get along so well that having the other in tow  just makes times like these more fun.  We will have to find another opportunity for the undivided attention piece.

The girls had a great time with their daddy.  Later that evening, I heard them burst through the door.  Two very smiley faces proceeded to tell me how funny it was when Ernie played his horn and Bert fell down.  In their hands, they held tight to very large Elmo balloons that cost Daddy $20.00 and 20 minutes of standing in line at the ATM machine. 

Here are a couple of pictures before the show and some during.  Although we can't check off a special night out with just Lila or Lila and a friend, I think we succeeded in making Lila feel special.  While Ernie didn't have a strong presence in the show, it was enough.  It doesn't take much to please these two and a special night out with Daddy will always do the trick. 

75 Degrees and Winning Me Over

Usaully I am pretty pumped to spring our clocks ahead.  This year was different for some reason.  I found myself enjoying the dark and quiet our winter nights had to offer.  We ate dinners early and then settled into some of our best family time.  With no distractions or lingering around outside, we were one as a family.  We conversed over dinner and even found ourselves still talking after the food had long since been cleared.  I had ample opportunity to reinforce the girls' therapies and also found the time to hang with my big girl.  There was just something about the dark descending early which made us hunker down and really enjoy each other.

Last weekend, when we lost our dark and quiet nights, I could only think of missed bedtimes, tired girls, and divided time with friends in the cul-de-sac.  Of course, outside time with neighbors has huge value but I just wasn't ready to share my kiddos yet.

Today, it was 75 degrees.  Today, all three of my girls were home.  Today, we rode bikes, played on the playground, and were outside as a family until 7:00 p.m.  It wasn't so bad.  In fact, it was pretty great.  Sure enough, dinner was late and the kids weren't in bed until close to 10:00 p.m. but it is Friday.  Who's counting.

In the end we are going to trade our quiet and punctual nights for days like this.

Here is a run down of our day in pictures.

Miss Savannah is on spring break which allowed for some special Mommy and Savannah time at Longwood Gardens.  Spring was certainly in the air!

Lila Grace had her first official playdate. Official meaning that I don't know the family which indicates the friendship was formed on her own accord. Here she is with her special friend from school.

It was so hot on the deck that we had to get the water table out. That resulted in the girls setting up a pretend party with dishes full of water.

Once we were officially soaked, Savannah and Adeline snuggled up for some special reading time.

Of course there were many more moments but those weren't caught on film. I did manage to take a picture of my absolute dream child (we are still holding our breath to see if this new disposition is going to stick) snuggled up with me on the couch. She is so funny.

I Talk Like Savannah Now

I have mentioned before that Lila Grace understands that she has difficulty trying to express herself.  That expressive language delay still plagues my little girl and gets her very hung up at times.  When trying to retell a story that I know she knows, Lila often finds herself pausing for long periods which end in one or two word phrases.  I don't know what it is that causes the glitch but know that it stems from her prematurity.  Once I cue her with a few of the words I believe she is searching for, her language explodes.  She is then able to tell me much of what she couldn't just a few seconds before.

Just recently, Miss Lila has come up to me with a very big smile and said, "I talk like Savannah now!"  "I am a big girl now!"  I guess her expressive language isn't as labored or at least doesn't feel that way to her.  I haven't seen a huge difference but I am hopeful that an expressive langauge explosion is in our near future.  It is very hard to watch my kid struggle with words when I know that SHE knows she is struggling.

Reading Readiness Emerges

Adeline is always the one that ends up knocking my socks off in the academic department.  It isn't that my other girls aren't bright or that Adeline can out perform them.  While my other two girls fall right where I expect them to be, Adeline continues to rise above the expectations I have set for her.

A couple nights ago we were looking at pictures of helicopters in different colors.  Each helicopter had the color word written underneath it.  As we moved across the page, I asked Adeline what letter each color word started with and she answered correctly.  When I turned the page we found a color by number activity that had each color word written in black.  I don't know why I did this but I asked Adeline to read the words to me and. . . she did!  I was pretty impressed.  I repeated it and found the same outcome.  Savannah was so impressed that she quickly made some color word flash cards for Adeline which included the color words we had just covered and couple more.  She threw in pink to try to trick her because the set included purple as well.  I went over them twice with Adeline and she got most of them the first time and then all of them second.  I was astounded.  It was obvious that she was looking at the words, their letters and then thinking of those letter sounds when reading the words like green and gray or blue and brown.

Here is a clip of her third time through the cards.  The last card is brown and Adeline begins to sound it out with a bl blend but then corrects herself with a br blend and proceeds to say "brown."  Savannah misunderstands and thinks she says blue.  Please excuse Lila's piano playing in the background.

By the way, she got them all right the next morning.  It is reproducible which makes Alex and I scratch our head in wonder.

Lila is Swimming with Big Arms!

We started swim lessons in order to kill two birds with one stone. Since Lila was showing opposition when moving to the deeper end of pools even when being held and was not receiving any physical therapy, I figured a private swim lesson with Miss Trish was the perfect fit.

Miss Lila resisted these lessons. They are intense as the child is moving the majority of the 30 minute lesson. Lila was forced to hang onto the floating bar and kick the length of pool, go under water and float on her back. None of which she liked. Eventually, something clicked. I finally felt that we were not just covering the PT piece but also learning to swim.

Lila's last and final session of lessons was a soaring success. Miss Lila put her brave face on and learned to swim with her big arms. She puts her face in the water and appears to be a bit of a power house when watching her stroke. Maybe she will follow in her daddy's footsteps?

Alex and I attended Lila's last lesson in order to show her how proud we are of her success. She kicked it in high gear for us and started taking breaths while continuing on with her stroke. It wasn't pretty and still needs probably a year's worth of work to perfect, but it was progress and bravery. We are very proud!

Here is a clip of Lila Grace swimming back and forth to her teacher Miss Trish before taking breaths clicked. She is definitely tired in this one as her arms aren't moving as quickly or as high but it took a minute to get my camera.

Giraffeeee

That's how Miss Adeline says it.  She loves them and has acquired a few too many over the years.  These are just the ones within reach when sitting on her bedroom floor.

Lila needed a giraffe to take to school because they are studying the letter G.  Adeline was glad to let her pick one from her collection.