Some cute pics

Lennon was trying to eat Mia's Littlest Pet Shop lizzard today.  He just kept wanting to carry it around in his mouth like he was it's mother or something.  It was hysterical.  I had to keep taking it away though because it is magnetic.  It is impossible to have a baby proofed house with a 5 year old here too.  

Lennon loves dragging the magna doodle around the living room with him.  It's either that or his blankie.  He's weird just like his Daddy.
Mia and Lennon after church on Sunday.  Lennon is wearing an outfit that his younger cousin Jackson already outgrew and passed down to us.  Thanks Jackson!  It's adorable. 
Hmmm...How can I get into this cabinet??  

The future Mr and Mrs Lima??

Mia and Mateus snuggling while watching Barbie Magic of the Rainbow.

Sweet Little Mia

In typical Mia fashion, she said one of the sweetest things I have ever heard tonight.  Lennon and Mia and I were playing chase around the living room and he was really loving it and laughing really hard when we would start to come get him.  When we stopped to take a breather Mia sighed and said "he really deserves this doesn't he?"  And I said "what does he deserve?"  And she said "he deserves to have such a wonderful Mommy."  I just melted and gave her the biggest hug ever.  She is soo sweet!  She is doing gymnastics now on Monday afternoons and so far she is absolutely loving it!  She said she doesn't want to do soccer or ice skating anymore she just wants to focus on gymnastics.  She also says she wants to learn to play the violin, but I don't think that is going to happen cause I can only imagine that renting or purchasing a violin is pretty expensive and at the rate she goes from activity to activity we'll probably wait on that one.  Maybe start with something like piano lessons to see if she is really interested in music first.  

Granmommy's Visit

Vickie/Granmommy just came up for a visit from late Friday night through Monday afternoon.  We had a wonderful visit.  The best part was we managed to squeeze in a lot of fun and still have a really nice relaxing weekend.  Granmommy's flight was already scheduled to get in pretty late, around 11 or so and it was delayed more than an hour, so she got to our house really late.  She still managed to wake up bright and early the next morning when Mia came bouncing happily into her room to welcome her.  We hung around the house saturday morning and then headed out for Mia's first soccer game of the spring season.  Lennon had a great time crawling around on the field.  He is loving being able to go outside now that the weather is finally getting nicer.  Mia's team lost badly, but luckily the league doesn't really keep score.  Giovanni was crying at the end of the game though because he didn't ever get a chance to score a goal.  Mia comforted him and then we left for lunch.  After lunch we went to the carnival that always comes to town this time of year right by our house.  Mia had a blast!  She loved the fun houses the most and the caterpillar roller coaster.  It was so much fun to watch her face light up as she ran around and rode all the rides.  Once home, we baked cookies and got ready for dinner.  Oh yeah, it was our six year anniversary, too. 

 Sunday we went to church and then headed over to the Boston Aquarium.  We had my friends membership card so we all got in for free which was a good thing cause it cost $20 per person to get in.  We parked at Shelby's office and walked through the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market area where there was the usual hubub.  Clowns making balloons, rabbits in hats, street performers etc.  At the aquarium Lennon liked looking at the shrimp the best and Mia got a big kick out of the sharks and worried about the over population of jelly fish in our oceans.  On our walk back to the car Lennon decided he had waired long enough for his nap and just konked right out on the edge of his stroller.  It was pretty adorable.  Sunday night we rented Sinbad, a cartoon with the voices of Brad Pitt, Joseph Fiennes, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer.  It was great and Mia laughed her head off. 

 Monday Mia and Granmommy painted together and we made chocolate covered pretzels!  Yummy!  While Lennon napped we had the opportunity to play lots of Littlest Pet Shop with Mia.  Her new favorite thing.  We were all sad to see Granmommy go, but Mia cried her eyes out.  She just wanted her to stay forever.  She loves her family so much!  We are all really looking forward to the wedding in Atlanta in July!

More lovely Lennon chuckles

Lennon laughing while Mommy and Mia act out a scene from Enchanted.

Dusty's visit

Dusty just came to town from last wednesday night through sunday night.  The kids really enjoy playing with him, and I really enjoy having basically a nanny while he's here.  It's great.  He comes with me to my girlfriends houses and plays with all the kids while we chat and drink coffee.  My friend Amy's four year old daughter Miranda fell in love with Dusty this visit.  She was asking if maybe he could just move to her town so that he could come over and babysit her.  She also suggested that she could vacation to his house in NYC.  It was hysterical.  At home the kids got to see some of what he is now doing at work in NYC.  He plays music for rich kids at this place called KidVille.  We had a busy-as-usual weekend while he was here.  Friday night Dusty bought us pizza and we watched the second Star Wars movie.  Mia LOVED it!  She said the best parts were the kissing and the part when Yoda fights and does all the flips.   She also watched it again on saturday morning and I think watched part of it on Sunday as well.  Saturday morning the soccer game was cancelled due to what was supposed to be bad weather, but it ended up being gorgeous.  We had a lot of fun at the YMCA's healthy kids day.  We made fruit kebobs and fruit smoothies and Mia got her face painted and participated in obstacle courses and played some basketball.  She was excited to win some playdoh when she made a basket.  Afterward we had a playdate with her best friend from class and Naomi and then went to her last ice skating lesson.  We got most of it on video, I'll see about Shelby posting it on here when he gets a chance.  Sunday after church we went to the Science Museum.  The Science Museum is one thing we almost always do when Dusty is in town.  First he and Mia went to see a special Star Wars themed planetarium show while Shelby and I played with Lennon in the infant room.  He loved this exhibit that MIT set up where you push on different shapes that either make lights or motion.  He had tons of fun walking back and forth watching all the shapes move and light up.  Mia and Dusty enjoyed the show and learned some of the similarities between the Star Wars planets and the real ones in our galaxy.  It is so much fun now watching Lennon study things and try to figure them out.  We had a great time with Dusty and are excited that he gets to come back to meet with the Dean of Admission at Harvard in just a few weeks.  Another great part about Dusty's visit was that Shelby relaxed and just hung out with us all weekend instead of doing schoolwork and stuff.  He ended up getting really stressed out in the end, but it was nice to get to see him so much for a few days in a row.  This next weekend we are so excited because Granmommy is coming on Friday night!  Mia already has big plans for her visit.  Plans that involve lots and lots of sugar!  Yikes!    

The picture of Lennon with the crazy hair is right after he woke up from a nap.

Seriously! Are we ever going to be well???

Well, Mia has been on antibiotics for 4 days now and counting.  Shelby has had this on again off again chest cold with massive headaches and a terrible cough for something like 4 weeks.  And now I have the same chest cold along with, surprise!, an awesome mastitis.  It's really fantastic.  Lennon just has a little cough, but it's not bad.  It's not too bad taking care of two sick kids and a sick husband who works himself to the point of exhaustion all the time, but doing it while sick yourself is super fun!  So now, not only is Mia on antibiotics, but I had to start them today and I have to take them 4 times a day for 14 days!  Yuck!  My doctor said he wouldn't have prescribed them if they were not completely necessary.  I'm so bummed.  I really hate that Lennon is going to get some of these nasty meds through my milk.  I cannot wait for spring to really be here.  Please can we just all get well??????

Mia takes action

Mia was watching Curious George and they were talking about making robots and basically she jumped up and said she wanted to make a robot and this is the result.  She did this almost entirely without help.  I think Shelby helped her cut holes for the arms to go through, but that's about it.  She finished and decided her robot need an activity to do so she taped the paper and pencil to his hands.  She is so awesome!

A Second Opinion

Well after an emergency trip to our family doctors after hours clinic on saturday with a hysterical Mia it turns out she actually does have an ear infection in at least one of her ears.  He couldn't see in the other one well enough to tell, but said it most likely was infected too due to the amount of pain she was in.  Thursday we weren't able to see our actual doctor, but he happened to be staffing the after hours clinic on saturday so we were happy to have her see someone who knew her history and our philosophies.  He said at this point she's been trying to fight so many things for so long that he would really recommend antibiotics, and as much as I hate them I had to do it.  The poor little girl was just miserable and it's not worth her suffering.  I just stocked up on some probiotics and yogurt and hope for a speedy recovery.  She's got to take the meds three times a day for ten days!  Yuck!  At least it tastes really good so she is happy about that.  It isn't so cool that we had to pay our copay thursday and they said she was fine and two days later had to pay it all over again.  I wish they had spotted the infection back on thursday.  Oh well...  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in the last post that they weighed Lennon at the doc and he weighed in at 21 lbs and 4 oz.  So I guess we could have kept him in the infant carrier a little longer, but the new giant infant carrier is much roomier for him anyway.  His big sister Mia was only 36 lbs.  Not much difference for their being 5 whole years between them. 

 Today Mia is feeling much better and we plan to send her on to school tomorrow.  She's really looking forward to seeing her friends again after being cooped up sick since last wednesday morning.  This wednesday Dusty is coming into town for a visit and she is super excited about that.  She wants to go with him to the planetarium to see this special presentation they are doing on Star Wars there.  She has been loving Star Wars again lately and knows that Dusty is also a huge fan.  We have some free tickets so we should be able to make that happen sometime during his 4 day visit.      

Doctor, Doctor, Give me the news....

The doc gave both kids a clean bill of health.  Mia had a temperature of 102.2 at his office and they said some viruses are just like that.  No symptoms except the fever.  So, she'll be staying home from school again tomorrow for a total of three days missed this week.  Ugh for her!  We have now watched Enchanted 6 times and I'm sure there will be more of that tomorrow.  

As for Lennon he said he is most likely just having lots of pain from teething and his stomach could possibly still not be back to 100% normal from the stomach bug and that may be why he is being selective about what he eats.  He said totally not to worry and that how he acts now does not necessarily mean he will be a picky eater when he's older.  

So, hopefully as the weather gets nicer we can go back outside and let this nasty virus air out of our house!  The doc also said that this winter has been particularly brutal for everyone and that they've had lots more sick visits than usual.  So, at least it's not just my family.

Another tooth erupts

Exactly 5 weeks to the day of when I discovered Lennon's first tooth I have discovered his second tooth.  It's right next to the one on bottom.  I guess that's pretty normal to get those two first.  Maybe that's why he hasn't been eating as much.  I am taking both kids in to see the doc at 3:45 just to see if they have any wisdom for me.  Mia isn't eating much still, but her fever has broken.  Hopefully tomorrow she can go back to school.  Selfishly, I have really enjoyed having her around!  She is so sweet.  We have watched Enchanted 5 times already.  I think we are both going to have it memorized soon.  It really is a pretty good movie.  

Is This A Baby Shampoo Ad?

The Saga Continues

Lucky me got to go to the Registry of Motor Vehicles to exchange my Texas drivers license for a Massachusetts one.  A whopping $90!!  later I walked out of there and had to head straight to Mia's school at 10:30 because the nurse called me and said Mia was in her office with a fever or 101.8.  She said she wasn't complaining of anything, but that her teachers thought she wasn't acting like herself so they brought her down and sure enough she had a fever.  At home she wouldn't eat anything I offered her, and I mean I was reaching for anything.  Jello, juice, toast with butter and jelly, popsicles...I mean anything I could think of that she could get something into her to give her some strength.  She just felt miserable.  She was just laying around on the couch and crying off and on.  Finally she perked up when I mentioned lemon sorbet, so we went to the store and got her some and rented Enchanted.  I got her some flowers too and that seemed to really cheer her up.  At home she watched the movie ate some sorbet and suddenly felt great.  Later in the afternoon we all three took a nap and after the nap she was back to not feeling so great.  The only other thing she ate all day was a couple pieces of toast before bed.  Her temperature remained around 100 or 101 so she'll be staying home tomorrow also.  

Some good news about school though.  I talked to her teacher Ms. Yau and her teachers assistant Mrs. Ruane and they said that Mia is definitely one of the brightest kids in class, she is the best at sharing, one of the best at math, always  listens, easy to discipline,  and that she is usually the first one done with every assignment and is always willing to go the extra mile on everything.  Mia had told us that when she needed help it wasn't available, but her teachers said that she never asks for help.  So that could be the problem.  They said that she didn't really need help, that her work was always great, but that they would start paying special attention to that issue and maybe ask her if she needs any help sometimes.  They did express concern over her tumultuous relationship with her best classmate, Angelina.  Recently they have kind of separated and started playing with other kids and it seems to really be affecting Mia, but not so much Angelina.  They said that is probably why she is having anxiety about school.  They told me that Mia is very emotional.  Really??  Mia??  Yeah, I guess I knew that.  She comes by it pretty honestly.  They said she is quick to get her feelings hurt and when she's in a funk there is nothing anyone can do to help her out of it.  So...we definitely have some things to work on with her, but at least she isn't suffering in school.  The fact that it is social is good and bad I guess.  It's not as easy to fix, but at least the kids in her class will continue to change year after year, whereas school is school.  I guess we'll see what happens...

Lennon is suddenly super picky about what he eats.  I don't know what's going on.  He went from eating everything under the sun, to getting that nasty stomach virus, to eating nothing for two weeks except breast milk, and no he will eat, but basically he will only eat applesauce, blueberries and sometimes I can sneak in some avocado or sweet potato.  He refuses anything green and even carrots which are plenty sweet and super delicious.  I don't know what to do.  On the one hand I think right now I just need to nurture his love of eating so that he will continue to eat and not keep backsliding, but on the other hand I think maybe if I only offer him veggies every day that eventually he will eat right?  Well, maybe not.  He is pretty stubborn.  Argh!  What to do, what to do.  Any suggestion are welcome!