Liam is one!

Well I can hardly believe that my baby boy is one!  We had a super fun party here at the house. We rented a bounce house, which was really fun for all of us. Liam got some cute presents, including a race track from Mommy and Daddy that he just LOVED:

http://youtu.be/TloyLpI6i9c

He also loved his egg-free, dairy-free cake! (I tried it, too, and it was good--a little denser than regular cake but still yummy.)

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us and to family from afar who sent gifts!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Santa was very good to us, as always.  He brought the girls a princess castle!  Liam got a slide (sports-themed, of course), Bailey got a Dora dollhouse, and Emily got a telescope, which we have all enjoyed using. We saw Jupiter and four of its moons one night! Of course there were many other presents as well, and we enjoyed seeing our family on Christmas eve and on Christmas day, too!

My favorite part of the day was when Emily woke up on Christmas morning (at 6:45, LOL).  She RAN across the house and checked out the tree.  I heard a gasp and then she said, "BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!" and ran to wake up her sister. Just hearing that joyful shout made my day. :)

Coconuts

Sometimes I forget that my children are Florida natives. It makes me laugh when Emily asks for a jacket because it's seventy degrees outside. Or when she declared the pool "frozen" because the water was 72 degrees (she wanted to swim last week when it got up to 88 outside but after putting her toes in the pool, she quickly changed her mind!). But the best example of their "Florida-ness" happened this week.

Liam is very interested in the Christmas tree, as I imagine most babies and small children are. Well, he loves to toddle over there, grab two (plastic) ornaments, and run off with them, gleefully banging them together. Yesterday, Bailey saw him grab the ornaments and she yelled, "MOM! Liam's taking the coconuts!"

Me, totally baffled: "What coconuts?"

Bailey: "The coconuts from the Christmas tree!"

And THAT is how you know your kid is a Florida native. :)

A Visit with Santa

Last night we took the kids to the mall to have dinner (which was a fundraiser for Emmy's school) and to visit Santa. I wasn't sure how it would go, but I had high hopes that everyone would do well. Emily and Bailey were very excited to see Santa, and they both asked him to bring them something. Liam wasn't too sure, but when I put him on Santa's lap, he seemed okay, so I walked over to where the photographer was standing. Well, when he saw me walk away, he got VERY upset! It was pitiful!! But I actually like the "crying" picture because it is a memory of how he acted when he saw Santa for the first time. We also got a cute shot of just the girls, too.

Liam is walking!

And here he is!

Emily is SIX!!

It's hard for us to believe that our little girl is SIX YEARS OLD!  Emily came running out of her room at 6:45 this morning.  She knew there were a couple gifts waiting for her. :)  Mommy and Daddy sang "Happy Birthday" and then Emily opened a couple presents.

One was from Aunt Joann and Uncle Dave.  It had two princess nightgowns inside.  She loves them--she has worn one every night since getting them.  As soon as one comes out of the wash, she wears it again.

Then Mommy, Daddy, Bailey, and Liam gave her a ballet book and puzzle, which goes with her party theme, and a solitare game called Clever Castle.

Emily was also super excited about school.  We made chocolate cupcakes to bring to her class today, and Mommy got to eat lunch with Emily at school!  Her teacher gave her a special ribbon to wear, too. 

We went to Chili's for dinner and Emily got a yummy dessert--AND they sang to her!  It was a great day.

"Mommy, I Know You're So Old..."

I was enjoying a snuggle on the couch with Emily yesterday when she looks at me and says, "Mommy, I know you're so old, but why are you so little?"  Thanks, kid.

Family Pictures

Last weekend we had our family pictures done at Gemini Springs. It was a lovely day and I am really pleased with some of the shots!  Here are my favorites:

Earth

I took Emily and Bailey out to look at the moon tonight; it was a spectacular harvest moon and was absolutely beautiful.  Also, visible next to the moon was Jupiter (although I didn't know this at the time--we had to go in and look up what planet was currenlty visible from our location).  Anyway, I said, "Hey, guys, see that super bright star next to the moon?  Well, that's not a star; it's a planet!" 

Emily replied, "Is it Earth?" 

Me, trying hard not to laugh: "No, sweetie, we're ON Earth.  I don't know which planet it is--we'll have to go look that up." LOL :)

Kiran

On Wednesday mornings I drive Emily to school because I volunteer for her teacher.  This week, when we were walking into the building, a car pulled up alongside and the driver asked me where the drop off was.  The little boy inside was yelling, "Emily! That's Emily! She's my BEST FRIEND!"  Emily turns to me and says, "Mommy, that's Kiran.  He's in my class.  I love him. I'm going to marry him."

Kindergarten has been QUITE the experience so far!!

Happy Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year.  The kids were all adorable in their costumes: Emily as Ariel, Bailey as Aurora, and Liam as a dinosaur.  Will was a pumpkin and Jennifer was Dorothy.  We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with our friends the Kuhns.  The girls had a blast!

Bailey's leg is still in a cast so we towed her around in the wagon and then carried her up to each house.  That was quite a lot of work so we only went around one block. :)

Liam was thrilled when I gave him his own pumpkin to hold.  We didn't let him trick-or-treat; between the fact that he's 10 months old AND that he has a list of food allergies a mile long, it just didn't seem prudent.  But, there was one house that was prepared for little ones, and they gave him a tiny pouch of animal crackers (which were actually safe for him to eat!).  Well, he was delighted!  He kept looking in his pumpkin, taking them out, and putting them back in.  It was adorable!

Emily had a blast spending some time with her sibings and her friends. It was a lot of fun to watch her!  She has really become SUCH a big girl!



Bailey's Broken Leg!

On Thursday, Bailey took a small spill off her bike.  She was trying to execute a too-tight turn, and the bike (which has training wheels) tipped over onto her.  She was screaming but I thought that she was just being dramatic.  She said she wanted ice, which I gave her, but I couldn't see any injuries--no swelling, not even a scratch!  So I guessed she was just over tired and super sensitive.  That is, until I tried to stand her up and she just collapsed.  It was off to the after-hours pediatrician (thank God for those!!) to get some x-rays.  They diagnosed a "toddler's fracture" and put a splint on her until we could see the pediatric orthopedist the next day.  She was NOT happy about this.  She screamed and screamed.  The worst part of all was getting the ace bandage that was wrapped around the splint taped up.

On Friday we went to see the orthopedist and two doctors saw Bailey.  They decided she'd need to wear a cast for three weeks.  Bailey was absolutely hysterical over this news.  She screamed and cried and fought the poor orderly charged with applying the cast.  I had to sit on the table with her on my lap.  The man was so nice to Bailey and he said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry; will you forgive me?"  Well, Bailey screamed, "NEVER!  I'LL NEVER, NEVER FORGIVE YOU! EVER!"   It was totally ridiculous and I was laughing--and luckily, so was the orderly.  He said, "What if I give you a sticker?" Bailey: "NO!"  "How about two stickers?"  "NO!" "Three stickers?  I have Dora, Scooby Doo..." Bailey started getting interested at this point.  When we left, she had eight stickers (LOL) and  a lovely purple cast.

Here she is at Grayson's birthday party the next day.  Thank goodness we only have three weeks until it comes off!!

What's Your Number?

Here is a cute conversation I had with Bailey today:

Mommy: "Did you have fun playing with Derrick today?"

Bailey: "Yes, but where was his big friend?"

M: "His big friend?  You mean Xander?"

B: "Oh, yes, Xander."

M: "Xander is at school.  He goes to school like Emily."

B: "Because they're both big?"

M: "Yes."

B: "Well I don't go to school because I am three.  What's YOUR number?  Do you have a number?"

M: "I'm thirty-three."

B: "FORTY-THREE?"

M: "No, thirty-three."

B: "Thirty-three?  Wow, that's a lot."

M: "Thanks."

B: "You welcome." :)

Punkin' Patch

Today we took the kids to the "punkin' patch" to choose some pumpkins to decorate.  We had a nice time strolling through the pumpkins and choosing one for each child.  Here are some shots from our trip!

This is Uh-dic-uh-lus!

Bailey's language is growing by leaps and bounds lately, and it's so funny to hear some really BIG words coming from such a little girl!  Last week I took Emily to the doctor for her flu shot.  We had an appointment but it was at the end of the day and we waited quite a while before our name was called.  After 15 minutes of waiting, Bailey asked the receptionist if it was our turn yet.  She said, "No, not yet."  Then, a few minutes later, one of the doctors who knows us came out to say hi to Emily and ask her about school. Bailey said, "Is it our turn yet?"  The doctor replied, "Not yet.  Soon, though!"  And Bailey goes, "This is uh-dic-uh-lus!"  I laughed SO hard!!  Then Bailey said, "That's not punny!" :)

That same day, I was in line at the Disney store and Bailey was playing with the queueing line, which of course says "Disney Store" all over it. She says, "Look, Mommy!" and then burst into song, "DISNEY JUNIOR, where the magic begins!"  LOL!! About 5 other moms in line and around the store burst out laughing with me.  How I love having a little girl who keeps me laughing!!

A Page from Emily's Journal

Emily has a journal.  Unfortunately she didn't understand that the idea was to keep the pages IN the book so that we could save them, and she has ripped out almost every page.  Today I was going to throw out the book, which is basically just a cover with a page or two inside, but I opened it up first and I am so glad I did:

"I love you Mom and Dad and sisstrs and budr."

Which of course translates to "I love you Mom and Dad and sister and brother." SOOOO CUTE!! :)

Wiggly Words

Just a few cute stories from this week.

***

Emily was having a bit of trouble expressing herself the other day.  She kept trying to tell me something but all that was coming out was, "Mommy.... uh, Mommy..."  So I said, "Sweetie, why don't you get it all straight in your head and then you can tell me, okay?"  She goes, "Okay, because right now it's all wiggly."

***

I told Bailey she would have to come with me for Liam's checkup because she has a rash that I wanted the doctor to look at.  She yells, "I don't want to go to the doctor!  I don't want her [to] give me a BAM-AID!"  :)  (Funny but kind of appropriate, right??)

***

Tonight I served black beans and rice for dinner, which was a first for the girls. Bailey takes one look at hers and says, "Mommy! Are these raisins or chocolate chips?" LOL!

***

Today Emily brought home her very first love note!  It says, "Emily I love you. Harrison."

A Big Day

Today was a very special day for the McDowell clan!  First, Bailey went to preschool story time at the library and did a FANTASTIC job.  I was so proud of her--she listened to the stories (and paid attention, too--I quizzed her on the way home, LOL), participated in the singing and dancing, answered questions, and did the craft!  I was so impressed with her craft, too--she did it all by herself.  It is a picture of Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall.  She glued the "bricks" and the "egg" and then drew the face ALL BY HERSELF!! This is the first time she has ever drawn anything that is actually recognizable and I think she did a wonderful job:

Emily brought home her very first test, which was a math test she took on Friday. She got 100%!

Liam did a great job at story time as well.  I loved watching him "dance" to the music. :)  Yesterday he learned to pull himself up to standing.  I got a short video of it that I will upload soon.

Bailey Learns to Read!

Bailey and I started working on the 100 Lessons book that I did with Emily.  So far it's mostly been letter sounds but she DID read her first word, "me," last week!  We are also working on writing her name.  She has been able to recognize it for a while now, and recently she learned to spell it for herself.  She was so proud of herself for spelling her name in the refrigerator magnets:

I'm pleased with her progress so far since she is a bit younger than Emily was when we started the book.  She's excited about it, too, so hopefully we'll keep that momentum going and have her reading before she starts pre-k.  She's a cutie AND a smartie!

Lunch Notes

I was putting little notes in Emily's lunch box each day--just something to let her know that I love her and I am thinking about her.  Well, the second week of school she came home with one of the notes and said, "Mommy, why you always put these words in my lunch?"  So I explained that I wanted her to know that I miss her when she is at school.  This morning, after she got on the bus, I found this on my seat in the car:

"I loev you mommy."





Made my day. :)

The Theory of Relativity

The other day Liam was crawling around and he crawled his way over to Daddy's bookshelf.  He examined the books on the bottom shelf before carefully choosing one that interested him: Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity.  I laughed at the odds of him choosing THAT book, and placed it back on the shelf.  A few minutes later, I look over and see him with THE SAME BOOK!!  And later that night, after Daddy got home, he chose that book AGAIN!

He's one smart cookie.

Liam nods and says "Mama"

Liam is doing so many new things lately!  Most recently he said "Mama" on August 19th, and then on the 25th he was nodding yes!  I am so impressed with his new ability to communicate.

Here he is saying "Mama" :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLbnjUvwwLo

And here's his nod:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKugYjRv_gw

Will was also impressed because Liam wanted to play with Dioji the other day--he is VERY interested in the dog (poor Dioji, LOL).  He actually picked up one of Dioji's toys and began waving it at the dog in order to get him to play.  We thought that was very smart!

Our little boy is getting SO big SO fast!

A Rainy Day Adventure

Emily's school has a policy that they do not release students in the event of severe weather, heavy rain, or lightning.  Today was an "early release" day and I was supposed to be able to get her from the bus stop at 2:25.  I arrived to the stop at 2:12 (they want us to be there 10 minutes before the bus is due).  It was raining but not too hard, although there was some lightning.  Bailey was watching Dora and Liam was content, so I decided to just sit in the car and wait.  Well, I waited and I waited.  After a little while, Liam got fussy so I moved to the back to play with him.  Then Bailey announced that she had to go potty.  I couldn't just leave, and besides it was raining, so I offered her a pull-up.  She declined the pull-up and said she could wait until we got home.  But then another fifteen minutes ticked by, and she started looking desperate. So I said, "Bailey, let me give you a pull-up and you can pee-pee in that, okay?"  She agreed.  I had to get out in the rain to get the diaper bag from the back, and you guessed it, there were NO PULL-UPS in there.  So I improvised and grabbed one of Liam's diapers instead.  Now I knew it wasn't going to fit her but I thought it would probably work. I jumped back into the van and poor Bailey was waiting for me.  I held the diaper around her and told her to go.  Now a three-year-old can make a lot more pee than a 7-month-old, so shockingly, the diaper did not absorb all of the pee!  Luckily I did have extra clothes so we were able to clean up Bailey and the mess, too.  Meanwhile, Liam was screaming because I had put him back into his carseat, and, unbeknownst to me, there was a triagular-shaped block wedged under him.  I strapped him in because he's so wiggly I was afraid he might fall, and in the process caused the block to press into his back.  I thought he was just mad but then I realized it was a pain cry, took him out of the seat, and found the block.  FINALLY, at 3:00, the bus showed up.  By the time I got everyone loaded in the car and seatbelts on, of course the rain had stopped.  What a day!

Sweet Liam

Yesterday I heard Liam playing in his crib after his nap, so I went in to get him.  He was laying on his right side, looking towards the door.  When I opened his door, he smiled and started waving at me!  SO CUTE!!  He is such a sweetie!

First Day of Kindergarten!

We just got home from taking Emily to the bus stop for her first day of school!  She was so excited this morning.  She asked for chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast:

Then she did a great job of getting herself ready for school.  Mommy helped with her hair.  Since Emily is going to a charter school, the bus stop is at Publix.  The whole family took her to the bus stop today.

When we got there, Emily and Isabella posed for a picture:

Then they got on the bus, which was a bit of a process because they take roll on the bus and of course Emily had to tell the bus driver her whole life story, LOL.  They also have assigned seats and it looked like the driver had paired an older kid with each kindergartener, which I think was a good plan.  Will and I laughed because we just know Emily talked her seatmate's ear off the whole way to school.

Here is the video of the girls getting on the bus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh8N-kH6BQw

When Will, Bailey, Liam, and I got home, Bailey says, "Daddy, I going to be a good big sister." Then she walks into Emily's room and says, "Is this gonna be my room now?" LOL!! Like we just put Emmy on the bus and said "see ya!" :)

I can't believe my little girl is off to kindergarten!

"Winkles"

Bailey recently noticed the two HUGE wrinkles I have across my forehead--I have very expressive eyebrows, LOL.  Anyway, she was running her finger back and forth and she asked, "Mommy, what this?"

"Oh, that's just a wrinkle."

"A WINKLE?  Oh, no!  You can't have a winkle!  You won't be boo-full anymore!"

On a lighter note...

Just some quick funnies that the girls have said lately:

Bailey, referring to her navel: "Mommy, this 'babin' toot' shows my Bailey button!"

Emily saw Liam without his diaper and wanted to know what his testicles were for.  Instead of getting into it, I just said, "That's just something that boys need."  She goes, "Oh! It's like a little clubhouse for his pee-pee to hang out in!"

Conversation between Will and Bailey:
"Mommy is very tired today.  So I need you to stay in your room during quiet time and let her get a nap, okay?  Don't let me down."

"I not gonna let you down, Daddy. I gonna let you up."

And finally, yesterday Bailey gave me a big hug and said, "Mommy, you're so beautiful and comfy." :)

Pop-Pop

Well, I haven't been on here in a while--things have been really out of whack this past month.  At the beginning of July, my grandfather, whom we affectionately call Pop-Pop, got sick.  He was admitted to the hospital with low blood sugar on July 3, and things just went downhill from there.  The next week he had a scan done which showed "masses" all over his body.  The biopsy came back that these masses were lymphoma.  The doctor thought it was treatable BUT the treatment would have been very difficult and by that point, Pop-Pop wasn't really eating and was very, very weak.  He was transferred to a nursing home for rest and physical therapy, with the goal of getting him strong enough to try the chemo/radiation.  Unfortunately, after a week there, he became unresponsive and was taken back to the ER on July 24th.  He passed away at 12:12 am, July 25th.

Mom noticed some interesting numbers: Pop-Pop was born in (19)22.  He died in (20)11 at 12:12.  He was 88.

We are all deeply saddened by his loss but I personally am also glad that he did not go through the chemo only to die anyway.  I am so grateful that he moved to Florida all those years ago and I got to spend lots of time with him.  And it was so wonderful to meet his many, many friends and neighbors who all had nothing but good things to say about him.  Although it was difficult, I feel blessed that I was able to attend his funeral services both locally and in New York and see him laid to rest.  What an honor it was to have such a wonderful grandfather.

The Orlando Sentinel did a beautiful piece on Pop-Pop after he passed: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-obit-lou-figliuolo-20110728,0,7183646.story

You may also read and sign his guestbook here: http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/news-journalonline/guestbook.aspx?n=louis-figliuolo&pid=152772636&cid=gbsrchres

"I want my dollar"

Last night, William told Bailey that if she slept all night, he would give her a dollar. Well at 6:45 this morning, she comes out, rubbing her eyes, and goes, "Mommy? Mommy, where are you?" I was in the kitchen and I called to her. She comes in, gives me a hug, and says, "I want my dollar." LOL!

Liam is on the move!

Today, Liam went from rocking on his hands and knees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3K73GQDkGQ

to crawling to get the remote control!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az5T1jtlU7k

(his second attempt):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTXvaAw7BuQ

He's 6 months 1 week old.  I am amazed.

Kids in the Walker

Liam--almost 6 months

Bailey--6 months

Emily--5 months

Isn't it funny how much they look alike?  And I love the "decline" of the walker--poor Liam doesn't have any bears.  I remember Emily broke them off when Bailey was a baby!!  And they ALL did the chewing on the toy bar thing (like Emily is in her picture).  I don't have a picture of Bailey doing that but here's Liam: