"No like it, this song"

Well, after having a second straight weekend with my girls while Katy was in Tulsa, I have had a lot of time with Lily and Zoe.  I have loved it, but it has been hard.  I am so thankful they are on a good schedule so I do have some time to myself.  Thankfully, my parents are so good and helpful with our girls, and they kept them Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Lily actually was at school and with Belinda all day Thursday, so Zoe was by herself downtown.  I will say it is pretty frantic trying to get out the house on my own, whether it is on my own, with one girl, or two.  Thursday, Belinda came over to take Lily to school (I had an early meeting), and we were walking out the door and I forgot to make her lunch, so we had to stop for that.  Then, when I packed her diaper bag and pajamas for that evening, I sent the diaper bag but there were no diapers in there; and I sent pajamas but only the top and forgot the pants.  So, Lily shows up that afternoon to group in a pajama top and a blue diaper.  Of course, everyone knew that Katy wasn't there to prep her that day.  And of course, Belinda was so great at being flexible and helpful with Lily that day.  We couldn't do it as easily without her and Aaron in our lives as well.  Friday was Mom's birthday, so I went down there for dinner and to eat the cake Lily and Papi had made.  We all slept in (comparatively speaking) until 8 am on Saturday; even Zoe cooperated, so I know that she wakes up early when she does because she is a light sleeper and hears the shower.  During Zoe's morning nap, Lily and I played in the baby pool outside; I spent more time in it than she did.  After lunch, Zoe and Lily took good naps (before Zoe went down, I finally took the opportunity to take a shower and Zoe was needing attention at the time, so she just sat on the floor right outside the shower curtain and just wailed with sad sad cries the whole 8-10 minutes I was in there; can't even get a break for that).  I got some work done while they napped.  Then, it was over to the park to meet Steven & Michelle and their kids and then dinner at Longhorn Cafe.  Dinner was organized chaos, which is much much better than unorganized chaos, so all in all, a great day.  Girls went down great.  We were up and only 2-3 minutes late to church today.  Thankfully, Belinda was in the nursery because Lily was not in the greatest of moods.  Zoe stayed up a bit and then went down for a 3-hour nap (Lily went down early, just after noon), and I had a while to get some work done.  We just hung around the house, and around 4 pm, the girls started to smell blood, and started to go on the attack.  It was one thing after another (I can't even remember what it was).  Zoe needed to be held, Lily couldn't find her beatia or her slippers or whatever else she needed at the moment.  Then, as we are cleaning up from our lasagna and ice cream dinner, I look over and Zoe has the dry erase crayon in her mouth.  Bath time was not smooth, and Lily had her first fit screaming, "I want 'Slowly Slowly'" (her sloth book) because I had told her only one more book.  But, regardless of how crazy it was, we made it through and I love having this time with them.  But, boy, am I glad Katy is coming back tomorrow.

All the time with them made me think it would be good to chronicle Lily's speech right now.  She is becoming more and more talkative and her are some of our favorites:

"No like it, this song" - she said this as we were listening to Christian music yesterday. She does say that about food sometimes, so it was funny to hear it about a Christian song.

"My beatia" - Don't know where she got that name for her blanket, but whenever she needs a pick-me-up, that is what she says.  I probably heard that phrase 50 times (no exaggeration) today.

"Slippers" - Again, don't know where she got it from, but that is what she calls flip-flops.

"Baby Z" - She has heard us calling Zoe this so much that she has started to say this a bit, when she doesn't say ZZ.

"Pansy Pansy" - This is what she calls her Fancy Nancy book; this is probably her favorite at the moment.  Of course, to hear her say "Slowly Slowly" is quite humorous because it really doesn't sound like that.

"Mingers" - Her fingers.

"Mammy" - Her name for Grammy.  (I still think it would be awesome if she called her 'Grandma Dranselka'.)

"My church" - This is pretty distinct.  It is pretty cool that she knows our church.  We were driving up to it and it was still a ways in the distance, and she said that today.  She also knows the name of "Amy", the kind soul who is always in the upper room of the nursery (she deserves an extra room in heaven for that service).

"Oh-tay" - This is her saying ok.  It is her favorite thing to say on the phone.

"Mama Amen?" - This is her saying that she wants to pray for Mama.  Last night, it was "Sean Maddie Amen?" so we prayed for Sean and Maddie.  Earlier in the week, it was "Beatia Amen" so we prayed for the beatia.

I don't even know how to spell it, but she does know Belinda's (and Aaron's name).  We know she means Belinda, but it is way way off.

"Chocolate apple juice" - Chocolate milk and apple juice are far and away Lily's favorite drinks.  Today, instead of asking for either one and being told no, she asked for "chocolate apple juice" at dinner.  I guess she figured if I said no to that, I would give it for either chocolate milk or apple juice.  She figured wrong.  She got her one cup of apple juice with lunch today.  But, it was funny, and instead of being too stern with her, I caught myself laughing hysterically.

We're loving our time with these girls, as they grow and develop.

Mesmerized

Well, we use this title to describe our girls seeing their first fireworks display.  It is hard to know if they were mesmerized by the actual fireworks going off or just being up two hours past their normal bedtime.  Zoe particularly was just staring up at the colors and booming sounds.  She thought it was the coolest thing.  Lily got scared at first but then while sitting with Dad & Mom, she was fine.  It was fun to be out there at Schertz Park with her third-cousins, Sean, Maddie, and Chloe.  Lily is so easily entertained by things that it makes even simple things like a carnival seem quite exciting.  For example, one of the loudest reactions of the night was when they turned the lights on for the rides.  We left the park and got in our car around 10 pm.  With the traffic, we didn't get home until 10:45, and Lily talked the whole way home.  She put up a fight when we put her in bed but was still asleep in two minutes.  Today (the day after), she was fine, slept a bit later but we didn't get her up until 8:15 or so.  I was downtown with her in the morning and she was definitely fussier than normal but she settled down fine for her nap. 

On Saturday, we had our annual time in the Schertz Fourth of July Parade.  Lily got her picture taken with the Lion & Rose girls (wannabe Hooters girls).  Lily even got to see her friend Rix on the parade route.  Of course, Lily and Zoe got plenty of shout-outs for their outfits.  Katy had these outfits picked out back in January.  I should be surprised by this but I am not. 

Zoe has been a bit sick lately with the same eye funk that Lily had a few weeks ago.  But she is much better than she was in this picture.

I am off this week so we'll have more good time together.

Weekend with Daddy

Mama is out of town this weekend, so the girls get a weekend with daddy.  We started the weekend off letting Lily watch 'Legally Blonde', not sure that is the best use of her time, but she enjoyed it.

Zoe is becoming so active these days; she is crawling around everywhere.  I feel so much more confident in her ability to steady herself that while she is pulling up on furniture, crawling on the hard tile in the kitchen, I don't fear that she is going to tumble over every single moment.  Now, by no means do we just leave her and hope for the best, but she is growing.  Her vocal skills are growing as well.  It makes life harder knowing she is all over the place, but it is fun to see her moving about.

Lily is being a 2-year-old toot.  We take the good with the bad.  I have to say that I like each age a bit better than the previous age.  She gets more and more fun, and you just have to deal with the tantrums as they come.  The best thing she is doing now is asking where people are: "Mama go?"  "Papi go?"  You could be one room over and she'll yell that out.  She has taken to calling Norman, "Moormie"  I think the tantrums right now really come down to her not getting her way and so she just lets it out as best she can; it generally comes down to throwing things around.  But, that is the quickest way to get a time-out.

I just got finished with a week back at work after being off.  Over the first part of last week, we went down to Port Aransas.  Lily certainly didn't like getting into the water, even with floaties on, but she liked being in the baby pool and got continually braver at the beach as the week went on.  Zoe pretty much just was there to look cute in her bathing suits.  The water was yucky yucky.  Seaweed four feet wide, six inches deep coming up to the beach.  I am not sure if the seaweed come in is somehow connected to the BP oil spill off Louisiana coast (don't think so), but in comparing pictures in June 2010 to June 2009, it is dramatically dirtier.  Emily came on this trip and we had a great time.  It was odd sleeping all together in one bedroom, with a pack&play on each side of the bed.  4 people in a room, including 2 babies, is a lot to take.

I got to have some time at home with the girls later in the week.  Lily had outdoor play time in the background later in the week.  We do have some fun stuff for the background, but the problem is that if it is not water-related, it is just too hot to go out there.

The big news this week was the U.S. World Cup victory in stoppage time that put them into the next round vs. Ghana.  Let's see if they can keep it up.  Not sure this is going to do much to explode soccer as a major sport in the U.S., but it can't hurt.

The bigger sports story to me was the marathon Wimbledon tennis match.  Fifth set, no tiebreak, ended at 70-68 with John Isner beating a French guy, Mamout.  What is most amazing to me is that the guys never got their serve broken until that 138th game.  And there were relatively few break points during all that time (both in the single digits).  This is one of those things that will never happen again in sports.  This would be an equivalent of a 50 inning baseball game or 15 overtime basketball game.  We won't see this ever again.

Star Wars in Concert

Well, we just got back from a fun weekened going to the Star Wars concert.  Excellent production, I'm sure the idea started with just another money grab (and it was), but I was glad to have paid it.  There was a 3-story screen and a full orchestra playing the music from all the movies with scenes shown to correspond to the music.  Anthony Daniels was there to narrate the whole ordeal.  After awhile, the music sounded so good, it was easy to forget that it was a live orchestra and not pre-recorded music.  Katy even enjoyed it, especially when we had the carbonite freezing scene, and she heard Leia say, "I love you," and Han replied, "I know."  At intermission we found Betty and Judy and they pointed us out to the row in front of them (10th row front & center on the floor) that was empty so we watched the second half from there.  I did do my splurge and get the $30 program.  Probably not necessary but what else have I splurged on with Star Wars?

Katy and I made a weekend of it and stayed downtown (Zoe and Lily were downtown with Papi and Patty); we had drinks at Zinc's, dinner at Boudro's, and dessert at TX Land & Cattle.  Then, we took some Tylenol PM and had a long, uninterrupted by babies night of sleep.

The weekend was made even more relaxing by my spending the day alone with the girls on Friday.  Katy was at Market and with us having sent the girls to the grandparents Monday through Thursday and going downtown over the weekend, I felt I needed to stay home, and it was mostly fun.  They did drive me to some vino with my lunch, but that was ok.  Zoe is going through this weird stage where she is not able to sit down once she pulls up and is in a standing position.  So, she will roll over in her crib after we lay her on her back, push up onto her belly, and then stand up holding onto the rails.  Then, she will not know how to get down and start wailing.  I went in 3 times during her morning nap on Friday before letting her cry for 40 minutes and finally just getting her up with a skipped nap; it didn't bother Lily, at least, because Friday was National Doughnut Day and Belinda came over to take her to Krispy Kreme.

Lily's current thing is to say "My Beatia" when she needs her blanket to comfort her.  Sometimes, she gets upset when the blanket is in her hand, but since she wants some comfort, she will throw it on the ground, and then cry out, "My Beatia" until we get it for her.  We're going to have to find a way to put a stop to that move.  She is getting really fun and expressive with her verbal interaction.  If someone is not home, she'll say, "Mama go?" or "Papi go?"  It has been really fun to ask her question and she will think for a minute and then say "Ummmm" and then try to answer.  I like asking her about church or something related and she will say "Jesus" (but the 'Je' sounds like the 'che' in cheese).

Back online - new blog

I am finally back on the blog, not sure how often I can update this, but I'll certainly try.....Renamed blog to "bows and beatia".  First, I hope Zoe doesn't later think bad of me that she only got the blog with her name for less than five entries.  When I tell her how these first few months have been with her, she'll have to understand.

Then, on the blog name.  First, if you've seen our girls, you know bows are a big part of their life (and when I say "big", I mean important and also size-wise).  Beatia (pronounce "bee-t-ah") is what Lily calls her blanket, not sure where she got that from but it is a word we hear more often than any other right now.  I've already had a 30-minute discussion with Katy and Zac on how to spell it, so I am not even going to go there again.  But, these two things are what our life is all about right now:   making sure they have a good bow on their head when they leave the house and that Lily has her blanket. 

We'll share all sorts of things going on in our life with this blog....on that note, I find it ironic that this entry is the first entry since the Star Wars symphony concert blog entry back in January and here I am, 2 days away from the Star Wars concert.  I said back then that you haven't lived until you've seen 'Duel of the Fates' played live; now, I'd say you haven't lived until you've seen it played twice.

The big story going on these days is the oil spill of the BP oil rig in the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana; it is so sad what it is doing to the coastline, the environment, etc.  I think it is time for the government to get involved; charge BP for what it is costing, but something has to be done to fix it.  We'll see what happens.

Star Wars symphony

Well, Dad got a night out tonight while Mom was in Dallas and went to the symphony.  Well, don't get too excited that I am becoming all classy.  It was the symphony pops performance: Star Wars and more.  It is amazing to think about how much music John Williams did.  It started out with the theme from the Olympics (who knew that was him?), and then a song from a western movie (Cowboys), and then Jaws (it is only two notes).  The theme from ET, and then a clarinet-focused song from the movie "The Terminal".  Then they did something else and ended the pre-intermission with the Superman theme (one of my favorites).  Post intermission was from the movie 1941 and then "Mission" (NBC news theme).  Then, it was on to Harry Potter and Hedwig's theme.  He told a great back story on this that his inspiration for this music in a movie about magic was to follow "The Nutcracker".  The instrument they use in that music is the celesta, and that is the main music in that, appropriate music for a children's magic tale.

Then, it was onto Star Wars.  I am glad to know that I was just in the audience (that is nerdy enough); throughout the music, some people (from the production) came dressed up as the various characters and came out on stage.  It was really funny that when they did "Imperial March" a couple of storm troopers and Darth Vader came out on stage.  Then, he used his force grip to cause the conductor (who happen to look like Larry David) fall off the conductor platform, and then Darth took over conducting.  After hearing the music all night, it was kinda amazing to compare how similar the Star Wars music sounds to some of John Williams other stuff yet is quite unique.  For example, in Yoda's theme, the strings part towards the end sounds almost exactly identical to ET's theme (where they are riding through sky with the moon behind them).  And the conductor told the story of how when composing this music, John Williams wanted to have it help to tell the story and actually be part of the plot (e.g. Anakin's theme has part of Darth Vader's theme in it for a bit of foreshadowing).  I heard that tonight for the first time in the "Across the Stars" (Episode II love theme).  The only thing that was missing was in the intro Star Wars number, they needed to have a Star Destroyer come across the screen for about 45 seconds, just like in the movie.  Plus, the whole evening would have been incredible had they put movie clips playing (even, silently) on the screen behind them; it was set up perfectly for it.  One thing I will remember as I compare the Star Wars music to rest of the music is that throughout most of the night, you didn't see all the instruments playing at the same time (e.g. horns were silent while violins were playing; clarinet was playing and the cello was silent).  But, during Star Wars, everyone was playing, and it sounded exactly like it does in the movie.  In a concert, there is always that effect that it doesn't sound exactly like the recording (and some people like it that way), but this sounded just like the films and it speaks to the quality of this symphony.  Another point he brought out that I will enjoy is talking about how each character has their own unique theme, and it helps to link all the movies together; without music, that wouldn't have been there.

3 big things stood out to me:
(1) The characters they had come out were a nice touch.  But some guy came out with a red lightsaber and a tank top.  Not sure who this was supposed to be.  Steven Maul?
(2) The conductor introduced the Star Wars set by saying that if you were at the theater in 1977 when these movies were first released, this is what you would have heard.  And then they proceeded to play the Fox Films studio soundtrack (before moving onto the Star Wars theme).
(3) While I would have enjoyed hearing the music where Luke is watching the Binary Sunset on Tatooine, the fact that they ended the Star Wars set with the Episode IV throne room music saved the night.

Although they ended the night with the Star Wars set, I was glad to see that their encore was the Indiana Jones theme.  Thankfully, the Han Solo-dressed guy didn't come out as Indy; that would have ruined that series for me forever.

Very fun evening, just another milestone to add to my Star Wars memories.

Happy 2010!

Before we look ahead to 2010, I think it is appropriate to look back at 2009.

Of course, we'll remember this year mostly for Zoe being born.  But, also Lily started 2009 as a little baby who couldn't even crawl; she ended the year as a little girl with all of her activity and personality coming through.

Here is a picture of how our family started this year:

Here is how our family ended the year:

So, before we get too much into the year, let us share some of our memories of what we remember from between these two pictures:

January

- Visit to the Valley for Aunt Great Diane's wedding

February

- Lily riding horses in Ft. Davis

- Lily's jimmy-legged crawling

March

- Dad being home early on March 2 (after an awful Busy Season) and going for a walk

- Katy's birthday with the family and Emily in Fredricksburg

- Lily learning to walk at 11 months

April

- Lily's first Easter and hunting eggs

- Lily's birthday, lunch at Paloma Blanca, pizza and opening presents with the family

- Lily's birthday party: her standing in front of the Eiffel Tower with her sloth, playing with kids in the backyard going after candy, looking scared when we sing 'happy birthday' to her, eating her pink Eiffel Tower cake

June

- Going to the beach; Lily going from scared of the water and playing in the sand to getting in the waves in les than 24 hours

July

- 2 days in St. Louis, going to the Cards game and seeing Albert Pujols hit 2 HRs

- Visit to Michigan: Lily playing in the park at Rochester with cousin Liam, Uncle Andy, and Aunt Bethany; squeling with the weiner dogs post-slurpee

August

- Getting ready for Zoe; Lily being especially needy during this month and only wanting her mama

- Morning walks with Mom and Lily to held in the last trimester of pregnancy

September

- Zoe's birth, song 'In this Moment' by FFH was playing immediately before they took her out; we remember our shock when we found out she weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces

- Matching tutus for Lily and Zoe at Zoe's "birth" day party

October

- Start of the collic and all the fun that added to our lives

- Times spent holding Zoe while she slept (or tried to slept); learning they she really likes her passie and having to constantly re-plug it when it falls out; in her first month, she really like to lay on Dad's legs with her head on my knees

- Lily starting school in October and always being "playful and happy"

- Anniversary dinner at Maggiano's

November

- Lily's first haircut

- Thanksgiving at Susan's

December

- After all the crying, seeing Zoe smile at us

- Fun at Christmastime, hearing Lily say "ho ho ho" real softly when she saw a Santa Claus (we even heard her wake up from a nap saying that to herself), seeing Lily and Zoe in all their Christmas outfits

- Dad's birthday at Double Dave's

- New Years Eve family shopping day in Fredricksburg

Through the Year

- Lily's development.  Obviously, physicially, she progressed early in the year from just standing up with the help of furniture to crawling by mid-February to walking in mid-March.  By June, she was running.  She loves to run fast with her head pointed towards the ground (today, she ran 7 laps around the island in the kitchen).  In August, she seemed to really know what we were saying when we talked to her.  In October, she started to vocalize things more especially saying "Bye" with more than one syllable (she had her first sentence in November when we dropped her off at grandparents house downtown for a date night and she said, "Mama, Dada, bye").  Her best development has been with the Star Wars books, especially the Boonta Classic Episode I book, being her favorites and the ones she chooses first to read.  Now, we can ask where certain characters are and she points to them.

We know the Lord will continue to bless us and 2010 will be even better for us!

Life is getting better

Well, we hope that Zoe doesn't come back later and get on to us for not keeping up with her blog regularly.  Right now, it doesn't seem to matter whether we update it or not.  She is either quite content or asleep or pretty fussy, blog being updated or not.....

It definitely is getting a bit easier.  About two weeks ago, Zoe started to sleep through the night, so that was a welcome relief to us all, especially Katy.  Now, she is currently a bit fussy if she is awake, but she hasn't been starting to look around a bit more and be somewhat content (while awake).  She definitely cries a bit and can still be a bit inconsolable, but we are starting to get used to it a little.

Having two kids is definitely harder than we imagined.  While most people would say that with two kids, when both mom & dad are home, you go to a man-to-man defense, we prefer to use a zone defense.  Katy or I may be in the kitchen and the other in the living room, so if Zoe is in the swing and Lily wanders into the living room, one of us has to guard both of them.  But, if Lily stays in the kitchen, it is one-on-one in both rooms.

Lily doesn't really sit still for too long.  She loves to move around.  We have been going over to Live Oak Park fairly regularly, and she is starting to recognize it and gets real excited when we get there.  The only problem with that place is that she loves the big slide (probably 25-feet high) and always wants to go to it so we are constantly re-directing her.  But, it is funny to watch her run around there because she loves to move quickly.  Lily is starting to show a lot more attention to Zoe.  If she hears Zoe crying, she points over to her and looks concerned.  If Lily can move around, she will run into where Zoe is, check on her to make sure she is alright and then after about 3 seconds, go back to what she is doing.  Anytime she sees Zoe without the passie, she says "Uh-oh" and tries to put it back in, or should I say shove it back in.  But, Lily is being a good big sister.  She is starting to fully recognize what we say to her; she doesn't have too many words, but she certainly tries hard.  The other night, we were dropping her off downtown with Papi and Grandma Patti, and Lily had her first complete sentence: "Mama, dada, bye."  I guess she wasn't sad to see us leave.  Today, we dropped her off at school and Mrs. Lisa had brought in donuts.  5 kids were there and eating already, so Lily hurried to sit down, the teacher laid down a paper towel, and Lily kept pointing aggressively to the towel asking where her donut was; Mrs. Lisa handed it over quickly and Lily was happy.  We are teaching her our bad eating habits.  The other thing that has been great over the last month was seeing and hearing about Lily at school.  She started preschool at Bracken United Method Church (BUMP).  Mrs. Lisa always writes that Lily is "happy and playful".  Lily is learning to sleep on a mat by herself, she is playing well.  Today, we had the Thanksgiving Feast, an annual BUMP tradition.  We were looking forward to having the time with Katy, Lily, and I, but it was not the precious family event that we imagined.  It was right at 12, so during nap time, and Lily was extra tired.  She touched one of the plates that was hot, and it set her off, she pretty much cried the rest of the meal, so we quickly ate and then got home.  Oh well, we have to try to enjoy those events.

But, we certainly are having a good time and still getting to do a few things together with just Katy and I; we went to a Spurs game last week, and we do get to have our Sunday nights together at the 'Growing Kids' class.

Here are some pictures from the past month:

Pictures from Lily's play times:

We have started maybe a bad habit of having snack time with Lily.  She loves to sit at the grown-ups table and have Sonic drinks with Mom & Dad:

Here are pictures from Zoe's first bath (she didn't like it at first but it really comforts her now):

Here is an array of pictures (from earliest to latest) showing Zoe and her different outfits:

Here are pictures from Lily's second (Zoe's first is shown above) Halloween:

We did actually make it out to eat as a family; thankfully, we were at Zio's and got to all sit outside:

We finally took Zoe to church the first Sunday of November.  Here are pictures from that event (Lily had to put on a cute outfit as well):

Lily loves airplanes, and we went over to the Randolph AFB air show a couple of weeks ago and she had a lot of fun.

We went down last Sunday to watch Papi run in the marathon; if we had let Lily get out of her stroller she might have run as well:

Finally, here are some photos of Zoe throughout November; she is really growing and is a big and tall baby.