First Word

I finally said my first word!!!  Clear as a bell, light as day, I said it over and over and over again!! 
QUACK!
Yep!
QUACK!!!!
Almost 15 months old and my first, and only word is
QUACK!!!!!!

"Anna, do you want a baba?"
"QUACK!"
"Anna, who am I?  Mama?  Mama???"
"QUACK!"
"Anna, say BYE BYE!"
"QUACK!"

I'm a genius.  Mommy and Daddy don't need to save for my college education anymore.  Obviously, I'm going to get a full Ivy league ride!
Quack!!
Love,
Anna

Sit and Spin Good Times

We hope you all had a WONDERFUL weekend.  We sure did, we played outside a lot, at the water park, the pool, went to the zoo, went to a cookout, a church fair, played in the backyard with all the neighborhood kids...which was, ineteresting.  Our backyard neighbors were having a BIG barbecue last night with about 12 little kids and they all came over to our house - with no Mommies or Daddies - and played on all of our stuff!  Then, no one bothered to offer up any of their food to Mommy to thank her for babysitting for them or anything.  Nice, eh?  Mommy can't imagine going to Babi and Duda's house and letting us have the run of the next door neighbor's house without so much as an introduction and a free beer!  People, please!  Otherwise though, it was a fabulous weekend.
Mommy has a new theory with me and why I don't talk.  Her theory is this: I actually THINK I'm talking but I haven't made the connection between my brain and my mouth to form actual words.  For instance, yesterday we were sitting on the rocking chair and my BABA was on the table right next to us and I started to have a little hissy-fit.  Mommy, ever attentive, attributed my hissy fit to gas or something and more or less ignored me until I was practically punching her in the face.  When that finally did happen Mommy looked over and saw my BABA and said:
"ooooooh, Anna, you want BABA?"
I looked at her, cocked my head to the side, raised my eyebrows and nodded.  I was thinking, "Yes, IDIOT, I want my BABA now give it to me!"
Mommy said, "Anna say, BABA."
I screamed and arched my back and screamed and kicked some more and finally Mommy got the hint, got up and made me a BABA.
So, Mommy knows now, that I DO understand, I CAN hear, I just haven't made the brain to mouth connection.  She feels a little bit better knowing this, that in my own baby way (i.e. temper tantrums) I am communicating with the outside world.
And now, on a sad note...
Uncle Mark's friend, Adam Cox in SC had a very bad accident on Friday night and is in the ICU with severe brain swelling.  It doesn't look good.  Please, all of our virtual friends in the blogosphere, pray if you pray, send good thoughts if you don't.  Either way, please keep this young man in your heart and hope for a miracle.  We are.
Love,
Anna and Lilly

I Just Wanted...

Last night we went to a good ol' Catholic festival - just like the kind Daddy used to go to every year as a kid.  Daddy LOVED this festival.  Mommy loved how Catholics are cool with drinking, smoking and gambling but you're not allowed to have sex on birth control.  Whatever!  So anyway we got to ride some good old carnie rides (complete with creepy carnies) play some good old fashioned gambling games, see a kid get arrested and spit in an officer's face (not smart, kid) but the BEST part of the night was WINNING A CAKE!
See, what you do is you put dimes on numbers, they spin a wheel, and if your number wins - you get to go inside the church into what Mommy deemed was "cake heaven" and pick out any old cake you want.  I wish you could have seen Mommy's face in this room.  Mommy has been eating low sugar/low carbs and we all know cakes are neither but they sure.  are.  delicious.  Even better when some little old church lady makes them from scratch right in her kitchen.  Mommy and Daddy (fools) both left to look for the cakes and I decided to pull what I wanted right from the table.
I said, "I want this!"
All the little old bitties started laughing.  Mommy gasped, she thought I'd ruined the cake, and you see, I didn't grab a strawberry cake like she wanted.  But Mommy said, "Well, okay honey if that's what you want..."
Then Mommy got, THE FACE.  The sad, pouty, forlorn face I've recently mastered and I said, real smallish, "I just wanted those...I want the cupcakes.  With the sprinkles."  Then the tears came on deck, flooded my little eyes without falling and then EVERYONE stared at Mommy. 
Mommy said, "I know honey, that's fine we can get the cupcakes."
I said, "Mommy, you wanted the strawberry cake.  But I just wanted the cupcakes.  With sprinkles." 
Daddy glared at Mommy, like How dare you, Mommy?  How dare you make poor little precocious Lilly feel bad for wanting cupcakes?
Then Mommy actually FELT BAD!  And, for what?  For wanting strawberry cake!
Mommy realized, in this moment, that from now on, forever more, it doesn't matter what SHE wants at all.  When you are busy raising two little princesses, all you get is what they want.  Forever.  And ever.
Love,
Princess Lilly and Princess-In-Training Anna

Dear Daddy...

Dear Daddy,

Thank you for being such a FUN Daddy!  You always love to take us places fun like the pool, the park, the zoo, and everywhere else fun that Mommy is afraid to take us by herself.  Thank you for always worrying about me and throwing Mommy into mini-tizzies which make us laugh at her in secret.  My favorite thing to do with you, Daddy, is read books at night all by ourselves with no Lilly and no Mommy around.  That's my favorite time with you, Daddy.  I love you very much!

Love,

Anna

Dear Daddy,

Thank you for being THE BEST Daddy!  Thank you for all the fun we have, all the books we read, the puzzles we do, the forts we build (which drive Mommy crazy because we never clean them up afterwards - ha ha ha!), thank you for doing special things with me and Anna all by yourself, you are a very brave Daddy. Thank you for always worrying that I don't eat enough food and then give me candy for calories.  I love that. My favorite time with you, Daddy, is when we go jogging all by ourselves with no Mommy and no Anna.  I also love being with you whenever Mommy and Anna are around because I dominate all your attention anyway!  Ha ha ha!  Happy Father's Day, Daddy, I love you very much!

Love,

Lilly

Hawthorne Comes to Visit!

I know my hand is covering most of my face, but Mommy still thought this was a cute shot.

This is Hawthorne, he is one of Mommy's besties boys (Meredith, she has two boys!  About the same age apart as me and Anna!)  Hawthorne is fun, and he is a great dresser!  Don't we make a cute couple?  Sorry, Anna, Hawthorne is too old for you.  You get Thatcher, who we will meet in July!!  Or, we can begin now by fighting over them because that is probably what we will do for the rest of our lives, fight over: toys, boys, friends, cars, who gets more Daddy time, etc.  Yes, highschool with two girls 1 grade year apart is going to be GREAT fun, isn't it Daddy?  And Mommy?  Isn't it?!?!?
Love,
Lilly and Anna

Weekend With the Cousins!

Blogger is getting on Mommy's NERVES TODAY!!  It won't let me put the pictures in the right order without having to drag them down and mess up my formatting!  Sorry, I tried to get in a bunch of cute captions and a picture "storyline" but it's just not cooperating.  For fun, make your own storyline!

This is the first picture of all five of "the cousins" all together! 

And here we are at Churchill Downs, my favorite place to bet on ponies!

I told Tia my secret for betting on horses, BET ON BLUE  (or green, or purple, or pink, or the number 6, or the gray horse, or the one who's tallest...very scientifically proven methods here!)

We didn't win anything this time, but we had fun.  And, we looked cute.  And, what's more important?

Okay, sorry for that, but at least we finally got up some pictures!

Love,

Lilly and Anna (and a very perturbed Mommy)

Time Out

Sometimes, I just do something so darn cute Mommy thinks, "I better get that on the blog right away before I forget it."  Luckily the 'puter is handy so Mama thought, why not right now?
Lately when Anna comes near my toys I do a body dive and wrap myself around all of them (all of them, or around them all?  eh, grammar).  I did just that with my dollhouse toys.  Never mind that we have two dollhouses with probably 500 dolls I didn't want Anna touching ANY of them so I threw myself across them all (all of them).  Anna, being a little industrious herself turned around and grabbed Jimmy, the stuffed dog that barks, who I played with - oh, last Tuesday?  I screamed, "NO ANNA!!!" and grabbed it from her, real mean-like which made Mommy mad.
Mommy and Daddy RARELY use time out with me.  Not to brag, but I really don't need it too much.  But tonight Mommy had it with me throwing myself around and poor Anna getting stuck playing with the loose threads on the carpet so Mommy said, "Lilly, give that back to Anna RIGHT. NOW."
I said, "No.  I want a time out.  I will go sit in the uncooperative chair."
Mommy stared while I got up and walked myself to the chair.
I turned around and pointed at her and said, "TWO MINUTES."
Mommy almost lost it, she tried so hard not to laugh and be serious.  So into her bedroom I went, I moved everything off the uncooperative chair and sat down.  Two minutes later Mommy came in and said, "Are you ready to come back and play nice with Anna?"
I said, "No, I will sit here a little longer.  Till I'M READY."
About 2 minutes after that I came back in the playroom and I've been playing WONDERFULLY with my sister.
Mommy told us she wants a time out too, sometimes.  But hers is of the corner bar sort, and Daddy is on nightshifts and it's just not worth it.
Love,
Lilly

I'm a Little Behind

Mommy is freaking out (again).  I am almost 15 months old and I do not say so much as Mama.  I don't say anything except I grunt and cry.  Daddy says this is troublesome because I should say 4 words by now at least Mama and Dada (with purpose) but I don't.  Whenever Mommy tries to practice with me, "Say MAMA!" I smile and shake my head back and forth (almost as though I perfectly understand what she wants me to do but I'm saying, "Ha ha, NO!")  Additionally I still only have two teeth.  So last night Daddy tells Mommy she needs to "talk to the Pediatrician about it" which is what he says when he knows he's right and Mommy is in some kind of denial.  I'm also supposed to be able to point to at least 1 body part but whenever Mommy says, "Anna where is your tongue?" or, "Anna where is ____?" I think she is playing peekaboo with me and I cover my eyes.  We went bowling last night with 4 Pediatricians (handy, no?) and Mommy asked all four of them what they would do (about 10 times) and they all agreed we need to "talk to our Pediatrician about it."  What fun is having Doctor friends if they don't give you free advice, or at the very least just tell you what you want to hear?
This all makes Mommy feel bad, like, maybe I'm not talking because Mommy works instead of stays home?  Or, maybe Mommy didn't take the right supplements when she was pregnant?  Or, maybe it's because Mommy left us and went to that Phish concert last August?  Or worse, maybe it was all the fun she had in college?  I don't know.  Babi says Uncle Mark didn't talk until he was 3 and look at the genius he is now.  At least I'm finally starting to walk.  Maybe they got my age wrong and I wasn't actually born in April in fact I was born in June so I'm doing fine?  No, even at 12 months I should have been saying, Mama or Dada or NO or SOMETHING!  Maybe I'll wake up one day and when Mommy comes to my room to get me I'll say something out of the blue like, "'Bout time, Mama, now go get me a BABA!"
On another note, that's even more serious than my lack of language skills, everyone please say prayers for Mary Lou.  She is going for another biopsy on Thursday and this time it's surgical because the Dr's found something they "didn't like" in her breast, the same one she had a biopsy on in January.  Please say prayers.
Love,
Anna and Lilly

The Stir Song

Lillian Marie M--

Tonight Mama was giving us our bath, and I started to write my name on the wall (in bath crayon) and I said, "L - i - l - l - y!  Lilly!"  Mommy said, "That's very good Lilly!!  What's your FULL name?"
I said, "Lilly Marie!"
Mommy said, "Lillian Marie M----"
I said, "Lillian Marie M----, please go to bed now!"
Ha ha, maybe you had to be there, but it was a good one.
Love,
Lilly

Happy Late Birthday Aunt Tracey!

Look at poor Ollie, staring in wild wonder at the three crazy children sitting across from him ready and waiting to jump on his Mommy's cake!
Aunt Tracey we are soooo glad you spent your birthday with us!  Happy late birthday we love you very much!
Love,
Lilly and Anna

I'm a Smart Cookie!

Grandpa, these pictures are for you.  Mommy bought me this shirt on clearance and when I put it on Daddy got a little misty eyed and said it made him think of his Aunt Aggie, because SHE used to say, "You're a smart cookie!"  Daddy said she used to say it to him all the time, but she never once said it to Uncle Sean.  Anyway Daddy thought these might make you smile.
We had a GREAT weekend with everyone this past weekend and Mommy has got a lot of work to do!  254 pictures!!!  Oy vey!  When things settle down a bit we'll post LOTS of them!
Love,
Lilly and Anna

Anna Walks!