Happy Birthday Miss Kimber

Happy Birthday, Miss Kimber!  I like your hair...I like your hair...I like your hair...
We hope you have a great, happy, fun day!
Love,
Lilly and Anna (and Mommy and Daddy)

400

Tonight when Mama logged on to Blogger she noticed this is her FOUR HUNDREDTH post on this blog.  FOUR HUNDRED POSTS.  Four hundred times she's gotten on here, posted pictures, assumed a Lilly/Anna persona, kept us all abreast (ha ha, she said breast) of the daily happenings and going on's in our life - all because she's too lazy to fill out a damn baby book.  Look at where that got her!  3 and a half years and 400 posts later - here we are, and here you are, too - still reading.  Still laughing, we hope too and still hopefully sympathizing...still riding along this wonderful parenting/growing up journey with us.  So thanks for that!

But now, Mama, the REAL reason you were blogging tonight...  We had a wonderful evening with Babi and Duda tonight.  Babi spent about 3 hours making a pot roast neither one of us ate (but we did raid the junk food drawer about 4 times each), we played with Duda, Anna pooped and peeped in the potty!  Everything was great, it was a fantastic evening!  Then we got home and the day caught up with us, the grumpies set in, we fought, hit and screamed at each other, and Anna did what she's famous for once we are in the house and she has gone all day using the potty - she peed on the floor.  I'm sure the so-called experts (as well as other parents) will be quick to point out the million things wrong with this but Mama got MAD.  She picked Anna up, put her on the changing table and put a diaper on her and said, "You KNOW better, Anna!"  Then Anna said:
"Mommy - why are you being MEAN to me?"
And Mama didn't know why, didn't know why she was so mad (after all she peed on the bathroom rug which goes right in the washer) so she cried.  And Anna cried.  And they both cried and held each other.  I didn't quite understand what was going on so I sat down on the couch next to Mama and rubbed her back which made her cry more.  Because I'm 3, and I shouldn't have to be comforting Mommy while she has a breakdown but there I was...
Girls, Mommy screws up.  I know this, and I never try to lay claim to being a perfect parent.  But I try to be the best Mommy I can to you, the best way I know how.  This shit is hard.  I never know when my mistake might screw you up into oblivion, I never know.  All I know is I really hope you don't go telling Mary Lou I was mean to you last night and then I have to explain myself but then, Mary Lou has seen me drop you both off when we're all in tears and God love her, she doesn't judge.  Anyway, I love you both so much.  Even when you pee on the floor, when you hit and bite each other and the cat, when you scream bloody murder in my face, you know the list goes on.  Being your Mommy is the best part of my day, every day and I love you and Anna Bear, I'm sorry I was mean.
Love,
Mommy

Feliz Cumpleanos, Happy Birthday Sofia & Matias!

 We love you, Sofia!

 We love you, Matias!

 We love you, cousins!

Happy 4th Birthday!  Maybe we can Skype this weekend so we can sing to you?  We'll be in touch.  Your birthday present will be late, because that's how Mommy rolls.  Believe it or not, she actually ordered it last night which technically qualifies as EARLY however, she did not take into account delivery time.  Either way, it's a subscription to "High Five" magazine which is a magazine just for kids like us and we hope you'll love it!  And it actually comes in your mailbox which is always exciting to get mail.
Talk to you soon!
Love,
Lilly and Anna

Oh, Anna!

 Sometimes Mama takes artistic liberties in the tales she tells for your enjoyment, but most of the time she keeps it pretty close to the truth.  This time, Mama has two pretty good stories that she wants to stress are EXACTLY the truth, no artistic liberty necessary.  I am just THAT funny.

 The other day in the Doctor's office I was sitting in the waiting room across from an older man.  Old men love me.  They wave to me, smile, say "gootchie-goo" and all that.  Most of the time I'm indifferent to the attention, but this particular man rubbed me the wrong way.  I would not smile back at him, no matter how much he smiled at me and waved his fingers.  Finally, I leaned forward in my chair and squinted my eyes at him, I said through gritted teeth: "I. AM. THE. BIG. BAD. WOLF."  Then I leaned back and flashed my pearly whites.  The grin looked something like this:

Everyone who saw it laughed, except for the old man, who's eyes got a little wide before he shook his head and snickered a little.  I'll "gootchie-goo" you, Mister.
Not long after that, just this past Monday in fact, Mama took us to the grocery store.  Trips to Kroger usually involve a fair amount of bribery.  First, stickers by the door; then, free cookies in the deli; and, suckers from the Pharmacy.  We were making our way to the Pharmacy through the refrigerated cheese/milk/egg section sitting in our car cart, eating our cookies, minding our own, when another old man was looking down at us, smiling and making "gootchie-goo" faces.  Lilly eats this stuff up, let me tell you.  She bats her eyelashes, smiles real big, looks all sheepish ("Who, me?  Gorgeous?  Tell me more!") and you know, I can take it or leave it, depending on the day.  Mommy noticed him smiling and waving to us just as she was putting the cottage cheese in the cart and she smiled back at him.  He looked at Mama and said, "What a Princess you have there.  But that one - THAT ONE - she's a trouble maker.  You are going to have your hands full."  Mommy, a little dumbstruck at his forwardness (isn't that what old people are famous for though, saying EXACTLY what they think?) could only think to say to the old man, "Which one?"
"The dark haired one, the brunette, the one that looks JUST. LIKE. YOU."

To which Mama could only laugh.  Because, what else do you do - when a total stranger is that right?
Love,
Lilly and Anna

NO! I'm Ay-NA!

I got in a big argument with Mommy and Daddy this week in the car.  It went like this:
Mommy: "Anna, blah blah blah..."
Me: "No, I'm Ay-NA!"
Mommy: "Okay, Ay-NA blah blah blah..."
Me: "NO! I'm Ay-NA!!"
Mommy: "Oh-Kay, Ay-NA blah blah blah..."
Me: "NOOOOOOOOO!  I'M AY-NA!!!!!!!!!!" (INSERT PSYCHO BABY FACE HERE...)
So on to other things...
 Fun with Mardi Gras beads!  We hear you get the best beads by showing boobies, so I went and got nekkid and had my own little Mardi Gras parade around the house last week.  We have about 1,000 of these necklaces thanks to Uncle Dan, we also have about 1,000 doubloons.  We didn't give a hoot about doubloons until "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" came to Disney Jr.  Now we realize what a wonderful hot commodity we have and we didn't even have to show boobies!  But we will anyway, because we're kids and that's what we do.

 However for blogging purposes, I strategically placed these necklaces to cover my goodies.  Atta girl, Anna!
Last week, when Lilly started preschool, I started 2 days at Mary Lou's by myself.  Ponder this, did I miss my sister?  Do you think?  No, I did not.  Evidently I did not even ask where she was.  I think we were ready for some time apart.  It gets to be a bit much, even when you're 2 and 3, to spend every waking minute of every single day together.  A little alone time is good for you, then you have fun things to talk about at supper time!  So we're both doing pretty darn good.  We've both made this a lot easier on Mommy than she expected and right now, Mommy really appreciates that.  You're welcome, Mommy.
Love,
Lilly and Anna

My REAL First Day of Preschool!

 Today is my first REAL day of preschool and as you can see, I was really upset about it...

 I mean, I couldn't stop crying!  I wasn't excited AT ALL!

 Not even a little, tiny bit!

 I was so annoyed with Mama taking all these pictures, too!  I was hardly even cooperating!

 In fact, I was so distraught Mama and Daddy were worried about leaving me all alone...

With my awesome new teacher, Ms C!  Right after Mama snapped this picture I looked up to her and said, "Bye Bye, Mama!" and turned around and made a new friend!  Evidently, I'm more than ready for preschool!
Bring it!
Love,
Lilly

Happy Birthday Grampa, and Thanks and Stuff!

 Happy late birthday to our Grampa!  We are so glad we got to celebrate it with you at the COTTAGE this year (though Mama feels bad we didn't have a cake, and we reminded her about 52 times that you need a CAKE when it's someone's birthday or it isn't really a birthday - so Mama owes you one cake)

 This is how we felt when we figured out there was no cake.

 We had such a great week at the cottage.  We are so lucky to have a cottage to go to in the summer with all of our cousins (we love you, cousins!) and "friends" (we love you, too, friends!)  We know we will have special memories of the cottage with you, Grampa and Grammy, just like Daddy has of when he would go up there as a kid to see all of his "friends."  How lucky are we to have such a wonderful family full of people who love us and want to make us happy?  THANK YOU SO MUCH Grampa and Grammy for making this week at the cottage the best one we've ever had!!  We know it was probably stressful at times (I mean, there were five of us under the age of 4) (oh, and we heard about that water pump) but we had the BEST time up there!  So much so that we didn't even talk about Disney World on the way home.  Just the cottage.
Mama has about 324 pictures to sort through so she'll do her best to get those up in the next few days.  Thank you again and we love you very much!
Love,
Lilly, Anna, Mommy and Daddy