Long time no see!

No promises, but I’m going to try to get back on track here with blogging.  Sorry it’s been so long!  Aside from this first summary post, I’m going to try to do the posts quickly and just get them up instead of my usual epic posts…but I’m not sure I’m even fooling myself with that one!  Just take what you can get, folks…

Since we saw you last (in October…yikes!), we:

• Celebrated Halloween – Lily (dressed in the Minnie Mouse costume you have seen her dressed in, frozen in time on this blog for months) trick-or-treated up and down our entire street and then kept going on the next street.  She had a blast! 
• Lily continued dance classes, gymnastics classes, and two days per week of preschool.  Emma is currently getting really interested in copying Lily’s dance moves (it’s ADORABLE), but she has to wait until she’s two to take classes.  We might start her in gymnastics in the fall, though.
• We celebrated Thanksgiving in FL with my family and Christmas with Michael’s parents (at our house).
• Michael’s mom continued to recover from her spinal surgery she had in early October, and came home shortly after Thanksgiving.  She did incredible with her recovery, and was able to come spend Christmas with us.
• Emma turned 1 on November 29th, and we had her party at The Little Gym.  She had so much fun at her party, dancing, popping bubbles, and bouncing on the inflatable bouncy run.  She was delighted with her cake, and then and now she is overjoyed whenever anyone sings Happy Birthday.  In general, she LOVES music and dancing.  And synchronized screeching with Lily.  Ear-piercing screeching.  Especially in the bathtub where it’s extra-echo-ey.  Followed, of course, by maniacal laughter.
• Around her first birthday, Emma started to walk, and began to talk more and more.  At some point she became frickin’ hilarious.  She loves to joke and laugh, especially with Lily.
• Christmas was fun times, of course.  Lily continues to be obsessed with tacky, inflatable decorations, so we made several nighttime driving tours a week (also during Halloween season) to see the local tackiness in all its glory.
• In January, we made a trip to Myrtle Beach with Michael for his work – I did stuff during the day with the kids while he worked, then we got to be together at night and on the weekend.  Lily fell in LOVE with Myrtle Beach and continually asks me 1) to remember that we need to go back there, 2) to not forget that we need to go, and 3) to make a paper chain so she’ll know how many days left until we get to go again.  Michael has a potential trial in MB in June, so she may get her heart’s desire soon.  :-)  Highlights were the aquarium, Magic Quest, the mirror maze, the pool/water park at our hotel, and collecting shells on the beach.
• In February, we…uh…did stuff that was fun, I’m sure. I don’t really remember this month?  I think we had the stomach bug at some point, but I’m pretty sure that was not a highlight.  I remember making over-the-top Valentine’s for Lily’s classmates. I’m sure I’ll remember more if I go though the pictures.
• Speaking of friends, Lily and Emma continue to have weekly playdates with the playgroup we have been in since before Lily was 1.  Two of our members moved away in December/January which was super sad times.  The moms in this group are my dear friends, and we also try to squeeze in some Moms’ Night Outs once a month to help keep us sane.
• In March, Lily turned 4.  FOUR.  Crazy.  She had her party at her favorite restaurant – Gatti Town.  She had so much fun with her friends.  I’m glad we did the party there, because Gatti Town shut down for good about a month later.  So sad because she has loved that place since she was about a year old. 
• For her birthday, she got a big girl bike, and did awesome on it for a couple of weeks until she fell off and skinned her knee.  Curses!  We’re still trying to get her back on it, but I’m sure she will in time.  She was probably most excited about the Playmobil pegasuses she got for her birthday, because she ADORES pegasuses.  She also loves Emma (her favorite toy/pet), anything teeny tiny (from squinkies to tiny letter flashcards the size of 2 grains of rice put together to toys FOR the Playmobil characters), puzzles, Build-a-bear stuffies, horses (yes, those are different from pegasuses), rubber ducks, cat and dog figures, and doll-sized backpacks.  Umm…we’re really specific around here.  Put it all together, Lily almost always has several build-a-bears or other stuffies with tiny toy backpacks stuffed with squinkies, pop beads, smushed holly berries, and other miniatures that take forever to be re-sorted into their respective homes.  On her Christmas list for next year, I have been instructed to add “Playmobil elephants whose heads move up and down,” and “Playmobil construction equipment.”  I am not allowed to wait until Christmas to find her new Hello Kitty pajamas.  Little Bear has finally given way to Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First, and Peppa Pig – I’m pretty sure that’s just because she’d seen every episode 50 times, though.  Her lovey (Annabelle) is still alive and well (although somewhat more gray than pink).
• Emma’s favorites are Lily (her favorite toy/buddy/person-who-knocks-her-over-20-times-per-day-during-overly-enthusiastic-playing), music, books, BABIES (toy baby characters, real babies, pictures of babies, baby dolls – she’s obsessed), drawing, and ANYTHING TINY AND POTENTIALLY CHOKABLE.  Fortunately, she doesn’t put things in her mouth that often and I’ve only had one unexpected diaper surprise (RIP strawberry shortcake oranges), but she’s often found with teeny tiny Legos or other Lily scatter clutched in her sweaty little fists.  She loves to run around with Lily and make her laugh, and Lily is so sweet with her (calling her “sweetie” a lot these days – it’s so cute).  Months and months ago, we pitted two loveys against each other to let Emma pick between them, and as a result Emma has two loveys that she has to haul up and downstairs all day.  Oops.  One is the pink cat just like Lily’s (although still slightly pinker) named Clarabelle.  It used to be “Imposter” before it was Emma’s lovey, but we felt that wasn’t the nicest name to call if after Emma got attached – it was originally from a failed attempt to get Lily to rotate between two identical kitties, but we had waited until she was too old.  Lily decided Emma would like it, and she was right.  The other lovey was given us to by our friends the Hughes’, and what was a lovely, soft, fuzzy small square lovey has been dubbed “stinky blankie.”  It didn’t come with the stink, mind you – Emma installed that herself as she loves to gnaw on her loveys.  She is a paci girl, but she only uses it for sleep so I don’t think it will be too tough to get it away from her by the time she’s two (knock on wood).  Emma does have a bit of a temper, so we’ve learned that if you’re going to piss her off, you need to move her to a soft surface before she starts writhing on the floor and bonking her head.  She’s quick to forgive, though, and generally quite the sweetie.   I took notes in April of the dozens of words she was saying, but she started adding tons every day and I quickly gave up.  She is starting to combine some words (like bye-bye with a name), and I believe her first semi-sentence might have been last week with, “Mommy bonk.”  This is unsurprising with the head-bonking shenanigans often going on in our house.  Anything for a laugh, right?  I’ll have to do another post with all her favorite words and phrases so I don’t forget them.
• In March, I also turned some age, and the girls were monsters on my actual birthday.  This blog post serves as their official notice that I expect a very nice birthday one year as repayment.  They should really focus on giving me good birthdays NOW when my definition of a good birthday includes sleeping in and not feeling like I need earplugs to keep the whining from permanently damaging my brain.  Since they have elected to wait until I’m older to respect Mama’s b-day, the price goes up. ;-)
• Also in March (or dang it…was it April?), Lily took swim lessons.  She HATED them.  She was the only kid with dry hair at the end of the swim lesson (although she did spend the whole time in the pool).  Apparently it was a shock to her that swimming might involve getting her ears or face wet.  I’m sure we can work around that in the future, though, right?
• Easter was at the tail end of March, and coincided with another stomach bug, so was pretty low-key and mildly awful (especially the few days leading up to it when Michael and I were both completely incapacitated puddles of goo trying to parent while wanting to die at the same time). 
• In April, Michael turned some age, and Lily was thrilled that we got to make him two desserts.  I believe she would rate that the highlight of April. Michael and I went to The Greenbrier for his firm partners’ retreat, and the girls had a great time hanging out with Mimi and Papa.
• In May (i.e. this month – look at me almost current on at least the major highlights!!!), we did some stuff?  Crap.  I can’t even remember what we did in the last two weeks.  Lily’s last day of school was last Thursday, and she said goodbye to her teacher (Mrs. Keeley) and her teacher’s aide (Mrs. Cooke).  She got all checkmarks on her report card.  This summer, I signed her up for two weeks of camp at school (three half-days per week), and next year she’ll be in school 3 days per week at the same school.  She is currently getting ready for her end-of-the-year dance recital, and if she doesn’t run crying off stage, it promises to be ADORABLE.  It’s a tap routine to the “Splish Splash I was taking a bath” song, and she and her friends are hilariously confused during most of the dance.  Considering we have one more rehearsal and then nearly two weeks later is the recital, I expect high comedy. 

Well, that’s enough of an overview of what you’ve missed.  I’m sure I missed lots of really important stuff, but maybe it will get filled in as I go back through pictures.  Next week we’re headed to the mountains near Blowing Rock, NC for Memorial Day – Lily insisted we rent a house with a hot tub, she wants to go “gem minding,” and we’re going to head over to the Tweetsie Railroad and possibly some caverns.  Should be fun!