Happy Birthday Lollypop!!!

The baby is TWO!  Wonderful, two.  Happy Day You!!!  Happy Day YOU!!!

This little puddin' pop:

Who turned a year old just days ago, it seems, is TWO today!

And what a big two she is!  She's walking and talking and dancing and drawing and loving and hugging and into ALL kinds of things.  She cries and throws tantrums, she loves and kisses booboos.  She doesn't say Happy Birthday; she says Happy Day You!

She's still a wee thing, at least for a Zoo Baby.  And she loves, loves, loves her big sister and brother.  She's so jealous of Mommy's attention and is pretty clear to say "No! MY mommy!" whenever anyone else "dares" climb up in my lap.  But she's never quite the same when the big kids aren't in the house.

Sweet girl of ours, we love you so much, and we are so very much looking forward to seeing what you will be.  But we know one thing for sure, you will NOT be a wallflower.  Or a pushover.  Or without an opinion.  :-)  You will certainly be a lovebug and kind person, and possibly the family comedienne.

Everyone still calls you "the baby", and your Toot and your Poodle think you are quite the best baby ever.  I'm really glad that y'all get along with each other so well, because we'd be in a mess if you didn't! And, yes, there are arguments.  Oh, but there are arguments.  But when it comes down to snugglin', you want your brother and sister every time.

You love the Wild Kratts and olives and going outside and your grandparents and toast with cream cheese for breakfast.  (But you mostly lick off the cream cheese and only halfway eat the toast!)  You like Leapfrog videos and hopping like a kangaroo and playing on Mommy's phone and getting tickled by Daddy.  You are a textbook baby when it comes to eating and talking and walking and all those things.  You say "I don't!" when there is anything to be done that you don't want to do and "I sorry" when you're trying to get out of trouble.  :-D  You are completely aware when someone is upset and you love for everyone to be happy.

We had a wonderful party for you on Saturday with all of your immediate in town family.  Because of your older sister's penchant for Cupcake Wars on tv, you had chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate chip whipped cream filling and whipped dark chocolate ganache for icing.  The lollypops on top were made of white chocolate.  Toot and Poodle helped with them from start to finish, just like they did with your cupcakes for your first birthday party.  We had so much fun getting ready for your party!!

Widdle person, we love you ever so much, and we wish for you all the joy and love in the world.  We look forward to the day when you begin to ask about Jesus and begin to understand the concept of Who God is.  And we all love you so very, very much - Happy Birthday sweet, precious, prayed-for Lollypop!!

Tooter Conquers the Dentist

It took him to get allll the way to 5 1/2, but Tooter was finally ready to sit in the dentist's chair and get his teeth cleaned for the first time!  (This all actually happened back in July, but we're close enough to it for guv'mint work).

Little man has been somewhat afeerd of our friendly, family dentist.  Dr. N would "count" his teeth each time we went in, but Toot was never ready to actually submit to the cleaning.  Until now.  And he was such a good boy!  Dr. N was always pretty confident that forcing him to get his teeth cleaned when he wasn't ready was not a great idea.  And, he was right.  :-)

Toot waited patiently in the waiting room, and didn't seem nervous at all.  (I think the fact that we were leaving the next day for an overnight trip to Memphis to see the Zoo was a very good distraction for him!)

And he was a champ in the chair.  :-)

He wasn't any worse for not having been before now, thank goodness.   No cavities - which is great!  Especially considering his mother had a LOT of cavities growing up.  And while he may need some palatal expansion work done in a year or so (we won't go see an orthodontist about that until his 6 year molars come in completely, so we don't know if that will be necessary or not), he's doing just fine otherwise!

Proud of you, big guy.  You did great!

Words for the G-mamas

To SueSue - Happy Day You!  I'll see you tonite!

To MooMoo - Go MM Go!  Make those arrangements!  Decorate those columns!  Five more days and you'll be alllll done!

(No, seriously, it's what Lollypop would say if she knew how.  Actually, she probably WILL say "happy day you" to SueSue tonite, because that's how she says Happy Birthday.  But all that stuff to MM is real.  Truly.  ;-)



P.S.  I shall watermark images from now on.  Even though this blog isn't searchable from either Blogger or from a search engine, it's not entirely private either.  And, you would be really surprised how often images get lifted and used illegally.  Granted, it happens way more often to professional photographers, which makes it worse.  But I still feel like our kids' images should be protected.  If you EVER see a picture that you'd like a real copy of, I can absolutely email it to you!  Just give me a holler!

Wim in the Poo!

Come on everyone!  Let's go wim in the poo!

Oh, it would make total sense if you heard Lollypop say it.  It's way cuter that way.

We have an above ground Intex pool, that we take down during the winter months that has been GREAT.  We splurged on it last summer, getting a salt water generator for it, and it's about as hassle-free as a pool can be.  You can find these at Walmart, Kmart, ToysRUs, all kinds of places!  The kids have learned more about swimming by just playing in this than they did in the much more expensive swimming lessons that they took.  (Not including the lessons they took at the Y.  Those weren't too bad, cost-wise, but having the pool in the backyard has been a better teacher).

Although, I will admit that watching Poodle during her pricey lessons (she took these a few years ago) gave me tips and hints on how to help Lollypop learn what she needs to know.  The wee one is now very comfortable in the water, and can "monkey walk" on the side of the pool around to get to the ladder.  Which is good!  Although, she is NOT swimming, so she has to be held and helped the whole time.  She CAN, however, climb up and down the ladder and get herself in and out of the pool on her own.  So we have to be very careful to remove the ladder every time the pool isn't in use.

Poodle and Toot are little fishies now.  They will sometimes use masks, sometimes not.  The pool isn't actually large enough, diameter-wise, for them to really learn strokes of any sort, but as far as swimming under water and that sort of thing, it has been great!  They dolphin dive, and do handstands, and cannonballs, and play all sorts of goof-ball games.

AND, I can just let them outside any time during the day, without having to load up everything and everyone and go to the neighborhood pool.  They get a lot more pool time this way!

It DOES kill a big ole circle in the grass.  Not gonna lie to you about that.  And, just about the time that the grass grew back at the beginning of the summer, it was time to put the pool back up.  Soooo, I wouldn't recommend this for anyone planning to put their house on the market.

It's been great, and I've been meaning to share this with everyone, so here ya go!  Happy last month of summer!  (I know most everyone heads back to school this month, but I grew up in the 70's and 80's and we didn't go back to school until after Labor Day.  In MY world, it's still summer.  Can I get an amen?!?)  :-)