And we're off and running!

Molly has been walking for the past 2 weeks or so.  I wish I had gotten a video last week because she's gotten pretty good, pretty fast.  It's so sweet, she gets so proud of herself for being able to walk. I have even seen her run already!

Molly has really been fun lately.  She wakes up so happy and is just as smiley and giggly as ever.  She loves to tease and play peek-a-boo and squeal a lot.  Still has a bit of a stubborn streak.  She was eating happily the other night, and then we left and the babysitter said she threw her plate down and refused to eat.  She does not like it when I leave!  She's also started to get interested in reading books, but can't sit still for them very long. Her favorite is a "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" book we have from the library right now.

Edie's had a bit of an exciting first week of Summer break.  We found a tick on her yesterday!  And this morning while I was finishing up breakfast with Molly, Edie took it upon herself to paint her toes and fingernails.  She's been asking me to paint her nails alternating purple and blue for a while and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It was way too quiet upstairs and I guess she took matters into her own hands. She was so proud of herself, and especially proud she sat still for "a long time" so it would dry.

March Madness

This will probably be my last Edie update before we have baby #2. Edie is getting really excited about having a baby, and most days now she says its a sister. We've been reading lots of books about having a baby brother or sister, and she is super excited to share her room and come visit me in the hospital. Let's hope her excitement continues once the baby arrives!

As far as baby news, we are due this Saturday. I have a check up appointment with the doctor this Thursday and an ultrasound right before that to check the fluid levels and baby's size since I have elected not to be induced on the due date. I'm definitely ready to have this baby, but I'll give it an extra week to see if he/she will come on her own, and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. I'm also hopeful it will not be during one of the Cats tournament games as the SEC tournament starts this weekend, and the NCAA tournament next weekend or we might end up with a little Terrence or DeAndre Mascarich! :) We can't wait to meet our new baby and to see if Edie gets a brother or sister!

In other news, I can't leave out our fur baby - We celebrated Sadie's 6th birthday on March 5. Unfortunately for Sadie, it rained all day on her birthday so she didn't get to go to the park as planned. But Edie and John took her to Three Dog Bakery to get a special personalized dog bone cookie (which Edie called her birthday cake) and we had a little birthday dinner for her at home. Edie gets so excited to celebrate birthdays!

As for Edie, she's as funny as ever. She's is still shocking me everyday at the things she has picked up on and says. We've had a few battles of wills with things and a few struggles with the "Terrible Two's" here and there, but overall she's still quite a joy. We narrowly averted a huge tragedy when we switched out her beloved green blanket. It was getting really tattered and worn and starting to come apart, and I happened to find a spare one of the exact same blanket at a sale here. So one night, we switched out the old for the new. I didn't think she'd notice, but John was right and she almost had a complete meltdown. You would have thought the world was going to end by the look on her face when she first touched it and realized it was softer and newer and not the same one. That lip came out and the tears started to come and "what happened to my blanket??". John saved the day, and explained that when we washed her sheets that blanket came out all new and softer. Luckily, I was changing the sheets on her bed that same night, so she bought that story and has accepted her softer blanket ever since.

She loves to go play on the playground and go down slides. She's REALLY into her baby dolls. It's sort of funny - instead of naming all her babies as babies she has a baby family. Bitty Baby (the one from American Girl store in Chicago) is the main baby, and then she also has "Baby's Mama" which is the baby doll she had first, and another baby that is "Baby's Daddy". She briefly also started calling her Christmas Teddy Bear "Baby's other daddy" but I finally got that changed to just "Baby's Teddy" so baby doesn't have 2 daddys! :) She gets up with all 3 babies and her blanket every morning and brings them into our room. Sometimes she settles them all into Sadie's bed so they can keep Sadie company. I'm hoping her fascination with baby dolls will help with her transition to our new baby, and that she will be excited to care for her babies while I am caring for ours!

She loves to read books! I've had to start setting a limit on how many books we read before naptime, because otherwise it's continually "one more" until we end up reading all afternoon! She knows the story lines to a lot of her books, and will "read" those to her babies. I catch her doing that a lot when I go in to get her up from her nap!

Hanging out with her BFF

Reading to her dolls

Decorating our kitchen walls with Elmo stamps. Thank goodness for washable ink!!!

And finally, here is Edie in her own words at age 2-1/2!

Edie's Busy Week

Well, it's been an eventful week for little Miss Edie. She started out her week with a bang - with a baby gate mishap she managed to sneak down to the basement and play in the Tide box. Thankfully it turned out she just tasted it and didn't really consume it, and she also managed to not get any in her eyes! The Poison Control nurse said 2 year olds are her best customer, so to keep the number handy! that we will...

Edie also started music classes this week. She had a ball, though we are going later this week to check out the next level class. The class is divided from 6-20 months, and 20 months -3 years. Edie is just shy of 18 months, so she is pretty borderline. There was another 18 month girl in her class and we are going to go try out the older class together.

We saw the eye specialist today for a follow up on the blocked tear duct. It is still a teary eye so she recommended going ahead with the surgery. I am a little hesitant just because it doesn't seem like its much of a problem, and it won't affect her vision. She said there is very little chance of it clearing up on its own though, so John and I decided we should probably just go ahead and let them clear it up.

The surgery is scheduled for next Monday. We decided to go with Kosair Children's Hospital. I was tempted to go with Jewish East because it is nicer, cushier, private patient rooms, etc and its more convenient but since she's so little and Kosair has pediatric nurses & pediatric anesthesiologists, that route just makes me a little more comfortable just in case there are any complications. It will be outpatient, and recovery time is usually just a day or so! We would appreciate your prayers for a smooth and successful procedure!