A busy month!

It's been about a month since I last posted, and it's been quite busy! Here is a rough recap.

We did a Buddy Walk a few weeks ago, raising money and awareness for Down syndrome.

Lilly had a great time.

There was lots of dancing involved.

Later on that afternoon, Lilly & I went to the mall, while Jon had to work.

Lilly lay down on a bench for some reason, but she is adorable of course.

Running around the mall (Sylvia Park). She's pretty fast, so you have to be courageous if you don't bring a stroller.

Next, we decided on a Thursday night to take her to the local high school (by the way, high school is called college here) production of Grease. By High School Musical standards,

it wasn't great, but by normal high school standards it was probably pretty good.

Lilly loved it, but we left halfway through, since it was way past Lilly's bedtime

(yet Jon was the one who fell asleep...?)

A couple days later, Lilly & I went to the local fair in St Heliers (the town we live near).

Lilly loved the live music and couldn't resist dancing.

Here she is coming home from chuch on Sunday a couple weeks ago.

Notice the fashionable brown boots; she got many compliments.

Lilly does a funny thing now, when I tell her I'm going to take her picture, she backs up (literally walking backwards) to wherever I'm taking the picture - for some reason she thinks she needs to stand up against a wall (or bush or whatever). But I totally think as she's backing up that I should go "beep beep beep" like those schoolbuses that go in reverse...

Here is Lilly at school with one of her 4 y/o friends - it was dress up day for the older kids in her class, while the younger kids (Lilly) got to go to Butterfly Creek on their first fieldtrip!

Lilly looking at fish at Butterfly Creek. Oddly enough, she was mostly running away this particular day, so it's funny to me that she looks so peaceful and attentive here!

Lilly running past her boyfriends in the butterfly area.

The last room at Butterfly Creek contained all kinds of insects... we came across this part which looks like a house and says "Lilly's House." Which, we thought was really cool, until we looked inside... there were all these real cockroaches scurrying around. YUCK! Wish this Lilly's House had something much more suitable for a princess.

This past weekend was a 4 day weekend in New Zealand (even grocery stores/malls were closed!) Since I still had to work Fri & Mon (US calendar), Jon took Lilly on Friday to Devonport on the ferry. They road in a horse-drawn carriage. Lilly doesn't look too impressed.

But Lilly made sure to show Baby the view on the ferry ride home. :)

"Baby, Look!"

We decided to go to Pauanui (in the Coromandel Peninsula) for Saturday Sunday, since apparently everyone leaves Auckland on Easter weekend. Jon's friend's family has a house there that we stayed at. Here are Lilly & I on our way out the door...

Lilly in a tunnel at the playground in Pauanui.

Our little family at the beach in Pauanui.

Lilly in the backyard of the house we stayed at. Probably the highlight of the trip, considering we don't have a backyard here in Auckland. (Not complaining, we have a million dollar view - but still, it's nice for a little lady to toss the ball with daddy!)

Lilly & Daddy on the swing in the backyard.

She can't wait - two months until we have a backyard again!

Found the camera!

Lilly looking grown up - thanks to Grandma Myra for the adorable outfit!

Lilly's first day in the preschool class.

Lilly at a birthday party.


Happy Valentine's Day! When she was still in the younger toddler class at school.
(Thanks to Myra for the shirt and Aunt Jenn for the pants!)

I am gorgeous!!!

Lilly's Friends

So as I mentioned previously, Lilly is now a "big kid" in the older preschool class at school. Actually, she's the littlest kid there - she's a little over 2 1/2, and the class is from 2 1/2 to 5 year olds. So it's a big age difference, which I was originally a little worried about. They have to bring their lunchboxes for "morning tea" (snacktime), drink out of an open cup, many of the kids are toilet trained, and when Lilly walks in, she has to find her name (with no picture, just the name) and put it on a magnet board.

Needless to say, Lilly's mom was overwhelmed. Would my child survive? Would she be able to find her way in this older class, with all new (or mostly new, a couple kids she knew from the younger class) friends, 4 new teachers, and a higher level of expectations?

It didn't help that, on the first day of school when I dropped her off, two little girls who were just a few months older than Lilly, were asked in front of us "What would you like to do today?" One little girl said "I'd like to play with the blocks." The other little girl said "I'd like to help, and build a house for Hugo." Seriously? Lilly is talking a lot more, but not like this! For example, Lilly can say "I ride da bike." But she certainly isn't saying she wants to build any houses for Hugo!

So Lilly's mommy dropped her off every morning, and worried. But Lilly seemed to survive. I wondered if she'd be overwhelmed, or unhappy with all these older kids? But yet again, as is the constant theme, Lilly did fine - in fact, she has done amazingly. When I picked her up yesterday, Lilly was sitting next to her new friend, a precious little 4 year old named Erin, who supposedly "looks after" Lilly. I introduced myself to Erin, and said "I'm Lilly's Mom." Erin smiled at me and said, "I'm Lilly's friend." As my heart started to melt, about 5 other kids walked over and said their names, and each one said "I'm Lilly's friend too." Awww, how sweet! Lilly's mommy never has to worry about Lilly, she never seems to meet a stranger. The teachers said that all the older girls especially, want to hang out with Lilly and play with her. And a little boy, who is German and apparently doesn't speak much, is suddenly talking and proclaiming that he is Lilly's friend as well - and they reportedly danced together all throughout mat time yesterday.

So Lilly is fine. She loves her school, loves her friends, and has a great time. She has discovered a love for painting, and has ruined many shirts in the process! She is mastering drinking out of the open cup, and the other kids have even taught her the new skill of sticking your finger up the water faucet so the water sprays everywhere. Yes, Lilly is thriving. Except, Lilly's a little worried about her mommy... ;-)

Crazy busy

Things have been crazy busy around here.

First of all... the reason why I cant sleep in the middle of the night so I'm up writing this blog... I lost my camera. It wasn't a super-expensive one, or one with a bunch of tricks - I mean, it's totally replaceable (once we get back to the US, of course) but it had some adorable pictures of Lilly at school on Valentine's Day and then at her friend's birthday party, and I'm just so sad to have lost out on those. We lost the camera somewhere between the house and a pool party on Sunday, so honestly I have no idea where it could be, but I cleaned out the entire house looking for it - I'm thinking it must have fallen out of Jon's pocket at some point and it's probably gone for good. Not that I'm laying blame on anyone... Because I lost our old camera about a year ago, and luckily recently we found it, so aside from those poor adorable Valentine's Day shots that can never be recaptured... we have another decent camera we can use until we get back to the US.

But the camera thing is just an example of how crazy busy things have been around here. Like, why are all 3 of our computers having problems at the same time? And why did I have horrible back pain for 2 weeks, and then it mysteriously disappeared? And why did Lilly get attacked by 10 mosquitos the same day we realized she's allergic to their bites... poor girl with huge pussy red arms! (And even a bite on her poor little cheek!) And work is busier than ever for Jon and I, and now Lilly is moving up to the older preschool class at school... which part of me is thrilled about, but for some reason *I* am the one feeling intense stress about it - but luckily little Lilly is just happy to be in a new room with new toys to explore. Meanwhile, I'm making sure she has her High School Musical lunchbox packed with a healthy "morning tea" snack (complete with the Elmo ziplock bag for her fruit), her Princess backpack has everything she needs for the day, and just generally worrying about the new phase of her life... I mean, it's just across the hall from her old class, but this class has real hammers and nails and super-sharp saws! She's with the big kids now! But we love her teachers in both classrooms, and they are making it an easy transition for her... just wish they could help her mama's anxiety!

But overall we're doing well... Lilly has entered the more stubborn phase of the wonderful two's - she is a complete joy but only when she's doing what she wants to do. It's not bad because sometimes she can easily be swayed into thinking she's decided to do whatever we want her to do, but the trick is to make her think that it's her idea. And it's completely different every day as to what the challenges will be... For example, every morning our routine is getting her diaper changed, getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting her hair done, putting on her sunscreen, putting on her shoes and socks, walking to the car, and being strapped in the carseat... usually about 2 of those things she will completely resist. But it's a toss up each day as to which thing it will be. Oh, and she doesn't like baths anymore, starting about a week ago... she likes showers. Except... today she liked taking a bath and didn't want to get out. And she doesn't want to sit on the toilet anymore, starting a month ago. Except at school she's showing an interest, and tonite she requested the toilet (and a marshmallow, of course). So ya never know, but it keeps it interesting.

As far as Lilly's monthly movie updates... she still LOVES High School Musical, Annie, and Elmo, but in February we watched Dirty Dancing quite a bit (she actually loves the whole movie, surprisingly) and this week we just started watching the Sound of Music. Which she absolutely adores, you should see her get down to the nuns singing the same way that she does for Zac Efron! But she is not a fan of the boring "talking" parts, but loves anything with singing and the kids. And especially those nuns!

We're at the 3 months left mark in our New Zealand journey, so we're getting excited about being home soon, but there is so much to do to get ready! We've already sold our first thing (Lilly's NZ stroller) on trademe.co.nz (their version of ebay) - can you believe I sold it for the same price I bought it new?! There is just always so much planning to do in general, it seems... our flights home, Disney World, Lilly's birthday party, the 3 weddings we're going to this summer... It's hard to keep track of all of it! But the oddest thing for us is, that it's the first time in a long time that we have 3 months in front of us with nothing immediate planned. No visitors, no traveling, nothing. Not that it'll be boring, and we're looking forward to everything when we get back home, but it's just so strange not to be packing for some big (or even little) trip. We've accomplished a lot in our time here, but it'll be nice to get back to normal and not feel like perpetual tourists.

Anyways... now I'm just rambling and it's almost 1 am so I'm going to get to bed... Wish I could have posted some amazing pictures of Miss Lilly but we are so sad to be missing our camera! I'll get the new (old) one charged up so I can start taking pictures again this weekend. Until then...

Did I mention...

Lilly doesn't have asthma anymore!

Maybe it's the intense humidity in New Zealand, or maybe it's just the fact that she (and her lungs) have grown up, but she hasn't needed the nebulizer or gotten sick at all (aside from that nasty Christmas stomach bug) in the past six months. Now THAT's something to celebrate. :)

Where the Magic Began

As I sit here planning our Disney World vacation for June, right when we get back to the US, I can't help but remember Lilly's first trip to Disney. And it wasn't the visit when she was a year old (although that trip is super memorable, as I remember thinking at the time "Disney was not truly a magical place until Miss Lilly Lou brought her own magic!") Yes, that was a wonderful magical fantastic time with my daughter, with her personality showing strong, where we witnessed it all through a child's eyes - and it was amazing. But I'm going back even further.

Jon and I were completely stressed. We needed a vacation - no, a Babymoon, as was the new term for it. A vacation for the soon-to-be mommy and daddy, to relax and unwind before the baby comes. But we weren't the typical expectant parents. The joy of our pregnancy was swiftly taken away and replaced with fear for the unknown. With the knowledge that our baby would probably have Down syndrome or Turner syndrome, that he or she was at a higher risk for a heart defect and could possibly have a variety of other more rare syndromes, we were, to put it mildly, stressed out and exhausted. We had made the decision not to do any more testing, and that we would have this baby and love it to pieces, but it was still so confusing. What made it even more tiring for me, was that medically there was something "wrong" or "different" about my baby and my pregnancy, and yet I knew without a doubt I loved this baby no matter what. But when a doctor worries, of course we all worry, and so the joy of the pregnancy was taken away just a bit.

So we planned our vacation, our babymoon, with the one week off that my husband gets every year. Fortunately and unfortunately, we had 2 free roundtrip tickets to go anywhere we wanted, thanks to a mishap in a Vegas airport a few months earlier, where my eye was nearly knocked out. The eye ended up being fine, and, well, we were excited about our free tickets! With the help of my wonderful cousins, we booked a room for 5 nights at the Wilderness Lodge at Disney World, and my parents decided they could meet us for 2 nights.

And there began Lilly's first trip to Disney. We arrived completely mentally drained, and emotionally and physically exhausted. We had shed many tears of confusion in the few weeks prior, but this was the trip that would change everything.

First, physically: since my pregnancy began, I couldn't breathe. It got worse as the pregnancy progressed. It was like my body couldn't get enough oxygen, and even to get from my car to my desk on the second floor of my building every morning, I had to drink a powerade just to make it. But that one week in Florida, all of a sudden I had the energy and stamina that I had always had. I walked miles every day, ran (much faster than Jon, in some cases) to catch buses, and was up from first thing in the morning until the parks closed at night. I felt amazing.

And emotionally: something changed on this trip regarding our daughter. We had found out two weeks earlier that they thought it might be a girl; and I was taking that answer and locking it in! Even though that particular ultrasound was only at 14 weeks pregnancy, and they said they didn't know for certain, I didn't care - this was the little girl I had dreamed of, that would be named Lillian after my grandma. And walking around Magic Kingdom, seeing everything princess, I was convinced that regardless of her chromosomes, she would be a perfect princess. At one point, there were beautiful parisols that you could get a name painted on. I pulled Jon over to them and picked out a pretty pink one and had them write Lillian. Jon questioned me on this one, since we didn't know the baby's gender for certain; but I knew, and I was getting that umbrella. So we decided that if it was a boy, he would also be named Lillian and carry a pink parisol. :)

We also decided on that trip, that our child would be spoiled, no matter what. Not spoiled in a bad way, but the little things. We went from country to country in Epcot, picking out Mickey characters from each country for out little angel. It would be her first stuffed animals, and the first things we ever bought for our sweet angel, and we were happy to have gotten these for her, to show her that we were thinking of her months before her birth.

One day early in the trip, we went on Its a Small World. In one of the rooms, I looked over at the characters and I swear this particular one looked like she had Down syndrome. I had never noticed this before, but when we got off the ride I told Jon what I had seen. I knew it was a sign: our child would in fact have DS, and it wouldn't be so bad after all. (A year later with Lilly, we went on the same ride and the character was gone/had never been there at all. But I know I saw it that day, somehow or another!)

Our mindsets changed on that trip. We spent a week laughing and having fun and enjoying each other's company. We talked about the what-ifs and the worries and the concerns; but the overriding feeling was that everything would be fine, no matter what. We grew closer as a couple, and as a family. We realized that our greatest pride, and most proud accomplishment, would be our new baby, and we would do everything we could throughout this child's life to encourage and support her, like every good parent does for their child. And from the moment she was born 4 months later, she was our Princess, and there was never another sad thought about her life or future - she was born perfect. Especially when the first feature I noticed about her was her huge Angelina Jolie lips!

And for the record, we were never sad about Lilly. I regret a single tear I ever cried for the news that she might have Down syndrome during the pregnancy; but in our defense it was presented in such a bad manner and actualities of who my daughter would become was never brought up. There are so many myths and outdated stereotypes of what DS is. I almost thought I would become a caretaker to a child instead of a mother to a beautiful baby. The reality is, I have been raising a princess who every day surprises me with her accomplishments and abilities. I love how last night, while watching Beauty and the Beast, she insisted on wearing her Belle dress while we danced around, and even tried to put it back on after I took it off her. She is a true Princess in every way, and will eagerly admit it to you.

A few days ago, Jon was at the playground with Lilly, and a 10 year old girl walked up to them. She asked Jon, "Does your daughter have special needs?" Jon said he only thought about the question for a brief moment, before coming to his conclusion: "No, she doesn't."

Honestly, when you think about it, we all have needs that are more or less "special" or different than other people. Jon's ability to fall asleep anywhere at any time, for example. Or my obsessive compulsive planning. Lilly's most special need at this point in her life is that she's much more used to stimulating experiences that the average kid, and has a clear prefererance for 5 star hotels (and she gives bonus points for a concierge floor). My latest special need has been wanting to plan the perfect Disney trip for my perfect daughter. Because it's not just a vacation destination to us anymore; it is the place where we realized our dreams really would come true.

18 Reasons

18 Reasons Why Lilly is the Best Little Girl in the World

1. Because when you ask Lilly if she is a Princess, she gives a very enthusiastic "yeah" and nods her head up and down, with a big smile and her eyes lighting up wide and bright. Because obviously, she is.
2. Because she watched (and loved) parts of Dirty Dancing and Beauty and the Beast this week. And LOVED American Idol last night, and tolerated Lost.
3. Because we discovered, not only does she know lots of the music and choreography to Annie and High School Musical 1, 2 & 3, but we witnessed that there is nothing cuter than when we're watching Annie and Lilly copies the suggestive dance moves of Carol Burnett, or pretends to be a chorus girl and kick in the song "Let's Go to the Movies" in Annie. And when she acts out "Never Fully Dressed without a Smile." And that she has so many o fthe moves and words memorized. (Even though she always wants to be "annie" and makes me be "daddy warbucks" in the last song.)
4. Because no one can pull off a french braid the way Lilly can.
5. Because she gives the BEST huge hugs and the BEST perfect princess kisses. And knows when you need one; when I hit my head yesterday she gave me a huge hug and always remembers to pat your back when you need a little extra love.
6. Because she holds our hands when we go somewhere together, even within the house. And she listens to and follows directions so well.
7. Because she knows how to do EVERYTHING these days - she will open the fridge to get her own drink, open the cabinet to get her crackers, and get the correct remote to turn on the tv or dvd player.
8. Because she is such a good eater now; last night she ate pizza AND salad, the night before noodles AND vegetables, and the night before that, grilled cheese AND raw veggies (with ranch dip, of course). And because she LOVES fruit, and will always make room for canteloupe.
9. Because when an elderly couple approached us a few days ago, to tell us that their grandchild has DS as well, Lilly immediately jumped in the lady's arms and gave her a huge hug for about 5 minutes. (And Lilly doesn't usually go to strangers.)
10. Because Lilly is so good at "organizing" things - from laundry, to toys, to books - although, it's not always necessarily helpful - most of the time we have to "reorganize" right after her.
11. Because at a restaurant, she insists on having her own menu, and insists on handing it directly to the waitress when we order.
12. Because she can be bribed with cookies. Or crackers, or cantaloupe, or m&m's.
13. Because of her passion for life, her intuitiveness, her joy and excitement, her love for attention and acknowledgement, and her beautiful laugh (which she now "signs" laugh when she laughs, in case we didn't know!).
14. Because she appreciates live performances; she knows to sit still and watch quietly, and knows how to applaud ferociously at the end of each song/act. She loved the show at Waitangi in Bay of Islands two weeks ago, and the circus last week.
15. Because she's pooping on the potty instead of in her diaper 95% of the time, which is much more enjoyable to clean up.
16. Because she brushes her teeth well, and makes an excellent attempt at spitting in the sink when she's done.
17. Because she loves putting lotion on herself, or on us, and it is so adorable when she's rubbing the lotion onto her little hand on her arm or leg.
18. Because she is the most beautiful girl in the world, and because she makes me tear up knowing what an amazing blessing I have sitting right next to me.