March Madness

March is my busiest time of year at work. Where I normally process about 4-6 health insurance renewals each month, I have close to 40 that renew on April 1st. Add to that a two week delay on the release of April rates by the carriers, and I basically go into a small group renewal hole sometime mid February, and don't get to come out until April. I prefer being very busy over not having enough to do, but this time of year is almost silly and I feel, more than normal, like I'm living in a pinball machine, every few seconds being shot in a different direction and trying to accomplish what I have to do there before being shot in another direction. Also add to this craziness one Lexi school vacation week, one Zach daycare vacation week, and the big end of the month topper...wait for it...YES! Lexi's preschool was destroyed in a flood on Saturday. That's right, destroyed. A main sprinkler system pipe burst on Saturday afternoon and quickly filled the basement level preschool with 4-6 FEET of water. The school lost everything - their equipment, files, books, toys, and Montessori (read: ridiculously expensive) materials. Needless to say, Lexi is out of school indefinitely and Gigi the Great saves the day (er...weeks) again by taking Lexi everywhere she goes until we can figure out what will happen with school. Here is a link to an article about the disaster.
So, I know my blog posts have been a little bit light lately, and that's why. Hopefully by next week my work schedule will settle down a bit, and we will have a clearer idea of what is going to happen with Lexi's preschool. Then I'll come back and update with all the amazingly adorable and funny things my kids have been saying and doing.
But for now...as Zach would say, "Buhbye! Mwahh!"

Zach is 15 Months Old!

Okay, so technically this is old news. He turned 15 months on February 24th and had his 15 month visit with Dr. Martin last Wednesday...but life has been busy so I'm just now finding the time to report on his 15 month old genius.

It was another wonderful visit with Dr. Martin, though Zach (who got stabbed twice) would not agree. She is quite pleased with his development, and just two days after I "complained" to her that while Zach is totally capable of walking alone, he just refuses to...he decided to make a liar out of me, and has FINALLY started walking around without a finger to hold on to. Hooray! This will make life in our house much easier - if he's happy walking alone, then I can have 30 seconds at a time to get stuff done with two hands.

He's started saying a lot of words now, and seems more interested in learning what things are called. I think he's learned that if he knows what something is called then he can ask for it...and if he can ask for something, he is very likely to get it rather than everything else around it while we are trying to guess what it is he wants. This is useful for all of us - my goodness, look at all the time we're saving these days! :) His favorite word remains "catch" which is still "atch", but here is a list of some new (and old) ones:
The cutest - "Oh wow! Good catch!"
ball
juice
hi
bye bye
Dad
Mama
Uh oh
No
(can nod and shake his head too)
Whoa
Up and down (when singing Ring Around)
"row row row" (as in, "your boat")
cat
woof (for dog)
today he said, "pig"!!
He's also working on bear (which currently sounds a lot like "ball")

So, he really has quite a handful of words now, and uses them all pretty consistently. Gross motor-wise he's still doing quite well. He is really walking now, stands on his own, can walk while holding a toy (seems to prefer this to walking with nothing in his hands), climbs on everything, pushes himself on a bike, throws a ball, sometimes catches a ball, and has become very good at dribbling a ball as well! As you can tell, our lives pretty much revolve around balls these days. Maybe he really does have a future in baseball...basketball if he gets the Duda height.

Here are his stats from his visit last week:
weight - 22 lbs - 20th percentile
height - 32 ins - 75th percentile
head - 47.8 cms

I'm going to try to load up some pictures soon. I'm having a hard time with videos, so I am going to try to load videos onto our picasa web album and then I'll post the link to the blog once they're on. Right now I have to take Lexi outside for awhile. While I put Zach down for a nap I let her watch cartoons...I think I let this go on for too long today. What alerted me to this problem? She just came in to tell me all about the benefits of the space bag. She wanted me to know that the space bag can hold up to 11 sweaters, and that any vacuum cleaner with a hose can remove the excess air. It can help us save space in any room of the house. Oh yea...t.v. time is over...time to enjoy the 60 degree day in early March.

Appreciating the View

Lexi, playing with a plastic bird, said to me, "Look Mama. Look at this bird!" I looked and she said, "It's appreciating." Certain she had the word wrong I said, "What to you mean?" She said, "Look! He's looking up at the sky, appreciating the beautiful view."
Genius.

My Little Therapist

I've been feeling very down over the past few days over an argument with some friends in my running club. Since I've been asked not to talk about it, the feelings just keep ruminating in my mind, and I can't seem to let go. This morning Lexi asked me why I was so sad. I said, "Oh, I had a disagreement with my friends, and I feel sad over it." She said, "Did they make fun of you, Mama?" I said, "No, we just disagree over something." She said, "Why don't you work it out?" I said, "Well, they won't let me talk to them, so I can't." She said, "Mama, why don't you call Gigi?" I told her that I did, and Gigi is sad too, but that I just can't seem to stop thinking about it. She thought for a minute and said, "Remember when I got that book for Christmas and it had the scary picture in it? When I went to sleep I kept dreaming about the picture and couldn't get it out of my head." "Yes" I said, "You were very upset. What did you do to get the picture out of your head?" She said, "Well, when I woke up in the morning I came downstairs and had some juice. And then, the picture was just gone from my head! So, maybe you should just try drinking some juice." I told her I thought that sounded like a great idea, and that I would try it right away.
I hope she marries well, because this child has a career in therapy. As she sat there talking to me, she looked right at me, spoke with empathy, and really validated my feelings. I'm pretty sure it was the best therapy session I've ever had! I feel better already. And now, off to get some juice.

Writing Valentines

This is the first year that Lexi will be doing real Valentines. Last year she was still in daycare for Valentine's Day, and while they do celebrate Valentine's Day at Fadia's, it just seemed silly to me to send Valentines to babies. But this year Lexi's afternoon preschool class is exchanging Valentines, so off we went to the store to pick out the little Valentine notes that have not changed much since I was a kid. The difference was that these ones came with pencils instead of envelopes...which I thought was pretty cute. Lexi is very good at writing, so I sat her down at the table with a marker, her cards, and the list of kids in her class and she wrote every single Valentine all by herself. I could not believe how well she did following the list of about 2o names. She was so excited to do it, and I was really, really impressed with her work. She is a smart girl, there is no denying it!

Working hard.

Admiring her work.

Checking names of the list as she goes, being sure not to forget anyone.

Jazz Hands

I can only imagine the beating I am going to take from future Zach when he reads this post...

For some time now we (well, mostly my mom and I) have been joking that Zachary is going to end up being gay. I mean, the child is being partially raised by his four year old sister...the one who does not take one step out of her bedroom in the morning until she is dolled up in her princess necklace, fancy skirt, and either headband or tiara (sometimes both). One of his favorite toys is her princess microphone that sings "bippidy boppidy boo" and he's recently taken to trying to put on Lexi's princess dress up clothes. This would be just fine by me (imagine the fashion advice I could get for free!), but of course Ahren has other, more manly, plans for his son's future.

Yesterday we were all home together on a rare Monday as Ahren and I were both recovering from a stomach virus that somehow managed to hit all of us but Lexi. Zach was pulling a typical dramatic meltdown because I had (gasp!) put him down...I know, call DSS now. I said to him, "Zachary, I think it's quite possible that you are more of a drama queen than your sister. I think we should send in your early acceptance applications to the finest theater schools in the country now. You'll definitely be accepted." Ahren rolled his eyes, so I conceded..."Well, you do also have quite a throwing arm on you. Maybe you'll end up being a pitcher for the Red Sox." This seemed to make Ahren happier. Then I whispered, "...a world famous pitcher, or an actor on Broadway - either way I'll come watch you every time you perform. However...I do prefer theater over baseball, so let's start practicing those jazz hands now!"

January

January has been a busy month in the Lippman House. I know I've said it before, but I don't like it when life gets so busy that I slack off on updating the blog. We have a lot of activities going on, and our weekends have been busy...but here's what's been happening:

Lexi:
Lexi is such a wonderful little girl, and honestly such a great big sister to her brother. She has been involved in quite a few activities lately, and I am so pleased to see how well she is doing in all of them. She has begun taking dance lessons at the same school I danced at as a kid. Her teacher is Miss Kelli (my dance teacher's daughter), and I'm pretty sure it's her favorite time of the week. She has so much fun with Miss Kelli that I decided to take an adult tap class. It's just for fun, though quite a bit more difficult than I realized it would be.
Lexi is also taking swim lessons at the YMCA. We tried switching to an independent swim class, but she did not like the teacher, and I was worried it would make her hate swimming lessons. So the only choice was to switch back to Mommy and Me classes. It's fine for now. She is swimming very well with the bubbles. She can easily swim back and forth the length of the pool and goes very quickly. She seems to improve by leaps and bounds every week, and we're all thrilled.
She is also taking a yoga class at preschool. It's perfect for her because of all the stretching and she really enjoys it. She loves coming home and showing me all of the poses she can do.
She is doing so well in preschool. She has lots of friends and also really enjoys learning. We both love looking at her artwork when she comes home (though there is a ridiculous amount - at least five pieces each day!!). She is also beginning to read and write and doing so well with it! She can read a few of her early reader books all by herself, and loves sounding out words. This morning she wrote a note all by herself that read, "LEXI. POPPY PROM (which should have been "from") LEXI. Later she added "GIGI".

Zach:
Zachary is turning into a little boy. He is beginning to interact with us quite a bit, and is getting better at letting us know what he wants. He loves to sing "Row, Row, Row your boat" (he sings "rowrowrow") and "Old MacDonald" (he sings "eieiooo"). He's stingy with the "mama's", but will occasionally call me if he's really sad. He does say "bye bye Dada" now to the phone, but still prefers to say "hi", which he still says in that southern drawl. Of course his favorite word remains "catch" and it's the only warning you'll get before he throws anything and everything at you. He's quite good at playing catch, and if he actually has a ball I'll toss it back and forth with him for awhile. He loves it, and has a great throw, and impressive catch. He can also sign and say "all done" and signs "more".
Zach could walk anywhere, but still prefers to make it a big deal when he does. He'll stand there with a HUGE smile on his face and wait until you're ready to catch him. Then he'll take these little steps, one at a time, and come crashing into your arms. If we keep backing away from him, he keeps walking, but doesn't yet seem to understand that he can do this without us holding our arms out in front of him. He'll get it soon enough. Walking must be boring to a boy who will climb anything and everything. We've had to baby-proof every inch of our home because this boy is on stools, tables, chairs...nothing gets in his way. I keep thinking that he'll learn his lesson once he falls, but he doesn't seem to fall...so with a cautious eye we let him climb anything that's vaguely safe and hope for the best.

Here are some pictures of the kids from the past few weeks. As you can see, they play so nicely together and there is just nothing better than listening to them laugh together. The last two pictures are from yesterday. I took Lexi to Princesses on Ice with my friend Andrea and her daughter (Lexi's friend) Elizabeth. It was a fantastic show and a wonderful day with the girls. Andrea and I both admitted to each other that we got a bit teary a few times during the show...sitting in that arena with probably over a thousand little girls dressed in princess dresses, and in awe of what they were seeing - it was magical indeed.