2011 In Review

2011 was a pretty crazy one. Between my awful pregnancy and Lilly being shuffled from house to house with friends and family, it was quite the eventful year.

April 

On April 16th Gus, Lilly, and Aunt MJ went to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus at the Verizon Center. When I bought the tickets, I was planning on going with them but then I found out I was pregnant and became sick. They had a wonderful time. Lilly thought everything was so amazing.

On the 25th KA and MJ scored tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll. Lilly had a wonderful time with her aunts.

 On the 23rd Gus and Lilly went to the community Easter festival.

  
May


On the 6th our ward had a Daddy Daughter Camp Out. Lilly absolutely loved being with her daddy and all her friends.

Brielle, Lilly, and Addie

On the first Saturday of every month Home Depot has a craft day. Gus and Lilly always wake up early, go to McDonalds for breakfast, and then on to Home Depot to build something. Lilly loves getting to spend time with her dad.

On the 28th Gus's mom was able to come out and help take care of Lilly. They went to the Celebrate Fairfax carnival and had a grand old time.

On May 31st we finally got our first 3D shot of our little man. We had had about 5-6 ultrasounds before this but this was the first 3D shot. The nurse assured us that he was not missing an arm, 3D pictures sometimes cut things out. We were still worried though, it looked too real! It was nice to see that I wasnt going through hell for nothing.

June

On the 4th Lilly had the stomach flu.

 

On the 25th Lilly went miniature golfing with her Dad. 

July

On the 1st they noticed that my cervix was extremely thin. So they scheduled me for a Cervical Cerclage that night at the Reston Hospital. Lilly and Gus hung out there with me. The anesthesiologist came and talked to me about the epidural I would be getting for the surgery. Lilly was admiring his mask and asking him lots of questions. So he brought one in for her. She felt so cool.

On the 4th, Gus and Lilly drove to Home Depot and secured a spot in the parking lot to watch the Fairfax firework show. They had a great time just the two of them.

On the 13th it was the 2 year mark since we lost our twin boys. We celebrated their birthday by visiting the cemetery, cleaning off their headstone, putting out new flowers, sending off balloons, and eating Cold Stone ice cream.

On the 23rd Gus and Lilly went to the Asian Festival at George Mason University. They ate Spongebob ice cream, played tennis, and Gus even bought Lilly a fancy umbrella.

On the 29th Gus took Lilly to the Water Mine.

August

My mom stayed with us the entire month of August. I loved having her their for moral support and Lilly loved all the attention. She was so sweet to play along with all of Lilly's grand ideas. One day they threw me a "Sickness Party". Lilly decorated the house with streamers and made this sign for the mantel.

On the 22nd I was admitted to the Fairfax Hospital. Lilly and Gus visited me every night. It was the highlight of my day. They brought me dinner and only stayed for about an hour each night, but it helped to keep my morale up. Lilly's favorite thing to do there was play games on my iPhone.

On the 17th Lilly left for Idaho with my mom. My mom needed to get home and check up on the home front in Idaho (she had been staying with us for the last 3 months). Lilly had a wonderful time running around on the farm. While she was there a baby goat was born. She named her Curly Shirley. Lilly loved this little goat so much and the goat loved her. It would follow Lilly around and suck on her fingers.

 Lilly and "Curly Shirley"

"Sassy" the cat

September 

On the 7th Lilly started Preschool. Two of her good friends were in her class. She absolutely loved it!

Lilly and Genevieve on the first day of school

On September 16th Lilly left for Utah with Grandma Henshaw. She stayed there for a whole month! Even though I missed her terribly, I knew that she was in good hands and was having a wonderful time. She spent some time at her Aunt Megan's house and played with her cousin Sedrah almost every day. She was in heaven!

Eating lunch on the trampoline with Maddox and Rocco the dog

Taking a nap in the sun with Rocco

Lilly visited our old dog Sammy. We gave him to a new home about 6 months before we moved. He was such a good dog. Lilly was so excited to be reunited with him!

October

On the 15th Gus and Lilly went to Cox Farm together.

Lost Tooth

Lilly lost her first tooth in April. We had noticed that she had a big tooth growing in right behind one of her baby teeth. This baby tooth wasn't even loose yet so we got to work wiggling it every night at bedtime. After about a month it was hanging by a thread and ready to come out. It was a good thing too because her big tooth was coming in fast! She let Gus tie a string around the tooth and the other end to the front door knob. She closed the door herself and out popped her tooth! She is such a brave funny girl.

After her tooth was out she told me that she didn't want the tooth fairy to take her tooth. I told her that she could write a letter and ask the tooth fairy if she could keep it. She was so excited to wake up to 5 sparkly one dollar bills, a special tiny letter from the tooth fairy, and a special gift for losing her first tooth.

14 Months

14 Things about Leo at 14 months

1- Two days after coming home from vacation Leo became sick again. We found out that he had RSV. He even had to have a chest xray to rule out pneumonia.  He was a very sad baby.

2-He got one new tooth. He now has 11 teeth!

3- He loves to read. He just recently started picking up books and pretending to read them. He will jabber and then look up to see if we are listening and smile so big.

4- He visited the Pediatrician 4 times and had 1 chest xray.

5- He is now an amazing walker! He rarely crawls anywhere and can walk pretty dang fast!

6- He learned how to say "Dada" and no no".

7- He had his 3rd haircut (by me).

8- He gets SO excited when his daddy comes home from work. He runs to him and laughs and laughs.

9- He recognizes Gus's voice on the phone. Gus will talk to him on speaker while he is at work and Leo smiles and laughs and acts embarrassed and buries his face in my chest.

10- He loves to whisper. He thinks he is pretty funny when he does it too!

11- He LOVES playing with Lilly. Its so fun to see them play together even though there is a 5 year gap. He just follows her around like a little puppy dog.

12- He had no appetite this month, probably because of all of his sicknesses. The only thing that he would eat was bread, crackers, cheerios, and cheese. I also started giving him formula again to make up for his lack of calories.

13-He will give kisses on demand.

14- He LOVES my blow dryer. Its the first thing he runs for when we are upstairs. He holds it like a gun and drags it around. And dont even think about taking it away from him, he will throw a huge fit!

14 months stats:

Height: 32.5 inches

Weight:  27 lbs 3 oz

13 Months

13 things about Leo at 13 months:

1- He got the flu (influenza) the day we flew out to Utah. We noticed that he had a fever 30 minutes before we boarded the airplane. He then continued to have a fever for 8 days. We took him to an Instacare on day 5 and they told us that he had the Influenza and we had to wait it out. His fever finally broke on Christmas morning.

2- He was a very hard baby on our Christmas vacation. He slept very little, had a poor appetite, and he cried a lot. Most of it had to do with the fact that he was sick but being in a new environment didn't help at all.

3- He didn't understand how to open presents so sister did it for him. He loved his talking book most.

4- After a few days he warmed up to Grandma and Grandpa Henshaw. He especially loved it when grandpa fed him ice cream.

5- Grandma Henshaw taught him how to go down the stairs safely. After his first few lessons he would run for the stairs every time we set him down so that he could show off his new skills.

6-This month he wanted to snuggle all the time which is very unlike him.

7- He found out that he loves dogs! While visiting family on vacation he made friends with Ace and Rocco. He followed them around, yelled in their faces, and ate their dog food.

8- He fell down the stairs twice. Once at Aunt Megan's and once right after we got home from vacation.

9- He started saying "Night night".

10-If you catch him playing with anything that he isn't supposed to, he will grab whatever it is, and run as fast as he can.

11- He is very ticklish and loves to have tickle wars.

12- Whenever there is a blanket or pile of clothes on the floor he will flop himself into it and say, "Night night".

13- He got 3 new teeth!

Leo's 13 months stats:

Height: 32 inches

Weight: 26 lbs 8 oz

12 Months

Leo is turning into such a little toddler. He loves crawling and couch surfing around and getting into everything! When he is not contained he is all over the place. He is just like his sister and making messes wherever he goes. He has SO much energy! Church can be quite the struggle. But when I strap him into his car seat or stroller, he will just sit there and suck his Binky forever, which is the total opposite of Lilly.

12 things about Leo at 12 months:

1. His eyes officially turned from blue to hazel/green.
2. He absolutely loves bath time. when you take off his clothes and diaper, he crawls straight to the bathroom and stands at the tub.
3. He always has to have something hanging out of his mouth. ie sock, toy, food.
4. He has Jack-o-Lantern teeth.
5. His favorite old food is avocados. His favorite new food is Chobani yogurt.
6. He still loves his Binky. If he finds a Binky somewhere he will throw the old one across the room and stick the new one his mouth. He likes to try them all!
7. He loves to turn off the computer many many times a day.
8. He will scream if you go upstairs/downstairs without him.
9. He loves to dance.
10. His favorite movie is Tangled. He watches it every morning and night while he receives his breathing treatment.
11. He loves getting into all the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. He can make a mess really fast.
12. He loves to bang his head on things and head butts you to tell you he loves you.

12 month stats:

Height: 31.5 in (95%)

Weight: 25 lbs 6 oz (95%)

Head Circumference: 19" (95%)