A-minals

So Saturday was such a nice day, and Tom was actually home this weekend so we decided to take Georgia to the DC Zoo! She loves going and we love taking her. You only pay for parking so that ROCKS! good cheap fun.

Of course like most children the word Animals sounds more like Aminals so when she tells people about it sometimes I have to clue them in. I enjoyed just walking my butt off since I'm now considered full term so BRING IT ON. I tried my hardest to walk as much as possible but brought some magazines in case I got to tuckered out. I must have slept wrong the night before and did something to my leg so it actually hurt at some points to walk. But I did my best. Gigi just loved the Meerkats! they were so cute. I will post a video of her chasing them. She wasnt too impressed with the other animals, but they didnt do much. The tigers were sleepy and lazy and the elephants just walked around and around. But she did enjoy the monkeys and the meerkats.

Here are some pics from the trip.

Gigi and Mommy sittin on the side of the tiger den. no worries it was the other side!

wish i was better at this.

I wish I was better at updating this thing. Urg.
Its not for a lack of things going on in the Lillis household, im just lazy. Either that or annoyed that everytime i get started on one I have to stop cause something comes up, like a two year old needing something.

Speaking of two year old. Georgia turned two in March. We had a big bday party for her at her fave place, The Little Gym. She loves going and playing there. We had a bunch of her little friends and cousins there to enjoy the fun. she had a Dora cake! she just loves Dora. and she got a ton of great gifts. thank you to everyone! Sorry Im a little late on the Thank you cards. If Im not attending to her, Im sleeping! haha

I am now only 4 weeks away from delievery. at least we HOPE. haha people keep making comments that I cant get any bigger (thanks alot!) and that there is no way I will go to my due date. WATCH ME. if you know me at all you know im determined. haha then again its not like I can really stop her if she wants to come early. Im only a few days away from being full term, meaning they will not stop delievery if I go. crossing fingers she makes it to May. If she wants to come late thats fine by me too. Its not that Im feeling good and could do this forever, lord knows this hurts like hell. She is so low that I swear when she punches her little fists, i swear shes gonna fall out. haha She doesnt move as much anymore. At least not kicks. just turns and rolls. which hurt even more. :( but its ok. she must come out at some point right?!

This weekend is Easter and Gigi and I made Dora eggs for the Easter bunny to hide for her. I told her that he takes the eggs she makes and hides them for a fun game of hide and seek and will also leave her a special easter basket full of goodies. We will also take some eggs to Nanas house for the Easter bunny to hide there. That way she and Barley (nanas puppy) can find them. We are going to dinner at Toms parents house which is always fun! Gigi has a special dress and a new white easter hat that her Grandma (my mom) bought her. It's so cute on her. She looks like Shirley Temple. Then again my mom and grandmother always looked like Shirley Temple with their curls. hehe. I cant wait to find out what kind of hair this new baby will have. Tom is thinking brown with ringlet curls. I think bleach blond and eventually curls like gigis.

We are pretty much ready for her to come and are very excited for the summer. We are planning a trip to NC to visit my aunt and grandparents in Wilmington. They invited us for July 4th so we are going down the tuesday before that and then leaving Wilmington on Sat the 4th to join toms family at the beach in Avon. should be great fun.

Here are some new pics of Gigi. This is Gigi and her best bud Barely.

This is Gigi at her Bday party with all her friends and cousins.

That is Gigi on her new Big girl bike that her Grandparents and Great Grandparents got her. Is it so freaking cute!

The picture with her in all pink is around Valentines day.

and the last one is of me and Georgia at Great Falls Park. Tom and I got engaged here and just love taking her there for long walks. She loves to climb, just like her dad did when he was little.

number 4.

So here we go again. My little baby is going to have ANOTHER damn surgery. This will be number 4 in her 2 years of life. At first I was very upset about this. I mean I always knew it was a possiblity for another surgery but it would be much later and would be for something different then what this one will be for. Georgia was born with two of her toes webbed. It is genetic and does run in the family. Tom uncle has webbed toes. But Gigi's feetie doctor thinks the webbing is causing her second toe to remain where it is instead of moving to where they want it to. So they are going to go in and clip it. The good news is that the surgeon that did her lip repair will be the one to do the surgery. Im very excited to meet up with him again. He is very sought after for cleft lip/palate repairs and also helped to seperate recent conjoined twins Erin and Jade. Here is an article on them. His name is Dr. Michael Boyajian. http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/1737.html

He did an awesome job on Gigi's lip but hasnt seen her since the follow up when she was about 6 months old. I hope he is pleased with the way her lip is today cause we are! He told us it would take about 3 years to look its BEST but i think it looks damn good now. :)

Im crossing my fingers and hoping that he sees her recent foot scar and fixes it. its just NOT pretty and we all know us girls love pretty feet. Her feet Dr. (Dr. Laura Tosi) did the last surgery. She isnt a plastic surgeon so its not her job to make it look pretty. just to fix the prob. which she did. but im hoping he decides to fix it since he is used to making things look pretty.

we go on the 23rd for a consultation with him and will find out WHEN the surgery will be. I hope its after her 2nd bday party (we are having it at The Little Gym) but before baby number 2 comes. I want to be able to concentrate JUST on Gigi, so it needs to be before May 8th. Plus the sooner the better cause Im already in my 3rd trimester, so im going to get huge, fast. So I will update you on the date of surgery later.

When we were at Childrens for Georgias every 3 months checkup, Dr. Tosi saw my big belly and said "oh and i want to see that baby at 3 weeks post delievery" I quickly added "oh no we already ruled out clubbed feet." I was very excited to tell her that. Like HAHAHA LADY! you aint gettin your hands on THIS baby! But i was quickly shot down when she said "Oh Im not worried about clubbed feet, Im worried about her hips. Hip dysplasia runs in families and since Georgia has it, that baby has a good chance of it. So bring her in about 3 weeks after she gets here for an ultrasound." I sat there in shock. Disappointed. Just when I thought we would have a low maintance baby I was quickly put in my place. Im still hopeful that she doesnt have it but we will just have to wait and see. Toms sister, and his cousin both had hip dysplasia and with gigi having it too this baby has a very high chance. So on June 1st Georgia will go back for her regular checkup and we will prob bring baby with us for her first meeting with Dr. Tosi.

So all that information to process in one doctors appt. yikes. info overload.

I will keep you all updated on all that. I know i have been bad about blogging but ive just been so darn tired. third trimester i guess. Everything is going very good with this pregnancy. I go to the doctor twice this week. Once for my regular appt and my gestational diabetes test and then 2 days after that to get my Rhogram shot (Im RH negative so in case the baby is RH positive like tom, I need a shot to protect me from her blood. ). Then I think i start going to the doctor every two weeks after that. Its gone by sooooo quickly! I still feel pretty good. I was MUCH bigger with Gigi. By this time with gigi, she was so high in my belly that I couldnt breathe very well. But this baby is sitting veryyyy low. so Im all good on that front. My back kinda hurts a lot but I take lots of baths. and tom just got me the most FABULOUS robe so that makes it alllll better. :)

Thats my update for now.

Here is a picture of Georgia and one of her foot scar that i was referring to earlier. Actually you can also see the reason Gigi is going in for another surgery. See how her second toe sits on top of the others? and its actually webbed to the 3rd toe. They think the second toe will move into a better position once its free from the 3rd toe. you cant even tell that its webbed. its a very small webbing.

annoyed.

So today there is a new President. sigh. not thrilled with the selection but guess its time to get over it. I just have a hard time understanding why people are so unhappy with the Bush administration. Is life REALLY so bad?? Mine isnt. and I dont have a multimillion dollar home, I dont have 4 cars, I dont have expensive clothes but I also dont scrimp and save money. I have a job, my husband has a job and my kid is happy and healthy. I work and have a job that allows me health insurance. Is this really hard for people to achieve? I completely understand having issues that make it hard for you to find jobs, but then dont live outside your means when you arent working. is that really hard?
I have a hard time understanding or feeling sorry for people that are foreclosing right now due to not being able to afford their homes. has your mortgage changed since you bought the place? Has there been a medical issue that keeps you from being able to afford it? Ok! I get that. But people around here bought homes they couldnt afford and now im supposed to feel bad? hmmmmm I just dont understand this sense of "entitlement' that people seem to live by. What has happened to this generation? YOU ARENT ENTITLED TO ANYTHING! WORK! then maybe you can have nice things. but they shouldnt just be given to you. thats NOT the American Dream. That consists of working your butt off to live nicely.
I just feel that this President was chosen for the wrong reasons. Its not that he is a bad guy. I actually like him as a person. But just cant see WHY people voted for him. Im not posting this for an argument. Just posting my feelings and thoughts. isnt that what a blog is all about.
PS. Im also bitter that my husband is downtown providing security for this thing. Oh and for that matter, in a country that seems to have no money and be in a recession, why are we spending 150 million just for a parade?

Thankful...

I would just like to brag for a minute that my child will eat ANYTHING. I have saved her from a life of picky eating like her mother. I was so worried I was going to have a picky eater, b/c I am a picky eater. They say you can pass fears onto to kids so Im thinking thats the same thing for dislikes. Well, I made sure from the get go that I gave her everything around instead of limiting her to chicken nuggets and mac and cheese. she will try anything! At my in laws Christmas party she was facinated by the different pepper colors. Lello (Yellow), Red, and Orange. So I thought I would just try it out. SHE LOVED THEM. she would just walk around the party eating her pepper. it was hilarious. people were shocked! so I bought some at the store and cut them up and she loves to snack on them. She would also prefer any fruit or veggie to any carb. I am convinced this is why I cant get her to gain weight. She eats any veggie you put in front of her but give the kid a bowl of mac and cheese and she doesnt really like it. She will eat a few bites but then goes right back to the veggies. soooooo unlike her mama! hahaha Dont get me wrong there are nights where I am like every other mother out there and drives through the McDonalds Drive through. and she will eat them up too.
Will God bless me with another good eater? we shall see....

GO TEAM!

Saying Goodbye to a Great person that I never knew.

So, last saturday Tom got a horrible phone call that his Lieutenant had suddenly passed away. For people who dont understand how this Lieutenant, Captain, Sargent thing works (I didnt and had to ask) Tom is a Deputy and is on the A squad. (there is A and then B squad). Each sqaud has 3 shifts (Day, Evenings, and Midnights) Tom is on Day shift. Each shift has 3 sargents and only 1 Lt. So Toms Lt was the one that passed. This was the person he reported to everyday. Tom really enjoyed talking to this man. Apparently he was quite a character and had a great sense of humor. He passed away from a heart attack and was very young at only his mid 50's. He was the first paid fire fighter in Loudoun Co and shortly after that he became a cop. He has been a cop in Loudoun Co. for almost 30 years! To say this is a great loss for this community is only putting it lightly. The guys looked up to him and he was a great mentor for them.

His funeral was like nothing I have ever witnessed. cops from all over attended. Toms entire squad of course got to sit up front to be near him and to sit as HIS squad one last time. It was very touching to hear people tear up at the sight of Toms squad. We met early in the morning at a local elementry school to get the cruisers all lined up to go down there. toms Squad drove as a group down to the Church and a bunch of the wives got to ride in the cruisers with them. The funeral was very touching hearing stories from his brother and kids about the kind of man he was and funny stories about him. After the funeral was a graveside service (VERY COLD) and a huge procession to the gravesite. they shut down all intersections and all roads for the procession. People in the community stood outside their homes waving flags and saluting. it was very touching. They drove him by the fire house one last time and they had the ladders up for the procession to drive under with a huge flag hanging down. after the graveside service the guys went back to get a photo with his cruiser. then we all went to lunch. it was just for toms squad to attend. it was nice for them to get to share stories about their Lt. and for the wives to hear about them. A nice way to remember him.

Here are some pictures of the day.

This was just a few of the cop cars parked at the church that day.

This picture was taken from my seat in toms cruiser. Its the start of the procession.

The Picture above is of his cruiser that sat in front of the Church.

Lt. Patton leaving the funeral. The start of the procession.

This picture above is actually me taking a picture in the side mirror of toms cruiser of all the cruisers behind us in the procession. the procession was about 2,5 miles long.

The police dogs all lined up to pay their last respects at the front of the graveyard. they were so cute!

The picture above is the procession driving past the firehouse where a flag was waving for him to drive under.

A cop saluting Lt Patton, one final time. (this was the entire way of the procession but I only took one picture).

These are fire fighters saluting in front of the fire house, one last time.

A little family outside their home waving flags as the procession drove by. very touching.

A Squad in front of their Lt. truck. They have all been touched by this Hero, for life.

R.I.P LT. John B. Patton

You will be greatly missed.