Sweet Summer nights.

I love just sitting on our back deck on a nice summer night, eating dinner, watching the kids play, and having a drink with my husband and good friends. THAT is the good life my friends.
Tonight our neighbors, Kris and Caroline came over to hang out. They brought their little twins Madeline and Paige, who by the way, Georgia can tell apart, even though they are identical! It blows my mind every time we test her and she gets it right. She knows which one is madeline and which one is paige every single time. Kids apparently are very good at getting it. Even their father has a hard time telling them apart. haha. We really enjoy spending time with them. They have pretty much the same (sick) sense of humor that Tom and I have, so we always have good laughs.
The kids played in the baby pool that we have on our deck. of course the pics of this is hilarious cause each kid had some toy in their mouth. Gigi was using her bubble blower as a drinking fountain! (that diaper will be awesome to change in the middle of the night!), Paige had a crap squirt toy, and Madeleine had a plastic water gun in her mouth. I got a picture of this and will add it later.

Back work

So I started back to work today. Let me just say it was very hard. I cried in the car on the way to work, teared up all day long at my desk, and cried on the way home. When I got home all I did was play with gigi, to the point where she told me "mommy, let go me". haha good thing I have another kid that cant tell me that yet.

Speaking of that little sweet pea, she is sooooo sweet. She hardly ever cries unless she needs something, a diaper change or a bottle. She sometimes cries cause she wants to be put down and left alone. She doesnt always like people holding her. Which is actually a nice thing since Im also chasing around a 2 year old. Also (and this is huge!) Lorelei has pretty much slept through the night since we brought her home. At first she was up every 4 hours. But that was maybe one night. And then it was 6 hours at night and then up every 3 hours during the day. She is just really a great baby. I couldnt have asked for better. and really, thank goodness, cause Gigi is still crazy as ever. She just goes from sun up to sun down. I love that kid! she is sooo funny and is learning new things everyday. it just amazes me.

Well I will try to update more often. you know, when I have time. haha

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Georgia had to call daddy on her cell phone this morning to wish him a happy fathers day since Tom had to work. hehe isnt she sweet?

Beach Bums

So we just got back from a few days at the beach. My aunt and uncle have a house at the beach. Topsail Island to be exact. My grandfather has been having some health issues so we made the last minute decision to go down there. I mean, what a hard decision that was. haha

So we left early friday morning and came home today (tuesday). It was great spending time with family. Georgia had a great time running around the house calling everyone and playing with Gangy (my grandfather) and Aunt Karen. Then aunt "Minnie" (my cousin Mindi) flew in on Sat and Gigi loved playing with her too. Georgia had a great time swimming in their pool (how nice would it be to have a pool in your back yard!?). Gigi has one of those swim suits with the floaties in it which is awesome. The arm floaties dont work for her cause she is so freaking skinny (doesnt get THAT from her MAMA. haha). But this suit gave her such confidence too. By the end of the vacation she was doggie paddling around the pool on her own (with her dad right behind her). She did this for almost an hour yesterday and when she got out of the pool she threw up her goldfish. She just swam her little butt off. She chased her Nanny around the pool! it was so great seeing Nanny and Gangy with her. She would run through the house yelling "GANGY GANGY GANGY" the second she woke up in the morning, which I just know he loved.

My aunt works for a high school in the area so we went to the Graduation there on Sat and met all her friends and kids and everyone that saw us walk in jumped right at Gigi and said "oh you must be Georgia! I know you from your pictures". it was so cute. Gigi got to run through the hallways and take pictures with the big girls. it was a good time. HOTTER THEN HELL but fun. haha

Here is Gigi with the big girls! One is the Valadictorian (is that how you spell it? haha you can tell I wasnt my highschools Valadictorian! haha).

This is my fave picture of Georgia! how sweet is this picture. she loved the Ocean this day. two days later she freaked out and hated the water. :(

This picture below was actually before the one above. She loved the water so much that she got her shorts wet so I just stripped her down.

This is her loungin by the pool. Her "unkie Wabbie" got this chair for her. Good thing he knew to get the one with the umbrella. My little pale baby.

Georgia and her dad swimming in the pool (if mindi is reading this blog, LOOK I just spelling "swimming" and I didnt choke on a lolly pop! hhaha)

The funny thing is, my family will all be up next weekend for Lorelei's Baptism and then that following wed we will be back in NC for more time down there. LOVING LIFE!

Prayers have been answered!

So our little Lorelei Rose had physical therpy today for her Torticollis only to be told she doesnt have it! FINALLY! just the break we were hoping for. Our babies have been through so much in their little lives that its nice to finally get a break. We took her today to see a Torticollis PT specialist. She sees no less then 8 Torticollis babies every monday. She talked to us, got a full history, and evaluated Lorelei, while answering a million questions I had. I learned the hard way with Gigi to ask all questions so that I dont have to go home and look stuff up online.

She decided that Lorelei does not have Torticollis but just prefers to be in a certain position which is her face to the right. This is prob the reason that the week before I delievered her head was not down all the way but off to the right a bit. this is also the reason her left cheek is a little smaller then the other. The doctor said it was prob laying against my pelvic bone. yuck i know. haha

But its a huge relief to know she doesnt have this condition but we will still do stretches with her to keep her from getting stiff or tight since she does have a preference for her one side we need to make sure she also spends time on her other side. And also encourage her to look to the other side as well.

This is very good news and a great day in the Lillis household!

Tom, the girls and I will be traveling to NC this weekend to visit family and enjoy some time at the beach. Im excited for my side of the family to meet Lorelei and for my cousin (who is basically my sister) to see Georgia again. I dont think she has seen her since our wedding a year ago. So some good pool time and beach time with my family! cant wait!

New pics of the girls! Gigi with her backpack that aunt Mindi sent her!

Lorelei at the moonbounce place. (shes bouncing in her dreams. :)

Big sis feeding lil sis her bottle. :)

Georgia always wants to hold her. its so sweet.

my high maintance children.

So today Georgia had a follow up appt at Childrens to check on her feet. For those that dont know or remember, Gigi was born with clubbed feet. She is past most of the therpy but wears boots and a bar at night until she is 4 years old. Sounds like a lot but its really nothing and we are all so used to it at this point. Ok so moving on. She also has hip dysplasia. Apparently it runs in families and toms sister had it and so did one of his cousins so its really no surprise. When Gigi's feetie doctor saw that I was pregnant she mentioned wanting to see Lorelei when she was born. So we took Lorelei with us today so that she could be checked out for hip dysplasia.

First of all let me start off by saying I LOVE Dr. Tosi, Georgia's feetie doctor. she is one of those "out there" people, VERY into her work. She wears crocks and barely looks at you when you are in the office cause she is so focused on the child and the feet. She doesnt have a lot of bedside manor due to what she sees everyday. Clubbed feet and hip dysplasia is the least of what she sees everyday. When Gigi was a baby and had to get casts 3 times a week I would just cry and cry as Gigi would cry and scream and Dr. Tosi wouldnt be bothered by any of it. she reminded me that it wasnt painful for her but when your baby is crying nothing helps. So anyways, long story short, Gigis feet look great! THEN she asked to see Lorelei, so I placed her on the table and waited for her to start looking at her hips. But she started messing with her head and neck and said that she noticed the second she walked in that her neck was stiff. It amazes me sometimes that Dr. do that. I had been holding Lorelei the entire time she was checking out Gigis feet but little did I know that the Dr. was watching Lorelei too.

So after a few minutes she informed us that Lorelei has something calling Torticollis. Apparently its from her sitting very low in my pelvis during pregnancy and finding a head position that she liked and basically stayed that way. Well the problem is is that this causes one side of the neck muscles to become very tight while the other is nice and stretched out. This causes her head to turn to one side and her chin up high. We noticed it when she was born and actually asked her Ped. about it but he assured us there was no prob. that she was a little tight but that she would move her head to the other side so he wasnt worried. Tom also noticed that one of her cheeks was bigger/fatter then the other when she was born and apparently its due to that one side being up against something in utero. So our fear was confirmed, she does have this condition but the good news is we caught it early. This means she shouldnt have any head formation issues. Some children end up in the helmets b.c they have favored one side for so long that their poor little head is flatter on one side then the other. So Lorelei will be in physical therepy next week and will hopefully only have ONE visit there since Tom and I have the stretches to do to her neck at home. I will be spending most of my days this week stretching her little neck. that way when we go in they will say she is all better. thats my goal. :)

Another interesting fact about this is that apparently 15% of all children with this condition will also have hip dysplasia and since Gigi has it and two people on Toms side has it, Loreleis chances of having HD is higher. So she will have an ultrasound to check for that at the end of the month. Georgia didnt show signs of this until she was 6 months old so that will prob be the case with Lorelei too.

So we have a lot of doctors appt in the next few months but hey, Im used to it. I did it with Gigi and really this is nothing compared to that. My maternity leave is never calm. haha

I love my girls but man they are high maintance. haha

Here is a good picture of her doing what Im talking about. See how her head turns oddly to the one side.

Blogs.

Honestly I think my blogs are a tad boring. haha they are really more updates on our lives. oh well. im sure one day something will catch my attention enough during the day and I will think "oh i should blog about that" haha maybe. (Tom just suggested that maybe he should be a guest blogger on here, but said he was gonna blog about random stuff which I think will be a nice change. so if you see him on here then thats what we have decided to do. hope you enjoy! he is pretty damn funny so Im thinking it will be very entertaining!)
Update on the girls.
Georgia is doing great as a Big sister! Im so happy. she loves her little sister and loves to kiss her or hold her bottle (with help to keep it up right) and must see her every morning before going downstairs. Its really very sweet. Havent seen any jealousy at all. The only issues we have had are a few meltdowns b/c one parent was alone with the girls and both of them needed attention at the same time. For example, I had both girls and Gigi needed a nap and Lorelei needed to eat (and as we all know with newborns they want to eat RIGHT THEN ) well all was well until gigi wanted to be carried up the stairs. I was holding Lorelei and balancing a bottle on my arm while carrying Gigis "night night" (her blankie) and her two toys that she wanted in bed with her. So this was a meltdown waiting to happen. and it did! Gigi cried and i just sat there not knowing how i should handle this. So i asked gigi to hold my hand up the stairs and that seemed ok with her. thank god.
Tom and I are getting used to two kids and less alone time. Its def going to take some adjustment and work at making time for ourselves, but we are determined to do it. Mommy and Daddy need adult time too and its just a matter of adjusting and finding the time. :)
We had a great time this weekend at Tom's best friend Dannys wedding. Tom has been friends with Danny since they were about 12 years old and we have known his finacee Nichole for many years. We always have a great time with them and wish them the best of luck in their marriage. I will post pics later as I get them. My camera died so Im waiting on toms sister to send them. :)