Mom, Who's Your Boyfriend?

At school yesterday Lila told her teacher that she had a boyfriend and that he had taken her to a Valentine's Dance. When her teacher told me that she had a boyfriend I was thinking...here we go. When I realized she was talking about Scott I could not have been more proud of her. Good choice.

At dinner last night Lila and I were relaying the story to Scott and at the end of the conversation Lila smiles at me and sincerely asks, "Mom, who is your boyfriend?" Scott and I had to laugh and just smile at her innocence and viewpoint. Sweetness.

Date with Daddy - Valentine's Day

The girls had a date with their daddy for Valentine's Day. They both went to the Valentine's Day dance this year with Scott. Last year Lila and Scott went and this year with Eva being a little bit older she was invited too. Scott reported that Eva did great at the dance and got out on the dance floor like she owned it. Both girls bought new dresses with their Christmas money (thanks GG Shrum) and they were so delighted that their dresses were excellent for spinning around. Eva demonstrated how her dress poofed out when she would spin to me several times. That's the sign of a great dress!

I'm so grateful that Scott is not only wiling but initiates these types of activities with the girls. It's so important and the girls love, love loved their date.

They went this year with Alan, Taryn and Haily Kerker and Alan ordered corsages for all of the girls. So Sweet! Thanks Alan. All of the girls looked beautiful heading out the door for their date.

Eva Plays Pretend

Truthfully I was a little irritated when I saw that Eva had left a bunch of her items in the living room. My theory that 'Mom is happy when the kids are fed and the house is clean' could not be more true. Just when I was feeling frustrated by these toys being left out I realized what a great little mommy Eva is to her teddy bear and baby doll. Each of them have their own blankie, a bowl with pretend food and they are having a picnic. How cute is that? It is such a great responsibility teaching little girls how to be good care givers and future little mommy's. Eva is such a good little helper. She is always the first one to put water on the table for dinner and hand me my towel when I'm getting out of the shower.

Eva having a 'picnic'.

Big Girl Bed

Eva and Lila are officially in matching twin beds in their room. We transitioned Eva from her daybed (crib) to a twin bed on Sunday. It's exciting and heartfelt at the same time. Our baby phase is officially gone and we have two big girls.

Before:

Look mom, I'm too big for my bed.

After:

We still have a few finishing touches to put on the room like a nightstand for Eva and new bedskirt for Lila but it's coming together nicely. This room has changed a lot over the past 5 years! One crib...then two cribs...one crib and one bed...and now two twin bed. The next transition will be stacking these two beds into bunk beds. No hurry on that (if you ask me!).

Keep Your Eye On Eva

Eva gave me a humongous scare on January 13th, that's Friday the 13th. I was getting the girls ready to go to Maria's house for a couple of hours while I went to meet a client. While I finished a few things in my office the girls played make-believe. Upon coming out of my office Eva looked like this:

Lila was quick to tell me that Eva had drawn on the walls. True, Eva drew all over the walls in our entryway. This was a first and hopefully a last. Thankfully this was dry erase marker and Lila helped me clean it up.

Just a couple of minutes after getting this mess cleaned up I was helping Eva brush her teeth. She gave me the 'I'm choking look'. You know the look when you see it, it's undeniable. I quickly got the toothbrush out of her mouth thinking that she had perhaps swallowed toothpaste. It didn't take me long to figure out that it wasn't just a matter of something 'going down the wrong pipe'. Eva's eyes began to water, I did the Heimlich procedure and nothing. We quickly moved to the kitchen and I tried to give her a drink of water, nothing. Then she began panicking and vomiting. A that point I'm panicking too. I can tell that her air passage is not completely blocked but yet she's been chocking for 60-90 seconds. I called my neighbor Maria to come over and get a second opinion. By the time I hung up the phone I called 911. Maria was over in about a minute and Eva was vomiting again. She vomited 3 times total. By the time the paramedics got to our house Eva was doing better. They checked her out and gave us the 'okay' that  her air passages were clear. I still have no idea what she chocked on. My best guess is that perhaps she had something that was not lodged in her throat but perhaps a hair that was running vertically in her throat causing her to choke but still be getting air. That's my best mama guess.

This is at least the 5th time I've done the Heimlich procedure on Eva. She loves to put things in her mouth and often has too much food for her little mouth. I've also had to retrieve items from her nose! Eva is such a little sister...thankfully I can relate to her and appreciate her spunky little spirit.

Sandpoint 2012

Last week was a work/play week in Spokane and Northern Idaho. Scott had some 'clients' in the area and I was able to meet up with one of my clients too. While Scott and I were in Spokane for 3 days the girls stayed at Poppy and Amma's house. It was marvelous to have a break for 2 nights and 3 days staying at The Davenport hotel. Just the little reprieve that I needed. After the work break we spent the next two day skiing. Lila had ski lessons again this year and is getting pretty good. She's not skiing on her own yet but really learning how to turn. She's extremely motivated to ski all the way down the bunny slope so that she can ride the chairlift back up.

We got a lot of snow while in Sandpoint; over a foot!

Eva had to sit in the timeout bench at Poppy and Amma's...right before bed...she stayed there until 10pm when she finally fell asleep while in timeout. It was a battle of wills.

 That's my girl! She likes a fancy drink with dinner. 

Christmas Cookies

We found a website this year that gave us recipes to gluten free Christmas cookies just in the nick of time for the 2011 holiday season. Below the girls and I made sugar cookies that were super yummy.