The Many Hats of Lily Kidwell

Since I have last blogged we have decided that it would be ok to tell Lily about the baby. It has been a constant barrage of cuteness and hilarity since we had that talk. She has already come up with several (unusable) names for the baby. Tillie, Hella, Pummel, Tennie, Poya, Poonie to name a few of the gems we have heard more than once. Lily insists on talking to the baby in my tummy. She presses her mouth into my gut and talks into my chub. It's hilarious because she asks where the baby's ears are to make sure she can hear her. I used a feminine pronoun because Lily has requested a sister. Tonight Lily looked at me with a very concerned face and said,
"I forgot to talk to the baby today!"
So we pulled up my shirt. She inserted her face into my belly and said,
"Hiiiii, Baby. You're so cute. Bein' so kindful to Mommy in her tummy."

Earlier this week we were spending some time at Mark's parents' house. Mark's dad slipped on the deck and had a nasty fall. Mark's brother Michael and I were sitting in the living room so we didn't know that this had happened. Mark had called from the deck to Lily at the door to go get Uncle Mike. Lily comes running into the room and tells us, "Uncle Mike! I need you! I've got a big problem!"

Mike and Mark get their dad in the house and settled into his chair. He had hurt his arm pretty badly. I was looking around in the meantime to see where Lily had gone. She comes into the living room lugging her doctor kit and proceeds to set up shop at Papa's chair. She climbed up in his lap and took his temperature. She checked his eyes and nose. She delicately smashed his shins to check his reflexes. She deemed him to be hurt and gave him a shot, a bandaid and a cast. She then diagnosed him to bedrest. The tiny three year old sent him to bed immediately and with no complaints. Mark's dad is a notorious bad patient. He has a severe dislike for doctors. I think Dr. Lily changed his outlook. She informed the rest of us that she was going to lay down with him and make sure he was ok.

Here is a shot of the doctor taking good care of her patient.

Fever All Through the Night

Lily had a pretty high fever last night and a rough night's sleep. She was up and down and whimpering while she slept. It made for a lot of worrying awake hours for this mama. It made me think of how precious of a gift she is and how I'd be lost without her.

She has recently started using so many new words in the correct context. She was sitting in her carseat rubbing the rubber top of her Converse sneakers. I asked her what she was doing.

"I'm feeling the different textures. This side is rough. And this side is smoooooth! Those are opposite textures, Mom!"

As I sat there stunned driving to our destination I began to think of all the new concepts she has grasped and exceeded in the last few months.

Mark and I like to give her "options" when getting ready for bed or other undesirable activities. It gives her what psychologists like to call perceived control of her little life. Plus, we don't want to appear as unyielding authoritarian discipline machines. So, we tell her...

"Lily, you have two options. You can either take a bath, read some books and then bed. Or you can take a bath, watch a movie in the big bed (our bed) and then bed."
The other night this backfired completely. We gave her the standard options and she counter offered.

"How about I have three options. One, I stay up all night. Two, I play games out here (in the living room) all night, or three, I stay up all night."
She then just looked at us very seriously waiting for us to pick one of her "options."

The other day she actually told me I was not a part of the tea party process unless I was seated on the floor in the correct area.

She is in perfectly good spirits today even though she was up all night not feeling well. I feel so lucky to have such a rad kid.

12 weeks

The end of the first trimester.

The regaining of energy and the ability to inhale through the nose.

The quietly understood "safe" time to tell.

We are having a baby.

I am almost 12 weeks along.

We are thrilled.

We have NOT told Lily yet because she is three and things

that you tell her are going to happen should then instantly become an occurrence.

Our progress will be updated via this blog as often as I can.

Thank you for your time and attention.

You are now going to be rewarded with photos of my abdomen and ripped pajama pants.

Lucky.

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Jolly Holidays

These past few weeks have been BUSY! I know everyone else is feeling likewise so suffice it to say we have been very into trying to keep everything balanced here in our world. Kidwells and Christmas are like peanut butter and jelly. Seriously, our family is obsessed with this season. It brings out the best in our family. Our tree is up, lit and decorated. There are stockings hung, lights strung, cookies baking, carols sung. Whenever people tell me they hate Christmas I feel a physical urge to bop them on the head. There is so much magic this time of year that it is actually visible if you look for it. People hold the doors for their neighbors when they otherwise would rush to go first and not even do the "shove-the-door-open-wide-enough-for-yourself-and-if-they-hurry-they-won't-get-clipped" move. Snow covers lights outside so that they give off that warm glow beneath the fluffy cover. I mean have you ever seriously looked at freshly fallen snow? It literally glitters in the winter sun. Alright, now that you all have diabetes from how sickeningly sweet I am being... I just wanted to say how blessed we feel this season.


I was making dinner last night. Spaghetti and meatballs were on the menu. Lily LOVES spaghetti. I mean loves it like a true Italian girl should. The kid has shreds of Italian in her but you'd think she was first generation the way she horks this stuff down. So we are eating said meal and Lily is nomming my spaghetti after she already finished a bowl of her own. I slice her off a piece of meatball and she eats it while making a weird face. We continue our steady inhalation of noodles then I try to offer her another bite of meatball. She backs away and says,
"They don't taste good very. But they look lovely!"
I burst out laughing as did Mark. Just now as I was typing that it made me laugh because I picture her face and the inflection in her voice as she said it. I just love the 3 year old lingustics of saying "good very" instead of "very good". Add to it the fact that she tried to sugar coat the insult with a 60+ year old's version of a compliment about "looking lovely" so as to spare my feelings.

Lily is super excited about Christmas this year. She has so far talked to Santa on the cell phone... oh yeah. Placed, replaced and reorganized the placement of her ornaments on the tree. They are all at around three feet high around the base of the tree. And she is vigilant at moving her friend mouse in his little calendar to the correct day so that she knows how far away Christmas is.

I am trying to keep making sure to document these memories. So forgive the lapse in blogging. But to make up for it I have some pictures of the Christmas decorations.

Season of Wonder

I am the first to admit it. I was a snow hater. It began in my middle school years because snow soooo got in the way of wearing cute and trendy clothes. My mom and I would battle over me wearing sandals and skirts when more weather appropriate attire would have been mukluks and a snowsuit.

The hatred towards winter weather increased in intensity when I reached my college years and was appalled to realize that there were no "snow days" on campus. Since you basically walked everywhere, there was no threat of getting into car accidents driving on freshly coated streets. You could just slip and slide your little self right into a classroom. I remember specifically one morning at UW-Eau Claire where I woke up, bundled up, (yep, you read that right, Mom) and grabbed my backpack. My roommate, still in her bed, mumbled something snarky about enjoying my walk to class. I responded to her with some self-important diatribe about being responsible for my education. I shuffled down the stairs in my dorm to the glass door that exited to the courtyard. It was pure white from the snow drifts that were imprisoning me and fairly taunting me to go back to bed. After I shoulder checked the door several times opening it only inches wide, I squashed myself though and proceeded through thigh high snow that had not been cleared from the campus sidewalks. It was at the top of the stairs (if you know UWEC you are aware the living facilities are, as a practical joke, placed on top of a giant fricking hill and the class buildings are at the bottom) when it hit me that it had taken thirty minutes to trudge about 50 yards. I said screw it and headed back to my room where my roommate was abed chuckling like a jerk.

That being said, I think you grasp how I felt about these wintery months. It wasn't until last year that my hatred began to ebb. Lily loves being outside. I mean really REALLY loves it. She will play for hours in the great wide open regardless of what the weather is like. Last winter, we bundled up and made dozens of snowmen. We got ourselves snowsuited and went sledding hundreds of times. She left yards full of snow angels and tiny boot tracks everywhere we went. Icicles were things to be marveled at. Fresh snow was something to be played in and formed into balls of varying shapes, sizes and purposes. Grades were given for best types of snow for packing, flinging and stomping. There was absolutely no stopping her. As I watched her eyes light up this year at the first glimpse of snow I began to think of how magical the world looks cloaked in white. I was amazed at how Rockwellian our little neighborhood looked this morning when I opened the curtains and realized we were snow covered.

Leave it to Lily to turn something I absolutely detested into something that fills me with the feeling of hushed awe. I snuck into our bedroom just now and held Mark's hand all the way to the front window where he sleepily peered out and smiled. His thoughts going immediately to the fun he and Lily would have outside this winter. Or maybe he was thinking about what the look on her sweet face will be when she wakes to a real snowfall. It is a heartstopper to see her reactions to these moments of magic. As you read this, I will be hoping you get your own little slice of wonder this season. Take the time to see it as I now am able to see it... a blank canvas.

Agradulations, Dad!

Lily and I baked a cake for Mark yesterday. He likes chocolate cake with white frosting. Lily is aware of this. The cover of the cake mix box shows a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. As we were gathering our baking supplies Lily took issue with the box cover art. She was up in arms that her daddy likes white frosting not the black frosting. She was seriously upset. She began to dismount her chair and abandon the project until I convinced her that the powder inside the box was only the cake. I had to actually open the container of frosting and prove that I was not yanking her chain.

She patiently waited until Mark got home to eat the cake too. By patiently I mean she asked me about once an hour if she could have some cake. She even began bartering.
"Mom, I'll have some cake. Then I will take a nap."
I explained to her that we were waiting to have cake until Daddy got home because we baked it for him to celebrate the fact that he got a job offer. This prospect was exciting enough that she held out until he got home.

She woke up from her nap and immediately asked about the mystical cake. I asked her if she wanted to show the cake to Daddy.
"Is he here?" she asked me while still in bed.
When I told her he just got home she catapulted herself out of bed and raced into the bathroom. She asked for help getting her pants off because she was too excited to take the time to do it. When she finished her business she dragged Mark into the kitchen and said:
"Daaad... I gotta surprise for ya!"
"What is it?"
She then proceeds to point at the cake that is clearly on the counter behind him. He makes a huge deal about it and she gets this wide smile, puts her arms out and says...

"Agradulations, Dad!"