Go Go Go

The shirtdress making a comeback Summer 08.
One of my favorite pics of Lily. Pinup dress and a look to melt hearts.
Yup, a Cunningham.

New development - Now Reese will take your finger and say "go" and want you to walk with her usually "side" i.e. outside. This is cute but when it is raining and yucky (another new favorite word), not easily persuaded.

xo

Sesame Place and other tidbits

So the family took a day off to wander our way to pennsy, land of lost souls and sesame place. There are no pictures. It is not possible to take pictures of two 1 1/2 year olds in the land of elmo and bert. Believe me.

So as you would suspect any place with six pools is going to rank very high with the two eager, emerging swimmers. They love the water and have little fear of walking chin or mouth high into the water. Reese enjoys being doused or sprayed with water a little more than lily. Lily prefers to splash or to go into a frog like laying down in the water to simulate swimming. They both do it but Lily a little more. Both of them loved the lazy river which again turned into a dousing festival for reese and I as we had to hit all of the sprays and water dumping towers.

They saw the parade and liked it. Mostly in awe of the big muppets and the poor performace by the street dancers except for this one guy who embarassed us all by his enthusiasm for the heart of rock and roll by huey lewis.

But the highlight came at the end of the day when we found big bird's nest which is a giant padded cirlce with large padded blocks. We hung there for a good 30 minutes or more as Lily and Reese ran in circles and dropped to the floor - they usually do this as part of their dance numbers a l a james brown. Reese threw some shoulders and took out a few running kids. No tears just smiles. They really love interacting with other kids, chasing them and staring...oh the staring.

In other news
the girls are quickly becoming two of the most popular people in Milltown. Everywhere we go people point them out and tell us about seeing them in the window waving to everyone, or in the backyard playing, or on our weekly (biweekly, tri-weekly) trips to the local bakery - where Lily and Reese turn on the charm to get free cookies and pick out dinner options for their two tired parents.

Today Reese started saying her name. For a while she would say her name was Lily. It was funny but you kind of want her to be able to say her own name. Because she can really kick out the "LILY". We were in Target the other day and everyone knew Lily's name because Reese was running around the store yelling it in her super voice. There are few places better to be than a target at 8 am on a sunday morning. No one in sight and tons of things to play with.

The girls have perfected saying "not nice" it was cute when they said it to each other to resolve sharing disputes but now chava has gotten a few not nices and even mom and dad have been on the receiving end during some discipline chats. How do you respond to a little kid who is telling you you are not nice for telling her no. Tough one.

A few more treats - the girls are still getting more and more girly. They prefer to wear dresses when going out especially to parties. I know people will say how do you know they want to wear dresses. Well when kids go through your laundry basket to find their watermelon (so in this season...where are you tommy h?) or the infamous bubble dress (this dress can trigger lily and reese to act like those crazy brides at the 99 dolllar sale at david's bridal).

They both enjoy jumping off of things like the ottomans on to the floor or the couch or climbing onto dad's chair.

My proudest moments are when we walk either all four of us or at least three of us holding hands. I just feel proud of them as little people and the love that we all share.

Ahhh...yes the lovies and the kisses. When Aunt Linda and Uncle Robert came it was the beggining of the kiss goodbye and kisses in general. Now. Off the hook. These little ones know exaclty how to charm the pants of folks with their kisses and loveys (apparently this is the proper spelling according to the parenting handbook, cookie). Just ask POP. Who was showered with kisses on the boardwalk for sponsoring mom and dad's collective effort to win two stuffed frogs on the frog bog. They turned it on and gave Pop a few kisses for hanging out with us as we enjoyed pt. pleasant together.

We get goodnight kisses everynight now and kisses good bye and hello sometimes when we come home. Very few things can change the course of the day than a good night kiss from these two beautiful little ones.

Its still nice to know I get a better response the Mo-Mo (elmo as the girls call him).

Last note: Today was my last day of chemo. I will be unhooked friday and then will be going for some restaging tests (PET scan, CT scan, bloodwork) next week. I will be going back to Pittsburgh in September to have them harvest white cells so they can make me a vaccine from my white cells and the cancerous cells removed back in March. Its another trial study. They say I am an optimal candidate which means that I should help them prove it works. So that the long and short of it.

lots of love to family and friends. We would love to see more of you and appreciate your patience with me (maybe us, but for the sake of everyone I will say me) over the last few months. We are so thankful to have such good friends and loving families that want to be part of our lives.

the dadoode (another gift from the girls)

...summer so far...

summer backyard fun
love the snack shack at the milltown pool
reese as her little girl self
art lily
reese prefers the chocolate eclair good humors

Happy 5th!

Park baby slide. Lily.
Lily legs on the swing.
Cutey-pie Reese.
Breakin' the law.
Point Pleasant Beach.

I am not sure how to summarize how much fun the ladies have been. I am going to compile a list of 20 (probably more) new things the girls can do - ahem -

1. Lily can say her own name and point to herself.

2. Learned the word "Mine"

3. Love to give kisses

4. Have realized going in the wagon usually means going to Shanahan's which means "cookies". Now we call it the cookie wagon. This has backfired on us when Shanahan's is closed.

5. Pool Pool Pool. This needs to be a whole separate post.

6. Will tell Chava "No" when he tries to steal their snacks.

7. Will call things "not nice" when they don't like them - i.e. the scary rides for big kids on the boardwalk

8. LOVE Ice Cream

9. Picked out dresses to go to the Milltown 4th of July Celebration despite all their new outfits from Old Navy.

10. Tried funnel cake for the first time which cost $5 in Milltown! I thought I was at Jenkinsons.

11. Love their new (well not so new) playmate Deville. We saw him Thursday and the whole way home heard about "D".

12. Lily set a pie on fire. That's right. Our friends bought a new house and I wasn't even thinking. So Lily went over to the stove and I turned around and the pie, that was sitting on the burner was an inferno. Luckily, it went out quickly and is so NOT FUNNY, but Lily, just turned around and smiled as I bolted to the stove. The pie was rhubarb.

13. Love bubbles. Actually the best part about bubbles is hearing them say it and then take their little bubble containers blow through the wand with their lips actually touching the wand so when they talk, bubbles come out. Not kidding.

14. Are getting pee-pee and pooh-pooh. Reese will tell you "pooh-pooh" right before she goes. Getting on the potty training track for sure. Elmo potty is waiting. What will we do with all that extra money when we don't have to buy diapers?? Ha!

15. Could live at the pool if allowed. You cannot drive past the pool after school or else someone may jump out of the car seat. This has happened to me very innocently. I wanted to see if it was busy at 4 in the afternoon. Bad idea.

16. Pick their noses. Thanks dad.

17. Dance. Reese threw down the craziest moves I have ever seen the other morning. And at the end of her routine actually threw herself on the ground like a finale, looked up at Rich and me, and smiled.

18. Itsy Bitsy Spider. They will try to sing along and do the arm movements.

19. Sprinkles. Can't live without them. One day, we went to Shanahan's and they gave us some free cookies. You know, the ones that are 1/2 dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, and 1/2 not. Lily, after eating the chocolate dipped side, handed me the cookie and said "More". So I gave her the same cookie back. She threw it out of the wagon. Needless to say, we only buy 100% sprinkled cookies.

20. Make-up. I started putting lip balm on them when they were little little for sunscreen. Now this has expanded into "lipstick" (lip balm) and "pow-pow" (powder). Reese will pat her cheeks when you break a compact out for it. And don't even try to get away with not sharing lotion. They will come up to you and put their arms out for a sample. Please, only organics and preferably coconut scented.

Enjoy the pics!

Happy 4th!!

You miss us!

Lets just say I hate fireworks so I can promise you an update WITH PICTURES tomorrow. We go to the pool. Thats all we do.
Happy 4th.
xo