School has begun

Sallie Rose is officially a Pre-K student. She is at her 2nd day of school and she was very excited to be going back today. I was very nervous and very worried about her that first day. Not only were none of her best friends from preschool going to be there, but there are only 2 other girls in her class. When I picked her up that first day, she was in a great mood and very happy. We went and got a cupcake to celebrate and then we went home and she immediately went to sleep.

Today, she is staying until 4:00 pm to have rest time there and get to play for an additional hour. I made her a nap mat just so she could stay later with her friends. I hope she enjoys it!

Here she is on her first day:

Next week, I will begin my new job. I am so grateful to have had this week off to get Sallie Rose started in her new school and also spend some alone time with Lulie. Lulie and I never are alone and I really do feel like I need alone time with both of my girls to be able to connect with them each. They are so great together, but they are also so different alone.

Lulie and I have not done much, but we have played some and went for a bike ride and she rode in the I-bert seat, which she loved. I had this when Sallie Rose was little and we loved taking bike rides. I love getting to spend some time with my girls, but I am ready to get to work!

Here is Lulie on our bike ride and wearing her sister's dress while she is at school. I had to pry the dress off of her.

Just for fun, here is a photo of Sallie Rose on the I-bert when she was little:

7 hour car ride

Pictures taken by Sallie Rose on our 2nd, 7 hour car ride. Had no idea she was taking them.

Summer time

Lulie @ 1 year

Over the past month, Lulie has transformed into a little ball of personality. I wish that I could follow her around all day and video her so that I could truly capture her little personality. When Sallie Rose was 1 year old, she was sweet and quiet and a little reserved. She was also very Mommy oriented and didn't really like anyone else holding her. Then she turned 3 and everything changed. She has become a sweet girl again and she is super smart and very loving, most of the time.

 

Lulie is something else, for a lack of better words. She is sweet and loving, but she is also so mischievous and daring. The child has to put her hands on everything that comes into her view. She wants to touch and explore every little thing. She is going to be an engineer of some sort!

 

She is also very funny and loves to be silly. She still loves to laugh when everyone else starts laughing, even when she has no idea what she is laughing about. She smiles every time that Sallie Rose walks in the room and she loves for Sallie Rose to squeeze her hard and give her so much love. I always tell Sallie Rose that her love hurts. She loves her to pain. And Lulie loves that! You can see an example of the love hurts hugs in the first picture.

 

This weekend we took the girls to Hilton Head Island, just to get away for one day. It was fun and it was a bit relaxing; however, Lulie is so adventurous that it got a little tiring following her around to make sure she didn't jump into the deep end of the pool or walk straight into the Atlantic Ocean. She also wanted to tear apart every piece of our hotel. She wanted to touch every lamp and open every door. She is so curious. We called her the "tiny destroyer".  The tiny destroyer has also started throwing some major temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way and let me tell you she is strong and strong willed. It takes real strength to get her to not claw your face off or hurt herself by throwing herself out of your arms.

 

On the other hand, she is also really easy going, although it doesn't sound like it. She has a way of attracting people to her and when they get their eyes on her, she stops, looks at the person and then gives the sweetest, gap toothed grin you have ever seen. Then, they fall head over heels for her. I can't tell you how many people stopped me this weekend and told me how adorable she was. I joked to Kevin that her fan club was meeting in the lobby of the hotel to see her off on Sunday.

 

She has also become very Momma oriented. I would imagine that she says Momma 100 times in 5 minutes. She will be completely fine with Susan or Daddy and then the moment I walk in the door, she wants to be held and if she is not held by me, she just repeats Momma over and over. Cute and persistent.

 

She really makes us laugh all the time and we are always on our toes about what she will do next. Lulie has changed her sister's life so much that I could not have ever imagined. They adore each other and are really great together. They both are the light of my life and I am truly blessed to be their Momma, even if it means hearing that word 1,000 times a day.

 

 

Here she is in her baby swimsuit pose, looking so innocent before she tried to step into the pool without any sort of floatation device.

 

 

Lulie's nightly routine consists of pulling all of Sallie Rose's pajamas/socks/dirty clothes out of their drawer and then hiding in the closet eating shoes.

 

 

Oh the hair and the smile.

 

 

Lulie's 1st Birthday party

What a great birthday Lulie had. She got to spend it with her Mayme, Grumpy, Sallie Rose and her cousin, Vin. And of course her wonderful friends here in Savannah!!

She was so happy and cute all day. I assume she knew it was her day. I love this girl so much and can't believe she is 1. And I can believe that she loved that cupcake as much as she did!

I did discover that not only does she love cupcakes, but she loves balloons and the baby pool. What a great day and what a great girl!

Love this little face!

 

This is pre pony tail. Her hair is so out of control.

 

And here it is, all nice and pulled up in her Bam Bam pony tail.

 

Lulie loves to play with all the toys.

 

And she loves to play her Daddy's keyboard. She loves to dance while playing the keyboard. The girl has moves.

Lulie will be 1 year old!

I can not believe that in under 2 weeks, our baby, Lulie will be 1 year old. This year has gone by so fast and I am in shock that she is a year old. It is very true that the 2nd child brings so much more "work" and so much less time to stop and smell the roses. We wouldn't have it any other way! This child has been the icing on our family cake. I knew our family would become more than a family of 3, but I could have never imagined the love and happiness that another child could bring and not just to her parents, but to her sister as well.

I do feel guilty that I have not done a monthly update on Lulie or that I don't post 1,000 pictures of her, but I honestly don't have the time or the energy. Lulie if you read this in 16 years and think, "Gee Mom thanks a lot", just know that it is not because I love you less or that there is nothing to write about it, that is 100% wrong. You keep your Mommy so busy with your smile and your adventurous soul, that I can not take my eyes off you long enough to do a monthly update.

Lulie is a bright eyed, big grinning, giggling little ray of sunshine. She wakes up happy and 9 out of 10 days, she stays that way from start to finish. She is happy and she is content. She loves to play and try to figure out how things work, even the stairs. She wants to climb our stairs so bad, she gets so upset when you try to take her off of them. She studies toys and really tries to make all the moving parts work. She also loves to brush her hair, her teeth and wash her body by herself. She gets very serious when taking the comb and brushing her hair. She is independent already.

When sitting at the dinner table, she will quietly sit and close her hands when we say the prayer. Then, after Sallie Rose has so sweetly Graced our food, Lulie claps for her. If the 3 of us "older" people begin to laugh at something funny, Lulie will laugh with us, even though she has no idea what we are laughing at. Then, of course we all laugh harder at her and it makes her laugh harder. She loves to play copy cat. If you make a mouth noise, she will copy you.

Here are a few of our other Lulie highlights:
waves hello and bye bye, also say buh buh and ha
says mommma
answers her play phone and say ha
plays with the little people dollhouse and can put the baby in its bed
loves tearing down Sallie Rose's block towers
puts any and everything in her mouth, but spits back out anything green and good for her
She has been known to spit those green veggies down her shirt by holding her shirt out
She loves dogs. She loves to pet Casey and lay on her bed with her (very dirty bed)
She can do a little sign language: more, all done and book

Over all this beautiful baby girl has stolen our hearts and it has been one amazing year with her! I can't wait to watch her grow and expand her vocabulary. She is so close to walking right now, any day now. I love to see her and Sallie Rose play with each other and I am optimistic that the two of them will love each other and be best friends.

Happy Birthday Lulie Belle, we love you more than you can imagine.