Disney on Ice

Last weekend Tania and I took Lilly and Avery for a girls' night out. We had dinner and went to see Disney on Ice. It was a great night and all four of us had a lot of fun.
The girls had no idea what to expect and were a little confused about who exactly would be ice skating. More than once Lilly reminded me that she didn't have any ice skates. But, after we got our must have $22 Rapunzel hair we found our seats and the show started. Neither Avery or Lilly, who are very outspoken little girls, had much to say after that. Tania and I had to laugh because both girls watched the entire show, wide eyed with mouths agape without moving or saying a peep, from our laps.
This picture was taken during intermission and as you can see we could barely keep their attention even then. Without a sports photographer and professional camera it was hard to get good action shots of the skaters because they moved so fast, but I did manage to snag this one of Cinderella.
Finally, after the show was over and the crowds began to thin, I was able to get Lilly to pose for a picture with me. But again, she had a hard time peeling her eyes away from the ice for even a second.

"What about Jack and Dylan?" You ask... Well, Nathan was out of town so both boys stayed with Bryan. The house was trashed, but both boys were fed and in their jammies when the moms got home. Bryan said they watched Mickey Mouse cartoons, rode together in Jack's car and even shared some teddy grahams. Although, Jack doesn't seem too excited to be sharing his snack. When Bryan sent this picture to Tania and I the caption read, "Um, excuse me, but would you mind getting your hands out of my f-ing teddy grahams?" It seems like he guessed pretty well what Jack was thinking.

Thanks again for inviting us Avery and Tania!

Oh Deess?

When I first started my blog my intent was to share my family's day to day lives with you and record the normal events of Lilly's life. However, I have kind of gotten away from that and have recently noticed that I have only been posting when our family does a special outing or event. I'm going to try to remember what my original goal was and include more of Lilly and Jack's normal lives and because poor Jack has kind of been left out of the last few I will make this one about him.
At 14 months old Jack is the comic relief of our house. He is a good natured little guy who rarely gets upset, and when he does it's usually because he's hungry. And, that's rare since he spends most of his time eating and snacking. Some times the eating gets pretty serious and he has to wear his new bike helmet. I got it for him the other day in preparation for our trip to Key West, where he'll spent quite a bit on the back of my bike, but he wanted to wear it all the time. He's actually eating breakfast here.
But, clearly the helmet is warranted because this is how Jack lets us know that he is done eating and ready to get down.

He's also a very helpful little boy. I had separated my laundry and was getting ready to do a white load when he decided to help by spreading all of the separated laundry around on the floor. Actually, he entertained himself for over half an hour loading the laundry into the basket and then spreading it around, and doing it all over again. So, of course, I let him.

One of Jack's favorite places to play is in Lilly's room. The strangest thing about this is that she really doesn't mind. In fact, she will often find him in there and play nicely with him.

Jack has four teeth now, two on top and two on bottom, and he will rarely let you see them. You have to be quick with the camera to get a picture of them, and I am not. That's why you can't see them in this picture, but I thought it was cute anyway. He's carrying his old fashioned lawn mower toy through the living room and evidently it's pretty heavy.

Jack also enjoys a cruise around the house in his car. He doesn't seem to mind who pushes him. In this picture Jack isn't wearing any pants and he is drinking while he drives so maybe it's best that Lilly is actually in control of the car. She pushed him into his room, came around and opened the door for him and then parked the car while I put his pants on him. The title of this blog, "Oh deess?" is Jack's trademark phrase. He points at, grabs, or indicates any number of things and says, "Oh deess?". As far as we can tell it means, "What's this?" or "May I have this?" or "Hey, have you seen this?" It almost always seems to be a question and Lilly even has started asking Jack, "Oh deess?" when she wants to play with him.

I know that eventually he'll learn to talk and, as I've discovered with Lilly, talk back. So for now I'm pretty happy with "oh deess" and "mama". Thanks Jack-A-Roo for making us smile.

Dancing Queen

As you know, Lilly has been taking gymnastics classes at Interactive Academy for well over two years. What you may not know is that for most of the last year Lilly has looked longingly from the gymnastics floor to the dance class area. She has watched 'Angelina Ballerina', made up some of her own moves, and even dressed as a ballerina (technically a butterfly ballerina princess fairy) for Halloween. Bottom Line: Lilly wanted to dance.
Only one problem. IA didn't offer dance for anyone under four. Well, not anymore...they added a dance combo class for girls ages three and four. We were in! They do a little bit of tap, a little bit of ballet, and a little bit of gymnastics. And, best of all she wears a cute little dance outfit and will have a recital in May! But, let's not get ahead of ourselves, tonight was only the first class.
Here's Lilly all ready to go, her dance outfit is under the sweatsuit and her shoes are in her dance bag.
All dressed and ready to break it down in her tap shoes.

What makes a dance class even better? Taking that dance class with your best friend!

Just hanging out with attitude.

Ok, I can't give a play by play of what's going on in all of these pictures, but I couldn't stop taking them either.

Tap-a-tap-a-tappa...

They're just like the Rockettes.

They're supposed to be getting instructions for gymnastics, but all they can talk about is dancing.

Lilly had a great time at her first dance class and couldn't wait to show her daddy what she had learned. Unfortunately, when we were all home and I was telling him about her class Bryan started asking some questions and calculating how much, after tuition, the leotard, tights, skirt, tap shoes, and ballet shoes, the class was actually going to cost. He started getting pale and seemed a little nauseous until Lilly came in, beaming, still in her leotard and wearing her ballet shoes, stretched out her leg, pointed her toes, and said, "Look what I learned tonight, Daddy!" The paleness and sick face went away immediately and I think he has forgotten that we even have to pay for the class.