New Shoes, New Haircut, New Skills! (oh and she is famous too)

Lilah is growing is all kinds of ways these days! Her hair, her feet and her skills - so we tackled all three of those this weekend.














Lilah was getting tired of her hair being in her eyes, and we were getting tired of trying to hold it all back with clips. So off we went to get it cut and as you can see from the next photo, Lilah is much happier with her new hairdo.

After playing in the mud on Saturday, we also realized it might be time to get Lilah some new, more mud-friendly shoes. Thankfully we were able to get some good advice on age appropriate, easy to clean ones and she is ready for all the puddle jumping spring can bring.

For those of you who don't know, Lilah's favorite song is the closing melody on Micky Mouse Clubhouse called "Hot Dog". She loves to watch just the song over and over and over again, dancing and singing along.

She loves it so much, that she finally got tired of waiting for me to press the "repeat button" and learned how to work my computer herself!

On the "It's always good to pimp out your child for a good cause" note, Lilah is not featured on one of The Nature Conservancy pages on planting native - a cause I very much believe in and abide by as we are working to build a native bird habitat in our back flower garden.

That's all the excitement of this weekend, but we have good things in the works...so stay tuned!

Lilah Meets Spring!

Lilah meet spring...spring meet Lilah

Hi everyone, I am testing out some new tricks from Picassa to see if I can embed the photos we took today.

Click on the photo above and it will launch you into the full photo album.

Hope you enjoy!

Lilah Loves Disco (and blocks and Pi!)

This was weekend was a busy fun one for Lilah and all!

Lilah had her regular music class on Friday, supplemented by the new toddler craze sweeping the nation Baby Loves Disco on Saturday. As you can see from the photos Lilah had a good time shaking it down with Jordan and enjoying the bubble "rain" that came from above.

We had a great time and even got my mom, who was visiting, discoing it up a bit!

Then on Saturday night we headed off to the Reich's to celebrate Alexander Day (otherwise known as Pi Day). For those who don't know Alexander's nickname is "Pie" due to his cuteness and being called "sweetie-pie, cutie-pie" and of course "honey-pie" (OK I made up that last one!). And in case you are wondering what Pi Day is - well check it out here: http://www.piday.org/. You can see how cute Pie looks with his official Pi Day onesie and cake.

Lilah partied so much that by the end of Saturday, she decided to hang out and relax in the most comfortable place she could find - Alexander's car seat. This is ironic to anyone who has ever ridden in a car with Lilah and heard the struggles to get her into her own seat :).

On Sunday we had planned to head out to swim class, since we had missed that last two weeks. However, since we had missed the last two weeks, we didn't realize class this weekend had been canceled due to a swim meet! So we got there just in time to turn around and get back in the car. We decided to wander around Olney, MD (where her class is) and found what might soon become my new favorite garden store and market - GoodEarth.

After a quick trip home to change out of our swim clothes, we headed out to dinner and dessert with some friends. Thankfully Lilah enjoyed the hat more than the dessert and we were able to let her rest her tired self in her own bed that night.

And since it's been a while, some video of Lilah's amazing block action. Two warnings here: 1. I don't have video editing software and our camera only takes 30 second video. Sooo sorry for the logo in the middle of the screen, but it was that or you were going to have to click on 4 videos to see all the action. 2. It's a bit choppy as I learn to edit video together.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

The blog post I have been avoiding....

Sometimes blog posts have some space in between them becuase we get super busy or there just isn't much to say. This time, it's becuase I have been avoiding posting out of fear of not finding the right words to write.

So here goes nothing....

Last Saturday, February 28, we had to make the hardest decision of our lives to put our amazing, sweet Hunter to sleep. As I mentioned on my last post, we found out on the 25 about his cancer and he went downhill very quickly from there. By Thursday evening he was not able to eat hard foods, Friday any food at all, and Saturday morning he was not able to keep water down. We took him into the Metro Emergency Animal Clinic (MEAC) in Rockville around 1:30 on Saturday and within an hour it was clear he was in extreme pain and even drastic measures were only going to prolong his life a few days.

There is no way to express the sadness that we felt making the final decision, but we know it was the right one allowing him the dignity he deserved. We are thankful and lucky that we had our friends rally around us, with many of them there to say goodbye to Hunter and fill the room with love. Jason and I were with him in his final moments and shared with him all that he had given to our lives and meant to us in these past four years.

I have never been treated with as much respect as the MEAC gave us. The staff and especially the vet that we worked with never pressure us, allowing us to make our own decisions and letting us know she would honor whatever we decided. She was also honest and made it OK to let Hunter go. We occupied a private room for many hours, provided the time and privacy needed to make a difficult decision. I can not thank them enough for how wonderful they were.

Hunter came to us via the DC-Lab Rescue: http://lab-rescue.org/index.asp who is now much in need of help due to the economy. They provide us with the perfect dog for us promising a companion who would "sit on the couch and smoke a cigar with us." (not that we smoke!). Through one move, one baby, several jobs and lots of travel Hunter was always his sweet and caring self - showing that all rescue dogs are worth rescuing.

Thank you to all of our friends who made the day a little more bareable and our family and friends whose support this past week has been unsurpassed. The house is a bit quieter and a bit lonlier, but your caring and love has been getting us through.

As has Lilah....wonderful as always. So some photos from this past week

Her first real snow.

Her first motorized car!

Her first boyfriend (What's a post without Alexander.).