Friday, April 18, 2014

Chicka Chicka Birthday Boom Boom


I got this.


      Her birthday party was great!  What a fantastic weekend!  She shares her birthday with Rooney, so it was a joint doggie party of sorts too.  Popper's bday was the day before the party... so it was one GRAND celebration! We had grandparents, a great-grandma, an uncle Trev, friends, rum cake, minion cake, and lots of great Lilah moments.  Her grandpas and uncle made us laugh playing games with her like racing, chair spinning, ball pit playing, and attempting to feed her!  There was a doggy cake and a Minnion themed Lilah cake.  The blue frosting, I think added a nice touch when smeared against Lilah's skin.  Her aunt, Joelle and UncMan Andy sent her a super adorable birthday outfit that was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom themed and matching tutu. Yea.  Way cute.   We enjoyed some NCAA tournament games, walks outside, swinging in the park for the first time and lvoed spending time together as a family!  The grandparents are definitely paying Ben and I back for some sort of trauma we caused them as children though because they brought the loudest and largest toys on the planet to the Nelson House for Lilah's bday.  We now have a very large horse on spring cables named Trigger, a big red wagon, a ball pit with 50 balls and many more noisy toys to add to our house of random animal noises and screeching children's songs.  But Lilah seems to love them all!  Praise be the day that all of those toys batteries run out and every ball stays in the ball tent.
Double Birthday Lilah + Poppers Madness

This will be no trouble at all...
In case you have any adults you need entertained, Lilah says to send them over
Don't be jealous.  Not everyone can look as fabulous covered in blue frosting.
Newest Neighborhood Radio Flyer!
4 Generations-- pretty neat!
We give this thing two thumbs up!








Go Baby Go!

Lilah has been a crazy adorable baby these last few months, less baby more practicing toddler.  We had a 1 year bday party that showed off her fantastic grin, adorable cackle, phenomenal racing skills while pushing a walker and of course, cake smashing skills.  To say this girl is a talented show-off is an understatement.  She is a walker and runner extraordinaire.  She literally was running at 11 months of age.  This had nothing to do with the 6-10 bruises you could find on her head at any time during this stage...  She has figured out how to make her parents laugh endlessly at her with peekaboo, smearing food on her hair, laughing with her sweet sweet laugh and too many other things to count.  Lilah has started coloring also and we have filled the side of our refrigerator with charming scribbles from our beautiful babe.  Every day at daycare we show up with a glowing report of Lilah's day but also some funny story of how they all made them laugh- whether it was a screaming match with Sam (her buddy!), growling at all the babies on the floor, or giving the back door zoobers for an hour.  We love this little girl!
The art of the stacker... we're still learning that one
We do cute cars and pushing toys all over pretty well
Look who's the remote master now?!
Nothing but another day in paradise
With her buds Aria and Susie






Nelson's Defeated.



I apologize for falling off the face of the planet the last few months.  We have been plagued over the last few months with extremely busy rotations, non-stop teething, very little sleep, schedules changing without any advance notice, multiple colds/infections and overall way too much to do!  So, needless to say, the blog fell last on the list.  My mom even had to fly out once for an "Emergency Gramma Life Lift" that was the breath of life our family needed to push through this challenging time.  Overall though, we ended up getting Gramma Otto way sick and she was antibiotics for weeks ang multiple doctors appts to fix herself up after getting contaminated in the Nelson house.  Sorry, Gramma Otto :(  But I think she still had a little fun!


 The mommy guilt was overtaking me in those months with me getting to spend <1.5 hours every other day with Lilah for about 2 months straight.  It had been weeks since we read her a book. She was spending 12+ hours at daycare per day.  At the last minute I got scheduled to work a 30 hr shift not only on her birthday but also for her birthday party weekend.  It was crushing Mommy blow that definitely took it's toll on me.  I rarely cry, but this was one of those times where I was inconsolable at the thought of missing so many important events when I already miss so many.  Luckily a hero of another resident who has kids himself switched me a shift so I could be there for the weekend of her party.  It's the little things in this life and the people who understand them.  Life has been better over the last 2 weeks now that we're workign less than 90 hours a week and actually sleeping in our beds more than 3 nights a week!  Life is good.  We can't wait for residency to be over!  

We did have a little fun... we snuck up to Chicago to see Casey, Paola and Sofia Holmes before the new baby arrives!  We enjoyed a super cold Metro ride downtown to the Art Museum.  It was so cute to see Lilah and Sofia play together!  We also went to Columbus for a day to see Jenna and Jake Van Pelt's newest addition, Baby Ryan!


Sofia and Lilah, pretty gosh darn cute!
On the Metro...The Coolest People in Chicago (plus the person behind the camera)

It was pretty darn cold... and chewy
The Boys and The Babes @ the Chicago Art Museum