Ava has been dressing herself a lot more lately. Which ends up in some pretty crazy outfits. This one isn’t SO bad. Though, if you notice her skirt, it’s actually Lily’s. And therefore it’s a little short for my liking. Ok, a lot short. But I think my favorite thing about this outfit is the socks with heels. You don’t get any more stylish than that! I’m sure we’re in for some more fashion fails, so stay tuned! (But really, with that smile, who cares?)

Because Lily loves to watch, and Ava needs an audience.

Got a little geocaching in yesterday! Our last cache was in November, so it was about time. We’ve been holding on to a travel bug since we came back from Florida (in October!!) The travel bug was a usb drive and its goal is to get pictures and trivia loaded onto it from all 50 states. We entered things from Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Illinois from our trip. Then I put it in our cache bag and it’s been sitting there ever since. I felt so bad, but we set it free yesterday and I hope it goes to all 50 states!

We had a great time, found a couple of fantastic hides, got a couple of pathtags out there. I’m pretty proud of our first pathtag. Todd drew a funny pic of our family and we use it as a logo of sorts for our geocaching username, Geo Doodles. A couple of friends of ours from hapkido are geocachers too. They are lucky enough to get out to cache several times a week! We’re lucky to get one day a week, we’re so busy. But I’m happy. It’s so addicting!! I’d go every day if I could! Responsibilities…ugh.

We did about 7 caches, found 5 of them. One I think was muggled. The other was a little technically involved. We probably could have gotten it if we didn’t have two kids nipping at our heels. I love caching with the girls. Ava has fun with it and she tries to look for the cache. She mostly likes the swag and trade possibilities. Lily just comes along for the ride. She loves to be outdoors and free to roam. Plus, it just gets us outside, getting exercise, and doing something together as a family. We did get a chance to go get a cache without the girls last night though. My mom had the girls while we went to hapkido, and then we took the opportunity to find a cache near her house that we weren’t able to find last time we tried. I’m so glad we did, it was a fantastic hide, completely ingenious. I love the ones that you have to think outside the box for.

Anyway, got a few pics of our adventure. Hope to get more soon!

Today was her yellow belt test. Yellow belt is actually a pretty big step in the martial arts. It shows a the beginning of a commitment and sets a goal in the mind of the martial artist. Black belt. It starts them on the journey towards that belt, and gives them the pride to attain that future accomplishment.

Especially for the little ones, T-USA is a wonderful martial arts school. Todd and I have gone to T-USA for Taekwondo and now for Hapkido as well.  What impressed me the most about the instructors and the masters is their primary goal for the kids is to show excellence at home and at school as well as in Taekwondo. With each belt testing, parents and teachers are encouraged to list on the testing form the child’s accomplishments, as well as areas they feel they need improvement. With that, the masters will encourage and congratulate, or coach and dicipline accordingly. I think that is very important and I’m really looking forward to Ava going through the program all the way to black belt!

So, without further ado, here is Ava’s first belt test!

Don’t you love that face? I think her favorite part is yelling!

Instructor Eddie, possibly encouraging Ava to sit still while the other kids were testing. Master Yun seems to be having a hard time hearing the white belts kiyup (shout). Ava in Cha Ryot (attention) stance.

Doing her one step sparring. Kyun Nae (bowing). Sometimes she bows so deep I think she may fall over, it’s so funny!

Ava and another white belt doing their form with Instructor Jaime looking on.

Ava doing her form and her kicking combination. Check that fighting stance out- you can almost hear her Kiyup!

Master Yun pretending to be deaf again! Ava’s getting ready to break her board. It’s a jumping hammer fist. She has to hold up the hand she’s breaking the board with and say “Focus, sir! Confidence, sir!” and then break the board.

Her little feet jumping high for the break, breaking straight through the board, and a loud and long triumphant kiyup to finish!

Time for the belt! The first and last belts are tied by the parents (guardian, spouse, friend, etc). It’s a special time in her journey!

Master Joe talking to the newly yellow belts about the journey ahead. She has been talking about getting a trophy, look at her eying them! I had no idea she was going to get one, she was more excited about the trophy than the belt!

Bowing to the parents: Kamsa ham neida (Thank you.) Good job Ava! I’m so proud of you!!

A little video of Ava’s board break. She broke the board in such a way that she still had a large piece left. So, Master Yun thought it would be funny if she broke the board twice. She tried pretty hard, but she did it perfect the first time anyway! It was pretty cute. Sorry about the wobblyness. Todd was taking the video while holding Lily and I was taking shots with my camera!

]]> http://leapingdaringdancing.com/2010/03/lilys-1-year-pics-sneak-peek/feed/ 2 http://leapingdaringdancing.com/2010/03/makeover/ http://leapingdaringdancing.com/2010/03/makeover/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:44:29 +0000 Christina http://leapingdaringdancing.com/?p=1088 No, not me. Why, do you think I need one?? No, my blog! I’m happy to show off my new layout by portfoliositez.com. I still have a few tweaks here and there that I’d like to do, but I’m really happy with it! Make sure you add the rss to your feed, and while you’re at it, if you havent already add me on facebook and twitter! Cuz I said so!

Enjoy!

I know what you’re thinking. A sippy cup, so what? Well, this is the first time Lily has drank (drunk, dranken, drinked?) this much cows milk. Ive tried several different sippy cups, bottles, whatever, nothing was working. Even throughout her first year, no one could give her a bottle of my milk. She wouldn’t take it. She wanted me.

You know how Ava has her Gackie? I am Lily’s Gackie. And it’s frustrating. She doesn’t even really nurse. I don’t think I’m producing that much anymore. I can’t even pump. She just likes the comfort of nursing. And, I understand, I enjoy the bond too, but I’m starting to feel worn and abused like Gackie.

I stopped nursing Ava two weeks before her first birthday. It was cold turkey. I gave her a bottle of whole milk and she walked (well crawled) away happily and that was it. She didn’t need me anymore. It was liberating and heartbreaking at the same time.

With Lily, she needs me to fall asleep. She needs me when she is bored. She needs me when she is sad or mad. She just wants the comfort. So, it’s been a little hard. Especially when we started putting her up in her new room and in her crib. She goes down ok, but she wakes up every 2-3 hours still. I have to wean her.

So, knowing that, it’s been dificult with her not wanting cows milk. It’s not that she doesn’t want it. It’s that she doesn’t like drinking out of a sippy cup or a bottle. Well kid, I’m done. Taps closed. And looking at her sippy cup a few minutes ago, I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Wish me luck!

Lily turns one today!! At 10:03 pm one year ago, my beautiful Lily entered our lives and brought more love into our home than we thought possible. She also helped to make our lives a little more hectic, our house a little more messy and our moments of peace few and far between. But, hey! That’s what life with kids is like! I wouldn’t change it for the world. Going back over this year, I’ve learned a lot about this little being God blessed us with. She’s sweet, quiet (ironically, as I type this, she is upstairs crying to get out of her crib),very serious, and incredibly curious. People see her and find her so adorable, they just have to say hi. And usually, they are met with a blank stare. It’s almost comical. She’s not unhappy, or unfriendly. She’s just serious and loves to sit and take in the world around her. Either that, or she has no idea that when someone smiles at her, it’s customary to smile back. Silly kid. She loves music, her face lights up and her legs start jumping as soon as she hears a beat. She’s pretty quick to learn, and she wants to do everything Ava does. Which is why she started walking at 9 months, and she’s already doodling with crayons, and she’s saying and signing words. I think she’s determined to catch up to Ava. She’s my good eater. While Ava eats almost nothing, Lily will eat anything in front of her. Including bugs, plants and small rocks. She’s a bit of a handful in that respect. I didn’t have to chase after Ava saying “No!! Don’t touch!” “Don’t eat that!!” She’s also pretty stubborn too. She likes to pretend she doesn’t understand or doesn’t hear me. Little booger. I believe her favorite person in the entire world is Ava. Ava is the only one who can get her to smile this enormous smile. She’s the only one who can get her to laugh like she does. Todd and I try, and we’ve done it a few times, but really, Ava is the master at getting the giggles and grins out of her. And Ava, the typical Gemini who craves an audience, loves it. Lily is also fearless. She climbs on top of chairs, up the stairs. She’s taken dives off the couch onto teddy bears. Its a little crazy. She’s also a true Pisces and she loves the water. She has no fear of that either. She scares me, she tries to swim in the bath. I don’t feel like having a heart attack at 30, Lily. Please refrain from the extreme baby sports. So, that’s your little window to my one (oh my goodness) year old.

First on my list of Lily overload is a little picture timeline. It’s true what they say. That you don’t take as many pictures of your second child as you do for your first. So there are only 7 bizmillion pictures in this little video, instead of 8 bizmillion. Enjoy and stay tuned.

Last night, because Todd had to work on Lily’s birthday, we had a mini birthday party. Just a little toy from Jewel and a cupcake. We sung happy birthday and Ava blew out the candle for Lily. And Lily ate almost all of that cupcake.

Then today I took the girls to the KidsWork Children’s Museum in Frankfort, IL. It is probably one of my favorite places to take them, and we will be having Lily’s party there in a week and a half. They pretty much run around to every station and try to soak everything in within the couple hours we’re there. And then they fall asleep in the car as we’re pulling out of the parking lot. Love it!

They had a blast, and Lily was just non-stop! I bought her this cupcake/tutu ensemble from Etsy.com and she was adorable! I think she knew there was something special about today. She was walking and talking and just having a good ‘ol time!

Ava put on a show in the theater. She said she was a grumpy guy. I think she was going for Dracula, but either way, it was pretty funny. She kept walking in and out of the curtains, up and down the stage yelling “Who’s in my castle!?”

Lily had a part too. I’m not really sure what it was, but she ended up ditching it for costume changes.

Ava cracks me up… This is the giant pin screen they have there.

After the museum, we walked down to the other end of the building to have some ice cream at the candy shop there.

Ava getting the biggest smiles of the day out of Lily by playing peek-a-boo in the door before we left.

And last, but not least, a video of Ava singing Lily “Happy Birthday” while Lily tries to distract her. Try not to laugh.

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