"Lia is 1"...says the Easter Bunny

Happy Birthday, Lia! My sweet girl turned 1 on the 3rd of April...the day before Easter.

At her year appointment she weighed in at 21lbs 2oz and 28.75 inches tall. As always, Lia is a happy baby. She quit nursing around St. Patrick's Day... Yep, just up and quit. So no weaning for her...it was I who needed some time to adjust. It was good because that was shortly after the teeth started coming in. ;) Lia has 2 on the bottom, so far. She's still eating her homemade purees and drinking soy milk and formula. (Yes, she's still allergic to milk.) So far her vocabulary consists of "Mama," "Hi," "Bye,' "Uh-Oh," "Dog", "Duck" and the occassional, "Dada.' She can sign "Milk" and "Eat." I've even heard Milk come out her mouth once, too. lol And according to Mary Ann and Gene (the baby-sitters) she has said, "Mary Ann," "Bella" and "Alexander." Lia is really fascinated with reflections and images of herself... If you walk by a mirror, (or a picture of herself) she'll say, "Hiiiiiiii!" As far as motor skills...she's really good at putting things into other things and taking them out. She even put the lid on her milk bottle the other day. Mary Ann just taught the girls how to blow kisses as well. (It's really cute.) She's been crawling since 9 months and pulling herself to standing since a little after 10 months. Lia is nearly walking and can stand on her own effortlessly...she even can sway her hips while standing when music is playing! Right now, she's crusing on everything and broke her 3-step max record the other day...taking 4 steps on her own.

We had a small party for her on Saturday and Alexander helped me make her Bunny Cake and Color Eggs the night before. We even did a mini Easter-Egg Hunt...it was a blast!:














And we can't forget my sweet Alexander... :D
Alexander hit is 2.5 year mark on March 18th. He's become such a BIG BOY. At his appointment he was 28 lbs and 33 inches tall. (Yes, Lia will be catching him in no time... lol) Alexander's vocabulary continues to grow each day and he forms more and more sentences. Just the other day he asked me what I was doing...in a whole phrase, "What are you doing, Mommy?" It's crazy to think that 18 months ago he was like Lia. :) His "Aww Man," "Awwwww" and "Oh, OKkkkkk..." responses when he's just settling for your terms are comical. He continues to be a good big brother. He can help me feed Lia with very little mess and is really quite helpful. However, the fights have begun! The two of them can be seen pulling on toys and I've even seen them hit each other. I didn't think it would be so soon... Really need to start potty training...but he's still not quite ready. (Diapers still pretty wet over night, etc.) We'll see... Alexander has been becoming more independent too. He has mastered putting in DVDs, feeding himself and tries more and more each day to dress himself...putting on shoes, jackets, etc.

We spent a wonderful time in Lisbon for Easter and were able to get this cool "family picture". :)




I am truly in love with my family!

"NO PANE! NO PANE!"

This is the story of the worst traveling experience ever! Through this we have decided that we will NEVER fly with our children under any circumstances...

We were slated to travel to Mississippi for my dear friend, Annette's wedding. We opted to fly instead of drive as we didn't believe our 11 month-old and 2 1/2 year old would fend well in the car (or even us for that matter...) What a bad decision that turned out to be...

The first trip, we (Leonard) forgot the garmet bag with my bridesmaid's dress and Alexander's tuxedo in it. So we missed our flight and couldn't get out again 'til the next day... We were charged about $250/seat to change our flight from Friday and Saturday. Worst part was, Alexander didn't have a seat anyway! It was overbooked and had Leonard magically found the garmet bag when he went back to the car, he would've had to sit on one of our laps ANYWAY!!! >:| This caused us to miss the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. :( The next flight went as expected, and the children actually did very well in the airport and on the plane. However, aiport transistions were hindered by the fact that we were basically carrying both children with our carry-ons as we opted to not take our stroller. (another fatal mistake.) Once we arrived in Jackson and got our rental and headed to our hotel in Forest, MS. (Now the wedding was actually in the small town of Louin, about 45 minutes from Forest...and Forest was about an hour from Jackson.) We had to drive to the church straight from the airport in order to make it in time for the wedding. And guess what? We got lost getting there (tried putting the address into 3 different GPS systems and they all took us to the same WRONG address.) We eventually got there, because my brother (who was singing in the wedding) found someone to get us...only to find out that we were 3 minutes away. :( ((takes breath))

Alexander, who was the ring bearer, and I quickly were brought up to speed on our roles and everyone got dressed quickly. The wedding went on...without a hitch.

On the way back, when we got to the airport at 5am and we were told that we had unconfirmed seats onto our connecting flight to Columbus and there were no other flights available on any airlines to get us home on Sunday. Seriously? Apparently, (which I find out much later,) when we missed our flight and had to change from the Friday to the Saturday,it cancelled our reservations?! The only way home THAT DAY was to fly into Dayton, arriving 12 hours later. Luckily, my brother was in the airport with us at 5am and was able to get on his flight back home....so we decided to give him the keys to our truck and some cash to get it out of long term parking...and come to Dayton to pick us up...at 6pm. He made it to Columbus by 11am. We missed our flight into Dallas, so we spent 2 hours in the Jackson airport that morning and then another 6 in Dallas once we arrived. I had little food and milk for Lia as I packed it all in the check-in luggage and it was struggle to get through the day. We were blessed to find a "play area" in the Dallas airport that we hung out in most of our layover. By the time we boarded the last flight all you could hear from Alexander was, "No Pane, No Pane..." We laughed, but totally felt his pain...

We flew into Dayton at 6:30pm and by the time we drove back to Colmubus and dropped off my brother, we walked into our house 9pm.

Airlines are horrible. Overbooking flights, left and right and charging people an arm and leg to reschedule and unable to offer you anything in way of compensation for your hardship. I tried...called all the airlines involved and Orbitz and everyone was blaming everyone else. I just gave up...

Offically boycotting air transporation unless it's for business and someone else is paying.

Here are a few shots from the airport adventure...