Four Years Old

Four years ago today, Lilah graced our family with her grand entrance in the world. Here is the epic story of my labor and her birth. Our fifth baby, she was the first of my two home births. When I read her birth story now, I clearly see how I brought so much of the misery of a long and protracted labor on myself by being such a control freak and trying to bring about her birth before she was ready. Live and learn! She was nine days late, and I was mighty impatient; she was the only one of all my babies to come after her due date. When I tell her the story of how she didn't want to come out of my belly, she tells me, "I couldn't come out, Mommy. It wasn't my birthday yet!" And such is Lilah: clever and precocious and often surprising us with her astuteness.

While she certainly has her moments and meltdowns, Lilah is probably the most good-natured of all our kids. She's affectionate and sweet, a real charmer, and a total Daddy's girl - she has him wrapped around her little finger.

Lilah was a complete surprise. Michael and I were trying to decide if we were going to go ahead and try for another baby, and had this big, serious discussion about it. The twins were just about 16 months old at the time, and I remember we decided to wait until they turned two to make a decision. Just a week or so later, I found out that I was already pregnant. (I remember going to Target and buying martini glasses for a gathering I was hosting at home that evening, and a pregnancy test. Nice combination! It still makes me laugh.) I cried at first, because although I was seriously leaning towards wanting another baby, I like to plan things - I don't like being taken by surprise. What a wonderful surprise she turned out to be, though!

Happy birthday, my sweet girl.

Birth

One Year

Two Years

Three Years

Four Years

More Tales from the Trenches

See Lilah.

See Lilah in the Emergency Room.

See Lilah in the Emergency Room with a bead stuck up in her nose.

Yes, this was today's adventure. She shoved a bead up her nose (what in the world possesses kids to do the things they do???) and then cried and cried because it hurt and it was stuck. I wasn't exactly sure what to do. I know there is some technique whereby you, the harried parent, can blow it out, but alas, I wasn't sure of the exact method and I was feeling a little panicky. So I called our pediatrician's office and was informed that I would have to take her to the ER to have it removed. I suspected as much. She actually fell asleep in the truck on the way there, which I took as a good sign. When we got there, each medical professional who asked me what we were there for chuckled when I told them. (And, of course, the first thing everyone said before even asking what we were there for was "Oh my goodness, look at that hair!" Her hair precedes her, I tell you.) Apparently this is very common. The doc who finally extricated the subject bead told me that they get at least two or three cases of Child With Foreign Body in Nasal Passage every day. They even have a special instrument designed specifically for removing all manner of Foreign Bodies from said nasal passages: it's a very thin flexible tube which they slip up there past the bead (or what have you), blow a tiny bubble into the end of the tube and then pull it out, along with the Foreign Body. Pretty cool. The whole thing took about three seconds, and Lilah didn't even cry, which surprised me. What did surprise me was the size of that thing when they pulled it out! A pretty little purple rose bead almost the size of a pea, all covered in snot. Nice.

Hopefully we've learned a lesson from this.

Dance, Dance, Dance!

Our weekend was all about dance. The three girls have been taking ballet/tap classes for a few months now. When I initially signed them up, we had the opportunity to sign them up to participate in the spring recital, which I jumped on since I've been waiting, like, my whole life for stuff like this, and which turned out to be a most elaborate production of The Wonderful Land of Oz, and which was today (on Father's Day).

Yesterday was dress rehearsal, which turned out to be a really big deal and which took about half the day. The first order of business was to put full make-up on the girls. Quite an undertaking, seeing that (a) I'm no makeup artist, and (b) they weren't digging the whole process.

Here are my beautiful, fresh-faced little girls: Lilah, Daisy, and Annabelle -

They look like scary Vegas showgirls with all that garish makeup, no? But it's theater, you know, and apparently it's important to lay it on thick so it's visible from the stage,

Daisy-

Lilah-

Annabelle-

In costume, waiting backstage for their turns.

Lilah is a Poppy - isn't she the cutest darn poppy you ever did see?

The twins performed in a dance number "He's the Wiz."

These photos and video footage are only from the dress rehearsal, as we weren't allowed to take photos or video during the actual show today. I was blown away by the whole production, though. It was amazing. There were well over 100 kids doing different dance numbers in a 90-minute show, everything from hip-hop to ballet and tap. It was really, really cool.

Dorothy with Toto, the Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and TinWoman-

The Wicked Witch-

Lilah is the red poppy standing -

Dorothy and Glinda -

Annabelle and Daisy are the two in the center, closest to the Wizard -

Little Dancers

The girls started new dance classes today:

Tiny Tots dance for Lilah . . .

. . . and a ballet/tap combo class for Daisy and Annabelle.

I love this stuff! I missed out on all this when I was a kid, so I am totally living vicariously here.

(Oh, and check out the insanely long legs on the one instructor in the first pic. My first impression, for a split second, was that she was on stilts, I kid you not.)

This is Lilah's first experience with a dance class, and she really seemed to enjoy herself. This week the parents were allowed to stay in the room and watch; starting next week, we won't be allowed to stay because it's too distracting for the kids. I'm a little nervous about leaving Lilah, but really I think she'll be fine.

The twins have been in dance before (although it's been a while), but it was just a rinky-dink little class through the local Parks & Rec. This is at an actual dance studio and seems a little more . . . oh, I don't know - not rinky-dink. The girls really liked it and are especially happy because their old friend, Ellie, is in the class with them.

Anyway, who can resist a little girl in a tutu?