The Nice Purple Witch

Lila decided that she wanted to be a witch for Halloween. I didn't even think she was old enough to really understand the concept of choosing something to dress up as for Halloween. But when people started asking her what she was going to be for Halloween, she knew right away. "A witch!" And she never changed her mind. That is what she wanted to be. She also made a point that she wouldn't scare mommy when she was a witch. She wanted to make sure I knew she was going to be a nice witch.

One day I thought about it, and decided I would just buy her a costume since I am not very handy with my sewing machine. I sat down with my computer to look up some ideas. Lila came and sat on my lap. As I was going through pictures of costumes, it became clear very quickly that she wanted to be a purple witch. Any time I would pull up a costume with orange or red or pink or any other color, she immediately would yell "No! I wanna be a purple witch, not a (insert color here) witch!"

So we narrowed it down to a few witch costumes that had purple in them. Then from there she made up her mind about which one was her favorite. I did a little looking around and found a good price for one through amazon, and it qualified for my free prime shipping! So we went ahead and ordered it. Who knows if I ever would have made it to the store. For the next 6 days Lila would ask "Where's my witch mommy?" And I would tell her it was coming in the mail. Then she would tell me that she was going to be a nice, purple witch who wouldn't scare me. This girl definitely knows what she wants.

Finally we found it in the mailbox when we checked that Saturday night. She tried it on and looked adorable. Absolutely beautiful! Then for a week she would ask to wear her witch costume, and I would tell her she would get to wear it at the party on Friday. We also raided my mom's house and found her a broom! That was exciting. And we had a little cauldron bucket she could use instead of her usual pumpkin bucket. She had the complete deal.

Friday night came and we had our ward fall festival and trunk-or-treat. Lila looked so cute, but was having so much fun I just couldn't get a good picture of her. But trust me, she was absolutely stunning. I was a witch with her, and I think she liked that too. We had a lot of fun!

My Girl

I love my little 2-year old. She brings so much light into my life. Of course, she pretty much is my life. If I didn't have her I would still be working, and that would take up most of my time. I would probably have more friends. Or at least when I hung out with them it would be somewhere other than the park. But I love my life! I wouldn't trade my days with her for shifts at the hospital or our time at the park for a manicure out with the ladies.

I keep thinking to myself how perfect for me she is. She is my little girl. Boys are nice to, but for me right now with just my one baby, I am so glad she is a girl. I love how smart she is. I love that her language is coming along so well so we can have conversations. I love when she dances. I love watching her ride her bike. I love how she gets excited when we go to grandma's house or to play with friends. I love how she sticks her finger up in the air when she says something that excites her.

I love watching her personality grow. She is stubborn. She is feisty. She is passionate. She is just like her dad! But the best part is how caring she is. She notices when I am sad. She stops what she is doing, comes over and asks "mommy sad?" Then if I say yes she asks "why mommy sad?" She immediately calms down, lets me hold her, gives me a kiss, and tells me she loves me. Most of the time she also strokes my hair or arm and tells me it's ok. Then a little later as we are getting along with our day she will ask "mommy happy now?"

She also comes out and says nice things for no reason. sometimes even in the middle of playing she will say "I love you mommy." Today we went for a walk and she said "You are the best mommy!" She often refers to Todd as her "favorite daddy."

She narrates the world around her. For some reason it is just so cute. As we are going to do something she will always announce it as we go. For instance, as we set off with her stroller she will say "We are going to the park!" If a kid is mean to her, she will come over and tattle on them. But I don't think she does it to tattle, I think she just does it because she is used to telling me everything that is going on around her. She announces when her toy falls, tells me that she went pee pee (even though I was right there), explains what bugs are doing when she sees them, tell me that her food is yummy (or delicious), picks out words from songs she hears and uses them to tell me what the song is about, and just describes what she sees.

Although I must admit there are days I think it would be nice to go to work every once in a while to catch a break from it all, most of the time it's just wonderful. I had a hard time recently when Lila stopped taking naps and I lost my midday me-time. But I am adjusting and finding other ways to keep myself from wanting to lock her in her room. Even when I get mad I still feel that love for my precious angel. She makes me so happy!

Something Silly

I might be a weirdo, but I sometimes like to go back through and look at my own blog. It's been quite a while ago now, but I noticed something during one of these perusals that made me laugh. I was posting about being in Florida with my awesome sister Jessica, and playing with her kids at a gymnastics gym. I shared a touching story of how Lila's cousin, Adam, helped Lila up a net she was scared of. And I posted this pic:

Truly it was so sweet. But when I went back and reviewed the pictures, I noticed Adam in another:

I chose this pic so you can compare and contrast the two boys from the back. I am fairly certain that we didn't decide to change Adam's clothes halfway through our playdate. True Adam did help Lila up the net, but only after this first nice guy tried to help her. She didn't know him so she ended up not going with him. It's just funny that I posted the picture as if it had been Adam. But it wasn't.

Did anyone else notice?

See the original post here

Sometimes School is Awesome.

On Tuesday, our very first class started out pretty much the best ever. Our teacher came in, pulled up a website, and said "first things first. This is NOT me."

First, enlarge the picture to read the caption on the screen. Then notice how cute my hair was that day.

The Fan Gene

We often joke with Todd's family about how all the brothers sleep with a little fan blowing right in their faces. I have been lucky and broke Todd to the point the ceiling fan is enough for him. Unfortunately, there are nights in the winter I have a hard time sleeping because it is so cold and the fan is blowing on me. Compromise. Anyway, we decided it must run in the family since they all do it, right? Well I'm afraid I may have awoken the gene in Lila last night.

She has been complaining for several nights that she is "too hot" and will only let me tuck her in with one blanket. Now this is strange, because normally she absolutely insists on just about every blanket in her room to be piled on top of her. But for a while now she has had a hard time sleeping and wants one, thin blanket.

So last night when I had tried for an hour to get her to go to sleep and she was complaining again that she was hot, I remembered that we have all of Todd's brother Kyle's stuff in our basement. Kyle is spending the semester home in Philadelphia, so we are acting as his storage unit. And of course, he has a fan among the pile. So I brought it up, set it on a chair, and turned it on. At first I think the sound scared her, and she told me it was too fast. I thought she wasn't going to like it. But after complaining for about a minute, she sat and let it blow on her. Then she said "I like it" and let me tuck her in. I was able to use two blankets, and added two more before I went to bed. Then she slept through the whole night. In the morning I could hear her whimpering a bit because she was cold. So I turned off the fan, and she woke up within 5 minutes.

Tonight I put her in her warm footsie jammies and piled the blankets on again. I also moved the fan back a little so she won't get too cold. But I am afraid she just may be sleeping with that thing in her face the rest of her life!

p.s. Kyle, you may have to give us your fan as payment for keeping all your stuff safe. :D Love you!

S-late!

Lila has gotten into the habit of adding S's to the front of words instead of saying "it's." For instance, "sdark" at night and when she wakes up "slight!" Then when she looks at the clock (remember she's not allowed to wake up until 8:00) she says "sate!"(or I guess it would be seight... but that looks weirder.) There have also been mentions srain and srainin', and when something belongs to someone else, it could be smommy's, sdaddy's, sDanica's, sGrandma's, sLauren's, even sShelly's. You would think that wouldn't work but it does. I got the idea for this post when she said slate this morning, thus the title of the post. By the way, it was me who was late getting up and out of bed because it was already seight o' clock. "Comon mommy, slate!"

Another thing about Lila is her favorite cereal. She has been eating it for... I might even say close to a year now. I wouldn't even say she loves it. Most mornings I have to feed her the last few bites just to get her to eat it. But every morning when I ask what cereal she wants she says "pink cereal!" It doesn't look like it in the picture but the color of the bag is like a really dark pinkish purple. When she gets more sugary cereal at Grandmas or occasionally at home, she devours it. But she always wakes up the next morning asking for her pink cereal.

She has also started preferring her pink bowl. And a pink spoon. I have tried to get her to use a different spoon the last several days, and she won't have it. And I won't let her have her pink bowl every time, but she always asks for it and sometimes throws a small fit when she doesn't get it. You might think she must be a girly-girl, but if you read about her rainboots, you know she picked the robot ones. She had a choice of pink Dora boots, but wanted the robot boy boots. (sorry if I offended anyone by calling them "boy boots." But I don't take it back). I think she has just the right balance of feminine and tom-boy.

Love my girl!

Just Stuff

Lila loves the rain. Whenever it rains and she can get me to do it, we go out and sit on a folding chair in our carport to watch it. Recently she has gotten more brave and runs to edge of the wet parts and squeal. I bought her new boots over a month ago. She hasn't forgotten about them, but I keep telling her she can't wear them until it snows. But when we went out this time and she tried to jump in puddles with her normal shoes, I changed my mind. By the way, she picked her boots out all by herself, she wanted the robot ones. You can't see the robots in these pics but they are pretty dang cute.

Lila has not officially graduated to a big girl swing, but she made it clear that she can hold her own! Unfortunately, she didn't appreciate the neat-ness of the swing she was in. A real tree swing that is super long! She just kept getting mad that she wasn't going high enough. But I was proud of her anyway.

Nicholas Craig Itri

When we went to Philadelphia a few weeks ago (including the brief trip to the shore in North Carolina), the main reason we went was to spend some time with Todd's dad. He has been battling colon cancer since February 2009. It has allowed us to have a good perspective these last few years, focusing on family and spending time with Nick whenever we could. A big reason we decided to spend the summer out there last year was to be able to spend time with Nick.

Back in January the family started planning a trip to the outer banks. We weren't going to go because we went on a trip in May and didn't want to spend the money to get out there. But then we found out that Nick wasn't doing very well and the chemo wasn't very effective anymore. So early in July we booked our flights and decided to come out.

Nick wasn't able to make it to the shore, so we only spent three days there so the rest of the time we could be with him. During our time there he consented to hospice care and spent most of his time in his room. We were lucky enough to find out about a wonderful foundation that connects cancer survivors/patients and their families with photographers who are willing to donate their time for family pictures. Todd and his brothers carried Nick downstairs and we did some nice portraits in the backyard. (Thanks to http://www.magichourfoundation.org and http://www.photographybychristinaridge.com).

The next day Todd and I flew back to Utah. Todd said it was one of the hardest days of his entire life. Less than two weeks later, on August 31, we got the news that Nick had passed. Monday we were on a plane bound again for Philadelphia. We were able to spend some time with Todd's family to grieve together and put together a very nice tribute to Nick's life.

I have spent 19 of the last 33 days in Philadelphia. It has been difficult being away from home, trying to keep up with school, having no normal routine, being unable to fulfill church responsibilities in Utah, all while struggling with this family loss. It has been physically and emotionally challenging. I have always told people that I have great in-laws. And it is true. While Nick is the culprit of many of the frustrating things about the Itri boys, he truly is a good man. He cared the most about the most important things- family and faith in Jesus Christ. Even though most knew him for his phanatical (misspelling intentional) sports obsession, I have been able to see first-hand how he prioritized his life. And I appreciate that his example rubbed off on all his boys. Of course, I am especially grateful that it rubbed off on Todd.

And through this experience I have been able to strengthen my testimony of those things. I know that I was strengthened and comforted by the power of the Holy Ghost and the grace of Christ through the atonement. I have felt peace and assurance that the plan of salvation is real and that our family can live together forever. Thank you Nick for always being an example of these truths, and helping us all solidify them in our testimonies. You are greatly missed, but we look forward to seeing you again.

The Shore

We had a chance to spend a few days with most of Todd's brothers in North Carolina. It was a nice few days. The biggest thing was that Lila became a bully. Her cousin Jensen is about 5 months younger than her. She took to treating him like her little torture toy. He would either cry or dish it right back to her. It was like if he looked at her or vice versa there were either immediate tears or retaliation at the gall of the other. They hit and pushed and grabbed and chased and screamed at each other.

Except sometimes. The few times they played together were so fun to watch. I have a hunch that this phase will be short term and can be attributed to the fact they are both in their terrible 2s. I'm sure they will be best friends as they grow up.

First Lila and I spent a few days at Grandma and Grandpa Itri's house and got a little cousin time in before Todd came out and we all went down to the shore:

Lila learned a little about the avengers. Captain America's frisbee weapon shown above.

Reagan

Lila

Captain AmeriReagan

Thinking really hard

Lila and Jensen. Needed a little parental help to make sure each kid had their own cushion without encroaching on the others' space

A few days later we were all staying at a nice beach house.

Todd Making his famous French Toast

The deliciousness

Jensen being cute

Lila being cute

Jensen, Reagan, and Seth

Scott and Jacob

Rob, Jensen and Reagan

Crystal being adorable

Lila and mommy

Lila getting sunscreen

the Lazy boys Todd and Jason

Baby Tanner! Lila and I were so happy to finally meet him when we got to Philadelphia!

More Lila and mommy

She can't read so she doesn't know that "no running" is a rule.

The next day was one of the days Lila and Jensen got along for a while. After some quarreling over who got to sit in what chair, they found common ground in running back and forth across the deck. Screaming and giggling, they were a perfect pair.

Lila's best attempt at the sign for "I love you"

Our beach house:

A special thanks to Stephanie for the great pictures. I was terrible at getting my camera out during the trip. We don't have any pictures from the beach because no one wants sand in their camera! Also, apologies Steph if I stole all the best pictures and we have repeats on our blogs. For anyone who reads both, the credit goes to her!

Back Track

I keep forgetting to post about this. Although most people don't even read my blog, some people do. So I will let you few out there know that Lila no longer sleeps in a big girl bed. It actually only lasted about a week. Then we had a few really bad nap/bed times because she had a dream about a lion. So she was scared of monsters in her crib and lions in the bed. After some battling, we discovered that she was ok to sleep in her crib if we left her door open and got her a night light. And so its been ever since. I've been surprised at how she keeps sleeping even when we make noise just across or down the hall from her room. It's also kind of nice to have her still be my little baby for a while longer.