Lily & Leo

Happy milestone 5th birthday to my little prince Leo and happy golden 8th birthday to my princess Lily!!  Lily measures about 48 inches tall and weighs about 42 pounds.  Leo stretches about 44 inches and weighs in at 37 pounds.  This year we had to experience the unfortunately worldwide pandemic of covid-19 and so the kids this year celebrated their birthday at home through zoom.  I made a balloon garland and blew up a ton of golden and different blue color balloons to decorate the house as well and made them each a display cake that had all their current favorite things on it.  I also made a read strawberry cake for Lily with whipped cream cheese frosting on it and got Leo a cheesecake since he cannot have eggs.  The morning of their birthdays, I surprised them with a bunch of blue balloons all over the floor of their bedrooms, so that was very fun to watch them wake up to that!  I had a bunch of candied bacon for their dessert as well and ordered Olive Garden (Lily’s favorite) delivered for lunch and invited friends to wish the kids a happy birthday!  It wasn’t as extravagant as I planned for earlier this year but it was still perfect because the kids had so much fun and felt all the love from everyone, and that’s all that matters.

Lily learned how to ride her bike this past year and nailed it really quickly, within 30 minutes! I’m so proud of her dedication and willingness to learn, even if it may seem scary at first.  She also learned how to swim, and can even do the forward stroke decently.  She can float and play in the pool all on her own with no floaties, what a big girl now!  Lily really likes to cook and bake still, she’s my little sous chef!  She also likes to practice origami and her favorite thing to fold right now are boxes, cubes boxes where you blow into it and it puffs up into a box! She is a very social person and so staying quarantined these last few months have been quite challenging, as I’m sure is the case for everyone else right now.  She does facetime with her classmates and so that helps a bit.  She likes to go and ride her bike outside or go swimming or play on the splash pad to cool off and burn off some energy.  Her favorite shows are The Last Airbender and The Legend of Kora.  He favorite movie was Sonic the hedgehog and she loves playing Arms and Animal Crossing on the Nintendo switch.  She also really likes playing with slime and watching a bunch of YouTube videos, especially of Collin Keys and he craziness haha.  Lily also likes reading a variety of books, and reading to Leo as well.  What a great sister Lily!  Lily also donated her give jar to her 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Barnes because she said she loves Mrs. Barnes and she had so much fun in her class and wants to donate her money so Mrs. Barnes can get more things to help teach more kids.  Lily, you have such a sweet and amazing heart, you impress me everyday with your kindness and generosity, I love you so much!!

Leo loves Chuck E Cheese right now and I would say it’s pretty accurate to say that Chuck E Cheese is his best friend haha.  I got him a Chuck E Cheese doll for his birthday and he brings him everywhere he goes.  It’s so cute to him so attached to him, and he’ll even pretend to give Chuck E Cheese his milk, and share his snacks with him as well.  He also likes watching Peppa Pig, GooGoo GaGa on YouTube, Pixar’s Bao, Float, Birds and Moana.  He likes to sing a lot more now and will try to sing along to random songs on the radio, but he favorite is the Happy Birthday song.  He can sing almost the entire song pretty well!!  Leo loves dancing to music, or even when there’s no music, and he loves to follow along to the Chuck E Cheese Cha Cha dance video.  He memorizes all the words and moves and will shout along periodically the words!  I love to watch his excitement when he plays the dance video, he has to stop what he’s doing and dance along!  It’s super cute!  Leo is also increasingly more affectionate and loving as well, it just truly melts my heart.  He’ll come over and randomly gives me hugs and kisses.  Sometimes he’ll ask me to give him a piggy back ride going down the stairs as well.  He needs to remember to not let go sometimes but he knows to hold on for the most part!  Leo really likes to climb, run around, play with swords, and baby dolls.  His vocabulary is increasing and he’s able to put 5 words together in a sentence recently too!  He blows my mind with how smart he is and how much he’s learning and able to achieve.  He’s also able to eat pretty much everything now too, except for soupy things, he’s still working on that.  He can eat rice dishes, noodle dishes, all kinds of seafood, chicken, tacos, any kind of sandwiches, he is such a great eater now!  He also still loves fruits, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, cherries, apples, oranges, pears, everything!  I am constantly so proud of him!  The zoom sessions for therapy and school has been challenging but I’m so glad he continues to make movement in his accomplishments.  You’re so incredibly amazing my petite prince Leo, I love you oh so much, and you light up my life!Happy special milestone birthdays Lily and Leo!!  I hope you both had an amazing birthday this year.  This year has definitely been a challenging and different experience for birthdays, and any kind of social celebrations, but I’m glad that it doesn’t take much to make your guys happy.  I’m glad that you both appreciate the little things that just feeling my love for you is enough, and that I can make you happy with what I have.  You guys are my everything and I’m definitely going to take you guys on a big vacation next year when things are safe.  Can’t wait for more adventures with you Lily and Leo, I love you both so much!!  Your hearts, smile, laughter, hugs and kisses makes me the luckiest and happiest mom in the world.  Happy golden 8th birthday Lily!!!!!!!  Happy milestone 5th birthday Leo!!!!!

Here are Leo and Lily’s birthday videos, Lily riding her bike with no training wheels, and Leo’s video of his 5 word sentence!  ENJOY!