Sunday Snapshot: Lilly and Her Person

Lilly is our dog. I didn't always refer to her as our dog. She was the baby in the house. Then, our daughter came along.

I was a little worried about how Lilly would handle a new member of the house, but Lilly understood her role better than I did. From Gracie's arrival in our family, Lilly appointed herself Gracie's protector, caregiver, and all around snuggle buddy.

She let her drag her from room to room, plop her in the bathtub for bathtime, nearly drown her while trying to "take her for a swim" on her leash, and pull her lips in opposite directions so she could laugh and say, "teeffff! funny teefffff."

The first morning after Gracie arrived, Lilly was found asleep beside her crib and from that day forward they were inseparable.

Lilly is getting old now. She has a heart condition and is going on 11.

But, she still keeps up with her Gracie. And every night, she pushes Gracie's door open and climbs up into her bed and rests her head on her tummy while she sleeps.

And when Gracie wants to dress her in doll clothes or make her prance the Brooklyn streets in butterfly wings Lilly does it, because Lilly loves her person, or more like, her baby.

A Magical Day

7.
My little girl is 7. I have been nervous about this birthday. She had been talking about turning 7 since the day she turned 6 and all the exciting things that were going to happen on the day she turned 7. Castles, princesses, fairies, costumes, whistles, hats...her list was extensive.

She doesn't usually ask for very much, but 7 seemed to be the magic number. She wanted her friends from the islands, her friends from the Carolinas, her cousins from the west coast and of course, her little friends from here. She had talked throughout the year of the pogo stick, stroller, dolls and indeed, baby sister, that were sure to arrive on her 7th birthday.

There wasn't going to be that gorgeous stroller at FAO Schwartz that she looks at with dreamy eyes every time we visit the store and wonders aloud whether she might have it for her 7th birthday. There wasn't going to be the majority of those 7 year old dreams. It wasn't going to happen.

I decided that that was okay. It wasn't - isn't about - the biggest best birthday bash, but about letting her know how special she is and having a little bit of fun in the mix. So, we had a birthday adventure.

She is a little Jr. Nancy Drew in training. She loves clues, exploring and solving riddles. So, after her morning wake up call, complete with 7 flowers, one for each year of her life and tea in her special tea set. We started our day with little clues (passages from her favorite books) that once solved directed her to our next little moment.

It went a little something like this:

She found her first clue with tales of Alice in Wonderland neatly tucked in the door of our brownstone. Off we went to Alice's Tea Cup for tea and a surprise, her little friend, Isabella.



After tea and story time with Gramsy, we skipped our way over to the park with wings to help the little happy girls along the way.





Our ride through the park brought us to the water's edge where the next clue had the girls jumping with excitement.


The girls rowed for a total of a minute before returning the oars to Matt to navigate us from bridges to fountains to quiet corners of Central Park.

Graceanna sang songs with her little friend, pointed out critters swimming in the water and laughed... a lot.


She and Isabella fluttered through the park laughing and singing and stopping to ask a musician if they could play his harp with him.

Another clue awaited them and they could hardly contain their joy. It was off to American Girl Store to window shop with their dolls and get ribbons put in Josephina and Violet's hair. Josephina and Violet are their beloved little dolls.

Surrounded by crowds of beautiful dolls the girls floated from doll to doll, outfit to outfit, just happy with their dolls' new ribbons.

With the last clue in hand, the girls sang all the way to Le Carrousel in Bryant Park.



With brightly colored tokens squeezed tightly in hand they road nearly every beautiful animal on the carrousel. Laughing and singing, never to the music of the carrousel. But to me, it was perfect harmony.


There a few special little friends joined Graceanna to sing happy birthday at a little table near the carrousel.


With the carrousel music in the background, cupcakes were devoured and children's laughter harmonized with its storybook tunes.



The sun was just beginning to set, the busy day's traffic seem to be slowing down, the lights around the park were glowing and the carrousel's little lights twinkled as it continued to turn, filled with happy little children.




An evening concert of stringed instruments brought a modest gathering of listeners around the nearby fountain and welcomed in the beautiful evening.

And there among it all was my happy little girl.

"Mom, this is magical!" she announced while fluttering back from dipping her feet in the fountain.

It kind of was. Nothing expensive, extravagant. No FAO Schwarz luxury doll stroller or big bash with lots of guests and packages. Just a perfect, magical little day. And that was more than okay.

Long after the sun had set and we said goodbye to our little friends, our car traveled quietly over the Brooklyn Bridge heading for our little corner of the city. A sleepy smiling little girl with her doll tucked under arm and her butterfly wings held between still fingers, softly said, "Mom, this was the best birthday day ever... thank you for the adventure..."




Happy Birthday to my wonderful daughter whose heart is as beautiful as her sweet smile and who melts mine daily. I love you more than carrousels and cupcakes, more than ice cream cones and daffodils, more than well, you know the rest!

What Have I Been Doing Lately?

It has been a sad two weeks since my last post. Here is a problem I have discovered I have. I write blog entries all day in my head and then come to the end of the day and they have disappeared or I have half completed posts hanging out in my edit/publish box. I am getting my act together one week at a time. So, the plan is to get back to this blog....on a daily basis.

Here is another reason I have been absent lately. I started another blog. Right. I know. I am not even hanging out her on a regular basis. What business do I have opening another blank space in the blogosphere? Well, stay with me. It is an "organize me in 1 year" challenge. Taking one week at a time and completing a list of challenges in a book my friend and I happened upon at the same time (but not together). We both purchased the book and it gathered a smidge of dust waiting for this revelation. So revelation happened and Mel and I created a blog following the book. It's simple. Every new we tackle that week's challenges and blog about it. The book is great. Organize Now is written by Jennifer Ford Berry. It gives 52 weeks of step by step challenges to get your life in order from your mind to the farthest reaches of your life including that corner of the house you don't go anymore, because it is just that embarrassing that you blush when it is just you in the room. I actually make a guttural sigh when I walk by the forbidden spot in my house. I am making it right now just thinking about it.




So, here it is. Our website. You can also learn more about the book and buy it if you would like. We would love to have your support - comments, encouragement and becoming a follower. This next week, we are inviting our blog friends to join us on Fridays for the Clutter Challenge. I will post more about it lately, but my sweet girl just rolled out of bed and I have breakfast and a day to get to.