March for Babies

We will be walking in the March for Babies walk again this year, in honor of Lily!

The walk will be held on:

Saturday, April 24th

9:00 a.m.

O'Donnell Park

931 E. Wisconsin Ave.

That little girl we all know that puts a smile on our face and makes us laugh...she was born 9 weeks premature, which meant she spent 44 intense days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit before coming home...none of us were smiling then...

The March of Dimes mission is to make healthy, full-term birth a reality for all babies. If you have a child or are planning to have children, or even if you have neices or nephews, you understand how important that mission is...what happened to us, could really happen to anybody.

Research funded by the March of Dimes had a direct impact on Lily's survival. Two drugs administered (steroid shots given to me before birth and surfactant given to Lily after birth) were developed during research funded by the March of Dimes. Without these drugs, we are fairly certain we wouldn't have our little Lily. For this we know that we are lucky and we will forever be grateful to the March of Dimes.

Lily is doing great now and it is easy to forget what she has all overcome. Everyday when Chris and I administer her reflux medications we are reminded of the things that still affect her because she was born too soon. Her story is inspiring, but it didn't come easy or without a lot of struggles, however it would have been even harder, had lots of the things that the March of Dimes has funded research for, not been in place.

So, you are all invited to walk with us and join "Team Lily Catherine", and/or donate to our team's fundraising efforts. Registration for the walk is free, which means you don't even have to donate if you just want to show support and walk on our team. Any donation that you make is tax deductible. We are hoping we get to walk this year! (Last year was "rained out" - understatement)

We set a goal last year of $630.00 and smashed it by raising over $1,400.
This year's goal is $2,140.00 (for the 2 pounds 14 ounces Lily weighed at birth). Every little bit helps!

This walk isn't just about Lily...sadly, there will be some families that will be walking in memory of their child/ren, please help us honor those children and families, as well.
Bring your walking shoes, your strollers, your child/ren, invite your friends and family and help us March for All Babies!

Visit our March for Babies website to donate online

Just a little reminder of why were doing this

A Get Together with Friends

Me, Lily, Katie, Kyle, Billie, Mason, Jenny & Michael

the guys watched the kids, while we ate and chatted

it was a nice change

Touching

This may have been the most honest, real and touching birth story I have ever read (third to Lily and Mason's of course), read it if you have a minute...the story is amazing and the pictures are beautiful.

21 Months

 ***sorry this is late, should have been posted February 10th***

Weight: 23 pounds 4 ounces
Height: 32 inches
Shoes: Size 6
Clothes: 12-18 months

What's New:

• Singing and Dancing lots...if you haven't seen this video of her latest moves, check it out! -people keeping asking me about her dance moves, I would love to brag that she just knows how, but Chris and I are actually really big *closet* dancers and do a lot of moves in our home in front of her, that you've probably never seen us do in public :) but the girl does have rhythym
• Lately she has been putting lots of words together, like "mommy's toast is ready" "mama, sunglasses, put them on"
• Really into "dressing up" and picking out her own things = really weird outfits
• When you ask her something like, "who wants some peaches?" she says "I do, I do"
• No new potty since December
• Started washing her hands like a "big girl" she loves this, we sing a song and she can't wait to wash her hands and dry them off (song from Sprout or Noggin: Top & Bottom, Top & Bottom, Inbetween, Inbetween, Rub them both together, Rub them both together, now there clean, now there clean)
• Loves pretending: to drink, to eat, to talk on the phone, to potty, to sneeze and to cry
• She got another tooth this month - upper right vampire tooth
• Her latest obsessions include tunnels anywhere we can make one, Alvin and the Chimpmunks (we were so sick of it we had to erase it off the DVR) and Finding Nemo
• She had an awesome NICU follow-up the second week in January (basically she's a supasta!), you can read about it here - what a difference 1 year makes!

Two things I just wanted to note: I am still working on Christmas thank you's - sorry. And please save the date for the March for Babies walk, we are going to do it again this year and have set a pretty hefty goal of raising $2,140 (2 pounds 14 ounces), we raised $1,200 last year and believe we can do this. If you are interested in walking with us, donating or collecting donations on Lily's behalf please keep checking the blog, I will be doing a post soon about it. For now, save the date - Saturday, April 24th 9:00 a.m. downtown Milwaukee (hopefully we will not be rained out this year). Lots of families, lots of babies, lots of survivors (and there is food too).

Yes, this future stylist put this one together all on her own
watch out Rachel Zoe, there's a new kid in town

all of her "looks" include sunglasses

 having some tea

pretending to potty

there was a time when this cradle would

have been much too big

washing her hands like a big girl

Lily and Nana

Shaking It