From Lily June 21 - 29 2009

Wow, end of June already? Hard to believe! For Father’s Day we (Jason, Lily, and I) went to the MN Zoo with Auntie Lisa, Uncle Ryan, Claire, and Abby. It was a lot of fun! The new Africa exhibit is really cool, and all the girls got to feed a giraffe. Crazy seeing them up that close!

From Lily June 21 - 29 2009

We also had to check out the Zoo’s splash pad, now that we’ve had some experience with our own! The twins were pretty new to the splash pad experience, so they weren’t too sure about it. Lily had a blast, though! She kept running up to the water spout things in the ground as soon as the water shut off and sticking her finger in the holes, then running away before the water turned back on. Sometimes she didn’t quite make it, but she seemed to like getting splashed in the face! Luckily, I was able to capture this on video and will now post it on the internet to give Lily lots of subject matter for any future therapy sessions she may need.

The Zoo trip totally wore her out, and she completely passed out in the car. She even slept most of the way into the house while Jason was carrying her, and for another 2 hours once we got home!

From Lily June 21 - 29 2009

This past weekend we went to Lanesboro to visit Grandma Gayle and Grandpa Jim (and Uncle Shawn, Aunt Shannon, and family).. and of course, the HORSES and KITTIES! That farm is a little girl’s dream. Lily got to ride (bareback, even) one of the biggest horses on the farm (Romeo), and the little pony Jesse. She loved it!

From Lily June 21 - 29 2009

She also loved to harass the kitties, especially the little white kitty named Jasper. Jasper is very friendly, and a little slow.. but was very good and let Lily pick on him WAY more than he should have! She sometimes started to straddle him and shout “Ride Horsey!”, which was Jason and my clue to step in and save the poor kitty from a 28 lb toddler. She also got it in her head that she could pick him up, and tried to do so repeatedly - by his fur. She’d grab his tail, the fur under his belly, wherever she could get a hold onto him and lift. The cat dealt with it remarkably well, but we told her it wasn’t a nice way to treat a kitty.. and if she tries something like that with Gibson he’ll show her exactly how much kitties like being picked up like that. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!

From Lily June 21 - 29 2009

There are a lot of dogs on the farm, too, but Lily seemed to get a kick out of one dog in particular. The dog’s name is Red, but sometimes they call him “Red Bone”, so in Lily-ese that became “Big Bone”. She would get this tone in her voice and say “big bone!” like “oh you silly, silly dog” then just laugh and laugh. He happened to be right at her height so he had easy access to lick her right in the face quite frequently and she would laugh and run away. It was a lot of fun to watch her with him - it was cute and she got such a kick out of him! Even now she keeps asking to “ride horsey!” throughout the day, and doesn’t understand that they are kind of far away. Someday she’ll realize what a lucky girl she is to have the opportunity to ride horses at all!

From Lily June 21 - 29 2009

Once again, the weekend completely wore her out and she slept almost the WHOLE WAY HOME! It was fabulous, because she’s usually not a huge fan of the car so sleeping worked out perfectly! She also somehow ended up with the most impressive case of “bed head” she’s had yet! Such talent.

Just an FYI that we’ll be MIA for a few weeks. We should be back in mid-July, so we hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July Holiday!

One final note, it was 3 years ago tomorrow (the 30th) when I married my very best friend. I love you, Jason, and couldn’t imagine a better husband or father!

From Lily June 5-15 2009

Thank you, Summer, for listening to my little plea in my last post! We have been busy, busy, busy. Let me try to catch you up really quick…

From Lily June 5-15 2009

A few Fridays ago, Lisa and the twins came over and we all hung out for the morning! We went shopping (with three young toddlers in tow!), and drove out to the U of M to participate in this Peabody study thing to give physical therapy students some practice. One of Lisa’s friends is a grad student there and she asked Lisa if she could bring the twins, and she also brought Lily and I. Basically they just ask them to do all these random tasks (kick a ball, walk up and down stairs, etc) and evaluate their physical development. I don’t know how any of them did because they don’t really share results with us, but it seemed to go pretty well, although it was incredibly chaotic! We did throw Lily’s carseat into Lisa’s van for the day so we could all drive together, so all three girls got to ride in the same car together - for the first time ever! I don’t think they were horribly impressed, but it was nice for Lisa and I.

From Lily June 5-15 2009

Lily started a new daycare this week, and it’s been a rough transition. Our normal daycare woman takes summers off to be with her kids, so we needed to find something else for 8 weeks or so. We searched high and low for something suitable and started to appreciate our daycare woman more and more with all the places we visited (especially Kindercare, which literally left me in TEARS). We finally found someone (recommendation from another friend) and Lily goes there Tuesdays-Thursdays starting this week. It’s definitely a different experience for her and I do think that overall she is adjusting pretty well, but there have been some difficult moments. She screams and cries and won’t let go of us when we drop her off, which makes ME cry and it’s so difficult to leave her there. However, she only really continually cried the very first day, and she was even getting better by the afternoon. The 2nd day she screamed when we left and threw a MAJOR fit right after we were gone, but then calmed down and was really good the rest of the day. The 3rd day she started crying when we pulled up in the driveway, stopped right after we left, but had another small meltdown mid-morning, but then was fine. So, I guess overall it’s going well but I just hope she adjusts soon because it’s so hard to leave her like that!

From Lily June 5-15 2009

We finally got a chance to try out Lily’s new bike trailer! Jason and I found a new hitch online and so we went ahead and bought the trailer from Jen (our daycare woman) and her husband for a really good deal. Lily so far seems to like it pretty well, and I love that she and Jason can go out and spend some time together like that and I can have some quiet time at home, or get things done. I think we do need to fix her helmet a little bit as it does tend to slide forward on her head a bit, even with the adjuster thing in the back. Anybody have any tips for that one?

From Lily June 5-15 2009

From Lily June 5-15 2009

We got back to the splash pad again (or as Lily calls it, “sprinkler park” or “park mana (water)”). Lily really loves it, and I’m so happy! It’s so nice to have something like that so close! She usually runs close to the water, then runs away laughing and screaming, but she does get more brave the longer she’s there. This last time she had another girl (4 years old maybe?) completely following her around and she was just oblivious. It was really cute to watch.

From Lily June 5-15 2009

She also got to run through the sprinkler at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and she had a lot of fun there, too. I think she is just really starting to LOVE water! Grandma even turned on the hose and let her fill her little watering can and water their plants (pretty much the same flower got about 36 doses of water). At first, she kept trying to put the hose up to the spout end that you normally water FROM, but eventually she got the hang of it. Here’s a cute video of her filling the can, splashing herself in the face, and watering the poor drowning flower:

Finally, the deception part of this post. Tonight I put Lily to bed and she didn’t want to sleep. She sat in bed and babbled to herself (not unusual), and then I heard her cry a “help me” type cry (or as she says - “heppel”), so I went back into her room. She had put her foot through the slats of the crib and then turned her leg so her foot was stuck. I said “Oh honey, you got your foot stuck! Let me help you.” and got her foot free. She immediately stood up and wanted to play, but I told her it was time for sleeping now, kissed her good night again and left the room.

She kept babbling, then started saying “binky! binky!” which I ignored. She got quiet for a couple of minutes and I thought she might be finally falling asleep, but then suddenly I hear her say “Stuck! STUCK! stuck!!!” so I go back in there and she’s holding her foot up AGAINST the crib slat - totally not stuck at all. I said, “you can move your foot - you’re not stuck.” so she put her foot down, rolled over and stood up and pointed at the floor and shouted “BINKY!”. She PRETENDED her foot was stuck so that I would come back in and get her binky back for her. Where does she learn those tricks?!?

From Lily June 5-15 2009

You should seriously click on the link below the pictures - there are tons of cute ones this time! We have a lot of fun stuff coming up in the next few weeks so I’ll try to keep taking pictures and update again soon before I forget absolutely everything. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

… kind of like SUMMER. I seriously wore my winter coat the other day.. in JUNE. To whomever is in charge: I’m ready for 70s again, please. Thank you!

From Lily May 30 - June 3 2009

Lily is (apparently) ready for the Rodeo! I swear when I look at her now, she’s 150% Toddler.. no more little baby. It’s bittersweet. She’s gotten very brave with her toys and everything now, and so this is the new way she rides her bounce and spin pony - usually STANDING on top of it! She also climbs (and stands) in her shopping cart, on top of her stage toy, on the couch, and on anything she can possibly reach. She has decided she’s too big to go down the stairs backwards or on her butt and usually tries to walk right down or walk right up like an adult (and is amazingly successful some of the time, but more often successful in giving Mama a heart attack).

From Lily May 30 - June 3 2009

Life has been so incredibly busy lately and I’m not even sure why. We bought a bike trailer (used) so we’re looking forward to using that and I think Lily is going to love it! Jason and Greg (my brother) chopped up the whole tree that fell down on us and we put it out by the road with a free sign and it all completely disappeared while we were at work one day. We went to the splash pad again and Lily now LOVES it! We also went to the official opening this past Saturday morning but it was cold and rainy and we were the only people there not from Park & Rec or the city. We’ve been searching high and low for a daycare for Lily for the summer (her normal daycare woman takes summers off) and think we finally found someone. Lily starts there next week, Tuesday - Thursday.

From Lily May 30 - June 3 2009

Jason’s birthday is this Sunday the 14th, so we’re looking forward to that. We already celebrated Father’s Day and his birthday this past weekend, and Jason finally got a Nintendo Wii! A big present, I know, but it was for both occasions and I had to do something to equal the wonderful trip he got me! And, most exciting, Lily wore PIGTAILS for the first time EVER just over a week ago! They are so, so, stinkin’ adorable! She hates them, of course, but I think they’re so cute.

From Lily May 30 - June 3 2009

Sorry for the short, random update this time. I’m going to try and update more regularly again so I don’t forget everything that’s happened! Right now, I’m off to bed.

From Lily - Duluth! and late May 2009

Jason and I had a fantastic time in Duluth! Our B&B was fantastic, the (king size!) bed was incredibly comfortable, the whirlpool tub was unbelievable, and the food was incredible. We actually went out on the town for a bit and went to a couple of places for drinks, which we haven’t done in a LONG, LONG time. I got a laugh from the signs in a few places that said “Unattended Children will be given an expresso and a free puppy.”

From Lily - Duluth! and late May 2009

We also saw Lake Superior, watched a boat come in and the bridge lift, went to Gooseberry Falls, and drove a bit on the North Shore. All in all, it was an incredibly nice and very relaxing trip. Definitely something we’ll have to do again! Lily did very well at Grandma and Grandpa’s, even though we missed her a lot. Jason was laughing at me watching all the little kids wherever we went, but I couldn’t help it! I was imagining what Lily would think of this, or how she would react to that, or even what she’d eat. After 17 months, it’s just automatic at this point!

From Lily - Duluth! and late May 2009

There was some concern whether or not we’d actually get out of town in time to make it to our Duluth vacation as we were suddenly hit with a bunch of unexpected stuff both at home and at work right before we left. On Wednesday, we found out there was going to be a power outage in our building (that houses all our servers and district network equipment) on Thursday morning from 6-7am. That afternoon, we also got a call from our neighbor telling us the tree that dropped a major branch on our house last fall completely BLEW DOWN. Very, very luckily it didn’t hit ANYTHING as it fell directly across the patio in front of our house, so there was no damage and nobody injured. It was truly, unbelievably lucky. As for the work crisis, I just ended up starting work at 5am, and things went pretty well, so we made it out of town - and a little bit early, too!

From Lily - Duluth! and late May 2009

From Lily - Duluth! and late May 2009

As I posted in my last post, they opened the splash pad at the park near our house a bit earlier than expected because of the warm weather. On Memorial Day I had the first chance to bring her down to check it out. It really is pretty cool, and MUCH nicer than the wading pool that used to be there! Lily loved watching the kids running through the water, but got pretty shy and scared when I tried to bring her up to the water as well. I think it’s going to take at least a couple of tries, but I’m hoping she loves it by the end of the summer! I know I would have loved something like that when I was a kid!

Ok, now to leave you with Lily’s “Baa Baa Black Sheep” video. The way this normally goes is that I will say (or sing) “Baa Baa Black Sheep, have you any wool?” and she’ll sing “Yes, sir.. bags full..”. then a bunch of nonsense. It makes me smile EVERY TIME. I dare you to watch this video and NOT smile. Seriously. Can’t do it, can you? Talent agents - leave a comment and we’ll have our people call your people.

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

She often repeats this cycle over and over again, with the same cheesy grin on her face when she gets to “baby!”. The other day we spent a few hours with Uncle Greggy, so the circle was expanded to include him. Suddenly it was:
L: “Mommy?”
Me: “yes?”
L: “Daddy?”
J: “yes?”
L: “Uncle?”
G: “Yes, Lily?”
L: “Baby!”

Finally, on Monday, we ended up with this:
L: “Mommy?”
Me: “Yes, baby?”
L: “Daddy?”
Jason: “Yes, honey?”
L: “Dinosaur.”

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

She picked out some sunglasses for herself this past weekend from Target. They were Dora glasses, which she became pretty attached to, and that shocked me because she has never watched a single MINUTE of Dora. She learned how to say “Glasses” that day, so we frequently get the request for “glasses - ON!”. She also looks at the picture of Dora on the side of the glasses and says “Maya” because there’s a girl at her daycare named Maya who is part-japanese and looks a tiny bit like Dora.

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

Jason and I are heading to Duluth this Thursday/Friday, and Lily is spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s. This will be the first night we’ve spent away from her! I’m excited to get away, but I am going to miss her like crazy and it will be hard to be away from her.

From lily May 11-May 19 2009

From May 5, 2009 - Mother's Day 2009

Hope all of you Mama’s out there are having a fantastic Day! We had a great time. We spent the afternoon over at my parent’s house celebrating Mother’s Day and My Dad’s Birthday. “The Boys” (Our Brother Greg, my husband Jason, and Lisa’s husband Ryan) cooked BBQ chicken on the grill, beans, salad, a delicious salad with strawberries and raspberry vinaigrette. And they did all the cleaning, too!

From May 5, 2009 - Mother's Day 2009

Lily and Jason gave me a FANTASTIC Mother’s Day present. On May 21st Lily is going to stay at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and Jason and I are going to stay in an amazing-looking room at a B&B in DULUTH! What’s crazy is that neither one of us has ever been to Duluth - I don’t know how that’s even possible, but there you go. So, anybody know of anything we should absolutely check out while we’re there?!? Please let me know! Plus, Jason helped Lily make this adorable card with her little hand print on it that I will cherish forever (see first picture).

From May 5, 2009 - Mother's Day 2009

Other than the excitement of today, we’ve had a rough couple of days. Lily started out being a bit extra whiny on Thursday, and even took an extra early, extra long nap at Daycare. On Friday she was acting pretty lethargic and clingy and I thought maybe she was starting to get a cold, but I wasn’t sure. Even at the park, she wanted to sit and watch the other kids play rather than play herself and that’s pretty unusual! On Saturday she woke up with a very stuffy nose and was obviously not feeling well - her eyes looked so tired and sad that it just about killed me. She was so tired that she slept until almost 9, and I laid her back down for nap at 10:30 and she passed out for 2 hours. She took a 2nd (short) nap later that afternoon as well - and this from the girl that’s been on one nap a day since 9 months old. By Saturday afternoon she was running a pretty good fever (a little over 102) and was just really lethargic - she actually sat and cuddled with me on the couch and I let her watch some cartoons and Baby Einstein videos because I knew she wasn’t feeling good at all. We had been planning sleepover #2 with her cousins Claire and Abby, but decided to cancel and wait until everybody was feeling better.

From May 5, 2009 - Mother's Day 2009

I put her to bed pretty early on Saturday night, then Auntie Lisa came over! It was fun to hang out just her and me, with no kids around! We got to drink wine and eat junk food, and watch Gilmore Girls episodes, and just chat. I really miss hanging out with my sister, and hope we can do that again much more often! By the time Lily woke up this morning, she seemed to be doing a bit better. She was still running a slight fever this morning, but that broke after her (early) nap. She still has a cold and isn’t feeling great, and her eyes look incredibly tired, but she is at least babbling and playing again. I hope the worst is over and she continues to get even better!

From May 5, 2009 - Mother's Day 2009

Other than that, Lily is still learning new things all the time. Jen (the Daycare woman) said Lily can identify every other kid at Daycare now. She also has started singing songs (mostly “Twinkle Twinkle” and this swinging song they sing at Daycare) which just cracks me up every time. Twinkle twinkle, by the way, goes something more like “Tinkle Tinkle … STAR! how i won… are. Up HIGH. …. SKY!” I have been trying so hard to get her singing episodes on video, but that’s hard enough to do when she’s feeling well and since she’s been out of it a bit there has been no chance. I promise I’ll keep working on it!

From May 5, 2009 - Mother's Day 2009

She also has become an active participant in all of our conversations, which never ceases to amuse me. The other day when I was getting her dressed she kept pulling at her shirt and saying “Owie! Owie!”. I thought her tag might be bothering her so I flipped it out and said “how’s that?” and she looked at me and nodded and said “that’s better!”. She’s putting together sentences REALLY well, and even did a full 4-word sentence the other day (”Where did Binky go?”). This morning I was getting her dressed and she looked at me and said “I want Daddy.” and I was like, “hey! it’s MOTHER’S DAY!” :(. Oh well, take the good with the bad I guess! Until next time.. check out all the pictures, they’re really cute!

Population: Lily

From Lily April 25 2009 - Emily B's 1st bday

Wow! I don’t even know what to say here. Lily is still completely adorable, and an absolute sponge right now, but MAN, she has started throwing these tantrums that just leave me dumbfounded. It seems like anytime she doesn’t feel in control of a situation, it results in a meltdown. Like, throw herself on the floor kicking and screaming type meltdown. Even for things like if I take something away from her because she shouldn’t have it - meltdown. If her teeth hurt and she can’t do anything about it - meltdown. If she wants to read a book or do something that requires someone else’s help and nobody is available the second she wants it - MELTDOWN! I don’t know if this is teething related (she is getting her molars, and having a hard time with them), or if this is just the beginning of the terrible twos ALREADY. Anybody else here with me?!?

Another issue we’re having is slapping and pinching. Jason and I (and her daycare woman) have all been working with her on this, teaching her “gentle” and that it hurts people when you pick or slap, but it’s been a SLOW process. Sometimes she will slap me, then kiss me and say “gentle”, but then she does it all again. And she REALLY has a problem with the slapping and pinching when she’s really frustrated for any reason.

From Lily April 25 2009 - Emily B's 1st bday

Other than those things, everything has been going quite well! Totally randomly, Lily has started calling me “Mommy” instead of “Mama” over the last week. No idea where she picked it up, but I’m not complaining because it totally melts my heart! She is also talking up a storm and learning new words every day, I swear! This weekend she blew me away by pointing out letters and naming them. Seriously, I didn’t even know that was possible at this age?!? We have a package of Bounty paper towels sitting near our linen closet and she pointed to them and said “B!” and I didn’t think much of it. Then she said “O!”. I thought “hmm, what a coincidence”… but then she said those two letters together at least 2 more times during the day, while pointing to the paper towels. So, I put her down and said “Lily, can you show me the B?” and sure enough, she ran right up to the package and pointed to the “B” in Bounty. I was completely astonished!

We also went to a 1st Birthday Party this weekend for one of our friends daughters (Lily goes to daycare with her, too). It was a lot of fun! Lily was pretty hilarious playing with all the kids. She kept going in and out of this tent and squealing and giggling and making her hair stand up on end, which made the others kids laugh, too. She also got to have a cupcake and made a HUGE mess with it, but she was so excited to be sitting with the big kids that she just had a blast. They were all laughing at how messy she was, and she was laughing because they were. I think we may have a future class clown on our hands!

From Lily April 25 2009 - Emily B's 1st bday

Finally, something completely unrelated. Some of you may know that I chat online with a bunch of women who all also have babies that were born (or due in) December 2007. One of these women I’ve gotten to know had another child before the one that is Lily’s age, but that child passed away at just over 3 months old due to a heart defect as a part of CHARGE syndrome. This past weekend would have been her 3rd Birthday, so I organized some of the women on our board to make a little tribute for this poor little girl, and try to make her Mom feel less alone in her grief. I think it was a huge success! Lily helped me out, and these were the pictures we sent to her -

From April 2009 - for Zoey

From Lily Zoo March 29, 2009

I am seriously fired from blogging - it’s been almost a month since my last update! Is anybody still reading this, or have you all given up on me? We’ve had so much going on, and so many playdates since our last update. Finally, we’re getting out of winter’s hibernation mode! I’ll try to do a quick recap of the highlights, but don’t want to bore you with all the details.

From Lily Zoo March 29, 2009

On Saturday, March 29th, Lily and her cousins (with parents, of course) went to the MN zoo and saw farm babies! It was a lot of fun, and the girls seemed to have a good time. They really loved the various aquariums, and the farm babies section where they got to run around with some of the baby animals (mostly pygmy goats). Lily said “hi” and “bye” to all the animals (very polite), and often reminded them of the noises they were supposed to make. She was especially fond of reminding the sheep, by walking up to the side of their pen and screaming ‘BAAAAAAAAAAAAA’ at them as loud as possible. It was pretty cute! She got so excited and squealed so loud, a bunch of people turned to look at her. Luckily, we were surrounded by other parents so they mostly thought it was cute and smiled at her, instead of wondering whose kid was making that LOUD NOISE?!? heh

From Lily Zoo March 29, 2009

The next couple of days were full of excitement for Lily’s cousins, Claire and Abby (and their parents!). Claire started running a pretty high fever, and ended up having a seizure from it. They all spent most of the night in the ER to find out that she had an ear infection, and they put her on amoxicillan. Finally, a day or two later her fever broke and she broke out in a head to toe rash. Turns out the fever wasn’t from the ear infection - it was Roseola! Finally, she started to feel better from that, then a few days later she broke out in a worse rash. Another Doctor trip later, they discover she’s allergic to amoxicillan and that caused the second rash. Poor Claire! She is finally starting to feel much better. In the midst of all that excitement, Abby got jealous of the “attention” her sister was getting, so she took her first steps and started learning to walk! Not to be left behind, Claire took her first steps a few days later as well.

From Lily April 3 - Easter 2009

Last weekend, Lily and her cousins had their very first sleepover. Lily and I went over to their house where the girls played for a few hours, and showed off their new playroom. Then we fed them dinner and put them to bed (Lily upstairs in their guest room), and Auntie Lisa and I got to hang out! We got to sit and chat, drink some wine, and watched Gilmore Girls episodes and “Marley and Me”. It was so nice to get to spend that amount of time hanging out with my sister - I’ve missed her! Even though we see each other often, we don’t actually get to spend much quality “sister” time together, so this was nice and long overdue. The next morning, we fed the girls breakfast and let them play for a few hours again until nap time when Lily and I headed back home. I’m sure this is only the first of many sleepovers to come, and I hope Lily and her cousins are best friends as they grow up together.

From Lily April 3 - Easter 2009

The beginning of last week, we got a call at work that Lily had hurt herself at daycare. Nothing too serious, as it turns out (thank goodness!), but still a scary call to get! She had climbed up on the couch, then walked right off the edge and banged her face into the coffee table. She split her top lip open pretty good (the underneath/inside part) and it was bleeding for a good 15 minutes. She handled it pretty well, and earned the title of “tough cookie” from her daycare woman! I know it was still bothering her for a day or two because she was very careful with it, especially when eating. Just when her fat lip started to look normal again (Friday), she fell off our bed and re-opened the split, and also bumped her head and got a nice goose egg. It’s looking pretty good at this point, but she still is being pretty careful with it when she eats. I hate to see her get hurt, but I’m thankful this was relatively minor!

From Lily April 3 - Easter 2009

Finally, Easter weekend. We left on Friday morning to go visit Jason’s brother and his family in Rochester. We hung out with them during the afternoon, then drove down to Lanesboro to stay at The Guest Hus Motel, which Jason’s Mom owns. Last time we stayed there, everything went great - but this time, Lily did NOT want to sleep! I think it’s hard for her to sleep in a pack and play with us in the room, because she sees us and wants to be with us. Whatever, the reason, it was a rough night and I think we all got maybe 4-5 hours sleep total.

From Lily April 3 - Easter 2009

On Saturday, we headed to Grandma Gayle’s horse farm for an Easter celebration with Jason’s family. It was a really nice day, and it was nice to be able to see everyone again and show them how much Lily has grown! I was also amazed at how big Tali and Eanna are getting - Tali turns 4 later this month, and Eanna will be 2 in July. It was crazy to see Lily and Eanna together, because they are seriously almost exactly the same size!

From Lily April 3 - Easter 2009

Lily also got to ride a pony again, and this time she’s old enough to really get into it! She LOVED it. I don’t think I emphasized that enough. She. LOVED. It. LOVED! Seriously. Everytime we went back into the house, she kept going up to the door and looking outside where the horses were, pointing outside, and even investigating the doggy door as a means of escape. Even this morning when she woke up, she ran to our front door, pointed outside, and said “me, neigh! me, neigh!”. The hardest part of the trip (other than the lack of sleeping), was the ride home. I think it was somewhat related to the lack of sleeping, and just being sick of being in the car. I had hoped that Lily would sleep most of the way home because I know she was tired (and somewhat cranky), and she did pass out immediately in the car, but woke up after about 20-30 minutes and would NOT go back to sleep. For most of the remaining 2.5 hours of the trip, Lily was fussing and/or out-and-out screaming. We pulled over twice, and finally I drove while Jason rode in the back with her, and that seemed to help. Needless to say, we were all very happy to be home again! We all went to bed early and slept very well last night.

From Lily April 3 - Easter 2009

Finally, Easter day! We woke up and Lily found the 6 plastic easter eggs the Easter Bunny hid around the living room (containing such things as “bunny graham crackers” and dried cranberries, etc). Then she got the stuffed duck the Easter Bunny brought her, and gave him a nice, big hug (so cute!). I made her special breakfast, gave her a bath, and put her down for an earlier nap. She didn’t nap much, but woke up in time to get ready for my family’s Easter celebration. I got her dressed in her pretty Easter dress, and we headed to my Aunt and Uncles house. Lily spent a lot of time there with Claire and Abby, and her 2nd cousins Blake and Rachel, who were very interested in helping with the babies. I think all 3 babies did pretty well, especially since none of them had much sleep and there was a lot of people, and a lot of attention on them.

From Lily April 3 - Easter 2009

I think that pretty much catches us up! I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter, and spring break for those of you lucky enough to get one (=p~). I promise I won’t let a whole month pass before our next update.

From Lily March 21-22 2009

Oh the words this child learns! Her latest obsession is with the word “spider”. She has the book “Itsy-Bitsy Spider” which we have read to her for a few months, and on Friday evening I was trying to calm her down after a bit of post-vaccination fussiness by singing her the itsy-bitsy spider and doing the hand motions. Little did I know that she was paying RAPT attention and would pick up the word spider and request me to sing and dance for her FOR THE REST OF THE WEEKEND.

From Lily March 21-22 2009

So, about that Doctors appointment on Friday. I told her we were going to the doctor that morning, and everytime that day I said Doctor, she repeated it. The appointment went pretty well, Lily is 32.5″ tall and weighs 27lbs. Pretty much 90-95%th percentile for everything. She had two shots, but they almost seemed to bother her more than normal afterwards. She usually handles the shots pretty well but this time there was some definite fussiness that evening. I think it’s the combination of the shots plus teething (I think she’s getting her molars in), and this round of teething has been horrible. She’s been clingier than normal and has been very difficult to put to sleep lately. I can’t wait for these teeth to break through and hope we get back to the “normal” good-sleeping routine I’ve gotten used to!

From Lily March 21-22 2009

Lily saw a different Doctor on Friday because Dr. Pepper is on maternity leave (woohoo!). Lily was more outgoing than she ever has been at the Dr’s office, and the new Doctor was quite impressed! Lily kept trying to put her clothes back on, and showed the Dr. her sock and said “Dock! (sock)”. Plus Lily kept grabbing at the stethoscope so the Doctor handed her the end that you usually put on your chest, etc, and asked Lily to help her. Lily looked at her and nodded, then put the stethoscope right up to her heart. It was so cute!

From Lily March 21-22 2009

Other than that, we are loving the spring weather and spending lots of time outside and at the park. Lily spends most of the day at daycare outside as well, and she is absolutely loving it! She cries when we come inside, and tries to push the door open again. Her Daycare woman (Jen) gave me a starter pack of Amish Friendship Bread last week, and this weekend I baked the final product. It’s really good! Lily loves it, too, of course because it has cinnamon and sugar on it. We might have a play date or two coming up this next week/weekend, but everything is still pretty tentative right now.

Here is a little video of one of the thousands and thousands of performances of “itsy-bitsy spider” this weekend. Please ignore my voice! By the way, when Lily stopped doing the “sun” action, and I asked her where the sun was - she pointed to a picture of the Last Supper that was behind me on the wall (get it - Jesus. sun/son. yeah.). I found it quite humorous! If you listen closely, at the end she says “Mom? do spider!”. You may not understand it, but hear it 994859485749759849584985 times like I have, and you will soon!

Finally, this is Lily’s “spider” (hanging in our Living Room):

From Lily March 21-22 2009