Well, it appears that I have become a “once-a-month” blogger. I’m just going to let myself be ok with that! The main downside is that I just can’t REMEMBER all the cute stories that have happened over the last month, so forgive me if I get disjointed or ramble on.
What a month March was!! Beautiful, beautiful weather and a complete lack of snow (!!) gave us the opportunity to get outside a lot more and start to cure our cabin fever over this long winter. Some of the things we’ve done so far this spring - gone to the zoo, easter egg “hunt”, pajama party at grandmas, flying kites, swimming lessons, bubble-blowing, and many, many walks and trips to the park.
A couple of weeks ago we woke up on a beautiful Saturday and wanted to do something fun with Lily. Jason suggested the Children’s Museum so we started getting ready to go there. Then I saw online that my friend Jill A was going to the zoo and I thought “that sounds like fun” - plus our membership was about to expire. THEN my sister texted me and said she and her family were heading to the zoo - so that settled it! We met Auntie Lisa, Uncle Ryan, and Claire and Abby at the zoo and had a fun, spontaneous day. 
The Easter Egg Hunt we went to was put on by our city, and wasn’t really a hunt at all (as I expected it would be). Another huge surprise to me was the AMOUNT of people that were there! It was open to kids 12 and under, and when we showed up a few minutes before it was to start the line went out the back of the city hall building, all the way down the block, turned the corner and went halfway down THAT street! We waited in line for about a hour and when we finally got inside Lily got to pick 2 plastic eggs out of a laundry basket, then bring them into this big prize room where a volunteer opened them and brought her the prizes she won. In this case she won some colored pencils and a fish game - but one of the kids ahead of us won a new BIKE! It was certainly an experience, though I’m not sure if we’re going to go again next year.
The pajama party at Grandma’s - Grandma was on spring break and decided that she’d like to have all three granddaughters sleep over at the same time (Brave Woman!). So she organized a pajama party for them, made them a special meal (homemade mac and cheese, hot dogs, and strawberries I believe), treats, games (fishing for prizes, etc), activities (dying easter eggs), and more! When I came to pick Lily up the next afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa looked like they were about to fall over and sleep for a week, but the girls were all really good and had a great time! I think this may have to become a regular event, if Grandma and Grandpa can survive it! 
We began swimming lessons every Thursday evening, which will go until sometime in May. So far, I think it’s been a big success! Lily’s favorite part is jumping into the pool (what a shocker there - huh?) and she’s not so fond of floating on her back. Other than that, she picked up kicking and “reach and pull” like a pro! She did accidentally go under water on her 2nd week of lessons, which scared me to death but she did REALLY well! She managed to hold her breath and blow air out of her nose (I could see the bubbles) and when she came up she wasn’t coughing or screaming, just looked at me with huge eyes like “WHAT just happened??”. I think we’re going to be dunking her on purpose in one of the classes in the next week or two, so I really hope her reaction is just as good that time, too.
One more picture I had to include from our kite flying session a few weeks ago - this picture is underexposed and blurry, but there’s something about it I really, really like! It kind of looks like a dream or a painting or something..
Other than stuff we’ve been doing - Lily continues to grow and change almost daily. She makes Jason and I laugh like nobody else with the silly things she does or says. The other day she called out to me from her room when she woke up - “Mommy? Where IS my BINKY?” I looked at her and said “In your mouth?” and she stopped for a minute and said “Oh. hehehehehhehee (total giggles)”. She has developed this funny way of overemphasizing every word when she says certain things, especially when she’s in a silly mood. She also sounds like a teenager whenever you call her name and she replies with this bored-sounding “What.”. She has started to tell stories a lot, which can always make me smile - especially when I can follow most of it! Sometimes she’s just retelling the story of a certain Word World episode or something, but acting as if it happened to her or she was involved.. sometimes she just gets a collection of random information and strings it together into a story with a bunch of “and then’s” in the middle.
She has discovered that the magic in “Mommy kisses” must come from saliva! The other day we were at the park and she bumped her head on something. She was being kind of mopey about it so I asked her if she wanted me to kiss it. She looked at me, licked her finger and touched her head where she had bumped it and said, “Nope. I’m good.”, then ran off to play again. She’s also very concerned about how people are feeling - especially that they’re happy! She is always asking us (me especially) if we are happy, and then verifying that we are STILL happy after something has happened or some time has passed.
The other day when we were driving home she asked me - “Mommy, what is a Mommy?” I asked her what she thought a Mommy was and she said “A Mommy is a people. A Daddy is a people, too.” I asked her if Lily was people, too and she decided, “No.”. Then I told her that I was her Mommy, and she was Daddy and my daughter. She thought about this for a minute, then nodded and said, “Yeah! That’s what Daddy calls me - Lily Daughter!” (he actually says Lily Dot - Dot being short for Dorothy).
We are still somewhat struggling with sleeping - good days and bad days - whether it be nap time or bed time, but I think it will iron itself out soon. Part of it, I think, is her imagination on overdrive. She has started saying random things about monsters when we try to put her to sleep (she can see a green monster, or hear a monster crying, etc) but she doesn’t really ACT as if she’s scared, she seems like she’s just telling a story.
There have probably been at least a dozen cute stories or things she’s said that I want to share with everyone, but I just haven’t been very good at writing them down and I can’t remember them for very long. I wish I could have a video recorder on her all the time because I know how precious these memories are, and I know how quickly it will pass by. I will try to make more of an effort to jot some of these down and share them with you! For now, there are a few cute things on the twitter feed on the right-hand side, and there are TONS of cute pics (4 albums worth!) so please check those out to get your Lily-fix!
