From Lily August 2010 jumping

Where, oh where has summer gone? I can’t believe it’s “back to school” time already, and the number of Autumn-like things I’ve seen lately leave no room for denial. Summer is ending. Sigh. Well, it’s not as if I can change it, so I will just try to embrace the changes and focus on the things I like. Plus, it’s not like it’s winter… YET!

From Lily August 2010

This summer has just flown by! We have managed to stay busy, as usual, and somehow I suddenly stop and look at my daughter who has morphed from our cute little toddler who was somehow still an extension of ourselves, to her very own little independent, opinionated, imaginative, creative, thoughtful person. The change in her over these last few months has been pretty big, and I think we’re all still trying to figure it all out. Lily herself is definitely trying to feel out her place in the world, and her place in our family since becoming more of a “big kid”. I think the thought of it scares her sometimes as she has been requesting a lot lately that we “hold her like a little baby”, or call her “little baby”, or even going so far as to say she wants a baby bottle instead of a cup. On the flip side, sometimes she is so proud of her “big girl” actions, like going potty on the big potty and getting to wear underwear instead of a diaper. She is always asking us to clarify - is she a big kid or a little kid? Then she has to ask about every person she’s ever met in her life to see how she compares. I think she says it best when she refers to herself as a “Little Big Girl”.

From Lily August 2010 sleepover birthdays

We’ve had some scary moments as well. Last Thursday when I went to go pick Lily up from daycare, they were about to cross the alley into the neighbors backyard to pick raspberries. Lily was running ahead of the group and I yelled at her to stop and wait for everybody else, but of course she didn’t listen. I told her to not cross the alley without a grown up, but she either didn’t understand or didn’t care. I don’t think she gets the danger of alleys, she doesn’t think of them like streets. So she was all set to go bounding across the alley when a car drove RIGHT in front of her. Luckily the car was going very slow (unlike many that drive in the alley) and they saw her and stopped right in front of her, but that car was only about 1 foot directly in front of Lily. I was still about 5-10 feet back and I just yelled “STOP!” at her and I think it startled her enough to make her stop briefly, but I think I still had a minor heart attack. When we got home, we had a talk about the whole situation and I told her how scary it was. She seems to not be afraid of cars and think if you get hit by one, it’s just an owie like any other. She had recently been talking about Jenny’s kitty who is an “angel kitty” now and flies in the sky, so I tried to correlate that story with this scenario and tell her that what makes Jenny and the angel kitty sad is that the kitty can’t ever see Jenny or the rest of her family again, and Jenny can’t see the kitty again. So I told her that getting hit by a car could hurt you so bad that you died, and you wouldn’t be able to see Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa (etc) again, and that would make us all VERY, VERY sad. I think she “kind of” got that it was a serious situation, and she was sad.. but I just don’t know how to make a 2 year old understand DANGER, and that there are certain times that LISTENING is non-negotiable.

From Lily August 28 2010 swimming

I must also confess that I have been horrible at recording her Lily-isms lately. She’s had many of them, and she says at least one thing that cracks us up every single day! The personality on this child is just incredible. I have no excuse for forgetting to write them down, and I need to get better at that! Some other personality tidbits: she has developed an obsession with washing her hands. Not something I can (or really want to) discourage, but we are going through soap like CRAZY and I do not want to see our next water bill. Her swimming abilities have taken off like crazy! She especially loves it when she has her “floaties” (water wings) on and can swim independently.. then she will purposefully dunk under water or jump in and go underwater, then come back up to the top and she’s SO proud of herself. Lately she has decided she likes showers better than baths (thank you, splash pad!) which makes our life easier because showers are SO much quicker and easier! Last night after dinner she took off her clothes and her diaper, then announced that she had to go potty. She went into the bathroom and lifted the lid on the toilet, put her little seat on it, pulled her stool over and climbed up and sat on the toilet and went potty. Then she wiped, moved the stool over to the sink where she washed her hands, climbed down and dried them off and then turned on the shower and tried to climb in. All with absolutely no help from Jason or I, and we both sat there watching her, completely stunned. What are we needed for, anyway??

From Lily - August 2010 misc playing

I’m sorry I’m really failing at this blog thing lately.. life has just been so busy, and I’ve been so tired! It’s taken me 4 days again to finish this entry, so hopefully it’s not too disjointed. I will leave it here for this month, and promise to work on recording Lilyisms and make a more detailed post next month where hopefully I can tell you that Lily is fully potty-trained! Wish us luck! As always, there are many more pictures to see if you click on an album link. Have a wonderful start to the school year, everyone!

From Lily Cabin July 2010

The picture above was taken at the Tagalong where we rented the Pontoon boat. We took a similar picture last year in the same spot. I can’t believe how much has changed in one year! I can only imagine what next year will be like..

Wow, what a whirlwind month! I think we can pick up from the last post with the SURPRISE PARTY I threw Jason for his 30th Birthday! What a relief it was to get that done - planning was incredibly frustrating, but I think I managed to pull off a fun night at Elsie’s. Thanks to everyone who was able to show up!

From Lily Bday Party June 2010

Speaking of birthdays, we also had a big birthday celebration at my parent’s house for a bunch of may/june birthdays (my cousin’s daughters turned 21, my Dad celebrated a birthday, my Aunty Pat, and Jason). It was a gorgeous day weather-wise and we all had a fun time out on the patio! There are TONS of pics in the linked album, but here’s a few of my favorites:

From Lily Bday Party June 2010

From Lily Bday Party June 2010

From Lily Bday Party June 2010

From Lily Bday Party June 2010

Then, the end of June rolled around. We traveled out to Lake Mills, WI to visit some of my Mom’s cousins, and to go to a memorial service for Great Aunt Gloria, who passed away in December. She was an incredible woman, and left behind an amazing family. While we were out that way, Jason’s Dad drove in to see us and he and Jason spent some quality time together going to some historic sites in the area (Indian burial grounds, and stuff about a pyramid in the middle of Rock Lake out there). Our friends Jeremy and Cara (and JJ!) also drove all the way out from Milwaukee to see us! It was so nice to see them again, and meet their little boy. We live far enough apart that we don’t get to see each other often enough, and now they are moving to Vermont next month so we won’t get to see them again for quite some time. Cara was 9 months pregnant at the time, and has since given birth to a beautiful little girl!

From Lily Wisconsin Trip June 2010

From Lily Wisconsin Trip June 2010

We started off July with a bang as Jason and I (along with Greg, Dave, Shawn, and Andy) went to the TOOL concert at Xcel Energy Center. That was a great night, and amazingly I stayed awake through the next day at work, which was also my last day before our 1-week CABIN VACATION! Always the highlight of my summer! We had a blast going swimming at the beach club, swinging on the swing Grandpa hung up off the deck, renting a pontoon boat, and playing a million card games each night after the girls went to sleep. Lily, Claire, and Abby got to sleep in the same room (on the same air mattress!) together this year, which was certainly interesting! They actually did pretty well at night time - the twins especially would conk out pretty quickly and we would hear Lily over the monitor, talking and singing to herself. We did overhear some amusing things when she would pretend to talk to her cousins even though they were asleep! “You’re Claire, and You’re Claire! Except one of you is Abby…” Lily and Claire especially like to do their own rendition of “Under the Sea” from the little mermaid, which is adorable beyond words. We did learn, however, that nap times would just NOT happen if they shared a room so we had to split them up during the day, which worked out pretty well.

From Lily Cabin July 2010

That brings us to this weekend, which has been much more laid-back than our previous few weekends. We had the Beaverson’s over for dinner on Friday night, which was fun! Other than that we’ve just been relaxing and getting things done around the house, and trying to deal with a crabby 2-year-old who is FINALLY breaking through her 2-year molars.

From Lily July 2010 Splash Pad

Sorry about the lateness of this post, but it took me 4 days to write this AS IS! There are TONS and TONS and TONS of pics and every one of the (FOUR!) albums I posted, so please feel free to browse through those! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, and can we please make time slow down a little bit now?!?

From Lily July 2010 Splash Pad

From Lily May 2010 misc

Time has just been flying by this past month! I started my new job at the U of M, and so far I REALLY like it! The people are super nice, the environment is amazingly efficient given how MASSIVE it is, and every day I leave work at 3:30 and am DONE for the day! I don’t even have to check my email from home at night… a major, major change for the better. It’s hard to believe it’s been a month already, but I do feel like I’m getting into the swing of things, and a few weeks ago I even got an email from my boss saying “Good Job!”.

From Lily May 2010 misc

I had a fantastic Mother’s Day this year! My darling daughter and wonderful husband bought me a lens for my camera (which I LOVE), and a gift certificate to use at National Camera - which I used to buy a filter. They set the bar pretty high so now the pressure is on for father’s day! But before I even start thinking about Father’s Day there is another big event coming up next week - Jason’s 30TH BIRTHDAY!! (He’s young, I know.) So glad he will finally join me in this decade, and he gets to lose half of his “old jokes” saying that he’s ONLY in his 20s and I’m all the way in my 30s!

From Lily May 2010 misc

(so mad I had my setting wrong on this pic and it’s so dark because otherwise I love it!)

Tomorrow is Lily’s last day (for the summer) at her regular daycare provider. We have an interesting setup for the summer where Lily will go over to her Auntie Lisa’s house and spend time with her (and Claire and Abby!) three days each week. The other two days she’ll spend at Grandma and Grandpa’s, one day alone and one day with her cousins. I think she’ll have a blast hanging out with her cousins all the time this summer! I feel so thankful that I have such a wonderful family to step up and help us out, and knowing that we have a safe place we can trust to send Lily while we work this summer. I think they’ll have quite a bit of fun with her, too! Wonder if I can get them to write down all the Lily-isms I miss during the day?

From Lily Farm Memorial Day 2010

We have done a number of exciting things since I last posted here - we took Lily to a drive-in movie with her Aunt and Uncles and cousins, which I think she enjoyed! We just watched Shrek and left as they were starting IronMan 2 because she didn’t want to sleep in the car. We went to the water park already a few times at the end of May when it got really warm and she LOVES it this year! Sometimes it takes her a few minutes to “warm up” to the idea of getting doused by freezing cold water, but she always ends up having a blast. We had a fun playdate with our friends Braimee (Brian, Aimee, and Cameron), and we went to an (unrelated) picnic in the rain. Also, we went to Grandma Gayle’s farm over memorial weekend and Lily got to pet a 2-week-old pony! She (and her cousins Eanna, Tali, Khavy, and Dominic) had a GREAT time! I took a BUNCH of pictures and some actually turned out pretty decent (much to my surprise!). I’ve posted a few on this blog, but you can see the whole album here: Memorial Day Farm picture album

From Lily Farm Memorial Day 2010

Lily is becoming such a “big girl” right before our eyes, it’s amazing to watch! Her personality shines through, and I can say without a doubt that she is one of the most funny people I’ve ever known! She is also very sweet and thoughtful, and I love seeing her softer side come out every once in a while. One thing I’m not particularly THRILLED about is that she’s discovered a love of insects lately (Auntie Chandra, you’d be so proud!). Everywhere we go, I can hardly get her to come inside because she’s busy picking up some kind of bug - spiders, ants, box elder bugs, it doesn’t matter to her - she loves them all! We went to a picnic (in the rain) last weekend and she grossed out a whole table of adults by picking up a daddy long legs and holding it in the air with it’s legs squirming all around! Yuck!

From Lily Mothers Day 2010

Lily has been working very hard at making the distinction between “grown-up” and “kid”, and what the different groups are (and aren’t!) allowed to do. She tells me all the time that she’s a big kid, but a “little big kid” and I think she means that she’s growing up but she’s still a little kid and can only do things appropriate for a little kid. A few weeks ago she said to me, “Mommy, I can’t say ‘what the heck’ because I’m a little kid, but when I’m bigger I can say it!”. She also asked me this morning if she was allowed to say “Holy Buckets!” and seemed to take it pretty well when I told her no. Sometimes you can tell she’s being funny on purpose, but other times I think she’s hilarious without even realizing it! She fell out of bed the other night and cried, so I went in and picked her up and asked her, “Are you ok? Did you hit anything?” and she looks at me with these big eyes and quivering lip and said (completely seriously), “Yeah! The GROUND!” As soon as I got back to my own bed, Jason and I laid there and laughed (as silently as we could manage).

From Lily Farm Memorial Day 2010

I feel like there were more stories I should be telling, because literally I find something adorable/hilarious/inspiring or just plain note-worthy almost every single day. However, it is getting past my bedtime now so I will just have to leave you to browse through the multitudes of pictures I’ve taken this time! July’s update will very possibly be late due to the 4th of July holiday and our vacation to the cabin. Have a happy summer everyone!

From Lily April 2010 lake wildflower garden

Hey, look at that - it’s been a month already! I think this once-a-month blogging is working pretty well for me. And, boy, what a month it’s been! Lots of stuff to catch up on. First bit of big news - I got a new job! I no longer work at Hopkins - my last day was April 29th!! On Monday I start as a “System Administrator - Windows” for the Office of Information Technology (OIT) at the University of Minnesota. I’m nervous and super-excited for the change - I’ll be sure to post and keep you updated on how it’s going.

From Lily April 2010 lake wildflower garden

The most difficult part about my new position is that I’m going to be giving up my Fridays off with Lily. I am so incredibly grateful that I’ve been able to have that extra time with her for the first 2 years of her life, but I admit that I will miss it (and her) a lot. To celebrate our “last” friday together today I took her out for lunch, just the two of us. I told her that I’ve had such a fun time with her and enjoyed our “girls Fridays” and she nodded and said, “yeah! I love you so much, little Mommy.” so then I had to choke back the tears! I know I’m a total sap, but the child melts my heart like nobody I have ever met!

From Lily April 2010 lake wildflower garden

Some other big things that have been happening this last month - Lily developed a sudden, unprompted interest in potty training! She asked me three times in one day if she could sit on the big girl potty, so I let her but she didn’t really do anything. I told her daycare woman about it the next day and so she sat her on the potty after lunch and Lily did go pee. I took her out to the store and we bought a potty training chart with stickers, and a bunch of prizes for when she earned enough stickers (I like that idea better than rewarding with M&Ms or the like). My plan was to do a prize from the bag for every 10 “pee” stickers, every 3 “poop” stickers, and if she went potty on the big potty every day for FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT she could get a dress-up dress (that she’s been dying for lately). It started out well, she was really excited and kept talking about the “5 days in a row” excitement, but the excitement fizzled out after a few days before she even earned a single prize. I backtracked and decided the next time she did ANYTHING on the potty that I’d give her a prize to show her that she DOES get rewards, but she hasn’t done anything yet. I think maybe she’s not REALLY ready yet and we may back off and try again in a few months.

From Lily April 2010 lake wildflower garden

Random Lily-isms: A few weeks ago we had strawberry shortcake for dessert, only instead of shortcake we had angelfood cake. I brought it out and Lily announced to everyone - “Yay! It’s my birthday!!”

My daycare woman passed this one on to me - a couple of weeks ago Lily was at daycare and told Jenny, “There are 3 girls outside - Maeghan, Molly, and Lexie. There are 3 girls inside - Lily, Emily, and Sadie. There are 6 girls.” Jen said her mouth dropped open and when she finally recovered all she could think to say was, “uh… don’t forget about Jacob?” To be fair, she did say GIRLS.

I painted Lily’s toenails one weekend and then the next weekend we had a sleepover with her cousins Claire and Abby and gave all 3 girls manicures and pedicures. They all did REALLY well and Lily thought it was about the coolest thing ever to wear nail polish - on her toes! A few days later we were out driving and drove by a water fountain, and she matter-of-factly told Jason and I, “That’s a fountain. It waters the grass so it can be pretty. Like my toes.”

Speaking of that sleepover - for the first time we attempted to let all 3 girls sleep in the same bed (since Claire and Abby are in Big Girl Beds! now, too!) and I think they’re close but it just did not quite work out. Lily wasn’t very tired, and Claire was VERY tired, so Claire was trying to sleep and Lily and Abby stayed awake talking and giggling and stuff which made Claire upset. We ended up having to move Claire and Abby upstairs to the guest bedroom where Abby promptly climbed out of her pack-and-play and slept in the guest bed. Poor Lisa didn’t get much sleep that night!

Lily was telling me a story about a dream she had the other night and was talking about Dragons, then Dinosaurs. I can’t remember exactly what she said Dinosaurs do, but I just said “Oh, Dinosaurs do that, do they?” and she replied, “Well, only the Pteranodon.” I’m sure she picked this up from a book of hers (Snoozers) that has a Pteranodon in it, but it was still crazy to hear her say that out of the blue! Today she even used the word “intermittent”! She used it incorrectly, but still Jason and I had to ask her 3 times what she said to be sure we were hearing correctly. heh

From Lily Twins sleepover April 2010

Another form of amusement lately - I don’t remember how exactly this started but it seemed accidental that one day at dinner Jason and Lily were talking and started suddenly just saying a word, then going back and forth listing words that rhymed with the original word. “Look - book - took - crook - nook - shook” etc. Lily thought this was HILARIOUS and kept erupting into this enormous and adorable belly laugh, so we’ve made it kind of a game that I call “Rhyme time”. Nice and easy to play in the car when she’s bored, and she seems to love it!

Finally, if anyone has a Burlington Coat Factory near them you should go and check out some of the adorable sundresses they have for little girls! They had a TON of them for like $8.99 when we were there a few weeks ago and of course I couldn’t resist. Here’s Lily modeling one of them that evening (and her new Dora sandals - she would be very upset if I didn’t mention those!). Enjoy! Until next month?

From Lily Twins sleepover April 2010

From Lily March 2010 kite

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.

From Lily March 2010 kite

From Lily March 2010 kite

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.

From Lily March 2010 zoo and edinborough

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.

From Lily March 2010 zoo and edinborough

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!

From Lily March 2010 bubbles

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.

From Easter 2010

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..

From Lily March 2010 kite

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!

From Lily Feb 5-14 2010

I’m not feeling too creative right now, and I’ve been trying to write this post for 4 days.. so forgive me if it’s short and boring! I can’t believe it’s March already, and I’m SO HAPPY it’s March already!! I have had spring fever SO BAD for months now. I think this winter has been so long, so cold, and so snowy and I just can’t wait until it’s over! Ok, that’s enough of that!

From Lily Feb 5-14 2010

Updates on Lily - she is adorable as ever, but we are COMPLETELY in the terrible twos. She argues with us for the sake of arguing, she wants to do everything herself, she’s belligerent and doesn’t listen, and she isn’t SLEEPING. This Mama is exhausted, people! We still put her to bed by 7:30 but for the last 3 weeks or so she doesn’t fall asleep until 10-10:30 or so, then I have to wake her up by 6:15 so I can go to work. I tried skipping her nap hoping that it would help her fall asleep earlier, but then she was just about falling over by 5pm and STILL wouldn’t go to sleep until 9-9:30! One night she came walking out into the living room and handed me the bulb from her night light - she unscrewed it! The next night she walked out and handed me her entire night light, unplugged.. then she chucked it down the hall into her room and shattered the bulb. Needless to say, she no longer has a night light in her room.

From Lily Feb 5-14 2010

I love so many things about this age - I love seeing her incredible personality, having conversations with her, and hearing how her mind works. I love watching her learn something, and the things that come out of her mouth are just adorable (see “Lily-isms” on the right-hand side of this blog)! She makes me laugh almost every single day! However, there are certainly a lot of challenges with this age as well. She completely knows all of her letters and the sounds they make (she quizzed me the other day and said I did “pretty good”). She is starting to sound out words, and is learning to write a few letters (”O” being the most common, though she has written an “L” too). She can’t go to bed at night without at least one book in bed with her and sits and “reads” it before she goes to sleep, and lately has added more and more stuffed animals into her bed at night so you can hardly find her in the middle! Word World is still her absolute favorite show, and I think her favorite people in the world (outside of Mommy and Daddy) are her cousins Claire and Abby, and Grandma and Grandpa. Oh, have I also mentioned she’s a shoe fanatic? I have NO IDEA where she gets that from - really!

From Lily Feb 5-14 2010

Ok, well. I ATTEMPTED to do a very “ghetto” photo shoot of Lily, so if you want to laugh at that, click on the album below! I hung a sheet over her door as a backdrop but didn’t realize HOW BADLY the sheet was wrinkled until I really looked at the pics and they’re all pretty horrible. Plus she wouldn’t stay in the right spot, or wouldn’t look at me, or wouldn’t smile! Then she kept running over to me after every picture and saying “did you take a picture? Can I see?” This is one of the best ones -

From Lily Feb 14-21 2010

Finally, I’ll leave you with a few snow pictures from our yard this weekend. Jason took Lily out into the yard and they went sledding down our front hill, built a snow tunnel, and an ice sculpture! They had a great time.

From Lily playing in snow - Feb 2010

From Lily playing in snow - Feb 2010

From 2010-01 Big girl Bed and joint Bday Party

Well, we had even MORE birthday celebrations this month, beginning with a joint birthday party for Lily (2), Claire (2), Abby (2), and Uncle Greg (30) on January 10th. It was mostly family at the party and we had a great time! Hopefully I can teach Lily that birthdays don’t TYPICALLY last well over a month! The following weekend we had a surprise party for Uncle Greggy for his 30th birthday. It went well, and we pulled off the surprise after a number of close calls! I think Greggy had a good time, and that’s the most important part.

From 2010-01 Big girl Bed and joint Bday Party

Finally, the tale end of the “big girl bed saga”. If you remember from last post, Lily learned to climb out of her crib so we converted it to a toddler bed. In doing so, we found out that her crib had been recalled and needed to be “destroyed” (we had to send in all screws and support plates as proof we weren’t using it). After much debate, we decided to use the crib as the “full-size headboard and footboard” and just buy her a full size box spring, mattress, and rails. We went out and did that the very next weekend, and ended up having to rent a truck to pick up the mattress, drop them off at home, and return the truck (mostly to avoid the $90 delivery fee). We also went all the way down to IKEA to get bed slats only to find out the rails we bought were “slatless rails” so we didn’t need them and need to go return them to IKEA. After all that running, Jason put together the new bed and we realized the bed was SUPER high off the ground. Lily couldn’t even climb up on it with the little steps we put near the bed and I was really afraid of her falling off the bed from that height since she had been falling out of bed pretty frequently since the conversion. Jason and I discussed our options, and finally decided to disassemble the bed, disassemble our guest bed upstairs, and swap the frames. So the guest bed frame is in Lily’s room now with her NEW mattress and box spring, and the guest room has Lily’s bed frame with its original box spring and mattress. PHEW! Way too much drama for a “simple” change! The good news is that the transition is going very well. She sleeps really well in the bed, doesn’t flip around as much as she did in her crib (even keeps her blankets on some nights!) and hasn’t fallen out of bed once. She loves the new bed so much that we must do EVERYTHING in bed - change her diaper, read her books, play with dolls or games - everything. I’m sure the novelty may wear off at some point!

From 2010-01 Big girl Bed and joint Bday Party

Now that the big girl bed transition is done, I think our next big milestone is going to be getting rid of the “binky”. It’s starting to drive me crazy! We’ve been really good for quite some time at restricting the binky to sleeping times - naps and bed time - but lately Lily is going in reverse and wants the binky 24/7. I’m sick of trying to find them, and listening to the whine when I tell her binky is only for sleeping! So, I think we’re going to give that a try in the next few weeks - wish us luck!

From 2010-Jan Binkies

Let’s see - on Thursday the 21st I got a call at work from daycare saying Lily had hurt herself. Apparently she was jumping on the couch at daycare and Jen yelled at her to get off the couch and Lily didn’t listen. Jen was walking over to pull Lily down and Lily decided to JUMP OFF THE COUCH and hit the side of her face near her eye on the coffee table. I took her in to Urgent Care and the Doctor was very kind, told me we could do a stitch or two because the cup was somewhat deep, but after talking about the pros and cons I decided against the stitches. Her eye swelled up pretty nice the next day (about half-way shut) and she had a nice black eye but I was really impressed at how quickly it healed. Unfortunately, the “jumping” lesson was NOT learned as she continues to jump on the couch and on the bed and is way too acrobatic and daring for my comfort!

Right after injury:

From 2010 Jan - black eye

From 2010 Jan - black eye

Next Day:

From 2010 Jan - black eye

From 2010 Jan - black eye

From 2010 Jan - black eye

Day 3:

From 2010 Jan - black eye

Finally, last weekend we took Lily out to her first movie! We went to the Cinema Grill where Lily got in free and Jason and I were only $2.50, and saw “The Princess and the Frog”. It was actually a great way to try out going to a movie because it was cheap so we weren’t wasting much if we needed to walk out and leave, plus she was somewhat distracted by food, and we sat on a bench in the back so she had more room to move around. She did REALLY good the whole time - at first she was so amazed she was just STARING at the screen with her mouth hanging open. It was so much fun to watch! She was perfectly well-behaved through the whole movie until about half an hour before the end when she stood up and announced to the theater “I’m ALL DONE with this movie!”. heheheh

From 2010 Jan - surprise party

Random updates - Lily has been getting argumentative over every little thing lately. For instance, reading one of her books that mentions a cow eating grass and she tells me “No, Mommy. A cow does NOT eat GRASS.” And I’ll say “I think he does, honey” and she says “I think he does NOT.” (Then she went on to say a cow eats fruit snacks - HA!) She also loves her new bed, which I mentioned above, and she is still doing amazingly well with her verbal skills and word recognition. She knows all of her letters and what sound they make, and she’s starting to recognize some words when written down (Lily, hat, water to name a few). She LOVES pointing out letters on ANYTHING anywhere we go and always wants to know “what is that spell?” when she reads them aloud to us. Lily loves to call some of her scribbles certain letters, and Jen said she’s going to start working with her on writing her name. I just can’t believe how big she’s getting! It happens so fast. I saw a 6-week old baby today and can hardly remember Lily being that small already, and sometimes can’t believe she’s not STILL that small - how does the time go so fast? Hope things are well with you all and I’ll try and update again sooner rather than later!

From Christmas 2009

From Christmas 2009

From Christmas 2009

From Christmas 2009

Due to the weather, we all ended up spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house (except for the Lambert clan), and amazingly Santa found us there on Christmas morning! We woke up Christmas morning and were just doing normal stuff - I had to change Lily’s diaper, etc, waiting for everyone to get up and moving and I think Grandma was almost more excited to go see what Santa brought than Lily was! Finally, we did tell her that Santa came and we should go downstairs and see what he brought and then she got really excited!

From Christmas 2009

Our original plan had been to drive down to Jason’s Moms house on Christmas Day, but because of the bad weather we decided to push it off one day. We ended up spending most of the rest of the day at my parents house, then met the extended family at Aunty Pat’s house for pie in the afternoon. The most exciting part of that was getting to meet my newest 2nd cousin - Alexander Lawrence! He was only 1 week old at Christmas and SO good - he slept through the whole thing. He’s adorable!

From Christmas 2009

Christmas evening we went home and unpacked all of our stuff from that sleepover, and repacked for our trip to the farm. Right away Saturday morning we headed out to Jason’s Mom’s house and met up with Jason’s family (Grandma Gayle, Grandma Jim, Uncle Shawn, Aunt Shannon, Cousins Arian, Tali, Eanna AND even the Wilkemeyers (Aunt Chandra, Uncle Aaron, cousins Akasha and Aria) were in town from VA! We had another great Christmas down at the farm, and Lily got to sit on and pet a couple of horses!

From Christmas 2009

Overnight at Grandma Gayles, Lily made a new discovery - that she could climb out of her pack-and-play without help. I was really hoping she’d never discover this! We would put her in it to go to sleep, and she’d climb right back out. One time she climbed back out immediately, before I could even sit down again. Finally, she did sleep well but it was only a few days later at home that she decided to try it in her crib. I heard her waking up and went into her room and saw her with one leg on top of her crib rail up to her knee, and trying to hoist herself on top of the rail. She looked over at me and said “This is scary!”. You’re telling me, kiddo! So, that night we converted her crib to a “toddler bed” (day bed kind of thing). In doing so, we realized that her crib has been recalled so we’re trying to figure out exactly what we’re going to do. I think we might end up getting her a new, full-size bed, and use the voucher we get to buy a new crib and just leave it in the box until we need it again whenever we have another baby. I can’t believe how fast Lily is growing up! This “big girl bed” has been quite an adventure, and she seems like such a big kid to me. It’s so bittersweet!

The only unfortunate part about her new bed is naps. They have been pretty hit or miss for the last few months, but since switching her crib to a bed she hasn’t napped in it once. She still naps at daycare, and she napped at my parents house once, but she won’t nap at home which has been frustrating - I’m not ready to give up nap time yet!

From NYE 2009 and big girl bed

Sorry, I rambled off there - once we got back from Grandma Gayle’s (that Sunday) our friend Travis came to visit from New Mexico! It was nice to see him, even though I didn’t get to spend much time hanging out and I had to work the next day. I think he’ll be back this summer, so I’ll look forward to hanging out with him more then! Now, let’s fast-forward to New Years Eve. We had spent so much time running over our long Christmas weekend that I think we were all in need of a more low-key weekend at home, and to just spend some time together without things to do all the time. We went to the Beaverson’s for the 2nd Annual NYE sledding party on Thursday afternoon, and that was fun (though COLD) and our only real planned event for the whole long weekend!

From NYE 2009 and big girl bed

We had a really nice, relaxing long weekend that we spent together. Lily did really good in her new bed (she slept in until 9 am - twice!), we did a few casual errands and got some things done around the house, took down Christmas decorations and found a way to rearrange the toys in the Living Room to incorporate all her new Birthday and Christmas toys.

From NYE 2009 and big girl bed

Just general Lily updates - She continues to amaze me constantly. She knows all of her letters, the ABC song, and the ABC song with a word for every letter (A, “ah” alligator, B “buh” ball, etc). Today her daycare woman told me she was playing Boggle Jr. with two of the preschool girls and actually PLAYING it! She has been very concerned with feelings lately - understanding her feelings, and ours. She says “I love you” and “I love you so much” and gives us giant hugs. SHe asks if we’re happy, or upset, and tells us “I’m so happy!”. She’s had some cute sayings, most of which I haven’t remembered to write down in time, but I did catch some of them! Yesterday she said to me “Mommy, can I have a nest like duck?” I said, “Don’t you want to sleep in a bed like Mommy and Daddy?” And she said, “No, I want to sleep in a nest. Like Duck.” A few weeks ago, Jason and I were talking while Lily was playing near us in the Living room, and Jason said “well, in one of the most under-reported scientific discoveries of the year - ” and Lily interrupted with “the sun is HOT!” which just made us laugh like crazy. I am still just absolutely loving this age!

From Christmas 2009

Finally, I’ll leave you with a video of Lily singing her ABC song, but be sure to stay tuned until the very end when she has a big announcement to make - “My Mommy is _____!”

From 2009-12-13

It’s so hard to believe - my baby is two years old already! It just amazes me that two years has flown by, yet I can’t remember living life without her in it. I am so grateful for the chance to be her Mommy, and Jason and I can honestly say we have never laughed as much in our life as we do now that she’s part of our every day.

From 2009-12-13

Lily had a great day! She woke up a bit too early from a coughing fit, but became so instantly enamored with the Christmas Tree we had decorated after she went to sleep the night before that she forgot all about the rough start to the morning! We brought one of her birthday presents into the living room overnight so she could open it right away in the morning. She kept staring at it as if it couldn’t be real, and Jason and I kept encouraging her to rip the paper off and open it already. Finally, she tore it a little bit, then came running over to me and said “Mommy, fix it!”. Once she finally got the idea that she COULD rip the paper off and wasn’t going to get in trouble, she did a great job opening the easel and played with it off and on all morning!

From 2009-12-13

After all of that excitement, Daddy and Lily played with the Easel in the living room and watched “Word World” (Lily’s favorite show) while I made her a very special breakfast. She didn’t end up EATING much of the special breakfast, however, because she filled herself up on the drinkable yo-baby yogurt we gave her (or as she calls it - “spoonie” (smoothie)). We played with her most of the morning, and gave her a super-fun bath where she got to pour water all over Mommy! Mommy then made her a special lunch of Mac-and-Cheese, but by this point she was getting pretty tired and cranky. We finished lunch and brought her over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to nap so we could put some decorations up (at their house) while she was sleeping. Of course the flaw in that plan is that whenever we NEED her to nap, she won’t. This was no exception! I left her in the room for about an hour, trying to get her to sleep, and we were able to get everything we needed to get done during that time.

From 2009-12-13

We ended up having my whole family, and Jason’s brother, his wife, and their kids all at my parents house for cake and presents and it was total chaos! Lily forgot all about her earlier reservations in ripping off the wrapping paper and went to town opening all of her presents. She got a LOT of nice stuff, and was totally spoiled! She would sometimes hardly look at one present before wanting to rip open the next one. She got two Word World DVDs, Tinkerbell DVD, a sled, the “Tag Jr.” reading system by Leap Frog, a puzzle, a kid-tough digital camera, a rocking chair, a book and gift certificate to Half-Price Books, and a toy kitchen! The Toy kitchen was a huge hit, and instantly had all 5 girls (age 4 and under) swarming it and fighting over the pieces. They continued to play with it throughout the afternoon, and I think it’s going to be one of her favorite new toys at our house - as soon as I find a place to put it!

From 2009-12-13

Finally, we got to Lily’s favorite part - the part she had been talking about ALL DAY. The cake, of course! We got her a Yellow Butter cake with Strawberry Cream filling from The Cake Box (the same place that did our wedding cakes!) and it was delicious! Lily ate an ENTIRE piece of cake AND strawberry ice cream! After the sugar high wore off, she crashed HARD on the way home and slept through us carrying her in, and even laying her down on the couch. Poor, wiped out little birthday girl!

Anyway, all in all it was a great day and I can’t believe it’s mid-December already, and that it’s been two years since she was born! Sorry if this post seems broken-up and hard to follow - it took me two days and 4 separate starts to write the whole thing! If I don’t post again before then, have a Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays) everyone!

From 2009-12-13

From 2009-11-28 Thanksgiving

Wow, where to even start? I can’t even remember everything that has happened since my last post. The highlights: Jason+Lily+pony= LOVE, girls night, vacation week, new job, illness, Thanksgiving.

From 2009-11-28 Thanksgiving

Lisa and I organized a girl’s night at Mom’s house where we brought snacks, movies, and “spa supplies” and had a girls night in while Mom was recovering from surgery. Since Jason was going to be alone with Lily, he decided to take her down to his Mom’s house to ride Jesse Pony one last time (for the year), and visit his Mom. They had a great time, and they both survived their first “solo” (without Mommy!) trip out of town.

From 2009-11-28 Thanksgiving

The week before Thanksgiving, I took a full week off work (vacation time)! I needed some time to catch up on things and not feel like I was constantly drowning in “to do” lists, and to get some extra rest. It was a FANTASTIC week, I got a lot done and felt much better going back to work. Unfortunately, that Friday Lily started to get sick. I wasn’t sure what was happening at first, but she had a low grade fever (100.3) and just seemed tired and like she wasn’t feeling well. Over the weekend it turned into a cold, but I still had a nagging feeling that I should bring her in. She had been exposed to pertussis (Whooping Cough) the previous week at daycare, and I didn’t want to risk her getting the really bad cough and getting REALLY sick. So, the day before Thanksgiving I got her into see the Dr who did a nasal swab and put her on antibiotics as a precaution. Turns out it was a good thing I listened to that gut feeling, because it came back positive! Luckily we caught it REALLY early so it never got worse than a typical cold, and she didn’t have to suffer through that horrible cough.

From 2009-11-28 Thanksgiving

From 2009-11-28 Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed down to Rochester for Thanksgiving Part 2! Jason’s Dad drove in from near Madison and was able to meet Lily for the first time, and Lily got to hang out with her other cousins (Arian, Khavy, Dominic, Tali, and Eanna). It was a fun trip, and it was so much fun to watch all of the kids together and see how much they’ve all grown!

From 2009-11-28 Thanksgiving

Slightly out of order, but during my week of vacation, Jason received a job offer! He accepted the position and today was his LAST day at Hopkins! On Monday he starts working for Community Action Partnership for Ramsey and Washington Counties (CAP). I’m very excited for him, but very sad that our time working together has come to an end. I will miss seeing him during the day, miss carpooling and eating lunch together! However, I think this is going to be a great job for him and I know he’s really excited about it, so as bittersweet as his leaving is for me, I know it’s for the best and I am really happy for him!

From 2009-11-28 Thanksgiving

Finally, I got a cool new camera! A Canon EOS Rebel T1i DSLR camera. I have a plan (3-5 years) to open my own business, and this (along with taking the classes it came with) is my first step. None of the pictures from this post are from the new camera, but you can see some from my first night of playing with it here - http://picasaweb.google.com/jill.woyak/20091129NewCamera#.

I can hardly believe it, but my baby girl is going to be TWO YEARS OLD in only 10 days! I will do an update about her birthday in a few weeks, but right now I’m in shock that it’s even December - much less her birthday already! Where does the time go?!?