From Lily January 24-25 2009

Ok, in that order - here we go! Bellybuttons. Lily’s new fascination. You see, we have “The Bellybutton Book” by Sandra Boynton. A few weeks ago, Grandma (my mom) was reading the book to Lily and decided to show her Grandma’s bellybutton. Lily poked it and giggled because she already knew that SHE had a bellybutton, but did you know that everybody else has one too? How cool is that? So, now she demands to see your bellybutton, about 200 times a day. In fact, every time I have her up on the changing table she’s just about at bellybutton level, so she tries to lift up my shirt to see it herself. She’ll also come running up to you at any given moment and lift up your shirt to see your bellybutton - even in public. Fun times. Thanks, Grandma! She also distinguishes between her bellybutton and her tummy, because if you ask he to show you her tummy she’ll pat her (clothed) tummy, but if you ask to see her bellybutton she’ll lift her shirt right up and show you.

From Benches for Twins Birthday

Birthdays. Lily’s cousins Claire and Abby celebrated their 1st birthday this weekend! They don’t technically turn 1 until Wednesday, but they had their celebration on Saturday. It was a great party! They got lots of cool presents, and were so cute smashing into their birthday cakes. All the kids there were amazingly well-behaved, even Lily who didn’t nap ALL DAY. She had a few tears over various things, but I think she dealt with everything pretty well. Unfortunately I don’t have any pics to share with you because I FORGOT my camera! I did take a bunch of pictures with Lisa’s camera for her, so watch her blog for updates.

Finally, I promised that I would tell you about our “super secret” birthday project once the party was over. Basically, a few weeks ago Lily and I were at Michaels craft store and saw these cute, little-kid wooden benches on major sale. I had Lily try them out and she seemed to like them so we bought one for Claire and one for Abby. Jason spent a great deal of time hand-sanding the benches (they were rough-cut), and when he finished I painted them and then stenciled their names on them (with stencil help from a wonderful woman at work) and added a few rub-on and some paint-on stencils too. Now, keep in mind that I am NOT a creative person and I knew I was insane for taking on a task like this, but they actually turned out pretty nice! Lisa said she loves them and she has them set up really cute next to the girls book rack at their house. I’m so happy I took the chance! Here is the project:

Benches before (some sanding had been done at this point):

From Benches for Twins Birthday

Benches after being painted, before decorated:

From Benches for Twins Birthday

And, finally, the finished products!
Abby’s:

From Benches for Twins Birthday

From Benches for Twins Birthday

From Benches for Twins Birthday

Claire’s:

From Benches for Twins Birthday

From Benches for Twins Birthday

From Benches for Twins Birthday

Now the best part - here is a pic my sister sent me of how they have them set up at home! (excuse the quality, it’s a cell phone pic):

From Online Edits

Isn’t that cute? I’m so happy we decided to give this project a try! That’s about all the excitement we’ve had lately, since it’s mostly been “come home from work, feed Lily, put her to bed, and work on the project”. I am pretty glad to have it done and hope to get a few other things accomplished now. I’ll try to have something more exciting to report for next time! Until then, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my two adorable nieces on Wednesday!

(received in an email today)

Dear World:
We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding,
Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Such a happy, happy, historical day today! Also, Happy Birthday to Lily’s Uncle Greggy! What a phenomenal birthday present from our country.

From Lily January 9-10 2009

From Lily January 9-10 2009

So, the last few days I have been pretty sick (a stomach bug that is no fun at all) and I’ve been trying to do anything possible to make sure Lily doesn’t get it. That means Jason has been doing just about everything taking care of her and the house, and I really appreciate how hard he’s been working so I can rest and get better. Lily doesn’t understand the concept of germs yet, so she just doesn’t know why Mommy hasn’t been playing with her as much the last few days, which has been hard. The first day I was laying in bed and Lily came up and was so excited to see me and lifted her hands up to be picked up, and I just couldn’t do it. She got upset and *I* almost cried! Today I stayed home (hopefully for the last day) but Lily went to day care and I’ve been thinking all day about how much I miss her, and how much I’ve missed her all week even though I’ve been around. Just the thought of her and her bubbly little personality makes me smile, and I can’t wait to pick her up and snuggle her for a while!

From Lily January 9-10 2009

So, I don’t have a lot of updates for this week because I’ve been pretty out of commission, but I can explain some of the cute things Lily is doing in the pictures in this post! The top picture is obviously her in my shoes (click on the link below for a few more). The next picture down is Lily brushing her hair (look closely for the brush handle) which she just figured out how to do, and it’s so cute! Sometimes she accidentally brushes with the back side of the brush, but she’s getting the hang of it! The picture above (and the one below) are from another attempt at unrolling the toilet paper from the bathroom and across the living room. She got pretty far this time, then broke some of it off so Jason wrapped it around her and she walked around like a Mummy for a few minutes - the cute never stops!

From Lily January 9-10 2009

EDITED TO ADD: One story I forgot to tell. I was giving Lily a bath the other day (before I got sick) and she’s so funny because she now loooooooooooooves bath time. She gets so excited when the tub is filling up with water she stands on her tip-toes and laughs and squeals and tries to climb into the tub! The problem we’ve had lately is while she’s in the tub she tries to stand up and walk around. I keep telling her to sit down (or “down on your BUTT, Lily!”) which she eventually (usually) listens to. So this particular time every time she would stand up and I would stay “sit on your butt” she would step closer to me and give me a kiss like “What? I just wanted to get closer.” then plop onto her butt. So cute!

P.P.S. Notice in the toilet paper pictures that the book never leaves her hand?!?

From Lily more Christmas 2008 and NYE sledding party

From Lily more Christmas 2008 and NYE sledding party

On New Years Eve I went out to lunch with my Sister and her two girls, and our Mom. Right after I got home, Lily, Jason, and I got ready and went to The Beaverson’s for a sledding party! There were a few people there that I knew, and a couple I didn’t so it was fun. We took Lily over to Sunset Hill and let her go down the hill 3-4 times in a little sled (borrowed from another woman at the party). Jason even rode with her once (on a bigger sled). The party was fun and it was nice to hang out with adults again, and see a bunch of people (and their kids!) that I haven’t seen in a while. We still got home pretty early to put Lily to bed, and I was in bed reading before midnight (such a life!).

From Lily more Christmas 2008 and NYE sledding party

Other than that, we really haven’t had anything exciting happening over here. Lily is running everywhere and trying to climb everything, which is always an adventure. The other day she grabbed a roll of paper towels and walked all around the living room with it, unwinding the entire roll across the floor. It looked like it snowed inside! She’s also trying to learn how to deal with Gibson (and Gibson is learning how to deal with her) which has involved a few little bites or scratches when she doesn’t “pet nice” or just grabs him, etc. It’s a slow process but I think she’ll eventually figure out when he doesn’t want to be touched and learn to leave him alone. I can only hope that day comes sooner rather than later!

From Lily more Christmas 2008 and NYE sledding party

I’ve been trying to take some videos of Lily and the things she can do, but she’s been quite uncooperative with any type of camera lately! However, during one of my attempts I was actually able to get her on camera doing her “Going to Bed Book” actions! I’ll embed the video below for you guys to check out but I didn’t edit it or shorten it or anything - it’s about a minute or so in. Plus, she was a little fussy that day you’ll notice - but still adorable!