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.