Pancakes

What do you do with a freezer filled with gallons of fresh blueberries you picked yourself? Make blueberry pancakes!
Most Saturdays, when Mom gets to sleep in, Lily and Ethan make breakfast. And almost always, breakfast is blueberry pancakes. (every now and then, especially right after Halloween when this picture was taken, there are pumpkin pancakes.)

Lily loves to help, as there are aprons, spoons, stirring, batter licking, and syrup involved.  Ethan likes the fact that Lily gets fruit, and the only required ingredients are batter and water!

About the time mom wakes up, she's greeted with this sight:

Monkey Pancakes!

Happy Halloween!

Kids these days...I remember when we only got to dress up once for Halloween! Well, Lily got to dress up three times for Halloween festivities this year.

First, her daycare hosted a Halloween party for all the kids and parents. Lily dressed up as a princess (thanks to a cute princess dress-up outfit she got for her birthday from Sissy!).

The dragon and the princess.

 Then on Sunday, Oct. 30, our neighborhood hosted a Halloween party at the park. Lily opted for a butterfly costume. This costume may look familiar. If so, it's probably because this is the same costume she wore last year. When I started asking her what she wanted to be for Halloween, the first thing she said was a butterfly. No matter how many times I asked, the answer was always the same. Conveniently, I had her old costume (which still fit) in the attic!

Bobbing for marshmallows. She not quite sure what to make of this...



Decorating a pumpkin.

Finally, on the big day, Ethan took Lily trick-or-treating while I stayed home and to give out candy. When Ethan got home from work at 6 p.m., Lily was already in her costume and waiting. She was pacing up and down the sidewalk in front of our house, she was so excited! She had a great time!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Lily turned three on October 20 and we celebrated with cupcakes at daycare, a special birthday dinner at home and then a fun birthday party on the 22nd. She had a blast! Special thanks to our neighbor who served as a party photographer. There are tons more photos here in the October photos.

Lily and her cousin Everett in the ball crawl.

Presents galore.

Fire Prevention Week Open House

This is Fire Prevention Week and every year the fire departments in our area host an all-day open house for the kids. They get to sit in fire trucks, watch a rescue dog demonstration, put out a "fire" with a real fire hose, learn to 'stop, drop and roll,' and meet the firefighters. It was a really fun time made even better because she got to go with her Oregon friend Maureen!

Lily and Jenn with the fire dog.

Ready to head out to the fire.

She earned her fireman's hat after she learned to stop, drop and roll.

Using the fire hose to put out the "fire."





Apple Picking and Pumpkin Patch

We headed to Larriland Farm on an unseasonably cold weekend in October to meet up with Luke, Michaela and Everett for some apple picking and pumpkin patch-ing. As you can see by how bundled up the kids are it was a blustery 47 degree day, but we made the best of it and had a great time! More pictures are in the October photo folder.

Farewell, Old Friend




 At last Thursday's dentist appointment, Lily's dentist said the words we knew were coming, but didn't want to hear:

She needs to give up the pacifier.

Though she was using it only at night, the dentist feared that continued pacifier use could alter Lily's bite, tooth alignment and her jaw. So we went home that evening knowing we had to do the inevitable. We talked to Lily about it extensively:

Us: "Only babies use pacifiers."
Lily: "I want to be a baby."

Us: "I'm sure there's a sad little baby out there who needs a pacifier."
Lily: "I don't want to give it to a baby."

Finally, we convinced her to give her pacifier to a baby we knew, Lauren, who is the little sister of Lily's friend, Jillian. I told Lily I would send the paci over to Lauren and she would be soooo happy. That seemed to satisfy Lily.

At bedtime, she didn't even mention the pacifier and went to bed just fine...for about five minutes. Lily did not want to go to sleep and it took us two hours to get her to bed. Since then, bedtime has gotten a little easier but not as easy as it was in the "paci" days, where she would be asleep in five minutes. She's also waking up at night again, but hopefully it's only a phase.

In other farewell news, Lily also became officially potty trained about six weeks ago. No more diapers!

Where has the summer gone?

It looks like it's been a whole month since we updated the blog. What can I say? We've been busy! Here's a quick summer recap in pictures...

We dined almost weekly at Moe's Southwest Grill, also known as the Quesadilla Store.

Lots of time at the park with Daddy.



Numerous playdates with friends, including Jillian...



and Henry.

A visit to Marbles Kids' Museum in Raleigh

Spending time with Mimi and Papa in Durham
(including playing on the swing set they put in their backyard just for Lily).

We're looking forward to an even busier fall, with pumpkin patches, the holidays and numerous birthdays, including Lily's third!



 





Baking with Lily

Then and Now

Lily at 5 months old / March 2009

Lily at 2 years, 9 months old / July 2011

Lily ran across a pair of sunglasses she wore when she was an infant and now she wears them all the time!

Lily is so shy...

Lily the Explorer

At daycare last week, the class project was safari hats. Each child got to decorate their hat with animal stickers and pictures. As part of the safari/jungle lesson, each child also made a snake, which they get to take on their safari. Lily loves her hat!

Operation Underpants

I won't go into too much detail, but this weekend, we started Lily wearing big girl underpants. So far, so good...could diapers be a distant memory soon?

Lilyface

Lily's babyface has given way to the most expressive little girl face on the planet.  It goes from smile to grimace to pout to cackle and back to smile again as she narrates her day, asks "Daddy, what's that?," sings a made-up song, or just gazes out the window.

Spraypark!

There is a rec center a couple of miles from our house that we frequent often (see: our home away from home, swimming lessons and birthday posts). Last weekend, the rec center opened its brand new spraypark! Knowing how much Lily loves the water, we couldn't wait to take her there. In addition to being close by, it's also free to the public, so we have already been three times! She loves it. I imagine we'll be spending an awful lot of time here this summer!

Strawberry Picking in NC

We went to North Carolina this weekend to visit my parents. It's prime strawberry season and my parents are lucky enough to have a wonderful strawberry field 10 minutes from their house. We had a great time picking four pounds of berries (not counting the ones we ate while picking!). Lily quickly became an expert strawberry picker, with the help of her grandmother, Mimi. Lily's favorite part was taking a bite of every other berry before she dropped it into her bucket! Lots more strawberry pictures here.

Bathroom Shenanigans



I took these with my cell phone camera, so pardon the poor quality.

This is what happens when parents are trying to catch a few more ZZZZZs on a Saturday morning and Lily decides to entertain herself in the bathroom. She was chattering to herself for five or 10 minutes then it suddenly got very quiet. That was my cue to go see what she was doing.

You can't see it but her baby doll is under that giant pile of toilet paper.

When I went in there, Lily said, "Shh, Mama. Striped baby is hiding." 

Easter 2011

 We had a great time celbrating Easter. The Easter Bunny paid Lily a visit and brought her an apron to wear when she's helping Daddy make cookies; a Lily-sized umbrella for when it rains; a butterfly headband and of course, candy and a chocolate Easter bunny.

After Mass (where we sang "holly lua,") we went to Cathy's for our annual Easter dinner. Some friends brought their daughter, Sydney, who's not quite 2-years-old. She and Lily conquered Cathy's house as a team, jumping on the bed, eating tons of candy and chasing bubbles all over the back yard.