A Day on the Farm

Today we went to Frying Pan Park to see the farm animals. Lily met up with her friend Henry and his parents. It was fun to see all the animals that we talk about up close. Lily even got to pet a few of them. More pictures from our day on the farm here.

May Update

May has been a very busy month for us. Lily and I headed to my parents' house in NC for a long weekend mid-month. We flew down, which is nice because it's only a 40-minute flight versus a 5+ hour car ride. Lily was a superstar flier and had fun running around the airport in DC before we got on the plane.

While we were in NC, Lily finally "named" my parents. My dad is Papa and my mom is Mimi. They got a real kick out of her calling them by name and really had a great time chasing after her all weekend. On our last day, it rained quite a bit, so Lily took the opportunity to explore their garage and the garden statues, wheelbarrows, brooms and more that were stored there.

Early in the month, we spent a Saturday morning in DC checking out some of the monuments. I think because we live so close to the National Mall, we sometimes forget it's there. It was fun to play tourist for a few hours.

Reflecting Pool with Lincoln Memorial in the background.

Lily is talking a lot (perhaps only in a language we can understand, but it's a start!). One thing she did last week is this:

Me: "Lily, you're funny"

Lily: "I funny. Ha. Ha. Ha."

She likes to point out trucks when we're in the car. Everything that's even remotely close to a truck (like a van) gets, "Truck!" She also does the "Oh, no" which is so darn cute and hard not to laugh at. For instance, she broke one of her crayons and came running over to me with it in her hand saying, "Oh no!" Then she proceeded to try and throw it away. "Trash" is also a new favorite word, followed by trying to put whatever she's deemed "trash" into the trash can. We have to keep a close eye on her to make sure she's not throwing away things that are not trash!

Happy Mother's Day

We had a great Mother's Day today. Ethan and Lily each got me a very nice Mother's Day card and Lily is getting me a new laptop! We had afternoon dessert at our favorite local coffee joint, Grounded Coffee, then hit the park. Lily ran all over the place, climbing and sliding. She had such an eventful day that she forgot to take her afternoon nap. So it was no surprise when I found her asleep SITTING UP on the couch at 6:15 p.m., a full hour before her bedtime. When I tried to rouse her, she opened her eyes for a second then fell over. I covered her up with her blankie and left her there while Ethan and I ate dinner. I just put her to bed for the night. I'm guessing we're in for an early wake up tomorrow morning!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Video Cuteness

These are just some cute videos I shot recently. It's actually one long video that I cut down into three smaller ones. Just Lily being cute!

This one is Lily showing off her new sunglasses.

The next one is simply called BELLY!

And finally, Lily wants to help Dixon with his toys.

Who is NeNe?

Lily has been saying the word, NeNe a lot recently. She never says it to anything in particular but you can tell she knows exactly what she's talking about when she says it. Too bad we don't know what she's talking about. Until now!

Back story: when Lily stands up on her chair, I always tell her to "Get down, Lily." Now she says it to herself AS she's doing it... "Get down!"

Last weekend, she climbed up on her chair and said, "Get down, NeNe." Later, she was looking at a photo of me and her, pointing at me and saying, "Mama," and herself, and saying "NeNe."

Therefore, we have deduced that Lily IS NeNe. I think she can't say her "Ls" quite yet, so Lily comes out at as NeNe. Either that, or it's her alter-ego!

Spoon Feeding

So this is a blog post that only a parent would get excited about: Lily feeding herself...with a SPOON! We've been practicing spoon-usage for a while now and the other night, she fed herself an entire container of yogurt all on her own. And she didn't even make a very big mess!

(And yes, this is a 3-minute video of Lily eating yogurt! :) )

A Walk in the Park

We took Lily to Huntley Meadows Park on Sunday. It's not your typical playground-type park. It's more of a woodsy with paved walking trails-type park. Lily walked her little legs off while checking trees and leaves with her daddy. Dixon had a good time too! More photos HERE.

18 Months!

Lily is 18 months old today...half-way to her second birthday! Crazy! She just gets more precocious, wonderful, smart, adventurous and adorable every single day. She is adding words to her vocabulary and she's starting to be able to string two words together like hi dada, hi mama, Dixon's bowl, mama's shoes, dada's toes, get down, no Dixon... We have also noticed that she is able to understand a lot of what we say (time to watch what we say in front of her!) and follow directions like, get your shoes, take this to Daddy, go get in your chair, etc.

She jumps, runs, climbs and talks a mile a minute while she's doing it. She has also learned a number of animal sounds, which she recites in the video below. The one I forgot to include was monkey. A recent development--when you ask her what the chicken says, she puts her hands up under her arms to make "wings" and flaps them up and down!

(Not the greatest quality video. I took it with my cell phone.)

Jump Like a Frog

Every week at Lily's daycare, they do a lesson that lasts all week. Last week, it was frogs. They did frog art projects and read frog stories. Somewhere along the way, she learned to jump like a frog, too. Lily spent all weekend showing off her jumping skills. She's still a little unsure of her footing, so she always holds on to something (or somebody) when she jumps.

And even more jumping...two whole minutes, if you're interested!

Testing 1-2-3

I have read that when they reach toddlerhood, kids start testing boundaries with their parents. Let's just say, Lily is definitely your average toddler!

We have noticed an uptick in the number of things she does lately that she just shouldn't do, for her own safety. Things like standing on chairs (she's a little clumsy, you see), reaching into the kitchen trash can, trying to run away from me in the daycare parking lot and using her hands to sweep all of her dinner off into the floor are a daily occurrence. The funniest part is while she's doing all of these things, she will look at you and say, "No, no, no." Oh yes, she KNOWS she's doing things she shouldn't! All a part of growing up, I guess!

Lily's Family

This week, Lily has started reciting the members of her immediate family. Over. And over. And over.

She says, in this exact order every time:

Dada....Mama...and Dixon...MEOW!

(Meow is Lily's name for our cat, Leo).

It's a Ghost!

This video does not do justice to the cuteness that is Lily hiding from us in our bedroom curtains. On this day, she would run and hide behind them then run out screaming when we got close to her. The video is so short because right at the very end, she fell down and screaming ensued. I edited that part out, for the sake of your ears.