Dinnertime Conversation

I find that Lily is often her most talkative and entertaining at the dinner table. It's the one time of day that she actually stops running around. This is a recent conversation we had, while she was wearing her sunglasses that I found when I was cleaning under the couch. Some of it's unintelligible but mostly it's just her being goofy...and cute!

January Pictures

I just got around to uploading photos from January. Really, it's just an excuse to post this adorable picture of Lily. :)

Our Home Away from Home

 What do you do with an energetic two-year-old in the dead of winter? For us, the community rec center has been a blessing. We visit almost every weekend. The rec center has a soft play room for little kids, including a ball crawl. Lily says all the time, "I want to go play in baaaalllllls!"

The ball crawl is second only to her true love, the POOL. She and Ethan have been going to the indoor pool for a few months now and Lily is a real water baby. She is content to stay in the water for hours. She and Ethan will go and oftentimes I won't see them for three hours. All this time in the water is really making her a confident swimmer. She loves to hold on to the kickboard and move around, or hold onto Ethan's arm and kick around the pool.

We also recently discovered that another rec center a bit further away has a kids pool with water buckets that dump on the kids. Lily will tell us, "I wanna go play in the rain!"

I can't wait for this summer when we can hit the water park with her.

Happy New Year!

Lily on Christmas morning with two of the presents that were in her stocking.

We had a great Christmas that included a trip to North Carolina the weekend before Christmas and a visit from Ethan's parents from Idaho. Lily got to spend lots of quality time with her grandparents, aunts and uncles during December.

We have plenty of pictures from the holidays here, so check'em out!

November?

Lily relaxing in the ball crawl at Jillian's birthday party. 12/4/10

Where did the month of November go? Well, we were busy to say the least, which is my excuse for not updating Lily's blog sooner.

How busy?

In November, we celebrated my birthday, had brunch with Cathy, went to Jude's birthday party, had a visit from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Charlotte, attended Everett's baptism in Baltimore, went swimming with Daddy and made the drive to N.C. for Thanksgiving. And those are just the things I can remember off the top of my head!

Lily was a superstar through it all. She is quite a charmer in her sweet, bossy way. She definitely knows what she wants, how she wants it and who she wants to do it. She's very fond of telling those around her who's supposed to go first and who's supposed to go second. Lily is also quick to tell anyone trying to help her, "NO, I do it by myself!" All just part of growing up!

Sorting jelly at brunch with Cathy.

Taking a rest in the bouncy house.

Worn out from all the activities in November!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween weekend kicked off on Friday with a party at Lily's daycare. All the kids were SO cute dressed in their costumes.

On Sunday, we went to our neighborhood Halloween get-together and parade, followed by trick or treating. Lily was a little shy about saying, "Trick or treat" but she was not shy at all about reaching into people's candy bowls and grabbing a handful!
 

Happy 2nd Birthday to Lily!

Two years old and still won't smile for the camera.

Another year has gone by and Lily is TWO! She had quite an eventful birthday week. We had cupcakes on her birthday with all of her friends at daycare, followed by even more cake at home that night.

On Saturday, we had Lily's birthday in the playroom at the rec center. She had a great time sliding into the ball crawl (something she was terrified of the last time we came here six months ago!) and running around with her friends. That was followed by cake, snacks and presents with friends, Aunt Michaela, Uncle Luke and Mimi (my mom), who came up from North Carolina for the party.

Lily had her two-year check up yesterday and she's still growing like a weed:



Weight: 28.5 lbs - 73th  percentile

Height: 35.75 inches - 95th percentile

She is talking in full sentences quite often these days. The things she says just crack us up. It's nice to be able to communicate with her and better understand what she wants (most of the time!) And we certainly have to watch what we say because she hears (and repeats) everything!

North Dakota

Four generations: Hilda, Charlotte, Ethan and Lily (oh, and Jenn too)

In early October, Ethan, Lily and I made a trip to North Dakota to visit Ethan's grandmother, Hilda. Hilda and Ethan's Uncle Rod live on a farm outside of the small town of Mott. Far outside...the closest house is miles away!


Luke, Michaela, Everett, Dan and Charlotte all joined us, so it was a mini-family reunion. Hilda's 82nd birthday fell a few days after our visit, so Charlotte organized a birthday party with quite a few of her 12 siblings who came to the farm on Sunday to celebrate. Lily also got in on the birthday action, since her birthday was a few days later. She got her own little cake and presents from her great aunts and uncles.



Lily and Colleen

It was great for Lily to meet more of her extended family, including her great grandmother. The person she took a real liking to was Charlotte's sister, Colleen. Lily was stuck to Colleen like glue the whole time she was there. Once Colleen left to go home, Lily kept saying, "Where'd 'Leen go?" It was incredibly sweet!

Sunset on the farm.

All of our pictures from North Dakota can be found here.

Lily and Gabby

Holy cow, I am way behind on the blog! I'm going to try to get caught up in the next couple of days, I promise!

In late September, we were lucky to have a visit from our very good friend, Donna. Donna and her adorable baby, Gabby, were visiting from Seattle. I have known Donna for over a decade, and Ethan since they met in law school, but we have not seen her since her wedding three years ago, so we were super excited for their visit.

As you can see, Gabby is just a doll and Lily really liked spending time with her. I just wish we lived closer so we could get Donna and Gabby time more often!

 More pictures of these two adorable girls and their moms are in the September photo folder!

Thank You, You're Welcome

In this video, Lily decided to say a couple of the things I always write about on this blog. She also decided that sunglasses are a MUST when you're coloring.

23 Months

Lily just turned 23 months yesterday and this is officially the last time I can give her age in months. After this, it just starts to sound silly. So, our Lily is *this close* to turning two and just when we think she can't get any more entertaining, she does!

Lily is still talking up a storm and here are some of the many, many things she's saying now:

• (When she hears a noise.) "Oh no, what's dat souunnnddd?"
  
• (When she hears a loud noise) "Oh Mama, dat's too loud."
  
• (If she drops something, accidentally or on purpose.) "Oh no, (whatever was dropped) fell down!"
  
• When I hand her something, she says, "Thank you, Mama, your welcome."
  
• Anytime she leaves a room, she says, "Bye-bye, see you tomorrow."
  
• She loves to hand me something and say, "Here Mama, this is yours." And then no sooner do I have it then she reaches for it and says, "No Mama, that's MINE."

Lily is an excellent Mama to her stuffed animals, especially Lamby. She puts them all down for night-night (face down only, for some reason) and covers them up and sings them songs. She also hugs Lamby and pats his back and says, "It's okay, Lamby." At dinner time, Lamby gets a bib and a seat at the table.

Lily and Her New Cousin

Today, Lily got to meet her new cousin, Everett, for the first time. E was born a little over a week ago and we've been dying to make it up to Maryland for a visit. We talked all week about going to see baby Everett, which Lily pronounces 're-rit' and sometimes comes out sounding like 'ribbit.'

We had a great time visiting with Luke, Michaela, her mom, Bobbi and baby Everett. Lily was a little disinterested at first but slowly became curious about him. She brought him a blanket and gently covered him up.

She brought him his stuffed lamb and even gave him her Sesame Street sticker, which we quickly peeled off of his hand and stuck to his pj's. She was very gentle with the baby when she touched his head and kissed him on his toes. While I don't think she's ready to have a baby in our family yet, she's more than happy to visit baby E. And Ethan is thrilled to be an uncle! More photos from our visit are here!