Play that guitar!

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Originally uploaded by jopgaard.

Lily got a new guitar for Christmas from Santa. She very quickly caugh on how to play like a real rocker!

Big Kids

Well Lily is definitely growing up. Just yesterday, when she opened her package of fruit snacks for herself, she told me that "I'm getting to be 3!". She's quite pleased by that and she knows that she will be a Big Kid then. She tells everyone that on her birthday she gets to have gum. I am afraid it will be a bit anticlimactic....

The weekend before last, Lily took a nap in her big girl bed for the first time! Slept like a big kid. Before long, we will be sleeping in the bed all the time and looking at getting her a BIG big girl bed, instead of just a toddler bed. Her Christmas Program at school is next week, so watch for video of that to be posted. All in all, she is getting big, growing up, and ready to move out I think.

Pilgrims? Bah! Who needs 'em?

On Monday, November 24, we had Thanksgiving Luncheon at Lily's school. She was very excited for Mommy and Daddy to come eat lunch with her. Daddy arrived before I did, and got a table for us.

As I walked in, Lily was just entering the lunch room. She had a very large, black, felt pilgrim hat on and when she saw me, she exclaimed excitedly, "Mommy! I'm a Pirate!"

I asked her what kind of pirate she was, and with a disdainful look she replied, "The turkey kind!"

Well obviously.

This kid has timing....

This evening, as we were leaving a local bookstore, my mother called to have me talk her through the finer points of internet surfing (namely the difference between typing web address into "the Google" or typing it into the address bar).

I said, "Go to the very top of the screen and type the address."
I said, "Did it come up for you?"
She said, "I typed it in but nothing happened."
I said, "You have to hit enter. Hit enter."
She said, "Enter? Where is that?"
I said, "On your keyboard. The enter key"
She said, "Oh! Enter! I see! Its coming up now."

Lily, a child with absolute perfection in comic timing shouts from the back seat:
"Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner!"

Seriously, I laughed about that for like 2 hours. I'm still laughing. Holy crap, where does this kid get her material?

Singing Frere Jacques

Lily has started to sing Frere Jacques a lot. Mom has to sing it with her lots of the time, as well. She is adorable!

Are you kidding me?

What 2 year old do you know who has a boyfriend?

Earlier this evening, when we were over at my parents house, Lily dropped a bombshell. Well, technically I guess she dropped it when she was still at school.

Mommy: "Lily, do you need to potty?"
Lily: "No! I alREADY potty at school! I pooped a BIG poop! Evan flushed it for me. He's my boyfriend."

Well of course, you can't let just anyone flush for you. That Evan...he sure knows how to treat a girl.

Tinkerbelle PRINCESS...and don't you forget it!

P1020809, originally uploaded by Laurel Rose Mommy.

This year, Lily decided to be Tinkerbelle. BUT we couldn't find a Tinkerbelle costume. After she carefully considered her options, she chose this lovely dress. She seemed satisfied and I said, "So...you can be a princess! You are my princess you know, baby."

She quickly corrected me and said, "No! I not a baby. I a big girl and I gonna be Tinkerbelle PINCESS not other pincess."

So Tinkerbelle Princess she is. We let her know that if Tinkerbelle was going to be a princess, this is most certainly what she would wear. Especially note the fancy foofoo tights and shoes. They were an especially important choice.

Who's old?

Miss Lori was babysitting this evening while we attended...what could very loosely be called the theater. When we got home, Miss Lori told us that she was really surprised at how incredibly vocal Lily had become. She laughed so hard when she told us this:

Tonight as Lily was chattering away, Lori asked her, 'Lily, how old are you?'"
"I two! How old are you?", replied Lily.
"Oh, I'm old." says Lori.
"HAHA," Lily laughed, "So's Daddy!"
Lori asked, "Is Mommy old?"
"No, only Daddy..." says Lily.

Bwahaha. I really enjoy conversations like this one, especially!

Lily plays basketball

Lily has always been obsessed with balls. We have every type of ball imaginable. She started bouncing balls in our kitchen about the time she could walk. One day we were at Sam's Club and she saw a stack of basketballs that they apparently give away to people who get credit accounts with them. She saw them and went nuts. The staff their told us she could have one. Well, since then she has been practicing bouncing it. She has gotten fairly good. We don't know when kids first learn to dribble but Lily is well on her way.

Naked in earnest

This evening, I was standing in the family room with Lily, who had all but completely disrobed following our dinner. We were having a nice conversation, which is mostly new-ish and always filled with unusual information. Lily had decided that the puppy did not need to go outside. You see, there might be flies outside. I agreed that yes, there might be flies out there. So mostly naked Lily turned calmly to Bartlett and explained earnestly, “You see, puppy dog, the flies are outside and they might make you throw up.” She then turned to me, tugged her underpants up, and said very matter-of-factly, “If the puppy throws up, he won’t be able to catch Frisbees ANY MORE ever, ever, ever.” Which somehow, when standing with a naked child in the family room, didn’t seem like an odd discussion.

Gumbella Girl

Lily has been saying for WEEKS that she wanted 'a gumbella'. For awhile, we had no clue what she was talking about...duh, Mommy! She actually was saying how much she wanted a purple (pohpooh) gumbella and Mommy looked and looked and couldn't find one anywhere. Today though, we went to The Toy Store in preparation for going on an airplane trip next week and lo, there smack by the door was a gumbella! It wasn't purple, but it has purple in it! That totally counts. Lily was instanty smitten and stated emphatically that she needed that umbrella. Since it was raining, Mommy agreed and now, Lily has her very own umbrella. The world will remain spinning for another day.

Potty Watch 2008- the results!

For those of you waiting so eagerly the progress report from our home about our potty status…I think that we are potty trained! I don't know exactly how you decide for certain, as I know accidents will happen for some time. Her accidents are few and far between and when she does have them, she is really, truly chagrined. She had 2 in one day last week and the rest of the week was good. When she does have accidents, they are almost always "#2" and I think its being confused (easy to see how) with having to fart which she enjoys immensely.

She generally wakes up dry in the morning from the overnight, comes in bed with me while Daddy showers, and shortly after that, states her need to potty and goes into the bathroom and does the business. Oddly, there have been a couple of nights where she woke up and had to potty in the middle of the night (SOOOO not fun) but she goes, and eventually goes back to sleep. I think we doze off faster than she does, but then again, she gets a nap at school and at least at John's work, napping would be seriously frowned on. I think that maybe the night waking is due to her molars starting to come in. From what I understand though, once she gets these teeth, the teething is all done for a long time! YAY!

I believe that we had a taste of the 'two-year-old' yesterday. Lily was just a terror all day long. Tantrums galore. If there was something she was supposed to do, she didn't. If there was something she wasn't supposed to do, she did. She had umpteen timeouts which only barely fazed her. She was just NAUGHTY. I have to wonder if that’s the way that most two-year-olds behave in general and we have been lucky so far, or if it is an exceptional situation brought on by a great number of things happening all at once? Lets hope it was an aberration…yuck…

4th of July

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Originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Lily celebrated Independence Day with family at Nana Lois's house. She loved waving the flags and watching the "fireworks" which consisted of a few smoke bombs, a couple of sparklers and some black snakes.

Wow. Seriously?

You know how you have to work and work at stuff to really make it happen? And you know how if something happens, like, super easy, you feel like you are missing something? Yeah.

So today Lily didn't have a single accident. Granted, we mostly stayed home, but Miss Lori came over to watch the kiddo while we finished picking up the house in prep for Auntie Jill, Cousin Lucas, Cousin Joey, Grandma & Grandpa O's arrival. Even over nap, while we put her in a pull up to be on the safe side, even then she didn't pee until after nap and until she told us that she had to go.

Now, while I know that this isn't it and she isn't done or anything, can you imagine that inkling of hope that this inspires in me? I am totally waiting for the other shoe to drop but in my own head I pretend like it was just that easy. Don't all spam me with the whole, "Delusional" thing. I know. But for tonight, I am pretending like she is the most brilliant kid ever.

Scatology and micturation: a primer

P1010518, originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Today was the big day. Lily woke up in a less than joyous mood BUT nevertheless, once the first morning pee pee was out of the way, we did a little dance (literally) and put on her underpants! For the first of the day, she chose a lovely little princess pair. Day one accident count: 3. Not bad, I think for a first day! I do have to say also in her defense, one of them was totally our fault as we did not make any kind of bathroom suggestion for over an hour. Whoops. I also have to say that her friend at school, Jake, and his parents did us no favors as his birthday cupcakes had blue and green icing and thus we are enjoying a very green poop day. But that’s not yucky at all, right? See here a very happy girl. Day two is upcoming...lets hope it is even better than day one!

Lily’s Big Day

P1010521, originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Do not only did Lily enjoy her first day of freedom from diapers, but she also rode her trike for the first time by herself! She went on the train with Mommy. She ate a taco for lunch. She went shopping at Sam’s. Lily was very tired by bedtime and so were Mommy and Daddy.

To pee or not to pee…

As you may or may not recall, recently we decided to try to push the potty training. It really didn't go well. So we took the potty away totally, pulled a 'Tom Sawyer' move and told her she couldn't use the potty. That seemed to work mostly. A couple of weeks ago, she started occasionally telling us that she wanted to use the potty. We got it back out, and she would sometimes go in and use it. Then, she started telling us more frequently (weekends only, not at school) that she wanted to go potty in her potty. We would go in, take off her diaper, and more often than not, she would be successful. She seems to really like pooping especially. Now, she is getting really good at it. She will sit down, get a very sly look on her face and say, "It's coming! Here it comes, pee-pee!" then when she potties, the potty makes noise and plays a little song. She looks very proud and of course we cheer and make a big hoopla. AND she gets to flush. Thats the big reward.

She kept improving on weekends, so last weekend, we told her that we were switching to pull-ups and that she wouldn't wear diapers anymore except at night. She was very excited and all the reports from school have been excellent! Her teacher was very surprised and said that Lily was really doing exceptionally well staying dry. Her daily report sheet yesterday indicated only once that she went to use the potty and was already wet. Sooo….this weekend, we are going for it. Lily will get to put on underpants for the very first time! I asked her yesterday if she was excited about that, but she was busy playing rocks and told me so in as many words. Not sure what to think about that, but we are going for it anyhow. I figure one of two things will happen:

1) She will be so thrilled to be in underpants, love the feeling, and she will do really well. I figure an accident or two and she will be mostly done. I have a feeling she will be really mortified by peeing her pants. She doesn't like going potty in her pull-ups so I think this will be a good thing.
2) She will be so freaked out if/when she has an accident that she will immediately want to revert back to diapers.


Fingers crossed its the first one! We will let you know how everything…ahem…comes out.

Papa goes airborne

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Originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Lily's Papa got to go up in a hot air balloon this week. Lily was so excited that she couldn't stop talking about it for days. We thought that she would get frightened when they started lighting off the burners but she held fast. You see her pointing at the balloons as they were getting them inflated.

When Papa called after the flight, all he could talk about was their "crash." Let's just say that no one got hurt....not even the parrot. Check out flickr for the pictures.

How is this even possible?

P1010257, originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

OK, I totally get the part where I am completely biased, but seriously people...Look at that girl! I have to admit though, that she would only consent to be photographed with the proviso that I show her the pics immediately afterwards. If it took me more than a fraction of a second to do so, she immediately would shriek, "I WANNA SEE LILY!!!"

This one was taken right after her last gymnastics class before summer break. Mommy & Daddy are going to have to figure SOMETHING out for the summer.

I don't think she will go into floral design...

As a child grows, Mothers and Fathers inevitably try to guess what the child's chosen path in life might be. They try to see where her interests lie, what her talents might be, what her strengths are, all to help shape her and mold her into an adult who will be happy in her work and enjoy her life to the utmost.

We have decided that Lily will likely NOT be a florist. Of late, she has been very interested in picking flowers. Her favorites, as with many (dare I say most?) other two-year-old girls are the ever present dandelion. Especially with my hurt foot, she has been desirous of bringing me flowers nearly every day. (You know, sadly its nice to get flowers once in a while) She presents the lovingly picked stems with the prounouncement, "Here Mommy. Make you feel better!" Foreshadowing? Maybe so.

Do you think it is the gorgeous yellow color that influences her? Well you would be mistaken. Perhaps the gorgeous, fluffy down that comes as the flower ages? Not so much.



Lily loves the stem. No golden yellow petals. No downy crappy seeds on it. Just the stem. And the more withered and greyish the better. Hooray for Mommy's new most beautiful flower...dandelion stems!

If she doesn't go into floral design, maybe she will marry into the Adam's Family?

Lily's "Mad" face

Lily's "Mad" face, originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

This kid...shes so funny!

The while ago (pre-surgery) I parked at Papa & Yaya's house and walked over to school to get Lily. On the way home she was being VERY slow-pokey so I suggested that we run. She said, "No wanna run!", so I replied, "OK, we don't have to run. Lets just walk."

A few seconds went by and Lily looked at me with THAT face and said, "Mommy! I'm MAD!" I said, "Why? What are you mad about?" and she stated emphatically, "No wanna run!". I assured her we didn't have to run.

About a minute or so later, she said, "I'm done mad....lets run!" and she took off like a shot.

Anyhow, since that day, she has been very pleased that she has developed a 'mad face' and will gladly show us when we ask. She was reluctant to allow us to photograph it, but we told her we would show it to her on the camera and she willingly obliged.

UPDATE: Potty Watch 2008

So our big weekend of potty training was pretty much a bust. We had decided on a 'reward' based system. Sitting on the potty and giving it a go earned Lily a sticker. Sitting on the potty and peeing earned Lily a tiny snack bag of fruity Cheerios. Sitting on the potty and pooping earned Lily a toy out of my special toy sack filled with balls, rocks, and confiscated Happy Meal Toys. Long story short, at the end of the weekend, there were about 8937483298347 stickers on the board, all the special bags of fruity Cheerios were still intact, and not a ball, rock or Happy Meal Toy had seen the light of day.

We decided to wait a few weeks. My surgery was coming up and knowing I would have an "owie foot" for awhile, we thought it best to just wait until I had healed a bit and try again.

But Lily surprised everyone! Yesterday at school, she was out on the playground with her class. She approached Miss Melissa and stated that she had to go potty. Miss Melissa took her inside to the potty and "VOILA!" Lily sat down and pottied on the potty! Yay Lily!

Now, we have examined our situation and we know in our hearts that this was simply one incident. But in the back of my head, I have the lovely delusion that this weekend, Lily will decide that she is finished with diapers and will just be a potty kid all the time. That could totally happen. And she will have completely potty trained herself. In my head, thats what I am pretending.

Maybe its the pain medication?

Mommy's Owie

Mommy had to have surgery on her foot on Thursday. For the past few weeks we have been preparing Lily for this. Mommy wore her "owie boot" around the house and we told Lily that she would have to be especially nice to Mommy. At first Lily was scared of the boot and wouldn't want to touch it. After a bit she would ask to touch it and kiss it. Yes, kiss it. That is what she wants to do to everything she is afraid of....the vacuum cleaner especially.

The surgery went fine but now Mommy is some pain Lily wants to kiss Mommy's owie and has expressed sympathy. She asks about Mommy's owie frequently.

Lily knows that Mommy can't chase after her so has been getting into everything. I have done my best to keep her corralled but it has been next to impossible to watch Lily and help Mommy at the same time. Finally this morning we decided it was time to call our favorite babysitter to take Lily so that Mommy could rest and I could do some laundry while Mommy rests.

Mommy should be much better in a few days and will get rid of the boot in about 6 weeks.

See if shes smiling on Monday

P1010037, originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

This weekend we took Lily on a long trip to visit Baby Alan, and his parents & sister in Iowa. It was 6 hours in the car with a two-year-old and Lily actually did really well! Provided we kept her in her seat. That of course, was a problem because apparently diapers aren't meant to be on a butt for 6 hours in a car seat. We had several leaky incidents, but I hope that it will be further incentive for her to potty train….this coming weekend.

While we were visiting our friends, we persuaded their 8-year-old daughter to tell Lily how exciting it is to use the potty, and to go poo-poo and pee in the potty and how it makes you such a big girl. Then we pointed out how Baby Alan wore diapers and that’s how babies go to the potty. We took the Elmo Potty video along with us and read the potty propaganda "Everyone Poops" when we got home. I hold much hope in my heart that we will get this potty training thing started this weekend and all will go smoothly. I'm sure she will get it right off… It'll be cake….right?

ROAAAARRRRRR

P1010054, originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Lily is a very brave (and very imaginative) little girl. Behind our friend's house, was a big yard with a slide and a swing, etc. Also, there was a backyard barbeque grill across the fence at the neighbor's house. Apparently, that BBQ looked very much like a lion to Miss Lily. She pointed at it, and roared at it, and eventually made friends with it and waved.

A change in routine might be good!

This morning, John had to go to work EXCEEDINGLY early. So Lily's normal routine was a tad disrupted. She woke up about 6:15 which was great because Mommy woke up at about 6:00 and was able to perform her morning ablutions, let the dog out and back in, and get Lily's milk before she awoke.

After we watched the end of The Wiggles, we watched the "kids" on Hi5 before she said she wanted to go into the other room. I said that we would have to get her dressed first, so we picked out clothing for the day. Then, I offered her the choice of playing in her crib while I showered or watching Wiggles in the Family room and she opted for the latter. However, she attached the condition that I provide cereal in a snack cup for her, and more milk, to which I agreed. She proceeded to eat the cereal, and asked for more. I provided that, and she put it in her pumpkin and stated she was going bye-bye. Then, while I dried my hair and did makeup, she took all of the cheerios out of the pumpkin and carefully stuff them up her shirt. She was quite surprised when she stood up and all the cereal fell out of her shirt onto the floor and the dog leapt on it like a ravenous hound. It was VERY funny. She was so mad she scolded him, "No-no PUPPY! That’s my cereal!"

Where's Lily?

So I used to think that kids outgrew that whole "peek-a-boo" thing. For us, it has ceased to amuse her when we "peek-a-boo", however when she is the designated 'peeker' she really seems to enjoy it. In fact, when Lily hides her face, and we don't immediately say "Where's Lily? Have you seen her?", she starts giggling and says, "Where's me? Mommy, where's me?"

Yikey or no yikey?

Lily has discovered the world of Like and Don't Like. When shopping for faucets at the local Lowe's she will definitely express preference. "My yikey dis one, Mommy!"

When eating snacks at Yaya's house she says, "Mommy, me no yikey dis one." She has her definite favorite toys- "Yikey" and her un-favorite activities (taking her vitamin)- "no Yikey". More often than not, however, things are "my yikey". Yikey puppy, yikey kitty, yikey 'my boys'. So far, she's fairly easy to please. Yikey rice. No yikey bubbles in the bath (bubbles make the water messy). Lils yikey milk and she yikey skirts but no yikey pants and no yikey juice.

Our Lily Rose is definitely a girl with opinions.

"Tallow" youth?

Of late, our darling Lily has been having some exzema issues. The doctor had told us before that just about the best lotion around is by Eucerin and is called "Aquaphor". I hadn't tried it before, but we got a small bottle and it really seemed to help. So on Saturday we got a vat of it at Target and started using it on her. I can definitely see that it seems to be helping with the problem. Lily enjoys us putting lotion on her, especially after bath and before bed. I think she realizes it makes her skin feel better. Apparently her head has been itching too, and she didn't tell us. This morning when Daddy went in to get her up, we found she had decided to put some of the lotion on herself. In her hair. Lots of lotion. In her hair. It was basically glued to her head. Now she just looks like her Mommy and Daddy are lunatics.

What you see above is how she looked after two shampoos with dish-soap and one with shampoo. I have a feeling we will look this way for quite some time now. Lily has stated quite plainly, "I like it". She emphatically said, "Lily pretty! Lily funny!"

As for the vat of lotion, its about half gone. Her sheets, her little 'ba-ba', her big 'ba-ba', her cup of water, her halo bag, her pajamas, etc. are all soft and supple now. Another interesting note, Aquaphor in hair becomes something of the texture of rubber cement. Woot!

Sweetness

Lily Rose 2007, originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Here's our Lily Rose at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Even though she didn't feel super (and Mommy felt far from it) she had a great time.

Lily and "Her Boys"

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Originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Lily had a great time playing with her cousins Matthew and Nathan. She kept calling them "My Boys" and would ask for them every morning even after we got home.

Lily and Grandma

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Originally uploaded by Lily'sDad.

Lily and family went to visit Lily's Grandma and Grandpa over New Years. She had a lot of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and her other relatives. Here Lily is having fun with Grandma. Lily was outside on the deck while Grandma was in the living room.