Stopping to smell the flowers, or Taking too many pictures!

 

Just playing around in the front yard with Lily and, of course she was so cute with her adorable little pony tails that are still a novelty because her hair really isn't quite long enough for them to last long, yet - that I had to take some photos, obviously. (Long enough run-on sentence for you? I threw in an of course, and an obviously just to make it better.)

Lily loves to pick flowers, and smell them, and make other people smell them. 

 

  

 

As we were thus engaged, and also waiting for Dad to come home from work, we heard the jingling of an ice cream truck passing through the neighborhood. Lily looks up from her flower-smelling saying: 'Fire truck!' I correct her and let her know that no, that isn't the sound of a fire truck, that's the sound of an ice cream truck. What!? A truck with ice cream! Lily thinks, or maybe she thought it was a truck made out of ice cream... whatever the case - the excitement that immediately took over her small body was hilarious to behold. 'Ice cream!' She cried, as her short little legs took off running down the street. 

 

  

  

  

 

We didn't catch the truck, but she asked hopefully about a white construction vehicle parked in our neighbor's driveway. 'Ice cream?' Sorry, the Ice cream truck went bye-bye. She had fun saying 'Bye, See you later!' addressed specifically to the rocks, and plants and seashells-by-my-neighbor's-mailbox on the way back home. She is really becoming a chatterbox when the mood hits her. This week she is saying conversationally 'So...' like: So - what do we do now...? and 'Oh, man!' My fault. I said that with feeling earlier this week when I realized I'd started brushing her teeth with my toothbrush. Yuck, plus I was sick, so double-yuck, slap mom in the head, I felt terrible! I was a little out of it being sick and tired and all.

Anyway, back to the front yard. I was playing around with my camera settings to see if I could get a cute picture of Lily and I. (Here's probably the cutest one.)

I noticed as I was looking through the photos that Lily looks more like me than I thought. I usually think she looks more like her dad, but some of these expressions were so similar I thought it was kind of funny. 

What do you think? Yeah, I take a lot of photos. That's how I get any good ones being an amateur and all. Here's what Lily does when I take too many photos:

Enough already mom! Let's go smell the flowers or find an ice cream truck!

Love My Family

Our valentine's celebration this year was a family affair. We felt like getting out and doing something Lily would enjoy too. So what if our evening included a leaky diaper episode. After all, we love our little girl, too - a ton! Went to the Zoo and then had dinner at the Corvette Diner. Lily was so cute boppin' along with the 'Corvette dancers' - the waiters and waitresses all dance along when they play a particular song - and you could tell Lily wanted to join in by her rapt gaze and occasional bursts of highchair dancing. While we waited to be seated we checked out the arcade. Love that she's at the age where it's still a blast just pretending to play the games. Very fun place - very packed! Food was great.

We didn't spend a lot of time at the Zoo, because Mike had to work that day too. We only got there an hour before close, but that's what an annual pass is good for. I, for one, can only spend so much time on my feet looking at stuff anyway - be it animals or art. We definitely go at different paces on our own. Mike is a total art examiner at museums, at least art he likes, and loves animals more than me too - I mean, more than I do! Ha! Almost didn't catch that grammatical slip - I know Mike loves me more :) Anyway, as I was saying... The best part of the Zoo experience for me is watching Lily. She loves animals...at least the cartoons and photos of them in books, and the turtles, rabbits and puppies at the pet store in the mall. She loves going to the Zoo too. It's fun to see her get excited and watch her reactions to what the real life-size animals are like. I think we saw more animals in that hour than we did at our last trip to the Wild Animal Park. I definitely enjoy the Zoo more - free parking, free ride for Zoo members on the skyfari (or whatever they call that - my favorite!) and more animals to see with less walking. Each place has it's high points, but the Zoo wins for me - especially to entertain small children. 

We mostly weren't thinking about taking pictures, and the ones we got aren't stunning, but here are a few anyway!

 

(Thanks to the nice Zoo guy who took this for us before kindly, but firmly kicking us out!)

 

  

(A little love for Lamby, too. Lily was so happy to have him join her for the drive home.)

Hope everyone else had a lovely Valentine's!!! 

Well Met

In honor of Valentine's...

How I met mine:

Mike and I met in a drawing and painting class our last year at BYU. He says I laughed at his corny jokes and he was hooked. He was going to pass me a note to ask me out - now that would have been corny (circle yes, or no)! Honestly, I think a note would've scared me away...thank goodness another opportunity presented itself. 

We were walking down the hallway with our teacher after our first class and talking about the supplies we needed. Mike mentioned driving to the hardware store to get a masonite drawing board. Since I had no car I asked him if he wanted to split a board with me so we could both save money, and we made arrangements to go together to buy it and get it cut. We had so much fun talking as we were driving around to first one hardware store, and then another - the first had a broken saw. I remember feeling so comfortable with him, and thinking: 'I could do this everyday.' Talking with Mike was so easy and fun. It was sometime later I found out Mike knew beforehand that the saw at the first hardware store was broken, and he took me there intentionally to prolong our afternoon. So sneaky. Mike is normally not a good actor and cannot tell a lie, but I was oblivious to the idea that he would have any such intentions so he pulled it off. He told me later he was so nervous he couldn't believe I had no clue.

When he dropped me off at my apartment he asked me out to a corn maze that Saturday, but we ended up going to Fall Fling together first, that Friday night. Then we had a PB&J picnic - playing games on a blanket in the grass by a crumbling old amphitheater - on Sunday, and we pretty much saw each other every day after that. I still love spending time with him. He's my best friend and such a sweet, amazing dad. Best of all he loves me! We've been married for what...9 years now! Crazy! Good -would do it all over again -crazy. Love you, Mike :)

Love this kid

  

This or That

We made a little discovery the other day. When you ask Lily a this or that question - her answer will always be whatever you said last. That doesn't mean you can actually get her to do or eat said thing if she doesn't want to...but you can get some fun out of it. 

Do you like yogurt or fish? Fish

Do you want chocolate pie or broccoli?  Bwockli

Ha! Hardly.

Lily likes dad better than mom, but mom better than dad - so it's OK. 

I told my mom about this development this morning, so she immediately tested Lily:

Who do you like better - Grandpa or Grandma? Gwampa

Kinda backfired on her. 

Lily does love her Grandpa! But I think she just wanted to see him since she hadn't yet this morning. 

I promptly asked Lily if she loved mom or Grandma best. Grandma won out, but Grandma doesn't believe it's true. It's a tough call...she's a pretty lovable lady!

Lily is saying 'This one!' a lot these days! I try to get her to be more descriptive, but when she really wants something, now - that's the first thing out of her mouth. 'This one, this one!'

We went to Baskin Robbins the other night to get our favorite ice cream - a little celebration in honor of the end of Mike's no dessert for a month goal. Lily was in heaven with her little pink spoon. Last night when we put her in the car to go shopping she said 'Ice cream!' so excitedly. I felt sort of bad. That would have been much more exciting. She does really well shopping, though, she prefers to be out of the cart more and more. She just looks and looks at everything saying 'This one, this one!' a lot. Or 'Mickey Mouse, Elmo' or 'Kai-lan' if she recognizes them. She doesn't throw tantrums if I don't get her stuff though, I will say: yet... Oh, how I dread that. I won't imagine I'll be lucky enough to avoid those altogether. I vaguely remember throwing some back in the day. I'm sure my mom could tell tales.

We heard a baby crying as we rolled about the store and Lily said, 'Baby crying. Cry!' (though it's probably more like cwy) She makes the funniest pretend crying face and says cry in a sad crying voice at the same time. She said, 'Mom sad.' the other day when I was feeling kind of blue. I wasn't crying - she's either very perceptive or I wear my heart on my sleeve. She gave me the sweetest hug like she was all sympathy. Sometimes she asks, 'What's wrong?' probably because I ask her that in response to her pretend cry face. She popped up one morning in her crib asking that one. Mike turned to me and asked, 'Did she just say: What's wrong, dad?' Yup. Goodness, girl - where did that come from first thing in the morning? She usually calls our names, 'Wake up!' and 'Rainbow' (meaning the arched zipper of her crib tent she wants us to open). Rainbow is the one word I don't enjoy hearing her say - kinda like a good song you used on your alarm clock stereo one too many times. Otherwise, I am loving hearing Lily's sweet voice learning to say more things and revealing her personality more to me with each passing day. (As you can probably tell from this long post.) She's a good kid, and Mike and I are so glad to have her in our little family.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day, yes, but more important!!! Someone very special was born on this day...

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Blaine!!!

We are so glad to be part of your family! Hope you have a wonderful birthday. 

We love you!

Mike, Lissy & Lily

Elusive, Alluring Zzz's

I could write a history of my changing sleep habits, but that would bore you, and frankly, me. Let me just say...having kids changed it more, and it hasn't settled down yet. 

There is a difference between being up in the night to tend to a baby who doesn't sleep through the night yet, to being up in the night to comfort a child who is sick - habit or adrenaline keep you going. It is a different thing altogether to be up in the night to a perfectly healthy child - who knows how to sleep through the night, but won't. The patience just doesn't come as easy. Especially when you are sleeping in the same room they are wailing in. I love my child, but even one night of sleep deprivation can do crazy things to me. Thank goodness I have some innate wellspring of self control. I have a lot more understanding now for parents who temporarily lose it (No, I am not condoning violence here, people). Whoa, the dreams you can have when you manage to drift off in the middle of all that ruckus, because that's one of the major changes in sleep habits from becoming a mom - you learn to sleep in an increasing number of uncomfortable circumstances. 

Is she teething, testing? I do not know. This I know:

 Sticking to a regular nap and bedtime schedule is very important. And...

 I need a good night's sleep. 
 I'm going...