Plans

I haven't been blogging very much, and may not be for a couple of weeks. I've still got this dang cold and have been trying to force myself to rest so I can finally be rid of it. Just when I thought it was getting better it hit me again full force, but I am just starting to feel better again so this time I want it to stick! It probably didn't help that I lugged all the Christmas boxes in last night in the cold. (But I am glad to get going with the decorating) Yes, it is actually cold here in California this winter. Colder than I am used to now, anyway. We've been using our space heater at night, and sometimes in the day, and there's been frost on the ground in the mornings. Soon we will be in a much colder place and I hope we are prepared for it. We're going up to Washington for a week to celebrate an early Christmas with Mike's family. We are very excited! It's been too long since we visited, and they are all waiting to shower Miss Lily with love! Lily is so excited to go see her Grandma Elsie and make a snowman and go sledding, though I'm not totally sure she gets what sledding is. I know she doesn't get how cold it's going to be, but I hope she will have fun with it. We got her a little snow suit and coat and she looks very cute in it. Hopefully it will keep her toasty warm. Mike and I got new coats too. He thinks his looks kinda gangster, but it looks good on him. I don't think he could ever really look gangster. I just couldn't bring myself to get a bulky one like he did, mine is feminine and cute - I just hope it will be warmer than my old coat. It's part wool so that should do the trick, right? It was just so classy and cute I fell in love with it, and I wanted something I could wear around here too, so I got it. I will layer up with thermals and sweaters so it will probably be fine. After all I did used to make it with my old thin coat and there was no wool at all in it. I just think maybe I could take the cold a bit better back then...I've gotten wimpy. So anyway, in-between trying to rest I am rushing to get ready for Christmas, our trip, and keep up with all the normal things that keep the mother of a toddler crazy busy. We got all the decorations out last night and started putting them up until we were almost sleep-decorating. I tidied up today and plan to put all the ornaments on the tree tonight. I wanted to make sure Lily got a chance to decorate because Mike's mom will already have her tree up before we get there. She was so excited to help decorate! She kept running around hugging and kissing us where she could reach up to - which was on our back pockets. We did ring around the rosy around a tiny tree singing 'Oh Christmas Tree' and she loved it. This morning she helped me mix up 2 small batches of cookies to bake for tonight and it was so fun. She can't resist trying the cookie batter and even tasted the flour - twice! It cracks me up the things Lily will and won't eat, crazy kid. I wish you could hear her weird high pitched baby voice when she is excited and goofy - it is so funny! And I love her version of the sunbeam song: "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, for-ever!" She can be cranky and stubborn, but this is a really fun age over all. I can tell it's going to be an extra fun Christmas.

Thanksgiving

Here's a little part of our fun Thanksgiving weekend. 

Conga Party

It's so nice to just relax with your family while the kids entertain themselves. Good weekend! :)

Just Growing and/or Laughing Hurts

So - I know I write about Lily all the time... a little here, a little there in just about everything I post, but I haven't written a blog just about her for a while. Sometimes it seems like she's growing at such a steady rate I can't even track the changes, and then she'll start looking so tall and saying these funny new things all at once that I'm just blown away that she's getting so big! She's not a baby anymore!

Lily is going on two and a half, and the other day in the grocery store a man with a school age girl thought she could be in his daughter's class! It made me think I'd better teach this girl better manners because if people are going to mistake her for older than she is - they are going to expect more of her, and she is not too polite to strangers! She's anywhere in a spectrum of shy to downright rude. I'm not always sure how to handle it, because part of it is just that's she so very literal. You can't exactly punish a child for being afraid or stating the plain truth, so I just try to explain that it's not nice or polite to scowl at people or talk about how old they are or other different things about how other people look. We'll see if it sinks in. Sometimes she's quite sweet with compliments, but that's usually with people she knows. I've been told at different times that she likes my hair, and my "outfit", and that I'm a "nice mama." I like that a lot. And lately our family has been getting lots of I love you's and hugs. I think it's a fine balance to teach a child to respect boundaries and be careful of strangers, but be nice and friendly to them too. Some people you hug, some people you don't - all the nuances can really be confusing. :) The other day she told me somebody we didn't know that we saw walking by was a "mean man." Not sure where she got that idea, maybe he was frowning? We'll be working on this for a while I'm sure. I remember a few times even into my early teens when I put my foot in my mouth about a stranger in similar ways, and feeling so personally mortified about it. I'm curious what made me feel that way, and if it's something that was taught or something innate. I'm looking forward to the day that Lily exhibits self-correcting behavior, because some days it just seems like all the time-outs and talks I give her are having no effect. Some days I wonder if she's so strong willed because I'm so strict. Persistence can be a good thing if it's pointed in the right direction... I guess I will probably question my own parenting until the day I die. So I'll move on to lighter topics. Lily is a good kid, and she listens to everything so hopefully she'll get the things I want to teach her as time goes by.

I haven't been writing down the funny things she's been saying lately, but I remember a few:

The other night we were out front in the dark star gazing and talking and Lily said: "Remember when Evie was in the pumpkin?...and Audrey was in the pumpkin.." (A family tradition of ours at Halloween) 

I said: "Yes, I do. Did you get in the pumpkin?" (She didn't) 

Lily: "No." 

me: "Did you want to?" (I didn't push it this year when she didn't want to) 

Lily: "No, because... >pause< ... my shoes! My shoes would get all ...pumpkiny (only it was more like punkinny)!

me: (cracking up inside) "Oh! Well, what if we put plastic bags around your shoes to protect them? Would you like to have gone in the pumpkin then?"

Lily: "Yeah."

me: "Well, I'm sorry I didn't think of that sooner! We'll have to do that next year."

Lily: (focused) "My shoes would get all pumpkiny...my shoes would get all pumpkiny, and SLIMY!"

I loved the adjectives she came out with and it's so funny how particular she is - so like me.

Yesterday at church in nursery a little boy was grabbing a toy she wanted, and Lily said something like: "That young man keeps grabbing my toy! Young man! Stop that!"  She kept calling the other little 2 year old "young man"! 

I'd better start writing them down again because I know I'm forgetting some funny stuff. I know because lately laughing hurts - a hangover from being sick. I will be glad when I can laugh again without being painfully aware of it!

Random photos and a few videos too:

Those last three are from our 'Grand Toy Washing.' Lily did an awesome job helping me wash all her toys after she and some of her cousins had been sick. She wanted to do it again immediately afterward. Yes, this is one of the funnest things we do around here! I'm actually glad she enjoyed it so much, because it's time to do it again!

These videos were right after Halloween and we were listening to Mickey Mouse Christmas music. We have a limited selection of kids CD's. I just don't want to forget some of the little quirky things Lily does. I think it's so funny that with all the words she surprises me with knowing - she still makes words up when she's playing.

Video 1: Cooking up something special for Daddy


Video 2: Jingle Bells

(she was really getting into it, but I think they were going so fast it kept throwing her off)

Video 3: Air Mattress Dance

Autumn Walk

Just a nice sunshiny autumn day in California. Lily and I took a walk. The most autumny thing about the walk was Lily's hodgepodge outfit. She really didn't need that sweater, but we'd been sick and our house is always so cold, so we'd brought it along. 

I love these photos of my girl. Her shadow was so crisp and cute looking up at me with her little dandelion clutched in one hand and her other hand in mine as we walked. It made me reflect on my role as her mother, and how fast she is growing, and how sometimes I so want to slow it all down. I need more time to do a better job - she is growing up and it's totally out of my control. Totally. But at least I'm a part of it.

Oh yeah! Glad to be her mom :)

Getting Out!

It feels like I've been sick for a month and I think that is not really too far off. I had such a bad cold, (and Lily did too) that I haven't felt like doing much so blogging was definitely on the back burner. Though I think actually my last few posts I put up when I felt so sick I couldn't even sleep for coughing and blogging was the only thing I felt up to doing. I'm finally getting better! And Lily is even betterer than me. Just humor me on my grammatical faux pas :)

I just feel so grateful today for the wonderful friends and family in my life and with it being so close to Thanksgiving I thought a gratitude post would be appropriate. I should probably write down things I'm thankful for a lot more than I do!

I was concerned that Lily might have a UTI and wanted to get her in to see her pediatrician sooner rather than later. Mike was working, but both my mom and dad offered to help and when both Mike and I forgot to get the car seat out of the car my sweet sister drove over on her lunch break to install an extra one she had into my dad's car for Lily to use to get to the doctor. I felt so lame, it is so hard for me to ask for help, and then to make it worse by forgetting the car seat...Ugh! I felt terrible. But my family didn't make me feel terrible, they were so willing and sweet about helping us I couldn't have felt more loved! So I feel extremely grateful to have such a wonderful loving family and good neighbors I felt I could ask about borrowing a car seat from too. I am really lucky to be surrounded by so many good people. And I'm really excited to be going out on an actual date with my husband tonight to see Harry Potter! Life is good.

Construction Crew

This was kind of delayed with all the Halloween hubbub, but I still wanted to post it. Mike helped my Dad put up a storage shed in the backyard back in September. Actually the whole family got involved! Labor day was truly a day of labor - at least for these two:

They dug out a huge amount of dirt to lay the foundation. My brother Andrew planned and helped build the frame - and these guys should not go unrecognized:

All the kids wanted to help!

 Slurpee break!

 Cute baby break!

Later Mike and I did the final assembly. We couldn't have done it without our special little helper.

Lily was so sweet going back and forth to bring me two screws at a time as I was assembling pieces.

 "Here you go, mom!"

  "Mommy, I have some more screws for you!"

She just had to step on each panel of the shed as she passed it, and when she got to me she always had the sweetest little smile and head tilt as she offered me the screws. She just loved to be a part of it and feel like she was really helping!

It was so funny to see her repeat this meandering path - I had to record it! Of course the routine changed once the camera came out - but you get the idea. Just imagine the first part back and forth repeated at least 6 times.

These shed kits come with exactly what you need - down to the last screw. We were 2 screws short at the final step and were teasing that maybe Lily had eaten them as we looked around in the grass and contemplated taking some out of a less essential spot in order to finish up. (A ridiculous number of screws went into this shed). Mike said: "Maybe they're in Lily's pockets?" -- like Lily had pockets, or would be coordinated enough to get screws into them! I guess maybe she could - she did get the screwdriver into the screw socket. Anyway it did make Mike think to look in his own pockets...where, guess what he found!? The last 2 screws! So the shed is complete. It needs steps or a ramp, but that's a project for another day.

Lily thinks it's her house, or rather her 'kitchen'. We recently discovered some neighbors on our block have the neatest little play house in their backyard. Seriously, so cool. Wood floors, real working light on the miniature porch and inside, silver butterfly fittings on the real working windows, painted yellow with purple trim. Lily and their little girl played with her little toy kitchen setup inside, and I can't blame Lily for wanting one of her own! The shed just isn't going to cut it: Much too hot and needed for another purpose, or it would not be in our backyard. But Lily had fun helping build it! I can't believe how blond she looks in some of these pictures!

 

 

The finished shed:

Who knows? - maybe Lily will go into construction one day...We could sure use someone to build us a house! Or maybe she'll grow up and live in an apple tree. She keeps telling me that's her plan (just like Little Bear wants to). I always ask if I can live with her in the apple tree and she always says yes. So far so good! She also tells me when she grows up she's going to be big like me and her hair is going to be brown like mine. -- That part will probably come true, but for now I just want her to stay little! :)