Happy New Year!

Wishing all of our family and friends a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!

We will be having a quiet New Year's Eve at home. This will be the first year that Lilypad Dad will actually be home with us to celebrate instead of working. So we're going to stay in and celebrate together as a family. No matter how you celebrate tonight, have fun and be safe!


photo from yahoo images

Dress Up Trunk

I have alot to catch up on, including both Christmas celebrations, but with the Patriots game on tonight I won't be able to get all my posts done tonight. But here are a couple of pictures of Lilypad Princess playing with with her present from Lilypad Dad and me.


We found a trunk for her dress up clothes 2 days before Christmas, but it turned out to be the perfect one. We also bought a small, handled box to hold all the jewelry inside the trunk so it doesn't get lost or broken.

Checking out everything in the trunk

Wearing her favorite dress (we could have just bought this and she would have been happy)

Channeling Madonna

Santa Came!

This is the Lilypad late Christmas night after Santa came to visit. The stockings are filled, presents are under the tree and the cookies and carrots have been eaten.

A Visit to Santa

Christmas Eve, Lilypad Dad, Nana, and I decided to make one final attempt to visit Santa. Lilypad Princess has not been a big fan of Santa's this year, and refused to even sit near him the last time we visited. With Nana acting as the photographer, Lilypad Dad and I both took LP up to meet Santa. She refused to sit on his lap, but I was able to get her to sit on the seat next to him.

At first she was not happy and just wanted me to come back to get her.

But after a couple of minutes and a little chat, they seemed to come to an understanding.


By the end of the visit we even got a smile and ended with a big hug.

It's a wonderful Christmas

It has been a long day so this will be a short post. But it has been a wonderful day and I didn't want to go to bed without commenting on it.

Lilypad Princess started off by giving Lilypad Dad and I the bet present of all, sleep until 9am! Then we headed downstairs and LP checked out Santa's empty plate, the presents under the tree and she opened her stocking. Once Nana and Auntie La joined us, LP opened her presents taking lots of time to play with each one before opening the next one.

After presents I got started on dinner while everyone else took turns getting ready. Grandpa and Nannie came in with more food, Uncle Dave stopped by, and LP Dad's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mike were able to come over to visit for a while.

After lots of food and more presents, LP Dad had to leave for work, LP settled in to play with her new toys while everyone else visited. It was a very relaxing, perfect Christmas. Now I'm off to enjoy some tea with the chocolate covered strawberries from Aunt Nancy and then head to bed. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!

Love,
the Lilypad Family

Stretch.....

Lilypad Princess has figured out how to get the things she wants from the higher bookshelves. LP's daddy taught her how to build "stairs" with her bricks this summer, so she is now using that knowledge (and my antique books) to climb higher than ever.

A little break...

Sorry, I guess I took a little unplanned break from blogging. It has been a busy week; Nana flew in last week to stay with us for the holidays, holiday party at Buby's, winter weather, holiday prep, etc. I'm going to add a few short posts to catch up on some of the highlights although I think they will be mostly photos. And I'll try to keep up this week so I don't have another massive post-a-thon after Christmas!

Scroll down to the bottom of today's post and read up if you want to read them in chronological order.

Getting ready for the party

Buby and his parents hosted a holiday party for the playgroup kids (more on that later). Lilypad Princess had fun primping for the party.

Do these shoes match my dress?

Checking to see if the weather is going to ruin the party

Don't tell me I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go

Yay! The party is still on!

My Nana, My Nana!

Nana came for a couple of weeks to stay with us for the holidays. Lilypad Princess was so excited to get to the airport and was waiting by the door for the passengers as they got off the plane. As soon as Nana walked through the door LP took off running, yelling "My Nana, My Nana!". She ran right by security who didn't even attempt to stop her, and was scooped up in a big hug. The picture above isn't the good one, this was after all the hugs, but I forgot to turn the flash on and the first one is too blurry.

LP loves to go up and visit with Nana in the morning, to read the new books and play with her paperdolls in bed. Nana lets her stay in the bath as long as she wants and LP even went to bed without any problems for her Nana when I went out for a girl's night. Nana has been visiting Eka for the last 2 days and LP can't wait for her to come back.

Who did all the hard work?

You tell me-who was really doing the hard work?

Lilypad Dad?

Or
Lilypad Princess?

More Snow

We received more snow last week. I wanted to take Lilypad Princess out to play during the day but she took too long a nap and it was dark before she woke up. So we bundled up nice and warm and headed out into the front yard to check out the new snow.

Checking out the snowgear as she bundled up

Throwing snowballs at me

It's kind of hard to walk in this!

The Elf Family

Lilypad Princess became an Elf for the the holidays. (I guess Lilypad Dad was bored when she was napping and I was at work.)

Snow Day

We woke up this morning to a good coating of the snow on the ground with more still falling. In fact, it's still falling now at 3:46. So our plans to get a tree this afternoon got pushed up a little bit, and we threw on clothes and headed out in the snow to pick out our tree.

heading out in the snow


Lilypad Princess was too excited by the falling snow to pay much attention to the trees, so LP's dad and I chose a tree, tied it to the car and headed home. We all had a nice lunch together and now I'm working on lasagna for dinner while LP and her dad take a nice long nap.

If LP wakes up before it's dark, her dad will take her out to play in the snow again. Then I think we'll do a little baking, maybe some cookies and a pie to take with us for dinner tomorrow night and we'll all relax in front of a fire before bed.

I hope everyone else is having a lazy day as well and enjoying watching the snow from a nice warm place.

checking out the trees

Perfect Fit Headband

A little package came this morning as we were getting ready to walk out the door. As usual, it was for Lilypad Princess. It was a Perfect Fit Headband from Busy B Designs. She didn't fuss at all as I put it on, and unlike most of her clips, actually stayed in her hair the entire time we were gone. It even stayed in with her winter hat being pulled on and off.

The headband is soft so it won't push on the head or cause a headache, and is shaped to taper off as it goes behing the ears. The elastic in the back makes it fit perfectly now, but also allow her to wear it for a long time. It is reversible, a pink pattern with blue and green on one side and a pink microseude on the other.

The only downside to it is how much older she looks while wearing it. She looks like she's ready to go off to school without me. (I'll try to get a better picture after she wakes up from her nap, this was the best I could do because she was too busy eating a cereal bar so she could get outside to pose for pictures).

Too Big

Lilypad Princess did suffer a little bit of baby envy while visiting her baby cousins yesterday, she wanted a turn in their Rainforest Jumparoo as well. It didn't matter that it is a baby toy and I wouldn't help her into it, LP was determined to get in.

Cousins

Lilypad Princess and I made a quick trip to Grandpa's house for a couple of days. LP's newest cousins were visiting their grandparents and LP has been anxious to meet them.

We started off with the newest cousins, Elena and Ana, who are now 5 months old and beautiful, and Auntie Lauren. LP renamed them to Pink Baby (Elena) and Cousin Nana (Ana). She was quite the helper, giving them all the toys she could find, trying to give them bottles, and helping Ana jump in her jumparoo. I can't believe how big they have gotten in the four months since I've seen them, I wish we lived closer so we could get together more often.


On our way back to Grandpa's we stopped to say a quick hello to Auntie Shannon and Ella. We walked in and LP and Ella disappeared on us. They headed up to Ella's room to play. When Shannon and I went up to check on them they were both dressed up with crowns on, sitting on the floor playing with Princess dolls. It was so cute to see them playing together now the LP is older. And I'm so excited, while Shannon and I were talking we figured out that we are all going to Disney World at the same time this May. It's sad that we have to go all the way to Florida to have an adult night out, but I can't wait!

It's the little things...

that can make an ordinary morning exciting. Lilypad Princess and I were sitting on the couch together reading a story this morning when we heard a loud, strange noise outside. LP popped up with her favorite phrase, "What was that?" so we had to go see.

It was not 1, but 2 CAT loaders outside our house along with 2 dumptrucks! The 2 CAT loaders were picking up all the leaves from the side of the road. LP and I stood outside (luckily it isn't too cold) watching them drive towards each other, pushing the leaves into the loaders bucket to dump into the dump trucks. LP got lots of waves from all the men driving them as well.

Old Friends

This is the time of the year I often stop to think of old friends that I have lost touch with and wonder how they are and what they are doing. Today I got back in touch with a friend that I was in Australia with. The contact with her made me think of some of the other friends I made in Australia, that I haven't talked to since my last trip there in 2000. So I decided to do a google search to see who I could find.

I wasn't able to find out much about the first person I searched for, although I know he was a Federal Agent and think he may have received a medal for his response to the Bali bombing (or there is another federal agent with the same name).

My second search was not only successful, but very surprising! Clint Paddison, one of the guys that I was good friends with is now a very successful comedian. While it doesn't surprise me in some ways, he could always make everyone laugh (I wish I had some pictures from Change of Sex night on the computer) I never expected him to make a career out of it. He was always so focused on his studies. He looks the same too, I wasn't sure if it was the right person until I saw the picture and there is no doubt. The clips took me right back to 1996, I definitely miss the accent.

You can see some of his comedy clips and commercials here.

Lilypad Likes

Children are unique and so are their fingerprints. So what a great idea to create a piece of jewelry featuring their fingerprint. What a wonderful gift for a parent, grandparent or even a godparent.

I've found some wonderful fingerprint jewelry by Tina Steinberg. You have your child make an impression of their finger or thumb in the clay kit, then Tina Steinberg will preserve it forever in silver or gold in the style of your choice. She can even put multiple impressions on the same piece.

My favorite style is the Round Up My Love pendant which holds the entire fingerprint.

Lilypad Likes

Reading some other blogs today, I was introduced to Quiet Hours Toys. With all of the issues with toys from China, I know that a lot of people are looking for alternatives for Christmas gifts this year. Even without the lead issues, it is always nice to have some toys that aren't noisy, primary-colored plastic. This site features some wonderful artisan-crafted toys. I have not ordered from them yet, I'm still checking out the site but wanted to post it for anyone who might still be looking for that perfect Christmas gift.

Here are a couple of my favorites from the site.

Felt Brown Bag Lunch


Noah's Ark Set

Frog Knit Backpack

Flower Fairy Mobile

Felt Pizza

Friends and Cookies

Today was a playdate day. It should have been our soup swap playdate, but we decided to get into the holiday spirit and try cookies instead. So yesterday I spent the afternoon trying out a new cookie recipe.

Today we spent a wonderful morning with LP's best friends, she was so excited on the way over, she kept asking me over and over if they would all be there. Blue House Mom and Munchkinetta hosted a great morning, and we all left we 3 dozen new, different cookies. For a super sweet picture from today's playdate, check out Buby's Place.

Cookies for Santa

Lilypad Dad and I took Lilypad Princess to a local ceramic painting studio yesterday. The reason for the trip - Santa's Cookies. I posted before about a cute, personalized plate and mug for Santa's cookies and milk that I saw in a catalog, but wanted Lilypad Princess to personalize her own. The studio had a really cute plate that says cookies for santa on it with a snowman and Christmas tree in the center. We decided to go with that.

LP started off by sponging down the plate with water to make sure it was ready to paint. We chose a nice deep red (called Hot Tamale) and a Christmasy green (Irish Luck) as her two colors. Starting with the red, she painted most of the middle of the plate. Switching to the green, she painted the stars and holly along the edges of the plate. Once she felt that she had decorated the plate the way she liked it, I tried to keep my hand steady while painting the letters in black.

Once the front of the plate was dry, LP put her handprint on the back and then we personalized it with her name and the date. We had to leave it behind to be fired in the kiln, but will pick it up in time to fill it for Santa for Christmas.

Here is the completed masterpiece. The colors will change when fired, it will be much darker reds and greens.

Thank You Saint Nicholas

Lilypad Dad and I were relaxing on the couch last night when there was a slight knock on the door. When Lilypad Dad got there to answer it, nobody was there but there was a bag tied with a pretty red and gold ribbon sitting on the porch. After a slight hesitation (is it safe to bring an unknown package in the house, is it safe to open it) Lilypad Dad untied the ribbon. Once we saw the tag from St. Nick we tied the bag back up to wait for Lilypad Princess in the morning.

Lilypad Princess saw the pretty ribbon and bag waiting for her as soon as we came down the stairs. Together we pulled off the ribbon, then she dove into the bag. She became more excited with each item she pulled out, cookies, candy bar oranges, a wrapped present, Santa paper (napkins), NUTS!, and A STICK MOMMY! After taming the lion otherwise known as Forster with the stick, she settled in to eat in her new pretty skirt. She tried a cookie, but decided the pistachios were better. She followed me around like a puppy begging for more until my fingers hurt from opening them and is now relaxing on the couch with Lilypad Dad while they finish off the bag together.


A VERY big thank you for such a thoughtful, wonderful surprise from St. Nick. Hopefully someone who knows the story behind St Nick and the stick will be able to tell us a little about it.
Here is the story behind this wonderful tradition from Blue House Mom.

A Little Holiday Spirit

We haven't gotten the big Christmas tree for the living room yet, but last night we decorated a little tree to bring some Christmas spirit into Lilypad Princess' bedroom. The tree is a little sparse and lopsided and reminds me a bit of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. But LP loves to watch the colors change on the little star on top, and had lots of fun putting all the new ornaments on the tree.

Happy Hanukkah

Wishing Pop Steve and everyone else a very happy Hanukkah. Lots of love, The Lilypad Family

Nightmares

What does a 2 year old have nightmares about? I figured it might be monsters, witches, or maybe getting lost. We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other night and I was afraid that might scare her, but she didn't wake up that night. Halloween didn't cause nightmares either.

When Lilypad Princess woke up crying and yelling at 2 am last night I immediately thought it was Eon from Rudolph's Shiny New Year which we watched together last night. That Eon is pretty frightening, I'll admit I was a little nervous I'd have nightmares about him. So when I woke up to her crying and yelling I felt guilty for letting her watch it.

That was until I was awake enough to understand what she was yelling. No, the nightmare wasn't about Eon. She was yelling "Try on my dress! Try on my dress PLEASE!" Apparently my 2 year old has nightmares about not being allowed to put on a dress instead of pants.

I couldn't get her calmed down in her crib, and even nursing and snuggling in the chair couldn't calm her down. So finally I got out one of her sundresses and put it on over her pajamas. Then she quickly snuggled back into bed and went right back to sleep.

We are in big trouble with this one aren't we?


Eon photo from google images