Wonderful Friday

Tigerlily and I had a great day today. It started with a playdate at Shaelin's house with Shaelin, Barefoot Princess, Buby, and Munchkinetta. The kids all played so nicely with each other, there were only a couple of toys that caused a couple of squabbles. Shaelin was very good about sharing her toys, and Lori had a great breakfast set up for everyone. Tigerlily enjoyed 1/4 of a bagel with cream cheese, grapes, blueberries, strawberries and some crackers.

They played so hard that she crashed within 5 minutes of getting home. She took a good nap then we went to the playground to meet with Alessandro and his mom, Dori. Tigerlily and Alessandro had a great time playing on the swings, the slide, and climbing the structures. They really enjoyed the giant sandbox as well.

3 hours

Spring is finally here! We had such beautiful weather today so Lillian and I went to the playground after her nap. We spent over 3 hours playing on the swings and slide and in the sandbox.

Easter Bunny

Mike and I took Lillian to the mall today and stopped to visit the Easter Bunny while we were there. We had a much better experience with the bunny than we did the last couple of times we tried to see Santa. There was no screaming or crying this time, we even got a couple of smiles out of her. She liked holding onto his furry paw.

Birds

One of Lillian's favorite signs right now is bird. She loves to stand in the kitchen nook and watch the birds outside with Forster, signing bird the whole time.Video of how to sign Bird

This weekend has been full of birds for her. We are visiting with Grandpa and Nannie and she has seen birds everywhere. This morning she watched Grandpa feed the birds out the bedroom window, and during meals she is able to see out the window and watch them fly by. Nannie has a blue glass bird in the kitchen window and there are a couple of decorative birdhouses and a bird on the porch.

Best of all, Granda and Nannie took her to Forest Park today. She got to feed the ducks for a long time, then she got to go play on the playground. According to Grandpa, she really loved the slide.

No more baby

It really hit me last night what a little girl Lillian has become, she's really not a baby anymore.

Last night Lillian and I had dinner together at her little table. Although I don't fit at the table very well, she seemed so excited to have me eating there with her. She sat at the table, ate with fork, and used her napkin. She chatted away with me the entire time.

After she was done with dinner she picked out a book, climbed into her big pink chair and started reading the book to herself. She looked at each page, pointed out the butterflies, the kangaroos, and the fish. She turned the pages so slowly and enjoyed the entire book.

Breakfast and Pink Balloons

I woke up late this morning, it was 9:00! I woke up to the stomping of little feet coming up the stairs, then an excited "Ma!" Lillian wanted to show off her pink balloon.

Once a week on his day off, Mike gets up with Lillian and takes her out to breakfast. They get to spend some quality time alone together, and I get to sleep in an extra hour or so. She is always in a great mood when they come home, and so excited about her balloon, or the bagel that she's bringing to me. You can tell she really loves her special breakfasts with her Daddy.

Sewing

Last week Lillian helped Nana with some sewing. Now she thinks she's a pro, and wants to "sew" all the time. She keeps a piece of batting for herself and loves to try to cut it every chance she gets.

Snowed in

Another March snow storm! Just when you think spring has started and start enjoying the 65 degree weatherm a surprise storm reminds you that winter isn't over yet.

Luckily we made it to Blue House Mom and Munchkinetta's house for their playdate yesterday. Tigerlily had a great time with Munchkinetta, Buby, and Barefoot Princess. All the kids had a great time playing together in Grace's house her daddy made out of a box. With all the great toys Munchkinetta has, the carboard box was the biggest hit of the day.

Once we got home from Munchkinetta's we were snowed in for the rest of the day. I just tried to take some pictures of the snow in the backyard, but it's so deep I can't get the backdoor open! It may be too deep to even take Lillian out to play today. I'm hoping that it's nice enough to get outside for a little while though.

18 Month Check-up

We had Lillian's 18 month doctor's appointment this morning. She is now 32.5 inches long and 22 pounds. She's in the 75th percentile for height and a little below the 25th for weight.

According to the dr she is doing great. She's healthy and hitting all her milestones. She showed the dr just how well she understands and follows what she's told, and even showed off one of her favorite works, color. She wanted the dr's pen to color with.

I've uploaded a bunch of new videos to UTube.

Fingerpainting
Swimming
Help
Relaxed
Poor Forster
Monkey Noises
Dancing
More Dancing
Monster

Da-Ga!

Lily just loves Buby. She's come up with her own name for him, Da-Ga. We were a little late to Little Gym last week and when we were walking in she could see him through the window. She started pointing and yelling DA-GA! DA-GA! You wouldn't have thought she'd just spent the afternoon with him the day before. She went running in trying to give him a hug.

This was taken last week, they both insisted on wearing their rainboots for most of the day. They took them off for nap, but put them right back on again in the afternoon.

New Shoes

Lillian finally outgrew the shoes she got back in September (well her sneakers and the shoes from Nana and Pop Steve, her special birthday shoes still fit). She needed a new pair so Mike and I bought her some sneakers 2 weeks ago. For Easter, Grandpa and Nannie bought her these white shoes.

She LOVES shoe shopping. She gets so excited when we walk into the store, and loves trying on all different shoes. She even checks her toes after the salesperson does.

18 Months Old

I can't believe my baby is 18 months old today. How has she grown so fast?
We had a wonderful day together to celebrate. When she woke up this morning she came into bed with us to nurse and then snuggle for a while. Once she was ready to start playing, she and I came downstairs so Mike could sleep some more. We cuddled on the couch for a while watching Little Einsteins together, then colored and read a couple of books. We went out for breakfast once Mike woke up (Vick came with us too as a thank you for helping with the attic squirrels!).

After breakfast we all took a nap. She woke up just as Mike was leaving, so he brought her into me. She nursed and we cuddled in bed for a while again. We've been playing in the living room most of the day, she keeps running over and throwing herself on me to give me hugs. They are the best kind.

I tried to do an 18 month photo shoot, she didn't want to have anything to do with it. The only way I could keep her still was to give her monkey to read to.


I wanted to do a comparison picture of her and monkey together, but she just wanted to dance with him.

3 Days vs 18 Months

Picasso

Lillian made her first painting last week. I couldn't post the pictures any earlier because the painting was a gift for Pop Steve's birthday.


I bought a couple of small canvases from Michael's. I stripped Lillian down to her diaper and put her in the empty bathtub with a canvas and two paper plates with paint.




She really liked the blue paint, she'd paint blue with her whole hands. She wasn't so sure about the red, she was really careful to just lightly dip one finger in.



Once she decided the red wouldn't kill her, she really got into it. She painted with her feet just as much as with her hands.

She also figured out how to splatter paint - clapping her hands made interesting patterns on her as well as the bathtub and me.

The aftermath

One Year

I can't believe how fast time is going by and how much Lillian has changed in one year.

This was taken Feb.12, 2006.

And this was taken Feb.26,2007.