My Cutie in Tails

I am a total sucker for Lily in "tails" as she calls them. Pigtails, ponytail, whatever -- she is just too squeezable & cute! Lately she wants tails in all the time (of course, since we haven't been going anywhere). So last night while we were playing I took literally over 100 pictures and here are some of my favorites:

She loves to sit on the cold, hard floor by the front door and play catch. I try and try to move the game to the carpet -- but we have to "sit down wood floor!!"

She loves to read magazine and will sit there for the longest time flipping through the pages and looking at all the pictures. Yesterday she was fascinated with Josh Duhamel and learned all about him!

She also is really into President Obama. For months now whenever she sees him on TV or a magazine or the Internet she says "Ohbahama". I really have no idea how she learned that -- I never taught her and we usually watch the news at night after she is asleep. You would think she would be more likely to identify characters from General Hospital, but no, there is something about Obama that caught her interest! It is the weirdest thing! I have been trying for weeks to get a video of her saying it, but she does cooperate on command. She is too smart!

On our way to Sonic to get Daddy a milkshake for dinner -- he had 2 root canals yesterday morning, and chewing wasn't really going to well.

"NO Camera!" is what she was screaming at me by this point

This photo is from this morning. She always wears her glasses on her head since that is what I do when we go out and are indoors!

"I got star stamp"

This morning I took literally a minute or so to check my e-mail (more like delete spam, since I didn't have much good e-mail) and when I turned around I found that Lily had unzipped her pajamas, found a crayola stamper marker and stamped stars all over her body. I'm still not sure how she got all that done so fast -- I am sure she saved some time by leaving her pajamas stuck around her ankles. :) She was so proud of her star stamps that it was hard to be even a little mad. I blame Gymboree, since she gets a Gymbo stamp on her hands, feet and tummy after every class. At least they are washable markers.

Admiring her handy work
Walking around her her pajamas around her ankles
(don't look too closely at this photo -- she has nasty snot coming out her nose. But she is almost 100% again!)

She was so proud that she even posed to show the camera

Mommy, don't forget to take a picture of the one on my tummy!

She kept saying "I got star stamp"

Still talking about her cool star stamps!

Nothing New

Still cold and icy in some areas (depending on how the sun hits -- backyard is a frozen wonderland, front yard is all defrosted). I am using every bit of willpower I have to refrain from posting any more pictures of ice . . . I got tons! :) Lily is still sick, but getting better. We skipped Gymboree this morning and stayed home again since she is not 100% yet. That is pretty much it. . . I chase Lily around trying to wipe her nose; she screams and cries and gets totally pissed off -- which just produces more snot and the fun starts all over again.

Here is Lily watching her crazy Mommy outside taking photos of ice from this morning:

I Just Can't Get Enough

My obsession with the ice continues . . . I am sure none of you really care, but I have to share anyway! :) Plus, it will be funny to look back on in a few years to see if I am still this obsessed with a little ice! I took all these pictures just now after getting Lily down for a nap at 2:30. Who would have thought that the ice would get better as the day progressed? I thought it was supposed to be melting? I guess it is melting some -- the icicles are dripping and every so often you see or hear one come crashing down from the roof and shatter on the ground. But the ground was still frozen solid and I sorta slid across instead of walking. I can't imagine having to drive anywhere right now! It is only 31 degrees out, still below freezing and it will be dark in a few hours -- maybe we will get to keep the ice around until tomorrow!

The table is so frozen, you can barely make out the wood slats -- it looks smooth and solid across!

Ginormous icicle
(and yes apparently ginormous is a real word, since the spell checker corrected my misspelling!)

The ice accumulation is so thick and solid back in the corner or our yard -- but it is in the sun now, so I don't think it will last much longer

* OK, I promise I will try not to post anymore ridiculous pictures of ice . . . at least for a little while.

Another Day Stuck at Home

"Ice Storm 2009," as they are calling it on the news, finally hit last night after sunset which was a real bummer because it was too dark to enjoy the sleet and icicles! But that didn't stop Chip and I from going outside to play in the sleet. We are real dorks when it comes to the weather here -- we get really excited over an icicle and still run to the window to watch lightning. I can only imagine the excitement when/if it ever snows! Since it is suppose to start melting off this afternoon, we woke up this morning and had to go outside and touch all the frozen plants before it was all gone! Chip stayed home from work yesterday in anticipation of the storm and took the morning off waiting for it to melt some and then headed into work. He said it was still really bad on the roads and he lost control a few times -- luckily the roads were empty as he was the only moron to attempt to leave the house. It is after noon now and still in the 20s, but the sun is slowly melting the ice. Tomorrow it will be in the 50s again and all gone.

Ice in the flower beds

Almost looks like snow
It is actually a good week for Lily to be sick since we would have been stuck indoors anyway. Of course being 28 degrees still didn't stop Lily from taking her clothes off. I've had to up the heater to keep her warm. One of her favorite pastimes is pushing her baby doll around the house in the shopping cart. Of course she has to have her purse on her arm (with her cell phone in the purse).

Here she is trying to navigate through the obstacle of toys in the living room. It has gotten exceptionally messy after 4 days at home!

We have also spent a lot of time playing with her puzzles. It has been fun and she is making real headway with her ABC's. She can sing the alphabet song the whole way through (it is so cute, but of course she won't allow me to capture it on video yet), so she is having fun doing the alphabet puzzle and actually getting to see the letters that she has been singing. She is doing really really well!

It is a nice puzzle since it has a picture on the board to correspond with each letter. So when she picks up the A, for example, I tell her that is the A for Apple and she finds the apple on the board and puts the A piece in the right spot. She know all the pictures now, but we did have to teach her Walrus, Swan and Lemon/Lime the first couple times through.

Ice & Ponytails

Lily is still sick, so we've just spent another day at home. Not that we would have gone anywhere today anyway since North Texas is bracing itself for a major ice storm. Chip stayed home from work today since, obviously, the golf course would be closed and it is just not worth it to take your chances on the roads if you don't have to. But so far the major ice storm has been a huge disappointment since there is no ice! Apparently it is supposed to get worse as the day goes on, so we'll just have to wait and see. I have to admit, Chip and I really like having these random weather events. Now, if it was icy every day all winter that would be a completely different story all together -- but it was 80 degrees last Thursday and today there is ice. It keeps it interesting and we never get a chance to tire the weather since it changes constantly!

This morning Lily wanted a rubber band in her hair, so I gave her a pony tail! Of course, I thought she looked adorable:

New Year, New Cold

Lily is sick again! She is totally making up for the first 2 sickless years of her life. Her cough (which never completely went away) came back strong on Saturday. Then all day yesterday I spent the entire day wiping snot off her face. We literally went through an entire box of Kleenex. Today has not been much different. We still have the cough medicine the doctor prescribed to her last month; and while I hate to give it to her, I also hate to hear her up all night coughing and see her in the morning covered in her own crusty mucus (sorry, is that too gross?). So hopefully that will help clear her up some during the night and her cough will ease up so we all can get some sleep and she can get better soon! I am so hoping I don't sick also, but all things considered I am fairly certain that I will. :(
Here are some pictures I took of her playing this morning upstairs in the playroom. It had been awhile since I took pictures up there!

Look Mommy, a triangle!

It is kinda hard to see, but this was the best picture -- there is a huge knot in her hair, upper left side. It was so tangled from her twirling her hair trying to sleep last night that I had no choice but to cut in out. Now she has some choppy uneven layers. :(

Magna Doodle

Out of all the toys that Lily received for her birthday and Christmas this year, the one toy that has by far gotten the most use is the Magna Doodle that my parents gave her. She loves it. I love it. I remember having one as a kid and they are so much fun. We have been reinforcing her knowledge of shapes; attempting to learn letters and numbers; and just having fun drawing on it! Lily loves to draw and thankfully she announces what she is about to draw before she draws it -- it is great because then I know how to complement her "picture". She also likes to tell me what to draw which is fun and sometimes hilariously funny because I am a terrible artist! Her request vary from friends and family members to totally random things and characters like "Super Grover". It keeps us entertained for hours. Here are some of our favorites:

Goofy!

Mickey Mouse -- to draw Minnie just add eyelashes and a bow!

Odie

Chip!

Preschool??

This morning Lily and I went to the open house at the nearby preschool. It is the school that most of our new friends either attend or plan on attending and from what I saw today and read about them online, I really like the school. Here's my issue -- will Lily be ready in September for preschool? Fall registration is in mid-February and if you get in you have to pay a non-refundable registration fee. I was hoping to get her in and have until Sept to decide if it was the right time to start. A lot can and will change in her personality in the next 9 months! Right now she is so not ready -- it would be terribly traumatizing to both of us to drop her off and leave her there. Even while we were visiting today, a very nice lady showed us the classroom for 2 year olds and it was just me, Lily and the teacher and Lily was all freaked out and whenever the nice teacher talked to her she would run up to me and want me to pick her up. Lily is just so shy and attached to me. They said 3 years of preschool would benefit her since she is so shy, but I am thinking maybe 2 years of preschool is good enough and we continue with the playgroups and Gymboree for another year to help her better socialize with other kids on her own terms. Maybe that extra time with me will make the transition less difficult! She has already made huge progress in the last 6 months since we started going to playgroups and Gymboree, but she still has a ways to go. I wish I didn't have to make a decision in the next month. I want to do what is best for Lily. As far as the curriculum goes, most of the stuff she already knows (ABC's, counting, shapes, animal sounds, body parts, etc) so I can't imagine that missing this year of preschool would really set her behind as far as any learning goes -- she enjoys learning at home and I have fun teaching her new things. Any advice from my elementary teacher friends (Michelle, Erin, Amy . . .)???

Here she is all ready to go check out the school with her purse and baby -- just like Mommy!

A Spring Day in January

We've been keeping busy the last couple days. Yesterday morning we had Gymboree and on the way home Lily wanted to stop and see Grandma, so we did; then after her nap we had a MOMS club get together at Michelle's house which was awesome because it was like 80 degrees yesterday and it was so nice to sit in the back yard drinking ice tea while the kids played (of course Lily didn't play with all the kids, she was right next to me eating crackers). But it was a super nice evening to be outside. Then this morning, while I really didn't want to do anything I had to go "see the mall" (as Lily says) to get a new compact. I've been meaning to get a new compact since early December and it was way over do -- I had been relying on the dust that was left to cover my blemishes and needed more!! While at the mall, I also got to use my "Gymbucks" at Gymboree to get Lily some new spring clothes. Bath and Body Works is having their semi-annual sale, so I stocked up on supplies (I love their sales -- it is the best time to get lotions and soap -- 50% off and I got yummy cherry shampoo for $1.87!!). The best purchase of the day was this bathing suit I got for Lily at Baby Gap (yes, I know it is only January) for $11

I had seen it for sale online and thought it was the cutest thing, so I went into the store looking for it. Luckily I asked the sales guy about it because they didn't have any out -- but they had her size in the back! So as soon as the weather decides to stay warm for more than one day at a time, we will be ready! :)

Here are some pictures from last night as we were leaving for Michelle's house:

She did not want her picture taken, but I thought she looked so cute in her little spring outfit!

Crunching leaves in the driveway

Roller Coaster

This morning we had a "Lunch Bunch" playdate with the MOMS Club at Melissa's house -- basically a potluck of sandwiches and crackers and fruit. They had a fun new "roller coaster" toy that all the kids were playing with. I didn't give it much thought since Lily is so not a daredevil. I mean, just this last week the first time that she actually allowed me to push her in a swing at the park (and she went quite high, I might add). But she totally surprised me when she said she wanted to ride and then shocked me even more when she liked it and wanted to go again and again! Of course I had to run and grab my camera out of my purse!

It looked fun! Too bad we officially are out of room for such large toys! :)
.............

The theme of the potluck was "rainbow foods." I actually tried to think of something fun to bring, but couldn't come up with anything so we just brought rainbow goldfish crackers and bananas. They didn't eat all the crackers, so we brought the rest home and Lily, of course, wouldn't eat her regular fish crackers anymore she had to have the rainbow ones. And look at what she did:

She took all the normal gold ones out and refused to eat them! Silly girl! Too bad we are almost out of the rainbow ones, although they may be good to help teach her colors. She isn't quite grasping that. Everything is either "blue" or "yellow".