More Fun in the Sun and Mac & Cheese!

Last night after her nap it was a little warmer than it had been all week -- in the mid 80s, so we decided to go outside and swim some more since she has been wanting to get back into the pool all week long!

She helped to fill the pool.

Not sure what she was doing here, but it's super cute! :)

She was hesitant to get in since it was still kinda cool out (and it doesn't help that I make her put the pool in the shade -- she doesn't need all that direct sunlight), so she just tested the water like this for awhile. Finally she asked me if I could sit her down since she was afraid to do it herself! I gladly helped out and she was fine with it. But she didn't stay in the pool that long, I think it was still too cool out.

Lily is 2, going on 16.

I have flashes of the future when she is chattin away on her cell phone with her little purse.

Apparently a sudden breeze went thru the yard! :)

She is so animated when she talks to no one on her pretend phone, and she is surprisingly quiet and meek when she actually talks on the phone with real people!

Daddy came home, so she wanted to get the "Sprinkles" out!

I think Chip had more fun than she did running through the sprinkler. He said it felt great; it was a good stress reliever. Looks like we'll be getting the sprinklers out every night!

She was so cuddly and cute wrapped in her towel.

Chip swaddled her up like a baby burrito!

(he was always the best at swaddling her)

She was happy to be talking and hanging out with Daddy.

Laughing at Daddy!

I went in to slave away making tater tots and Lily and Chip barbecued turkey burgers for dinner. After we had yummy strawberry & blueberry shortcake!! Lily ate a little of everything, so it was a good night!

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This morning we went to my parent's house to check on and feed the cats and clean.

Lily trying to feed Maggie Cheeze-It's. Maggie was so not interested.

Taking a picture of Maggie with her Mickey Mouse camera.


In the afternoon we played and danced some and then she spotted the box of Macaroni & Cheese in the pantry that she made me buy last week at the market and wanted it for lunch. I've tried many many times to get her to eat Mac & Cheese and she never has -- but this was Scooby Doo shaped Mac and Cheese, so that made a huge difference! We've been watching old episodes of Scooby Doo (my all time favorite childhood cartoon on youtube) and she loves them. I decided to try again with the mac and cheese and if she didn't eat it then I'd enjoy it for lunch. Imagine my shock and excitement when she ate it all up!
Yummy!!

Now if only all foods could be shaped like Scooby and the Mystery Machine we'd have a balanced diet! :)

Babbling

Sorry, no new pictures today - just a quick update. I am tired since last night I was out until after 10 with my friends Lori, Heather and Courtney -- it was bookclub night, but I don't know why we bother actually reading the books we barely discuss them for more that 4 minutes! :) But Chip and Lily had a good daddy/daughter night which is great for them. She got to pick whatever she wanted for dinner and she excitedly exclaimed "Wendy's nuggets!". It is random, but she loves Wendy's (and she hasn't even ever had a frosty which in my opinion is the only reason to eat at Wendy's!)
Then this morning Lily and I went to Gymboree again to make up one of the many classes we have missed. The most exciting thing was that Lily climbed a ladder -- all by herself!!! Yes, most kids Lily's age (and younger) can already do this, but as I have said many times before Lily is always a little cautious and rather dance with her feet on the ground than climb around like a monkey (which is a great thing as far as I am concerned)! But today she did it - more than once! I was so proud of her and she was pretty pleased with herself too. She had a huge smile and said "I did it!! I climbed the ladder!" That's my girl!

After class we had some errands to run and then stopped by my parent's house to feed the cats and bring in the mail since they are in CA this weekend. We also raided the fridge and pantry and Lily ate lunch there (thanks Mom for the last chicken patty, tortilla chips and mini kit kat which was a great incentive to get her to eat everything else!) :) Then of course we had to dance for awhile before we could come home.

Lily has been saying some pretty smart and funny things lately too which I need to start documenting before I forget them (some I have already forgotten). The other day I called her "Lily Muffin" and she responded with a sarcastic, "Ok Mommy Cupcake" I thought that was cute! Last week when I was getting her dressed I told her how cute her outfit was and again she replied sarcastically and said "Thanks. You bought it." She cracks me up and apparently is really picking up my sarcasm, which I like.

I have been working a lot on my blog book which I have to say is coming along rather nicely. Initially I was not happy with blurb.com and I looked around for other websites. But blurb is the best and cheapest! I am happy to say that I have gotten use to the layouts and are making them work. I think it is going to be an awesome book. It is slightly annoying since my photos must get resized when I upload them to blogger and a lot of them have too small a resolution to print properly in the book. But I have fixed that by just uploading the original photo from my computer -- then all the resolution issues are gone. It is a long time consuming process. I am currently on page 89 and have nearly completed June and July of last year. But it should totally be worth it in the end!

That is enough rambling for today . . . back to my book! :)

Dancin' Again

This has been a slow and calm week without any activities -- Monday there was no playgroup due to the holiday; Tuesday we were supposed to go to a birthday party/playgroup, but the party got cancelled at the last minute due to illness and playgroup got rained out out thanks to a last minute storm cloud that passed over us at 9am. Yesterday morning Lily said "I want to go to playgroup and see my friends." Finally I realized that preschool is definitely the right choice for the fall. Lily needs constant stimulation and has really come to enjoy seeing and playing with all her friends. I know it will still be a difficult transition when I leave her there, but I have no doubt that once she gets use to it she will love it!! Now I can't wait for September!! :) This morning we had Gymboree and will probably go to Gymboree again tomorrow and start making up some classes we have missed. That's about it. We've spent a lot of time playing outside since the weather has been so beautiful -- too cold for the pool though and that has bummed Lily out some. But 75 and breezy, I'm not complaining at all! There will be plenty of time for the pool in July and August! :)

Last night while I relaxed outside, Lily sang and danced around the yard - as usual!

She was really rockin out!
Dancing in her "baby pants" aka shorts!

Really getting into the groove now!

Daddy's home!

I don't know what Chip's sour face is about, but Lily looks cute!! ") He should know by now that he needs to be constantly "on" when my camera is out -- which I guess is always!

Memorial Day Evening

Before I get into my main post, I have to share this picture of a shamed and sad little Lily after she got caught coloring on the couch with her crayons yesterday: Luckily it wiped off super easy. I didn't even really have to punish her, she immediately knew she did wrong and I could actually tell she was sorry (normally she is not so sorry for the things she does).
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But after the crayon incident and a nap, Lily and I went outside to have our own little Memorial Day/beginning of Summer celebration. I plan to get a larger plastic baby pool (as soon as I figure out how to transport it home from Toys R Us), but until then we used the baby pool from last summer which was more than enough for Lily. She was so excited to go into the "swimming pool"! Last year it took her awhile to warm up to it and didn't even get in the first time I brought it out, but yesterday she jumped right in!

Note the bracelet and necklace.

Those have become must have fashion accessories for every outfit!

Testing the water.

I got so many great pictures of her in her pool! Her smile was so huge!

It has been awhile since she has been a pool -- first she asked for her ducky (like in the bath) and then said, "I don't need soap!". It was a dream come true for her since she'd stay in the bath all night if we let her, but she hates the actual washing with soap part -- so a pool that she can hang out in all day is absolutely perfect!

She was having fun splashing and wanted to get her hair wet!

She used the shovel of water and her hands to wet her hair! Then she was shoveling water between the pool and water table. She loved getting in and out of the pool.

Later in the evening Chip came home to celebrate with us! I had bought some chicken to BBQ just in case he came home early! It was funny (and kinda sad) since when we mentioned the BBQ Lily got all excited and wanted to "eat barbecue and open presents!" Apparently the only time we cook at home is for a special occasion.

I did bring out one of the new sprinkler toys I bought for her awhile back. She was super excited to play "Sprinkles" and ran right to it!

You put the balls in the spiral and then they shoot out stream at the top.

Lily and Chip had a lot of fun with the "sprinkles" while I was inside getting dinner ready.

We had chicken, broccoli and potatoes. To my surprise the broccoli was the only thing Lily tried!! I wish I would have gotten a picture of the look on her face -- she looked confused and unsure of the vegetable! It took an hour but I eventually got her to eat all the chicken and some more broccoli, but she never even tasted the potatoes! So, since she didn't eat when we asked and didn't at least try all her food she is not allowed to play sand, pool or sprinklers today. Maybe she'll learn to eat someday . . .

Here is yet another video I took of her playing in the pool. It is kinda hard to hear, but after I say "Guess what?" Lily says "I love you too!" Awhile ago we started saying that to each other, it makes my heart melt every time!

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*** To answer some of your questions about the blog book -- I am using blurb.com, but am kinda frustrated right now. It is really nice and they have all kind of fancy layouts to choose from, but I just want it too look like my blog -- plain and simple. So I am trying to figure all that out. Plus most the layouts are more text heavy and my blog is more photo heavy . . . so it may be awhile before I actually get it all finished. I'll keep you posted.

"Let's Play Sand"

I started the process of getting my blog ready to be print and bound yesterday. I said I'd do it after a year and look at me actually starting to get it done!! It took forever to upload the photos -- I have 2329 pictures on my blog so far (although I am sure most of you are not too shocked by that number)!! The only problem is that I did so good and posted almost daily, so now my entire blog is too big for the maxium 440 page book! Oops. I have to start over now and re-do it -- I think I'll do last June thru December and close out 2008. Apparently my books will only cover 6 months of our lives. :)

So the last few days have been spent mostly outside so Lily can "play sand". All she wants to do is play sand!

Saturday night after her nap we immediately had to go outside!

There has been a chance of rain and thunderstorms all weekend, and while I think most of the area got some rain we didn't get a drop! It just surrounded us, but never got above us. Saturday night as we were playing outside we could hear all the thunder, but that was as close as it got.

I had set up my couch so I could relax while Lily played. I got up for a minute and the little stinker stole my spot and my People magazine!

Apparently she was reading an entertaining article.

Photo by Lily.

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Same scene, different night -- Sunday night we had to go out and "play sand" some more! She had wanted to go out in the morning too, but we ended up going to the mall with my Mom instead, so that was a nice break from the sand table!

Princess shoes are a must for good sand play.

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This morning instead of playing with the sand, again, we had to run to Target since we were supposed to go to a birthday pool party tomorrow for 2 4-year old boys, Ryan and Cole (I just found it was postponed since Cole is sick). We needed presents which was SO hard to find -- I have NO idea what 4 year old boys like! And we needed little Swimmers diapers for Lily. We went to the Super Target and in the grocery section I found these:

"Oh Foodles"

For those of you without toddlers around, it looks like "Tootles" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They had this kind with apples and cheese -- some with celery & raisins; carrots and celery & pretzels! I bought this one to see if it would get Lily to eat the cheese! She'll eat apples sometimes, but never cheese. If it is successful, I may go and buy more! It is amazing what they make and what some parents will buy to get their kids to eat! :)

We also got some Memorial Day cookies. Chip is working today, so we are not really doing anything to celebrate so I got some cookies. :)


And finally a video of Lily from this afternoon. She has a large vocabulary and I can usually understand everything she says, but sometimes when she tells random stories she gets talking so fast she babbles more than she talks. This was one of those times. She is so funny and animated when she talks.

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