Chip's 1st Day of School!

Yes, Chip has gone back to school. It was always the plan to have a "plan B" and with the current state of the economy and job market, it seems like a smart idea. As far back as when Chip was still living in Merced and dreaming of a life in Hollywood, he always thought that if that didn't work out he'd go back to school and either get a degree as a medical tech or math teacher. He has now decided that medical tech is the best choice, as it is one of the most recession proof jobs out there with decent pay and good benefits. Originally, his goal was to be a sonographer or x-ray technician. However, with all the time he has spent at the cardiologist office lately he has learned a lot about the job of Nuclear Medicine Technician and it has appealed to him. The requirements are the same for both fields -- Biology, Physics, and 2 Anatomy classes. So he has started at the local community college taking Biology and Physics this semester. Since you have to take Bio before Anatomy and can't take 2 anatomy classes at the same time, he will have to complete 3 semesters before he can actually start the medical tech program which is 20 months of classes and clinicals (assuming he gets accepted). Baylor University has a medical school here in Dallas which is his number one choice. The Nuclear Medicine field is pretty competitive and they only take a handful of new students a year. So he will probably apply to both the Nuclear Medicine and X-Ray programs with the hope of getting into one of them. It would actually work out OK either way since if you already have your X-ray certification degree (or whatever they call it) you only need an additional 8 months to get the Nuclear Medicine certification/degree and then he would be qualified for even more jobs if he decided to go that route.

I am extremely proud of him for going back to school. He is already super busy at work and to take on this extra work is going to be a lot for him. His current school schedule is very work friendly -- Tuesday and Thursday evenings and most of Saturday. Since he didn't want a heavy work load while taking the Anatomy classes, he decided to take Bio and Physics together -- both of which include a lab. But I know he can do it and will do well! He wants to make sure we are taken care of in the long run and the golf course is A LOT of work. At this point in his life, after working 12 hour days in the entertainment business; and the stresses of the sign company and the stresses at the golf course, it is extremely appealing to just be able to go to work, do your job and come home -- without work following you home!

It was a struggle to get him to pose for a picture this morning. He thought I was crazy, but you know me -- I had to document his first day of school!! I don't think he was too keen on me posting the photo of him holding his Physics book here on my blog -- so I edited it so that he was in "night vision!" I figured he'd think that was cool and forget to be mad at me for posting it here! :)

Green Beans

Some of you may recall last year at Lily's first birthday party we played a game which included questions about Lily's habits and likes. One of the questions was "What is her favorite food, sometime eating as much as 15 ounces a day?" And the answer was green beans. Well, here we are a year later and not much has changed. For nearly a year now I have tried (at least once a week or so) to get her to eat an actual whole green bean. Of course she refuses or spits it out as she does most foods. So in order to get at least some vegetables in her diet, we continue to eat the baby food green beans. I usually still feed it to her since it is so watery and I tend to spill it (it is the only thing we still wear a bib for -- even when I feed her!). And she has to have her brand in stage 2 since stage 3, which is better and thicker, is green beans and rice and heaven forbid you try to feed her that! But this morning she wanted green beans for breakfast (I started to argue, but figured it was actually better for her than pancakes) and she wanted to eat them herself. She has been eating her yogurt and oatmeal herself lately (I finally surrendered the spoon) and has no problems, so I let her go at it and all things considered she did a pretty good job -- she ate 3 whole containers and we didn't even have to change her clothes or bathe her afterward!

Trying to lick the mess off her chin
................

After breakfast she put her dolly in the high chair and got some saltines out of the pantry to feed to her baby. It was cute because she sat at the chair where I would sit to feed her and ate crackers with her baby doll:

........................

And this afternoon, lounging on the couch eating crackers:

If we hadn't just walked to the park and played for an hour, I would feel really bad about how much of a sloth she appears to be in these pictures! But we got out and exercised, so now she is just relaxing :)

Tea & Tacos

With all the new toys from Christmas and her birthday, Lily is still slowly discovering them. Yesterday she finally sat down and played at her new table. She has played with the tea set and played at the table, but never actually sat down and played. So it was cute watching her have her "tea time."

In the middle of an important phone conversation. She always talks with her hands when she is on the phone.

................

As I may have mentioned in previous posts, we have had a hard time getting Lily to eat anything lately besides a variety of crackers (fish crackers, bear crackers, saltines, etc. . .). Even her old favorites -- pasta, nuggets, tacos and pancakes often sit untouched. So while she was sitting at her table I had the bright idea of having her eat dinner there to see if the excitement of a new table would encourage her to eat. I asked Chip to bring get her a taco on the way home and we tested my new theory. . . it worked!! Not sure how long it will work, but at least she ate last night (and then slept for 12 straight hours!! She also hasn't been sleeping well at all and I was sure there was a correlation between lack of food and lack of sleep . . . maybe I was right!)

Yummy! Taco and apple juice

Lily Sings (and runs around like a crazy person)

More and more I have been catching Lily singing songs. Usually when she realizes I am listening she gets super shy and stops singing. Her favorite songs to sing are "Happy Birthday" and her "ABC's". She is not perfect yet in either song, but she does really really well. I am exceptionally proud of how good she is singing her alphabet! This afternoon she was playing the piano and singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and her "ABC's". Of course when I got the camera out to try to capture her musical moment, she really got shy. But here is a little taste of her new found talent. I'm not sure what the first song was supposed to be. She got a little silly for the camera, but you can hear part of the alphabet, although she didn't quite finish. I doubt I'll ever be able to capture the whole thing unless I get a hidden camera! (and yes, she had taken her clothes off again! It is below freezing outside, and I am all bundled up even though I have the heater cranked up to 78 to try to keep her warm! But I swear she never gets cold. Even to the touch she is warm. )

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Not too much going on here . . .

Just trying to get back to our routine after all the holidays and illnesses. It is crazy because it seems like Christmas and even Lily's birthday was forever ago, but in reality this is our first normal week in months! We had playgroup on Tuesday morning and Tuesday night I had my book club where we finally got to discuss "Twilight"! Of course the majority of us went on to read the whole series, but there was one lady who was only through the first 2 books so we were a little censored because we didn't want to give anything away. It was fun, but I am sure more than a few people at Starbucks had to laugh at us 6 ladies in their 30s (and maybe 40s?) with our books all stacked up on the table going on and on about our love for Edward! It was kinda embarrassing! :)
Yesterday we went shopping with my mom and this morning was Gymboree -- but we finally moved up to level 5! Lily had been in level 4 since she started Gymboree and it is really supposed to go up to 22 months, but she was doing so well and then we missed the entire month of December, so I never got around to moving her up to the next class. Level 5 is an hour earlier which is kinda a bummer, but it is a lot better for Lily. A lot more imaginative play which she is really into now!

No new pictures today. . . just the quick update. It is kinda nice to get back on schedule again!

Jackets and Tutus

Last night we got a surprise package in the mail -- another birthday present for Lily! My Aunt Karen and Uncle Bob were thoughtful enough to send Lily a gift! As an avid follower of this blog, my Aunt Karen knew exactly what to get Lily -- an Elmo finger puppet and a great winter jacket!! While the jacket has nothing to do with Elmo, Lily calls it her "Elmo jacket" since Elmo came inside! Hopefully that minor detail will help her to want to wear it. She loves to wear her jackets, but not once we get outside into the cold -- she always takes them off! Thanks so much guys!! Opening her gift and checking out her awesome new jacket -- it is reversible! And a size 4t which is great since hopefully she'll be able to wear it both this winter and next!

Of course, the tissue paper was the real hit. She kept swaddling her new Elmo in the tissue paper -- over and over.
.....................................

A random picture of Lily and her doll from this morning. No, she did not have crackers for breakfast. She had actually already eaten oatmeal and green beans (gross, but her favorite) and then asked for some crackers. I think she is making up for last week when she hardly ate at all!

I thought it was cute the way she sat with her doll and held its hand!

Also from this morning. We went to Sarah's first birthday and Lily got to finally wear the Minnie Mouse outfit that Uncle Shawn and Aunt Susan sent! She looked pretty darn cute in that tutu!

OK

We had waned to go to the zoo today since Chip was taking the day off work, but he ended up having some work issues in the morning and by the time that was resolved it was too late to start out on such an excursion. The zoo at nap time didn't seem like the smartest plan. So we decided to wait until another day and we drove to Oklahoma instead! I know the zoo seems easier, but it is amazing (and kinda scary) at how close OK actually is! It only took 55 minutes to get there. We really had no destination or plan in mind, I was just curious as to how far it was and what was north of us. Actually there really isn't anything north of us, just a bunch of small towns. It reminded me of the drive along the 99 from Bakersfield to Merced after you leave the civilization of LA behind (no offense to my central CA readers!) :) But it was nice just to get out and explore a little. We didn't get that far into OK or spend too much time there. We just wanted to say we went. I had already been to Oklahoma when I was 2 years old, but now Lily can say that she has been to 7 states (CA, AZ, NM, TX, TN, AR, OK) already! We stopped at the visitors center right past the border and got some pamphlets of things to see and do some other time, took some pictures and headed back home. The best part was that we got to stop at a Cracker Barrel for lunch!!! Since we are in the city, we don't have Cracker Barrel restaurant near us (they seem to always be on the outskirts of things, with a few exceptions of course). Although there is a rumor that they may be putting one in nearby. Anyway, it was yummy! Lily even ate and liked the fried okra, which is my favorite and the main reason I like to eat there!! So it was a nice little outing and we made it home in time for Lily to take a nap!

This picture is a good idea of what the majority of the drive looked like.
Lily was having fun in the car

Crossing the Red River into Oklahoma

We made it!

Lily and I at the visitor's center / rest stop

Chip and Lily at the visitor's center / rest stop

Lily wouldn't join me in the cool stage coach, apparently she was too cool. But I'm not! :)

Headed back into Texas

The best stop of the day!

Lily even sat in a booster seat like a big girl!! It was her first time!

You always have to get a picture in the rocking chairs outside the Cracker Barrel!

Lily really liked rocking in the toddler chair!! She is hoping grandma will go get her one -- it is only 40 minutes away! :)

Preserving Memories

Before Lily was born, my Mom bought Lily a little tower with 5 tins full of plaster to capture Lily's hand prints as she grows. We did the first one last year for her 1 yr mark and the second one last night! I had been meaning to do it all week and I finally remembered at a convenient time for us all! This year went much smoother than last. If I remember correctly it took more than a few tries to get 1 yr old Lily to produce a decent hand print. But she did it last night on the first try with no problems what so ever!

This is the stock photo of the tower (the same one I gave to Michelle and Alyson!)
Me (fresh out of the shower) demonstrating to Lily what needed to be done.

Getting her print!

Just What We Needed . . .

Since you could still see our carpet in certain areas of the house, I decided that we definitely needed another large toy to cover it up! :) My friend Heather was selling her Little Tikes slide and I was the lucky buyer!! I had been looking to buy this exact slide for Lily for Christmas, but decided against it since it was $70 and ages 1-4. I was afraid that I had already lost a year of use and therefore didn't want to pay that much. Plus I am hoping that next year we can get a real slide for the backyard and that would be good enough. But when Heather was offering it for $20, I figured I better snag it before someone else did!

Lily is loving it!! And she really needs it. I know that sounds funny, but this girl needs some major help learning to climb. You should see her trying to get up the little rock climbing steps to the platform -- it is so hilariously ungraceful!! So hopefully this will help her learn to climb better and gain some confidence in her climbing abilities so she won't be the laughing stock of the playground in the future!

Heather dropped it off while Lily was napping yesterday. So she had just woken up when I took these pictures!

Of course, she is still Lily and even though she is having fun climbing and sliding, the tiny drop off at the end of the slide was too much for her delicate behind. So we have to keep the pillow there for her to slide into! She is too funny!

The slide is also the perfect spot to enjoy a snack . . . here she is trying to watch Mickey Mouse through the holes in the side.

Ah, a much better view of the TV!

(and yes, that is a giant pimple on her cheek -- looks like the 2 year photos will have to wait a few more days!)

Presents and Park

Last night Lily got to open more birthday presents!! She got a package from grandma Sheryl & Uncle Shawn and Aunt Susan! They send an adorable Winnie the Pooh outfit and the cutest little Minnie Mouse outfit complete with a tutu!! Of course Lily was excited!

Thanks so much guys!!

..........................

Then this morning we went to the park with Grandma and Aunt Pam. It was our last morning with Aunt Pam since she is flying home this afternoon. It meant so much to us that she came out for Lily's birthday!! I know she was disappointed that she didn't get to squeeze and kiss Lily, but not many people actually get to touch Lily. Chip doesn't even get to squeeze and kiss her very often! But Lily enjoyed having Aunt Pam here and did warm up to her a lot. I am sure she will miss seeing her everyday!

Grandma is the only person that Lily will let push her in the swing

Swinging with Aunt Pam!

Weeeee!

Catching Up

With all the birthday festivities and blogger not working properly yesterday, there are some random pictures from the last week that have gone unblogged!! So I am trying to catch up today. . . .

From last Saturday, Lily taking a picture of Aunt Pam. Notice the sundress? It was 84 degrees that day (keep that in mind for later in this post)

Also from Saturday night, we let her open one birthday present a day early. She was fussy and we were trying to entertain her! She got flash cards and they kept her busy for a little while

But the flash cards were nowhere near as fun as Daddy and a laundry basket!!

They ran all around the house in circles. Lily was having a blast and wanted to go "again and again" "more and more". But poor Daddy was tired and getting sore! :)

..........................

Now remember the 84 degrees on Saturday:

Monday we had icicles!

All the trees were frozen with a good 1/4 - 1/2 inch of ice. I am still thinking it is pretty cool, so I had to go outside and take lots of pictures again! (FYI -- today it is 65 degrees)

In the above picture you can see the layer of ice encasing the branch

The oleander plant was so thick with ice that it was brought down. But the next day when the ice melted it popped right back into place. I was kinda hoping it would die since we should tear it out, but nope it is fine!

...................................

Tuesday night Lily opened the presents from her party! Among them was this princess keyboard which has been a favorite toy for the last couple days!

She got a lot of books from the neighborhood kids

(and check out all the toys in the background! My house has been completely taken over!)

Some blocks and Little People toys too
...............

Yesterday after her doctor appointment we went to Grandma's house to visit with her and Aunt Pam:

Grandma (which Lily is now calling her more often than "Ga") got out some fun jewelry for Lily to check out

But they had the most fun playing with the apples on the dining room table

.....................

Last night Lily ate a bowl of Cheerios and milk by herself. I still tend to feed her from the spoon a lot since she will play and not eat. But she has not been eating much lately and she wanted to feed herself so I let her go at it. I mean, she couldn't possibly eat any less that she already was so why not . . .

She is pretty good with the spoon, but she does tend to turn it upside down sometimes.

She did a very good job and ate about 95% of the cheerios while only about 5% ended up on the floor . . .

where Calli was waiting to help clean up the milk and cheerios with her tongue!