Peeks, Kisses, Shieks, and Sweatsuit Floating

Lily loves peek a boo and thinks when she looks down in the bathtub that she's hiding...oh my cute!!


She loves to give kisses and here she's giving kisses to the doggy at Old Navy. Then she's off to shopping!!


She loves to run around after her bath in her towel. She runs around like she's trying to shake the towel off, but never can quite pull it off.


This has been test week for Lily for her swim lessons. She's passed every one so far with flying colors! They want her to practice fully clothed and even in winter clothes so she's safe no matter what the circumstances if she were ever to (God forbid) fall in. She even practices with a blanket in case Lily were to fall in with the blanket in her hand. Imagine my surprise when Fernanda put Lily in face first and Lily kicked her legs and calmly went to the floating position like she's done it all her life!! I can't say enough good things about this program and have felt comfortable from start to finish!!


It seemed like an oxymoron to dress Lily in this heat in a hooded sweatshirt, jeans, socks and sneakers for her swim lesson. Lily's receptive language is pretty good, but not that good to understand she's going to go swimming in a sweatsuit! lol


She stays in the floating position for minutes at a time and just hangs out like she's too cool for the pool. It makes me laugh and my mouth gapes everytime I see her do it! David and I are going to hop in the pool with Lily and the instructor this week so we can practice with her at home and while we're away. (don't be alarmed, she's mid-flip in the bottom picture)



Here is our little floater taking one of her tests:

This might be hard to watch, but I felt very comfortable with it knowing she was in Fernanda's hands and how well she floats. Such peace of mind knowing Lily'd be safe if she ever fell in without us nearby.(God forbid)


Blog is taking a break for awhile as we take our first official family vacation for a week to Club Med where we'll be relaxing, playing, laughing, galavanting, and soaking up the rays and each other. The anticipation of fun is almost as exciting as enjoying it! Last time I was there, I was a teenager and went with Allison's family (2x) and still ranks up there as some of the best vacations ever! I'm most excited about flying on the trapeze, playing in the pool, hammocks, spa time, the night shows, Lily in their babyland, and all-inclusive food and drinks(gasp!) all week!! I'm sure I'll take a picture or 2 while we're there....or 200!!

Life is Good!

The Lily Mermaid

Lily has been taking the ISR swim lessons all summer and progressing like a little fishy! ISR focuses on survival swimming and she has a great instructor who is SO patient, loving, knowledgeable and kind! She still has a few weeks left, but already is doing leaps and bounds from what she was doing when we started. It just blows my mind that what they can teach babies; even as young as 6 months old! Daddy surprised us coming along on this lesson and Lily was ALL smiles performing her tricks for her large audience of 2! She would come up for air and immediately look over at us for cheers and praise. I couldn't believe the look of pride on her face....ours too!!







How is our little 15 month old able to float better than me!?? She just hangs out like this floating like a buoy and holds her breath if there is a wave over her face or spits out the water like a spout resembling a whale's blowhole!




Here she is floating for 20 or so seconds unassisted by her instructor, Fernanda. Of course she's closeby, but Lily is doing it independently for minutes at a time and Fernanda says Lily could float unassisted for hours if needed. We are hyper-vigilant about keeping the pool gate locked at all times and our eyes are always on Lily, but these lessons are extra insurance and peace of mind she'll be safe in the off chance everyone always think will never ever happen! (they teach them to cry out for help like this too)



Here's a great informational video about the program on the news. Call Fernanda at 331-6915 if you're interested and tell her Mermaid Lily sent you!!

I think all these lessons are tiring out our little fishy...here she is at Sam's taking a short rest on the hard metal cart while we wander the aisles. (taken on camera phone)
She'll do this randomly throughout the day; she keeps her eyes open, but just decides to rest her head down somewhere or if we're at home she'll suddenly lay on her stomach in the shape of a star to take a little breather. Here she is at Gpa's house taking a short break in the middle of the room after a wild game of freeze dance with her cousins (and mom who memoralized MJ with the moonwalk)! Lily acted as the DJ and would turn the music on and off and squealed in delight like she knew she was in charge and had all the power in the game.


And Lily had a special visit from her new friend Calhan! Here Calhan is this time last year in Allison's belly in this adorable picture taken by Kelle:


and look what a difference a year makes!!

From middle school on, Allison and I were like sisters and used to sit around and talk about our future babies, our future husbands, our future houses, our future jobs, our future new last names and it's crazy neat to be doing that today for real, comparing our stories from 1986 where nothing is like we had dreamed, but even better!!




Life is Good!!

Doctor, Doctor

Hmmm, how should I put this lightly?

It's officialy....Lily does not like going to the doctor. She's usually been very happy go lucky at the doctor until the shots of course, but at her year checkup she was a little shakier than normal and then her 15 month checkup took the cake; actually if she had cake she would've thrown it at the doctor. She knew something was awry as soon as they called her name.

Our gig is up.

She's onto us.

She's onto the nurses.

She now looks at her doctor with an untrustful-I've-got-my-eye-on-you-at-all-times-don't-even-try-anything-fishy look.

She's putting it together. Doctor visits + shots = pain translating into Lily no likey!!

She holds onto us like koala bear not letting go and you'd think they put fire on the scale table because she sceamed her pretty little head off! She treats the doc's ear light like it's a fire hose and she almost hypervenilated when he checked out her sacral dimple (which is fine btw) Well, like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...or tears!! (2 visits rolled in one)


But she's all smiles when it comes to her monthly picture which I'm going to try really hard to keep up with until she is 2. It's definitely a 2 person shoot because she likes to rock like her daddy in this chair almost trying to flip it at times. Thanks mom for your help with product placment (ie Lily)!


and her 4th of July pages for her book - so hard to be patient to touch and feel these pages until next year, but oh so worth it...






I seriously don't know how this summer could get any better with my sidekick with me around the clock and having so much fun doing nothing special and knowing how special that really is!
And an anniversary of sorts today...Lily's itty bitty embryo was implanted into me today 2 years ago...prompting me to write this post last year and we haven't been apart since! Profound! Imagine the irony when I found her playing with the SAME pregnancy stick that left us elated to find out we were pregnant with her!!

I thought this was a pretty profound picture until someone *coughallisoncough* :)said it might not be sanitary to be schnacking on a pregnancy stick, but I promise it was clean, sanitized and no small babies were harmed during the process. teehee

Life is Good!

Pretzel Thief

I swear Lily thinks she owns the joint when it comes to this house! She trapes around here like it's her own little playland moving from one center to the next. We're going to start making her pay her share of the mortgage. :) I was in the other room when I heard this REALLY loud rustling! I thought Charley was into something, but it was Lily digging around. Somehow she had gotten into the pantry(which I thought was closed), pulled out a bag of pretzels (which I thought was on a too high shelf) and was ready for a snack! I peeked around the corner and pulled the Flip out to spy. Love how she closes the pantry door then the end table drawer like a responsible homeowner cleaning up her digs. Take notice the tape measure at her feet which she trails around with her like Linus carries his blanket.

(must click out of google reader to view video-I think it's worth the 'out-click', but I could be bias)

I helped her with the clothespin, but then she dug in like she was a teenager not paying much attention to me! The bag is so big, her hand barely reaches the bottom. While eating, she let out an unexpected toot that made me (the grown up) laugh harder than Lily (the baby), lol

Life is Good!!

Bubbles

I don't know if she loves bubbles or Aunt Jennifer more...they're tied with love...

Lily doesn't know how to say yes yet and shakes her head "no" for everything! And I mean everything! Even if it's something she really wants, she'll shake her head no. I could show her a triple decker, ice cream cone with marshmallows on top, her mouth could be drooling out the side, but if I asked her if she wants some, then she'll shake her head no. If you ask her to say "yes" she confidently shakes her head no like she's doing it right. It's so cute!

Here Jen asks her to give her kisses (which she loves) and if she wants more bubbles (which she loves even more) and she says no to both even though she's chomping at the bit! If you listen, you can hear her say "bubbles" which is one of her favorite words to say.... since this video, Jen bought Lily the largest bubble machine I've ever seen and another vat of bubble juice that has a wand that seems bigger than a broomstick so we're having some fun with bubbles to say the least!


Little moments = lots of love! How am I so lucky to spend my life with this beautiful little soul? I feel like a continuous liar when people ask me my favorite age because it's always the same answer,

(insert current age) "THIS is my favorite age". 15 months. She's so much fun, interactive, independent, loves to play chase, horsey, is obsessed with peek-a-boo, loves to go for bike rides, wagon rides, be in the pool, or anything so she can be outside, she LOVES her new ball/ramp toy (thanks wy!), loves to chase balls like a cute puppy dog, she's snuggly, easygoing, loves to sleep, gives endless kisses and hugs, is always happy, curious, and boy can she smile!

Here she is doing some of her favorite things:

Thanks Frizzi family!! This has given us hours of memories!!! I think Julie bought this for Lily before she was even conceived!!!!

and a great find off of Craigslist; David picked it up and never even met the seller! Left it by the front door and D put $20 in his mailbox! How about that?


So the answer is THIS is my favorite age!!!! I really mean it this time! (until you ask me again in a month-teehee)

Life is Good!

Happy 4th of July!

This time last year:


and today:



this time last year:


and now today look at our little sparkler...(thanks Jen for sub-snapping for me while my sick camera is in the shop-cough, cough)




Is it criminal to 'over-shoot' this shot? If so, then I'll gladly pay the fine...




someone might be needing a haircut soon...won't mention any names, but for those of you who know Pig Latin, it's Ily-Lay, Race-Gay, Utcheson-Hay...


The party is always complete when the east coast is here and it's always said to see them go!! funny story whenI screamed out goodbye again to Molly's family and instead of saying "Bye Terrifie Taylors", I merged the 2 words and said "Bye Trailers" as they were lighting sparklers in the driveway. We got a big laugh out of that one!! Here's their corrected name :)


If someone could tell me how to embed from Photobucket, I'd pay a reward because I can't figure it out. Cute video of kids kissing Lily; especially if you listen to what Douglas says afterwards. Yes, that is Dan's real laugh. It's actually a mild version of it!!! Lily does a half version of "all done" at the end. Guess that means she's half done. ha



and you have the Briggs Bunch which bring fun and love to any party!! These kids are as sweet as they look and turning into such little mini-adults right before our very eyes!


man, this girl is a smiley-one! She's doted on by all her cousins like she is royalty! So cute and endearing!



... and these two have such a BEAUTIFUL big sister/little sister bond...


Right before the fireworks show, Lily watched everyone taking their seats in their lounge chairs and instead of opting for one of the many open laps, she crawled right up into her special chair to be like us...I think she was looking for her bag of popcorn too...


This is part of the "herd"...we're called that because we're such a large group, we take forever to get from point A to point B, spend unnecessary time in parking lots getting in one last story or laugh! It's really awe-inspiring to think this magic we have was all created because 2 people fell in love....

Life is Good!!!

(paying double fine)