Potty and Giggles

Lately, the day-to-day is so much fun with Lily. Should I say that 22 months is my favorite age or will you throw tomatoes at me for lying all the other times? I meant it the other times too, but just didn't know what was around the corner. I just can't believe I'm lucky enough to spend my days with someone who is my daughter, doubled as my little friend. Even though she has zero to little to zilch to nil potty control, she loves to go on the potty. It doesn't matter that there are puddles all over the house when she's in her undies, she thinks she is the master of the potty and wants to teach baby just the same. The sound effects she makes while baby is peeing is just too much for me. (turn on sound) I love this little soul so much and the spark she adds to our home.

or see video here

And if I could describe her in one word it'd be happy ...and there is nothing that makes me happier. She'll walk around the house saying "hapi" over and over while she's playing independently, almost like she's letting us know she's happy to be here and in our family. The feeling is mutual babe! Here we're playing a game she falls for every time and laughs like it's the first time. I love hearing that deep gutteral laugh (around :30 seonds in) where it's like her heart is going to implode from happiness.

or see the video here

round the house

These pictures were in my drafts and have no rhyme or reason which are sometimes the best....

There's something about putting a bandana on Lily's little head that is so cute because it isolates her face and is too cute for words. Thanks Peyton for this adorable polka dotted outfit.



here's the face I'm talking about - can you imagine her grabbing your cheeks and pulling you close for a kiss? melting. Oh, how I miss her little hermangioma under her eye.




Her favorite word is "ow-sigh" because that's just where she just wants to go...outside...


Oh, how I love cloth diapers; especially when she's in jeans and her booty sticks out like J. Lo (no offense Jenny from the block)








Lily likes to play the "camera game" where she stands still like a statue while I snap away, then I tell her to run over to see her picture in the camera. She gets so excited, but this picture is in the early days of the game when she didn't know the routine that well and wasn't sure what to do when we started the game. She stood there like a statue, but wouldn't move; she looked like Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie.





and look at the JCPenny model and Lily reading the bible. ha...just realized the title of the book, "Beautiful Bible Stories" after I uploaded the picture.




can you tell these pictures are a little old? I don't know how long I can keep these monthly pictures up because it might look a little silly when she's 5, sitting on the chair next to the bear and it reads "I am 60 months old"...

11/4/09


12/4/09


1/4/10



In my efforts to find the balance in life, I try to do fun stuff for myself, like my childhood passion of soccer and Lily was our little mascot...





how come we're all acting silly except for the 22 month old?


I guess you could say I'm a soccer mom; just reversed...


what a sight as I was running up and down the field...this is what I used to see growing up as I glanced on the sidelines and how neat this was to have a little person cheering for me too....

race day

Lily woke up early and put on her Sunday best to go cheer on her Grandpa today.




It was a big day for him. She had lots to cheer for because check out her cool Grandpa!!!



For this something-0 th (rhymes with beventieth) birthday in August, we surprised him with a NASCAR driving experience where he got to zip around an official racetrack and look like the real mccoy. We did it through this company which was incredible if you ever want a great gift for someone or if it's on your bucket list (hephermgail). :) As excited as he was when we gave it to him, it was now time to pay the piper and not time for cold feet.





I still can't believe that's my sweet little daddy. He looks so tough and mean...
Thumbs up!


with a bum (yet recovering) knee, the dive into this car wasn't pretty, but once he was in safe and sound, he looked like the real deal,,,




and then he zooooomed 153 miles per hour around the track...
yes, 153 miles per hour as in 153 miles per hour. not a typo.





153



wow.

Katie thought it'd be neat to have the number 70 on his car instead of 68. teehee



and Lily cheered all the way...



and even got down low for a better seat...



but Katie took her by the hand to find the best seat ever...



dad was all smiles before, during and after the race...here he is giving his post race play-by-play







his paparazzi is hanging on his every word. (the earpiece is my favorite accouterment)



we were all so proud of him...





as he had the loudest cheering section in the bunch





I think dad was a little envious of Lily after the race; actually a lot envious.




Happy Birthday (again) Daddy! We hope all your wishes come true. You are so loved.

Jan in the Box

Who knew a jack in the box given to her last year from my Godmother Jan would still bring her so much joy?

Then we get to enjoy her face lighting up so it's like the gift that keeps on giving. Hope it's a gift for you too. :)

Popcorn

I'm on another video kick so sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show(s). Lily is obsessed with the If You Give A Mouse a Cookie series and she says BOO everytime on this ghost page. I love the way she is so sunk down in the couch looking so comfortable.

if you can't see the video, click this link: http://s649.photobucket.com/albums/uu216/stoutie18/vids/?action=view&current=20months-December200948.flv

And the big tricycle moment. Santa coughcoughgrandpacoughcough wrote poems with a trail of clues where to go next and her big present was in David's closet. As they were heading that way, I zipped in front of the racing around pack, hid in the closet myself to get her reaction on camera. I've never seen her make this wide-open-mouth-face before this very moment and it was priceless.

if you can't see the video, click this link: http://s649.photobucket.com/albums/uu216/stoutie18/vids/?action=view&current=20months-December200976.flv

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner....

except Lily does it to herself.

all. the. time.

She comes home from school and acts like she has homework because as I'm unloading the (million) bags from the car, she goes straight to the corner. We bought her a new chair for her reading corner, but she wanted nothing to do with it and loves to sit on the floor while reading. I could wallpaper the house with all the sneak-up-on-Lily-pictures-and-she-never-looks-up-while-reading-unless-i-call-her-name-50x-pictures. (she's actually kissing the book on the bottom)






and this is one of my favorites...she propped Mouse (Mou) and Snowman in his lap and sat them just so for a solid minute before nuzzling into the not so soft carpet for a good tale...



Then she saunters over to the other corner of our bedroom to put shoes on and off. Actually, she can't put any on and can't take them off, but she tries and tries. She puts them on for about 2 tries each foot, then hits them on the ground 3 times to try again like something is wrong with the shoe itself. Then she's on to the next shoe. Rinse. Repeat. Love her persistence.

Can I get arrested for spying? If she looked up, she'd see only an arm around the corner with a camera attached to it while I peek through the door crack. Is that legal? If not, I'm going straight to the big house.

Enter evidence A:


I can't tell you how long she does this.



and we think she has Daddy's clean gene because she'll put them all back into the basket when she's finished. If only she could mop.




and when she's not in the corner, she's holding multiple things around the house like she's preparing for a business meeting and needs them with her at all times. You don't see an empty-handed Lily zipping around the house very often.

Still hard for me to comprehend that she's here and ours to raise, love, while adding this giant ray of sunshine into our house so I stop trying to comprehend it all and just enjoy our little miracle who has touched our lives in a big way.

Thank you Lily for being you. I feel honored to be the one chosen to be your "mommy" .

christmas

I know it's 2010 now, but there's still a few priceless pictures hanging around from Lily's 2nd Christmas. She has always worn footed jammies, every night, for the last 20 months, but to see her in these 2 piece collared button up jammies was too cute for words. I couldn't stop snuggling with her. She looked so grown up and reminded me of Hugh Hefner without his 'sidekicks'. lol





Lily has more babies than the Octo-Mom now and she can't get enough. She has all the accessories and feeds them, bathes them, changes them, rocks them to sleep, reads to them rubs their back, kisses them, and feeds them some more. This baby actually talks to her and makes a gulping noise when she's fed so this is one well fed baby who would need to go on Weight Watchers if Lily was in charge.

This baby even cries and when it happens, Lily stops in her tracks, her eyes get as big as saucers and she'll RUN over to her, pick her up, saying "baby" over and over while rocking her and patting her back. I love to see her loving these babies like her own as it's teaching her so many lessons about love, caring for others, empathy and just makes her heart swell with pride when the baby talks saying, "I love you" and her face lights up like she made that happen. I know the feeling Lils.


Then she went into the closet and went from the Heff into a pretty little girl all dressed in her Christmas best. How did we get so lucky? Be. Still. My. Heart.




and she even showed off her new digs to sweet Bella.


then the whole family came on over for the love and laughter...thanks to Dan's recipe, we all helped to make Jumbalaya to mix things up a little vs the traditional turkey and it was delish...despite the fact we lost 5 lbs of rice and actually went to Walgreens laughing all the way asking for 5 lbs of rice. The Jumbalaya Project Manager, (aka David) wasn't happy, but we managed to rake thru our pantry and find about 10 boxes of Rice_a_Roni and did our best to make it work. It was scrumptious.


and of course, many art breaks were taken too




and MANY presents were opened...and then some more...and then some more. Our great room looked like Toys R Us exploded right in our very own home. We could open an in-home daycare and have 20 kids on opening day.


and the shot of all shots...one of the shots I just can't delete from my camera because I love it so much. (hugging camera, petting lens) Not because everyone is looking and smiling, but because if you were to take an x-ray of my heart, these would be some of the people wrapped around it, hugging it, holding it up, and working around the clock filling it up with unconditional love, hope, laughter, kindness, strength, undying support, balance, peace, loyalty, more laughter, and making me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. (this shot was one take on a timer, camera sitting on top of books)

muah, i could kiss this picture.


life is good :)

Christmas Eve

Jen and Jamie were kind enough to host Christmas eve so after mass, we headed over to their house for the best chili this side of the okeechobee. They also had a new addition to the family. Meet Bella...sweet, kind, loving, cuddly and the best gift from Santa. Also, when we first got there, I did a double take thinking Katie had a friend over because I couldn't believe how much older Grace looked with her new haircut.



Lily squeals with delight when she get to touch the "daw", Bella




she even likes to tilt her head like a puppy...



I love when she's dressed in her "Sunday Best" even if it was a Thursday :)




Even the snowman got some cuddles...



lots of food, lots of laughing, lots of talking about nothing and everything all at once :)


Lily is a bit of a fixator lately...as in she fixates on something for looooong periods of time. Whether it's reading books, drawing, loving her babies, or playing with shoes, this girl likes to do it, concentrates and will do it for hours if we let her. Hours I tell you. The other day she was taking shoes off, putting them on, then started reading the labels in each shoe. Oh and she can't put a shoe on her foot to save her life, (even after many lessons) but she'll spend forever trying without getting frustrated. And I mean forever. So she had a little fun sitting in her big chair and drawing intently...what I wouldn't do to know what's going on in that little brain as the synapses are firing away!


and of course we stopped by her art station to try to join in the fun. Sometimes she'll say "bye-bye mommy" if I sit down next to her to try to play with her. (big eyes, busting a gut laughing)


and no night would be complete without a trip to see the moooooooooon in her new Christmas jammies. She says "moooon" and holds the word for 5-10 seconds, like she's howling and even puts her head up in the air like a wolf.


and of course "mouh" comes with too from the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series which she loves too...kicking myself for not buying all the stuffed animals when Kohl's had them. Who knew they'd be such a hit and after multiple calls, scouring the internet, I've let it go to the stuffed animals gods that Kohl's no longer carries the others (RIP pig, moose and cat; you would've had a beautiful life with us)


I couldn't fall asleep Christmas Eve knowing how much her face was going to light up at the surprises we (and Santa) had in store for her. Seeing Christmas through her eyes makes everything magical.

life is good