So Helpful

Lily loves to help. Here are some things she's said recently while "helping."

At Trader Joe's, upon spotting a package of carrot cupcakes:
"Look, Mama! I found some little cakes for you! Here!"

While holding me by the wrists, moving my hands around in different positions:
"Here, Mama. I help you with your hands."

After walking in on me in the bathroom:
"I flush for you when you're done."

Healthy Eating

The other night Lily and I had brown rice, tofu, and steamed vegetables for dinner. I am one extremely lucky mama in the sense that Lily is a very agreeable eater. Yes, she has a soft spot for cookies, ice cream, and Cheetohs, but she also loves the healthy stuff. She also dislikes soda and juice, and only likes to drink water or milk.

After eating one bowl of dinner, she held out her bowl to me and said, "More rice and tofu and green beans and broccoli too."


Man, I'm fortunate.

Lily's Funny!

Lately no matter what Lily's doing, she tells me, "I do it myself, Mama." This morning it was putting on her tennies. I've coached her on the technique, so she was sitting on the floor with her foot up and her shoe in her hand. She said, "Pick up the tongue, Mama?" I said yes, so she pulled the tongue out of the inside of the shoe. I said, "Now hold it up," so she lifted the whole shoe high above her head, then said, "Lily's funny!" and laughed so hard she fell over.

I guess that's how a two-year-old makes a joke.

Big Girl Bed

The other day we started to convert Lily's crib to a toddler bed. Lily was very excited, especially when she realized that she can invite Wrigley up now that her bed is converted. There were a few screws missing, so the first night Lily slept in the crib without the side rail. Here's how I found her the next morning.


That didn't work out so well.

The crib has a side rail now, and the transition has been effortless. No tears, no drama, no change in sleep.

Ready to Go

The other day while I was making dinner, Lily got herself "ready to go." We weren't actually going anywhere, but she got dressed up and told me bye-bye.


From the top down, that's two pink bead necklaces, one purse (containing another necklace, a brush, a comb, and a bracelet), a pair of pink "Fancy Nancy" sunglasses, and a pair of purple Crocs (on the wrong feet, of course).

Then she had to drop everything because she almost forgot to put her cell phone in her pocket.


Now she's ready.

Odds and Ends

Here are some amusing recent Lily-isms:

On the Phone
Tonight she was chatting on her toy cell phone and had the following conversation with whomever was on the other end of the line.
"Hello. How are you? Good. Hanging out with mama. Went to the baseball game and saw Orbit ride the truck. Fall down and bump his head. Mama called doctor and doctor said 'No more monkeys jumpin' on bed.'" (Note: We recently went to a baseball game where she loved Orbit, the team mascot. Orbit did indeed ride on the back of a truck and "fell off" as a gag. The rest of the story is clearly plagiarized from the children's book.)

To the Doctor
Friday night I had to take her to the doctor for a weird rash on her legs. (It turned out to be no big deal and was gone by the next morning.) In the exam room, she asked what we were doing, and I said, "Waiting for the doctor." When the doctor came in he said hello and asked how we were. Lily said, "Waiting for the doctor." He said, "Well the doctor's here!" and Lily said, "Hi!" He examined her and when he was done listening to her heart and lungs she gave him a smile and said, "Good job."

Directions
Lily really enjoys giving directions, especially telling me where to turn. This morning I was pulling into the turn lane for her daycare, she said, "Right here, Mama! School's right here!" Tonight when we were driving down our street we got to our house and she announced, "Right there, Mama! Right there! Lily find it!"

Sandwich
Tonight I was on the phone with my mom, telling her a story of a peanut butter sandwich Lily ate the other day. Overhearing the story, Lily came to me and said, "Bread, please, Mama. With cream of butter. And a top, too." That's right. Not "peanut butter," but "cream of butter." Asking for bread with "a top" is her way of letting me know she does not want an open face sandwich.

Appetite

Last night Lily wanted a "little snack" before dinner. She ate two bowls of strawberries. Then for her actual dinner, she ate some baked beans and three hot dogs (one bun). Growth spurt?

Setting the Table

The other night I was making dinner and Lily announced, "Set the table! Lily will set it! Lily will set it!"



All done!


Wow.

New Computer

One of the presents Lily got for her birthday was a new computer. When I took it out of the packaging, she started to shout, "New computer for Lil!" I got it out, put it on the floor in front of her, and showed her how to open it up. She lay down in front of it, looked at me somberly, and announced, "Check my email."



I got my computer out, and she joined me on the couch so we could "check our email" together.

Zoo!

We did another zoo trip a couple weeks ago. Now that the weather is getting so beautiful, they're starting to do more activities at the zoo, so we were able to catch the wild animal show this time.

Go 'Topes!

Saturday night was my office's spring event, which was an Isotopes baseball game for everyone. JJ and Jason had already been to a game this season, but it was the first time Lil and I had gone since last summer. Her experience was very different this time. Now that she's older she was very into the cheering and very, very into Orbit (the Isotopes mascot) as long as he was at least 20 feet away.

It was tons of fun. Jason and JJ spent most of the evening actually watching the game.


Whereas Lily and I spent most of the evening chatting. Our friends Derek and Nancy sat in front of us, and they delighted in teaching Lily to shout baseball phrases, like "Home run!" or "Go 'Topes!" Admittedly, it was pretty hilarious. Even Lily thought it was funny.


I think the highlight of the game for me was when the other team's pitcher hit our batter with a ball. Everyone was booing, so Lily asked me to hold her water, then stood up on her chair and yelled, "Oh, come on!"

Happy Mother's Day

JJ and I have a very long-standing, intricate inside joke about one of the crossing guards at his school. We've given him a name (Flo) and a very detailed back story. The most important detail of Flo's life is that his wife's name is Sharon and he's always yelling for her to go fetch him things. "Sharon! Go fetch me my coffee! Sharon! I can't find my whistle or my backup whistle. Go fetch me my backup-backup whistle!"

This inside joke is important for you to understand how adorable this Mother's Day card is. JJ designed it and had Lily provided the "art" for it.

Sunburst Mirror

I love the starburst/sunburst mirrors that are in style right now, but didn't want to spend much to get one. There are a lot of people DIYing them with unconventional materials (e.g., toilet paper rolls, paint sticks), but I wasn't super keen on that either. My project is the almost DIY version.

I bought this sunburst clock on eBay for $5.


I stripped out the (non-working) clock guts and spray painted it with some gold paint I already had on hand. I liked it gold, but it definitely needed some freshening up. Then I bought a little round mirror at Hobby Lobby for something like $2. (They have them in the candle section to use as candle trays.) I put the mirror where the clock guts used to be.

Voila! Sunburst mirror.




(Pardon the dirt on the camera lens. Lily "helped" take pictures and some cleanup was required.)

Museum of Flight

On my trip to Seattle, I made a little time to stop in at Boeing's Museum of Flight, which was just up the road from my seminar. If we ever make it to Seattle on a vacation, I'll definitely take JJ to the Museum of Flight.

They had really cool displays.






Plus nearly 100 planes.


This is the Red Barn, which was the first home of Boeing. It's the oldest surviving aircraft manufacturing building in America.


My last stop was the Personal Courage Wing, which had an entire floor dedicated to WWI and another for WWII. A friendly guard took my picture in front of one of the WWII planes.


I didn't have enough time to see as much as I would have liked, but what I did see was pretty cool.

Seattle

Last week I went on a business trip to Seattle, where I was able to take a few hours to pretend I was on vacation.

I caught up with my old roommate, Joy.


And got to meet her adorable little boy, Baxter.





I also got to see my good friend Sherese, with whom I've experienced some of the craziest times of my life.



Next time I'll have to stay a little longer.

Painting

Lily loves to paint, but she's not nearly so tidy with her art supplies as she is with other things around the house. The weather isn't always right for her to paint outside, so we looked for a special coloring book where the paint is already on the pages and you just have to paint on water to activate it. The only one we could find was Star Wars.





I guess maybe we should track down more of these.

Birthday, Part II

Last Saturday afternoon was Lily's birthday party. The theme -- as chosen by Lily -- was "Wild Wild West."

Everyone had their best cowboy duds on.





The menu was wagon train food -- beans and ham hocks, corn bread, biscuits, watermelon, etc. We all know how much Lily loves beans. After we ate, it was cake time.






After cake we did presents.




Once the presents were opened, we retired to the backyard. First JJ dazzled the babies by showing them Lily's new Care Bears bubble blower. (Big hit.)


Then they all flocked to Lily's sand and water table.





Eventually the party was over. We knew it was a success because Connor required a stripdown before he went home.


I wonder what Lily will choose for her third birthday party?