the animals in the stable

The animals that were present at the birth of Jesus...the sheep, the cow, the panda bear.

Toys

Who needs toys when you have packing peanuts??

Christmas Tree

So, we didn't really spend that much time cutting down the tree...it was SO cold and Lilly was not having fun. I pretty much told Pete to pick a tree, cut it down, and then leave. We had fun after, though, eating lunch and hanging out with our friends, Kim and Tim and their girls (abby, anne, and ainsley). They were faster than we were when choosing and cutting their tree and they had to get two!

The newest sport

Here it is, the reveal of the latest sport for toddlers. It's fun, exhilarating, requires little coordination, and uses common household objects. It's.....

Cutting Board Stomach Surfing



Here are the scores from judges (aka, Lilly and her dolls) who qualified this as an actual sport:

Exercise Effort: 9 - requires use of both legs and arms and you must be able to lay on your stomach for a long time (toddlers who are prone to throwing full fledged tantrums on the floor will especially excel in this sport)
Creativity: 8- this is similar to surfing and sledding, but is an inside sport (a positive for all parents who have toddlers at home during the winter). Several new moves have been recently developed including the one arm push off, the "look at me mommy" no hands slide, and the tandem surf (although this move has only been demonstrated by the most daring of toddlers who are willing to share their cutting board with someone else). The sport was invented in a kitchen by a toddler who has an obsession with taking out all cutting boards, cookie sheets, muffin tins, and pizza pans and laying them out on the floor.
Equipment: 10- this sport requires the use of a common kitchen item, the cutting board. The highest quality of stomach surfing boards is one made of plastic and large enough to fit a chubby toddler width-wise. Wood floors are the best to use. Tile is not as slick, so all toddlers with this flooring will have a significant disadvantage when competing against those with access to wood floored kitchens.
Uniforms: 10 -Uniforms are simple and depend upon the toddler's particular clothing choice that day. As seen in the photo above, pants are optional.

The scoring and point values have not yet been determined. The originator of this sport sporadically decides to take part in the game and will, under no circumstances, participate when prompted by her mother. The only known photo of this sport (above) was obtained by bribery with chocolate chips.

ND players?

Lilly's knowledge of ND players the other day during dinner:

Pete: "Jimmy"
Lilly: "Clausen"

Pete: "Robert"
Lilly: "Hughes"

Pete: "Armando"
Lilly: "Allen"

Pete: "Michael"
Lilly: "Finnigan"

For those of you who aren't as knowledgeable about the Notre Dame players as Lilly is, it's supposed to be "Michael Floyd." And, for those of you not very in tune with children's songs, Lilly was thinking about "there was a man called michael finnigan" (kids song).

Snowday

Here are some pictures of Lilly's first day in the snow this season! She was a little bored and wanted to go in after about 20 minutes. I tried to build her a snowman, but I'm a little snow-sculpture challenged.

Chicago and headbands

Those two don't really go together, but I am too lazy to post two separate entries.

My dad came to Chicago for a packaging show this past week, so Lilly and I went up to see him. We all went to the children's museum and had lunch. Lilly had a great time!! She is still talking about having french fries and ketchup and lemonade with papa michael. One funny story about the day: my dad and i were both concentrated on trying to find the McCormick Place exit so I could drop him off and Lilly heard a song that she knew on our cd playing in the car. So, she says to my dad, "This song same as at school, papa michael." When my dad didn't reply, she just said it again and again, and louder and louder until finally my dad said "yes, the song is cool." She needs immediate acknowledgement when she says something.







Lilly is a little attached to these running sweatband things that Pete has. She puts them on daily (usually along with her mickey mouse ears) and wears them around the house. She calls them "my headbands."

Lilly Goat

For those of you who didn't know, Lilly wanted to be a goat this year for Halloween. I tried to talk her out of it and suggested other animals such as a cat, dog, lion, etc, but she was stuck on a goat. The only reason I can think of that she wanted to dress up like this is her favorite part of the zoo - the goat petting part. She spends like 20 minutes in there each time we go to the zoo and we went fairly often this summer (about 1 x a week since it's so close to our house). The only goat costume I could find was for a younger child (9 months), so I decided to make one and I think it turned out pretty cute! She LOVED it and told everyone during trick or treating that she was a goat and then said "MAAAAHH!" She was mistaken several times for a bunny, a mouse, and a cat (hmmm, have you seriously never seen a goat before??). Lilly corrected every person though. "No, a doat." Of course, no one had any idea what a "doat" was, so I had to translate, but Lilly knew what her costume was. She also enjoyed trick or treating, as do most kids, I'm sure. She was very excited to get candy and kept checking her pumpkin to make sure the candy was still there while we were walking. The temperature was almost 70 yesterday, so that was great for trick or treating.




I do have a funny Lilly saying to post also:

Me (looking at a picture of a chicken): That's a hen.
Lilly: No, sorry, it's a chicken.
(she actually does this "no, sorry" thing quite a bit. Especially after she's asked me "what is that" and I answer her with something she wasn't expecting. Why she asks in the first place when she already knows is funny anyway.

Florida!

This past weekend, I went to FL to visit Erin. It was so much fun!! The weather was great. Erin and Mark took me on a tour of the Magic (one of the cruiseline ships) which was fabulous! It was so nice to see it. It was also so nice to meet Mark!! I also got to meet and hang out with two of Erin's good friends, Megan and Lindsay. Overall, it was a great weekend and hopefully I'll get to go again next year! Here are some pictures from my trip:
In addition to these pictures, I have a great one of Erin and I trying on (horrible spelling alert)Sombreros in Epcot, but I want to find and post the picture of us doing that like 15 years ago and post that with it to compare!

Erin and I at Epcot (there are supposed to be the most wonderful ice cream cones in the world in this picture with us, but we didn't hold them up):

Posing with Mickey:

Expose (they were at Epcot...we didn't actually pay to see them. There were some crazy fans there, though, that would probably have paid lots and lots of money...or maybe that girl was just really drunk. We all had one of their songs in our heads all day after seeing them. They were pretty awful, in case anyone was wondering):

Posing with the High School Musical cutouts:


Mark and Erin:

At Epcot:

Erin, me, Megan, and Lindsay:

Fall Fun

Today it was beautiful outside - very sunny and mild (it was so sunny that Lilly wanted sunglasses and she never keeps these on. As we were getting in the car, she said, "shoot, forgot my sunglasses"). We went to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins (although that was Lilly's least favorite part...this pumpkin patch also had a petting zoo, a cow train, and a play area). When we got home, Pete and I raked leaves and Lilly jumped in them. She did try raking, but couldn't figure out the rake. She kept saying she needed a rake of her own (smaller).

On a side note, Lilly now loves my parents even more than ever. My mom sent her a package in the mail for Halloween and it had a homemade goat book (see the blog post about the zoo), stickers, and candy corn. Whenever I mention my parents, Lilly talks about the candy corn, her (and my) absolute favorite!!

Picking a pumpkin:

eating kettle corn:

riding the cow train:

lilly the cat and pete the scarecrow:

sliding down into a pile of leaves:

super cute picture of daddy and daughter in the leaves:

North Carolina

Here are some pictures from our NC trip. Pete, Lilly, and I were there for a few days visiting friends (Pete's best friend is Dave and Dave's dad is president of Wake Forest, so we were able to stay with them for a few days) and going to football games (well, Pete was the only one that went to the Wake Forest game and the ND game).

Lilly walking on the wall


Celebrating Ellie Hatch's first birthday


Lilly sharing her stickers with Dave


Lilly feeding the fish

Lilly -isms

Okay, Lilly is a talker and a singer lately. She sings constantly and likes to make up her own songs. Here are some samples:

Actual song:................Lilly's version:

Mary had a little lamb ........Mary had a little veggie bite
God bless America .............God bless alligator ("ad-di-da-der")
This old man.............This snowman

She really does sing those songs the correct way, but occasionally will add her own verses as stated above. She also likes Pete and I to make up songs, so I've had to sing about a bandaid and also a song about her friends (very creative: I like ____, I like ____). She also knows the first 3 lines to the Notre Dame victory march and the first part of Go, Cubs, Go.

Here are some of her new phrases that she likes to use:

"hold on two seconds" (she gets this from me...I'm always telling her to hold on two seconds)
"yeah, let's do that" (usually referring to going to the park or going to eat cookies)
"a while" (as in "this shirt a while" which means "I haven't worn this shirt in a while")
"let's go lady" (this is definitely from me. She says this when we are in the car and we stop at a light)
"I need a scoot" (to move her closer to something)
"I like"...this song, this book, this baby, this shirt, these shoes, mommy, daddy, the park, etc.

Apple Picking

This morning, we went apple picking with Pete's parents and his sister, Liz. Lilly really enjoyed pulling the apple off of the tree. Of course, she then threw the apples into the bucket, so who knows how many of them are bruised! It was perfect weather for it, but the ground was a little wet. I took Lilly's socks off after we were done and I had to squeeze the water out of them!

Another outfit

So, I'm sure Lilly isn't the only 2 year old with hilarious outfits, but I just had to post another one, since she did do most of this herself...

This was last night, so she was really tired. She's wearing just a shirt (no, that's not a mini dress), no pants (she decided it was so funny to run around without pants on), two hats (a backwards one and her mouse ears) and tinkerbell shoes that are 3 sizes too big. And, of course, stickers (I think she took most of them off of her legs and face by the time I got the camera out). I'm sure this is a style somewhere in the world.

Sense of style

Lilly has been very picky with what she wears. She likes to choose her clothing and frequenly picks out things that I don't want her to wear. For example, two weeks ago it was pretty chilly here and Lilly wanted to wear shorts and a tank top on a day it was only going to be about 60 degrees max. I managed to convince her to put on pants. I decided that clothing wasn't a battle I was going to fight, so I let her pick what she wants as long as it's weather appropriate. Here are some of her choices:

I call this her "color blind look": orange halloween socks, pink shoes, green and white striped shorts, and blue and purple striped jacket. Oh, and a yellow bow. She ALWAYS has to pick a bow herself.




the "i'm too cool look": backwards hat and saggy diaper (she's still in her jammies)

my favorite, the "let's see how messy i can get before i go out in public" look: sidewalk chalk everywhere...pants, shoes, hair, shirt, face, everywhere.

Notre Dame

This past weekend was Notre Dame's first game of the season. Pete and I went to the game - the weather was perfect and our seats were great; the team - not as good as we'd hoped, but at least they won. Before the game, instead of tailgating, Pete, Lilly, and I went to eat lunch at the South Dining Hall with our friends, Erin, Mike, Eamon, and Owen. It was great...I'd love to eat that way every day!! Eamon is Lilly's age and he is so hilarious - the band gets up and plays in the dining hall during lunch and Eamon was standing on his chair playing his trumpet just like the trumpeteers (not sure if that's a word, but it sounds good- like mouseketeers or something) were. It was so cute. Lilly's lunch consisted of: cereal with milk, chocolate chip muffin, cheese, and ice cream. I also got her some jello and she really really wanted to eat it since it was bright orange and looked like it was something un-healthy, but I don't think she could get past the jiggly-ness of it (another made up word, I'm sure). She put it to her mouth and then put it right back in the bowl about 6 times. She did enjoy the ice cream and sprinkles, though. Here are some pictures:

outside the dining hall:


Lilly and Eamon enjoying lunch:


The only picture I could get of Lilly smiling:

Go Cubs Go!

Pete and I went to Chicago for the weekend recently. It was the first time I'd left Lilly overnight, so I was a little nervous, but we had an awesome time! We went to a Cubs game with our friends, Dave and Katrina. We also met up with our Detroit friends, Lisa and Seth, for dinner one night. It was great to have some adult time, but I missed Lilly a lot! Lilly did great and had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa.

Lilly in her Cubs outfit (a birthday present from her friend, Troy)


Katrina and Dave:


Meg and Pete in the bleachers:

Lilly's comments

Tonight Lilly threw a not soft toy at me and here's our conversation:

Me: Lilly, that wasn't nice. What do you say?
Lilly: Thank you.
Me: no, what do you say when you throw toys?
Lilly: No whining.

It was pretty funny. I guess I've been saying "no whining" a lot to her lately.

Lilly turns 2!!!

Yeah for Lilly! She turned 2 yesterday! Pete was at a golf tournament, so Lilly and I went to the zoo and then the park. We had her birthday party today. Lilly had a great time at the party. Her favorite part was drinking like 8 glasses of lemonade. She also liked eating all the candy decorations and the frosting on the cupcakes. There are no pictures of presents since Lilly only got to open two. She was so tired and way over stimulated by the end of the party. I'll post more pictures whenever she gets around to opening presents!

Lilly brushing the goats (she likes this area of the zoo the best...we stayed here for at least 20 minutes yesterday)


trying to pet the turtles (I'm not completely sure this is allowed)


sitting on the big turtle


Lilly's cupcake cake!


Lilly's friends blowing bubbles


blowing out the candles (it was actually too windy for the candles to stay lit, so we just pretended)


Lilly and her friend, Troy, eating cupcakes (well, eating the candy off of the cupcakes)