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!