Southern Most Peanut

As many of you know, Lilly and I spent the past week in Key West with my parents. We were planning to spend five fun filled days in the sunny warmth of Florida, but it didn't really work out that way. We did have a great time, but to say it was sunny or even warm wouldn't be true...or even to say that we only stayed five days... But, that's another story.There are a lot of things to talk about and a lot of stories to tell, but in the interest of keeping this blog kind of short I will just touch on the highlights and give the people what they want...more pictures of Lilly.

Here are Lilly and I in all of our Colts gear on Super Bowl Sunday at the Southern Most Point in the Continental U.S.. The way Lilly, Mom and I were dressed you would assume we were the biggest fans the Colts ever had, but I'll have you know that this picture was taken after kickoff and we were no where near a T.V..


This is at the Butterfly Sanctuary. Lilly was very excited to go and see the butterflies. She had so much fun watching the butterflies that we actually had a mini breakdown when we left. This was probably her favorite part of the sanctuary. It was a little fence, just her size, that protected a special area where the butterflies could lay their eggs. Lilly and Papaw sat there very still for a very long time (still and long for a two year old anyway) with their hands out, patiently waiting for a butterfly to land on them. They were unsuccessful.
A very close encounter with a butterfly. It was also very hard to remember not to touch the butterflies. Grandma and Lilly spot a pelican.

Can't quite remember why Lilly was so sad in this picture, but I thought it was super cute anyway. I think Papaw and her were sitting in front of this statue. I took their picture and then he got up, but I can't remember if she was sad because he got up or because I wasn't taking any more pictures.
Just touring the area. But, this picture speaks volumes about our trip to Key West. When we got off the plane mom and dad greeted Lilly at the gate with a camera flashes and cheers, and whisked her away, neither of them said a word to me for several minutes. In fact, they seemd to almost forget that I was there at all. And Lilly, for her part, was pretty excited too. She shreiked "Mamaw!! Ahh Papaw!!" when she saw them and then covered her eyes and put her head down as if embarassed by the outburst of emotion. On our only sunny day, or at least what would have been our only sunny day had we maintained our schedule, we went to the beach. Lilly loved it, it was obviously the biggest sand box she's ever seen.
She also discovered a new consistency and was quite taken with wet sand and the cold waves on her toes.
The high light of the trip and the part that Lilly and Papaw looked forward to the most was their morning walk to get the newspaper and mail Grandma's post cards. After a couple of days Lilly figured out the routine and would wake up and immediately say, "Papaw, clothes, paper?". Which meant, "Is Papaw up? Can you put my clothes on please. Are we going to get the paper?". They were gone for a long time every morning even though the paper box was just around the corner. I have since learned that after Lilly and I left and Dad goes to get the paper alone he is only gone for about ten minutes. Evidently they would stop and look at rocks, pick flowers and sit idly on random benches on that Lilly wanted to while on their walk. These are just a few of the wild chickens that roam around Key West. Lilly looked everywhere for chickens and got so excited when she saw or heard one. Eventually she was even able to distinguish between a hen or 'mommy chicken' and a rooster or 'daddy chicken'. When we came across these little baby chicks she cupped her hands together and smiled, asking "I hold one...please" And later we would hear a 'cock a doodle doo' and she would yell from the back of the bike "I hear wooster!!'.
I just thought this was cute. We were waiting for a table to eat breakfast outside our favorite Key West restaurant, Blue Heaven, when Lilly found a little bench next to a fountain to sit on.
Here we are on our bike. Lilly loved the bike and was eager to hop on whenever we ventured out. As I was strapping her in she would remind me to put on her bike hat too. When I took the bike back she watched from the front gate as I pulled away and cried, "my bicycle, my bicycle". Needless to say we will be purchasing a baby seat for our bikes this summer.
It was only after I took the bike back that we realized my flight had been canceled and that Lilly and I would be spending another day and a half in Key West. So, when we decided to go to the aquarium we had to have one of the South American soccer players take Lilly on a three wheel taxi bike. When I rode with her to the aquarium she never said a peep, but shouted "BYE MAN!" as the driver pulled away.
Here Lilly is relaxing in the sun as she contemplates our latest flight cancellation. This was the day before we left, our stolen day, and it was by far the nicest weather we had.
Last dinner in Key West, Lilly is obviously disturbed by the news that we are actually leaving this time.

Poor Sick Baby

Poor Lilly, she rarely gets sick, but when she does...whoa!

My friend Tania and I thought we would do something nice for our girls and take them to a local indoor playground to escape the tedium of being stuck inside our own homes due to inclimate weather. Little did we realize at the time, the indoor playground was a popular place to take children with the plague. We both shuttered every time we heard one of the other hundred children cough or sneeze, and finally decided to call it a day when we saw a 'suspicion of pox'. The girls did have a good time though, and we were all four happy with our outing and content to escape with our lives. Only later did I discover that poor Lilly had been infected. She had the cold that seemed to never end and I was beginning to worry that she wouldn't be better by the time we left for Key West. And then, just when I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the little nose ceased to run...the cough started, and to top that off...I realized I was getting sick. But, not to worry, after the purchase of a elephant shaped humidifier, extra Kleenexes, saline drops and Vaseline for the chapped nose, we are all better and have vowed never again to return to the indoor leper colony without clorox, lysol, hand sanitizer, surgical masks and hazmat suits.

Graham crackers, juice, blankie and Tinkerbell cures just about anything.

Little Miss Helpful

Lilly helps Bryan and I do a number of household tasks, unfortunately these tasks require more preparation, take longer and need a lot more clean up when she helps. But, she likes to help and she's proud of herself, so she gets to help. The best is when she stands over an enormous mess (that she made) and proudly proclaims, "I hepping!" (that's peanut speak for "Mother, please take notice. I will be assisting you with this particular project.") Or, sometimes she'll drag a chair from the kitchen table over to the counter and point at whatever I am pouring, stirring, mixing, sifting, whipping, spreading, smothering or topping and say "I doot". (that's peanut speak for "Excuse me Mother, if it isn't too much trouble I would be interested in completing that project for you.")

Here are a couple of pictures...these are just a few of the things that Lilly likes to help do.

Feeding Hank. This is one of the jobs that takes a lot more time and effort when Lilly helps. You have to scoop up the food and then give her the scoop to dump into the bowl...then you have to sweep up the food that spilled. Then you have to help her carry the food bowl over to the stand. The funny part of the whole process is after she puts his food down she stands about two inches from the bowl, points at it and orders, "Doodle, eat it!". I think it serves her right to work hard making a meal for someone only to have them turn their nose up at it.

(I swear she isn't afraid in this picture, but she sure looks like she is.)

Here Lilly is helping to make cupcakes. She gets to pour the ingredients into the mixer and then watch. I have to remind her over and over not to touch....and yes, that is our knife block right next to where she is standing.

Lilly is really good at sprinkling cheese. In fact, it is probably her best kitchen skill. Not to mention it is the easiest thing for me to let her do. She doesn't make a mess at all and not a single piece of cheese escapes her notice.

Putting clothes in the dryer is probably the easiest thing to help her do, plus its something that she is able to do several times a day. However, it is a task that normally takes me about 30 seconds, but when Lilly helps it takes about five minutes. As her little hands can only hold like one sock at a time.

Sledding

We took Lilly sledding for the first time ever last week. She was a little nervous about the whole thing, but she eventually got the hang of it and had a good time...for about 10 minutes. In short, we were outside and sledding for a shorter amount of time than it took to get dressed and ready for the snow. It was windy and bitter cold, we were probably only outside for about 30 minutes total.
She looked alot like Randy in 'A Christmas Story'. She couldn't move her arms and needed help to get up and down. When Bryan took her down a bigger hill, snow blew into her face and she said "face, face" and couldn't get her hands around to wipe her face. That's when we took her in.
First time in the sled and down a 'hill'. If you look closely, you can tell by he look on her face that she isn't quite sure about what's going on.

The whole fam (except Doodle). Check out the sledding 'hill' behind us. Perfect size for Lilly, but not that fun for Bryan and I.

Sometimes it is just fun to be pulled in the sled...and sometimes it isn't. In this picture Lilly is saying "Out. Out.".

We rounded out the day with a little child labor. Shoveling the sidewalk was probably Lilly's favorite part of the whole sledding experience.

Catch Up Blog

I'm pretty behind on my blogging and a lot has happened since Lilly and Bryan made cookies. But, I'm taking the easy way out and combining a few things. Below you will see the abridged version of what should have been three separate blogs: "Playing in the Snow", "7 Days of Christmas" and "First Haircut".

Playing in the Snow

We had a sad excuse for a snow storm last week. I think it was the same system that brought about a foot and a half to my relatives in West Virginia and dumped about two feet on Washington D.C., closing the airport, delaying several flights and making it possible for Bryan's parents to come and spend a few days with us before Christmas...but, we'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, we took advantage of the dusting we got to take Lilly out to experience snow for, basically, the first time. We sat her in the it last year for some pictures, but I wouldn't say she 'enjoyed' it. This year she liked it.

First snowball.

First fall into the snow.
Hank loves the snow and every other part of cold weather too.
Bryan throwing a snowball at a poor defenseless child.

Lilly and her snowman. When we all walked away from the snowman she turned back to him and said, "c'mon man". Needless to say, he didn't follow.

7 Days of Christmas

We celebrated Christmas for the traditional seven days this year. We started on the 18th with a family Christmas at my mom and dad's. Complete with Us, Mom, Dad, Wes, Kristy and Grandma. Then, as mentioned above, Bryan's parents' trip to Germany was delayed due to the snow storm and they were able to come here on the 20th. We did Christmas with them and then they headed off a couple of days later to visit Bryan's sister Cammie and and her kids, Morgan and Matthew. Next, we made our way over to Wes and Kristy's on the 23rd for a Christmas Eve Eve party with my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Chris, Cousin and her husband, Easy. Then, of course, Santa came on the 25th. We opened gifts, got a visit from my Grandma and had my parents over for dinner.

Lilly sitting on the new stool that Papaw made for her. She was equally excited about the towel that the stool was wrapped in to keep it safe.

This must be a heavy one.

Riding her new pony.

Opening a gift from Cammie with Granddad.

Checking out what Santa brought. The stroller is a big hit. Yeah! Cookware!

Faceoff with the new kitty.First Haircut
After watching Lilly push the hair out of her eyes in frustration for the last few weeks, we decided it was about time for a haircut. We thought it was going to be a disaster, but in typically Lilly fashion she surprised us. She sat as still as a statue in the little red car and allowed the nice woman to cut her hair into the cutest bob and little bangs that I've ever seen, with a swiftness and dexterity that can only come from giving haircuts to toddlers. It was faster than I expected, and reminded me a little of how quickly the hygienist worked at the pediatric dentist's office.

The finished product.

Happy with the new due!

Plans Change

Earlier today I sat down to post a blog and downloaded some pictures of Lilly playing in the snow for the first time. It would have been a very cute blog. Unfortunately Lilly woke up from her nap and I was unable to finish. I figured I'd just do it later, but then Bryan came home from the dentist appointment bent on negating all of the hygienist's hard work by making Christmas cookies with Lilly.
I was understandably skeptical. My disdain for unnecessary messes and the knowledge that I would be the one to clean it up made me hesitant, but I put all of my reservations aside when Bryan proposed that he take Lilly to the grocery store to get supplies while I sat quietly on the couch. Even a few minutes alone in the house is a luxury that I just couldn't pass up, regardless of the price. So I eagerly agreed to the cookie making, I even made the list (I know, I'm a real party animal).

It turned out to be very cute and a time consuming event that was fun for the whole family. (In the two hours it took Bryan and Lilly to make, cut, cook and decorate the cookies I was able to do most of the housework that I planned to do tomorrow).

Mixing up the dough. At this point Lilly was more excited standing on the step stool than anything else. She would get down and then walk up to the stool and say "Up we go!". At which point Bryan would lift her to the top step.

Cutting out some fun Christmas shapes. She really got into it when she got to put flour on her hands to keep the dough from sticking. That was actually her favorite part, she would hold them out and say "hand, hand" and then rub the flour all over the cutting board. (And dump it onto the floor)

Lilly modeling her apron while Daddy bakes the first round of cookies.

Putting M's on some of the cookies. Quite a few M's were eaten during this step.

Ahh finally...the tasting of the cookies. All of Lilly's hard work pays off.

Point Taken

Whenever I write a new blog I can always count on alot of feedback. I get emails, phone calls and even a couple comments on the blog itself. I appreciate that and I love that you enjoy my blog as much as I enjoy writing it, but this last blog has made something painfully obvious to me...no one cares about Bryan and I. The only thing my blog followers want is Lilly, Lilly and more Lilly. I tried to do a nice piece on a great experience that Bryan and I had, without the peanut, and only one person even bothered to notice. (thank you Mom).

I can take a note. Don't worry it won't happen again.

Here you go....

Lilly hosted a tea party on Monday. She invited Kramer Bear, Elmo and her baby. Baby wouldn't sit in a chair and this made Lilly angry so she put Elmo in the chair instead and just laid Baby on the table (I told her that wasn't safe, but she didn't seem to care). She served tea and little cakes. Fun was had by all. Don't anyone stress, I took the pictures so I know that neither Bryan nor myself are in any of them.

Setting the table.

Serving the tea. She even holds up the teacups and cakes so that Kramer Bear and Elmo can get a bite.