A League of Her Own

I am very proud to introduce my new niece, Lilly's cousin.
Kristy and I have joked for several years that because Lilly has been the only child and a central part of our entire family for almost three years that any other children would just be known as Lilly's brother or Lilly's cousin. For anyone who has seen 'A League of Their Own' recently you get the joke that my parents might introduce their granddaughters by saying, "This is our granddaughter, Lilly. And this is our other granddaughter, Lilly's cousin."
Well, that is not the case because Samantha Lee, born on June 20, has stolen the show. She is a teeny little thing at 6 lbs 6 ozs, but I can already tell that she is going to have big attitude. Wes and Kristy brought her home less than a week ago and she is already in charge of their house.
Samantha at the hospital, resting with her lamb.
Lilly giving Samantha a copy of one of her favorite books. This book just so happens to be one that Kristy always liked reading to Lilly. Clearly, Samantha is not happy with her gift...and Lilly doesn't seem to be too thrilled to be giving it either. I hope this isn't the begining of a rivalry.

Congratulations Wes and Kristy. I am so excited to watch Lilly, Jack and Samantha grow up together and become friends and playmates. But...maybe not Jack quite yet. He is very interested in his little cousin and he also has much better motor skills, that's why there is no picture of the two of them together. Jack has Samantha by about ten pounds and she just doesn't seem safe around his grabby little hands and pokey little fingers. Don't worry though, we'll get a comparative photo soon enough. We may have to tie Jacks hands down, but we'll get one.

The Great Outdoors

Last night Bryan and Lilly had their very first camp out. It started off with a bang and Lilly was very excited. Very excited! She asked Bryan about a million questions while he set up the tent, then requested several items for the tent. She asked if she would have a sleeping bag and if she could bring her pillow. When those items were confirmed she asked for more...books, toys, and, of course, Monkey and Blankie. After all that was taken care of and settled Bryan built a fire. Again, a million questions. She wanted to make sure that Bryan knew they would need marshmallows, sticks, and plenty of other random things.
It took over an hour to get everything ready for the camp out. Then, it took about 10 minutes to roast marshmallows, followed by jammies and teeth brushing. Finally, Lilly and Bryan both settled into their sleeping bags. I opened the window so I could hear them and all I heard was more questions. "Um, Daddy? What's that noise?" "Um, Daddy? What are you doing?" "Um, Daddy? Is that thunder?" "Um, Daddy? Are you scared?" After about an hour, they came inside and went to bed. As Bryan carried her from the tent to the house she was pleased with the success of their backyard camp out, telling Bryan, "That was fun!!"
Sitting by the fire.
Roasting marshmallows.

And, finally in the tent.

Maybe next time....

Relay For Life 2011

This past weekend was The Rowdy Bunch's third Relay For Life event for the American Cancer Society. Our team was small this year, but we still raised $3880 in donations, luminarie sales and our on-site fundraiser, selling chicken salad sandwiches.

We started the day by watching Lilly's gymnastics class do a demonstration.

Then, we opened up shop and started selling Debbie Deweese's homemade chicken salad. Here's our booth.

Lilly and Avery manned the 'lemonaide' stand and people couldn't turn them down. Avery is a born saleswoman, yelling at passersby to buy some lemonade.

After a long hot day it was time for the best part of Relay, the lighting of the luminaries. Bags are decorated and lit to honor friends and family who have suffered from cancer. Bryan lit the bag during the ceremony that represented grandparents.

Here are some of the bags that we made...

Lucky Number Seven

Last Friday Jack marked his seventh month off of the calender. He's usually pretty happy and a laid back and easy going guy so, he opted to spend his day in a pretty low key way.
He lounged in the pool.

And, played on the floor, practicing his own unique crawling technique. He puts his head down, rolls onto his side, pulls his feet and knees under him and then pushes off. It has a very 'inch-worm' look, but it is effective and Jack gets where he wants to go...until someone turns him around.

Lilly, not so laid back and easy going, still got in on the lounging action in honor of Jack.

Bathing Beauty

Its officially summer, the pool is open and ready for swimmers. Last year Lilly had to ease herself into the pool and then coaxed off the steps. She was just starting to love it when it was time to close the pool up for the season. We worried that it would take half the summer to get her excited about swimming again, but that wasn't the case at all. On Memorial Day, the first day that I took her to swim, we met Wes, Kristy and a couple of friends at the pool. She didn't waste any time stripping off her sundress and asking Uncle Wes if she could get in. He said 'yes', of course, and she spent the rest of the day in the water, only coming out to demand snacks or drinks.
Too cool for pictures.

Jack seems to really like the water. Like everything else, he took to swimming like it was no big deal...as long as he can bring his giraffe along.

I'm so brave...I'm posting a picture of myself in a bathing suit on the internet...granted I'm under the water.

I don't know if this actually counts as swimming, since Lilly's not even touching the water, but she sure thought it was fun.

...and another person to carry her around in the water.
Lilly started swim lessons today, so maybe next time there will be some pictures of her actually in the water and not just being carried over it.

Cincinasty

In an effort to avoid making a five hour drive, but still visit his parents, Bryan and I thought it might be fun to meet them in Cincinnati, a half way point between us and them. On paper it was a great plan. We 'pricelined' a nice hotel downtown and planned to visit the Newport Aquarium, a park and the Cincinnati Zoo. We would walk around downtown, eat outside and enjoy have a nice visit while doing something a little out of the ordinary. Jo and Wes even decided to go on Friday night to celebrate their anniversary. Bryan and I woke the kids up early Saturday morning and headed out. Everything was going great. We left on schedule, which is rare for us, and made the trip in record time. The kids were great in the car, Lilly watched a movie and Jack slept the whole trip. We met at the zoo and everyone was excited to get in and see the new baby giraffe. This was about the time that things started to get nasty.

Don't let the title of this blog fool you, Cincinnati is a great city, but Lilly sure was nasty. I don't think she felt all that great and we knew that the night before, so maybe it was our fault for making the trip anyway and not canceling, but she seemed just fine on Saturday morning, even excited to go on a car ride. She was clingy and didn't want to talk to or be talked to by anyone except her mom (which is super fun for me too, by the way). It was also almost 90 degrees and she didn't want to look at any animals, or talk about any animals, or ride any rides, or do any activities at the zoo...except get her face painted. What she wanted was for me to carry her...almost all day. As the day went on things just got worse, until finally Lilly fell asleep in the stroller.

We found a quiet spot to rest while Lilly took her nap and then found a playground before heading to the hotel. Like I said, we used priceline.com to reserve a nice hotel downtown. We thought we got a real deal when The Millennium Hotel accepted our $60 offer. What we didn't realize was that they intended to put us in the ghetto of their south tower. The room was comically small especially after we set up Jack's portable crib, the tub didn't drain and you couldn't hear yourself think over the air conditioner, oh yeah, and we ran out of bottled water in the middle of the night. It was the first time that all four of us have ever shared a room and it was a less than ideal situation. Lilly and Jack took turns waking each other up every 45 minutes until after 4am and the air conditioner and uncomfortable double bed kept Bryan and I up the rest of the night. But, morning finally came and we checked out of the hotel (without Lilly's beloved friend Monkey and Zebra) and headed to the aquarium, getting lost on the way. And that is why I called this blog 'Cincinasty'.

The gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. I usually am against going to the zoo and taking pictures of the animals, but it was hard to resist when she was posing for us. The highlight of the day was when Lilly got her face painted for the first time. She was very excited and picked out the fairy wings. I have never seen her hold so still.

Lilly loved her fairy wings. She even sat on Bryan's lap for a little while and stared at herself in his sunglasses.

After the train ride disaster Lilly took a nap in the stroller while Jack slept in his carrier. Yes, Jack was in Cincinnati with us, but there are no pictures to prove it.

At the end of the day and on our way out we passed a small playground. In hind sight we should have just gone to a park because Lilly had a great time at the playground and even met a friend. I realize this isn't a picture of the playground, but this little bamboo forest was right next to it.

Later Saturday night, after dinner. Enjoying some ice cream by the fountain downtown. It really doesn't matter where you are, what you are doing or when you have eaten last, if you ask Bryan's dad for ice cream, he will get you some.

Jack did make it in a picture, but refused to look at the camera. Wes, Lilly, Jo, Jack and Bryan pose in front of the fountain.

Sunday at the aquarium. For whatever reason Lilly really enjoys an aquarium. I don't know if its the fish, water, or what...but she had a good time on Sunday. Here, in the amazon section, Lilly and I are feeding a bird. We had to get a friendly stranger to take our picture because Lilly and I are the only ones who braved the aviary...most Traylors seem to have a healthy fear of birds.

Waiting patiently for a shark to swim by in the shark petting pool. I don't think she ever got to pet a shark, but Lilly enjoyed splashing the water just the same. Posing with the penguins. I don't think she quite trusted these guys, she would turn away from them to look at the camera.

All jokes aside, we had a pretty good time. It was a lot of fun to meet Bryan's parents somewhere different and do something a little out of the ordinary. Hopefully next time we try to deviate from the norm Lilly will be in a better mood.

Story Time

I don't have a cute story to tell or a funny anecdote to relay, just that when I was finished cleaning up after bath time last night I came into the living room and found this...