Dancing Queen

Not much news to report this week. After the long weekend Lily went back to school. We got word today that she and her classmates will be moving onto their new classroom next month. In the interim, they are having their morning nap phased out. Soon Lil will be down to one nap a day ... at school ... since she is already doing that at home.

Lil got to visit with Aunt Tracy and Uncle Stan last week when Tracy was in town from the Rocky Mountain climes of Dillon, Colorado. More quality time with Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom ... Time out ... I can smell a stinky diaper ...

Okay, back from changing Stinky into her pajamas. She decided to go to bed .. 6:52 ... early to bed, early to rise ...

We had dinner with Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Maurice on Saturday ... we went for Italian but Lil was not such a fan of her meal. She spent most of the night playing with a spoon and some spaghetti.

That is about it. Onto the video ... and pictures.


Dancing queen.


This is what happens when you try to get Lily to blow kisses on camera.


Lil with Marcy.


Tortured by tickle.


With a pound puppy.


Out for breakfast.


Lil in her natural habitat.


Two beverages.


Stealing my hat.


Trying to put Gypsy's collar back on.

Young Hearts Run Free

This week brought a Valentine's celebration at school on Tuesday where she made Mom and Dad a card with her handprint and gave Valentine's to all of her friends and teachers, and also received a few herself. She wore her special V-Day outfit courtesy of Grandma Gail, as seen below.

The weekend brought the stomach flu to Mom so Lily got to share some quality time with Dad on Friday into Saturday - Mom does not handle illness well (i.e.: lots of needless complaining) so hats off to Dad for handling it so well.

As it was a really chilly this weekend, and Mom was under the weather, Lily had an opportunity to play with all of her toys that she had neglected over the past few weeks - she was very busy on Saturday and I believe every toy she owns made its way out of the toy box.

We took an excursion to the mall on Sunday, and had dinner with John, Michelle, Hayley, and Cole - some pics below.

No school on Monday for Prez Day so Lily had some more time to play with all of her toys.

Developmentally, Lily can identify her nose, mouth, hands, feet, and toes, and we are working on the eyes and ears - the "Head and Shoulders" song has become a staple in our home. She prefers to point rather than say the word though - language will come one of these days - she still likes to say ball, duck, dog, ma, and da, and is trying out other words, just hard to understand at this point. ;) She is definitely understanding what we are saying though, going to find her shoe when I ask where it has run off to - soon enough we will have her going to get the newspaper and walking the dog! ;) Although the weekend was relatively uneventful, we took lots of pics and video so enjoy...see you next week.

P.S. Lily sends out belated birthday hugs and kisses to her Great Grandma Essie - hope she got her card!!


Heart Breaker!


Kickin' back in the fridge.


"My belly is so full!"


"I had no idea there was so much tupperware selection."


"Preparing for a morning ride...and yes of course I have my lipstick too."


"Hmmmm...what is going on in the world today?"


Lily and Gypsy helping Mom make the bed.


"Break time!"


Press play...


"Ummmm...a little close Mom."


Hanging out with Hayley.

Snowed Under

This week was relatively uneventful until the Blizzard of 2006 (doesn't it have a name yet?) hit on Saturday into Sunday. Saturday afternoon we dropped Lily off at Grandma Gail's and Grandpa Tom's so Mom and Dad could enjoy a night out at a party in Virginia. However, as the 'rents reached the destination in Brambleton, it was decided that our night out would be short lived - the snow was coming down fast and was sticking to the roads. We headed back to G & G's at around 9pm and headed back to Crofton that night, as we feared geting stuck in Burke - horror! ;) The drive home was fine, and Dad drove so it was slow going. Sunday we woke up to a winter wonderland. Lily got bundled up in her pink snowsuit and we were out bright and early to enjoy the snow with all the neighbors who were dutifully shoveling. Unfortunately, Lily was not a huge fan of the powder - she didn't really like to walk in it, did not want to touch it, and sledding was short lived, as she burst into tears at the end of the short run with Mom. We suspected that her tantrum was indicative of sleep deprivation (she has been waking rather early in the mornings - 6am - and refused to take a nap on Friday), so we took her inside and she proceeded to take a 4 hour nap and woke up a happy girl ready to play - but not outside.

Developmentally, Lily has a new dance move, well essentially her only dance move - it is essentially her doing squats repeatedly with a big smile on her face, to any and all music. We will try to get video of it in the next few weeks. While eating, she likes to put her feet up on the table and watch for Mom and Dad's reaction, waiting to be scolded - our little darling, constantly testing us. You may notice her new 'do,' as no barettes are allowed at school, therefore she has adopted the Pebbles look...

Lily wants to send birthday wishes to her Great Bubbie, who is celebrating her 80th birthday tomorrow!! Also Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, Lily will show off her Valentine's outfit (courtesy of Grandma Gail) at the next posting...

[Ed. note] P.S. - This is our 100th post ...



Getting ready to go outside.


The preparations ...


Checking out the snow.


It was a lot of snow ...


The pink marshmallow ...


With Mom ...


and Dad.


The entirety of the sledding experience.


The cereal monsters.


Pebbles trying to play some video games.

Party Girl

Sorry for the delay in posting ... a quick weekend trip to Florida was followed up by a quick work trip up north so no time to post until now.

We had a great time traveling down to Florida over the weekend. We were there to celebrate Great Grandma Essie and Great Poppa Syd's 65th Anniversary. We got a chance to see Aunt Paula and Uncle Jon, Cousin Jenna, Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Maurice. Lil was a great traveler and was so well behaved the whole weekend that we were all amazed -- two plane trips without much fuss, a three hour Friday night dinner, and 2 1/2 lunch ... Lily ate through them all.

On Friday we also got a chance to see Bubbie and Lil had a great time plalying at her December haunt - the playground. All in all, it was great trip but it is nice to be home.

Lil wants to send a special shout-out to Aunt Tracy who is going under the knife tomorrow -- snowboarding can be a dangerous vocation. We have assured Lil that Tracy will be in good shape to play next time she is in town.

On to the pictures and video ...

Oh, by the way, as previously discussed, we have changed our picture hosting situation ... now they are hosted on Flickr. This means not much for most of you but if you are one of the loyal readers who would like to save or print out pictures, now if you follow the link they are hi-resolution so the quality is much better.


Lil and Bubbie looking at ... something.


About to rip apart a hibiscus.


"Would you like fries with that?"


The Anniversary Party.


In the elevator after pressing the button by herself.


With cousin Jenna and Grandpa Maurice ... Great Poppa Syd in the foreground.


"I've got these guys wrapped around my finger."


Snoring if you listen closely .. or take my word for it.


Playing peek-a-boo with Grandma Essie and Poppa Syd.


Baby blues ...


"Let them eat cake."

Mother's Little Helper

Marcy is a saint ... let's just say many bonus MOM points were earned this past week. If you were around here last week you would understand what I was talking about. Let's recap what happened since last blog post:

Monday A.M. - Lily is kicked out of school early for thermostat problems. For some reason she is registering at 102 degrees or so ...

Monday P.M. - Lily is exhausted goes to bed, blog post is made.

Tuesday A.M. - Lily wakes up with a higher temperature ... Marcy goes to work in the morning, Grandpa Tom comes over to baby-sit ... Let's just say that he encountered a child that he probably did not recognize from previous meetings. Mild mannered Lily has decided that her favorite thing to do is scream at the top of her lungs directly into your ear. If her ears hurt, everyone's ears will hurt ...

Tuesday P.M. - Marcy comes home from work early to take over and Lily screams at regular intervals most of the afternoon. I come home and she is her usual cheery self ... conspiracy ...

Wednesday - Fever continues ... Lily goes back to the doctor and we start a run of antibiotics. Regular screaming continues and is accompanied by, "I will scream even louder if you put me down and don't hold me syndrome." So Marcy spends the entire day holding Lily. Oh, did I mention about this time that Lil's sidekick, Gypsy, has decided that she is jealous of all the attention the screaming gets and decides that her back legs are going to go limp and that she will cry out it in pain for no apparent reason. So, with child that won't be put down, Marcy coaxes Gypsy into the car to go to the vet where x-rays are performed and pain killers are prescribed. Gypsy, who can't stand to be separated from human conduct will not come upstairs and elects to spend the night in her crate in the basement.

Thursday - Lily does not like to take her medicine. Clothes are ruined, antibiotic and Motrin are spit out ... and Gypsy won't get out of her crate. She will eat but can't walk ... back to the vet for more testing. Gypsy comes home in the afternoon looking a little better. Lily is starting to feel better and has stopped screaming ... order is almost restored.

Friday - Gypsy is moving a little bit better. Lil is miraculously recovered and swears that nothing out of the ordinary happened this past week. Okay maybe not, but her punishment the first time she says something untoward towards her mother will be to read this post and apologize.

Like I said, Marcy earned some major MOM points this week.

Saturday we went to visit Marcy's college friends in far away Virginia. Lily had a chance to play with Brooke, another baby friend with a blog and was on her best behavior. She refused to take a nap so she went to bed early on Saturday night and was kind enough to wake up at 6:30 on Sunday morning. As luck would have it, we had errands to run so we managed to visit Target, CVS and the grocery store, and return home by nine ... at which point Marcy and I wanted a nap but Lily did not. She crawled around on our bed and kicked us in the head while we slept. Eventually (I think), she passed out and I awoke to find her sleeping across the bed, using Marcy as a pillow and my ribs as a foot rest. The day finished up with Grandpa Tom (he was willing to come back for more) and Grandma Gail coming over for dinner last night.

Lil went back to school this week ... a one week absence duly noted on her record (they did not even ask for a doctor's note) and the new week was off with a whimper.

Our technological problems have been fixed and our little Casio EXILIM 750 (which now serves as both our video and still cameras) has been replaced ourtesy of Costco's willingness to take back anything. Photographic evidence of an unforgettable week is below.

We are off to Florida on Thursday to celebrate the remarkable achievement of Poppa Syd and Grandma Essie's 65th Wedding Anniversary. 65 is not on the list ... for special gifts but really, once you've been married that long what material gift can be left to exchange. By the way, if you check out this list, notice that 100th anniversary is 10 carat diamond ... something for Sydney and Essie to shoot for!

Until next Monday, when we will be posting with a tan, enjoy the shots ...


Lil with her favorite book ... Goodnight Gorilla


Under the weather.


Playing with Brooke.


Kicking back, enjoying a Ritz cracker.


Feeding Brooke some Ritz.


...


Playing a little soccer.


Eating again ... notice the crossed legs.


Spilling some Goldfish to share with Gypsy.


The race to the last one.


Having some milk and brownie with Grandma and Grandpa. Check out Tom's one of a kind sweatshirt ...


And a little movie to tide you over.

Update: Some say they can't see the video ... not sure what is going since it is working on all the machines that I have access to ... make sure that you have installed Macromedia flash player 7 . If that doesn't work, you can try and watch here. It is probably a problem with the free video posting site but I am not really sure. I am republishing the entry again so maybe that will work.

Update II: User error, it should work now.