My World

My world.  In one picture:

My heart is so full everytime I see this and I am forever thankful for that feeling!

Easter

Our first Easter with Lily was great!  I mean with candy, toys,  beautiful weather, family and friends...it doesn't get much better than that.

We decided that this year would be full of beginning new traditions around here for Lily to always look forward to.  First tradition:  cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Easter.  I like these traditions too so far!!

After breakfast Lily had this to look forward to Easter morning:

She enjoyed taking one thing out at a time:  stuffed bunny, bunny ears, "lipsticks" (flavored chapsticks), bunny straws, egg sippy cup, bunny plate and silverware, eggs and candy, a purse, a book and a few other goodies.  

Getting ready to go see her basket

A cute bunny

Loves looking at pictures and watching movies of herself!

Next up was getting dressed and our Easter Egg hunt.  We opted to stay home this year for the Egg Hunt.  Let me just say, Lily totally gets this egg hunt thing!  She loved getting each egg, opening it up and then eating the candy.  Yes, we let her eat most of the candy right then and there.  Luckily, I had planned for that and there wasn't actually too much.

So pretty with a dress from her great uncle!

She figured out how to open the eggs herself and the candy!

Blowing bubbles from her Easter basket

Look what I did!

I love bubbles!

Next up was a nap and a good one it was - 2 hours!  Actually she may have been in a sugar coma and it took 2 hours for it to leave her system, but she made it! Later in the afternoon we had some driveway playing time with water buckets, bikes, bubbles, snacks, music and just lots of fun. 

Somebody loved playing with the water

These two sweeties also enjoyed the time outside with us

Some friends came by and brought this little cutie to meet Lily and play

Sunday was such a good day for all of us.

We can't wait until Lily learns all about the true meaning of Easter!

Two Month Update

Today is two months since this little sweetie walked into our lives and changed us forever:

After writing our one month update, I thought it would be neat to do a monthly update for this first year.  Lily continues to change so much each day, it's really crazy and so fun to be a part of!

Sleeping
Lily still sleeps like a champ.  She is usually asleep by 9 at night (we lay down at 8 but she takes a while to fall asleep) and wakes up somewhere around 7:30 in the morning.  Naps are still happening although they vary in length.  She will generally sleep at least an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less.

The other night, Miss Lily was awake until 11:00!  She just wouldn't go to sleep.

Mommy the next morning, being sad with not enough sleep and hoping for the joys that coffee can bring!

Eating
Eating is an enjoyable time for Miss Lily!  She is no longer on any bottles and eats so many foods now.  She usually will eat whatever we are eating.  Still up for trying just about anything, she will take it out of her mouth if she doesn't like it.  You just have to have quite a bit of time when she eats - she is SLOW and enjoys the meal.  She truly is in it for the whole experience.  Once you think she's finished and try to take her plate or get her up, she decides to eat some more.

This girl loves her some chips!  Good thing she's a Texan now.

A sip of a strawberry limeade

Attachment
Lily knows who "her" people are.  Loves to be with the two of us, her grandmother and her great uncle!  She's sad when one of us leaves but it doesn't last long.  I had my first time away from her just recently.  I got my hair done and she and her Daddy did some errands. All was good! Lily was fine with her Daddy.  I even survived too!

She notices when her Daddy is gone to work and we just say "Daddy is bye bye".  But oh, is she happy when he comes home!  She's the most content with the three of us all together and I have to say that I am too.

Loving her Daddy

Love this little girl so much!

Playing
Lily has playing down - from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to sleep, she is nonstop playing.  Some of her favorites now are:  her doll, her Honey Hugs Build a Bear, her zoo animals which she likes to put in a purse and carry around, her Ipad, coloring, legos, blocks, and looking at books.  She's enjoying music now too and likes to "sing" along.  Being two, she does not do one activity for very long but certainly stays busy changing from activity to activity.  She gets a little down time in the morning and afternoon when we walk the "puppy dogs" as she rides in her wagon.  Always with some water to drink and a snack, she's pretty happy on our walks.

Just relaxing in my wagon

Communicating

Communicating with a bluetooth???

Lily definitely understands A LOT of what we say.  She continues to babble and repeat many things after us.  She "talks" mostly at home and very little (more like none) when somewhere new or around new people.  I took her to work one day to see the kids and teachers.  We were up at school for a little over two hours and she said not one word.  Nothing!  But when we got home for lunch, this is what she had to say:

So for my friends at work who asked if she talked, this is what we hear at home!

We can't wait to see what the next month brings.  We have truly been amazed at Lily's change already and it's only been two months.  It's truly a blessing to be able to experience this with her every step of the way!

Practice and More Practice

Being a teacher, I'm a firm believer in practice, practice, practice.

So why should it be any different with Easter Egg hunts?  Hunting Easter eggs, afterall, will be her first competition.  What?  You don't think it's a competition and it's just for fun?  Hmmm...

We practiced at home one day just for some fun.

What's inside here?

What else is in this bunny?

What's my toy doing in the flowerbed?

Practicing alone at home is one thing, but recently we competed (I'm only kidding here with the word competed...kind of!)  at a friend's house with her adorable grandsons.  Lily had such a fun time!  After the hunt was over, she wanted to eat the candy out of the other baskets instead of hers.  Guess she thought if she ate their candy, she could have hers later.  Smart cookie!

Mommy, I know what to do - remember, we practiced at home?!?!

Such a cutie.

I think we are ready for Sunday!

Why, Oh Why?

Bringing Lily home has brought many questions to mind.  Exactly how do toddlers go from happy  to upset in less than 1 second?  I have to admit that Lily is happy 99.5% of the time but that other part, geez!

 Please advise should you have the perfect answer to any of these!

Just doing a little work for the day - happy, happy.

WHY DO TODDLERS:

want you to hold them nonstop when at home but throw a fit to hold your hand in a parking lot?

get so sleepy yawning and rubbing their eyes, but when you put them to bed, they have enough energy to run a marathon?

are happy as a clam playing with toys until you decide to make a quick phone call?

won't finish eating dinner but wants the food once you go to give it to the puppies?

want the spoon to eat but continues to throw the spoon onto the floor?
Here's an example of that situation:

Having breakfast, life is good:  happy!

After throwing the spoon on the floor again, Mommy and Daddy didn't jump right up to get it.   To top it off, while nobody picked it up, Gracie the lab came over to lick off all remaining food.
Life is not good: very sad and upset.

And before you all are thinking we are horrible, mean parents and turn us in, here is the situation just a few seconds later.

Life is good again with Daddy:  happy, happy.

WHY DO TODDLERS:

want you to hold them and then once you do, they wiggle down only to want up again?

want you to take the clothes off of a doll or stuffed animal and then two seconds later, want you to put the exact same clothes back on?

want your help most of the time, but then emphatically shake their head no and wave their hand at you when you go to help them with something they can't do independently yet?

are  fine in the car until you go to get them out once you get home and then won't walk on their own so that you can get the stuffed animal, the cup, the snacks, the hair bow that was thrown off,  the jackets, the grocery bag, and my purse?

Life is never dull around here and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

St. Patrick's Day

Our wish for you today:

We are the lucky ones to have Lily in our lives now.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you from the three of us!

Bathtime

Thinking back to our time in China, there are some things I miss:  the daily cleaning of our hotel room and bathrooms, a driver who will take you wherever you need to go, and the breakfast buffets - oh, how I wish I had a pork dumpling right now to go with my coffee!

Of course, there are many things I don't miss and among those is how Lily was with baths.  We tried a bath in the hotel our first evening and she wasn't having any of that!  I mean, full out screaming, face turning red, shaking, etc.  Yup, that was our first parent fail. (Notice I said first, because I know there are others.) After talking with our guide, she believed the orphanage just did sponge baths.  So, that's what we did while in China and Lily really wasn't much for those either but did tolerate them.

Using the step stool for some entertainment while I got the bath ready

Once we got home, I took a bath with her for a bit and then she was off to the races!  This little girl loves bath time and gets so excited to put her clothes in the dirty clothes basket and get in that bathtub!  I've been told by my husband that I sometimes cut bath time short and that kids should be all "pruned" up by the time they get out.  Guess I'll work on that. :)

Turning into a ham!

Do you see what I did - turned the step stool upside down and sat in it!

This is just so fun!

The other night while we were bathing, we had a visitor - Gracie, our chocolate lab.  Gracie likes to watch over us and she needed to come check out all the fun we were having.

Gracie is wondering why she doesn't get to play with the toys when she gets a bath.

Some kisses for Gracie - thank you for checking on us!

Relish

I saw this quote the other day and fell in love:

So as busy as it is with a toddler at home, I'm trying to relish these days.  That's my new goal:  to relish as much as I can each day and to let the other things that aren't so important go!  She continues to change so much and so fast, that I want to remember every single moment.

One of the most recent things I relish is watching Lily rock her "Dolly" while watching on her Ipad an animated song of Rock A Bye Baby.  It's just the sweetest thing ever and I am the lucky one as I get to watch her do this at least 10-20 times a day.

Is that not the sweetest ever?? She'll be a good Mama one day.

We spend lots of time outside:

Deep in thought...

Trying to learn to stay still for pictures.

One day, I'll learn how to smile my pretty smile for the camera.

Yup, just hanging out in my chair with my sippy cup watching my Mama and the Puppy Dogs.

Learning how to step down and come outside without help:

Hhmmm....I want to get down off this step but how?

I better hold on to the wall.

Now that I'm holding on, I can step down!

We bought Lily her first tricycle a few days ago.  The pedals are just a tad too far away to reach so we are going to modify them a bit (thank you for the tip about duck tape and school chalkboard erasers!!).  She still enjoyed scooting around on it one afternoon.  Thanks to friends and people in our neighborhood, we've learned the fun of "driveway playing"!  We pull our cars out sideways across our driveway and then we have a lot of room for fun:  bike riding, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles. Great times!

We continue to go to all the great parks where we live.  Our typical day includes a park visit at least once, usually in the morning.  This day, Lily decided she needed to practice carrying bags and purses around.  Watch out Daddy, she's perfecting her ability to carry bags so she can go shopping!

Mastering the one bag

Working on getting both bags up there on that shoulder

Got it!  I'm off!

And time indoors too:

Reading a book and watching my Ipad.  Life is good!

"Counting and sorting" time while Mommy gets breakfast ready.  Yes, my mommy is a teacher, how did you know?  I really think she's about ready for school, don't you?  Reading, Ipading, playing with colored counters...

So, I'm off  to finish my cup of coffee, let the little one sleep in a bit and then relish my day!