ABCs

Two little stories to talk about today. One, Lilah LOVES to sing. She sings all the time, with most all songs eventually becoming twinkle, twinkle, little star. In the past few days her favorite has been the ABC song. She really makes up her own letters, but she's pretty good with the tune. My favorite series of letters is "ello, ello, pee." I tried to get it on video but it is hard to hear and she wasn't singing very loudly.




We have also been trying to get Lilah to say "I love you," which she never says. Whenever we say it to hear, she gives us kisses back or makes a kissing sound in our direction. I have changed my approach to one word at a time, and it is pretty cute. She says the words with a nice long pause between. Last night though, I was putting Lilah to bed and I wanted her to say goodnight to Jonas. She was refusing him kisses, but when I said, say I love you, Daddy, she said, "I love you, Daddy." It was so sweet! And no pauses, just a quick, "I love you, Daddy!" What a sweet baby girl!

Marshmellows

We have made it back home and pretty much settled in from our nearly three week visit to NC and GA. Boy was it hot! Poor Lilah didn't adapt very well to the heat - her sensitive skin reacted pretty badly. She has recovered since but it was so dry and itchy! She fought the sun for the entire time. There weren't many times we were outside without her hands over her eyes. It was pretty funny.

She did pretty well on our flights, but it was overall a very tiring few days of travel. We had a blast with her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and lots of cousin playtime. When we got home on Tuesday, she spent the first hour home playing with every single toy in the den. And there are a lot of toys in the den. She has gotten to spend a lot of time with Daddy since I have worked three of the last five days since we've been back. Jonas says she has grown up a lot in the last three weeks, and that she isn't a baby anymore. I agree. She's really gotten crazy independent in the last few weeks, with the tantrums to accompany her determination. Yikes!

On our way home from town, we pass fields along the way and I use them to help keep Lilah awake pre-nap. One is full of cows, so we look for the cows first, then there are two that have a couple of horses, so those are the ones we look for next. Between them is a field of hay that was just collected a week or so ago, but instead of having open bails, they cover them in white plastic and they look just like huge marshmellows. I told Lilah the other day to look out at all the marshmellows. It was almost in passing and I didn't even realize she was paying that much attention, but then just the other day when we were passing them again, she pointed out and said, Marshmellow!! I was pretty impressed, but it teaches me I need to watch what I say too.

They really look like marshmellows!

Memorial Day weekend

Every Memorial Day weekend there is a race here in Bellingham called Ski to Sea. It's a relay race with about seven legs involving eight team members starting with a cross country ski at Mount Baker and ending in Bellingham Bay with a 5 mile sea kayak leg. Jonas participated this year with some else's work team - his job was the final sea kayak leg. As his loving support system, Lilah and I headed down to the water's edge (despite the rain and cold) to cheer him on. We had a brief period of sun earlier in the day so I took a picture for Jonas pre-race for motivation. He did well during his part of the race... I'll see if I can find a picture of Jonas.


Lilah LOVES her new sunglasses. There were a gift from our dear friend Bernie and now requests to wear them all the time. Quite the princess really. Anytime we go anywhere it is light out, even if it's just leaving her room post-nap, she says, "Bright! Bright!" and covers her eyes. Then she says, "glass? glass?" So funny.

Baby Loves Bacon

I don't even want to look at the last date I posted something. The longer time has passed, the more discouraged I get about posting again, because there really is a lot to cover and I don't know where to begin. Let's see if I can just do the now stuff.

We went out to breakfast this morning. It was a late morning for all of us - Lilah's not been waking up until about nine the last ten days or so (and not till ten both days last weekend!). She had already had nearly a full thing of milk while Jonas and I were getting ready, so I didn't feed her before we left. We were only going 15 minutes down the road, and we were going to eat anyway. So, as we were driving down the road, Lilah is playing and talking, and then she goes, "snack? snack? please? cookie?" It was pretty cute. She ate a great breakfast out though - it was the first time we have ordered her a meal for breakfast instead of just bringing something or sharing our own. Lilah loves bacon.

She is talking more and more. The list from the last time has easily doubled. She loves to tell the cats and her friend Nick, NO NO! All day I hear, NO NO BESS! She is still pretty darn good and listens fairly well. She is on a do-it-herself kick for a lot of things. We were working on a puzzle book today and every time I even lifted my hand to help her with a piece she would tell me NO NO. She really doesn't say it that often, but it sure does sound like it by what I've written.

Lilah has no idea that she is going to be a big sister in a few months, although we have told her many times. When I ask her where the baby is, she'll point to my tummy, and then point to her own. It's pretty sweet. She is still crazy for babies though. We have seen a few in the last few weeks when visiting friends that have newborns. She is very loving and kissy with them, even when I am holding them. Although that's when she really likes to snuggle with me. It concerns her a great deal when they cry, she doesn't know what going on. In the last few days she has started to mimic the crying or fussing when she hears it. Maybe it helps her cope? Pretty funny girl.

We have done a ton of work outside in the last few weeks, trying to make our yard more presentable. It is a landscaping disaster, as NOTHING was done prior to us moving in. The land is terribly rocky and totally not leveled out. There are major bumps and valleys all over. It makes it very hard for Jonas to mow. We have bought several more trees for our open field of a yard in the last few weeks, and have made a nice little flower bed in front of the front porch and along the garage sidewalk. It is really looking great. The trees are planted and looking great too. Lilah LOVES working with Jonas outside. She loves to dig in the dirt, pick flowers, and follow Jonas everywhere. She helps water the plants and carry the pots. She is a very helpful child. She's not a fan of bees, and flipped out when one was checking her out the other day. I think it was her first encounter with an actual bee. I think she says bee to mean bug, but she calls everything that could possibly be a bug a bee. Dirt on the ground, slugs, fuzz in the bathtub, you name it. And she won't come near it. Kinda nice really, which is why I can't understand why she handed me a squished and dead spider the other day. I nearly vomited.

Blabber mouth

I was really hoping my last post was at least a February one so I wouldn't feel so guilty, but in fact it wasn't, and now it's halfway through March. Geez. So, to keep up, I have Lilah's calendar in front of me to do the update. So much has happened - she is one busy girl!
Lilah's vocabulary has exploded over the last several weeks. We have started a running list of new words. New words she says on her own, and not just in repeating, because she'll repeat just about anything. I'll see what I can do from memory, as the list is downstairs.

banana
book
thank you
please
milk
juice
water
fish
breakfast
mouth
nose
hair
hat
eye
hello
bye bye
go
night-night
let's go
cookie
baby
up
down
snow
toes
shoes
push
excuse me
whoa
uh-oh
yes
no
bath
wash

That is most of them at least. Now not all of them are understandable, especially out of context, but she's at least trying them on for size. So cute, until she gets mad at me for not understanding.
We made another trip home at the end of February for two weeks. It was great to see everyone again and to spend some non-holiday time just hanging out and visiting. Lilah LOVED seeing her Nana and Papa, and even got a special visit from Mimi and Papa during the last week. She is so lucky to have such awesome and loving grandparents that she loves so much. She loves looking at their pictures, which we do on a regular basis, and now points to them and calls their names. Really cute. And at night she gives them kisses before bed.
Just today she was able to use a spoon for the first time without spilling the food off of it. She uses a spoon a lot and brings it to her mouth but she always tips it and pours whatever right off. Today, she adjusted her hand as it was in motion to her mouth and didn't let the applesauce spill! I was so proud. What a big girl she's becoming!
One of my favorite things we discovered while we were at mom and dad's was Lilah shouting "Hello!" every time the phone rang. It was particularly funny because we don't own a house phone, and my cell phone doesn't have a normal ring, but she's figured it out. Every time it rang, she would drop what she was doing and run over to the phone, "hello! hello!"
Since we've been back she's been a crazy girl, eating constantly, loving being chased, and doing crazy dancing as often as she can. What fun and tiring days we have!

Silly dancing part one - she did this ALL day




Part II- Still dancing two days later

Big girl!

These are for you, Momma.

Friends

I am so incredibly tired tonight after a crazy busy day at work, so I am just going to try to run through the things in my head while I am thinking of them.
Lilah has changed so much in just the last two weeks. She has become so much fun and understands so much more than she used to. She has started to laugh a lot now, and even to a lot of things she does herself. She has just started to make funny faces too, which is a little strange. I don't know where she picked it up, because we are never around older kids that make weird faces. She loves to pull her lower eyelids down and roll her eyes up into her head. So creepy, but she gets a kick out of it. Maybe it's because she's just discovered her eyes this week. She pokes and says, "eye!".
She also learned to say her best friends' names this week. She just says the first part of both, but Nick is "Ni" and Asher is "Ash". And it really sounds like Ash, not ass. Pretty smart.
She is still crazy about her books and we bought her a little bookshelf and chair of her own for the den. It's really cute to see her climb up in her chair with a good book.
She's been eating non-stop the last week. Maybe she's going through a spurt, but she eats a ton and is still sleeping pretty well. She has three molars in and the fourth is just breaking through. She loves giving kisses and hugs and even said, "love you" the other day after I told her I loved her!!! Isn't that so sweet? She is starting to repeat a lot of things you say, including pretty complicated words like pretzel and tickle.
Of course, as I say she's a good sleeper, I hear her crying right now down the hall. Gotta go - I hope we get some sleep tonight, because it's back to work again in the morning!