New Pictures

Jewelry

Lillian has discovered jewelry - my jewelry - and this was her outfit for most of Saturday and Sunday. She has on a necklace and three bracelets. She wants to sleep with them but we make her take them off. As soon as she is up, she finds them and wears them. She even went out to dinner with all her bling on last night. We took a walk this morning and again she had to wear them. If we did not think she was expensive enough, now that she likes jewelry we better watch out!

Notice the ECU Pirate shirt: they are 3-0 this season!! Go Pirates!!

Fun Run

On Sunday, Joe participated in the Friesen 5K Fun Run with the Carolina Hurricanes. Members of the Hurricanes ran - about 36 players, coaches, trainers ran and of course Stormy.



This time Lillian was actually stalking Stormy and went right up to him!


Lillian doing her best to win the race.

Sounds Yummy!

I found Lillian in her bed this morning with some of her critters ordering pizza for lunch:

Lillian's First Concert

was The Wiggles over the weekend.

We had FRONT ROW seats for one of the shows in Greensboro. We spent the night in a hotel so that was also Lillian's first time in a hotel (she loved the hotel.) We let her jump on the beds, she loves opening the mini refrigerator and microwave, closing the door that separated the bedroom from the living room, the free popcorn in the lobby, the pool and the whirlpool tub. When we were trying to leave, she crawled into the bed, covered herself up in the comforter and said, "I don't want to go home. I want to stay here."

Lillian was not so sure what we were doing. We told her that we were going to see The Wiggles in concert but we don't think she understood. She got a little impatient waiting for the show to start. The show started with some of the dancers dressed up like clowns (no red wigs or noses thankfully) and doing some acrobatic moves. Lillian got a little upset with that - I can see how that would be a little scary to a 2.5 year-old. Then The Wiggles came out in the big red car. It took her a few moments to realize what was going on. She seemed to be more fascinated with the spot lights in the back of the arena.

She sat on our laps for most of the concert. She did not want to get down and dance around with the other kids. Of course we brought roses for Dorothy the Dinosaur and made a dog bone for Wags (August is his birthday). Every time Dorothy appeared on stage, Lillian would hold up the roses. Some of the dancers were sent out into the crowd to collect the flowers and gifts from the audience. The dancers headed for the back and Anthony (my favorite Wiggle) called to them and said that there were lots of flowers in the front. Lillian was sitting on my lap holding her roses up in the air and Anthony and Dorothy were right in front of us. Anthony then leaned over and asked us what Lillian's' name was. We said Lillian and Dorothy said that was a beautiful name. He then asked Lillian to come to the stage and give her roses to Dorothy. So I picked her up and we handed the roses to Dorothy. Joe was in awe so he did not get a picture but a woman came up to us after the show and said she had gotten a picture and she emailed it to us! Lillian was the only child to get called to the stage!

When we ask Lillian if she had a good time, she says no but she constantly wants us to tell her about the concert! Here is some video of Lillian and Joe at the concert:





You can see the pictures here.



Here she is dancing to the Wiggles last summer:

What Lillian has been up to

• Lillian has made some new friends and has even gone up to some older kids at the playground and asks them their name. The other day she joined a group of bigger girls playing some sort of ice cream game.
• She spent her very first playdate at someone else's house (thanks Miss Kelly and Lily) without mommy. After 10 minutes of ignoring her friend and friend's mommy, she played and was fine!
  
• Lillian loves to sing and will make up her own songs. She will even sing her conversations with you.
• Still only using diapers (actually now the horrible Pull Ups) at bedtime only. Most days she stays dry at nap - it all depends on how much she had to drink at lunch.
• Lillian is very interested in driving. When I shift gears, she asks me if I am shifting the gears. The other day she asked me what my feet were doing while I was driving. She HAS to have the doors locked when we get in the car. Joe and worry that she will be one of those kids that takes the car out for a joyride when she is 12. We will have to hide the keys.
  
• Lillian and I have started walking a couple times a week again now that it is cooler. She has actually sat in her stroller twice this week. We walked around one the lakes and today we walked around the museum art trail. We actually hold little conversations about what we see, tell stories and sing songs. An hour seems to be her limit in the stroller as long as she has a variety of snacks in front of her. Here are some pictures of the sculptures we saw on our walk today (Lillian's favorite is the woman lying in the grass):
• Lillian has started to get into everything lately! She has taken to getting her step stool and trying to climb in the refrigerator and the fireplace hearth. I have caught her sitting on the kitchen table and climbing onto her toilet and going through her bathroom cabinet.
• Her soy milk now must rest on the top shelf because she will open the refrigerator, take out her soy milk and proceed to open it and drink straight from the carton. She also will get an apple or plum out, take a few bites, put it back in the produce drawer and pick another fruit and do the same.
• She pretends to make birthday cakes out of her building blocks.
• EVERYONE says she is so tall.
• She told me yesterday that she was not going to grow. "I don't wa nt to grow more. I'm going to stay a little girl." I wish that was the case Miss PeaPie!
• Lillian now has a babysitter other than the grandma's! Miss Cindy even was able to put her bed! Lillian even woke up during the night and was calling for Miss Cindy. In the morning she told Joe, "I'm just looking for someone." Joe asked if she was looking for daddy or mommy and Lillian said, "No. I'm looking for Miss Cindy."
• The playset is getting a lot of use lately because the weather is not so hot. She will climb up and go down the slide again now (for awhile she would not go down the slide by herself.)

I'm sorry!

For a long time we have been making Lillian say she is sorry after she hits/bites/throws things. Recently I have tried to add apologies when she has an outburst.

Yesterday we were in the car and she wanted to listen to Creque Alley by the Mamas and Pappas. That CD was in the house and then she left loose with a screaming and kicking fit in her car seat. I just asked her a few times what was wrong and told her to use her words to tell me. Of course she did not and I left it at that.

Later when we were on the potty before nap, she leaned over to me and said, "Mommy, I'm sorry for my outburst in the car. For the screaming and kicking." I asked her if she could tell me why she had an outburst and she said, "Because I wanted to listen to Creque Alley." I thanked her for the apology and told her next time to just talk about it rather than have an outburst.

I was stunned by this. No mention of the outburst had taken place and it was about 1.5 hours after the outburst that she apologized. She is getting so mature so fast!