Lilly rambles

Here is Lilly rambling on while sitting in her doll's stroller. Right before we got the camera out, she sat in the stroller and said "I too big for stroller. We need get a new one." Towards the end of the clip she says mommy and daddy's names, her full name and her birthdate.

Elf in training

Christmas Photos

I dragged Lilly to the portrait studio in her fancy dress as she likes to call it,(thanks Auntie Carol & Uncle Don!) to get her Christmas picture taken. We requested the same photographer as always and when we walked in, Lilly said, "I ready to take my picture!" I thought that was a good sign. I was wrong.

We went back to the studio and Lilly hopped up on the table while Miss Kristen got things set up. All was fine until we had the nerve to ask Lilly to stand and smile. That's when she LOST IT! She started crying for me to pick her up and would not let me put her on the table. When she got on the floor, she quickly ran into the hallway and when she saw me coming for her, Lilly threw herself on the floor and started kicking.

Miss Kristen tried to coax her back inside with a Santa book - it worked as long a I was holding her. As soon as I tried placing her on the table, the crying would start. After 30 minutes of this, Miss Kristen had to call an end to the session. Once Lilly heard that we were done, THEN she was willing to stand on the table. So all the shots we got were after the crying and fits on the floor.








These pictures were taken at home prior to going to the portrait studio and she is actually smiling!

Hint of Spring

We had crazy weather a couple of weeks ago - close to 80 degrees so we spent time outside.

Lilly playing with the leaves on the deck:



Lilly "helping" to fill the bird feeders:

Just a hint of Santa

There are more Santa pics and stories to tell but I think this picture of Lilly with Santa sums up how she feels about him in person:

Our Older Children

I know everyone wants more photos of Lilly up but I just haven't had the time or energy to work on those posts. So here are a couple of pictures of our older children: Elsie Mae Confetti, Cleo Marie Sassafrass and Streak Moonshine.

Reading

Lilly has always enjoyed books but lately she has become more of an independent reader. Her favorite reading spot used to be on your lap but now we spend a lot of time reading to her while she is standing near us or sitting beside us.

At bedtime, Joe used to be the one to read to her. He would sit in chair in her room and Lilly would be in his lap and they would read at least three books before bed. Lately she will not let Joe read to her at night - she must be in my lap. If Joe does read to her, she is usually sitting on my lap and Joe has to conduct the bedtime reading as the bookstores handle story time: the reader sitting away from the children and holds the book up so everyone can see the pictures.

The other night Lilly and I were on our own for bedtime and when it came time for books, Lilly picked one off of her self and went into her "closet" and said she wanted to read. Her closet is this space between her crib and the wall that she can fit into. She likes to go in there and pretend to sleep as well. She would not sit still for reading on my lap that night.

Yesterday she said she wanted to go get a book. So she headed down the hall into her room. When she didn't return, I called to her and asked her what she was doing. She said she was looking for a book. A few minutes later I wandered back to her room and this is what I saw:
I asked again what she was doing and she said "I reading Goodnight Moon myself." And she did have Goodnight Moon in her lap and was "reading" the appropriate words for the pages she was looking at.