Welcome 2015! I am so excited to start another year with our beautiful Lillypad! We welcomed the New Year with a fun walk around the neighborhood with great friends. I still marvel at the fact that we can be outside in the middle of winter. We are so grateful for the friends we have here. All of the kids and the adult get along so well and really enjoy hanging out. It reminds me so much of growing up in Hamilton and how close my brother and sister and I were with the kids who lived near us and how all of our parents treated all of the kids like family. The old saying, "it takes a village to raise a child," makes so much sense.
January 1st marked a big day for us: we took the side off of Lilly's crib and let her sleep in a "big girl" bed for the first time! She has been doing AMAZINGLY well so far (today is the 4th). She has napped and slept great. She doesn't seem to realize completely that she can get out yet, so that might change soon, lol!
This morning Lilly came into the bathroom with me while I got ready. When I was getting dressed she pointed up at my breasts and said, "There's no milk in there." She hasn't nursed for about 6 months, so this was a little out of the blue! 10 minutes later while I was brushing my hair, she said, "Mommy, you look super beautiful." How cute is she????
I am not exactly sure why, but Lilly loves playing with her Twister board as though it were a blanket. She covers herself with it and reads or plays with her Leapster. Her favorite game with the Twister board is to cover ourselves up with it on the couch in the play room and hide from "Daddy monster". Then we run out of the room and hide again before returning to the Twister board. This goes on for a while ;-)
January 7 - Kari and I took the girls to Story Time at the library. We sat back and watched the girls sing, listen to stories and do the motions along with the librarian. It was great for me to get a glimpse of what Lilly is like at school. We haven't been to story time in a while and I was impressed how much more attentive she was and how she seemed much more interested. She used to spend a lot of the time exploring books or asking for snacks!
I am not exactly sure why, but Lilly loves playing with her Twister board as though it were a blanket. She covers herself with it and reads or plays with her Leapster. Her favorite game with the Twister board is to cover ourselves up with it on the couch in the play room and hide from "Daddy monster". Then we run out of the room and hide again before returning to the Twister board. This goes on for a while ;-)
January 7 - Kari and I took the girls to Story Time at the library. We sat back and watched the girls sing, listen to stories and do the motions along with the librarian. It was great for me to get a glimpse of what Lilly is like at school. We haven't been to story time in a while and I was impressed how much more attentive she was and how she seemed much more interested. She used to spend a lot of the time exploring books or asking for snacks!
I literally almost fell out of my chair this morning. I was sitting at my desk and Lilly came into the room and sat on my lap. I was looking at some music that the choir director had left for me and there was a post it note on the desk that had my name on it. Lilly grabbed a pen and started drawing on the post it note, then she said, "This says Toni Segool." Now, I am not in complete la la land and thinking that my two year old can actually read, BUT she can recognize certain words already, which amazes me. She has been able to read her name for a long time now, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she is starting to recognize other words that are common in her life. She has also started to try to write her name. It looks mostly like a bunch of lines, but when you think about it, that's kind of what her name looks like!
January 8 - Today was Lilly's first haircut! I took her to Wellspring Salon in Fuquay, which is where I go. I really love working with the owner, Diana, and trusted her to give Lilly her first haircut. She cut several inches off of her hair and evened everything out. Lilly was absolutely perfect the whole time! She held as still as she possibly could and only looked away when Diana or I spoke, which caught her attention. I kept her first little curl and have it in her baby book. I am not exactly sure what one does with these types of things, but I have it nonetheless. :-)
January 9 - Lilly was playing with Maggie this morning, which Darren and I had just been talking about. Sometimes Lilly seems more annoyed with Maggie than anything else, but this morning she wanted nothing to do with us, and only wanted Maggie. She would run into our room and call for Maggie to come with her. Then they's run into Lilly's playroom. I had to coax Maggie to go with her a couple of times so I followed her into the playroom. Lilly was saying, "Come on, Maggie! Come on!" the whole time. Then when we got into the playroom she said, "This is my playroom. Isn't it so nice?" How cute is she? I just love how much she talks!
I
January 10 - We went to Jared and Carissa's for Addie and Drew's birthday party. Lilly had so much fun playing with all of the kids upstairs. Their nephew, Gareth, is right around Lilly's age, so the two of them had a lot of fun playing together. At one point they bonked heads, but they both bounced back and continued to play. Lilly likes playing with the "big kids" as well and they are so good with her. When it was time for cake and ice cream, Lilly moved over in her seat and asked Gareth to sit with her. So cute!
January 12 - I have an amazing video of Lilly that is 3 minutes long so this blog won't support it :-( I'll try to summarize it, though I know it won't be as amazing...
Lilly has started to "read" books to herself. She sits and actually narrates the books as she turns the pages and sometimes has memorized a sentence word for word :-) She also recognizes some words, like the word "Pop!" in our Pete the Cat book. This particular day she was pretending she was the teacher at story time and was telling me the rules, including sitting down, hands in your lap, listening, no talking...etc. It was so cute! She even reads with expression. I so wish I could post the video! It was absolutely amazing to watch her start to emerge as a pre-reader and to see how much she loves books.
January 13 - Lilly and I went to my teammate Shanequia's house for brunch and to hang out. Lilly had so much fun playing with Amber's daughter, Gracen, and Shanequia's daughter, Maranda. Kim's sons were not quite as interested, but they did join in a few times. While we were gone Darren painted Lilly's room :-)
January 14 - Lilly has really started to do much better at playing independently. She has developed a wonderful imagination and enjoys making up games and situation with her toys.
January 15 - Today marked our first official day of potty training! We had tried a few days prior, but Lilly literally screamed and threw a fit when we asked her to sit on the potty, so we knew she was not ready and it was not worth the fight. This morning, Lilly asked to sit on the potty and then asked me for a book. So we sat and read books on the potty for about 45 minutes while I tried to get her to drink a lot of water. Then when she was done reading books I asked her if she wanted to wear her new special Frozen underwear and use the potty today? She said yes! There were several accidents that morning, but by the afternoon, she was going on the potty and only had one more accident! The next day she had two accidents and that was it. Then the third day (and beyond) she had no accidents! I am SO proud of Lilly for adjusting to this so well! I am also so glad that we waited until Lilly was ready.
January 16 - Addie and Zoey came over today and the girls enjoyed some outside time on Lilly's new playset. One of their favorite things to do is to sit on the see-saw and sing a silly song that my mom used to sing to me. They all sing it now! I am so glad we found this playset for Lilly. She loves being outside, even in the winter, and I know it will get a lot more use in the summer as well!
January 20 - We took a trip to Cary today to see if we could find any interesting decor for the house. We of course also had to stop at Trader Joe's to get some of our staple grocery items that we always get there. Lilly eats a vanilla greek yogurt for breakfast daily and her favorite (and my favorite to give her) is Trader Joe's. Wouldn't you know it: they were completely out of stock! Go figure. regardless, Lilly had a blast pushing the mini grocery cart around and "helping" Mommy and Daddy shop. I am glad it wasn't busy because that could have been difficult to navigate!
January 21 - Lilly loves to play dress up! She wears a tutu almost daily, and is rarely without a dress up dress on when we are home. Today she actually wanted to wear this dress when we went to the store. Who am I to say no to something so simple and adorable? So we went to Aldi :-) She left the necklaces and headband at home and we had to change her shoes, but she loved wearing the dress! A man actually stopped us on our way out to tell Lilly how much he liked her dress. So cute!
Darren and I were determined to get the house painted and more decorated over track out, but painting is nearly impossible with a 2 year old around. So Lilly went to preschool while we stayed home and painted like crazy! We got a few more things done as well so now the house is finally feeling like a home :-)
I covered all of Lilly's outlet covers and light switches with scrapbook paper and mod podge to decorate them for her room. I was really proud of this DIY project.
Darren and I painted a new dresser for Lilly. We had all dark furniture before and thought white would look better with her new purple room.
I made these canvas pieces for Lilly's room with paint, scrapbook paper and mod podge. It was a lot of fun to make these and I think they turned out well!
Lilly is sleeping in her real big girl bed now! She absolutely LOVES it!
We also created a wall collage up our stairs. We painted some of the frames to match the living room decor colors :-)
It was definitely an amazing, long and eventful track out!
January 8 - Today was Lilly's first haircut! I took her to Wellspring Salon in Fuquay, which is where I go. I really love working with the owner, Diana, and trusted her to give Lilly her first haircut. She cut several inches off of her hair and evened everything out. Lilly was absolutely perfect the whole time! She held as still as she possibly could and only looked away when Diana or I spoke, which caught her attention. I kept her first little curl and have it in her baby book. I am not exactly sure what one does with these types of things, but I have it nonetheless. :-)
I was trying to get a picture of Lilly's final haircut and this is what I got instead. Haha! That little girl just can't sit still! She was much more interested in showing me her Mr. Potato head friends creations.
I
I love sitting back and watching Darren play with Lilly. The two of them obviously have a very special bond, and though she is currently a Mama's girl, she has her moments where she wants nothing more than to be with her Daddy. The squeals of delight are the best sound int he entire world :-)
January 10 - We went to Jared and Carissa's for Addie and Drew's birthday party. Lilly had so much fun playing with all of the kids upstairs. Their nephew, Gareth, is right around Lilly's age, so the two of them had a lot of fun playing together. At one point they bonked heads, but they both bounced back and continued to play. Lilly likes playing with the "big kids" as well and they are so good with her. When it was time for cake and ice cream, Lilly moved over in her seat and asked Gareth to sit with her. So cute!
January 12 - I have an amazing video of Lilly that is 3 minutes long so this blog won't support it :-( I'll try to summarize it, though I know it won't be as amazing...
Lilly has started to "read" books to herself. She sits and actually narrates the books as she turns the pages and sometimes has memorized a sentence word for word :-) She also recognizes some words, like the word "Pop!" in our Pete the Cat book. This particular day she was pretending she was the teacher at story time and was telling me the rules, including sitting down, hands in your lap, listening, no talking...etc. It was so cute! She even reads with expression. I so wish I could post the video! It was absolutely amazing to watch her start to emerge as a pre-reader and to see how much she loves books.
January 13 - Lilly and I went to my teammate Shanequia's house for brunch and to hang out. Lilly had so much fun playing with Amber's daughter, Gracen, and Shanequia's daughter, Maranda. Kim's sons were not quite as interested, but they did join in a few times. While we were gone Darren painted Lilly's room :-)
January 14 - Lilly has really started to do much better at playing independently. She has developed a wonderful imagination and enjoys making up games and situation with her toys.
January 15 - Today marked our first official day of potty training! We had tried a few days prior, but Lilly literally screamed and threw a fit when we asked her to sit on the potty, so we knew she was not ready and it was not worth the fight. This morning, Lilly asked to sit on the potty and then asked me for a book. So we sat and read books on the potty for about 45 minutes while I tried to get her to drink a lot of water. Then when she was done reading books I asked her if she wanted to wear her new special Frozen underwear and use the potty today? She said yes! There were several accidents that morning, but by the afternoon, she was going on the potty and only had one more accident! The next day she had two accidents and that was it. Then the third day (and beyond) she had no accidents! I am SO proud of Lilly for adjusting to this so well! I am also so glad that we waited until Lilly was ready.
January 16 - Addie and Zoey came over today and the girls enjoyed some outside time on Lilly's new playset. One of their favorite things to do is to sit on the see-saw and sing a silly song that my mom used to sing to me. They all sing it now! I am so glad we found this playset for Lilly. She loves being outside, even in the winter, and I know it will get a lot more use in the summer as well!
January 20 - We took a trip to Cary today to see if we could find any interesting decor for the house. We of course also had to stop at Trader Joe's to get some of our staple grocery items that we always get there. Lilly eats a vanilla greek yogurt for breakfast daily and her favorite (and my favorite to give her) is Trader Joe's. Wouldn't you know it: they were completely out of stock! Go figure. regardless, Lilly had a blast pushing the mini grocery cart around and "helping" Mommy and Daddy shop. I am glad it wasn't busy because that could have been difficult to navigate!
January 21 - Lilly loves to play dress up! She wears a tutu almost daily, and is rarely without a dress up dress on when we are home. Today she actually wanted to wear this dress when we went to the store. Who am I to say no to something so simple and adorable? So we went to Aldi :-) She left the necklaces and headband at home and we had to change her shoes, but she loved wearing the dress! A man actually stopped us on our way out to tell Lilly how much he liked her dress. So cute!
Darren and I were determined to get the house painted and more decorated over track out, but painting is nearly impossible with a 2 year old around. So Lilly went to preschool while we stayed home and painted like crazy! We got a few more things done as well so now the house is finally feeling like a home :-)
This is the entrance way of the house.
The living room
Breakfast nook
I covered all of Lilly's outlet covers and light switches with scrapbook paper and mod podge to decorate them for her room. I was really proud of this DIY project.
Darren and I painted a new dresser for Lilly. We had all dark furniture before and thought white would look better with her new purple room.
I made these canvas pieces for Lilly's room with paint, scrapbook paper and mod podge. It was a lot of fun to make these and I think they turned out well!
Lilly is sleeping in her real big girl bed now! She absolutely LOVES it!
We also created a wall collage up our stairs. We painted some of the frames to match the living room decor colors :-)
It was definitely an amazing, long and eventful track out!
