My Own Little World....

Lily Goes to the Dentist

2012-01-31T23:51:00.000-06:00

Today was Lily's first visit to the dentist. I hate going to the dentist, so I wasn't too eager to take Lily (and I wasn't quite sure that I should be the parent to take her either for fear that my negativity would rub off on her). Anyway, I am pleased to report that Lily was a wonderful patient and checked out with no cavities! She had a lot of fun riding the "rocket chair" up to the bright light and playing with Mr. Thirsty (the little vacuum thing that sucks the spit out of your mouth). She let them count, clean, and floss her teeth before the dentist came in for the check-up. She didn't fight, squirm, squeal, kick, or anything like that; she was the perfect little patient. I'm just pleased that the whole thing seemed to be such a positive experience for her.

Mommy, How Do We Spell "Knees"?

2011-09-28T23:28:00.003-05:00

Lily has been interested in spelling lately. (She's so interested in spelling that she's forfeited her bath toys the last two nights and opted to play "How do you spell ....?" instead.) She's had basic phonics mastered for quite some time, and she's recently moved on to spelling. When she asks how to spell a word, I generally sound the word out for her, letter by letter, and help her out how to spell it. That strategy generally works well, but not always.... By now she understands that U is Q's best friend and that there are some words that have a silent letter, usually an E at the end. However, she managed to pick a few of the words Mommy had been dreading tonight: "eyes," "knees," and "light." While I can explain a lot of the idiosyncrasies of the English language, how does one explain the silent K or the -GHT combination to a 3-year-old?

The Tall and the Short of It....

2011-09-13T23:51:00.002-05:00

Lauren had a doctor's appointment last Friday. It was her 2 month appointment, and she checked out just fine. She clocked in at 11 lbs, 4 oz, which put her in the 60th percentile for weight, and at 24 1/4 inches, which put her in the 90th percentile for length/height.

Lily, measuring in at just under 37 inches, has never been anywhere near the 90th percentile for height; if I remember correctly, she's always been at the bottom of the chart for height. She's the shortest one in her class (by a couple of inches, I think), which also makes her the shortest kiddo in the whole school. I found out today that the preschool teacher had to bring in an extra step-stool just for Lily so she could reach the light switch in the bathroom. At this point, I'm just hoping that she doesn't get dwarfed by her sister too quickly....

Have You Seen Max??

2011-09-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

Our second kitty, Max, is a bit of a pain. He's actually pretty sweet, but he's hyperactive and generally a little bit nuts. Jimmy thinks he acts more like a dog than a cat, and I'm inclined to agree; he carries Lily's stuffies all over the house, drinks out of the toilets, and terrorizes our other cat. Lily now calls him "that darn cat" (thanks, in part to both my mom and Miss Patti) and will also tell you that "Max is a pain." The second day after we got Max, Lily started sleeping with her door 'locked' (pulled shut all the way so the door knob latches) so that Max couldn't get in her room at night. She also can frequently be heard yelling "No Max!", and she's even learned how to operate the squirt bottle when needed. However, despite all the frustration that Max is, Lily still tells me, "I love my Maxie!"

And the picture.... I 'lost' Max the other day; see where I found him!

Mediocre Family Picture

2011-08-21T23:07:00.000-05:00

Not the greatest picture in the world, but I think it's the first family picture we have now that there are four of us.... One was jet-lagged, one was about to start screaming, one was so excited to have Daddy back home, and I don't have an excuse. Anyway, it's us!!

Daddy at the Post Office

2011-08-21T12:11:00.001-05:00

Closure isn't officially the end for Marienthal post office, but ... | The Hutchinson News:

Off to School

2011-08-17T23:35:00.000-05:00

Lily started school today. She's in a 3-year-old preschool program, and she really seemed to enjoy her first day. She's been very excited about going to school, and she was a very happy and very excited little girl this morning. When we got to school she was a little scared, but she was a big girl and made it through the day with no tears. (And, just to let you know, Mommy made it through the day with no tears too.) When Lily returned from school, she was glad to fill me in with the details of the day....

These Boots Were Made for Walkin'

2011-08-05T21:37:00.000-05:00

(Alternate blog title: "Who has big boots?")

Anyway, Lily decided to try on Daddy's boots today, and I had to snap a picture. Isn't this cute!!

"I Love Her Tiny Hands!"

2011-08-02T23:24:00.000-05:00

Lily's been a wonderful big sister. She loves "our baby" and is very proud to tell everyone that she's the big sister. She's fascinated with how tiny Lauren and she often grabs her little fingers and exclaims, "I love her tiny hands!" Lily knows that her job is to listen for baby and tell Mommy when she hears baby crying. She's a good helper, and she loves her little sister.

The Moon

2011-07-17T23:04:00.000-05:00

Lily's been fascinated with the moon and the things of the sky for quite some time now. She talks a lot about the shape of the moon, and sometimes she talks about going to the moon. Last night as we were driving home, Lily told me of her plans for visiting the moon. She explained, "I'm going to put on my butterfly wings and fly to the moon and bring the moon back and put it on the kitchen table for Mama." While there are clearly some problems with her 3-year-old logic, isn't this sweet!!

My Beautiful Girls

2011-07-12T21:19:00.000-05:00

Vaccines

2011-07-10T22:58:00.000-05:00

Like a good mommy, I've made sure my little ones have had the recommended immunizations so as to protect them from disease. Like a good mommy, my mommy made sure I had the recommended immunizations so as to protect me from disease.... Therefore, I was a bit taken aback when the hospital gave me the results from some of my blood tests: they found that I was rubella non-immune and pertussis non-immune. So, despite being vaccinated according to the CDC guidelines when I was a child, I have apparently been at risk for German Measles and whooping cough for who knows how long now. They gave me new MMR and DTP vaccines, but that doesn't do much for restoring confidence in the system....

Going Home

2011-07-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

It's time to go home!! After 2 days in the hospital, I'm glad to be headed home. Lily has had a blast staying with Grammy and Grammy S. over the past few days and visiting Mommy in the hospital, but I think even she is ready to go home as well. While I generally don't let people take pictures of me in the hospital, I think I'm glad I made an exception this time....

It's a Girl!!

2011-07-07T23:45:00.000-05:00

Surprise, it's a girl!! (To anyone who know we were expecting, this is no surprise. To anyone who didn't know, surprise, it's a girl!!) Baby was due yesterday, scheduled for tomorrow, and arrived today. Lauren Ivy was born at 5:27 pm, weighing exactly 8 lbs and measuring 19 3/4 inches.

Here's a shortish version of a relatively short 'coming into this world' story: I felt a little off when I went to bed last night, but I really didn't think anything of it. (Hey, when you're pregnant, when don't you feel 'a little off.') When I woke up this morning, I felt weird. (I don't know how else to describe it; I just felt weird.) Lily forced me to eat some breakfast, and I spent the morning working on my to-do list for the day (some cleaning, packing for the hospital, getting the house in order, etc). Contractions started about mid-morning, but they weren't too bad and they were fairly infrequent. Jimmy came home from work just before noon, and we decided that we should probably pack the car and head toward the hospital. (The hospital is about an hour away.) When we got in the car, contractions were about 8 minutes apart. The doctor, taking into account travel time, had told us to head to the hospital when contractions were 5-7 minutes apart, so we thought we had plenty of time. We called Grammy S and made arrangements to drop Lily off at her house en route to the hospital. By the time we were fairly close to Grammy S's house, contractions were about 4 minutes apart, so we called Grammy S, changed the plans to have her meet us at the hospital to pick up Lily, and rerouted, taking the most direct route to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 1:30 and then spent about 30 minutes in the waiting room before being escorted to the last available labor and delivery room. From my perspective, nothing good happened during the next hour or so. Contractions continued, my nurse disappeared, and I filled out paperwork, some of which I had filled out and submitted weeks ago. At the end of that hour, they finally got my IV started, the nurse told me I was too far along in labor for an epidural or pain medication (which really made me mad since we'd essentially wasted the last hour plus in the waiting room and on paperwork), and she called in the doctor. When the doctor arrived, she disagreed with the nurse, called in the anesthesiologist (much to my relief), and said things were going along just fine. From that point on (or from the time the epidural took effect), things went just fine. I called my mom around 5pm, just before I went into hard labor, to let her know that baby was on her way. Half an hour later, baby arrived. (And half an hour after that I was still filling out the paperwork that gave the doctor permission to actually deliver the baby.)

Since Lily was induced, I wasn't quite prepared for the whole 'spontaneous labor' thing. However, I did learn a few things in the process.... Labors apparently get shorter with subsequent children. Next time, start toward the hospital at the first sign of contractions in order to allow sufficient time for paperwork and hospital snafus to be handled in an orderly (or not-so-orderly) fashion.

Potato Chips

2011-07-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

At approximately 6:18am, a half-asleep child wandered into my bedroom. She was mildly upset, and she was mumbling something I was unable to understand. After having her repeat herself several times, I finally managed to piece together her phrase: "I need potato chips!" (I confirmed that this was, in fact, what she was saying....) Although I did not attempt to deduce why she needed potato chips at 6:18am, I did offer to let her climb up in bed with me. That seemed to make everything okay...sans potato chips!!

"Garbage Plants"

2011-06-18T22:20:00.000-05:00

While I had hoped to put in a full garden this year, that didn't exactly happen. I did, however, plant a pair or cabbage plants and a few little planters of herbs. Lily helps me to take care of the plants, and she is very good about reminding me to water them. She likes the herbs, but she is especially fond of her "garbage plants." I've reminded her numerous times that they're called "cabbage," but she just can't quite seem to remember that yet....

House Renovations

2011-06-01T23:51:00.003-05:00

We've been doing some work on our house lately. (Well, we've been doing some work on our house for what seems like most of the past year, it's just been recently that we've been able to see a few projects through to completion -- or near completion!)

Our first major project was a re-doing of the garage. We put up a wall to add in an office and a library. Both rooms are nice sized, and it's wonderful to have a place for all of our books (which had been stored in about a dozen plastic totes since we moved) and a quiet place to work that is attached to the house, yet still separated enough from the house to be quiet and allow for some real work and productivity.

Given that the remaining portion of the garage wasn't quite large enough to still accommodate the cars, we decided to turn that into a usable living space as well. It's essentially a den/game room at this point, which is nice....

We also recently did a major overhaul on some of the floors in the house. When we bought the house, we knew that there were hardwoods underneath the carpets and we had the general intention of pulling up the carpets and refinishing the wood floors. A couple of weeks ago, we actually began to tackle that project. We pulled up the carpet in two of the bedrooms and the hallway, sanded, and refinished the floors. We're quite pleased with the results, and we're very happy to be one step closer to being an allergen-free house! Only one more bedroom, a living room, and a dining room to go....

Potty Training

2011-05-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

Well, at least somebody has a use for the potty!!

After months of having the pretty pink potty in the bathroom and prompting occasional attempts at using it, we've started diligently working on the whole potty training thing. (It's about time!!) However, Lily's not particularly interested, and our successes so far have been limited. At this point, Max seems more interested in the pretty pink potty than Lily does....

Lily's Big Girl Room

2011-05-24T23:37:00.000-05:00

We've been re-doing Lily's "big girl" room for quite some time now.... We converted part of the garage into an office and library, and we re-did the former office into a new room for Lily. We decided to go with the pink princess theme: we painted the lower half of the room pink and then put up a princess border around the center of the room, leaving the top part of the room a cream/off-white color. It created a nice balance in the room -- pink, but not too pink. Grammy got her a pink princess bedspread for her birthday, and that goes wonderfully with everything else in her room. Lily loves playing with all of the toys in her room, and bedtime battles have ended totally and completely since we moved her to her big bed in her big girl room. (Lily moved into her room about a month ago, and I think we've only had one ot two nights when she fought us on going to bed. Otherwise she just runs to her room when we tell her it's time for bed. I hope it stays this easy!!)

"Mommy, Look!"

2011-05-04T23:11:00.000-05:00

Lily pulled me into her room today, proud of what she had made. She told me what her picture was, but I had to ask her at least half a dozen times to figure out what she was saying. So, my question for you: what is this? "Mommy, look at my ______________!" Try filling in the blanks....

It's a Boy!!

2011-04-24T22:45:00.003-05:00

Allow me to take a moment to welcome the newest member of our family -- Max! Max is a 14-week-old "tabby-mese" (Tabby-Siamese mix) kitten that has adopted us. He showed up at church about two weeks ago, and he ended up coming home with us. He was underfed and crawling with fleas, but both of those things were easily fixed. When we took him to the vet for his first check-up and kitten shots, we also found out that he had ear-mites; he's on meds for those now. (And so is Tucker, since Max managed to share them with him....) Overall he's a pretty sweet kitten, though his behavior is more dog-like than cat-like. We're in the process of training him not to rummage through the trash cans, drink out of the toilet, or eat the plants. Lily's enjoying the new kitten, though she gets a little upset and frustrated when he misbehaves....

ASL Update

2011-04-19T23:26:00.000-05:00

The alphabet is mastered!! Lily still has trouble forming a few of the letters, but she can recognize all of them easily and quickly. When signing, she almost always asks for help with the M, and she uses her other hand to move her little pinkie into place for letters like I and Y. However, she can now do the ASL alphabet as she's singing the aplhabet song, and she's becoming interested in spelling words with her hands. At this point she's more interested in the letters and spelling than learning the signs for words themselves, but I'm hoping that will come soon.

I Need Drums!!

2011-03-18T21:16:00.004-05:00

Lily's been enjoying all of the toys at Grandpa Brad's house this week. Among the favorites is the drum set. Also, she's taken note of the guitar collection....

We went to the Tennessee State Capitol and the Tennessee State Museum today. We managed to navigate downtown Nashville without too much trouble, and we must have climbed dozens and dozens of flights of stairs today. When we went to the museum, and Lily noticed an old guitar that was on display there: "That's just like Grandpa Brad's guitar!" she said excitedly....

The Hermitage

2011-03-17T23:41:00.000-05:00

Among today's stop was the Hermitage, the Tennessee home and burial place of President Andrew Jackson. It's certainly interesting to see how history is presented differently in different parts of the country....

The Zoo

2011-03-17T20:01:00.001-05:00

The first stop on our Spring Break agenda today was the Nashville Zoo. Lily was very excited about going to see the animals, and the weather today was wonderful. However, a whole lot of other people also seemed to think it was the perfect day to go to the zoo. The lines were exceptionally long when we got there; we stood in like for over 45 minutes before we even managed to make it through the front gates. The zoo was certainly busy, but it didn't seem particularly packed once we were inside. The overall outing was enjoyable, but the zoo was a little disappointing -- no bears, no otters, no lions. At least there were elephants, giraffes, zebras...and that was enough to make Lily one very happy little lady.

One Long, Rough Day....

2011-03-14T23:31:00.000-05:00

It's been one of those "when it rains, it pours" days around here, except the water wasn't coming from the sky.... We started with a visit from an electrician. We did some work in our garage, and we decided that it might be a good idea to have a professional electrician look things over to make sure everything was done correctly. Everything checked out okay, so that was a relief. After the electrician, spiderman (AKA, the exterminator) came. He sprayed outside and treated the inside of the house, and everything was okay with that as well. However, he did leave the door to the hot water heater closet slightly open when he left. The door sticks a little bit sometimes, and I always check to make sure the cat didn't run into the closet whenever the door's left ajar. When I opened the door, I found a nice puddle of water under the hot water heater. We figured out the the hot water heater had a leak, so we turned off the water, drained it, and went to find out about getting a new one. We ordered a new hot water heater, and it will be delivered and installed on Monday. The bad news is that this means we're a whole week without a hot water heater; the good news is we're to be gone most of the week for Spring Break. And regarding Spring Break, we were originally supposed to leave yesterday, then plans got rearranged so we were supposed to leave tomorrow, and then today (sometime between the exterminator and the hot water heater) plans got changed again and so we ended up leaving today. Amid the flurry of people and things today, there was also packing and preparing to travel that complicated everything even more. At this rate, I'm just hoping that "Spring Break"actually yields some sort of real "break!"

ABCs, ASL, and Ws

2011-03-09T22:09:00.000-06:00

Since Lily seems to have a pretty sound mastery of the ABCs (upper case letters, most lower case letters, and basic phonics), I decided to hunt up something else to try to keep her interested in letters...and I ended up with ASL. I downloaded an ipod application that has the ASL alphabet, numbers, and colors and I printed off a couple of little basic sign charts. Lily's doing pretty well with them so far, and she seems to enjoy making the letter signs. Her hands, however, aren't quite coordinated enough to handle sign language yet. It's kinda cute to watch her use her left hand to pull and move the fingers on her right hand to form the letters...

And, regarding the W.... Up until a few weeks ago, she has referred to the letter "W" simply as "double." The later part of the alphabet has long gone "T-U-V-double-X-Y-Z." The "W" is now complete.

ABCs

2011-03-05T23:36:00.003-06:00

Lily got a new toy last weekend when we went to visit Aunt Janet. It's a little portable case with a chalkboard on one side, a magnet board on the other, and a set of letter and number magnets that goes along with it. The toy wasn't really something that Lily needed, as she has an easel with a chalkboard and a whole refrigerator full of magnets, but she seemed particularly interested in it and it wasn't expensive, so Mommy gave in. Over the past few days, she's been working very hard to write her ABCs on her chalkboard. She can do most of the letters without help, and she's made considerable progress in the last few days. (And, at this point, none of the letters are backwards!!)

Wonderful Spring Weather

2011-02-19T21:18:00.000-06:00

The weather these past days has been unseasonably warm and wonderful. It's been very warm outside, and we've been making the most of it. I've been working outside in the back yard, trying to get everything cleaned up and in order for spring. We have a nice little back porch, so I'm trying to get it all cleaned up and ready for the BBQ and picnic season. I also bought pots and seeds for planting some herbs, but it's too early to plant those out yet. (And I have had to keep reminding myself of that lately!) Lily's been enjoying the opportunity to be outside as well. The little neighbor girl (who is about a year older than Lily) has been over to play twice this week, and Lily's certainly enjoyed having a playmate these past few days. However, she also does well playing by herself and helping Mommy work in the yard.

Lily got a swingset for Christmas, and she's been having a wonderful time playing on it lately.

I Don't Generally Like Rap Music, But...

2011-02-15T23:32:00.001-06:00

...occasionally I find something that I like.

Important Life Lessons

2011-02-10T22:50:00.001-06:00

There are some things that children should learn early in life. Baking brownies and licking the bowl are among them!!

Cute, or Creepy?

2011-02-07T23:03:00.002-06:00

This segment appeared on one of Lily's Seasme Street podcasts. What do you think: cute, or creepy?

Winnter Weather Updates

2011-02-05T00:29:00.002-06:00

So, today's 30% chance of snow became a 60% chance of snow which ended up being a constant snowfall from 7am to 7pm.... My, aren't weathermen wonderful....

I essentially ended up with a "week off" this week. Classes and work were cancelled from Tuesday through Friday, and just about everything else has been shut down as well. We had snow on Tuesday -- somewhere between 9 and 12 inches, depending on which news station you prefer to listen to. It's been quite cold, and I don't think we're supposed to have temperatures above freezing for quite some time either. (I'm simply expecting that the gas bill for this month will be considerably higher than usual. Fortunately, we haven't had any problems with power outages or anything like that, so I certainly won't complain!) I'm guessing we had another 4-6 inches today, but I haven't heard any 'official' reports on that as of yet.

Just about everything around here seems to have shut down this past week. I ended up with an optometrist appointment yesterday (which was rescheduled from Tuesday), and we saw a couple of horse-drawn sleighs merging with traffic a few blocks ahead of us. We made a quick trip to the grocery store yesterday and then ventured all the way to Wal-Mart today. We've discovered that eggs, bread, bananas, and some medications are in short supply as delivery trucks can't make it in to the stores. However, we did see the Blue Bell truck in the grocery store parking lot. No bread, eggs, or cold medicines, but we have ice cream!! Gasoline also seems to be in short supply at the moment...but we managed to find a station that hadn't run out yet. (Granted, it was the gas station in town that nearly always has the highest price on gas, but under these circumstances.....)

Lily has been excited about the snow, and I took her out to play in it this morning. Although it was cold today, it was also very still so there was no significant wind chill factor influencing how cold it felt outside. Lily had a blast! She trudged through snow drifts and ended up face-planting in the snow several times. She made some snowballs and wanted to play catch with them, which didn't work so well....

In short, we've fared pretty well so far. The only weather-related damage we've suffered as of yet is a cracked windshield on our car. We haven't ventured out much, but we've been able to get out enough to keep from getting to stir-crazy. Ironically, the one of us who seems the most stir-crazy is the cat, and he's an inside-only house cat who never gets to go outside anyway....

Thoughts on Birthdays

2011-02-01T22:42:00.000-06:00

I have no real thoughts on birthdays. I try not to think about them. Lily, on the other hand, has been very interested in birthdays lately. She's learning how to sing "Happy Birthday," and she was very excited when we went to the birthday party of a church friend last weekend. Today the following conversation took place in our house:

Lily: I'm three.
Mommy: No honey, you're two.
Daddy: You'll be three on your next birthday. Do you want Daddy to buy you a big cake for your birthday?
Mommy: Daddy bought a cake last year. It's Mommy's turn to bake a cake this year.
Daddy: But the cake is a Daddy thing.
Lily: No, it's a Mommy thing.
Daddy: Well, then what is the Daddy thing?
Lily: Toy shopping.

I guess she's got things pretty well figured out....

My Grammatically Correct Toddler

2011-01-28T23:27:00.002-06:00

Sometimes when it's time for bed Lily wants to watch VeggieTales. Given that most episodes are too long for pre-bedtime viewing, we've resorted to watching Silly Songs segments instead. Here's the one she requested tonight:

Tonight was a sing-along night.... When it got the the "he don't got a belly button" part of the song, the little Lily voice beside me sang "he doesn't have a belly button." Mommy was proud!

The Lemon

2011-01-17T23:20:00.000-06:00

We got some new kitchen items over Christmas, and we've been trying some of them out lately. One of the things that we got was a microplane, so Jimmy picked up a lemon at the store when trying out a new recipe that called for some lemon peel. After grating a little of the peel, he put the lemon in the fruit bowl with the grapefruit and oranges. Lily, who has been eating a lot of Cuties and oranges lately, was excited to see something new in her fruit bowl. After a day or two of just looking at the lemon, she informed me that she wanted to eat the lemon. I told her that lemons are sour and yucky and that she probably wouldn't like it. She insisted: "I want the lemon. I'll eat it all gone." (And she told me this repeatedly!) I gave in, peeled the lemon, and put a few slices in her bowl. She took one bite, and there were tears....

Tales from the Big(ger) Bed

2011-01-14T23:18:00.000-06:00

We converted Lily's baby bed to a toddler bed last weekend, and this past week has been quite an adventure as far as bedtimes and naptimes have been concerned. We've had success with bedtimes, but naptimes are another story....

So, on night one, getting Lily to sleep was a challenge. Both Mommy and Daddy started the night sleeping on the floor in Lily's room. Daddy got kicked out when he started snoring after about 30 minutes. Mommy ended up sleeping on the floor for about 2 hours until Daddy came in and woek her up.... On night two, Lily went to sleep all on her own. On night three, Lily wanted to go to sleep in Mommy's bed, so we started off in Mommy's bed and she got moved to her own bed after about an hour and a half. After the first three nights, she's been pretty good about going to bed in her big bed. Sometimes she still gets up and we have to try the whole going-to-bed thing more than once, but she's doing pretty well with bedtimes overall.

Naptimes, on the other hand, have been an entirely different story.... So far we have not managed to get Lily to take a nap in her own bed. We've had several days where naps were missing altogether, a few days where naps amounted to couch naps with Mommy, and two days where she took 'tent naps' in the little indoor/outdoor tent that she got for Christmas. (It's really cute to see her all curled up with a few pillows on the floor of her little tent....) Though she's fighting taking naps, her attitude at 4pm on no-nap days indicates that she certainly isn't ready to start going without naps altogether....

Boxing Day (Almost...)

2010-12-28T23:55:00.000-06:00

I realize that Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, but today was the day of boxes at our house. I took all of our Christmas boxes, as well as the used wrapping paper, to the recycling center this morning. I wouldn't say that I'm a huge recycling advocate, but I do try to recycle what I can so as to cut down on the amount of stuff that goes in the garbage and to the landfill. Anyway, today was also trash day in our neighborhood, and I was a bit disgusted to see a large pile of boxes by each and every garbage can in our neighborhood. Not only was I bothered by the fact that so many recyclables were being trashed, but also by the fact that nearly everyone left their boxes out for the whole world to see, as if advertising what they had received for Christmas. Not a smart move, from what I've been taught. (Props for the neighbors across the street for at least putting everything in garbage bags.) I was just a little bit bothered by the whole thing....

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T22:06:00.001-06:00

Christmas morning was exciting for Lily. She was quite happy to get up early, open presents, and then play and celebrate all day....

Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving in Kansas

2010-11-28T23:38:00.000-06:00

A few pictures from Thanksgiving in Kansas....

A fall sunset in Kansas.

Grandpa's ferocious dog. (Actually, it's Spot, a not-so-big and not-so-ferocious 8-week-old puppy. It's amazing what you can do with a good zoom lens!)

1949 Chevy pick-up that I've been trying to convince Dad to fix up for at least the last 15 years....

Playing blocks with Grandpa.

Having lunch with Grandma.

"Cute Boots!"

2010-11-20T22:50:00.002-06:00

Lily and I spent a few hours walking the mall today.... I took the car in for an oil change; they were busier than usual, so we had longer than usual to wander the mall. We had lunch and then proceeded to on our lap. After perusing the VeggieTales section at the Christian book and gift store, we wandered by a little shoe store that had a display of boots in the window (some rain boots, some Ugg-like boots, and a few other styles as well). As we passed the store, Lily yelled out "Look, cute boots!" and and doubled back to go inside. She then proceeded to pick up and examine every pair -- "cute black boots," "cute pink boots," "cute brown boots," etc. until she had looked at all of the boots at least twice. The lady working in the store just stood there and laughed; I wondered how much money I'll be spending on shoes over the next sixteen years....

"Mommy's a Princess!"

2010-11-13T22:57:00.000-06:00

Recounting a conversation from earlier today....
Lily: "Mommy's a princess."
Mommy: "Awww, that's so sweet of you."
L: "Lily's a princess."
M: "Well, yes...."
L: "Daddy's a princess."
M: "No, Daddy's a boy. Princesses are girls. Daddy can be a prince, but not a princess."
L: "I'm a boy."
M: "No Lily, you're a girl."
L: "Mommy's a boy."
M: "No Lily, Mommy's a girl."
L: "Daddy's a boy."
M: "Yes, Daddy's a boy."
L: (after a little bit of thought) "Daddy's a boy, Mommy's a girl, and I'm a princess!"

Moon Party

2010-09-15T23:32:00.000-05:00

Tonight was Lily's first Moon Party!! Lily likes to watch My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and one of her favorite episodes is about Lumpy's first moon party, which turns out to be a no-moon-moon-party.... Anyway, Lily has become fascinated with the things in the sky: the moon, white clouds, dark clouds, the stars, and the planets. We were outside last night and she pointed out a particularly bright "star"; she was very excited when I told her that that "star" was Jupiter. She was outside looking for Jupiter again tonight.

Anyway, the moon party.... Jimmy grabbed a blanket and a pillow and set up camp in the best star-gazing spot in the back yard. Lily and I then joined him outside and spent a good 10-15 minutes looking up at the stars and the moon. (I know 15 minutes doesn't sound like much, but with a 2-year-old and a swarm of mosquitoes, it's actually pretty impressive!) Lily enjoyed her moon party, and was asking if we could have another moon party before we even made it in the house. YAY for Moon Parties!!

"A B C D E F G...."

2010-09-12T23:54:00.000-05:00

Lily sang her ABCs all by herself today!! While she's known her ABCs for quite a while, today was the first time we heard her sing the entire song by herself.

She can identify all of the uppercase letters and most of the lowercase letters by sight. She knows quite a few of the letter sounds, but we haven't mastered all of those yet. She likes her letter puzzles and games, and is a big fan of the Seasme Street "Letter of the Day" podcasts.

And Now Pears....

2010-09-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

We've had the apples, the peaches, and the pluots...and now we have pears. A family from church brought us pears this afternoon, and now it's time to figure out what to do with them....

Playing with Grammy

2010-09-04T23:39:00.000-05:00

Since Mommy was at a wedding and Daddy was stuck in meetings for the several hours today, Grammy came to spend part of the day with Lily. From the photo evidence left behind, it looks like they had a good time....

My First Wedding

2010-09-04T20:31:00.000-05:00

I played piano at a wedding today...and survived!! I couple from church asked me about 2 months ago if I would be willing to play piano at their wedding, and today was the day. I was a little nervous as I'd never played a wedding before; I only started playing Sundays about 6 months ago, and then only as a fill-in when the regular pianist or the organist can't be there. (I generally do okay, but I'm nowhere near as good as either regular pianist or the organist.)

Anyway, I was quite surprised when I was asked to play the wedding. And then I was even more surprised when the bride told me to pick out whatever pretty piano music I wanted to play! She wanted the traditional Wedding March (Wagner) for the processional, but other than that I got to pick out all of the music. I kept the music pretty simple and traditional, and everything went well. If only all weddings were that easy....

Hiding Under the Bed

2010-08-23T21:28:00.002-05:00

We had a little bit of a crisis with a babysitter a few days ago.... Apparently, about an hour or so after the sitter arrived, Lily was wandering all over the house looking for The Happy Bee and the book was nowhere to be found. They searched throughout the house, and then called me to see if I know where The Happy Bee was. I was no help, and The Happy Bee remained lost. When I got home from work in the afternoon, Lily was down for her nap and the babysitter informed me that the book still hadn't surfaced. When Lily work up an hour or so later, I asked here where The Happy Bee was...and her reply "Happy Bee under the bed!"

Apples, Peaches, and Pluots

2010-08-21T22:04:00.003-05:00

Here's what's been occupying all of our free time--and our kitchen--for the last couple of weeks. It all started with all of the apples that came in from the back yard, and then it continued when Jimmy got several boxes of very cheap peaches at the grocery store. (And then, after the cheap peaches, he went back and the produce lady gave him a few more boxes of very cheap--almost free--peaches.) Following that, we bought a few pounds of pluots.... We made (in the order on the table) sugar-free peach preserves, pluot preserves, hot peach salsa, regular peach preserves, applesause, medium peach salsa, and applebutter. We're selling them at church to raise money to send Jimmy and few youth group kids on a very big trip next summer. We started selling tonight, and the table certainly doesn't look likd this any more....

Night-night at Grammy's

2010-08-21T20:17:00.000-05:00

Lily had her first overnight without Mommy and Daddy last night. She stayed at Grammy's house while Mommy and Daddy were at a conference. Lily seemed to do just fine; as did Grammy. When we asked Lily about what she did at Grammy's house, she said, "I ate Grammy's chips!!" (And that was followed by laughter and giggles.)

"Mommy has coffee..."

2010-07-29T22:08:00.002-05:00

I'm beginning to wonder just where my little girl is learning some of the things she knows....

I spent a few hours today working at the library, and Lily got to spend some time with Grandpa S. and Grammy S. I picked Lily up after lunch (right about naptime) and we started our little trip home. Lily promptly downed the contents of her sippy, and then began requesting more water, with ice. In order to accommodate her very reasonable request, I decided to go through a drive-thru at Starbucks. (We don't have a Starbucks where we live, so a good cup of chai is a real treat!) I ordered, and we got our drinks. As soon as Lily saw my drink, she exclaimed, "Mommy has coffee. Coffee's hot!" Now, I know this might not be particularly strange, but we don't drink coffee, we don't have coffee in our house, none of the babysitters drink coffee.... I'm left wondering where this child learn about coffee, and what it mean that she's already able to identify a Starbucks cup....

Wanted: Apple Recipes

2010-07-22T15:45:00.002-05:00

We started picking apples today. We picked only the apples we could reach from the ground, and we only picked about half of the tree. If you have any yummy apple recipes, please send them my direction....

"Buh, Buh, Buh, Letter I"

2010-07-14T23:49:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I was a proud Mommy when Lily started singing the "Letter B" song a week or so ago. I thought to myself, 'How wonderful, she's beginning to make and understand the sound that go with the letters.' I was doing a little I've-got-the-smart-kid happy Mommy dance too. And, though I still believe I've got the smart kid, I was put in my place today when I heard Lily walking around singing "buh, buh, buh, letter I!"

BNL's ABCs

2010-07-09T23:38:00.002-05:00

Lily and I were listening to a radio station for kids this afternoon, and I heard a song that was so awesome I had to go hunt it up online. Thought I'd share....

The Happy Bee

2010-07-06T21:18:00.002-05:00

The Happy Bee is the title of one of Lily's current favorite books. We read The Happy Bee at least half a dozen times a day, and she "reads" it to herself quite a bit as well. It's a cute little book and I like it too, but Lily's beginning to become a little too attached. Today she wanted to take it to bed with her at naptime. I let her do that, as I do sometimes let her have a book at naptime. Tonight, however, she wanted to take it to bed with her for night-night. The mean mommy said no, and the screaming ensued. Though I don't like hearing my little angel screaming, there's just something a little bit funny about hearing a toddler crying and screaming "I want The Happy Bee! I want The Happy Bee!"

(And, just to let you know, the screaming lasted about 45 seconds. She's asleep now.)

"Buh, Buh, Letter B!"

2010-07-05T21:57:00.003-05:00

Lily has a new favorite song that she walks around the house singing.... (However, when she sings it, it sounds more like "buh, buh yetter B." It's just so cute!)

Lily's Ladder

2010-06-27T20:17:00.000-05:00

Grammy found this at a garage sale, so she bought it for Lily. It's called a Learning Tower. (I'd never seen one before, but it's actually a pretty cool little device -- and a pretty pricey one!) At this point, however, Lily doesn't quite understand what it's for. She calls it a bed and likes to sit in it when she has a snack. (And no, she doesn't usually get chips for snack. Someone got them out and forgot to put them away.)

Family Reunion

2010-06-15T22:41:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was family reunion for my dad's side of the family down in Texas. I hadn't been down there for a reunion in a few years (2006) and I was excited to get to go down this year. It was especially exciting as Lily hadn't met any of her aunts and uncles (actually, great aunts and uncles) from that side of the family. Lily also got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa from Kansas (my folks) while we were down there. She flew kites with Grandpa, ate all of Grandma's watermelon, picked Aunt Bernadine's flowers, narrated the slide show of pictures of our new house, and threw a very impressive temper-tantrum during church. (I found out after mass that the cry-room wasn't sound-proof.) All in all though it was a wonderful weekend and a very nice trip...it just would have been nice to have had even more time to visit....

French Quarter, New Orleans

2010-05-29T23:19:00.000-05:00

We spent today walking around the French Quarter and the Art District in New Orleans. We wandered around and Quarter and visited some absolutely amazing art galleries and antique shops. (I found a beautiful $225,000 hundred-year-old French baby grand piano that was absolutely amazing just in case anybody needs any ideas for Christmas....) We took Lily to the Louisiana Children's Museum, and she had a wonderful time playing and exploring there. We also stopped by Cafe du Monde and Lily had her first biegnets.

The Brithday Party

2010-05-23T23:48:00.000-05:00

Though Lily's birthday day may have been calm and relatively uneventful, we did have a little birthday party for her today. We invited all of our local friends and family (Lily's babysitters, the nearby grandparents, Jimmy's co-workers, etc) over for a little birthday party. Lily had a Winnie-the-Pooh cake (complete with Tigger and Hunny Pot candles) and had a wonderful time opening and playing with her birthday presents....

My Poor Neglected Blog....

2010-05-23T23:27:00.002-05:00

After a full 2 months of complete and utter neglect, I'm once again attempting to revive my blog. As a means of filling in the gaps from over the past 2 months, I'm going back and posting pictures. (I know there are--or were--at least a few blog followers who cared primarily about the Lily pictures, so maybe at least a few people will be satisfied.) Hopefully this time I'll manage to do a better job of keeping up....

Being Cute....

2010-05-21T22:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Lily!!

2010-05-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

Today was Lily's second birthday. It's amazing how quickly she's grown up!! We didn't have a big party or anything today, though we did order cupcakes and let her open some of her presents. (Note that the big present you see in the picture is wrapped in Christmas paper; we're in the process of packing and moving, and all of the birthday paper was packed.) She had a very good birthday, and enjoyed both the presents and the cupcakes.

House.

2010-04-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

We bought one. Signed the paper today....

Easter

2010-04-04T23:51:00.000-05:00

The Easter Bunny came to Grandma's House, and then we went to the park later in the day. (This was Lily's first time to down the slide all by her self!)

Studio Mommy Pictures

2010-04-03T23:43:00.000-05:00

Studio Mommy returned today, but the subject wasn't very cooperative and didn't let the photographer get in many shots. A few turned out pretty decent. (These are the unedited versions; I haven't done any editing on them yet....)

Vocabulary Building

2010-03-21T22:07:00.000-05:00

A conversation that recently took place in our house....

Mommy: My goodness Lily, your piggies are dishevelled.
Lily: (touches her hair, nods in agreement, runs to Mommy to have piggies fixed)
Piano Student: What's "dishevelled" mean?

In addition to an attentive piano student, several other people have commented about the way I talk to Lily. Several times I've been met with comments like the following: "Did she actually understand what you just said to her?" and "Do you always talk to your daughter like that?"

So, my question: how should I talk to Lily? I talk to her just like I would talk to anyone else, and she seems to understand me just fine. I'm careful not to use and words that I wouldn't want her to repeat and I try to avoid using any sarcasm when I talk to her, but I don't otherwise alter my vocabulary or style of speech when I'm talking to Lily. Am I going to end up with a daughter with a well-rounded vocabulary or a kid who is incapable of talking to children her own age because she doesn't know the words to use?

The Grocery Game, Round I

2010-03-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

Jimmy and I have created a new game at our house. In need of both groceries and entertainment, we decided to make a little game out of shopping. The rules for our little game were as follows:

1. You can spend no more than $10 (pre-tax amount).
2. You can purchase any items that the grocery store (groceries, sundries, etc.).
3. All items purchased must be items you will use in your household.
4. You can use any type of coupons or discounts that the store accepts.
5. The person with the greatest percent savings at the end of the shopping trip wins.

We each took a shopping cart (and I took my little assistant), and we ended up spending about an hour in the grocery store wandering the aisles, looking for sales, and browsing our stacks of coupons. The moment of truth came at the checkout line: Jimmy spent $7.89 ($6.64 before taxes), with a savings of 76%. I spent $11.83 ($9.86 before taxes), with a savings of 78%. While I won Round 1, we both did a pretty amazing job with our shopping. Together we spent $19.72 (after taxes), saved $22.09 with in-store sales, and saved another $36.30 with coupons from newspapers and the internet. We purchased a total of 27 items, 12 of which we ended up getting for free.

We're planning on keeping the game going, though we may change the rules a bit. Anyone else interested in joining us in our little game?

Chairs and Apples

2010-03-08T23:38:00.000-06:00

Lily made two new discoveries recently. First, chairs come in her size. Second, you can eat apples without having Mommy cut and slice them first.

"Reading..."

2010-03-01T22:55:00.000-06:00

Lily is beginning to read, in the absolute loosest sense of the word.... She can identify some of her letters, but she associates quite a number of them with the pictures that accompany them on her ABC puzzle. Yesterday, for example, she was reading the sweatshirt I was wearing. As she pointed to the letters, she very excitedly read: "Keys, Apple, Nest, Socks, Apple, Socks, Socks, Tie, Apple, Tie, Egg!" (Translation: Kansas State.) She's so close, but the associations just aren't quite right yet....

"Food?"

2010-02-23T21:01:00.002-06:00

Lily was helping me prepare supper in the kitchen this evening, and she was taking inventory of everything that was at her level. (Since the kitchen had been under construction for such a long time, Lily had been banned from the construction zone. She's just now permitted in the kitchen with supervision.) Lily was doing a wonderful job of helping me get everything out of the refrigerator that I needed to prepare both her meal and mine -- peas, corn, grapes, etc. As she was closing the refrigerator door, she picked Tucker's catnip (which comes in something resembling a margarine tub) up off of the floor. She held it up and asked, "Food?" I answered yes, but explained that it was Tucker's food and we don't eat it. She nodded her head in understanding. I later found the catnip in the refrigerator.

Kitchen

2010-02-21T21:43:00.004-06:00

We've had our kitchen torn up for quite some time. Some time ago (around Halloween, I think) we decided to re-do the cabinets. We bought paint and new hardware, and eagerly started on the project. And now, as of yesterday, we now have all of the cabinet doors back where they belong, complete with new hardware. There's still some touch-up work that needs to be done, but this still looks so much better than the whitewashed kitchen we had before....

Bowling

2010-02-15T22:15:00.002-06:00

Tonight was Lily's first time to go bowling. (She had been to the bowling alley before, but this was her first time to actually bowl.) She bowled with bumpers and a ball ramp, but she seemed to grasp the general concept of the game. She bowled two games, and ended up with scores in the 60s/70s range. Though she did pretty well, we did have two problems: taking turns and getting out of the way when other people were bowling. However, I guess we shouldn't really expect her to do either of those things at this age....

ABCs and Clean-up

2010-02-10T22:53:00.000-06:00

I bought Lily an ABC puzzle for Christmas, and I thought it was something that would probably be a bit too advanced for her at this point. (Actually, at Christmas I was kicking myself because I just bought my little 18-month-old a puzzle with 26 pieces. I was guessing that I would be picking up puzzle pieces just about every day and trying make sure we didn't lose any pieces.) Anyway, Lily has now mastered her ABC puzzle. She can put the whole puzzle together, and can match most of the letters with the pictures that go with them. Also, I haven't had to pick up the puzzle pieces very often because Lily has started helping with clean-up in the evenings. She helps to put all of her toys in their baskets and puts her big toys under her bed where they belong. It's so nice that she's beginning to help with things like clean-up; it makes keeping the house in order so much easier!!

Tahlequah

2010-02-05T20:00:00.000-06:00

The postponed event that I complained about actually took place today!! The event was a lot of fun and an overall success.

I did, however, come to one conclusion: I've been living in Oklahoma too long. I no longer hesitate when I have to spell "Tahlequah." I've learned where the second 'h' goes....

Rescheduled...Again!

2010-01-28T22:17:00.000-06:00

The weather is becoming a bit of a problem here. I was supposed to take some of my music students to a choral event on Jan. 7. The weather interfered, and the event mas moved to Jan. 28. Once again, the weather has interfered, and the event has been rescheduled for Feb. 5. While I was initially quite excited for the event, now I'm just ready to get it over with already!! Stupid snow and ice....

Baby Bathtubs?

2010-01-26T21:21:00.000-06:00

The seal between the wall and the bathtub in our main bathroom needed to be re-sealed, so I decided to tackle that project this past weekend. There had been a plastic adheasive strip seal thingie down, and I had to remove and replace that. I would have liked to simply have caulked the seam, but that wouldn't work. So, I ended up replacing the plastic strip and then caulking around it. When I bought the products I needed, I did my best to match colors; both the strip and the caulk were labeled as "bright white." The color of the two items, however, did not match. When Jimmy saw the finished project, he remarked, "It looks like the strip turned pink." I tried to hold in the laughter, but the only thing I could say in reply was "So does that mean we're going to have baby bathtubs?"

My Teething Toddler

2010-01-23T22:35:00.000-06:00

My little angel is getting in a new tooth, and apparently this one's causing some grief. Most of her other teeth seem to have come in relatively easily...or at least there was relatively little crying and screaming to accompany the teething process. This time's different. Lily's been cranky and fussy, and naptime seems to be the worst. We fought about the nap thing for about 2 hours this afternoon, at which point I decided to give up and go pick up something I needed at the mall. Lily stayed awake for the car ride to the mall, and fell asleep almost as soon as she hit the stroller. Since I actually wanted her to take a nap, I spent an extra hour and a half wandering around the mall so she could sleep in her stroller....

"Where are the apples?"

2010-01-14T23:32:00.000-06:00

My little sweetie is such a smartie.... We went shopping today; my goal was to buy two new pairs of shoes: black flats (a la maryjanes, or the closest thing I could find) and brown boots with heels. I bought two pairs of shoes, and at least one of them was what I intended on purchasing!! Anyway, as I was checking out at the shoe store, the sales associate and manager, both were very vivacious and apparently having a rather slow day, asked if I had any questions about their refund or rewards policies. I answered in the negative, and they then proceeded to ask Lily if she had any questions. She looked at them with a very perplexed look on her face and asked, in relatively pain English, "Where are the apples?" Thy guys in the shoe store were floored, and then couldn't stop laughing....

The Rhetoric of Soap Bottles

2010-01-11T23:01:00.001-06:00

I was reading soap bottles in the bathroom today, and I noticed something interesting. Three different products had three very different statements regarding animal testing:
Product 1: "Never Tested on Animals"
Product 2: "This Finished Product Not Tested on Animals"
Product 3: "Against Animal Testing"
Products 1 and 2 are from the same company, which would seem suggest that some of their products, somewhere in the production process, are in fact tested on animals. Product 3 is from a fair-trade company that does not test on animals, but the label doesn't explicitly state that. It would be possible for a company to be against animal testing, yet still do it, right? Anyway, it seems that there's a cultural studies project in here somwhere...maybe something on the rhetoric of soap bottles and cereal boxes perhaps....

Bubbles!!

2010-01-06T21:11:00.000-06:00

Lily got a bubble machine for Christmas. She and Daddy got it out to play with it. (However, Mommy has now determined that it is an outside toy. It made lots of bubbles and we ended up having to mop the floor to get rid of all the bubble juice after we were finished playing.)

Resolutions

2010-01-03T23:29:00.003-06:00

I'm only making a few New Year's Resolutions this year, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep them....

Resolution 1: Write More
Several things fall under this topic. First, take better care of my poor neglected blog. My generally realistic goal is to post at least once a week. (I like my blog, I really do, but I just can't seem to keep it updated. I blame Facebook!) Second, finish my dissertation. I'm making slow progress on the thing, but I really want to have the thing finished by the end of this new year. And third, write Christmas thank-yous and Valentine cards. Since Christmas cards and letters just didn't happen this year, I'm going to try to do a big mailing of Valentine cards this year instead.

Resolution 2: Take (and Print) More Pictures
I got a nice new digital SLR camera for Christmas, and my goal is to take more (and better) pictures. Along with that, I also need to print more pictures to send to family members who don't have computer access.

I'm sure there are all sorts of other things that I should/shouldn't resolve to do for this new year, but I think I'll limit my formal list to two. The fewer resolutions I make, the fewer I'll be tempted to break!!

Decorating for Christmas

2009-12-21T16:48:00.000-06:00

Today we helped decorate the church for Christmas. Lily spent most of her time running and playing with the other little girls that were "helping" whith the decorating. However, she also managed to do her share of the work....

Thanksgiving on the Farm

2009-11-28T20:53:00.000-06:00

We're spending Thanksgiving in Kansas with my side of the family. This year Lily is old enough to play with the puppy and watch all of the animals. (One of her favorite farm pastimes seems to be moving the gravel around in the driveway by the barn.) The weather hasn't been too cold, so she's gotten to go outside quite a bit. We've taken lots of pictures, but I think this is one of my favorites....

Lily's First Haircut

2009-11-27T21:26:00.000-06:00

Today we said bye-bye to the baby curls!! Aunt LB, who is a stylist, gave Lily her first haircut. We sat Lily in a high chair, pulled out the laptop, and turned on an episode of Tigger and Pooh; as a result, I don't think she even realized that she was getting a haircut! Lily sat perfectly still, and Aunt LB gave her a cute little baby cut complete with little layers.

"Apple, Apple, Apple!"

2009-11-08T23:43:00.002-06:00

I bought Lily some little puzzles a few months ago, and she's really beginning to take an interest in them. One has fruits on it, another vegetables, and another sweets. When we put the puzzles together, I read the names of the items as she either hands the pieces to me or attempts (occasionally successfully) to put the pieces where they belong. Today, she apparently decided to "read" the piece to me; I heard "apple, apple, apple...." However, she was very excited when I gave her apple slices for supper.

Lily's also attempting to say her ABCs now. She can't say them very clearly, and I don't know that she manages to get the right number of "letters" in her song, but it sure is cute!

Library Book Sale Finds

2009-11-07T20:20:00.000-06:00

The local public library has been having a book sale this week. We found out about it yesterday when we went to get a new stack of books for Lily. (She likes picking out new books and playing with all of the toys in the library.) Anyway, Jimmy and Lily and I returned to the library today to sort through the room of "for sale" books to see what all we could find. We spent about an hour and a half browsing books. (We went at nap time, so Lily fell asleep in the car and then slept in her stroller for about the first hour. She browsed and shopped with us for a while though...and she did a relatively good job all things considered.) We ended up with two boxes of books: a good assortment of children's books for Lily, some things to resell online, some things to keep, and some things to take to work. The treasure, I think, is a copy of the book Copland on Music that is autographed by the author, Aaron Copland. I haven't figured out how much the book would be work if I were to try to e-bay it, but I think maybe I'll just keep it.

Halloween

2009-11-02T22:08:00.001-06:00

I had camera problems (a corrupt memory card actually), so I didn't get many pictures from Halloween this year. And I certainly didn't get many decent pictures!! Anyway, here's my little fairy princess....

Army Band Concert

2009-10-27T22:57:00.002-05:00

Lily went to her first concert tonight. The US Army Field Band & Soldier's Chorus came through on part of their fall tour, and I got a pair of tickets for Lily and I. (Jimmy had to work this evening. It's not like we just didn't invite him....) Lily did well through the concert. We sat in an outside aisle seat near the back so we could make a quick exit if necessary. We didn't have to make the dreaded quick exit, but we didn't make it to the end of the show either. We made it through about 3/4 of the program (or about 1 hour and 15 minutes), so I was generally pleased. The music was amazing and it had been quite a long time since I'd been to a concert of this caliber. It makes me miss playing....

My Little Queen of the Remote Control

2009-09-26T23:02:00.000-05:00

The little one has figured out that the remote controls make the television do things...and she certainly likes to experiment with them! She doesn't really much watch much TV (we try to limit her to Tigger & Pooh and Sesame Street), but we do have the television on sometimes during the day. Regardless of whether the TV's on or off, the remote controls still seem to be entertaining....

Chimes

2009-09-23T21:36:00.002-05:00

I was told when I took my music teaching job to expect resistance from the junior high crowd. (And no, it wasn't a warning about my particular junior high group, but just a warning about the age group altogether.) While I was expecting resistance and daily battles, I've had surprisingly few. When I was digging through the closets in the music room, I found a 3-octave set of hand chimes. The previous music teacher knew they were there and pointed them out to me, but she also told me that most of them were broken. As it turns out, very few of the chimes were actually broken (3 had to be replaced) and the set was is pretty good condition. At that point, I decided to turn my junior high music groups into bell choirs...and the response has been amazing! The kids are actually enjoying music class (to the point of begging not to be pulled out of music to go finish math tests!) and they're learning a lot about reading and playing music. One of my groups played an arrangement of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" in church today. They did really well, they were very proud of themselves, and they managed to earn root beer floats as well....

YAY Football!!

2009-09-19T22:13:00.003-05:00

Lily attended her first major sporting event -- the TU vs. OU football game in Norman. Jimmy's uncle had tickets, and he invited us to go along with him. We initially looked for a babysitter for Lily, but we were unable to find one...so we took her along with us! I was a bit concerned about how Lily would handle the crowds and the noise, but she did wonderfully. She watched everything that was going on, clapped when music was playing and when everyone else was cheering, and even seemed to enjoy watching the fireworks that were being set off merely a half a dozen or so rows behind us. She did get a little played out by the fourth quarter, so she slept through part of it (fireworks and all). I love my little sweetheart; she's such a good sport!!

My Poor Neglected Blog....

2009-09-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

My, it's been a while since I've been on here.... And now there's the question of whether to go back and attempt to fill in some gaps or just attempt to jump back into the blog-o-sphere now. I guess we'll just have to see what happens....

A John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt Headache

2009-08-25T22:28:00.000-05:00

Wow - I ended up with a headache today like none other; I think it's days like this that keep the Tylenol people in business. I got the brilliant idea over the weekend that it would be fun to have my little music students (K-3rd) do some activities with music and volume -- singing softly and loudly, playing instruments softly and loudly, etc. Anyway, I decided that we'd sing the "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" song and then do another similar activity with instruments -- drums, mini cymbals, triangles, etc. To make a long story short, the activity was a huge success -- the students loved it and I met the objectives that I had set for the day. However, after 2 hours of hearing ""John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt - LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!!" I ended up with the most awful pounding headache that I've had in a very, very long time....

First Day of School

2009-08-12T20:44:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of school.... I'm teaching K-8 music (part time, two days per week) at a small private school this year, and today was the beginning of the year. The day went relatively well, especially considering that I'm still feeling yucky from the flu and yucky from the medicine that they gave me to get rid of the flu. I quickly discovered, however, that I'm going to have to do a lot of work to figure out how to keep kindergarteners occupied for half an hour....

Flu

2009-08-11T11:27:00.000-05:00

I have the flu. And it really sucks.

Family Picture

2009-08-08T18:43:00.000-05:00

One of the things that we did on the cruise was have some family pictures taken. The last pictures we had done were our engagement and wedding pictures, so it was certainly time for an updated picture. Though there was really only one pose that we ended up liking, I think it's a keeper....

Beach Bums

2009-08-06T11:04:00.000-05:00

YAY for VACATION!! We escaped for a few days (flew out on 7/30 and back on 8/4) for a nice family vacation. We flew to Miami and then went on a cruise to the Bahamas and the Great Stirrup Cay. After the cruise, we spent a day in South Beach before flying back home. The trip was fabulous -- the weather was great and just about everything went smoothly. Some of our flights were delayed (and we'll probably never fly Delta again) but we ended up making our connections, so that wasn't too bad. Lily was wonderful on the planes; she slept on 3 of the 4 flights and she did just fine on the other one. The cruise was very nice. The water was smooth, the food was phenomenal, and Oklahoma allergens were nowhere to be found, our cell phones didn't work, and it was way, way too expensive to get on the internet on the ship. The beaches were beautiful and the water was clear. Lily was a real trooper; she loved the beaches and all of the people and she took wonderful stroller-naps as we were walking around and seeing the sights. It was great to get away for a few days and to come back home feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.

Water Park!!

2009-07-25T23:41:00.002-05:00

Today was Lily's first trip to the local water park. (Actually, it was her first time in a big swimming pool.) Anyway, we'll be going on vacation at the end of this next week and going to the beach, so we needed to make sure Lily would get along all right in the water. We got her all sunscreened and put her lifejacket on, and Lily spent over an hour walking around in the wading pools and "swimming" with Mommy and Daddy in the bigger pool. Lily did pretty well; there were a little spitting and sputtering and a few tears when her head went under once, but otherwise she seemed to generally enjoy the experience. She wasn't all smiley and chatty, but we were just guessing she was trying to figure out what all of these people were doing in her bath....

A Very Busy Writing Camp Week

2009-07-22T21:58:00.001-05:00

It's a busy week this week.... I'm teaching another Writing Camp in addition to my regular night class that meets twice a week. Our babysitter is putting in extra hours, Daddy is doing extra Daddy-duty, and Mommy is tired beyond belief....