My New Favorite Lily Picture

Okay, nothing substantial to write today, but I just wanted to share one of my new favorite Lily pictures. (And honestly, who doesn't like to see pictures of a cute baby!)

Recycling and Earth Day

Lily and I made a trip to the local recycling center today. We generally drop things off once or twice a month, but I decided that we'd make and extra trip today since it's Earth Day. I don't think Lily understands the whole concept of recycling yet, but she sure enjoys playing with that big basket of papers that Mommy keeps under the desk.

Fast Fat Food

I was reading around on the internet and came across an interesting article: "The Worst Drive-Thru Foods in America (And What to Eat Instead". Here's the winner. I don't know whether to say YUCK! or WOW!

THE WORST DRIVE-THRU MEAL IN AMERICA
Carl's Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger
with Medium Natural cut Fries and 32 oz Coke
2,618 Calories
144 g fat (51.5 g saturated fat)
2892 mg sodium

Of all the gut-growing, heart-stopping, life-threatening burgers in the fast food world, there is none whose damage to your general well-being is as catastrophic as this. Consider these heart-stopping comparisons: This meal has the caloric equivalent of 13 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Donuts; the saturated fat equivalent of 52 strips of bacon; and the salt equivalent of seven and a half large orders of McDonald's French fries!

Strawberries!!

I'm beginning to introduce Lily to a variety of new foods. She seems to be doing pretty well with just about everything that I've given her. She likes green beans, tortillas, strawberries, cooked apples, sweet potatoes, and pineapple. So far the only thing that she really refuses to eat is bananas. (Strange child, I know!) The problem that we're currently having is that she doesn't particularly want to eat baby food, but she doesn't have enough teeth to really bite or chew anything. (So far she only has her two bottom teeth; we're still waiting for more to arrive.) The picture shows her first encounter with strawberries; the spoon and bowl are more of photo props than anything else as she doesn't do too well with the spoon and the bowl just ended up on the floor. Nonetheless, I think this is one of my favorite mealtime pictures; Lily looks so cute, and her eyes look so, so blue!

Edward Albee

Edward Albee, perhaps my favorite 20th Century American playwrite, spoke in Tulsa this evening, and I made the trip in for the event. ("The Zoo Story," "The American Dream," and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" are three of my absolute favorite plays. They're a little nuts, but they're brilliant.) I enjoyed the evening, but was a little disappointed with the overall content of the presentation. Albee talked about his life and his plays (which was expected and certainly very interesting), but then he spent quite a bit of the evening talking about politics (which wasn't quite expected and wasn't quite so interesting). While I'm certainly glad I went this evening, I now find that I have just a little less admiration for one of the contemporary writers that I had admired most.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!! I thought I would put up a quick picture of Lily in her Easter dress with one of her baskets. (This one is from Grandma Rita. She gave Lily all sorts of sweet things...most of which Mommy probably won't let her eat.) Anyway, it was a long, busy Easter, but Lily's been a trooper through it all....

Azalea Festival

'Tis the season for the annual azalea festival. While we haven't taken part in any of the city-wide festivities, we have been enjoying the azaleas in our front year. They're so pretty and pink!! Lily and I did some pictures with the flowers, and they all turned out pretty well. I think this one's my favorite....

Poetry Reading

Tonight Lily went to her first major literary event -- a poetry reading by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States. The reading was wonderful. I'd heard Collins read before, but it was still a very enjoyable event. We arrived early in order to get the coveted Mommy-and-baby seat: the one in the back row closest to the door. Lily behaved wonderfully; she was generally quiet and she lasted for about 45 minutes before she decided that she needed to get off of Mommy's lap and crawl around. Luckily there was a walkway behind our row of seats so Lily could play in the isle without disturbing anyone. At the end of the reading we bought a book and had Collins autograph it. Lily now has her first book that is inscribed to her by the author....

"Lily-Tucker, No!!"

It has begun; I've started to confuse the children.... I was in a bit of a rush as I was leaving for work this morning, and Tucker was trying to empty my water bottle all over the kitchen counter. I caught him just before the water spilled, and I exclaimed, "Lily-Tucker, No!!" Jimmy made fun of me for confusing the children....

Dirty Knees

As I think I've mentioned, Lily is crawling. By this point, she is unstoppable; she's crawling everywhere and getting into everything. As a result of all of this crawling, the knees on her pants end up absolutely filthy. I put a load of Lily-laundry in to wash this evening, and I had to Spray-and-Wash every pair of her little pants. Perhaps I should buy stock in the Spray-and-Wash company (along with the diaper and formula companies)....

Spring Break in Dallas

It was Spring Break this past week, and we celebrated with a little family trip down to Dallas. We stayed with Aunt Janet and Uncle Tio (who were eager babysitters) and spent quite a bit of time just visiting. We also spent some time shopping and browsing; we went to a big mall, a really cool shopping center, and the most amazing grocery store I've ever seen. Jimmy and I had an evening out and went to see a movie. (This was my first trip to the movie theatre since Lily was born. We saw Knowing. It wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped. There were aliens. I wasn't expecting aliens. The previews didn't mention aliens....) Nonetheless, it was still nice to have an evening out sans Lily. Lily seemed to enjoy the trip. She got to hang out with Aunt Janet, had her first taste of chocolate cake, and talked to Prozac, Uncle Tio's parrot. She also acquired a very special friend on this trip -- a teddy bear named Rose that was made just for her....

John Deer Green on St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Jimmy forgot that he was supposed to wear green today, and he told me that people at work pinched him. I wore one of the shirts that I bought in Ireland; it wasn't a green shirt, but it had "Ireland" embroidered on it in green letters. Lily wore the only real green shirt that she owns: her John Deer shirt. (She has some baby/mint green onesies, but those aren't really "green.") I thought she looked so cute in her slightly over-sized t-shirt and little denim skirt....

A Master of the Sippy Cup

Lily has mastered the art of the sippy cup. She does pretty well handling it by herself, though sometimes it still ends up on the floor. I haven't given her juice yet; I'm trying to hold off on that just a little while longer. So far she's only gotten water in her cup, and she seems to like that just fine....

400!!

This is post number 400! I don't really have anything exciting to write about, but 400 posts means I've written a lot of words on this site....

Return of the Mosquitoes....

We've had beautiful spring weather here the past few days. The grass and trees are beginning to green, and I even have a pretty yellow dafodil in my back yard. The weather's wonderful, but with the warmer weather came spring's unwelcome guests: the mosquitoes. I had hoped to enjoy a few days outside before they arrived, but the little bloodsuckers have managed to find me and turn me into lunch already. (As far as I can tell, they haven't bothered Lily.) We're going to get some citronella torches and candles to put in the backyard to keep the peksy little critters away....