French Quarter, New Orleans

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

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....

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....

Happy Birthday Lily!!

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.

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

Easter

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

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

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

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

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..."

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?"

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

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

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....