Good Little Mama

Lily loves to put babies down for naps.

Maybe you remember this shot of Baby Toodles at great-grandma and grandpa's house?


There's also lucky Baby Kate, who receives most of Lily's attentions at home.


These days she's taken to instructing me to get down on the floor and "go night-night," at which point she covers me with a blanket, pats my back, and sings the ABCs (her favorite lullaby). I might get a break from all those enforced naps, though, because she's found someone new to indulge her.



Man, I love that dog.

Merry Maids

On Saturday I was doing a little tidying up, so Lily decided to "help."

Her first order of business was to hang two additional dishcloths on the handle of the oven door. I usually keep one there, but apparently that wasn't enough. She got one out of the cabinet and promptly hung it up. Then she got out another and spent several minutes folding and refolding it before she would hang it up. Notice that all the folding takes place on the floor, because everyone knows dishcloths are better after they've been thrown on the kitchen floor for a while.





Once the dishcloth situation was rectified, she gathered up some supplies (a rag from the bin of clean bags and the spray bottle of water I use for ironing) and headed off to the living room to clean the coffee table. She announced that the water wasn't just regular water, but "bleach water" (they use spray bottles of bleach water at school) and got to it.




The amusing thing is that she really, really, really likes that spray bottle. I finally hid it because she loved it so much she never wanted to put it down. She would just walk around the house with a spray bottle and a rag, spraying and wiping every surface.

Fingerpainting

One day last week when Lily and I got home from work/school, I asked if she wanted to do some painting. She suggested "we paint with our fingers and our hands," so I got out the fingerpaints and we headed to the back patio to give it a go.

(Note: The hat is a hat that usually stays at daycare for swimming days. Apparently she asked to leave it on after swimming, and then wore it all day -- including during her nap -- then wore it home and kept it on all evening.)

Jason's Deli

After a long weekend of working overtime and having my swamp cooler go out when it was 95 degrees outside, I didn't much feel like cooking last night. (Don't worry, it only got up to a pleasant 93 degrees inside the house.) Instead, I decided Lil and I would go out for dinner. When I picked her up from school I asked what she wanted to eat, and she suggested, "A hot dog and some pizza and some cold water, too." I settled on Jason's Deli, which is nearby, relatively healthy, and has free kids' meals on Monday nights. (Two of those three items helped get them named "The Best Restaurant in America" by Parents magazine.)

Lily settled in with a hot dog with a side of carrots. She requested some ranch for her carrots. Although I hate ranch, I dutifully went to the salad bar and got some ranch for her, then proceeded to gag just a little when she dunked all of her carrots in ranch and also ate all my strawberries dipped in ranch.

My fatal flaw was picking a booth that was very near the self-serve ice cream station. Fortunately, Lily had already finished her dinner by the time she said: "They got ice cream over there, Mama?" I let her have a little vanilla cone, which she dug into like a dingo eating a baby.


Dinner and dessert for two for $9? We might have to repeat this again some time.

Reading a Book

No, you don't need to adjust your audio on this video. Sometimes when we ride in the car, Lily likes to read books to herself. She makes up intricate stories (all of which start with "One day . . .") but often whispers them, as she does here.

Swimming

Lily and I go swimming together once a week, but the pool isn't a great place to take the camera, so I haven't taken any pictures yet. The last time we went I snapped a couple shots and a video.

Here's my bathing beauty just before hopping in the pool. (Sorry for the crazy hair. We go first thing in the morning, so I don't bother brushing it.)


And here are some "after" shots.



I also took this video of Lily putting her shorts back on after we were done. I don't know why it amuses me so much when she dresses herself. Maybe because she thinks her waistband belongs two inches above her belly button?

More Posing

Here's what happens these days when you ask Lily to "pose."






Does it go without saying that I was also a ham when I was a child?

Little Broom

Monday night Lily and I were hanging out in the backyard and I decided to sweep the patio. I got the broom and started doing my thing, but Lily told me she needed a broom, too. I asked if she wanted to use my broom, but she deemed it "too big" and told me she needed "a little broom."

Thinking on my feet, I went into the house and got her the little hand broom that goes with my dustpan. Apparently that was all wrong. First she said, "That's not a broom! That's a toothbrush!" I assured her it most definitely was not a toothbrush and promised it was a broom. The verdict? "This broom is for babies, Mama. I'm a girl."


Sometimes you just can't win. (Note: In the end she used it anyway.)

Little Chair

I've been working on some small projects around the house lately. One project was to find a little chair to put in my room so I'd have a place to sit when I put on shoes or something like that. On the wall opposite my bed, I had a large dresser, but I really didn't need all that storage in my room. So I moved the large dresser into the craft/sewing room (where I do need some storage) and moved a small cabinet into that space, which left plenty of room for a small chair next to it.

I found this "gem" at Goodwill for $7.99.


With a little spray paint (Heirloom White that I had on hand), some clearance fabric from Hancock, and some new foam from Hobby Lobby, I now have this.



Lily thinks it's a place for her to sit while I get ready in the morning.

And as a side note, I'll admit that thanks to a deep love for the Hunger Games trilogy, the whole time I was in Hobby Lobby, I was thinking, "I'm going shopping in The Hob." It really cracked me up, but won't make any sense unless you're on intimate terms with Katniss Everdeen.

Spelling and Singing

Here's a video I took about a week ago of Lily spelling her name, then singing my favorite song. You can how she's trying to hone her "showmanship" abilities by acting it out, singing part in a whisper, etc. It really, really cracks me up.


In case you're wondering, the lyrics are:

Three little monkeys swinging from a tree
Teasing Mr Alligator, "Can't catch me!'
Along came Mr Alligator, quiet as can be
And he snapped that baby right out of that tree.

Cliff's 2011

Every year my office has a summer event at Cliff's amusement park. The company buys tickets for every employee and their immediate family members, and also gives every attendee a company t-shirt.

This year Lily, JJ, and I went and spent our afternoon/evening with the Gaffney family, Nancy, and Patty.

Cliff's is filled with rides that cater to kids (and adults) of all ages. Lily, however, was a little scared of them. (Oh, those eyes. I love those eyes.)


While Connor rode the rides with Emily and Thomas, Lily was happy to wave from the sidelines.



Of course, when we got to the bigger rides, even Connor had to step back and hang out with Lil while the older people among us rode. Here they are waiting for Nancy, Patty, and JJ to come down the log ride.




The kids mostly seemed to enjoy walking around the park, seeing the sights and running in the grass.



They are both into the "run at an adult as fast as you can and then give a hug" game.



And everyone loves a spin (or three) on the carousel. (Lily would not get on a horse. She would only sit next to me on the bench. But she cried when we told her we were all done, so I guess she liked it quite a bit.)




JJ and Lily represented the least adventurous and the most adventurous members of our group, respectively. Maybe next year Lil will be willing to ride something on her own?

In the Car

I was recently flipping through the pictures I have on my BlackBerry and came across a few amusing ones of Lily from the car. So here they are, in a hodge podge car post.

The first few are all sunglasses shots. Lil loves her sunglasses. Any time it's bright, she said, "Oh! The sun come out! I need my sunglasses!" For some reason she almost always wears them upside down.



And apparently the New Mexico sun is so bright that she occasionally needs two pairs.


This last car shot is from our drive to Texas. We left at 3:30 in the morning, so Lil wore her jammies. Here she is during the one short nap she took on that loooong drive. I love the leg casually throw up on the armrest.

Aquarium/Botanic Garden

A couple weeks back Lil and I busted out our membership card again and made a trip to the Albuquerque aquarium and botanic garden.

Lily was excited to touch the fountains outside the aquarium:



And also loved showing off her posing skills inside:


But as usual, the model trains were the biggest hit of the day.