Pumpkin

After changing my mind several times, we've decided to go ahead and give out candy. I tried to get Lily a costume but she absolutely refused to wear one. Okay, she didn't like the witch's hats. I did find some head band thingies for Hallowe'en that she thinks are funny. So I got one for her and for me. :)

Today she was looking so grown up. She's only one year old. What happened to my baby???? I wonder how I'll feel when I see her graduate high school? Anyway, she loves her pumpkin. I haven't carved it yet. Sigh. At least the candy is ready to go. I even put up some sticky decorations on the door! I have some orange paper bags that say "BOO" on them. You put sand in the bottom so they don't blow away and then put a tealight in them. Yes, I will have a big bucket of water very close by.

I happened to get the pumpkin from Whole Foods. Not that I needed an organic one or anything. That just happened to be where I was when I saw one. Jeeze, defensive much? Anyway, Lily loves it. She can even lift it up. Oh yeah, my point was that I got the pumpkin on Sunday and I was back at WF today and no more pumpkins! Good thing I got it when I did. I wish everyone a happy and safe and SPOOKY Hallowe'en. :) May your candy bags be full and your spirits be liquid. ummmm

Surf & Turf

I've really been craving fish and chips but in an effort to be good, I bought some nice salmon yesterday. Just a piece big enough for me and with a little more in case Pedro wanted some. Well, Pedro did NOT want some. Luckily, Miss Lily was all over it! She never had salmon before tonight. And I know, salmon has the potential to have mercury in it so Miss Lily won't get it very often. :) Anyway, she got some of her daddy's steak too so she was living pretty high off the hog tonight!

I was good and took Lily out for a 2.5 mile walk. I was going to go in that little graveyard and then I thought... What if something follows me home? I must have Hallowe'en on the brain. BTW I saw 28 weeks later and it has NOTHING on 28 days later. However, as Hallowe'en gets closer I'll be watching fewer scary movies. :) Well, blogger is being a big old poop and the pictures aren't working. So I'll add them later if I can.

Fish & Chips

I am craving fish and chips. Some nice battered halibut with some crispy fries and a nice cold glass of pale ale. mmmmm I think it's the cold weather that's making me want some comfort food. Or the fact that I'm just a pig. :)

I'm feeling better. I no longer have a headache 20 out of the 24 hours in a day. Anyway, on to Lily stuff. I KNOW what's important. :P I took the above pic because Lily was sleeping with her fingers interlaced. awwww

I took the shoe picture cuz I thought it was so funny to see Lily's little shoes next to my huge slippers. They are a tad too big for me. hmpf Well, nothing really new to report. Lily is walking better than ever. She seems to be over the worst of her teething for the moment. She's been sort of sleeping through the night. She sleeps 8 to 5. I mean, that's pretty good. We decided to hand out Hallowe'en candy this year. I tried putting witch's hats on Lily and she was having NONE of it. So no costume for Lily this year. :) Gosh, I still have to carve a pumpkin!

Oh yeah! The thing about the shoes is that I'm sure Miss Lily will be as tall as I am or taller so she may find it funny to see the little shoes she once wore. :)

Oh yeah, part 2! When we were out shopping today, Lily smiled at an old lady. She let the lady say hi and touch her. We were told that her grandkids live far away (Maine and NC) and she hadn't seen them for a long time. "I'm all alone". She was very happy to see Miss Lily's smile. Although she thought Lily was a boy at first (but we're very forgiving). Anyway, it was nice to make someone's day. :)

Tired

I kind of ran out of posting gas. ummm I mean I ran out of energy. I've been trying to update my resume and apply for jobs online. I forgot how much work it is to look for work! I want something part-time, weekends only. If anyone is reading this... :) I was looking through old pictures and even if I don't have a job to show for my efforts I can be proud of a few other things.



Namely, I got rid of that little pain in the *ss, Thomas. Just kidding. :) But in the picture, he's sitting on a pile of books, which are piled on top of a filing cabinet. The filing cabinet and the books are no longer here. I've put a lot of work into getting the house cleaned out. Of course, it keeps on getting filled up with Lily toys but that's neither here nor there. :)

In Lily news... The poor thing is getting a molar in. She wakes up at night sobbing, even after some Tylenol. :( Hopefully, it will be over soon. She was awake from midnight to 2am. I gave in and took her to bed. It took a while to calm her down. phew Do you get medals for this parenting thing??? I've earned something! And not just my new gray hair and wrinkles. Oh and more importantly, it's raining! It's raining! It's been raining all day and it's going to rain all night. We're in a drought watch so this is awesome. :)

Cheeky Monkey

Lily went and got her shots today. Four shots! She did really well. Of course she screamed when she got them, and I got a good view of the teeth coming in. But as soon as she stopped getting shots she stopped screaming and actually grinned and waved goodbye to the nurse. The nurse said that I did a good job too. She said that kids pick up a lot of their reactions from their parents and that I was nice and calm. :)

These are pictures from today. She likes the musical seat thingie. She just prefers to sit in it backwards. Lily definitely knows what she likes. Thankfully, she's very forgiving when something happens that she doesn't like. In that way she's a lot different than me!

Anyway, here's what progressed as she sat on her toy. She discovered she could pull herself up on her toy. Then she discovered she could stand. I mean, are most 1 year olds like this???

She also tried to destroy the playstation today. She pulled it out of the entertainment center and dropped it on the floor. Then she unplugged and of course, chewed on the plugs. Sigh. I think it's time for some high shelving units, no??

Next

I couldn't put in as many pictures as I wanted because Miss Lily was roaming around the study wreaking havoc. But now my little pudding is fast asleep so I can put up some more. The sleeping princess is very sweet. :) I hadn't been able to get her to nap all day so she finally just collapsed on me and I plunked her in the crib, dress and all. :) Where are 7 dwarfs (dwarves?) when you need them?

This one is from this morning when Lily and grandpa finally became friends. She made him walk her around the house for quite a while. This isn't being mean to grandpa but I think Miss Lily likes to walk so much that she isn't choosy about who helps her. :) Whatever gets them closer to being friends. :) I should mention that grandpa decorated the diningroom but it was so beautiful outside, somehow we all ended up out there.



Lily was traveling around the house so fast I had trouble keeping ahead of her to take pictures. She's so good at standing still. She event bent over to pick something off of the floor and didn't fall over! I know now that running is around the corner. Good thing I have an old dog leash. Kidding!!! It's a choke chain. ha!





And here Miss Lily is proving that she can hang with the boys. That's Pedro's uncle Danny on Pedro's left. Would that make him Lily's Gruncle (Great + Uncle) Danny? He gave her a wonderful soft Poohbear and a seat with a musical thingie that makes lots and lots of noise. Thanks Uncle Danny.

I also want to mention that when we got home today it was 67F in the house. I didn't have the heat on. I'll bet the cats were snuggling last night! It felt so good though to finally feel the house cool. It's only what, October 21st?? I know, I know. Next week the highs will be in the 40's and I'll be complaining about that. It's just in my nature. Deal. ha! (I think I'm going through a sugar detox)

Birthday Party!!

I'm not sure how much of this I'll be able to do. Lily is a little cranky and pulling on the keyboard. But I'll do my best. It's hard to come back to reality after being a princess at grandma and grandpa's house. :)

We had a little bit of time before the party started so Lily was hanging out with grandma. Those fall leaves are sure purdy!





Then it was off for a walk with daddy. She led the whole way around the yard. In her cute new shoes, or course. :)





Lily got lots of nice birthday gifts - she says, thank you! Or dat oo. :)










It wasn't until a few people left that I remembered she had a party dress. So feast your eyes on this!











And this!

Shoot

I think Miss Rae, my kindergarten teacher all those years ago, was right. I would forget my head if it wasn't screwed on. I forgot to include Miss Lily's birthday lunch picture. Ta da!



Do I need to mention it was a little bit cold in the restaurant???

Cake

Yay, Miss Lily is one year old! I'm not going to bore everyone with stories, because it's late at night and I have a lot of cake and ice cream to clean up. The pictures should be chronological through the day. Don't miss the Nap one.... I think it's the best picture I've ever taken of Lily!

Oh yeah, and check out cute new shoes. :)















I do feel like I should point out that the cake eating has reinforced my decision to keep Lily away from sugary foods. She was a little crazy beast after all the sugar. Bathwater was sent flying to the four corners of the bathroom. Thankfully, it was short lived and she went to sleep without making any complaints. :)

Deck

I forgot to put up pictures of the deck in progress. Indulge....















No, no steps yet. It's taken 2 years to get THIS far.

Told / Eve

Well, I was told to update the blog by Pedro. And it's the Eve of Miss Lily's first birthday!!!! So first thing first, I bought her these boots today. Too cute, right??? Don't worry there's lots of pictures of her boots. She kept giggling as we tried them on in the store. And yes, I expect she'll usually wear some pants or something with them. :)




I'm also going to try to upload a video. Now, Miss Lily does fall down at the end so let me know if it's too upsetting and I'll take it off the blog. But she only cried for about 2 seconds and she was off and running again. It does show her control over her walking (except for the falling part). She can stop and change direction (and then fall over).






The boots have velcro parts where the fluffy part is down the side. Yes, I bought them a couple of sizes too big. I can't stand it, they're just too cute! And Lily doesn't have any pants on because it was over 80 again today and she had leather fluffy boots on!

Tomorrow Lily and I are going out for lunch with Stacy. If Daddy's nice we might bring him the scraps. :) MIGHT. I couldn't find any cute black shoes (hint hint birthday shoppers out there).


I personally blame BG for the fall, you can see her trying to get around him. :)

Preparations...

It's Miss Lily's birthday on Thursday so I'm starting to panic about the party now. :) Unfortunately, I've had some other things on my mind but I've put them to the side to concentrate on what's important here and now. I mean really, my little bean will have survived a year!! woohoooo!

Lily and BG are sharing window space for fresh air. It was 80F today. Do you know how crazy that is??? I like it when the seasons tiptoe up to each other. I think this year it's going to be a plunge from summer to fall. brrrrrr I hope BG and Lily will be good friends. He puts up with her better than the other cats. :)

Let's see today on Sesame Street there was a bit with Anderson Cooper. He was joined by Dan Rather Not and Walter Cranky. HA! Okay, I was laughing. And I got to see my favorite song on Between the Lions. I realized I've been getting some of it wrong.

Sven said Ted, send ten tents
Ted said Sven, send ten cents
When Sven sent Ted ten cents

Ted sent Sven his ten tents

Then Ted sent Sven ten tents

I hold Lily facing me and sing to her slowly, then speed up and try not to screw up the words. It's hard but fun and she laughs like a fool. :) Okay, the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Here's one of my favorite funny baby videos:

Crazy

A few days shy of being a toddler and Miss Lily is driving me crazy. I will take part blame for it. We've been trying to clean out the house, thereby making a huge mess. Lily likes to get into things. I'm frustrated right now that we don't have a safe Lily room. I have to constantly say "don't touch!" and I know that sucks for me AND her. Mostly me though. :)

And here is the reason that Pedro and I can't leave baby stuff out around the house. BG likes to make "friends" with them. I think the Elmo chair was too big to be molested but I still don't want cat hair all over the place. Let me rephrase that. I DO have cat hair all over the place. I try to keep it off of Lily's stuff.

On the positive side, we did get an old stereo table out of the house. We also started on a side porch. I'd say the side porch, but we haven't had one for a while. We got the posts in and a frame done. Yes, I helped dig the post holes! My shoulders aren't hurting YET. Yes, that's Lily climbing into a filing container. Maybe she'll be a really tall spelunker when she grows up.

Daddy turned that same container into a toy box (I think the toys are breeding by themselves) and she wasted NO time in climbing in it. I'm not sure what the tongue has to do with it.


Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we watched a really good documentary last night - The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. If you've got Netflix, watch it!!! (I cried a couple of times - dern cute parrots) Pedro even shushed me a couple of times, so you know it's good. :)

I also forgot to mention that Lily is walking a good deal more. It ain't perfect but it's not uncommon to see her walk four or five feet on her own. And Pedro, if you see this - she got a hold of Loki, and she loves it.

hmpf

Well, Miss Lily wasn't as heavy as I thought she'd be. She's only 26 pounds. I guess we could have kept her jumper longer. (I don't want to hear it Pedro!) She does have a big old melon - 19.5 inches. Her height is beautifully following the growth chart - it's just well above it. She's the size of an average 21 month old. Wow. The thing that I was worried about was her iron level. They did a finger prick for that. 36%, the nurse said it was perfect! Go mommy!

How did she behave? Well, she's a week shy of her birthday so she didn't get any shots. That probably had a lot to do with the fact that she didn't cry. I brought her favorite monkey with her and when she got agitated, I'd rub her monkey's tail lightly over her face and she loved that! Seriously. So we're going back on the 22nd for shots. weeeeee!

And I checked online and anaranhado is spanish for orange. What-ever.

Oy vey

I couldn't post anything yesterday. I had to let the shock of the events settle a bit. I had a crappy day but it got much worse. It looks like a big truck hit our mailbox. We share a post with the neighbour across the street. Theirs is all twisted, ours is on the ground. While I was talking to someone from the maintenance department at the lake, an older man drove by and said he saw mail scattered on the road, scooped it all up and put it in the one remaining mailbox. What a lovely man, no? That wouldn't have happened in the city!

Anyway, in going with my crappy day theme, I decided to get my flu shot as well. My arm is still sore. :P I wasn't home when the mail box was hit or I probably would've been after the driver like a shot! I do like Boo Radley-ing out the window. And if you don't know what that means, read To Kill a Mockingbird, slackers!

Today Miss Lily has a doctor's appointment so I'll have to let everyone know how much the behemoth weighs. I do have a lot of questions since we haven't seen him in a while. She's a pretty healthy (and destructive) baby so I haven't been doing too much wrong. My kind of questions are: will her teeth grow straight. Pedro's: can she have a baby pillow. No kidding. Lily slept through the night. But Pedro took her to bed with him. I know it's sweet and he loves to snuggle but I think she needs to be able to sleep on her own, in her own crib. I know, I'm a grinch.