Easter Egg Tree

Last night Kalie came over for the afternoon and we made an Easter Egg Tree with Lily.  Growing up my mom put wooden painted eggs on branches in a vase for Easter.  I remember looking at those eggs on the branches with such awe and wonder.  I cannot put into words how it made me feel as a kid so I thought that I would start the same tradition of wonderment for Lillian.  When the branches are up in the house it feels like a sign of a coming Spring.  So....Spring we are ready any time.

The pictures are a little out of order of course blogspot does not make posting pictures super user friendly.

The final tree.  This morning Lily woke up pointing at the  tree and talking all about Aunt Kalie, Daddy, Mommy and the tree; so already it is working. 

The pool

We have taken Lily to a near-by pool a few times and she has become a pro at the kid's waterslide.  The only thing she wants to do the entire time is the slide.  Unfortunately this was not her best take at the slide but you get how fun it is.  The first video should be second but it would not let me post it that way.

A big day at the park

I like many every other parents attempt to get pictures of Lily smiling.  Instead what I typically get is her saying "no" and looking at her feet in protest.  Here she is running at me after posing saying, "let me see, let me see."  On a different note Lily picked out her outfit on this day (minus the shirt), for the shirt she picked out a hot pink zippy hoody.  She also picked out her purple tennis shoes as pictured below.  I, of course, loved it especially when you add her hat and gloves- I had to take pictures.

There is a cute little park with a nice walk for Roxy by our house.  When we arrive she is typically yelling "park" and when we get there she is all business.....up the stairs and down the slide until other kids arrive then she does whatever they do.

Running to catch up with me to walk Roxy.

Why we love Chev

Lily LOVES Chevy.  She likes to be wherever he is and do whatever he is doing.  Here she is pointing out the birds to Chevy.

He quickly got annoyed with her pointing out every bird so he moved to a location he thought she would be unable to get to.  Lily being the quick thinker she is went and got her chair and climbed up right next to him.

She lies on him, sits on him, snuggles him and kisses him.  He takes it all and eventually leaves when he needs a break.

She even tries to take his food.  He is such a patient and great kitty.

Local Tattle Tale

Sue is Lily's daycare provider.  She tells us that Lily is always the one that tells Sue when someone is doing something wrong.  As you can see it happens at home too.  She tells on Roxy and Chevy all of the time. "Roxy ate my bread." "Chevy uh aflt table." (translation: Chevy is on the table.)  Here she is first thing in the morning.

Do you like how her phone matches her necklace and outfit?

Frequently she picks up anything that looks like a phone and says "hello" and then walks around the house talking on it. Today the necklace with the phone just topped the cake.

Someone LOVED her Valentine's Day surprise from Aunt Susan and Uncle Bob.  Thank you guys.  She can even tell you the colors of the bracelets.   We have been working on our colors and she is actually starting to master a few click the link to see......   http://youtu.be/sFVEKyk7DWQ

Congratulations Dave and Carrie

We were in Gaylord this weekend to celebrate the marriage of Dave and Carrie.  They got married in St. Thomas, just the two of them in January and so Chuck and Sheila threw them a party to celebrate.  Left to Right Brianna, Dermot, Julie, Lily, Colin, Carrie, Dave, Sheila, Charlie.

Lily had a great time running around with all of her cousins.  Here she is with Calvin, looking at her adoringly, and Nona. 

She is quite the reader these days.  She has moved passed children's books onto chapter books.  She is reading to Uncle Dave here.

Brianna all ready to go snow shoeing.  She was sporting some oldy but goodies from the closet.  Click the picture to get a good close-up!

Sheila stayed home and watched Lily while we got out on the snow.  Left to Right Carrie, Dave, Bri, Dermot, Colin, Charlie, Julie

Blowing Bubbles with Mimi

Look at the bubbles on the left in the sink.  Lily LOVED it.

Peak a wow with Poppie.  At least that is what she calls peak a boo.

We went and checked on the cottage and Lily got a little time to play in the snow.  She did have a hat and gloves but those did not last.

Here she is showing off her new sparkly shoes.  She had to have them on with her pjs.

The Motivator!

Last week Lily and I were home for the day I decided that we were going to start to nail down this whole potty thing.  So we spent the morning talking about peeing in the potty, poo poo in the potty, how all of Lily's friends go pee pee on the potty like big kids.  We sat on the potty MANY times throughout the morning each time spending at least 20 minutes reading on the potty.  I have  stickers, I have special potty books, I have "surprises."  The first time she got off the potty walked 10 feet and peed on the floor.  Everything says to have them clean it up.....haha like that is a learning lesson for my child- she LIKES to clean up.  So immediately she runs over the the wash clothes and cleans up the mess, saying " mess, mess."  So then an hour later I bribe her with more things.....we sit on the potty 20 minutes...she never goes and she gets off the potty.  I immediately put a diaper on her because I learned my lesson the first time and 2 minutes later she comes up to me and points to her diaper and says "poo poo."  So of course she peed in her diaper right after we sat on the potty.  So I get serious. Lily does not get very many treats, maybe a cookie every 2-3 weeks, so I pull out all the stops and say, " Lily if you go pee pee in the potty mommy will give you a chocolate chip."  And with that my child squeals, does a double fist pump and runs to the potty.  I sit her on the potty and she pees immediately.  She even pooped that night on the potty.  So well knowing she was going to daycare the next day and we would lose a little ground I did what any reasonable parent would do I called her Mimi.  We went to Gaylord for the weekend and I knew she would want to show off for Chuck and Sheila, so like the great grandparents they are Sheila had stickers galore for Lily and she did show off by peeing in the potty a few times.   It was not consistent but it is a start.

So today I am home again and after talking to many moms about their solutions I decided to get a potty that sits on the ground and lots of toys that she picked out as a reward.  She of course picked out the most expensive Baby Bejorn Potty ( I understand why it looked the most comfortable) and then she proceeded to carry it around target for 75% of the trip.  When we got home I set the toys on the table so she could see them and asked her if she needed to go pee on the potty.  If she did she could pick one of the toys to play with.  She did not go running to the potty this time, instead after lunch she gave me the cue that she needed to go, I told her about the toys again and she agreed.  So as a reward she picked out the princess panties.  I am in no way ready to get rid of the diapers so we put them over her pants and she loved it.