A festival and visit

Some time in early October Lily's dad Davis called and said that his family and him would like to see her so we arranged to have a visit at beautiful Camp Richardson. During the fall they have many events and I thought it would be a good place and thing to share with everyone. So on a warm sunny Sunday Lily and I packed our bags to go to the Octoberfest and the Taylor Creek Visitors Centers annual Kokanee Salmon Run. It was fun to watch Lily look at all the fish and have so much fun doing something my mom once took me to do.

It had been a little over a month sense Lily had seen Davis and sense June that his parent had seen her. So naturally it took some time for her to warm up to them but she eventually did and especially to Cindy, her grandma. As sad as it is she preferred her over Davis. She was very happy to see Lily and I enjoyed watching the two of them bond.

Cindy and her husband Alex had never been to the salmon run so it was also neat to share a Tahoe event with them. Alex is a very nice man and always a pleasure to be around. Lily is their only granddaughter out of 7 soon to be 8 grand kids and you can see the joy that she brings to his heart.

After we walked through the visitor center and saw the fish I let Lily play in a small pumpkin patch at the Octoberfest and she was really cute. For Lily's sake I hope that visits like this happen more often.

At Papa and Hannama's

Once again it has been to long sense my last post but a lot has been going on. Work, school and everyday life!

I also spent some time at my dad and Rhonda's house watching there animals while the two of them went deer hunting. It was very nice to have some alone time and to be in a different environment. Lily loved being around the animals and would walk around saying, "meow...meow" while chasing the poor cat and also gave Dolly, the puppy, a hard time by pulling on her ears. Not hard enough to cause harm but it did hurt I am sure. Sorry Dolly! In the living room of their house there was a hat that Lily seamed to love almost as much as the animals and she would wear it for a long time it was really cute.
Another thing I was able to do while enjoying our time at Papa and Hanna's was cook for Lily and I. Something I don't do that often because my mommy cooks for us most of the time. Anyway, while I would be cooking Lily would have to find things to entertain herself and at one point it was putting the spices in the dishwasher. She discovers the cupboard with off the spices in it, how to open and close the dishwasher and load them in. It was pretty funny. But don't worry Dad and Hanna I was sure to put them all back and not to let her wash them! :-)
Thanks for having us over, we are happy to hang with the animals anytime.

A Lot Going On

Life has been so busy that I have hardly had time to think about doing a blog. Sorry it has been so long!
Lily and I are starting our days at 6am and not ending them until about 7:30pm, so it has been quite the change for both of us, but well worth it. I am really enjoying my teacher position at the CDC and truly love the fact that I still get to be with my little girl. I have planed out activities for everyday and am just amazed at how advanced and well Lily participates. She loves to do art (painting, coloring, gluing) and will cry when it is time to clean up and move on. Besides the 6 hours with me in the morning Lily is also staying for 4 hours at school without me on Mondays and Wednesdays plus for 2 hours with my mom on Tuesdays and Thursday. I am taking 2 classes, a kickboxing course and using the gym at the college so our time apart has been healthy, not to long and only strengthening our bond. No matter where we are Lily is a busy bee and always has something to explore and discover At age 1 1/2 she has to large of a vocabulary for me to continue to list it all so I thought I would just share a few. My favorite is hug which comes out more like ug and is always accompanied by a warm and loving hug. Obachan and Grandpa's favorite is Lily, yes she says her own name and it comes out Lily with a dramatic tongue movement and a big smile. I think Lily's favorite is apple because she says it a lot. Here are a few photos from September that I really like. She has had the pleasure to now eat suckers (lolly pops), and lick the beaters. Yeah!! Those of you that are parent know that kids like kids, right? At least it is true for Lily she LOVES her Auntie Rosebud. The two of them play together all the time and recently Rose dressed her up like a pretty princess. On her own Lily will put hats, necklaces, socks and other clothes on plus carry a purse. But this was the first time she ever really got to play dress up!

Belly button

I am at work the other day and our assistant director Karen shares with me some of Lily's cute moments. For a long time now she has had a obsession with socks and shoes. Oh yeah she says ohes (shoes). Anyways...so I though it was going to have something to do with shoes but instead it was that the two of them were reading a book called Where is Baby's Belly Button by Karen Katz. And yes, I had no idea that she knew where her bell button is, and she does. If you ask here where her belly button is she lifts her shirt, puts her head down and looks at her belly and points to her belly button. AHH it is so freaking cute.

Growing up I always said that I would stay home with my kids until they were 5 or so but the situation I have is better. We are still together, I'm getting a paycheck and she gets the learning experience as well as the social interaction. She loves other kids even though she is a little bit of a bully. Recently her most played activities are in the play houses with her babies. Look another Lily word, baby. She loves them and caries them around and a purse in the other arm. Monkey see...monkey do!

Communicating

Communication is such an important part of life and it just amazes me that we all start as tiny little infants that don't know how to talk, express our feeling, want or need, or really do much of anything other that eat, sleep, poop, cry and of course grow. There is nothing else in life that is as rewarding as watching your child develop into her own individual person. Lily has stolen every ounce of heart and brings so much joy to my life I could not ever imagine life without her. Just in the past 3-4 months she has began to truly speak and like I had mentioned in one of my first post her communication skills and vocabulary are growing the latest are: book, good girl (but sounds like goo goo), thank you (with the baby sign), night night, moo, baa, la la la, Lily, obachan (bama), rose (ose), no no, please (pease), dog dog, go, car, meow, more and lots of not understandable babel. It almost seams like everyday there is a new word but I cant seam to think of the all so I'll have to get better at writing them down or posting them.


Still one of her favorite things to do is reading and she is so funny about. If you sit down she will walk over to her shelf say book, look at the row of the and actually be looking for a particular one. Her favorite ones are by the same author, Sandra Boynton, and are Doggies and Moo, Baa, La La La. Hence the fact the she is saying all of those words. She has everyone read these books to her so much that if you are lucky enough to catch her sitting at her little table in the living room, which use to be roses, without her seeing you, you will find her reading the books out loud to herself. She knows what page goes with what sound. In Doggies she reads " Dog Dog, ...nnn...nnn...nnn and AAAA-OOOOOOOO, all dog noises on her favorite pages in the book. And of course in the other she reads moo with the cow, ba with the sheep, and la la la with the 3 singing pigs.

Something else I have just been amazed with is a child's ability to sleep in the most uncomfortable looking position and places or some through so really loud noises. When Lily falls asleep in the car or in the stroller or something her head falls forward and if it were my head I would have one huge kink. Another is in her crib...she wiggles so much and ends up all over, sideways, but in the air, head at the foot, face smashed into the rails and feet hanging out. What!!! If this was one of us adults, for sure we would have woken up.

Photos!

A few from work/school. One of my favorite preschoolers Henry, age 3, and Lily sleeping at nap time on her cot.

One day I was sorting laundry, something Lily like to help me do, and she got distracted by a pile of my high heals in the closet. So naturally she attempted to put them on. So this is Lily in my closet with my underwear around her neck and trying to put on one of my high heals, something every little girl does I hope.
This last February the fam took a trip to Hawaii while Lily and I stayed home and took care of all the snow and sense we could not go they brought Hawaii to us...in the form of a grass skirt and coconut shell top for Lily. So finally able to wear it here she is.

Last is one more of those smiles I cant get enough of!!

Still Catching!!!!!

With catching in mind I thought I would share with all of you something Lily and I have begun to enjoy very much, Fishing! It had been a long time sense I had been fish until I went with my boyfriend and his family to Sawmill Pound. A small pound here on the South Shore that is stocked full of trout and only for children to fish in. Together with the family and some friends there was 15 kids, 14 adults and lots of fish. We never did that again, however Stevie, his kids, Lily and myself have continued to fish in other place throughout the summer. Places that us adults can fish too.

This leads us to one day when Stevie, Lily and I were out fishing and as the day unfolded I could hear Krystal's vice in my head..."you see pictures that would make a great blog," and that is what happened.

The three of us gathered all of our gear one morning and headed out to Eco Lake. From the moment we got there and put the line in the water the fish were biting. This of course led to a lot of casting and reeling ...to Lily throwing and pulling. So excited and wanting to do it to Lily tried to look over the side of the dam, unable to see what was going on on the other side, she looked at me, then her sippy cup, then took a few step back and threw her cup into the Lake. Unfortunately we were fishing off of a dam. So retrieving this cup was not going to be an easy task. Needles to say mommy spent the next 10-15 minutes fishing for a sippy cup. Lucky for Lily the dam's wall is short and I'm a determined women, it took several attempts but I was able to get the cup when it reach the other side of the dam. We caught many fish that day and brought them home for dinner.

Things like this have become much more fun now that Lily is walking and has her own way of communicateing and interacting. Not that I did not have fun when she was a baby but watching her play and have fun is much more satisfying then just holding her. I'm sure it is more enjoyable for her as well. She definitely likes to partake in everything that mommy is doing, it all part of the learning experience I guess :-)

Catching up!!!

After sending out the email letting everyone know about my blog I got lots of request for more photos. So I thought I would just post some pictures of our everyday events and some of our fun times. Here they are:

(left) Lily dancing in Papa and Hanna's living room.

(right) Sun bathing at the beach with her cool shades and hat.

Lily and her Auntie Rosebud are quite the team and play together almost everyday. Here they are on a hot summer day playing in the sprinkler.

Another partner in crime is Myriah, my boyfriends daughter. Ready for bed here are the two of them watching TV.

It is so neat to watch Lily interact with all the different people in our lives. She is a shy and cautious little thing around new people and situations. But once she gets to know you or is comfortable in her surroundings she comes out of her shell and joins in all of the fun.
This is her new smile...CHEESE!!!!!!!!