Changes!!

Changes are a part of life a means of survival. So this blog is all about the changes in my life. To start the few small changes here at Lily Bug and Me... as you've seen I changed the background and with it come a few little glitches. First is that a few of my old posts photos now over lap, and my list of other peoples blogs has been erased. Nothing big, I am working on fixing those problems.

Moving on to the big changes. I have finally fell into a salary teaching position at the college and am a classified employee. I am the afternoon toddler teacher and having so much fun. Here are a few pictures to share my fun filled days. A few of the kids having a pot and pan band and a few of the girls gathering in the playhouse. Children are such a blessing in everyday life. They warm your heart in so many ways! Not only do I get to watch them all grow but I am a taking part in helping these little people gain knowledge and life experiences. Having the amazing ability to be with Lily is also a once in a life time opportunity. She is growing so fast, talking, jumping, running, singing actual songs and developing friendships and trusting other adults. Like her wonderful am teacher Diana.

Talking about all these new changes for Lily brings us to our next life changes. It is March and that means that Lily will be turning 2 in less than a month!!!! Oh my how she has changed in the past few weeks. She is an amazing little girl full of lost of spunk, inelegance and heart. Just in the past month her vocabulary has more than doubled, her ability to communicate sky rocked and her comprehension is that of a young child not a toddler. She is speaking in full sentences, understands all directions, and engaging in imaginative play by her self. It is amazing. And she uses the potty! Not all the time but is doing a great job training her self.

Still behind

Seaming how I have such a hard time keeping up an my blogs I have chose to just post several photos from December and January. Christmas was great with Lily this year she truly enjoyed the wrapping paper and her new toys. It was great to see the Longs and to spend time with all the Grandparent!

Long over due

Wow it has been sense September that I last wrote and it is now almost February 2009. Everyone always use to tell me that life goes bye faster and faster every year that you grow older and I never believed them. But now I totally understand. It seams like year after year life flies bye faster and faster. And now that I am a mother the speed flies bye me by the week even the day.
Although life is flying bye I must say I am happy, healthy and loving most of life. I am busy as always and have lost to share from the past 3-4 months. So here we go. October was a fun month. As most of you know I was teaching in the toddler room at the CDC and was really enjoying it. I did daily art projects and played with the children all the time. I enjoyed the people I worked with and was able to succeed in school. Toddlers are at such a neat age and so full of life that no matter how ruff of a day you are having they are sure to bring joy to you hearts. To wrap up the month was my favorite holiday, Halloween! Lily was a hula girl this year and able to actually try to trick or treat. Tahoe has this thing called Treat Street, a motel that businesses from around town hand out candy to kids from each room and its a safe place with a family enviorment, music, food, advertisement for the business and fun for the kids. Then we went to play at my friend Nicole's house whom has a daughter, Serenity, who is only 1 month younger than Lily. To end the holiday we attended a gathering at my work (Ltcc CDC) called the Harvest festival where we played with children ages 1-5, ate snacks, played game, face painting and fun. A fun filled month that brought lots of smiles! Lily is just starting to understand that the people her size are her friends. She hugs them and says "friends"!

November was also a event filled month with lots of activities and things to do. As most toddlers do Lily is starting to want to do any and everything on her own. Like insisting on putting her hat on all by her self. Cute but does nothing to keep the ears warm. With this new desire to do, she has also begun to be quite the helper in the kitchen. She helps her obachan all the time with baking cookies and preparing dinner. Here she is helping Hanna-Ma make pancakes for breakfast. And then of course kicking back with papa!
In addition to all the excitement at home with the family Lily also has many play dates! I do some babysitting to help make up for only working part time. It is nice to have the connections from work and then to see Lily interact with both older and younger kids.


Wrapping up October and November Is Thanksgiving. A holiday all about giving thanks! I am so thankful for my dear little Lily and my amazing family. I love you all!!

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!