Happy Birthday Lily!

Because Lisa and Adam had to leave today, we celebrated Lily's birthday yesterday a few days early with Grandpa and them at Chuckie Cheese!  While she had no idea what in the world everyone was doing or what all was going on, Lily had a BLAST, and especially loved the dancing characters, watching the other kiddos, and collecting her tickets.

Most, she was thrilled over her Elmo cake...Lily is just a cake (icing) kind of girl!  We had just an awesome day, and are so blessed to have had Lily in our lives for 2 whole years!  She is such a joy to us both and to those around us, and is a constant reminder to us both of His deep love and unending patience and joy for US!

too cute Lily-isms

Lily is LOVING being on vacation!  From late bedtimes to candy flavored ice cream, she is overjoyed every moment.  With lots of new things to see, she is talking incessantly, and cracked us up yesterday and today.

The largely European crowd we are with have proved to be largely secular in a lot of ways.  Yesterday afternoon, she was playing in the baby pool while a woman with a romance novel sat in the water reading. Lily eye-balled her for a long time, and finally inched closer and closer, then pointed to her book and said, "That your Bible?"

The woman laughed, and said, "No, lovey, this is not my Bible.  Just my book."

Lily stared at her and stared at her book, and then stuck out her lower lip and looked at the ground and over her nose at the woman.  And kept staring.

Finally, the woman said, "I'm sorry hunnie!"

"OK." Lily said, much happier.

Then this morning we were at breakfast RIGHT across from a very large man with a HUGE white beard.  Halfway through eating, Lily noticed him, and said loudly to Matt and I while pointing, "Santa Clause is RIGHT THERE!"

We cracked up, and then signaled her to shush.  "MOMMY!  RIGHT THERE!" she kept saying, wide-eyed and pointing, worried that I didn't understand what a big deal this was.

It was SO cute.  Luckily, Santa Clause either ignored her or didn't hear her (or gets it all the time).

What used to be a good vacation was sitting for three days with coffee and a good book.  Now, we may not be sitting much, and I didn't even bother bringing a good book, but watering flowers, chasing birds, playing on the playground, raking the sand, eating yogurt, stalking other children and watching Santa is a REALLY good time. When she's this happy, everybody's happy.

Guys Tatouni!

One of the pregnancy websites is encouraging me, when struggling with extreme morning sickness, just to eat whatever I can, promising that "your body knows what you need to stay healthy during this time."

Well, I'm PRETTY sure that's not true, because I'm also pretty sure that I need something more than what Doritos, mint ginger tea and the occasional Jello cup is giving me.  Nonetheless, I have NEVER eaten more than 20 Doritos in my life, and I am making up for it now thanks to some wonderful family trying to help my whims.

It might just be that I'm a first time mom, but I swear there are some things about Lily that just aren't normal for an almost 2 year old.

Playing in the cabinets?  Normal.

Shaving cream?  Normal.  ("Just a LITTLE bit!" she always says :)

But telling us in the middle of her bedtime stories, "Nigh-Night, Mommy.  Nigh-Night, Poppy.  Off light, please.  Close door!  Bye-Bye!" ???  Most nights, we are tripping over each other trying to get out of her room fast enough before she has to resort to, "PLEASE! BYE-BYE!".  Can't be normal.
And this morning, while we were working up at the Seminary, she asked Gertha to please, "Go see Poppy. Go see Mommy." So, Gertha brought her up to Matt's office, and for a few minutes we cuddled her and she played with my calculator.  After about five minutes, I said, "Ok, hunnie.  Mommy and Poppy have to finish working.  Can you go with Gertha now?"

I waited for the meltdown, and instead, she said, "Oh, Man!  Ok, Mommy.  Bye-Bye, Mommy.  Bye-Bye Poppy," and toddled off with Gertha.  JUST LIKE THAT.  That can't be normal.

Then this afternoon she was playing with some face wash and starting to open it.  I said, "Lily, no no.  Can you please give that to Mommy?"  And again!  "OK, Mommy." and forked it right over.

Maybe it's all the hours of prayer over this spunky little one, but I am so thankful that, for now, she knows when it is time to obey and does.  Her joy, creativity and contentment make life so much sweeter.

 Her newest thing is doubling over in laughter whenever Matt or something makes her laugh.  She throws her head into her arms and howls...it is too cute.

eatin' her ribs last night!

Tonight, while she and Matt were walking, they walked past the mens dorm, and she saw a bunch of the guys (just their heads and shoulders, don't worry...and YES, we need curtains) showering.

"Guys Tatouni!" she yelled, laughing hilariously.  (Guys "Naked" in Creol)

Praise the Lord for this little gift.  It is hard to imagine having another one, who will be an entirely different human being, on the way!

singing songs

This morning on Lily and Matt's daily walk, they were daydreaming, as normal.

"Lily," Matt said, "Wouldn't it be fun if we lived in a log cabin in the woods?  And it was snowing?  And we were sitting around the fire?  And you and Mommy and the Baby and I were reading books?"

"Mm-Hmm!" Lily said immediately.  "'n sing songs!"

SO cute :)  She's becoming more and more of a little person!

"Mommy's SICK!" Lily keeps saying, reminding me that it's getting harder and harder to keep things from her these days... I HATE that I'm too nauseated and exhausted all the time to run around with her, dance, chase her and play outside.  She waits for Daddy to come home and then the two of them go nuts.

Lily had a wonderful time with "G-pa" and loved getting the extra attention and spoilage.  She is talking like crazy, just recently very into Princesses, and is getting the hang of singing, and has started singing to herself all the time everything from "ABC song", "Twinkle Twinkle" to "Jesus Loves Me."  She's almost got the alphabet down, numbers 1-10, most of her animals, but MAN, I can't get colors into her little head for the life of me.

I've been anxious to find out if she's colorblind like her Daddy...hopefully this isn't a sign :)  And yes, Don, we are STILL working on potty training!  Some days she does SO  well, and then yesterday she climbed up on the coffee table, peed all over it, and yelled, "Mommy!  Pee-pee!" while clapping her hands.  Not quite there yet.

So thankful for Matt during this time, who is Lily's hero, playmate, always helping me, keeping our spirits up and working overtime at Emmaus and at home...Gift from God!

pix soon...

more dress up

yep, these are two skirts

dress up

This girl just LOVES to dress up.  

in her sparkle shoes

winter pajamas

Mom's shirt "Dress" and poppy's shoes

her too-little Elmo dress and Elmo shoes

in her favorite outfit, with the Hubele's slip n'slide

chuch on Sunday

mismatched socks

and sound asleep, standing up, yesterday morning (Matt's mom has a picture of him JUST like this when he was little)

what are friends for?

but to snuggle...

cuddle...

and club, immediately following?

KFC, boots, baths and books

Aunt Lisa is clamoring for some new Lily photos, and these we just took today! On hot days like this one, Lily loves getting her morning bath outside, which frequently includes washing rocks, splashing Mommy and rocking her toy hippo to sleep.

Following her bath, some friends brought us lunch, so I handed Lily her beloved chicken leg. In two seconds, she had run inside with her chicken leg, and I found her sitting in this basket, saying "bwak, bwak" (her chicken noise) and chowing down. Assuming this is Lily's version of KFC's bucket of chicken.

This morning while mommy read her Bible, poppy and Lily had some good story time (contrary to what the all these pictures show, Lily DOES wear clothes. Sometimes.

Playing with Joe and the hamper....
who later contributed to her shoe fettish