busy Lily

"Sofie's comin' soon!" Lily keeps promising everyone, though it's starting to feel doubtful...she is so excited, talking a lot now about her baby, about how she is going to help and share.  A little one in church yesterday had her just mesmerized "He can't climb out!  He loves me!" ...hopefully that excitement will continue after Sof comes!

Lil had a blast today golfing, feeding the goats, riding the "horses" and eating her usual favorites from the salad bar:  2 bowls full of black olives, chocolate pudding, applesauce and ribs.  "I LOVE ribs!" she keeps saying.  Then this evening the guys went golfing while she and Aunt Lisa played in her new huge blow up pool and ate watermelon.

My enduring cold was finally diagnosed as a sinus infection and I started on antibiotics...I'm so tired after several sleepless coughing nights and we're all hoping I'll be feeling better very quickly!

missing poppy

Lil has got this traveling thing down.  "Poppy isn't here," she keeps saying with a sigh.  "He is at the airport.  But he will be back soon!"

Everyone absent is always at the airport in Lily world....we take them to the airport, they stay there for a certain amount of time, and then we go pick them up.

I caught a cold and am feeling terrible, so Miss Lily and grandpa are getting lots of good bonding time and we're all just waiting...waiting for Matt and Lisa to come home on Wednesday and waiting on Miss Sofie!

the zoo!

What a blast of a day!  In retrospect, going to the zoo at 39 weeks pregnant might not have been a super idea...I thought at one point, "Crud.  I do NOT want to have a baby in the Orangutang Abode."  That was a LOT of walking!  But, we all made it, and Lily had SUCH a good time.  She was on cloud 9 all day, and so were we.

It was finally a beautiful day, the monkeys and bears especially kept her glued for hours, and of course, the zoo's two huge playgrounds kept her busy the rest of the day.

Ah, she has become such a big girl!  Playing with all the other bigger kids and not intimidated, breezing past mom and dad with a quick wave and orders NOT to touch or help her...standing in line, flying down slides, riding on the carousel by herself.  WHEN did all this happen???

What a blessing God gave us today, just to be together as family and to do something purely fun together and a million miles from our normal reality.  Matt and I couldn't help but dream together when we were standing in the middle of it all about how FUN it would be to bring the students somehow to the Columbus Zoo.  Their wonderment would have matched Lily's, for sure.

mama's girl

 mixed with grandpa's spoiling and DQ

bugs, family and yellow Lily

Lily could not possibly have had a better week with Aunt Lisa and Uncle Adam than last week.  She LOVED all of the attention, loved bossing two more people, and loved getting to know them better!  Lisa painted bugs and flowers in the girls room, making me finally feel like something had been done to get things ready for Sofie...it looks SO cute and Lily loves it, continually saying, "You did such a good job!  It is BEAUTIFUL!"

At the pool on Sunday for Mother's Day she had us all in tears of laughter.  Sitting on Uncle Adam's lap, she's looking at him and sitting there thinking to herself, and says loudly, "Huh!  You're black!"  We were cracking up, and she continues, looking down at herself, and then announcing, "Not me!  I'm yellow!"

This was the first time Lily's ever indicated a knowledge of color, and she was quite pleased with her observation, and never said another word about it.  God made so many things right in us from the start...I love that He is teaching her each day alongside of us, as we ask Him to.  

Now we're back in Ohio, she is eating up the swingset grandpa built for her and talking up a storm...

"This road is so good!  NO bumpies!"

"I'm at grandpa's house and grandpa loves me!"

"Let's go to the pet store!" (I don't even know how she knows what this is)

and "Look at THIS!!!"

Thursday Sofie and I are to the doctor and Miss Lily on Friday...I'm 36 weeks today!  Will let you know...

This has been such a fun week for Lily, and for us!  I'm so thankful that Lily has had this precious time with family.

Lily has adopted Magloire's cat for the week, and both of them are quite happy to have found each other :)

Week 36 and I am feeling READY to have this baby!  She is too big, it is too hot, she is too kicky and I am tired of being so tired!  I must admit, it is lovely to be at 36 and know that Sofie is at a safe place in her development if she did decide to come early!  Lisa went through all of Lily's old stuff this week and got us ready for Sof, sorted clothes, washed her carseat, etc.

Lily is struggling a bit with all the baby stuff/talk, and insists on playing with all her old toys, trying on all the clothes, sitting in her infant carseat, asking for a bottle, and cries when we tell her that something is for Sofie, etc.  We all have a lot of adjusting ahead!  We'd love your prayers, advice and counsel for this transition for Lily!

growin' up

Somewhere along the way, little-by-little but feels overnight, baby Lily turned into Miss Lily, and suddenly I can't find the baby in her at all any more.

As she was showing Don how to play correctly the other day, he laughed, "There are no little girls, only little women" and I thought, "MAN, is that ever true!"  She then told him to 'stop being so bossy', something she hears herself a LOT and obviously now understands.

At supper last night we mentioned Chuckie Cheese's, and she immediately said, "Yeah, for my birthday!" which WAS where we took her for her 2nd birthday the first week of January.  HOW does she remember that?

And she is CONFIDENT that the reddish-brown haired forest ranger chick in "Open Season" is Aunt Lisa, and talks all the time about the Aunt Lisa movie and asks us to sing her the Aunt Lisa-bear song.

And when you start praying, she will TAKE it away, and pray for all kinds of people and beautiful things, from family to friends to zebras and penguins, to "birdies in the tree-tops" to panties and Bob and Larry.

And she sat through a 3.5 hour church service this morning, only leaving for 2 minutes 2 times to go "pee-pee in the grass."  HOW MANY toddlers can do that?  (how many toddlers have to do that :) ?

eating sidewalk chalk

And when Gislaine, in Creole, asked Lily this evening where baby Sofie was, Lily quickly responded, "Oh, Sofie is with mom" like she was a teen-ager or something.

And she has a way of convincing you to do ANYTHING!

"Mommy, can I have some chocolate?"

"You want chocolate, hunnie?"

"OK, if it makes Mommy happy!" she says, and suddenly it is as if it was YOUR idea to give her chocolate.

showing me that both her tongue AND her eyes are blue

And not only is she completely potty trained and sleeping through the night with no diapers anymore, but she will run up to you, say very seriously, "Mommy, I have to go pee-pee." Then, she will shove a chubby hand in your face, and say gravely, "STAY HERE."  She then runs determinedly down the hall (toes pointed in, JUST like her father) dances off her shorts, and somehow manages to climb on the toilet, sings songs to herself, and when she is finished, bring you back her panties and say, "I went pee-pee in the potty, made Mommy happy!"

And when I look at pictures of her like these, she looks long and independent and confident, and I don't know where my baby has gone!