Storytime

Lily has a ton of stuffed animals. Seriously, she has so many that not only does she have a toy box full to overflowing with them, but they are cluttering up every single room in our house. The other day I went to check on her because she had been napping for an unusually long time and I found this:

She had lined up several of her animals and was reading to them.

Here she is pointing out the shark in The Little Mermaid (from our collection of disney stories). She kept saying "look, look. Right there. Shark. Look teddy bear/froggy/rabbit/etc. Then, of course, she noticed me with the camera so she wanted to show off her toys.

I have no idea how long she was in there reading to her toys before I came in, but I came in about 45 minutes after she normally wakes up from her nap. I was telling Ernie just last night how much fun I am having with this stage. Her imagination is just starting to make an appearance and I love seeing it. As someone who always had imaginary friends and turned the living room into a tropical island/castle/lava pit/etc. on a daily basis, I love to see how imaginative she is. Is it possible for every stage with her to be my favorite?

Monkey

A few days ago I set Lily up at the kitchen table, as I do most days, to color her little heart out while I took a quick shower. I came out to find her like this. This is why her nickname is Monkey. She climbs on everything (though her favorite thing to climb on is me. I'm her own personal mommy-shaped jungle gym)



I know someday she'll hate me for saying this, but look at that cute diaper bottom. She's so sweet.

Did you notice her super cool hairdo? It is a mess in these pictures because it is the day after I did it, but you should have seen it. I did five little braids around the edge of her hair and pulled them all together with the hair in the middle to form a ponytail. It turned out looking really pretty. Lily kept going into my room to look in the mirror. She'd pat her hair and say "princess". And it stayed pretty tight for the day.

Wouldn't you just love to have her eye lashes? I know I would. And I love her expression in this last picture. She's making silly faces to make Mommy laugh. You have to meet her to truly appreciate her personality. She is a complete and utter goofball. If something gets a laugh she will do it over and over again.

Isn't she just adorable???

My little Picasso

Do you see the picture on the left? That is a picture of Lily's pet puppy, Rocky (she named her all on her own). The picture of the right is Lily's crayon rendition of Rocky. I was pretty impressed.

F-A-M-I-L-Y

If you don't have a toddler (and maybe if you do), you may not know what Noggin is, so let me tell you. It is a cable channel devoted to people of the bite-sized variety. While I try very hard to keep the television off during the day, after dinner we let Lily watch this channel. They have this show called Jack's Big Music Show. It is fantastic. Lily loves it, it teaches her some great stuff about music and imagination and Ernie and I don't cringe when it comes on, as we do with almost ever other kids show we've seen. Here is a little clip for you:

Lily loves this song. Every time it comes on she runs up to me and wants to dance. Then she gives me a big hug and says "family". Last night Ernie joined in the fun and at the end of the song she pulled us both in for a group hug and said "family" with a bit grin on her face. My heart almost burst, it was such a sweet moment. I couldn't ask for a greater family than Ernie and Lily. Words can't express how much I love them. They're pretty amazing.

Paparazzi

A friend of mine accused me of being Lily's own personal paparazzi. I told her that was utterly ridiculous.

Then again, maybe she's onto something...

Fourth of July

Summertime is here, and what better way to celebrate the solstice then with a festive red, white and blue-themed BBQ with friends?

Both Ernie and I have absolutely no family in the area. So our friends, the Lipmans, sort of adopted us for the Fourth of July. Good food, friendly people, games and a pool is what I would call a recipe for a good time.

The Lipmans have seven (yes, seven) kids. The youngest is a few months older than Lily. They both loved the volleyball pit. It was a giant sandbox. I just hope it doesn't also couple as a giant litter box.

Sarah (Mama Lipman) brought a croquet set, which Lily couldn't get enough of. Brightly colored balls and big mallets...what's not to love, yes? Until, that is, she attempted to hit one of the brightly-colored balls with one of said big mallets. When her shin got in the way then suddenly it wasn't quite so much fun.

Sarah invited Lily and I to the pool a couple weeks before the 4th for one of her son's birthdays. Lily couldn't get enough of the pool. When I finally pulled her away it was amidst cries and whines of protest.

This time, though, no amount of coaxing could make her get into the pool. But as a women, I suppose it is her perogative to change her mind.

Still, at least she looked cute sitting poolside. And we all know that is what is truly important.

She did love playing "trumpet" into the water noodles, though.

So while we did miss the fireworks (we all fell asleep before 7:30...I know, I know...pathetic), we still had an absolutely lovely holiday. Thanks Sarah and Jake, for inviting us. We had a blast.

Enjoy Life's Everyday Gifts

When you spend time with your little one(s) do you focus only on them? Whether you are playing, tickling, laughing, dancing, singing, painting etc. are you present both body, mind and spirit or are you going over a mental to-do list? Are you thinking of how much laundry you have to get done, or about the dishes piling up in the sink? If you do, then you are a better parent than I. While I try to always give Lily my full attention, I find that all too often I am dwelling on all the things I'm going to have to do when I am done playing with her. So much so that I can't fully enjoy myself.

It is a shame, too, because I totally dig spending time with the munckin. She is easily the coolest person I know. So to remind myself why I dig spending time with her so much, I am dedicating this blog post that cool chicky-mama herself. Miss Lily Victoria Hamilton.

[in case you are wondering why I go through the hassle (and yes, there are times when it is a hassle) of doing Lily's hair everyday, this picture is a good illustration. Poor girl is constantly brushing her hair out of her eyes if I don't put it back]

I have had a lot of time to hang out with Lily over the past few months. We never do anything terribly exciting. Usually our days consist of walks around the neighborhood, bike rides to the park, dance parties and playing in the sprinklers.

And yet, she still manages to keep me entertained constantly. My days are filled with laughter and all-around silliness. She stretches my imagination and challenges me to see the world from a different perspective. Mommy and Daddy's bed, for instance, is not just a bed to the wee one. It is a vast ocean filled with sharks. The carpet is not just carpet. It is hot lava we run across to rescue the dragon. And a piece of newspaper is transformed into a treasure map, taking us on countless adventures in our quest for hidden treasure.

Just this morning we spent two hours traipsing back and forth across the back yard. We climbed over a mountain (Lily's playhouse), crossed the ocean (the lawn chairs), rescued the unicorn and found sanctuary on a beautiful beach (the grass just turned into the beach at some point. Not entirely sure when). All in search of a pirate treasure. (Lily has a thing for pirates right now)

It is very rare that Lily doesn't have a smile on her face. She finds so much joy in life that I can't help but see it there as well.

After our hunt for the pirate treasure, Lily decided that she wanted to watch a movie. So she pushed the lawn chair up to face the big, square shed in the back yard. Then she climbed on the chair, kicked back and watched her "movie".

She also situated her unicorn just right so she could see the movie too. Then she turned to me with wide grin and said "Popcorn pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaasse". I have no idea where she learned that from.

So let's recap, shall we? In the course of a morning, I climbed a mountain, swam across an entire ocean, rescured a unicorn in distress, relaxed on a beach and watched a movie. And people say being a mother isn't exciting. That's down-right thrilling, I'd say. Not even James Bond had such an action packed morning, I'd imagine.

Escaping the Heat

A couple weeks ago we were faced with a weekend of record high heat. Temperatures up to 106 where we live. Some naysayers may say that such a thing shouldn't phase a native Arizonan. But, mind you, I haven't lived in Arizona for nearly five years. I've gotten used to paradisacal temperatures in the 70s and 80s practically year-round. So for the one month out of the year when we are faced with such blistering heat, we haul ourselves down to the beach to cool off in the 55 degree water (yes, it is that cold no matter what time of year).


When we first arrived, Lily was skeptical about the sand. But once she realized it was nothing more than a giant sandbox, she was in love. This is her pointing out the ocean to me, just in case I hadn't noticed it out there.

She would run right up to the waves, but whenever it got too close she would wave her hand and say "No, go away!" before running away. No matter how we tried to cajole her into getting wet, she wanted no part of it. Smart girl. That water was cold.

We bought her some sand toys that she got to play with for about a minute before Ernie comandeered them.

He built a masterpiece complete with a mote to protect the castle (and Lily) from the evil waves.

Lily was his little engineer, ordering him about and choosing the perfect spot for the turrets and spires.

This was about as far as he got before a wave demolished it. I think he had more fun building it than Lily did.

The sand toys -- most especially the shovel -- were big hits. We were there for five hours on Saturday and seven hours on Sunday. And still Lily didn't want to leave.

Lily is showing off the giant hole she dug with Ernie. She was so proud of her hole.

This is How I walk in My Tennis Shoes

For the past couple of months, I have been taking Lily for walks all over our beautiful city (walks when she is actually walking. I've been taking her on walks in her stroller since she was born. Just clearing that up). She is quite the hiker, too, let me tell you. She can go between half a mile and a mile before wanting to be held. And for the first half of that she runs. The. Entire. Way.

The purse she is carrying is one she got in South Carolina. It was from one of those kitschy state paraphernalia shops and the clerk thought that she was so cute toting around the bag that she let her have it for free (because mean Mommy and Daddy were refusing to buy it for her. Never mind that we had already spent a small fortune on her). I keep telling people she's a little con artist, but no one believes me. How could someone so cute be a con artist? Exactly!

Anyhow, she takes it on every walk we go on and fills it with all her treasures. She is very fond of rocks and leaves, but she is very particular about which ones she'll pick up. They have to be just right, or she'll have nothing to do with them.

Lily loves going for walks. She usually wakes up around 6:00 in the morning. By around 7:00 she is hounding me to go outside. Between our morning walk, our afternoon bike ride trip to the park and our after-dinner bike ride to feed the ducks, you would think she'd be sick of the outdoors. Wrong. She will never grow tired of playing outside. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. The last thing I want is one of those kids who would rather spend time in front of the television or playing video games (which will be difficult as I never intend to own a video game).

Skater Chick?

What is Lily doing that has put such a smile on her face? Look closely. Can you tell?

What else? She has conned her kind and doting daddy into giving her a ride on his skateboard. For about an hour they went up and down the street while Lily giggled with delight. Just imagine how tired poor Ernie's arms must have been by the time he was finished.

Yep, he's a pretty good daddy, that one.

Happy [Late] Father's Day

It seems every post lately seems to start with an apology and/or explanation as to why I've been such a neglectful blogger. Time is not the issue. Not really. It is just such a daunting task to update constantly, than I keep putting it off and putting it off until I have so way too much to catch up on that I don't ever want to do it. So I'm going to make these boring "catch-up" posts as short and sweet as possible.

Over Father's Day weekend the city of Martinez put on a nice little town fair down at Waterfront Park. They had rides and food and music. An all-around good time on a warm, summer day.

On the Friday before we went out to dinner at Kinders (for those of you not from this area, it is a fabulous bbq place...though not half as good as Melvins). On the way out to the car we passed by a great children's store. In the window was a bike stroller that was marked down by about $50. We had been talking about buying me a bike and stroller for almost two years, so we decided to buy it. They also happened to have this great little backpack thing. I love it. So much easier than carrying a very heavy 30 lb toddler around once she gets tired of walking, let me tell you. (Oh, Ernie also bought me a bike, but I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it yet. But it is currently my most prized possession and Lily and I use it daily)

Lily loved the tea cups. She went on them three times in the two days that we went to the fair.

You can't really tell, but this is a pendalum pirate ship ride. As soon as it started swaying, however, Lily started shaking and grabbing hold of me. She shook the entire time. Suffice it to say, we did not go on that ride again.

Her absolute favorite ride, however, was the train. She could have ridden it all day long and never gotten bored. Each time we took her on it she had a big smile on her face right up until the time it stopped. Then she would shake her head and say "No, no, no," in a very distressed voice.

All-in-all, I think we had a lovely Father's Day. Even though Ernie ended up buying me a bike and stroller. But don't think he is too abused. He did get a nice, homemade breakfast made for him by his two favorite girls as well as a travel mug (per tradition) with a family picture etched on it. It was a fun weekend.