September 2012

Somehow I missed all of September. There was nothing major going on last month and yet it felt busier than most of my summer. I thought this would be the month to start a weekly routine with Lily, but that was a bit of a joke. Each week seems to be varired from one to the next. We find weekly routine difficult. I had dreams of doing the crafts every Monday and shopping every Tuesday and the library every Wednesday. Even the scheduled library time was missed when visitors came over or Lily got sick.

We have embraced trying something new each week. With Lily turning 2, her attention span has grown, and we have really begun to enjoy doing new things together. Play dough was new. Too cheap, or lazy rather, to go out and buy playdough, I made some during nap time one day.  

Poor thing had never played with play dough before. She had a great time. She does prefer that I make things and then she can smash them. And of course there is the constant "on the tray, not in your mouth."

And one of the things I find the most odd is that she smells the dough every time and says, "Mmm, smells good."

We have been visiting the library a lot more. We don't always make it to story time, but we bring books home each week.

September was pretty hot here. In fact, it's still hot. Our outdoor play time was usually right after breakfast. This means we were often still in our jammies.

Another big change is the amount of pretend play Lily is doing. She has always been into baby dolls, but we have added dressing up and talking on the phone.

Lily has often put everything from the television remote to my car keys to her ear and said hello, but she has moved on to full conversations. You may not always be able to understand her, but she is having a conversation. Every day she asks to call someone new. She doesn't quite understand the concept of waiting for someone to say hello before talking and still makes motions as if the person on the line can see her. All in all, she is a hoot on the phone.

August 2012

August can be summed up in one word; HOT! It was hot in Virginia and even hotter in Riverside.

Lily didn't even wait to change before climbing in the pool. Puppies, too. But then again, if the hose is on, the boys will be there.
We turned the car seat forward this month. (The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggests leaving children rear facing until 2 or older.) But man, she likes looking out the window.

She has also started role playing more and pretending a lot more. I have had more pretend cups of tea this month than in my entire life. She has also started the "Mommy? Game" in which she asks for me and I answer and she asks for me again. Repeatedly. The other day, when I stopped answered her for the umpteenth time, she started playing the game with Dolly; not to be confused with Beebee. She was ask "Dolly?" and answer "What?" all by herself.


We had one cooler week in August where we had some morning cloud cover and were able to head to the park before it got too hot. She is just now enjoying these baby safety swings. Although, I am starting to miss her wanting to sit on my lap to swing.

However, the slides still remain a favorite.

Baby Austin Keys was born in July, and Lily already adores him. Occasionally, we let her and her cousins hold Austin (or as Lily calls him, Boston) using the Boppy pillow. She now uses the Boppy to hold all of her dolls. She pulls the pillow up, places a doll or two on the pillow, and starts ooing and awing over the baby and giving out the sweetest kisses.

August also marked Lily's second birthday. We didn't throw a party but instead got with different groups of cousins to celebrate. Here she is hanging out with the Vizon cousins opening gifts from the Vizons, Grandpa and Grandma Atkinson, and Mommy and Daddy.

She adores all of her cousins and now knows which ones belong to which family. She knows sibling sets and which Auntie goes with which. It's really a lot of fun.

August was busy but we have already hit the ground running with September!

D.C. and Nationals Baseball

While we were in Virginia, we headed into D.C. for an afternoon/evening. We picked up the Metro train outside D.C. so we didn't have to drive, or pay to park, in the city. Best decision ever!It was Lily's first train ride, but Kevin and I are old pros. (Not really, we downloaded a map to keep with us, but we never did get lost.)

We walked around the American History Museum for a while and then headed out to the Mall for a little lunch.


It was pretty hot. The last time we were there we practically froze but I think I would chose the cold wind over the humid heat.

After lunch, and to beat the heat, we headed back into the museum.
There were quite a few hands-on exhibits that Lily could enjoy.



After the museum we headed over to a Nationals baseball game.

It was Lily's first ballgame and she was a trooper!

Hopefully this is one of the last times you see Beebee out of the house . . .

She loves her Daddy.


And she picks on Mommy . . .
Wonderful time!

Virginia in August

For Kevin's final class of the summer we headed to Fredericksburg, Virginia for two weeks. There is a lot a things to see and do, but not all are geared toward toddlers. We visited a couple of Civil War battlefield, the library, and a handful of other historic places.

One of our favorites was the site of George Washington's boyhood home, Ferry Farm. The property was large and green, and open to explore. We walked down to the river and were devoured by what I assume were mosquitoes. It was probably only 90 degrees, but these I.E. girls were not used to the humidity. Lily doesn't actually sweat yet, and felt clammy most of the time. But she loves to explore and has recently found her love of climbing. She has never been much of a daredevil, but if there are stairs, she is going to climb them.

Here she is on the stones added to show where the archaeologists believe the main house once stood. They are still doing digs on the property and the archeologists were very friendly, coming up to the visitors to talk about the current dig.

We packed a lunch every day we went out and at Ferry Farm we ate in the garden among the watermelons and the grape vines. To our surprise, a little turtle crawled out from underneath the bench we were sitting on. I may have shrieked a little. If you ask Lily what the turtle says, she replies with "snap, snap, snap."

We also visited Chatham. Originally a plantation on the north side of the river, and used as a hospital for the Union, the gardens have been restored to how it looked in the 1920's.

The property was beautiful and although we loved exploring, it was probably the hottest day we were there.

We had snack but didn't stay for lunch; it was just too hot and humid.

We had a great two weeks exploring and playing. We went to 2 of the 4 battlefield sites, but neglected to take any pictures. There is so much more we would like to see in Virginia, but agreed we should come back in the fall or spring.

Cousins

As we waiting for Baby Keys #3, Lily got to spend a lot of time with her cousins. Every time she woke up (in the morning or from nap,) she would ask to see Brendan and Caleb. If the doorbell on the TV rang, she would run to the front door repeating "My-chel, My-chel, My-chel." She loves her Aunt Rachel; almost as much as she loves Uncle "Stot."

This is Caleb. He loves Lily's baby dolls, stroller, purses, and headbands. He may not be smiling, but he loves this headband and was not about to take it off.


This was just too precious to miss. Before dinner, Brendan said it was time to pray and they all grabbed hands while Brendan blessed the food.

Caleb has become Kevin's little buddy.

And he loves to wrestle and tickle with Uncle Kevin.

We also celebrated Brendan's fourth birthday. (As a side note, my blog is now 4 years old.) Here Brendan is being introduced to Lily's favorite game where Daddy sings the wrong words to a song, they all shake their head no, and Kevin tickles them. Mommy is terrible at this game and never plays it right.

Grammie came for the birth and Lily was her shadow. Lily was wherever Grammie was. She usually chooses Gramie over Mommy. And if Grammie sets her phone down, Lily promptly brings it to wherever she is. A big Grammie's girl.

Some Recent Favorites

Bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing in the morning.
I love how every feature on her face is raised in anticipation of the giant bite of Cheerios.

Her favorite new spot. "The Brown Chair" was built by Kevin's great-grandpa.

And while potty training is going pretty well, this is what "poop training" looks like in our home every other day.

Central Coast

For his birthday, Kevin's dad gave him an awesome gift certificate for a weekend away to Cambria. It has been a busy summer, but we were excited to get away just the two of us. We love doing things with Lily, and we have a great time, but not only was it great to reconnect just us, we were able to do things in the middle of the afternoon instead of just waiting for her nap to be over.

We headed us the coast on Sunday afternoon for a beautiful cool drive. We had a great dinner in town included in our getaway package.
The next day after breakfast at the lodge, we went for a stroll along the board walk path at Moonstone beach. We didn't follow the entire way but still had a nice long walk. We headed down to the water to look at the tide pools. I must admit, this is probably the only part where I missed Lily. We saw squirrels, rabbits, deer, elephant seals, crabs, sea anemones, and so much wildlife, I would have loved to have pointed it out to her. But I was quickly over it.

We drove up a little to Hearst Beach. The sun was shining but it was still pretty cool. I used my sweater as a scarf to block some of the wind.

We went even further north and found the Elephant Seal viewing. The beach was not as full as other times in the year, but we watched them flop around a play for a while. They reminded us a lot of our dogs when the wrestle.


We headed back to town to pick up mochas for a snack and took the back to the lodge. Just outside out room/cottage there was a private little patio garden with a bistro set. I was a beautiful location for a coffee break.
In the afternoon we joined up with Kevin's sister and brother in law for wine tasting. The package included tastings at 6 wineries, but we only visited two.

We took our time at Harmonie Cellars in Harmony, population 8. The view was nice and the weather gorgeous.

That evening we had a beautiful dinner at the lodge, followed by some live entertainment. The entertainment wasn't stellar, but the company was great.


I always like to head to the coast in the summer and breathe in the fresh, cool, coastal air. It was not so great to head back home to the triple digit heat.