ROAR!!!

This is just a small update for those of you who would like to see some more recent pictures of Lily. One of our favorite things that Lily does right now is say "ROAR!" No matter the circumstances, if she says "ROAR!" she is scaring you and it would do you good to act scared. She is super excited for the baby to come and is growing up so fast.





Grandma Alyson and Poppy Mark came to visit in May. Of course Lily loved the attention and never lacked for it.


Danielle came to visit in June and Lily loved having "my Dani" around. She prayed everyday for Dani's wrist to get better. This is on the new bridge from the Modern Wing of the Art Museum to Millennium Park.


Lily is in a toddler bed! She loves it and once Scott put it up she wouldn't get off it. The first night she slept on it in the kitchen because we couldn't get it into her room without first taking down the crib. When I was taking pictures she kept saying, "My new bed!!"





Grandma Gayle and Poppy Paul came to visit in June. When we took these pictures Lily was ready and wanted to make sure she was showing love to everyone in them.

Before I get into today's post I want to give a little update on Lily. She's still the cutest thing ever. She's "potty trained" (potty trained in the sense that she only wears diapers when she sleeps, not potty trained in that she never pees her pants) now and her little bum looks absolutely adorable in "big girl panties" and she rarely forgets the two "nims" (M&M's) she gets after using the potty. Last night she forgot she wasn't in a diaper and peed on my lap. It's not as bad when it's your own kid for some reason. She has also figured out how to get her arms out of the car seat and contort her body sideways enough to roll down her window in the car. On the way to singing today she yelled "hello people!" out her window.
The other day she told Scott after he said he couldn't cut her hair, "You can cut it Daddy, you're strong!" Right answer.

MR. SINGER




Over the last number of weeks and months we have had weekly singing classes with Mr. Singer. Mo hosts and a bunch of us sing and dance as Mr. Singer makes us all happy...almost like a drug. Lily LOVES Mr. Singer. As you can tell from the above pictures, she really liked the idea of sitting on the couch to take a picture with him. This is a VERY small number compared to how many kids were actually in the class. Not all the kids liked the idea as much as Lily did. The girl she's BFF with is Claire, and she's not really BFF with her! She hardly knows her! She sees her in nursery at church but I'm not sure they really play together. Lily is just a sweetheart and loves to hug anyone who will let her.

The following pictures are from today's class. It was the last one:(. That's okay. He sings at the zoo weekly and will be at Millennium Park in the summer so it wasn't the last time we'd see him!




Lily is blurry in these pictures because she's dancing and holding on to Ollie's hand...trying to get him to dance too. I think he's thinking "I love YoYo (he calls her YoYo) and love that she never gets that I don't want to hold her hand."

FIRE TRUCK SONG!!!!

Lily always requests "the Fire Truck Song" when Mr. Singer asks what song the kids want to hear.




Put on your fire hat!!





Snap the buttons on your fire coat and make sure you help Ollie!



Turn on the engine! After that Mr. Singer said, "let's check your sirens!" And without hesitation Lily made the funniest (and kind of terrible) siren sound and everyone started laughing. It was so unprovoked and awesome.







Put out the fire and YEAH!! We put the fire out! Right after this photo she stood up and put her arms in the air in triumph. I wish I could have gotten that photo. She looked so proud of herself.

POPCORN

Mr. Singer lost his voice one day and asked us if there was a song we could sing to him. We kind of looked at each other and said, "Popcorn?" He had never heard it!? What? Mr. Singer knows ALL the children songs. Well, it was a success, he loved it. We told him we all know it from church. He did some research and found out that it was actually written by a Mormon for her daughter. We sang it every week after that.



I looked out the window and what did I see?



A popcorn ball...



Smell so sweet!

DANCING, DRUMMING AND WELL...TACKLING!











This is Asher. We are working on an arranged marriage.



Lily wears "big girl panties" now! Thus...her bum crack.



After all that, she needed a break.

Balmex? Oh, Butt Paste

So, yeah, it's been two months and I kind of figured the blog didn't really matter anymore. Then, I got an email from a long lost friend who said I needed to update the blog. She's right, I do. It's not the best post, but I've posted some pictures from Christmas and Lily's birthday. As for the title of the post, Lily says the funniest and most adult-like things sometimes. The other night I was changing her diaper and putting Butt Paste on her bum. She kept saying, "Balmex?" It took me a second to realize what she was saying, (asking me if I was putting Balmex on her bum) so I said, "No, it's Butt Paste." And she said, "Oh, Butt Paste, okay." She's so much fun and says the cutest things everyday. I wish I had the memory to write them ALL down. I'll explain the pictures as we go....enjoy!







Christmas morning. Lily got this bag of food from Grandma Alyson and Poppy Mark. She was ready to go to Stanley's Market immediately! The third is of Lily putting my earrings "in" her ear. She's very focused.









"I DO IT MYSELF!!!" She now HAS to do everything herself. This was in December...now she REALLY has to do everything herself.

I love this series of pictures because it tells such a funny story. Ollie decided that no matter what Grandma Gayle was doing....praying, offering him food, changing his diaper, walking into the room...she should not be doing it. So he would say, "No Grandma Gayle!" At first there was no smile coming from Ollie, now, two months later both Lily and Ollie say it and laugh their heads off. Back to the pictures....



Everyone is wondering if Ollie is going to say it. You can see in my mom's face that she's kind of testing Oliver and is trying not to laugh...we all know what's coming.



"NO GRANDMA GAYLE!" My mom and dad obviously lose it and start laughing.



Okay, let's try this again. In the meantime, Lily's just wondering when she gets to eat the cake.



So telling of their relationship. Lily is ALWAYS willing to show the love, and does it non-stop. Ollie just lets her do it...for now.





Honestly, not staged. I was reading so Lily grabbed a book and "read" next to me. Seriously, she's pretty cute.



Grandma Madge NEVER forgets a birthday. She gave Lily and Ollie money for their birthdays. It looks like Lily is liking the idea. This picture was taken the day we said goodbye to my Grandpa Vic. He died the next day. Grandma is hanging in there but is quoted to have said, "I'm too old for this."



Seriously nasty. Lily had a super bad cold while we were in Utah. Of course we drugged her with Benadryl. As a consequence she slept until after eleven a.m. one morning. When we got her out of her crib, this is what she looked like. Dried boogers all over her cheek. It was seriously nasty but pretty funny too.



Grandma Alyson



Aunt Natalie and Uncle Cam

BACK IN CHICAGO

Kristal threw a birthday party for Lily and Oliver. Lily was pretty much just interested in the cupcakes, or more precisely-the frosting.



She sure loves her "Allya" (Ollie).



She blew out her candles first. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like she might be laughing at Ollie and maybe even challenging him to get his candles blown out.



I think she realized she was being mean and decided to help him blow them out.

Worth the wait?

The Lincoln Park Zoo has a festival of lights this time of year. Of course, it's free and Santa was waiting for us in the Lion House!!! We thought that Ollie would be the one to freak out, nope, not this time. Lily waited patiently but when the time came to sit on Jolly Ole's lap, Lily decided it wasn't worth the wait. She had the death grip on me and instead of scarring her for life, we just took the picture and ran.