virginia beach

We're in virginia beach. Lily did good on the trip here. She was crawling around like a mad woman in here yesterday evening. I think she LOVES hearing herself crawl on the tile floor in the foyer. Bedtime didn't go so well - she cried for like 10 minutes before she fell asleep but that's because she was in a new place and there was a bunch of commotion before she went to bed. She's use to her peace and quiet.

Matt's aunt and uncle (from austrlia) are supposed to arrive this evening. So we're excited to meet them. Today I'm going to make my usual trip to Babies'r'Us and then Lily and I are going to visit Heather and Summer. Heather is a friend of mine from high school and Summer is her little girl. We haven't seen them in awhile so it will be nice to catch up.

Happy weekend everybody!

busy Wednesday and nameplate

Yesterday was a fun and busy day. After morning nap, Lily and I went to playgroup at Kids Cove. Lily does much better now and will venture out on her own more than willingly. I have to actually reign her in sometimes! Then we came home for lunch and afternoon nap. After Vicky got off work, she came over for our weekly outing. She comes over to spend some time with Lily, have dinner with us, and then we go out for coffee after Lily goes to bed. Lily was excited because Vicky got to give her her bath that evening.

After I got home, Matt and I decided to stay up late and watch our netflix movie.. Baby Mama. Since tonight is a great tv night (kath and kim premiere, the office, and a snl special) and we are leaving Friday for Virginia Beach, we decided to go ahead and watch it. I didn't get to bed until MIDNIGHT. Yes, you heard me correctly. Haven't seen those hours since Lily was little and I got up with her during the night! The movie was good but it wasn't quite as funny as I thought it was going to be. Definitely would recommend it though.

When we were in Myrtle Beach, I found this name plate to hang on Lily's door. I just think it's so sweet and beautiful and had been meaning to post a picture of it but just now remembered.

Look at my adorably cute new hairstyle (if I sit still long enough to let mommy get it in)!

Off to do some laundry and packing while my little pumpkin is napping...

ear marks, pork barrel spending, and bathroom fun

I am currently sitting here watching the presidential debate on tv. And can I just say I'm SO sick of hearing the SAME THINGS over and over again. I never learn anything new with these debates and it's filled with accusatory arguments against each other. Two of my biggest pet peeve phrases that they use... ear marks and pork barrel sending. If I had a dollar for everytime I heard them talk about eliminating those items I could fix the economic crisis. Okay... not really but you get my point. Anyways... all that to say I'm bored with this election because I never seem to learn in detail what each candidate wants to do if they are elected. We get Consumer Reports magazine and this month there was actually a very good comparison article on the two candidates position on healthcare. I want to find a good bipartisan website to compare and contrast the different aspects of each candidates agenda. So if anybody knows one, feel free to leave a comment with the web address. I know who I'm going to vote for but still would like to know more about the candidates.

And a fun Lily story for the day. I was going to the bathroom this afternoon and of course she comes crawling in. All her bath toys were in the bathtub so she goes over there and stands up at the tub trying to get to them. Then when she obviously can't reach them she sits back down, crawls back to the doorway, turns around, and crawls faster towards the tub then standing up at it again and reaching out. She did this several times, each time seeming like she gained more power than the first time. It was HILARIOUS! She seriously looked like she was trying to hurl herself over the tub to get to the toys with the energy she gained from crawling.

I love being a mom! And finally a congratulations to my friend Laura Wailes from college. Her twin boys, Nathan and Isaac, were born yesterday. Welcome to the wonderful world of motherhood! You guys are in my prayers as you all gradually adjust to the new normal. Your boys are beautiful!

sunday

We've had a great week. I always can't figure out where the times goes because I realize all of a sudden that I haven't blogged in a few days. Lily keeps me on my toes!

To update on the sippy cup/bedtime bottle status... My plan worked great. I give Lily her evening bottle now at 6:30 before we start bedtime routine. It worked out great and she had no trouble going to bed as usual. She's also begun to push her nap times back since she is gaining the capability to stay awake longer so the past week she's been going to bed closer to 7:30 and has done great with that as well. So now she has a morning and evening bottle and then during the day it's just sippy cups. Yeah Lily! We're officially on the 3 meals a day plus snack in between schedule.

The next issue this week was halloween costume. I had decided a few weeks ago to get this beautiful gymboree pumpkin costume for Lily this year and purchased it on ebay a week or so ago. It was GORGEOUS! I didn't even consider how it was designed though and the fact that she's 10 months old. I tried to put it on her and she FREAKED out. She did not like all that fluff around her neck - she felt lost in it. There went all my well laid plans. So I thankfully sold it back on ebay for what I bought it for, no loss there. Then went to Target to start hunting again for something that would be comfortable for her. I looked in the halloween section but nothing struck me. I hate most of the cheesy infant costumes that they make. So then I decided to try looking in the regular kids clothes section. And BINGO!! They had these adorable pink tutu's with matching leggings. It was decided. Lily would be a beautiful little ballerina. I got a plain white long sleeve onesie for the top and she already had these slippers that look like ballerina shoes. Plus it's not a waste of money because all the parts she can use/wear again! Here is a preview although she doesn't have the right white onesie on - that's an older short sleeve one.

One day last week Vicky came over after work so she could hang out with Lily for a little while. Then she had dinner with us and we went out for coffee. We did that a week or so ago and realized we should be going out for coffee together more. So hopefully it will be a weekly tradition!

Yesterday was pumpkin patch day. We took Lily to the pumpkin patch so she could pick out her first real pumpkin. They had these ones that were already painted and I noticed one that had Tigger on it. If you're not a faithful blog reader, Lily LOVES tigger. I knew that was going to be the one and as soon as I held it up for her she got so excited!! SO cute! She loves just patting her pumpkin and sometimes trying to eat the stem.

Last night my friend Tina from church had a girls night at her place. We had a great time. It's always so refreshing just to spend some quality time with some girl friends.

This morning was church. Our church celebrated 50 years today as well as 100 years for the Nazarene denomination. Lily had fun in the nursery as usual and I'm always refreshed by being in the service. We seem to go a lot on weekends and I always really miss church when I'm not there. Then this afternoon we headed to Peaks View Park for the church picnic. We had a great time and Lily got to hang out with "auntie" vicky some more while chowing down on a big helping of homemade mac'n'cheese.

Well... off to relax for the evening and gear up for another week. I'm looking forward to this coming weekend though. We'll be headed to virginia beach because Matt's aunt and uncle who live in Australia (where Matt's mom grew up as well) are here visiting for the first time! Matt hasn't seen them since he was only 2 so this really is more like a first meeting for the both of us. We're really excited.

sippy cups and seperation anxiety

So I'm hoping that I have solved the sippy cup issue. I don't think I had blogged about this problem so here's the scoop. Lily has known for awhile now how to drink out of a sippy cup. We had been using the nuby ones with the soft spout because that's the ones she did the best with. The past week or two though she has been drinking out of it and then letting the water just come running out of her mouth and then spitting/blowing the rest of it. What a mess that has been! She definitely was just playing around. Yesterday I tried giving her the playtex sipster that has the hard spout and she hasn't been doing it with those! Yeah!!! It seems like every time I solve one issue though another one comes up. I don't think that's ever going to end with motherhood though! Always something to figure out. I think my next thing to tackle is her bedtime bottle. She has that right before she goes to bed so I want to try and back that up some. Tonight I am attempting to give it to her at 6:30 before bedtime routine and then bed at 7. Wish me luck!

Today was the first day that Lily REALLY showed her seperation anxiety issues. She's been like that a little bit in the past with me but nothing big. This morning when Matt left for work she got the SADDEST little face and just started pitiful crying and clinging to him. It was so sad! She did fine once he was gone though. Well then Matt came back in the middle of the day because he had forgotten his wallet and needed to get some lunch. Repeat the same thing as the morning plus it took her awhile after he left to calm down. Guess that's how much she loves her daddy!!

Well off to start our dinner and new bedtime routine for Lily!