friends

Lily has a new favorite thing to do.... watch the "friends" music video clip from Yo Gabba Gabba on the computer. Matt showed it to her once a few days ago. Ever since then anytime we get on the computer she'll come and sit beside us and keep saying "friends" "i want friends" until we play it. It's hilarious even though sometimes I would just like to get on the computer and actually look at what I intended to when I get on here! But anything for my cute little girl! She can say "gabba gabba" now too. The show is growing on me. I HATED it at first and didn't want anything to do with it. But the more I watch it the more I'm okay with it. And Lily likes it.

our day at the beach

Yesterday we took Lily down to the beach since it was so warm. We walked around the boardwalk some and went down to the water for a little bit. Lily was semi okay with the sand for a little while but didn't want to get too near the water. I don't blame her though - it was COLD! Plus I'm sure it's a little intimidating to a little girl like her. And of course we had to get a slurpee while we were down there. You can't go to the beach without getting one! :) We had a great afternoon though and she just chattered away in the car on the way home. She learned the word "beach" too. Here's some pics of our afternoon:

control freak

My name is Amanda and I'm a control freak.

I know it. And I'm able to admit it. And supposedly that's the first step in fixing a problem. HA! I will always have an ongoing battle with this problem. Anyways... it made me think about it today when I read this great blog post from 5 Minutes for Faith. If you have the time, check out this post from that blog for today. If not... here is one of my favorite lines in it:

"One thing I've learned is that people who need to control do so out of fear. I fear making the wrong decision. I fear my children getting hurt. I fear consequences.

As a mom, there are some things I need to be in control of, but there are more things that I need to let go of. Whenever I try to control everything I only seem to become stressed and anxious"

This is so true. I know that worrying and becoming anxious get me NO WHERE. And trying to control things usually makes it or me worse. But I somehow still do it. When you have a child, there's no hiding that quality! :) I never thought before about what the writer said is the cause of this though. It's because of our fears that we try to control things. How true. I worry a lot about medical stuff and I'm always nervous/scared about stuff like, for example, this new swine flu thing. When you have a child, you don't want ANYTHING to hurt them.

I've just GOT to start trusting God more and really doing what the verse says - casting all my cares on Him. Easier said then done though, right?

outings, new phrases, one nap, and a couch

The zoo was GREAT last weekend. Lily had a blast looking at the animals. Her favorites were the elephant and the pig. We decided to just buy a year membership because if we take her 4 or more times over the next year then it would pay for itself. And I'd love to be able to go often. It was really crowded that day though because they were celebrating earth day.

Then on Tuesday grandma and grandpa came with us to the children's museum in Portsmouth. I love being able to take Lily to things like this now. And thankfully there's a lot more to see and do than in Lynchburg. That is one thing I love about living here. There were all kinds of fun things at the museum - pretend grocery store, fire truck, bubble room, slides, music room, train room.

Today Lily said two new 2 word phrases! And of course they were ones that we say to her but she's decided to repeat them to us. I was moving her arms away from something she shouldn't be touching and she says "stop it." And then this afternoon she kept saying "don't touch" when she would be getting ready to do something that we probably wouldn't allow her to do. The "stop it" one was hilarious. Although I'm sure it won't be so funny when she's older and yells that at us! But for now I will laugh!

I noticed the other day that Lily's thumb was just looking beat up again from sucking on it so hard. So I figured it was time to implement the sock again since we're settled now and break the thumb sucking habit. I sewed a sock back on her pj top and started using it yesterday. She of course freaks out when I put it on her and just wails, but it's really for her best because if not, her thumb's just gonna get worse and then could get infected again. Yesterday she cried for 15-20 minutes for both naps but not too much for bedtime. Today I decided to try the whole 1 nap a day thing again because I think she is ready since her morning nap is so late now and I have to wake her up after 30 minutes in order to get an afternoon nap in. She actually did great all this morning and then I put her down at 1:30. She again cried when I put her shirt on but I got her calmed down rocking in the rocking chair before I laid her down for nap. She cried for just a minute or two once I put her down.

And in great news.... an unexpected blessing! The den/playroom in the back part of our house has no seating in it because we only have the 2 couches that we use in the living room. I just have a lot of Lily's toys back there but no where to sit. We eventually want to buy new couches for the living room and would then be able to put our old ones back there but we just can't afford that right now. Somehow it got brought up in conversation with someone from our church on Sunday and he said that he had a couch from one of the houses he was flipping that was left by the owners and in good condition. Today he had it brought over to us! Yay! Now we have a couch in that room.
, stop it, don't touch, new couch

video time

Lily had a blast at the zoo (I'll blog about that later). Here is her with one of her favorite animals.... the pig.


She has really gotten in to shaking her booty to music/dancing lately. And I must say she shakes her booty quite well! :) This is the only time I've been able to catch it on video so I apologize for the awful whistle that my mom is blowing!!

And finally... Lily saying names of people she sees on facebook. Her favorite is Jon Carolino from church. For some reason she gets excited when she sees his picture on there "see jon!" She now knows Owen's name too (our nephew). She says "oe" or "owee" - don't really know how to spell that but basically the 2 letters O and E put together. So the only name she can't say in my sister's family is Ava. That's a hard one though.