Santa

Meeting the Big Man with cousin Juliet.

Business Trip

Lily: Where's Daddy?
Mom: Chicago.
Lily: What is Chicavocado?  Is it yummy?

If your parents make you go suit shopping...

... there is only one thing to do.

Treats

At the end of dinner....
Mama: Lily, do you want an apple?
Lily: I want a big treat!
Mama: We don't have any big treats.
Lily: Got any small treats?  [cute smile]

School

School just sent home this picture of Lily having fun:

Dancing

Lily started her first dance class and Abby moved up to the next ballet/jazz/tap class.  Here are a few pictures from the first day of class. (The picture quality is not very good.)









The dancing continues at home:

2 year old's thoughts (update)

A few months ago we shared about Lily's nap time musing about learning to fly.  It turns out that in her learn to use the potty video, the animated little girl learning to do big girls things like use the potty, tie her shoes and pump on the swing, also flies through the air.  I think the song writers just got lazy looking for a rhyme, but it is quite misleading.  

Playtime

Lily's first drawing

Here is Lily's first recognizable face.

Preschool!

Abby has been back to school for a few weeks, but Lily has now officially become old enough to attend preschool as well.  Today was Lily's first day.  She was a little nervous at first, but warmed right up and had no problems.

Dinosaurs

Abby loves reading about dinosaurs and visiting the dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Science.  She knows many of their names and what they eat. Her favorite is the triceratops.   We got her a set of plastic dinosaurs, which she loves to play with, but these dinosaurs do not say "roar".   This is an example of what they say:

- Protoceratops, what's wrong?
- I lost my sister.
- Oh, no! We'll help you. My name is Sarah and this is GusGus.  We'll make a plan and search the woods. 

Sharing a Bed

Now that Lily is out of a crib, Abby and Lily share a big bed when we go visit Grandma and Grampa.



It is still too exciting for Lily to go to sleep in this arrangement. So we have to put her to sleep in our bed and transfer her once she is asleep.

Fair

Ever since seeing a fair in an episode of Max and Ruby, Abby has been asking to go to a real fair.  So we finally got to the Marshfield Fair last week with Jencie, Gary and Juliet.







A week later, I asked Abby and Lily what we saw:
Abby: We went on the cars! (a kiddie ride)
Lily: cars, too. ummm... cows, cow pee, I peed too, and....  (It was actually horse pee.)
Abby: Did she tell you rabbits?
Lily: Rabbits
Abby: Train things.  (Model train set)
Lily: And we jumped (bouncey house) and I fell down.
Abby: Juliet. We saw a ferris wheel. We saw ice cream. I saw an ice cream truck. Oh. We saw a wiggly ride for teenagers.
Lily: That's it.
Abby: I think that's it.

Help from Big Sister

Abby tries to teach Lily everything she knows.  Here she is being very helpful and reading to Lily while Lily sits on the potty chair.

2 year old's thoughts

Lily seems to be exceptionally verbal for her age.  As a result we get insights into her thoughts at an age we didn't know what Abby was thinking.   Today before nap time she told me (or maybe just mused out loud) "When I get a little bigger, I'll fly into the sky."

Soccer Nights

A clown
 

 A beautiful flower
 

Conversation I never expected to have

Abby: Aliens aren't real, right?
Mama: Well, no one really knows, but most people don't believe they are real.
Abby: Not even ballerinas?
Mama: Ballerinas don't have any special alien knowledge.
Abby: Really? Why not?

Summer Smoothies

Jetlag

We got back from CA two days ago and last night we had a very hard time getting the girls to bed.  We had this conversation at 11:30pm.

Mama: It's really late! You need to go to sleep because I want to go to sleep.  It's after your bedtime in California!

Abby (completely seriously): Is it after my bedtime in Funkytown?

I'm not following...

No context whatsoever:
Lily: It wasn't a snake, it was a lizard... a lizard.... it was a turtle... a kind of lizard, a frog..."

Twinkle, Twinkle

Last month, Abby and Lily spent a weekend with Grandma and Grampa.  They had lots of fun:

Dance Recital

Abby had her first dance recital this weekend.



Part 1:




Part 2:

No way

Abby was getting her shoes on and said to Lily in a sing-song voice "Lily, time to put on your shoes".  Lily didn't look up from her puzzle, she just said, in the same sing-song voice "No waaaaaay"

Big Girl Bed

Last night, we took one of the sides off of Lily's crib, turning it into a big girl bed.  She has bee able to easily climb in and out for a while, so we decided it was time to transition.

Lily also often stays awake for a long time reading books. After hearing her awake for an hour after Abby on the monitor, Becca went upstairs to find Lily in bed with 52 books, the entire contents of one book shelf.

Are you sure?

Mom takes away slinky for bedtime.
Lily: But I NEED that stinky!

A few more quotes

Mama: Good morning, Abby.
Abby: Mama, are there any real banana phones?

****************
After 15 minutes of non-stop requests for snacks, clean hands, new tv show, this, that, the other thing, all while Dan just wants to sit down and drink his coffee.
Dad: You guys aren't letting me sit down for 10 seconds!
Abby: Don't worry, Dad, next time I'll wait 20 seconds.

****************
Abby: This strawberry is as big as an apple. It's mungus!

Egg Hunt

Our town had a free egg hunt on the very cold and windy Friday before Easter.



The advertisement said "11am sharp".  They weren't kidding; it was all finished by 11:05.




Lily did start putting them in her bag.  She got five or six.

Little Angel

Who needs pants when you have wings?

Sisters at the Zoo

Cat?

While waiting for the birthday party, Abby unknowingly did a very good cat impression with the balloon ribbons.

Potty

After the birthday party, we were hanging out in the backyard and suddenly Lily disappeared.  We found her sitting on the big potty.  She was fully dressed (and her dress was actually in the potty water.)  So we brought out the potty chair for her.

Happy Birthday, Lily!

Gary and Jencie refurbished Becca's childhood dollhouse and brought it for a birthday present.

Showtime

I was trying to get a sweet video of Abby "reading" books to Lily in her crib, but Abby had another idea. 

Advanced Vocabulary

Mama and Lily looking at this picture.



Mama: Is the man happy, sad or angry? 
Lily: Cranky!
 

Holding Hands on the Way to School

Abby Lou Who

(I don't think any real Whos down in Whoville would make those last two faces.)

Lily + Ice Cream

= singing in the car, in the dark while Abby sleeps.

Friends

Abby with one of her best friends

Oh dear.

Lily: I want TV.
Mama: All done TV.
Lily: I WANT TV.
Mama: All done TV.
Lily (picking up toy phone):  I'll ask Daddy.

Awwwww

Abby: Mama, before you brought Lily into my room, I was lonely. Now she (sleeps) in my room and I'm happy.

Baking

Basketball

Disneyland

with Nana and Papa in January.

Lily didn't know what to expect and thought waiting in line was really boring.




But once we got on the first ride (Finding Nemo) she just kept saying "I love it! I love it! I love it!"

But just like any good toddler her favorite thing at Disneyland was something she could find anywhere: a toy phone.



We met lots of "people" like Tinkerbell and some other fairy,



Cinderella,



and Woody.



Abby played jingle bells on stage,



rode the Tea Cups,



waved at all the dolls in It's a Small World,



and got stuck in jail.









We made it all the way till the end of the evening parade, in large part, because Lily, Daddy and Papa all found ways of taking naps.

Little Valentines

with flowers from daddy



Lily is saying "cheese!"