Pumpkin farm fun

Lily's concentrating hard on the pumping action necessary for the duck races

Helping the duck along for the win


Getting in touch with her Deetz heritage

The Giant Slide

The Mini Maze

Lily enjoys daddy's favorite part of the pumpkin farm - cidar donuts

Pumpkin farm friends

Apple picking

Pumpkin picking

"What do you think about this one, guys?"

In true Lily style, she decides that she can do it herself.

Satisfied with an up-close, personal look at the season's produce

Lily Update

In case you were in need of some Lily stories, let me provide you with the following...

Lily has apparently heard her calling to become a teacher - and answered. She has become the rule-enforcer with her classmates (...yet the ultimate limit-tester with us. Go figure.)

• Lily's teacher told her and her classmates to sit down on Friday and one of them was not doing as instructed, so Lily took it upon herself to continually repeat the child's name while telling her to sit. When the child completely ignored Lily's demands, Lily decided that she had no choice but to attempt to physically get the child to sit by pulling her dress toward the ground. Luckily, the teacher was quick to intervene.
• Also the other day, the teacher announced that she smelled something stinky in the classroom. So, Lily went around to each child in the class, pulled their diaper out from behind, checked their bottoms and said "No poopy" each time that she did not find the culprit.
• On their walk, Lily told everyone to "Hold hands to be safe".
• On the way to school on Friday, Lily repeated the phrase "Don't run - walk" about 10 times in the car. Mentally preparing for the day? I don't know.
• Lily's Tiny Tidbit report from Friday reported that she pulled out the blocks, said "Circle Time", then held up various blocks and inquired of her classmates "What's this?" with each one and then sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider for everyone.

Lily has also decided that she would make an excellent parent - to both Carl and me. It's quite hilarious actually and very sweet at times.

• Any time that either of us hurts ourselves in any minute way and says "Ouch", Lily has to immediately stop what she is doing and run over to us to kiss the injured area.
• When I laid down next to Lily at bedtime last week, she said "Good girl, mommy. Good girl."
• I've had a cold for the past week that I just can't seem to kick and whenever I cough, Lily pats my back.
• Carl often calls Lily "Baby". Just tonight, she was trying to get his attention and repeated "Hi, baby" several times until he realized that she was talking to him.
• After grocery shopping today, we stopped to get gas and when Carl got out of the car, Lily said "Mama, daddy be back" in a way that was definitely intended to reassure me.

Then there are things that she says and does that just make me laugh out loud. Case in point...

• We were bringing groceries into the house from the car and I asked Lily if she would like to help us bring in some bags. She responded "No." [pause] "I'm tired." [pause] "Mommy carry it." Had I not been there myself, I wouldn't have believed it. Such a little stinker. Did I say that I was excited about her level of communication? Hmm, let me rethink that.

Our first family vacation

The main hotel (this should look familiar to Dirty Dancing movie buffs)

The gazebo where Baby informed Johnny of a "situation" with Penny

This is the lake at the Mountain Lake resort. It is one of only 2 naturally-made lakes in Virginia. Due to low rainfall this year, the water level was down.

The boat dock

Our cabin

Lily and me on the porch of the cabin

We just returned tonight from our first family vacation! This trip was a complete surprise to me. I learned of this excursion on Tuesday when flowers were delivered to my work with a card that said that the baby and I were going to Virginia this weekend with Carl. The reason for the trip was to celebrate our dating anniversary (a little early). What a surprise! To top things off, Carl took us to Mountain Lake, the film location of Dirty Dancing, one of my all-time favorite movies. The resort is in the mountains of Virginia and is just what our family needed - some r &r in peaceful surroundings.

Lily was truly perfect from start to finish on this trip. We did not even have any meltdowns on the 6-hour drive there and back. As Carl said, there are not many 22-month-olds that could sit through a four-course dinner without any problems (the normally forbidden fries that Lily was served was one of the main reasons for her contentment during the meal). The only disruption she made at all was when Carl excused himself to go to the bathroom at the end of the meal, Lily (very loudly) announced to the entire restaurant that dada was going "poo-poo potty". Everyone got a good chuckle out of that , except for maybe daddy.

Overall, the trip was wonderful. The surroundings were so serene, you couldn't help but feel relaxed. And, of course, I LOVED the Dirty Dancing connection and seeing first-hand the backdrop to the movie. Despite having a bit of a cold and some major allergies acting up, I truly had the time of my life, and I owe it all to Carl and my baby:)

Lawn Games

Lawn game #1 - Chess

Lily's pondering her next move.

It's all about strategy.

Lily's making all the right moves.

Lawn games #2 - Checkers
Daddy shows Lily the intricacies of the game.

Got it, daddy; I'm all over this.

A family friendly resort

Lily's favorite activity: swinging

We would ask Lily if she was ready to do something else, and she would say, "No, Lily swinging." The look in this picture is a result of her new adamant statement when the camera comes out, "No pictures Lily"...maybe I've overdone it a little...

"Whee!" (This is a direct quote.)

Exploring the woods on a little impromptu hike

(There is actually quite a good drop a couple of feet away; this clearly does not concern Lily as much as it concerned her parents.)

Congratulations Tori & Charlie!

Tori's mom just called with the terrific news that Tori and Charlie welcomed a new baby girl into the world at around 11:30 am. I am thrilled beyond words. I'm sure that pictures and stories will follow in a few days on her blog, Peanut's Place. Welcome Baby Sophia!

School girl

These pictures were taken on our morning walk with Terra, right before we left for school/work. Could she be any more adorable?

Taste of Baltimore 2007

So sweet

Lily with daddy in front of the field at Camden Yards


Lily and Mama (take a look at us 2 years ago)


Me & my baby

Kisses!!!

Pre-Halloween performance

Watching the Pre-Halloween performance

Initially, she felt it best to enjoy the show while holding daddy's hand for security, but by the end, she was boppin' to the beat all on her own.


We went to the 11th Annual Taste of Baltimore at Camden Yards today. We have been to every Taste of Baltimore since we have been here, which means that this was our 7th...and last...one. I will admit that I was a little misty-eyed driving home. We had a fantastic time, as always. The weather could not have been more beautiful. And, I know that Lily enjoyed it because she was able to delight in otherwise off-limits food. Of all the different treats there, her favorite was probably the Strawberry Smoothie. Too bad that she dropped half of it on some guy's leg. His wife was pregnant, so I guess Lily thought that she would prepare them for things to come:) Carl's favorite was probably the fresh raw oysters that were shucked right before he ate them (he said that he could still taste the salt water). My favorite, by far, was the white wine cheese dip in a bread bowl from the Melting Pot - totally indulgent and totally yummy.

Terra at Doggie Daycare

"Lily do it!"

The latest with Lily is that she wants to do everything herself. "Lily do it" and "I do it" are probably the most common utterances from her right now. As you can see above, her tries at doing it herself are not always exactly successful, but she is very proud nonetheless. You can often hear her exclaim "Lily did it" after she attempts to complete various tasks.

Lily has continued to make huge strides in her language development. Now you can pretty much talk to her about anything, and she understands and responds appropriately. For example, last night, Carl was getting ready to go down the stairs with her, and he said, "Do you want me to carry you?" Her response was "No, I will walk". The "will" part of that statement just blew us away. Her memory is also amazing to me. After she fell in the gym one day last week, she would show us her boo-boo every day for about 5 days straight and say, "Lily fall down in gym." That's our girl!

Exploring the sculpture garden at the BMA

Big girl bed

So Lily now officially has a "big girl bed". I never thought that we would actually get a toddler bed, but it made the most sense for our current situation. We currently have it in our room (which is why we opted not to go straight to the twin bed). We bought it yesterday and put it together last night. We kept it in the family room overnight, so as Carl said, "It'll be like Christmas when she wakes up and sees the bed down here." I'm not sure that that is how I would describe her reaction this morning, but it did give her a chance to sit and play on it to get comfortable with it before actually using it. As I am writing now, she is taking her afternoon nap in her new bed, and it is going well so far. We did just return from the park, and she fell asleep on the 8-minute ride home, requiring us to just transfer her from the car to the bed. So, the real test will be tonight.

A good day

I am feeling better tonight for a couple of reasons...

1. I talked to one of Lily's teachers this afternoon and reminded her to keep an extra eye on her since she has had a couple of incidents of biting in the afternoons over the past couple of weeks. She reassured me that they were being extra vigilant but that Lily was doing a great job. Then she said, "You know, Lily is not really an aggressive child". She said that the other children in the class frequently hit or push each other and sometimes even the teachers too, and they can be very defiant, often telling the teachers "no" outright when the teachers ask them to do something. She went on to say that Lily never does things like that, and she is, by and large, very patient with the other children's behaviors. She said that it is unfortunate that the biting leaves a mark and that the other aggressive behaviors don't, so it makes it seem like Lily is more aggressive but the opposite is actually true. She said that if you look at it over time, the other children display aggressive acts much more frequently, often several times a day, while Lily's acts of aggression have occurred probably 10 times total. As a parent, I really needed to hear that. And, I think that I needed to hear that from the teacher. Of course, we are continuing to work on the biting, but the conversation with the teacher helped put things in perspective for me and helped unravel the knots in my stomach a bit.
2. Lily's Tiny Tidbit report today read, "In the gym, Lily was sitting next to Jake with her legs crossed. She put her arm around Jake, leaned over, and told him "In 2 minutes, we go", then kissed him on the cheek." I laughed so hard when I read that, I cried. Honestly.

The facts of life

Any true child of the 80's knows that you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the facts of life. And so it is with Lily right now.

The GOOD...or I should say great, fabulous, wonderful, stupendous...occurrence that happened just tonight is that Lily pee-peed on the potty for the first time! We immediately ran out to the family room to tell Carl the great news, at which time he proceeded to do the best pee-pee potty victory dance I have ever seen. We definitely rocked the house tonight.

The BAD right now with Lily is that her biting habit continues and is frustrating me to no end. Here are a few things that I'm pretty confident about when it comes to Lily biting her peers:

• She definitely bites more when she's teething. Just tonight, Carl noticed a little blood when he helped her brush her teeth. We are waiting for the final four to poke through, and I really just wish it would happen already.
• Lily is definitely reacting to a "wrong" done to her, usually someone taking a toy, pushing her, etc.
• The biting tends to happen more toward the end of the day, possibly when she has lost her patience and sense of humor about these "wrongs"

Lily has bitten or attempted to bite Carl or me a few times, usually when she either overexcited or frustrated. We have the same reaction each time - a loud, firm "NO BITING!" followed by putting her down and walking away, at which time she falls to pieces and sobs. We typically let her cry it out (usually takes about 5-10 minutes for her to calm down) and then we reiterate "no biting", followed by some type of reassurance to signify that it's over and we're moving on.

At school, the teachers try to shadow her, but I am a practical person, and I know that it is not possible for one teacher in the room to have her right next to them for 9 hours straight. They always give a similar disciplinary response to biting as we do, and they have given her teething rings to chew on to try to deal with the teething issue, but still the biting persists.

I've read one book on biting (really more for early childhood educators than for parents), but I found it really unhelpful. I have also ordered some children's board books from Amazon that deal with the subject of biting, and they should be arriving any day. I really don't know what else to do. I know that it is a phase that she will grow out of, but it isn't fair to the other children in the room to have to endure this behavior until she outgrows it.

More frustrating than anything else is that I just don't understand it. She is one of the most, if not the most, verbal child in her class. Of course, we are still talking about 22-month-olds here, but still I don't know why she reacts by biting instead of verbalizing her disapproval or even choosing a different physical reaction. Most of the children at this age do their fair share of pushing, hitting and the like, but why did she decide that biting was a better option, or even an option at all? I can't explain it.

I've been telling my tale of woe to others, but I haven't had any solid advice yet. Most say that it is a phase, and I'll have to wait it out. I've had more than one person tell me that they bit their child back and their child never bit again, but anyone who knows me knows that this is not an option for me. If anyone out there has any advice, I'd love to know. I would try *almost* anything at this point.

For the grandparents

This picture is for Lily's grandparents - for bragging rights, of course:)