Build it and they will come

So far, we've spied Cardinals, Finches, and Robins grabbing tasty morsels from one of Lily's creations.

Room with a view - Lily has the perfect bird lookout from her bedroom window.
*Notice her perfect birdwatching shirt - her St. Louis Cardinals shirt from her cousins Mary & Katie*

Lovin' Letters

It has clicked. Lily now "gets it" that letters are all around her, and she is loving it. She points out letters EVERYWHERE. She sees them on shirts, on signs, on the grocery cart, and of course in books. She really blew me away the other day when we were walking up the sidewalk to go into the house, and she picked up a very small twig in the grass and said "Y!" Indeed, it was. It is so neat to watch the pieces fall into place and for her to understand that letters and words are all around us. Lily is very excited and proud of herself when she finds letters too. Although this morning when I was getting ready, she was reading a book and pointed out a letter. I was very animated in praising in her, and she looked and me and said, "No, don't do it". Okay, message received loud and clear.

Homemade bird feeders

On our rides to work/school in the mornings lately, Lily has been exclaiming "Birdies!" from the backseat. I really hadn't noticed the increased number of birds until Lily pointed it out. But since they are coming back, I figured that it would be a fun project to make some old-fashioned homemade bird feeders. When I started the project tonight, Lily wasn't at all interested. When Carl took an interest, however, Lily immediately wanted to get in on the action.

First we made a special mixture of oil, nuts, cornmeal, and oats to add to a purchased bag of birdseed.

We then went to work on "painting" pine cones with peanut butter. Lily was especially into this part. No need for any outside praise though; she frequently told herself that she was doing a "great job".

The final step was rolling the painted pine cones in the seed mixture. Lily decided that rolling the cones was far too messy. So, she decided to use a spoon to coat the cones instead.

As always, Lily had her own unique take on the cones.

So cheesy

More cheese please!
(Who says she didn't get anything from her mommy?)

Snow!

Finally some accumulation! It wasn't much - just enough to stop and gaze in wonderment and taste the magic.

Little Star

Week update: Lily started with a fever on Monday afternoon which continued on and off (mostly on) through Saturday. Immediately following the break in temperature, she started with the runny nose and subsequent cough. It's been a rough week for this little one, but she's been a champ through it all. I came down with a cold Friday evening which lasted until Sunday morning. Luckily, I felt well enough for Carl and I to go on our delayed Valentine's date to The Melting Pot Sunday night. Big night out indeed!

Carl and I were both off today but worked our tails off in the house. Carl did touch-up paint jobs around the house while I continued to declutter in the kitchen and scrubbed and steam-cleaned the carpet upstairs. I have now also become one with the magic eraser. An exhausting day for sure, but we needed to make up for lost time since I lost 2 days to illness. Our real estate agent is coming this Sunday for a final inspection of the house, and we plan to officially put it on the market March 1st. Lots of butterflies.

The video above is from today. Lily did a great job entertaining herself while Carl and I worked on our various projects.

Lily's loves

Food: We went through a phase around Christmas time of loving pears and clementines. Now she wants donuts and ice cream. Boy, have we taken a turn for the worse. Overall, she is still a pretty good eater (other than at the moment due to illness). She really enjoys all types of rice (white, brown, saffron, spanish) and has a newfound love of shrimp ("shrimpies"). The most reliable foods at the moment are yogurt and applesauce, but she will try almost anything.

Activities: Lily loves to be outside still. This is a bit more challenging during the winter, especially when the new snowsuit, snow boots, and waterproof gloves that Santa brought her have been used one time - in Indiana. No fun flurries for us so far this year.

When inside, Lily can often be found engaging in dramatic play activities. She cooks up creative feasts in her play kitchen or stands next to me on a chair while I'm prepping for a meal. She is a great mommy to all of her babies, although I often get stuck babysitting while she goes to work or goes on the "hairplane". She can also frequently be found talking on her play cell phone, just chatting away.

Her favorite indoor activities, however, is anything art-related. She loves to paint, color with crayons, sculpt with playdough and floam, and draw on her aquadoodle. She has also recently taken to stickers, which can be used on artwork but more likely will be found on every inch of her body and all over our floors.

Outside of the house, Lily loves school, so much so that when I tried to leave for work this afternoon, she absolutely insisted that she go too. She hadn't spiked a fever all morning, so we tried it. Three hours later Carl had to pick her up due to fever. Such is life.

Lily also loves Gymboree. We are going to try gymnastics and swimming classes this spring, both of which I think she will really enjoy.

Books: As anyone with young children knows, book preferences change quite frequently. Lily is really into nursery rhymes right now, so the beautifully illustrated Mother Goose book given to her by her Grandma Janet is a big hit. She also has several song books titled Let's Move, Let's Sing, and Let's Dance with rhymes that she enjoys. Other favorite titles include Goodnight Gorilla, Panda Bear Panda Bear, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Gossie, Olivia, The Right Number of Elephants, The New Alphabet of Animals (given to her by her cousins Lucy & Lainey), and Shiny, Touchy, Smelly Colors (given to her by Tori). In general, Lily enjoys all books, and our story time before bed is always my favorite time of the day.

TV/Movies: Lily still does not watch tv programs or movies, which is both a blessing and a curse. Occasionally, we will put on a cartoon, but the interest is mild at best. We knew that she was truly sick this week when she actually laid down and watched a couple of rented movies.

People: Obviously, Lily loves her family, immediate and extended. She is also totally taken with other kids her age. She goes on and on about her friends at school and all of her cousins. She loves to look at other blogs as well, and often requests to see Mary & Katie and Lucy & Lainey on the computer. (As a side, she has classified Mary & Lucy as "big girls" and Katie & Lainey as "babies". She, of course, considers herself to be a big girl.)

Just what the doctor ordered

So it looks like the winter season will not pass us by entirely unscathed. Lily has caught a little bug that is going around the school. It involves high fevers with lethargy but not really any other symptoms. On the whole, not too bad. It was a little heartbreaking, though, to have to give her a cool bath at 2:00 am while she's crying, "No mommy, please." She has been super-sweet during her illness, mostly wanting to curl up and cuddle. Luckily, Aunt Ingrid agreed to stay with her during the morning today, and Carl came home in the afternoon. If the fever is still there tomorrow, which I fully anticipate it will be, Aunt Ingrid has once again agreed to take the morning shift, and I will be taking the afternoon. Thanks to Aunt Ingrid for all the help!

When I got home from work tonight, I asked Lily what she needed to feel better (she revels in the attention from being sick). She responded with the following...

• ice cream
• soda
• blue juice [Gatorade]
• a rhino
• a hippopotamus
• a giraffe
• a monkey - "and that's all."

Goodnight Gorilla

Finally functional

Basement Family Room

The Study: View #1

The Study: View #2

Basement Bathroom

This morning we had our basement recarpeted. After the new carpet was in, we cleared out and rearranged so that the rooms would be more functional. You can't truly appreciate these pictures unless you've been here prior to the redesign. The basement family room was solely a workout & dog playroom before, the study was storage, and the bathroom had nothing in it because we rarely used it. We were so excited with our makeover today that we actually hung out down there for a while. This would have never happened before in its prior state of disarray. I told my sister Suzanne the other day that I think that I'm going to pretend that we're moving about every 6 months from here on out - it is amazing what you can accomplish once it becomes necessary. We will at least get to enjoy the space for the next four months before we move. The big countdown continues - only a few more weeks before the house goes on the market. We have so many countdowns going on right now between match day, graduation, moving, etc. we can't even keep them straight!

Yay for short-sleeve weather

With the highs reaching into the 70s today, it was an unusually warm February day. Carl took Lily to the park after picking her up from school today - lucky ducks!

Fat Tuesday!

We went all out for Fat Tuesday. We had pizza for dinner, and then Lily had a donut with pink icing and sprinkles and even a couple bites of the grown-up's ice cream sundae for dessert. What a great excuse for some junk food for us all!

Right now Lily is really into opposites. They have been working on opposites at school, and now she points them out all the time. She pulls the zipper on my jacket and says "Up and down - opposites!" She flips the light switch on and off and says, " Light and dark - opposites!" She goes up and down the stairs and says, "Upstairs and downstairs - opposites!" Too cute.

She is also really into things that match. She recently got a set of 10 little dogs that included what looked like 3 Poodles, 3 Chihuahuas, and what we thought were 4 Lhasa Alpsos of various colors. Lily spent a good deal of time sorting them into different groups by type of dog and then resorting them into groups by color and back again. Lily sorted the 4 Lhasa Alpsos into 2 separate groups which Carl almost corrected until Lily pointed out that 2 of them had 1 bow in their hair while the other 2 had 2 bows, which leads us to believe that these were actually meant to be 2 different breeds, maybe 2 Lhasa Alpsos and 2 Shih Tzus? And the guy with two doctorates stands corrected by his two-year-old:)