Halloween headlines and scary stats

The St. Louis Post Dispatch had a headline recently that read, "34% of people believe in ghosts; 31% of people believe in Bush". While this is funny, it is a bit scary that 31% of people still believe in Bush. With an election year on the horizon, we need to start a dialogue now and commence action tomorrow. It comes down to this: by the time it is all said and done, we will have spent trillions of dollars on a war in Iraq, yet left our own health care system and schools in dire need. What this amounts to is a lot of unnecessary death, and I'm not just talking about the killing oversees and the lack of adequate health care for people here. Leaving children without quality education is a violent act. (If interested, you could read some of Carl's papers on the subject.) The truth of it is that I am horrified that I am leaving Lily (and many generations to follow) these problems to inherit: foreign politics that make other countries desire retribution, debt beyond repair, an environmental crisis, a promotion of superstition and violence above rationality and a general disregard for the truth. A scary world indeed.

Pre-Halloween Festivities at New Town

Prize-winning pic by Aunt Angela

Concentrating very hard on her pumpkin painting (notice the left-handedness)

Pictures at "gramma" and "pop pop's" house prior to the Halloween Festivity at New Town

Cool cowgirl

I know that I have overloaded everyone with pictures today, but I had to play catch-up a little while I had the time. Believe it or not, I still have a ton of pictures yet to post, but I'm just done for today. As I stated previously, we have taken a ridiculous amount of pictures of Lily while we have been visiting my family in St. Louis. But really, she's just so stinkin' cute, how could we not?

Boo at the zoo

Little cowgirl with mommy

Next year we may consider dressing up as a snake charmer since Lily was so into giving the snake statue kisses at the zoo.

When I grow up

Lily explored some possible future career options at my favorite children's museum, The Magic House.

Bank teller

Fisherwoman

Librarian

News anchor

Pizzeria owner

Cutie pie cookin' up a pizza pie

Fun ways to get from here to there

Lily's favorite - the train

Shoe shopping

Visit to Purina Farms

Lily with her cousins Nick, Abby, and Courtney

Aunt Angela with the gang

Family photo: Dad, mom, Angela and me with the kids

Hi from St. Louis

Calling home to check-in on Aunt Ingrid, Terra, and Irie

Lily, Carl, and I are here in St. Louis and thoroughly enjoying our stay with my family. Lily and I have been here for one week while Carl has been here for 3 weeks. Lily and I are keeping extremely busy with various events and activities every day of our vacation. Carl, unfortunately, is working hard at Barnes-Jewish Hospital completing a rotation in Surgical Pathology, so he does not have as much free time. We decided to do this rotation in St. Louis to get "a foot in the door" at the Pathology Program at Washington University. It also allows Carl to gain firsthand knowledge of what life would be like as a Path resident at Wash U. So far, so good. Carl actually has an interview at Wash U for the Path Program on the Monday following his completion of the rotation. As always, we try to remain optimistic but also realistic. Wash U's path program is probably the best in the country, so nothing's guaranteed.



I have been doing a fair amount of "work" while I've been here as well. I am looking into different daycares in the area and doing extensive research on the housing market here. We have spent both Sundays here going to many, many open houses which has been a lot of fun. I think that I have a really good feel for the market now and what areas would be best for us to live. Now if we could just find out if we are actually going to be able to live here!! We won't find out until late March which is just torture. The only thing I can do right now is prepare for the possibility but also be prepared to have to switch gears if we receive different news down the line.



We have taken a ridiculous amount of pictures of Lily while we have been here, and I will try to post some as I get the time which has been more limited than you might think. My mom, Angela, Lily and I are off to Kansas City tomorrow to visit my girl Tori and her new baby Sophia during the day and then have dinner with my sister, Suzanne, and her girls, Mary and Katie at night. We like to keep things hopping!

Day and night / night and day

On her way to school, Lily's all business with her lunch bag and morning drink.

After school (and clearly several meals later), it's fun playtime with Aunt Ingrid.

Spooky pumpkin patch

Truly creepy

This display featured a little witch house scene with a real cat (litter box and all) with what Ingrid and I both think were deceased stuffed mice pinned to the witches dresses.

Lily watches the horses while she enjoys licking the bar of the barnyard animal area - gross!
(As you can see, Aunt Ingrid is very amused by Lily's lack of judgement.)

Get us out of here quick!

Dancing Queen

Finally Fall!

The weather turned today, and it finally feels like Fall. Hooray! On our nightly walks with Terra, Lily loves pointing to the light-up pumpkins in our neighbor's yards; so like the sucker I am, I had to get one so that she could be "proud" of her house too. Did I ever imagine putting a big plastic pumpkin on our porch? Maybe not, but it's just one of the many things that is totally different when viewed from the eyes of an almost-two-year-old.

I think Lily and Terra both heard me cry "uncle" last night so both had mercy on me today. Both of them ate breakfast and dinner without any problems, and we had very a very enjoyable morning and a great evening together. Thanks guys!

The Scream (not hers, mine)

I just had to document our current dinner time situation. (This also applies to any meals eaten at home.) Lily typically picks out what she wants to eat at any given meal which I know is NOT the right way to go about mealtime, but it is what it is at this point. Over the past couple of weeks, Lily has reverted back to a bad habit of picking out what she wants and then not eating any of it. However, it has become exponentially worse with the increased number of months behind her. Now she wants just about everything she sees and then some but will only take a bite or two (or less, meaning none). Tonight was the worst at its best. As you can see, Lily has before her an impressive spread (from left to right): pierogies (cooked in two ways), cottage cheese, a wild rice and green bean pilaf, peach applesauce, ravioli with mini meatballs, linguine with bell peppers, and yogurt. She had a few bites of the pasta, stuck her hand in the applesauce and then the cottage cheese and then smeared the combination all over her booster seat. She then proceeded to go into a meltdown when Terra came over to taste the sticky mess on her chair. Lovely.

I know that I am ultimately responsible for this situation by allowing her to choose her own menu. The problem comes with getting home at 6:30 and having an hour and a half to prepare a meal, get everyone fed, feed & walk Terra, give Lily her bath, have some attempt at a little quality family time and then put Lily to bed. This is just a constant battle with me, and I am failing spectacularly. By the time Lily gets home, she is hungry and naturally wants to eat immediately. I can't blame her. Her last snack at school is at 3:30, so of course three hours later, she's ready for a meal. I plan ahead on some days, and we have really great meals waiting for us at the end of the day which is fantastic. But, I can't keep up with that every night. I also make meals at Let's Dish, so everything is frozen and ready to go, but even those can take 30 minutes or more to cook, and I just don't have the time at night. We can only eat so many Bertolli frozen meals! (which are very quick and tasty, by the way) So, on more nights than I care to admit, Lily comes home and picks out whatever pre-prepared or leftover food items we have.

This morning I was so frustrated after I had made her cheesy scrambled eggs, a pancake, applesauce, and chocolate milk and she did not touch any of it but instead whined continually, I just screamed. Not at her, or even in the same room as her, but just screamed right then and there. This was definitely not a typical vocalization from even-tempered me, and my throat is still feeling the effects of it even now (which gives you an idea of the intensity). Terra did not help the situation by not eating her dog food after several attempts of hand-feeding her and adding different "human" foods to her dog food to increase the appeal to her. (It is necessary for Terra to eat in the mornings or she gets sick, and then I come home on my lunch break to walk her and have to deal with cleaning up her vomit - just so you understand why the hand-feeding was taking place.) I, on the other hand, would have been happy to eat this morning, but of course, did not get the chance. By the end of the morning, I was very happy that Lily was going to enjoy the day at school and therefore allow me to keep (reclaim?) my sanity and get a chance to recharge and gear up for the evening. It's the best I can do in a practical world, where there simply isn't time for "Calgon, take me away" moments. Despite all of this, we had a very cuddly and laughter-filled evening, which at the end of the day, is the real stuff that gets me through.

Remember when...

Our little pumpkin this time last year



Our calabasa now

Figuring things out all too quickly - Lily is taking her temperature by putting the thermometer under her arm, the way we do it for the kids at school. I'm not sure how she knows this since we have very rarely had to take her temperature at school.

The most notable thing of late with Lily is her amazing memory which is probably better than mine if the truth be told. A few examples...

• This morning I told Lily that we needed to get ready for school. She responded, "teachers...friends". I said, "Yes, we are going to see your teachers and your friends. Who are the friends in your class that you are going to see?" Lily then proceeded to tell me the names of all 5 friends in her class. Very cool.
• When we went to school on Monday, I told Lily to tell her teacher where we went the day before. To my amazement, she said "park".
• Lily hurt her finger last week which the teacher told me about before I saw Lily. When Lily came to me at the end of the day, she immediately held up her finger and said "boo-boo...door". She had, in fact, pinched her finger in the door. When she showed me the boo-boo two days later, I asked what happened, and she said "door".
• Last week, Lily somehow was brought to the office at the end of the day without her shoes. After all the children had gone AND I checked the rooms for closing, I asked Lily where her shoes were. She said "in room", and I responded, "In your classroom? Where in the classroom?" She said, "chair". So, I went into her classroom, looked behind the chairs at their table, and sure enough, there they were. This was wonderful since I would have never found them otherwise. I can see how her memory is going to be very useful!
• My favorite story related to her memory is from her Tiny Tidbits today. There is apparently a story that Lily likes very much about a tiger named Tony (the name of the book escapes me). The teacher was in a hurry so that they could transition to the next activity and tried to skip a page or two. Lily apparently stood up, put her hand on the book and said "no, no, no". She then turned the pages back that the teacher tried to skip and said, "Tony sad" which is the part that the teacher attempted to pass over. So funny!
  

Playtime at the park

This park had some new equipment, like this standing swing

and this alternative see-saw.

Finally, an answer to children's desire to climb up the slide!

It also had the old standbys.

Beep-beep!

Yesterday we went to a new park that is about 2 minutes away from our usual park. It was really nice for Lily to be able to play on different equipment. As everyone knows (especially Carl), I am continually on the hunt for new activities for Lily. This one was so close to us, I'm a little embarrassed that we have not been there before. Even better, very few people are at this park because I think that it is overshadowed by the larger and more established park that is so close in proximity. What a find!

Sweet slumber

Lily fell asleep tonight clutching a book in each hand. Too sweet.

Apple Petal Tart

This is our latest baking endeavor, the Apple Petal Tart. It was definitely more involved than the Pumpkin Bread or the Banana Nut Bread, so Lily decided that she needed to provide extra help in the following ways:

• Grabbing the glass sugar bowl and running through the kitchen, attempting to make it into the Family Room to do who-knows-what with it
• Using the rolling pin as a hockey stick
• Cleaning her hands in Terra's water dish
• Eating half of the Vanilla Wafers used for the crust - and feeding the other half to Terra

Thank goodness I have her around to help; baking just wouldn't be the same without her!

Apple Festival

What do you want? I'm eatin' fish here.

Doing what Lily loves best: people-watching

An action shot on the slide

Henry with his mama, Tiffany

Ellie

Lily and Rachel made their way through the crowd hand-in-hand

Spending the day with friends is so much fun!


We spent a very nice day at The Apple Festival in the small town of Darlington today. We met Tiffany and Gretchen, and their kids Rachel, Henry and Ellie at the festival for some fun in the sun. It was unseasonably warm, as it has been for a while here, but the kids still had a good time despite the heat. The festival itself was really nice - and huge! We couldn't believe how big it was. There was much to see and do, but oddly enough very few exhibits and goods that featured apples. Hmm... I think the biggest highlight for Rachel and Lily was the playground, but for me, it was the delicious homemade apple dumpling - fantastic!

Baker's assistant

Lily and I made pumpkin bread tonight. This was our first baking endeavor together, and she LOVED it! I was really excited to find out that she seems to enjoy cooking/baking as much as I do. This is something that we will definitely continue to do together in the future. Since we picked 10 pounds of apples this past weekend, Sliced Apple Tart and Apple Strudel Muffins are on the "To Do" List for this week. Those overripe bananas are also begging to be used, so it will be a busy week in the kitchen for us. The pictures with me in them are for Angela, who says I'm never in the pictures that I post. Is it that obvious? :)