Mini family update

Carl's month-long hiatus has come to an end as of Monday. He started his new rotation affectionately dubbed "radi-holiday" (radiology), due to the let's say, flexible schedule that they keep. We are definitely not complaining. We like those docs in specialities that think more along the lines of Pathologists. Carl has been getting off in plenty of time to continue to pick up Lily from school around 4:30 which both of them clearly love. During the rotations that have desirable schedules, my life becomes so blissful. It is so nice not having to contend with tired, hungry, cranky toddler at the end of the day while I'm trying to finish up my work and shut down the building. Carl can also run to the grocery store or pick up any little things as needed; it really makes all the difference in the world. Carl also makes dinner on most nights when he gets home early; this is the point at which my life gets blissful, heaven really. With Ingrid taking care of the dogs (meaning I don't have to walk Terra during my lunches breaks!), I feel so free. Well, almost.

Carl has finished the last of his interviews. We ended up picking eight programs at which to interview: Wash U, Iowa, Indiana, U of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, U of Maryland, and two Kansas programs. We have gotten really positive feedback from everyone so far, so we are really optimistic about getting into one of our two top choices. Looks like we will become midwesterners once again this summer!

We had three real estate agents come over and look at our house last week. They all gave suggestions for improvements before putting it on the market and offered suggestions for a reasonable listing price. We had a clear winner for the real estate agent that we wanted to go with. Her commission was just slightly higher than the others, but we feel that she had the most accurate assessment of the house and ultimately has the resources and expertise to sell the house most quickly for the best price. Fortunately, we have very little to do to prepare the house besides some cosmetic touch-ups, continuing to declutter (yay for rented storage space!) and the heavy duty cleaning. Unfortunately, the small things really add up to keep us busy during the majority of our weekends, which will only get worse before it gets better. We plan to actually put the house on the market sometime around the beginning of March. We fully anticipate running into some bumps along the way in this whole process; we just hope that the bumps don't turn into mountains!

Lily continues to amaze us with her ever-expanding knowledge of the world around her. She now recognizes several letters, some numbers and a few words by sight. I love her use of phrases like "get out of town". I love her spunky personality. I love her observations and opinions. I love the constant commentary, the singing, and the incredible imagination. I just love this age. I feel like a broken record sometimes, but it really does just get better and better.

And that's life with us right now!

Fashion Police

As we were getting ready for school & work this morning, Lily examined each piece of clothing as we put them on. She looked at her shirt and pants and said, "It matches!" She then looked at her hair clips and said, "It matches!" She then looked at her socks and again, "It matches!" When we put on her shoes, once again, "It matches!" Then she paused and looked at the white part of her shoes and said, "White - doesn't match." Oh my, what have I done?

Just because

Looking sweet and innocent

The glimmer of mischief to be had

What do you think about this, mom?
Lily likes to test the limits safely, like when she knows that the oven and stove are both turned off; I'm not complaining.

Playtime

Read along with Lily

My favorite part of Lily reading Brown Bear is when she sometimes says "what are you lookin' at?" and "look at me" instead of "what do you see?" and "looking at me".

Sing along with Lily

Lily can often be found singing around the house these days. It is very difficult to get a video of her because she will normally stop if she sees the camera. She didn't seem to mind on this particular night though.

Our budding artist

More than just a saying

Put a cork in it

Fickle fishing

I was not able to attend Lily's Gymboree class today due to an Open House at my school, but I asked Carl what they did today, and here is how it was summed up for me:

The theme was Camping and Fishing. The teacher put little stuffed toy fish on a mat (the lake), and the children were supposed to stand on the climbing structure (the bridge) and use the sticks and ribbon (fishing poles) to get the fish out of the water. Lily decided to cut-to-the-chase and dive into the lake and gather all the fish. She then very proudly brought the fish to the teacher while the other children stood, as instructed, on the structure with their poles and nothing to fish. The teacher thanked Lily when she brought them to her and threw them back into the lake, and once again Lily went into the lake and gathered them all. The little fisherpeople never had a chance.

The next activity involved building a fire. They used the same sticks (without the ribbon) as firewood. Lily recognized that these were the same sticks used for the fishing poles so she went around and disassembled all the fishing poles in order to throw the sticks into the pile for the fire. (Just to sum up, the children now have no fish and no poles.)

For the last activity, the children were able to cook their catch of the day on the fire. For this, Lily decided to go all out and stage her first animal rights protest and rescued the fish from their fiery fate. All in a morning's play.

Calling all Purple Pachyderms

Lily has decided that she is now a doctor...to be more specific an elephant doctor...to be even more specific a purple elephant doctor. Carl asked her how she would care for the elephants, and she told us how she has to wrap them up because their noses are runnin'. Her father responded, "Oh, that makes sense because I've heard they have a lot of junk in their trunks". And I knowingly and willingly entered into this relationship.

School friends

This morning Lily and her friends were especially affectionate. She held hands with her friend all the way down the hall, and then they all decided to hold hands in a circle and sing "Ring Around the Rosy" when they got into the classroom. Lily and her friend broke away from the group and hugged and twirled in circles for several minutes. Very sweet.

More fun with gifts

Playing with a great wooden train from her cousins, Lucy and Lainey

(Notice Lily's nighttime curly locks)

Birthday gift from Grandpa Deetz

(And morning bedhead)

More Annie's Playground

Playing with the chimes

The current favorite activity at the park - sliding

Swinging is still fun too!

Fun steps

The bouncy bridge

Through the barn door

The weather today was fairly mild for January, so we took advantage and headed outdoors, visiting Annie's Playground and the dog park (see below).

Dog Days of Winter

View of the horses from the dog park

We decided to visit a different dog park today (one that Ingrid found when she moved here). This dog park is very different from the one in the city. As Ingrid pointed out, it actually has grass. I've never lived in a town quite like Baltimore before where you go from the city to absolute country so quickly. Where we live (smack in the middle of suburbia), it takes us about 15 minutes to get to the city and 15 minutes to get to the country. But, I've always said that the best thing about living in Baltimore is its proximity to everything else.

Scenes from Saturday

Playing in the "tunnels" at Chick-Fil-A.

Indoor playgrounds are hard to come by, but we never really considered the ones at fast food joints before - I guess because she was not at an age last winter to really appreciate them. But now we are grateful that several restaurants around here have them; she really enjoyed playing there yesterday. I guess their plan for bringing in customers worked on us!

Lily continues to want to use the potty, but now her doll has to have the same accommodations. She insists that her doll have a book while she's on her potty. I even have to turn the pages every once in a while for the baby doll! Let's just hope that this eventually pays off. While Lily has a great interest in sitting (or now sometimes standing in front of the potty), flushing and using toilet paper, she still doesn't seem to want to actually go in the potty.

We went to the library yesterday, and Lily really surprised me when she started pulling out the letters and naming several of them. Lily has floating letters for the bathtub, letter blocks and several books and puzzles with letters on them that we play with at home (and I know that they work on the alphabet at school), but sometimes you feel like you're working on things beyond her comprehension. But lo and behold, she's getting it!

Our Saturday was lots of fun with Gymboree in the morning and Chick-Fil-A (with indoor playground) for lunch. While Lily napped at home with Aunt Ingrid, Carl and I went to Boordy Vineyard for their Chili Winter Weekend event. We then returned home, and Lily and I hit the library. Carl and I rounded out the evening with a DVD after Lily went to bed. It was definitely a go-go day, just the way I like it!

Loquacious Lily

Lily continues to amuse us with her colorful antics and conversations. Here are some examples of what has been going on in our house lately:

• Carl and Lily wrestle a lot so that Carl can prepare her for her inevitable Ultimate Baby Fighting Champion competition. Lily has a signature move that Carl has dubbed "The Stinkbomb". In essence, the move involves Lily sitting on Carl's chest backwards and jumping up and down. As I was witnessing this move the other day, Lily said (and I am quoting), "How do you like that, Carl?"


• Lily received a watermelon-flavored chapstick from Baby Sophia, and she said, "Lipstick! Just like Daddy!"


• A couple of nights ago, Carl asked Lily what she thought about finishing up dinner and going to take a bath, and she responded, "That would be fine."
  
• Lily's teacher commented to her that her head hurts and how she should go see Lily's daddy since he's a doctor and could fix her head. Lily gave her teacher an affronted look and stated that she is a doctor and can fix her head. She then placed each hand on either side of the teacher's face, pulled her teacher's face toward hers, and kissed her forehead.
  

Nearly every day Lily says something that makes us laugh or just surprises us. Her language has become so much more "grown-up". Instead of saying that her drink is "all gone", she says that her glass is "empty". As she was cutting an asparagus stalk last night, she said, "I'm going to cut it in half", and she did just that. It's just so different from her previous baby talk.

Carl has been off this month and has been picking Lily up from school each night which she LOVES. She brags to her classmates that her daddy is coming to pick her up and then exclaims, "MY daddy!" when he gets there. I'm a little worried about what is going to happen when Carl goes back to work in February. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic. I don't know though because last night Carl couldn't get her because he was working on some other things, and her teachers had to end up walking around the school with her because she wanted to find her Daddy. Not a good sign for next month. Also, when Carl comes to pick her up, he usually stops by the office to say hi/bye to me. Lily won't even come in the office and tells me to stay there for fear that she might have to stay with me and not get her Daddy time. Needless to say, she is simply smitten with her Daddy. And who can blame her? I am too.

Fun with Christmas presents

Lily loves her new necklace from Uncle Jeff, Aunt Susie, and her cousins.

She also loves the floating desk and waterproof crayons for the bathtub from them.

Lily is putting to use her new fingerpaint paper from Grandma Janet. And yes, she is using a paintbrush with her fingerpaints. She prefers not to get her hands dirty, but she absolutely loves arts & crafts - go figure!

Lily has been very diligent in taking care of her babies lately. Here she is holding her new American Girl baby from her Grandma & Grandpa Meyer (and wearing the new pjs from them too). You can see Ingrid's blog to see how she has been putting to use the adorable new blankets handmade by Grandma Janet.

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful gifts!!!

Fun at Gymboree

They had a firefighter theme at Gymboree yesterday. Lily made it her own personal responsibility to rescue as many cats and dogs as possible.

Hi-ho! Lily riding to the rescue - backwards.

Lily got game - the slam dunk with some rim action.

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere

Hip, hip hooray for Gymboree class!

Lily received some birthday & Christmas money from her Great Grandpa & Grandma Deetz and her Grandpa Deetz, so we decided to sign her up for Gymboree class. It worked out perfectly because they just opened a brand new facility close to our house, and it is a really fun way to release some energy on the cold winter weekends!

More family photos

First professional family photo

The whole gang
Zach, Tim, Mary, Jeff, Carl
Angela, Suzanne, Katie, Susie, Me & Lily
Mom, Dad, Nick
Abby, Courtney

Christmas with the Pelleritos

The little ones with prime seats for the traditional Christmas puppet show written, directed, and produced by my Aunt Kathy (in collaboration with several family members)

Santa's helpers: My cousin, Maria, and sister, Angela

Abby

Angelic Mary ready for her role in the play

My dad tapping into his inner reindeer

Deal me in - Lily's ready to play poker with the guys

Christmas celebration with my family

More presents! All of the grandkids ready to be spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa

Lily makes her way through the crowd protecting her new favorite possession.

Suzanne with her girls, Katie and Mary

Nick getting wrapped up in the moment

Courtney with a priceless expression

PJ party with Grandma! Lily, Abby, Mary, Courtney, Nick, and Katie (and Tim!)