Lillian Meyer Deetz

Lily - our little bouncing ball. She is exudes life and light and energy. She definitely challenges us as parents, but the person she is and is becoming makes us proud to no end. Although her love can be overwhelming to William at times, she entertains him and makes him laugh in a way that no one else can. William lights up when she is around, and I know even at his young age, his life has been enhanced by their interactions.

Here are a few of my favorite Lily moments lately:

(This one is actually from about 4 months ago) - We were having some issues with Lily, like going up to take a bath at night without serious resistance, getting dressed in the morning, getting into the car in a timely manner, etc (typical kid issues). One of the ways we thought to address these problems was to create a sticker chart. I wanted to create the chart with her so that she would take more ownership in this process. When I asked her what things she thought that she needed to work on, she responded with the following list:

-Not giving anybody flowers that are allergic to them

-Not going in hot, boiling soup

-Not going down the drain because it has rats in it

-Don't ask for too much presents from Santa

-Don't get too much kisses from dogs

-Not making too much "i"s in your name

-Not flying with reindeers in the sky

-Going camping

-Going out in the spooky night

(From a couple of months ago) - Carl and I occasionally revert to the classic parent counting trick (e.g. "You need to put on your shoes by the count of 5...1, 2..."). Lily quickly caught onto this game, and one day instructed, "Mommy, you need to have my seatbelt on by the count of 7....1, 2...". And let me tell you, putting on a seatbelt under pressure is hard to do! I managed to get the seatbelt on with a little time to spare, and Lily and I had a good laugh together. :)

- Lily often interprets what William is saying. In my heart of hearts, I think she truly believes that she understands what he is saying. Conveniently, he often agrees with her, like when he really, really wants to watch Rufus the dog on t.v.

- Lily has been taking great pride in getting dressed on her own lately. In fact, she usually does not want me to see her before she gets dressed in the morning so she can "surprise" me. The other day she got dressed and came into our bathroom and while posing, asked, "Do I look distinguished?"

-These days, Lily has a hypothesis about everything. Anytime there is a situation that we need to figure out, she begins with, "I have a hypothesis that..."

-I love that whenever anyone asks her name or her brother's name, she always replies with "Lillian Meyer Deetz" and "William Oscar Deetz".

- When we went to the Magic House recently, they had all the pictures of the presidents hanging up in their government area. Lily picked out no less than 12 presidents, saying their names and fun facts about them. When she found good ol' "W", she loudly announced that he started lots of fights. I can't imagine where she heard that. ;)

- Carl's mom is visiting this weekend, and Carl and I got to go out for lunch while Mee-maw watched the kiddos. Yay - thanks Mee-maw! Carl told Lily to be careful with Mee-maw and not engage in the "tackle" games like Carl and Lily play, to which Lily asked, "Will Mee-maw be able to play tackle when she gets older?" We just love the childhood notion that no matter your age, you just keep improving with time.

- Lily has the idea that when you want something enough, the mailman just magically delivers it. She has been pining for Blueberry Muffin and her pet mouse, Cheesecake (80's edition Strawberry Shortcake). So one day, out of blue, Lily exclaimed, "I know that one day they just have to bring us a package with them in it! I just know it!" Mommy apparently believes this is true as well because sure enough, they magically appeared in our mailbox! ;)

-The process of reading is just that: a process. It starts from the time that they are babies and learn that books contain pictures and stories. Eventually they learn to turn pages, learn that we read English from left to right, top to bottom, etc. They then start "reading" books on their own, making up the words as they go along. Each one of these steps, and all the others in between, are so important when it comes to the process of reading. It is thus difficult to point to a specific time when a child becomes "a reader". However, Lily is now sounding out words and can (slowly) read and comprehend short stories. This is such an exciting process to watch, and I'm so proud of her progress in this area!

Park weather!

Sunny days!

We pre-planned a group picnic for Friday, and luckily we ended up with perfect weather (it is hit or miss these days). We had 5 families with 14 kids! We obviously do something well....have kids (dirty birds).

Part of the crew

The other part of the crew


Lovin' my girl

The fresh air combined with the warm sun were a recipe for (a short) nap for William.

Family time

We got a special visit from Aunt Angela a couple weekends ago, and we went to visit our alma mater for an Easter Egg Hunt (for Lily, not us). Aunt Angela took the opportunity to get in some extra snuggles with William.

While Mary & Katie were in this weekend, we went out to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner and spent some quality time (with Abby too) at their awesome community playground.


Mary, Katie, and Lily put on a play for us after their visit to the Magic House.

As usual, the kids wore out the grown-ups. :)

An Enchanted Day

Princesses Mary, Katie and Lily

On their way to the ball

William played in the ball pit

Mary and Katie came to visit this weekend, and Lily spent approximately 28 straight hours with them. Needless to say, Lily was so happy (and extremely exhausted)! These pictures are from the Magic House.

The Golden Age

William is 5 months today. I can't believe how much he has grown over the past month. He no longer looks like a newborn. This is an amazing time that some have dubbed "the honeymoon period" in babies' development. In some ways, it really is. William has been a pretty good sleeper from the start - waking up a few times during the night, but usually settling right back to sleep after eating. On a typical night now, William only wakes up once or twice which is something I can definitely handle since he seems to go back to sleep so easily. He is also starting to have more regular, extended sleeping periods during the day which is something I have really been waiting for.

William smiles and laughs so readily. He stares intently while Terra plays and loves his sister to pieces (the sentiment is mutual). He belly-laughs when tickled. And there is nothing like the first morning smile when he wakes up for the day. Interactions with him are so pure. There is no arguing about what he does or does not want to eat, do, go, wear, etc. Parenting is just so blissful at this stage. We make sure to tell William almost daily how much he is wanted and how long we waited for him. He is a gift beyond words.

Lily and the Leprechaun

I accidentally left Lily's window open when we left for school this morning and guess who came to visit? A mischievous little leprechaun! Lily's reaction was just too cute. When she saw her room, her first comment was, "I didn't do this!" I then told her that I mistakenly left her window open, so she thought the wind must have done it. After some further investigation, we discovered that it was the work of a little leprechaun. She took stock of everything that was done to the room and then wanted to call daddy to inform him of the situation. It was a fun and magical part of our day, and I loved sharing it with her.

Wearin o' the green

William went through three wardrobe changes today due to various reasons. Luckily, he had plenty of green in the closet.

Outfit 1 - happy at home

Outfit 2 - super stud at Costco :)

Outfit 3 - relaxing in the backyard

Thirty-three and counting

Thanks to everyone for the messages, cards, and gifts for my birthday. It was a sunny, happy day!

Thanks to my godmother, Aunt Chris, for the flowers.

Thanks to Lily for my sculpture and squishy bag.

Thanks to mom and dad for lunch and shopping, and thanks to my fabulous husband for arranging to come home a little early - not an easy task for him!

On her way to the Oscars

Last Tuesday, Lily had her first performance for her acting class. The girls sang two songs and starred in a play that they "wrote". It was pretty neat to see the result of a class of four-year-olds working on character development and plots. The video below is one of the songs that they sang. Unfortunately, the video for the play was longer and didn't have great sound quality, as the actors were a bit all over the place. :)

William's wide-eyed reaction to the captivating show.

Walking the (brown) carpet

Lily went with a go-go look for Oscar day this year. Perhaps she should consult a professional stylist in the future?

William Oscar

A little too much partying on Oscar night?

Friday family fun night

William got to experience another first on Friday night. We realized that the community college where I work has family swim times on Monday and Friday nights that are free for family members of faculty. Awesome! Lily loved her time in the pool and, of course, did not want to leave. As you can see from the video below, she has become very confident in the water. Since it is an indoor pool, we can take advantage of it year-round. Yay!

Finally!

William's first time in the swing

Big sister loves to help

My kiddos....love, love, love these kids!

Our Lily

Terra's never one to miss out on the fun


Finally....warmer weather and some SUNSHINE! We took advantage of a beautiful day on Friday with some outdoor time in the backyard and walks around the neighborhood. Life is good.

Baby shower

A huge blowout led us to give new meaning to the term "baby shower".

Hungry, hungry hippo

Not surprisingly, William readily accepted solid food. He has had rice cereal and bananas so far with no problems. I try to read his cues and follow his lead when it comes to food. So, some days we do not do solids at all. Other days, I have to supplement with 2 bottles and 2 servings of food. I'm not concerned with schedule so much as just giving him what I think he needs when he needs it. We will probably continue like this for a while. I'm not planning on introducing him to a wide variety of foods right away either. I know that he is getting his nutritional needs met through the breastmilk and formula. The food is just to add some substance to his diet since he seems absolutely insatiable on some days. I am just amazed at how much he can eat sometimes! He is growing so much, and I'm afraid that he is going to grow right out of his 3-6 clothes before he hits 5 months! What can you do?

Lily LOVES feeding William and insisted on feeding him his first few bites. It is pretty amusing to watch the two of them interacting during his feedings. Lily jabbers on and on while moving her arms about (in true Italian style) while William is tracking the spoon, desperately trying to get some of the food into his mouth. Poor little William. Then Lily reports to me that William gets his food everywhere. Curious...

And so we have reached another milestone with William. For some reason, it seems so much less dramatic than it was with Lily. There was no big production. We just made the decision to do it and then moved on. I suppose that is just how it is with the second child. At this rate, I guess that Terra's on deck for feeding the next child!

Happy Birthday, Abby!

My niece, Abby, turned 9 years old over the weekend! We celebrated her big day at a tea party hosted by my high school. It was a very nice event, and the girls had lots of fun.

Dancing with flair

More dress-up

Showing some sass

William stayed with Carl at mom and dad's house. I think he had a good afternoon hanging with the boys. He was one happy camper!