Girls Luncheon at The Tea Room

Grandma, Courtney, Lily, and Abby in front of The Tea Room

Ready for the Ladies' Lunch

My mom decided to treat the girls to a special lunch today since Lily is going back to school on Monday (yikes!) and Courtney & Abby go back to school in a couple of weeks. The Tea Room was lovely and the girls got to have a very special, new experience.

At the Craft Studio

Abby working on her treasure chest for her jewels

Courtney working on her necklace

Lily (in deep concentration) working on her wooden train

All the girls with their creations

This craft studio called Made by Me is just 5 minutes from our house. All the girls, aged 2 to 12, had a great time!

An evening with cousins

Lily, Nick, and Courtney at the Nature Center

Our Monets working on watercolor pictures after dinner

A night at the races takes on a whole new meaning

Missouri Botanical Gardens

As I have told several people, after having visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens again (and in more depth), I think that this place might be a reason to move back to St. Louis even if I had no others. We had the best time and ended up spending close to 3 hours there with nonstop fun. The Nikki exhibit is there right now which features many structures that the kids can climb on - so nice! The children's area in and of itself is amazing and huge! I'm so thankful for places like this, especially when it is free to St. Louis residents on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

From the Nikki exhibit - The Lion

The Cat

The Seal

The Alligator

In the children's area - sliding fashionably with her purse

Again, with the purse

In the outdoor classroom area - the music & movement section

The messy materials area

The water play area, a Lily favorite

Baking with Grandma

Lily's getting direct instruction from the pro (peach cobbler and it was fantastic!)

One of the many things I love about being in St. Louis is the Care Packages that I often take home. On this night, after swimming all afternoon, we came back to dinner prepared by my father. Then, Carl's portion was packed up to take home with us along with some of the (still hot) peach cobbler, fresh picked corn and peaches, and some of my father's famous chocolate chip cookies. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Swimming with Grandma

So sweet & innocent

Our little monkey, swinging away

Grandma & Lily look for Angela on the airplanes flying overhead

Lily's fishing game: the balls were the "hotdogs" used as bait (she's been watching Papa fish) and she was the "fish" scooping them out of the water

As you can see, it was crazy-crowded at Grandma's community pool

Some fun in the "baby pool"

More splashin' fun

Say what?

Lily has always had a bit of sass, spunk, a certain je ne sais quoi. I've periodically updated the blog with some Lily sayings. Well, let me tell you, the hits just keep on coming. Because there is such a dramatic change from the language of early twos to the language of late twos, it is natural that Lily would just make us laugh more and more every day. Back in November, she would pretty much say a couple sentences that related to the immediate situation. Now she talks about the past, the future, and anything that her little mind can dream up. And, she can carry on lengthy conversations (with or without someone on the receiving end).

Last week, I made the ultimate mistake of telling her (at bedtime) that my friend, Mary, and her son, Patrick, were coming over the next day. Unfortunately, she heard "Mary" and immediately thought her almost-four-year-old cousin was coming to visit. Well, that did it. It was like I had given the girl speed. For 30 minutes straight, she DID NOT STOP TALKING. With stars in her eyes, she hashed out every detail of their day together, from how Mary was going to get here, to what they would play, to what they would eat...all the while bouncing up and down on her knees. Even though I tried to correct the misunderstanding, it was too late. Lily's mind was racing with the fun and frolic to be had with her cousin. Although it was a little sad, it was also very sweet. And although the bedtime hype was not desirable, it was great that she could express her excitement about an event (albeit fictional) to take place, drawing on fond memories with her cousin.

One of the most entertaining things is the little sayings that she picks up. It really makes you aware of the things that you say that you normally would not notice; you can't help but take notice when these things are being said back to you. Then there are other sayings that I have no clue from where they came.

So, now, some recent quotes...

• Probably the most frequently used saying these days is, "that just doesn't make any sense". I'm guilty as charged. I don't think that I say it that frequently, but Lily picked up on it and loves to use this little gem in all sorts of situations. It is most often used when she is hashing out rules in her head, like "We don't use our paints on the carpet, no, that just doesn't make any sense".
• Another favorite is "thanks for telling me". The other day, Carl told Lily that she needed to go potty before going out to play on her swing set, and she responded, "Oh, thanks for telling me".
• We were getting ready to go to our family Fourth of July celebration, and as we were gathering all the necessities for the car, Lily asked us, "Are we ready to take off?"
• When she wants to contradict us these days, she says "To tell you the truth..." or "Actually..."
• A lovely little phrase that started with her interactions with Terra is "don't bother me". We would tell Lily not to bother Terra, and this quickly turned into Terra bothering her and then, of course, Carl and I bothering her, particularly when we need her to do something. Parents are such a bother, aren't they? :)
• One she pulled out from who-knows-where just a couple of days ago is, "Round and round it goes. Where it stops, no one knows".
• The one that made me laugh out loud about a week ago was when we were getting ready to leave, and I told her that we needed to go. She responded, "You go ahead. I'll be down in a few minutes". What am I supposed to do with that? But that's our Lily.
  

MD or PhD?