Lily says...

• Yesterday, we drove by 3 little white dogs that were out on a walk. When I pointed them out to Lily, she said, "Oh, how wonderful. They are sooo cute." (That is a word-for-word quote.)
• This morning she was trying to reach the goldfish in the pantry. I didn't even notice what she was doing until I cued into a little ditty being sung by my little one that went "I can't reach the goldfish because my bottom's too big...." Then, I looked into the pantry, and she was dancing with her undies down at her knees, looking at her bottom. I can't even imagine how she came up with that one.

Okay blogging buddies, I'm calling you out. Looking down the blog watch list, I see many have not updated in a week or more. How is one to stay up-to-date with current affairs with no info? I'll excuse Jill from this one since she's dealing with newborn twins, but everyone else with a week or more since your last post, let's have it! And, the biggest offender is my dear, sweet sister, Angela. Months spent in Connecticut, with numerous trips to NYC and now in Memphis and still no pictures/stories! Oh, the shame of it.

My monkey

Last weekend, we went to our first children's event hosted by WUMCHA (Washington University Medical Housestaff Auxiliary). The group is for female medical students/residents/fellows/attending physicians and female spouses/significant others of the same. It is basically a group that provides opportunities to connect with other women that are facing similar issues with the "medical lifestyle". It is a fantastic group that gets together for happy hours, book clubs, cooking classes, exercise/meditation, and many, many children's events. We are really fortunate to have this amazing resource that hosts such diverse and fun events. This particular event was held last weekend at Monkey Joes, an indoor inflatable bounce center.

Jumping fun

Whoa! Lily's having fun on the horse ride (minus the motion). Fortunately, she does not yet know that they turn on.


We are also very lucky that my long-time friend (all the way back to high school), Molly, is part of WUMCHA too. Her husband is a radiology resident at Barnes, and this is their son, Jack. He decided that he was more interested in pushing the big yellow trash can around than actually jumping.

The King and Queen take the throne after enjoying some pizza

Walking off into the sunset, er parking lot, together

New Town Festival

Plinko for kids! Lily actually won a very cute stuffed bear at this game.

What would a festival be without some live music and dancing?

A night out on the town with the fam: Dad, me, Abby, Mom and Lily (and Carl behind the camera)

Evenings with daddy

Each night, Carl can barely get in the door before Lily requests to play "tackle" with him. It is becoming their customary after-dinner activity. Lily absolutes craves this time with her daddy, and I know Carl looks forward to it as well. Last night, they decided to build a pillow fort. It is evident from the picture how happy Lily is with their fort (and with daddy).

It's funny how different our playtime with Lily is. Lily and I mostly engage in focused play, with art projects, puzzles, trains, toys, etc. Carl and Lily's play is much more active: wrestling, playing various games outside and on the swing set, and the like, usually with no "props". I have to give Carl credit that he can be very imaginative in his play as well, dreaming up some pretty creative dramatic play scenarios. I think between the two of us, Lily gets a wide variety of play experiences at home, and we get to do what we like as well. Good family fun for all!

This week, I'll be updating with photos from the past week or so. In that time, I took about 200 pictures. It's an illness really. Am I trying to hold on to her precious days of childhood? Maybe. But she's just so darn cute, I can help myself. Fortunately, Lily doesn't seem to mind too much; she has even started to ask me to take her picture at random times.

Sunny Sunday

Lily was super-excited to see Papa at the zoo on Sunday. It is so sweet to watch her eyes light up as she runs to him. We met Grammy and Papa at the zoo for the Third Annual Sheet Metal Workers Local 36 Health Fair. Once again, free food and fun activities made for a great day outdoors.

Lily gets a ladybug "tattoo". She has been very careful when taking a bath and washing her hands so that the ladybug will remain. It's looking good so far!

Lily delves into the water of the duck pond. Notice the quality construction of the duck pond. Must be union made!

As part of the event, we received Safari Passes which meant free train rides, carousel rides, and entry to the children's zoo. Lily loved the train ride and especially enjoyed the tunnels. As you can see, she could not contain her excitement.

Lily on the carousel. We had to ride three times so that she could hit all the animals that she wanted to ride: the warthog, the hippo, and the elephant.

Checking out the toad in the children's zoo

Lily was a bit wary of the tortoise. But in her defense, the tortoise was really booking and did his best to present as a force to be reckoned with.

Lily claimed this goat as her own in the petting area. She named the goat "She-She" and spent a good deal of time with her, talking to her and brushing her. When other children came over, she was sure to let them know that this was her pet but that she would share with her friends. :)

Of course, we cannot escape the zoo without face painting. Yesterday she chose a shark that turned out pretty cute.

Ingrid's moving in night!

Clearly so happy to be done with traveling and to start the process of settling in

Ryan's friends all pitch in to help out. There was quite a crew at the house.

There were several little helpers there, and Lily did not want to be left out of the action.

All too familiar with and comfortable inside the moving van

Could you ask for a cuter little helper?

As you can see, I am back in business with sharing pictures on the blog thanks to Ingrid's generous use of a spare computer. So, it is appropriate that we resume with Ingrid's moving in night. I'm sure that Ingrid will share more details of the move later, but I thought that I would share a few photos from Saturday night. We are so glad that Ingrid is close by again! In fact, Lily informed me that Ingrid's new place is actually "Lillian and Ingrid's house". When I explained to her that I would miss her if she went to live with Aunt Ingrid, she held up her hand and told me not to worry, she would be back tomorrow. So it seems that Lily is fine with a dual residence situation.