A Few of Her Favorite Things at 14 Mos

These are some of the latest photos that I've taken of Lil.  They are of her first pigtails.  

It's been quite a while since I've made an entry listing Lil's new tricks, etc.  So here it goes.

Favorite color: purple *the color of her "my little pony" tshirt

Favorite food: french fries.  I wish it was broccoli, but french fries isn't so bad when your grandpa is a potato farmer.

Favorite word: No, no, no (accentuated by a finger wag)  Other new words: backpack, ball, shoe, all done, dog  *She is very good at trying to repeat things that you say.

Favorite action: Blowing kisses with both hands and saying muah

Favorite toy: Baby Bear (Fur Real newborn)  It is a mechanical bear that makes little noises and sleeps.  Lillie puts him in her stroller or carries him on her shoulder patting him on the back or feeds him a bottle.

Favorite book: Used to be "Brown Bear, Brown Bear", now is "Z is for Zoo", which shows pictures of animals, she's crazy about animals.

Favorite thing to do at park: Go down slide *She'll do it all by herself and tries to climb the steps alone too.

Favorite accessory: toss up.  She wears this little pink backpack every day.  She brings it to me and whines until I put it on her.  She also loves to wear our shoes around, tripping and stumbling all over the house.

She's learning new things every day.  It's amazing to see that she already has some pretty definite preferences.  We have a lot of fun together.  Love you, Lillie!

Too Good To Pass Up

Today I made a return to Old Navy but decided that I should make a quick walk through to see if there was anything cute. Lillie has really been needing some pjs, we've still been putting her in some 6-9 mo ones (she's 14 mos), and I noticed that their pajama sets were dirt cheap. There were tons of pjs that were $3.49-4.99! Some of them were from Christmas (get some in larger sizes for next winter), but others were not holiday specific. There were ones with long sleeve tops and long pants, short sleeve tops and long pants and short sleeves and shorts. I think the sizes start at 12 mos, but because they're so tight, you could go up a size or two and then just roll up the sleeves. I got four and I wish I had got more. You should really go to your local ON and stock up on cheap pajamas. Just thought I should share my hot deal!

Week of Milagros

So we've had a great week, which was much needed because the week before, Eric's midterms, was the worst ever.  On Wednesday, Lillie and I made our first trip to Disneyland alone.  We've been countless times, but it's always been with Eric.  We hadn't visited the "happiest place on earth" in a while and needed the pick me up, so off we went.  It was a lot of fun, Lillie gets so excited about all the goings on.  There weren't any meltdowns (I'm still scared from that incident a year ago) and it made for a quickly passing day.

Later that day when Lillie was napping, I was blog hopping and happened upon a blog that explained how to make these darling little chiffon skirts.  Being the idiot that I am, I ordered the fabric that I would need to make one for Lil.  So I have spent many hours this week shirring chiffon and satin charmeuse.  Honestly it turned out surprisingly well for my lack of sewing skills.  It's going to be Lillie's Easter skirt.

If you have kept up on my blog entries you would know that last week was horrible, with Eric being gone long hours preparing for his tests.  Then, after taking his test, he came home feeling terrible about how it turned out, saying he ran out of time and that it was the worst thing that he had ever turned in.  It was hard for me to hear because I knew how many hours he had worked preparing for it.  Well, he got the results back from his test this week, and while the part he thought he did bad on, he really did bad on (so did pretty much everyone else in the class), the other section of the test he passed.  So with both grades averaged, he did pretty well.

And then the last miracle was last night.  Eric and I went down to the Staples center to watch USC play UCLA in the semifinal game of the PAC-10 tournament.  We were definitely the underdogs and there were a lot more Bruin fans there than Trojan fans, but we won!  It was such a close, intense game.  Tons of fun!  Loved it!  I don't care if they don't go any further, there's something extra special about beating your rival school.  Go Trojans!

I am so grateful for the awesome week we've had.  Oh and today we are getting a new stove, YAY!!!

1 Year Photos

Our good friend Shanell's sister, Amanda, came to visit and to take pictures of Hallie and Lillie. I am so glad that she came, she did a great job. Lillie wasn't behaving very well, she didn't want to hold still and definitely didn't want to smile. But the photos turned out fabulously! I am so happy with them. Thanks again, Amanda!

Fun on Slide

I LOVE the face that Lil is making at the end of the slide. She is just really not sure whether that was fun or not. Which is crazy because she has been all about going down the slide for the past month but then today was scared of it. Oh well. It was fun having Eric there with us because he's been SO BUSY. Lillie only saw him for one hour between Monday through Wednesday, so it was good for her to spend a little more time with him today. It's midterms for him, which is hectic and very stressful for Eric and very lonely and stressful for me.

Oh and did you notice the bongo drums as the background music? There was a homeless guy just banging away at his drum the whole time we were there. Crazy California. There are always homeless people hanging out in the parks. I guess they have every right to be there that I do, so whatever.

One down...Many Others to Go

 

Eric has had these crazy bumps since high school. They are the weirdest thing ever, just random deposits of encapsulated fat, all over his body. Anyway, they're called lipomas.
Today Eric got a very large one on his forearm removed. After being stabbed with a needle full of lidocaine about 8 times, the doctor cut a small ring of skin away about the size of a pencil eraser. She then proceeded to separate the lipoma from the surrounding tissue and pulled it all out of the small hole in chunks while squeezing it like a large pimple. Too graphic? Sorry. He only had to get two stitches and has a little bruising, but is fine.
I am so excited. I wish he could go back tomorrow and get another one done. But then, I am not the one having it done to me. I know he wants them gone too, though. I wanted to be there, that's the kind of thing that I ate up (not literally) while doing my practicum in the OR. Sigh. Sometimes I really wish I was working as a nurse. Now I just need to convince Eric that he can't do this at home. DDS is not an MD.

Another First

Well, this week we had another "first" with Lillie. I made my first call to poison control this week when Lillie managed to get the lid off of the desitin. It was one of those moments when you realize that it is way too quiet and I found her with white paste all over her hands, clothes, face and mouth. I was so embarassed to call, but knew that it needed to be done. It's not that dangerous, vomiting or diarrhea would have been the worst side effect, and Lillie was fine. I just hope that this isn't something that becomes a recurring thing.

Lillie vs dog

Here's some new video we took at the park.  

My Family Comes to Visit

This last weekend my family came down to visit for a couple days. Unfortunately, it was some of the wettest weather we have had since moving here. So that kind of put a damper on our plans, but we made the most of it by going to the beach (it was super windy), the Natural History Museum, to Disneyland (on the only day it didn't rain) and to the local mall. It was fun to have them here, I have been hungry for company with Eric spending long hours at school lately and Lillie loves the extra attention. So it was nice for us and hopefully it was nice for them too, considering the weather and the fact that it was their fourth trip in a month. I'm sure they're loving sleeping in their own beds again. Here are a couple pictures from the weekend, our camera's battery is dead, so I didn't take too many, these are from my mom.

Lillie Loves to Push My Buttons :)

So tonight was a little interesting. Lillie and I were having a low key evening, we were waiting for Eric to get done at school. Lillie had been walking around all over the house, making her usual round through the living room, kitchen, and the dining room, etc, etc. I was busy in the living room when all of the sudden, the two fire alarms go off, screaming their assault while I try to figure out what the heck's going on. The apartment is full of smoke and I round the corner into the kitchen where I see flames reaching a foot off of our stove. I find a lid and smother the flames. Lillie is freaked out and crying so I take her to my neighbor's apt, and because I opened our apt door, it set off the fire alarm in the hall of the apt complex. It took a little time to get out enough smoke to quiet the alarms. There was little harm done, my hot pad was the only casualty.
Lillie LOVES PUSHING BUTTONS. Unfortunately, some idiot back in the 70's, thought it would be a great idea to put the controls to the stove and oven on the front, within the reach of a 1 year old. Seriously, a stupid design, Mr. Engineer Man. We've tried covering up the buttons with cardboard and tape, but she either pushes underneath it or pushes on top of it, successfully turning on the stove. SHE HAS DONE IT PROBABLY 20 TIMES, it's getting old. I'm usually really good about not putting stuff on the stove top, but I forgot today and it's not exactly easy when you don't have any counter top space. Of course, the stove won't be replaced til it dies...or UNTIL THE APT BURNS DOWN WITH US INSIDE IT!!!!

Mirror, Mirror....

This was a gift that Lillie received from our friends, the Smiths, for her birthday.  She loves baths and the only thing better is a bath with a crown, wand, and a mirror with which to admire herself.  

She's a Troublemaker Never was a Faker

As you can see we have our hands full......

100th Post and Christmas Photos

Woohoo! 100 posts! I feel like I should be getting showered with confetti. I guess I'll just give myself a pat on the back instead.

So if you have been wondering why I didn't ever blog about Christmas, it was because I had tried multiple times to upload my photos but they just didn't work. So I had temporarily given up, but it kept bugging me and then a friend convinced to blog about it anyway. I post-dated them for Jan. 9th, so you can find them below Eric's birthday blog. Caution: there are a lot of photos.

I can finally post new blogs without feeling guilty. Aaaahhh.

Phantom of the Opera

This past Wednesday we went to the opening night showing of Phantom at Pantages Theatre. We were sad that Wicked left before we were able to see it again, but that has quickly changed because we loved the show. So dang amazing, words cannot describe. John Cudia, the man who played the Phantom, was such an awesome singer. The best I have ever heard. Anyway, he totally eclipsed the other actors/singers, but they were all great. HIGHLY recommend it. Very fun night.

Our pictures are so lame because they were taken on a cell phone. Oh well.

Venice Cruisin

We spent Monday at Venice Beach riding our bikes a long the water with some friends. It was a gorgeous day, the waves were huge and Lillie was so happy to be outside. Fun times. Lillie didn't even mind being in the frigid ocean water. We're gonna have to do that again.

Primer Cumpleanos

The two little party girls are the ones crying in this photo, I wish I would have gotten a better one. But ya know.

This is the before cupcake picture.

And this is the after, this is the happiest she was the whole party. Lame.

Our family photo. I didn't get a single good picture. Oh well.

Lillie celebrated her first birthday back on the 16th. It was a fun filled week, having her birthday on the 16th, then a party on the 17th and Eric's parents were here on the 18th. We threw a little party at the park with BBQing and cupcakes. It was a beautiful day with great friends and good food. The only problem was that we had one grumpy and tired little girl, who ended up crying most of the time. It was her party....

She is growing up way too fast. She is walking a lot now, she can go from sitting to standing by herself too. I don't know if I'm ready for this new challenge, but, what can you do. Another major challenge is that she has made the transition from two naps to one. It was a hairy couple of weeks, but now I'm the one who's trying to make the transition.

She is still jabbering away like always. But now she says some real words like baba, uhoh, wow, mama, dada, and thank you. I've got such a polite little girl.

She loves to climb on things, like our tv stand or onto chairs, ottomans, etc. No major accidents yet, but I'm sure they'll come. She likes going to the park and swinging on the swings, going on bike rides, taking walks, etc.

Sunday Eric's parents had a layover in LA and stayed the night with us before heading to Korea the next day.... and will be staying there for the next couple years! Anyway, it was fun to see them, but was way too short of a visit.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Without a doubt, people have said that Lillie looks a lot like me, but I still wasn't sure how much... until I saw this. Yikes, I apparently have some very dominant DNA.

Birthday Baldness

You know Eric had a wild birthday when he and two of his friends ended up bald by the end of the night...I guess turning 28 causes an early mid-life crisis.

Swing Fun

So this are pictures from Eric's birthday, while he still had hair, I'll post another one to explain that later. We went to the park for a picnic lunch because it was SO DANG NICE outside. 80 degrees in January is quite nice. Eric was even complaining of getting a sunburn, ha ha. Lillie loves the swings and loves being outside, so I guess we're living in the right place to be able to do that virtually all year round.

Happy 28th Birthday, Eric!

So I guess my title explains it all, but Eric turns twenty eight in about twenty eight minutes, and I wanted to get on to let him know how glad I am to be his wife. He's such a wonderful guy, he's so laid back and fun, we have great times together. I hope this turns out to be a fabulous day and that this year will hold great things for him. Love you, Eric. You're the best, Happy Birthday!

Feel free to leave one or some of your favorite memories of Eric or birthday wishes as comments.