Lily is 3!

Lily is 3. I can't believe that it's been 3 years already. She's a big girl really. What can I tell you about 3 year old Lily? She's a girly girl. She likes to have her toes painted. She likes for you to put her "scara" on her when she sees you putting on makeup. She likes dressing up and wearing my shoes. She's a great mommy and has about fifty kids. She has an imaginary dog. She likes to play pretend shopping and house. She loves to help you with whatever you are doing, whether it's cooking or cleaning or gardening or ...anything really. She has a very tender heart and gets very concerned if she thinks you are sad or sick. One of Josh's favorite tricks is to say that she's sad so she'll sit in his lap and say, "It's o.k. daddy. Put your head on my shoulder." It really is precious.
She also love to learn about things. She loves to ask questions, but she also likes to figure out stuff on her own. She doesn't need your help, she will tell you. She like to read and draw and she's very into puzzles. She can put together a 24 piece puzzle all by herself (even though she still insist you sit on the floor with her while she does it. She's very encouraging and tells you how smart you are when you put the piece in.)
She's also very active. She loves to jump and flip all over the house. She puts the couch pillows around the living room and practices her "tricks". She likes for you to sit on your knees and put your head on the floor to make a ramp for her to climb up and jump off of (great for your back, let me tell you). She also dances between jumping sometimes. She's got moves you need to see to believe. She's all elbows and hips. It's very funny.
Lily is still teeny tiny. She still only weighs about 25 lbs. but she's about average in height. She's going to be one those kids whose pants are always falling down because to get them long enough in the legs, they are too big in the waist. Now that she's potty trained (woo-hoo!) she doesn't even have her diaper to hold them up anymore.
Gosh, I just keep looking at the picture of her with her birthday cake and I can't believe how big she is already. She's a little kid, not a baby, or even a toddler. Look at that big smile. I love this little girl more than I could ever say. She's the best thing that ever happened to us. I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Will you please finish singing so I can eat this cake?

This sea shell is kinda hard to eat. Get me a drink!

My big girl with Pirate Dora and the pirate ship

Marie made this great treasure chest birthday cake. I should have taken some more pictures. There is a map (that you can kind of see on the edge) to Lily's house. It was so cute.

She loves being the center of attention so she was living it up while she opened her mountain of presents.

Very excited about a bubble blowing lawn mower.

Party decorations

I made these on posterboard and painted them myself. I was quite proud.

Pirate ship

Dora the Explorer

Boots

Map!

Daycare...

So far so good. That's how it's going. Yesterday Lily was so excited to go to school. She got dressed all by herself and told Josh, "Daddy, it's time for me to go." She was funny. When we got there, she decided that I needed to hold her and then she cried. So I walked out of her class and stood in the hall to see how long she was gonna be upset. So yeah, I was the crazy lady standing in the hall crying. She got over it in about 5 minutes. Everyone said she was really good, which I'm sure they tell every mom who stands in the hall crying. Josh said she didn't want to leave when he went to pick her up, but in the car she said she didn't have fun and didn't make any friends. She was talking an awful lot about Jackson for a little girl who didn't make any friends.

This morning, we had the whole excited until we got there again. She even gave me a hug and went to play when we got there, but when I opened the door to leave, she flipped. At least today I didn't cry. Maybe by tomorrow neither one of us will be in tears when I leave!

I just wanted to thank everyone for being so nice about this. I know it is so silly, but I really have been upset about it. It helps to know that I have such great people who love me and Lily!

Sad Day

Every morning I wake up and get in the bath tub. Sometime while I'm in there, Lily will come in, sit on my towel, and say, "Good Morning, Momma." I'll ask her if she slept well and if she had any dreams. Sometimes instead of coming in, she'll crack the door open and sniff loudly. When she doesn't want to take a bath, I tell her she's stinky and she doesn't want to smell bad. So she thinks it's hilarious to stick her head in the bathroom and tell me that I'm stinky.
When I get out of the bathroom, she crawls up onto the couch in exactly the same spot with whatever toy is her favorite and wants cartoons turned on. Since she's started taking her pajamas off sometime in the night, she wants to be covered up with her "special blanket that you made me." (Let me tell you, that makes all of the time I spent making it well worth it.) While I'm getting ready she gets her self all awake. She'll ask for chocolate milk (Pediasure) and sometimes she'll say she's hungry. By the time I'm ready for work, she'll be ready to play and will ask me, "What I am going to do today, Momma?" I'll tell her that Daddy will be home, or she's going to Grandma's, or that Dah is coming to stay with her.
Well, starting Monday, we've got a whole new morning routine. Lily is starting daycare. Now I know that this isn't a big deal for probably millions of people everyday in America, but for some reason, it's a HUGE deal to me. Most of the child bearing and rearing stuff I've just made a choice about and moved on. Natural childbirth? Nope, give me drugs. Breastfeeding? Absolutely. (I may have been a bit militant about this one, but it's the exception.) Organic, homemade baby food? Not at our house. Gerber will do just fine. Cloth diapers? Nope. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Shots for Lily, please. Now if all of those things are big deals to you, good for you. Whatever you think is best for your baby and your family, but those things didn't really matter to me. I guess I figure that Lily's life will probably not be affected by whether or not I buy Pampers. (I know about being enviromentally conscious and all of that, but you what I'm trying to say.)
I don't know why, but I've made my stand on daycare. I've been anti-daycare, in fact. (Not for your family. Really, I mean it. Do what's best for yours. I don't judge you. I understand that you have to work and someone has to keep your kids. I get it. I'm only speaking for my family.) I worked nights at Wal-mart for 9 months and didn't sleep for those 9 months so that Lily didn't have to go to daycare. Then I got a different job and Lily has gotten to stay with Daddy and Grandma and Dah ( and the babysitter for a little while.) Well, now we have to do something else. So Lily is going to daycare. (We're calling it school, but that doesn't fool me. I know it's still daycare.) The place is close to our house. It seemed really nice when we've visited. They do preschool every morning. There will be kids there for Lily to play with (She "don't like boys", though. We're working on that.) I know all of those things, and it still makes me want to cry when I think about it. I know that, despite what I've heard around my office, it's not working mothers and daycare that is ruining society (I had a talk with Bill about how those weren't ok things to say for at least the next 3 weeks, really ever. He understands.) I know that every night I will still have exactly the same amount of time I have now to teach Lily how to be a sweet little girl who loves herself and other, who thinks she's beautiful, is proud of herself and her accomplishments, and is eager to try and learn new things. But for today and tomorrow and the next few days, I'm gonna tear up when I think about it and get mad that they aren't paying me $103 a week to have the privilage of keeping my Lily pie. Say a pray for us.

A B C's and 1 2 3's

Look! She does have eyes! I know you can never see them because her bangs won't grow fast enough and she pulls her bows out, but they are there!
Doesn't she look sad and pitiful? She isn't.

Teaching Teddy and Puppy Dog how to put the pieces in the puzzle.

Lily's Obedient Students

Look how smart Puppy Dog is! She can put the pieces in all by herself.

Mother, May I?

In case you didn't know (I didn't), last weekend was Max's birthday. You don't know who Max is? He's Lily's invisible pet dog. He's tiny and he misbehaves ALOT! Anyway, last weekend was his birthday. Lily made him at least 3 birthday cakes. Her babies were great helpers for a couple of the cakes.


Lily and her babies baking. Notice a baby on each counter, properly nourished, and a baby in the sink. She also had one in a highchair and 2 on the couch.

Here she is explaining to the babies what to do.

My big girl. Isn't she getting so big? Here she is with teddy and her puppy dog (not max).

(I swear she does have clothes that don't have Dora the Explorer on them. She just has a lot of Dora pajamas and she's always wearing pajamas when I decide to take her picture. )