Fun Pictures

Here are several miscellaneous pictures taken around the house during the week since we have been home from Florida. There's always something going on!

Lily enjoys this little viewfinder. She has Mickey Mouse Clubhouse stories to see on it and also some African safari animals to watch. She has gotten pretty good at keeping it on her eyes while she changes the picture.

I simply can't get enough of those blue eyes.
Ballet - Lily style.

Mia was having a blast riding Dusty (with Daddy's help).

Mia and Ryan having fun together. He's such a great dad!

Mia looking cute after her bath.

Lily loves blowing bubbles!

Bubble-covered feet!

Look at all those bubbles Mommy!

Now on to the sidewalk chalk drawing portion of the evening (or "walk chalk" as Lily calls it).

Lily says she looks like "Daisy Bo Peep" in it because it reminds her of the outfit Daisy Duck wears in a particular episode of Mickey Mouse Clulbhouse!

Lily being a great big sister and reading to Mia.

Sweet kisses!

Hanging out together and getting big hugs!

I love these girls!!!

Saturday with the Hooks

What a great Saturday! I feel like we have been running around a lot recently, so it was nice to just have a day to relax at home today. This is what our day looked like...

Both girls decided today was an excellent day to sleep a little extra today! We didn't hear a peep from either of them until 8:45. Lily is usually up between 7:00 and 7:30 while Mia wakes up about 8:00. This was a wonderful way to start the day. Ryan got up to give Mia her bottle (letting me rest awhile longer which was greatly appreciated), and he turned on Dumbo for Lily to watch while Mia ate; this is one of her favorite movies, so she was excited. After Mia finished up, she was content to sit/crawl on the floor playing with toys while Lily continued with Dumbo. This let Ryan lay back down for a little bit. A few minutes later Lily came and asked me to come watch Dumbo with her, so we had fun singing the songs together and watching Dumbo fly.

When the movie it finished it was time for Mia's morning nap, so we put her down and she fell fast asleep quickly. Ryan, Lily and I ate some breakfast and then we told Lily her surprise for the morning...coloring Easter eggs! She had so much fun with this at Easter that we bought a couple of extra dye kits the day after Easter. She was so excited! We cleaned up and started getting everything ready (I had boiled the eggs the night before). Lily is very big into helping with things these days, so she wanted to help get ready. First, she helped by dropping each tablet into the cup. Next, she helped me count three tablespoons of vinegar for each cup. Then she helped me watch the cups to see when the bubble stopped coming up which means the tablet is dissolved and water could be added. At this step she helped by handing me each cup so I could add the water. Finally, she helped by stirring each cup to make sure the vinegar and water mixed well.


With the dyes ready, we put on her apron (an old Opteum dress shirt of Ryan's) and headed outside. I showed her how to gently drop each egg into the water, and then she did every other one of the eggs; she did great at not throwing them, but gently placing them so they didn't splatter and spill everywhere. After 29 eggs (one was cracked before I boiled them) had been colored and dried, she couldn't wait to put the stickers on and put them in her basket. After that, she had a great time showing them to Ryan, counting them, lining them up like a caterpillar and giving one at a time to Mia (she started by giving her two but Mia immediately clapped them together cracking them...lesson learned). Overall, those 50 cents spent on day after Easter dye kits has proved to be some her favorite entertainment of the summer! I'm glad we have a couple more kits left to do this fall!

After cleaning everything up, it was lunchtime so while I gave Mia her lunch, Ryan drove through Chick-fil-a. I told Ryan what I wanted and as soon as I finished Lily said "I want milk, french fries, a book and chicken." Guess we know what she likes! Of course, she ate a few bites of my fruit too (and I may have had a few of her fries). She loves Chick-fil-a, and really, who can blame her? It's always a tasty lunch.

After lunchtime, I had fun just playing with the girls. We read books, did a puzzle, encouraged Mia to crawl (she's getting faster everyday) and simply had fun. Lily then asked to watch a "Baby Little Einstein." She has really started enjoying the Baby Einstein DVD's again which is a little funny to me, but I think she really likes seeing all the animals and toys in it. Actually, we watched one the other day that had some sign language in it, and without my prompting, she started imitating the sign language. She still loves Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse, but this is something she has rediscovered. Mia is starting to like them too, so this gave me about 20 minutes to get some things cleaned up a little which was nice. After this it was nap time. Both girls went right down (as usual), and slept for over two hours (not usual, at least for Lily).

After naps, it was time to get dinner ready. Ryan was going to make his fantastic pizzas for us; this is one of our favorite meals. Of course, Lily wanted to help. So, great dad that he is, Ryan let her help make the dough by counting out the cups of flour, pouring the salt in, watching the yeast get ready, etc. She loved it. We all played for an hour while the dough rose, and then Lily was excited to help Ryan again. While I fed Mia dinner, she learned how to roll out the dough which she thought was awesome. She kept saying she was helping with the "pizza toe." We also made some garlic knots with the extra dough, so she loved helping to "paint" with the dough with olive oil and herbs using the pastry brush. We had a delicious dinner while Mia took her short evening nap (the girl loves to sleep), and then a yummy cherry-banana fruit smoothie for dessert.

After that came bathtime and bedtime for Mia. After giving her a bottle, I read her a little book that had some animals in it. I started making the animal sounds to accompany it (there was just a sheep, tiger, cat and dog). She thought this was hilarious! She really loved that the sheep said "Baaaa." She was cackling with laughter which only made me laugh. What a precious sound to hear her laugh. Ryan gave Lily her shower while I put Mia down, and then I got Lily ready for bed. She still loves to learn about the cities on her ABC board, and tonight we talked about Kathmandu, Nepal. Such a fun time of the evening. Both girls went to sleep without making a sound, and I hope they have a wonderful night's sleep.

If only every Saturday could be so relaxing and wonderful!

Numbers Girl

For a few days now Lily has been learning to count to 100 by tens. Actually, she usually counts to 20 and then starts with 30, 40, etc. She loves to count anything and everything! She also enjoys playing with my big calculator that I use when I work at home. Funny thing is I remember enjoying playing with my dad's big calculator growing up. I don't know...maybe we have another little CPA in training at our house?

Fun with Lily

1. Yesterday Lily came out of her room carrying her big brown teddy bear named Oatmeal. She declared "Oatmeal is my bestest friend in the whole world," and gave him a big hug. Then she asked who my best friend is, so I told her Daddy. Next she asked who Mia's best friend is, so I said "probably you." She replied "No, probably baby Claudia and baby Macey." Claudia is the one-month old daughter of our friends, Doug and Julia (and Vivian's baby sister) while Macey is eight-month old daughter of our friends, Brian and Jill (and Parker's baby sister). Since Lily is friends with Vivian and Parker, I thought it was pretty cool that she was putting all their little sisters together as best friends.

2. This morning I was feeding Mia a bottle at the kitchen table while Lily ate breakfast. When she finished, she got down and went into our bedroom. I heard an odd noise, but I thought Lily had turned the tv on and was flipping channels. Wrong. A few minutes later, Lily peeked around the corner, and said "I have a puppy dog!" I replied "Oh really? Let me see." She walks out dragging about 6 feet of dental floss behind her with the little container at the end. She pointed to it and said "That's my puppy dog Claudia! I'm puppy-sitting!" She carried (i.e. dragged) Claudia around for about 30 minutes. Wow, what an imagination!

3. While drinking lemonade at Bubba Gump's last week and while drinking a smoothie last night, Lily would take a sip and then lick her lips. She looked at me and said "I have to stick my tongue out to make the juice taste better." It was really funny to watch her though because she would take a sip, put the glass down and then with a very intense look on her face, stick out her tongue several times to lick her lips. Ryan and I realized she rarely drinks anything sweet (she really loves her milk and water), so this was a pretty new and fun taste for her; she wanted to savor every sip!

Florida, Part 5

Lots of fun pictures taken during our vacation week in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. You can read about our trip in the four posts below these pictures. I tried to narrow the pictures down, but we had such a great time that was really difficult to do! Enjoy!

Florida, Part 4

More Florida adventures...

Mia hit two big milestones while we were in Florida, and I felt they warranted their own blog entry, so they wouldn't get overlooked in all the other writing.

First, she started crawling!!! She has been going backwards and in circles for several weeks now, but she finally started going forward. She only takes a few "steps" at a time, but she is getting the hang of it. You can see the look of determination on her face when she knows she wants to go forward towards a person or toy, and then she is very happy when she reaches it. Look out world, here she comes!

Second, Mia figured out how to go from lying down on the floor to sitting up! It's pretty funny to watch actually because it's apparently not an easy task to do. She struggles with it right now, but she gets a little better each time. This of course means we now need to lower her crib mattress which we're not excited about, but we don't want her to sit up and tumble out of her crib. We'll do that very soon, I'm sure.

Yea Mia! We're so proud of her and are constantly amazed at how big she is getting each and every day!

Florida, Part 3

To continue our adventures in Florida...

After the wonderful wedding celebration on Saturday evening, we were ready to head to New Smyrna Beach on Sunday to meet up with my family. We decided to stop in Orlando on our way over for lunch. Ryan called the Disney World dining line, and made reservations at the Grand Floridian Cafe in the Grand Floridian Hotel. What a beautiful hotel! We both enjoyed one of the best sandwiches ever. Warm open-faced bread with hot ham, turkey and bacon with a melted Boursin cheese sauce. Add the onion strings on the side, and you have an amazing meal! One point I would like to make about this restaurant too. Lily had a little cheese pizza that came on a Mickey Mouse plate. The pizza was in the middle, and there were apples in one ear, carrots, celery and ranch dip in the other. I was so impressed because as soon as the waitress put the plate down, Lily said "Mommy, cool it off." She knows to let me cool her food off so it doesn't burn her. I was trying to feel Mia, so I asked Ryan to do it. He picked up the pizza, and it was just warm. Not scalding hot like most pizza is when it comes out. Finally, Disney understands that kids (and adults for that matter) can't eat food that is scalding, so they cooled it off before delivering it! I shouldn't have been surprised by this given how amazing Disney is, but I thought that was pretty cool!

We made it over to New Smyrna about 3:30 and were ready to let the relaxing begin! When we arrived, Dad immediately took Lily to the pool (she had been asking about going to the pool for days by this point) which allowed Ryan and me to unpack while Mom played with Mia. We didn't even make it out that evening (Dad brought in dinner that night), but that was fine with us.

We share a condo with Mom and Dad while we're there which is such a great treat (for us anyways!). They gracefully offered so much help with the girls. One morning, Lily even wondered over to their room at 5:45 in the morning; she knocked on the door and then climbed into bed with them for another couple of hours. They helped with feeding them, getting them to bed, playing in the pool with them and even just keeping an eye on them so we could rest some too. We really appreciate all the help they gave during the week.

The next day we talked Lily into going to the beach. She had been saying for a few weeks that she didn't like the sand, and she didn't want to go to the beach, just the pool. Well, Mia has never been to the beach, so I was determined to take her. She loved it! Papa helped her play in the ocean which she thought was great even though it was pretty cold. Look at the picture below...how excited is her precious face?! Then she played in the sand and must have thought that was awesome; why else would she eat so much of it?

Lily was not happy about going to the ocean. She started crying as soon as Ryan put her down which was frustrating. So, we went up under the tents (our family put 3 big tents together to create a lot of shade), and set up our chairs. Mia was doing great playing in the sand, but Lily didn't even want her feet to touch it. She kept saying "I don't like the sand!" After about 20 minutes though, she wanted me to build a sand castle. I told her I would help her, but I wouldn't do it by myself; she would have to touch the sand. She agreed that she would sit on a beach towel and build her castle. She then proceeded to get sand all over herself and the towel as she built. She liked finding sea shells in the sand (see the picture below). Then she stood up and realized just how much sand was on her. She took one very cautious step in the sand, looked up and said "Mommy, I like the sand!" How funny is she?! For the rest of the week, though she preferred the pool, she had fun in the sand.

Lily's favorite activity this week was jumping to us from the side of the pool. She could have spent from morning to night doing this! We would get a couple of feet from the side, she would wave her hands and say "No, farther!" Then she would jump all the way out to us. Every once in awhile, she would even agree to go underwater. She would just laugh when she would come up. Look at these pictures and see for yourself just how much fun she was having.

We enjoyed many wonderful dinners at Norwoods (yummy grilled snapper), Manny's (the best Greek salad ever), JB's (delicious crab cakes) and Bubba Gump's (my favorite friend shrimp). I was very pleasantly surprised that Lily really loved the fried shrimp and fresh fish (both grilled and fried); we don't eat much of this at home. I was not surprised at all that she loved tarter sauce though...the girls loves her "dips!" One night, all the grandparents (my parents' generation) on the trip kept all the grandkids (Lily and Mia's generation), so my generation of cousins could all go out to dinner together; what a great time!

Of course, my very favorite day of the year occurs while we are down here. That's right...hot dog day! Now normally, I like hot dogs; it's nice to grill them out in the summer and fall. But, each year, Meme puts on a hot dog feast for the entire family at the beach. She makes about 12 dozen hot dogs in the stove, and she toasts the bun in her special griddle that she brings down from Georgia. They are amazingly good! All I can guess is that love truly is the secret ingredient! There is also a delicious fruit salad made from fresh cherries, peaches and pineapples, and then chips, chili and tons of sweets for desserts. We made a big family picture right after that which was bittersweet. In the past, this has always been a picture of Meme, her sister Doris and all of their great-grandchildren on the trip. However, Aunt Doris passed away last August, so this was our first trip without her; she was certainly missed. We decided to do a picture of the whole family this year which was nice. My cousin Mandy took the picture so I don't have a copy of it, but hopefully I'll get one soon.  Meme and her three sons also make a fantastic breakfast for just Meme's family each year. They have a great time cutting up with one another about who makes the best part of the meal. To be honest, it's all delicious, and it's all a welcome treat. Meme taught them well!

This is such a wonderful week! I love that I have such a great family that keeps this tradition going year after year. It's also so much fun to look back over the pictures that have been taken in the past and see how everyone changes and grows up. I look forward to many more years of this trip!

Florida, Part 2

To continue from Florida, Part 1...

The girls woke back up about 7:30 on Friday morning and because of our tire ordeal, we were behind schedule. We just pulled over at a nice convenience store, changed their diapers and clothes, gave them breakfast and then drove for another couple of hours to Tampa. We checked into our hotel, Ryan immediately went to sleep (he had stayed awake to drive us the whole time!), and I played with the girls. They pretty much stayed on schedule, going down for naps as expected, eating when expected, etc. We had a very low-key day resting and a delicious dinner at Bahama Breeze.

On Saturday morning, Ryan needed to take the car to have the tires looked at. Luckily, we were able to talk to Grandma Jan (who, unfortunately, we weren't able to connect with in person), and she recommended a local tire place. Ryan took it in and found a good deal on putting the spare back in the car while getting four new tires. They also handled it in about a hour which was great. After he had the car fixed, we decided to get out for a little bit...Lily was getting a little stir-crazy in the hotel suite. We went to a local mall to just walk around for a bit and burn some energy which was great. After that we stopped at Walgreens to pick up a few needed items...milk, yogurt, etc. And, we picked up silver duct tape so Ryan could do a very redneck thing that I always laugh about...he put the duct tape on his car (luckily his car is silver so it's not totally obvious)! We realized that as we were driving, the air was pulling the bumper. We were nervous it would do more damage just from routine driving, not to mention driving on the interstate more later in the week so...bring on the duct tape. Classy, huh?

We headed back to the hotel for nap time, and I got ready for the 4:00 wedding. Ryan stayed with the girls during the ceremony but then the bride's sister had arranged for one of her friends to keep the girls in the hotel for the reception. I love weddings, and I was so excited to attend Erin's wedding! It was beautiful! No surprise, but Erin looked gorgeous. It was a Greek Orthodox ceremony that was lovely and interesting; I had never attended one before, but I am so glad I had the chance to go to this one.

After the ceremony, I drove back to the hotel to meet the babysitter and pick up Ryan. Amy seemed like a very nice young woman who I was completely comfortable leaving the girls with. Lily, however, wasn't so sure. She is such a timid little girl around new people, and here we were leaving her with a new person in a strange hotel; I know she was nervous. She was crying, hard, when we left which made Mia upset and start crying too. I'm sure Amy was about to cry too! She told us when we got home though that it only last a few minutes, and she and Lily quickly became best friends. I was so grateful Meagan arranged for her to keep the girls, so Ryan and I could both go to the reception.

The reception at the Rusty Pelican was wonderful! It sits right on Tampa Bay, so the view (we're coming up on sunset at this point) was amazing. They had a couple of private rooms reserved. The first had an open bar, a cool ice sculpture and yummy appetizers. We were able to talk to Mrs. Giesa (Erin's mom) for a little bit which was great. Then, they opened the door to a ballroom that was beautifully decorated in white and cobalt blue. We found our assigned table and met our tablemates who were all very nice and friendly. Erin and George shared their first dance; they seem so happy together. Typically at a wedding, if everyone starts tapping their glasses, the bride and groom share a kiss. This time though, they decided that the entire table had to sing a few bars from any song about love to have them kiss. Erin's mom was the emcee that took the mic around, and I think she loved it! Our table performed "Stop! In the Name of Love." It was a great icebreaker! Then they brought out our delicious dinner (salads, beef, chicken, veggies - yum!), and we enjoyed the chocolate-covered strawberries on the tables. After that, they started the party filled with dancing and all sorts of fun. We had a great time! We were able to talk to Erin for a few minutes (see our picture below) and meet George. It's always great to see your friend so happy.

We wish them all the best in their marriage, and we truly appreciate the chance to share this wonderful day and evening with you. We love you!

Coming up in "Florida, Part 3"...our time in New Smyrna!

Florida, Part 1

Finally, it's time for our annual family vacation! I look forward to this week every year. A lot of my dad's side of the family heads down to New Smyrna Beach, FL; this year there were 52 of us (which is actually on the low side; we've had almost 70 before). It is so much fun! Even though we are fortunate enough to see one another pretty often, we all look forward to this time to get away together. Ryan and I were also excited because we actually headed down to Tampa first because my sorority "little sister" was getting married on Saturday. What perfect timing!

After having a rough drive back from Lakeland, FL in May, Ryan and I decided we would try driving through the night in hopes that the girls would sleep most of the way. So, we left just after midnight on Friday morning. Mia was fast asleep before we even left the neighborhood. Lily stayed awake for just under an hour. She was pretty quite, but I think she really enjoyed looking at all the lights as we drove through downtown and down the interstate. She fell asleep, Ryan put on his iPod earbuds, and I went to sleep.

Everything was going great...until about 3:45 AM. We were about 7 miles north of Valdosta on 75. All of a sudden our back right tire blew out! We were just driving along (I was actually awake talking to Ryan) when all of a sudden it blew to pieces. I don't think we drove over anything, it just blew. It made a really loud noise and the car started to pull. Thankfully, Ryan was able to get us safely over to the side of the road. Even though we only drove on it for a few seconds, it managed to do damage to the bumper and side of the car. We could see pieces of the tire all along the interstate. It was very scary.

Luckily, I am a member of AAA, so I called their emergency helpline. I tried stressing to the lady that we were stuck on the side of 75 with a (now wide-awake) 2 year old and an infant. She said since this was the third shift, she could not flag it as a priority emergency, but she would note it in hopes that would speed someone up. She said a tow truck would be there within an hour to help change our tire and make sure there was no other damage so we could continue driving. Thankfully, the tow truck driver called about 35 minutes later, I was able to tell him exactly where we were and he was able to get there about 10 minutes after that. Ryan had to practically unpack the trunk to get the spare out. They changed the tire, but then we had to take the blown tire with us, so Ryan had to figure out how to re-situate everything to accommodate it but he made it work.

We pulled over at the next stop to fill up with gas and make sure all the tires had enough air in them, but then we were back on the road. Lily, of course, woke up as soon as the tire blew and stayed awake the whole time we waited, the car was worked on and we got back on the road. She was such a little trooper though. We explained that the tire was broken and someone was coming to fix it. We told her how nice the man with the big truck was to help us fix the tire. We reassured her it would be quite for the rest of the drive and she could go back to sleep. Mia, amazingly enough, slept the entire time...a girl after my own heart!

I have to say, I think the Lord was protecting us the entire time. We stopped at the entrance of our neighborhood before we left and said a prayer asking for a safe drive down. Even with a blown tire and sitting stranded on the side of the interstate in the middle of the night, we made it safe and sound. We are very thankful that God protected us during what could have been a very dangerous situation.

So, that was the adventure that started our trip. Florida, Part 2 will tell you about our time in Tampa.

Recent Pics

A few pictures from around the house.

Our little Beatles fan.This is when we knew Mia was ready for her nap.
How cute are those sandals?
What a big girl getting ready to eat her lunch.

Lily thought it was pretty funny that Mia enjoyed playing with her hair.

A Braves fan in the making.

Oslo

I have mentioned before how much Lily loves her ABC cities board. She has been on a kick for the last few days where she wants to hear about Oslo each night. Tonight though, as we walked over to her board after reading her Bible story and saying a prayer, she said "You sit there Mommy (pointed to her bench), and I tell about Oslo." She pronounces it "Osolow" each time. Here is the story she told me...

"Osolow is in Norway. It is far, far away from here. It cold there. People used to live there named Vikings (pronounced "wikings"). They wore helmets. You know what funny about those helmets? (Dramatic pause) They had horns! (as she points to head and starts laughing)." I reply how silly that is to have horns on their helmets; she thinks having horns on a helmet is hysterical.

I then ask her what the Vikings built. She replies "Boats. They use oars to move boats. They go vroom-vroom on this side and vroom-vroom on the other side (demonstrating how to use an oar on one side of her body and then on the other side). They use a sail. They have one sail and sailboats use two sails. The wikings have one sail on their boat and Things That Go sailboat have two sails ("one sail" because the picture of the Viking boat shows one brightly colored sail on the boat but her Things That Go book has a sailboat that shows two sails)." Obviously, I have been telling her these things over the last few days (though she came up with the one and two sails comment on her own), but it amazes me how she remembers what I say and repeats it back to me. I wish I had this good of a memory! She has asked me a few times about Dakar, Senegal too, but unfortunately, I don't know anything about that place. I just describe what's going in the picture which satisfies her for now.

She then turns on her humidifier "so it don't get too hot in here," turns on her Beatles lullaby CD and then lets me put her to bed. I cannot tell you how much I love the fact that Lily loves to learn about new things. I hope she will keep this curiosity up for many, many years!

Growing Girl

I can't believe how quickly Mia is growing up! She will be 8 months old this week...where does the time go? I thought I would give you a quick update on what she is up to these days.

Her first tooth arrived yesterday, on the bottom-left of her gums. I think the one right next to it will break through very soon. Even though she gnaws on everything, it hasn't seem to be too disruptive or painful for her, thank goodness. I am convinced she is going to start crawling any day now. She pretty easily gets up on her hands and knees; she'll rock back and forth, go backwards and in circles, but just hasn't quite figured out how to move forward yet. She grunts and wants to go forward so badly, but it hasn't happened yet. We have moved her up to 12 month pajamas, and they fit great. I feel a little badly about keeping her little toes in the 9 months ones for a couple of weeks now. She wears either 9 or 12 months in other clothes; the shorts fit better in 12 months, but the shirts fit better with 9 month. Really though, she's cute in anything, whether too big, too small or just right!

She is turning into a pretty good eater. She drinks 8 ounces of formula for breakfast and before bedtime plus 6 ounces before her afternoon nap. She also eats 7-8 ounces of baby food for lunch and dinner. She drinks a little water from a sippy cup with her food too which she really seems to enjoy. She is pretty good at eating almost any type of baby food we give her except green beans; she really doesn't seem to like those. However, she happily eats everything else. She really loves the little Puffs we give her as a treat. I am looking forward to the day she figures out how to pick up the Puffs herself and get them to her mouth; that will make meal time for the rest of us a lot easier. Of course, if she can pick up and put Puffs in her mouth, that means she can pick up and put lots of things in her mouth (like small toys Lily leaves behind) which won't be as much fun.

Mia loves to play peek-a-boo. This morning after she finished her bottle, she picked up her burp cloth and kept putting it over her face. I would say "Where's Mia?" and she would pull it down while I replied "Peek-a-boo!" or "There she is!" She grinned so big each time. Lily was sitting next to me and found this amusing too. We did this for about 10 minutes. She also likes to clap her hands. This comes from endless times of patty-cake with Lily and others. Just like Lily, Mia seems to love books. I hope this is a common interest they will always share. I love reading books with them. She also really enjoys bath time and splashing around. We're going to the beach in just over a week, and I am hoping her love of baths is indicative of the fun we'll have in the pool and ocean.

She is a good sleeper too. She goes down between 7:30 and 8 each night and sleeps until about 7 or 7:30 the next morning. She takes a 1.5 hour nap at about 9:30 and about a 1.5-2 hour nap about 2. She still takes a short 30 minute nap around 6 each evening which is nice when we are eating dinner in. I think she will drop this little nap soon though. She wakes up happy and sweet as she can be.

I cannot fully tell you how truly blessed Ryan and I feel to have such wonderful, sweet, loving girls. They are gifts from above!

Polar Bear

Lily really likes polar bears. She has a hooded towel that we dry her off with after her shower, and she always says she is a polar bear; I guess because it is white and has a little face and ears on it. Last week, Bama brought her a Little Einsteins' Animal Alphabet book (Bama finds some of the best books for Lily!), and it has that "P" is for penguin and polar bears. Bama showed her how "swim" like a polar bear, so now, each time Lily gets to that page, she likes to demonstrate how the polar bear swims which looks just like you think it would look like. Tonight, she showed Ryan and me (again) and asked us to try it too. I did and she accepted it. She looked at Ryan, so he did it, but she said "No, let me show you." She did it again, looked at Ryan and told him to try it. He did it again, but Lily said "No, Daddy, that's The Wheels on the Bus." For the record, both times it looked correct to me. We couldn't stop laughing while she demonstrated yet again though! Ryan tried again, and this time it was acceptable to her. She makes me laugh every single day!