Great Expectations

Sunday night we went down to my sister's new place for supper and swimming. We probably set Lila's expectations for our next visit pretty high because after swimming, we went back to her place for a little ice cream treat. Since it is still a relatively new development, there aren't many in her neighborhood yet, which meant that we got to enjoy the pool all to ourselves. Here are some pictures.

Daddy being silly

Aunt Janina being silly. The pool had a large area that was only 6 inches deep (very nice for Lila), then it drops off to 4 feet.

Fun times with Aunt Janina

Ok, I was trying to be clever because Lila measures 3 feet right now, but she wouldn't smile for me. Oh well.

Going airborne.

I like this one, cheesy grin and all.

Imitating Mommy... I was sitting on the edge with my feet in the pool. Perhaps I will have to invest in a maternity swimsuit; it is HOT right now!

Our Wichita Visit

Here are some pictures from our week in Wichita. Lila had a fun time playing with her cousins. We celebrated Ben's Dad's 60th birthday while we were up there too, so it was a good chance to see some extended family. One day while we were there, we went to Exploration Place, a children's museum, which was a lot of fun for the girls.

 

Rachel at Exploration Place

Playing with Kaelyn at Exploration Place

Smiling for the camera with Rachel and Britton

Our little Sunflower

Lila, Rachel and Kaelyn at Exploration Place. Lila is 24 months, Rachel is 27 months, and Kaelyn is 32 months.

Playing in the water trough at Exploration Place. Rachel and Kaelyn liked to play with the fountain and make splashes with the toy ducks, frogs and turtles. Lila rescued them from the water and helped them go "night-night" on the table. I think they could have played here forever.

Playing in the pool in the backyard

Practicing blowing bubbles in the water with Daddy

Walking to a nearby park with Kaelyn and Britton

All of the Amey grandkids at Dad's birthday (One of Ben's cousins has 3 girls too!)

Lila and Rachel working on a puzzle together

New cousin David, 8 weeks old!

Two Years Old!

Lila got to celebrate her birthday two times this year (how appropriate, huh?). Her bday was on Tuesday, but we were leaving the next day to visit family in Wichita. So we celebrated with my sister on Sunday evening, and then again with Ben's family on Wednesday evening. I made Sesame Street cupcakes for the Wichita celebration, so for Sunday's we just did a store-bought Ladybug cake.

Lila LOVED hearing "Happy Birthday" sung to her, and she LOVED getting to blow out the candles. After 3 good puffs on her part, I stepped in and helped get them blown out :-)

Getting ready to open presents!

Thrilled with Aunt Janina's gift... a toy toaster for her play kitchen!

Thrilled with Mommy & Daddy's gift... a toy dishwasher with working buttons/sounds and a little water sprayer inside the door to simulate washing.

Enjoying a Cookie Monster cupcake in Wichita. She ate the entire frosting face before eating the cake part.

Swim Class

Here are a few pictures from Lila's swim class she's been taking this July:

They give each child a rubber ducky to "swim" after... this was great motivation for Lila. She really likes to throw the ducky and then will "scoop" and "kick" to go get it.

At the end of the 30 minute class, they are allowed some free time in the shallow end of the pool.

Time to dry off! Lila doesn't ever want to get out; she has so much fun in the "big pool" as she calls it.

After her very first class, we stopped at Wendy's for an ice cream treat.

During this last class she went under the water for the first time, very quickly. She tolerated it pretty well. She has only has one more class before her session is over. I wonder if I will hear requests for the "big pool" or if she will be content with her kiddie pool in the backyard!

Little Mommy

I have a bunch of pictures I will post later from our recent trip to Wichita as well as some pics from Lila's swim class... but I caught this sweet moment today and wanted to share. Lila loves to play with her doll and today she decided her "baby" was stinky (she told me so). I found her with a wipe in hand and was able to grab the camera as she first wiped the baby's bottom - quite thoroughly, even adding a "hold still"... wonder where she's heard that?? :-)

Then she ran to the trash and threw away the wipe before getting the diaper (someday she'll learn that you can't expose the tush for that long to cold air without creating a new mess!)

At first she tried to tape the diaper directly to the baby.

After a little help getting the diaper between baby's legs, she was able to tape it shut.

Of course, her diaper is a little big on the baby!

Now that she's clean and dry, it's time to rock her to sleep.

Since then, I've had to put the wipes up out of reach. If only she were satisfied with ONE wipe! It's so sweet how she takes care of her baby, though. 3 more months and we'll see if she feels the same way about a real one :-)

Sesame Street Cupcakes

For those who might be interested, here are some pictures of the cupcakes I made for Lila's 2nd birthday (which we celebrated with the Amey family in Wichita). I stuck with characters who had round faces and who Lila recognized. Thus, I created Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and Ernie. My icing was too stiff for Ernie's face (which made it less smooth than I would have liked) but I didn't want to take the time to thin it out since I was decorating them right before we celebrated. They were a big hit with all the girls (Lila and her 3 girl cousins), as well as the adults :-)

Baby Tummy

We have told Lila that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy," which she has repeated so I know she heard us. Not quite so sure she understands what that means, though, as she has informed us that she has a baby in her tummy too! The other night at dinner, she said "My baby tummy hurts." I said, "it does?" and she said, "it's... it's gonna come out!" (I am quite confident that neither Ben nor I have explained the having-a-baby process to her so I have no idea where she got that from!) We laughed pretty good, though.

What Makes a Good Dad?

I recently got some good pictures of Ben and Lila and feel the desire to brag on my husband. He is such a good Daddy to Lila. She loves spending time with him! She gets so excited when he comes home and will say "come play with me"... and he will. Last night while I was working on supper, it was somersault time. Ben wisely decided that some things are better left to your youth, but Lila was just happy to have his undivided attention. Here are some pictures of them together:

Relaxing with Daddy on the couch

Going for a swim in the backyard... I love this picture of Ben with his laptop outside! Of course, when Lila says "come in here, Daddy!"...

Who can resist? :-)

Playing dress-up with Daddy

Cookin' Up Fun

When we were in Alabama, my parents had found and set up the little play kitchen Janina and I played with when we were little. Lila had a blast "cooking" and serving all of us. My dad also made Lila her own kitchen which we brought home with us. It is adorable! 

We almost have Lila's "big girl" room done... we ordered a bed rail for her so when that comes this week, she can sleep in her new bed. Right now she loves to play in there though. I'll post some pictures of her whole room once it's completely finished but thought I'd share pics of the play kitchen. She loves it!

A Week in Alabama

We've been home a week now, so I thought I'd post some pictures from our trip to Alabama to visit my folks. It was Lila, me and my sister driving 11 hours. On the way out we stayed at a hotel in Memphis, so we broke up the trip a little bit. That turned out to be a good thing because about 2 hours into our trip, Lila developed a fever. Which meant she was either sleepy (good) or cranky (no fun!). Praise God the next day she was feeling better and it didn't turn into anything, so we were able to enjoy our week with Grandma and Grandpa. My grandmother was there for the first couple of days too, but then she had to go home. Here are some pics:

Lila reading a book with Great-Grandma (my grandma)!

Lila and Grandma (my mom) together.

Some of you may know the Loftons (used to live in TX and go to our church). They live in Chattanooga now and one day Lila and I met up with Jenna and Clark (16 months) at a McDonald's halfway between Huntsville and their house. This is the best picture I got of the two of them together.

Lila enjoying herself in the McDonald's playplace. As a parent you get many opportunities like this one to trust God when it comes to germs and the health of your child :-)

One day we went to visit Grandpa's office. Lila was a big hit with the secretaries as she shared many of the animal sounds she knows. I wasn't sure if she would clam up and be shy, but she did great!

That night we went bowling (ok, I didn't). Lila got to bowl for the first time. The shoes were too big for her, but they didn't fall off. She liked rolling the ball down the lane using the special "help" (this slide and the bumper rails in the gutters). However, the ball return ended the fun. It was loud and shot the ball out really fast. After a few frames, she informed me "I don't like that" and didn't want to bowl anymore. Aunt Janina finished off her game with a respectable score of 138.

Grandpa and Lila at the bowling alley.

Here's a picture of Lila on the car ride home. She liked watching a video, but these headphones lasted about 2 minutes. That just meant we got to listen to the Little People video with her :-)