Tappin' Shoes!

I'm not sure if Aunt Karen really loves Lilly or just hates Ernie and I. I know I've given the Bear Cubs some questionable birthday and Christmas gifts, but I'm not sure why Lilly needed to bring home Sophie's tap shoes!

Thank. You. Karen.

Skype

Lilly's first Skype! She was so excited to see Papa inside the computer. She doesn't understand why she can't touch them. And Mimi and Papa are so patient with her. They even played hide & seek with her. She's so creative.

Little Gym Graduation

What have I signed us up for? A graduation for Little Gym? And everyone gets to bring their grand parents, aunt, uncles - you name it. But for Lilly it was just another week of hanging out with Mr. Mike. See this picture? That's Mr. Mike talking to all the parents and guests about things our little tots have been learning. And all the tots are excited to show what they've learned.

and here's Lilly! On the other side of the gym rearranging Mr. Mike's stuff.

And here she is joining the "guests" on the balance beam. And she watched her class mates demonstrate their running, jumping, and galloping skills.

Those people sitting in the middle of the group activity mat? Those are the other parents. Encouraging their tots to run, jump, and gallop. They are such good participants,

And here she is with her favorite part of Little Gym - the balls! Mr. Mike has a big bucket of playground balls and Lilly loves them. She usually hones her throwing and kicking skills, but all this "performing" proved tiring for her.

This is her getting her medal of participation from Mr. Mike.

And she immediately gave it back to him.

But then we went back to laying down, actually rocking.

We tried to get all of the tots to sit for a group photo. The boys would have nothing to do with it, but check out Lilly participating with the group?

Yeah, of course I signed her up for another semester!

Snow Day!

We got some snow along with some very cold temperatures. It finally warmed up to 35 degrees so we bundled Lilly up and took her for a short wagon ride.

And then she got out to play with the remaining snow.

And to have a little snack...

Poor Baby

This is Goose doped up on meds. He was such a good patient though! He did not try to get the bandage off. He did not whine. He moped around a lot and took all the attention he could get from all of us. And Lilly was very good to him and his boo boo.

Lilly's Boyfriend

So Goose played ball with Ernie the other day and something went wrong. We still aren't sure what happened, but there was blood and $200 later, Goose is missing a toenail. Poor thing. Ernie wanted to super glue the situation. Really? Super glue? So I called Kurt, our neighbor. Kurt to the rescue. Lilly loves Kurt. So while Kurt and Ernie were busy taking care of Goose (without super glue) Lilly talked to Kurt through the door.

What you can't hear is in between Ernie and Kurt talking to each other and Goose, is that Kurt has to keep saying hello to Lilly to get her to stop nagging him to come play hide & seek with her.

Judgement

So we have a nightly routine. That's what the books say to do! Our routine goes something like this: Dinner around 5 or 5:30. Bath around 6 or 6:30. Play. Bed time around 8. So obviously this lack of judgement moment for us happened after bath time. And pretty close to bed time...

Chocolate pudding makes her so happy! I don't remember what time she went to bed this night. I've blocked it out already.

Elmo's Mommy

Lilly started showing off her mommy skills lately. With Elmo. She was asking Elmo if he was ready to go night night one morning while I was folding towels. She confiscated a kitchen towel to use as his blanket and she sat on the sofa patting his back.

Elmo must have been extremely fussy, because she had to lay down with him.

And then she started going up the stairs with him.

Where Elmo got to lay in bed for all of 2 minutes. Not a very good nap in my opinion.

She's so cute.

Chinese Apron Factory

I do have a sewing machine and I've used it a few times. I don't really know how to sew and my family members know this. Can someone please tell me why my sister thought I should make 12 aprons for my niece's 18th birthday party? It's a cooking party, you see. Won't that be so cute! Yes, great. And I would hate to disappoint Britanie so let's get it done. Britanie apologized that her friends have been consumed by drama queen hormones and she has decided not to have this great cooking party. I learned this approximately 2 days after I completed the last one. Then here comes Tara a few weeks later. "Guess what I want to do while I'm there visiting?" Oh mylanta... For the record - I really do not know how to sew. I also do not have sewing fairies to make all of these silly aprons either. Anyway - we made one for Dylan and I happened to have some Cars fabric in my craft closet. Maybe he could use this for painting at home?

Dylan comes to St. Louis

I'm sure coming to visit his "baby" cousin did not sound that great to him at first. However, there was snow on the ground. You are welcome Dylan. I planned it just for you. Then there were paints! And yes, Dylan, of course we will paint in the breakfast room on the table. And yes, Lilly will paint too.

They were both so quiet. And still.

This is Dylan's paint palette. Nice and neat.

This is Lilly's. Enough said.

Apparently my nephew, Dylan, has been terribly mistreated for approximately 5 years now. He's not allowed to paint at his house. And then I heard this statement from him: "She gets to paint in the bathtub too?!" as he came into the bathroom and saw her painting in the tub. So, of course I got all the bath paints out for him too. Seriously - he's not even allowed to have bath paints? I wonder what Lilly might be sending him for his birthday this year...

Merry Christmas Lilly!

She is not quite awake yet... But she loves those candy canes!

She did really well opening gifts. She liked her Elmo bed pillow and the stuffed Elmos.

Our camera battery died and we were not able to get a photo of her with the favorite gift - a box of bows. Yes, a box of bows from GAP was the winner. She now carries them in a Stella and Dot bag (her purse) everywhere!

When we got home she found a little something in the basement! A train station tent with...

a tunnel!! She loves that tunnel. Anyone want to come play hide & seek with her? She's probably in her tent.

Christmas Eve 2010

We spent Christmas Eve at Mimi and Papa's house for some pizza and some more gifts! Lilly really got into the whole gift receiving this year! She really enjoyed tearing off the paper to see what was inside and even more exciting was throwing the paper away!

She enjoyed opening the gifts so much, she helped Mimi and Papa open her gift to them!

She made sure they saw her painting inside! I know I'm biased, but I really think all of you should buy one of these frames (at least 1!). I found it at Target. The frame stores your favorite niece's or granddaughter's art work in a folder inside the frame and has a magnetic closure thus making it easy for you to change the display! I'm so impressed that she found such a great deal!

And I believe this was my favorite part of the evening! Lilly showed off her piano skills! Really - she did - please refer to the posted video!

And now - Lilly presents to you The Sound of Music - Papa and Lilly style!

Christmas with the Church/Coyne Clan

Ok - so we spent the holidays in Alabama this year and I would like to use that as my excuse for not posting in so long. It is just that though - an excuse. a pathetic one, but an excuse nonetheless! Anyway - we got there late Tuesday evening and Lilly explained to us she had absolutely no plans to sleep in the pack and play. Good to know. Thank you for communicating. We got very little sleep and all three of us ended up sick. Lilly threw up on me several nights. Merry Christmas!

I could not wait to put her in her holiday dress with her little shrug and knee high boots. She didn't seem to care that she was so pretty!

The kids' table where all her cousins joined her for dinner. She ate yogurt despite the fact her cousin, Stephanie made a delicious butternut squash ravioli. She also ate grapes for the first time this day. She loved them. So I bought her some when we got home and she'll have nothing to do with them. Thank you very much.

This is her with her cousin, Molly. Molly is a couple months younger than Lilly.

Leonardo Strikes Again

This girl loves to paint! Have paint? She'll come right over....

She takes her art very seriously.

and has this happy little face the entire time.

Wagon Trail

So I posted quite some time ago about the favorite birthday gift! Here is a video of her with the winner. Thanks Mimi and Papa for the wagon! She loves it!