Life With a Baby on Board: July 2017

Lily's June update:

This past month has been a busy one for Lily. She moved up the 4 year old class at school and now tells everyone that she is 4 years old. Since she moved up she gets to go swimming twice per week with her class (they have a 2-3 ft deep pool at the daycare) and she is also taking swim lessons one day a week. I'm glad she's getting extra time at the pool during school days because the weather has not been cooperative for swimming at the community pool as much as I want to. Lily has become more willing to try new things and I've been trying to encourage her to do more things by herself. She loves having kids her own age to play with and still thinks that if she plays with someone for 5 minutes they are her "best friend" (most of the time she doesn't know the kid's name).

Loves:
-telling jokes...usually it's the same one....it usually doesn't make any sense either
-swimming pool
-starting to pick out words while we're reading (although the only one she reads with real consistency is "NO")
-swinging
-pretending to be a chimney sweep (thanks Mary Poppins for giving my child such lofty career goals)
-Books: The Day Louis Got Eaten

Hates:
-washing her hair

What Lily's been saying:
-Lily's joke "What does a chicken say when he want to take a bath?.........HE LAUGHS (then she belly laughs likes it's the funniest thing she's ever heard)
-"Muffet"= Muppet
-"Scary witch melts because she doesn't haf any bones"
-Lily "Mommy you look like a wadder. It's an animal dat swims under the water and looks in people's windows and looks like a walrus."
Me "ummmm.....an otter?"
Lily "yeah"
-"MOMMY your boobs can go away now.....Clara can drink milk by herself now!!!!!"
-"NANA YOU CAN NOT BELIEB IT!!!!!"

Clara's May update:

This month Clara has been into everything and is usually going at full speed. She recently got in trouble for trying to hang on the open kitchen drawers. She's smack in the middle of this wonderful phase: "mommy told me not to touch _____. I wonder how long I'm not supposed to touch it for.....surely since a whole 15 seconds have passed I can try to touch______ again." (repeat all day long). She has started giving kisses and has started figuring out when something is funny. She cuddles but she still isn't one to cuddle for extended periods of time before asking to be put in bed. She has started sitting and playing by herself (most frequently with Lily's Fisher-Price doll house) although she still likes to entertain herself by emptying the kitchen cabinets, evenly distributing DVDs around the living room and dipping things into the dogs water bowl.

Loves:
-sitting on the potty (nothing happens....she just likes to sit, wipe and flush)
-making animal sounds
-her new swing
-Mamaw, Nana and cousin Izzy
-swimming pool
-baby dolls
-helping feed CJ
-books: The Spooky Old Tree and He Bear She Bear (want me to recite them from memory...because I can)

Hates:
-having a dirty diaper

What Clara's been saying:
"teat" = treat
"bi-per"= diaper
"A gon"= all gone
also she says "out, in, off, up, bubbles, duck"

June was a busy busy busy month. Looking back at the pictures from this past month I didn't remember that we had done half of it. We started out the month by a trip to TVA to visit daddy at work to bring him cookies for his birthday. We tried to keep the girls from pushing any buttons in the control room.....sorry if anyone lost power.

making cookies for daddy

helping daddy eat his birthday cookies

One Saturday at the beginning of the month we attended 2 birthday parties (one in the morning and one after nap). The girls had a blast at the first party which started at a fire station before moving to the family's house. The girls loved sitting in the firetruck.

Clara refused to get out of the firetruck

The next party had a pool which the girls loved. Clara ate her weight in watermelon and I don't think Lily touched a fruit or veggie the entire party.

We visited my great grandma when some west cost family came to town. The girls enjoyed feeing the ducks and being thrown in the air by my cousin, Andrew.

short walk to visit the ducks

discussing the meaning of life with uncle Ross....

just kidding I'm sure they're talking about fish

The girls caught some major air with Andrew throwing them

We played with a little play dough and to mommy's delight it kept them entertained for a full 5 1/2 minutes. Clara may have ingested some but I figure that's just a childhood right of passage.

We kept my brother and sister-in-laws dog, Crockett, while they were out of town. The girls love it when Crockett come to stay...I have a feeling that Crockett, like CJ, tolerates them because they have food that is easily accessible.

We celebrated Father's Day with Andy. I let Lily pick which of the two gifts she wanted to give Andy and I told her it was a surprise. She agreed that we shouldn't tell daddy the surprise and then she folded like a cheap Walmart chair and told him what he was getting 5 seconds before he opened them.

We also celebrated Father's Day with my dad and went out to dinner. Family dinners are always awesome because there are 2-4 extra people to entertain Lily and Clara and there is a 70% chance that I'll get to eat hot food.

poor Lily she held the door open for so many people who

didn't thank her.....because she's short and they didn't even see her.

Clara loves all babies but loves this baby in particular

The next day we celebrated Andy and Clara's 1 1/2 birthday together (to keep me from throwing two parties and because Clara doesn't care at all yet). Friends and neighborhood kids came over and we blew up the $200 bounce house that Santa brought.....and then the kids spent 20 minutes playing with the ice in the cooler. Santa should have saved the $200....

A few days later I took the girls to the MUSE (a children's S.T.E.A.M. museum in Knoxville). The first few times we went it was OK but wouldn't keep the girls attention for an extended period of time. They have since redone the inside and it is AWESOME!!!! I had to bribe the girls with Gerber pouches and promises of lunch for us to leave.