The White Stuff: April 2009

Did I Ever Mention...

that Lily wore the same dress for her birthday party as I did at my first birthday party?

She's cool like that.

Thanks Mom, for hanging on to my dress and sharing it with us!

Jib Jab

We call her Jib Jab. I was able to catch bits and pieces of her chatter this evening. The girl talks. all. day. long.

It tickles me. :)

Jacob had today off (as a make-up day) since he was gone for Easter. We decided to take Lily back to the Botanical Gardens and see what was in bloom this time around. I personally love the Hostas, but Lily has a mind of her own and wanted to lead us around.

Hey! Look over there! She was into all the sights and wanted to go her own way.

Lele no longer poses and smile for pictures. All our shots are on the move now. Most of my pictures are her picking herself back up off of the ground... that uneven terrain still gets her.

And then toward the end, it was melt down city and we had to call it. She was asleep before we even got out of the parking lot. :)

Birthday Party

We went to the park this afternoon for our buddy Dawson's First Birthday Party.

Lil managed to catch a ladybug in her hair.

And D did some very cute damage to his cake. :)

Happy Birthday Dawson!

My Mom's Potato Salad

...is the best ever! And you're so lucky, I'm going to share it with you. I made it for a baby shower BBQ we went to today. And it goes a little something like this:

The cast of characters; potatoes (today I used a 5lb bag), medium olives, three hard boiled eggs, dried minced onion (or 1/2 c minced onion if you like the fresh stuff), celery, mayo, sugar, salt, pepper, dill and that secret something... tarragon vinegar.

oops... almost forgot these guys:

Boil your potatoes. This many potatoes took 38 minutes to be tender enough to pierce with a toothpick.

While your taters are a'boiling, make your dressing. Heck, if you are not waiting for nice daylight to take pictures of the process, make your dressing the night before and let those flavors meld!

Start with a cup of mayonnaise.

To that, add 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt and a tsp of sugar.

And the specialness: 1/2 tsp dried dill and 2 tbsp tarragon vinegar.

Then mix.

Don't forget the 3 tbsp dried onion... it'll reconstitute a bit.

...mmmmmmm...

Put it in the chill chest and put those taters out on a nice clean towel to cool.

When they are cool enough to handle, peel em. And then cube them into bite size pieces.

While you are cutting, you'll also want to halve your olives and cut a cup of celery and your three hard boiled eggs.

Then put them all in a really big bowl.

And mix in your dressing.

And then if you are like me, decide to make another half batch of dressing because it is so yummy!

Mix it all together and chill it in the fridge until it's time to eat. :)

We always get rave reviews when we (Mom and I) make this potato salad and I hope you like it too!

Mony Mony!

Ah, one of those quintessential wedding reception songs. In fact, they played it at my reception... and I danced and enjoyed it very much.

This is a super long video. (4 minutes)

Please do not feel obligated to watch the whole thing.

Having said that, do watch the last five seconds if you want to see Lil wave b'bye.

She can't yet run... but she can dance!

Schedule Shift

Naptime is changing.

I can't seem to keep up. Day before yesterday, Lil went down at 9:00 for her first of three 1/2hour-1hour naps. I don't think she really slept though... I think she just played, because she didn't make it until 12:30-1:00 when she usually takes her second nap, she started falling apart at 11:00. And went down a few minutes after.

So yesterday, I tried to take her out... to keep her up longer... but she fell asleep in the car at 10:00 between errands. Well actually, that just put a stop to our errands. But she slept until 11:30! And took an afternoon nap at 3:00 for an hour.

Today I tried to get out of the house again. But that didn't work... we aborted as we were getting ready to get in the car and Lil went down for a nap today at 9:00, the old norm. She slept for 1/2 an hour, the old norm. She got up... and we went out to Target to finish our errands and she fell asleep in the car on our way home at 11:00 and has been asleep since... it is now 12:45!

What is going on? I'm usually good at seeing patterns, but this one eludes me.

Family Picture

We had a Hail and Farewell tonight. Just got home and had to share our latest family picture. :)

Things That Make Me Smile

For today at least... :)

Watching George

Toe Eater

Popsicle Face

just cute!

Out for a Walk

We went out for a walk today, Lily, Jake and me. Guess who pushed the stroller. We certainly didn't get very far very fast!

That's probably not a bad thing... since about 2 minutes from home (on our way back) the sky looked like this:
(yes, that is a kite)

So we came home and my two favorite video gamers got to work while the rain poured down outside and I made dinner.

He's Home!

Lily showed her daddy all her latest tricks this afternoon. Including a nice walk around the company area. It took her a few minutes to warm up to him, but I think that had more to do with all the guys around than with him personally.

We had a dozen or so wives show up and hang out with us as the boys turned in weapons and stuff. We fed them all hotdogs since it was right around lunch time when they showed up. The wives brought drinks and baked goods. And we had a truck pulled up for some tunes which made the time pass much easier, if I do say so myself.

All and all not too bad; SSG Gil and I make a pretty good team and I look forward to having him around during the deployment. :) Lily couldn't decide if she wanted to go to him or not... she'd head in his direction and then hide in my legs and be shy.

Ouch!

I took a chunk out of my finger today....

The screen door was just too fast for me.

But the girl was spared.

I don't get it....

So we put out the calls to the wives of A Co today, to let them know what flight and time they can expect their paratrooper this weekend. And to invite them to hang out with us at the company while the guys turn in their items, etc.

(We're going to share baked goodies and have hot dogs... I have to go to Sam's Club tomorrow!)

That's not the confusing part.

What confounds me is that no matter how hard we try to get the Family Readiness Group roster right, every time we make a call out we have disconnected numbers. Every. Single. Time.

Who in their right mind changes their phone number that often? and what do they accomplish by doing so?!?

I don't get it....

Too Tired

Just got home from a coffee.

Have last minute guests coming over tomorrow, so I have to clean my house.

Planning for the guys to get back this weekend and have FRG things on the brain.

I'm just too tired tonight.

Here have a picture:

Dance? Walk.

Have you seen the Trop50 commercial where Kyra Sedgwick dances around in the kitchen? Every time it comes on Lil stops to dance... except the time when I actually have a camera in my hand. Wouldn't you know it!

At least Gramma gets to see her walk a bit. :)

New Dress

Look at this darling fabric I found!

I couldn't resist it. And my daughter deserves another dress...

...right?

Crack up!

Do your kids crack you up as much as Lil does to me?

This morning I looked over to see what Lil was up to... she had stopped singing.... This is what I saw:

(Note the tongue doing its thing again... this is how I know we are teething.)

And then just a few minutes ago this:

That's my Easter hat that was sitting innocently on a chair in the living room.

Apparently she was ready to go out.

Sorry I had to use the flash; it's a yucky day. :(

Happy Easter

Dawson

This is our buddy Dawson.

Does anyone know how to remove hair with Photoshop? I was cooking dinner for my friend Amy and myself when these two spontaneously broke into giggles! This picture is almost perfect! That darn hair!

Amy and I took Lil and D to an Easter egg hunt today. Can you say disappointment? Basically they threw a bunch of candy out on a big lawn and had all the kids line up to wait for a whistle to blow. And then chaos ensued. Lily and Dawson just watched from the sidelines.

I was really sad. :(

Yet another demonstration of my child's dare devil:

Can you see the big knot on Lil's forehead? She was pitching a fit this afternoon and slammed her head against the floor. Put a quick stop to that tantrum. She isn't even two yet!