Silly Lily

I also realize I haven't done a "Silly Lily" post in a while. That doesn't mean she isn't being silly, of course. It just means these pictures have been waiting patiently on my computer for about a month.

This first gem is a picture of my baby girl asleep in a swing at the park.

My parents (Bopee and Pop Pop as Lily calls them) took her to the

park down the street and her absolute favorite thing to do so far this spring is

swing! Apparently so much so that it puts her to sleep???

This one is a little less silly but equally cute. It had finally started to really warm up so Lily and I had spent most of our day outside at various parks. Standing in direct sunlight pushing my daughter in a swing for an hour wasn't exactly my idea of enjoying the warm weather so as soon as we got home I threw her in her swimsuit and gave her the hose. She was thoroughly entertained with this for quite some time and it wasn't until she said "dink" (drink) and put the hose up to her mouth that I was once again reminded of my childhood. Running around our plastic pool for hours, refusing to go inside for anything, especially a drink since it was so easily accessible and so incredibly refreshing when it came out of the hose. Every maternal instinct inside of me wanted to pull it away because my mind was instantly filled with the different kinds of germs that could be festering on the end of the hose. I chose to let it slide this time, however, because every child deserves to experience the satisfaction of drinking from an ice cold hose and a sweltering hot day and that is exactly what I gave her in that moment. 

.

Mother's Day

First off, yes I realize it's the end of May and I have yet to write about Mother's Day. Blogs get difficult for me once the weather gets nice (and by nice I mean just not below 50 degrees) so you'll just have to bear with me.

It was very cold and windy this year so our original plans to visit the zoo were quickly thwarted. We decided to visit the Imagination Station in Toledo since we were planning on heading that way anyway and had not been since they re-opened. I'm really glad we did because mom's got in for free so it was super cheap and the place was deserted so we had free reign. I wasn't sure Lily would get a lot out of it because most of the exhibits are for older kids but she had a blast. There was a whole section dedicated to toddlers that she loved and a lot to do with playing in water, which she also loved.

Grocery shopping. I have to note here that the first

thing she went for was the bread and she put

every single piece in her cart. That's my girl!

Practicing nursing with Daddy at the mini hospital.

We might have a future pediatrician on our hands!

Or maybe a firefighter??

It was so nice to spend the day with my daughter, Mom and husband. These people mean so much to me and I would not be celebrating Mother's Day at all if it weren't for the three of them and for that I am forever grateful.

The Getaway

I'm back to procrastinating with my entries, this one should be dated for a few weeks ago but I fell ill shortly after my return and am just now getting around to being motivated again! Back to the main story: I am fortunate enough to have an awesome husband who somehow talked me into leaving my baby girl for a whole weekend to go on a girl's trip with my besties from high school. Retrospectively I should not have been so worried, she was with her awesome Daddy who is amazing and a nurse. It was just that fear of being several hours away for an extended period of time and having to drag everyone else with me if something went awry and of course I thought of every possible disaster that could have occurred during my absence. Needless to say everyone is fine and Lily had a great time with her Daddy and Mommy had, possibly, an even better time with her gal pals.

We travelled to Traverse City where one of the five of us lives and rented a little condo on the beach. It was perfect and cozy and even though there were two bedrooms and a pull out sofa we dragged all the mattresses upstairs so we could sleep in the same room like we were kids again. It was great. There was a lot of reminiscing and girl talk and not being responsible for anyone but ourselves. It truly was the perfect getaway. Here are just a few pics from the trip, as you can tell we haven't changed much- just a litter older now.

This picture perfectly depicts how happy I felt during my getaway.

Obviously Jazzmon was pretty pleased herself.

Wine tasting

At the winery

Dancing the night away. Yes I actually danced.

Like a goon. In public. It was quite invigorating. 

This was almost my favorite part of the trip. This is at a Cherry Republic and they had a bin full of cherry pits to stand in. Don't ask me why I even got in because I am fully aware of how weird and gross that sounds but once my feet hit those pits I understood. They were small and so soft and round which somehow culminated into the perfect foot massage. I don't think we would have ever gotten out if it had not been for the little girl doing puppy eyes at us waiting for her turn. So if you ever have a chance to put your feet in a bin of cherry pits, don't judge, just do it. I promise you won't regret it.

Here are a few pics of Booter and Lily during their weekend. They spent a lot of time with Holly, Peter Aaron and other family enjoying the first of some nice spring weather.

Kentucky in April

We had a really fun weekend trip to Kentucky to visit Grandma Jackie. It was so incredibly beautiful there, even though it was cold most of the time the grass was green and the plants were budding and the hills were rolling. Lily didn't do so hot when it came to sleeping but other than that we had an awesome time. 

Her favorite thing were the kitties. Grandma Jackie has two really patient cats who basically let Lily use and abuse them so she had a ball with that.

This about sums up how nap times went...

My favorite part was the trip to Keeneland Horse Park where we got to have breakfast at the track then go down to see the horses practice. This beauty was waiting for us when we walked up. Lily was a bit shy of it's size but was really excited when we saw other ones after that. 

It was really cold, like 36 degrees cold, but that didn't stop Lily from enjoying the show. She loved watching them run by and threw a fit every time we tried to go warm up.

Can you tell how excited I am???

This is the beautiful one way bridge on the way to Grandma Jackie's house. Kentucky is my favorite.

Our last day there was a pretty nice day so we took Lily to a park with ducks and a big wooden playground. Here she is just being super cute.

She did really awesome in the car, she naps much better in her car seat than she does at home so that usually takes up about half the trip. I tried to split it up on the way home so she wasn't awake for such a large amount of time and it got pretty goofy while I was trying to keep her awake. She started laughing really hard when I rubbed my nose with my hand and pretend ate her leg. Here's how that turned out:

I don't usually let her handle the camera but I figured it was safe this time as long as I was holding it with her in the restraints of her car seat. Here's a sampling of Lily's first pictures, I think we have an artist on our hands!

Oh, the things we do to entertain our children...