Photos from Christmas leave

Here are a few photos from when Lily and I were in Ohio for leave. I'd already uploaded them before that long break from the blog, so I figure I'll share them!!

Lily and Grandma doing a puzzle

Living room blanket fort :-)

It was great to see Cricket - I've missed her! She is doing well.

We went out for a nice dinner....

...and Uncle Scott shared his chocolate cake with Lily.

The cousins

Dave got her a skateboard for Christmas!

And she found creative ways to play with it.

She LOVES the Sylvanian Families stuff that I had when I was a kid!!

Ice cream and orange peels and coffee and bacon....these are a few of my favorite things!!!

This will come as a huge surprise to none of you: Lily is not a big eater. She will try new things, but she eats so sparsely, I sometimes wonder how on earth she continues to grow (and she does grow upward, if not much outward!!)

She does have a few favorites, for which she ALWAYS has room in her little tummy:

Ice cream, of course - what kid doesn't love it? This photo is from the time (the ONLY time, I swear to you!) I let Lily get ice cream for dinner.

Bacon. And more bacon.

Popcorn - she can down a whole bowl by herself, and ask for more.

Dark chocolate (i.e., the good stuff - she is her mother's daughter). She does prefer it straight, as you can see here - she eschews the cookie part and goes right for the chocolate chunks.

The Ultimate, All-Time Favorite Food Ever - Amy's Indian Palak Paneer, otherwise known to us as "Green Food." She literally begs for this on a daily basis.

And coffee, when she can convince Mommy for a sip. On the rare occasion when decaf is brewed, she gets a her-sized espresso cup of the stuff (and she's so serious about it, too):

I suppose her liking for coffee does bring us to some of the stranger things that Lily goes crazy for...

Raw oatmeal! Also, when I am baking, she goes straight for the little piles of stray flour on the counter, though I do try to limit her intake of that....

Citrus peel. Lemons and oranges, mainly... yes, she really did eat all of that peel missing on the second photo!! Scurvy is no danger to Lily.

Her latest obsession is "crunchy pasta" - any long, thin, uncooked noodle will do.

When she was younger, I used to stress out over whether she was getting enough food and the right foods. But, there's only so much a mom can do besides offer up a variety of healthy stuff and let her choose. She's been cutting back on the milk lately, so that's about all I can ask for!

I'd love to hear some of the strange things your kids love to eat....

Another weekend flies by!!

Here we are on yet another Sunday evening, only difference being it's 7:30 and still not quite dark out. I was lucky to have Friday off, but the weekend still went at warp speed. I always get a little melancholy on Sundays - I guess mostly just due to the workweek ahead. So, instead of dwelling on that, I'll share our weekend with you and then spend the rest of the night chillin' with Lily :-)

Blankie says "good morning!"

On the spur of the moment on Friday afternoon, I bought tickets to the circus that night - it was here in town for the weekend. I was in search of something to do, and all Lily's potential play-dates were busy, so it seemed like a good idea. Lily sure was excited about the cotton candy....

But it was ten dollars. Yeah - TEN dollars for some spun sugar. What a ripoff!!! The circus was alright, but then I spent the rest of the evening feeling guilty because apparently the Ringling Brothers are basically the biggest maltreaters of animals ever. Sigh. Oh well, we'll skip it next year.

The awesome part about the circus, though, was that on the way out we ran into Lily's favorite teacher from preschool!! Lily talks about her all the time, and she got so excited when she spotted her. After we said goodbye, Lily said to me "Mommy, teachers don't go to the circus!" Then she asked where her teacher was going, and I said "probably to her house." Lily was adamant that no, teachers don't live in a house, they live at school.

On Saturday we went to the story hour at the Cape Fear River Botanical Garden - they have one every month, with a different theme. This one was "Signs of Spring."

Mostly, we learned all about toads and frogs. And then we made puppets!!

It was lots of fun, and if you're from this area, I recommend you check it out!!

Later that day, we took Lightening out for a spin.

Today was a pretty lazy day, other than a visit to the park. I decided to make some pizza dough to put in the freezer. This recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/whole-wheat-pizza-dough-10000000520955/ is really awesome!!! You can throw it together, and after kneading for 10 minutes, you just cut it in two, spray each ball of dough with cooking spray, put them in plastic bags and toss them in the freezer.

It is surprisingly forgiving, too - as for the flour ratios, you can bump up the whole wheat to 2 cups without adverse effect. And it seems like no matter how badly you treat it, the dough bakes up into a delicious, chewy, slightly crunchy crust that is about a zillion times better than frozen pizza or that pillsbury dough in a can. All I do is take one dough ball out the night before and let it thaw and rise in the fridge (I've also let it sit in the fridge for two days). Makes for a wonderfully quick and healthy weeknight dinner!

Anyway, today while I was just a minute into kneading, Lily started putting her hand in the flour and making a wonderful handprint collage. I decided that I was probably going to lose this battle, so I opted just to contain the mess and told her to keep it on the oven. She had fun, so, what the heck!

Colorado

Because I'd already uploaded these pictures to blogger, here are some moments from our trip to Colorado:

On the plane to Denver! Lily is a very good traveler.

Fun with a three-way mirror.

"Cowboy Face"

Breakfast!

SNOW!!!

Fun with the other kids on the trip. She and the blonde boy on the sled with her were inseparable! It was too cute.

Colorado Springs - so pretty!

But that dry weather induces lots of hair-static...

You don't see much of this in North Carolina!!!

I have to say I wouldn't mind getting stationed out at Fort Carson, Colorado. Maybe someday!!!

Don't say boo...

I sure am eating my words about spring being here - yesterday and today have been quite un-springlike. I won't complain too much - we do have sun today, and the mercury has held above 40 - but the wind is freezing! I've spent one winter in the south and I've already gone soft....

On another note: this morning, on our drive to school, I looked back at Lily and said "boo!!"

She said "Mommy, don't say boo to me." I asked her what I should say instead... She looked at me, smiled and said "You should say Love!"

I think that's a darn good idea - "love" is pretty much always the best thing to say!! I have a pretty smart kid :-)

About those last two months....

Yes. It's been a while. This is what happens when you give a perfectionist without much time on her hands a blog. One week goes by, and she's too busy, and then another week, and she feels bad about not updating. Then she feels like she has to catch up on everything before getting back to the present.

I've been putting it off because the longer I waited, the bigger job it became. Isn't that life? Moral of the story: it's ok if there are some gaps here and there - my friends and family who actually read this would rather hear about some of our activities than none at all! Duh.

So I'm picking up with one of the posts I started before the short hiatus. A few pictures from a random weekend in February -

Lily got an airplane to add to her vast collection of little cars.

Dave and I took Lily to a climbing gym. We snapped these two photos before she broke down crying and refused to wear the harness anymore:

It was really too bad, because it wasn't the heights that scared her - she just hated being hooked up to that rope. She is a great climber, so I hope to get her back there in a few months.

What else have we been up to since New Year's? In January, we took a big trip to Colorado with Dave, which was a lot of fun. Lily HATED skiing - similar to the climbing, she wasn't afraid of going downhill, she just didn't like wearing the skis and how she couldn't walk in them. But she had a blast with the other kids on the trip, and enjoyed playing in the snow.

I hit the slopes a little bit too - first time since Ski Club in middle school, which I recall with more than a little angst. But, skiing was fun!! Other than the time I ran smack into a giant pole in the middle of the hill (America's Funniest Home Videos-style), I did pretty well.

Grandma came to visit us for two weeks in February, which was fantastic (we are already looking forward to the next visit). I had a big trial, which went well. Just this week, I got orders for a new job this summer - I was supposed to switch jobs anyway, but this is a different one from what was originally planned - that will let me have a much better schedule for Lily. More on that later.

Here in North Carolina, spring is pretty much here, so we are getting outside more to enjoy the brief months between winter and Unbearably Hot and Humid.

I hope you're all doing well!

A Lovely New Year's Eve

Happy New Year, family and friends!!! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve, whether it was a champagne-feuled blast, or a quiet evening at home. For the last few years, I've had the latter type (Lily might have something to do with that!); this year, though - thanks to my parents hanging at home with Lily - I got to go out for a swanky evening with my BF!!

We went to Bistro de Novo - a jazz club in downtown Columbus that promised live jazz, a five-course tasting menu with wine pairings, and a champagne toast at midnight. It sure was fun getting all dressed up - I think we clean up pretty well :-)

There were a few disappointments for the evening, but Dave and I are pretty good at rolling with the punches. The live jazz band was more smooth jazz than big band jazz, but they threw in an Adele song as well as the obligatory Old Lang Syne, so all was well. The restaurant wasn't full at all, but that ended up being great - Dave and I don't get too many quiet, fancy nights out, so we really enjoyed the uninterrupted conversation. Finally, the waiter was more than a little clueless - he didn't understand the concept of the advertised wine pairings, so Dave and I just made up our own with some quick iPhone consultations - and he forgot to bring us the menu-listed oyster shooters. We made sure to request them:

Oyster shooting self-photography is tougher than it looks.... it took no fewer than 5 tries to get this gem of a shot (thank goodness the place was less than full, so no one had to endure our ridiculousness at close proximity). I won't point fingers at the person who had trouble attractively pretending to eat an oyster, but his name starts with a "D" and ends with "ave."

Despite our misgivings earlier that day about staying awake past 10pm (we are getting so old!), we made it to midnight:

And, of course, champagne!!

All in all, we both agreed that it was a fantastic New Year's Eve. I'm so glad I got to spend a special evening with Dave, since he's one of the best things that happened to me in 2011!!

I'll post soon about my resolutions for 2012. I wish you all a great start to the year!!!!!