A Year in Pictures

Here is a Lillian year in pictures. Sadly our camera was stolen and with it about 3-4 months worth of pictures so we dont have much between July and halloween.

Here is what a year will do.......

Lillian's 1st Birthday Party

Lillians 2nd Birthday Party

February Visiting Uncle Dave & Aunt Lisa. Tarryn still thought Lillian was a baby doll.


Our Favorite Easter Picture.

Visiting Uncle Gary & Aunt Mary---Lillian loved taking rides.

Visiting Great Grandma, we have it on good authority grandma loves this picture.

Her first encounter with an ice cream cone on Memorial Day.

Caitlin's Bridal Shower....one of my favorite pictures.

Garage sale weekend soon turned into cousin play time, look at that chub of ours!

Family Pictures @ 18months old taken by a friend, Lillian was sick so not alot of smiles.

4th July Picture at the garden before the parade.






Lillian loves her grandma's and greatgrandma's too!




LOTS of cousin, grandma, and great grandma fun this day for our little summer get together.




Lillian liked handing out & eating with 'an-nina' more than trick-or-treating. She said, "tick-a-teet & hawween"



First Snow Day Adventure. She didn't understand why the car wouldn't go but she still had fun.



Birthday Girl Smile.


"I want pink cake, I want pink cake" that's all I heard from the time we picked the cake up!

Cousin fun at the birthday party.

She sat on his lap, hugged him, responded back to his "I love you" and said, "merrkissmas".

Some Miscellaneous Pictures Throughout the Year:

This is her smile when she is really excited about something, I love this smile.

She absolutely loved these face paints I bought her, we havent done it since--what a mess!

Looks like Daddy, acts like......mom is claiming no responsibility!

I should've had a broken heart over this face, I was too busy laughing & taking pictures.

I am pretty positive she will kill me for this as a teenager!

Christmas (video)

I have the week of christmas and new year's off and am gleefully excited about that. Jared has the week of christmas off and then a 3 day week for New Year's. We plan to relax and get some things done, Jared is good at making sure we relax some and I am good at making sure we get some stuff done.

We had christmas dinner with Jared's side of the family the sunday before christmas. Unfortunately we had to leave early because we had our last Financial Peace University Class and we really wanted to go. Even more unfortunately the class was cancelled due to weather but somehow we didnt get the call so we did not discover this until we had driven from indiana to kalamazoo in the show and ice. Luckily, we were able to visit and eat the best ham either of us has ever had before we left.

Christmas Eve we had my side of the family over for snacks including perhaps a new family favorite buffalo wing dip and alot of sweets. Lillian and I started making things the week before and then really dove into preparations the saturday before. She likes to help me mix, measure, and dump---she even has her own apron to help! It takes a bit longer that way but we have fun. The trio of cousins had a blast, baby Emma was a well-behaved little cutie and we sent everyone home with all the goodies.

The other really fun thing right before christmas was our charity delivery. I went by myself since it was to a women's domestic assault shelter. Jared and I made a lean christmas budget so to stick to that I baked pumpking bread and made cinnamon honey butter for all those we would see over christmas and then we were going to exchange gifts with a $25 limit. Instead, we decided we would use that money plus the money I had already earmarked for a charity gift in honor of our family members and in lieu of gifts to them all, which isn't in our budget. After much deliberation we decided on the shelter, between the normal holiday stress and the economic times they have alot of needs to fill right now. It is a house where women and children stay when fleeing a bad situation. We decided I would go through all the stock items I have been getting with my couponing hobby to donate that and then use the money to buy gifts for the kids. Luckily, thanks to my friend who works at walgreens I had a 20% off coupon, that in combination with some last minute steep toy sales and a few other sneaky coupon tricks we were able to buy alot of gifts. Since they arent allowed to tell me who is there, interests of kids etc for fear of giving away their identity they told me an age range, 6 months to 8 years both sexes, and I tried to buy more gifts that were a bit smaller. We ended up with a box of hygiene items and diapers, a huge tote of food, and a huge tote of gifts composed of 14 smaller gift sets and about 10 stocking stuffers. The shelter seemed very happy and we were excited to shop for the kids, I took great joy in thinking of them christmas morning as well.

For the actual christmas day Lillian started out by giving us the gift of sleep, she slept in until 9:30 which is unprecedented. We are a bit off schedule this week having been off all week but she didnt go to bed that late so it was a nice surprise. We started out the morning by staying in bed and opening stockings. I think she would have been content with that she got a toy phone, a new bath toy, a bath fizzy ball, a couple mini christmas books and a small bag of peanuts and one with raisins, and a 'santa claus apple'. Shhh she doesnt know about christmas candy yet and she was very excited since she loves peanuts, raisins, and apples. She wanted to eat her santa claus apple right away. I had started a pre-prepared casserole off cooking after waking and it was done about that time so we had breakfast in bed which was nice and relaxing. I think I will include recipe so that I dont forget, since we really liked it, I think perhaps it will be our new christmas tradition breakfast.

dozen eggs
large bag hash brown potatoes
large bag shredded cheese of your choice
small container cottage cheese or ricotta would work well too
1 pound sage sausaage
1 small onion

I put the potatoes in a sprayed 9x13 then added garlic powder, pepper, and onion salt to taste and mixed it in the potatoes, then I added most of a bag of 4 cheese mexican shredded cheese and I pushed the mixture into the pan like you would for a crust including the sides. I pre-baked the shell in the oven at 300 degrees until it was crispy and brown. I sauteed the diced onion and the pound of sausage. I took a dozen eggs, added milk at a bit less than the amount for scrambled (I might try omitting milk next year or adding even less), then I mixed in a small container of cottage cheese, the rest of the package of cheese not used on the crust, and the sausage/onion mixture. I kept both the crust and the egg mixture overnight and the next morning I just poured the egg in the crust and baked at 350 degrees until the center was firm.

As mentioned Lillian didnt seem all fired up to open the presents until we mentioned they were there, from santa for her and that she could open them---then she was interested. We let her open a bunch of small presents first, single books, single puzzles etc and she kept putting them down and saying 'more'. By the time christmas rolled around she had opened presents for 3 different birthdays, a christmas party, and a christmas eve party so she really likes opening them now. I decided to let her open one of her food set presents so as to see if she would be more interested in it or if she just wanted to rip open all the presents. After she got some of her food set presents she had no interest in opening the rest of the gifts. We eventually got her to open them and she was very thrilled with the baby and baby bed.

After being on the go so much we were happy to stay home with just the three of us for a smallish dinner. I always say it will be really small but somehow it was still too much. I did however stumble upon a bread pudding recipe that we liked enough to keep making, since its Jared's favorite dessert I was on the hunt for a winner and with some modifications it will be.

Lillian got a visit from her 'granma nina' as she calls my mom and got yet another gift she enjoyed in the afternon plus a roll of quarters for her new favorite activity--feeding her bank. She has at least 35 dollars in there already! Jared said maybe he should get a piggy bank so people will give him money too!

Christmas Morning Highlights:

video soon to follow

Christmas Letter

These letters and cards reach you, hopefully just in time for a greeting of the New Year. Somehow life intervened and we got behind, we figured cards sent in the spirit of the New Year are better than a pile of Christmas cards that never got sent. So, we find ourselves finishing these up the day after Christmas. It gives us the chance to say that we hope you had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you an even better 2009. For us, 2008 has been full of activity, fun, and changes.

Last year for Christmas I got Jared tickets to a live show put on by Dave Ramsey, an entertaining financial guru that he liked. That show put a spin on our year and started us off in a whole new direction. We have changed our perspective on finances and the role they play in our priorities, marriage, and our future. We are very happy with our new outlook and are working feverishly to eliminate our singular remaining student loan debt.

The great joy in our life this year has been watching Lillian grow and develop from a baby into a toddler. We started the year with a one year old that we were still calling our baby; she could say a few words and walk around a bit. We have watched her progress to a running, climbing, jumping, and non-stop talking toddler. She is a very active, independent, sweet, and funny little girl. We have been trying to do more with our family blog lately and hope to add more videos and photos soon. If you are interested, you can visit: "you're already here"

There were many highlights to our year. Having our family from Florida come up twice and attending Grandma Horvath’s 95th birthday party were definitely made the list. We were pleased to host a summer get together, a small family thanksgiving, and a Christmas Eve gathering at our house. We were overjoyed when, on Jared’s birthday, we got the chance to welcome Emma Bell, a new baby niece, into the family. After some rough spots earlier in the year for Nicole everyone is finishing out the year in great health.

In the beginning of the year we were anticipating a job loss when Jared’s company lost their contract with Pfizer. However it worked out well for us when he got a retention bonus for finishing his original position and was promoted to team leader of a new group---few of us understand what this job entails either J. Mid way through the year we feared another job loss when Nicole had to re-interview for her position. Again, we were fortunate and everything worked out, re-confirming and expanding her role in her group.

We hope to see or hear from all of you soon.
Lots of love from Us: Jared, Nicole, and Lillian

Santa Claus Here We Come

We have had the worst luck trying to see santa this year. Being this is the first year she understands I had my heart set on her going....ok ok she did two but I really wanted that pictures! After getting wrong dates or times from TWO stores prior and then the mall telling me the wrong hours we finally made it to the north pole....errr the Mall.

It broke my heart when she was sobbing and crying real tears after I got her all excited to see him the first time and then he wasn't there! Unfortunately, Jared had to repair the car and it took longer than expected so he couldn't go but we had promised so mom braved the crowded mall the day before xmas eve to see santa. We are having a christmas eve party plus there was NO way we were waiting through the crowds on Christmas eve. Last year santa had helpers that handed out pagers and you could go back when they were ready for you, this year they had the bank teller style lines set up and you waited and waited and waited. I think during that wait Lillian got to witness every bad behavior possible from a child (and me from the parents), luckily despite it being late she did remarkably well. Mental note do NOT to wait... repeat NOT wait....repeat DO NOT WAIT until the last minute again.

Anyway it was a wonderful santa visit, on the way I still wasn't sure if we were picking up Jared so I kept telling her we had to go to uncle keith's house for a minute and she kept saying "No UncKeith house, I wanna go santa house". It was really cute. I don't know where she got the house part so I decided why fight it and just told her the mall was his house---for this year that will work. I was actually very pleased with the santa, he had a real beard, great skin tone, and was the right weight all on his own, he might have had some padding or makeup on but I couldn't tell. After a brief moment of hesitation she was wanted to sit on his lap. She smiled, hugged him when he asked for it, he told her he loved her and she said it back which was so cute, then she told him bye-bye. He gave her a coloring book which she was really excited about, evidentially because it was from Santa, because she is not a fan of the ones we have at home. She talked about him for the rest of the evening and wanted to know where he went. I will try to post the pictures soon.

Presents, Presents, More Presents

Well, I certainly think Lillian is getting spoiled despite our best efforts to have a minimalist christmas. Last weekend was her birthday party with gifts, yesterday the daycare gave her her birthday gifts, today daycare had their Christmas party and got presents, tomorrow is Lillian's actual birthday so she will get presents from two grandmas and us, then sunday great grandma is watching her and has a present for her, then we are on to christmas eve when I will let her and her cousins open a small gift, then on to christmas day with more gifts! Oh and dont forget all the stickers and prizes for going potty. If anything she will at least be well versed in ripping them open, daycare said she was very excited to rip her gift open today---after the practice from her birthday and yesterday I think she knew what those wrapped packages meant!

Daycare is very sweet she made Jared and I goodies and a cheeseball and we got two little christmas picture holders. Lillian got a dora book with an attached wipe board and a pink butterfly barbie she just had to sleep with last night, today she got an electronic baby that cries and squirms and drinks bottles that is very cute and will go very well with the bassinet we are giving her for christmas. All of the daycare kids/families also got these funny looking face carvings made from a coconut that they brought back from hawaii this year and earlier this year we all got chocolate covered toffee macadamia nuts from hawaii that were FABULOUS and the kids all also got gifts from hawaii when they got back. Sharon and her husband Keith really consider the kids to be their extended grandkids and care for them alot, I think she is really bummed that Lillian wont be there for two weeks--she practically begged me to bring her by for a day or so with no pay!

What Lillian REALLY wants for christmas

I saw this idea on a parenting board I frequent and thuoght it was really cute.




What Lillian would REALLY like for Christmas:

Unlimited access to EVERYONE's cellphone (or any other electronic device)

For wiggles and elmo to quit 'sleeping' whenever she wants to watch them
*she watches these at daycare but mommy isnt a big fan of TV so they are almost always
'sleeping' not sure how much longer that will fly

For the word 'AGAIN' to always work whether its spinning in a chair or singing
*this is her new thing when we are doing something fun she yells 'again'

For baby Ty to quit crying and disappear all together
*a new 8 month old at daycare that cries ALL the time, I have been told she really stays
clear of him except rare times he isnt crying or fussing, she now tells me "baby Ty wah
wah wah, stop baby Ty, shhhhh"

For Daddy to always play funny videos on computer for her
*daddy thought to play her an elmo video on you tube one day and now he is a never
ending cycle of funny video playing requests

Unlimited reign over the dish cabinets and pantry

For the doggies to 'listen' 'come' and 'stop'
*she loves her doggies and is just now to the stage where she really wants them to listen

For Dora to be real (she loves her Dora books and asks to sleep with them regularly)

The right to splash in the bath tub including the whole bathroom and mommy
*she doesn't get why I dont enjoy getting wet with her

To have the following foods for meals every day: blueberries, pancakes, brocolli, meat, chocolate, and dora chicken noodle soup

To be able to go 'bye-bye' without a car seat

To go shopping EVERY day
*she asks to go literally every day at least once or any time we are in the car, she is also a
big fan of coupons and wants to help with them, she cries when we dont

Two Year Mark

Lillian is quickly approaching the two year mark. It's hard to believe she has been a part of our lives for only two years yet those two years seem to have flown by at lightning speed.


She has just recently hit a growth spurt and seems to have gained some inches. Her 18month once piece pajamas are now too short though the rest of the 18month clothes still seem to fit better than most of the 24 month or 2T clothing. Our scale said 24.5 lbs the other day, the scale is less then reliable so I am eager to see how much she weighs at the doctors office. Her hair is one thing that just keeps growing and growing, when its wet you can really see how long it is getting, down below her shoulder blades.


Just today she hit a new milestone--one that I would have rather seen delayed, she asked "why" a number of time--and so it starts. Just an update, so far, it was just that one day which was about 9 days before her 2nd birthday and I haven't heard it since--knock on wood.


Let's see, some of her favorite things: bluberries is probably her favorite food overall---unless you count chocolate, she also loves: meat, brocolli, and macaroni. The only things I can think of that she doesn't care for are: rice noodles which are asian noodle that is very very thin (its a consistency thing), cantaloupe is an off/on thing, coconut which again I believe is due to the strands, and she isnt a big fan of cheese.


She absolutely loves Dora, Elmo, and the 'wiggles' much to my dismay. I dont mind sesame street and the wiggles arent bad sicne they get her to dance alot. If it were up to me she wouldnt watch tv ever but daycare watches it and then well I am coming to realize I cant keep her in a bubble or a bomb shelter for the rest of her life so it is enevitable. We do try to not overdo the commercialization thing.


She talks---alot. She is extremely advanced in talking from what others have told me, of course being our first two year old I didnt really know but it does seem she talks much more than other kids her age. According to all the milestone charts she is meeting verbal milestones for a 3 year old including stringing together 5 words and more to make sentences, putting lots short sentences together, being able to understand the majority of what she says, others being able to understand her etc. Along with the talking is her opinions, now that they are understandable boy does she have alot of them!


The other day I said do you want a banana or an apple, she said "I want pineapple". hmmm now that isnt on the menu and of course I didnt have any but she was very insistent about wanting pineapple.


Other milestone type things, she is not able to really dress or undress herself yet, she has put her pants on by herself maybe once and occasionally can get her clothes off but unfortunately she takes after her mom and gets frustrated when she cant do something right away and then wants help. The things she has figured out to do like take off her shoes and hat and coat she doesnt want ANY help with--at all.


She can run but not jump, she thinks she can jump but one leg remains firmly planted on the ground. It is really cute she will say, "I jump, watch" and she really tries.


She is very sweet if you tell her your head hurts she will say "I kiss Daddy's head" and "Daddy all better?". She also likes to rub peoples back which we love.

She likes to sing, she is very good at singing ring around the rosies but her version goes like this " ring around rosies pocket full rosies ashes ashes ashes ashes ashes we all fall down" with a variable number of ashes, sometimes I think she gets stuck on repeat at that point and others its just the normal two. She also sings along pretty well with the ABC's, twinkle twinkle, and patty cake. She loves the song 1,2 buckle my shoe and we just recently started singing that one. Her version so far she only has "1,2 buckshoe 3 buckshoe" it's cute. She also counts, normally it goes 12345789, she doesnt like 6 for some reason and she still jumbles it sometimes but generally gets the 1-5 right.

Potty Training

Lillian is going to be two in a week and she is down to only wearing a diaper when she is sleeping or riding in the car. I dont think she has had an accident all week, at least not in a few days. She does very good and has completely forgotten about or lost interest in getting prizes/stickers. We also dont have to ask her anymore if she needs to go, she tells us in plenty of time now.

It started out we just had a potty chair in our bathrooms and sometimes she would sit on it. Then about 19 months or so her interest increased and she started going on the potty sometimes. I went to the dollar store and got her a bunch of small toys, pens, markers etc and put them in buckets and if she went on potty she got a prize. She was doing pretty good for a while going up to 4-5 times a day but then she lost interest, we tried to go with what she was feeling but would still ask her if she wanted to go, mention prizes, etc.

The week before thanksgiving something 'clicked' and she started going on potty at night time after getting home from daycare really well. I printed off a potty sheet and got some stickers and decided to 'ramp up' during holiday. The 4 days off for thanksgiving she did really well and the two days we were home all day she only had a couple accidents. We started putting her in underwear all the time and talked to daycare who was more than willing to accomodate us. The week after thanksgiving she started going potty at daycare and at home, she has only had 2 accidents at daycare in 2 weeks and at home she has only had a few as well.

We are soo excited to almost be done with diapers, we are down to just 2-4 per day. We put one on at night. She is waking up and going on the potty in the morning but there is still generally some in her diaper. Then she gets one on for traveling to daycare, one for nap at daycare, and sometimes one for traveling home from daycare. Sometimes we just put plastic pants over her panties for travel.

She definately 'gets' it now. Yesterday morning Jared went to put a diaper on her to get her ready to go to daycare and she said, "no diaper, baby diapers, I big girl, baby Ty (daycare) diapers--baby wah wah". She always says babies say wah wah because of a song her toy has on it that says that and then the baby at her daycaer who is new cried constantly. Yes, she does talk in that long of sentences, she puts 4-6 word sentences together routinely or when using short ones put multiples together like above.

Hopefully, I will be donating those stacks of diapers in the closet that I thought I needed to stock up on!

This and That

Wow, almost 3 months with no post. Next year I think I will try to use this a bit more.

We are getting ready for Lillian's 2nd birthday party tomorrow, a week before her actual birthday to try and save some insanity from the overcrowded holiday weekends.

Lillian is getting so big, she is really starting to thin out and her talking is out of this world. She is a blast right now. I know there is terrible 2's and everythign but the 2-3 range has always been my favorite---of course that was for other people's kids lets see if that holds true for our own! She has definately developed strong opinions of her own lately so I think its starting.

Jared is very busy with work lately, lots of overtime and a few side jobs for digital rescue as well.

I have been busy deciding whether I want to enroll in a phase 3 clinical trial for a new cystic fibrosis drug, called defusonol, more to come on that later.

This year for christmas we decided to keep it small. We had Jared's family over for thanksgiving, we will have some of mine over for christmas eve visit and then we will stay home and have a small dinner on christmas day. We also decided to spend a small amount on Lillian for christmas, she already has so much and then to spend the rest of the money we budgeted to spend on each other for some families in need. More to come on this as well.

Blog Expansion & a Man Named DAVE!

I think I have decided to expand this blog to make it a part of our everyday life instead of just posts about creating and then following our family life. I dont find myself getting over here to update enough and I have been thinking about starting a separate blog for my CF related items but I decided to instead just roll everything into one.

First on my list perhaps should be a mention of the amazing change we have had in our lives this year. In January we attended a 'live event' for Dave Ramsey. www.daveramsey.com I bought these tickets for Jared as a christmas present because he liked listening to Dave on the radio but we were in no way following his principles. Perhaps it was having Lillian that spurred me to want to be more financially secure. I also reckognized my need to be more knowledgeable regarding our finances and be involved all the time not just when I wanted something or was upset over something).

We were impressed. We decided to buy a kit that includes CD's of financial lessons and lifetime membership to attend classes as well as books etc. These are not typical financial lessons, they are interesting, fun, easy to understand. They are 13 1 hour CD's which the counterpart of the 13 one hour DVD's are the base for the classes.

We started Dave's Plan in February which basic premise is get out of debt adn dont go back in for any reason. We couldnt be more pleased. From Feb1-current we have paid off over $30,000 in debt leaving us with just our last student loan. We plan to be debt free in the spring of 2010 if not sooner. I would HIGHLY encourage everyone to click on the icon on the right hand side of my blog for a financial reality check.

If you are interested in more just let us know, both Jared and I LOVE LOVE LOVE to talk about this. We are currently attending classes that will end the day after Lillians birthday. Perhaps next year we will become small group leaders. We feel THAT passionately about this.

PS you don thave to buy a kit, if you want a free place to start Dave has tons info on his website and the book I would recommend you start with is Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

Lillian's World

Just a quick drive by post of some Lillian cuteness after having past 5 days off with her.

She is getting good at puzzles, the shapes she has almost mastered, including the colors of some of the pieces. The animals seem to be a bit harder for her. I didnt know it but the animal puzzle I got her has a picture of what the animal 'makes' under it like bacon, milk, etc --kinda weird (good thing we arent vegan eh?).

She also is in LOVE LOVE LOVE with elmo. The only real time we ever let her watch is when she was sick and that was while I was holding her, we have only used it as a 'babysitter' when she was small a couple times, I think she watched two baby einstein videos. Of course we watch too much tv, at least in my opinion (that opinion is NOT shared by my darling husband). The daycare has tv on in the morning and afternoon for the older kids that get on and off the bus since that is what they like but now that it is summer I think its a bit more prevalent. Lillian was saying ello for a couple weeks before we realized it was ELMO (thanks to uncle Jason), so to test it out we brought up a sesame street on screen and she went BEZERK ELLO ELLO ELLO LA LA LA. Now we have some elmo toys she loves, I rotate her toys and they happened to be 'out' of rotation, now that they are out she just LOVES them and yesterday she started insisting on taking her hard chicken dance elmo to BED with her LOL! She asks to watch elmo all the time (I am sure the 'he's sleeping trick' wont last much longer). I already know I am fighting a loosing battle with the TV and computer.

Besides Elmo, some of her favorite things are sliding, splashing in her kiddie pool (but not actually sitting in it), coloring is BIG right now, she absolutely adores phones and will beg for your 'hello', she just recently is into a stuffed singing animal that has lights on its chest and says different phrases and sings--she will sing the 'itsy bitsy spider along with it' and talk back to it. She also loves bubbles but they are so messy I broke down and got her a bubble gun so all she has to do is pull the trigger, we will see how that one goes.

She can say all her animal noises, including the bunny for which she tries to move her nose and the fish which she does really cute. She actually has a couple of her colors down to the point of getting them right more often than not, of course her default answer is 'pink' if she doenst know. She counts to three but now her new favorite number is 9 and she often just repeats 2, 9, 2,9 etc--it's cute. She still likes taking wagon and 'beep beep' (little car) rides but she prefers to be doing the walking now and gets impatient after a block or two.

She is such a hoot right now. For some time now if you act like you are sleeping she will wake you up by yelling your name, well now when we 'wake up' she cocks her head over to the side, leaves her eyese WIDE open and goes "shoo, shoo, shoooo" like she is sleeping, she tries not to smile but she always does and it is SOOOO cute, of course then she refuses to be 'woke up' without a full minute of saying her name and tickling--its adorable!

A couple things she JUST started doing is if you want something, like say a kiss and she cant be 'bothered' she will smile and close her eyes like shes making you go away, then she laughs! She also just started saying 'hug' and runs up and gives you a big hug and then says 'luvu mommy' spontaneously---I must admit that melts my heart!

thats all for now, pictures soon!

Daddy Stranger

Jared shaved his facial hair all off over the weekend and when he came out of the bathroom Lillian said, "hi" and waved--just like she does to a stranger. Jared started talking and then Lillian said, "Daddy" and ran over to him. Too funny. She has never seen him without his goatee so we dont think she reckognized him. Luckily she was not scared as I have heard of other toddlers being of a parent with an appearance change. We kept this in mind when I cut a foot+ off my hair and she went and watched so there was no sudden change to adjust to.

Talking Explosion & 18mo checkup

Well Lillian is 19months 1 week and its as if her talking has EXPLODED. I did know there was a point at which this happens but its usually not this young and if this isnt the 'explosion' then MAN we are in for it when it is. I am going to try to update list of words, I'm not sure I can even remember everything now though.



What is more amazing than the words themselves is how she is putting them together. She is routinely using 2-3 words now, yesterday when she woke up (she fell asleep right before we were supposed to go on a walk) and said, "hi daddy, Iwanna wak". Or on her baby monitor if she is figthing sleep I can hear her saying, "nap alllldunnnnn, up, up Iwan up". It is amazing.



We just had her 18month pediatrician appointment and she told the doctor 'thank you' when she gave her something and the ped was shocked and said, "Hey, you arent supposed to be putting 2 words together yet" Jared and I told her that was 'nothing' (she had been doing that at her one year appointment which took place at 13months though it wasnt as clear then it sounded like teetu) and a few things she says and does now and the doctor was very pleased and said she had exceeded her verbal 2 year milestones and was doing excellent.



Her appointment all went well. She got 2 shots so hopefully she is not too crabby today from that. She is under 25% for her weight, under 50% for her height and her head still remains ~90% range.


apple
water
chip
pop
cookie
pretzel
cheerio

blueberry --sounds funny but definately can tell what it is

pickle which sounds like peeeekel

cereal

meat

num num (any other food she wants)
eat
food
all done
all gone
thank you
please (sounds just like cheese and is SO cute)

sorry
hot
cold
pretty
good girl
go
stop
bye bye

no
hi
brush (as in teeth)
nah-night

nap
love you (lowluuu is how it comes out)
where
whatisit (all one word thing she says inquisitively of everything)
choo choo (train)
truck

airplane (apey)
beep beep (car)
wagon

walk
ball
bubbles
book
bike
doggie
kittie

pig

baby
wanna
dont wanna
coat
shoes

socks
hair

buttons
eye
nose
mouth
ear
mommy
daddy
Haley
Katie (2 girls at daycare she LOVES)

sachi
nala (her favorite of our two dogs)

18 months

Where has the time gone? Could she really be 1.5 years old? I guess so, a bit older actually she is 1.5 years + 1 week! WOW

Before having kids I always preferred the older toddlers to the babies but then when we had Lillian of course I thought the baby stage was wonderful but the older she gets and the more her personality develops the more fun it gets for both Jared and I. I wonder at what stage I will think ok the last stage was my favorite, because so far it just gets better (not to say there arent times of pre-mobility)---I am sure that time will come before if not by the teen years!

We have a lot of fun here doing nothing. Meaning, we can have fun just sitting there interacting with Lillian, she cracks us up and we cherish her impish grins, devious laughs, and huge smiles. As Jared says, she may look like him but she acts like me! So yes, there is a bit of, a BIG bit of independence and a bit of attitude mixed in. She also talks very well so it is easy to understand most of what she wants but should you not understand--watch out, she gets frustrated and lets you know it....hmm could this be my child?

Lets see she walks, runs (slowly with stumbling still if she gets too fast), she tries to jump but its more bobbing up and down. She can throw a ball but not too easily, she tends to have trouble releasing it. She is good at stairs both holding hands and not though that scares me still but she is getting to where she doesnt want help (imagine that).

She likes to color and does pretty well with teh different colored markers and pens with scribbling. She loves her books and will request them often, she lets you read them but if tired often slams them shut after 2 pages stating, 'all done'. She really loves to sit on teh floor and turn pages and commentate, she does this with my magazines as well and points out every baby, dog, and shoe she can find. Her favorite books are the farm peek a boo (thanks grandma Becky) and baby colors book). She can blow bubbles which she loves but she still likes to try and lick the soap and make faces.

She likes to feed herself, she is ok with teh utensils but mostly with forks she just stabs everything into oblivion without alot of actual food consumption. She is pretty good with the spoons but still often opts for her hands. She can drink from a straw but she still tries to tip cups up AND use the straw which you can imagine doesnt work well as she is constantly telling me its, 'all gone' when it is the least bit empty. She knows when she is going to poop and will tell us she has done so but she is NOT a fan of sitting on potty chair for real, only with her clothes on for about 10 seconds if mommy or daddy are on the big pottie. She is good at brushing her teeth and will do it 10 times a day if you let her.

We do alot of playing outside, she has a sand box and a plastic play house with a slide (which she prefers to climb up the slide and then go down rather than use the stairs), she uses the play house a bit now. The other day she decided she likes to carry sand in a cup to a bucket she leaves in play house to fill it with sand, then once it has sand in it she plays with it in the house--its very industrious and keeps her busy. We have a little sprinkler that is a flower pot and every once in a while a gopher pops up and sprays you with a water gun---she HATES the gopher as its right at shoulder level for her and gets her in the face. Water in general is not a big love of hers, she will splash in it, stand in it, but no real sitting down or laying down yet this summer and she doesnt like water in her face. I am trying to play more in the water with her as I dont want her being afraid of it.

The place where she really excels is TALKING, go figure. She is a big talker and catches on and repeats things very well. She comes up with new words so often it surprises both Jared and I as well as daycare. Like when she started saying, "I burp" after doing so---out of the blue or requesting 'cookie' loudly when daycare lady made them for afternoon snack (note she woke up the next morning requesting these as well, those must have been SOME cookies, hmm another sweet tooth in our family, go figure). Some of my other favorites she surprised us with are "I want down" and "Bye bye kids" the most recent and VERY surprising one was when Jared was with her upstairs and he was asking her where mommy was, he brought her down stairs and said find mommy, I think shes in teh kitchen adn Lillian replied, "where is she" clear as day, to both our shock, as if she has been saying sentences her whole life. She is starting to string 2-3 and occasionally 4 words together, like when she told me, "I wanna eat balls momma" (this surprised me, I twirled around to find she had finished her grapes and was pointing at the fridge wanting more--this was about a month ago) her Iwanna are an all one word type thing she says for most everything and she does an 'Idonwanna' as well with a head shake --just for added clarity apparently.

Lets see if I can get a semi-complete list of words that she routinely initiates on her own (she can copy tons more), some things she says but not routinely I havent put in yet.

1. apple
2. water
3. chip
4. pop
5. cookie
6. pretzel
7. cheerio
8. num num (any other food she wants)
9. eat
10. food
11. all done
12. all gone
13. thank you
14. please (sounds just like cheese and is SO cute)
15. hot
16. cold
17. pretty
18. good girl
19. go
20. stop
21. bye bye
22. hi
23. brush (as in teeth)
24. nah-night
25. love you (lowlo is how it comes out)
26. where
27. whatisit (all one word thing she says inquisitively of everything)
28. choo choo (train)
29. truck
30. beep beep (car)
31. wagon
32. ball
33. bubbles
34. book
35. bike
36. doggie
37. kittie
38. baby
39. no
40. wanna
41. dont wanna
42. coat
43. shoes
44. hair
45. eye
46. nose
47. mouth
48. ear
49. mommy
50. daddy
51. Haley
52. Katie (2 girls at daycare she LOVES)
53. sachi
54. nala (her favorite of our two dogs)

Perfect Day

Memorial Day (also our anniversary weekend) was just a perfect family time. During the weekend we got a number of items accomplished around the house which is always good since we are forever in the middle of a project. Saturday one of the projects was to build a bon fire pit in the back yard, just a small one, so it was off to home depot. We managed to build a small fire ring at the back of our cement patio slab ie old garage's driveway.

Saturday Jared and I went to the movies and saw iron man which we both really liked. Afterward it was very nice to be able to light a fire at night and we had aunt Anita and grandma Tanya who had just finished babysitting stay over, we had pizza, a small bonfire and we roasted marshmallows and made smores-yummo! I felt like a kid again. Lillian was not sure what the fire was all about and didnt like being close enough to it to feel the warmth (thankfully), she kept saying, "ot, ot" and "owwiee" after I told her it was very hot, it would burn her and give her an owie.

For memorial day we went down to the parade in the morning, a very small parade but the good part of that is it didnt get old for Lillian, she got a stuffed animal and luckily no candy. After a morning nap we walked to scidmore park and had a picnic, then we got to see all the animals and feed them which Lillian liked but I got a bit scared when a goat got a little too vigorous with trying to obtain my feeding cone. We learned Lillian can definately say bird (they have a small animal barn as well) and she knows the difference between that and a big bird which for her are called ducks---not matter if its a geese or peacock.

After walking back we were hot and tired but we decided to go off to ice cream shop. Later in the evening we relaxed, made some steaks on the grill and Lillian went to bed early, worn out from all her events of the day. Jared and I decided to light a fire again, it is amazing how relaxing we find it to just sit out in the yard and watch the fire (or for Jared to play with the fire). I may have to get a mask as the smoke gets to me but overall very enjoyable. We hope it will be fun in July when we Jason & Tammi and hopefully Dave & Lisa's crews over.

All in all I would rate the long weekend a 10!

Here, as always are some pictures of Lillian enjoying herself. Notice on the swing you can already see how tired she is, she was also not feeling 100% that day due to some teething issues. She REALLY enjoyed the ice cream though and didnt seem to mind being tired.

Lillian's World

I filled this post in with a bunch of 'firsts' then was going to fill in the details later and never did, now I will fill in what I can remmeber.

abc's: We started singing the abc song while we brushed our teeth, then we noticed Lillian trying to sing along with the rhythm. Then when she decided that she loved to brush her teeth she would tell us she wanted to do so by reaching for the bathroom counter and saying a, b, b, b, b, e, b and smiling, she sang right in the correct rhythm too. Later on we would sing the ABC's all the time for her and she would say l, lalala(moving her tongue all around) P it was regrettably not caught on video.

first time sliding: we took her to get ice cream and they have a litttle kiddie center at ritters with a slide so Jared got on and held her and slid down, he said her little belly tightened up and while going down the look on her face was not the best but once down she smiled and ran around to the stairs again and again.



frustration yelling: there was about a little less than a month where she was not talking really well enough to describe what she wanted so she would 'scream' at us, I am VERY glad that was a short stage.



first butt spanking: we have a neighbor boy who is 4 and darts for the road every chance he gets and he is never reprimanded, I have seen the child almost get hit more times than I can count--it scares me to death. So, I decided that was one thing that a smack on the butt was worth. Lillian was about 14 months old when I was trying to teach her 'the line' which at our house is the sidewalk. She continued to run across towards the road so after telling her 'no' and talking to her I smacked her butt (I doubt she could even feel it with the diaper and how easy I did it) well instead of it hurting her feelings and having the desired effect she continued to stare me down and do it again, we did this 4 times and each time she looked more resolute in her decision. Finally, mommy won and since then she doesnt dart for the road, I figured great, I look like I am out here beating my toddler but oh well she wont get hit by a car. Of course I felt horrible spanking her since I am not a huge fan of it, ironically I did it before Jared did and he is very pro-spanking---he was miffed and let me know that 'spanking' was supposed to be his milestone!


keys bye bye: early on Lillian loved going bye-bye and she learned that if she heard the keys that meant someone was going somewhere--whether or not she was invited she would yell BYE BYE the minute she heard them move, often it was jsut Jared putting his keys away but she would still yell it and then be disapointed when we didnt go outside.

Easter

Good friday we put her in a cute little dress for daycare and they got little easter treat bags and cupcakes at daycare. Sharon also had a little easter egg hunt for them but we picked up Lillian a bit early on account of the blizzard bearing down on us.

Saturday night we had aunt Anita and grandma Tanya over for some easter egg decorating. Lillian thought it was great fun to paint the eggs AND her mouth. Luckily all the dye is of course safe and came right off.

We had a low key easter; we were all tired out so we had dinner for just the three of us. I bought candy and made an easter basket with the thought of a nice picture opportunity and Jared and I being able to enjoy some of our favorite candy (notice nowhere in there was I planning on her getting candy).

Since the weather was so horrid (6-8inches new snow) I put jelly beans in some of the plastic eggs and put them all around the living room for her to find. She had fun doing that, she didnt want to let go of the eggs once she found them but once we showed her there were more she was willing to relinquish the eggs in hand and dash off to the newly spotted ones. Once she was all done finding the eggs there was a big pile of them in the living room, Jared started opening them and emptying the jelly beans into a pile. This is where it gets interesting. Lillian was interested in the beans, believing they were toys I think so she grabbed two big fistfulls, she was continually trying to get more into her little hands so she would reach out to grab two more and drop three, reach out to get a pile more picking up 4 and dropping two...you get the idea. It was all very cute. Then she looked at us and shoved them into her mouth, as many as she could---which was ALOT. We are pretty amused at this point and Jared convinces me she should be fine so we let her eat them. She starts trying to chew but her mouth is so full she cant really do more than move them around a bit, then all the candy colored sugary saliva starts running out her mouth, down her chin, onto her pajama's, all the while she is clearly delighted and trying to shove more beans into her mouth! We let her have her two fistfulls then we called it good and quickly hid all the other candy.

By the time the egg hunt was over it was getting fairly late and there was no time for a nap before church, not that the sugar sassy child was going to think of taking a nap anyway. So we got ready and dressed Lillian in her adorable dress from grandma Becky and grandpa Jared. She was a big hit at the church daycare and one ladies was telling us how she was her favorite (we always love hearing that). There were so many kids I dont know how they corralled them all, they called in some of the older kids who's parents were working to help. There was a nice service, standing room only. Finally, on the way home she gave up the fight and rested after her exciting day.

A day in the life of Lillian

Lillian seems to be at a stage where everything is so amazing to her, she is starting to really be able to communicate well and is learning how to interact with her environment and get results. She is learning how things work and can follow commands. This is a really cool time. Every day I am amazed by something new and I want to jot a few down so I never forget. I wish I was better with the video camera.

One thing we were both amazed by is we were in the spare bedroom and there was a tub of moisturizer that belongs in my bathroom drawer (they cant have latches so I keep safe things in there but she can reach if she stands on her tippie toes and fishes her hand around in there), I had earlier opened the bathroom drawer and found a dirty balled up sock of Jared's in there---I guess she decided to swap (she loves getting into dirty clothes and carrying around random items). So we were all three in the spare bedroom and I said, "Lillian this is mommy's will you put it back in the drawer" she picked it up, left the room walked down hall and into the bathroom, then I heard the drawer open and the tub made a loud noise as it fell to the bottom of the drawer. I was amazed, Jared and I looked at each other with our mouths open. She is so smart, she 'gets' so much of what we say, more than we even realize--obviously. Since then I have repeated this in similar scenarios and she can pick things up, throw them away, put them back etc, its amazing to me. She has even picked up dishes she was playing with or that she 'found' and took them to the trash can, threw them in and said "ah don". Now I look in the trash before it gets tied up!

What a devilish grin, eh?

She is also barking like a dog these days. If you say, "Lillian what does a doggie say" she will say "uff uff". However, if you say what does a cow, cat, or any other animal say you will get the same answer. Recently Jared has started playing the animal sounds game with her on the way home from daycare/work he will tell her cows say moo and then she will proceed to bark louder and more adamantly each time, as if she is saying, "NO! uff uff DAD!!" It is all very cute.

She loves feeding the dogs as well (dogs love it, mommy hates it)

Babies are big on her radar right now. She loves pictures of babies and looking at other kids. She will flip through a magazine and point out every picture of every child that is under say 5-6 and call them a baby, if she comes across a baby large enough she will point out there eyes, ears, nose etc to you as well (though she still calls all of them eyes 99% of the time).

Some of her favorite things (besides dogs):

Fruit: she's absolutely in love with grapes right now and will eat a TON of them

Hot Tea (anything in a coffee cup): she always wants whats in our cups so I made the mistake of letting her try it thinking she would hate it, wrong, now she cries wanting it or Daddy's coffee

Her Sally the spinning alphabet spider which she bangs away on in the car

Driving around town with her window down so she can see

Saying "ha" (hi) and waving to random people in meijer

telling you "bye-bye" and blowing kisses even if she is just leaving the room

saying "all done" when she doesnt want any more to eat and dumping the bowl just so she can say all done

smacking her own head with whatever random object she has in her hand and saying "oww" and laughing and making you laugh

bumping head to head with Daddy and laughing hysterically (mommy doesnt participate in this game)

laying in her crib when she should be napping (as she is right now) and saying all sorts of random babblings with real words and barking intertwined

watching the kids get on the school bus at daycare and waving like mad while blowing them kisses (evidentially the other kids on the school bus are now waving at her as well)

Her favorite thing to carry around the house is clothing, preferrably a sock or something with a zipper, if she has 'found it' then it's even better. Her favorite hobby is getting into anything she is not supposed to. She LOVES to try and walk in her daddy's shoes, she will stand with her shoes on in both of his shoes and try to walk, when it wont work she will take one of her feet out and 'walk' around the house with her foot in one of his shoes, sliding it bit by bit.

Guilty as charged

We also have another computer goo-ru on the way, as you will see below she gets a real kick out of 'helping' dad. He has taken the cord off a keyboard and he will place it in front of his and she uses that while he reaches around her and uses the real one. You would think she would just bang on the keyboard but she actually prances her fingers all around it pushing buttons (mimicing typing) and if you let her she will put her other hand on the mouse and move it all around. Oh boy!

This was a few months ago when Jared first tried this, now she loves headphones!

She is very into climbing right now, she will climb anything, a toy left on the floor that she can step in, a toybox, potty chair, even the groceries! We went shopping and were bringing in the food and she decided to 'climb' the canned goods.

Her favorite places to play are closets, particularly my closet since it is nice and big, it has a window and there are lots of baskets of socks, underwear etc that she can push around, throw all clothes out of, sit in, pull all shoes out of the rack and just generally make it look like a tornado hit the closet.

Going outside, especially for a walk, is probably her #1 favorite thing to do right now. If she even sees me go towards the back door (where stroller is kept) she will start getting all excited and says "wak, wak wak!" She loves the walks and never seems to tire of them (nor do the dogs). One day she was sick with an ear infection and recovering from the stomach flu while simutaneously teething two molars (fun fun fun), I also was recovering from stomach flu and she was so crabby, she saw the coat that we always wear on walks (big and warm since its still cold out here) and she went absolutely bonkers with her wak wak wak pleas so I decided maybe she would go to sleep and we would go. We got all ready which is an ordeal in and of itself, went out on the porch and it was RAINING. Well not going at that point was less appealing than the rain so I covered her in a blanket (in addition to hat, gloves, coat) and put the rain guard down and we walked in the rain for over an hour because as I had hoped she went right to sleep. Jared called while we were out to check on his sick girls and wondered if I had lost my mind. She enjoyed it and it did stop raining, eventually.

Well, thats about all for this edition of Lillian's World.

*Talking*Talking*Talking*

Lillian can say so many things now it's hard to know where to start. At her 12 month appointment the doctor said that she was exceeding her 15 month milestones across the board, had met her 18mo milestones for talking and saying things like 'thank you'=teetu to get what she wanted with an outreached hand was a 2 year milestone!

I tried to get a relative order and descrption of what 'her' version sounds like. It is all so interesting to us how they learn to talk. For a long time we were not giving Lillian credit for what she was saying because it was frankly just pretty early on she started and we just werent sure what the criteria is for 'talking' as far as what counts etc. My friend is a speech pathologist for children and she has said that it doesnt matter what the sound of the word is, it could be completely different from the word but what qualifies it as 'speaking' is: #1 if the sound is consistent (they dont usually improve the word until later when they have built their repetoire), #2 if it is said with intent not just in a stream of babble #3 if it is self initiated. I tend to wait a bit before I count her words beacuse I want to make sure I'm not one of those 'annoying mothers' who artificially inflate what their kids do, there is a fine line in my eyes between being proud and 'annoying' and I can definately see how easy it is to cross because well.....she is the greatest, cutest, smartest, .. ..... oops there you go, see it creeps in LOL!

Anyway on to the talking!

It started with Daddy, followed by doggie (=jealous mommy), then finally one day mommy came out when we were in the parking lot of a resteraunt in indiana after visiting with Grandma Horvath, Jared Sr, and AuntMary & Uncle Gary. Jared had been teasing me about her only saying daddy, it was a little game she played where we would day "mommy, mommy, m-o-m-m-y" and every time she would look at us (with those big brown eyes) and say "dada". Finally, after giving me a hard time Jared was trying to get her to say mommy and this time she said a very crude mama and I was SO excited!

Next it was duckie. We had a bunch of ducks to play with in the bath tub and the tub itself was a blow up duck, plus she had a book we were reading alot then with a duckie page so I guess that is why, plus being another 'd' word I think it was just easy.

Not so coincidentally the next word was stop, which we tell the dogs a million times a day. Very cute when the dogs would start pushing around her and she would shove her hand out and very bossily sounding (hmmm???) push it at them and utter "sop, sop" NOT so funny when mommy was playing kissy face and she did the same thing!

1. Daddy


2. Doggie


3. mommy


4. duckie


5. stop

In a relative but not exact order following those first ones we had:

6.book="buo"

I tried to get in the habit of reading her a book as part of our bedtime routine and it caught on. Now, every night she points over to her book shelf and says "buo, buo" very very cute!

7. bye-bye

8. hi

9. uh-oh

10. hot="haa"

11. all done="ah dun"

12. thank you="teetu"

13. peekaboo="pobu"




pretty much says but not counting yet:

cold
sachi
nala
eye