bathtime :)

Seriously Mom? A little privacy in the bathroom, please? Why don't you put that camera down and work on getting this shampoo out of my hair? Ahhhh...not you, Duke, I want Mom to do it!!!

Hats

Lily learned how to say 'hat' last week, so we celebrated that accomplishment by trying on every hat we could find as we unpacked our winter clothes from storage. SCARY how much she looks like Jake with the camouflage one on!!!

Mommy's snow hat

Daddy's redneck hat...

Stormy Kromer Hat....

Knitted stoner hat...

and Daddy's fishing hat.

(with Mommy making a really awkward expression in the background :)

Daddy's hunting gloves

What!? They TOTALLY fit!

GO Packers!

Our lovely lil' Lily and her daddy

So Talented

Eating pot roast veggies with her FORK...we were so impressed. And this isn't even her dominant hand! Maybe she is ambidextrous like her Uncle James.

PS- this post is a bit misleading about mealtimes. Apparently, throwing food is much more fun than eating with utensils. We've still got a long way to go. :}

Mommy forgot SO many words

More Lily words:

Up (pronounced up-poo)

Milk

Yeah!

Wow!

Home

School

Finally Fall

OK, so I know it's the first of December, but here is our Lily frolicking around in the front yard on our first really crisp fall day, which just happened to be two weeks ago. :)

Words Words and more Words

Here is a list of Lily's current (and quickly expanding) vocabulary, starting with the first ones and working up to yesterday. I still haven't put them all in the baby book, so I'd better write them down somewhere before I forget them!

bye-bye

ma-ma

da-da (or usually just "da")

Duke "doo"

ball

book "boo..."

all done

baby

uh-oh

water "wa-wa'

hi! (pronounced with Southern accent)

sshhhh

Gram "ya-ya"

Papa

Mo (Morrison, Aunt Lizza's dog)

cheese

shoes (sounds kind of like "sheez")

No-no (she loooooves this one)

More

Please "peezzz"

socks

bath

banana "BA-na-na"

outside "ah-sii"

apple

Touchdown!

New Baby Trick: Daddy says TOUCHDOWN! and Lily gets really excited!

Baby steps

This video is a couple of weeks old, so she is already getting MUCH better at walking, but here are a few of her first wobbly baby steps. We are so proud, but having a walker is really scary!!

Game time

Yes, she is Jake Mangerson's daughter, comfortably watching football in her chair with some cheese and crackers.

Tea Party

We had a Saturday morning tea party with the tea set Lily got from Abby for her birthday. Duke joined us (so did Daddy when he wasn't taking pictures) and everyone was as proper and sophisticated as they could be, considering that we were all in our jammies with a tummy full of pancakes.

Cheers, Mommy!

Duke needs a refill...

...and so does Daddy.

Mmmm, this imaginary tea tastes great!

But, it needs a little imaginary sugar!

KETCHUP CRAZY

So I disliked ketchup my whole life until the first trimester of my pregnancy, when I suddenly couldn't get enough of it. As of tonight, I officially understand the reasoning behind that strange phenomenon - it was LILY in my tummy who was begging for the ketchup! She got her first taste of it tonight since she was outside of the womb, and WOW. We had turkey burgers and oven-roasted potatoes for supper, and smart Mommy decided to dip one of her potatoes in some ketchup before giving it to her. She went nuts! She requested that every subsequent potato and turkey burger bite be dipped in ketchup, and then she would try to just lick the ketchup off and give the bite back to me for more. Let's hope she won't remember it for her next meal!

At church with Daddy

We went to Vidalia last weekend for the first time since Fathers' Day (waaay too long), and on Sunday morning we went to church at Tabernacle to hear Papa preach. After the service, Lily practiced climbing up and down the stairs in the sanctuary.

Bouncy ball crawl

Lily's daycare Little Prodigies had a Fall Festival on Oct. 2, with a petting zoo and a couple of bouncy tents. She had so much fun in there she didn't want to get out, and then asked to go back in again!

A horsie just my size!

Uncle James and Auntie Ali came to visit our little house in the country last weekend for a belated celebration of Lily and James' shared birthday, and we got to do something I have wanted to do ever since we moved here. We got to visit the miniature horses (NOT ponies, we were corrected on that) that live down the street. Our neighbors have about 20 mini horses on their farm, including some fuzzy little babies who are only about 25 pounds! One of the 'teenagers,' Lady, was sweet enough to let us take pictures with her. If we still live around here when Lily is old enough to say "Daddy, I want one!" then we are in so much trouble...

Riding off into the sunset

Happy First Birthday Lily Gaëlle

It's so hard to believe that this time last year, I was lying in the postpartum ward of Northwestern Hospital with a brand-new baby and a really sore bottom! So much has happened since then, and now I have a sweet, happy, and healthy (and sleeping!) 1-year old...how time flies!! Jake and I are so glad that you have shared this amazing year with us.

Here are a few pics of Lily riding her new tricycle tonight with Daddy. When you ask her "How old are you?" she holds up one finger!

Birthday FUN

We had the formal celebration for Lily's birthday on Saturday the 18th, when I threw my first official kids' party. And boy, it is a lot of work!! But I had plenty of willing hands to help, and it was a really fun day for the birthday girl, who enjoyed all the attention despite a double ear infection. (which we found out about the next day...eeek!) She woke up to a shiny new red wagon from Gram, and decided that it was absolutely big enough for her to ride in. We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, some friends and family over for slip-n-sliding and lunch, and then we played in our cake. After her first real taste of sweets, Lily now thinks that sugar=good! We opened lots of cool presents including a new tricycle from Mom and Dad...YAY!! Then Lily took a long nap, and the grown-ups had a nice grown-up drink to wind down from all the excitement. ;)

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Kopp

We took a whirlwind trip to Indiana over Labor Day weekend for Dan and Marissa (Gee) Kopp's wedding, and it was wonderful to be back in Valpo/Culver, even for such a short time. It was even COLD enough over the weekend (cold? What's that?) that Lily got to wear her pink Culver sweatshirt while hanging out at the oh-so-posh Culver motels on Saturday afternoon!

She behaved very sweetly during the wedding, keeping herself entertained with Destanie's pretty jewelry so that Mommy and Daddy could watch the ceremony. Marissa looked beautiful and they both seemed so happy!

While waiting for the bride and groom to come out of the chapel, we got to snap a family photo and some pretty pictures of our little girl (thanks for the dress, Abby!). Then Lily's amazing Mimi came to take her back to Valpo for the night, and Mommy and Daddy got to have a parents' night out. Seriously, the most fun I have had a wedding since my own (which was a different kind of fun anyway). Thanks for the good times, everyone! We miss you more than you know!