Obviously not my kid

Yesterday, when Lillian woke up, Erik asked, "Guess what??" In a very interested whisper, she asked, "What?" back.

Erik: It snowed!

Lily: It did? I want to see!

Erik held her up to the window to see the disastrous white stuff that fell during the night that means the end of my life as I know it. (A tad too dramatic? Sorry.)

Lily: Oooooo! I LOVE snow. Oh no! I don't have snow boots!

Erik: We'll have to buy you some, I guess.

Lily: Yeah. Let's do that! (her new favorite phrase) Mommy doesn't like snow.

You got that right, kiddo. But I guess I should just be happy that this year, she's actually excited to see the snow because last year, she wouldn't walk on it. All all. Not one boot-covered toe was ever to touch that cold white stuff. So taking advantage of the excitement while we could, we went out last night and bought some adorable snow boots, trying very hard to keep her line of sight away from the Dora the Explorer ones. Amazingly, she did see them and put them back when we asked her to. Maybe she'll turn out to be an obedient child after all.

Now I guess all we have left to get is the small snowmobile she suddenly thinks she needs. (Daddy's is too big. She needs a small, pink one.) I'd say Erik's brainwashing her, but I was there when that phrase (I need a small one.) came out of her mouth. All on its own. Completely unrehearsed. That and her small motorcycle because Daddy's is too scary and loud. You should have seen the pure joy on Erik's face.

There's got to be some of me in her somewhere, right? Right? I mean besides the OCD. Anybody???? Sigh.

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Random blogging

Because I've been lax in my blogging recently and because nothing else is really going on, today's post consists of random bits of...stuff.

First of all, how about this adorable picture of Lily and Erik in their ties. No cute story. No funny explanation. Just a cute Fred Flintstone-ish tie that was just too cute not to share.

Second, I have to brag about how brilliant my child is. And isn't that really the point of any mother's blog and the right of every parent? I thought so. I'm sure every parent totally thinks the same thing about their kid, but mine's the real deal. ;) The other day, Lillian looked at my shirt (which happened to say Wal-mart) and said, " There are lots of A's on your shirt." I guess two is a lot to a two-year-old. But that's not the point. The point here is that she knew there were A's there at all. So I asked her to find each letter. AND SHE COULD. I was amazed. I guess I shouldn't have been since she's ALWAYS asking which letters are what while we read and she plays her ABC Zoo game online. And she's been singing the alphabet for while now. But she got every single letter right. All of them. Of course when I tried to show Erik, she got every single one wrong. But the other day, I let her tag along while I ran into the office for a bit, and while I put together some meeting materials, she played her game. When she got bored, I tried to drag it out just a little longer by asking her to find letters. Once again, she got them all right.

Erik and I, especially recently, are constantly asking each other if the average two-year-old should be able to do the things she's doing or if we are just easily impressed. Whatever the truthful answer is to that question, we're amazed every day at the little person she's becoming, and I'm looking forward to seeing her continue to develop.

My last random topic for this post is Lily's vocal performance debut:



Thanks, as always, for reading my ramblings. :)

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Where's Erik's Hazard Pay???

What's great about this is that Erik recently had an employee who threatened to bring a gun and shoot everybody. Needless to say, he no longer works for the company...

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

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Fall Festival 2009

Following tradition (is it a tradition if you've only done it once before?), we headed out to the American West Heritage Center this weekend for Fall Festival. Last year, if you'll remember, Lillian ended up donating her sucker to a very hungry goat. While nothing nearly as exciting happened this year, Lily had a great time playing in the hay jump, riding the train, NOT riding a pony, petting the goats (we left the suckers at home), trying to take a cat home, and going down a slide on a burlap bag.

At least she said the slide was fun.

Actually, her exact words were, "That was FUN, Daddy! Let's not do it again." Take it how you will.
But probably the highlight of Lillian's day was spotting a very fuzzy caterpillar on the ground. She spent a good 10 minutes staring at it from every angle - even trying to get down to eye level - and working up the courage to pet it (It's spiky! It will sting me!!!). We were only able to tempt her away by promising another chance to jump in the hay.

It's so fun to watch her at events like this now that she can actually enjoy them. I know she probably won't remember going -even after we pull out the pictures - but just knowing that she had a great time while she was there makes it all worth it.

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It's finally happened.

Last night, we were out at dinner, and Lillian never actually sat down. At all. Not once. Through the entire meal. And then it hit me. It used to be that we'd go out and our angel of a daughter would sit in her high chair and munch on bits of cracker or bread. As she got older, she'd color and say cute things. More than once, someone near us would comment on how well behaved she was and express their desire to have kids that laid back.

Those comments have abruptly stopped. And last night, as Lillian bounced up and down on the seat and stared at (and even counted!!) the people in the booth behind us and crawled under the table several times to sit by each of us, I realized that we've become one of THOSE families. You know the ones - the ones who can't control their children and seem to be completely oblivious to what's going on around them? Yeah. That was us.

And I was so totally embarrassed and wanted to climb under the table myself if that wouldn't have added to my embarrassment level. Because I totally hate when some stranger's kid stares at me through my entire meal or bonks me on the back of the head while they jump on the seat (thank goodness I don't think that actually happened last night). Of course I never blame the kid - It's always the PARENTS' FAULT.

But for those of you who aren't yet experiencing this wonderful stage in toddlerhood, let me share my recent epiphany (and hopefully those who have experienced it will back me up): IT'S NOT THE PARENTS' FAULT. And we definitely weren't oblivious - as much as it may have seemed that way while we tried to actually enjoy our own dinners. No matter how many times we asked Lily to sit down or stay in one spot or turn around or "Please eat your grilled cheese sandwich that you asked the waitress for very loudly and then decided needed an entire jigger of grape jelly when it came but now you haven't even touched," she just continued to do whatever she wanted.

I suppose we should have just left, but as embarrassed as I was, I'm hoping it wasn't as bad as I remember or thought at the time. Or maybe it was and the people around us were cursing our very presence. In an effort at complete honesty, I will tell you that although we weren't oblivious, we were just thrilled she was happy and not screaming and crying like she had been an hour earlier at Wal-mart, so admittedly, we probably weren't as forceful as we could (should???) have been, especially since she was being relatively quiet despite the constant movement. All I know for sure is that I was completely, totally, and utterly exhausted just from watching Lily's activities for the hour we were at that restaurant.

I also know I will now be a million times more tolerant when it's someone else's kid and eternally grateful when it's not my own.

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