I asked Lily tonight: “Do you have panties on?”
Her response: “I don’t have panties, but I do have (pulls her pants down) CHEEKS!”
As a brief update: Lily is back from her 10 days in Connecticut with my mom. I think she is happy to be home and to be around mom and dad, but she misses her cousin Winter a lot. She talks about her every morning. Andy and I are adjusting to life with a 3 year old again 
It’s amazing what you can forget in 10 days.
Happy Easter and Lily’s 1/2 birthday, making her 3 and a half today. Time sure does fly.
Most of you may know, but Lily is in Connecticut visiting Shauna and Winter. On Friday, I took a day off of work and Andy, Lily and I ventured off to Portland. We took Lily to the Children’s Museum for a few hours of play (she has been once before). Her favorite activity there is the grocery shopping area. She also enjoys playing with clay. After the museum, we met up with my mom for an early dinner and an early bedtime. Lily and Nama had to fly out of PDX on Saturday morning at 6:30am (which meant waking up at 4:30am to catch a 5 o’clock shuttle).
Lily was so excited and restless in the hotel that it was hard to get her to sleep. At one point, she was laying quietly, but broke the silence to tell me the following:
“Mom, when my baby brother gets older, I want to marry him.”
When I informed her that this would not be the case, she seemed a little distraught and asked me where she was going to find a husband. Funny girl, so worried about this at three years old
4:30am came and Lily was UP and EXCITED. As far as I know, the shuttle and plane ride with Nama were successful. Shauna and Winter took the train to the airport so that they could meet up with them immediately. Then, Lily, Nama, Shauna and Winter rode the train back to New Haven together to begin a week of fun! Lily and Winter will get to celebrate Easter together (today) and Winter’s 2nd birthday (April 11).
Meanwhile, in Oregon… Andy and I spent Saturday morning at OMSI (Andy had never been and I had not been in years). It was a lot of fun: We particular enjoyed the pregnancy exhibit, the brain-teaser puzzles in the lobby, and learning about the Lyre Bird! Watch the full video below to see some of the “tricks” of this amazing bird!
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YouTube Direkt- Lyre Bird
After OMSI, we met up with Melissa (who was on her way to Corvallis). She and Alan graciously let us spend the night at their super cute downtown apartment in Portland while they were away. Saturday night was a poker tournament (neither Andy nor I cashed, though we came close). And then Sunday was the drive back to Bend, which is where we are now.
Lily will be in Connecticut until next Sunday — approximately 9 days away from Lily (this will be the longest yet for both Andy and I). We will survive although we miss her much.
On my 28th week of pregnancy. Moving along. No news to report. We think we are settled on a name.
Lily talks. A lot. Non stop. Not surprising if you know her parents
Tonight’s questions for mom included:
“How do we talk?”
“Why do we have boogers?”
“How do we blink?”
Funny girl.
Side note: One more work day for me and then Spring Break. As well, I have informed my school that I am not returning next year. I am super happy about this decision: primarily to stay home with my kids but there are many, many other reasons as well.
Happy Leap Day.
Lily said yesterday:
“Mom, I was thinking and thinking and in my dream I thought we should name you rnew baby Owen like the boy in my swim class who can swim by himself.”
Super cute, but Owen is not a name on our list, sorry Lily.
Today, she said:
“Owen is my best friend because he talks to me lots during swimming class. He can hold my hand if he wants.”
Oh great.
And to brag about her problem solving skills (and people-caring skills)… Today, while ordering sandwiches at Togos *yum*, I watched her move a chair away from the table she had chosen. She placed the chair at another table. When I came over and asked what happened to the chair, she said “We don’t need 4 chairs, we just need 3 chairs. Now, someone else can use that chair.”
What-a-girl.
22 weeks pregnant, and according to my “pregnancy app” the baby should weigh about 1 pound. I feel lots of movement!
Last Monday, Lily did her first somersault all by herself. She is taking a toddler gymnastics class, and she had a whole cheering section watching: Me, Andy, Nama and Papa, and Uncle Erik (Andy’s friend from California who came to visit for the three day weekend). With the excitement of everyone there, she tried new things! Now she somersaults everywhere around the house. Very fun.
As mentioned, Erik came for the three day weekend. We bored him in a super-long poker tournament on Sunday (part of a 12-week series, where points are accumulated, and big money prizes are given to the top twenty point leaders at the end of the series). Anyhow, Andy took first place at Sunday’s tournament and I took second place *sigh*. This moved Andy into second place overall and me into third place overall as far as point standings. 6 weeks left!
Lily loves movies. We do our best to try to limit her screen time, some days are clearly better than others. There is a direct relationship between the amount of screen time she gets and the lack of sleep we get. Her current favorite movies include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the old one, which she calls “Willy Wonka”), The Princess Diaries, and Alice in Wonderland (Disney Cartoon version).
Also, we are trying to emerge Lily in classes through Parks and Rec: Monday Gymnastics, Tuesday Swimming Lessons, Wednesday Soccer, Thursday Swimming Lessons. She does great at class — she loves hanging around the teacher, and is very good and following directions.
I will get some photos up soon.
In pregnancy news: I felt the first external kicks last night. Andy has yet to feel them. They were subtle, but they were there. I think I am 21 weeks along about now?
Lily gets so excited about doing math (since Mom teaches math to kids at school). She gets very giddy and a little crazy. But, she is doing well.
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YouTube Direkt- Lily and Math1
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YouTube Direkt- Lily and Math2
About two weeks ago, we decided to take Lily out of diapers. She was always good about number 1 in the toilet when we were proactive parents, but number 2 in the toilet was not going to happen…. So, we took of the diapers (only one for night). She did great peeing in the toilet but still refused to poop. When she needed to poop, she would ask us for a diaper. This went on for about a week. However, we were getting no closer to pooping in the toilet.
So, last Sunday, I made the decision that she was going to poop in the toilet, period. Without providing too many details, I fibered her up and she sat on the toilet for over an hour (willing). Nothing happened, though I know she had to go. Then, she realized it was about to happen and got terrified. I had to be a mean mom for three minutes and hold her to the toilet through her protest (to put it mildly). I didn’t want this to be the way, but my instincts told me it was going to be the only way o achieve breakthrough and that it was definitely just more traumatic for me than for her….
Well, as soon as she actually started to go, the tears and screams stopped. “it doesn’t hurt Mom! I’m not scared Mom!”. She was so proud of herself.
Breakthrough.
Tuesday, she pooped again in the toilet, willingly, but it took sone time sitting and waiting…. Fast forward to both yesterday and today: she told us it was time to poop, she sat on the toilet, and went. Easy. Tada!
Glad to say: only a diaper at night now. We made it.
As of October 8, Lily is now 3 years old. She is growing so quickly! Here are some quick/fun facts about Lily:
Some photos, more to come:
Getting Winter and Shauna from the airport late at night. They are both so tired, but happy to see each other!
Matching PJs:
Lily and her baby have matching dresses too:
Lily’s cupcake: Vanilla with sprinkles, gummy bears and coconut (her favorite snacks). The cake in the background is for my Aunt Dianne’s 60th bday, for which we had a mini family reunion! Very fun!
My mom, with her 3 siblings (plus an uncle)
There are many, many blog updates below. Scroll down to check out what we have been doing this summer. Since I fell behind in blogging, I am sure there are times I left out details and I am sure there are times I repeated myself. I was just trying to catch everyone up with what has been happening and post some pictures.
Why am I so motivated? Summer ends for me on Monday. Back to work! Well, I am only teaching part time at Summit High School this year. My schedule will be from 11am-3pm or so, pretty great considering I like to sleep in. Summer has been fantastic, as you can see from the posts below. I am sure there is so much more to share that I have forgotten.
My goal, as always, is to continue to blog regularly to keep an online journal, for you to follow, and for us to reflect upon (and for Lily to have when she is older). Hopefully I will not fall behind like that again!
Andy and I were able to re-charge our batteries during our last week of summer vacation. Lily stay in Corvallis with my mom and dad from Sunday afternoon until today (Thursday afternoon). We had many days to be “young and child-free.” We missed Lily terrible and spend much of our time without her actually talking about her. But, the time to re-charge was nice. It involved sleeping in, riding bikes for 4 hours around Sun River (seeing Benham Falls, and riding around town), going to the gym, reading books, playing poker, watching movies, staying up late… and a big one: doing our taxes (hey, we applied for an extension!). But, they are done and submitted. Also, our car now has new brakes.
We accomplished a lot in a child-free 4 days.
Lily also had a great time with Papa during the days (while Nama was at work). She enjoyed trips to the park and the jumping place, snow cones, ice cream, and popsicles — and that all happened in just one day!!!
So, catch up on our blog by reading below. Enjoy!
If you ask Lily what her name is, her response is always:
“Lily Lin Vaughn, L-I-L-Y”
Too funny.
She has many other funny quotes, too, but I am not creative enough at the moment to think of them. As I begin to blog more regularly again, I will catch some.
Some stats: She is 3’5″ tall and 51 pounds. She can hold her own on the playground already.
Favorite Color: Pink. Hands down. Just like when I was a kid
Favorite Movies: Nanny McPhee Returns and Nanny McPhee, Shrek, Juno
Favorite TV Shows: SuperWhy, Curious George
Favorite Foods: Salmon and Rice
Here are some random pictures from the summer:
Doing her thing at the library:
If I drag her to too many stores….
Nana made brownies!
New hiking hat:
Cutie:
Lily eating medium-sized Yumm Bowl from Cafe Yumm all by herself!
Lily’s babies, that she strollers around (with their milk bottles, blankets, and mum-mums). Aunt Shauna recently sent some stickers and all 30 of them are on that baby’s head.
