Oregon Vaughns

With Mommy tutoring and teaching and Daddy working on his new software company, someone had to pick up the slack around here:

[youtube FqlJnksz9_E  Lily Working]

Happy 17 Months to the best girl ever.  I cannot believe it has been 17 months already… However, I can also not believe that she is only 17 months old!!! She seems so much older some days.  Wow.  I am in shock.

So, all about Lily… Here comes some info:

• Words include:  Cheese, shoes, Mama, Dada, Bob-bob (grandpa), Nana, “Stacey”, home, help, cat, hat, apple, “thank you”, “get you”, LaLa (Isabella), NO, broom, up, down, blue, balloon, bottle or baba…  I am sure there are some more.  Oh, not to forget “Poop”.
• She loves to sing songs: “Wheels on the Bus” and “Shake Your Sillies Out”
• She loves to go on walks to the park.
• Cheese is probably her favorite food.
• She likes to go for hikes in her Kelty Back-pack carrier (Andy carried her all the way up Bald Hill the other day on our hike!!)
• She gives good kisses now and makes sound effects while she does
• She still sleeps really well through the night (sometimes I just wish she would sleep in a little longer).

I cannot think of what else to put.  Of course there are thousands of things that Andy and I obsess about every day.  She loves being around people — friends and family.  She brings joy to all.

What has happened since my last post?  Lily and Andy each spent about 4-5 days with what we think was the Norwalk Virus (vomiting and such).  Somehow, it went right past me and I never got it.

Lily is now making up for the days of no appetite by eating everything in sight.  Today, for breakfast, she ate: 3 bananas, 2 loaves of bread, 3 dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, and a handful of goldfish crackers…. It was something like that.  She has a huge appetite for cheese, avocados, crackers, you name it.

On her first day of being healthy, she burped over my computer… Thinking she was going to throw up on it, I freaked out a little and reacted very quickly.  Realizing there was no throw up coming, we both had a good laugh.  The problem?  She now thinks that pretending to throw up is very funny.  It is pretty cute, but Andy gets mad when I encourage it

Lily and I enjoy going to story time at the public library.  Sometimes Auntie Shauna joins us and sometimes we see my friend Abby and her kids.  Lily definitely needs more socializing time with kids her own age.

There is probably much more to write about.  I will post an update just about Lily’s new doings later tonight… Not that I think everyone is entirely interested in the fact that her favorite word is “poop” and she is obsessed with string cheese, but I think that it is just fun to document so that we can all look back later (especially Lily).

I will leave you with some photos:

Taken a few days before Chinese New Year… I gave Lily a “Pocky” to eat (a small chocolate covered stick):

Taken today at story time.  This is the face Lily will make if you ask her to make “funny eyes”:

Lily with Abby’s daughter, Bella, at story time:

Lily can fit 5 rolls of toilet paper and a tangerine into one toilet.  Beat that.

One of her favorite places to be…

Yesterday, Andy and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary (January 21).  We both scheduled the whole day off and decided to go to Portland for the day as a family.  We were either going to go to the Portland Zoo or to OMSI (Andy & Lily had never been to either place).  The weather was surprisingly nice and sunny, so we opted for the zoo.

We had a fantastic time.  There were hardly any people there and the weather was great for a January in Portland.

Here are some pictures.  I don’t remember all of the names of the animals (other than the obvious ones).  Andy took all the pictures and hopefully he will blog and leave more insightful comments later.  I just want to share the photos!

Lily was in and out of the stroller.  She would walk some and then ride some.  She much prefers to walk on her own:

Mandrills, I think?

The best view of the Asian Elephant that we got:

I can’t remember what these were called, but Andy was fascinated by them.  They have 4 “tusks” — two that poke out normally and two that curve back toward the face (like a face-mask??):

Fun to watch:

Lily thought these were big dogs and was saying “Woof Woof”:

She explored a little on her own:

Fun day for everyone:

We concluded our trip with a stop at Whole Foods.  Lily had fallen asleep in the car and managed to stay asleep the whole time in the store while in Andy’s arms.  Andy may have found his new favorite cheese at Whole Foods – he will have to tell you more about that.

Lily had her 15 month check-up on January 8.  I am just a little late with my postings!  I don’t remember all of her stats exactly (I will have to find the paper to document it).  Her doctor said she was 99-percentile in all three categories: height, weight and head circumference.

I do remember that her weight was 30.8 pounds.  Her height was something like 33 inches or so.

Here she is in the waiting room:

Lily got a case of the stomach flu.  Started on Saturday night, basically disappeared on Sunday… And then struck again Sunday night and all of Monday.  Good way to spend a day off, right?  I will spare you the details, but it was pretty from either end.  MANY loads of laundry + 1 trip to the laundromat.

She slept through the night last night and hasn’t vomited since yesterday, so I think she is doing much better.

Here are some little updates about Lily:

• Words she says:  Mama, Dada, Hot, Hat, Shoes, Cheese, Juice, More, Cat, Nigh-Nigh (bedtime)
• What does doggy say? Oof Oof. What does kitty say? MOOOOW.  What does elephant say?  OOOOOOO (and she moves her arm up like an elephant’s trunk)
• She knows how to find her tummy, nose, eyes, hair, and feet.
• She has performance anxiety when asked to do these things in front of a large group.
• She hasn’t started running yet, but I am sure that is soon to come
• She is teething like crazy (with her back teeth)…. You can only see her front 8 teeth at the moment, but I know those molars will be in any day.
• She knows that “she’s the baby”.
• As of today, we have taken away her bottle.  No more bottles.  Big girl sippy cups for Lily!

That is what comes to mind at the moment.  She has gone from a terrible sleeper as an infant to a pretty good sleeper as a toddler.  I can put her down in her crib while she is still awake and as long as she is tired, she will go to sleep on her own.  She is sleeping right now, which is why I have time to type.

My new favorite meal?  Rice with sliced avocado, a little Sesame Ginger dressing, and an over-easy egg on top.  I am obsessed with making and eating this.  I have also become obsessed with making fruit smoothies.

Australian Open has started.  Tennis is my favorite to watch.

I will think of something interesting to write more on later.  I will also find pictures to post.

Lily has been playing with the DVDs all morning and making a mess.  After she has emptied the DVD shelf onto the floor, she comes over to me to get a kiss (which she indicates by leaning her forehead toward me).  Once I kiss her, she walks over to the toy box to empty it’s contents.