Oregon Vaughns

Andy and I are getting back into Chess.  I have started a lunch time chess club once a week at the high school as well.  We hope to start a chess club, eventually, at the elementary school close to our house.

Lily loves “playing” chess.  She also loves the chess clock.  It won’t be long (a month?) before she will be able to successfully set up the chess board with no help.  Here is a photo, with a few short video clips:

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YouTube Direkt- Chess 1

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YouTube Direkt- Chess 2

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YouTube Direkt- Chess 3

We may have already mentioned this, but Stripes Baby is #1 in our house.  Not Pink Baby.  Lily takes Stripes Baby everywhere.  This include wearing Stripes Baby in her shirt (with the baby zipped into her jacket, like she is in a carrier).  No one else can really touch Stripes Baby.  Lily must bring Stripes Baby’s pillow(s) and blankets.  Notice that the “s” on the back of pillow is optional, but the”s” on the back of blankets is not.  Stripes Baby must have at least 1 pillow, but just 1 is OK.  However, Stripes Baby often has 10+ blankets for when she goes “Nigh Nigh.”  The other day, Stripes Baby was sleeping and I counted 14 blankets on her.  These blankets are bandannas, towels, burp rags, anything that can pass as a blanket for Stripes Baby.

Here is Lily “sleeping” with Stripes Baby during a trip to Target:

Here is my conversation with Lily.  She just talks so much — I am always amazed by her vocabulary and her level of thought (yes, yes, she is so smart, must be genetic):

Lily: “Mom, where we going first?”

Me:  “We are going to Sears.”

Lily: “What you getting, Mama?”

Me:  “We are buying a washer and dryer for our new house.”

Lily:  “Where we going next?”

Me:  “We are probably going to go to another store.”

Lily:  “Fred Meyer?”

(she always says Fred Meyer)…..

Me:  “Sure, we can go to Fred Meyer.”

Lily:  “Lily walk?  Lily no ride in cart.”

Me:  “No, Lily will ride in stroller.”

Lily:  “Baby come in stroller too?”

Me:  “Yes, baby can come too.”

Lily:  “Baby so happy, Mama!”

Me:  “Lily so happy?”

Lily:  “No, mama, baby so happy, not Lily so happy.”

Me:  “Oh ok, sorry.  Baby so happy.”

Lily:  “Yes, baby so happy mama say yes baby come in store.”

Anyway, I think she almost has down her “left” and “right” — about 80%.  She knows we either drive left, right or straight.

Lily loves playing hide and seek.  She particularly loves to count while we hide:

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YouTube Direkt- Hide and Seek

Here are some various pictures that I have taken with my phone of a sleeping baby… some old, some new:

Lily has an ear infection and pneumonia… However, she is on the mend.  We took her in to the urgent care yesterday to diagnose all of this, as well as get the proper meds.  The big problem that we have been having is her gag reflex and her throwing up.  She has been throwing up everything upon contact (food, liquids, meds).  We now have her on all chewable medications, which is way better for her than liquid.

Today she is finally beginning to act more like herself: demanding pizza.

She has seen tons of movies while being sick and Mary Poppins is the new favorite (while she lies on “little bed” – the inflatable bed in our room).

When she is sick or tired, she has been saying “Oh Mama” or “Oh Dada”  Kind of a cute new quote

After seeing this picture on my phone:

Lily attempted to recreate it below:

(for real, she saw the picture and wanted me to take another just like it)

The song featured below is one of Lily’s new favorites.  She calls it “Amazing.”

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YouTube Direkt- Amazing Lily

“Mama, look! Lily cleaned clothes. Lily put all clothes in buckets. Mama so happy and Lily so happy too!”

Just a little update about life in Bend:

• The semester ended today at my high school — half the year gone??  Geez, it goes quickly.
• Lily’s language is unstoppable.  She can say anything.
• However, there are occasions where Lily says something that Andy or I can not interpret.  So, after I try to interpret it, incorrectly a few times, Lily will exclaim emphatically “Mommy no understand.“
• Lily has also started saying “I’ll show you, Momma.” when she wants to show me whatever it is….
• When Andy picks me up from school, I have a bad habit of dumping all of the details of my day on him during the ride home.  Lily sits in the back seat (saying what Andy is thinking….) and says “Stop talking please.”
• Lily still loves “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz and can sing the whole song.
• “Tell story, please.”  I am told this even when I am in the middle of telling a story.  Also, I cannot get very far through a story without her adding her own details and turning the story in the direction she wants it to go.  Stories are usually Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs (BIG BAD WOLF) and Lily, Elmo and the Funny Guys.
• “Funny Guys” are what we call the little yellow guys from the movie Despicable Me — one of Lily’s new favorites.  We have seen this movie too much.  When Lily says Despicable Me it sounds more like “Speak-a-warmie”
• Lily loves playing with her babies and taking care of them.
• Andy and I have been trying new restaurants here in Bend.  Maybe soon we can sit down a blog a little review about what we have tried!  (We had a nice dinner out while celebrating our 4 year anniversary, too).
• 60 degrees and sunny today! Can’t beat that.
• “Momma, sit with Lily on the stairs and talk about kitties.”
• Andy asked Lily today if she was OK (something happened) and Lily replied “No, Lily happy!”
• Well, 6:50pm right now and Lily has not napped.  I am going to put her to bed for the night.