Oregon Vaughns

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:

Did I share these pictures before?  This is what I saw one morning last Spring while I was at Timberhill Athletic Club going for my morning workout (oh how I miss those).  I cannot remember if I already posted these or not.. They were taken using my cell phone camera:

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 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.

I think I am becoming an adult…. Here are some reasons as to why I think this:

• I save coupons for other people who I think might used them.
• People think I am older than they are when I’m not.
• Things are different in high school now then they were when I was in high school.
• I stop and think to myself several times a day: “Wait, what was I doing?”
• I am the one responsible for packing snacks in the car for road trips (don’t tell Andy, he still thinks they pack themselves…)
• Sometimes I turn the radio down super low in the car instead of turning it off.
• I have adult friends.
• I complain about health insurance.
• I sometimes feel responsible for other people’s children.
• I like eating spinach salads.
• I don’t really eat “candy” anymore.
• Kids are surprised that I can actually “text”.

I am sure there are more…. sigh

That girl amazes me every day…  She always has new tricks…  She has recently started telling us when she wants her diaper changed.  She will walk over to her diaper bag, pull out a diaper and start pointing.  If we are at my parent’s house, she will grab the diaper and then start walking toward the bathroom (my mom always changes her diaper in the bathroom at their house).  Tonight, she was insistent on getting her diaper changed, even though it was dry.  She just got it in her mind that she wanted a diaper change and there was no stopping her!  Oh well.. Could be worse, right?

She understands so much.  She and I were sitting on the couch and she was jumping around.  I turned to her and said “Lily, would you like mommy to read you some books before bed?”  She looked at me, climbed off of the couch, crawled to her bookshelf and brought me 4 books (she got them and brought them one at a time).  Once we had the four books that she wanted, she sat in my lap and we read them all twice.  Soon after, she fell asleep in my arms.

I was in complete shock that she understood my complete sentence with no prompting or anything!

She has also decided that walking is now her main mode of transportation…. Running is soon to come…

I went to Timberhill Athletic Club this morning and took Lily to the playroom.  She used to go to the play room a few times a week, so many of the staff knows her from her younger days….  She hasn’t been in a few months because we had been avoiding the high populated areas during the flu season/scare.  Well, I decided it was time to take her in for some socializing and so I could get a workout in.

When I left her, she began to cry — to be expected.  I kissed her goodbye and headed upstairs to start my workout.  “Out of sight out of mind”??? The crying was sure to stop moments after I was gone.  Wrong.  After 5 minutes on a machine, I get a page back to the playroom.  I walk in to see my daughter getting toweled off and a big mess.

Lily cried herself hysterical, began to hyperventilate, and then threw-up.  The second she was back in my arms, she stopped crying and was happy.  Yikes.  I sat with her in the playroom for nearly 30 minutes.  We sat together, played a little, got comfortable.  She eventually left my side and went to play on her own.

At this point, I tried to sneak out.  Back to working out!  She is happy in the playroom.  Wrong.  After another 5 minutes of working out, I was paged back to the playroom.  She was not having it.  I tried.  We went home and called it a day.

Apparently we are having some problem with our old photos/videos on this blog… You cannot access any of the old pictures (in case you were trying to)… We will hopefully have this fixed soon.

All of our favorite comedies seem to overlap.  Actors appear in old / new comedies that we love.  Here are some connections we’ve seen:

Also note:

• Danny Pudi (who plays Abed Nadir in Community) made several guest appearances as Raj in Gilmore Girls.
• Melora Hardin (who plays Jan Levinson in The Office) made an appearance as Carolyn Bates in Gilmore Girls.

Who am I missing?