Oregon Vaughns

We are in our new house.  For good.  The other house is empty and clean.  We made it.  More to come.

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.

I am sure we have lots of over-due posts and updates.  At some point I will get around to this.  Just looking forward to Tuesday (when we get the keys to our new house and can begin moving!) — more to come on the new house soon.

We are all almost healthy again, Andy has a lingering illness, but hopefully that is passing.

Lily’s obsession with babies has increased.  She takes her striped baby everywhere…. she always has to have her baby.  And, when she gets upset, she throws the baby (which just happened about 5 seconds ago).

Lily’s new sayings:

“What are you talking about?” (when she is curious about the conversation)

“Lily’s just kidding” or “Lily’s joking.” (when she tells a joke, obviously)

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

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.

Lily got up at 10am this morning and did not nap.  I saw this as my opportunity to get her in bed early.  And yes, she was asleep before 8pm.  I am an all-star.

I took her to Target tonight to run some errands.  She cracked some funny joke about “Tunnel Shoes” instead of “Tennis Shoes.”  That cracked her up

At Target, I found $1 sweatshirts and $1 sweatpants (for Lily) — couldn’t resist!  $1?!?!  How could I not?  So, while we were driving home, Lily kept saying “see new skirt, see new skirt.”  I kept reminding her that she did not get a new skirt, she got new pants and a new shirt.  “See Lily’s new skirt!  See Lily’s new skirt!”  She insisted.  “Lily, you did not get a new skirt this time.”  Oh, but she didn’t stop.  “New skirt with flower on it, Mommy.”  I had no idea what she was talking about.  Oh well.

Then, I opened the door to get her out, and sure enough, there was her new skirt from Hawaii that some family friends had bought for her (Thanks Barnes Family)!  I had completely forgotten.

So, without further ado:

Just FYI:  all of the old photos on our blog went missing for some time… they are back up!  (in case you are one of those people that likes to go look through the old photos).  The old videos are still not back up yet, but we are working on that.

Lily amazes me every day.  I can’t get over it.  Every new thing she does, new word, new emotion — it is unbelievable to watch her growth.  And, she has a personality that truly lights up the room…  We are very lucky to have such a remarkable little girl.

The other night we were sitting around and she was playing on her own on the floor while I was on the computer and she started saying “Pop said the ghost.”  She must have said it 200 times (over and over and over again) — we have no idea where that saying came from, but she thought it was hilarious, and honestly, so did we.

Her other current favorite thing to say is “No talk, please.”  When Andy picks me up from school, we like to chat-chat-chat and Lily will often be calling out from the back of the seat “No talk, please! No talk, please!”  It’s funny, but can get very frustrating for all involved.

Andy and I are addicted to the show Lie to Me.

Andy’s friend, Erik, is coming to visit tomorrow.

I cannot believe it is 2011.

Beautiful blue skies and crisp days here in Bend — jealous?

Andy was in the process of putting Lily down to bed and walked into our room about 15 minutes ago (while I was working on the computer).  He informed me that she was demanding eggs and toast.  Eggs and toast at 9:30pm??  Done.  Well, the eggs part at least.  I think she just ate 2 eggs.

This is why I weighed her in today (at the gym) at 42 pounds.  Wow!

What else is up?

Snowed here today (off and on).  Enjoying the last handful of days left of Winter Break…  Andy and I hope to get in our first ski/snowboard day this weekend!  Hope it works out.

What’s new with Lily?

• She knows she can get away with lots by adding a “please” to the end.
• She is obsessed with stories:  “Tell a story, please.”  and “Mama, story please.”  She loves stories about a big ship (from Barney) or she also loves the 3 Little Pigs (she calls it “Big Bad Wolf”)
• She has just started her “What’s this?” phase.  “What’s this, Mama?”
• If she doesn’t know what something is called, she sometimes gets embarrassed and doesn’t want to directly ask… so, she says “Mama say it…”  That way, I will say what it is and then she will be informed.  Sneaky girl.
• She is hungry all of the time.
• We are still very much enjoying swimming at the gym

There must be some more things to add, but I guess I will leave it at that for now.  Andy is still trying to put her to bed and I think I will go in a relieve him and give it a shot myself.

I have two weeks off for Christmas and we are spending the first week in Corvallis (Shauna, Colin and Winter are visiting Corvallis too).  Then, we will have a week off in Bend.

Lily is getting the idea of Christmas down:  Santa, presents, “Merry Christmas”, “Christmas Trees”, cookies, family, ice cream every day, Barney, snow, lights, the works.