Lily's First Significant Hair Cut

Those who know us or have been long time readers know that Lily didn't have much hair as a baby. She had kind of a baby mullet when it started growing in. When she finally had a measurable amount of hair it had the most beautiful curls. I've always loved her sweet curls, but recently they have started to look a little disheveled. I knew it was time to take her to get a real hair cut to try to even out all that short mullet hair from the top. In the picture below you can see the significant difference in the length of the back of her hair and the sides. The very shortest bit of hair is from when Sheri cut her bangs, but the rest of that side hair has never been cut. It was bittersweet taking her to get it cut. I could tell we would be taking off most of the curl, but I knew it would thicken up the look of it.

These two pictures are from today before we left.

These two are after.

She was in no mood to pose either time, so I had to take what I could get picture-wise.

Ladies' Man

When I unpacked Ryan's backpack today I found a little heart jewel. So I asked him about it. Apparently it came from a little girl in his class from when he was out sick, because she loves him. I asked him, "Why do you say that?" He said because she told him. Did I mention this is neither the little girl who I saw say she loves him, nor the girl he wrote his note about. So I asked him how many girls have told him they love him and together we came up with three(he didn't remember the girl I saw saying it to him, but I know she did since I SAW IT). The one he wrote the note for apparently told him she loves him and his note was to return the sentiment. He hasn't given it to her yet. It's kind of cute. I'm glad he is well liked. He has some really good friends that are boys too. I was a little worried about him in the beginning of the year because he is as young as you can possibly be for his grade and truth be told he's kind of shy (don't tell him that because I don't want him to live it out because he was told that's what he is). I was worried about what that combination could mean, but he always does well with other kids once he gets to know them. I guess he feels really comfortable in his class because the kids seem to like him and the teacher says he cracks her up. It really puts my mind at ease knowing he is going somewhere he enjoys with people he enjoys every weekday.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Look what I just found on Ryan's table.

He's in KINDERGARTEN! I'm not sure what I think/feel about this, but my baby has his first crush! And it's not even the girl who I saw tell him she loves him during group time. Oh, dear.

WHY?!

On a normal weekday morning it's a struggle to wake Ryan up at 7:30. Today, after much prodding, he finally got out of bed at 7:45 and Lily slept until 9:15. (Luckily the bus stop is so close that the baby monitor works.) Most mornings I'd say she's awake before 9, but not before 8.
So why do they wake up at 7AM weekend mornings?! It's so unfair:-(

Lily-isms

Sayings and words that are uniquely Lily at this time in her life.

Chu-chup =Ketchup
Why-un= Lion
Why-un= Ryan She knows the difference, but I can't tell.
What is this name?= What is his/her name?
I'm LeeLee! = Her answer to any question asking about her. For instance, are you a princess?
I'm a big guw. =The only other possible answer to who or what she is...a big girl.
Stop tee-sing me! =Often said to Ryan. ::sigh::
tomowoe =tomorrow
Sweeping beauty, Ayell, Snow White, Be-oo, Cinduwuwu =princesses
I wust one. =I lost one.
I wuv you. =I love you.
I want to play on your 'putew. =I want to play on your computer.
I don't like that! =What she says when she doesn't want something. This is probably my fault for asking "Would you like some (fill in food or drink here)?" So if Lily ever says she doesn't like someone or something she doesn't really mean it. She just means she doesn't want it/them right now.

Ryan is Blue

Lily and I played Candyland yesterday while Ryan was at school. I got out the board and asked, what color Lily wanted to be. She picked red. She always picks red unless there is a purple or pink option, then she really has a choice. I picked blue. She took it off the board and put it back in the box. "You can't be blue. Ryan is blue. You can be yellow."
"Ryan is not here and I want to be blue." I put the blue back on the board.
"Ryan is blue! You can be yellow or green." Lily puts blue back in the box.
"Ryan is at school. He is not playing and I want to be blue."
"Ryan is blue. You can be Yellow or green or red."
"Okay, I'll be red."
::gasp:: "Nooooooooo!"
"Okay, I'll be blue"
"Okay."


(You may think that arguing over color with a 2 year old is silly and that's your right. I, however, would like to teach my children they do not always get their way when they are playing with me so they might remember it when playing with other children. I posted this because it amuses me not to start a debate on parenting style.)

Gifts (edited with pictures)

I've noticed there are some people in life that are really great to give presents to. They always seem to have just the right reaction. Ryan is one of those people. If he doesn't know what it is he might just sit there and stare at it, probably trying to figure out what it is so he can get excited about it. Usually he gets excited before the wrapping paper is even off the gift. As soon as he sees what it is his eyes will get wide and his chin will drop, he'll give a big "What?!" or "Cool!", he might even jump up in the air or giggle his I-can't-contain-my-excitement giggle. It's really so much fun to watch him on Christmas.
This year was no different. There were even some mentions of it being "the best day ever." After all the gifts were opened Christmas morning and we were deciding what we would play with Ryan was asked about what he got. He said, "Good, but I didn't get some of the things I ordered." Ordered?! Oh my goodness!

Some pictures of Christmas morning reactions.

Opening his matchbox race car.Opening his Wall-E robot(he hadn't even seen Wall-E at this point)

The boys got matching Ravens jerseys.


One of the things Ryan ordered that he didn't get in the morning was a "cool dinosaur book" and the other was a "Brio Race car." Brio doesn't make their building sets any more and you can't buy them anywhere, so I passed the word to everyone that an erector set would probably fill in nicely. Once the families came he got the erector set from someone(I feel terrible, but I missed him starting to open that one, so I didn't catch who gave it to him. I think it was Uncle Ben. If you know let me know and I'll fix this). He also got the book pictured below from Uncle Ben. I think that qualifies as a cool dinosaur book! So his order was completed after all;-) We've had a talk since then about being grateful for what we're given and about lists for Santa being "wish lists," but who knows if it will sink in this time.

Winter Va-kay Part 2

So we got to the hotel after our fun trip to Winter Wonderland. And what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a room full of inflatables and games. So, we went in and had some free fun. The kids jumped in the moon bounce, ran the obstacle course and crawled through a giant caterpillar. In the morning we got up and went to our Smorgasbord breakfast. Then we suited up and played in the pool for a couple hours. No wonder we love staying there!

Thanks to my husband's superstellar computer skills I am able to use the desktop computer from my laptop remotely and bring you these pictures.


I didn't get any really good ones, but these get the point across. As Ryan said when he saw the stuff at the hotel, "More fun?! This is the best day we've spent at Dutch Wonderland ever!"

Winter Wonderland

Every year we go to Dutch Wonderland for their Winter Wonderland Christmas Celebration. I love it for many reasons. For one thing all the amusement parks in the area close when it's not summer and it's a good chance to get some fun ride action in for the kids during the winter.

Here Ryan and Lily enjoy the Whip.

Ryan got to ride the Space Shuttle for the first time this trip, but I didn't get to take a picture because I stayed with Lily while she rode the Whip again.

We played with the "ice cubes" for a while. Zach actually managed to build an igloo like structure.

Of course the kids had to ride the Frog Hopper, always a favorite.

Jay and the boys rode the bumper cars.



One might think he knew I was taking this picture, but he didn't.

This is Zach. I know you can't tell except for the signature green clothing and green car, but the only time he faced me was when the bar in the front blocked his face.

This carousel is my favorite. It's so pretty especially at night.

Lily loves the carousel too. We rode it twice. Once at the very end of the evening. It was a beautiful way to finish our night. The had this really cool light show this year. I think it was new because I don't remember it from previous trips. It was amazing though. They had all these Christmas lights in a big field and they had them "dance" to Christmas music. Dance is the best word I could come up with to describe it. It was very cool. I would have taken pictures, but I wouldn't be able to do it justice and we didn't really stop to watch it. We just kind of enjoyed it as we walked around. I'm hoping to get a spring or summer trip to Dutch Wonderland in this year if anyone is interested. It's a relatively short drive.

Happy New Year

We went up to PA for our annual post-Christmas trip to Winter Wonderland. It's always fun. I really like that they celebrate Christmas with no apologies. I also love the atmosphere of the area. The Pennsylvania Dutch country is so interesting and peaceful. I'll post pictures when I have them uploaded.