Showin' the Love

Lily got these great window crayons from Grandma and Grandpa for Valentine's Day. She put them to good use today making a welcome home display for Ryan. Yes, that picture is from this afternoon and yes she is wearing her PJs. She has a fever and sore throat today, so we had a very relaxed PJ day.

This is what our finished creation looked like. Lily suggested she do the first letter and I do the second and that we switch back and forth for the whole sign. I started to say that wouldn't work because we would have to do all the letters backwards, but then I realized when I thought about the words we were using that most of her letters would end up being the same backwards and forwards. Wasn't that fortuitous?! I started out by doing one of her "e"s because I thought it was too hard to do backwards, but when we came to the second "e" that was hers she suggested that she could just do the upper case "E"--- brilliant! So that's what we did. As for that "N", well I started telling her about doing it backwards, but I stopped because "N"s can be confusing enough and I knew Ryan would know what it was supposed to be. That big heart on the top was Lily's idea, she decided everything about it and sent me for a stool so she could reach the perfect spot.

This is Ryan's reaction. I think he felt the love:-) Lily was so excited to do it and had so much fun with it. She even left "secret kisses" for Ryan. They are red ovals with her name written by them. I just love my kids. They are so awesome!

Lily-isms

She's outgrowing most of her cute little Lily specific mispronunciations and such, but some stick around to make me smile at all the special things that make her individual and unique.

Valen times Day- She was writing Valentine's Day cards in the other room. She ran and asked me...What letter says, "Eh"? When she figures out the answer she runs out. A few minutes later she runs back in and says, "how do you spell 'time'?"

High Sicle Musical  (1, 2 and 3 of course)

Princess Wii- Her Princess game for the Wii.  ie. "Mommy, will you play Princess Wii with me?"

Bikini bread = zucchini bread

bonus cute thing:
Tonight we said grace and Ryan started eating. Lily told him he couldn't eat yet? I reminded her that we said grace. She thought for a second and said, "We need to say 'Ah Pledge ma legiance' [The Pledge of Allegiance]  It's a special thing for Valentimes Day."

From Lily with Lof

Lily gave this paper to me two or three months ago. Of course I loved it and stored it away. After a while I thought about the fact that construction paper will fade and it won't last forever, so I scanned it. Once I scanned it I felt it was too precious to keep to myself. So now, I'm blogging it. She did this all by herself and surprised me. It was quite a surprise, too. She doesn't ever want to practice writing her letters and she really doesn't like to read any of the words at story time, except site words. I had a feeling she could do more than she was letting on, but I was so happy to see her taking an interest in writing. She did pretty well for stretch spelling and that's all they require in Kindergarten. She wrote her name at the top to indicate who it was from and she also wrote it on the back, but I didn't scan that. Then is says, "Momm I lof yoo." Which loosely translated means "Mommy, I love you. Love, Lily" So sweet. It's definitely among my favorite pieces of art at the moment.

Memories to be Tucked Away

• Today while Ryan was doing his homework Lily was playing pretend with Little People. He looked over at her and with a tilt of his head and the sweetest smile on his face said, "I love the way Lily plays."

• Lily came up to me and asked, "Mommy, how do Nemos kiss again?" I gave her a puzzled look and then as she stuck her little nose out as me and shook her little head back and forth I realized she meant Eskimo kisses. So I told her the proper term and she said, "Oh, okay." Pause "You be a Nemo and I'll be a Nemo and we'll do a kiss." LOL
• We went to pick out some gifts to send to a little girl in Kenya. Lily helped me pick out some hair things. She picked these beaded pony tail holders and some heart barrettes. I was good with the barrettes, but I tried to steer her away from the pony tail holders. They were just a little much in my opinion, but Lily really liked them. She held them in her hand and said in a kind of dreamy voice, "They are so pretty. They are like jewelry." I figured if she loves them that much Brenda might just like them, too.

Letter to Santa

Lily decided that she wanted to write a letter to Santa. [She's asking to put cookies out for Santa, too. I think she's getting these ideas from preschool because it's not something we talk about here. It's okay though when she asks we will tell her the truth just like we did with Ryan.] I was cooking dinner when she asked me to help her, so I asked Ryan if he would help her. He was sweet and helped his sister. He even helped her find an envelope and fold the paper so it would fit inside. She wanted to send her letter so badly. She wasn't sure how it would work...she had some Winnie the Pooh type ideas about the letter being carried to Santa by the wind. I convinced her that we should mail it and let the mailman take it. We missed the mailman the first day. I just didn't have the heart to keep putting her off, so I let her put it in the mailbox this morning before church. She was so excited she skipped to the mailbox giggling all the way. Quite possibly the cutest thing I've seen in months. She had a sparkly pink Santa hat on when she did it which just added to the cuteness. Such sweet memories! I love that girl!