The end of the month

I wouldn't necessarily suggest working on twenty projects all at once as I have been doing, but we have accomplished quite a bit in the past few days including
1. hanging out with my mama (may 27)
2. catching BaBa making ridiculous faces while attempting to pick up his granddaughter.
3. and hanging out with friends (happy birthday Maya!)
4. enjoying a Memorial Day parade (May 28)
5. and cutting down a tree
6. and painting the kitchen table and chairs (work in progress)
7. replacing light bulbs (it's big because a ladder was involved)
8. going to the park (May 29)
9. organizing craft room
10. watching a movie in the middle of the day (May 30)...yeah lots of guilt about that one but come on, it was Notting Hill.
10. tearing down lots and lots of wallpaper (work in progress)
11. going swimming
12. lots and lots of laundry
13. and finally, lots of playing with this little girl (May 31)
And let me just tell you a bit about what this little girl has been doing. She knows what a cow says "moooooo," she (kinda) knows what a lion says "WHOA!" she knows what a sheep says "ehehehehe," she knows how old she will be on her birthday "twooooo," she can go to the fridge and find the picture of Jenya and Mama, Grandma and BaBa, baby Lily, Jen and Marie, and many others. She can say "MEEEEEEE" when she sees a picture of herself. She can say "Mor Mor." She has the ability to take her pj top off and put the neck hole around her waist-GREAT. She LOVES The Fratellies. She has started saying two words together like "Hi Daddy!" and "oh my." And she has started singing the Alphabet song. And all of this has happened in the past two weeks or so. I believe this is what we call a vocabulary explosion :)

Almost all caught up Vol 3

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to you! So how 'bout another installment of pictures. Did I lose you all? I know, I know bad blogger. Perhaps I will think about a little RAK to make up for my bad blogginess. I owe you for sticking around I think. So here goes...I think I will finally be all caught up.
May 23
First of all, Happy Birthday Maddie! I hope you had a wonderful day. Lily is waiting expectantly at her new table for you to come have a tea party with her.
May 24
So I am embarrassed to say that I own this book. And have read it. More than once. Actually more than twice. And now it seems Lily has taken it up as her summer reading.
May 25
We are lucky enough to live in a city that has weekly music festivals during the summer-this week they featured a Led Zeppelin cover band. So of COURSE Lily had to wear her shirt to support the band. Now I personally am NOT a Zeppelin fan but her Daddy is and he claims that she likes to dance to Zeppelin but I know she just secretly does that to make him happy. I know for a fact that her favorite band right now is The Fratelliesd. What can I say. This girl has taste. ANyway, this is Lily going crazy with her sign for "splish splash." The have a great interactive fountain downtown and she LOVED it.
May 26
We like to take photo booth pictures whenever we can. Please excuse my turtle neck and the fact that it looks like I am biting Bj's ear off in photo number three. Lesson learned.

A little less behind Vol. 2

May 16
My kitchen sink. A little challenge that I am SO behind on. But I just had to take this picture because I HAVE KEPT A PLANT ALIVE. And it is doing well! And it has been at least three years I think. So what else is in this picture of interest. Well my sink filled with dishes? Yes I could have emptied it, but it is just more real. See I don't have a dishwasher, correction, I am the dishwasher. I am always in a constant state of cleaning, drying, or putting away. Next are the bottles on the ledge. Water in those bottles come from *gulp* all over the world. Yes in one is foreign soil from Germany. Smuggled in. Oops. And then there is the strip of no wallpaper. I DO NOT like wallpaper. Especially this wallpaper. So today I started picking. At this rate I will be done by 2009.
May 17
Grumpy McGrumperson.
May 18
Proof of how weird Bj and I are. We leave each other odd messages with Lily's letters on the bathroom wall. This is a Bj original.
May 19
Me and Shelly. One of my dearest friends. One of my biggest supporters. And one of the coolest rockstars out there.
May 20
And once again I prove to my neighbors how crazy I we are. I have come out with so many weird outfits in every house I have ever lived in. That's what you get for being a showchoir/latinclub/madrigal singing/choir singing girl. Oh yeah and a scrapbooker. We can't forget the crazy photo sessions that has caused. Anyway, this is my VOCI dress. I had one of the most fun and challenging concerts ever today. I sang the soprano solo for Rutter's Mass of the Children. It was such an amazing experience. I wish I could do this all the time...and maybe I will make this wish come true.
May 21
Oh look Rachel did have her baby! Welcome Brady-you are adorable...and look just like your Mama :)
May 22
Ready 4 Bed and DEFINITELY feeling better.

Behind in every way Vol. 1

So. I bet you are wondering where I have gone. Did I forget that I had a blog? No. I just seem to be behind in every single way. And unfortunately it is not all trip related. Nope. It is a very sick little pumpkin, work and the fact that I have twenty million projects around the house that I want/need to do. And I seem to want to do them all at once. I am writing list after list, and just so you know blogging has been on the list. AND I did try to blog yesterday. Spent about two hours trying to get my pictures on this thing but unfortunately they are once again doing the whole have to tilt your head to the right thing. So I thought about putting them all in flickr. But alas too many. So I decided to photoshop them with my zero photoshopping skills. Nope. After some other attempts I gave up, but I figured it out. Just rotate each and every one in iphoto and POOF. They are straight. So enough boring stuff. Grab your Dr Peppers ladies and gentlemen...you are going to be here for a while.
May 12
The VERY preggo Rachel Marquette. Wonder if this baby will ever be born;)
May 13
Happy Mother's Day AND introducing Jordyn Jebber. Now SHE is a itty bitty newborn unlike my TEN POUND niece ;)
May 14
Well my second mother's day ever turned out to be NOT fun. Lily got sick. REALLY sick. Throwing up, fever, coughing, sneezing, crying and not sleeping until 5am kind of not fun. As Lily NEVER gets sick like this. We felt like new parents. Really, really tired new parents. Lots of tv and cuddling on the couch today for the Taylor trio...but these flowers make me feel just a little better.
May 15
Well she is feeling a little bit better but not much. Lily has decided to make her mama a little more freaked out and stop eating. And drinking. And all the things you do after eating and drinking. Oh and this is Lily's new favorite thing to do-play dress up.

Home

We made it. HOME. Got home last night at about 1am and to our surprise Daddy AND Grandpa (or Ba Ba as Lily calls him now) were waiting for us at the airport. The trip went pretty well yesterday but for the record...
1. Lily does NOT like fruit snacks. Huh. I thought they were baby crack.
2. Little people books about the zoo with a million flaps to lift up are the greatest invention ever.
3. So are slinkies.
4. If you put your chair all the way back even before we take off and are sitting in front of a two year old and huff and puff and give dirty looks to her Mama who is getting kicked and scratched and her hair pulled because she is trying so hard to keep your chair from being kicked well you almost deserve to have your chair kicked.
5. Chivalry is not dead-at least if you are in the military. At the check-in at the airport Matt saw a woman struggling to move her very heavy bags while carrying a small child and went over to help her...while everyone else stood watching. And a very special thank you to the soldier who saw that I was struggling and carried my carseat to the bathroom so I could change Lily's diaper, waited outside for me, then walked me back to my gate. You rock sir.
6. Bj said it best in one of the emails he sent me while I was gone..."I feel homesick without you, as though my home is wherever you are." I have never been so glad to be home.

A very, VERY excited Gracie

And a very cute baby Bee :)

She's here. :)

Bridget Sophia Dillow
TEN pounds 4ozs
21 inches long
born 1:56PM
Lots of dark brown hair that will most likely fall out and turn blondie blondie.
Pictures soon :)

Beautiful

I'm so glad that Lily has lost her grumpiness and has returned to her normal happy self. She is just beautiful :)
And hey, for the record, STILL NO BABY.

Still no baby

Yeah, you read that right. Nada. Aunt Marie is going to be a bit miffed if she is not able to see "Rumpie" until August. MIFFED.
To move things along I thought I would check into some "speed it up now" methods. So here is the weirdest ten on tuesday ever.
1. Eat spicy foods or pineapple. Pineapple? Seriously?
2. Go for a walk or march up some stairs. March? Ok.
3. Castor Oil
4. Talk to your baby.
5. Shhhhhh...s-e-x...
6. Unripe papaya may cause early labor...
7. Accupressure
8. Accupuncture
9. Hibachi Japan on a full moon (hey worked for me!)
10. Fearing your sister may explode if she doesn't get to meet this baby before she leaves.

And now for the photo of the day. Maddie and Gracie. Although it may look like an all out WWE wrestling match, this was actually a giggling fest of hugs. Gosh these girls are cute :)

Labour Day

Oh not for anyone here, but in Australia (thanks Nadine) at least. I can't believe this baby is offically late. All I can say is I better hold new baby before I leave or I am going to be one miffed aunt.

So here is everything that I have done so far while here in California. I have been a busy girl :)

Reading

So things are going much better here-only took thirteen days for Lily to get out of Grumpy McGrumperson mode and into fun laughing, giggling, smiling, happy Lily mode. We had a fabulous time going to the park today. Lily has gotten over her fear of slides and went down the twisty tunnel at the big kids park about twenty times. This summer is going to be fun :)

Hi Da!

Five on Friday and Photo of the Day

How about a little picture bonus?
1. From day one of our trip...this didn't last long as Lily is about the only kid in the world who doesn't like cartoons. Just not interested
2. Cousins don't shake hands, cousins gotta hug
3. They lasted all of about five minutes, but they sure were cute while they were in
4. It's not all grumpy faces from Lily...hey Dada I think we need one of these tent things :)
5. The photo of the day, Maddie enjoying some super yummy brownies after a few games of "No, sorry I don't have it" (Go Fish)

Rasta Lily

and no I'm not home, but Katherine had a better way of posting pictures
and a bonus picture just for her daddy...although she has refused mac and cheese, hot dogs, pasta, any and all veggies, apples and oranges, the girl loves chocolate banana pancakes...

Sigh...the face

So here is the face we have been seeing so frequently while here in CA. *sigh*

Ten on Tuesday/Photo a day in the month of May

So how about a little update? Things are going better here for Lily, although she has been spending quite a lot of time in the trouble chair, but only once today for hitting so there is improvement. The biggest problem now is having to stay in her room until she falls asleep which can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. Or two. My mind wanders while sitting in the dark. So here is my new version of Ten on Tuesday...
1. It is impossible for me to lay on a bed in the dark for more than 30 minutes without falling asleep.
2. Lily snores. Loudly.
3. I wonder how far the renovations on the Target have gotten.
4. I wonder how many leaves are on the trees? Did I completely miss Ohio spring?
5. I wonder what this baby's name is? I think probably not Rumplestilskin or Rumpie for short.
6. I wonder if E will ever actually have this baby.
7. Little girls sure are fun. But they sure do wear me out ;)
8. I need to look up the words to Fifty Nifty U-nited States and teach it to Maddie. (And yes, I do realize it is just the states alphabetically...)
9. I miss my M & D
10. And my dear husband.
Bonus: And all my friends.
Bonus number two: Photo of the Day for the month of May. Maddie dancing to my Shenanigan's CD...I highly recommend.