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We are midway through a fine Labor Day Weekend here.  Yesterday we did some light speed-cleaning so we could enjoy a tidy house for the weekend.  We hit the Farmers’ Market early to pick up some tomatoes.  (Funny story about our garden of tomatoes this year….  We had so many for a bit that we found it hard to keep up with them.  Then the weedwacker broke, so Bill couldn’t get out to tend to the weeds that quickly engulfed the plants.  I started noticing that we had no tomatoes anymore, and I was getting frustrated because I usually enjoy running out to the backyard to pick a fresh tomato or two for salads or sandwiches, but there were none to be found anymore.  Then one day Bill was out back, with a borrowed weedwacker, and our neighbor behind us, an elderly gentleman, told Bill that he and his wife had been eating our tomatoes and squash, because it didn’t look like we were going to eat them.  What??  You can’t just pilfer your neighbors’ vegetable garden!  Bill plucked a ripe yellow cherry tomato off a plant — the ONLY ONE we’ve seen this year, and a variety that we were particularly excited to harvest — and our neighbor said, “Yeah, those ones are good.”  Crazy neighbors.  This is the same gentleman who walks his dog over to our property (ostensibly to “visit” the dog next door), then lets it poop on our side of the property line, without bothering to clean it up.  But, I’m way off topic here…)

Last night Bill and I had Date Night, which was great.  We went to a lovely Argentinian restaurant we’ve been wanting to try, Piropos, where we wined and dined outside on the patio.  After that we hit the nearby bowling alley for a few games (which I beat Bill in two out of three — no surprise).

Today we may sample one of the several Labor Day Weekend “fests” around town.  I know Labor Day supposedly signifies the unofficial end of summer, but I’m still clinging to the sights and smells of summertime.  I’m not quite ready to slip into a sweater and sip some hot cider yet (espeically not when it’s still close to 90 degrees out!).

Here’s a scene from our home this beautiful day: A load of clean diapers drying on the line…

Happy holiday weekend!

Lily’s communication skills are really picking up lately.  She still doesn’t attempt many words, but she is really running with the signs.  Basic signing with babies/toddlers has become pretty second nature to me in my work, since we often work with kiddos for whom spoken language is a challenge.  Signing is a great tool to help little ones express themselves before their verbal skills allow them to say all they are clearly wanting to say.  Bill and I actually weren’t too consistent with the signing early on, but more recently it seemed like a good idea because Lily obviously has things she needs to tell us, and the words just aren’t there yet.  We started with the basics: “more” and “all done.”  (The English teacher’s daughter in me cringes just a bit to use the phrase “all done” versus the correct “all finished,” but admittedly the word “finished” is a lot to ask of a one-year-old.)  Once Lily mastered those and got the idea that she could tell us something without her customary pointing and “eh, eh,” she seemed eager to try new signs.  Some of the signs we use are hand gestures, and some are mouth movements (like the opening/closing mouth for the word “fish”) or even sounds (like panting like a dog to indicate “dog”).  Lily now regularly expresses: more, all done, fish, dog, hat, phone, book, drink, pig, and rock-a-by baby (which sometimes means her doll and sometimes means she’s tired and wants me to put her to bed.  (She made this sign up herself, crossing her arms over her chest and rocking them side to side.  How adorable is that?  Oh, and it just so happens to be the usual sign for “baby,” so she’s clearly brilliant.)

Besides her communication, Lily truly amazes me daily with the things she does.  It’s just an incredible realization that your child has unique thoughts, is a problem solver, and volunteers affection, all at such a young age.  This person who was pretty much totally dependent on me for the first year of her life is now blossoming into an amazing individual.  I don’t control her, that’s for sure.  And she has already developed the “I can do it myself” attitude that I’ve been told I demonstrated as a child.  She routinely pushes my hands away if I try to step in to help her when she’s struggling with a task.  Today when we were participating in one of her favorite passtimes — playing in the car — she literally shoved me out of the car with both hands.  She will sometimes yank the shirt out of our hands as we attempt to dress her so that she can put it on herself (an uphill struggle, let me tell you — it’s going to be a while before she can get that shirt on, but she does NOT want any help).  One thing she does not mind my doing for her: holding the bottle.  She still takes a bottle before naps and bedtime, and she makes no attempt to hold it herself.  And I make no attempt to make her.  It is one little hold-over from her infancy that I’m not ready to give up.  A couple of nights ago, she finished the bottle and lay drowsy in my arms as I sang lullabies, and I just couldn’t put her down.  I watched her heavy eyelids close, her soft breathing became deep and regular, and still I sat gazing at her sweet face.  Sometimes she still looks just like that tiny baby I held in the hospital.  I rocked her and watched her until it was too dark to see, savoring every moment.  I don’t know how many more nights we may have like that.  Maybe quite a few, but eventually they will just be a memory, and I mean to keep that memory always.  My baby girl.

As Bill and I moved toward the car, we each stole a glance at the other.  Our shared expression was one of sadness…which softened to a small smile, then broadened to full grin as our steps quickened to the parked car.  Our first night together away from the baby!  Sure we were a little sad to leave her, but she was in Nana’s and Papa’s capable hands, and we could stay out until the wee hours, come home loud and raucous, sleep late.  Of course, we did none of those things, but it didn’t matter.  In 15 months, two weeks and three days, Bill and I had not had a night together without Lily, and the time had at last come.  We did indulge in a leisurely dinner out and a movie.  It was so strange in the morning to not be wakened by a crying child, but otherwise things were pretty much business as usual.  I picked her up at nine on the way to the gym.  This was a practice run for our big three nights away in September, when we go to Napa.  All went smoothly, thank goodness, so we can feel pretty comfortable about leaving her then.  I am so looking forward to this trip.  I just seem to get the travel bug periodically and need to go somewhere, and this will be our belated five-year anniversary celebration.

The weather has been pretty temperate for August, so we have been taking advantage by planning outdoor activities.  Today we ventured to the Deanna Rose Farmstead for an afternoon outing.  It is such a great place for kids to see farm animals up close and run off some energy around the beautiful grounds.  Lily, who seems to naturally love animals, enjoyed the baby goats most of all — probably because they are close to Angus-size.  (She is fully recovered from her rather traumatic experience in the petting zoo area at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, where several sizeable goats aggressively swarmed her stroller in search of a package of animal crackers we had forgotten were stashed underneath.  One goat actually placed its front hooves in the stoller — almost on Lily – to check for animal crackers in the cup holder.  Lily and I were both a bit shaken, and even Bill admitted later it was almost Hitchcock-esque the way they flocked and persisted.  But Lily does not hold grudges.  And the goats today were much smaller.)

And, completely unrelated, but here’s a pic I think is hilarious.  I’m pretty sure my parents have a very similar photo of me from way back when.  The girl loves shoes, even if they’re not hers.

As I mentioned in her 15-month update, Lily is talking a lot.  It just isn’t in any language we’ve ever heard.  Also, she is very into “reading,” meaning that anytime she sees text on a page she acts like she is reading it and jabbers away.  The other day we caught her on video:

Lily loves watching videos of herself.  Whenever she’s watching this one and it gets to the end where I say “Lily, say ‘Mommy,’ ” she always says “Daddy!” just like in the video.

Here are a few pics from our busy weekend.

Lily insists on holding Angus’ leash.

The August heat took a break this weekend, so we took advantage by getting out and about.  Lily had a great time at the Royals’ game Sunday, which we attended with a group from church — plenty of people to hold her and pass her around as she got squirmy!  I think her favorite part was the Dippin’ Dots.

Oh, and a quick addendum to the “15-Month Update:”  Just days after I reported Lily still just had eight teeth, several more started to make an appearance.  It now looks like she may soon double her tooth count, as eight more teeth are making themselves known.  Could make for a few wakeful nights!

I decided the monthly updates could slow to quarterly after the one-year mark, so that makes this the first update since Lily’s birthday.  How much she changes in just three months!  At 15 months, Lily:

• Goes pretty much everywhere she wants, except for up on the couch, because she’s just not quite tall enough to get up there!  (This frustrates her to know end.)  I don’t think we’ve seen her crawl in the last two months, unless she is trying to get under something.  She moves pretty fast, but I wouldn’t call it running yet.
• Still has the same eight teeth she had before she turned one, but no more.
• Has finally decided she will drink milk afterall, following a couple of months of refusal.  This is good, because she still hardly eats anything.  I read somewhere that a toddler only needs to eat one tablespoon of food for each year of life, at each meal.  That would mean Lily needs to eat one tablespoon of food at each meal, and I’m not sure she’s quite hitting that goal.  Actually, she will typically eat pretty well at one meal a day, but she will sometimes refuse to eat anything at all at other mealtimes.  She emphatically signifies the completion of a meal by tearing off her bib and signing “all done.”  There will be no more bites after this point.  *Sigh*  I think we may face this challenge for years to come.  In spite of her air diet, Lily has hit something of a growth spurt.  We had her in to the pediatrician’s office twice in 10 days during the time she was sick, and in that time she gained 10 ounces!  So at 14.5 months, she was 16 lb 6 oz.  We keep trying to bribe her to eat by telling her that she can face forward in her carseat as soon as she hits 20 lbs.
• As for what Lily eats, she wants whatever we’re eating.  And I mean exactly what we’re eating — not just a bite, not the same food cut into manageable pieces, but food removed from our plates onto hers.  Currently, Lily is into banana pancakes that Mommy pumped up with flax meal (gotta pack in the calories!), scrambled eggs, broccoli, french fries, crackers, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, yogurt, cheese, chicken.  She does not seem to like any fruits at all.  She does like ice cream, and the pediatrician says she can have it pretty much everyday for the calories.  Lucky girl.
• Talks a blue streak, just not in English.  Bill thinks it sounds like Swahili.  It’s hilarious.  As for actual words, she is selective.  She tends to adopt a favorite, use it frequently, then choose a new one and drop the other completely.  For the last few months, she said “Daddy” non-stop.  A few days ago, she started saying “Mommy,” and now Bill and I are both Mommy.  It is also her cry of anguish, her tired whine, and request for someone to reach something for her.  Her other words are shoes (pronounced “shuss”), hi, and eye, accompanied by a poke in your eye socket.  She also signs “more” and “all done,” and has recently started signing “fish” (by silently opening and closing her mouth like a fish does) and “phone” (by placing her palm to the side of her face as though holding a phone).  I had been a little inconsistent with the signing, but now I’m realizing it may be a very good option for her, since she just doesn’t seem to be attempting phonics right now.  I would be a bit concerned with her limited vocabulary, except that she seems to understand so much of what we’re saying.  The other day I told her to go get her “Wheels on the Bus” book, and she went to her playroom, sorted through a pile of books, and brought back the correct book.
• Loves purses or anything that resembles a purse.  If it has a strap, she pulls it up on her shoulder and is ready to go.  If I tell her it’s time to go bye-bye, she goes to her shoe cabinet and gets a pair of shoes (usually her black patent Mary Janes), then sits down and wants me to put them on her.  Then she will go get my shoes and attempt to put them on my feet.  Once we both have shoes on, she goes to the back door and reaches for the keys that hang on a hook there.  Sometimes she remembers to grab her purse.  Then she stands by the back door, pointing to go out.
• Wants to spend all of her free time playing in the car.  I oblige, because I think she is just desperate to see some part of the car besides the back seat.  Since it has been so hot, we have to go out early in the morning to play.  She knows which key opens the Toyota, and she can almost get the key in the lock.  If I hold her up so she can reach, she can open the door herself.  Once in the car, she wants help to put the key in the ignition so I will turn the car on and she can play with the radio buttons and such.  She would happily spend hours in there, I’m sure, but my limit is about 45 minutes.  However long I let her play, it’s never long enough, and she is sad to go back in the house.
• Plays with her toys if someone will play with her.  We are trying to work on the “independent play” concept.  Slow going.  Her favorite toys are her doll, her teddy bear, books, purses, any phone she can get her hands on, her rocking horse, and Angus.  She loves to try to chase Angus or give him his toys or treats, and she also tries to climb on him and ride around (which Angus tolerates, but only to a point before he just gets up and moves away).  She is very sweet about patting him, and she is usually very gentle.
• Has learned to take off her diaper (if she’s in a disposable).  Oh no.  The good news is, as long as she has pants on over her diaper, she doesn’t mess with it (yet).

Ah, well, that’s probably enough for now.  If you’re still reading this, you are either (a) a true Lily fan or (b) me, three months from now, because she changes so fast I have to review the blog to remember what she was like back then.