It is hard to believe that we have gone from this:
To this:
To This:
She looks unhappy in this picture, but she really does love her new booster seat. She is excited to get in it each time that we get in the car. The plus for her is that she can unbuckle herself when we arrive someplace and that there is space to lean your head when she wants to take a rest - her old carseat didn't have that.
Lilly has always been a littler slower than most children her age when it comes to physical development. She didn't walk until close to 15 months and she never was one to really climb on things. Alot of times when it comes to physical activities she is very hesitant at first - jumping on a trampoline, jumping in a bounce castle, riding a bike, etc. I have noticed lately that all the things I remember her being scared to do, she is excited about doing them now. This is one of those things where I have to stop and think to myself, "When did she stop being afraid of that?" or "I can't believe she is that good at ______ now! I thought she'd never get it."
Here are a few examples:
Climbing on this web thing at the park
climbing on the obstacle course - I was amazed at how fast she was
Hula hooping is one that she is still trying to get, but I can imagine in a year or so she will catch on and then I'll think the same thing - "when did she learn how to do that?"
My daughter loves Zoobilee at the Houston Zoo. It is a member's only event that we have been able to go to for the past 2 years. Her favorite part is seeing the young dancers dressed up like various animals all around the park. I was a little nervous this year because since we had only been one other time, I wasn't sure if the dancers were a regular thing or just something they had that one time. When we first arrived, we did not see the dancers and I knew she was going to be disappointed if they weren't there. After waiting a few minutes they began to show up, first the giraffe and then a whole bunch of others. Her smile when seeing them was awesome and heart warming.
Zodiac animal heads exhibit outside the zoo - interesting.
Train ride around the park while we waited for Zoobilee to begin
My sweet girl heard this song from some website and sang it over and over and over again in the car. I finally took a video of her singing it, thinking that she would stop afterwards - nope! She continued to sing it over and over again until my husband and I had to say enough. :)
I've mentioned several times how my daughter loves to create. She loves being called an artist and working on her art. That being said, we have art work everywhere! We have art from church, Bible study, home and art that friends have given her.
My first plan was this - I gave her a box and said if she wanted to keep the art, it had to go in the box. Then, at the end of each month or two, we would go through the box together and pick out the 5 pieces we liked the best to keep. She got to pick 5 and I got to pick 5 (because sometimes her 5 were not the best, in my opinion).
Recently, we went about 5 months before sorting through the box. This time I told her that the ones she picked had to be super special to her or show her best art work. Well, I was getting a little frustrated at the fact that she wanted to keep pieces that had 2 squiggly lines on it. I know I shouldn't judge what an "artist" considers her best, but I was like, "really, you want to keep that one?"
So, I chose a plan B, I decided to take a picture of all the art work and then put it all in file 13. Lilly was okay with this only because I let her take the pictures - most of them. Here are some samples of her artwork. :)
Since we have had our dead tree cut down, Lilly and her friends have had a great time being able to play in our backyard. They dig in the mulch, find bugs, etc. This one day, several of her friends were over and I was intrigued by watching the way they entertained themselves.
The boys sat for a good 30 minutes, just covering and uncovering a car with mulch.
The girls were busy filling there baggies with "nature things." Later, they called the bags their "desert bags."
I just thought it was so interesting how easily kids will be kids if we let them. They will find a way to occupy their time and they don't always need some planned activity.
We have an XBox Kinect. Not too long ago, Lilly and I rented this game called Kids Dance Party 2. It was so fun, for both of us, that we deicided to purchase the game. Lilly's friends were over, and they were so stinking cute playing the game that I just had to take a short video. Enjoy!
