East Coast Trip Charleston Fun

Here are a few pictures of the fun Lilly and I had while we were visiting Charleston, SC.

For my birthday, we went to the SC Aquarium, which I had never been to before.  We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the Madagascar exhibit and learning about the lemurs.

Enjoying a dinner at the Okra Grill - another yummy place to eat in Chas.

During one of the hot days, right after church, we decided to be tourists downtown.  Lilly had loads of fun playing in the foutains - even without a bathing suit. :)

East Coast Trip Car Troubles

While we were in SC, we made arrangements to go have lunch with a couple who are like grandparents to me.  They are awesome!  I went to their house and we were going to follow each other to the nearby Olive Garden.  I got in my car, drove down the street and something wasn't right.  The car wouldn't show any speed and it kept saying I didn't have my seat belt on when I clearly did.  At the stop sign I decided to turn it off and start it up again, that made it worse.  Every time I put it into any gear it made a loud clunking sound.  Obviously something was wrong, but thankfully Lew and Kathy were right behind me.  They pulled over and helped me get the car back to their house.  They entertained Lilly while I called around to have it towed to the mechanic.  They drove me back to my dad's house at the end of the day and then continued to help and over advice throughout the whole ordeal. Nobody ever wants to have car troubles, but if I had to have them on the trip this was probably the best place and way it could have happened.  The mechanic that ended up fixing my car was amazing, he worked when he should have been off because he knew I was from out of town and he wanted to get me on my way as soon as possible.  I think Kathy, Lew, and the mechanic were all angels for me.  Just like this song by David LaMotte - "We Are Each Other's Angels"

 

 

East Coast Trip Part 1

In July, Lilly and I went on a Mommy/Daughter adventure....we drove from our house in TX to the east coast of the USA.  Our trip included many stops, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida.  All in all in took us 3 weeks for the whole trip.

Prior to the trip, I looked up all kinds of games and ideas for traveling with a preschooler on pinterest.  Needless to say, the backseat was full of stuff for Lilly to do:  playdoh, pipe cleaners and beads, baby dolls, books, stickers, markers, books on tape, and we even borrowed a portable DVD player (which came in very handy).    She played with everything the first 2 hours of the trip, but then the rest of the time she rotated between 3 things - her baby dolls, the DVD player, and to my surprise just the pipe cleaners (not the beads).  She spent lots of time, just bending those pipe cleaners into various things - some recognizable, some not so much. :)  So, I am reminding myself that the next time we take a long road trip, I don't need to pack all that stuff just a few things are fine along with some snacks, of course.


Because the trip took 3 weeks and we saw quite a few people, I have a ton of pictures, so I am going to try and narrow them down to share on the blog.

Day 1:
Drove to Mandeville, Louisiana to have lunch with Karie, Thomas, and Keira.  It was great to see them again and give Keira her birthday present.  Can't believe she is 1 already!  I didn't have my charger to my camera so unfortunately there are no pictures from this visit. :(

After having lunch, we continued on to Cummings, Georgia which is right outside of Atlanta to stay the night with my good friend Janet and her family.  (thanks, Janet, for taking these pictures)  Our visit with them was short, but it was long enough to enjoy some yummy pancakes and play a few games of Candy land, Dora style.  :)

Noelle, Caroline, Lilly and Me

Me and Janet

Day 2:

Left Janet's house and drove to Charleston, SC where we spent several days with my Dad, Debbie (or Missy as Lilly calls her) and Scott. 

 

Playing Candy land with Uncle Scott

 

Sitting outside Sullivan's - a delicious seafood place

 

Shopping with Grandpop

 

Eating at Sullivan's

 

Watching a little TV with Grandpop

 

While in Charleston, we also got to see my Aunt Susan and Cousin Beth who flew in from Nebraska.  This is a picture Lilly took, not the best. :)

 

My Aunt Ginger and I - also taken by Lilly

 

Ready for the beach

 

Sullivan's Island Beach on July 4th

 

Pulling Bowers on the boogie board

 

Exploring the whole, Aunt Susan made in the sand for Beth's pregnant belly

 

 

 

Going to watch the fireworks on Isle of Palms

 

Playing in the water with Grandpop

 

 

Waiting for the fireworks

 

Sandy girl

 

Grandpop held her ears through the whole firework show



Love Language

Ever heard of the Love Language books by Gary Chapman?  I have read bits and pieces of them over the years and my husband and I have both taken the quizzes to determine our top love languages.  Well, recently I came across a copy of The five Love Languages of Children which I had bought several years ago but never read.  I decided to orally give my daughter the assessment in the back of the book just to see what her love languages might be.  Here are two of the questions (the child has to pick which one they'd rather somebody say to them):
Give me a hug! or You are terrific!
I've got a special birthday present for you! or I'll help you with your project.

There are 20 questions like this and after every 5 or so, Lilly would say, "I'm picking the fun one aren't I?"  :)

Well, after all the questions were answered, I tallied up the scores and figured out that her love languages ranked in this order:
1) Gifts (what 4 year old doesn't like to get gifts)
2) Quality time
3) Words of Affirmation
4) Acts of service
5) Physical touch

I wasn't really surprised by the results of this assessment, but it has helped me to be more aware of how I show love to my precious daughter.  For example, we went on a walk the other day (with our new puppy) and she had done such a great job of staying with me and not complaining that I decided to tell her.  I said, "You are doing such a great job at staying with Mommy and helping me with Lucy, thank you!"  You would not believe the smile on her face and then she kept saying, "I'm doing such a good job at obeying you and listening, aren't I?"  or "God wants us to obey our parents and I'm obeying you, Mommy, and you are one of my parents, right?"  "Will you tell Daddy how good I did on the walk, Mommy, that I didn't complain and that I listened to you?"  She was loving the praise I gave her and you could tell.  Note to self - continue to give her this positive praise so that she knows how much I love her.

I Don't Want to Leave

Recently, I think we are reverting to a stage I do not wish to repeat.  If you have young children, you might remember the stage where they would cry every time you left the park or a friend's house or any place they were really enjoying themselves.  We went through that phase and now, unfortunately, I think we are back there.  In the past week or so every time we have left a park, pool, or friends house Lilly has had a melt down.  The crying goes on forever and it is a tired cry.  I thought maybe she wasn't getting enough sleep, but she is getting 10+ hours a night so I don't know.  It is frustrating for me to see her so distraught over leaving some place especially when she was having so much fun and now I am the cause of her sadness.  My mom suggests I don't  make a big deal of it, so I guess I will do that...reminding myself that "This to shall pass." 

Hello Kitty Ring and Husbands

For some reason my daughter likes to bring up the topic of husbands and marriage quite often.  Sometimes, I think it is too often for a 4 year old.  However, when she brings it up, it reminds to pray for her future husband - that he will be a God-fearing man, love Lilly very much, be a family man, and be able to provide for his family, etc. 

The other day, she mentioned that when she does get married she wants her husband to buy her a Hello Kitty Ring as her wedding ring.  I told her that I would write that down to tell him when we meet him. :)

While we were on our trip to SC, we spent some time at my Dad's house.  My 15 year old brother lives there and Lilly absolutely loved spending time with him.  During our visit, she decided she was going to marry my little brother.  More recently, we had a conversation about who she could and couldn't marry.  She asked if she could marry Scott (my brother), Grandpop, Daddy, and a whole list of other relatives.  I told her you can't marry anybody who has the same blood as you and went on to explain that she has some of my blood, her daddy's blood, her grandparent's blood, etc.  She looked at me with an expression that told me she thought I was out of my mind. 

So, then I went on to name all of her friends who were an option for her to possibly marry one day.  I think she is beginning to get it, but I think she needs a little more information on the "blood" thing.

Lucy

My husband surprised us last weekend with a trip to the pet store.  He told me just a few hours before that he wanted to go and get a dog.  I was totally shocked because we had been asking for a pet for months and his answer was always no.  Anyways, we kept the pet shopping a surprise for Lilly until we arrived at the store.  Even after we announced that we were going to get a dog, she looked at us and replied, "A real one?" "Are you sure?"  She could not believe we were really going to do it.

We had a great time picking one out of the selection available.  We asked lots of questions and played with a few and finally decided on our black lab, pit bull mix - Lucy.  She is super sweet and fairly calm for a 6 month old puppy.  Of course, she likes lots of attention so she tends to want to be in the center of us.  When we are putting Lilly to bed, Lucy wants to be in the middle.  When we are watching TV or reading she wants to be right on top of us.  Lilly loves having her around.  She enjoys feeding her and giving her treats and even telling her "NO" when Lucy is into something she shouldn't be. 

It is super cute to watch the two "sisters" (this is what we have started calling them) play together.

Gymnastics

Before summer began, my husband and I talked about wanting Lilly to involved with some physical activity once the school year began.  We looked into several programs and narrowed it down to soccer or gymnastics.  Both sports had equal number of pros and cons on our list, so I took the decision to my daughter.  She immediately decided on gymnastics. 

In the past month or so, I have signed her up for the class and even though she didn't have to have it to take the class, we bought her a gymnast leotard.  She loves the leotard and is super excited to start her class - we are counting down the days.

I am praying she will love the class.  I have one little concern though and it is that Lilly thinks she is already supposed to know all the moves before she gets to the class.  I am hoping that she doesn't get frustrated if she can't do a certain more, but we have talked about it often so prayerfully, that will not be the case.  Even if she does get frustrated, I know this class is going to be a lesson in perseverance - sticking with it. 

Here are a few pictures of my sweet girl showing off her leotard:

Zip Line

We have been moving furniture around at our house and so things have been a little chaotic lately.  When I get started on projects like that, I tend to just want to finish no matter what the cost (not eating, not playing with my daughter, etc). 

The other day, I could tell that Lilly just wanted me to play with her so I took an idea I had seen on pinterest that day and decided to give it a try. 

It was a zip line for stuffed animals/baby dolls. 

First we got a piece of fishing wire we had lying around (not sure why).  We tied one end of the string to the balcony on the 2nd floor and the other end to a table leg.  Next, we used a skirt hanger with 2 clips on it so secure a stuffed animal to the hanger.  Lastly, we hung the hanger on the wire and let it go. 

It was a pretty fun little project that kept Lilly entertained for a while.  She loved switching out the animals and watching them zoom down  the line.