A busy weekend...

So, this weekend, we hosted a super fun baby shower for my friend Sarah (our first real event at our new house!), we picked Katie up from my Dad and Colleen's farm, we (I) decorated the house for Christmas, and even got to see my grandparents for a few minutes. You can see in the photos that Roxanne was very excited to have Katie back. In the photo with both of them, Roxanne is trying to simultaneously pet and try to get Katie to dance with her. We have an iPod doughnut that Mike gave us when we moved into our last apartment, and it's been getting a LOT of use in our new house, too. We often listen to music in the living room and have family dance parties, so that's what we were doing when Roxanne was trying to get Katie to dance. We've been listening to Christmas music, but the Squirrel Nut Zippers Christmas album is the house favorite. At least for dancing... We also listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas album a lot, but it's for dinner time. There's too many low key songs for dance parties.

I'm rambling... So yes, I'll post photos on the house blog of our Christmas decorations as well as some photos from the baby shower. I felt so grown up hosting an actual gathering! Roxanne apparently thought it was the best thing ever and flirted tirelessly with everyone.

We took Roxanne to see Santa today, and it was kind of a let down. She basically just looked slightly freaked out when I set her in Santa's lap, but not enough to cry or anything, just enough to make a zombie face in all the photos. We went to North Dekalb Mall, and since it was almost 6 when we went (closing time) I think everyone involved was just kind of "phoning it in." The Santa was very sweet though, and good with Roxanne, but no matter how many times I gently corrected him, he kept talking to Roxanne like she was a boy. Poor Roxanne. At least she knew about all the toys he was asking about. He asked if she wanted a "Thomas the Train," or a ball or some trucks. Of course, Roxanne kept saying "yes!" to all of these, since that what she plays with at work. Ben has a huge train table with Thomas trians, and Roxanne really does like it. Maybe I should start bringing a tutu to work for her to wear sometimes... But still, she was pretty zombied out overall. And I had put her in her one and only Christmas shirt with a pretty little felt poinsetta on it, and Santa let her have a huge sticker before the photo shoot, and she of course put it right over the flower. Sigh. I'll try and post the Santa photo later. I'm tempted to take her to a different Santa and just not buy any photos. It's totally annoying that you can't use your personal camera, but I guess that's the only way they make money.

I just have to say, we are really enjoying our home. It's just nice to be able to spend time together here. Justin and Roxanne have been playing a lot in the playroom with the Kinex that Kendree passed on to us, and it's so cute to hear them in there. The cutest is when Roxanne walks up to Justin and says "come play with me Dada!" and drags him into the playroom. Last Sunday we were all able to play in Justin's "music room" in the basement for a while and make silly music. And Justin and Roxanne played ball in the backyard last weekend, too. It's just such a nice change from our old apartment, where we felt so cramped that we often wanted to spend most of our time out of the house. We really are lucky.

We hope everyone had a great weekend!

The tantrum thrower

Whew. Terrible twos have arrived. As any member of my family can attest to... She was a doll at Thanksgiving at Pop Pop and Yaya's farm, but that was mainly because random strangers were apparently giving her chocolate through most of the event. But we went to Callaway on Saturday to be with my mom's side of the family (lots of us nowadays!) and Roxanne had several full-on meltdowns. She likes to lay on the floor in public places when she's throwing these fits. It's really charming. On the "Magical Night of Lights" tour, she threw a prolonged fit because Justin wouldn't let her climb under the bench of our moving trolley car. Before that, she had been totally mesmerized by the lights. We still had a great time, but I think maybe some of the other people on the train might have felt differently... :) In any case, we are hoping this phase ends soon. Ugh.

Not to be too negative. She's doing lots of really super cute new things, and her talking is still getting better and better. She says really hilarious things all the time. Her favorite phrase right now is "I don't like ____." Justin is convinced that it came from him reading her Green Eggs and Ham but I don't know. It kind of seems like a normal step in development. She often says that she doesn't like things, and then five seconds later she says, "I do like ____!" about whatever it was she was talking about before. Which supports the green eggs and ham thing. The only real downside to that is that sometimes she says she doesn't like Dada, or kisses, or whatever nice thing that she is currently grumpy with. We always tell her that she shouldn't say those things, but it's always hard to tell what is getting through. The most noticeable thing about her personality these days is that she's very sassy. Cute, but sassy. She thinks it's hilarious to be contrary. And it usually is...

In other news, we are still trying to get settled into the house. We are really loving it, but there are a million little projects we need to work on. We are obssessing over each detail since we hope that these things will be in place for a very very long time. I'm working on my graduate school application, and I'm officially locked in, since I've registered to take the GRE on January 8. That is one expensive test... Justin has been stressed at work, but at least it should slow down once the holidays roll around.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Princess Haircut

So, Roxanne had a great time at Ms. Lisa's. It took a little while for her to get comfortable but then she was pretty good. Ms. Lisa is really amazing at her job. Maybe it's because she has five kids of her own... Her sign even says "Screamers are welcome" when you walk in. She told me that when she took a career aptitude test, it told her she should do something like parachute jumping. I think that's definitely the same level of anxiety as toddler haircuts. But she definitely is lovely and makes you feel like your child is an angel. Which I could maybe have believed if Roxanne wasn't swatting at her so often. But, between a well-timed lollipop, an episode of Sesame Street, and a warm up playtime on a Lego table, she did fine. And her hair is so cute! We told Ms. Lisa that we thought Roxanne would look cute with a bob and short bangs, but we weren't sure that it would work for her. But she agreed right away and said that she needed a European haircut to go with her hip style. :) Again, she knows what to say... So anyways, enjoy the photos!

Roxanne's first haircut

I can't believe she is almost 2! I made an appointment for her first haircut on Saturday morning. She's going to see "Ms. Lisa" in downtown Decatur. We've heard a lot of amazing things about her, and Ben actually got his haircut with her last weekend. So hopefully it will go well. I don't want to chop it short, but it just needs a little shaping. She has a mullet. Apparently Ms. Lisa is great at cutting kids hair while they squirm and scream, and based on my last attempt at trimming her bangs out of her eyes, she will be doing both. She only charges $15 for little ones, so as long as we don't make this a regular thing, I think it will be fine. I'm totally going to bring the camera and take pictures of her while she's getting it cut. I'm so excited!

In other news, we've been getting things back on track with her sleeping, since we were a MESS with all of the moving. She's been sleeping through the night for the last couple of nights, which has been wonderful. I've got a cold that I can't seem to shake, and Roxanne seems to be in the last few days of hers. I guess it's just that time of year!

In Roxanne news, she is talking more and more every day. She is getting easier to understand, too. She has really been loving playing pretend, especially taking play food and "feeding" Ben's stuffed animals. The cutest is this GIANT teddy bear that Ben has in his room. She snuggles up and sits in his lap and offers him plastic hot dogs and tea. She sings to him sometimes, too. She has started giving silly responses all by herself, too. Today, she was putting her fingers in her ears, and I asked her if she had something in them, and she said "uuuuh, monkey tails!" And if you ask her what she has in her mouth, she sticks out her tongue and says "aaaaaah, a tongue." It would be sassy if it weren't just toddler honesty.

She has been enjoying "Roxanne's house" a lot. I bought her a cheapie baby doll stroller on Sunday, and she pushes her babies around the house non-stop now. Her other favorite home activities are painting and playing with her weebles. She and Justin like to throw balls around, too, especially at the blow-up hedge hog that she sits on in the living room. She will throw a ball at it, and then say "Mama, throw ball at hedgehog's face" in a very sad tone. Then I tell her it's OK, and she giggles like a maniac. Ah. Important life skills I'm imparting... :)

Finally! Photos!

I totally would like to blame my lack of photos on not being able to find something for the camera, but no. Just laziness. Sorry! So I'm posting photos. There are more on Flickr. The top few are from our visit to the children's hospital. Last Thursday, Roxanne stuck a little berry from some monkey grass up her nose. She calls them "acorns" and she kept saying "acorn in nose, mama." over and over. I saw it in there (up high) but by the time we were seen at the ER, it was gone. Phew! But yes, you can see she was having a big time there. Every time someone came into the room, she would yell "Hey there!" and wave. The likely story is that the berry came out through her throat and she swallowed it. Fortunately, those are not poisonous berries. The ER doctor apparently had just had to call poison control about them because a little boy had eaten a huge amount of them. Ah, kids.

The last photo is old, but it's from a trip to Kendree and Jon's house, where Roxanne was playing dress-up with her cousins. Just proof that we do let her do girly things, too!

Hope all is well! I'll try to post to the house blog soon. We've been busy, what with ER trips, painting, etc. etc.

Happy Birthday to Me

So, Roxanne has really really been into singing the birthday song lately. Our family has a lot of fall birthdays, so I guess she's just been hearing it a lot, too. Mine was most recent, so Justin taught her to sing me the happy birthday song, which she kept singing after my birthday, too. To try and explain that it was not my birthday any more, I told her it would be her birthday next, and told her she could sing "Happy Birthday to Me!" and apparently it caught on. She just sings it at random times. Some of her other new favorite phrases are "I did it!," "I'm so scared!," "I busted it,"What's going on?," and her newest, "I want candy, Mama!" Thanks Halloween. She is less of a parrot these days and more of a little person. She puts words and concepts together in a really neat way. On Monday morning (our first morning waking up in the house) she ran into our footboard and hit her lip. She told me, "I am busted my lip mama." When I put her on the phone with people, she is getting pretty good at making conversation. Today on our drive home, she was talking to Nana on the phone, and I told her to tell Nana where we were going, and she said, "Roxanne go get Dada." It's funny how sometimes she talks about her self as "I" but other times says her name.

In not so nice news, I have been having a lot of trouble with her biting. She doesn't bite me, just Ben. They bite each other, but it's still bad. It's especially frustrating because she is verbal enough to tell me or Ben why she's upset. She tells me all the time "I want to play with Ben's car" or "Ben take it away," but when they get into scuffles, she loses control. She's only bitten him 3 times, but that's enough for me. She's tried to bite him many more, but I've caught it in time. Of course, one of those bites was a result of Ben putting his finger in her mouth. But one of the bites I found out about much later. Apparently, his grandparents noticed he had a bite mark on his little booty. Sigh. I guess I missed that one.

She has been having a lot of fun re-meeting all of her old toys. She really missed them all. And she got lots of new ones from Mimi and from Chloe and Ella, and Nana. She's so spoiled! Honestly, we now have enough toys for three kids. But Justin and I both really like the play room that we'll have here. One advantage of a small house is that she can be in the playroom and we are in the kitchen or living room and we can hear her perfectly. And in two steps, we can see her. We do need to find a good storage solution for in there though. Right now there are still lots of boxes everywhere.

Oh, and because I'm constantly overextending myself and taking on projects that I can't complete, I set up a house blog. I wanted to make sure that I didn't spend all my time on Roxanne's blog talking about the house, like I have been. And I'd like to have it as a record for later. If you want to check it out, the URL is www.atomiclilly.blogspot.com and I'll probably put a link up for it on this blog. So, if you are interested in that stuff, check it out. It's still really stripped down for now, but some day I'll spend some time making it look better and put up some links to other design blogs I like. My mom told me about one in particular written by a young guy in Athens who is renovating his first mid-century ranch. And while I don't like some of the choices he makes, it's nice to see some of his projects. So yes. I'm off to try and get some work done. And charge the camera! We finally found the charger! Yay!

Halloween Photos!

This is my first post from the new house... I'm just doing a quick one because we are all exhausted and Roxanne is going nuts. We're going to watch some TV on our computer, thanks to Mike setting up our network for us! Thanks Mike! And thanks Nana for keeping up with Roxanne. She has been walking around since Nana left a little while ago saying "miss Nana, Mama. Miss Nana, Mama." Awww. And thank you to Mimi and Kaitlin for visiting this morning and paying lots of attention to Roxanne. She needs it. And thanks to Ariel and Luke for coming over today with food and helping lots and lots. And thanks to Kendree and Chloe for coming and helping so much yesterday. We truly are so lucky to have such a helpful and loving family. We still have lots of work to do. But it's coming along nicely.

Anyways, I'm posting some photos Mike took of us on Halloween. We went trick or treating with Roxanne in Nana and Mike's neighborhood. Roxanne had a great time and is demanding candy as often as possible. I made Roxanne's owl costume. Hopefully it doesn't look to cobbled together. We had a great time.