Cheeseburgers, pea coats and carpet cleaner

What do all of these things have in common?

Nothing really, except we've eaten one, worn the other and used the latter. You see, we've been busy, but what else is new. We've been hungry...
(don't worry, we didn't actually let her take a bite... by the way, that burger was made with French Farms beef and it was so good it should be illegal.)

Now that the weather has cooled off, we needed a pea coat....

And the carpets were a war zone, so we cleaned them...little girl in a big room.

Once those things were all out of the way, we've had a little free time for some fun. Lillian started Water Babies swim class, but the pictures turned out a little dark so we'll try to get some new ones.



And she is full-out crawling...EVERYWHERE!

Her favorite activity is to crawl to the TV cart, pull herself up to a standing position and throw all the DVDs on the floor. Then repeat...all day long.

Molly is not as thrilled at the mobility, so she always has to watch her back.

Sometimes she'll just play dead, hoping Lilly won't notice her and then crawl over and assault her.

Or she'll flail around like a mad dog ....




Needless to say, Lillian is madly in love with Molly. And when it comes to snack time, Molly is madly in love with Lilly. You can see Lilly is enjoying a standing snack of sweet potato puffs... and then she gets some company.

And since, Lillian now wants to taste whatever Jon and I are eating, we usually have two little beggars at our feet at meal times. Which neatly brings us back to those burgers! Oh those burgers...they had blue cheese on them.... WOW!

So, nothing monumental going on here. We're just eating, cleaning and enjoying fall! It's the little things that makes family life so much fun.

Stay tuned for Halloween pictures. One clue: Two costumes!!!!!

On the up!

Someone is feeling better. Today, to keep Lilly entertained, I took a series of unsuccessful "Thelma & Louise" photos. Here are the best two.


That "fun" lasted about 30 seconds, then she was back to fussing in her raspy little voice. Poor girl. We've all been letting her slack a little. Even Molly tolerated Lillian climbing all over her yesterday. Dogs know when we're not well.

And I let her empty my sundries basket. She loves to do that.
Here's an up close shot of miss sicky. Notice the red nose and vacant expression? Not our bubbly girl!
See what we mean about letting her slack? Nice posture Lil.
Today, she's feeling more like herself, and even tackled a big project...emptying the pen cup.

She's slowly getting back to her old self... and today she crawled about 3 feet. Not bad for a girl battling the croup. Lillian says hi to you all, and hopes to be out of isolation soon!

Croup is Poop!

Sorry for the vulgar title, but that's how we feel about croup.

Lilly developed a raspy voice and a barky cough, and she is now full-on croupie, and cranky. She has a little red nose and looks tired, not to mention sounding like a baby seal when she coughs. She's getting plenty of rest fluids and TLC. And she loves resting in our bed watching her Baby Einstein videos and reading.

I'd love to say she's doing funny, adorable things, but she's under the weather and refuses to let me take any pictures of her with a red nose.

She still tries to play and giggles a lot, but you can tell the little lamb just runs out of steam.

And speaking of steam, her room is like a rain forest from the humidifier, which seems to help!

Welcome to cold and flu season! We're off to get our flu shots!

Punkins in the Pumpkins

No, not a typo. We actually had Punkins in the pumpkins.

Lilly and Chloe L. took us all to the pumpkin patch. For those of you here in central Iowa, we went to Howell's Tree Farm in Cumming. What a gorgeous place. Stop what you are doing and go...NOW... and bring me home a pumpkin bar.

Look at these dads!

There was a petting zoo which enthralled both girls. Then we took a tractor ride out to the patch where we chose our own pumpkins.

A few solo shots.

And Lilly trying to smooch her best buddy.. and remove her clothes... we'll deal with that another day.

It was a gorgeous afternoon and so much fun. Who else loves fall? (that means leave me some feedback.... and a pumpkin bar.... with cream cheese frosting ... and maybe some cider.)

Nearly mobile

Lilly has discovered standing. Now we are unable to let her go too long without grabbing on to some surface to "be a big girl". She just smiles the biggest grin when she is standing and we know it is very hard work. But she is bound and determined to practice whenever she can. And those little stick legs are strong.

She also trying to crawl. She has the hands and knees rock down, and can move backwards pretty quickly across a wood floor. In a matter of days, she'll be emptying out all our cupboards. You'll probably never hear from us again, because we'll be chasing Miss Lillian. Nice knowing you!

All this work is exhausting for her. Molly shares the sentiment. After our trip to California, the two of them spent the entire day lounging around together. Good dog!
But in no time, back to standing. This was on her 8 month "birthday".
We celebrated by letting her wear the slippers Aunt Judy bought! So cute!

Here's a message from Lillian as she loves to type: n hb v vg csrdc xcx (she can say that in four different languages)

NIGHTMARE!!!!!!

Now that we are sleeping again, my dreams have come back. And last night I dremt I was running 2 hours late for my wedding, my hair wouldn't curl, and Lilly's dress had sweet potatoes on it. Doesn't sound like much of a bad dream, but the feling of being late terrifies my Norwegian blood. Usually I have the "it's finals week and I haven't been to class all year" nightmare.... this one causes just as much panic.

New pictures today, I promise. here's what we've been working on: Lillian can stand while holding on to something, and she's so confident she'll only do it one-handed.

She's also really trying to crawl.

And she and Molly have this funny relationship. Molly is catching on that Lilly is NOT a toy or food, but, rather, a small human being. So now she begs from Lillian as well.

And, of course, she's been eating, A LOT. Here are her favorites: avocado, papaya, banana, blueberry granola, sweet potato, sweet potato puffs, spinach and cookies.

Her"not so much" list: plain carrots, applesauce, prune juice, Lamb (the baby-food version comes without garlic or even a touch of Greek seasoning...duh... who would like that? She's Greek.... trust me... she LOVES LAMB!)

Again, I promise, pictures TODAY!!!