The Adventures of Shaine, Sharon, and Wendy (& Lily, too!)

Wendy and Sharon came up on Monday for a few days of fun and shenanigans.  We lunched, we chatted, drove to Carmel taking the scenic route, toured the monarch butterfly sanctuary (and saw more deer than butterflies), met up with Julie and Justin, and went to the zoo.  In between, we sat around, reminisced, and just relaxed.  It was a fabulous three days and I was sad for them to end.

Wendy tries to figure out what this antique is in downtown Livermore.

Ordered to "get wild" by her boss, Wendy drinks her DP with whiskey stones.

Just horsin' around with some love and affection.

Monarchs hanging on the tree in their sanctuary.

Deer in the butterfly sanctuary.

Lily LOVED hanging with the girls.

Dinner with Julie!

I'm pretty sure Sharon had ice cream products each day she was here. Vacation food!

Trying to figure out where to go first at the Oakland Zoo.

Lily was a trooper the whole time; good moods, and a delight to be around. 

Watching the elephants was major fun.

Lily got to pet a goat!

Lily sat this way to view the zoo most of the day. She doesn't want to miss a thing. 

We stared at the giraffes forever.  They were magical. 

Sun Bears!  I loved these guys.

Our "gang sign." 

It was a fun visit and a good time.  

San Francisco Fun

My friend Meredith came out from Utah for MLK weekend to have a little vacation.  It was a visit I desperately needed (without really knowing I needed it until she got here).  On Monday we went to San Francisco and spent the day running around and seeing the sights.  We were gone for 11 hours and saw most of the City.  And Lily was a trooper; she was a well-behaved angel the whole day.  We had lunch at Mythic Pizza (fantastic) and dinner at our favorite Italian place in Little Italy (super delicious), capping the night off with cannoli (amazing) in a cute little cafe.  It was kind of a perfect day.  I love playing tourist in my own backyard, and can't wait to do it again.

Meredith at Golden Gate Park 

It's MLK Jr. Day and I'm on MLK Jr. Drive!

The windmill at Golden Gate Park 

Lily was LOVING the park.  And all the people telling her how cute she is.  

Welcome back to the beach, Meredith!

Hello, California winter: 77* and just gorgeous out.

Lily loves the beach.

Golden Gate Bridge (from the Legion of Honor)

It's the tsunami evacuation route!  Good to know where to go.

Ahhh...Mythic Pizza.  We'll be back!

It's a great door.  I'm a geek; I'll admit it.

Coit Tower murals

Lily loves a historic building

View of the City from Coit Tower

View of TransAmerica Building from Coit Tower

Murals in Coit Tower

Coit Tower

Golden Gate Bridge

Palace of Fine Arts

Dinner at Trattoria Volare; we will DEFINITELY be back. 

It was a long day.

BFFs

There is a little girl in our ward, Katriana, who was born three months before Lily.  They are quickly becoming BFFs and are super cute together.  I can't wait to watch them grow up with each other! 

Lily (3 weeks) & Katriana (four months)-8-29-2012

Sharing is caring! 12-19-2012

BFFs! 12-22-2012

The Lily Chronicles

Lily--Five months

We've hit the 5 month mark (a couple weeks ago--oops), and Lily is growing like a weed.  She is developing her skills and learning new things every day.  My cousin Meghan is studying nursing at CSU East Bay and has pediatrics this quarter.  She used Lily for a test she had to conduct, and we found out that Lily is, developmentally (social, gross-motor, fine-motor, language), at the 6-1/2 month mark and considered advanced.  I can't help but be proud.  As for her new accomplishments, Lily is:

*sitting without support and keeping her balance
*lifting herself on hands and knees and rocking back and forth (probably crawling very soon, Heaven help us)
*scooting wherever she needs to go (within a limited distance)
*sticking her tongue out like a lizard, without the speed of said lizard.  Just the in-and-out action
*flipping front to back (FINALLY!--she's still better at back to front, though)
*eating "solid food," such as rice cereal, oatmeal, and actually baby food
*having conversations with herself and jabbers to us, responding when we speak to her
*reaches for what she wants and to be picked up
*holding her bottle on her own (HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!)
*recognizes the animals in the house and reaches out to pet Maggie and Sirius (the cat)
*standing for longer periods of time with support, and prefers standing to sitting
*playing in the tub
*beginning her teething process (super fun! [there should be a font entitled "sarcastic"--how do we not have that option?])
*actively chewing on her foot and loves pulling her left sock off.  Not the right one; just the left.

I've still got it

When I was little, I pronounced "crayon" as "crown."  This frustrated my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Gilooley (and my Dad, let's be honest), to no end.  She had a first grader stand with me and try to teach me how to pronounce it correctly (just FYI, it didn't work; it took me a while to get the pronunciation down).  In conversation with Kevin the other night, I slipped back about 25 years and fell into my old pronunciation habit.  I had to seriously work on pronouncing the word "crayon."  For some reason, "crown" just kept coming out.  It's nice to know that I haven't forgotten my childhood roots.

Talking

This might be interesting to only a few of you, so I understand completely if you choose not to watch it.  It's Lily (obviously) talking to herself and learning her voice.  It's kind of cute.  But really, no pressure to watch.  :-)

Start 'em young

Lily is so eager to be a grown up and drink like the big people in her world.  She reaches for glasses, cans, bottles...everything we drink from, she wants to give it a shot.  We are slowly but surely turning her into a lush.  And it's so funny we keep encouraging it.

Happy New Year!

One bottle is just as good as another, right?

There must be an easier way to lift this thing.

Oh, here we go.

Don't worry, I got this.