Lila's Not The Only One Who Says Funny Things

"It almost seems like my eyes are like a town...so full of fog. It always goes away after I wake up all the way, but my eyes are fuzzy sometimes in the morning."
-Emma uses a simile to describes her sleepy eyes.

Awesome Tip To Share!

I've had a couple of cloudy water stains on two of my wood tables. One is a newer stain and I've been trying everything to get it out...mayo, toothpaste, some special furniture stick thing..whatever anyone tells me to try. Today I went online to see if I could find any other tips. I was skeptical because both pieces are antique without a super finish to begin with.
Use a warm iron over a lint free cloth. Totally worked! I started with the iron on low, out of fear of burning my house down, but ended up with the hottest dry setting. The one stain was old and really bad - a yellowy white color. On that one I left the iron sitting for almost a minute. But both stains are gone - completely gone! I just wanted share that tip with you all.

Lila's First Real Picture

Lila surprised me this morning by drawing a recognizable picture of Mommy and Daddy - it looks just like us! I've been trying to get her to draw faces and shapes for a long time, but that's Lila. She'll do it when she's ready and that's that.

We Do A Lot In One Day

We've been accused before of trying to do too much in one day. Whether it be home improvements or family activities, we like to squeeze it all in and get it done. Saturday was no exception.
We left the house by 8:00 to go to Sesame Place for the last time. I pride myself on getting the most out of our season passes - so we needed to go one more time. The local weather forecasters said it was supposed to be hot - high 80's - and sunny all day. (Darn you, Bill Henley, it drizzled and rained and was 69 degrees, until about 2:00!) The weather didn't stop our family from going on all of the water rides! Since we were the only ones crazy enough to do this, there were no lines. The girls were thrilled to shiver up the steps to each water slide. Ryan and I weren't sure if our choice made us really good or really bad parents. We also got to see the group Hi-5 in concert. Are you jealous? The girls love that show, and I admit I was singing along a bit myself.


We left the park, had a nice lunch at Chili's to dry/warm up. We watched the sun come out while we sat inside the restaurant.
Then we headed to Emma's soccer game. She had to be at the field at 3:00, so we packed all of our soccer stuff with us for the day. Her team played really well and won 5 - 0. Go Warriors! The girls wore their jerseys to school again on Friday for team spirit and wore black face paint on their cheeks at the game to look fierce, and I guess it worked.
It was so hot by this time that we couldn't believe it was the same day we had shivered at Sesame Place. So, before we came home, we stopped at Grammy and Gappy's pool for a swim. Then we stayed for an impromptu dinner by the poolside.
We came home, changed our clothes and headed off to a neighborhood party. Lila fell asleep on my lap (can you blame her?!) and Emma was having so much fun with the gang, so we stayed and sipped coffee with our neighbors until 10:30.
I told Emma on the way home that I hoped she appreciated how much her family is willing to cram into one day. It makes me tired just remembering it now.
It all balances out. Today after church we all laid around and watched a kid's movie and then the Eagles game (still in progress). Now the rest is over. I have to go unpack all of the stuff from yesterday's activities!

Not My Buddy

So I was rolling around on the floor the other day playing with Lila, and I said, "Come here buddy."
She replied, "I not your buddy!"
"What do you mean? You're my little buddy!"
"No Mommy, I a GIRL!"
Duh! Silly me - I thought my little girl could also be my buddy. Not according to her early gender stereotypes.

Powerful Day

We had an awesome baptism celebration on Sunday. Ryan's been talking about being baptized for a while. He was baptized as a child, as I was too, but wanted to publicly profess the decision he made (a long time ago) to accept Christ at this time. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward change, and Ryan wanted to express that. He's been a Christian for about 20 years now, but he challenged other friends and family that have not been baptized to join him - and two did (my Dad and our great friend, Bryan). So on an unseasonably cold September afternoon, we had a small gathering at my parents' pool to witness a baptism. It's always powerful for me to see these proclamations of faith, and that's certainly true when it's your husband! What an opportunity, also, to talk with our kids about what this means. So, thanks for the dunking, Erik. Thanks for the pictures, Faith and Brian. And thanks for sharing the day with us, friends and family.

Gymnastics For One

We just got back from Lila's first gymnastics class. Is 10 am too early for a glass of wine?! My goodness, it was rough! We got there at 9:10 thinking that the class started at 9:15 - but it started at 9:00. That wasn't a problem because there was no one else there! Lila was the only student in the class! I was really counting on there being other kids there so that she could follow along and see what fun they were having. But instead, for the first five minutes, she hid behind my legs and answered "no" to every question of "Do you want to do this?" Miss Michelle, her coach was very sweet and patient (and very apologetic that this is not how a class should be run). Once Lila felt a little more comfortable it got worse. Then she got wound up and just ran around the gym like a crazy child. She had no problems whatsoever with anything gymnastics-related that she was asked to do: the bar, the balance beam, forward rolls, several games. But in between Miss Michele totally lost her. I had to constantly chase her away from the equipment (apparently they're a bit worried about liability!) and back to the mat. She also really enjoyed the echo you get from your own silly voice in an empty gym. I know that my child is difficult, but I truly believe that if there was a group of little girls all sitting on the mat and waiting that she would comply - at least some of the time! Having the whole gym to herself? - a big problem. There were supposed to be other children in her class. Now we have to wait for the owner to call and see what the new plan will be. Did I mention that I could eat her up in her lavender leotard?!