I love having a toddler!

I have spent most of the month at home with Lily. She is advancing and learning new things everyday, but since she has hit the big milestones I forget to report on her progress.

Anyway, this stage is so much fun! We have started to get more bumps and bruises though, which is to be expected with a toddler exploring her world. September brought us her first bloody nose. I honestly have no idea how to stop a bloody nose for a toddler. They don't hold still, they just cry and want to cuddle. So we cuddled and we both ended up covered, but she recovered quickly.

Lily loves her puppy as much as ever. I honestly wish that this dog behaved half so well for me as he does for her. She has taken to examining his teeth, pulling at his gums, and using him as a soft chair a he just lets her.

And of course, she is getting more independent and is trying to make more decisions for herself. This is her way of telling me that bath time is over.

She still isn't talking much. She has a few words that she says regularly, but for the most part she just points and squeals. I'm not worried though, her comprehension is fantastic! And she is so obedient, I say bed time and she grabs her baby and walks into her room for story time.

As far as the current pregnancy goes, it is going to sound crazy, but I honestly keep forgetting that I am pregnant. If my jeans still fit I think that I might forget entirely. We have scheduled our anatomy scan though and I am getting very excited about that! So watch for an update on the 15th.

A New Niece and Nephew

I guess that it has been a while since I last updated. Sometimes I just think that there is nothing to post and other times life is just to busy to get to it. I has been an eventful few weeks though so I'll fill you in.

On Sunday the 12th my little sister Ali gave birth to her first child, Caleb Layne Hansen. She is so happy to be a mom and Chaz is loving being a dad.

Then, on Wednesday the 15th my sister Sarita gave birth to her first baby girl, Carolyn Hope Rogers. We are all so happy that Eric got to be there for the birth of his baby girl. On Monday Eric shipped out with the 116th. We are so proud of him and we are grateful for his sacrifice and the sacrifices of his little family.

Sunday Updates

It is actually a quiet Sunday afternoon at our home so I thought that I would take a few minutes and give you all an update on the happenings of our little family.

This last week Tyson started the fall semester at school. He is taking yet another full load of classes on top of his full-time work schedule so he is a busy busy man these days. I'm actually quite impressed with how he manages it all and still seems to find time to be a husband and father.

We had yet another doctor appointment on Friday since our last one had to be rescheduled (silly OB was off delivering a baby) and everything looked great. She didn't have to look long at all before finding a good strong heartbeat, around 160bpm. At this point I really rely on those appointments to tell me that everything is okay because this baby is still too small for me to feel it yet.

And finally our little Lily is still growing like a weed and is more and more adventurous every day. She has discovered a love for climbing on everything and learns new things so quickly that I just can't keep up with her. Over the last few weeks she finally started playing with her blocks. She used to just bang them together, but now she builds!

A funny little story, my parents have a little shih tzu named Jasper. They keep a leash on him in the house as he is still hose training a little bit. Anyway, when we go visit Lily loves to walk Jasper all around the house. Well at home she seems to think that Oscar's tail is also a leash and all afternoon she has been trying to walk him around the house by his tail and she keeps getting frustrated when he won't comply. So, to give his tail a break I put him on his leash. Here's a little clip of Lily trying to walk her 55lb puppy around the living room. Apparently it is a little harder that walking a little shih tzu.

Lily has also started "singing" along in church. It is very entertaining!

Baby Doll

My daughter does not get attached to her toys at all. She has toys that she likes, but nothing that is a favorite. She doesn't care much for her stuffed animals. The only one she pays much attention to her is My Pal Violet, and that is just because it talks to her and calls her by name. So anyway, I have not bothered getting her a doll at all because I figured that she would treat it with the same indifference.

I finally decided that she needed a baby doll. I have told her that we are having a baby, but I am certain that she has no idea what I am talking about. So I figured that if she had a baby doll she could get some understanding of what a baby is and perhaps I can teach her how to be sweet and gentle with it.

So tonight while we were out shopping for a few other things we picked up a basic little baby doll. Lily has been fascinated with it ever since I picked it up off the shelf. She touches the little hands and feet and nose. I told her to give a cuddle and this is what she did.

Hopefully this can turn into a helpful tool to aid us in preparing her for becoming a big sister.

Announcement

Lily has something to say...

We are expecting our 2nd baby!

Our due date is March 4th and we will find out the gender somewhere around the middle of October. We are so very excited!

We had an ultrasound this morning to check a few things out and our little baby was looking perfect, around 3" long at the moment with a heart rate of 165 bpm.

Busy Little Bee

My little girl is just a busy little bee. She never stops moving, ever. You pick her up and her legs keep going. This afternoon she was playing with her fridge phonics and decided that they needed to try out a new home.

Bear Lake

This last week Tyson had some time off work and he finished up the summer semester so we decided to take a little vacation. I had never been to Bear Lake, even though I have lived in Idaho for most of my life, so we headed east.

The lake was perfect! It is rather clean and where we camped there was a great beach right down the hill so we spent a lot of time on the water. Lily loved it!

The water was nice and shallow in this area so it was perfect for Lily.

Just for fun I captured her little footprints in the sand.

Last year when we went to Redfish Lake Oscar would not touch the water. This year however, as soon as we got to the lake he headed straight for it. He loved playing fetch and I think that we finally figured out how to exhaust him.

Just standing by the lakeside.
She wanted one of her daddy's chips to she was trying to climb through the chair to get to them.
Just a cute photo.
Taking a milk break while at the beach.
We headed over to Paris, Idaho Wednesday afternoon and checked out the tabernacle there. Tyson loves checking out old stone work.

Here's Lily reading the brochure about the building's history.

And posing with her daddy for one of my favorite pictures of the two of them.

We decided to eat our little picnic under a tree while we were in Paris, so at age 14 months Lily has already had a picnic in Paris.
Back to the campsite, Lily kept Oscar entertained and kept sneaking him little treats.And was so good as to help with clean up.
All ready for bed for her first night of sleeping in a tent. It was interesting, figuring out how to put Lily to bed without a crib. The first night we let her stay up and just brought her to bed with us. That didn't work, she LOVED the tent and had the best time wandering around it and climbing over us. She kept us up for nearly 2 hours before she finally fell asleep.

The next night we decided to treat the tent like her crib and just laid her down in there alone with her Violet toy and blanket, She fussed for a minute or two and then fell asleep.
Sorry that these are out of order, blogger can be a pain that way. Anyway, I married an over-grown child. This is proof.
Tyson and Lily playing in the sand.
The weather was perfect, not too hot, but warm enough to be playing in the water at 8pm. Perfect way to wear out a toddler for bedtime.
And finally another cute picture of Lily on the beach.