Lily at 6 months

No time to post stories this week! Just some cute pictures to keep you entertained.

Lily at 6 months.

(No I do not want to discuss that my baby is now six months old.)

"Mommy, why haven't you picked me up yet?"

Look at the cute this cute face.

Lily expressing her opinion.

Lily and Daddy
Lily getting loved on by Daddy. (I love this picture.)

Pucker up, 'cause Lily's ready to give you a big kiss!

Lily and Abby playing "horsie."

Okay, that's all for now.

Love,

Julie

Abby at 30 months

Yes, Abby is 2 1/2 years today. How in the world did that happen?

My desktop computer is on the fritz and I don't have any new pictures saved on the laptop, so I thought I'd share a few funny stories about Abby this month instead.

Abby has hit the imagination stage. Here are a couple of examples:

Abby and the housekeeper were having a long conversation in Spanish in the kitchen. I walk in and Abby starts telling me about Puzza in a plane and the rest I didn't understand, so the houskeeper dumbed down the Spanish for me. Apparently Puzza is a "bad cat" because he was in a plane, eating the birds in the sky. Oooooooh, okay, honey. Gotcha. (Abby is fascinated with the planes that fly over our house and also in blaming everything on the cat.)

Okay another one. Last week we were eating lunch together, and she said "Look, mommy, the chicken is taking a bath" (again in Spanish). Well, I looked, and lo and behold, she had put a piece of her chicken nugget in the middle of the ketchup on her plate. . . . Yep, that's what I thought too.

She's also into playing with her dolls and "cooking" for us in her toy kitchen. (Great way to keep her occupied for an hour -- tell her you want some tea, and then keep sending her back to make "more," hahahahaha). She has a blast in her pool and would be happy as a clam if we would spend the entire afternoon in the front yard. Where she likes to run in front of moving vehicles, but hey, I'm just a party-pooper on her fun.

Oh another one: Abby loves to sing and loves "The Wheels on the Bus" song. And apparently EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING she knows has to ride the bus with her. In addition to the old standards of the wipers going swish swish swish and all that, currently Abby and Lily and Daddy and Mommy and Iris (housekeeper) and Puzza and the next door neighbor's dog (annoying little yip yip thing) and a monkey all like to ride the bus together. All Over Town. With individual sayings and sounds and hand motions to match. And guess who is the one who gets to make up all those sayings and sounds and hand motions?

Okay one more oldie-but-goodie. This is Abby's idea of telling a joke:

Abby: "Mommy, what's Daddy's name?"
Me: "Daddy."
Abby: "What's Abby's name?"
Me: "Abby."
Abby: "What's Lily's name?"
Me: "Lily."
Abby: "What's Mommy's name?"
Me: "Mommy."

Then she just laughs like she's going to fall over.


So that's my update on our very cute and adorable two and a half year old.

Love,

Julie

Happy New Year One and All!

I would like to point out that it was 91 degrees here yesterday. Who in the world wants 91 degree F weather the first week of January???? (Well, I guess if you're one of those folks in the US that has a couple feet of snow, you might.)

December was a busy busy month with all of our Christmas activities.

First was the Embassy Christmas party:

Abby eating a gingerbread man

Santa is apparently Scottish. He also arrived in a firetruck. Way cool.

My birthday was also this month, and we celebrated in the best way possible: by getting Mommy the most wonderful relaxing massage EVER. It was wonderful. As in, I fell asleep on the table wonderful. And then sat in a steam room and lay in one of those spa sun chairs and napped wonderful. Then came home to my two year old who sang Happy Birthday (with lots of coaching by Daddy) to me wonderful. Great Day. Makes you want to turn 33 a couple of times in a row.

Then the Christmas Song Sing-A-Long with our church:

Does everyone notice that we are picnicking outside in SUNDRESSES? Yes, I am having issues with Christmas being in the middle of the summer. It's just weird, folks.

Next was Abby's Christmas program, but you guys already know how that went!

Christmas Eve, there was a children's service at our church. (Not exactly that child-friendly, but they tried.) They had all the children write letters or color pictures as a present to Jesus on his birthday. Joel and I thought that was a lovely idea. Abby and I worked on her picture that day (complete with stickers and feathers and fuzzy balls and glue - a true work of 2 year old art) and we had discussed how we were going to go up front and give it to Jesus. Well, the entire service she kept trying to interrupt the program and go up on stage; and then getting upset when we stopped her. Patience apparently isn't a characteristic that runs in the family. She was so proud of that picture and showed it to every single person there that night.

And then of course, Christmas morning:

Christmas Morning Kisses. Abby's new kitchen is in the background. Lily's new exersaucer.

Abby put on these dress-up heels, stood up, and pranced around like she had been in them her whole life. She can even go up and down the stairs in them, something I don't even like doing.

Lily trying to eat the wrapping paper.

We spent Christmas afternoon in our new splash pool. See, I told you the weather is weird here.

We spent New Year's Eve at a friend's house, hanging out. I was so proud of Joel and I -- we both made it until about 1am, when we finally came home and got some sleep.

So that's been our month. I made some resolutions as I always do, and looking forward to keeping them (lose weight, scrapbook more, win the lottery, those sort of things). Hope you are having a warm and prosperous New Year!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily