A Memorable Memorial Weekend

Yesterday, we wrapped up a relaxing and pleasant Memorial weekend. We didn't do anything grand....just stayed in the area, but we enjoyed it no less. For starters, the weekend was truly memorial due to the stunning weather that Mother Nature blessed us with! I have lived through many a rainy Memorial weekends in my lifetime in WA, but not this one. We were fortunate enough to have beautiful, sunny weather in the 70 degrees all three days! Ron, baby, and I enjoyed an outing to the local farmer's market, a bike ride and a walk around the neighborhood, some quality time working in the yard (Ron made a second picnic table--this one is for kids only), a "pool party" at our friends' house, and a day at the Lake Samm property with the fam. Here are a few pics from the weekend...

Lia and her friend, Kaylee, chillin' in the pool. Surprisingly enough, they both really liked it and didn't want to get out!

At Lake Samm....the family on the left and G'ma and the girls on the right.

Lia and the lake.

And, last but definitely not least, some photos from the professional photographer in the family, Rebecca, my multi-talented sis-in-law. She snapped the ones below after Lia woke up from her afternoon nap....so please excuse her sweaty, messy hair! :-)

15 Month Break-down

Well, month #15 of Lia's life just snuck up on me today! Here is what the busy one has been up to this past month in the land of progress and unprogress (I know, it's not a word, but since I am an English major, I am entitled to making up my own words from time to time). So, drum roll please.....here we go in no particular order:
1. She's a full fledged walker. That's all there is to it. The knee walking and crawling have been left behind in the dust. She's on to the move 24-7 and Ron and I think it's the cutest thing (Yes, we are still in the honeymoon stage).
2. This is definitely a highlight: Lia now hugs us sometimes when we first pick her up. It just melts the heart.
3. When I am sitting on the floor with my legs crossed, while playing with Li Li, she will sometimes walk over to me, turn around, and sit in my lap. It's so sweet. Although she has sat in my lap many times while we've played in the past, this is a first for her to initiate it.
4. This is a definite lowlight: Lia finally discovered her nostrils. Great. As you just guessed, her little index finger finds her way up north for some exploration from time to time.
5. She discovered a new game....blinking. If you blink at her, she will blink back. This can go on for hours (well, not really) and with any willing participant. i.e. the people sitting behind us in church last Sunday.
6. To quote the Prince of Denmark himself, "Words, words, words." This has definitely been the theme of Lia's past month as she has finally stopped favoring her one and only pet word, "uh oh." Although she has been babbling the words, "ma ma" and "da da," for many months now, she is finally using them to refer to us. Also, due to her fascination with canines (dang it!), she now says "dah" whenever she hears or sees a dog and even barks at them. I'm just thrilled about that one. She was taught the word, "baby" by her grandma (from a book) and uses it frequently--especially to refer to other babies and children. In fact, I think Lia seriously offended the 5-year who was in line behind us at Costco the other night. After Lia identified her as a baby, the girl adamantly declared, "I'm not a baby, YOU are!" Woops...it looks like she'll have to use that word with a bit more caution in the future. She also can say "nana" for banana and "chee" for cheese and "sh" for shoes. In addition, her grandpa passed on his favorite question, "What's that?," while taking Lia on the walking tour of various clocks and nutcrackers in his house. As a result, Lia now says this question all the time. And, although she can't say it, she understands the phrase, "Put it on your head," thanks to a game that Ron has been playing with her since the beginning of time. As you can see, our daughter is practically fluent in English.
7. Another definite lowlight: Lia's developing pickiness for food has continued to expand. Urgh! Not only does she now refuse lots of vegetables that she used to eat, she has begun to refuse meats. So, the glory days of just sharing food with her from the dinner table have come to a screeching halt. It's back to the nasty lasagna and chicken noodle baby food. How can she prefer that over my own cooking? It's almost insulting.
8. The lowlights continue: Lia now starts crying when I leave her with the babysitter in the morning on my way to work. This past week, she even manged to get such a tight, monkey-hold on my arm that I could barely pass her over to Jessica. I definitely do not feel like mother of the year when I hear her screams while walking back to my car. Only four more weeks till summer....
9. She's invented some fun ways of expressing herself while she is excited. When it's regarding a food that she loves, she will wiggle back and forth and hum a little song. When she's excited about something while standing, she will sometimes lays on the floor (face down) and kick her legs. It's so funny to watch!
10. Since she is now walking full-time, I have finally gotten around to putting her sneakers on her little feet on a regular basis. Sheez! As a result, she is fascinated with them. When not wearing them, they are her favorite toy and are found wherever she is. She loves them and even tries to put her feet in them...unsuccessfully of course.

Here are a few favorite pics from the last few days....

Doesn't it almost look like she's dancing? Such a little show-off. Lia dressed in her Sunday finery on May 17th. This is the first time she's been big enough to wear one of the adorable white dresses she inherited from our wedding that four of our nieces wore (who were all between the ages of 10 to 18 months at the time).

Simply being happy in her happy place.

Lia finally started to become comfortable cruising around in the grass last weekend (she had never been a fan of the scratchy, green stuff). She went out into the backyard to enjoy the sun with her papa last Saturday, May 16th, and these are some of the photos I snapped of her.

I thought these two photos were so precious...One, playing with the grass and the other walking towards her father.

Before and After

I know that in order for these pictures to be true before and after makeover photos, Lia should probably be wearing make-up and a different outift and posing in a much more flattering position for the second one, but you get the point! Today, Lia had her first hair-cut! And, I'm not really sure that I can call it a true haircut as just an inch or so was removed from her bangs and a tiny bit from the mullet-in-the-making in the back (shhhhh...don't tell her father about that one!). Anyways, she actually did pretty well sitting on my lap while her little locks were trimmed by my friend, Megan, who doubles as a hair stylist in her free time. Thank you, Megan!

100% Proficient

Well, it's official. Lia is walking 100% of the time now. Something clicked in her little head and she has finally shed the crawling and knee walking for good! It all started two weeks ago, on April 26th, when she suddenly began walking way more than the aforementioned modes of transportation in church! This was the first time this had ever happened. I think that my mother is to blame for this sudden switch in preference as she babysat Lia for two days prior to this weekend and kept on encouraging her to walk during this time. I, on the other hand, avoid change like the plague and was content with just letting Lia do her thing at her own rate. Leave it up to my mother to get my daughter to progress! Geez! :-) Anyways, ever since that Sunday in church, Lia has progressively been walking more and more until yesterday when it was all day long. Ahhhhh! Life as we know it has changed for good.

Here is our little girl strutting her stuff on Mother's Day before church.

She decided to start playing her favorite, little game with me of moving her head back and forth, side to side, at the end of the "photo shoot." What a cheeky thing she is!

The Double Three...

So, this past week, I turned the big 3-3. Another year has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Since I've always had such an aversion to change, it just drives me nuts how another year has seemed to come and go so quickly. But, aren't the thirties the new twenties?? As a result, I am trying to embrace my second decade of twenties to the best of my abilities! :-)

We actually rang in my thirty-third year in two parts. The first installment was a lovely dinner at my parents' house. Since I was already going to be up there working a three-day stint in the Issy SD while my parents watched Lia, my mom decided to host a little function in my behalf. She made my favorite birthday dinner (that I have been requesting since elementary or middle school....I know, isn't she great?!) of leg of lamb, new pototoes, aparagus, and her world-reknown orange rolls! Also, par my request, she whipped up a homemade rhubard strawberry pie (with rhubard from her garden that my dad actually chopped up for her). The meal was delicious! Ron and my dear friend, Kristina, both joined us after work and we had a delightful evening of delicious food and socializing. When my father and AKW are in the same room, the conversation possiblities are endless. As if this all wasn't enough, my mom topped off the evening with giving me the ulitimate and appropriate gift: a sewing machine. Now, I can finally say that I am an adult! I can't wait to dive into some sewing projects while learning to sew at the same time. Hah! What an adventure that is going to be.


Here we are (minus my father who is taking the pic) in front of the glorious pie that we are about to devour.

The second part of the birthday week was on my actual birthday. Ron decided to spoil me and take the day off from work. This is a treat for me as I love having him home with us. We decided to brush off the dust (and fill up the tires with air) of our beloved beach cruisers that have been seriously neglected and go on a bike ride! This was a first attempt for us since we moved to WA and since we added a baby to the mix. And, I'm happy to report that it was successful! Thanks to Ron's ingenuity, he figured out how to attach the child's seat to his bike (Thanks E & R for dontating it to our cause along with a million other things) and hook the bike rack up on the car. We then did a trial run with Lia on the bike in our little cul-de-sac before venturing out and she actually did okay! She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it. She simply was so in awe of everything speeding by that she sat there soundlessly--jaw agape. Having received "permission" from the little one, we then drove down to a bike trail that is just minutes from our house and pedaled out for an hour on the path. We thoroughly enjoyed being back on our bikes again....reminding us of the glorious days we used to spend cruising up and down the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach as newlyweds. It was a great way to spend my birthday afternoon!


Here is our cute girl all strapped in and ready to go for her first ever bike ride!


Ron and Lia cruising around our cul-de-sac.


Lia and I on the bike path that actually cut through several farms and rhubard and strawberries fields. The scenery was suprisingly beautiful as we had no idea what to expect. We will definately make a habit of doing this as a family activity over the summer months.....that is as long as Ron and I don't get ticketed for not having helmets on (whoops) and Lia keeps her socks on (I guess it's time to break out the shoes).


Ron and I finished off the day with an actual date....something that we have only done a few times since Lia was born. Thanks to wonderful Jessica, who watches Lia whenever I work in P-town, we were able to leave our little one behind and go out to eat. We headed up to the Cheesecake Factory (although Ron said that I should call it the "Cheesycake Factory" due the picture I had him take of me) for dinner and dessert and a stroll around the mall along with half of the teenage population of Tukwila.

A Room with a View

Since spring time finally decided to show her pretty face this past week in the northwest, I have been able to throw open the french doors in our kitchen to let in the sunshine and the fresh air on a regular basis. Lia has just been mesmerized by the newly discovered view from our dining area and can be found kneeling at the base of the doors for minutes on end. Yesterday, an additional bonus was added to her new past-time as papa fired up the lawnmower and went to work after arriving home. Pictured above is the Kodak moment I couldn't pass up.....