Tubby Time

Brent and I had a Date Night planned for earlier this week (we barely got one in in March, this month has flown!) so the day before Stephanie came over we wanted to make sure Pippin was nice and clean. I used to give Pippin a bath after Lilli went to bed but it's seriously a highlight of her life and one you just can't deprive her of. We only have one tub in the house and I think she finds it hilarious to see him get a tubby in her tub.I think Brent was feeling deprived because a photo-shoot he was supposed to do last weekend got canceled due to the bad weather (but this Saturday is looking great for it!), so he set up studio lighting in the guest bath and got some great shots of Pippin's bath using his newest lens.

Step 1 - Bribe him with treats to get him in the back bathroom. He hides when he hears water running in there.
I know her head is cut off, but THIS is the excitement at being the bath assistant. MUCH screaming and squealing takes place.

Not the same level of excitement in Pippin's face. He'd much rather be dressed up in jewelry and forced to wear lip gloss than take a bath.
Thank goodness he's black and white or you wouldn't see him in this awful black tub. I still want to get it painted white and replace the sink and toilet with normal white pieces.

Poor, poor Pippin.
Concentration = her tongue out as she pours.
Final Step - More reward treats. Then he runs and hides and is typically angry at me for a couple of hours!

Best Buds

Someone gave Lilli a little thing of Easter lip gloss and once she had fun putting it on herself and me Pippin was the next target. He really didn't mind, at all.They also gave her some of this jewelry, little gloves and these pantyhose that she insisted on wearing. She really likes wearing tights and pantyhose, and gets really excited if I'm also wearing them (like on Sunday mornings.)
All dolled up and thrilled about it.
Their favorite game together is Night-Night. She gets so mad if he won't stay down but he really does put up with a lot of flailing arms and legs before he'll move.
Little Momma also believes in good dental hygiene for herself and baby. Baby also goes to the bathroom and needs her hands washed (in the sink) numerous times per night. We sing Happy Birthday three times every night to various people to get her to stay still for teeth brushing and that seems to work pretty well. She found one of those old baby headbands as I was cleaning out her drawers this past week and wants to wear it around her head most every night. It's kind of like hanging with Rambo around the house every day. Can't wait until she wants to wear that one out in public.
Gotta run! My absolutely gorgeous, custom diaper bag arrived today at the post office and I can't wait to do a little downsizing!!!!

Little Chiquita

From Sunday -Little Miss spotted the miniature bananas I bought for her for daycare snacks and downed two of them right away. I guess they were the right pick for snacks this week, right?
The best way to tell she's used to the camera is watching her run to certain spots in the yard, stop, and pose.
She had a great potty weekend - we went from Friday afternoon all the way through the weekend with no accidents (except when she's asleep, which I don't count.) She is doing so great with it! Granted every meal is interrupted by trips to the bathroom, we go at least three times at church and she's touched every public toilet in Metro-Nashville, but she really is getting it! It's so nice not using many diapers/Pull-ups.
Her hair is really getting long! We've started blowing it out straight and using some products designed for Kids and I think her hair is looking better.
She loves watching for the stray cats Mrs Perry keeps feeding. They sit on top of the fence and taunt poor Pippin.
Casual pose.

Silly face!
If it was going to be a cold and gross weekend at least she got to wear this dress one more time!

Low Key

We've had a nice and low-key weekend, pretty relaxing (considering we have a 2 year old). We were all pretty worn out from having so much going on the last few weekends that we really needed it. When Brent woke Lilli up on Friday morning she asked to go back to night-night so he let her sleep another 20 or 30 minutes, poor thing. That child loves her sleep and already dislikes mornings as much as Brent does! I really don't know how long she would nap - I always have to wake her up at 4 pm so she won't sleep too long and not be tired at 8. Saturday she slept from 12:45 until I woke her up at 4, and today she slept from 1:15 until I woke her up at 4:15. She loves a good nap.

The weather was pretty cold and gross all weekend so we rarely left our neighborhood. Friday night we ate at Otters on Music Row since our East one went out of business. We may have to write them off, that one is just dirty and gross now and the service was pretty horrible. The bathroom was even worse and I think I told Lilli a million times not to touch anything.
She's really into the Musica statues now so we had to do our impressions for a few minutes. It's kind of hard to tell, but her wardrobe choice for the night was a pair of summer capri jeans and boots. Awful. But at least the capris are still so big it's hard to tell they're supposed to be short pants.I'm sure everyone driving the turnabout just assumed we were tourists.
My primary goal this weekend was to get some new shoes!! I really needed a cute pair of work boots to replace one that's worn out but I really didn't see anything quite like I liked. I did end up with 5 new pairs of summer-y work sandals and cute shoes. I love Off Broadway because of the reward $$s you earn. I had $16 going into it and came back out with $10 for next time.
Lilli loves the shoe store. When we got home she paraded around in a few of my final choices. I wish they sold kids shoes here!!
Saturday we never left the house and were just lazy all day. The jumpy jump is still losing air but Brent aired it up Saturday and then twice more today so she could play in it because it does seriously depress her. He bought a pool repair kit at the hardware store this weekend he's going to try on it. It's got to dry overnight so hopefully that will work.

It's hard to tell but they were both sitting in my lap listening to stories.
Last night we had pizza and movie night. It's been a long time since we've done that and it was just too rainy and cold to bother going anywhere. We watched Tangled (the latest Disney princess one) and it was so cute. Lilli actually watched all of it (of course I think there were 3 bathroom breaks during it).Poor Pippin doesn't get to enjoy family movie night - there's just way too much food on the floor and he is way to bold!

As nice as it was to be lazy around the house I really do want spring back!!!

Changing of the Seasons

Thursday night's outfit of choice - the black shirt she wore to school that day + her orange tutu and a new pair of sandals I got her on consignment this week - they're also pink but have a big glittery heart on them (she's really into naming her shapes right now)! I'm hoping they may unseat the coral pair of sandals as her top pick!!The couple of nice, warm days we had earlier in the week caught me off guard and I've decided I really need to start swapping out Lilli's closet from all winter to a mix of clothes. It's a massive undertaking of packing up things that won't fit next year and storing things that will (there's actually a LOT of things she can wear from year to year - this winter she wore some 12M stuff up to a few 2T things). 18M pants are still her best fit. After all, she's only 24.2 pounds !!!!
I've stored away the things she'll be able to wear again next year in her toybox, and boxed up some of the fleece and corduroy things that just shouldn't be worn in late March. And I've started sorting through all the spring and summer things to start washing and hanging up. She really does have an insane amount of clothing (but it's all very organized once I'm done!!!) Of course there was someone who was VERY interested in helping me!
She did make it a little hard for me to pack things away for next winter in the toy box!
She loves hiding right now and we play lots of hiding games. Tonight when Brent ran out to get us a pizza for dinner we saw him pulling back into the garage and hid under the kitchen table. She just couldn't contain it and started squealing as soon as he came in the back door.
I have decided this summer I'm going to have to move dresses up to the top row of her closet alongside the PJs - they're starting to be long enough that they sweep down on top of the toy box and all the extra clothes I store in the bottom of her closet!
Somehow you'd think with so many options she could at least come up with a few things that matched though!

And a video from this week of this crazy kid. Naturally she has her shirt tucked into her princess underwear and a mouth full of jellybeans but she has something important to say!

Loves

Tuesday night Brent left work a little early and we headed over to the west-side of Nashville to go to the funeral home to attend the visitation services for Julia's dad. We were able to beat the worst of rush hour and get there in pretty reasonable time. At least I think we were there, mostly I remember taking Lilli to the bathroom at least three times with the final time ending in her and I having a war over who was going to hold the bathroom door open. I'd say it was a draw since she got lots of attention by screaming at the top of her lungs but I was able to pick her up and remove her from the bathroom. However, she did win the initial battle of what shoes to wear - her current favorite coral shoes that she HAD to wear socks with or the world would end, none of which matched the casual pink dress she was wearing. I'm already watching for Stacey and Clinton from the show What Not to Wear to jump out from behind some shrubbery and whisk her away to NYC. Socks with sandals. I really didn't think I'd see the day.

Most of her fits were because she was truly hungry. After visiting with Adam, Julia and Ella Kate we ate dinner at the Loveless Cafe. It's a "Nashville tradition" but since it's really not close to anything we ever do, we've never eaten there. Our dinner started out horribly - Lilli was past reason and was just screaming bloody murder and I was about 30 seconds from just placing a to-go order but our nice waitress brought us out some of their world famous biscuits asap and peace and quiet came quickly afterwards. I think it was seriously the worst she's ever behaved at a restaurant in the last 26 months.
However, this hungry hippo wasn't about to share ANY of the biscuits with us. She seriously ate like this until we could get a second plate for Brent and I.
The food was just ok. I had catfish and Brent had meatloaf. It was good food but nothing exceptional and our total tab for 2 adults, 1 kid and 1 sweet tea ended up at $39 and it surely wasn't worth that.
Our cherry tree has been SO pretty this week!
The new lunch box I ordered for Lilli came in this week and she and I both love it. When I got it out of the package she pretty much loaded up her entire snack shelf in it and carried it around that evening.
It's a great size and I may order one for myself. It easily holds the various little rubbermaid containers I send with her food each day and it's also insulated with side pockets for me to stuff any of her papers, etc in.
She also went crazy over the $2 Disney princess pajamas I found for her that day at a consignment sale. These are her 3 favorite princesses - Belle, "Sleepy Booty" and "Cinderella Princess". All she really knows about them is from some underwear she has, but it's enough to make her a fan!

Good Eats

Mmmmm, Spaghetti night!!! Always a big hit until it gets in our eyes.We really have had a lot of good meals lately.

Brent said this casserole was about the best one he'd ever had (we're really not casserole people). I used small shell pasta instead of mac, one cream of mushroom soup instead of 2 chicken ones, added some frozen broccoli to up the veggie intake and also some fresh garlic (which Brent said made the dish and I agree). I also baked it covered for 45 and uncovered for 15.

We really liked this meatloaf. It was so easy - I mixed it all up the night before so when we got home from work we just had to pop it in the oven. I did add a dash of Tabasco and followed the hints for the ketchup-honey-Worch glaze. We also use an organic lean beef so it's not so greasy.

This Indian chicken recipe was also delicious. It was probably the closest to Indian restaurant food we've ever gotten. I already had all these spices on hand from previous Indian recipes, so it wasn't a stretch for us to make this and Lilli really liked it too!! She'll eat most anything mixed with rice and it wasn't spicy-hot. Next time I would cook the chicken less upfront and let it cook more in the sauce, but every meal gets interrupted a million times as I'm cooking for potty visits and all sorts of other "needs".
This fancy mac n cheese was just Ok. I like that it had spinach in it, and it had a good taste but just wasn't great. The bacon totally made the dish. All the specialty cheeses made it an expensive dinner (relatively) so it really isn't something you could whip up on a whim.

Our latest crock pot recipe for this week was one we've done before - Chicken n Dumplings. Super easy and always good. Not as good as from scratch ones, but wonderful to come home to dinner pretty much already finished.

Tonight we had this delicious grilled marinated flank steak. It was absolutely delicious and perfect!!! I marinated the flank steak all day and then Brent tossed it on the grill when he got home. Flank is one of our favorite cuts of steak, and we usually use it for fajitas. Tonight we just ate it "straight" with some rice and veggies on the side. We'll for sure be making this recipe again.
The cherry trees in our neighborhood have been so beautiful this week!
The temperatures early in the week were so nice. It's been great getting to play outside after dinner. We've been working on our numbers and letters outside and "running" the numbers. She is doing SO great with them. Earlier this week she called "J" umbrella, hilarious.
We also did some yoga earlier in the week. She loves any kind of physical activity so I thought we'd try a few moves and she did really, really great.
I need to see if I can find a Kids Yoga DVD or maybe a mommy and me routine.
I think Pippin enjoyed the show.
Cheese!!!!