1Y38W: Frankenbangs (11/15/10 - 11/21/10)

We returned from up north on Tuesday evening. While we unloaded the truck, Lily had fun playing with her Legos. Apparently the best part was sitting in the container:

I then took her upstairs with me while I began unpacking. She went into Rachel’s room, found a little box on her bookshelf, and excitedly yelled out, “Treasure!” She pulled the box down to find that it was indeed full of treasure, at least in her eyes. There were toy rings, necklaces, bracelets, and pretty rocks in the box. Lily kept yelling, “Treasure!” over and over as she played with the contents of the box. At one point she had a ring on every finger and all of the bracelets and necklaces on her wrists and ankles. She was in heaven.
Lily with her treasure:

We ran some errands after work on Wednesday. One of our stops was to get Paul and Lily’s hair cut at Great Clips. They usually do a good job with squirmy Lily. I gave her my iPod to watch Yo Gabba Gabba on during her haircut to keep her still. This was apparently both a good and a bad idea. She did indeed sit still but she continually looked down which made the hairdresser completely misjudge how short she was actually cutting Lily’s bangs. Whoops.
Here is Lily and her Frankenbangs back at home eating dinner while still wearing her monkey hat:

After dinner, my nutty little girl insisted that her pants be removed but still wanted to wear her monkey hat and added her lovely red sunglasses (upside down) thus creating a crazed aviator look. What a goofball:

Mary came over after work on Thursday to color and cut my hair. Lily loves Mary and was so excited to see her. She made Mary sit on the floor with her while she enthusiastically leaped around in her Legos container:

Lily and Mary petting Reiley together:

Amber wearing the monkey hat:

My super cute cutie with her super short bangs:

We headed back up to Paul’s parents’ house in Grayling after work on Friday to spend the night so that we could go to Sophia’s birthday party in Traverse City on Saturday morning. Lily did great with all of the traveling thanks to the portable DVD player. Surprisingly, she is over her obsession with Yo Gabba Gabba and now insists on watching her Dora the Explorer DVD over and over instead. Paul is ecstatic because he hated Yo Gabba Gabba and we are both happy that Dora is much easier to tune out from the front seat. We drove to Traverse City in two cars so that we could head back downstate after the party. We led the way because we had the Garmin to guide us to the Traverse City Children’s Museum and Ron and Maureen followed. Unfortunately, it directed us to a brew pub which we thought was an extremely inappropriate place for a two year old’s birthday party! We tried to reach Debbie and Mike on their cell phones but couldn’t get a hold of them. I then called the phone number of the museum listed on the Garmin to learn that they had relocated two years prior but that my Garmin (whose maps were just updated a little over a month ago) led us to their old address. The person I talked to on the phone gave me some extremely odd and useless directions to their new location so we spent the next 30 minutes driving all over trying to find it. I called again to get better directions only to talk to the same person and obtain more useless directions which involved no actual street names, no estimated distances, and no useful landmarks. The only useful bit of information I got out of her was that their building was orange. After another 15 minutes of aimless driving, I called yet again and finally talked to someone else who was much more helpful. We found the building shortly thereafter (it was red, NOT orange). Unfortunately by that time, we were an hour late for the party. I was both angry and disappointed. We came so far to attend the party and then ended up missing most of it. Plus we dragged poor Ron and Maureen around with us on our wild goose chase so they missed most of their granddaughter’s party too. Ron would’ve brought his maps but we said he didn’t need them since we had our Garmin. Live and learn! At least we had fun once we got to the party and the Children’s Museum was a wonderful party venue.
Here is the sign outside of the party room. The problem with it is that Sophia just turned 2, not 3:

Lily really enjoyed the yummy peanut butter balls:

Sophia loves her grandpa Ron and was excited to see him:

Lily loved the party favors but was only strong enough to get it to work once:

Looking very skeptically at daddy in his party hat:

Shortly after we arrived, all of the kids moved out of the party room into the museum to play. Lily really loved this water table and enjoyed throwing toys in and seeing where the current took them:

Being so close in age, I had always hoped that Lily and Sophia would be good friends but, unfortunately, Sophia sees Lily as competition for toys and people’s attention, not as a friend yet. I'm looking forward to that changing as they both get older. At the party, Lily wanted to show grandma the water table but Sophia got mad and grabbed her other hand to pull her in the opposite direction. Poor Maureen:

Paul looking lovely with his party hat and a stuffed chicken that Lily gave him:

Maureen and Sophia playing with blocks:

Jack and a friend moving the dividers to see how it changed the water flow in the table:

Lily riding in a boat:

My cutie peering in the water table again:

We had fun at the museum and had to drag Lily out of there. She was excited to have a balloon to take home but got pretty tired once she got in the car as is evident by the placement of her blanket on her head:

We got Lily some McDonald’s for lunch on our way out of town which seemed to perk her up. She was still awake when we drove back through Grayling which was a good thing because they had a pony ride set up in the parking lot of a store downtown. Lily got so excited when she saw it. She had fun on the ride but it was cold and windy out:

She fell back asleep soon after getting back in the car and slept the rest of the way to our next stop which was my parents’ house in Davison. They got back from their trip to Italy on Thursday and were eager to see Lily. We were eager to see the pictures from their trip! They saw so many wonderful sights and it sounded like they had a good time. Lily was in heaven since she got to see both sets of grandparents on the same day.
Here is Lily looking at her ‘I Love My Papi’ book with her papi:

On Sunday, we took Lily to the Pet Expo at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi. Lily loved looking at all of the cats and dogs there:

Lily’s favorite party of the expo was the Splash Dogs. She loved to see them run and jump into the water and squealed with excitement each time:

Lily back at home on Sunday night adding onto a Lego robot that Paul built while Nolan watched:

Awwww, a big hug for Reiley:

Lily then decided to try to ride Reiley. Lily found it quite fun but Reiley was less than enthused:

Eating her bedtime snack, a pear, in her Legos container. What a goofy girl:

Hunting Weekend (11/13/10 - 11/16/10)

We took a few days off of work to have a long weekend in Grayling for Paul’s hunting adventures. I usually don’t go with him but I needed a few days to recuperate from my injuries and with my parents in Italy, I wouldn’t have any help if I needed it at home. Paul split his time between hunting at his parents’ property in Clare and their old home in Lovells while I stayed with his parents in their new home in Grayling. They were babysitting our nephew, Jack, for the weekend whom Lily found absolutely delightful. She thought that every little thing Jack did was absolutely hilarious. Lily loves playing with boyish toys like snakes, trucks, and dinosaurs and Jack did a great job sharing with her.
Here is Lily playing with a toothbrush and a snake of Jack’s on Saturday. She kept trying to brush the snakes’ teeth. How nice (and brave) of her:

My cutie playing with Debbie’s old Little People house:

Jack snacking on yogurt and blueberries:

Silly girl sitting in a basket:

Lily having a yummy breakfast of grapes and eggs on Sunday morning. She absolutely loved this old high chair that Paul and all of his siblings used when they were little. It is actually even older than you think because Paul’s parents got it second-hand. This chair is apparently made to last! Lily called it the “quack quack chair”:

Quacking at the duck:

Lily lounging in a toy bucket:

On Sunday, we went with Ron and Maureen to Traverse City to take Jack back home so that we could visit with Debbie, Mike, and Sophia. Here is Jack, back at home hanging out on the couch with his grandma:

Lily loved this crazy rolling cat toy:

Sophia drawing on her chalkboard with her grandpa:

Big old Goo doesn’t look so intimidating when he is shaved:

Lily chilling with her kitty back in Grayling:

Ron engaging in his favorite post-dinner activity – a nap:

Lily found this big stuffed dog that everyone calls “beagle” and rode it around the living room for quite some time:

Beagle also doubles as a seat while playing:

Monday was opening day of firearm season so Paul was gone for most of the day. He saw some deer but didn’t have any good shot opportunities. Lily and I stayed in Grayling. She kept herself entertained playing with the plethora of toys they have. Here is my Pretty Kitty playing with more old Playskool toys:

Lily loved all of the toy snakes at grandma’s house:

Big hug for the snake, awwww:

Paul shot a big 7 point buck in Lovells on Tuesday morning. His dad drove over to help him drag it out of the woods but they didn’t have time to process it in the few hours we had before needing to head back home. Usually I have a strict “no carcass” rule at our house meaning that Paul can do all the hunting he wants and bring back all the meat he wants but no bodies or other body parts are to hang around our house. I was not happy about the need to break the rule but there was no other choice. To get the deer home, Paul had to stuff it in the back of the truck between our suitcases. Ick. All weekend, Lily would wonder where dada was and I would tell her that he was out trying to get a deer so she was very interested when she found out that he brought a deer home. He took her out to see it in the back of the truck and she put her finger to her lip and said, “Shhh, it’s sleeping.” So cute!