Lily's New Bike

Lily loves her new bike and so do her parents!

Daddy gets a turn.....



Now Mommy...

Merry Christmas!

OK, Christmas was completely awesome. ...and totally hectic during present opening time. The kids got to open one present before everyone woke up and they were pretty patient considering that the room was filled with presents!




ELMO!!!

A vest from Aunt Sarah...which can obviously be used as a toy...





Then there was some time for relaxing....


Then off to the kitchen to help Grandma with the delicious dinner....


A little break for outside with cousin Carley...



"Un para Dios!" Skip sings a little Guitar Hero (sort of like Rock Band with the guitar and microphone)
Even Uncle Peter got into it with "On the Road Again" Yes he got booed off but Kristin says it best...

Christmas Eve

Lily had lots of fun this year for Christmas, all starting with Christmas Eve. We went to see Grandpa "G" and Glam-Ma and Uncle Drake for Christmas Brunch. Daddy's Uncle Peter came too!



Spoiling her...


Also Daddy's cousin, Kristin, her husband, Paul, and their three kids, Spencer, Matthew and Carley, Uncle Peter and Aunt Peggy, all came to visit for the holiday!Oh and Aunt Sarah too! So it was off to Grandma's for cannelloni!! (Mommy's favorite!)

Lily visits Santa

Lily had her first visit to see Santa the weekend before Christmas. Sorry it took me so long to post. She was very anxious leading up and kept repeating "Santa! Santa!" over and over. When we saw him from afar, she repeated "Santa! Santa!" again and pointed to him while walking over to him. Then this happened.....



Again, while walking away she got some more courage....


I do think its fine that she is afraid of an old fat man that she has never met that creeps into people's houses one night a year. That IS normal.

Lily dances at the gym Xmas Party

Although we didn't get that good of a video, this was Lily at her gym Xmas party. Daddy and Mommy both went and got the seats at the front of the class. Great. Although, as soon as the music started, she walked right in front of the whole class and showed her moves. Lily's dancing is probably the thing that cracks us up the most. The shoulder shrug while looking for Daddy is pretty cute. Sorry no photage...in the meantime, you can see our girl does not shy away from attention......

Sesame Street/John Legend

As many of you know, Lily is addicted to Sesame Street and Elmo. Here is one of Lily's favorite songs from Sesame Street featuring John Legend. (OK! Fine! It is actually mama and dada's favorite. I know... this is what it has come to, us having favorite Sesame Street episodes.)

Dancing to Big Band with her instruments

Walking in the snow upstate video

Hey Cow..I am not that afraid of you. (Shout out to Jake Edelstein!)

Yes, that is a gross cow tongue yet she almost touched it. She had a great time at the barn behind my parent's place. "Moo" was said every time she saw a cow. Which was really cute.

Hi cow! .....

The obligatory pitch fork/hay pile picture.....

Grandma (or Bamma as she is now officially called), was great for a whole two weeks. She came down the week before and bonded with Lily, then drove up with us to Chateaugay, NY. Having her in the car for a 12 hour drive was much better than the drive down without her. Thanks Bamma!

Lily for Show and Tell!

So we surprised Anson at his Kindergarten class which was so cute! Here are some videos from it.
(By the way, the funny part about the first video is that Anson's teacher says.."Remember I said we were going to have a special visitor today? Well who is our special visitor?" Anson said "Who?" Umm, it's Lily! Ha ha. )

New word: Funny, our best recording.

Yes, we are obviously trying to put together the word "funny" with "Mama" but are yet to accomplish. Anyway, new words this week are Funny, Happy and Elmo. The last being the most annoying.

We introduced Sesame Street this week to Lily. This may have been a mistake as she repeats "Elmo" as much as she said "Dada" and "Mama" repeatedly. It seems that Mr. Elmo had now replaced us both. Anyway, we all learn our lessons as parents. What is it? Note sure. We think that Sesame Street is the best television around compared to Barney or any other crap. BUT, we really do not want a complete addict, which is obvious what we have created....

We just started letting her watch Sesame Street last week for one episode. NOW, almost every time she is in the living room, she points at the tv and WHINES....loudly, pointing at the tv. Then, when I do not comply, she walks over to get the remote and hands it to me then grabs my hand and walks me to the tv. When that doesn't work, she grabs her Elmo book with the remote and hands it to me all the while taking my hand and walking me to the tv. Obviously, taking her out of the house helps. Of course, as soon as we pull up to the house, she says "Elmo"? Elmo?" with the question intonation in her voice which is what I was trying to video tape. Luckily I got "funny." God helps us all.

A museum (per usual) on a Saturday.

Our day with Skip!

We went to the Corcoran Museum and saw Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power exhibition. A photographer who took silver gelatin photo portraits of people of importance such as activists, artists, politicians, world leaders and everyday folk. Listen to me, or go the website: http://www.corcoran.org/avedon/

Lily did ok for a good 45 minutes. Then it was clear that she wasn't as eager to see pictures of the NYC chapter Black Panther leader and the Chicago Seven, so Mommy and Lily went across the street .
Looking as monumental as the monument Lily was actually listening to a plane flying overhead.



Happy Fall Tree Hugger! (with the Washington Monument in the back)Then we went to have a very early dinner at Pain Quotidian which has a communal large table where you can order tartines, great soups, mezza platters and everything organic, delicious and at a table with other people. It's a bit like this..." yes..hello other new people, welcome to dinner with Lily! Perhaps she is a bit more impatient than you and does not communicate her feelings verbally as much as we would all like BUT look at those cheeks!!?" But the food is scrumptious (a new Sesame Street "Word on the Street.")

November 1st--WINTER STAY AWAY!

Puppies!

70 degrees on the first day of November. Despite the Chil'rens book fair at the Kennedy Center going on, we decided to have a picnic at the Mall. Turns out, Cara and Maura were taking Sally and Bones , respectively, on a Mall walk. So yeah, Lily got to talk with the crew by saying "ruff ruff" over and over and more fun...
The first recorded kiss from Lily goes to Maura! The only one NOT asking for it. Fine, jealousy put aside, its cute. ....
And is Cara seriously trying to help Lily beat Mama!?!?!?! No, not ever. Dada reads a story.....

Happy Halloween!

Oufit #1: An Obama Cheerleader: Personally knitted by Grandma! Very impressive.

Outfit #2: A lovely Ladybug.

Lily had a great evening of Halloween fun. First of all she walked in the Halloween Parade from Macomb Park, Lily's local hangout. Here is a link to the whole day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/stacey.bowers/Halloween2008#

Family photo includes "Backwards Dada," "Mouskateer Mama" and "Obama Supporter Lily."

Dada was great fun to dress up and although we were one of very few parents that dressed up, it was tons of fun. The hilarious part about Mike's costume was that every time he turned away from Lily she would start to whine and get scared. Then he would turn around and she would look at me and think...umm, what is happening here? Oh well, probably scarring her for life.
The parade had so many kids. I heard so many parents saying.."hey, has anyone see my kid?"
The below picture has one of Lily's favorite buddies from the park--Alexander, and his parents. Alexander was an astronaut! Alexander stopped by later and played with Lily. They are really getting along pretty well as Lily gave him a hug. So cute.


And the best knitter this side of the Mason Dixon line...Barbara "Grandma/Naa-naa" Halpern!
This is Lily's neighbor Marie who just adores Lily. Good neighborhood folks around here!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Seriously, she looks adorable in this hat...

Lily reading.

This is Lily's favorite book "My Very First Mother Goose" which is filled with all the oldie but goody rhymes. These pictures crack me up because she really concentrates like an adult.

Lily at the Gym

Lily has been going to the "Giraffe" class at Jonah's Treehouse. Its a movement class for 45 minutes that is just something nice to do inside once a week, especially as the days get cooler. Barbara has been taking her for about a month now but this was the first time Mommy and Daddy got to see her in action. The above picture is Lily having a blast on the parachute. Her teacher Alice is also above and does a great job including all the kids, knows their name, etc. I guess this is probably more or less what daycare is like. Its just nice for her to get some excercise and interact with other kids. When we first got there, she took a small toy and walked over to one of the younger kids and gave it to him. I was first shocked as the sharing bit just isn't Lily's bag. Oh well, I guess its that age but this was a step in the right direction. Of course, she then went to another kid to give her a toy and pegged it at her. Baby steps I guess.

Here are a few videos of her activities.....

Pumpkin Patch!

We met the Edelstein's this weekend to go to a Pumpkin Patch festival and had tons of fun. In general, we climbed into Halloween themed mouths and took some pictures, had a hayride, played on the cool slides, tried hard to get the three kids to cooperate for a picture and climbed on all the fun toys. Here are all the pictures shown here: http://picasaweb.google.com/stacey.bowers/PumpkinPatchOctober#

And here are a few of my favorites....
Mouth 1..


Mouth 2...(sort of)Mouth 3! Kitty!

A few of the cutest, prettiest and coolest girls on the planet!

Family photo op!
Delicious pumpkin!

She is so proud of her new pumpkin. I love this picture. ( :

And a great "Slide"show....(heh heh, get it, get it?!)

Lily dances!

I apologize for the quality of the picture and also the background music. It was something we downloaded on a whim. Never again. OK, I will work on a better video but this will satiate those looking for a video lately.

Running around National's Field

Here are some great pictures from the National's Customer Appreciation Day at the stadium. They let all the season ticket holders on the field to run around the bases, in the dugouts and in the bull pens. It was very cool!

Daddy and Lily in the dugout.....

Lily not looking at second base....


On the home stretch.....
Mommy and Lily in the dugout....

The whole family! This is when Lily was her happiest and dancing to all the music. It was great, everyone kept checking her out and laughing so hard. I think the National's outfit helped but she is pretty cute.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Our last main event in London was to visit Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. This hundreds of years old pub now has been visited by FOUR generations of Bowers, Lily's Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents and now Lily. See this link for the history of the pub:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Cheshire_Cheese

Lily had a great time and gave me a good "cheers".

... and of course, Lily charming the bartender.