Thanks again Cathy, it’ll be double the fun at Christmas!

This is one of Lilah’s new favorite things to do: putting on socks, shoes, gloves, leg warmers, etc.

Lilah loved posing for pictures with these glasses on.

Lastly, here is a video of one of Lilah’s favorite past times. She’ll ask me to turn on the music, then get me a blanket so we can play. Lilah’s outfit is adorable right?! Since she is potty training she needed to have something on that we could take off easily… many times… But I don’t want her little lets to get cold. I am happy that we aren’t having many accidents now so I can just put her in her normal clothes. The real challenge is trying to find underwear for a 16 month old! The smallest I can find is 2T/3T. They’ve worked alright though with pants over the top, to hold them up.

The day after our annual Asian Star dinner our whole family headed up to Idaho for a mini family reunion. Angela, Jeff and their kids were making their trip because Jeff’s little brother was getting married. We all jumped at the chance to have the whole family there. My wonderful mother just found out that that she will need to undergo chemo therapy again along with radiation treatments. She knew that this would be the last chance to get everyone together for a family picture before her treatments and loosing all her hair.

We had such a fun weekend together and I credit this all to my mom. Even though she is going through something so difficult, she radiates strength and peace. She’s happy and full of faith. This sets a great example for the rest of us and allows us to go on enjoying our lives together. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. I know she will feel and appreciate them.

Mom loves it when we are all home and we love it as well! We all arrived on Friday night, and enjoyed eating, talking, and playing games. On Saturday I was able to go on a quick run with Angela and her sister-in-law Amanda Stevens. I love running with these girls and jump at any chance I get. That evening was Jeff’s younger brother’s wedding reception. Jonny and Emilee make such a cute couple and we were happy to be able to celebrate with them.

Lilah loves dancing around to the music. She kept pulling her skirt up higher and higher especially when she realized that she was making us all laugh. Here are two funny little videos of her.

On Sunday we all got the opportunity to hear my mom and Lacey sing a duet in sacrament meeting. They did a beautiful job and it brought such a sweet spirit to the meeting. Lacey was actually planning on singing a different song by herself that day. Then while sitting in the chapel she asked my mom if they could switch the song and sing a duet. My mom was supposed to play the piano, so they quickly found another pianist and went to a room to run through the song. First of all, the pianist (sister Leach) did amazing and I can’t believe someone can play such a hard song without practice, and secondly both my mom and Lacey sang the song so beautifully on short notice as well. We were all blessed to be there and share in the experience.

We were also able to take family pictures, and we were so grateful to the photographer for squeezing us into her schedule at the last minute. I’m excited to get the pictures! I’ll put some up in a later post.

Here is a video of Lilah saying some of her favorite words for me.

Lacey, Lilah and I at the elementary school carnival. Tom was there with us too, but he was taking the picture. Lilah couldn’t go on any of the bounce houses, but she still loved walking around with all the other kids. We have such a fun neighborhood with tons of kids.

Here’s Lilah sitting on her very own potty seat. We have been doing this a lot lately. Things have developed quite a bit since my last post. On most days Lilah will go #2 in the toilet 2-3 times depending on how many times she has to go that day. I have gone for 4 day stretches without having to change a poopy diaper! She is very regular and always goes #2 at least 2 times a day.

She’s having a more difficult time with #1, but sometimes catches it really well. One day she went #1 6X! I think she still goes #1 so often that she doesn’t realize it’s happening sometimes. It’s probably because she’s still so young. I wasn’t even expecting her to be interested in doing this so early. She thinks it is really fun and gets excited to sit on the toilet. We get some false alarms because of it. When she does go potty or if she just wants to sit there for a while, her reward is getting to read a book. She never ever gets tired of reading books! I usually just let her run around in clothes without a diaper until lunch time. She is usually really good about telling me when she needs to go during that part of the day. Things get tricky when we are driving or somewhere other than home.

Lilah enjoying her very own bowl of stove-popped popcorn while we watch ‘Biggest Loser’ together as a family.

Here are 2 videos of Lilah all dressed up in an outfit of her choosing.

Here’s a video of Lilah’s crazy static hair after going down a slide.

Weight 20.1 lbs (11.3%)
Height 29.25 (16.9%)
Head 18.1 (53%)

Lilah loves to dress up in pretty clothes. She will go into her bedroom, pick out some clothes, and bring them to me to put on. She usually picks out things that are really frilly. Then she struts around the house looking very proud of herself.

Her love of dogs seems to be growing. She can pick out a picture of a dog anywhere. I had a t-shirt on the other day and she started screaming “doggie, doggie” while pointing at my shirt. I looked down and found a very tiny dog in the middle of a design that I hadn’t even known was there. I have to really watch her around other people’s dogs, because she will run right up to them and try to kiss them right on the mouth.

We caught a video of her reading to herself.

Lilah still loves reading books. We go to the library and get new books often so that we always have something new to read. I usually keep the library books way underneath the couch so that she doesn’t play with them and bend the pages. One day while I was doing the dishes she started yelling and banging against something. I found her half way under the couch, trying to pull the books out. She had to turn her head just right to fit it under the couch and couldn’t figure out how to get back out… lol

Lilah is really interested in going to the potty. We bought her a seat to fit over the toilet a while back and I’ve started talking to her about it a little bit. I mainly just talked to her about it. Well, for the last 4 days she will tell me every time she is going popo. After telling me she will run into the bathroom and wait for me to let her sit on the toilet. Today when she told me she needed to go, I put her on the toilet and she peed right away! I was so proud of her! She hasn’t pooped in the toilet yet and usually notices right after she has already gone. But she likes to sit there and try to go more. It makes changing diapers really easy because it barley even touches her skin before I put her on the toilet. I’m hoping this means I’ll be able to potty train her early.

Lilah is still a great nurser. I didn’t really have a set plan for how long I would nurse her, but it’s still going great and I don’t see any big reason to stop yet. I love knowing that she is getting so many good things from the milk. I also enjoy the time I get to just hold my crazy toddler. She is so busy and not a cuddly girl, so I really cherish the time even though it’s only about 10 minutes 4 times a day.

Lilah says; mama, dada, doggie, Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, Lacey, Jesus, Lilah, this, that, popo, pepe, all done, knees and toes, bye bye, a-huh, fish, and tries to repeat lots of other words we ask her to. It usually ends up sounding like some variation of the other words she knows and for the most part sounds like it starts with the letter D.

She loves stacking cups into a tower then taking them all down one at a time. We’ve spent a lot of afternoons doing this over and over again. She doesn’t like to knock the towers down. In fact when Tom tries to show her how to do it she just looks worried and says “uh Ooh.”

She loves singing and will often walk around the house making up a song. It usually ends up saying “knees and toes” from “head, shoulders, knees & toes.”

Lilah loves; drawing with side walk chalk, swinging on swings, sliding down the big kid slides, helping me harvest vegetables from the garden, chasing dad around while he mows the lawn, giving big open mouthed kisses, stomping her feet, dancing, almond milk, dates, blueberries, peanut butter, the neighbor kids, having her picture taken, looking at pictures & videos of herself, and much much more. She has so much personality and spunk. I am enjoying this stage so much. We love you Lilah.

This is right after I got home. Lilah thought the ice packs were so funny.

Leah was nice enough to take me in to get them done. She stayed with Lilah in the office while I had the surgery, then she took me home and got me all settled. She put Lilah down for a nap and even made me a kefir smoothie. Then she came back a few days later with carrot orange soup and apple juice. She is such an amazing friend and has done so much for me. I was really grateful for all her help.

Luckily Tom convinced me to get them taken out on a Friday afternoon so that he could take care of me all weekend before he had to go back to work. He got home just in time to bring me a bucket to throw up in. I have never thrown up so much, at one time, in my life… lol We actually had a good laugh about it later on… much later on. Lilah thought the whole thing was pretty funny. She sat there and genuinely laughed while I puked my guts out. I was actually quite relieved that it didn’t worry her.

I ended up getting a dry socket on Sunday which took things to a whole new level. I was surprised at how painful it was. But I still think that the most frustrating thing of all was the eating situation. I really hate drinking all my food! I chewed my first food on the Thursday after the surgery and it was heavenly. I think all that waiting just made everything taste that much better. I am just grateful that you only have to get your wisdom teeth out once. So, moral of the story, if there is anyone out there putting off their wisdom teeth removal… get it over with.

Tom has been visiting Cape May since he was little, and Tom’s Dad actually visited all his life as well. So it is quite a family tradition. This year I was more excited than normal because I knew that Lilah would actually be able to enjoy the beach. I was excited to see the look on her face when she experienced so many firsts. She did not disappoint! Just a warning…this might be the most pictures I’ve even put in one post….non-family beware!

The thing that I was most worried about were the flights…Lilah doesn’t do very well when she’s confined or sleep deprived. What 14 month old does, I guess? The flight to PA interrupted 2 nap times and her regular bedtime. Lilah is the kind of baby that wants to be set in her crib—by herself—when she is tired. She puts herself to sleep, and always has. Flying is one of the times when I wish she would let me rock her to sleep. Of course I tried—but that just made her more angry. I really shouldn’t complain about the flight out to PA because Lilah really did well (the flight home was a different story).

This is Lilah waiting for a flight and I thought she looked so cute with her monkey back-pack (sorry it’s blurry).

We flew in late on a Friday night, and were very excited to hit the beach first thing in the morning on Saturday. Here are a few shots of Lilah’s first experiences with the water. Her face says it all…we love these pictures that Nana took with her new camera!

She would hang out and play with shells and rocks while she waited for the waves to come. She didn’t mind getting wet at all…even when she first got in, which must have felt a bit chilly!

We spent a LOT of time at the beach. We rode boogie boards, played in the waves, read books, dug holes, made sand castles, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Here’s Lilah and I on our way to the beach. It takes us about 1 min to walk to there from Uncle Jim’s house.

Andrew and Nana Rita

The boys dug a hole deep enough for Andrew to kneel down and get buried in. It made me claustrophobic just to watch…lol.

This is what we would do for hours…sit and look for different rocks and shells…and wait for the waves to get us.

I thought the waves were perfect this year. Pretty calm, but still fun. Tom and Andrew would have probably enjoyed bigger waves, but they still had a blast.

Here’s a video of Lilah having a ride on the boogie board with her dad.

We visit the same small branch on Sunday every year, and it’s been fun to start recognizing people. It only takes us about 20 minutes to get there and I’m always grateful for the reminder that the church is the same no matter where you are in the world. We almost feel like regulars. Here we are after church.

After the beaches close, we usually head out on our bikes to experience the town. Cape May has a very magical feel to it, and even though it’s not huge, there always seems to be something fun to do. Some of our favorites are visiting the boardwalk/arcade, Morrows Nut House, sampling fudge from the Fudge Kitchen, walking around the outdoor Washington St. mall, Mango Tango smoothies, dinner at the Dry Dock, biking around with no place to be, looking at the beautiful homes, and just enjoying our own little piece of paradise.

Lilah with Grumpy walking around downtown.

Lilah on a ride at the arcade. She looks so serious, but she was actually really enjoying herself.

Our little family on Washington St.

Lilah and Wicky at the Dry Dock. We have a very similar picture of this from last year. Lilah has changed so much!

At the Blue Wave Burrito… a new place we found this year (and one I’m sure we’ll return) to. They had great music playing the entire time we were there.

Here’s a video of Lilah dancing:

Although we had a lot of fun out on the town, we also had some great times back at Uncle Jim’s place. One night in particular we decided to try and get some funny pictures…my stomach hurt from laughing after about an hour of this.

We had a fantastic time again this year and hope we get to go back again next year. The only thing that would have made it better is if we’d been able to catch up with Aunt Cathy…our Cape May trip just isn’t the same without her!

And last of all, many thanks to Uncle Jim, for letting us stay in your beautiful vacation home.

Lilah loves shoes right now and will try to put them on no matter whose they are… She keeps saying “that” in the video which is what she says all the time now when she wants something. She’ll point to something and say “that….that…” or she’ll hand it to you and say “that” if she wants your help with it. I think it’s so cute…

This is a video of Lilah at Blickenstaff’s Toy Store. We are in love with this place! Now if I only had a million dollars then I might buy something from there… lol Lilah especially loves the stuffed animals in the store and decided to give out lots of kisses with a suggestion from her Dad.

Lilah has her own little sense of humor and personality and loves to get attention and make people laugh. When she was really excited about something she use to tense up so much that her whole little body would shake… Well she saw that it got her a lot of attention and now she does it just to make people laugh… especially me cause I think it’s hilarious. In the video you can’t see, very well, that she is actually shaking but you can hear her when she stops holding her breath. She usually has that funny little smirk on her face while she’s doing it, then she shakes her whole face really fast… lol She is quite the little entertainer!

Lilah & Tom just hanging out.

Lilah absolutely loves this Dog at the Library.

Again, I couldn’t understand why she was in such a bad mood for this short car trip…. until I went back to get her. I guess I’m a little mean for making her stay that way until I got a picture. lol

Lilah at Costco. Tom let her play with this bear while he walked around. She loves big stuffed animals.

More reading time.

We went to Trafalga on Memorial Day with our pass of all passes, and I got to climb the rock wall. We have already gotten more than our money’s worth with these passes and the summer just started! I love having so many free options for date nights and family outings.