Parents of the Year Nominees

You know, as parents we don’t always think things through. 

Take, for example, our entry into the Parents-of-the-Year contest.

First, some context. 

Lily likes to clip her buckle on her high chair when she’s not sitting in it.

Michael and I sometimes sing silly songs about whatever’s going on – replacing lyrics from a tune with our own lyrics.  You know the kind – “this is the way we eat our peas” kind of thing.

We had a cute little ditty about clipping belts.

No big deal, right?

Until your child is making a reference to “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” in Costco.

Ummm…oops?

Now if you don’t know what “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is, then you are not currently at your phone dialing child protective services.

If you do know what it is and are able to multi-task reading this and filing a report on us at the same time, just know that we would NEVER let her watch that show.  Not even when she’s 40.  She DID NOT WATCH the show.  But, we just didn’t think things through when we modified an “It’s Always Sunny” song about playing flip-cup (a DRINKING GAME) to make a ditty about buckling safety belts.

And so, instead of “Flipadelphia,” my child chants this in the middle of Costco as I buckle her cart belt:

As soon as it came out of her mouth, the full realization that my 1 year old was referencing a HIGHLY inappropriate show finally hit me.  How did we not see that this would be a bad idea?  I started shushing her and frantically looking around to see if someone was coming to take my baby away because they thought I was letting her watch “It’s Always Sunny.”

Again, I say to you: oops.

It was the best of times, it was the not-so-hottest of times

Greetings, readers!  Yes, it’s been WAY too long, and that’s a real shame because this has been one of the most fun periods of Lily’s development so far.  Do you even remember what she looks like?  Here she is from earlier tonight:

Okay, so pretty much the same…but with new headgear!  That’s a purse my mom made that Lily borrowed to haul her stuff around in.  Also makes a nice hat apparently.

Last time I blogged, it looks like Lily was putting words together, and starting to make short 2 and a few 3 word sentences.  Over the last month, Lily has continued to become even chattier, of course, and now regularly speaks in longer phrases and sentences. 

And it

CRACKS

ME

UP.

I mean, seriously.  We hear her in the morning over the monitor when she wakes up, saying “Mommy.  Daddy.  Mommy.  Daddy.  Daddy mow lawns.  Come back soon.”

This is all said clear as a bell, and I find it hilarious.  (Remember, she thinks Michael mows lawns for a living? Wondering when we need to correct this so she doesn’t get too confused…)  Who knows what goes through her sweet little head, but I believe she’s debating to herself who is going to come and get her.  Maybe she’s deciding that she may have woken up too late and Daddy is already gone mowing lawns for the day (but will be back soon)?  Who knows, but I love it.

I can’t even begin to cover everything I have missed blogging about.  A trip to FL to visit my family, lots of football games, Thanksgiving, and lots of pre-Christmas training.  I hope to go back and get some of that caught up, but for now, here are some funny things she says that stand out to me right now:

I LOVED it when she came over to me the other day, patted me on the shoulder, and said “best friend.”  Melt my heart.  However, when you ask her who her best friend is, she knows that saying anyone BUT Mommy is most likely to get a “Hey!” reaction from me, and she loves the teasing “Hey!” reaction more than anything.  (e.g. “Heyyyy! I thought that *I* was your best friend!”; “Heyyyy! That’s MY chair!” etc.)

On Thanksgiving, I specifically remember her looking at us and saying “Read book one last time” when we told her it was time for bed.  She has only gotten more insistent on negotiating since then.  She LOVES to read at night (almost as much as she likes putting off going to bed!), and is always angling for more books.  “One more book” and “one more minute” are common phrases.  If you pick her up and she really wants to protest, she might escalate with “one more minute, one more minute, one, two, three, four, nine, TEN!!!!!!!!!!”  (as she escalates the last into a despairing wail)  Not sure why she counts like that when “negotiating,” but it’s almost always 1-2-3-4-9-10.  When counting normally, however, she counts to 12 perfectly, and can count to 20 except for skipping over 13 and 15. 

Tonight when we put her in bed after her unsuccessful requests for more books, she informed us she would “read all by myself” in her bed.  I’m not sure if we were supposed to feel sorry for her or if she was just sticking it to us, but it was funny.

Oh, to clarify the title – one of the more recent reasons for my lack of blogging lately has been my bronchitis – not the best of times, for sure.  I’m still not feeling so hot, but oh well.  I have to admit that Lily has been catching up on some TV-watching lately on the days that I felt the worst.  As you may remember, her favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba (Nick Jr.), and one of the songs they sing is about how you should “keep trying…keep trying…don’t give up…never give up.”  When Lily gets frustrated now (like if she is trying to line up some toys and they keep falling over or if she can’t get a puzzle piece to fit), she might get upset and even cry, but you can often hear her yelling to herself through her tears/frustration “keep trying! keep trying!”  Love that persistence!

Oh, and then she throws the puzzle across the room.

I mean, she’s not perfect.

Lily has a few phrases she says oddly, in spite of the fact that she really COULD say them more clearly.  For example, “gay gay” is how she says “thank you,” even though if you ask her to really clearly say “thank” then “you,” she will say “dank you.”  Give her something she wants, though?  “Gay gay.”  Who knows.  Another one is “way-way” said in a very high-pitched soft voice.  She can say “wake up” very clearly, but will usually tell you to “way-way” if you’re pretending to sleep or if someone in a book is sleeping or if toys are sleeping or if anyone in her vicinity is even thinking about trying to get some sleep.  It’s very sweet, and we finally thought to tape it the other day before she stops.

When I was feeling particularly awful the other morning, I had my head down on the table while Lily was eating breakfast.  She kept telling me to “way-way” and “sit up, Mommy,” but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  Then, she gets a twinkle in her eye, leans toward me with a smile, and says very sweetly, “Sit up, cowboy.”  Crack. Me. Up.

She LOVES cowboys.  And mustaches.  We watched part of Babes in Toyland the other day because it was one of my favorite Christmas movies growing up, and this is her favorite character:

Yeah, she doesn’t get that he’s the bad guy trying to do away with our hero and wed his grieving girlfriend, but Lily’s a sucker for a mustache.

Lily often looks like she desperately wants to sing along when you sing something she knows, and she will often dance and mouth the words with you, but won’t usually sing.  She has a few phrases from songs that she’ll say on her own (that I think she’s trying to sing), but she’s really not singing yet.  She does do a pretty good “ring around the rosie” on her own. 

Recently, she likes to make her food play “ring around the rosie” on her tray whenever she’s getting close to the end of the meal.  This is all on her own, as it’s certainly not something I encourage.  However, it does cue me that her favorite mealtime finale is soon to come if I ignore the fact that she’s clearly “done” with the meal (i.e. something “accidentally” dropped on the floor), so it does come in handy at times.

Well, that’s all I can think of for now – she talks pretty much all the time, and blows my mind with the ever-increasing complexity of her language and the thought processes they reveal. 

Lily – you won’t read this for many years to come, but just know that your mommy thinks you are one heck of a smart cookie.  (Almost creepy-smart. Stop remembering EVERYTHING! Your father and I haven’t learned yet to watch everything we say in front of you and I’m afraid you’re going to pick up on my “Oh, I need to remember to shop for…I mean SANTA needs to shop for…I mean…Lily, look!  A cat!”)

Speaking of smarty-pants-ness/nerdiness, I would like to close with a poll for you, my dear readers.  Michael and I have a very serious debate that we desperately need your help in resolving:

Which of the following games that our 1 year old plays is nerdier?

Game #1:

Lily (or someone else) tries to make a small PVC animal stand up on a table. Because of poor design, the animal falls over every time, often in dramatic fashion that Lily finds quite amusing.  When this happens, she laughs and exclaims, “Oh, tapir!” (You see, because it’s a tapir.)

Game #2:

Lily (or someone else) knocks a stuffed toy off of a surface, causing it to shake and make a trilling noise.  Lily laughs and exclaims, “Oh, tribble!” (You see, because it’s a tribble…well, a tribble toy.)

Which of these items is nerdier for our tot to name?  You cannot say BOTH, mind you.  They are BOTH nerdy, my friends, but which is NERDIER.

Discuss.

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Nerds raising nerds. Someone’s gotta do it.

Missing: One Baby

About two weeks ago, Lily started really completing her words more.  “Tay-tay” became “table,” “die-die” became “dine-saurs,” and so on.  She imitates almost any sound she hears, and only struggles with “s” sound blends as far as I can tell (i.e. snake is “hnake” if you can imagine how that is pronounced). 

It has been so fun to hear her start to talk more like a big girl, but we’re already a little nostalgic for the baby words.  Although she sometimes still calls Annabelle (her lovey) by the odd lip-popping sound, she will also call her “kikky cat” or something that sounds like “airmail” or “amma-hell.”

Well, hold on to your hats, folks, because we are also breezing right through several other milestones.  Lily has started using a lot more phrases (like “come in,” “right here,” “dress up,” “go bye-bye,” etc.), but now will even throw out some short sentences (i.e. “Mama draw”).  This afternoon, she was putting her fireman’s hat on a stuffed frog named Tad, and told me “Tad wear hat.” 

Heartwarming.

Pride-inducing.

Kinda freakin’ me out.

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Has anyone seen my baby?

Dress-up

Somehow, this is not what I envisioned when thinking about playing dress-up with my daughter.

I would like to start by saying that she picked these items out herself.

I repeat, this is not a photo-op where I put crazy things on her just for a picture.

We really were just going though her dress-up bin, and she asked to put each of these things on. 

She dressed me in a pirate hat and a lion mask.

She selected these items for herself.

I have no other words.

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Yeah, we will be having nightmares, too

War Party!

Last Saturday, October 16th, Michael and I took Lily to a small fall festival at a church just down the road from us.  We had seen it advertised earlier in the week with signs for pumpkins, apples, bouncy house thingies, crafts, pony rides, etc., and thought it might be worth stopping by.  She doesn’t usually like bouncy houses (although on Friday, she enjoyed going down a big bouncy slide with her playgroup friends – yay, Lily!), and although she loves looking at horses she’s obviously too young for pony rides, but we figured there might be something she could do.

We pulled in, and parked facing the field where they were doing pony rides.

As I surveyed the field with vague interest, I saw an ADULT riding the pony, with her small child in her lap.

It was at that point that I knew I was doomed.

As we predicted, Lily’s first words getting out of the car were about the ponies, and her desire to ride them.  With a promise that we would come back to the ponies, we were able to explore the rest of the festival.

Here she is as she arrived on the scene.

She is clearly too cool to be seen with us.

I didn’t get pictures of some of the festival, but she was able to see some bees in their honeycomb and pet a chicken.  She also got to see the church school’s mascot which was a person dressed as a cougar (I think it was a cougar – that’s my best guess).  If you remember her experiences with McGruff the crime dog, you can guess how this went. 

Yep, lots of high fives, and then longing stares as the cougar walked away. 

After checking out the rest of the festival, we returned to the ponies’ field for my dreaded pony ride.  To my great relief, they also allow parents to hold their child on the pony and walk next to them.  I had had visions of my pony bolting and charging down Woodruff Road, so we picked option B with my hope that I could yank Lily off if need be.  We bought our ticket for ONE rider, thank-you-very-much, and waited for our pony.  Lily was very excited, and kept shouting pony and ride until we were able to get her mounted.

Here is a long-distance action shot.  Doesn’t that look like a comfortable position to hold your precious child in while circling a field and trying to prevent them from falling off and plunging to the ground while also trying to keep your feet from getting stepped on by the pony?  Yeah…it was as comfortable as it looks.

All in all, it was a cute little festival, and Lily loved riding her pony.  They said she was the youngest rider they had had, and that she did super. 

Oh, and the pony’s name?

War Party.

Funny how they didn’t tell me this until we were halfway around the track.

About a penguin, a walrus, and a dinosaur we call a parrot

First off, let me explain that we call the dinosaur a parrot because I thought it would be easier than telling her all about dinosaurs that look like birds.  However, we reap what we sow, and if you know me at all, you will probably not be surprised to know that now my inner nerd cringes every time we call it a parrot. 

Argh.

Crippling and unnecessary precision – a rare talent of mine.

As to what in the world I’m talking about, I wanted to share what Lily is up to these days, of course!  Lily has been into baby dolls and Little People type types for a long time, and enjoyed feeding them, changing them, and putting them down to go to sleep.  Her play then progressed to having the dolls/animals/etc. run errands (to get milk), go to the zoo, cook dinner, etc.  Lately, she has gotten even more into pretend play, and can more independently act out schemes that she and I have played before, and also things she has seen in book/s or experienced herself.  My current favorite is one she came up with on her own after reading a book about being careful.  She will have a doll “run, run, run” then announces that they are carrying “scissors.”  Then, they usually get “hurt” and we need Band-Aids (I can’t spell how she says that, but she does say it).  “Oh no.”

Anyway, please note that way back there I said that she CAN play more independently, and she often does, but that certainly does not mean that she WANTS to play by herself.  These days, she loves nothing more than for someone to play “talk” with her.  That’s when she gives you some toys, and you make them talk and perform for her.  If you have her hold a toy to participate, she can answer for the character when asked “what’s your name?” and will usually correctly answer what the character, animal, or even block would say.  The characters she acts out then usually end up chasing, falling and getting hurt, coughing or sneezing and needing to go to the doctor, eating, sleeping, or sitting.  As much as it drives me nuts sometimes to play “talk” all day (especially last week, because we were both sick and were stuck at the house most of the week), I am loving this stage and watching her imagination develop. 

For you those of you with time to kill, I present a day in the life – a snippet of what bath time with Lily might entail.  There is a real lull a few minutes in, but we were trying to let her do her own thing without directing her much, even if it got less entertaining.  And although I edit some photos, I am way too lazy to edit videos.  We join Lily here after she has already been playing for 5 minutes or so, and we got the camera after she started having the walrus boss the penguin around, telling him to get out of the communal feed cup. 

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Teaching important life lessons, such as “Running with scissors = Band-Aids”

Stop, Drop, and High Five

Lily loves fire trucks, and every day when we leave our house (and again when we come home) she has to choose whether she wants to look at horses or fire trucks.  That is because about a mile from our house, there is a pasture with three horses directly across the road from fire station that always has its fire trucks outside, or inside with the doors open.  I always warn her when they are coming and ask which one she wants to look at, and these days she pretty much always chooses the fire trucks and talks about how they are “home” (I think she has finally switched from “homo” to “home”). 

Lily was VERY excited to see a real fire truck at the library October 4th when we went for an evening story time.  (I forgot my camera that night, so all we have are some videos from our Flip.)  We showed up a little early, and tried to contain Lily as she repeated announced to everyone that she was trying to find a fire truck.  Lily was very attentive while the firefighters talked to the children about not fleeing in terror when they see a fully dressed fireman, and about how to stop, drop, and roll.  Then, Lily got to charge outside to view the actual truck.  She charged through the library as fast as her little legs would carry her, sprinting to the front door to go see the truck (and, as usual, also turning it into a game of “chase”).  

As soon as she saw it, she started saying “turn! turn!” which is a new thing for her, and is meant to indicate that she really wants to ride/do something ASAP.  As in, “it’s Lily’s turn now!!!!”  She got to walk through the truck, and sit in the driver’s seat.  She had a great time, and talked about it for the rest of the week, how she got to drive a fire truck and the “men” (firemen) gave her a sticker, hat, and book.

Something the firefighters said must have made an impression on Lily, because before bed that night when we were reading “Goodnight, Moon,” Lily started pointing at the fireplace in the book, saying “fire” and then, “hurt…hurt” in a really sad voice.  I don’t think I’ve ever really mentioned that fires can hurt you, because it just hasn’t ever come up before.  The firemen didn’t make a huge deal of it, but they did mention that you should stop, drop, and roll if your clothes catch on fire so it doesn’t hurt you.  Apparently she really WAS listening!  I reassured her that the fire wouldn’t hurt her, and that she just shouldn’t touch fires (and randomly added that she should always tell mommy if she sees a fire, which I anticipate will lead to a lot of candle-spotting games…I hadn’t really thought this fire-safety talk out – I just thought it was funny how unprepared I am for handling impromptu safety conversations and how much it panics me to think that she doesn’t really know what to do if she comes across a fire or a road or a rabid dog or Africanized Killer Bees or dog poo or serial killers in vans offering free puppies…ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!).  Now, when we pass the fire station and the fire trucks aren’t home (or the doors are closed), we might talk about how the fire trucks might be out helping someone or putting out a fire.  She then starts saying, “fire…hurt” in that sad voice, and it just makes me want to protect her and lie about how fires never hurt people.  I’m not sure why she takes this so seriously, but I guess it’s better than having a little firebug on our hands.

Last weekend (October 10th), the fire station we pass every day had an open house, so we dropped by, thinking she would LOVE seeing all of the fire trucks out on display, as well as an ambulance, a police car, and a real police dog!

Here she is getting geared up for our trip!

She is going to LOVE this, right?

Ummmm…not so much.

She had NO interest in the fire trucks, gave the German Shepherd only a passing pat, and couldn’t have cared less about the ambulance and police car.

She WILL accept a lollipop from firemen, though, thank-you-very-much.

Oops…caught Daddy mid-bite in his hotdog.  Hey, it was for a good cause!

 

So who was the real star of the show in Lily’s eyes?

Yes, that’s McGruff the crime dog.

She thought he was the bees knees, and wanted to follow him around, asking him to give her a high five.  She wouldn’t talk to him much, but would wave and ask for “five.”  He obliged, and would eventually move on to greet other children, and she would stare him down from across the parking lot until we went over and asked for more high fives.  The man in the costume eventually got hot, and went to change.  After a while, Lily realized the BIG pup-pup was nowhere to be seen, and started getting a little frantic.  We eventually had to leave because her cries for “pup pup!  five five!” were getting a little to loud and desperate.  (I should mention that we really pushed back her nap in order to attend this event.)  The rest of the day, she talked about the dog and giving him five.  She actually said, “pup-pup!  Big!” (she combined this with hand gestures to indicate “big” at one point when we didn’t realize what she was talking about – may have been the first time I really noted her using an adjective?  I’ll have to think about that one.)   She still loves to look at the picture of her and McGruff (and give my computer screen “five” with her sticky little hands) and watch the video. 

So that you can share in the joy:

Was it all you imagined?  If anyone knows of anywhere we can meet McGruff again, please be sure to let us know!

Teaser

I got some cute photos of Lily the other night after Boo-in-the-Zoo, a Halloween event at the Greenville Zoo we attended on Friday night with some of our friends.  I will have to write a separate post about that, with pictures of her costume!  But for now, here is a teaser…one of a series of pictures I took when we got home.  She couldn’t eat most of the candy we got at the zoo (gee…whatever will we do with the candy she couldn’t eat?  I’d hate to throw it away…), but she has had a lollipop before at the doctor’s office after shots*, so we let her have a Dum-Dum after dinner in her high chair.  She was a drooly, sticky mess, but she was SO excited to be getting a lollipop that she got super-silly and gave some cute poses.  I love having lots of cute pictures, of course, but it makes it tougher to stay up-to-date because there is more to sort through.  I also can’t resist tweaking cute photos, which adds to the work.  I’m not sure it’s worth the time, but I do think the edited photo is just a little better and corrects for the poor lighting in my house.  I’m not going over-the-top, just doing basic edits and it only takes about 1 minute.  Any thoughts?

Before:

 

After:

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

I tease you!

*Okay, so she has had a couple of other lollipops in her short little life (like at the fire station as mentioned in another post I just wrote), but the strangest place is at the liquor store.  I brought her in with me to pick up something one afternoon, and the guy at the checkout offered her a lollipop while asking me if it’s okay.  Gee, sir, could I possibly say “no” now without shattering your eardrums as the lollipop is already in her hand?  Anyway, the most amazing part, is that he then proceeded to tell Lily that she should always tell mommy to come back to the “Lollipop Shop” (which I assure you was not the actual name of the store).  Does anyone else think that was a bit bizarre/inappropriate? 

Silver Lining

Tonight, Michael, Lily, and I watched the USC-Kentucky game, which ended in a frustrating loss.  Lily obviously doesn’t “get” football, but will occasionally pipe up with  “go go go go!” if Michael and I get excited, and often refers to the fact that the players throw, catch, kick, and fall (“Fall!  Fall!  Kaboom!). 

During the last few minutes of tonight’s game, Lily, quite appropriately, decided to play one of her favorite games.  It’s called “sad,” and it’s when she tells me to be “sad” and “cry.”  If I don’t do it, she whines and repeats herself until I genuinely want to cry, so she pretty much wins either way.  She will sometimes do a fake cry herself, but she by far prefers me to be “sad.”  Once I start “crying,” she will turn to Michael and start shouting “mom-mom…sad!” (this past week, I became “mom-mom” instead of “mama,” and Michael is now “dad-dad” instead of “dada”) until he acknowledges I am sad.  Then, she will pat me on my leg or shoulder, hug me, or share her lovey with me to cheer me up.  Then she tells me to be “sad” again, and we repeat this process 5,000 times or until I just can’t take it anymore.  It’s quite a ridiculous game, and I try not to focus too much on what it means that her favorite game is watching other people be sad. 

I will eventually get to a point here, I promise.

So tonight, I think I did some of my finest “sad” work ever, because I was, indeed, quite sad that the Gamecocks let this game get away from them.  Michael and I were both a bit dejected as the football game ended.  I convinced Lily that our game of faking “sad” was also over, so we turned the TV off and got ready to take Lily upstairs for bed. 

That’s when Lily walked over to her toy shopping basket, plopped it on her head, and announced that she was wearing a “helmel” (helmet).  I ran to grab my camera, and:

She was SO proud of herself, and I thought it was just adorable.  I was amazed, too, that she thought of it as a helmet instead of a hat – she has known about football helmets for a while, but she has never seen one in person, and we didn’t really talk about them tonight.  I just love watching her mind work!  The timing was perfect, and gave me the laugh I needed to forget my frustration. 

She wore her “helmel” as we went upstairs, and insisted on wearing it while Michael read her some of her bedtime stories. 

 

Thanks for lightening the mood, baby!

You spin me right round baby, right round

As you saw in the “wiggle no” video clip in Lily’s 18-month post, Lily likes to run in circles around other people, as well as spin in circles herself.  The “wiggle no” clip was excerpted from a much longer video of a particularly dedicated Daddy-circling session.  This is extremely long, but again, grandparents might enjoy.

I’m starting with the Lily in the mirror

When we went to the West-Thompson wedding a few weeks ago, we stayed in a hotel room with a mirrored closet door.  Lily was fascinated!  She loved playing peekaboo, sharing, hugging, kissing, chasing, and hiding from the “Lily” in the mirror. 

This is a MARATHON of a video, so most of you will want to move right along.  Grandparents, however, might get a kick out of this. 

Dinner Theater

Nothing exciting, but in case you need your fix of Lily giggles…

Rainbows at Mimi and Papa’s House – Day 6 – September 1, 2010

[From Mimi Bogle:]

This was Lily’s last day and so we just chilled out together. We did have a friend drop by to visit and again play outside in our water tub. Once again Lily had such a good time with this box that Papa brought back from his office. In the afternoon after she woke up from her nap, I had to go to the grocery store then we went to a local Toy Store where she played all over the place. They had a group of small girls (3-4 year olds) having a tea party. This store was one of Michael’s favorite places when he was little. The location and size of the store has changed through the years but still has the very large train with tracks suspended from the ceiling going all over the store. I have know the owner of this store for many years and she so enjoyed seeing Michael’s child for she remembers him coming in the store with his happy smile. Lily was an angel just flitting all over the store looking at everything and of course smiling and talking. Of course her favorite was all the babies (baby dolls on the shelves and 3-4 year old children) NOT to mention a giant stuffed giraffe which she fell in love with. Now, Lily we were all over the zoo shops looking at all of the animals as well as countless sizes and kinds of giraffes where she refused every one of them, of course after she kissed, hugged and held all the versions. NOW you fall in love with a GIANT giraffe and I do mean GIANT. I had my doubts she would leave the store willingly but she happily did her regal wave bye bye and off we were back to Mimi and Papa’s place. Of course at night when Papa came home she fed the fish and we went to the playground after dinner.

That night Mommy and Daddy came home from their wonderful trip to Aruba but as exciting as it sounded it could not begin to compare to OUR wonderful treasured vacation. We fell in love with this little girl the moment our son came outside the delivery room and proudly announced her name Lily Grace Bogle. Mommy and Daddy you have done such a WONDERFUL job with this sweet HAPPY little girl and we do SOOOOOOOOOOO love being her Mimi and Papa!

________________________________________________

Thank you so much for watching Lily for us and for recording all these wonderful memories for us and for Lily.  We love you, too, Mimi and Papa Bogle!

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Do we get credit for having blogged even if we didn’t write the posts?

Rainbows at Mimi and Papa’s House – Day 5 – August 31, 2010

[From Mimi Bogle:]

I THOUGHT we would go to the library again but you guessed it, Lily wanted to go and feed the giraffes, who were anxiously waiting for her to come and feed them. So I did what every grandparent would do, I indulged and we happily went again. Lily is so into feeding animals, baby dolls, statues and anything with a mouth. (Who knows maybe Lily will be a famous chief with her quirky lip smacking sounds– all celebrity chiefs seem to have some kind of eccentric motion or saying associated with them.) As did Michael, she never seemed to lose interest in going there. As soon as she got up she would talk about the giraffes at the zoo and ask me “feed” with her hand motions. When I asked her what the giraffes ate she would tell me lettuce. I of course just beamed. What a memory!!! It was a beautiful day with endless things to do and see. This time we spent more time in other exhibits and enjoyed going thru the wallabies and of course she wanted to hug and hold them. Her little hand motions caught the attention of everyone around us and they also enjoyed her sweetness. I of course just beamed with pride. We went home (or as Lily would say homo). After naptime, we went to a friend’s house that had her grandchild (almost 2 1/2) and they played outside with a bucket of water and cups just running, laughing and playing. OF COURSE I FORGOT MY CAMERA. BOOOOOOOO MIMI!!!!

Rainbows at Mimi and Papa’s House – Day 4 – August 30, 2010

[From Mimi Bogle:]

We went to the Main Library downtown where they have a wonderful children’s library. They have an entire floor dedicated to children. We waited around getting to know some of the children that were gathering for their Mother Goose Story Time followed by a puppet show. Lily was a little shy in the beginning but soon warmed up especially with the animals and toddlers sitting all around the couches in the library. All the children there were in her age group which made it easier for her. We spent a wonderful morning and of course did not want to leave but I told her we were going to see Papa at his office for him to show her off. She had a blast just running up and down the endless hallways in this very large complex. She would laugh and scream with delight asking Papa to “cha, cha, cha” as well as her announcements of “hi, hi, hi” (hide). I was so proud of her for she met a lot of people during these marathon runs and her shyness only came out as “hug” which everyone thought was adorable but we knew what it really meant was, please hold me for I am not too sure about all of these people. After we spoke with them for a few minutes she would do her “bye bye bye bye” accompanied with her wiggle dance (not to be confused with the wiggle dance that accompanies her “no, no, no ) which everyone loved. We of course did not burst their bubbles for we all know that what she was saying is “I need to move on – have you not noticed all of these wonderful hallways.” We rode the elevator to various floors where to her delight, and surprise, more hallways. We rode the elevator to the floor where Papa works and she broke out into a huge smile shouting “fla, fla, fla” (flag). This floor has 3 very large flags on poles which was an added bonus. On all of the floors, she loved to look out the long windows around the rectangle hallway where below was a garden courtyard. We then went back home for her nap then afternoon playtime.