Bad mommy blogger.

Yes, I know. I've not been very consistent lately, and I've fallen a bit behind. It's not for a shortage of photos or Lily cuteness, trust me. It's just me; I'm always falling behind in one area or another. Kind of like bills.

So, anyway, I can't go into the holiday season behind. I'll never catch up. So, here's me, getting caught up. First a video, followed by 4 random, untimely posts.

Five little cousins, sittin' in a row.

We don't live all that far apart, but it still isn't all that often that all five of these kids get together in one place at the same time.

Even less likely that they would all stop the running chaos that is toddlerhood for two seconds and be in the same frame of a camera's lens at the same time.
Joy, bless her heart, decided to sit them all down and do just that.

I was impressed enough by that and didn't want to push my luck by trying to get them all to look at the camera at the same time. This is pretty much the best of the bunch.

A black and white edit just for fun.

Another edit just for fun.

But they were all there, at Grandpa's, for his birthday. Here's Lily.

And Tirin.

Connor. And a gun.

Pearl. And a gun.

And Lia?

Here's Lia sans vampire teeth. I could take pictures of this girl all day because (a) she's gorgeous, and (b) she lets me. She's my photo star.

Bird Lady.

So Nana decided she just had to see and feed birds at Busch Gardens while she was visiting.

First up was Big Bird. Nana says he heckled her and made fun of her shoes. I dunno. Does this look like the face of a heckler to you?

We didn't actually get to see many other birds that day, we just ran out of time. But, the weather changed our beach day to a Busch Gardens day and Nana had a second chance. You might've thought the rain would've ruined our day. Not at all. No crowds AND we got to wear super cool rain gear.

So Nana got to feed her birds and she was happy.

I can't believe I'm posting this picture of my horse teeth. But, yeah, birds on Nana's head.

Again, Lily was quite wary of these little birds.

Busch Gardens also just opened a new attraction with kangaroos. I hadn't seen it yet because you have to be 5 or older to get in, and I just don't think Lily can pass for that, even if I had a fake ID for her.

So Nana and I went. Kangaroos are different up close and in person than I expected. But then again, everything I know about kangaroos came from this guy.

(You don't remember Hippety Hopper? From Looney Tunes? Really? He was the best.)

Anyway. here's a real kangaroo.

Funny looking critters.

But you can pet them and feed them! So Nana had fun with that.

And wallabies too.

And I tried to get a good picture of a hopping kangaroo. I was not successful. They give no warning when they are about to hop, and they're fast.

This was the best I could do. But, we can go back anytime. Even tomorrow, if we wanted to, so I'll have another try.

A style all her own.

A week ago or so, we went to Lily's parent-teacher conference. Don't laugh. I'm not overly worried that she doesn't know shapes as well as she knows colors, but it is nice to hear a little about the days we're not together.

Anyway - not for the first time - we got the comment, "She's very independent."

I said "Sure. It's kind of the nature of toddlers, right?" Then I just got a look, and "Well, let's just say she's nobody's pushover."

That's my girl.

Along with that independent/opinionated streak comes her own very unique sense of style. See below.

She loves pink. She loves dresses. She loves to wear pink dress and say "I twihl (twirl), mommy. My go in cih-cos, (circles) mommy. "
She does not like to twirl and go in circles in her pink dresses when I take the camera out.

Unless she's the photographer. Then she's happy.

She also likes to wear the tutu that's too big for her.

She doesn't mind its size. She just likes the poofiness, I think.

And she LOVES her "Cinderella" shoes even though they're too big.

I found this little fairy outfit for her at the outlet mall. It wasn't just that I thought it would be fun for dress up. I have scrapbook paper that will match this perfectly. (Yes. really). And I'm dying to use it, so naturally, she refused to try the outfit on every time I asked. Until one day when she decided she wanted to wear it. I got all excited, grabbed my camera, and tried to take some pictures.

Could she look at me even one time? For just one picture?

Nope. But she could look at herself in the mirror, which might be a cute picture if my mirror were even a little bit clean.

What does a fairy dress with wings need? A monkey jacket, of course.

Sigh.

And shades!

Well, I wouldn't have put this ensemble together, but I think she pulls it off.

October the 28th.

(Upfront disclaimer: if baby bikinis are scandalous to you, you won't like this post.) Sometimes I forget what month it is. Actually, sometimes I forget what season it is.

Well, I don't forget forget. It's just that Florida doesn't really have seasons beyond "wet" and "dry." So I'll be talking to someone back home, and they'll comment about the cold weather or the snow or something. And I have to stop and think for a second...is it winter? Still fall? October? May? It's only a second that I have to remind myself, but it's really strange, and it makes me feel a little bit crazy.

But seriously, in defense of my sanity, this is how I spent the afternoon on October the 28th. That's the END of October. Back home, alternate parking would already have started to make room for the snow plows.

Here, we had to find a way to cool off. Lily and I met with fellow toddler, Quinn, and his mama. We chose this park because of the water fountains.

Lily and Quinn had a blast. I'm not sure if they were playing together or not, but they both just kept running laps around the fountains.

They were both very interested in the lions.

But for the most part, they just played in the fountains.

As an added bonus, this park is really close to Khan's office, so he came over to meet us for a few minutes. He tried to resist playing in the fountains, I know he did, I saw him.

His smile got bigger as he watched. He took a small step forward, and then back. Step, then back. Then he rolled up his pant legs and went for it.

Not a bad way to spend your lunch hour on an overly warm October afternoon, huh?