Almost a soccer mom.

(Random disclaimer: I recently decided to find out what "vivid" mode means on my camera. It turns out to mean "really contrasty with skintones a la Oompa Loompa." And I'm not experienced enough in post processing to know how to fix it. So, these pictures look weird, but I wanted to post them anyway.)

So, yeah, almost a soccer mom. All I really need to do is get one of these photos turned into a photo pin and attach it to my windbreaker and I'll be set.

Khan got a cheap-o soccer ball and net, and we took it down to the park because our yard is four feet wide.
Khan was trying his most patient to show Lily how fun it was to kick the ball into the net, but she just wanted to throw it toward the aligator pond and kick it randomly.
But he kept trying, and then she got mad and wanted to take her ball and go home. More patience. And a little more trying, and Khan made some progress. Yes, Lils, kick it in there.
And then they were off, happily playing the world's easiest soccer game.


And she won, of course.
Where'd I park my minivan?

The beach.

I love the beach.

You probably knew that already. But for as much as we love it, it's pretty shameful how rarely we actually go and take advantage of our proximity to it. A few weeks ago, that same day we went to Dunedin, we went to Honeymoon Island, too.
The place has changed some. See that crossover we're walking on? That's the same aisle I walked down and said "I do." The building behind us wasn't there in 2007.
Changes or not, I still love to be here. The beach is my church.

It's where I feel small and blissfully insignificant in the vastness of the world. Where it doesn't matter that we have yet another broken toilet in the house. And I forget that I get woken up at least 4 time a night.
I like to just sit, close my eyes and take it in.
At least for a few seconds.
And the rest of the time, I generally just have the one eye closed while I take countless pictures of these two, watching the water roll in and out.


And playing in the sand.


No sandcastle is complete without the flag.
So, for however long we were there, she built, unbuilt, and rebuilt her sandcastle.


She stopped to sing "Wheels on the Bus" every now and again.

Even with the building, the songs, there were a few quiet moments.

Cheesiest Valentine's Day EVAH.

And I loved it.

It started out like any VDay might with a toddler (am I supposed to call her a preschooler now? I barely got used to calling her "toddler" instead of "baby") in the house.

We made valentines for Daddy.

When Daddy got home, he gave her pink tulips for Valentine's Day. Ahhh.
She was very excited about her own flowers.
So here comes the cheesy part. It started a week or so ago when I found an ad for a father-daughter Valentine's dance at a local community center. I thought Khan would love that idea, and I loved the idea of taking some pictures of them all dressed up and dancing.

Well, he wrinkled his nose at me and said, "Let's just have our own." So we did.

Lily and I decorated during the day with streamers and balloons.

When Khan got home, we all got dressed up, had dinner, and turned on some dance music. It worked out well that my scrapbook group had been at my house the day before because all the furniture was pushed against the wall so we had a big, open dance floor.

As a rule, I don't dance. There are three exceptions to this rule: (1) my wedding day because I really didn't have much choice, (2) extreme intoxication, and (3) in the privacy of my own house with just my husband and my baby. Dancing with Lily doesn't really qualify as dancing, anyway, as it turns out. It's sort of a cross between hopscotch and Ring Around the Rosie.

Lily never misses an opportunity to wear her Cinderella dress.
She discovered that she loved to slide through Daddy's legs.
Which eventually turned into straight-up rolling on the floor.
But it was fun.
Then she decided to pose for pictures. I swear! It's a new thing she's been doing. She tells me where to sit and how to smile and takes pictures with her Mickey Mouse camera several times a day. So she directed Daddy and I took the pictures.
A black and white edit just for fun, and because I love that you can't even tell that they're sitting in front of our TV.
Another location.
This was to be the third location, but she got distracted by a stray photo on the table.
And then it was Mama's turn to dance! Yes, I know I'm under no contractual obligation to post stoopid pictures of myself, but I figure it's only fair.

So we danced.
Or jumped. And it was fun.
Oh, and Lily wasn't the only one who got tulips for Valentine's Day. :-)

Building imaginary snowmen.

Hmmm...need to see if this video actually posted. I usually have to make them really small and totally pixelated and impossible to see.

A little background: As we were getting read for bed, Lily was digging around her room looking for new ways to stall bedtime. An art she's currently perfecting. Anyway, she found her basket full of mittens and hats and such. She put on mismatched mittens and totally un-winter hat and started building a snowman. She had a whole winter scene in her mind, and she was instructing me how to build a blue snowman, and then we were building blue and pink snowmen. A better mom would've squashed the game to get her back on track to sleep, but her little imagination was so adorable, I got the video camera instead.

Oh, and the dress. That's an important detail. She and Khan came home from a long day of play in St. Pete with her cousins and grandparents. She was CRANKY TIRED, and the need to wear her Cinderella dress to bed was firmly in her mind. Because I have at least a little of the gift of mommy-foresight, I knew that there would be at least 3 tantrums before bed. So my strategy with the battle of the Cinderella dress was to convince her that this dress, which doubles well as a nightgown, is also one of Cinderella's dress. It worked. Score one for Mama.

So here's the video, if it's posted, enjoy. If not, I'll try again. It's about 3 minutes long.

BTW, it's pretty obvious she has no idea how to build a snowman for real. And I handed the video to Khan with instructions to NOT include me in the picture. He did a terrible job at that, so forgive me in my pajama'd, no makeup, Who-hair state.

Return to Dunedin.

It was a few weekends ago already, but for the first time in a very long time, we had a whole weekend with NOTHING to do. Poor us. Whatever would we do? If were were smart, we'd probably take some time to get caught up on "stuff."

But we're not smart, so we packed a lunch and went out and about and landed in Dunedin. On our way, we found something truly amazing in this part of the world.

There was waterfront property. Open space, access to the water, all of that. Instead of putting up condos and blocking the view, the land was turned into a park. Shocking,isn't it? It was also the perfect place for us to have our picnic.

Lily wasn't interested in lunch, though. With a sand pail in one hand and a shovel in the other, the only place she wanted to be was the beach.

She settled for the sandy coquina mix of the trail.

Hey, that's mah husband.

Isn't he handsome?

We walked down the pier just to check out the water. Look at Lily dis her mama. It's okay, I'm used to the rejection.

Family portrait time!

Moving on...the best part of Dunedin is its general walkability. A nice little downtown with shops and restaurants, farmer's market, and the Pinellas Trail runs right through it. Lily had her pink motorcycle and was ready for the trail.

She did attract some attention.

And that's not easy to do here.

It might've been the shoes. They're pretty awesome, and $2 on consignment, TYVM.

I don't know if it was the sound of the ice cream truck, which I swore I heard the entire time we were at the park, but we definitely had to get some ice cream.

She saw the blue ice cream, and of course that was the one she wanted. Note the outfit change from the park? Yeah, that was because of a pb&j sandwich. Bright blue stains, anyone?

She's been really proud of her sharing abilities lately. Those abilities come and go, but I give her credit where credit is due.

By the end of our ice cream break, the white sweater was still white. So was the white tee shirt. The teeth, blue stains.