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?

5 minutes (plus) of pure cuteness.

I do realize that the blogging audience of 4 dwindles to 2 when the video is 5 minutes (approximately) long, but the two of you are going to enjoy this, I'm quite sure.

This video is classic 2-year-old (plus a coupla months) Lily. As adorable as it is to me, I'm not deluded into thinking it has a wider audience than two.

It's adorable on its own, but the whole story (which becomes evident quickly) is that this was not the video I was planning to take. She had playing with her stuffed animals when Bugger (a pink bear so named by Lily) got scared by the ghost. And then in her sweet little toddler voice she told him that it was okay and gave him a hug. Heart melt. So I grabbed my camera to catch it, but I missed.

It's cute anyway. And in case you wondered, the hair bow (that she INSISTED on wearing) was handmade locally by a friend of mine through Rain Bows.

33 pictures of Halloween.

Remember once when I said you never regret taking too many pictures, and you only regret not taking enough?

I might've been wrong about that. I'm taking more pictures than ever now because I'm trying to learn how to take better pictures, and as we all learned in kindergarten, the way to learn something is to practice, practice, practice.

The problem, of course, is that I'm drowning myself and my computer in all this practice, and then it takes me forever to weed through the 300 pictures I took on Halloween to come up with 33 pictures for the blog. 33!

So before my computer starts bitching again about its startup disk being almost full, I'll try to get some of these posted to the internets.

Of course, Lily wanted to be Prince-A-Rella for Halloween. She is currently obsessed with Cinderella. Fortunately for her, her fairy godmother (Nana) was here to help make it happen.

Bippity.
Boppity.
Boo.
Lily was joined by her cousins for Halloween. Here's Dragon (Connor.)
Do NOT call him a dinosaur. He's a DRAGON.
Spiderman (Tirin) was here.

And so was Tinkerbell (Pearl).
And a witch (Lia).
Who the hey is this guy?
Not the nicest way to ask for candy. (This is the kid across the street from his. He always has the best costumes.)
So eventually our crew was assembled and we were off.

Our first stop was Wine-O-Ween. Sigh. This is how we spent our first couple of Halloweens in our neighborhood. All the neighbors on our little street get together with bowls of candy and bottles of wine.
But the times change, and a trick-or-treating we must go.



At one house, a lady handed out full size candy bars and Barbie dolls. No lie. I think she was seriously underestimating the volume of trick-or-treaters that come to our neighborhood. (Well, she said she only had the three Barbies for the lucky first three girls.)

Lia could've gone home right then. She clung to that barbie and wouldn't even let anyone carry it for her.


Eventually, it was time to head back.

And examine the loot.

Lily discovered suckers.
And can-ny.


Now I have to figure out how to deal with a child who only wants can-ny. The new reality of Halloween indeed.