L and T 'milestones'

-we are actually 'loving' summer here in the desert. we swim, or find some kind of water feature to splash around in, pretty much every day. sometimes even twice a day.
topher thinks he can swim. but he can't. but he is the cutest thing in 'floaties'. yes, even pink ones. (they belong to his girl cousin! don't judge him.) topher loves his dad and tries to be just like him. i love my chris+topher!!!!

-lily came out of my room the other day with her hand behind her back. 'guess what i have' is one of her favorite games right now. usually it's something that she shouldn't necessarily have- nail polish or a bottle of lotion. i will admit that i give lily a little baby pedi every week. only cause colorful toes make her SO HAPPY. she loves seeing other people's colorful toes, she loves having colorful toes, and she especially loves when our toes match. anyhoo, this time it was none of the above. 'what do you have lils?' i asked. 'popsicle!' she screamed and presented me with a Tampon! yeah!... it was still in the wrapper people. don't freak out too much. i told her it was not a popsicle. 'chocolate???...' not even close my love. i told her it was not for her and she should just put it back in my bathroom and never go in there again. she did not believe that it wasn't a wonderful edible treat. so she opened it up and was so very disappointed to find cotton on a string in a mess of plastic tubing. can't wait to tell her what that is really for...

-topher learned/figured out on his own how to take out a dvd that he doesn't like and turn on a new one that he does. it was all probably a lot more serendipitous than anything else, but i was amazed when i heard a korean dvd playing, when i knew for a fact that i had not put that in. i was in the kitchen making dinner, and topher was very proudly standing in the middle of the living room, looking at the tv, to me, and back to the tv. he has been shoving dvds under the dvd player, the cable box, and the tivo (i know, we have too much crap for our entertainment) for months and months, thinking he is putting in a dvd. this time he got it right. this happened at the same time as lily's tampon/popsicle moment. so many emotions going on in the apartment all at once.

-lily and topher are officially composing their own music. yesterday, during the 'singing portion' of our bedtime routine, topher found a ball and said he wanted to sing a song about it. 'ball goes up, ball comes down.' this jaunty tune was accompanied accordingly by the ball going up and down. it was awesome! we were so proud of our boy. then lily said she wanted to sing a bathing suit song. of course we thought she was going to sing 'happy birthday' to her bathing suit, something we occassionally do around here. instead she starts to sing: 'who has a bathing suit? who has a bathing suit? who has a bathing suit? who has a bathing suit?' no joke. her own lyrics. her own melody. chris and i looked at each other. neither of us had ever sang that song with her before. musical geniuses we are raising!!!!! ok. maybe i am taking it a bit too far. BUT, chris and i could not be happier that our kids are so creative and that their little brains are much much bigger than we give them credit for.

-i'm gonna throw in a big 'jihae milestone', just cause i can. yesterday chris and i went golfing and had the BEST time. we haven't golfed together since december i think. anyway, i had one 'legitimate' par and one 'legitimate' bogey. it was awesome. i am usually a 'double par' kind of player (if you don't play golf, that means if par is 4, then i usually get the ball in with 8 strokes. or more honestly, 9.) i say 'legitimate' cause chris keeps our score with our 'handicaps', which i don't understand fully, cause it makes me look like a MUCH better golfer than i am. i think handicaps were created for wives to continue golfing with their husbands and not feel bad about themselves.

-lily usually wakes up at 5:58am. that's what time she pees at. topher usually wakes up soon after that, if not at the exact same time (probably cause lily wakes him up. her partner in crime, what would she do without him?) anyhoo, our kids are not big sleepers. but the other day, lily fell asleep at 6pm, on our way home from swimming at nana's. then she could not be shaken or stirred from her sleep, not even for a little dinner. so we put her in bed and didn't see her until 6:30ish the next day. i was all at once amazed at her 1.bladder control 2.apparent exhaustion 3.bear-like hybernation-skills.

-today we all woke up at 7:45ish. MIRACLE. i don't remember the last time we all slept in that late. oh wait, yes i do. it was like 6 months ago when topher was still in a crib... sure, i was on the floor in the kids' room, with topher beside me (he started crying/screaming at 6ish), but the fact that he fell back asleep, and that lily and her alarm-clock-bladder didn't wake up earlier was all so very very great.

-topher has taken to calling chris and i 'honey'. chris usually calls me 'honey'. i don't think i call him that, but maybe i do. and i don't think that we run around the apartment yelling: 'honey, where are you?' but for the simple fact that topher does that a lot, we are thinking he picked that up from one of us. it's kind of hilarious. and the other day ago, we went to the zoo (it was only 104 degrees! the coolest day of the week!...) and chris had the genius idea of bringing a spray bottle filled with ice water in it to cool the kids, and us,down with. so smart. he's a true arizonite. every time he sprayed topher, our beautiful son would look up at his dad and say: 'thank you honey', for the cool down! how precious is that?!?!?

-lily is becoming more and more conscious of the dangers of the world these days. her big one these days is wrinkles. gotta lay that sunscreen on thick to keep the skin looking vibrant and youthful. take it from lily: sun safely folks.