Taking turns

We went to our friends' house on Saturday for an impromptu pool party. Lily helped Amalia in her quest to walk by having her act as a rickshaw driver.



To be fair, Lily did her share of the rickshaw driving...

Lilyisms

1)
This past weekend, I was explaining to Lily that the 4th of July was a holiday because it's America's birthday. She said, "Oh, and are the fireworks like the country's birthday candles?"

2)
While Lily was getting ready for bed recently, she rattled off several lines (from several characters) from a movie she'd seen quite a while ago (Madagascar, I believe).

Me: "Lily, you know, you have such a good memory, we should have you memorize important stuff, like the names of U.S. Presidents or the names of the planets."

Lily: "Or princesses!"

Indeed.

And "BO!" to you, too

Amalia's current favorite word is, "bo!"--usually stated with much emphasis. We're sure she has something specific in mind when she says it, but we're less clear on what that something is. Here she's saying it after having spaghetti.


I think Lily's just trying not to spit out her Cheerios while laughing.


Completely unrelated, we got these Big Sister/Little Sister shirts so we could tell the girls apart. At the rate Amalia's growing, we may have switch pretty soon.

The Ohio River Valley

More photos from last weekend at the family reunion in OH/WV (courtesy of my mother):

Amalia tormented a few lorikeets at the Good Zoo at Oglebay (Wheeling, WV). I desperately tried to steer her away from bird poop puddles. (I can't wait until she goes upright.)

My aunt and mother disagreed with me when I said goats were nice -- in response to Lily's question. Perhaps they thought I would have been traumatized from my childhood experience of having a goat eat the name tag right off of my shirt.

Again trying to keep Amalia from tormenting the animals. I think she thought she could climb on it like she does to our dog Blue.

The baby pool at Wheeling Park (family reunion location). Amalia was fearless; Lily, a little less so.

Lily's lucky ladybug landing.

See-sawing sisters.

Cousins -- to some degree removed.

Skipping stones into the Ohio River (Shadyside, OH).

Amalia going down the big slide with Laura.

Grandpa and his girl

We drove up to Ohio this weekend for the Wallace Family Reunion (mother's side of the family). Unfortunately we had not charged our camera batteries since our trip out to Sacramento the previous weekend, so we only captured the above two moments between my father and Amalia. Any family members reading this are urged to send me pictures to post for all to enjoy. Thanks!

Visiting family and making friends

Last weekend we flew out to Sacramento with the girls to attend the funeral services for Andy's brother's wife, Stephanie. Her death came much too early and the loss is tragic and heartbreaking. Although it's times like these that make us desperately wish we lived closer, we were grateful that we were able to be together with family to help celebrate her life. The girls especially had a wonderful time with their aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and even some new friends.

Amalia napping with Grandpa Colin.

Lily's new friend, Ian.

Hanging out with the Rosnack cousins.

First time in a pool!

Aunt Stacey.

Silliness with new friend, Greta (Stephanie's niece).

Eating sno-cones at Joey's playoff baseball game.

The Pierce siblings.

Ah, the smell of chlorine

Week 2 of swim lessons and we're in the groove. The swim teacher now calls Lily by her correct name (last week she was "Nellie"), and I now know where the door to the pool is. (I think I tried to go through the janitor's closet last week.)

Sorry the pictures are so far away -- parents are relegated to an upstairs viewing area so the kids can't hear our competitive cursing.

Waiting for our turn. Lily's the one in the pink "surfer girl" outfit.

Getting their feet wet. The girl in the middle -- in the blue suit -- got skittish and left the lesson before getting in the water. Who knows what goes on at poolside -- maybe Lily pinched her.

I think that's how my grandma used to swim so she didn't get her hair wet.

Amalia in the parental viewing area, mischievous as ever.