Dirty Little Hillbillies

Ben and I decided we needed a short break from the chaos that our lives have been for the past many months.  Since we are in a different region these days, we decided to visit a nearby site and we concocted a plan to go to the Great Smoky Mountains for some fresh air.  Naturally, Rooney had to come with us... he goes on all our great road trips.  Luckily, Lilah had just learned the word "Bubble" before we left and uses the word completely out of context.  We thought we might lose our sanity somewhere on the 7 hour drive.  And then we reached Dollywood and we knew sanity was a relative term now.

Our cabin was beautiful but was up the most insanely winding and steep road I have ever traveled.  Worse than Machu Piccu!  We laughed everytime as we smelled Ben's car engine nearly smoking that we would be trapped in the land of the Hillbillies.  Our cabin's downstairs bathroom was broken, so we opted for no baths for the first 2 days.  When in Tennessee.... be a dirty little hillbilly.  We never got see the local raccoon that frequented the cabin for treats, but we did get to see a black bear running across the road!  I also had a very unfortunate meeting with my first hornet who stung me on my hand.  It hurt like a *#$%!  My hand was the size of Texas for the next 4 days.

We loved the over-the-top towns of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg where we stayed.  It was like where Mountain Town + Hillbilly culture + Vegas all met and the result was pretty unique!  Along with adorable shops of taffy, chocolates and black bear items, you could stop in about 30 haunted houses, visit a number of "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" museums or simply listen to banjo music everywhere you go.  We took part in Hillbilly golf, where Lilah nailed her first hole-in-one.  We both couldn't believe it, the little cutie pie didn't even know how to swing her hockey stick club but got the ball where it needed to go in one try.

We hiked daily and the views were Gorgeous!  Similar to the beauty of the Rockies but with completely different vegetation. We struggled a bit to keep Lilah happy on these 2-3 hour hikes but turns out she enjoyed hitting the back of her daddy's head with leaves, sticks and tugging his hair.  Bless Ben, the man is a saint.  Lilah also consumed a vast amount of fruit snacks while on these hikes to keep her content.  We loved the new territory!

The mountain cart that takes you to the mini-golf course high up the hill!

Diver scaring off the great white sharks while the aquarium was being cleaned.... nuts!

Gatlinburg, TN

Ripley's Aquarium-- outstanding!

Great Smoky National Forest

Junior PGA Tour

Hole-in-one!  For real.

Cade's Cove and Abrahm Falls

Our little fruit snack monster

Mid Hike Bath

 

Growing Up Is Overrated

Growing up is lame.  No one ever warned me that when you have a baby, it will continue to get older and cuter.  But it happened.  And as sad as I was to let her grow up, she just is getting so darn stinking funny and adorable to be around I can't help but love it!  Lilah started in the toddler room at daycare and I was pretty nervous about it.  Mostly because they expect her to eat a snack sitting at a table and to take a nap on a cot, not a crib.  Good luck.  And our reports from the first week of toddler room were less than glowing.  Lilah did not want to sit down and eat, she prefers to stroll while snacking.  Lilah didn't understand she had to sleep on a cot, she wanted to keep playing with toys.  Lilah wants to be held the whole time.  It was a little disheartening... Maybe next week she'll figure this out?  Meanwhile, we are uber sad to leave our infant room teachers, they are absolutely wonderful.  But, on to new stages and new things!  Those babies just don't hold enough entertainment anymore... on to the toddlers.  My mom texted me in the middle of the week worried about how Lilah was doing in the toddler room because she hears about those gangs of toddlers who go around and steal cookies.  From the one thing that's stolen a cookie from Lilah (<cough> Rooney...), the experience wasn't pleasant... I think she can handle herself.  Amongst other unfounded worries... Ben after not seeing Lilah for 2 weeks thought that she was getting too skinny.  Lilah is down to just one double chin, we have major probs here folks.

If you were worried that Lilah wasn't doing cute things, please rest easier, she is.  They are as follows:

We "talk". This consists of Lilah speaking in some foreign language I have not identified.  But it's cute.

We "talk on the phone". ( No idea where she learned that.)

We have chats in the backyard every evening after dinner.

We drink from hoses

We mastered escaping thru doggy doors

We eat at chairs and tables at daycare now instead of highchairs

We drive things.

We stick our faces in fountains.

We think grandpas are neat.

We run thru sprinklers.

We giggle in an adorable way at almost everything.  Even while spilling clean laundry.

We love our ball tent.  Love.

We eat 100% of everything put in front of us... except strawberries and carrots.

We make our daddy an ooey gooey marshmallow (men live for this stage).  And built a fort without him.  This made him sad.

Purses and Diapers.  This classic will never fade.

Hulk, Smash!

   Smashing:  We do two types of smashing right now.  1) We smash ourselves and others, mostly at daycare.  2) And we smash our food.  When we get about halfway through the meal, Lilah starts to repeatedly pound her food in the high chair.  I think she's aware that Rooney prefer's his leftovers minced.  Otherwise, she gets a kick out of watching those goldfish crackers buckle under the weight of her fist and the pieces flying to every corner of the kitchen. This certainly isn't an Otto trait.  It must be Ben's side.  I was a very tidy, neat eater.  Ben... well, let's be honest, he enjoys eating.  A boy doesn't get a favorite holiday of Thanksgiving for no reason!  ;)

  At daycare, Lilah is the leading child for incident reports.  We were concerned at first, but acceptance is key.  For a few months, we were getting 1-2 per day.  They consisted of black eyes, many bruises, falling over play kitchens, falling onto other children, holding too many things in her hands and falling... it goes on and on.  Keep in mind, this daycare has been around for awhile and has probably close to 60 kids in it... so to be the all-time-ever-leader-in-incident-reports is saying something.  Yikes.  Luckily the incident reports have trended down... for now...

   She now takes off her bib.  Bibs are for babies.  Lilah's a big girl.  Big girls are entitled to get food all over their clothes, arms, faces, and hair.  Big girls get big baths, too.  We miss the days of bibs.

    Shoes.  Shoes are big too.  We take them off instantly.  We eat them.  We put them on.  We take them off.

    Still not talking other than something that sort of sounds like "wuz dat?"  Occasionally a "dada" but that's about it.

Practicing for the big pool

Chicka Chicka Birthday Boom Boom

I got this.

      Her birthday party was great!  What a fantastic weekend!  She shares her birthday with Rooney, so it was a joint doggie party of sorts too.  Popper's bday was the day before the party... so it was one GRAND celebration! We had grandparents, a great-grandma, an uncle Trev, friends, rum cake, minion cake, and lots of great Lilah moments.  Her grandpas and uncle made us laugh playing games with her like racing, chair spinning, ball pit playing, and attempting to feed her!  There was a doggy cake and a Minnion themed Lilah cake.  The blue frosting, I think added a nice touch when smeared against Lilah's skin.  Her aunt, Joelle and UncMan Andy sent her a super adorable birthday outfit that was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom themed and matching tutu. Yea.  Way cute.   We enjoyed some NCAA tournament games, walks outside, swinging in the park for the first time and lvoed spending time together as a family!  The grandparents are definitely paying Ben and I back for some sort of trauma we caused them as children though because they brought the loudest and largest toys on the planet to the Nelson House for Lilah's bday.  We now have a very large horse on spring cables named Trigger, a big red wagon, a ball pit with 50 balls and many more noisy toys to add to our house of random animal noises and screeching children's songs.  But Lilah seems to love them all!  Praise be the day that all of those toys batteries run out and every ball stays in the ball tent.

Double Birthday Lilah + Poppers Madness

This will be no trouble at all...

In case you have any adults you need entertained, Lilah says to send them over

Don't be jealous.  Not everyone can look as fabulous covered in blue frosting.

Newest Neighborhood Radio Flyer!

4 Generations-- pretty neat!

We give this thing two thumbs up!

Go Baby Go!

Lilah has been a crazy adorable baby these last few months, less baby more practicing toddler.  We had a 1 year bday party that showed off her fantastic grin, adorable cackle, phenomenal racing skills while pushing a walker and of course, cake smashing skills.  To say this girl is a talented show-off is an understatement.  She is a walker and runner extraordinaire.  She literally was running at 11 months of age.  This had nothing to do with the 6-10 bruises you could find on her head at any time during this stage...  She has figured out how to make her parents laugh endlessly at her with peekaboo, smearing food on her hair, laughing with her sweet sweet laugh and too many other things to count.  Lilah has started coloring also and we have filled the side of our refrigerator with charming scribbles from our beautiful babe.  Every day at daycare we show up with a glowing report of Lilah's day but also some funny story of how they all made them laugh- whether it was a screaming match with Sam (her buddy!), growling at all the babies on the floor, or giving the back door zoobers for an hour.  We love this little girl!

The art of the stacker... we're still learning that one

We do cute cars and pushing toys all over pretty well

Look who's the remote master now?!

Nothing but another day in paradise

With her buds Aria and Susie

Nelson's Defeated.

I apologize for falling off the face of the planet the last few months.  We have been plagued over the last few months with extremely busy rotations, non-stop teething, very little sleep, schedules changing without any advance notice, multiple colds/infections and overall way too much to do!  So, needless to say, the blog fell last on the list.  My mom even had to fly out once for an "Emergency Gramma Life Lift" that was the breath of life our family needed to push through this challenging time.  Overall though, we ended up getting Gramma Otto way sick and she was antibiotics for weeks ang multiple doctors appts to fix herself up after getting contaminated in the Nelson house.  Sorry, Gramma Otto :(  But I think she still had a little fun!

 The mommy guilt was overtaking me in those months with me getting to spend <1.5 hours every other day with Lilah for about 2 months straight.  It had been weeks since we read her a book. She was spending 12+ hours at daycare per day.  At the last minute I got scheduled to work a 30 hr shift not only on her birthday but also for her birthday party weekend.  It was crushing Mommy blow that definitely took it's toll on me.  I rarely cry, but this was one of those times where I was inconsolable at the thought of missing so many important events when I already miss so many.  Luckily a hero of another resident who has kids himself switched me a shift so I could be there for the weekend of her party.  It's the little things in this life and the people who understand them.  Life has been better over the last 2 weeks now that we're workign less than 90 hours a week and actually sleeping in our beds more than 3 nights a week!  Life is good.  We can't wait for residency to be over!  

We did have a little fun... we snuck up to Chicago to see Casey, Paola and Sofia Holmes before the new baby arrives!  We enjoyed a super cold Metro ride downtown to the Art Museum.  It was so cute to see Lilah and Sofia play together!  We also went to Columbus for a day to see Jenna and Jake Van Pelt's newest addition, Baby Ryan!

Sofia and Lilah, pretty gosh darn cute!

On the Metro...The Coolest People in Chicago (plus the person behind the camera)

It was pretty darn cold... and chewy

The Boys and The Babes @ the Chicago Art Museum