Spring 2008: March, April, May


Snow is rare in the Memphis area. After eight years in Boston, we appreciate snow much more as an occasional novelty than as months of shoveling, scraping, and shivering. Lily and I built little snowmen along the driveway, and Michelle joined us later and showed Lily how to make a snow angel. The last picture looks deceptively like Lily spelled out her name in the snow, but it was really Michelle!


At the tender age of 3 years, 1 month, and 20 days old, Lily had her very first haircut. I had delayed this as long as possible, as a card-carrying long-hair fan. But Michelle pointed out that the ends of Lily's hair were uneven, and she admitted to being creeped out that the tips of that hair used to be in her uterus! So finally the day came (March 22nd). Her hair was cut by Anita at Fantastic Sams, where I get my hair cut. Lily sat in my lap and was very well behaved. Her hair was still long afterward, and Michelle saved the hair clippings somewhere.


Michelle took this picture of Lily and me playing on laptops. She's still very much a Daddy's girl, and I enjoy it more now that she's older. Most evenings she sits next to me on the couch (I'm reading my iPhone, she's watching TV), with my beer bottle and her milk cup beside us. However, any time I do or say something Lily doesn't approve of, she pouts and says, "I want my Mommy!"


Some of Michelle's cousins in Virginia Beach came to visit for Easter, with Lola and Papa. From left to right are Uncle Picoy, Uncle Bunny, Howard, Cherise, and Annabelle.


Lily colored Easter eggs for the first time this year. Cherise, Annabelle, and Howard colored eggs too.


Cherise did a good job drawing Dora the Explorer on an egg!


We hid lots of Easter eggs around our yard, and Lily walked around finding them (with help). A few weeks later I was out in the yard with Lily and we found another egg!


The longest time that Lily stops being a Daddy's girl is when Papa comes to town. Then she wants to know where Papa is all the time, and clings to him wherever he goes! (I'm okay with this -- I get some free time.) It's really cute to see them playing together.


Lily also likes to play with her Lola -- especially once she's worn out Papa.


We made an early morning trip to the zoo in April for Colin's 5th birthday party. Unlike other zoo visits, all the animals were active and fun to watch before it got hot later in the day. We brought Madeline with us.


The two girls were pretty quiet in the car on our way there, but when we left they were boisterous and giggly, and kept singing funny songs together. (Well, funny to them anyway. They kept singing "Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day" with a random word added at the end, like "Shoe!", and then they would both laugh hysterically!) (Click the picture to view the movie, or download it here, 11 MB.)


On one of our trips to the Children's Museum, Lily was proud of a tall stack of blocks she built, and then promptly destroyed. I also got action shots of her successfully throwing a basketball in the hoop.


Lola came for a weekend to meet with their house builders. For a change, Pop was not with her, so she got to enjoy all of Lily's attention! She bought Lily her first "big-girl" bike, with training wheels. Lily rode it on a small residential street in our neighborhood (there were no cars). She was riding pretty fast.


Here's a movie of Lily riding her bike. While I'm taking the movie, she says, "Take a picture of my ear!" (???) So I zoom in on her ear, or rather the side of her head covered by hair under which we presume is an ear. (Download here, 16 MB.)


There was a carnival in town the weekend Lola was here, so we all went with Lily. She went on lots of rides and played some of the "everybody wins" games.


Michelle's company invites people to their private booth to watch basbeball games. For us it's an excuse for Lily to play with some of her friends.


Michelle wanted to rent a moon bounce and slide for Lily and some friends to play on in our yard. The rental company threw in a free obstacle course as well. Our yard turned into a theme park!


The kids had fun with all the toys, and the adults could relax in the shade!


I've wanted to buy a ball pit for Lily for years, but could never find any good ones. When I was young, in between dinosaur hunting expeditions, we could play in ball pits that were several feet deep. But if you buy ball pits in stores now, the walls are six inches high, so you can have all the fun of a one-ball-deep pit. What a thrill. However, I found an inflatable pool of a good size, and filled it with about 2500 balls. Lily loves playing in it.


Michelle picked up Lily and threw her in the ball pit. And Lily said, "Let's do it again!" (Download, 13 MB)


We went to Madeline's house for a Memorial Day party, and the kids had fun in their water slide.


In this movie, Lily climbs up the waterslide, slides down, and then shouts, "I did it!" (Download, 5 MB)


Papa bought Lily a pink jeep to ride around our yard in. She sat in our garage watching Papa put it together. She named it Snow White, and now has two cars for all of her traveling needs.


Lily took tennis lessons for two weeks at day care. We'd ask her sometimes how it's going, and if she hit the ball, but she would tell us "I'm not very good at tennis." Parents were allowed to come watch at the last class, and I got a couple of action shots. We don't care if she's good at tennis, but at least she could hit the ball!


Here's Lily hitting balls thrown by one of the tennis teachers. She hit two out of three! (Download, 4 MB)


I caught Lily lying to her tennis teacher. They were supposed to stand in front of a fence, throw the ball up, hit it, and hold the ball against the fence with the racket. While the teacher wasn't looking, Lily just held the ball against the fence with her racket and then shouted, "I did it!"