Outtakes

This blog is filled with entries of me describing how Lily is my "challenge". My "willful" child. How much I would sometimes like to lock her up in the...no...wait...I don't think I've written about those days ;) Yet.

The amazing thing about my...ahem...independent-minded...Lily? She is a totally different kid outside our house. When I take her on errands, when we go hiking. Oh, wait. Okay so she's not ALWAYS a different kid outside the house. But take her on a trip...whew. She was WONDERFUL. CHARMING. LOVING. FRIENDLY. I USE ALL CAPS BECAUSE IT IS SO AMAZING.

Here are some Lily quotes from our weekend in Texas...

On the plane, as soon as we got on the, she started asking, "Mommy? When are we going to blast off?" I reluctantly corrected her.

Once the plane was in the air, she asked every 10 minutes if we were in Texas yet. The flight was almost 4 hours long. After about 2 1/2 hours, I told her to look out the window and tell me if we were in Texas yet. She peeked out, then sat down and sighed, "No." "How do you know, Lily? What does Texas look like?" "It has lots of lines on it." No doubt in reference to the maps of Texas we'd looked at before the trip.

She and Andrew had studied the emergency card. When we began to descend for landing, Lily took one last look at the card, then put her head between her knees and hands over the back of her head. She said, "Come on, Andrew! We're landing." Andrew replied, in true big brother fashion, "We're not CRASH landing, Lily." We all had a good chuckle.

On the plane ride back to Philly, she once again reviewed the card when we began our descent. She looked at me and loudly asked, "Do we know if it is a crash landing yet?" The man seated behind her barely stifled a snort.

Lily has a serious love affair with her Uncle Chad. And has had it since she was an infant. They are true kindred spirits. So she was delighted to hang out with Chad the day we got there. The next day, we went to the zoo and didn't see him all morning. When we showed up at the rehearsal dinner that night, Lily ran into Chad's arms, turned to me and said, "Can you believe Uncle Chad is here?!?!?"

We were driving home from the rehearsal dinner and it was night time. One of the side effects of my children's early bedtime is that they are not used to seeing stars and darkness. It's kind of socially weird. Anyway, we were enjoying the view of the Houston skyline at night, when out of nowhere a police car turned its siren on...right behind us. It scared the bejeezus out of everyone in our car. Lily yelled out, "I'm a freak!" I said, "Do you mean you are freaked out?" "Oh, yah, I'm freaked out."

We rented a Ford Explorer while we were there...and Lily could reach the window button. When we weren't on the freeway, we let her have her fun opening and closing the window. And that is what she did...over and over...up and down and up and down. At one point she said, "Mom? Dad? This is the best car ever. I love the windows."

We were at a brunch that Chad and Monica's friends held at their house the morning after the wedding. It was a delightful morning at a delightful house with a DELIGHTFUL PLAYROOM. OMG...I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I think it was the only meal I got to sit and eat in its entirety the entire weekend. Jeff's aunt told me at one point that she would go check on Lily in the playroom. Apparently as she stood there watching Lily, Lily turned to her and said, "You know you don't have to watch me, right?"

We were going through security to go back to Philly and it was an empty airport. As the lady checked Jeff and my driver's license, she very sternly asked Andrew how old he was. He stammered a bit and said, "6." She said...again very sternly, "Well, show me your license." Andrew paused and then respectfully said, "I said I was SIX, not SIXTEEN." She finally broke a smile and ruffled his hair, "Good answer." Then she asked Lily how old she was. Lily automatically put up 3 fingers and said, "Three...no! NO! I'm four now!" And looked around all excited.

Andrew was very good the whole time...although a little hyper with excitement at inappropriate times. He is only 6, after all. And he doesn't get nearly the attention that Lily and Michael get. He's moved out of the "cute little kid" into the "big skinny talkative kid" stage. Which is equally fun...but requires more effort. You have to participate and not just sit back and watch. Anyway, he handled it all very well. He was so tired. The night of the rehearsal, he ate a little bit of dinner and then lay his head down on the table and fell asleep. In a bar. With blasting music and noisy people all around. That was the night he peed in bed...for the first time in 2 years. He was T.I.R.E.D.

He was so sweet to Lily at the airport. He watched out for her and explained everything. Imagine them holding hands as they walk on the plane, with Andrew whispering in her ear, "Now it's going to get cold right before we get on the plane. Watch your step. You can have the window on this trip." etc etc.

Michael talked up a storm as well. My favorite was when we were swimming at the outdoor pool, and he was turning blue. He kept saying, "Big water freezing!" He also told everyone that he "Go on train!" which meant the bus from the long term parking to the airport. He was way more excited about that then the actual plane. And his new phrases for the weekend were "Time to go!" which he said every 5 seconds when we were trapped in the hotel room. He wanted to get out and have adventures. The other was, "Nobody Hee-ya." which he said anytime we walked in a room where there were no people. Often combined with "Sorry ma!" Walk into the breakfast buffet area after it's closed? Michael exclaimed, "Sorry ma! Nobody hee-ya."

I'll stop now. They are just so stinkin' cute. When they aren't peeing all over themselves ;)