"How Do You Do"

The cold has hit Connecticut. This morning, when Lilly and I were heading out to go for a walk, I checked the weather and it said the current temperature was 44 degrees, and it felt like 37. I put on an extra layer, put an extra layer on Lil and put her new Bundle Me in the stroller. Last year, she had the infant one and we used it all winter long so I decided to try out the toddler one and I think it's going to be perfect. I don't like putting her in too many layers or in a snowsuit because as soon as we go inside somewhere, she starts to roast. Instead, I can just unzip this and she is good to go. I thought that this year she'd try and kick it off and be way too big for something like that but I think she likes being warm and bundled up now that she's bigger. Last year, she'd spend half the walk trying to get out of it! Here she is today, in her little pumpkin hat that I made her (although it's pretty big and will probably last for a few years!) There's a banana sitting on top of the stroller, hence the reason it looks like there's a banana on her head. Bananas have been her snack of choice lately. When we were in Starbucks yesterday, she saw the bananas sitting on the counter and sat there saying (you might even call it yelling), "Peeees, peeees," which is Lilly's version of please. What can I say, the girl likes her bananas!

We're definitely ready for the weekend here in the Clark household. Jim and I were FIVE for FIVE in getting up and working out this week! Between the two of us we ran, rode, lifted weights, climbed stairs, ellipticalled (I know, I made that word up), and erged (which was not fun). Between the early mornings and tutoring every night, it will be nice to have a quiet weekend, which I'm kicking off by going out for a drink or two with Mel, Liz and Jamie. It's a girls' night, free of our little ones! We're leaving the dads in charge.

While Jim and I are busy getting back in shape, Lilly is busy chatting up a storm. New words come out every day, so I can't begin to name them all. A few of her favorites include, "shoes, cheese, cheers (which sounds a lot like cheese), please (or peeeeees), brush, no, hi, bye bye and teeth." Now I'm not saying that the ordinary person would comprehend everything that comes out of Lilly's mouth. It takes experts (like Jim and me) to know what she is saying a lot of the time. Her most impressive expression at the moment is, "how do you do." And this is one that you can hear loud and clear. When Mum was up staying with us, she would say the little bird rhyme to Lilly--a rhyme that we grew up saying. After Mum left, I was saying it with Lilly and she said the "how do you do" part. It is amazing! Every time we tried to get it on video, she just said, "no." Last night, while we were having dinner, we set my iPhone up to record a voice memo...and we got it. So, I put a few pictures (taken with my new iPhone!) from the last couple of days with the recording. Excuse my eating and talking at the same time. And as you can hear, she definitely lets us know when she's had enough!