Loving Lila

On May 18th, Lila turned two.  I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Lila is the greatest thing that's happened in the history of mankind.  And this bundle of love has been ours for two years.  We're all lucky.  Every single member of our family adores her.

Lila could not have been more excited about her birthday.  I didn't think she'd care.  She's only two, for heaven sakes!  We were planning on celebrating it whenever we felt it worked best with our schedule.  But then, out of the blue, she exclaimed, "It's my birthday tomorrow!"  She was a bit manipulative about it, in fact.  She wouldn't let me leave her in the gym daycare because, as she whined, it was her birthday!     I shouldn't have been surprised, since my children are obsessed with watching family videos.  As a result, we talk a lot more than most normal people do about Easter Egg hunts and Christmas and Disneyland. . .and birthday parties.  At one point, Lila tried to put a cup on her head as a party hat.  She became enraged when she realized we didn't have party hats.  Note to self:  Recreate party on family video.

As it was, the party was a bit sad.  It was sad in the sense that, since I spend so much time and effort and energy planning and producing my boys' extravagant and expected birthday parties, I didn't feel like putting any extra energy into making a party for a child who doesn't know any better.  My mistake.  Here we are slapping on the last coat of frosting before the party begins.  The theme of the party was Blue's Clues, and my cake was pathetic.  Josh is usually in charge of the cakes.  I'm sure he was regretting that he didn't make it the night before, as he was patching up a 3 inch hole in my cake with a lot of frosting.

Here are the kindred spirits, Jonah and Lila.  Lila is a less frustrating, slightly less exuberant version of Jonah.

They are fans of physical comedy, playing outside, and dancing like crazy people.

She wants to be just like him.  Jonah has no idea how much influence he has over Lila, and that fact keeps me up at night.  He's a fantastic kid, but I recently heard him tell a story that involved the use of the word "fart" 42 times.  Awesome.



Here are some other things that are great about Lila.  She has a unique fashion sensibility.

Before:

After:

The fact that she sits like this during a haircut still astonishes me.  And says, "Yay!  A haircut!"  What?  I tell you, people who have only raised girls have no right calling themselves real parents.

Well, and this:  

Getting back to the birthday party.  For dinner, we had cake and ice cream.  We opened up presents, which were the highlight of the evening, mostly for the boys, who showed a great amount of excitement over dresses and dolls and high-heeled shoes.  No really, they did.  They love presents.

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the new slide from grandma, and looking fabulous while doing it.

And taking her new bike for a ride up to the park for a good time on the monkey bars.

To summarize, we love Lila.  As you may remember, about three years ago, we were trying to decide if we were brave enough to add another member to our family.  And here is my pro and con list to see if we made the right decision (you know, in case we want to send her back).

Pros:

1)  She wakes up happy and she goes to bed happy.  This means a lot to a tired parent.

2)  She sings the ABC song about 300 times a day, at the top of her lungs.  Even at church.  And I taught her to do jazz hands at the end of every song she sings.  Which is ridiculous AND adorable.

3)  She says "No, thank you, mama!" and has very good manners.

4)  Get this:  If I ask her to do something, she does it.  She actually listens to me.  This is a recent actual conversation that I had with my son:  Me:  What do you want for breakfast?  Cereal?  Yogurt?  Just don't say egg sandwich because we don't have any bread.  Noel:  (Totally unaware of the world and his presence in it)  Egg sandwich.

5)  She brings out the best in all of us.  

6)  I get to buy girl stuff.

Cons:

1)  She rarely takes a nap.  (I know.  It's a big one!)

2)  She only likes to eat ice cream sandwiches.  

So. . .I guess we'll keep her.  Seriously, though, several times a day I am filled with such an overwhelming amount of love and adoration for this sweet little girl, I shudder to think of a world in which we hadn't listened to God, who told us that she was waiting for us.  And I thank Him for it every day.

Happy Birthday, sweet thing.

Cinco de Bingham Book Day!!

May 5th at the Bingham House is Bingham Book day. (Read about past book days here.) It was basically invented so we could have an excuse to buy books, guilt free! But the kids like it too, and it has become a bit of a tradition. We try and make a bit of a celebration out of it, but as our kids get older and life gets busier, making an event out of it is getting trickier. This year BBD fell in a particularly busy week and had to be squeezed in between baseball practice and Amy's trip to Utah for a family funeral.

Rumor has it that several other families have started Bingham Book days of their own. That makes me happy beyond belief. It is one of my favorite holidays. If you are now a celebrator of BBD, please share! Let's make it a national holiday!

Because BBD coincides with Cinco de Mayo, we decided to go authentic and have dinner at El Pollo Loco. Yum!

I don't know why Lila looks so angry in this picture. She wants her pollo. Strangely, there were no actual Mexicans at El Pollo Loco! On Cinco de Mayo!! Did they have somewhere better to go? I don't get it.

After some delicious chicken and fire roasted corn, we were off to our local Powell's for book selection. It always ends up being a little more harried than we would like - Noel tends to wander and get lost in the store (or leaves entirely and wanders around the mall).  Lila wants to sit in one spot and look at the same Sesame Street pop up book. Jonah can't decide which book of 30 he wants to take home. And Amy and I try to take turns coordinating the madness while the other person leisurely peruses books for their selection. So after a bit of negotiating and finagling, here is what we ended up with.

For Me:
Marcelo In The Real World by Francisco X. Stork
I'd never heard of this book, but it sort of jumped out at me. I think it won some sort of award, and it is about a kid with Asperger's, so that was appealing.

And, because I am a nerd, I picked a second book, claiming it was for the kids, but it really was for me:
Guess Again! by Mac Barnett
This is a kids picture book that literally makes me laugh out loud. We got it from the library and I kept making the kids read it because I loved it so much. I don't want to say much because I don't want to spoil anything (seriously, this is a great picture book), but if you have young kids, get this book. You will love it.

For Amy:
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
I think this book was all the shiznitty in 2007, but Amy and I have both never read it. Can't wait!

For Jonah:
My Book About Me by Dr. Seuss
It was super cute when Jonah chose this book. He had also selected several nerdy books about robots (Jonah likes to tell us that he is "very into the future right now"), but he chose instead to get this book. It is one of those books that you get to write about yourself. He got home and frantically started filling in what color his eyes are and how many forks are in our house.  Now, Noel likes to read it every night.

For Noel:
Dog.
It's a pop up. I think Noel got it under pressure because he didn't know what to choose. Have you met Noel?  He hates dogs.  I think we are going to return it and pick something he really wants. Does that violate the spirit of BBD?

For Lila:
Elmo's World: Be a Soccer Player!
Lila flipped when she saw this book. Her two favorite things in the world are Elmo and soccer balls, so this was a done deal.

Post book selection, Amy and I needed to soothe our weary souls with sugar and fat. So we went to the frozen yogurt place where you can get whatever yogurt you want and then add toppings and then pay by weight. I love it. Somehow, when we go, Amy's yogurt costs like $1.32 and mine is $18.44. I don't get it.

 Our children are incapable of taking a picture without making goofy faces.

Happy Bingham Book Day! If you celebrated, tell us what you got!

What I done read: April

I get it. You are totally bored with my "What I Read" series. I'm sorry. If you don't know, I am now writing for many, many blogs (OK, one other blog.) So if you are bored, you can click over there and read all sorts of entertaining things. (For the record, I can only vouch for the "entertaining" part for about 3 authors. Try him, him, him or them.) Everyone else...I'm not so sure.

If you are sticking around, here is what I read last month:
Room by Emma Donoghue
4 out of 5 stars. I really, really loved this book. Amy absolutely hated it. We have never disagreed about a book more. It is the charming and happy story or a woman who is kidnapped at a young age and held in a soundproof room by a crazy man. She has a son (by the crazy man) and raises him in the room. Lovely, right? It is told through the eyes of the boy, who has a unique view of the world. You know, he was raised in a 12' x 12' room. I recommend.
A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull
3.5 out of 5 stars. I sort of love Brandon Mull. He writes the exact type of books that I want to write. They are smartly written and and creative and fun to read. This is his new series about two kids who get sucked into a world ruled by a malevolent wizard. My only problem with all of his books is that for some reason I have a hard time keeping his characters apart. I dealt with that all through Fablehaven and thought maybe I was just dumb. But nope, it is happening again. I blame you, Mull.
Bossypants by Tina Fey
5 out of 5 stars. Hold me. Hold me and never let me go. I loved this book so much. It is, of course, high-larious, but it also has some great life lessons and touching moments. If you are going to read it, and you should, get the audio book. Tina reads it and it rules. I may need to listen to it again.
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
4 out of 5 stars. More Wheel of Time. This one is a good one.

That's it! I am at 16 books for the year so far. The goal is 40 (I am sure you are keeping track on your bubble chart at home.) I think I will make it!!!

On a related note, I loved Bossypants and am looking for other great audiobooks. Anyone out there an audiobook listener? Any suggestions?

Take me out...

Lila having fun at baseball.

Baseball season has begun in Oregon, which means lots of sitting out in the cold and rain and watching Jonah swing at the ball. We went down this road last year, and at the time I was a little overwhelmed by the whole "being in a league" thing and the whole "competition" thing. I am better about all of that now (read: I care a lot less.) My parents gave me a mitt for my birthday, so I can play catch with the best of them. We even did some batting practice in the backyard this week and I said some things like "choke up on the bat." I sounded very much like I know what I am talking about (I don't.) But he did manage to hit the ball a little bit better after our practice.

As I mentioned in my other blog, I admitted to not knowing much sports and their seasons. But who decided baseball needs to start so early? It is still COLD in March. Wouldn't baseball be nice in late June? But the games officially started last week and we decided to take the whole family.

We play baseball in a forest.

As is typical this time of year in Oregon if the sun is shining on you, it is gorgeous. If not, it is frigid. And usually raining. Noel also has never worn a jacket in his life, so he made Amy hold him wrapped in her jacket. The first inning was manageable, and then the sun starting going down and it started getting pretty bad. Amy ended up in the car watching Elmo while the Silver Dragons finished up their last inning.

Again, I don't know how many people are supposed to be on a baseball team, but Jonah's team seems to have extra. When they are in the outfield, their seems to be about 30 kids. There is like 9 right fielders, so they spend a lot of time hanging out. 

The great thing about Jonah is that he has hustle. If he is in left field, and the ball gets hit down the first base line, he is sprinting across the field to get to it. (Those two spots are far apart, right?) I am sure as he gets older, they will actually want the kids to stay in their position, but for now, it is kind of cute. 

We are still at that age where they don't really keep score and they don't keep track of outs so mostly it is a lot of cheering and yelling "good try!" and trying to keep warm. I'm OK with that. The day will come soon enough where it is all about winning, and then I will have to be this dad:

Remember him from last year? I bet he was one of the haters on my MMM blog.