Lily 's First Birthday!

Wow, Lily is one. How has it possibly been a year since she was born? It has gone by so fast. She is cuter than ever (of course, how could I not say that?), and had a very fun birthday party with her Nanna here last weekend. My uncle Will and some friends of our with their little girl also came to celebrate.

Lily was so excited about her first gift (a balloon) that it was hard to convince her to open any of the rest of her presents.

But she enjoyed all of them, especially the baby remote control from her Nanna,

the music set from our friends Brayden and Brianna,

and the stuffed kitty.

She also enjoyed her birthday cake, which was really sugar-free blueberry banana bread in cupcake form with cream cheese frosting.

And then she was on a sugar high for the next two hours and ran in circles around the kitchen like a half-naked balloon-toting maniac, squeeling at the top of her lungs. Definitely worth it.

And finally, here is Lily with her Nanna, wearing the Christmas dress I made for her birthday.

Happy birthday Lily! It has been a wonderful year and we love you!!

Guess what Lily did today . . .

Congratulations Lily! :)

Here are some more recent pictures:

A candy-striped Lily raids the candy jar

Lily snuggles with her stuffed animals after a wet walk in the rain

Mamma and Lily cuddle with Lily's teddy bear at bedtime

Mommy baked her first loaves of bread!! I know this probably sounds like a small accomplishment, but I have had a phobia of anything with yeast, especially anything that requires kneading and rising. I used the fact that I don't have a KitchenAid mixer as an excuse for a long time, but I finally decided to go for it. And it was totally possible! Bread-making will probably not be a weekly task, but it is good to know I am capable of it.

And of course, Lily's first Halloween:

Adam was in Phoenix for a conference on Halloween, so I contemplated just staying home and not doing anything, especially since we don't have any family around to enjoy Lily's costume anyway. But I decided that she would like watching the other kids at the ward trunk-or-treat, so we made the effort to dress up and go.

In case you are wondering, no I was not intending to dress up as a ballerina-eating vampire. With just the two of us, we decided to go very girly, so I also dressed up as a ballerina (black swan-esque, okay), although it's not very obvious without the tights or ballet slippers in the picture.

And in case you were wondering, yes, Adam is back at home. If he dressed up for Halloween, he didn't tell me about it, but I don't think he was a ballerina.

Daddy, Mommy, Dogs, and Bananas (the most important things in the world, of course)

It seems like Lily has just been growing up so fast lately. She has been crawling for over a month now and has been pulling herself up on the furniture more often and with greater stability. Her favorite thing is to hold onto one of our hands and cruise around our apartment or the lawns outside picking up anything and everything from off the ground (sometimes it takes a very long time to get very far). It has been very exciting and interesting to see Lily growing up and interacting more and more with her surroundings. I know what you're thinking: every first-time parent goes through this stage of awe at every little thing their child does from pooping to pulling the books off the bookshelf. Well, you're right. But you're here reading it so that means you want to hear about all the cute stuff she does too ;)

So like I was saying, it's been so much fun to see Lily growing up before our eyes and learning more about the world around her. Like when I come home from class and she gets a big grin on her face and points. Or when she sees one of us coming from down the hall or across the lawn and she turns, giggling as she tries to get away. It has been so much fun getting to know her little (or rather, big) personality. We just wish she could tell us what it was that she wanted more of the time. Which is why the title of this post has us very excited. If you haven't guessed, the title refers to the four words that Lily can say (or at least uses consistently in reference to something): Dadda, Mamma, Daw-do (which means dog, or cat), and "Na-na," which means banana. Other recent additions to her vocabulary include hand signs for "more" and "milk" which she generally signs quite emphatically and with gusto! She's also getting a lot better at pointing at things that she wants instead of just grunting.

Which brings us to another interesting development: Lily's culinary preferences. She has apparently developed an affinity for seafood. A few days ago Christina was having some lunch with Lily in her high chair at the dinner table. Lily didn't seem too interested in her peaches or banana, which is surprising since bananas are basically her favorite food. She kept pointing at something on the table very earnestly but Christina couldn't figure out what she wanted. Finally, she realized that the object of Lily's insistent attention was Christina's tuna sandwich. So, as an obliging mother, she gave her some tuna with a little piece of bread and Lily gobbled it up gleefully by the handful, immediately demanding more. The worst (or best) part about it was that Lily's hands smelled strongly of tuna for the next 24 hours. The next day we had shrimp soup with our dinner and Lily was equally enthusiastic about her portions. Funny, I thought most kids didn't like seafood.

And now for the pictures:

I'm Glad I Don't Live in Korea (or, what to do about the porn skateboard)

My Korean neighbor has a pornographic skateboard. This wouldn't bother me too much, except for the fact that it is almost always on display outside his apartment door, which happens to be right across from my apartment door. This means it is the first thing we see every time we leave our apartment.

He probably views this possession of his as completely unremarkable and innocuous, since pornography is much more common in Korea (glad I don't live there!). But I find it offensive. So when I ran into him yesterday as he was outside smoking (and if it's socially acceptable in Korea to smoke as much as he does, that's another reason I'm glad I don't live there), I politely asked him if he could do us a favor and keep his skateboard inside, as it is offensive to us. He nodded and said "Yeah, alright," so I assumed the issue was closed.

However, the next time I went outside, the notorious pornboard was again waiting for me, and has remained there since. Because we have been on friendly terms with our neighbor and his fiancee--we have had dinner with them once and chat briefly whenever we see them--I would like to think that he is not deliberately trying to offend me by leaving it there after telling me he would remove it. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he just didn't understand what I was asking, since his English leaves something to be desired. But if that is the case, what should I do now? If I ask him again, he probably still won't understand what I am talking about.

I have tried to ignore it and not let it get to me. I know there are lots of people who live in places where pornography is all around them. There are lots of other somewhat offensive things that I encounter regularly, and I usually just ignore them. If I see an offensive ad on TV, I just change the channel (although I hardly ever watch TV anyway), or if I see an inappropriate billboard, I just forget about it. But seeing this every day has honestly started to get to me. Even the times that I anticipate it and deliberately look elsewhere, avoiding it makes me think about how much it bothers me that it's there in the first place. I find it degrading and objectifying that a photograph of some woman's body (of course it's a white woman, and of course it's only her neck down to her knees), would be carelessly plastered onto a skateboard. How can our society think it is okay to portray people as objects and then exploit them to sell products, or purchase those products to indulge in lust?

Perhaps I'm bothered by it so much because it belongs to someone whom I consider a casual friend. It's one thing to know that greedy corporations without morals or values are willing to make money by degrading women. But to know that someone I have invited to my house for dinner subscribes to this and would purchase something like that, and carelessly leave it outside his house as if it's the most insignificant thing in the world, seems more offensive.

Or maybe it's just that I have never been subjected to pornography on a daily basis before. Did I just write that?! I am being subjected to pornography on a daily basis, as is my husband and everyone who comes to my house!! Wow. And now I am questioning myself as to why it bothers me?! This is ridiculous. We should not have to put up with this!

If you have any advice as to how you would approach this, I welcome the input.

(Please note that I have known many great and wonderful Korean people and that this post is not meant to imply that I think all people in Korea accept pornography, or smoke.)

ROAD TRIP!!!

Hi. We haven't written for a while because we were on vacation for a whole month. Well maybe not a WHOLE month; we were actually gone for four calendar weeks but that's pretty close. Christina might delete that sentence later. (and that one).

"Where did you go on such an extended vacation?" you may ask. "Somewhere really cool and exotic I hope." If Idaho is exotic, then yes. More specifically, we took a tour through much of the Western United States to visit friends and family.

First we traveled south to California. Our first visit was with Christina's grandparents near San Jose.

Next we traveled down to Soledad to visit Adam's parents in their new house!

We had lots of fun adventures with Adam's parents, his sister Amber, and Lily's only cousin Amelia. 

We took a hike through Pinnacles National Monument.

 And visited the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

 Lily and Amelia (and the grown-ups) had a great time looking at all of the fish and other sea creatures.

 We also went out to breakfast; Lily thought the menu was superb. 

  And we took a trip down to the beach to have some fun in the sand and the waves.

Next we drove out to Utah, stopping to visit some of Adam's relatives in St. George and Enoch along the way.

We stayed with Christina's family in Salem but spent lots of time visiting old friends,

family members,

and former co-workers.

We also went to the zoo...

and the Air Force Museum.

We also saw some really cool cars. Lily wouldn't let us leave until we took a picture of this one.

Our next stop was Stanley Lake, ID where we went camping for a family reunion with Christina's mom's family. And yes, that really is how we dress when we go camping with the Lofgrans. (okay, not really)

One great thing about family reunions is that there is always someone willing to hold or watch the baby for you.

Lily had a fabulous time playing in the sand and the water while we went kayaking and tubing on the lake.

She sat in the freezing cold stream, playing happily with the rocks and the sand for over an hour! Good thing mommy has been feeding her so well.

We finally made it home safe and sound which is no small feat considering that there were massive wildfires burning just north and west of where we had been camping. Fortunately a timely rain storm suppressed the fires enough that the road was open when we needed to come home.

So that was our trip. Thanks to all of our friends and family who let us stay in their homes along the way. We had a wonderful time and miss all of our loved ones across the country already. So if you're ever in the Willamette Valley please give us a call and stop by!