Denver Children's Museum

On Sunday we took a day trip with some friends to the Denver Children's Museum since it was rainy and cold much of the long weekend. While we were there the sun even came out for a while so we spent some time at a nearby playground and took a short trolley ride through part of the city. Lily had a blast! She crawled through tunnels and slid down slides in the toddler area. She also played with bubbles, went grocery shopping, dressed up as a veternarian and a fire fighter, and played with trains. Here are some pictures of her day at the museum.

She ended up with 3 cartons of yogurt and a banana in her shopping cart at the miniature Whole Foods.


Surrounded by a huge bubble!

Going Fishing

Helping the dogs and cats at the vet clinic.

Enjoying the little bit of sunshine we saw over the weekend after the museum.

Kitchen Project

We love our home here in Colorado, but the one room which we were not completely happy with was the kitchen. The size and the layout of the kitchen is awesome! We have a great island, tons of counter space and cabinets, a gas stove, and even double ovens. But, our kitchen just looked so plain. Our first thought was to do a little painting to make the kitchen stand out a little more, but we couldn't decided on where to start and stop the paint color since we have a very open floor plan with rounded corners on our walls. Our next idea was to put hardware on the cabinet doors so they would not look so plain.

So, we went to Lowes one Saturday morning to look at kitchen cabinet hardware. The hardware section led us to plumbing section and we began to look at new faucets. After looking at the faucets and finding a few we really liked, we began to talk about getting a new sink as well which led us to looking at the countertops in Lowes since we really wanted an undermount sink. We started to really like the idea of getting granite countertop since we currently had ceramic tile which we weren't too crazy about. A few weeks and five estimates later, we hired a local company to install granite in our kitchen and butler's pantry. We bought a new sink and faucet to go with the new granite and Varun put up a travertine and tile backsplash to finish the project.

We love the new look of our kitchen!

Before:




After:




Non Kitchen Related: We finally got a new patio set for the patio we got built last October!

15 Months

Last week Lily turned 15 months old! It's crazy how fast the last 3 months have flown by. We feel like we just celebrated her first birthday! Lily has been running and playing non-stop lately, with the exception of the 4 days she was sick with a stomach bug about a week ago. Here are some things Liliana is up to at 15 months:

Stats:
Height: Almost 30 inches
Weight: 19.5 pounds (she is now back on the growth chart!)
Head Circumferance: 45 cm

* Bye Bye Bottle: Lily is no longer drinking milk from the bottle before bed. She wasn't too happy about ditching the night time bottle, but is now used to drinking from the sippy at night. Her favorite way to drink is with a straw.

* Miss Independent: Lately Lily has been wanting to do everything on her own. She has always enjoyed feeding herself since she started solids at 6 months, but now she is using the fork and spoon on her own. She wants to put her own socks and shoes on and tries to pull her shirts over her head. We guess she is getting practice for becoming the "big" sister this fall!

* Teeth: Liliana now has 12 teeth, including 4 molars! She loves her toothbrush and her berry flavored toddler toothpaste. We hope to get her into the dentist this summer for her first dental check.

* Fresh Beat Band: We don't watch too much TV here at the house, but while we make dinner Liliana watches the Fresh Beat Band on Nick Jr. She LOVES this show! She will sing and dance in circles during the entire show. She is quite the dancer!

* Planes and Birds: Since the weather has been warming up here, we have been spending a lot time outside. Lily is a huge fan of the outdoors! She is now fascinated with birds and planes. One of her new favorite words is "up". She will stare in the sky, say up, and watch the planes fly by every afternoon.

Sick Baby

Yum! Enjoying corn on the cob for dinner.

She was so happy to try on Daddy's work boots the other day!

Shower Time

Recently we have been giving Liliana showers instead of baths. We have been alternating her showers and baths so she gets used to both of them. Surprisingly, she loves the shower. During the week when Varun is at work I take Lily into the bedroom while she showers (since Lily decided she did not need her morning nap anymore). Lily usually watches PBS kids in the bedroom and eats a little snack while I shower and get dressed. For some strange reason, our bathroom and bedroom are not separated by a door, just a large archway, so I'm able to see her through the glass door as I'm showering. This morning I turned on the shower water then walked back into the bedroom to turn on the TV for Lily. When I walked back into the bathroom to jump in the shower, this is what I saw...




I guess I left the door open an crack and Liliana decided she wanted to take a shower as well. She was standing there laughing, soaking wet, with a cookie in her hand. She was not too happy when I turned off the water and took her out.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend in Colorado was very cloudy, cold, and even a bit snowy this year. We had planned to take Liliana to on of the city Easter egg hunts on Saturday with a few other toddlers from Varun's work. We woke up on Saturday morning to 34 degrees and snow. Although the snow did not stick, it continued to fall heavily through out the morning so we never made it to the egg hunt. Instead we met up with our friends and their kids for lunch at the Spicy Pickle (one of Christina's favorite places plus kids eat free on weekends). After lunch the snow stopped falling so we took the kids to the park to run off some energy, which was not as much fun as an egg hunt, but they all had a good time.




On Easter Sunday, the weather was just a little bit better. Still cold, but no snow. Liliana woke up to an Easter basket with toys and books and even got to try a little of Daddy's Cadbury cream egg. We went out to breakfast and to church in the morning. In the evening we had some friends and neighbors over for Easter dinner, which Varun made all by himself!

Little Guppy

We signed Liliana up for the Guppy swim class at the local recreation department. Our friends also singed their twin daughters up for the class, so every Monday and Wednesday evening we all go to one of the city pools for the class. We are hoping that the class will make the girls more comfortbale in the water before the neighborhood pools open up in May.
Last night was Liliana's fourth class. She wasn't a fan of the pool or the class on the first day, but now she seems to really enjoy it. Usually we both go in the water with her and take turns with the activities, but last night just Varun went in so Christina could take some pictures. Each class is only half an hour long, but we try to get there a little early to just play in the water before it starts. Some of the things we do with Lily in the class are jumps from the pool edge, dunking, back floats, kicks, and reaching for toys under water in the shallow end. Here are some pictures of her class last night.

Getting ready to go! She loves her new flip flops!

Standing in the shallow end on her own.

Back Floats!

She is pretty good at moving along the side of the pool with her hands.

Hanging out with friends after class.

Feb/March Travels

Over the last few weeks we have been traveling quite a bit. At the end of February we went to Las Vegas to celebrate Christina's 30th and birthday and deployment homecomings. A few of our friends from Fort Collins flew out as well. We stayed with Varun's friend in North Las Vegas. It was really nice to get a little break from the craziness of the strip (especially with Liliana) since we were staying at their place. We spend most of our time there sightseeing and trying new restaurants. On Saturday night (Christina's birthday) we went to Emeril's Fish House at teh MGM Grand for dinner and saw Cirque du Suleil Love at the Mirage. Dinner and the show were both awesome! We also had a chance to try our luck at some of the casinos while we were there. We came out up 25 cents at the end of the weekend. Here are some pics of our trip.

Red Rock Canyon

The entire group after brunch at the Bellagio (definitely the best meal of the trip!)

A few days after we got back from Vegas, we took a trip to the east coast to visit Varun's family. We spend the week realxing and catching up with Varun's family friends. While we were there, Christina's parents and brother came up for the weekend to visit as well. We also took a trip to NYC with Vinay one day. We took Liliana to the Central Park Zoo. We had a chance to meet up with Christina's cousin and his family in the city for dinner. We took a little road trip to central New York to visit our friend Kim from North Carolina. She recently got married and is now pregnant with her first so we had a chance to catch up and meet her husband. We had a very busy week catching up and visiting with people we have not seen in a while.

Photos from Connecticut

Celebrating Vinay's 21st with Tequila shots

A few NYC pictures