Lily Lou Lately (she climbs more things)

I'm not doing regular monthly letters to Lily these days, but I do want to check in with the things that she's getting up to (in to?), given that they change so quickly (WHY do babies grow up??). So, in no particular order:

She has started walking (May 26th)! She was about 13.5 months when it clicked with her that she could do several steps in a row at a time. But my favorite thing that she has enjoyed doing are her "squats." She's been excellent at just standing up any and everywhere (without using something to pull up on) for months, but over the past few months, she's also been doing squats. And is so proud of herself when she does. I have tried countless times to get it on video, but I have yet to successfully accomplish that. 

Of course, she is still climbing anything that she can. Anything. Everything. Just...all the time. BLESS US.

She finally cut her first tooth on June 29 at FULLY 14 months old. She currently has 1.5 teeth. Boswell children are slow with teeth (Claire cut her first at 13 months). At least they wait until they're weaned.

A few other skills:
* Can get a tissue and blow her nose.
* Can shut doors and loves to.
* Can successfully sign "please" when asking for things, particularly food. Although, she tends towards hanger and most often yells for more food. It's a work in progress.
* Can make the most amazing facial expressions and can mimic almost any face or sound you make. She's a little comedienne.
* CanNOT be trusted in bathrooms. Not with toilets, toilet paper, or trash cans.

A few anecdotes:
One day, Lily was playing with Claire's doctor kit and found the stethoscope, which alternates noises between a heart beat and a cough. She played with it for a little while, and after a few minutes I noticed that every time it was time for the cough sound came around, she would fake cough preemporily.

At my parents' house, we say "off off off" to Bingley (the dog) when he is thinking about jumping on people. She heard me do that a few times, and next thing I know, when Bingley tried to jump on her, she gestured her hand at him and said, "ah ah ah."

On our way from Durham to Atlanta to drop Brad off for his journey to Greece, we stopped for dinner at a Chick-Fil-A so the girls could play for a little while. I called Lily's name at some point, and a little girl in the play area whirled around to ask me, "Is her name Lily?? Did you really name her Lily??" I said yes, and she told me that it is her favorite name and that she names everything Lily, including her new cat. A little while later when we were packing up to leave, she and her mother were also leaving, so she (Daisy) said, "Bye, Lily!" Her mom looked at me and said, "Is your daughter's name actually Lily or did Daisy rename her? She names everything Lily, even our cat." LOL.

On our way to my parents' house after dropping Brad off at the Atlanta airport, we stopped at a Milo's (hamburger restaurant) outside of Birmingham to meet my aunt and uncle for lunch. It wasn't terribly crowded and the girls had been in the car for a long time, so I let them walk around the restaurant. Lily was having a blast. And then, she walked up to a man in line and lifted her arms up to him to be picked up. She knows no stranger.

Lily is hilarious. And sweet and very spunky. We're having the best time with her.

Claire called Lily a "dragon muffin" one time. Then the dragon muffin sat on a muffin tin.

Bye, bye, Daddy!

Stuck. Maybe you should have listened when I said not to do that, Lily.

Accessorizing.

For real, with the accessories.

First time riding in the buggy like a big girl. 

At Costco, of course.

Dr. Boswell in the house.

And now, she climbs:

She'll literally try to climb anything. Including snack cups, apparently.

A friend of mine said, "She's on the phone." HA!

Love you, Lily! We're so grateful for your fun little self!

Praha: what a way to end our trip!

Our second day in Prague was our last day on our European adventure (last day of our European adventure...Brad had an encore approaching), so we wanted to make it count.

The hotel had a really great continental breakfast, so we joined a cute older couple from Spain + a giant tour group from Russia and loaded up on breakfast before we walked (hiked?) up to Prague Castle. I want to say it was about a 2-mile walk, but the second half was a rather steep climb. We burrrrrned those calories. Our path took us back through Wenceslas Square, Old Town, and the Charles Bridge before we headed up. The day was beautiful, and the weather was great, so the walk was really nice.

Taken from the bridge.

Because we got an early-ish start on the day, the bridge was waaaay less crowded. So much nicer.

Heading into the streets around the base of Prague Castle.

This was the beginning of our climb upward. We just did not even know.

It was a gorgeous, extremely quaint journey up to the castle, the path winding through what I would call "quintessentially European" streets and buildings: narrow streets, cobble stones, window boxes. It really felt like we were walking through scenes from a book. We did not do an official tour of the castle complex or buy tickets to go into all of the buildings, so I don't have lots of fabulous pictures or stories about those things. We wandered around and enjoyed the views, primarily. I have since learned that the castle dates back to the 9th century, and that it is the official resident of the president of the Czech Republic. It's pretty sprawling and encompasses many buildings, including several chapels in addition to the cathedral.

Views from the top

Not sure why I was leaning in so far...probably resting after our climb.

The cathedral inside the castle grounds was stunning.

Flying buttresses. See? Arts in Western Civ was not for naught.

Seriously. It was breathtaking. And simply enormous.

You can't quite tell in this picture, but there is an amazing spiral staircase in there.

While we were being SUPER cool on the way out and translating some Latin on a sign (#thephdwifelife), we saw this cardinal (I believe?) walking through. Brad snapped this as proof.

Castle gates

To add to my ever-growing collection of lamp post pictures.

After leaving the castle. we decided to swing by the Kafka museum. Neither of us are exactly Kafka fans, but as he is a famous Czech author and we were in his homeland, we thought we check (Czech? <--sorry. Had to.) it out. When we got there, the museum admission was more than we wanted to spend on something we only sort of cared about, but we wandered around the bookstore for a while, looking at some of the neat Kafka paraphernalia. 

On our walk to the museum, we passed a bookstore, and the main book in the window display was Metamorphosis. What are the odds? Probably decent, if we're being honest.

The museum.

View of the Charles bridge from behind the Kafka museum. 

After making our way back toward Old Town, we went to the traditional Czech restaurant we'd learned about during lunch the day before. That was an excellent decision! Brad had something duck, and I had goulash in a bread bowl. It was fantastic.

When we finished lunch, we made our way back to the Old Town Square to check out an art exhibit we'd seen advertised the day before. There was a triple exhibit of Dali, Warhol, and Mucha, and we decided we wanted to see the Alfons Mucha exhibit (partially because he was Czech and partially because I really liked what I'd seen of his work). It was fascinating and really beautiful! I'd never really seen his work before, and I kind of loved it.

More views from the square.

Mucha

An ad for the exhibit featuring one of his pieces.

We had another early morning flight the next day and needed to get to bed early, so we wrapped things up on the early side, after wandering around for a bit longer (and eating more trdelnik. We may or may not have returned to the Italian restaurant for dinner before packing our bags and getting ourselves organized for our travel across the ocean. It happens.

The next morning, we had to leave Prague (sad) but were excited to head back and see the girls. We really did miss them! In the airport, I spotted this sign:

and had to take a picture in memory of Last Holiday. Does anyone remember that movie? Brassarts love it, so I was excited to spot this.

Also, on our flight to Amsterdam, we were seated smack in the middle of the Netherlands' national men's volleyball team. Y'all. They were so TALL. Brad sneaked this picture of the SHORTEST player. Look at the 5-ish inches of head clearance he has! Most of the other guys actually had to tilt their heads to the side a bit and walk out slightly leaned over to get off the plane. What in the world?

Thanks for following along with our European travels! We had a fantastic time, and it was so good to remember what it's like to finish complete thoughts and sentences with one another, rather than reminding children not to interrupt. :) I hate having to play blogging catch-up for so long, but I'm always glad when I've gotten it done. 

Next up: Greece! Wait...what??