Lily learned to kiss today - we kept thinking she was trying to attack our faces by biting us, but instead it turns out she was actually trying to “kiss” us. Half the time she puts her tongue out so we get licked, but it’s still really cute. We told her to kiss her stuffed bear today and she did - she puts her lips against the animal and just stays there for a minute, then starts giggling. I told her to kiss daddy, and she did the same thing. She doesn’t quite get the smacking sound, but it’s still really great - 14 months and finally she can be demonstrative. And we thought her hugging us was the deal! I still love that - but the kissing is even better. I attribute it to grandma’s insistence that she “kiss the grandma”, which usually meant grandma was about to get licked by the lizard child.

Mike had a snow day today and we did some stuff around the house and played with Lily. I bought some huge bin organizer thing at Target today and now all of Lily’s toys are more neatly arranged. She thought it was Christmas in January - she hadn’t seen a lot of those toys in a while and spent the night ripping the bins out and dumping them on the floor. I just cleaned them up again. Matt taught her to pull her “kitchen” on to the floor so that’s her new favorite thing - it makes an extremely loud crashing sound that she seems to appreciate. And this is the same child who is afraid of the vacuum cleaner. Go figure.

Tomorrow I’m “schlepping all over town” as Mike puts it (he thinks we’re going to crash the car because the roads still aren’t clear). I’m taking Lily down to Midlothian so I can do a business meeting and then put together the remainder of my office, with some help from my father. I now have two desks and a filing cabinet to put together, as well as a ceiling fan to help cool the tropical environment caused by the radiated heat set at an ungodly high level. I usually just leave the windows open, but you gotta love Richmond - when I do that, I am greeted by the screams of bible psalms and “Daddy, Daddy, don’t kill me” from the anti-abortion activists who stand outside the Ob/Gyn clinic right next to my office. They also put up really heinous graphic pictures of fetuses as well, and scream “Baby Killer” at all the women who come in. One of the first times I had to go through their line, they screamed that at me, and then saw the car seat in the back. Since then, they have stopped screaming at me, but I still call the police when their chanting gets far too annoying. I feel sorry for all those women, but I worry more about the doctors and nurses - you just have to wonder how far they will go. I kid you not, this one guy is out there 10 hours a day, every day. I feel like screaming, “GET A JOB!” at him, but that would be rude.

Lily is walking . . .

Sort of! We are counting yesterday as her first day of walking, since she did it a number of times and was taking more than just a couple of steps. Today she is more reluctant to try it, but that’s okay. Maybe she tired herself out yesterday.

Richmond is bracing itself for a huge “snow storm” (which down here means 3 inches). Inevitably, forecasts of snow drive people to the grocery stores, buying milk and bread in huge quantities. It’s pretty funny. We actually did go to the store today, and did buy some milk - but only because we were running out of Lily’s whole milk. We had an excuse. I was almost embarassed to be seen buying milk on the dawn of the blizzard of 2004.

We spent yesterday painting at my parent’s house - we textured painted their half bath. It looks good - better than ours, really, since we sort of knew what we were doing this time. Lily had fun destroying their house and playing with everything she could get her hands on.

Just a quick one this morning - the child labor law enforcement people haven’t caught up with me yet, so Lily and I are heading down to the State Corporation Commission today to drop off some forms. She told me today that she expects to be a 50/50 partner with me if this keeps up. I told her I’d think about it.

Mom and dad finally got their digital camera to download, so here’s a good one of Tori and Kirby at Christmas. I’ll spare the aunt-like comments, such as “she’s getting to be such a little grown up!” etc. But she is.

We’re off - hope everyone in internet land is having a fabulous day.

My aunt Paula gave Lily this hat, and she has been unable to see Her Majesty in it, so I’m posting it on the blog in the hopes that she can see it. PS. I really don’t like AOL, and those kinds of things are why! They are very annoying in the way they restrict and send email.

Speaking of Her Majesty, she had a full blown public temper tantrum today at Lowe’s. She had been playing with a piece of paper and when she began to eat it, I took it away from her. That was the catalyst. Ever notice how sounds really echo in a place like Lowe’s or Home Depot? My ear drums were bleeding from her screaming. It went on for close to 15 minutes, while she drooled and frothed at the mouth, beat on me with her little fat fists, and arched her back. At first it was funny; then everyone in the store starting to put their hands over their ears. Mike finally took froth-monster out to the car because OSHA was about to be called in about the noise level in there.

We HAVE A WINNER!!! I finally ran the list of finalists by all my friendly marketing weenies during lunch today, and the decision is unanimous. So, the name of the company is going to be . . . .drumroll please . . .

RIGHT ANGLE CONSULTING. Get it? The right angle? I have to come up with a good tag line, but I’m 50% of the way there. Today was a little crazy . . . I may be leasing office space . . . I’m all in a tizzy about it trying to sort out what I want to do, what’s best for Lily . . . it’s pretty interesting. I have a lot of thinking to do tonight.