Bubbles, toys, warm water, and a mama to take your picture... bath time is FUN!

ballerina-butt

Haven't had much time to blog lately. Lily's doing pretty well at night, sleeping fairly well and not having such a hard time with the teething. She's got two more coming in (which will bring her up to six) and seems to be in the chill phase. She's walking up a storm now, preferring it to walking as much as possible. Gives me the opportunity to put her in dresses again, which the little girly part of me enjoys. Had her in a cute little sundress yesterday with her ballerina-butt diaper on. Too cute! I'm getting somewhat addicted to cute diaper covers... must be careful or will no longer be able to claim that cloth is cheaper than disposable!

Took Lil and Maya to the dog park yesterday and then went to check out the Habitat for Humanity store where you can dig up old doors, windows, tile, etc. Bought two older style windowed doors which I'm going to strip and use as picture frames (yes, very big picture frames) for our big wall in the living room. Yes, I'm a hippy. Deal.

Anyway, life is good and only getting better. More on that later. ; )

In the groove.

Mark and I were in the groove tonight. Through dinner, we seamlessly took turns popping food into Lil's mouth while we both ate and talked and laughed. Then Mark took her downstairs to get ready for bed while I went under the house for our box of painting supplies, checking in and helping out when Lil's diaper change suddenly became traumatic (sometimes she realizes we're getting her ready for bed and protests... while practically nodding off on the table). I dragged the box upstairs to the guest room while Mark put Lily to bed and started taping off the windows. Mark came up to join me after the girly was asleep and helped me remove the blinds. No time to paint, so we headed back into the kitchen to clean up after dinner. We moved around each other easily, helping and getting things done.

Things are getting easier. Lily's going to bed easier and sleeping pretty well. While I'm still over whelmed (like, all the time!), I feel like it's starting to move back into the land of groove. I'm feeling as though the world makes a little more sense... like I CAN handle all this stuff.

Kinda a nice feeling.

It's official, she's walking. While still falling down a whole heck of a lot, she's trying to walk everywhere and actually succeeding quite a bit. She's so incredibly pleased with herself, I just can't bear to trip her, thereby (hopefully) delaying this walking business! And next month... she turns one. *gulp* followed by a single mama tear.

A sleepy girl. 

Order vs. chaos

In the kitchen the other day and Lily is tooling around, finding things to play with. I look over to see her removing a dangling rubber band from a cabinet knob. She toddles/crawls off with it, stepping on it while babbling, pulling on it... you know, all the fun things one can do with a rubber band before they learn to create guns with them. I continue working at the sink, moving around the kitchen as needed. Lily is back and forth between the kitchen and living room and finally gets interested in some other "toy." I figure I ought to go collect the rubber band before it gets lost to the ether when I turn and find it hanging exactly where she found it; the correct knob, even.

Now this is odd behavior for ANY eleven-month-old... but for one that lives in our house, it's downright eerie. Mark and I are not, at our best, good housekeepers. My Grandmother, when I relayed this story to her told me I was so lucky, figuring Lily will keep house for us. She'll have a LOT of work to do. ; )

8...9...10!

Lily wowed my mom and me today by taking 10 steps down the center of my mother’s hallway. She's all over it, folks. She's still got some confidence issues to work out, but before long she's going to be running at top speed! Scary.

She's also starting to repeat things. I said to her today, "I'm going to put you down for a minute, OK?" and she replied "OK." She'll say "yeah" sometimes and is quickly picking up "no." She's already got the head shake down pat. She's not consistent yet but hey, she's got plenty of time.

On another note: Mark and I had a date tonight! We shared a fabulous meal with Nate and Sandy (who we are now referring to as "Nandy" when we're happy with them and "Snate" when they have fallen from favor) and then the two of us went to Boarders and looked at books! And yes, folks, THAT is my idea of a great date.

Busy little bees

When Fran, Kristianne and Jonah were here the other night, Jonah noticed a couple of bees hanging out near the opening in the wall where all the cables come into the basement of the house (we have no overhead wire; phone, cable, electricity, etc are all run underground!). By the next morning, it was a whole swarm. As someone who is a.) terrified of bees and b.) somewhat allergic, I wasn't going to waste any time; so I called in a hit. Jonathan, who was the kick ass bug and bee guy I hired when I worked at Sledge, is coming this morning to make 'em dead. Yes, I know we could have someone come and remove them humanely... but the cost is one issue and my distrust of the little buggers figures in as well. I talk a good talk about peace and kindness, but I will fully admit that when it comes to bees, I'm a very bad person.

So Jonathan just left. He tells me that the average hive is 30,000 bees, which totally freaks me out. Lily and I watched from the dining room window as he sprayed poison into the hive and the hum started to get louder and louder, bees swooping at Jonathan and trying to get into his bee suit. They were pretty pissed off, which I totally respect. Sorry guys. We'll have to be on the lookout for dead solders for the next couple of days... I am a bad person, but at least I'm not sitting on 30,000 allergic reactions anymore.

Dinner with Friends

Had Fran, Kristianne and Jonah over for dinner tonight; it was a blast. They're a great couple with a great kid with whom who we just really enjoy spending time. It's a pity we don't see them more often. I made a big ol' dinner, complete with appetizer and dessert and it was YUMMY! It was a bit of a stress to pull off in time (didn't actually serve dinner 'till, um, 8pm), but if I'm home more, we gotta have people over more often. Helps us keep the place clean(er) too!

On a less than fabulous note, our Tuesday day care provider is getting out of the business. She's a warm, kind, wonderful, caring, compassionate woman and she has to give up something she loves because of a health issue. I feel so sad for her and admittedly, for us. Lily loves her time there and I enjoy having someone I can trust keeping an eye on her. Not quite sure what we'll end up doing. Once I'm not working as much we won't "need" to have Lily in care, but we like the opportunity for independent (meaning, away from us), social interaction. She's become so much more outgoing since she started there and is a much happier kid. Besides, it's so hard to find someone as good as Judy... we're really going to miss her.

My goddess, I am tired. Off to bed with me, the dishes be damned.

Grrrrr

A bad day with her is worth countless happy days without.

That being said, this teething thing sucks eggs. We've managed to figure out the trend and know that this craziness is teeth, and therefore know that inside of a week things will drastically improve. Then we'll have about three days of the happiest girl on earth and THEN voila! a beautiful new tooth will make itself known. But, geez, right now it's just really frustrating. She spent the day nursing, screaming, or going "ohhh." That's her new thing, "oh." She falls down, she says "oh." She bumps her head, she says "ohhh." She sees me and realizes she's not in my arms, she says "ohh." It's actually really funny. The tears sometimes follow, but often it's just "oh." Can't really capture it in text, you really oughta hear it.

Anyway, must eat food. Must clean up tornado house. Must sit and let my brain reset.

PS: Nobody point out the fact that I'm actually blogging on a regular basis, it might throw me off and then you'll read nothing from me for weeks! SHHHHH.

Who'd have thunk it?

Lily has never been that great about going to bed. She does wonderfully if she's in arms and will sleep long and hard, happily snuggled against one of our warm bodies. So our night time routine has been somewhat frustrating: we change her, hold her, put her into bed and then stand there for a LONG time with a hand on her chest while she falls in and out of sleep, fussing and straining to get back up.

The other day, however, I really had to pee. So, I popped her into bed and then ran to use the toilet. She stood up and hollered, and then, by the time I washed my hands... was asleep. AND (and here's the kicker) she stayed down until Mark and I came to bed several hours later. I've been repeating this little experiment and am finding that it actually works. I am absolutely against letting a baby cry it out; if she didn't stop after 30-60 seconds, she'd be in my arms in a heart beat. Part of me feels guilty for those 30-60 seconds... but isn't 60 seconds of really intense unhappiness better than half an hour of struggle?

I guess that this parenting gig is all about situations that don't have obvious answers. I mean, who would have ever thought that the more a child naps during the day the better they'll sleep at night? But it does work that way. Who would have thought that BEFORE the teeth cut is when the child is most uncomfortable? But that's what we've seen. It's like all reason and logic just flew out the window! MADNESS, I tell you, MADNESS!

AYA!

We drove up to LA today to pick up our new van after upgrading from a '86 to a '90. What was supposed to be a four hour trip turned into an eight hour drive... traffic, sleepy parents having to pull over and get some fresh air and snacks, lunch needs, etc. Lily slept most of the time and, amazingly enough, is actually asleep before 8pm. She's got the drooly, snotty, slight fever thing going on, so I think we're in for new teeth. Anyway, here's the highlight. We stop in Solana Beach for Starbucks, but the place had burned down. Darn inconvenient of them, if you ask me. So, we got juice instead. At this point we're driving in two cars and I'm driving the van with Maya in the back. Mark's got Lily in the Rav and as we slide open the door of the van to sit with Maya and drink our juices, Lily takes one look at the dog and shouts, "AYA!" One single consonant away from the dogs actual name. So now we're up to Mamamamama, Dadadada, up, down, gung (donno), yeah, yum and AYA! Before we know it, she'll be writing her dissertation.

2x2? No thank you.

As most of you know, Mark and I have been planning a road trip for July/August. Our goal was to drive all the way to Seattle, stopping along the way to see friends and family. Today, while chatting with my cousin in Chicago who is the proud papa of two young children, I was lead gently by Nate to a bit of enlightenment.
"So," he asked, "you ever do a road trip with Lily before?"
"Yeah, we went to Northern California when she was two months."
"OK... how about recently, anything over two hours?" he prompted.
I thought about it and replied, "No, but she likes the car pretty well, usually goes right to sleep."
"Elaine, that means you can pretty much drive in two hour shots, maybe three. Take it from me, we've tried the road trip thing and it's a good day if you can make it beyond the two hour Mark."
I thought about this: all the way to Seattle in two hour sets? Ah, no.

SO! Rather than try for Seattle and possibly have to rearrange the entire trip after only a few days on the road, we're going to keep ourselves in California. This means we'll be missing some wonderful friends who we love very much and for that we are bummed. BUT, these friends all have kids and probably we're whispering to each other that we were NUTS for attempting this venture, so I think they'll understand. The good news is that all of you in California will not be treated to the abbreviated hey-how's-it-going-gotta-go visits we were plotting out on our calendar. We'll get details to you all shortly, but we're very much looking forward to our first big road trip!

Everything else is great, we're having a blast watching Lily grow and learn and take her first halting steps. We're also overjoyed to welcome a cousin for Lil, baby Liam was born to Elaine’s brother and his wife last month and Lily is just itching to play with that boy. We're coming up on Lil's first birthday, which freaks us out to no end, and will be attempting to celebrate with a small gathering at our new house. More details on that one to come as well.

Adventures in dining

Lily LOVES to share. She'll "share" with the dog, who delightfully nibbles from her fingers while she giggles happily. She'll look up at Mark or me, arm outstreched with a damp little morsel clutched in her grubby fingers, smiling broadly and just waiting for us to yum enthusiastically as we eat from her hand. The minute our lips touch her fingers, she errupts in laughter. Cool.

Then there are the meals where the dog and cat are having a bit of chase. Lily will accept spoonfuls of food while whipping her head back and forth to keep an eye on the game, occasionally throwing in a cracker for effect, watching as Maya changes course to pick up the treat then race off after the cat again.

And who could forget Lily's sign for water: a full body slam, back in forth in the high chair, her body riotously rocking while she points at her cup, asking, no DEMANDING her drink of water.

Mark and I don't get to have much conversation, but we look forward to dinner all the same. We trade off keeping the girly fed while trying to get some food into our own mouths. I type as Lily smears yogurt around on her tray, mixing it with crackers and popping bits into her mouth. Mark is trapsing around the property with Maya at his heals. Twilight is upon us, the air is cooling into night. And my Lily, my sweet baby girl has a cracker pasted to her ear. My purpose is clear. ; )

You get what you pay for.

My maternal grandmother collapsed today and had to be revived by paramedics. This has been happening a lot, although she's always come around a lot more quickly. My grandpa is really afraid that he's going to lose her. The thing is I don't think she's that worried about it. I haven't spent a lot of time with her, just heard the reports from my mom, but it seems that she's kinda sick of the whole in-and-out-of-the-hospital gig. I think she's more worried about looking undignified than anything else.

Anyway, my mom is heading up tonight to see her and I'm thinking Lily and I will make the trip on Thursday. Allyn's coming into town, but I think I can see her on Friday and the weekend... heck, even if I missed her entirely, she'd understand. I've been putting this off too long. I guess there's a part of me that is worried that a trip to see them will be a trip to say goodbye and I don't know how I feel about that. But, I'd love for them to see Lily now that she's got some personality. I've already accepted that it's statistically unlikely Lil will really know her great-grands, but I want them to know her. And hey, whatever impressions she picks up from them, a scent, a moment, a picture in her mind... it's all a blessing.

Damn, now I'm getting emotional.

This too shall pass.

OK, so last night sucked (and this has nothing to do with our new vacuum cleaner). Lily had a really rough night. She went down in mere minutes (Daddy's getting good at this) and slept for a couple of hours, giving Mark and I a chance to enjoy each other’s company. And then, just as we were really getting to enjoy some adult time together, Lily woke up and started hollering. Mark did his best to get her back to sleep, but every time he'd put her down or simply stop touching her, she'd awake to screams.

Thus went the rest of our night.

She's nursing brutally, grabbing a hold and attacking my breast, even doing some biting. She's a grumpy, grumpy Gus. And so, my mother’s day ended with me grumbling at the person who makes me a mother.

And so we repeat the mommy mantra, the phrase that makes us continue down the path despite our fatigue or frustration:

THIS TOO SHALL PASS
THIS TOO SHALL PASS
THIS TOO SHALL PASS

AHO!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Lily let us sleep in until 8:30 this morning, the best gift I could have hoped for! Then off to brunch with Grandma Lu and the gang, which was nice and filled with cheers for my first mother’s day. Felt really good.

We've been working on night weaning, which is part of the reason we had such a great night last night (although it could have been helped by the margarita I had at dinner). We've been offering her water when she wakes, instead of the breast and though we've only been at it for a short time, it seems to be working for her. We're hoping that with the only incentive to wake being water, she'll just chose to keep sleeping. Around five or six am I go ahead and nurse her, but I haven't had to nurse three or four times before that. We're keeping our fingers crossed and our intentions strong and enjoying the sleep as it comes.

Also need to get new diaper covers. I think I ruined the ones we have by rinsing them in vinegar. Will have to chat with some friends about what to get! So much fun. Must run, off to Home Depot for paint and other fun toys.

Some days... just better than others.

Today was a very full day. First we took that stack of baby items that has been piling up near the front door and donated them. Wow, the entry way is suddenly HUGE! The, onto the PB Block Party where we wondered around, ate bad food and drank a very weak lemonade in the not-too-hot sun. From there we went to Sears where we purchased the coolest vacuum cleaner, ever. We picked up a Dyson Animal which really sucks ; ). We got tired of buying vacuum cleaners every couple of years and figure that if this thing can just last three years we'll be ahead. It has a 17 foot hose attachment, a life-time filter, no bags and is so easy to empty... no more standing over the trash can while banging on the canister, dust everywhere, you just point and pull a trigger and the dirt is gone. Oh, and the very coolest things about it: it's purple. You gotta love that. We brought it home, Mark set it up and had an absolute blast cleaning things. This is one of the reasons I married this man... he LOVES to clean. It's like Christmas for him, this new machine. He's adorable.

Anyway, I finally tore Mark's attention away from his new toy long enough to remind him that we had a date! We took Lily to my dad's and ran off for dinner and a movie, something that we haven't had the pleasure of in a long time. We saw Hidalgo which I LOVED. Really wonderful flick about a man and his horse. Mark had to listen to me say (quite frequently, really) "THAT is a man without HONOR" regarding all the bad guys. Cheaters. Don't like cheaters at all!

It was a great day. Lily even had fun at my dads and spent a fair bit of time blowing raspberries at him, which he thought was great. OH, and we even got to see my mom, who is getting over a cold and had been having Lily withdrawals from not being able to care for her this week. Good all around.

Seeing Red.

Lily is becoming so much more daring in her attempts to walk. Yesterday, she picked up her little sports bottle while standing next to the coffee table and decided it would be fun to stand, free of support, while drinking. She did really well and Vikki and I were just commenting on how impressed we were with her multi-tasking skills when DOWN she went, face first, into the cup. I scooped her up and held her close while she tried on a very healthy wail. When she tipped her head back to draw in air, I was horrified to discover blood all over her face. That tooth that had just been barely showing it's edge... yeah, you can see it really well now and this was the source off all that red. She had hit it against the straw and pushed back the gums. After some magic elixir (nursing) she was all better and ready to go attack the dog.

Vikki pointed out that this would not be the last time my shirt would be stained with Lil's blood... not something I want to dwell on, but yes, she is right. Lily will, undoubtedly, have many bumps, bruises, cuts, etc throughout her long life. It's part of growing up and will teach her how to use caution. While I have no intention of getting "used to" the sight of my daughters blood, I was pleased that this time she got hurt I didn't go into panic mode. I guess it gets easier to deal with... or at least, that's what I hope!

Toe dipping.

It's been hotter than the hinges lately and so we took Lily and Maya to the beach today to frolic a bit in the waves. The only other time Lil has been was when she was only a month or two old and she was all wrapped up in the sling, nursing the whole time. This time we dunked her feet in the water and let her play with the sand. She really dug the sand and would pick up handfuls, feeling it with both hands and watching, clearly fascinated as it ran through her fingers. She even tasted it, but decided that wasn't such a good idea. Maya had a blast, as she always does when allowed to leap into water and Mark and I took about a thousand photos. Two people offered to take photos of all three of us and we have a really nice shot to remember her first active trip to the beach.

We kept it short and then hung out in the van for a while so Mark could figure out how to set up the awning. Lily loves the van and crawled around "talking" and pulling on things. Then back home for pancakes! Yea! Life's good.

Nate's Cafe.

Took a drive today and ended up near Nate and Sandy's new house. We called Nate to find out exactly where the new place was and, as he was in rehearsal, didn't get ahold of him. So we kinda felt our way there and actually found it. On the way there we drove past this place called "Nate's Cafe" and it looked kinda cool, like hippy's would be happy there. It was a little past lunch time and I was ready for a meal, so I turned the car around and drove straight to the Cafe.

Turns out this place is actually the coolest nursery I've ever seen. Had a little barn with goats and chickens and all sorts of amazing things. LOVED it. And our Nate (not the one the restaurant is named after... turns out he's dead) ended up joining us for lunch.

What is it about Nate and Lily? She loves him. She wants to show off whenever he's around. She took her first steps in his direction and today, she started shaking her head "no" at him. Totally new behavior; just whipped it out for Nate. Silly baby.

So yes, she now shakes her head no... it's not pretty and sometimes her head ends up going round and round and up and down and back and forth, but she thinks that's funny, so it's all good.