tax return

Well in the very good news department our federal tax refund was mailed yesterday. We might get it today!! Well that would be pushing it. But hope springs eternal, right? Do you remember when you used to sleep like this? Probably not, as I think Lily was around 5 weeks in this picture. I don't even remember THAT far back.

big girl

It's strange how quickly children grow up. Miss Lily is still a small child (relatively speaking) but her actions and reactions are becoming more and more adult. I can't leave her on the bed anymore when I'm not in the room. She can continually roll now and change direction. What happened to my little baby who used to lay in one spot like a warm lump? On the right she's in mid roll. I was singing to her this morning and she was trying to sing back. It makes me much more aware that I need to be careful of what I say and do to set a good example for her. Granted I'm human and I can't be perfect all the time. :)

Lily loves the camera and as you can see she doesn't mind getting her picture taken. I was listening to NPR this morning and it was all about car bombs in Iraq and the British soldiers captured in Iran. I know bad stuff happens in the world but it seems like no one celebrates the good stuff anymore. I guess in good news I could mention that Alec Baldwin was touched by the story of an 18 year old woman (I typed girl the first time!) going to fight in Iraq and privately contacted the family to help pay for her college tuition when she gets back. I thought the armed forces had programs in place for that but good for him for wanting to help. And, am I crazy, or is Alec Baldwin like way hotter now than he was 20 years ago??

nap

This is what little Miss Lily is doing at this precise moment in time. I like her butt in the air - very amusing. And she is snoring slightly with her mouth open. I do put her on her back to sleep but I believe that if she's capable of rolling on her stomach (and somehow turning sideways), then she's capable of sleeping on her stomach. Stomach sleeping is a big deal for SIDS. I think since babies have been put on their back to sleep SIDS has dropped like 50%? That's a lot of babies saved. But my turbomonster is so big that SIDS hasn't been a worry. I wonder if there are stats about the size of babies and the occurrence of SIDS?



Here is a picture to prove how much she looks like her daddy. I took it last night. Oh yeah, have I mentioned yet that Lily was 11 pounds, 1 ounce at birth? I guess that's what you get when you marry a 6'6" guy. Live and learn folks. Wait, and I want to have another one?

gucky

Babies are the gooiest creatures on the planet. It doesn't help that Lily shoves her hand so far in her mouth that she triggers her gag reflex. I'm still wiping baby spew off of my keyboard. Above is a little stuffed creature that I like. I think it's a mini ninja.

On the plus side of things, Lily did sleep through the night. Unfortunately, I woke up at 2:30 with my shoulder throbbing. I've been a little slack on the physio exercises. Lily still has a cold, hence her gooiness. Gooeyness? The picture below is Lily in her a-little-bit-too-big sun hat. But she looks cute, right?

sunburn

It's only in the 70s but that doesn't stop a scottish descendant like myself from going up in flames. Our walk today must have been exceedingly boring as Miss Lily conked out halfway through it. I almost made it to the beach. I started to get a little wobbly so I turned back about two thirds of the way there. Uh oh, I've never seen that freckle look like that before. I hate putting on sunscreen. I suppose it's better than skin cancer. Boo! Below is one of my favorite pictures of Lily. I think she was around 6 weeks old. Oh man, I must go pump up my blood sugar after that long walk....

genetic throw down

No fewer than 3 people told me yesterday that as Lily gets older she looks more and more like her dad. Basically when people meet Lily and I for the first time they say to me, "Oh, she looks JUST like you." Then Pedro walks in and they say, "I was wrong, she looks like her daddy!" He certainly can't say she's not his, because she is the spitting image of him. Boy parts excluded, of course. But I wish she looked a little more like me. Just a little. She acts like me and has some of my best faces down already. I am kind of minutely famous for all the funny faces I make. I'll have to get over it but I wish I saw more of myself in her. I know she's mine, I pushed that big lump out of me, but it would be nice to see some reflection of me in her. When I hold her up to look in the mirror and we look at each other, there's so little resemblance, if any. Sometimes I wonder if people think I've adopted her. I'm so white I glow in the dark and she's got that beautiful latina skin. She has black hair and dark brown eyes. I've got reddish hair and blue/gray eyes. It's hard for me to look at us and see any relation. Her doctor told me this theory he heard where in pre-human times a baby that looked more like its father was less likely to be tossed from the cave. I thought, they didn't have mirrors back then so how would the father know what he looked like?

Anyway, I'm spending a lot of time complaining over something I have no control over... for now. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAH

sleepy (again)

Yesterday was doctor appointment day. Lily saw her doctor and my husband saw my doctor. I was, of course, involved in both. Lily just had a normal cold and her lungs are clear. Yay! She's still sneezing and coughing today and a lot of snot is coming out of the poor thing, making it hard for her to eat. Second breakfast was quite a production. Here's why she hates me.
An evil but very necessary piece of equipment - the nasal suction thingie. She howls and fights and normally I'd be happy that me little girl is so full of strength and life. But when snot is flying everywhere it puts a damper on that feeling of pride. Let me see... she woke me up a lot again last night. We did have a good nap this morning but I'm still exhausted. I really don't know how people do this more than once. I do want another child but I think about the lack of sleep and being so rundown and I think, am I SURE I want another child? I know it's all worth it in the end but when IS the end exactly? Great now I have the Doors in my head.

Am I wrong to dress my child in pink camouflage shorts? I've become the very person I never wanted to be. I guess being a parent really does change a person. I guess I have to suck it up because my daughter is healthy, cute and well loved. Pink camo shorts are the least of my worries. Or maybe the most of my worries. I'm not sure how that works. This is a little fuzzy but it's a picture of her extremely cute sandals. And no I haven't bent her leg in a weird position. Sometimes that child acts like a boneless chicken!

flu 2

Now daddy is home with the flu. Lucky me. Two sick birdies for me to take care of. I am lucky that my husband is a relatively good daddy. He even changes poopie diapers! There's a hilarious video on you tube of men trying to change poopie diapers. A couple of them have to run away gagging. Yay I found the video. And I learned how to put it in my blog. I used to know so much about computers and then I married a man who is a major computer geek so I stopped learning. Not a smart idea, I suppose, but I can't be good at everything! :)

the flu

Well I'm not sure my poor baby has the flu but she's sick. She's been coughing for almost a week and today she was almost inconsolable. Crying and unable to sleep. She finally conked out. :( My husband is sick too. I'm so glad I got a flu shot, although it's no guarantee I won't get sick, I'm hoping it will provide some protection. And I keep telling my husband not to drink out of the milk cartons so he doesn't spread anything. Why can't people listen????

The doctor's office sounded like a zoo today. Lil and I are going to the doctor's tomorrow but I wanted some advice on how to handle her tonight. Baby's first cold... not as cute as baby's first smile, that's for darn sure. Anyway, here's to all the people in the medical profession who keep going to take care of us when we need it. :)

hypocrite

When I found out that I was having a baby girl I stated that I would not put my daughter in pink clothes. Here's the humbling reality:


Yes, there is the odd smattering of yellow or blue but it's pretty pink. I can't help it. I think I can blame all the people who say how cute she looks when she's all in pink. Her pink bikini is the schizzle. If there's one thing I learned about pregnancy and childbirth, it's lose your expectations. My pregnancy wasn't how I pictured, I was vehemently against an epidural. Until I was induced and had contractions every 20 seconds. You'd be surprised how fast you'll take a needle in the spine then. I can't recall everything now but there were so many things I was against or passionately for and now I couldn't give a dern.

This is Lily and her grandpa. She's starting to experience seperation anxiety. Yes, I spelled seperation the Canadian way. I spent most of my life getting it wrong there and now I spend the rest of my life getting it wrong here. Go me. Anyway, it took a day for Lily to accept that grandma and grandpa meant her no harm. Of course, that happened just before we left but at least we got some good pictures. Yes it's a hot pink sun hat but at least it will protect that beautiful skin of hers and she'll still be cute. Especially with that k-yute sundress we got for her. There's no redemption for me.

diaper leak

Poor Miss Lily had a bad diaper leak and woke up crying around 1:30am. It was so bad that it soaked the back of her, then she rolled over and it soaked the front as well. jeesh. I am a bad mommy and I let her sleep on a quilt which is over top of a changing pad so the crib sheet was saved and I just yanked all the wet stuff off of it. But the wee thing, couldn't fall asleep. So she kept me awake for 2 hours and I finally gave in at 3:30 and took her to bed with me so that she might fall asleep. For some reason I can sleep when she's kicking me, but not when I hear her kick the crib. Go figure.

So I am VERY tired today. Again. I am still attempting to take Miss Lily for a walk this afternoon. It's in the 70's here in central Va. I think a walk will do the both of us good. The problem now is trying to keep Lily somewhat awake today so she'll sleep through the night tonight. We already had a good snooze this morning. Oh well, I wonder if this is the part of parenting that's rewarding?

Ooh, and I watched Pirate's of the Caribbean, part 2 last night. What a pile of stinking manure! My husband liked it, of course. :)

Well yesterday I wrote a witty post about how my daughter had slept through the night and then I forgot to hit the publish button. oops So I have no recollection as to what I thought was interesting yesterday. This is mostly due to the fact that Lily did NOT sleep through the night last night. I had to flake out on a friend and not meet her for lunch because I do not have the energy. I'm trying to stay away from my bed because it's singing a beautiful siren's song to me. Of course crashing onto my pillow (versus sharp rocks) isn't such a bad thing...

In other news, Lily has figured out how to drink out of her sippy cup. I know this isn't earth shattering but she's very fussy about the shapes of things that go into her mouth so I was excited that she put it in her mouth and drank some apple juice out of it. She still doesn't seem so keen on the juice... Silly babies.

Oh and in the happy news department, the lost boy scout was found. Was he in W Va? I know it's sad he was lost in the first place. Oh and I think tomorrow Britain is going to pass some legislation to protect gays and lesbians from persecution in the workplace, etc. Of course some religious people are upset because it interferes with their right to persecute against said gays and lesbians. You just can't please everybody.

sleep 2

Well my dearest daughter woke up at 2:30 this morning. Not exactly. She was half awake, half asleep and keeping me awake with her restlessness. I finally just woke her up at 3am and fed her. By the time all was said and done I finally got to sleep around 4. I wasn't sleeping before she woke up. We watched Sin City last night. I really enjoyed it but I was so wound up when I went to bed. I was nodding off as Lily was waking up. I was so irritated! But the little pudding had a good nap this morning so I joined her.

In good news I did hear that there's progress being made in getting North Korea to stop it's nuclear development. I can't remember if it's weapons or just refining nuclear "stuff". (sorry but I did only get 3 hours of sleep last night)

Lily is having a lot of naps today and I know she's going to be awake more tonight but I'm too tired to fight it right now. Over the weekend we'll have company and grandma and grandpa can help keep her awake during the day. :) Then I can sneak off for a nap. :)

Sleep

Wow, I was hit with the insomnia brick last night. I think I might have fallen asleep around 4:30 but then Lily started waking up around 5:30 so... I'm a mess today. At least we're a little more on our usual schedule. Daylight savings time is annoying, to say the least. I did manage to take some pictures of the buzzards across the street with a little bit of the moon in the background this morning. I am not grossed out by buzzards. If you saw all the roadkill that accumulates around here you'd be thankful for buzzards too. Deer carcasses STINK! And those nice big buzzards just yumm that stink up. :) Okay, I'm a little weird.

They (the buzzards) usually roost in the back yard and I love watching them in the evenings swooping down and all trying to land in one tree. Not all at the same time, which is interesting to think about - do they have a landing order? Or is it the first one gets the best branch?

Lily is having a wee snooze. Since I was so tired this morning I wanted to keep our activities low key so "we" read some books. She is getting really good at turning the pages. Granted these are pages from board books, but still she's a pretty smart kid. :) This is what she was doing yesterday when I went into check on her napping. Naughty baby!

Oh the mail truck arrived! My first Netflix movie should be there! Woot! And what movie did I pick for my virginal movie delivery?? Bubba Hotep. Yes, I'm special.

Argh!

Why is it I search for "happy news" on the internet and the link I chose led me to a story about a woman being charged with attempted homicide for planning to cut out her neighbor's child from its womb. I mean COME ON.

Oh and the above picture is one of many attempts to get baby Lily to eat rice cereal. She has accomplished eating from a spoon but it took the sweet temptations of pear sauce to get her over the hump.

I found some good news. Oil prices fell - but then why are they rising at the pump? Bogus! I think that's what I miss most about Vancouver (aside from the fantastic restaurants and tons of beaches), the walking. I walked everywhere. I lived 3 blocks from Kits Beach (Kitsalano) and it took me 15 minutes to walk downtown and then I walked every where downtown. So I'd walk hours each week and it was nothing. I was SO skinny.

First Blog (not really)

Well I've had other blogs before and I always neglect them. But how can I resist posting pictures of my beautiful baby girl on the internet and writing about her incredible achievements? I'll probably resist eventually.

She's peacefully jumping up and down (peacefully?) with her fist shoved in her mouth. God babies are fun! Last night was the first time Lily officially slept through the night. 10:30 to 7:15. woohoo! I think she slept 8 hours once before but I was too shocked to fully note it. I hope this is the first night of many! She also stood up on her own today. And should I note that she turns 5 months next Sunday. She was sitting on my leg and pushed up to a stand. She rocks! Of course, I'm terrified that she'll skip crawling and just go to walking. But it's a small price to pay for a healthy big baby.

Well I did a quick search for happy news and I wasn't very successful so I guess I'll just say how glad I am that the 5 day old baby who was snatched in Texas was found alive and healthy and returned to her parents. yay!

Oh yeah, and I have to remind myself to reduce the size of my baby pictures so they don't take 10 minutes to upload.