Cranky Pants

I was the cranky one today, for a change. Lily woke me up at 4 and kept me awake for well over an hour. Sigh. I brought water to bed for her but I think she was hungry. I get frustrated cuz I'd like her to eat during the DAY. It's not like I don't provide her with plenty of opportunities....

This is the rather pregnant deer I saw the other night when I got home from class. She gave me a very huffy look as she walked off of the driveway so I could get in. Jeesh.

I didn't really take too many pictures at the Strawberry Festival. I actually only took one! Poor Stacy wanted to be put in "jail" for a charity and Lily took off so I had to chase after her and poor Stace had no one to pay bail! LOL! Don't worry, she made it home... eventually!

Yes, BG can usually be found near Lily. :) Oh yeah, my crankyness. Lily woke me up. Then I majorly slept in and was late meeting Stacy. I hate being late. I didn't have any coffee creamer and anyway, I was cranky! But the strawberry shortcake was the bomb. It put the sludge from Bonefish (Fishbone?) Grill to shame. SHAME! We got there after 11 and they were already out of Strawberry Pie and Strawberry Cake. I keep on writing Strawbeery. Freudian slip?

Anyway, for the huddled masses. Sorry, my big dorky laugh blocks out Lily's.

Sleep

Lily slept through the night. Did I mention that already? I'm not sure why getting a full night of sleep always makes me feel more tired. blah At least I feel like I'm not going to topple over like I did yesterday. :( I did pass my evaluation. I was doing my rollpatting a little too quickly. :) Now that we have the basics down we can move onto masks....

Here's Lily....

Infectious

Well, the doctor thinks that Lily's cough is "post-nasal" and she has a bit of an ear thing going on. I have to go and pick up her anti-biotics this morning. Is that supposed to be hyphenated? Anyway, I called this morning to see if Lily was infectious because she has her first day of a regular playgroup. They said "umm, yeah". Sigh. So she will stay with me today and we'll go to the park or something. :) I also asked if she had gained any weight. Sort of. 27.89 pounds That's almost 28 pounds so she's almost gained a pound. Go Lily!

I love this picture. Remember how chunky she was??? This was the first time she pulled herself up. Check out that junk in her trunk!

What a smokin' awesome day

I was all go go go last night, for some reason. It's carried over into today. I've been to see my doctor for my shoulder. I have some "instability in the rotator cuff". So I managed to get into see a physio place just down the road. I was worried with watching Lily and having classes that I wouldn't be able to figure out a time but they had a 7am on a Friday. Go me!

And, don't tell Pedro, but Vivian squeezed me in for a pedicure today cuz I just really felt I needed one. :) And I called the pediatrician and they squeezed in Lily for an appointment this afternoon to see about her cough. It's less frequent but as I had to take antibiotics for mine and it's been almost 2 weeks for her... I'd rather take her in.

I am LARGE and in CHARGE.

If only I could get Pedro to answer his phone....

Me

Guess who got 100% on her first test?? See above if you're confused.

ummm

I can't remember what today's post was going to be about. Oh well. I finally have some cute pictures of Lily. And a treat! A video. She is so funny when she wakes up. :) Class is going well. I have a test tomorrow. I know, right??? I haven't had much time to read - read earlier posts about Lily and her refusal to nap. She did nap today for almost 3 hours. I also tried to nap. :) Dern telemarketers. My classmates have assured me that the tests are easy. It's kind of a weird schedule. New people will join every couple of months. I'm kind of too tired to explain it more. Make it up!


I guess Lily got a little hungry. :) I do try to feed her. She actually ate a whole slice of pizza the other night. Tonight we had chicken with couscous. She totally surprised me by eating the couscous. She missed out thought cuz the chicken was the bomb! I broiled it with cumin and coriander. At first I just put on the cumin and the chicken smelled like armpit. So I picked something sweeter smelling. The combo was amazing. :)

I figured it had been a while since I posted cute sleeping pictures. Lily was down for the count! Oh, in the good news department, Lily has finally starting to accept Pedro as an alternate parent figure. Good grief. Lily's been very clingy and I've tried to be very patient as she works her way through it. :)

Lucky

There was a flurry of emails this afternoon about the pet farm outing. One mom pulled 4 ticks off of her daughter.

I don't do insects under the skin very well. (not counting my own bug bite)

Lily was clean and I'm very glad that I chose not to go on the nature walk that the other moms and kids went on.

I hope the other children are okay now. Seriously people. Being lazy isn't always a bad thing.

Oh.

I haven't checked myself for ticks.....

Class

I feel like I haven't really written about my class/course and I don't want anyone to think there's a reason for that. It's a lot of fun. I'm already getting better about cleaning a face. Yes, I've had four classes and I've started doing facials! Not the whole thing, obviously. Well, I mean the whole face, but not the whole facial. We're just starting with cleansing and toning the face. I have a long way to go.

Like I thought I might suck at it or something but when I think less about what I'm doing, I seem to do a better job. I kind of zoned out last night when I was taking off the cleanser and my classmate said whatever I was doing felt really good. And frankly, any job I can do where I do better when I'm not thinking, is the kind of job I need. :) ha!

Some of my friends are going to get lucky soon, because we're allowed to bring people in on Thursdays to practice on. So once our teacher says we're good enough, we can bring in new victims! As a matter of fact, I'll need to practice on Pedro this weekend.....

Okay, this was me 30 seconds ago. Do they want some attention or something???








And just cuz I never post pictures of Riley anymore...

Moo baa!

Yes, it was petting farm day. I managed to get us up and out the door on time. Poor Lily was not ready for a 7am wakeup call. I actually let her sleep in until 7:30. :) But it was still a shock to her system. I don't think I've written about it here but Lily has not had a great schedule this week and it's been killing me. She's been sick and I started class so things have been different but we've been sleeping until 8:30 or 9, then she refuses to nap, or naps late and either stays up half the night or doesn't go to bed until 11. So I'm a stressed mommy. Not to mention the bug bites that are morphing into a deep purple mess. Seriously, if I know you and you're in the medical field, expect an email from me with a photo attachment...

So anyway, if my bite/skin infection/alien transformation oozes, I'm heading to a hospital. hmpf

Lily did pretty well today. As you can see, she started out slowly. And unfortunately, I forgot to crop the pictures so they'll be other people in them as well! More fun! I did try to explain that ponies and horses don't like bark, but Lily had her own ideas. Did I already mention that it was in a beautiful area! Kind of in the hills. I could smell honeysuckle (and goat poop) and the farm was surrounded by rolling hills covered in trees. It was so peaceful and lovely. :)

There are the trouble makers. The animals are so used to being fed by humans that they tend to mob you when you show up. The three baby goats ran straight at Lily and scared her at first. She's never met a goat before and you know, they aren't afraid of humans...

Lily really liked the black and white goat. She was following him around. :) OH! I almost forgot. The farm owner was handing out the goat feed so I took some for Lily, gave her a few pellets and she popped them in her mouth!!!! Thankfully, goat food tastes pretty awful so she spat them right back out. Good grief. :)

I also showed Lily how to feed a horse and she did really well. There was kind of a cranky horse that she was yelling at. He turned his butt to her and put his ears back so I moved her away. That's a lesson she's a little too young to learn. :) Now I'm kind of glad that we didn't stick around for the pony rides...

Did I mention that Lily is napping while I write this? I felt like I complained so thoroughly about her NOT napping that I forgot to say that I got her down today. I didn't have much of a choice. :) After going to bed at 11 with me and then waking up at 7:30, Miss Lily needed her nap. I don't want to be mean to her and deprive her of rest but I was at the end of my rope yesterday cuz she kept me up for almost 4 hours and I couldn't take anymore. Mommies are people too, you know. :)

Why did I take a picture of this place? It's a beautiful store in what feels to me like the middle of nowhere. I think it's on the way to Wintergreen resort so they probably get a lot of traffic. I stopped for juice for Lily and I but walked out with red wine, blue cheese, crackers, chips and juice. :) Quite a store. :)

And hey g-ma and g-pa, if you're interested the petting zoo is open on the weekends and there's strawberry picking in the neighborhood so let me know if you'd like to come up and explore!

... and I present to you... Amazonia!!!

I'm not even sure how Lily did this to her shirt. As you can see, she's full of energy today. She actually hasn't napped, either. And I've stuffed her in bed lots of times. Well, she did eat some cake early in the afternoon. I was so excited that she was eating that I kept on giving her more. :) She also ate some noodles for lunch so we're getting there. Pedro and I have been pretty committed to get a lot of fluids in her, which means she doesn't have a lot of tummy room for food. I know she'll eat enough for five people some day soon. :)


Let's see. I haven't read anything for class. It's been one of those kinds of days. It's too bad it's been such a topsy turvy week. I really haven't had time to get a routine going. Oh well, I have 9 and 3/4 months to go. :) Lily finally has enough hair for a decent pony tail but she never leaves it in there for very long. :)


I even tried to get Lily cuddled up and watching a movie to relax her for a nap. It almost worked... and then BG showed up. Sigh. Well, she'll sleep well tonight, right parents??? Maybe Pedro will luck out and she'll fall asleep before 7.... Why would he luck out?? Oh, because it's game night. Actually, I would like to give a shout out to Pedro too, for taking care of Lily while I've been in class. He's stepped up. He even does a load of laundry every day. Of course, I'm the one who puts it away....

Alright, more Lily and BG pictures. Sorry, about the fuzzy one, it could have been so cute. :(

Here

I've been so busy lately. Classes have started (yay!) and I'm still figuring out a routine. Lily has been sick and I've had my own problems so I feel like I'm very out of control this week. I haven't been on time yet. argh Lily has a wicked cough (like I did) so I'm taking care of her and trying to give her lots of opportunities to rest and heal. But the little poop would rather pull everything out of my underwear drawer and then act like it was that way when she got in the room. grrrr

On my end of the miserable scale, I have an infection. I guess I got some bug bites at the Pow Wow, in sort of an unmentionable place. Long story short I've got growing red streaks emanating from the original bite site. One of them grew over an inch today which is why I pushed to get to the doctor's today. I'm a little itchy and tender at the bite as well. :( I'm taking antibiotics and the inflammation already looks better.

But it's an awful lot to cope with on top of my classes starting. I feel like next week things should calm down. Do you want to know the best part??? I got a facial tonight. I guess that's part of the perks. My skin looks PHENOMENAL. Not to brag or anything. Hey, I need something to take my mind off of that bite.... argh And the other picture of Lily? She wrapped herself in blankets and curled up on the floor, AFTER making me put on her shoes.

Yay!

I had so much fun yesterday. We were there for almost 7 hours and it seemed to fly by. All the performers were amazing: the dancers, singers and drummers. I think my favorites were the grass dancers. Although I didn't get any pictures of them because they did a memorial dance and we were asked not to take pictures. The whole thing gave me chills though. :) I didn't get that many pictures, I think because I was enjoying the thing so much.

It was pretty well run too. There was continuous garbage pick up and people directing the parking traffic. My only complaint was that the porta potties were fairly gross. But I guess at an outside event you can't have everything. :) And when I say they were gross, I mean they were actually fairly neat inside, but they, achem, filled up fast.

It took place in a really beautiful area, but it was hard to capture that with all the parked cars and power lines. I know, it doesn't sound beautiful. :P I'm very glad that I went with a high SPF sunscreen or I would have been a fried mommy by the end of the day. Oh, I also had an Indian taco. mmmm It's kind of like taco ingredients on fry bread.

The announcer was really cool and explained what the songs and dances meant. The grass dancers initially flattened down the high prairie grasses so there could be a pow wow.

This guy was the crowd favorite. He was really tall and fierce looking. I couldn't help but think if he'd been there when the settlers had shown up, things might have gone differently.

I didn't spend too much money. I got myself a pretty larimar ring and some dangly turquoise earrings. Plus some bells because everyone else was jingling, darn it! I also got some sweet grass to use for smudging instead of sage.

I'd like to give a shout out to Stacy for inviting me and for bringing the folding chairs. I still miss mine. :(

PS - tribal dancing is not that easy. I did dance around the bonfire and I'm sure I looked like an epileptic stork. Completely unlike the regal and graceful ladies who did the shawl dance. Sigh.

PPS - I danced a round a bonfire! How cool is that???

PPPS - with other dancers and to Native music

PPPPS - just in case you thought I was off dancing by myself

pow WOW!

Well, I'm off to the Pow Wow today. I'm so excited. The weather couldn't be better 77F and sunny. I'll be packing my sunscreen since I'll be out all day. Actually, Lily's 50 SPF sunscreen. I'm old and freckly already. :)

I'm not getting back until late so no Lily stories until tomorrow. Have a great weekend y'all!

2 adorable

Well, the mom's club group bailed on the walk this morning. But I'm still going. I ate biscuits in anticipation of walking 4 miles and dagnabbit, I'm a gonna walk 4 miles.

I'm not sure when I turned into Yosemite Sam.

AKC!

Oops. I'm so twitterpated. I mean ACK! Pedro took Lily to the park and I cannot stop rubbing my eye. I don't believe the two are related. But I should be enjoying the peace not rubbing my eyelid raw. argh I don't see anything, do you??? It is driving me crazy! I'm not sure if the picture is overexposed or if I really am that pale. Don't tell me, I don't want to know.

So playgroup was fun. The lady who hosted it was really nice and had a beautiful home. I mean beautiful. It was hard to come back to this mess. Sigh. Pedro said that no one commented on my pony post because no one cares about ponies, they only care about Lily. But I remember when I put up the pictures of the baby hedgehogs and everyone was all, "ooh" and "ahhhh". I mean, come on people, the pony has a real bunny on its back! Oh gosh. I used some eye drops and my eye does feel better although I have tears running down my cheek. argh! Gah!

Jeesh. I just pulled a little eyelash out of my eye. Jeez Louise. So in real news, Daphne is walking with a limp. I only noticed it this afternoon but I got us an appointment for tomorrow. She's an old lady and I'm not going to let her suffer. So I've been brushing her so that the vet won't think I'm a slacko cat owner. She hasn't bit me YET. But she's threatened too. I'm watching Pedro playing with Lily outside. He's a good daddy.

Lily said a special new word today. Cookie. She was holding a cookie up in front of her so I know it wasn't a fluke. :) Pedro and I forgot that Lily doesn't like raisins, so the oatmeal raisin cookies were a bit of a mistake. I've been picking raisins off the floor all afternoon. Oh! I've also found out that the mom's club has playgroups that meet everyday. I guess you pick a day or get assigned to one. That's what I've been looking for!! So I've emailed a few people and hopefully Lily and I can find a new group of people to harass. :)

Yay

I made it to the gym this morning. I meant to get up at 6 and out the door by 6:15 but it was more like, up at 6:15 and out the door by 6:45. oops. The gym was really quiet - it was nice. I didn't work out too hard as I'm still in recovery. :) This is a picture of Lily at playgroup last Friday. We have another under 2 playgroup to go to today. Then there's the stroller walk tomorrow. phew! It's kind of fun but I've been such a shut-in for so long it feels a little overwhelming at times. But as a mom, I feel like it's my duty to show Lily how to make friends.

I'm glad I got the doorknob covers. I'd like a few more so that I don't have to worry about Lily sneaking out of the room at night. She hid on me yesterday and because of all the mess in the livingroom (thanks Pedro) I had a really tough time finding her. I knew I had bolted the storm door so she was in the house somewhere!!! As you can see in the picture, she is all about being sneaky right now...

Oh and Lily can now climb into the bathtub on her own. Do they ever stop growing? Holy crap! I guess it's not that bad but it's like they say, as soon as you get used to them being at one stage, they move onto the next one! I try not to limit her and in fact, I've been trying to challenge her a bit more. I mean, I used to assume I'd need to point to things or keep questions simple. Now I just let things fly. It's more fun to learn some things on your own, right?

Lily found the Christmas book yesterday. I moved an antique piece to the front hall (Pedro said something about getting rid of it and I said something about removing his heart - hey family heirlooms do not just happen by accident!) and I thought it would be a great place for Lily's books. Now I just have to teach her to put them back....

I need to ask M'Lou who owned that little table-thingie first... M'Lou?

I want a Pony!

You can go to here to get the story but check out this adorable pony!!! Pedro said I can't get a dog....



Yes, this IS what I do all day.

Good Times

Well, Lily and I spent a couple of nights down at grandma and grandpa's house. We had a good time. Thanks for the hospitality g-ma! Lily and g-pa had a good time too. :)

No, I didn't take any pictures and I can't actually recall all the stuff we did. :) Of note, was lunch yesterday. After Lily pitched a fit at the Carrot Tree (I didn't know they were trees, either) we went to Trader Joes and loaded up on some yummy food. We had edamame, pierogies, mandarin chicken and cheesecake with fresh strawberries. It was sort of an international theme. Lily stayed at the table until we were all done. I was seriously impressed with her. :)

She and I have a busy week. Tomorrow is playgroup. Friday is a 4 mile stroller walk. Saturday I'm gone for most of the day (and part of the night) to a pow wow. I'm harsh excited as I've never been to one before. :) So I'm busy planning what I'll need and trying to find things for Lily and Pedro to do. So they won't miss me TOO much.

Smarter than the Average Bear?

Lily scared me yesterday. I moved a black shelving unit to my trunk and parts of it were like long black narrow round tubes. So Lily ran into the spare bedroom (I really need doorknob covers) and opened up the closet and grabbed a similar looking tube (for an old vacuum cleaner) and brought it out to me. I was like, how did she remember that was there and make the connection I might need that too? I was floored. I'm not sure what most 18 month olds can remember or how well they know that one thing is like another thing but I was a little scared at her mental capacity for her age.

Any thoughts?

Well, I need to get ready to go and spend Mother's day in Newport News. Pedro is staying home. So that means for Father's Day I get to go to the Outer Banks by myself??? Just wondering.

For really reals

That's one of my most recent favorite sayings. It drives Pedro nuts, however, which is probably part of its charm. Anyway, it is currently 9:12pm EST and Lily pants is still awake. I spent over 40 minutes trying to get her down but she finally popped off the bed and went and opened the door. Note to self: I need to get those doorknob covers. So I gave her some food and milk and now she's hanging out with us. SIGH.

So I finally got those cookout pictures. My cellphone kept on having a low battery. AKA me not plugging it in. Lily was just fussing at me for not holding onto her blanket for her. I'd wait until she got to the doorway to through it on her again. She'd turn around and tell me off, then walk back and firmly place the blanket back on my lap. It was VERY hard for Pedro and I not to laugh. It's just so cute to see her personality coming out. She also played very nicely with a baby today. She tickled his toes a little bit. :) I was so proud.

Thunder!

Poor Pedro. It's a good thing he asked for the day off today or he would've had to call in. He was up most of the night with Lily. I was up most of the night because of the storms. Good grief. She's doing okay this morning. She ate most of her waffle - which has NEVER happened before. And she's been running around like gangbusters. So we'll be going to the arts and crafts day. I'll just make sure that we focus on making the plate and try to keep Lily away from other kids. :)

And look what I got a picture of??? Nice grammar. Anyway, I'm sure Lily appreciated me snapping pictures in the dark while she was trying to sleep but I managed to capture her rubbing her foot with her blankie. I think a video would be better but... Hey, what does Benedryl do? Her doctor said I could give her children's Benedryl when she's sick. Is it supposed to help with runny noses? I didn't notice it help much last night. It took Lily a LONG time to fall asleep. Poor wee thing. She was tossing and turning. And poor big Pedro. :) Anyway, I need to jet to make it to the playgroup!

PS (Yes, I am still sick too - I may actually break down and go to the doctor. :P)

PLAP!!! (the other shoe dopping)

Miss Lily is sick. She was plugged up last night but slept okay once we suctioned out her nose. One of those fun parenting jobs. :) Today she's had a runny nose and she's been coughing, but nothing too bad. She enjoyed our walk today. She had a blanket over her and relaxed and yelled at the trees. :)

In other news, she has a cute thing thing she does. Like, THE CUTEST THING EVAH! kind of a deal. With her eyes closed, Lily grabs the corner of her blanket, then grabs a foot and rubs the soft corner up and down her foot until she falls asleep. It's too adorable. I taught her how to do that to her face today too. :) She's a tactile little thing.

The Champion

Well, okay that might be overstating things. I did do a lot of cleaning up this morning. I have a pile of things to go to Goodwill and I moved a huge bookcase and all the books into the kitchen. I'm trying to get the spare bedroom closer to being Lily's room. Especially, after she woke me up at 4 and didn't go to sleep until after 5. argh

A mom I met on Monday, called me today to see about walking. Yay! I was going to call her this afternoon to see if she wanted to get together tomorrow. :) Great minds and all that. And she has tattoos so she's my kind of chick. :) I wonder if she likes martinis?

I put Lily in a spring dress that g-ma got her a while ago. Lily looked at it a little funny until I put it on her. It looks so comfy and cool. I also think it looks cute with the little flounce thing going on. I took a lot of pictures trying to show how cute she looks but you're just going to have to take my word on it.

No, no cookout pictures yet. They're all on my cellphone which had one bar of battery this morning. So hopefully later today. I'm trying not to write about the evil little girl who pushed Lily at the playgroup yesterday. But I give in. Grendel had a kitty exactly like the one Lily has at home. So Lily saw it and went for it. Beelzebub pushed her away once and I was okay with that and Lily turned and walked away, cuz she's like that. But then the sh*t disturber chased down Lily and pushed her again from behind and that's when Mommyzilla stepped in. I only told the monster not to push. I didn't even backhand it. I mean, talk about restraint. (push my baby, will ya)

Morning View

We went to the last day of the kids group at Carysbrook and had a cookout. I'll try to post those pictures later. Lily didn't sleep so well last night so, of course, we're all tired today. Daddy is especially grumpy. I'm not sure why since he's not the one who's had Lily bellyflopping on them. Did that make sense? Anyway, I'm still coughing and feeling sort of weak. What an awful cold I've had. boo Let me see... Lily was kind of enough to pose for this picture. I wasn't fast enough with my camera the first time. Her hand is clenched because she's in mid "wave". Check out those long legs. whew Her little capris used to look like pedal pushers but now they're starting to look like shorts!

Oh and the other thing that makes it hard to sleep with Lily - she likes "stroking" my hair. I do that to her to help her sleep. Well, I'd like to say that I'm good at it. I don't pull hair or hit her on the head. Let's just say that Lily still needs some practice. Then, of course, there are the nights that she does it with her feet.... Sigh.

Cinco de Mayo - the Pantless Holiday

I agonized over Pantless or Pantsless. I get a red line underneath them either way so. :P It was another beautiful day. I was tired because Lily bellyflopped on me again all night. So I took her to the park today. I met a cool mom with a very cute little boy. We both want someone to go walking with so hopefully she and I can make that happen! Obviously, with our children. :)


Lily has started copying Linus. She drags her blankets with her everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE. It doesn't really both me. I think it's kind of cute. She's ummm, I can't think of the word. She's experimenting with controlling her environment. Is there a word for that??? She's also been more attached to her binkies so we're having a small war over that. I'm not too hard on her because I did leave her for a week. That excuse isn't going to last much longer so I hope Lily enjoys it while she can. :)

What's wrong with this picture? I changed Lily's diaper after her lunch and left her on the bed, without pants, to do what she wanted. Well, she took a while coming back out to the living room, which was weird as I was eating grapefruit and she LOVES grapefruit. So I look at her and something doesn't seem right, but I share my snack with her. So then she goes and stands in front of the tv. I was like, does her diaper have a crack in it???? The little stinker took off her diaper and then came out. No accidents, just a clueless mommy. She really is chip off the old block, huh g-ma??

Banana Bread Monster

I made some banana bread today. I was worried about what to take to the cookout on Tuesday but now I have banana bread! yay! Lily loves banana bread. I know it's kind of fattening (for me) but it's relatively healthy. Right? Okay, I put in chocolate chips. I ALWAYS put in chocolate chips.

Lily saw me pick up a piece of B bread and put it in my mouth so she grabbed a humongo piece and shoved it in her mouth. She even opened her mouth and showed it to me. :) I was cracking up because Pedro has a video of a Marine ball where he shoved not one, but two pieces of cake in his mouth at once. The bar is set high people.

Pedro was an awesome daddy this morning and took Lily to the lake. He walked even! Apparently, you have to let Lily know that it's not a bathtub and that she's not allowed in with her shoes on. :) So now she's all in love with her stroller and wants to hang out in it. As far as I know, that's the first time Pedro went out with Lily for fun, by himself. Well, you know.