Milestones

Two milestones in one day...yes, I am biased about the brilliance of my daughter, but isn't every new mom? This morning, after weeks of teetering on her side with her face pressed into the blanket, Lily rolled over. I must mention, too, that she rolled over towards me-yeah! All the books say to put a favorite toy just out of reach to the side for babies to roll towards...Lily didn't need a toy, though, just mom.

Of course, in true baby fashion, as soon as she had rolled over and pulled her arm back from beneath her she started to cry. One of those "who put me face-down on this blanket when I was having a lovely time examining the ceiling fan" cries. Trying to explain to her that she did it to herself was not going to work, so I just picked her up for celebratory hugs instead.

This evening was milestone number two. To mark her fourth month birthday yesterday she got to go to the doctor and get a bunch of immunizations...not fun for ANYONE. Even the nurse remarked that this was the worst part of her job. I feel for her-I certainly wouldn't want to making babies cry as a major portion of my job description. Anyway, the doctor told us to go ahead and start Lily on rice cereal anytime. So, tonight's snack food was rice cereal for the first time. I must say, she ate like a champ. Of course, large portions of it ended up running down her chin, but she found the whole event to be quite entertaining-as did I.

The swing of things

The Christmas season is upon us in a big way and I am still trying to get into the swing of things. Thankfully, I have a vast majority of my Christmas shopping done via Lily's pictures. Most of our family members will be getting pics of the newest little one for Christmas, which saves a lot of time and money. However, I'm finding it rather challenging to put up Christmas decorations while holding a baby in one arm. (I think I'm developing some sort of baby-holdingitis in my left elbow!) I think that this is all the more challenging because I still don't feel like I have my house settled yet since our move. I still have wallpaper to remove, rooms to paint, boxes to move...argh.

On the upside of this-do you just want to eat this picture up?

A December 1st Miracle

OK-we are coming up on 25 minutes of uninterrupted naptime-in the MORNING! How is it that my husband can go in, put Lily in her crib, stay for a minute to calm her and walk out with no problem? I spend hours listening to her cry or going back and forth to her room to calm her when I try to get her to nap. I think that I will approach it this way: I did all the hard work training her to nap and Pete gets to initiate the first successful morning nap.

Now that she is sleeping (for the time being) I find it hard to get started on anything. I keep waiting for her to wake up and cry. Pete, however, has already settled into watching our recording of "Lost" while I make a long-delayed entry in my blog.

We are taking Lily for her first portrait today. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope that it goes well. It is one of those events that I don't have much control over...she could be happy and cute or crying and clingy. All I can do is get her dressed in her Christmas outfit and show up at the studio on time! It kind of feels like taking an exam in college...I can study all I want, show up on time prepared, and think happy thoughts. If the questions are something that I would never see coming, though, I'm sunk! Hopefully, I will have a cute picture to post soon...Keep your fingers crossed!

----9:19 pm...OK, the nap thing didn't work out as planned. Only 30 minutes of sleep in her bed and then another hour and a half in mommy and daddy's bed. On the other hand, the portraits worked out beautifully! It is hard to narrow down pictures when you think your child is the most precious thing that ever graced the planet!

Survivor

Well, we have almost made it through Lily's first major chest cold. Nothing pierces the heart like listening to your baby's raspy cough and being helpless to do much of anything. She was finally getting back to her smiling, babbling self for awhile today-but then it came time to go to bed and she was all slumpy again. I have been trying the whole "leave your baby in her crib to nap no matter what" plan and it really, REALLY stinks...especially now that she has a cold. I was in tears by the time I went to get her out of her crib yesterday. My poor husband was vexed enough by a crying baby-add to that a sobbing wife and he was just finished!

Thankfully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and she is coughing less and less. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when she will hopefully wake up with bright eyes and a big smile. I haven't seen that in a couple of days and that was my whole reason for dragging myself out of bed at 6 am!

Isn't it nice to be adored?

I was out to lunch with my sister the other day and I brought Lily along. Lily was studying me as I ordered and snacked on appetizers with my sister. My sister has a three-year-old and one on the way, so she knows the ups and downs of motherhood well. Seeing Lily's gaze, she said "Isn't it nice to be adored?" It really is. I am so thankful for my little girl-so thankful that God gave me something so precious to take care of. I still look at her every day and marvel at the fact that God created her using me!

What is it about 2:05 am?

What is it about 2:05am that babies want to see so badly? If you can answer that, can you tell me if 2:47, 3:25, 3:55, 4:47 and 5:36 hold the same appeal? I love my daughter dearly and do want to spend as much time as possible with her, but not when she is just a shadowy spot in the middle of her crib in the middle of the night.

I remember as a young girl going to my first sleepovers. We always found it such an exciting challenge to stay up all night. It was great until the pain of sleep deprivation hit you like a semi truck the next day. The nice part was that we could blissfully sleep through much of the next day to make up for it. In college, all-nighters were more of a necessity than a joy. When midterms or finals were piling up, it seemed there was no choice but to stay up all night cramming or writing papers. No blissful sleeping the next day there, though. We would have to sleepily slog through a three hour final AND try to be clever enough to answer the questions correctly! Maybe Lily is training for her first sleepovers or college cram sessions a bit early!

Now if I could just get her to take daytime naps longer than 20 minutes...

Mom and Lily

Mom and Lily

I started this blog for several reasons: I was inspired by my friend, Amanda, and her blog; my whole world has been upended by the arrival of my daughter and our subsequent move to Tennessee; and I can type a lot faster than I can write most days. It seems that blogs can be made up of little snippets of thought and make perfect sense. On the other hand, the pregnancy journal I was keeping for my daughter, Lily, seems to ramble and shift with every turn of the page. Now my biggest obstacle seems to be getting photos in the right place on the site and figuring out how to do that using the photo program already installed on my computer.

This next chapter of my life was a huge leap of faith. My husband and I moved to Tennesse seven weeks after our daughter was born. We used to live in Ventura, California, but moved to Tennessee so that we could provide a bit better for Lily. My parents and my siblings are all within 20 minutes of our new home, which was a big incentive for me as well.

My daughter was born in August (two weeks earlier than expected) and she changed my life in ways that I could've never imagined. I love being a mom. If only this was a job with a salary, my life would be cake. I love watching her sleep, listening to her babble in her three-month-old language, kick her arms and legs like a rock star, looking into her big blue eyes and wondering what she thinks when she looks back at me. Even the lack of sleep is not as painful as it could be-as long as I get that huge smile from her when I go to get her out of her crib in the morning.

But, speaking of lack of sleep, I have a feeling that many of my early blog entries will be written in the early hours of the morning or late in the evening when Lily is sleeping. We are currently working on learning how to nap during the daytime. It is almost more exhausting for me to teach her how to nap than staying up would be for her! I'm learning to let her cry for a bit before going to soothe her...I'm not very good at it yet, but I'm working on it!