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!