Lily speaks for herself

Busy Lily

Lily got a new activity mat. (Thank you Gogo!) She LOVES it. I knew it was going to be fun for her when I caught her staring excitedly at the unopened box while I was folding laundry. :)

Daily Lily

First Laugh

Lily laughed for the first time last night. It was right after Benjamin got home from work. While she was laying on the floor cooing at him, she let out an awesome little chuckle. It was really sweet and funny-- and great that we both got to hear it. Benjamin was so happy that he said his cheeks hurt from smiling. :)

Little Big Girl

My dad was over for a little while on Saturday morning and he said that Lily seems to want to do so much more than her body will let her do. It's so true. She is by no means a low-maintenance baby. Yesterday was a terrible day because she would not nap. She was alternately fussy and playful, but requiring constant attention-- and I was and am exhausted! I told Benjamin that she seems bored, so this morning I tried to give her a toy. I put it in her right hand, she grabbed it with her left, and played with it for a while. :)

Thumb Sucker

Monday Morning With Meg

Nana said I should post a picture of Lily in her cute socks, so here you go. :)

This morning we went to Lisa's for a few hours to watch Meg while Lisa went to an appointment with Maya. Meg was, as always, thrilled to spend time with Lily.
And Lily was smiling and cooing at Meg like crazy-- only Lily's drooling kept grossing Meg out. Meg kept trying to tell on Lily for spitting on her. :)

We got some Goodmama diapers in the mail today. They are SO soft and adorable!!! Still pretty bulky on the girly's bum, though.
Lily generally hates tummy time. It usually involves a lot of fussing, but I at least managed to catch one smile this afternoon. So cute!

Just the Two of Us

This morning Benjamin left for his trip to Nashville. He's only going to be gone for one night, but it was still kind of sad. :( It's going to be his first night away from Lily, and definitely the longest he's been away from us since she was born. But at least he'll get his first full night's sleep in nearly 3 months. Lucky him! So until tomorrow night we're just gonna be hangin' out, drooling.

Happy Birthday, Zinnia!

Today we went to a birthday party for Zinnia, who just turned the big 5! Lily dressed up in her girliest pink dress and wore the little mary jane socks Aunt Zoe got her for Christmas.



I wore the festive clogs I bought at Filene's years ago. When Gram showed up she was wearing the same shoes! I guess that means they're good party shoes. (And of course I have drool on my shoulder in the photo. That's just how I roll lately.)


And Benjamin played a serious game of pick-up stix with the girls. What a guy! :)

This Little Piggy Went To Market

Today we went to market to have lunch with Aunt Anna and Uncle Josh, who are leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow morning. Aunt Anna brought along her awesome sidekick, Meg, whose hair was looking pretty static-y and awful.
Anna is beautiful and always has perfect hair and really does her best to help poor Meg. :)
Anna only managed to get one pigtail in Meg's hair before Meg started wretching her head around saying "Not funny!"
And eventually she got the other pigtail too. :)

Before we left market I picked up some lemon pound cake for Benjamin. Meg kept hovering around my legs kissing Lily's feet. Lily slept through the whole event. Yay, Moby wrap!

I love this baby.

Sorry for the bad lighting in this picture, I just had to use it anyway because it's just so Lily. :)

Anyway, the photo really brings up the following issues:
1. I'm really sick of this quilt. I should either dig out an old one and start using it again or else find a new one.
2. This is a very large, adorable, and sweet baby.
3. Clearly I have no clue when it comes to using prefolds. I'll have to get some folding tips from my mom or Dayna when I see them this weekend.
4. Immediately after this picture was taken, Lily peed and it soaked through the diaper and onto the bed. Everything is soaked. (What's another 2 loads of laundry?)

Also- note the bandaids on each thigh. I didn't have the heart to take them off last night. I guess I'll go do that now (it's bathtime).

We're Back

We survived the appointment.

Lily is 12 lbs 13 oz and 24 inches long. Both are 75th percentile. I have doubts about that length though, because she definitely wasn't totally unfurled when they measured her. But yeah, doing fine. The doctor told me I should use some kind of medicated shampoo for her cradle cap, but I also have doubts about that. It is not an especially bad case of it, so I don't know if intervention's really necessary. But I might try some olive oil on it. I've read that that can help.

Anyway, the shots were awful as expected. She was a trooper at first, with just the usual scream and squawk. But the 3rd shot (which was a doozy- I think it was the DTaP) was AWFUL. She turned bright red and screamed like I've never heard her scream. It was horrible. As soon as I held her she calmed down and was very snuggly but sad and I just stood there trying not to let the doctor notice that I had tears in my eyes. :(

But yeah, we survived. This is what we're doing now:

Today is the 22nd

I'm taking Lily for her two-month appointment (finally) this afternoon. She's going to be getting three shots. I know I'll get over it and everything will be fine, but I am really dreading it right now.

Happy Inauguration Day

I have not accomplished anything yet today. I started sewing a diaper pail liner this morning but made some mistakes and will have to fix those later, I guess. We picked Zoe up from her orthodontist appointment around 10:30, then came back to the house to watch the inauguration. I missed most of the oath because I was changing someone's diaper (not Zoe) and I missed a lot of the speech because someone was really fussy (also not Zoe).

Anna came over around 3 to pick Zoe up and brought the mail in and I had gotten the Moby wrap I ordered. Yay! It's even better than the BabyBjorn. I'm pretty sure Benjamin will still use the Bjorn constantly, but the Moby wrap seems to work better for me. Peanut seems pretty content in it, too:

Correction (see below)

It was definitely more than half an hour. And it was heartbreaking.

Mommy, don't go!

When I got home tonight, Lanie made dinner and Lily chewed on my knuckles with joyful enthusiasm, but then freaked out for half an hour while I tried to feed and soothe her. Our plan was for Lanie to start taking classes again (starting Wednesday) but after tonight it seems better to wait.

Good Morning!

Yay! Lily slept through the night last night! I put her down around 9 pm and she slept until 4:30! It was great. Whenever Lily wakes from a good sleep she stretches and grunts for a while. The funny thing about the stretching is that she usually starts by balling herself up like this:
And eventually she unfurls herself like this:

Lily Bear

Yesterday we went to Oxford to visit Nana, who we hadn't seen in a few weeks. Lisa had a migraine so Nana was taking care of Maya and Meg. Meg was thrilled to have Baby Lily around, and Maya got to spend some time playing with Uncle Ben.

Lily loves her carseat. The only real progress we've made in the not-napping-on-mommy front has been having some naps in the carseat. When she goes down for her morning nap I'll put her in her carseat just in case I decide to run errands. Even if I don't go anywhere, she seems to sleep longer if she's snuggled up in the carseat. We took a picture of her in it today because Benj loved how she looked in the fuzzy bear hoody from Aunt Nancy and Uncle George.

Ian's here now and he and Benjamin are playing Wii. Great fun!

Purple Peanut

Also

Lily looks adorable in this new outfit we got her last weekend. Unfortunately it's very hard to take a good photo and post it when she's sleeping on me like this. Maybe we'll update with better pics later.

Disappointing Blueberries

We're just stopping by to say that our Blueberry diapers finally arrived, and we're very disappointed that the pink one has a defective snap. :( But the fuzzy purple diaper will be great fun! (And yes, Lily's wearing a boy sleeper. Daddy picked it out.)

Scrubby Snow Day

UPS says I'm not getting the Blueberry diapers I was expecting today because of "inclement weather". We got a dusting of snow overnight, but maybe it was worse in other parts of PA. It's fine though, since I'm still working on the best wash routine for the BumGenius diapers I already have. It's really a detergent issue- most detergents leave residue on the diapers that cause problems with wicking and absorbancy, etc. There are lots of websites with recommendations for cloth diaper laundering but it seems that there's not really any right way to do it. Everyone kind of develops their own complicated system and there's no perfect detergent to use (especially not one that would be conveniently available here). Anyway, I think I've settled on Purex Free and Clear for now. We'll see how that goes...

Earlier I was wondering when Lily will start to notice the cats. She usually spots me as soon as I walk into a room. If she's laying on the floor or on the bed she'll wiggle around and crane her neck so she can watch me as I fuss about the room doing stuff. But I'm her favorite thing in the world. (Well, next to her hands... she really loves those.) Anyway, she's very alert and aware and interactive, but hasn't really ever looked at the cats. But they mostly avoid her, too. Jelly, however, thinks that Lily's bedroom is hers. We've tried to prevent it, but I think it's a lost cause.

And here's what Lily was doing just before I sat down to post this:

If it weren't for the BabyBjorn I'd never get anything done around the house. And it's even better when she falls asleep in it (note the fist to the mouth).

Your Daily Lily

In case your day is not complete without a Lily pic:
:)

Quick Cloth Update

We had no leaks. Baby was happy, I was happy, Benjamin thinks it's all good fun. Now I've just got to figure out the best way to wash them with our machine.

The other night Benjamin ordered me two Blueberry diapers to try. (The Rolls Royce of cloth diapers! Yay!) Does my enthusiasm for all of this mean that motherhood has fried my brain and I need to get out more? :)

I got a comment on yesterday's post from Aly, whose blog I have stalked for at least a year. Her "needing a bigger refrigerator" post from yesterday is really one of the greatest things I've ever read.

Fluffy Lily!

Say hello to my new hobby. :) It is AMAZING how many awesome cloth diapering things you can find on the internet. BumGenius seems to be the most popular, so I thought I'd give them a try. I ordered two and just got them in the mail this morning.

I got the one-size pocket diaper, which has snaps that adjust the rise of the diaper as the baby grows. It's a pretty impressive design. The diaper has a waterproof material on one side and a fleece lining inside. It comes with a thick microfiber insert and then a "doubler" to use at night, etc.

As you can see it looks pretty enormous on Peanut at this point, but it actually seems like it might be more comfortable than the Pampers she's been wearing (the fabrics are all so soft!)

Super padded baby butt! :)

And I had to wear size 6 months clothes on her because the diaper makes her body so huge!

Anyway, we're about to go over to Lisa's for a bit. I'll have to post later with an update on whether we had any leaks or problems.

Cute Overload

Lily loves bathtime. :)

She seems to like my ring.

A little while ago she fell asleep holding on to her hat. So cute! :)

New Drapes and Bad Habits

I've been slow in updating because I've found it's pretty difficult to catch all the best-of-Lily moments on camera. By the time I think "we should take a picture" either something comes up (sudden crying) or we just miss the moment.

Like last night when Benj gave Lily this toy to play with (thanks Uncle Lark and Aunt Dayna!) and I walked in to find her holding on to it and chomping on the green leaf. By the time we got the camera the scene was much less impressive.

Saturday we made the trip to Lancaster to get some size 6 months clothes at the Carter's outlet for Lily the Beanstalk. We stopped at the Pottery Barn Outlet while we were there and I FINALLY (16 months after moving in) found some drapes for the dining room.

They're kind of 50's mod, and the pic doesn't really show the contrast well, but I know Lily enjoyed staring at them for a bit last night. :)

So they say that until a baby's 3 months old it's impossible to spoil them, but I'm starting to worry anyway (and it doesn't help that developmentally she seems 3 months old). Current bad habit of concern: Lily only sleeps during the day if I'm holding her. In fact, this whole post has been done with one hand. She always sleeps in her cradle at night, but if I put her down during the day she immediately wakes. Yikes! There are occasional exceptions, always involving the carseat and going for a drive, but even that is rare. So we're definitely going to be working on this.

Another goal: get Lily to take a bottle again. She used to (age 5-7 weeks) take an occasional bottle with minimal fussing. Now she screams bloody murder. I'm extremely worried about this both for my sanity and because I'm going to be taking two evening classes this semester (yay for getting out of the house and having a routine!) but I'm not going to be able to if she's going to be starving and screaming the whole time I'm gone. :( If we don't make any progress this week I think I'll make an appointment with the lactation consultant at the hospital to see if she can help.

Two Months Old

Lily Anna is two months old today. She has been sleeping (mostly) much better at night. Last night she slept from 9 pm to almost 3 am without waking. It was great! She's gotten pretty chubby and is really filling out her size 3 months clothes.

Her 2 month doctor visit isn't scheduled until the 22nd- so I won't have any official measurements until then- but she is LONG! Her feet reach the end of the (adorable and cozy) size 0-9 months sleep sack that Grandma Vollmer sent.

And this is just so Lily. :) We were getting ready to go to Borders for some delicious mochas with Aunt Anna so Lily was wearing a cute bib to catch the drool and her glamorous pink boots to keep her feet warm (we had a dreary, icy day yesterday). She loves the baby papasan chair that Aunt Lisa and Cousin Meg gave us.

And Daddy loves his little deer-in-the-headlights. :)