Lots of Progress, No Good Pictures

Yesterday I officially made the decision to stay home with the baby rather than return to work later this month. I don't really like the "stay at home mom" term because the idea of staying at home with the baby all the time sounds like a recipe for a disastrous depression for me, so I guess I'd prefer to say I decided to become a "haul the kid all over town mom". Haul is the appropriate word, too, because she's weighing in at 12.8 lbs now. Her arms and legs are super chunky but I really do think that her cheeks make up a significant portion of her weight.

And one final update on my being supermom: I ordered some cloth diapering stuff from Amazon last night so we're gonna give that a try for a while. It could get ugly... :) I'm actually not as concerned with the mess and the additional laundering as I am with the prospect of her having a really bulky butt and not looking as cute in her clothes. So even though I don't have any cute pictures to post today, do expect some interesting cloth-diapered-butt photos sometime next week.

Yes, She Looks Like Benjamin

I guess when little girls wake up at 4 am every morning they have lots of extra time to learn tricks like this: Lily found her thumb!

She's been a bit sick for the last few days, with a low-grade fever hovering around 100. :(

I am exhausted.

One More Christmas Party

Yesterday afternoon we dressed Lily in her ridiculous Santa outfit and drove to Oxford for the big family Christmas celebration at Nana's house. We arrived around 4:30 and Benjamin spent some time playing Go with Ian while I tried to settle a fussy baby.

Eventually I got her to spend some time relaxing on her Boppy on the floor while staring at the ceiling fan and her fists. Yay!

After a few minutes cousin Meg decided to join in, which was cute for a while but soon ended the relaxation.

Uncle Lark finally got to spend some quality time with Lily and it turns out he may just be her favorite person yet. My mom said we may have just found our babysitter...

because seventeen people opening gifts is crazy and loud, but Peanut slept through it all. :)

The evening ended with a debate over whether we should spend the night because the fog was so thick it wasn't really safe to travel. We decided we'd be better off driving home at 15 mph than trying to spend the night there with the baby. There were some awfully scary stretches of road where we could only see about two car lengths ahead of us, but we made it home safely.

Baby's First Crazy Christmas

We woke up (were woken) around 6 on Christmas morning and as soon as coffee was made we decided to open presents.

After opening gifts Peanut got hungry, then passed out immediately after eating. That was basically how our Christmas went: hurry up and do something festive, eat, pass out!

Benjamin only managed to get a picture of Lily in one of her outfits, despite several costume changes. Here she looks like she's devastated that she didn't get Guitar Hero for Christmas. :)

Rainy Christmas Eve

Someone with funny eyebrows took a long nap in her crib this morning. :)

A new blog!

This is what Lily is doing now. She LOVES her Boppy! Look at that smile...


Last night we took a bath in the big tub. She doesn't look like it in this picture, but she loved the floating and kicking around. Notice how she holds her feet out of the water? She does that. :)

This is one of the very few times she's been in her swing without screaming, so I thought I'd include it. She likes the vibrating feature, but not so much the swinging.

Here is Daddy's first bottle feeding. I think right after I took this she started crying. :)

Lisa gave us a "Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD and it's been a huge help with her sleeping more and fussing less. Benjamin especially loves the swaddling technique he learned. Here she is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying on an ottoman.

And sleeping peacefully on Daddy.

I just like this one. :) It does show how big she's getting...

and this one really shows how big she is.

Here is proof that dinner still either happens in shifts or Mommy tries to multitask. Oh, and Benj and I both finally got haircuts. :)