Lily's 42nd Week (12/14/09 – 12/20/09)

Monday was Paul’s 46th birthday! It was also the day we originally scheduled Lily’s nine month well child visit so he took the day off of work. The doctor appointment got moved but Paul decided to keep the day off anyway. Lily went to Kirsten’s as usual so Paul worked on cleaning the garage for most of the day and installed the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. He also had Rachel’s parent/teacher conference which was enlightening. Her teachers had nothing but good things to say about how sweet and nice she is. They also said that she is one of the smartest kids in her class. Unfortunately, her grades do not reflect this because she is very bad about remembering to turn in her homework. It is exasperating because she does the work but doesn’t get credit for it simply because she doesn’t hand it in! We do everything we can to remind her and teach her organization skills but she just tunes us out and says that we are nagging her. Everyone knows that pre-teens and teenagers know better than their parents!

Wednesday was our holiday party right after work so Rachel took the bus after school to Kirsten’s house and Kirsten watched her and Lily that evening. The party was fun, especially the Pictionary game, but I missed my baby something fierce. I picked up the girls around 7:30pm so I only got to spend an hour of quality time with Lily before her bedtime. Rachel had a lot of fun at Kirsten’s. She went down the street to Kirsten’s in-laws’ house with Keegan and Nate to decorate Christmas cookies then they had a dance party in Kirsten’s basement.

Lily was especially clingy on Thursday evening. She used to always have to be held but now that she is mobile and into her toys, she usually plays independently quite a lot and just checks back in with me every ten minutes or so to sit on my lap for a few minutes, get a quick hug, or simply show me something. On Thursday, she just wanted me to hold her and cried every time I tried to set her down or hand her over to Paul. We spent a lot of extra time apart this past week so I think that we were both going through withdrawal from each other. Last weekend she had Robin and Lee baby-sit her for a few hours on Saturday and was apart from me for most of Sunday while I went Christmas shopping. Then we were apart for a few extra hours on Wednesday night so it was not surprising that she wanted to make up for lost time on Thursday.

Although I have almost all of my Christmas shopping done, I was lamenting to my mom that I had absolutely nothing wrapped so she volunteered to come over on Friday evening and help me wrap everything. It was a very generous offer that I gladly took her up on. She wraps like a professional while I hate it and completely suck at it. We ordered pizza for dinner and my mom and I got everything wrapped while my dad and Paul watched Lily. The gate at the bottom of the stairs was her favorite play place for some reason and she kept shaking it and actually figured out how to open and close it. Uh oh! My parents were over until after midnight getting everything done. I felt bad keeping them out so late and was greatly appreciative as it would have taken me five times longer without their help.

We still hadn’t gotten Lily’s picture with Santa and we’d heard that the real Santa could be found at Bronners in Frankenmuth so we decided to head on up there on Saturday. Apparently a lot of people had the same idea as we later found out that Bronners had 15,000 visitors that day and my dad joked that 14,996 of them were in line in front of us for Santa! That certainly felt true. We went straight to Santa when we got there but instead of having you stand in line, you check in and are assigned to a group. That way you can wander the store until your group is called to line up to see Santa. We were told when we checked in that there were 2 groups in front of us with an approximate 30 minute wait time. That was a huge lie! In the end, there were 8 groups called before us and we waited 2.5 hours to see Santa!!! We would have never stayed if we knew what the wait time really was going to be (hence the lie on their part, I am sure) but we kept figuring that we had invested so much time into it, we had to see it through. I knew that Lily would cry as soon as we put her on Santa’s lap which was exactly what she did. Thankfully, you could take your own pictures there so I had Paul snap a picture of me holding Lily near Santa in which she was happy. Then we set her on his knee and, predictably, she instantly started crying. We got a quick photo of her crying on his lap then I picked her back up which stopped the crying and we got another picture of Santa waving goodbye to her. 150 minutes of waiting for a 1 minute encounter with Santa- not quite worth it but it was an experience we won’t soon forget!

After Bronners, we went to Zehnders for their delicious family-style chicken dinner. We didn’t have to wait in line to eat since it was already after 8pm by the time we got there but unfortunately, Lily was cranky as we were eating during her bedtime. I held her and tried to get her to sleep while eating which is a talent I have almost perfected. Paul’s dinner was free since we had his birthday club coupon. After dinner, we wanted to hit the Birch Run outlets because Paul hadn’t bought me any Christmas presents yet but they were closed by the time we got done with dinner so we headed home. Lily slept okay in the car but had a restless night. She kept waking up and seemed sniffly. I think her cold may be returning.

Since Rachel will be at her mom’s for Christmas, we pretended like Sunday morning was Christmas morning for her. We all rushed downstairs first thing in the morning so that she could open her presents. She seemed to like everything she got, especially the jewelry and crazy socks, but her favorite gift was the crayon maker. This was a reminder that, although she is almost a teen and certainly tries to act like one, Rachel is still a little kid inside.

After presents and Lily’s morning nap, we headed over to Christina’s house to have her take some Christmas pictures of Lily. Lily was Christina’s first test subject while she was launching her business (she took those adorable Halloween pictures for us). Her business, now named Two Angels Photography, seems to be taking off and she has turned part of her basement into a studio. Unfortunately, Lily was less than cooperative for her yet again. She just wanted to be held by me and cried every time Christina touched her or I posed her and stepped away. Her nose started running so I definitely think that she is getting sick again. I hope that she isn’t sick for Christmas! Despite the challenges, Christina thinks that she got some good shots of her. I loved the red diaper that she had her pose in with a bunch of Christmas ornaments and look forward to seeing how everything turned out. Since it is so close to Christmas, Christina is going to hurry and try to get the proofs done and the CD of the images to me by Wednesday so that I can make prints for Christmas presents. I greatly appreciate the rush, especially at such a busy time of year.

After our photo session, we finally went shopping for Christmas presents for me. I admitted to Paul that the only thing I really want for Christmas this year is completely outside of our $50 spending limit for each other- an SLR camera. I love our point and shoot digital camera but now that Lily is so mobile, the small delay between when you push the button and it takes the picture means that I miss most of the pictures that I want to take of her because she is always in motion. Since this is a gift for the entire family and one that we have wanted for a long time, Paul said, “what the heck,” so we went to Costco to find the camera that I wanted. We found the Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i with a 10-55 lens and a 55-250 lens on sale for $200 off but unfortunately, they were all out and couldn’t give us a raincheck for the price as part of the discount was a manufacturer’s rebate. I went home disappointed but then looked online and found it $50 cheaper at Costco.com with free shipping so we ordered it. It is supposed to arrive by Christmas Eve. I am so excited! Rachel and I spent the rest of the evening making Chocolate Scotcheroos for her school party on Tuesday. We got the recipe from a cookbook that came inside a box of Cocoa Krispies. I tasted them and they were really good!

Here are some pictures from this week:

We keep the magnetic key for the end table drawer locks on the plant gate but Lily is so strong that she can pull it off and finds it to be quite a delightful game doing so:

Shaking the gate like a crazy caged animal:

Sassy girl:

Clapping her hands. I love this vest:

Lily is no longer interested in jarred baby food and just wants to eat what we are eating. Moreover, she always wants to feed herself. Here she is with shredded chicken and chopped up green beans for dinner on Tuesday:

Lily cuddling with mommy and Rachel on Thursday and trying to steal Rachel’s glasses. Look at how similar the girls’ hair color is now:

Paul surprised me on Saturday morning with my name spelled out in pancakes:

Rachel catching some zzz’s on the way to Bronners:

Rachel, Lily, and I pose by a giant gingerbread house while killing time at Bronners:

Lily, Paul, and Rachel by the house:

Lily was fascinated by the elves while we were in line to finally see Santa:

Lily, Santa, and I:

Crying on Santa’s lap:

Bye, bye Santa, maybe I won’t cry next year:

Rachel’s car graffiti:

Lily loved the cottage cheese at Zehnders:

Lily falling asleep on me during dinner (taken by Rachel):

Rachel’s self-portrait of her and Paul during dinner:

Rachel opening gifts on Sunday morning (her pretend Christmas morning):

Lily helped with the wrapping paper:

Holiday earrings:

Rachel with a gift that turned out to be the crayon maker:

Rachel opened her stocking stuffers while Lily played:

Lily loves to push her play table all over the room like a walker. She pushed it over to the tree on Sunday evening then showed us her favorite ornament, Winnie the Pooh: