Lily: 1 Year and 1 Week (3/1/10 – 3/7/10)

Monday was Lily’s 1st birthday! My little girl is growing up way too fast. I took the day off from work to spend with her. I plan to make this a tradition. It was supposed to be a day of hanging out together and having fun but we visited two potential daycares as well. I know that makes it sound like visiting daycares is some sort of torture but I just find it stressful and sad. I got a good feeling about the first one I visited but nothing will measure up to Kirsten.

The rest of the week was spent busily getting the house cleaned and all of the supplies purchased and plans in place for Lily’s birthday party on Saturday. Kirsten couldn’t watch Lily on Thursday or Friday because she had a bunch of doctor appointments scheduled for her kids. It’s hard to have my mom come down to watch Lily right now as she cannot drive due to her broken foot so we asked Auriel to watch Lily for us. She is always so nice and accommodating as back-up care. We really appreciate her. Unfortunately, we got a call on Thursday morning that she was throwing up and was in no shape to baby-sit so Paul ended up calling in to work and staying home with Lily. While she was home with him, Lily got a big cut on her forehead. Paul couldn’t figure out how she got it as she hadn’t cried about it, he just noticed at one point that it was there. Later that evening we saw her hit her head in a similar spot on our dining room table so that’s probably how it happened. We have a round table but she must have clipped the bottom edge of it just right. I am bummed because now she will have a mark on her head for her party pictures. Her nose and forehead just healed, darn it.

I signed up for U of M’s Kid Kare at Home program which is an emergency back-up childcare program where someone from the company comes out to your house to baby-sit. I have never used it before as it is kind of expensive and I didn’t know how Lily would do with a stranger but we were desperate for care on Friday. Neither Paul nor I could miss work and Auriel was still recovering so I used the service. We had the sitter come over about 20 minutes before we had to leave for work so that we could give her instructions, show her around, and let Lily get acclimated to her. Lily was nervous at first but by the time we left for work, she was sitting on the floor playing with the sitter. I was nervous as well having a stranger in our house taking care of my precious little girl but it all turned out just fine.

Saturday was Lily’s birthday party which will be a separate blog entry. All of the festivities left my carefully cleaned house completely trashed but we were too exhausted on Sunday to clean it up. Lily spent the day having fun playing with all of her new toys amongst the rubble. She only had one nap again (Lily missed her afternoon nap on Saturday due to the party) but got up and went to bed at her normal times. She didn’t fight the nap, she just didn’t seem like she needed it so we never put her down for it. I wonder if perhaps she is already growing out of needing two naps a day.

Lily’s first bottom right molar has finally broken through and the left one is seemingly all the way in. She is still shaking her head “no” a lot and seems to already be displaying some signs of the terrible twos. I certainly hope that she isn’t entering them already, she just turned one! She seems to have little temper tantrums when she can’t have something she wants or we don’t understand what she is trying to tell us. I know that a lot of the terrible twos behavior comes from not being able to fully communicate. Lily is definitely very interactive and communicative even though she doesn’t know a lot of words, and she certainly already has a mind of her own. However, for the most part, she is a sweet and lovable little girl who loves to cuddle with her mommy. I am sure that her behavior is completely normal; it is just that she is usually so easy-going that any crying or frustrated behavior on her part stands out to us.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily loves to visit with the cats while they eat. Unfortunately, she frequently tries to sample their meal:

I’m one today:

Looking for a yummy snack in the fridge on Thursday:

Lily playing with the Easter eggs that Paul brought home from his team building game at our work meeting on Friday:

Lily playing with her favorite toy on Friday evening:

Then she started playing with her second favorite toy, the gumball machine:

She is so strong that carrying her awkward and heavy toys around are no problem:

Pushing the button:

Out come the gumballs:

Our sandhill cranes returned this weekend. Here they are eating birdseed in our yard on Sunday morning:

Lily trying to eat her foot after lunch. Don’t worry, she’s strapped in:

Laying down watching TV on mommy: