Journey to and Through Motherhood: Lily: 1 Year and 24 Weeks (8/9/10

Lily said her first sentence very early on Monday morning. She woke up crying a little before 6am in her crib (yes, she actually lasted that long without coming into our bed despite waking a couple of times in the night). It was still dark out but Paul had the back porch light on. When I brought her to bed with me, she looked out the window and said “pond outside” in reference to the pond on the patio. Unfortunately, she was so excited about her discovery that she wouldn’t go back to sleep. She kept saying it over and over. That evening, we went grocery shopping then Lily and Paul played outside. Lily’s clothes got wet from playing in her car that had been out in the rain so when Paul brought her in, I took off her wet clothes and let her run around in her diaper. She absolutely loves to be naked but it brings out the wild jungle baby in her. She rambunctiously ran around the house, bounced on her mat, danced, and spun. All the while, she babbled constantly and laughed wildly. It was so funny. I got some videos of her talking which I have already posted. She crashed hard and fast after her bath.

After unhappily reviewing some pictures of myself on vacation, I started a big diet and exercise program on Wednesday. I am using caloriecount.about.com to track my caloric intake and exercise. Wish me luck!

My mom came over on Friday to clean our house for us. She had been doing this every other week after Lily was born but has not been able to come since November when she needed to help my grandma after her knee replacement then ended up breaking her foot shortly thereafter. It was great to have her help again. I greatly appreciated coming home to a clean house as well as the hours it saves me on the weekend. She stayed and visited with Paul and Lily when they got home from work and watched Lily for a bit while Paul worked in the yard. I didn’t see her because I had Mexicana night with Julie and Mary after work. We went over to Julie’s apartment to have fajitas and margaritas while Mary cut our hair. I had a lot of fun and love the new haircut that Mary gave me. She is definitely my new hairdresser from now on.

On Sunday, we went to dinner at El Charrito’s in Davison with my parents, grandma, Lee, and Robin to celebrate my dad’s birthday. Lily was restless and didn’t like all the attention she was getting at dinner (which is weird because she usually loves being the center of attention) so my mom, Robin, Paul, and I had to take turns going outside with her. There was a store down the street with cats in the window which she absolutely loved and insisted we keep taking her back to see. Needless to say, our meal was very interrupted. One of the problems was Lily’s continual fear of my Uncle Lee. He is the nicest person alive and she used to like him so I just don’t understand why she is so scared of him now. She cries every time she is near him and every time he talks to her. It breaks his heart. I hope she gets over it soon. After dinner, we went back to my parents’ house and were joined by Ashlee and Jeremy for pie and presents. Lily really liked playing outside and acted more like herself in the familiar environment of my parents’ house. She also got more and more relaxed as people left. After everyone was gone, she played outside for quite a while until the sun went down. With the exception of her odd behavior, it was a really nice day.

Lily’s sleep routine has undergone a lot of changes this week. I used to always have to sit in the rocking chair in her room as she fell asleep but this stopped helping her go to sleep so I just started putting her in bed, saying goodnight, then leaving the room. She used to cry when I tried this but now she just quietly goes to sleep on her own. I am very proud of her. She still gets up around 1am and 3am but we are now able to keep her in her crib. I go in when she cries at 1am and usually just have to give her binkie back to her and tell her to lie down and go to sleep. Paul goes in at her 3am waking and does the same. She used to stand up in bed when she woke in the night and would scream until we picked her up but now when she fusses in the night, she is usually still laying down or just sitting up looking groggy when we go in there and usually her problem is just that she can’t find her pacifier. When we give her back the pacifier and tell her to go back to sleep, she lays right back down, waves goodbye to us, and goes right back to sleep. It is an amazing change. Yay! It is nice to have the bed to ourselves and nice that I can share nighttime duty with Paul as I also weaned her from nighttime nursing this week. Yet another big change! I only nurse her right before I put her to bed then she usually comes into bed with us around 5 or 6am for a morning nursing. There has been the occasional set-back which is to be expected. For example, on Tuesday night she wouldn’t calm down from her 3am waking so I finally brought her into bed with me at 4am. I nursed her but then ended up having to take her back to her crib at 5am because she was thrashing all over so bad that none of us could sleep.

Lily’s speech has continued to grow by leaps and bounds this week. She mimics many words we say and catches on so quickly now. I receive a weekly ‘My Toddler This Week’ email from babycenter.com. This week it mentioned, “You're probably spending a lot of time trying to figure out what your toddler says, but does she understand everything you say? Speak in clear, simple sentences to make sure you're getting your point across.” Lily has definitely understood all that we say for a long time now. Even before she could communicate clearly to us, she was always better behaved when I explained things to her like why I was giving her medicine or what was going to happen that day. She is very observant of the world around her. It is just more noticeable now that she is better able to get her point across to us.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily absolutely loves to play on Grandma's pack-n-play mattress. Since we borrowed the pack-n-play from my parents to take up north with us last weekend, we had it sitting by the door for a few days until we saw my parents again. Every evening, Lily would drag the mattress out to the living room to play. Here she is watching Jack's Big Music Show in her diaper on Monday evening while cuddling with her monkey leash:

Lily making her 'funny face' while touring the yard looking at the flowers with daddy:

We took Lily to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor after work on Thursday as it is right down the street from her daycare. It was a really hot day. Note that in the pictures she starts out looking normal and by the end (a mere 15 minutes later), she looks like I threw a bucket of water on her. That girl can sweat! Here she is delighted in the discovery of a bench:

She loved this water fountain. A few seconds after I snapped this picture, she tried to crawl in for a swim:

My cutie hanging out on the bench:

Fabulous Flamingos! Where?:

Here they are:

Lily loved playing with the flamingos:

Hey, wait a minute! You look a lot like the bird on my shirt. I wonder if my mom dressed me in this on purpose:

Exploring different flamingo displays:

Race you to the children's garden:

Lily loved making music with the bells:

And couldn't pass up the opportunity to run across a bridge:

It's so hot out. Perhaps this water will cool me off:

Maybe mom and dad won't notice if I climb in for a little swim:

Lily loved the butterfly chairs:

Some real butterflies at the botanical garden:

Goofy girl putting cups on her feet on Saturday:

She then continued her silliness by insisting on eating her muffin with a fork:

Playing on a cool new toy at grandma's house on Sunday before papi's birthday dinner:

Lily played with toys while Lee, Robin, nana, and grandma watched papi open presents:

Ashlee, Lee, and Robin watching Lily:

Paul, Jeremy, and papi:

Lily with my grandma:

My dad blowing out the candles on his birthday pies:

Lily with papi and a refrigerator magnet:

This rolling toy belonged to my mom's friend's children who are my age. The toy was passed to another friend who then passed it to my mom. Lily loved running around with it while chanting, "go, go, go." She couldn't decide if she wanted to play with it or her golf club so she chose both: