Journey to and Through Motherhood: Lily: 1 Year and 31 Weeks (9/27/10

I worked in Brighton on Monday through Wednesday of this week which meant that I was able to take advantage of the gym in the building after work. On Tuesday, I started the Couch to 5K (C25K) program through the app on my iPod Touch. It is a really nice app and I hope that it helps me get my out of shape butt back into running form. I would love to be able to run 10Ks again. Paul was in charge of keeping Lily entertained while I was exercising. On Monday, he took her to Toot’s place to see all of his tractors since she loved them so much at the apple orchard this past weekend. She charmed all of the men there with her love of tractors. She was also very excited to see Toot’s dogs and his pond. On Tuesday, Paul and Lily hung out at the house where he taught her the word “crap” when he dropped something on the floor. She had a lot of fun repeating, “Oh crap, oh crap.” It could have been a lot worse considering our forgetfulness in regulating our language around her but nonetheless, his father of the year award is in the mail! On Wednesday, Paul took Lily to the Botanical Gardens where she fell in love with the stuffed turtles in the gift shop. Apparently she had a blast scooping them all up in her arms and carrying them to the door. She got very upset, though, when Paul informed her that she could not leave with them and made her put them back. It was a gorgeous evening so after my workout, we met at the Brighton Recreation Area Riding Stables so that Lily could see the horses again.

I had kickboxing class after work on Thursday so Paul took Lily to Gallup Park while they waited for me. Lily delighted in riding super high on the swings with another little boy. They seemed to have a contest to see who could scream the loudest, much to Paul’s dismay.

On Friday, Lily turned 19 months old. Paul left that morning to head up north deer hunting for the weekend. Lily and I had a girls’ night out shopping at IKEA after work. I got her a few Christmas presents but what she loved the most in the store were the child-sized table and chair sets. We have Rachel’s old Winnie the Pooh table and chairs in the basement so I made a mental note to bring them up for Lily. We had dinner in the store because I love their Swedish meatballs but I hardly got to eat any because Lily absolutely loved them too. She ate almost every single one off of my plate and insisted on stabbing them by herself with the fork. She made quite a mess but was very pleased with herself. Upon leaving IKEA, we stopped at Kohl’s but it was getting late and Lily was sick of shopping so she started to protest when I put her in the shopping cart in the parking lot. Her protests turned to squeals of delight, though, when I raced the cart through the parking lot up to the store, running as fast as I could. That improved her mood enough to get through that quick stop. She was still hungry so I got her a cheeseburger Happy Meal before heading home. She ate almost the entire meal then passed right out in the car. She didn’t wake up when I took her out of the car and carried her up to the house. As I was unlocking the door, I could hear a faint train whistle in the distance. Lily lifted her head, sleepily said “twain”, and then fell right back to sleep. It was so cute.

Lily slept in until 8:30am on Saturday which was a blessing. We had a delightful time playing together. I brought Rachel’s old table and chairs upstairs for Lily and set them in a nook between the kitchen and dining room. Lily was so excited by them and spent a long time playing with them. After her late morning nap, we headed out to spend the night at my parents’ house. I didn’t tell her where we were going because I didn’t want to hear the “gwamma, gwamma” chant the entire ride there again but when we pulled down their street and she realized where we were, she let out a squeal of delight. She had a fun time playing all afternoon. After dinner, we headed to the mall where my mom and I did some shopping while my dad and Lily played in the children’s area. Lily loved all of the tunnels and appreciated being able to climb on everything. There was a little slide that she could climb up to and go down all by herself which she loved. She is very observant so she quickly noticed that all of the other kids there had their shoes off and so she wanted hers off as well. Lily completely wore herself out running around. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and stayed asleep until 7:30am. At that time, I told her to lie back down because I wanted to snooze a little longer and she, amazingly, went right back to sleep until 9:30am. That is her latest wake up time for me ever!

Lily had fun playing with grandma and papi on Sunday morning. Her favorite toy of theirs is an Elmo phone that has eyes that open when you flip open the phone. She kept closing it and saying “afweep” (asleep) then popping it open and happily declaring “he’s up!” It was so funny. After Lily’s nap (just one again), we headed out to Crossroads Village. That will be a separate blog entry because it involves so many pictures.

Lily remains weaned and no longer asks to nurse either at bedtime or during the night. We had a few rough nights of crying this week, though. On Tuesday, Lily cried a lot but I refused to cave in and comfort her back to sleep via nursing as Paul kept suggesting. We had done so well in our weaning efforts that I didn’t want to backtrack. It took a while, but she actually settled herself down for the first time ever. Finally! She cried a lot in the night again on Wednesday and couldn’t settle herself back down so I finally took her out of the crib and we rocked together in the rocking chair for a few minutes while she calmed down then she went back to sleep for the rest of the night without incident.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily is really into trains so I got out my old Fisher Price train set. She loved to put her Wheel Pals in it and pull it around the house with Nolan following:

Lily eating a pickle at IHOP on Tuesday. You know that I love her dearly because I let her eat them even though just the smell of them makes me sick to my stomach: