Journey to and Through Motherhood: 1Y35W: Vacation Recovery and Pre-Halloween (10/25/10

Monday was our 7th anniversary but we didn’t do anything special since we just got home from vacation. We spent the morning unpacking and doing laundry. After Lily’s nap, she and I went to Davison to visit my grandma in the hospital. We had a quick visit at my parents’ house then we all drove over to the hospital together to visit my grandma. She is doing well recovering from her broken hip and partial hip replacement. The visits were short because my parents had to get to an evening meeting at church about their upcoming trip to Italy. That was fine because I needed to get back home so that Paul and I could at least go out to dinner together for our anniversary. We had a quick meal at Zukey Lake Tavern since it was getting close to Lily’s bedtime instead of the big fancy dinner at Ciao Amici’s that we usually have. Maybe next year!

On Tuesday we went back to work so Lily had to go back to daycare. It was a very rough transition for her after so many days with us. Tammy had to peel her off of me, screaming and crying. That is always so heartbreaking for me. The rough morning plus the weather change gave me quite a migraine so I needed a nap when we got home from work. She continued to have rough drop-offs all week but they did get progressively better each day. The tears continued but the screaming stopped at least. The funny thing was that she also cried when we picked her up from daycare because she was having so much fun that she didn’t want to leave. Apparently we just can’t win!

Lily learned the word “candy” on Wednesday when I was buying the Halloween candy and quickly discovered that she loves mini chocolate bars. It’s funny because before she was not into sweets at all but now she suddenly loves them just like mama!

Tammy had a doctor’s appointment on Thursday, we had busy days at work, Kirsten was unavailable, and my mom had to help my grandma transition home from the hospital (she will stay with her and help her until my parents leave for Italy). Thankfully, my dad volunteered to babysit Lily. She had a really fun day with her papi and kept him busy. Lily’s favorite activity for the day was to color at her little table so she spent most of the day making papi sit in the tiny chair next to her and color on the opposite page of her coloring book. Lots of comfortable fun for him! I went to my kickboxing class after work. Since I’d missed two weeks of it due to our vacation, I was very sore afterward.

Paul had Friday morning off to take Lily to her 18 month well-child visit. We had to move the appointment due to her arm injury so she is actually almost 20 months old now. She is doing well and is, again, ahead of the curve on her speech and motor skills. She is 33.43 inches tall which is in the 80th percentile. That is right along with where she has been in the past as she has always been a tall girl. However, her weight is now only 22.71 pounds which is in the 17th percentile. I was shocked! I know that she has been getting thinner as that is normal for an active toddler but she has really dropped in her percentile which I don’t think is normal. She has actually only gained 1.13 pounds in the almost 5 months since her last check-up. Her pediatrician said not to worry as she is healthy and is eating well and that actually it is good for toddlers to be tall and thin. Still, I don’t like her number, especially her tiny BMI of 14.3. Paul went hunting in the woods near our house after work. When I picked up Lily from daycare, she was playing really well with some Legos. Tammy said that she can put them together and pull them apart better than Jack who is a year older than her. She is so strong and coordinated. Lily and I met Mary for dinner in Ann Arbor. We had a great meal at Carson’s and had a lot of fun.

On Saturday, we decided to get Rachel’s old Legos out for Lily to play with. She loved them. I went for a run while Lily took her nap then we got ready to head out to some Halloween parties. On our way out of town, we stopped at Powers Flowers to pick out our Halloween pumpkins. We usually get them well in advance at Uncle John’s Cider Mill but with our vacation being right before Halloween, we missed our annual pilgrimage there and had to get our pumpkins locally at the last minute. Our first party was at our co-worker, Meghan’s house. We dressed Lily as a spider and she had fun playing with some other little kids at the party. We then stopped at home really quickly to change into our bee costumes and headed out to Kirsten’s party. Lily fell asleep in the car on the way back from Meghan’s party which is very rare for her. I felt bad having to wake her up when we got to Kirsten’s house to get her out of the car and pop her into her bee costume. But as soon as we got inside and she saw where we were, she instantly perked up. We had a really fun night.

Sunday was Halloween which will be a separate post.

Here are some pictures from this week (excluding Halloween).

Lily sitting in nana’s wheelchair and visiting with her on Monday:

Going for a spin in nana’s wheelchair:

Stuffing toys into the little Texas purse given to her by Mike and Jodi:

Lily getting into the position that we call ‘the baby bridge’ across the ottoman and couch. She suspends herself there for long periods of time to watch TV. It’s hilarious: