2Y4W: Hot Doctor (3/21/11 - 3/27/11)

All last weekend Lily kept talking about wanting to see the “hot doctor” and both Paul and I were mystified. We thought she was quoting some boy-crazy person she had been around but didn’t know who. On Monday when she and Paul came to pick me up from work and parked by the Survival Flight helicopter pad as usual, Lily excitedly pointed and declared, “hot doctor!” We had to laugh that apparently hot doctor = helicopter.

Much to our dismay, Lily came down with croup on Thursday night. It was to be expected, though, as she always tends to get either an ear infection or croup a week after she has recovered from a cold. It sucks to always have her follow up an illness with an even worse one. I took her to the doctor on Friday to get the diagnosis confirmed. The cold air exposure getting her in and out of the car did her some good and she finally felt well enough to want “burger fries” on the way home. I stopped and got her a McDonald’s Happy Meal but her exhaustion from crying through most of the night instead of sleeping won out over her hunger and she ended up falling asleep with a fry hanging out of her mouth on the way home. It was the most adorable thing. I had to pull over and take pictures then wake her up a bit so she could finish chewing the fry before falling right back to sleep.

On Friday night, I had already planned to go to my friend Amy’s special ‘Friday Night Fiesta’ Zumba class in Mason then spend the night at her house. I felt bad leaving Paul with a sick baby but they both did okay without me. I had a lot of fun at the class and the best part was being able to catch up with my former roommate from college, Lisa, who I haven’t seen since 2001. We went out for drinks after the class and had a lot of fun. It was just like no time had passed. I spent the night at Amy’s as planned and thought I would sleep well being baby-free for the first time in forever but I kept waking up out of habit and perhaps out of guilt for leaving Lily when she was sick. I went home early in the afternoon on Saturday and we spent the rest of the weekend hanging around the house while Lily recovered. Thankfully, she was almost back to normal on Sunday. Those steroids work wonders!

My weekly email from babycenter.com was mostly about speech and language development this week. It said, “Your child may be using the most basic words, or he may be stringing together sentences already. First sentences tend to be brief, but they get the point across and are exciting to hear. Help your child internalize sentence structure by repeating his words in full sentences.” Lily has been talking in full sentences for quite some time now. All of her sentences have subjects, verbs, and objects used correctly in the right order. I am frequently impressed at her proper use of verb tense and definite and indefinite articles. She does always say, “I pick you up” instead of “Pick me up” but that is too cute to correct. Other than that, she has a really good grasp of the English language. But while she is ahead on the language front, she is behind on the next subject in the email- sleeping. Sleep has ALWAYS been an issue for Lily. One interesting thing they said was that “fighting sleep is a way to take control, but it’s also a way to stave off fears that come with the night.” Fear is definitely one of Lily’s major problems. Not only does she fight sleep because she wants to keep playing but her meltdowns and desire to sleep in our bed seem to be truly fear-driven lately as she tends to talk about all of the things she is afraid of while we are trying to put her to bed. I reassure her the best I can but wish I could do more and REALLY wish I could get her to go to sleep on her own in her own bed like I could four months ago. They went on to discuss transitioning from the crib to a big kid bed but I can’t even get Lily to sleep in her crib. She is definitely not ready for a big bed since part of getting her down is the necessity of having her caged in! We’ve had a toddler bed waiting for her in our garage that was kindly given to us last summer by Kirsten’s neighbor. Who knows when she will be ready to use it? At this rate, not anytime soon.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Forming "words" in the tub while her beloved cocodrilo looks on:

Exhausted croupy baby passed out in the car with a french fry hanging out of her mouth:

It makes me so sad to see her this sick but I thought it was cute that Lily and Amber were sharing a pillow to watch TV:

Lily playing on a tote while watching UmiZoomi on Sunday. You know she feels better when the living room becomes a disaster zone of toys:

Lily is Full of Love and Funny Faces (3/21/11)

Ever since Lily started saying that she loves me, she has been full of love for everyone in her life. I got three different recordings of her declaring her love today but the first is my favorite. Clearly, her papi holds a very special place in her heart.

In this video, Lily loves me! Then she wanted to give me a hug and have me pick her up.

I like how at the end of this video, she uses her manners and her Spanish skills to answer "de nada" after I said "gracias".

One of Lily's favorite things to do is make faces together. Her favorites are the surprised and mad faces. She has certainly perfected her scowl and she wouldn't do her happy face for me. Child stars are just so hard to direct!

Winter Around the Yard (3/19/11)

On this, the last day of winter, I am posting pictures taken around our yard during the winter season. Now if someone could please just inform the weather that spring is supposed to arrive tomorrow so they should cancel all of the snow in the forecast, that would be great.

A cardinal roughing out the snow on our mountain ash tree:

A woodpecker braving the snow as well:

Another cardinal in the snow:

A beautiful sunset in the woods:

A bird in the morning light:

A cool vertical rainbow in the yard:

A bunch of ducks discovered the birdseed in our yard:

Another cool sunset as viewed from Rachel's window:

Apparently the ducks spread word of our birdseed to their other duck friends as well as some geese because we suddenly had quite the crowd at our birdseed pile:

Various tracks in the snow on our driveway and patio:

Another woodpecker:

A squirrel enjoying birdseed on our patio and tormenting our cats:

Looking for food in the dead tree:

An unusually pink house finch:

Standing next to one of its own species:

A sunflower seed hull got stuck on its beak:

An opossum (a.k.a. puma) on our patio:

A duck wandering the backyard:

Our sandhill cranes returned on 3/12/11:

An oddly leucistic red-winged blackbird:

A very cute red squirrel:

2Y3W: Pee-Pee in the Potty! (3/14/11 - 3/20/11)

Spring is almost upon us. Finally! We have a lot less snow around the yard and it got warm enough (and light enough) that Lily could actually play outside for a little bit when we got home from work. She was very pleased because she loves to be outside.

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day and my farewell luncheon at the PFT lab. Since I left for my new job so quickly, it took a while to get it organized and find a date to have it on. Plus, the holiday seemed like a good time to celebrate. It was a 'Mexican Irish Fiesta' as a nod to the fact that I am an Irish Mexican. There was a lot of yummy food. I was very grateful to Lois and Mary for organizing the party for me.

Friday was a landmark day as Lily went pee-pee in the potty for the first time! I put her on the potty when we got up in the morning and she actually sat still for once. It didn't take her very long to go so I think I timed it perfectly. She was so proud of herself! I took pictures (which I won't post, ick) and we called Daddy and Grandma right away to share the good news.

On Saturday, we went to Tractor Supply Company to see the Easter chicks. Lily loved them so much last year that we had to go back multiple times and this year she was equally excited. We spent almost an hour looking at and petting the chicks. Good thing she didn't know they were for sale or she certainly would have been begging us to take some home.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily and daddy walking around the yard after work on Monday:

Lily loved the crunching sound her shoes made on the snow and the footprints she left behind:

Lily really wanted to try out her tricycle but her legs are just a little too short:

So, instead, she ran around the yard gathering sticks:

And drew in the snow with them:

A magic wand?:

She desperately wanted to jump off the big rock, with or without help. It's hard to tell in the pictures but the rock is almost taller than she is:

It was so much warmer on Wednesday that Lily got to run around outside without a coat and hat. She was thrilled! She had fun chasing Canada geese around the yard:

Lily loves this giant giraffe at Border's:

I didn't get any good pictures of Lily in her St. Patrick's Day shirt on Thursday so I had her pose in the outfit again after her bath on Friday morning:

I asked Lily to take out her binkie and show me her shirt so she stuck out her tummy as far as she could which caused this funny face. So silly:

Goofy girl:

Playing with her bees:

She wanted me to take a picture of daddy, baby, and mama quack-quack:

Reading her favorite book with daddy:

Heading in to see the baby chicks on Saturday:

Peeking at the chicks:

Look, mama:

Fascinated:

A teenage girl at the store was fast enough to catch the baby chicks and very kindly got the ones that Lily wanted and held them for her to pet. She was so thrilled:

Bye-bye cute baby chicks: