More Exersaucer Fun (8/16/09 and 8/19/09)

Lily didn't do a lot in this video taken on 8/16/09 but she looked so darn cute that it was worth posting. She mostly just stared into the camera with her big blue eyes and chewed on a toy but she did show that she can say "Da-Da":

In this video, taken on 8/19/09, Lily demonstrated why we usually call her Exersaucer her 'Bouncer'. She is such a bouncy baby and is super strong. You can see why I sometimes compare her to Bamm-Bamm Rubble from the Flintstones:

Splashy Bath (8/12/09)

After a messy feeding, Lily needed a bath. Here is why we can no longer bathe her in her tub on the kitchen counter. Way too messy! She loves the water. Auriel says it is because she is a Pisces.

Lily's 24th Week (8/10/09 - 8/16/09)

This was a very stressful week. On Monday, the clutch on Paul’s truck broke. This wouldn’t be as big of a deal as we normally commute together but this week I worked at the Brighton Health Center Monday through Wednesday while Paul worked at the main hospital in Ann Arbor. Plus Paul had to drop off Rachel at Teens in Transitions Camp on the west side of Ann Arbor and drop off Lily at Auriel’s on the south side of Ann Arbor because Kirsten was on vacation this week. That is a ton of driving to do which is nearly impossible with a stuck clutch. He ended up rigging a rope around it to pull it up manually when shifting but driving all over Ann Arbor with all the stops and starts and speed changes was very difficult to do and not at all safe with two kids in the car. Luckily my parents were on vacation this week in Arkansas and they took my dad’s truck so we drove up to their house on Monday night and borrowed my mom’s car. I drove my mom’s car while Paul drove mine Tuesday and Wednesday. We usually get most of our auto repairs done by our neighbor which is awesome but we have to work around his schedule and he was busy this week. Factoring in all of the other repairs that need to be done on the truck and the fact that it is almost 15 years old, we decided that we couldn’t put off buying a new one any longer. We don’t have the money for it but throwing money at a dying truck is not buying us as much time as we hoped and trading in his 1995 Toyota Tacoma for a new Toyota Tacoma actually qualifies for $3500 from the Cash for Clunkers program. We know we have to act fast as the first round of the program ran out of money within a week. I am way too overwhelmed to deal with it and I have never bought a vehicle before so I put Paul entirely in charge of the new truck search. We know that we want a double cab version so that we can actually fit the entire family in the vehicle (we cannot do that in his current truck without major leg cramping). Paul did a ton of internet research and phone calls all week. There aren’t a lot of double cabs out there. We visited a dealership in Waterford on Thursday and another one in Bay City on Saturday. We test drove the truck at Waterford and it is so nice. It is a million times nicer than his current truck. I am excited that all the new double cab Tacomas that we found for sale right now have automatic transmissions so that I can actually drive them. I never drove his current truck as I don’t know how to drive a manual and Paul always claimed that his was too tricky to learn on. That is especially true now that the clutch doesn’t work! We loved the trucks that we saw but didn’t like the deals that we were being offered so the search will continue next week.

Unfortunately, all of the commuting and truck searching took up most of our week. To drive all over the place to drop off and pick up the girls, Paul had to leave over an hour and a half before work started and got home about two hours after work ended which totally sucked. I had to do all the driving with him Thursday and Friday since I was back working in Ann Arbor those two days. When I was in Brighton it was kind of nice because I had over two hours to myself before Paul got home with the kids. I used that time to run errands, clean the house, make dinner, and prepare for the next day. That way when they got home, I got to enjoy uninterrupted fun time with my family. Rachel had fun at TNT camp despite the fact that Katelyn went back to North Carolina. Lily was really good for Auriel and Aneasha which was a relief since it was a break in her normal routine. She didn’t have any separation anxiety at the drop offs Monday through Wednesday since she was with Paul. She cried a bit when I dropped her off on Thursday and on Friday, the transition was seamless because she was asleep.

Friday was an especially challenging day! Due to a meeting at work, we had to be there at 8:00am instead of 8:30am. We left the house in plenty of time (around 6:30am) but didn’t realize that we could not drop Rachel off at camp until 7:30am. So we drove from the east side of Ann Arbor to the west side to drop her off but couldn’t, then drove from the west side to the south side to drop off Lily (thank God she was sleeping so we could hand her over and run), then drove from the south side to the west side to drop off Rachel for real, then drove from the west side to the east side to work. With all of the lights, traffic, and slow speed limits, we did not make it to the meeting on time. This wouldn’t be such a huge deal since we were only a few minutes late but being a few minutes late meant that we lost our “on time” bonus for this quarter which is $250 each. $500 down the drain when we have to sink a bunch of money into a new vehicle really hurt. Needless to say, by Friday night, we were ecstatic that the crazy work week and all of the driving around Ann Arbor was behind us. My parents were at our house all day. My mom cleaned the house while my dad worked on repairing a persistent leak that we have been fighting with in our laundry room. When we got home, my mom had a nice dinner ready for all of us. We had a relaxing dinner and a good visit. They came together in my Dad’s truck and when they left, my mom took her car back home. We were very thankful that she let us use it all week as we couldn’t have gotten by with only one vehicle. We crashed pretty early since we were all tired from the busy week. Unfortunately, we did not have a relaxing weekend ahead of us.

Lily got us up pretty early on Saturday so I took the extra time in the morning to color my hair. In pregnancy, none of your hair falls out so it gets all thick and lovely. A few months after the baby is born, you lose all those hairs that you held onto for all those months plus some more so I have been a shedding queen for the past two months. The hair loss is returning to normal but now I have a bunch of fuzz growing in all over my head and a large number of those hairs are gray. AAAH! So not cool! So apparently L’Oreal and I will become wonderful friends. I used to color my hair to vainly cover the few grays that I already had and complained vehemently about them. Now I would do anything just to have that few gray hairs again!

Rachel woke up when I was finishing with my dye job and we worked on getting her packed for vacation. She is going to South Dakota with her Grandma and Grandpa Rysso for a week then will be spending another week with them at their house. This is the first time they have taken a grandkid with them on vacation and Rachel is really fortunate to be going. She had a ton of fun with her cousins in South Dakota last summer and is excited to see them again. Paul’s parents’ house is a three hour drive from home so they suggested meeting in Bay City to transfer Rachel to them. That worked out perfectly for us because Bay City had three double cab Tacomas that we wanted to look at. We went to the dealership then met them at McDonald’s (of course) for the transfer. As previously mentioned, we liked the trucks we saw but were frustrated and disappointed by the lack of deals. After the transfer we drove to Holt to Amy and Wynn’s for their summer party. This used to be an annual event for them but hasn’t been since the kids were born. I totally understand the suspension of the parties now since we didn’t have the time or energy for our annual summer luau this year. The Toyota dealership in Lansing also has trucks we wanted to look at but we got there a few hours after closing. Oh well. We had fun at the party and it was good seeing some of Wynn’s family and friends that I haven’t seen in years. We got home pretty late and were exhausted from the very long day and all of the driving we had to do.

Sunday was my dad’s birthday so we went to their house for a family party. My Grandma was there as well as my Aunt Gloria, Uncle Jim, Aunt Robin, and Uncle Lee. It is always nice spending time with the family. My mom made a really nice dinner then we had cake and presents. Lily was really well behaved. Last time my Aunt Robin tried to hold her she kept crying so I was glad that she allowed Robin to hold her this time. Her separation anxiety makes it difficult to have other people hold her anymore which breaks their hearts as she used to love to be held by anyone and everyone.

Since Lily loves her solids now, I tried to get a routine going and fed Lily solids for dinner every night when she got home. She did really well with it and loved experimenting with new foods. She ate bananas, pears, and sweet potatoes this week. Her GI system seemed to handle it really well which was reassuring. She didn’t have any constipation or gas problems.

Now that I have spent most of this entry complaining about the low points of our week, here are some pictures of the better times.

Lily loves things that crinkle and crunch. She grabbed this Chex Mix bag off the counter and attacked it with gusto on Tuesday:

We figured that she was hungry after the Chex Mix attack so we fed her solids:

Waiting for dinner on Wednesday evening:

Lily’s first experience with pears was a big success. She always wants to grab the spoon and help feed herself. She is surprisingly strong and quick so I had a hard time keeping her hands off of the spoon and then getting it back once she grabbed it. As you can see, this led to a very messy mealtime:

As you can see, by the end, she was covered in pears from head to toe. This meal was immediately followed by a bath where Lily discovered how much she likes to splash water. I will post a video of the bath later. After her bath, she played with her favorite cat, Nolan:

Eating and wearing her bananas on Thursday evening before going truck shopping:

My sleepy girl chillin with her grandparents on Friday evening:

Sleeping on Papi Tim:

I bought this onesie after I found out I was pregnant. It says, "50% Mommy plus 50% Daddy equals 100% Lovable":

Rachel feeding Lily an early lunch before heading to Bay City on Saturday:

Lily hanging with Paul on a swing at the Berry's party in Lansing on Saturday evening. Her onesie says "Mommy & Daddy Love Me." So true:

She loved hanging onto the swing. As you can see, her hair is getting thicker on top so it tends to look mohawk-ish:

Falling asleep with Mommy at the Berry's:

Lily with my Aunt Gloria at my dad's birthday party on Sunday:

The family at the party: my dad, me, Lily, Paul, my Grandma Marion, Uncle Lee, Aunt Robin, Uncle Jim, and Aunt Gloria. My mom was taking the picture:

Lily playing with my caterpillar neck pillow at my parents' house:

Lily loves her keys. Here she is also showing off her lush eyelashes. While she was playing she kept stopping to giggle hysterically at my mom. We couldn't figure out what was so funny until we realized that my mom was rocking in the glider chair and Lily was laughing at the squeaky noise that it was making. I wish I would've had my video camera on me to catch all of her crazy laughing:

My dad blowing out his birthday candles:

Lily got warm so we stripped her down. She loves to play with toys:

All of the playing wore her out so she ended the party asleep on my mom:

So the week started poorly but ended with a busy but nice weekend. The truck shopping will continue, hopefully with success, next week.

Center of Attention (8/4/09)

Here is Lily demonstrating her sitting skills in front of myself, Paul, my mom, my dad, my grandma, and my aunt Margaret. She loves being the center of attention.

Lily's 23rd Week (8/3/09 - 8/9/09)

This week Lily still had problems with transitions away from me or having people other than myself or Paul hold her. Perhaps she is experiencing separation anxiety after all. I read that it can start as early as 6 or 7 months but the crisis age for most babies is from 12-18 months. Oh boy. Lily is still doing great at sitting up. I have been trying to make sure that she does the reaching exercises the physical therapist gave us and have been checking to make sure that she does not lean preferentially to the right.
My happy baby showing how well she sits up:

Rachel spent the week at a new camp called Teens in Transitions. She attended camp with her best friend, Katelyn. They have spent almost every day together since Rachel returned from South Carolina which is great, especially considering their summers overlapped by only three weeks this year before Katelyn returns to her mom’s house for school in North Carolina. Even though the camp was in Ann Arbor, there was no way that we could get there to pick her up by the time it ended at 5:30 since we get out of work at 5:00 and don’t even get to our car until 5:30 thanks to the joys of employee parking at the hospital. Katelyn’s stepmom, Maria, very graciously volunteered to pick up Rachel with Katelyn and drop her off to us in a parking lot by the hospital at 5:45. We were very thankful. Paul and I drove separately on Monday so that he could get her to camp early. I picked Rachel up at our meeting place by myself since it was really hot and Paul’s truck doesn’t have air conditioning ever since he hit a deer with it about three years ago. I also picked up Lily so us girls got home a lot later than he did. However, it gave him time to do some yard work which is his favorite summertime activity. The demands of life with a baby have kept him from any outdoor projects this summer but Lily is so wonderful that he doesn’t mind.

On Tuesday, Rachel had a sleepover at Katelyn’s since it was Katelyn’s birthday. They ate dinner at Applebee’s then went to Zap Zone for laser tag. They had a lot of fun. Meanwhile, my aunt Margaret was in town so she came over along with my parents and Grandma to visit us and see Lily. She hadn’t seen Lily since her baptism on May 2nd so she was amazed by how much Lily has grown and changed in the past three months. Being with her every day (and having to pick her up all the time) I know that she is growing but it is hard to see all the changes as they happen so subtly unless I am looking back at old pictures of her on our digital picture frame. We had a very nice visit.

Lily visiting with my Aunt Margaret and my Grandma Marion:

All eyes are on Lily:

Lily gets so excited when she is visited by Nolan. She was squealing with excitement and trying to pet her kitty (otherwise know as ripping out his fur, although, he doesn't seem to mind):

Lily with Grandma Chris and Great-Grandma Marion:

They look amazed that she can stick Mr. Moo's entire face in her mouth:

That night, when putting Lily to sleep, I was reading her ‘Goodnight Moon’ which is our nightly tradition. This time she was really into the book and kept reaching for it. I was lying next to her holding it above us with both hands and thought I had a good grip on it when suddenly she grasped it and pulled it down onto her face. Being a board book, it thumped her pretty good and she gave me a startled look then starting wailing. Poor thing! Not a very relaxing bedtime for Lily! I felt horrible. Especially when I realized that it cut her adorable cheek.
On Wednesday, I worked at the Brighton Health Center so Paul had to meet Maria to pick up Rachel from her. He called me at about 5:45 to make sure that he was at the correct meeting place since he hadn’t been there before. I picked up Rachel on my own on Monday and we didn’t pick her up Tuesday because she went home with Katelyn for their sleepover. I called Maria’s cell phone to see if they were on their way only to learn that Maria forgot to pick up Rachel from camp! She picked up Katelyn but since they weren’t having another sleepover, she wasn’t thinking that she still needed to pick up Rachel. They were already out of town and I was home in Brighton so I frantically called Paul to tell him to race over to camp to get Rachel. At this point it was 5:50 and the camp had been closed for 20 minutes. When I called him, he had just gotten off the phone with Rachel who called to tell him that she had been abandoned. This was the same kid who called us at work in hysterics because her backpack was too heavy to carry home from the bus stop so I thought she would be completely freaked out that she got left behind but she was totally unfazed. A counselor stayed with her at the school until Paul could get there which was a little after 6pm. Meanwhile, I called her and talked to her on the cell phone to make sure that she was still okay. The camp has a policy about charging by the minute for late pick-ups and can kick you out of camp for violating the on-time pick up policy but they were really cool about the whole misunderstanding. Meanwhile, Maria felt horrible but we completely understood her mistake. Besides a state of temporary panic, there was no harm done. Rachel said that she saw Maria come pick up Katelyn and that they said goodbye to her but since Maria didn’t tell her to come with them, Rachel just assumed that the plans had changed and that we were picking her up instead. We told her that on Thursday, she was to cling to Maria’s leg if necessary and to not let Maria leave without her! I think Maria felt too embarrassed to see us the next day because her husband, Karl, picked the girls up from camp on Thursday and met us at the drop-off point. We reassured him that we were not upset and were thankful that they could pick up Rachel for us.

Paul spending time with Lily and Mr. Moo after the whole Rachel-pick-up fiasco:

My beautiful baby taking a nap Wednesday evening and showing off the cut on her cheek that is evidence of when good books go bad:

I had the honor of being asked to participate in a forum at the hospital during world breastfeeding week called ‘Breastfeeding Your Baby, Work, and You’. I was on the panel of working breastfeeding moms. We shared our experiences, challenges, and why it is all worth it in the end. I was honored to have been asked to participate by the head of the Women’s Health Resource Center at U of M. I occasionally pump at the resource center so we have talked about the joys and challenges of pumping and breastfeeding from time to time. It is definitely a challenging commitment due to my busy schedule at work and I frequently only get 5 minute lunches but it is totally worth it to do something for my baby that no one else can do. That day my period starting which I found odd. Apparently it can start any time it wants to, even when breastfeeding, but usually it comes after a decrease in feeding such as after starting solids. We are only doing solids sporadically so I don't think that's the reason. Oh well. I haven't had a period since May of 2008 so the absence was nice while it lasted!

Bedtime with Mr. Moo on Thursday night:

We had Katelyn over for a sleepover on Friday night. We took the girls to Zukey Lake Tavern for dinner then watched The Great Outdoors in honor of the late John Hughes (I love his work). I wanted to take them to the beach or to play miniature golf on Saturday as a last hurrah but it poured rain all day so we couldn’t go anywhere. The girls seemed to have fun hanging out in Rachel’s room all day despite the rain.

My blue-eyed girl chewing on her thumb and showing off her chubbiness on Saturday afternoon:

Lily trying to use the TV remote:

Passed out on daddy. Rainy days are great for napping:

On Saturday evening, we took Katelyn home before dinner. She and her little brother and sister begged to have Rachel stay with them for dinner so we left her there for a few hours and went to the mall. I had to get a few things from Clinique anyway.

Rachel was a little down in the dumps on Sunday as Katelyn was flying out to North Carolina that day. She is supposed to return for Halloween so the girls are looking forward to seeing each other again then. It is unfortunate that they don’t get to spend a lot of time together but their friendship has been really strong for two years now despite both of them living so far apart from each other. We wanted to do at least one fun thing for the weekend so we ended up taking Rachel and Lily to Cabelas. First, we had to wait for Lily to finish her morning nap and get everyone dressed and ready.

Passed out in a dramatic fashion:

Snoozing on Daddy:

Paul had both Lily and Amber sleeping on him:

Such a cute baby:

My Super Happy Little Girl dressed and ready for fun:

Rachel always likes Cabelas. This was Lily's first time there. She was fascinated by the aquarium:

Intently watching a gar:

Lily also loved all of the animals:

"Peace" says the girl in the coonskin cap:

Rachel, Paul, and Lily on the statue outside of Cabelas:

On our way back home, we dropped off Lily’s swing and some toys and supplies at Pat and Auriel’s house as Auriel and Aneasha will be watching Lily next week. Kirsten will be on vacation in Gatlinburg, TN. Pat and Auriel moved into a rental house on the south side of Ann Arbor so we had to figure out where their house was located. We also had to figure out the best route from our house to Rachel's camp then to their house and, finally, the hospital. Paul will have to take both girls into Ann Arbor in the morning then pick them up after work Monday through Wednesday because I will be working in Brighton. That will involve leaving really early in the morning so we all turned in early Sunday night.