Journey to and Through Motherhood: Lily's 35th Week (10/26/09

I had to stay home from work on Monday due to our flu policy even though I felt fine and had been fever-free for a few days. I went to Employee Health to get a flu swab to make sure that the virus was out of my system so that I could go back to work early instead of having to take seven days off. The results take 24 hours which meant that I could return on Wednesday at the earliest. I don't mind taking time off of work and staying home with Lily but our sick days are the same as our vacation days so I would much rather spend my time off on vacation than sitting home doing nothing. I was going to leave Lily at Kirsten's while I went in for the swab but she was sick and had been feeling horrible since Sunday so apparently it was a good thing that I was home after all since she wouldn't have been able to take care of Lily. I took Lily with me then we visited Paul at work. The swab was horrible. I thought it would be like a throat culture for strep but it was much worse. The medical assistant stuck this bristle brush thing up my nose and down my throat to get the sample. It hurt so much and my nose felt like it was on fire for about three hours afterward. On our way home, I stopped at Lewis Jewelers to get my wedding ring fixed. I had my engagement ring and wedding band soldered together before our wedding but they just recently came apart and were driving me crazy. I took them in to be resoldered and resized as I have had to use spacers to keep them on my finger for a few years now since they are too big. Apparently my fingers were much fatter when I got married because I had to have them taken down a whole size. I need to have the same thing done with my right hand ring but I didn't want to give them both up at the same time. My hands would have felt too naked!

On Tuesday, I got a call from Employee Health telling me that my swab came back clear so I was allowed to return to work the following day. I realized that I had a dentist appointment scheduled for Wednesday morning so I called to move it to Tuesday since I was already off work. They fit me in so I called Kirsten to see if she was feeling any better which, thankfully, she was so she watched Lily for an hour while I went to the dentist. Poor Kirsten had gone to the doctor on Monday to learn that she had a sinus infection and two ear infections. The doctor gave her some antibiotics and she was feeling perkier. Paul got out of work early to take Rachel to school for her first orchestra concert- the Pinckney Community Schools Orchestras' Annual Halloween Concert! I had dinner ready when he got home, we ate, then he took her up to the school. Meanwhile, my parents came over and drove with me to the concert where Paul was holding some seats for us. It was at the Jane Tasch Theater which is adjacent to Navigator and Pathfinder Schools. It is a really nice auditorium. The concert was quite crowded as they had performances by the Navigator, Pathfinder, and High School orchestras. It was a really good concert. I was impressed by how well Rachel's Navigator Orchestra sounded, especially considering that they had only been playing their instruments for two months. The kids all performed in costume which was fun. Rachel's school went first then we stayed and listened to all the orchestras. Lily was very attentive during Rachel's performances, perhaps because she had heard all of the songs before. She was less attentive during the Pathfinder performance and fell asleep before the High School performed. Afterward, we met Rachel's friend Heather and her father. They invited Rachel over after school on Thursday which she is really looking forward to. We went home where we had cake, ice cream, and cookies to celebrate a job well done. We video taped the seven songs that Rachel's Navigator Orchestra performed in five separate parts so they would be short enough to post but cumulatively, they would take up too much space on this site so I posted them on YouTube. Please follow the links below to see each performance.
The first three songs they performed are Song for Christine/Natalie's Rose, Matthew's March /Christopher's Tune, and The Flintstones. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlf745nUkes
The fourth song they performed is French Folk Song. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQImTmer4KU
The fifth song they performed is UM Fight Song (The Victors). Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1AtOlGuTzU
The sixth song they performed is Lightly Row. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl1uJ1YSmP8
The seventh song they performed is Twinkle Variations. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzk7Qax3Qjs

I returned to work on Wednesday. After dinner, we decided to start on our Halloween pumpkins. We knew that we wouldn't have enough time to carve them all but we just wanted to hollow them out so they would be ready for carving on Thursday. Paul only got mine done then discovered that Lily's pumpkin was rotten so we had to buy her a new pumpkin after work on Thursday. Rachel had a party after school then went over to her friend Heather's house so after we got Lily a new pumpkin, we picked up Rachel and ran some errands. When we got home, I carved my pumpkin and Rachel carved hers. Paul tried to carve Lily's pumpkin how I wanted but we hated how the eyes turned out so he threw it out. This meant that we needed to buy Lily her third pumpkin on Friday. The third pumpkin finally turned out right because we had Rachel design the eyes and carve it while Paul finally got to carve his own pumpkin.

Saturday was Halloween. That day will be narrated in a separate post. Sunday was a pretty calm day on which Lily turned eight months old! My little baby is growing up fast. We picked up Rachel and visited with the Freydls for a while. While we were there, Lily ate some small pieces of freeze-dried strawberries. She made some incredibly funny faces but kept feeding them to herself and wanting us to feed them to her as well. She really got into eating finger foods like Gerber Graduates at Kirsten's house this week and loves feeding herself. She definitely wants to do things independently and will take a bottle away from you to attempt to feed it to herself. What a big girl! After our visit, we went home to do some housework and yardwork and prepare for the work week ahead.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily loves to suck on washcloths. It is hard to clean her up after a meal because she is always trying to grab the washcloth from you and she is super strong:

My happy little girl getting ready to go see daddy at the hospital (and get my H1N1 test) on Monday:

Hanging out in the yard while I vacuumed out my car on Monday afternoon. I thought that the Shop-Vac would scare her but instead she sang at the top of her lungs whenever I had it on. How funny: