This is not the most exciting video but it's a good demonstration of Lily talking. She was very interested in all of the ornaments and wanted to help me undecorated the tree. She kept asking “Whazzis?” and wanted to eat the ornaments.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
R.I.P. Beloved Betsy Beagle (1/3/10)
It has been exactly one year since cancer prematurely took the world’s sweetest dog from us. Here is a little something that Rachel wrote in tribute to her over the summer:
“Betsy’s Favorite Things
A is for the apple tree you slept under
B is for your name, Betsy
C is for your favorite snack, cheese
D is for the doctor that treated you
E is for eating, that you loved
F is for food, which you loved even more
G is for the great attitude you always gave us
H is for happiness and Higgins Lake
I is for ice cream that you liked to lick
J is for your jelly toy
K is for kindness in your heart
L is for the love you always had
M is for Michigan, where you were born
N is for night, you liked it
O is for open-minded, just like you
P is for pinto beans, which you always ate
Q is for quails, which you used to hunt
R is for rich, which you always seemed
S is for squirrels, which you liked to chase
T is for toys, which you always played
U is for understanding, which you were
V is for valuable
W is for wet
X is for xtra sweet
Y is for you
Z is for zingy and happy.
We will always remember you, forever and ever,
Love Rachel”
We miss you girl!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Walking the Dog (1/1/10)
Here is Lily with her doggy walker. She is so delighted to use it! I love how when she runs into something, she just keeps ramming it over and over. If you listen closely, you can hear the dog bark and whimper when she pushes it.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Lily's 44th Week: Happy New Year (12/28/09 – 1/3/10)
I thought that Monday's drop-off at Kirsten's would go horribly after Lily had six days home with us but she did shockingly well. She was excited to see Kirsten, Keegan, Nate, and their dog, Gidget. She was so busy playing with them that she didn't even cry when I left which was a surprising relief. She had fun with the kids on Monday and Tuesday. It was a hectic household for Kirsten since the kids were home all day because of Christmas break. Lily adores Keegan and Nate so I think that she enjoyed her extra time with them. Lily loves to play with their dog, Gidget. She always crawls over to Gidget’s crate and plays with her through it. One trick that Lily has developed over the past few weeks is to open the latch on Gidget’s crate and let her out. Lily finds this to be great fun but then gets mad because Gidget, of course, runs off once she is released and no longer stays at the crate to play with Lily anymore. Lily only had two days with Kirsten then she and her family left to spend New Year's at their lake house. Auriel and Aneasha watched Lily on Wednesday and Thursday. I worked at the Brighton Health Center on Monday through Wednesday so Paul did the drop off on Wednesday by himself.
Lily has been fighting her naps all week. She was doing it last weekend as well. She almost falls asleep then she tries to sit up and flails herself around to wake herself up then wants to play. She didn't nap at all on Thursday. She hadn’t been sleeping well at night either. None of us slept much all week because Lily was really gassy and woke up multiple times each night crying. Paul would bounce her on his arm to get some gas out then she would fall back asleep fairly quickly but all of the disturbances left us all tired in the morning. That combined with no napping on Thursday, I thought, would have led to a very cranky baby but she was in a really good mood. That was a relief because my parents came over that evening to watch Lily so Paul and I could go out as it was New Year’s Eve. My mom got an air cast on her foot that day so she could get around a lot better and didn’t have to use a walker anymore. Paul and I didn’t do any partying, just went to the movies and out to dinner. We saw Sherlock Holmes which was the first movie we had seen at the theater in over ten months. After the movie, we tried to go grab some dinner but had a really hard time finding a restaurant that was open. I thought that we would have trouble finding a place that wasn’t too busy but instead, most places were closed, even some bars and restaurant/bar combo places. It was odd. We had to drive all the way to Bennigan’s in Howell. Grand River was like a ghost town! By then it was almost 11pm and they were getting ready to close but they let us in to eat, thank goodness. After our burgers, we hurried home to see the ball drop. We got in the house with five minutes to spare and were surprised to see Lily awake. Apparently she was wonderful for my parents and went to sleep without incident around 9pm but then woke up a few minutes before we arrived all happy and ready to play. Apparently she wanted to be awake to ring in the New Year as well! We all watched the ball drop then my parents left and Lily went to bed without fighting sleep.
We were all tired from the busy week and were still sleep deprived from Lily being sick then all of the holiday bustle so we were excited to have New Year’s Day off with absolutely nothing urgent to do. Paul let me sleep in then he, Lily, and I spent the entire day in our pajamas. Paul watched football while Lily played with all of her new toys. I finally got a chance to put together the walker that she got for Christmas from her Aunt Beth. I had also bought her a walker off of Craigslist that I picked up on my way to Kirsten’s after work on Tuesday. The people I bought it from live less than a mile from my house and also had some toys that I bought as first birthday presents (it will be here before we know it). I got the second walker for her to play with at Kirsten’s but took it home for her to get used to first. She absolutely loves both of them. The one she got for Christmas is a stroller that she can push her doll around in. The one I bought off Craigslist is a doggy that barks and pants when she walks. She is so excited to walk with the aid of the walkers and smiles and giggles the entire time. It is so cute! She had been using her play table as a walker and pushed it around the living room with her stomach but she finds that the walkers work so much better. She started off just going back and forth across the living room but by the end of the weekend, her stamina had increased so much that she can go around the circle consisting of walking through the living room, dining room, kitchen, hall, front entry, and back to the living room yet again. She can’t turn the walker so we have to do that for her or she just keeps jamming it into the wall over and over again trying to get the wall out of her way. What a brute!
It was a super cold weekend. I wanted to run errands on Saturday but kept putting it off hoping that it would warm up outside. It never did. Lily was very gassy. She had a bunch of diaper blowouts which made her feel a lot better. She also took a lot of naps. She and Paul accompanied me on my errands but she passed out in the car so Paul kept the car running at all of my stops and just dropped me off and stayed in the car with her. It worked out well for me because I didn’t have to spend a lot of time outside and always had a warm vehicle. Unfortunately, Paul was bored out of his mind but he hates errands no matter what.
Sunday was a sad day for us as it was the one year anniversary of when we lost our beloved Beagle, Betsy. I will post a little tribute to her separate from this post. A lot has happened and changed for us in the year that she has been gone. I miss her and know that she would have loved Lily and vice versa. Lily’s gassiness and GI activity continued on Sunday but her mood was wonderful. She and I stayed home and played all day while Paul spent about six hours at the airport picking up Rachel. Security is even tighter after that crazy Christmas day bomb attempt so he had to get there about four hours before her flight arrived. What a giant pain in the butt! They got home fairly late so we had a late dinner then all went to bed. Rachel was exhausted as she just got back from a cruise with her mom and spent Saturday traveling from Florida to South Carolina then spent Sunday on the plane and now has school tomorrow. Not a lot of time to relax and settle back in! She had fun on her vacation but was excited about going back to school and seeing her friends.
Lily’s hair seems to be looking darker now. It used to oscillate between looking blonde and light brown, sometimes reddish. Now it’s a medium golden brown. It’s very cute. Her eyes haven’t changed at all. They are still the same bright light blue they have been since she was very little. She still only has six teeth- four on top and two on the bottom. They are almost all the way in and there is a cute little gap between her two front teeth. I wonder if it will close up when more of her teeth come in or if it will stay. It’s funny because I absolutely hated the gap between my two front teeth but I think it is unbelievably adorable on her.
Last but certainly not least, a hugely monumental thing happened this week. Lily is talking!!! She has been saying mama and dada occasionally but now she says “Whazzis?” and “Whozzis?” all the time in this adorable voice while pointing at things. She is so curious about the world around her. She had been pointing to things with her whole hand the past two weeks and when she does so, we name what she is pointing at. Then I turned it into a game in the hallway where I would point to someone in a picture and say “Who’s this?” kind of high pitched then identify the person to her. I was doing it to get her to say mama and dada more consistently and to teach her sissy. She loves the game and loves to look at the pictures and point at the different people, especially baby Lily. Little did I know that instead of teaching her the answers, I was teaching her to ask the question! It is so funny that instead of a consistent first word, she jumped right to her first sentence. It is so cute, especially because she ends “Whazzis?” high pitched, just like you do when you end a question. I have to get it on video!
Here are some pictures from this week.
Our stockings, still unopened as of Monday! We have been too busy:
Lily spotted the Pooh bear sticking out of her stocking on Tuesday and had to have it:
That finally prompted us to open the gifts in our stockings. Here is Lily playing with her stocking stuffers. Her new doggy walker is in the background:
Lily with her favorite Christmas present- her Playskool Busy Ball-tivity Center:
Lily got this pop-up book from our co-worker, Lois. She absolutely loved it:
Crawling after Reiley on Thursday:
Watching daddy finish putting together her stroller walker on New Year's Day:
Lily and daddy playing belly blast-off:
My happy girl enjoying her first day of 2010:
Lily cuddling with a stuffed dog that she stole from Rachel's room when she was in there trying to figure out where her sister went:
Laughing at Blue's Clues with mommy:
Happily clapping to "mail time":
My cuddly girl:
Lily has been fighting her naps all week. She was doing it last weekend as well. She almost falls asleep then she tries to sit up and flails herself around to wake herself up then wants to play. She didn't nap at all on Thursday. She hadn’t been sleeping well at night either. None of us slept much all week because Lily was really gassy and woke up multiple times each night crying. Paul would bounce her on his arm to get some gas out then she would fall back asleep fairly quickly but all of the disturbances left us all tired in the morning. That combined with no napping on Thursday, I thought, would have led to a very cranky baby but she was in a really good mood. That was a relief because my parents came over that evening to watch Lily so Paul and I could go out as it was New Year’s Eve. My mom got an air cast on her foot that day so she could get around a lot better and didn’t have to use a walker anymore. Paul and I didn’t do any partying, just went to the movies and out to dinner. We saw Sherlock Holmes which was the first movie we had seen at the theater in over ten months. After the movie, we tried to go grab some dinner but had a really hard time finding a restaurant that was open. I thought that we would have trouble finding a place that wasn’t too busy but instead, most places were closed, even some bars and restaurant/bar combo places. It was odd. We had to drive all the way to Bennigan’s in Howell. Grand River was like a ghost town! By then it was almost 11pm and they were getting ready to close but they let us in to eat, thank goodness. After our burgers, we hurried home to see the ball drop. We got in the house with five minutes to spare and were surprised to see Lily awake. Apparently she was wonderful for my parents and went to sleep without incident around 9pm but then woke up a few minutes before we arrived all happy and ready to play. Apparently she wanted to be awake to ring in the New Year as well! We all watched the ball drop then my parents left and Lily went to bed without fighting sleep.
We were all tired from the busy week and were still sleep deprived from Lily being sick then all of the holiday bustle so we were excited to have New Year’s Day off with absolutely nothing urgent to do. Paul let me sleep in then he, Lily, and I spent the entire day in our pajamas. Paul watched football while Lily played with all of her new toys. I finally got a chance to put together the walker that she got for Christmas from her Aunt Beth. I had also bought her a walker off of Craigslist that I picked up on my way to Kirsten’s after work on Tuesday. The people I bought it from live less than a mile from my house and also had some toys that I bought as first birthday presents (it will be here before we know it). I got the second walker for her to play with at Kirsten’s but took it home for her to get used to first. She absolutely loves both of them. The one she got for Christmas is a stroller that she can push her doll around in. The one I bought off Craigslist is a doggy that barks and pants when she walks. She is so excited to walk with the aid of the walkers and smiles and giggles the entire time. It is so cute! She had been using her play table as a walker and pushed it around the living room with her stomach but she finds that the walkers work so much better. She started off just going back and forth across the living room but by the end of the weekend, her stamina had increased so much that she can go around the circle consisting of walking through the living room, dining room, kitchen, hall, front entry, and back to the living room yet again. She can’t turn the walker so we have to do that for her or she just keeps jamming it into the wall over and over again trying to get the wall out of her way. What a brute!
It was a super cold weekend. I wanted to run errands on Saturday but kept putting it off hoping that it would warm up outside. It never did. Lily was very gassy. She had a bunch of diaper blowouts which made her feel a lot better. She also took a lot of naps. She and Paul accompanied me on my errands but she passed out in the car so Paul kept the car running at all of my stops and just dropped me off and stayed in the car with her. It worked out well for me because I didn’t have to spend a lot of time outside and always had a warm vehicle. Unfortunately, Paul was bored out of his mind but he hates errands no matter what.
Sunday was a sad day for us as it was the one year anniversary of when we lost our beloved Beagle, Betsy. I will post a little tribute to her separate from this post. A lot has happened and changed for us in the year that she has been gone. I miss her and know that she would have loved Lily and vice versa. Lily’s gassiness and GI activity continued on Sunday but her mood was wonderful. She and I stayed home and played all day while Paul spent about six hours at the airport picking up Rachel. Security is even tighter after that crazy Christmas day bomb attempt so he had to get there about four hours before her flight arrived. What a giant pain in the butt! They got home fairly late so we had a late dinner then all went to bed. Rachel was exhausted as she just got back from a cruise with her mom and spent Saturday traveling from Florida to South Carolina then spent Sunday on the plane and now has school tomorrow. Not a lot of time to relax and settle back in! She had fun on her vacation but was excited about going back to school and seeing her friends.
Lily’s hair seems to be looking darker now. It used to oscillate between looking blonde and light brown, sometimes reddish. Now it’s a medium golden brown. It’s very cute. Her eyes haven’t changed at all. They are still the same bright light blue they have been since she was very little. She still only has six teeth- four on top and two on the bottom. They are almost all the way in and there is a cute little gap between her two front teeth. I wonder if it will close up when more of her teeth come in or if it will stay. It’s funny because I absolutely hated the gap between my two front teeth but I think it is unbelievably adorable on her.
Last but certainly not least, a hugely monumental thing happened this week. Lily is talking!!! She has been saying mama and dada occasionally but now she says “Whazzis?” and “Whozzis?” all the time in this adorable voice while pointing at things. She is so curious about the world around her. She had been pointing to things with her whole hand the past two weeks and when she does so, we name what she is pointing at. Then I turned it into a game in the hallway where I would point to someone in a picture and say “Who’s this?” kind of high pitched then identify the person to her. I was doing it to get her to say mama and dada more consistently and to teach her sissy. She loves the game and loves to look at the pictures and point at the different people, especially baby Lily. Little did I know that instead of teaching her the answers, I was teaching her to ask the question! It is so funny that instead of a consistent first word, she jumped right to her first sentence. It is so cute, especially because she ends “Whazzis?” high pitched, just like you do when you end a question. I have to get it on video!
Here are some pictures from this week.
Our stockings, still unopened as of Monday! We have been too busy:
Lily spotted the Pooh bear sticking out of her stocking on Tuesday and had to have it:
That finally prompted us to open the gifts in our stockings. Here is Lily playing with her stocking stuffers. Her new doggy walker is in the background:
Lily with her favorite Christmas present- her Playskool Busy Ball-tivity Center:
Lily got this pop-up book from our co-worker, Lois. She absolutely loved it:
Crawling after Reiley on Thursday:
Watching daddy finish putting together her stroller walker on New Year's Day:
Lily and daddy playing belly blast-off:
My happy girl enjoying her first day of 2010:
Lily cuddling with a stuffed dog that she stole from Rachel's room when she was in there trying to figure out where her sister went:
Laughing at Blue's Clues with mommy:
Happily clapping to "mail time":
My cuddly girl:
Lily pushing her doll around the living room in her stroller walker:
Back at it again on Sunday morning:
Lily taking a morning nap on mommy:
We finally changed out of our pajamas to run errands so I put Lily in this super warm outfit as it was so cold out. She looked so adorable pushing around her dog walker:
Back at it again on Sunday morning:
Lily taking a morning nap on mommy:
We finally changed out of our pajamas to run errands so I put Lily in this super warm outfit as it was so cold out. She looked so adorable pushing around her dog walker:
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Weekend Videos (12/26/09)
Here is Lily walking in circles around the play table after her bath. I love it when she does this.
Lily used a walker for the first time at Paul's parents house and absolutely loved it. Here is one of her maiden voyages, brought to an abrupt end by a pile of toys. I love how she continually rams the pile of toys like a brute, trying to push it out of her way.
Weekend in Lovells (12/26/09 – 12/27/09)
It was so hard to get up on Saturday morning after staying up late the past few nights with all of our busy Christmas activities. We wanted to get a fairly early start as we were heading up to Lovells for the weekend and had a three hour drive ahead of us so I was finally able to drag myself out of bed with the knowledge that I could sleep in the car. I didn’t end up sleeping on the drive up and actually took over halfway through so that Paul could sleep. Lily, on the other hand, napped almost the entire time. We were hoping to spend the weekend with Paul’s parents, Debbie and her family, and Beth and John. Unfortunately, Debbie’s kids were both getting over viruses and Lily just got over croup so we decided that mixing the kids’ illnesses together in their immune-compromised states would not be a good idea. Therefore, Debbie, Mike, Jack, and Sophia took off a few hours before we arrived so we didn’t get to see them. Beth and John were working on redecorating Jack’s room in Traverse City all weekend so we didn’t get to see them either. They haven’t met Lily yet. We did, however, have a nice, relaxing weekend with Paul’s parents. Lily always likes playing with all of their toys.
Here is Lily playing with the wheels on a walker. We later showed her how to actually walk with it which she found absolutely delightful. We caught it on video which I will post separately. Beth got her a walker of her own for Christmas but we have been too busy to put it together. We will definitely have to do so as it was a huge hit:
Concentrating:
Lily was very surprised that the mouse popped up when she pushed the cheese button:
Lily got sleepy so she pulled her blanket down from the couch and rolled around on it, burying her face in it. It was so cute:
Snuggling up to mommy:
Lily refused to settle down and nap so I put her back on the floor to play again. Pretty soon, she was back to sleepily rolling on her blanket:
Lily finally settled down for a short nap with me. Then we gave her a bath and let her play for a while in her diaper. She is a nudist at heart and is happiest without clothes:
Posing under the Christmas tree:
Sitting in a chair like a big girl:
Lily suddenly became fascinated with my teeth:
Then she wanted to bite them:
Settling down for the night on Grandma Maureen:
Unfortunately, Lily slept horribly on Saturday night. Paul and I spent the night taking turns pacing with her around the house. She wouldn't lay down and kept writhing around. We thought it was her tummy at first but then she kept wanting to get down on the living room floor to play so I think she just really wanted to play instead of sleep. It didn't help that she was overstimulated from all of the holiday bustle and in an unfamiliar environment. We all got very little sleep yet Lily still got up happily the next morning to return to playing.
Here she is opening her Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Rysso:
It's slinky, it's slinky:
For fun it's a wonderful toy:
It's fun for a girl or a boy:
Here is Lily playing with the wheels on a walker. We later showed her how to actually walk with it which she found absolutely delightful. We caught it on video which I will post separately. Beth got her a walker of her own for Christmas but we have been too busy to put it together. We will definitely have to do so as it was a huge hit:
Concentrating:
Lily was very surprised that the mouse popped up when she pushed the cheese button:
Lily got sleepy so she pulled her blanket down from the couch and rolled around on it, burying her face in it. It was so cute:
Snuggling up to mommy:
Lily refused to settle down and nap so I put her back on the floor to play again. Pretty soon, she was back to sleepily rolling on her blanket:
Hey, a toy:
She won the battle against sleep again and went back to playing:
Sassy girl smiling with her binkie in her mouth:
Lily loves to play:
Lily finally settled down for a short nap with me. Then we gave her a bath and let her play for a while in her diaper. She is a nudist at heart and is happiest without clothes:
Posing under the Christmas tree:
Sitting in a chair like a big girl:
Lily suddenly became fascinated with my teeth:
Then she wanted to bite them:
Settling down for the night on Grandma Maureen:
Unfortunately, Lily slept horribly on Saturday night. Paul and I spent the night taking turns pacing with her around the house. She wouldn't lay down and kept writhing around. We thought it was her tummy at first but then she kept wanting to get down on the living room floor to play so I think she just really wanted to play instead of sleep. It didn't help that she was overstimulated from all of the holiday bustle and in an unfamiliar environment. We all got very little sleep yet Lily still got up happily the next morning to return to playing.
Here she is opening her Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Rysso:
It was a musical teapot and cups:
It's slinky, it's slinky:
For fun it's a wonderful toy:
It's fun for a girl or a boy:
We headed home after lunch but detoured by Clare to get some maple syrup from the Schmiedicke's on our way. Lily slept almost the entire 3.5 hour drive. I did some snoozing, too.
Lily snuggling with her stuffed kitty back home:
We had a nice holiday and a nice weekend. It all flew by so fast. It's back to work and back to the old grind tomorrow.
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