The World According to Lily

For those who have not seen Lily in some time, I figured that a few updates were in order. In Lily's one year of life, she has accomplished some remarkable things.

• First and foremost, she is officially a walker. She sometimes reverts to crawling and it is not uncommon for her to fall a few times, but she is able to walk across the room fairly easily and chooses walking as her mode of transportation more often than not.
• She has several words in her vocabulary including duck, ball, mama, dada, and her all-time favorite NO!
• She signs "more" and "Terra" (dog) but only when she's in the mood.
• She will sit and look at books with us and loves to turn the pages, but again, only when she's in the mood.
• She enjoys bath time but does not enjoy changing her clothes (usually requires continual distraction to reduce the squirminess).
• She still has not really noticed the tv yet, and we are very thankful for that.
• On a typical night, Lily goes to sleep around 8:00 pm and wakes up around 7:00 am. Lily rarely wakes up during the night, but she does sleep in our bed. If she stirs at all, she reaches out and touches one of us and immediately goes back into a peaceful sleep. It is so endearing but makes the challenge of switching back to her crib a very daunting one (maybe that is why we have been delaying it).
• Lily is a great traveler and usually falls asleep immediately in her carseat when we go out.
• Lily is an excellent eater and rarely refuses any type of food. She has transitioned to mostly table foods, but we still give her jar or pureed food every once in a while. I think that it has been harder for me to transition her to table foods because it seems like so much less food compared to the pureed foods, but I know that she is gaining weight well. (Have you noticed the impressive belly in the photos?) At her one year check-up, she weighed in at 21 1/2 pounds - right around the 50th percentile.
• We are totally weaned off of breastfeeding - yay!! It was a very natural and gradual weaning, involving no hardships on either side. I began around 9 months offering one bottle a day and increased the number of bottles by one each month until 12 months. Our last breastfeeding moment together was within a few days after her birthday, and we have not looked back since! I am proud for having breastfed Lily for a year (even if not solely for the last few months), but I can't say that I am going to miss it terribly. In those last few months, I did get a glimpse of how expensive formula feeding would be and "wow!" is all I can say to that. I think in the end months, breastfeeding was often used as a comforting tool, and I think that it is very important that we now begin empowering Lily with other ways to comfort and self-soothe.
• We are gradually making the transition from formula to whole milk. Within the next couple of weeks, I think that we will be done with formula entirely (definitely by Christmas). I don't anticipate any problems with this, as she has been doing quite well with the formula/whole milk mixes so far. However, the temperature of the milk seems to be the bigger issue. She definitely enjoys a warm beverage and has no qualms about telling us that she is wholly unsatisfied with cold milk. Lily just recently started accepting juice, so maybe cold milk is not far behind.

Overall, we are just enjoying this little wonder. She is so good-natured and has been so kind to us as new parents. And, just like everyone said, parenting continues to get more fun each and every day. I still very much appreciate those cuddly baby days, but I also look forward to her increasing communication skills and watching the everyday discoveries unfold. She truly is our delight.

A day at the zoo

Polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear? Mary calling to you!

Looking out into the zebra/rhino area

Hey, giraffe! Over here! Come and see me.

In Gustav Klimt-style: Aunt with baby and dog

Lily's version of The Kiss

Grandma and Her Girls

Mary, Grandma, and Aunt Angela

Grandma with Katie Grace

Lily "helping" Grandma

Lily trying jello for the first time with Grandma

Cousins

Katie Grace

Kate and Lily

Lily and Mary

Rotavirus Lily: The New Typhoid Mary

Carl and I were reminiscing the other day about how getting sick used to mean days of resting on the couch, drinking hot tea, and eating chicken noodle soup in order to nurture ourselves back to health. Those were the days... Now we do not have the luxury of being sick. Carl, Lily and I have just recovered from the stomach flu. Our symptoms began late Monday night and by Tuesday morning, it was difficult to even lift our heads off of our pillows. But we did, and we both went into work. I only made it 3 hours before I had to go back home. Carl lasted the day, but I think he was worse for the wear. I have to say that taking a sick day (or half day) just is not what it used to be when you have a sick toddler to take care of, but we managed.

Luckily, my parents and sister, Angela, arrived Wednesday night, and as my dad said, "The troops have arrived and now you don't have to worry about anything." I think that I could have cried. There is certainly nothing like having family around, especially when you're sick. (And, I actually did get that hot tea and chicken noodle soup!)

Our plan was to host Thanksgiving this year for my mom, dad, my sister Angela, my sister and her husband Suzanne and Tim, and their girls Mary and Katie (by hosting I mean providing the house while my parents cook and basically take care of everything else). Unfortunately, within 24 hours of their arrival, we managed to infect both Angela and my dad with the bug and had to delay seeing Lily's cousins until after Thanksgiving Day. So our Thanksgiving table was a little smaller than expected, but we had a very nice time nonetheless.

My parents and Angela are back in St. Louis today, and we miss them terribly. Fortunately, Suzanne and her family were able to stay a little longer so the girls can get plenty of cousin-time before heading back to Missouri. I will update with pictures soon. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Birthday celebration with friends

Lily having a slice of birthday cake

I decided to make angelfood cupcakes for Lily's birthday party. However, I proceeded to burn all 24 cupcakes, and not just a little bit. It's probably generous to say that there was a 1 inch square of edible substance on each cupcake. Luckily, I had leftover batter and was able to do a very small cake and added the frosting and fresh raspberry topping to it. I think that Lily enjoyed the raspberries the most. She didn't seem all that interested in the cake, but that could be because she had just stuffed herself with a delectable combination of humus and Cheerios. Really, why did I bother baking at all?

The burnt cupcakes were just the topper to my morning. Naturally, I had a few errands to run in the morning, and one item on my list of things to purchase was a bottle of cleaner with bleach (requested by Carl, I might add). This bottle of cleaner (Clorox - be on the lookout) happened to magically come unscrewed and spill its contents into my trunk and all over the things I had just purchased. Really, sometimes you feel like this guy, having insult added to injury. However, everything turned out great, and we had a very lovely day.

Watch mom, I'll show you a great way to open presents

Oh mom, I'm just kidding. I know how to do it.

After party rest time

Notice Carl's contribution to "cleaning up" after - clearing the vegetable/cheese platter

Birthday night pics

Getting into unwrapping her presents

I will conquer the present!

My very first baby doll

I love you baby!

Happy 1st Birthday!!

Happy birthday to my bright, beautiful girl. Lily celebrated her first birthday with mommy, daddy, Aunt Ingrid, Terra, and Irie. Tomorrow we will celebrate with our friends, and the final celebration will take place over Thanksgiving weekend with the Meyer side of the family. It's really more like a birthday month, the way all birthdays should be!

The innocent troublemaker

Lily has been trying more and more table foods lately and seems to enjoy a wide variety of foods. Tonight she had edamame, strips of sweet red bell peppers, and whole wheat crackers with hummus. Although, she mainly used the crackers as a vehicle to shovel in the hummus. Man, does she love the hummus!

Her latest favorite thing is to do is anything that she is not supposed to. She still loves to play in Terra's water dish but has now added repeating "no, no, no" while splashing away. This morning she decided that it was high time that we redecorated the bathroom with a little toilet paper. It seems that anything we say no to becomes an instant favorite. Electrical cords are especially sought after despite strong, unwavering protestations from her parents. Lily has certainly become a handful and then some, but what else would we expect from a toddler?

Victory in Maryland!

You're looking at our newly elected governor, Martin O'Malley, with the future in his hands. We had a very good run in Maryland and are very pleased with the results. We hope that this is a good sign for things to come. We are also very happy with the new Speaker of the House who spoke at a demonstration against the war in Iraq that we attended in D.C.

Sleigh bells ring

Lily climbed right inside this little basket tonight. I guess she figured that she'd get ready for sleigh riding a little early this year.

She's even spied the perfect candidate for a stand-in reindeer.

No longer a baby

Is it just me or does Lily look so old in this picture? I guess there's no denying that she is almost a year old.

In related news, Lily has taken to walking again. She is confident in taking several steps at a time on her own. I think that she will soon be toddling around, and I'll have to admit that the baby days are over and the toddler times are upon us.

Daddy and me

Getting some pointers on walking from daddy

Terra is waiting in the wings in case of any falls so that she can smother Lily with kisses after

Sharing a book between friends

Unfortunately, this picture did not come out very well, but it is still so sweet. Lily was reading a book while Terra was resting on the pillow, just listening and watching her, when Lily reached out and touched Terra's paw. (Maybe it was a scary part in the story, and Lily needed to reassure Terra that everything was alright.) Truly, it was a picture-perfect moment - if only I were a better photographer!

Fun at Gymboree Class

The wavy ramp is no problem - bring it on!

I did it - yay me!

Mommy, don't be silly

Lily had fun at her first Gymboree class today. She particularly liked the balls and had mucho fun during the parachute play. She was a big fan of the maracas and the bubbles too.