Mother's Little Helper

Marcy is a saint ... let's just say many bonus MOM points were earned this past week. If you were around here last week you would understand what I was talking about. Let's recap what happened since last blog post:

Monday A.M. - Lily is kicked out of school early for thermostat problems. For some reason she is registering at 102 degrees or so ...

Monday P.M. - Lily is exhausted goes to bed, blog post is made.

Tuesday A.M. - Lily wakes up with a higher temperature ... Marcy goes to work in the morning, Grandpa Tom comes over to baby-sit ... Let's just say that he encountered a child that he probably did not recognize from previous meetings. Mild mannered Lily has decided that her favorite thing to do is scream at the top of her lungs directly into your ear. If her ears hurt, everyone's ears will hurt ...

Tuesday P.M. - Marcy comes home from work early to take over and Lily screams at regular intervals most of the afternoon. I come home and she is her usual cheery self ... conspiracy ...

Wednesday - Fever continues ... Lily goes back to the doctor and we start a run of antibiotics. Regular screaming continues and is accompanied by, "I will scream even louder if you put me down and don't hold me syndrome." So Marcy spends the entire day holding Lily. Oh, did I mention about this time that Lil's sidekick, Gypsy, has decided that she is jealous of all the attention the screaming gets and decides that her back legs are going to go limp and that she will cry out it in pain for no apparent reason. So, with child that won't be put down, Marcy coaxes Gypsy into the car to go to the vet where x-rays are performed and pain killers are prescribed. Gypsy, who can't stand to be separated from human conduct will not come upstairs and elects to spend the night in her crate in the basement.

Thursday - Lily does not like to take her medicine. Clothes are ruined, antibiotic and Motrin are spit out ... and Gypsy won't get out of her crate. She will eat but can't walk ... back to the vet for more testing. Gypsy comes home in the afternoon looking a little better. Lily is starting to feel better and has stopped screaming ... order is almost restored.

Friday - Gypsy is moving a little bit better. Lil is miraculously recovered and swears that nothing out of the ordinary happened this past week. Okay maybe not, but her punishment the first time she says something untoward towards her mother will be to read this post and apologize.

Like I said, Marcy earned some major MOM points this week.

Saturday we went to visit Marcy's college friends in far away Virginia. Lily had a chance to play with Brooke, another baby friend with a blog and was on her best behavior. She refused to take a nap so she went to bed early on Saturday night and was kind enough to wake up at 6:30 on Sunday morning. As luck would have it, we had errands to run so we managed to visit Target, CVS and the grocery store, and return home by nine ... at which point Marcy and I wanted a nap but Lily did not. She crawled around on our bed and kicked us in the head while we slept. Eventually (I think), she passed out and I awoke to find her sleeping across the bed, using Marcy as a pillow and my ribs as a foot rest. The day finished up with Grandpa Tom (he was willing to come back for more) and Grandma Gail coming over for dinner last night.

Lil went back to school this week ... a one week absence duly noted on her record (they did not even ask for a doctor's note) and the new week was off with a whimper.

Our technological problems have been fixed and our little Casio EXILIM 750 (which now serves as both our video and still cameras) has been replaced ourtesy of Costco's willingness to take back anything. Photographic evidence of an unforgettable week is below.

We are off to Florida on Thursday to celebrate the remarkable achievement of Poppa Syd and Grandma Essie's 65th Wedding Anniversary. 65 is not on the list ... for special gifts but really, once you've been married that long what material gift can be left to exchange. By the way, if you check out this list, notice that 100th anniversary is 10 carat diamond ... something for Sydney and Essie to shoot for!

Until next Monday, when we will be posting with a tan, enjoy the shots ...


Lil with her favorite book ... Goodnight Gorilla


Under the weather.


Playing with Brooke.


Kicking back, enjoying a Ritz cracker.


Feeding Brooke some Ritz.


...


Playing a little soccer.


Eating again ... notice the crossed legs.


Spilling some Goldfish to share with Gypsy.


The race to the last one.


Having some milk and brownie with Grandma and Grandpa. Check out Tom's one of a kind sweatshirt ...


And a little movie to tide you over.

Update: Some say they can't see the video ... not sure what is going since it is working on all the machines that I have access to ... make sure that you have installed Macromedia flash player 7 . If that doesn't work, you can try and watch here. It is probably a problem with the free video posting site but I am not really sure. I am republishing the entry again so maybe that will work.

Update II: User error, it should work now.

Night Fever

We had some mild weather this weekend so we got to spend some time on the playground and outside, the cold weather is back so we enjoyed while we could!

Had dinner with John, Michelle, Cole and Hayley on Saturday.

Other than that, just another relaxing weekend around the house. Lily had some good naps and Mom and Dad managed to tidy up the house and garage.

Lil's favorite snack to date is Rice Chex, she cannot get enough, nor can Gypsy! She is definitely saying and identifying "ball," "Ma" and "Da" - this week she pointed at a picture of Stuart and said "Da." She is learning how to get down by herself from furniture, including the couch and bed. She also is constantly trying to put on her shoes, socks, pants, and barrettes, and last night was trying to clip her toenails with the nail clippers. She loves taking baths, and crawls upstairs as soon as I ask her if she wants to take one and cannot contain herself until she is placed in the tub!

The weekend was great, but unfortunately Lily came down with a fever this morning while at school. Fortunately I was home so I picked her up and brought her home for a nice long nap. Her temp got up to 102 so we took her to the doctor. She has an ear infection, fever, and a sore throat. Motrin and TLC were prescribed. Fortunately her fever was down this evening and she ate a little bit of dinner. She had a bath and went to bed early. Tomorrow she will be staying home from school to ensure a full recovery, we will see how the week plays out.

We had technical difficulties with the camera so we have a limited number of pictures - the new camera will come this week. I believe, however, that Stuart will be uploading a video at some point...



Fun on the playground.


"Wheeee...."



A little movie time ...


"How does this thing work, and can I eat rice chex while I'm on it?"


Mac-n-cheese.


"Done!"

30,000 Pounds of Bananas

A nice quiet three day weekend is in the books. We are back in the swing of things after the holidays and Lily is back to her routine. Back to work and school tomorrow. Not much new to report. We spent most of the weekend around here - running errands, avoiding the bitter cold weather (winter appears to be making an apperance). We had a really bad wind storm on Saturday night - part of our neighbors roof blew off and it was banging away the whole night ... Lil slept through the whole thing. On Sunday night Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Maurice came over for dinner and got to spend some q.t. with Lil.

On the development front, I definitely concur with Marcy's description of Lil's vocab. We have added a few new things this week -- she knows what a fork is, when you say can I have a kiss she blows you a kiss and she can identify dogs other than Gypsy as dogs. On the eating front, she is becoming a bit fussier ... It seems the only sure fire winner now is Trader Joe's French Toast and bananas. We keep trying to expand her horizons and they keep shrinking ... and fluctuating from day to day. Some days she likes chicken, other days, not so much. Last night she kept trying to steal pasta with pesto and chicken off Marcy's plate. It would have been a scene if Marcy had not be willing to share :)

That is all for now. If this week's post looks different it is because we are trying some new technology ... we will see how the test run goes.


Hiding.


A close up.


Looking guilty.


"Nothing like kicking back on Sunday morning in my rocker watching some Baby Einstein."


"Can't a girl eat some Rice Chex in peace."


Getting ready to brave the elements with a little help from Grandpa Maurice and Grandma Phyllis.


Lil takes the cake.

Queen of the Masquerade Ball

After returning from our vacation in Florida, we got back into the swing of things back home. After a two week break, Lily went back to school and enjoyed getting to see all of her friends.

Thursday night we had dinner with Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom, and Tracy before she and Stan headed back to Colorado.

Friday was a very relaxing day, Lily got to explore all of her Christmas and Hanakuh loot including all of her Little People and Weeble Wobble treehouse. As you will see, she spent lots of time in the ballpit, and we fortunately bought more balls so she is pretty much set and could sit in it for hours, if we let her. The vampire came out in Lily on Friday night. Mom was making dinner, and Lily decided to come up behind her and bite her leg. Hopefully Mom's yelp will deter any further chomps, we suspect it is due to some teething, not acting out but we'll keep you posted. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing, just playing with more toys and Lily watched the Skins actually win on Saturday!!

Lily is now sitting at the table in her booster seat, the highchair is in storage. She now runs to her chair when it is time to eat or if she wants a snack. Developmentally, she is saying and identifying "dog," "duck," "da," and "ma" - and I believe she might have tried to say tree tonight although I'm not sure, Mom's wishful thinking. Lily has also begun pinching her fingers together and giving us invisible objects, and when we take the invisible object, she collapses in hysterics.

Enjoy the pics, see you next week!!



Fun in the ballpit!


Crazy hair!


On the go...


Up to no good...


A snack and some toys.


Hanging in her pjs and uggs.


Fixated on Sesame Street.


"Hmmm...what do I see under here?"


Ready for some fun outside.


Dad playing in the ballpit...fortunately we did not have to call the fire dept to extract him.


"170 balls, I'm in heaven!"


"I love my ballpit, I really love my ballpit!"


"Look what I found!"


"Tastes delish!"


"I'm done chomping, you can have it back Gypsy."


Engrossed in the Redskins game - Go Skins!!


Dinner time!


Lily's method of eating with a fork.


Playing with her aqua doodle with Gypsy.

North and South of the River

So with Hannukah and Christmas in the rearview mirror we head back to work and school tomororow. In the interim, we had a nice week long trip down to Florida for some fun, sun and relaxation.

Lily had a lot of fun at with her Bubbie, Great Aunt Donna and Uncle Stephen, Cousin Stephanie and Great Grandma Essie and Poppa Syd. She also had lots of fun at the neighborhood playground and at the Little Person Pool. She was great on the plane rides there and back and overall the trip was a huge success.

No major developments but little pieces are coming together ... Lily is babbling and words seem to be bubbling to the surface. Lil has also started to try and eat with a fork ... right now the food gets stabbed and then taken off the fork near her mouth and then into her mouth by hand ... small steps.

Anyway, here are the weeks pictures and two movies. Enjoy and see you next week.

UPDATE: The videos are kind of large so they make take a little time to load.



Lily met Christina on the plane to Florida and became fast friends.

Playing with a new toy in Florida ... this was one of the week's favorites.

Just relaxing in the sun.

Reading with Great Uncle Stephen.

Riding the mini see-saw at the playground.

More playground fun.

Visiting Great Grandma Essie and Poppa Syd at the Ocean. Now Lily has been to both the Pacific and Atlantic.

With Grandma Essie.

Pointing out the scene to Poppa Syd.

Testing the waters with a sea shell in hand.

Checking out some new toys with Great Aunty Donna.

More time at the playground.


Video #1.

With Cousin Stephanie.

Lily deep in conversation with her Bubbie.

Fun at the baby pool.


Video #2.

Relaxing with Dad.