More Bath Time

We just love Lily after she takes a bath, she is so snuggly and happy.  

Moaning Myrtle

Today Lily and I went to the mall to walk around since it was too cold to go outside. After about 20 minutes Lily started moaning. She's never done that before, and It started to worry me so I decided to take her home. She moaned and blew raspberries to herself the entire way home and as soon as I pulled her out of her car seat she started cooing and was perfectly fine. Dusty has the same reaction when I take him to the mall, he grumbles and moans the entire time that we're there and as soon as we're home he is perfectly happy. They must be related.

She also blew her way out of another outfit today. She gets poop everywhere. I think its because she likes to be in only her diaper. She can eat her toes much easier if she doesn't have the rest of her clothes on. 

Rocking and a Rolling

Last week my friend Samm and I were driving back from visiting teaching and we were talking about how Lily hasn't been rolling since before the holidays. Before the holidays she rolled a couple of times for Dusty but we think she was held too much during the holidays and she lost interest in rolling. Samm and I were talking about how we both hold our kids a lot and how we think that sometimes that means that they reach milestones later than other kids who don't spend as much time being carted around.   Lily must have heard Samm and I talking because the very next day she starting rolling and we haven't been able to get her to stop since. Before today she hasn't done it when I've had the camera out though. I probably have 45 minutes of film where I'm trying to get her to roll and she rolls as soon as I turn off the camera. She always has to do things her way and I am OK with that.

Splish Splash

We finally found time to take Lily to the pool. We've been trying to go for a few weeks but the pool schedule and Lily's schedule never seem to work together. On Saturday she woke up super early from her afternoon nap and was happy as a clam so we decided to take her. She LOVED it!  The aquatic center has a therapy pool thats 90 degrees so Lily didn't get cold. We stayed for about an hour. She loved being dunked under the water and would keep her eyes open the entire time. She found a green ball in the pool and insisted on holding it and sucking on it for as long as we'd let her.  She also tried to drink the pool water like she does her bath water. She didn't really like the chlorine taste which was good because I'm sure it can't be that great for her to drink. I didn't think she could love anything more than the bath but the pool seems to top the list. It was so much fun, we can't wait to take her again.

Banana on a Stick

Since we started Lily on solids Susie sent her a few gifts. One of them is a Boon silicone teething feeder. Before today I'd just let Lily gum on it but she was staring longingly at my banana so I put some into her chew toy. She sucked it right out, I guess I might need to start her on more than just rice cereal.

Lounging Lily

Now that Lily's teething is really in full swing she just wants to snuggle and lounge around with me all day. We've had more pajama days in the last week than I've ever had in my entire life. It's kind of the best! The weather is terrible here so I am more than grateful for an excuse to stay in my pajamas and watch movies all day with Lily snuggling on me.

FHE

For as long as I can remember Dusty has pestered me to pull out my guitar and play for him. I usually say no but this time I decided to give it a try. Some of my favorite memories growing up were when my mom would get out her guitar and play for us. I remember her playing She'll Be Round the Mountain while my siblings and I ran around the living room in circles. I want Lily to have those same memories so for FHE tonight we sang primary songs while I plucked out the tune on my guitar. I've played maybe twice since I was 18 so I'm super rusty but I was surprised at how fast it came back to me after I played a few songs. Lily sang along to every song, it was so tender. It was so much fun that i'm sure we'll do it again.

Lily & Laundry

Lily's love for peekaboo made laundry day tons of fun. She loved peeking out from under the clothes as I tried to fold them. I'm grateful that she's getting to a point where I can do household chores with her and she doesn't complain.

Peekaboo

Lily's finally figured out how to play peekaboo and she adores it. She will even cover her own face every once in a while when we're playing. It's nice to have a new game to play with her.

Kids are Kind of the Worst with Electronics....

Dusty is pretty nerdy and we have a lot of different gaming consoles. Lily doesn't seem to understand the esteemed position these games hold in her dad's heart. I put her on the couch today while I was doing something and when I turned around she was eating the WiiU controller. Good thing Dusty thinks this is cute right now or I'd be in trouble.

Snack Time

Lily discovered her feet a few days ago and now all she wants to do is suck on them. It's pretty cute but gross at the same time. She inherited Dusty's super clammy hands and feet so her feet usually smell pretty bad. They will start to stink within thirty or forty-five minutes of a bath. I can't imagine putting feet that smell that bad near my mouth but she is constantly doing it. They actually smell pretty yeasty and for some reason they remind me of a bakery my Grandma used to take me to when I was a child. I remember the food at the bakery being very good but it did smell funky in there.

Bad Omens....

Yesterday morning I had a dentist appointment and as I was running out the door I noticed that the night before I'd accidentally melted part of my new food processor to a stove unit. I've always made fun of Jake for doing this with some tupperware back in our Provo apartment and I was miffed to discover that I'd done it myself. When I'd turned on the oven the night before it heated up this unit enough to melt my food processor. Luckily it's just the small bowl and the important part of my food processor is still in one piece. But, in the moment this felt like a bad omen for the rest of my day and in some respects it was. Lily was fussy when she had to take a bottle while I was gone and refused to nap (she's teething) all afternoon long. But what I should have remembered is that you can't let one bad thing in the morning set the tone for the rest of your day. Later, Lily was content being carried in the front pack and sucking on carrots while I cleaned, which she usually doesn't like to do. And then she was so cute with Dusty while I read them scriptures that I just had to snap a picture. It's so easy for me to set the tone for an entire day based on what happens first thing in the morning, but I shouldn't! This is something that I need to work on and I hope when I look back at this post I will. 

Slurping Supper

I wasn't feeding Lily her rice cereal fast enough today and she was getting antsy. She slaps her hands on her high chair tray when she's ready for another bite and today she was constantly slapping her tray so I let her slurp her supper. She did surprisingly well. She didn't spill very much of it and held the bowl with me. It reminded me of the scene in Beauty and the Beast where they drink their breakfast together.

Solids

Up to this point I've been pretty adamant that Lily wouldn't start solids until she was 6 months old because the research says that it will help to prevent her from getting Celiac Disease. I don't want any of my kids to go through what I've gone through and I'm pretty much willing to do anything to prevent them from getting it. Lily has been acting ready for solids for a few weeks now and I've gone back and forth on giving them to her. Finally one of my friends told me about the newest research that contradicted the old opinion of how to prevent Celiac. Being the public health nerd I am, I went and looked up the peer reviewed journal articles and discovered that my friend was right. This made me feel relieved because Lily has been acting ready and milk hasn't seemed to be enough to satisfy her recently.

Yesterday we started her on rice cereal. She loved it and I cried the entire time. She opened her mouth for every spoonful and ate the entire thing. She was in heaven and I was miserable.  Part of me wanted her to hate it so much that she'd never want it again and only want to nurse for the foreseeable future. I was so sad that for the first time in my babies life she didn't just need me. What I had to offer her wasn't good enough anymore. It was a painful reminder that she is growing up too quickly! But I was happy that after she ate all of her rice cereal she decided that she still wanted to nurse. It definitely made the transition easier for me.

5 Months

I can't believe that Lily is 5 months old! It seems like she was just born. She loves to flirt with other babies at church. She coos at them super loudly in sacrament meeting, its hilarious. She started scooting backwards on her stomach and often gets up on her hands and knees. She loves to wake up at 5:00 AM and Dusty is nice enough to wake up with her. She sits in her high chair at dinner time and sucks on a carrot, pickle or strawberry. If we forget to give one to her she gets frustrated during dinner. When we video chat she jumps up and down because she's so excited to see whomever is on the other side. She also jumps up and down when we watch sports or when she gets super tired. Instead of hissing to laugh she's started to cackle. When you laugh at her she cackles in response, its adorable! She's started teething, and as a result she is constantly drooling. Unfortunately, her tooth is coming in super slowly so it hasn't cut yet, but I'm hopeful that it will come in soon. She's just as chubby as ever and we couldn't love her more!

Camp Lily

We used to tease Dusty's mom that her life was like living at a summer camp, we called it Camp Susie. I love attending Camp Susie, it means shopping and going to the pool every day. Recently we've been calling Lily's bedtime ritual Camp Lily because she's living the dream. Lily has a long bedtime ritual. It begins with her bath which takes about 20 minutes. She still adores the bath. After that I give her a baby massage. Our parenting book recommended it as something to do to help you connect with your baby. I started doing it after I felt that Lily and I lost our connection and it seems to be helping. She sits and relaxes while I rub her feet and legs but by the time I get to her arms and back she is wiggly and chatting up a storm. I love it! After that we "wear her down." Literally. She gets strapped into the front-pack and we clean the house that way. She relaxes while we do it and starts to fall asleep. Finally when she's tired, we wrap her up and rock/sing her to sleep. By this point she's so relaxed that it doesn't take more than five minutes for her to be asleep and in her crib. The whole ritual takes about an hour total but I love it. People always advised me to teach my kids to fall asleep on their own at an early age (around 6 weeks) but I can't imagine not putting Lily to bed every night. Camp Lily is the best part of my day!

Play Date

Our neighbors upstairs asked me if I could watch their twins while the husband (a stay at home dad) went to help someone move. Last time they came over Lily was taking a nap so today was the first time they've all played together. Lily loved having playmates besides me and I loved being able to put her on the floor to play without her crying. Now that the twins have gone home and Lily is taking a nap I'm exhausted though... maybe I'll take a nap too. I don't know how my aunt Pari had triplets and survived!

For some reason my phone turned some of the pictures into a GIF...

Morning Munchies

Since Lily started teething about a month ago, she has decided that 5:00 AM is her wake-up time. It doesn't matter what time she goes to bed, when 5:00 hits she is awake. This means that Dusty and I don't usually beat her out of bed. We aren't really morning people and before we had Lily you wouldn't see us up before 6:30 unless there was an emergency. Since we don't beat her out of bed we usually play hot potato with her while we both try to get ready for the day. She doesn't mind shuffling back and forth between us in the morning, and I think it helps to wear her out a little more before her morning nap. Recently I've had a nasty cold so Dusty has been getting up with Lily at 5:00 and letting me sleep in until around 6:00 or 6:30. Its super nice of him but it means that by the time I'm getting ready, he and Lily are out of things to do. This morning they came and watched me get ready. Lily was giving my mirror the stink eye so I gave it to her and she decided that it looked like a perfect chew toy. It was so cute so see her reflection as she chomped on the mirror.

Connections

With all of the traveling that we did for the holidays I felt that Lily and I lost our special connection. We just can't seem to figure out what the other wants. The last month since Dusty started school has been so hard for both of us and we've both ended every day frustrated with one another. I've been praying and trying to figure out what to do and I just haven't been getting anywhere.  It's been such a heart breaking experience for me! I thought that this would all be natural and that it would come easily and it doesn't.

Yesterday I was reading my friend Hannah's blog and her post reminded me of how privileged I am to be Lily's mom. I've thought that and read it before but for some reason it really spoke to me yesterday. After reading her blog post and rereading parts of the parenting book that Dusty bought me, Lily and I finally started connecting again yesterday and its been wonderful. Tonight instead of fighting me to go to sleep, as soon as I sat down to rock her she snuggled in and fell right asleep. She hasn't done that in forever! I sang her usual primary songs to her just because I wanted to. I sing to her every night but tonight it felt so different. There was so much love in her little room that I started to cry. I finally feel like we're connecting again and I am so grateful for that! I couldn't help but try to snap a few pictures of her, in her dark room, so that I could remember this moment. Luckily she didn't wake up!

Daddy Time

Last night I heard Dusty laughing from our living room and I came out to find this...

Saturday Shopping

Today we were grocery shopping and I was holding Lily while Dusty pushed the cart. I called Safeway to ask them a question while we were walking around and thought I had my grocery list out of Lily's reach but when I got off the phone I noticed that she'd been sucking on my list. Unfortunately it was written in red and she had red ink all over her face and my white jacket. It was the most adorable thing ever! After I took it away she pouted the rest of the trip. It's been a few hours now and I've tried washing her face off but it's still a red reminder that she's growing up and wants to see everything I'm holding.