Well, this has been a hard couple of months for me. I always figured this would be a tough time of the year, with not being able to be around Lily too much. But, it has been a lot rougher due to the amount of work I’ve had going on.
It has been even tougher given that Lily really has been growing and changing quite a bit during this time. She is consistently changing and transitioning from a little baby into a little girl. Some of the things that I’ve seen her doing over the past couple of weeks:
* eating more big people food, she got part of a toaster pancake for breakfast the other day
* she loves to wave at people; I’m still not sure she is doing consciously as she was waving at her pancakes the other morning
* she has been loving to go into places she has not supposed to be at. A couple of times Katy has just given up and let her play in the Tupperware panty shelf. That is a bit easier than trying to keep your eye on her every minute, while we’re doing stuff. In the morning, Katy comes upstairs with Lily while I am brushing teeth. Even though there is a lot of toys in our bedroom, she always comes into the bathroom and crawls around that dirty floor. She really loves those door springs on the floor at the base of the back of the door.
* The funniest thing has been to watch Lily play in front of a mirror. We have a tall stand-up mirror in our room (a Harry Pottter-esque Mirror of Erised). When Lily sees herself in it from a far, she loves to crawl over to it and she gets right up close to it. Then, she loves to get up close and give herself a kiss in the mirror.
* Her sense of humor is starting to come up and she is starting to enjoy playing chase and likes to crawl away when we come at her quickly while she is down on the floor.
The past couple of weeks have been busy for me, with me having some late nights. I have been able to get home at normal time on Thursdays so that I can be here for Community Group. I continue to be loving our study of The Story (especially as we are in the Old Testament history section – this week was Daniel).
Last weekend, I was actually home on Saturday. But, I would have rather been working. I was home because we had to go to a funeral. Katy’s Uncle Henry died on February 6. The funeral was last Saturday. I’m not sure this is real mind-boggling advice – but maybe, it was not the best idea to take a baby to the funeral. Lily was on a “one-strike” status. Any screams and she would have to leave. We got there about 10 minutes early to the service and they were playing a slide show. Lily was pretty much fine during that time. However, once the service started, we got through about 30 seconds of an opening song before the preacher got up there, and Lily made a shout so it was time to leave. I took her out and then found an empty room (kinda like a bride’s preparation room) with carpet and let Lily play around.
We got Lily home thereafter (she had missed her afternoon nap) and then it was on to our Valentine night out. We took Lily downtown to my Mom and then went down and had dinner at the Westin, didn’t know much what to expect, and it was a bit surprising when we had some ostrich (grilled squab) as the appetizer. Dinner was a bit odd, but the chocolate trio saved the meal.
Sunday, we got to both be in church (in the service) for what might be the first time this whole year, with all of Katy’s travelling. Unfortunately, I had to go straight in to work but we took the time to do an odd brunch at Tomatillo’s (fish and ribs and pork chops are not what I expected from a Mexican breakfast). It is pretty funny to watch Lily while we are eating because she really wants what we’re having. She has these Wagon Wheel crackers and really goes to town and downs them quick quickly. After that, it was on to work for me. I didn’t get home until after 8 and Lily was asleep already.
During the week, I stayed on schedule, taking Lily downtown on Monday, as usual. But, the week was not normal after that, being at work until about midnight through Wednesday. Lily was a bit out of her sorts and started to seem a bit sick, beginning on Tuesday. We did have to break down on Thursday and take her into the doctor. She made it almost 10 months before being sick enough to have to go into the doctor. It didn’t seem nothing too major, we did get some antibiotics and Lily seemed ok by Friday. I got to leave work at a normal time on Friday (Katy had ‘Shopaholic’ movie night with the girls) and spend a bit of time with her for a few minutes before she headed to bed.
Saturday, it was on to work, like any normal work day. Just 8 more days and then things will slow down a bit for me. Lily and Katy hung out at home, Katy had to go into the shop for an event, so Grandma Patty came over. I noticed a couple of things that I hadn’t seen Lily do when I got home tonight. First, she is starting to stand up on her own a bit more. The last month of so, she’ll hold on to furniture and move around and she is crawling big time. But, if you tried to let her stand on her own, she’d get really nervous and you’d have to rip your hand out of her grasp. Now, she will let go. She’ll only hover for about 30 seconds before flopping down on her backside, but at least it is something.
The other thing I noticed was what Katy has been telling me for 3 months, that Lily is not that much into books at this point. I dared to take my chance on Saturday night and read to her. She was sitting about 2-3 feet away from me and really seemed to enjoy the pictures. But, then she had enough and she made the effort to crawl over to me, and she literally took the book and closed it shut. “Dad, I’m done reading for now.” It’s one thing for her to not want to read and whine or something, but to make the conscious effort to come over to me and physically shut the book, that shows the high degree to which she prefers not to read at that point.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Fort Davis
Well, Lily and Katy just got back from a weekend in Fort Davis. I can't believe that of all the times Katy has been there, I have never been able to go. I know I would enjoy it out there. Let me see if I can recap what they did. They got to ride horses, see some really big pigs. Meet all of Kelly's family out there. Lily was even on the horse, riding around with Faith. It was a tough trip for Lily, travelling six hours each way, this after five hours each way last weekend going down to McAllen.
Here is a link to the pictures from this weekend:
Last weekend, we were down in McAllen for Aunt Diane's wedding to Elmer. Technically, she is Lily's great-aunt, but there was and will only be one great-aunt in the family, Aunt Bess. So, Diane has asked to be called "Aunt Great". We headed down there last Saturday, stopped by their home for a bit, then went back to the hotel, let Lily cry a bit instead of taking a nap. Then, we had a family-only wedding at the church (Lily didn't follow etiquette and wore white to match the bride), back to Diane & Elmer's place for some champagne. Then, we had a nice dinner out at Tony Roma's. Lily was quite a champ, making it through the meal. But, we had to apologize when we left for the mess on the floor under her high chair. Lily did ok sleeping in the hotel room with us, but she did wake up around 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep. Katy was a champ and got up with her, while I dozed back off into dream land. Before we headed back, we had a stop off at a Mexican bakery, and then we got to drive behind a successful hunter on the way up I-37.
Lily also had her 9-month checkup last week. Very good report, she's checked in at 19 1/2 pounds and 28 1/4 inches. Her readings have changed a bit, with her closer to the 50th percentile in weight and 75th in height. But, she still is eating well and not losing weight so all in all, she is doing great.
Work continues to be busy for me, and it is a shame because this has been quite the month for Lily's development. At the beginning of January, she was sitting fine on her own but not moving. Not, she can't stay still. She completely crawls on her own. When she hasn't seen me in a while, she loves to crawl over to me, and then pull herself up onto her feet with my legs. She still won't stand on her own. She can hold her on for about 10 seconds, but if you try to let go and make her do that, she gets real nervous and now just would rather sit than try and stand. Sleeping is going to be a challenge the next few weeks. Several times already, we have caught her waking up from a nap or bedtime, standing in her crib, sometimes playing and sometimes crying. But, throwing her on the floor while we do something else or get ready is a thing of the past. About time to get the safety gates put up on the stairs. But, even though it makes our life a bit more stressful, this is certainly a fun time and exciting to see her development.
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