Wait...where'd all this stuff come from?

We'll Start with some Photos. In no specific order. Enjoy!

Amber (My Sister-In-Law) With Lily-Monster!

Lily, Overwhelmed with new stuff. (Thanks Everyone!)

My parents with both their grandchildren.

All the "Kids" the 26th.

Our Family, On the 26th.

Lily, Christmas Day! Yes, that is a candy cane striped outfit!

Lily-Monster with the Daddy-Monster, Christmas Day!






Lily-mon and Me, Christmas Day!

Lily and Auntie-Sarah, Christmas Eve.

Those are not our presents, we Borrowed them for this picture, pretty cute if I don't say so myself. Christmas Eve at Adam's Aunts house.

What a week! It's been a busy week of Christmases, appointments and trying days/nights at our house.

We had a great Christmas.

Christmas Eve was at Adam's Aunts house. It was fun and hectic as usual. But it was nice to see everyone and show off how cute Lily was in her dress. We got some good pictures too, of her with family and in front of their tree, cause they had way more presents in front of their tree than we did so obviously that makes for better pictures right? Christmas Day was at Adam's parents house. That too was fun, a little hectic at first since all of Adam's Nieces and his nephew wanted to hold Lily but thankfully she LOVES other kids so that wasn't an issue for her. They gave her some great toys and some jammies and stuff. She made out pretty well there. We got the deep fryer we wanted so that was nice too (and yes, we have tested it already) The day After Christmas we went down to my brothers for Christmas. It was a good time. My parents were there and we had a good day, opened gifts! I got lots of scrap booking stuff (thank you Amber!) Which I have been working on a lot the last few days, making great progress now, I am up to month two....so what if she is SEVEN months old now. It'll get there. Lily got a lot of cool toys and books, and some adorable outfits, that I can't share with you since I plan on using one of them for her professional photos if I ever get her in for them. Saturday and Sunday we just hung out around the house. I did go to Kohl's and pick up a photo album there that I had been admiring for a while, it was on sale AND I had a coupon! Woot!

Sunday night was a new experience for us. Lily went down to bed about the same as usual only about 11:30 she woke up and refused to go back to sleep. It was dreadful, I am sure it was well after 1:30 when I finally decided to just let her sleep with us and even then she managed to wake up screaming about every half hour or so. It was NOT fun and it has made me even MORE grateful for the good sleeper she is, I could not handle that every night. Thankfully last night was back to usual. We put her down at 8 and then about 11 or so she woke up crying to which Adam and I both had some choice words, but decided to let her just cry it out, I swear it wasn't even 5 minutes later and she was out again. We both breathed a sigh of relief and went back to sleep. Though I'm sure it was on both our minds (I know it was on mine anyway) that she was going to do it again, wake up and stay awake and make us miserable. Thankfully we didn't here another peep out of her until 6:30 this morning. So it was a good night. And today, though she is still very needy she slept in her crib for her naps which makes me happy again!

Tomorrow Lily-mon and I are going down to see my friend and her new baby Kayden! I'm excited to see them! We got a lot of snow today so I am hoping that the weather will cooperate and the roads will be good for us on our way down there. Then we are going to some friends house for New Years Eve. Thursday (New Years Day) We are heading up to my grandma's house for a few days. SO this will likely be my last post over the vacation and for 2008.

Hope everyone has a very safe and happy New Year!

Next Post, I suppose I should come up with some New Years Resolution's huh? Let me think about it.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Well It's Christmas Eve already, holy moly.

So just a very quick post to wish Everyone (you know, both of my readers) a Very Merry Christmas. Enjoy time with your family. This season does come but once a year and this is it! Don't waste it! Enjoy it!

CONGRATULATIONS!

My Friends Nicolle and Andy had their baby yesterday (12/22/08) at 2:39pm. Kayden Robert. He is 8 pounds 11 ounces. and from the picture she sent me, he's pretty cute! So a big CONGRATS to them! Enjoy your bundle of joy!

Bonus: They get to bring him home on Christmas Day. I mean is there really any better present than that?

I hope you guys love being parents as much as Adam and I do (on most days LOL)!

Change of Plans?

Why do things never go as planned? At least for me anyway.

Friday Adam and I went to a movie of my choice since we had a free babysitter. We went and seen Bolt. It was great, I was looking forward to coming home to a sleeping baby. Um, Yeah. She was wide awake. So we still had to put her to bed. Whatever we still got a night out. But from now on, at least til she gets older I think we will avoid planning things for when her bedtime is cause it just throws her off too much.

Saturday was my birthday! It went well. We went out for lunch, were going to go car shopping but the weather was crappy and snowy and icky so we just went home instead. The rest of the day we just hung out at home and watched TV on the couch, it was a nice day.

Sunday we were supposed to go to my parents house for dinner, which got canceled because of the weather on Saturday and in all reality it would have been just fine to drive on Sunday. So Instead Adam went into work (which now he gets Christmas Eve off, which is a nice trade off) And I ended up alone with the baby all day. I was going to use this time to get chores done, cleaning/laundry, etc. Nope. The girl was having none of that. She just wanted to be held ALL weekend, and after a horrible night on Saturday this was just far too wearing on me.

I think I need a vacation. Badly.

Since Pictures of the Lily-Monster always cheer me up (especially in her I Love Mommy shirt) I thought I'd share one!

Older and wiser?

Another year has come and gone. Tomorrow actually marks a quarter century for me. Yup it's my birthday! The big 2-5. I can handle it though. So let me just take a moment to reflect on a few things.

Last year at this time, I was pregnant, still sick, but getting better. Adam and I had gone away for a couple nights. It was glorious! We were still preparing for the little Lily-Mon. I didn't have much Christmas spirit as I was still consumed with throwing up and trying to get things ready for her.

This year....We will probably be car shopping. Or truck shopping rather. Hanging out at home as we are expecting a big snow storm. And Lily is almost 7 months old already.

Next year? I am anxious to see where we will all be this time next year? Lily will be old enough to realize what snow is...MAYBE understand a little bit about what Santa is (though likely not a whole lot) But at least she'll be able to open presents. And of course at that point we may even be thinking about trying for another monster at that point.

It really is insane how much a year can change your life.

I am also reminded (as a friend just had a stillborn baby boy this week) That I should really take this time and be so thankful for what we have. I have a wonderful family, a nice place to live, and a very Happy, healthy baby girl.

My heart goes out to her and her family as I can't imagine such a loss, even harder as it's so close to the holiday season.


So I guess, Happy Birthday to me. :-) Here's to another year.

As I promised...

So yesterday I get up. Casually make a comment about how cold it feels and how ironic that is cause Adam turned the heat up at night so we wouldn't turn Lily into a Lily-cicle. Well we go about or normal morning routine. And I go downstairs and it's 50 degrees...Brr. I try to turn the thermostat up, it does nothing. So I yell up the stairs to Adam and he comes down and tries to fix it. Whatever, he'll try and get out of work early and come home and see if he can find what's wrong with it. Then he takes the dog out as usual. And goes to start the truck for me so I don't freeze my nards off on my short drive to work. It doesn't start. He has to jump it.

So He came home early from work and the furnace seems to be fine, we think it was just a fluke. Whatever, he enjoys a nice quiet day at home. Meanwhile, I have the truck, which did run fine on my way to work despite Adam telling me that it won't. I get cocky. Fast Forward to 3:20, I go out and start the truck. It starts fine. I leave at 3:30, remember that the wipers don't work right. I grumble to myself. I manage to kill the truck before I even leave the parking lot here. BUT I get it restarted, only to kill it again at the intersection. *sigh* SO I call Adam, he is off in another town on his way to pick up the Lily-Mon. So I wait, and wave people to go around me. He shows up 25 minutes later. I'm freezing to death (I swear to god on that one) We get it started, I follow him home. Get home, the heat stopped working again. Whatever, we get it going and then we go and get the baby. Get home make supper, while Adam fixes the truck (thankfully an easy fix). Ate supper, went to bed.

This morning. We make a comment about how the heat was running. I get downstairs later and it's NOT working. *sigh* So I go down and get it running again.

I gotta say, normally I can't wait to get home, but I think I'd rather stay at work.

It doesn't help any that lily hasn't been sleeping as usual lately. She's been waking up a lot. We are getting better about leaving her and letting her go back to sleep on her own though so I guess that's good. I think she's going through a growth spurt or something. Who the heck knows anymore.

For your Viewing Pleasure!

Our Family! Thanksgiving 2008

Lily and Santa, Her first visit. She could take it or leave it Sorry, I'm too lazy to crop it out.

I LOVE this one of my Mom and her. That is Grandpa's hat she is wearing.

Nothing could be more fun than helping mommy fold the laundry!

Ok, I'm ready to go in the house now. It's COLD out here. (Her first snow)

I promised pictures...here they are. I'm tired from the incredibly LONG day we had....I'll write about it tomorrow, After, hopefully a nice good night sleep. Enjoy

A Jumble of Mish-Mash...

It's the Christmas season, and yes, I have been seriously slacking in keeping this up to date. Turns out it's super hard to find a nice balance between work, motherhood, trying to find time for cleaning, workouts, eating right. Sigh.

Some updates.

1. Yes, I still need to post Santa Pictures. and Some snow pictures, and probably some other pictures I'm behind on. I'll get there one of these days.

2. Lily LOVES to blow raspberries, she was just learning how to do it in my last post but that girl has gone to town with them, and blows them at you all the time now, she's good at it too. And it still makes me laugh, every. single. time.

3. Adam got me Wii Fit for my birthday! I am LOVING it! No, it's not my birthday yet (Saturday!) But he gave it to me early and no I don't mind, It's getting my buns moving and getting some activity in to counter-act all the cookies I have made, and eaten.

4. I have fallen in love. With my Kitchen Aid mixer that is. It is heavenly, and I want to bake ALL the time, which counter-acts my wii fit progress, but it's so worth it.

5. We had a rough morning this morning. Furnace out, Truck not working properly. But it's warm here at work and hopefully Adam will have things figured out by the time I leave today and the truck will hopefully start for me.

6. My Aunt and uncle dropped in on Saturday and gave Lily-mon a Christmas present. They were very generous and her Favorite toy of them all is the little stuffed puppy. It makes no noise, does nothing fancy, But it makes her laugh like it's going out of style. I believe I was the same way as a child...a little odd.

7. I have almost all my Christmas cards out. I'm still working on them, and getting real tired of them too.

8. I am looking forward to having some vacation next week. 12 days...all in a row.

9. Though I am NOT looking forward to dental work and baby shots.

10. L-Monster Still doesn't roll over, though she sits up by herself really well now and can go for a LONG time sitting by herself. She gets thisclose to rolling over and then decides she's happy where she is. Any day now. Of course I've been saying that for a couple months now.

Am I missing anything?


Note to self: Need to upload pictures.

I'll try and get to it tonight.

Did I mention it's kinda gross when she does it?

So Lily's newest thing is blowing raspberries. And Can I just say yuck. She is pretty cute when she does it. She has it mostly figured out, but the drool. Oh my goodness the drool. Plus she chooses the oddest times to blow them at you. Like when you are trying to feed her sweet potatoes. And heaven forbid you laugh at her, or she'll just keep right on doing it. That girl is a HAM. At least she didn't do it to Santa. In fact, we brought her to see Santa on Friday night and she handled that a lot better than I thought she would actually. Would she laugh, giggle, or even smirk for the camera though? Nope. But she didn't cry so we figure that in itself is a pretty decent victory. I still need to scan the photos in to share with the world. I haven't had a chance too, it's been a pretty crazy hectic weekend at the Lily-Mon's house, so I'll have to come back to it another day, BUT I promise I will post the Santa pictures!

Some friends of ours welcomed their third little girl into the world this week! Kamryn Ann. She is ADORABLE. and Small, oh so small. weighing in at a whopping 7 pounds. Lily was never that tiny. But she is perfect, adorable and has the cutest raspy cry (For now anyway)! So congrats to them!

6 Month Photos

Of course this ALSO coincides with Thanksgiving, so these are her 6 months pictures.

And yes, You are seeing that right. The girl CAN sit up by herself now! It's like magic. 6 months is the magical number!

Our family Picture. I don't think we've had one since she was just a measly month old.

Holy Fast 6 Months Batman!

So today I come bearing NO pictures. But I will be taking some tonight and will update when I get a chance. But I just have one simple little song to sing today.


Happy half birthday to Lily
Happy half birthday to Lily
Happy half birthday to my Lily-mon.
Happy half birthday to Lily

Man has it just zoomed right on by. It seems like yesterday we were anxiously awaiting her arrival by making sure everything was in it's proper place in the nursery, only to re-arrange it the next day cause I had nothing better to do.

And now... We are up to 3 meals a day, working on a sippy cup, learning how to sit up without help and giggling like it's going out of style! What a difference just a few meager months can make in the world of a baby.

So anyway, pictures (Christmas ones at that) to follow.

Oh and tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I imagine I will have photos and a post for that too. Cause you know I'm one of those people that documents every little thing the girl does. :-)

My baby is getting so big!

A Meeting of the Minds.

Lillian and her new friend Ivan!

So I had a shopping date with a friend of mine yesterday. And of course we both brought along the kiddos since I still haven't gotten around to teaching the dog how to change a diaper and Adam was at work. But it worked out well. We wandered around and did some shopping, of course shopping for the kids, not for us, because as moms that is now what we do. But really when your babies are so little, those things we shop for are more for our amusement. Though I can't speak for Ivan, But I know that Lily would be completely and totally happy if I never put her in any clothes and gave her just a scrap of paper to play with. It really is the simple things in life that make her happy right now.

Also on our shopping trip, I found my long sought after Baby FLANNEL! And it looks pretty darn good on her too. I had to throw a bow in her hair since she looked more like a little dude than a little lady, but at least I'll get more than one use out of her Christmas bow that way, right?

Don't Mind the popeye look she has going on there, this is first thing in the morning.

It's Thanksgiving week too! A short week at work, get to get the L-monster all dressed up and show her off! I don't think it gets any better than that. :-)

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I'm feeling better today. Not sure what was up with yesterday but I think everyone should take a day to feel sorry for themselves. After that it can only get better right? RIGHT?

I have a plan. I hope to stick to it. But I've got one. Though I really can't make any promises as I've had plans in the past and still failed.

Small steps. Little, tiny, minuscule, achievable goals that I can realistically stick to.

Here goes.

Why is it so hard?

To be healthy? To live healthy? To find time to exercise? To eat right? I don't understand how people can say it is and how once you are in the habit of doing it, it becomes easy and some say even enjoyable. I can't seem to get to that point. Heck I can't even make it a whole week of making the right choices and getting some activity in. Truth be told. I'm tired. I'm tired of trying and failing. I'm tired from work and want to sit on my butt and do nothing but eat potato chips and eat cake. The little time I DO get with Lily I want to spend it ALL with her. I don't want to take 30-60 minutes of that precious time to workout if I can't include her somehow. When all is said and done, Monday thru Friday I am lucky if I get to see her for 5 waking hours a day. 5 FREAKING HOURS A DAY. Heck my In-Laws get to see her for like 9.5-10 hours a day (not including naps, that she isn't spectacular about anyway) So those precious 5 hours I get I want to have. And I want to be with her, playing with her watching her grow.

And truth be told, being healthy and working out are SO low on my priority list that all I end up doing is beating myself up for not being able to stick with anything or even make a simple choice like whether to have cake or fruit. It's not fair. Life's not fair. And it makes me sad. Sad that my IL's see my baby more than I do. Sad that I can't seem to get control of my weight and my habits.

I WANT to be healthy.
I WANT to weigh less.
I WANT to look and feel great in my skin.
And most importantly...
I WANT to spend MORE time with the baby.

People tell me the grass is always greener on the other side. That I would get sick of being with her. But what's the alternative? I get to see her far less than anyone who would babysit. Be it daycare or my In laws. That I'll probably miss her first steps, her first words and all of that because I have to work.

I know I know. Pity Party, table for 1 please.

Lest we forget, I do feel blessed. I AM a lucky person.

I do have a wonderful husband. A beautiful Baby girl. Wonderful Family that happily watches her for us so we don't HAVE to put her in daycare right now.

I'm just struggling right now. BIG TIME. And I don't know what to do.

She's got teeth!

What? Not what you were expecting? My Mother in Law saw this pacifier and had to get it for her. And I have to admit, it IS pretty humorous. I mean she's a baby. I HOPE her real teeth won't look like that, but as my Mother in Law and I pointed out...we will love her anyway. Though we would promptly be getting them fixed.

Which brings us to my next subject.

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out here soon. And shortly thereafter. BRACES. I'm not super thrilled but the end result will be worth it. I am just not happy with my smile, I've always been very self-conscience about my smile, but now it also comes down to my dental health. I do have a pretty bad overbite that I would like to have fixed. So the next couple months I will be enjoying my non-metal mouth until I get those bad boys on. But you didn't come here (does ANYONE come here?) to read about me did ya?

Back to Lily-Bob... (get it....lily-bob. Like Billy Bob....oh never mind)

We also have a regular Sunday routine of sorts, that has sorta been interrupted by Adam working it now. But We always read the newspaper together. The ads anyway. You know to see all the stuff we can't afford to buy. ANYWAY. Lily thought she would join in this past week. Her and Adam had a grand ol' time.

Note: She is looking at a TOOL ad. Like father like daughter.

Happy Day after Election Day

I am so unbelievably happy that the election is over. I've had my fill of it all. Done with the political ads. Done with the debates. Done with knowing I'm going to lose but even with voting not being able to do anything about it.

So this is where I sit. I KNEW I was going to lose. I knew it would come to this and that Obama had lots of supporters. But I also figured that out in our wonderful country that there were at least a few more supporters. And was hoping that we would lose marginally. But it wasn't marginal at all. Obama won by a landslide. And so it all begins.

Did I ever mention that I am a poor sport and don't like losing?

*pouts*

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Ok for like the 2 people that actually read my blog that is. :-)

Lillian was a Ladybug (or Lilybug as some have called her). We got her all dressed up and brought her over to Adam's parents house and then over to his grandma's. She was overtired, teething and just in general not a happy girl. BUT she was cute while she did it. And she slept hard when we got home.

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

What? You didn't know that Ladybugs suck on Pacifiers? They don't. But Lilybugs do, especially when they are of the tired variety.

Who needs teeth anyway?

Well Big News for Lily! She's getting some teethers on the bottom! We are excited but frustrated all at the same time. I mean, what makes a baby crabbier than teething. But at the same time this is a big event! Our little baby is growing up! Getting teeth of her very own. (not that she was previously sharing teeth with someone)

I'll update when you can actually see more, since right now she you can't really see them unless she is screaming.

My little girl is really growing up...

She can stand By herself (with the help of the couch) I can't believe it. She's not even 5 months old yet.

My little girl is growing up!

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch.

Such a curious Girl she is!

Look at our Little Punkin'!

Such a big smile!

Me And Lily with her ^Wild^ Hair!

So on Sunday we went to a local orchard that has a pumpkin patch. I thought it would be fun to pick out our own pumpkins all the while getting in some good photos of our Punkin' in the pumpkin patch.



We did the petting zoo! Where a llama almost ate Lily's shoe, he was only trying to do her a favor as I'm sure she doesn't like wearing shoes anyway. They had Chicks, llamas, goats, sheep, a pony, a donkey, baby ducks and a very long haired rabbit. Of course we didn't let lily pet them as she surely would have put her hand in her mouth and ended up with mad cow disease or something similar. OK maybe not, but who wants to clean baby hands. Plus she seemed fine with just watching them.



Then we went to watch how they used to make apple juice in the "good ole' days" Which really did not seem worth grinding up all those apples for that tiny amount of juice, but what do I know right?



Of course we walked thru the little store that had several varieties of apples, pumpkins, gourds and such. Then we decided to do the pumpkin patch. I mean, after all, that was the reason we went. We wandered around there. Found the perfect place to do photos! But not really any good pumpkins, it seems we may have gone a little to late as they were all picked over, but we walked thru it all anyway, which was fun. It was a beautiful day.




Then came the hayride thru the orchard. Which I'm sure most people would find kinda lame. I thought it was fun as I had never been on a hayride before, and Lily was happy as long as she was outside. So we enjoyed that.



After that we were off to the store to pick out some pumpkins they had pre-picked. So we got a couple of those and headed home. A very nice day! And Lily enjoyed it too!

Lily-monster is growing up...

4 months. Holy freaking moly. I can't believe how the time is just flying these days. Some pics for the update:

Such a Happy Girl!'

I'm ready to eat like a big girl mom!

Just take the picture already! I hate tummy time.

Next thing I know I'll be reading a blog about my grandchildren. *faint* No, I'm not being dramatic. :-)

It's a jungle out there.

I survived day one! I actually managed to control every single thing that went into my mouth yesterday! It's a Christmas-freaking miracle.

And it's all thanks to http://www.sparkpeople.com

Here comes Day 2!

So it's been brought to my attention...

I know, I know. I have not updated you on my jogging progress. That's probably cause there IS no progress. I was doing great. Even Adam thought I was doing great and then one day he brought me flowers and a treat and told me how proud he was of me and I never got up early again. I have completely lost all of my motivation. I am extremely disappointed in myself and I would give a lot to lose some of this darn baby weight. But I just can't seem to stick with anything. It's such a horrible battle in my head and I'm just tired of fighting it. I'm tired of feeling guilty when I eat ice cream, or cake, or chips. It's not fair. Life isn't fair.

So I have decided to recommit. Tonight I will shop. I have my meals planned for the week. Easy meals too so I can make sure I stick with it even when the Lily-monster doesn't want to cooperate fully with me. Exercise I will work on when I can actually gain some control over what goes into my mouth. I'll keep you posted.

So they must TASTE better than they smell.

Prunes that is. Cause Lily LOVED them. Better her than me. I gave her some last night along with her cereal and she ate and ate and ate. I was surprised by how much that little tummy of hers can hold. Of course she managed to get her hand in her mouth every time I didn't get the spoon in fast enough for her. Which brings me to the photo of her with Prunes on her forehead. When she is getting done eating she puts her arms up on her forehead as if to say *I can't take another bite* So here is the aftermath!

4 Month Checkup.

Well she isn't really 4 months yet. She will be soon. But the way my Dr. does visits is weird. So her head is big. 75th percentile. and her Height is good 50th percentile at 25.5 inches. And weighing in at a whopping 11 pounds, in the 10th percentile. Yup she is a bit underweight. Probably due to the heart murmur.

So let me run you through her doctor appointment on Friday. Get there, sign in. Sit and wait. Nurse gets us, they weigh her, measure her, etc. Then we go in another room, nurse listens to her heart and leaves us to wait for the doctor. Doctor comes in, asks bunches of questions, says she's underweight and must feed every 2 hours as much as she'll eat (boo). And yes we can start cereal! Since of course it has more calories and will help her gain some weight. Then Doctor checks her heart beat and I ask if the murmur is miraculously gone. Nope. It's louder, which could be either really good, or not so good. Have to wait for cardiologist appointment to determine that. Boo. OK. She gets 4 shots today, plus she apparently looks pale (keep in mind the girl is darker than I am.) Let's test her Hemoglobin to make sure that her iron isn't too low. I ask what happens if it is (NEVER DO THAT) and she says, if it's just mildly low she goes on an iron supplement, and if it's way low then she gets to have a blood transfusion. Yeah. I should NOT have asked that. OK so we go over to lab to get some blood taken (after they poked her 4 times with needles) and they stab her in the foot and squeeze it to get the blood out. My baby was NOT a happy camper. OK I finally get her calmed down and go back to the clinic to schedule her next appointments. Dr. wants to see her back in a month to make sure she is gaining more weight.

Fun Fun. But all in all it wasn't a terrible appointment. I mean we did get to start her on baby cereal. We did that on Saturday. And yes we took video of it. But of course I'll post some still photos once I get some.

It's Nap Time!

Lily's biggest and newest accomplishment? Napping in her crib. Up until Saturday she would just fall asleep any ole random place and while it was nice she was even taking a nap in the first place. It's even nicer now that she does it IN her crib, IN her room. It's like for that hour or so I don't even have a baby, I'm not sure what to do with myself. The next goal after getting her used to this is to get a set nap schedule. Slowly but surely. Right now she goes down about 3 times during the day for an hour each time in her crib. I'm hoping to get that down to twice a day for a bit longer nap. We'll see. I honestly think that if her room was on the main floor we would have been putting her in there from the start. But let's face it. We are LAZY. And by lazy I mean we don't wanna go up and down the steps every time she makes a little peep in there.

Lillian's Labor day weekend adventures...

Well I brought her swimming. Yup. Swimming. She had a cute little bikini that she got as a gift and a friend of mine asked if we wanted to go and so I figured why not. Now she isn't Michael Phelps or anything but that girl can hold her own. She Adored the pool. The water was warm and it was a beautiful day out. She bounced and played in the water. I did my best to show her how to splash but she was just having none of that. In fact to protest my attempts, she fell asleep. Yup, she fell asleep IN the pool. She's lucky I was there to hold her up. Of course I took pictures of the whole thing, or rather my friend did since I was holding the her.

Then we went over the river and thru the woods to grandmothers house! She had fun. Though she is at the age now where she recognizes and prefers certain people over others. mainly, she will scream her head off if anyone besides me, Adam and Adam's sister tries to hold her. It makes me feel bad cause everyone wants to hold her too. *sigh* I guess she'll probably grow out of that. I hope.

I think I'm getting better at this.....

I took Lillian to the park to get some true 3 month photos. I found an online photo editor and this is what I came up with.

I am truly happy with how they turned out and feel pretty good about the work I did! So Again! Happy 3 months Lily-Monster!

I can't believe it's been 3 months...

Since I became a mother. Yikes. Lily is 3 months old today! It really is nuts how fast time goes these days. Before we know it she'll be walking and talking and getting into things we don't want her too. *sigh* I decided to give it a try taking her 3 month pictures myself so I could save some money this go round. The picture below is my favorite one that I got. They turned out ok. I'll probably mess with them some more tonight and see what I can get. Maybe I'll do some outside since the lighting will be better out there. So we'll see.

Running in circles

My recent ambition has been trying to get back in some sort of shape other than “round”, So I have decided to start jogging. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I actually started the Couch to 5 K program many, many moons ago. I got about halfway thru it and I had to quit my gym membership and just didn’t continue with it. I know excuses, excuses. So this morning, with the help of my Lovely husband (thank you honey) for getting the C25K podcasts ONTO my Ipod, I got up early (5am) and I started week 1. It was nice out this morning, cool, still dark out so no one could see how stupid I looked as I’m flailing and gasping for air, or how sweaty and gross I was. I brought the dog with me and besides an incident where he purposely tried to kill me, he did pretty well. He is a little chubby himself so this will be good for him too. Did I make it the whole 30 minutes? Nope. I made it about ¾ of the way thru it and I just *couldn’t* go on any farther. My lungs hurt…badly. My calves hurt…badly (I need new shoes) But, despite all of that, I GOT UP AT 5AM, I got my butt outside and did SOMETHING, which is way more than I have been doing. So although I didn’t make it thru the entire thing I feel like I made a HUGE step this morning.

Then I got home and 10 minutes before I had to leave for work Lily woke up. I secretly like it when she wakes up before I leave so I can give her a quick hug and kiss and a get a smile in before the day starts. Her smile first thing in the morning is such a great boost.

Why did I take a 3 month old to the zoo, you ask....

Because WHO doesn't love the zoo! I know I sure do, which is probably my main motive. Ok it IS my only motive. Heck I'm lucky she remembers who I am when I get home from work let alone that that animal with the black and white stripes is called a Zebra. She does have this crazy obsession with the dog though. She just stares and follows him with her eyes. If only he found HER as interesting as she finds him. So we went to the Zoo. Took some Obligatory photos of her so that we can tell her all about it when she's older and complaining we never take her anywhere.

First we went to the Como Zoo. This one was a play date of sorts since my friend just had her little baby a couple weeks ago and TALK about adorable. He has the cutest cry I have ever heard....Anyway. We get to the Zoo and there is NOWHERE to park. So we drove around forever trying to get a place. Did I mention we drove separate? Um. Yeah. But it was fun. It was hot and so most of the animals were sleeping and/or hiding from site. But the giraffes were out and of course the zebras. So yeah.

Then there was the MN Zoo. Adam and I brought her to the MN Zoo on Monday for his birthday. They have a fancy new bear exhibit and Bears are Adam's favorite. This zoo was not nearly as packed. Of course it's bigger and it was a Monday so that probably helped a bit. We saw all the animals well which was nice! We saw the bears...Lily stared at the ceiling. We saw the tigers....Lily slept. We saw some turtles in an aquarium...this Lily paid attention to. Of course I held her so close to the tank that her nose was practically touching it, but she followed the turtle around with her eyes for a while. This must have wore her out cause she pretty much slept through the rest. She was So good and we were very proud of her!

I wonder where our next outing will be?!

It really is the simple things.

It really makes me wonder why we go out and spend a bunch of money on baby toys?

So I have been neglecting my poor pup. So last night I took him and Lily outside to play. While Leo enjoyed a rousing game of fetch and let's run around like we have never been outside before. I put Lily in her Bouncy seat outside in the shade. She was perfectly happy staring at her fist for a while until I found it. What is IT you ask? A Stick. Just a measly little tiny twig. I held it out for her to see and she quickly willed her hand toward the stick, opened her fist and grabbed it in one fail swoop. She happily stared and smiled at that stick for 20 minutes. I mean, sure it WAS a pretty cool stick. maybe 3" long or so, thin enough for her to grasp easily while opening and closing her fist over it several times in a row. She had it so close to her face and then I decided that it will be nice for her to be able to keep both her eyes so we thru the stick out (thankfully it was small or the dog would have fought her for it). THEN. we had to put our feet in the grass. So I took her socks off and she happily kicked around the grass for another 10 minutes or so til the dog was ready to go in the house.

So we have toys upon toys for them and she was perfectly content with a stick found in the yard. That was FREE no less. So my advice for the day? Let them feel and explore things around them...Don't worry about the toys until they get big enough to learn the difference.

On another note. We are off to the Zoo this weekend! I can't wait! Actually two zoos. In one weekend! Yay! Can't wait to write about that.

Lily with her AMAZING STICK!

Baby clothes are like crack for new mothers.....

So Lily needs fall clothes. Mainly cause people have been so generous to her with clothes but have been buying her solely summer things. Also as a side note....when you give a baby a gift please keep the season in mind if you are buying larger sizes. We got several beautiful little summer sun dresses for Lily. But she can't wear them cause they won't fit her until it's like January. And anyone who knows Minnesota knows that a sun dress in January is probably not the best idea. I'm pretty sure she likes her legs and wants to keep them instead of sacrificing them to the frost bite gods.

Anyway, with summer coming to an end soon, we need to get some long sleeved things for her and no doubt I will go overboard and buy her WAY more than she needs simply because they are cute and I have an addiction. A crazy overwhelming urge to shop for baby clothes. Yes it's real. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has this addiction either. Every time I have gone baby shopping with friends, they too have succumbed to this addiction. I mean really those little socks...and shoes...and the little miniture shirts that say "Daddy's princess" or whatever other totally comercial saying they can slap on those adorable little pieces of fabric, I'll buy. Probably in dupicates...JUST IN CASE. In case of what? Who knows but you surely don't want to run out of adorable baby clothes in the off chance that grandma comes to visit. We have to look our best.

*sigh* So I will go. I will spend money (again, more money than I should) All in the name of Lily looking her best.

Here it is...laid out for everyone.....

What's to say? Welcome to my Blog. I'm excited to work on it. Hoping I'll be good at this but I suppose I'll never be a great writer. I strive for OK most of the time. So here goes. This is my journey. I started this blog as a way to write about my trek into motherhood. I am actually wishing I would have started this before my Daughter (Lily) was born. But alas, I didn't. Oh well. She does more now anyway and it will be easier to write now that she actually has a little personality all of her own.





First thing I really want to talk about is Breastfeeding. I chose not too. My personal preference for many, many, many reasons, all of which I don't feel I need to explain. However, it seems that everyone I know, that breastfeeds really hates it. Gets frustrated easily by this but doesn't want to quit. I don't know. Maybe it's something I will never understand cause I chose not to do it. But the idea of having Lily attached to me for what seems like hours (from what people tell me) does NOT sound like my idea of bonding. And this whole thing about giving it 6 weeks before you both (mother and baby) really get into the swing of things just seems brutal. You take a woman that has just popped out a baby, is completely exhausted and adjusting to begin with and throw in that she is the ONLY person that can feed her, just seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me. I love my baby and definitely enjoy feeding her the bottle, and I'm pretty sure I'm no less bonded to her than any mother out there that chooses to breastfeed their baby. Why does Breastfeeding equate bonding in so many peoples minds? I just don't understand it. And again, maybe because I chose not to breastfeed at all. Who knows. All I know is that it annoys me when people who do choose to BF are frustrated with it but won't just stop and give the kid a bottle. It's not going to hurt your baby or you and it will let other people "bond" with your baby while giving you a break. I'm almost positive that no baby has ever been killed by giving it a bottle.





Bah, I'm rambling. I don't mean to offend anyone. Honest. Like I said, I probably just don't understand cause I've never had that overwhelming urge to BF. But I can say this. Not once have I been frustrated when trying to feed my daughter. We lovingly gaze at each other every time she takes her bottle. And when I am too tired, Adam takes her and feeds her for me. It's a wonderful thing.





I admire people that do BF and make it work, but at the same time, I am tired of defending my choice to bottle feed because of course that means that my daughter will be fat and not nearly as healthy as a kid that is breastfed. BAER. I would love to meet the people that do those studies.





ANYWAY.





Who knew that was even bothering me as much as it was? Oh well, so it goes I guess in the life of someone who doesn't follow the norm and is exhausted from people saying I'm wrong for it.





But on a happier note. Lily let me take a nap last night. Yup you heard me, a nice hour long uninterrupted nap. *Sigh* It was wonderful, though I really can't complain much about Lily. She is an awesome baby. She sleeps for usually about 9 hours at night. I wasn't even aware that an 11 week old was able to do that. I love that little girl.