Christmas 2008

Lily had a good time on Christmas, although she did not care about the unwrapping of gifts. She did not "get" the tearing of paper. I am sure next year will be different.

She was very impressed with her car. We have however discovered that Santa did not think through the gift very well, as this house is NOT large enough to use it inside.

Oh well... 

 Seeing what Santa brought.

 

Please excuse the loud Elvis music in the background.

 Thanks for the music set...

No words needed here

A hunting we will go...

Today we went up to Ellijay to get our Christmas tree. First, Lily and "Grandma" played cat and mouse in the weeds next to the trees. Lily enjoyed walking between the rows of trees, around the trees, between the trees, back around the trees... it was tough to keep up with her.

We finally settled on one. Tomorrow we will decorate it.

Check out the picture to the right hand side of the blogsite of Lily! Isn't it a great shot?

Rotavirus: Just say no!

I think we are finally well again. The week before Thanksgiving week we had a terrible virus go through the house. It started Monday morning at 4am with Lily starting the vomiting. Of course, being 4am, there was not a lot to vomit. She kept that up until about 10am when I called the Dr because she was so alarmingly...well... death-like, to be honest. She could not hold her self up, she seemed to almost pass out after trying to throw up. She could not keep anything at all down. She was pale and just very sick. The Dr's office sort of shrugged my concern off, I guess assuming this was just a routine bug. I called back 15 minutes later and repeated myself to the nurse, a bit more insistent. They called her in a Rx called Zofran. Good stuff! After she let that tablet dissolve she did not throw up anymore. The chore was then to get her rehydrated. Tuesday morning, the yucky diapers started....and did not stop till the weekend. At times she would get dehydrated again and we just kept working at getting her to take fluids. We were really trying to avoid taking her to the ER. Looking back though, we should have taken her in on Monday morning.  I don't know what would have happened if they had not called the Zofran in.

I got it Weds and Thursday... So, 4 days out of work for me. 

She was more or less back to normal over the weekend so she went to the sitters on Monday- AND THREW UP. So she went to the Dr Tuesday morning. They could not confirm that it was rotavirus but several toddlers her age whose mothers' I teach with have had it and they were diagnosed with rotavirus.

It is not something I ever want in the house again. Oddly, Michael never got it. 

This week we are back to dealing with Lily's mouth. Her upper "canines" are both coming through and we think the upper molars are too. She is very cranky and her bottom is just about the worst its ever been. For whatever reason, thats the way her body reacts to it. So, we are all covered in diaper cream and powder it seems. We tried a tepid bath tonight of Aveeno stuff but the cream kept it from getting to her skin as much as it needed to I think. Oh well, I tried.

So, we will be hitting the bottle (Motrin) again...

THIS is a tree!

This afternoon we went up to Flowery Branch for me to make my appearance at the PTO Fall Festival. Lily was able to "bounce" on the edge of the Space Walk thingy. She belly laughed at the big kids flipping around on it. She wanted to get in there with them so badly.  We played on the playground slide for a little while and then before we got in the car we walked down to the 2 most gorgeous trees in GA. They are some kind of maple. They are absolutely the most beautiful colors. There were a lot of crunchy leaves under them so we stopped to play...

A Trip to Anna Ruby Falls (& Helen, GA)

Today my school district had the day off so we spent it hiking about and having a pretty fall day outside. We drove up to Helen and had lunch down by the river. Dad had his usual, yearly fix of bratwurst and german potato salad. Lily and I helped ourselves to his sourkraut. She had her first hot dog. It was good, as hot dogs go. She ate it all.

While waiting for the bill she tossed the pepper shaker down onto the river side walkway along with a few napkins.

After lunch we walked around for a little while and then headed up to Anna Ruby Falls. Lily tolerated all the time in the backpack carrier pretty well until it was time to walk back down. She was ready to walk herself. She managed maybe a fourth of it (holding a hand of course). The downhill grade was just too steep for the most part. Anyway, that was our day...

Pictures are in album #2.

Its The Great Pumpkin Lily Claire....

                                             

Sunday Sunday....lala-la-lala-la

Today has been a pretty day and actually fall-like. Lily enjoys the outdoors so much it is a shame that we do not have a child friendly back yard to let her explore. Here are some photos I took of her today and a video of her walking. She is getting better and better...

There are more photos in album #2.

Walking 2.0

Here is an example of Lily's walking skills at this point...

Pick-a-pick-a pumpkin from the patch...

Today we took Lily to get a pumpkin up at Burt's Pumpkin Farm. As a former "local" of that area who has passed by the pumpkin farm and looked with scorn at the "Atlantans" who clog up the roads this time of year, it took some inner-humility to park our SUV with the Gwinnett Co tag in the parking lot. Oh well.

Lily had a great time! She enjoyed patting the pumpkins and  just generally looking at all that was going on around her. There were a lot of people there, music playing, and a tractor that would occasionally pass by to point at and wave. She also enjoyed dabbling her fingers in the little puddles on top of the pumpkins left by all the rain we had Wednesday. You can't keep her out of water.

After we had our pumpkins we met Grandma at Amicalola Falls for a picnic. We walked around some of the trails near the falls and took some photos.

Lily slept the entire way home. She was pooped. So are we for that matter...

All the pics from today are uploaded in photo album #2.

Lily's First Haircut (trim)

This was the most pitiful scene. Lily, usually all smiles, was not the least bit happy about any of this experience. The shop specializes in young children's hair cutting. It has cars and airplanes as the seats, it's bright, lots of mirrors, toys, etc. The stylist that we ended up with used a very high pitched sing-songy voice and was rather loud. It freaked Lily out completely. We were shocked she even stayed sitting down. The cape upset her, the voice upset her, the water being sprayed on her REALLY upset her, and then the lady wanted to use the blow dryer on her. Ha. That lasted all of about 5 seconds. Then she wanted to take Lily's picture for her little certificate thing. She repeatedly screeched "SMILE LILY!!!". Lily just kept looking at us and crying and looking confused as to why we were not helping her. 

The whole thing was my idea so I am the bad guy here. I felt really really bad. That guilt bought her a trip to Build A Bear to get a new Bunny friend though so I think she recovered. The pictures from today, as well as a bunch from September are uploaded to album #2.

Baby steps...

 We are claiming these are Lily's first steps.

Lily's First Birthday Party

Saturday, September 6th we had Lily's birthday party at the clubhouse/pool in her grandparents' subdivision. All of her grandparents were in attendance. Her Aunt Hannah was able to be there as well as several friends and their children. Unfortunately due to illness and car problems her other aunts/uncles/cousins were not able to come.

Lily had a great time although I think it was a bit confusing for her at first. She looked puzzled as to why all of her "people" were all together and in this strange place, with strange floating things up in the air to boot!

I was surprised that Lily did not make a grab for the lighted candle. She ate her cake with gusto and made quite a mess of herself. She and daddy played in the pool afterwards with her buddy Max.

She passed out around 7:00 that evening and slept very soundly.

Today, her birthday, Daddy is sick with a cold so we are not doing much. We did take Lily to eat breakfast at IHOP and she left the floor in quite a mess, as usual. 

I am attaching the videos here but I will put pictures in the photo album link.

Enjoy!

I'm almost one, I'm almost one!...

Almost walking...

I have 3 other videos but they are evidently too long even turned into these type of files. Oh well. 

Gerber has nothin' on this...

Lily has not liked any of the tomato based pasta meals that Gerber has. We had spaghetti the other night and she loved it, as you can see. She left a ring around the tub after her bath. :)

Corn on the cob is a hit

Big girl toys...

We went this week and visited a really great consignment shop that a co-worker had recommended to me. We wish we had known about it when I was pregnant! They had tons of great stuff and for very reasonable prices. This rocking-zebra was one of the things we picked up for Lily. Her baby-baby toys are not interesting her much these days so we are trying to phase into the toddler toys as cheaply as possible. We were able to get several things that she is trying to figure out how to play with.

Preplanning starts tomorrow for me so Lily will be returning to Miss Jessica's house full time. If she understood any of it I am sure she would be thrilled. She has tolerated being at home with us all summer but I know she is eager to get back to playing all day and bossing Max around.

She also added "yay" to her vocabulary this week. She will throw that in while clapping every now and then.

Thats about all I can think of in the way of news for now. Hope everyone is well.

There is a new blob of pictures in Album #2.

Uh oh... Uh oh... Uh oh

This week has brought surprising developments with Miss Lily. She seemed to me to be trying to say "dog" ("dau")at the beginning of last week. Then on Friday she seemed to be saying "bad dog"("ba dau"). Then the same day she started with "uh-oh". Uh oh is the one she is the clearest on and she says it quite often now. She is confidently cruising the room and crawling like a bear most of the time. I had hoped that she would start walking before school starts so that it happened at home the first time but I don't think it will. But, she has surprised us before...

Michael's Shark

Michael's Shark....caught during our beach trip in June.

4th of July with a bang...or "clap" rather....

After weeks of trying to teach Lily to clap her hands with NO success at all, Lily surprised us today by out-of-the-blue clapping. No one was doing anything that resembled clapping but I guess she decided it was time to show off. Actually when she first did it she was mad because Grandma would not let her have the digital camera so she clapped her hands in a huff. But then we all cheered at her so she kept it up. Here is a video of some of her first claps. Please forgive the "YEAS" that are in stereo. Grandma, Aunt Hannah and I were trying to encourage her...

Back from the beach...

Lily LOVED the beach. She enjoyed kicking, splashing, twisting, and even laying back in the ocean. We took a baby pool for her to play in on the deck when the sun was too strong for her to be out in. We even managed to all 3 come back without getting burnt- a first for me. Lily was not impressed with the wet sand but she really enjoyed the dry sand- she did not seem to mind the grit when she ate a few handfuls either. Goober.

We had a few small adventures. Michael and his BIL and dad went bay fishing (doesn't qualify for deep sea fishing evidently) and he caught a small shark. We will try to get that picture posted but it is going to take some work to get it off of my cell phone. Those of you who call Michael on his cell phone- its dead. It jumped out of his pocket and went swimming one morning in the surf, so it has gone to meet the great antenna in the sky. We will be replacing in within the next week.

One evening we all went out to a spot that is technically on Tyndall AFB but is open to the public. It was very isolated and was gorgeous in the late evening light. Lily hitched a ride in the BabyBjorn and we, along with my SIL and niece, went walking down the beach while the others fished from the shore. We walked a LOOONNNNGG way. We turned around once the sun was fully down. That was not a good idea. We figured that we would know when to stop when we got to the rest of the family on the beach. We were not counting on them packing up and going back to the cars. There was an amazing orange full moon that rose while we were walking so Jennifer and I stopped to try to take some pictures of it. Michael saw the flashes from our cameras and thought we might be signaling for help so he came tearing down the beach looking for us. We were just fine, at least till we all found that we could not find the boardwalk that would take us back over the wild and rugged dunes (the same ones that had a huge sign posted about the alligators, snakes, sharks, jellyfish, etc in the area). Fortunately, Jennifer's husband, Jody, came out to find us with his emergency light thing and we all got back safely. But, for a few minutes there it was an "oh shit" moment.

We also saw schools of small sting rays "flying" through the water nearly every day. Michael and I saw a huge one though off on its own the first day there. He was close to dinner table size.

I almost caught a small shark the morning we went fishing. I saw him coming down the shore and tossed my line in front of him to see what he would do. He took it, gave one yank, and I assume sliced my line. Oh well, worth a try.

All in all it was a good trip. Lily did well with the long ride, or at least as well as you would think a 9 month old would. We had some trouble with her getting to sleep and staying asleep with the noise and goings on in the house, but I guess that was to be expected too. Maybe next year will be easier. Make sure you check out the picasa photo site.

Not quite a "fish" but a true "Marine baby" for sure...

Lily has had her first dip in the river. We have been up in Ellijay since Tuesday and yesterday we went up to Blue Ridge to see my Dad. We went down to a spot that belongs to a family friend on the Taccoa River. I was not sure that she was going to like it at all since the water was EXTREMELY cold. Sure enough, she had little to no appreciation for the water at first. I put her over on the bank where the silt/sand was and she squished her toes in it awhile. Slowly she extended her willingness to be deeper in the water- when I say deeper, I am only talking inches of course.



Anyway, by the time we left she was dipping her bottom in the water herself. That was pretty funny to watch. I am not sure she has reached the "fish" catagory that my siblings and I were in, but she is on her way...

*See her photo site for more pictures.

Cold is gone, cough remains

Despite our best efforts Lily's cold gunk has set up camp in her chest. She has a viral bronchitis so there is not much we can do about it except the albuterol treatments with the nebulizer. She is not too fond of the process but we try to distract her as much as possible so we are not all 3 miserable for the 15 minutes or so that it takes. Today we invested in her first Baby Einstein video and she seemed to enjoy it. Truth be told the only reason I got it was to distract her for the breathing treatments.
She is starting to pull up now on stuff other than her crib. She has managed to pull up on the ottoman a time or two. She is also working hard on getting the pincher grasp thing down. She managed to get a "puff" into her mouth herself this week and is quite proud of it.
NOTE: We now have a link directly to her picture page on the right hand side of this screen.

Memorial Day cold....

Poor Lily has a bad cold. She now holds the world record for number of sneezes in a day I am sure. Anyone still have any Pedicare hidden away anywhere?

Ready Set Go

This morning Lily could not crawl. After her nap, she could. She has been trying to for several weeks now but has not been able to get the knees and the hands working together. Today, she figured it out! Hopefully this movie will work.
And yes, I am using "Donkey" to lure her across the room. :) Whatever works....

Moving day...

As you can see, Lily found a job she could do well. She enjoyed sitting in a box and banging the sides and chewing on the sides.
Tooth number 3 is finally breaking through, although she may be called "fang" since there is only the one on top.

Guess who is not afraid of the camera anymore?

Things are getting crazy around here... We have a yard sale this weekend. We are moving next weekend. I had the CRCT the past week and a half at school. My students have been crazy. They pretty much all think their job is done. So, now we, as teachers, are in the crowd control phase of the year. My favorite.
The two or more teeth that Lily has been working on still have not broken through. She is managing ok though. Some days/nights we have to rely on the Motrin to get us through, but we get by.
She is getting very close to crawling now. She is up on knees and hands but has not ventured forward (or backward) yet. It won't be long. She has a few phrases now... "ba", "da", and "meh" No mama or dada though. Yet.
She has interestingly all of a sudden gotten over her suspicion of the camera. Maybe you can tell...

Can you guess what Lily has been doing this week?

This week has made Michael and I truly thankful for Lily's all around good naturedness. Mainly, because we have not seen a lot of it. Although the 2 bottom teeth came through fairly easily and without too much fuss, she has the top 4 all visible under the gum. It seems that the 2 "canines" may come through before the center 2. We discovered that we are NOT good at giving Motrin to her by the light of her nightlight. Today we decided to try the homeopathic route. For those of you who have teethers at home... its worth a try. Hyland's Teething Tablets are available at Walgreens and seem to actually give her some relief (in addition to the Motrin).
Here's hoping for a quiet night...

A hiking we will go...

Sunday, 4/6, we went up to Amicalola Falls State Park for a picnic and to enjoy the spring day. Lily and her Dad got to try out the hiking backpack carrier. She did very well in it. We hiked down the trail that runs down the ridge to the visitor's center - about a mile. Afterwards we let Lily get down close to the water and study some rocks. She wanted them for new chew toys.

Spring and Lily are both blooming...

Wow. I did not realize that it has been 2 months since I updated this thing. Oh well. Lots has happened with Lily since the last post date. She rolls from side to side easily. We have given up trying to keep her on her back at night. She can almost sit up. She sits semi independantly. 2 weeks ago she started "talking" with ba-ba-ba-ba. She has also developed a few new ways of spitting and blowing raspberries.
The big news came this past Thursday (3/27). Lily started the day with no teeth and ended it with one. Saturday morning her second one had broken through. So, she is turning into a big girl very quickly. Her 6 month Dr appointment was last Monday. She is in the 70th % for her weight and the 99th% for her height! As I said, a big girl...

Found: 10 toes

The past two weeks have been full of new things for Lily. First, she had cereal for the first time. That was messy but enjoyed by all. Then she got a very snotty cold. We had to break out the saline and bulb sucker. That did not earn us any points with her.
She found her feet a few days ago. Now she needs to wear some sort of shoes to keep her from pulling her socks off and shoving them into her mouth. Early this week she evidently rolled over but no one saw her. Her babysitter put her into the pack-n-play for a few moments on her belly and when she returned Lily was on her back. Today she rolled over- with witnesses- from belly to back.
Tuesday she will go to the pediatric opthamologist to have her right eye checked for anything abnormal. At her 4 month pediatric appointment the Dr saw a "speck" in her eye that she wanted to have checked out to be sure it is not an indication of a cataract forming or anything like that.

Snow x 2

We had more significant snow this past Saturday. It snowed pretty much all day and we ended up with 2 inches. We were able to get out in it a little bit. Lily is not very tolerant of snowflakes actually hitting her face though so that limits the time spent outside.
She had her 4 month check up Friday. She is in the 97th percentile for her length and 73rd percentile for her weight. Everything else looked good too. It was shot day though so we have had a weekend of crankiness. We finally have "permission" to try out cereal when we want to. We are thinking we may tackle that next weekend.

Snow? Bring it on....

Big girl toys and snow...

This week, although only Wednesday evening, has brought some good photo sessions. I am working on getting the video clips done also but they take forever.
I decided Tuesday afternoon to let Lily try out the Baby Einstein bouncing/play center that my coworkers gave us at my baby shower. She LOVED it! She especially liked to spin the frog and make the beads rattle around in some of the balls. Actually Tuesday evening she had just about played herself into exhaustion.
Wednesday, today, the north Georgia area has been on alert for winter weather. Initially it did not look as though we would get much of anything this far south. However, right around dinner it started snowing pretty hard. Because we were not sure whether the "wintery mix" that was supposed to follow it would ruin the snow, we bundled Lily up and took her out on the back porch to take a few pictures. The video of this is very funny- at least to us it is. She swiped snow off of the grill onto one of the dogs. I did not think to hold her mittened hand away from her- so she tried to put her hand in her mouth and got a face full of icy wet mitten instead. She was pretty hacked off about it.
School has not been called yet- still keeping my fingers crossed...

We have had a busy week getting back in the routine of getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work now that school has started back up. Lily continues to gnaw on anything she can get to her mouth. She has enjoyed going back to her babysitter's house... I think she was getting bored with me over the winter holiday break. At least there she gets to watch the activities of the "big kids" (ages 1 and 4). I think I have managed to get a video clip attached to this post of Lily almost rolling over. Enjoy...

Rings and other things...

This weekend Lily has figured out that the things she holds in her hands (mainly her links) can be put into her mouth. So, we have spent several days wiping drool here in the Evans household. Today, Sunday, she almost rolled over from back to front. I got a clip of it but cannot yet get everything figured out to attach it to the blog site. Maybe one day...