Evans Family News

Oh good grief

2010-12-04T13:57:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure it is a good excuse or not, but I just cannot manage to find a chunk of time in the evenings after the kids are in bed that I shouldn't be doing school work, laundry, washing bottles, or going on to bed myself to actually sit down and keep up with this blog.
Over Christmas break I plan on updating it as much as possible.

Funny things Lily said this week:
"And it shook when he laughed like a bowl filled with jelly and peanut butter and bananas..."

When describing the changes that Ms. Jessica had made at her house over the weekend (decorated for Christmas) she told us that there were "stockings hung with care"...

Jimmy's Photo Blog: Born on May 24th, Hannah and I celebrate day one o...

2010-07-25T20:08:00.000-04:00

Jimmy's Photo Blog: Born on May 24th, Hannah and I celebrate day one o...: "Born on May 24th, Hannah and I celebrate day one of the new arrival with her sister Amanda (Baby momma), Daddy Michael, and new big sister L..."

Jump on in....

2010-06-12T11:14:00.003-04:00

We got Lily one of the "puddle jumpers" that were recommended by Carrie. This thing is great! She jumped right in...

Welcome Will!

2010-06-03T23:03:00.004-04:00

*Awesome photos of Will: courtesy of my brother in law, photographer, Jimmy Clemmons.

Monday, May 24th our family welcomed baby William Tate Evans... "Will". Since we have been asked a few times about the name, both of us have great grandfathers who were William. "Tate" we both just liked the sound of.
Things were a lot easier in some ways with this labor/delivery. I can say that I would rather go into labor on my own than to be induced as I was with Lily. I started having contractions around 7:00 or so that morning and he was born at 6:32pm. Not too bad.
The only issue of concern was my blood pressure. Usually if a woman is going to have bp problems it will be right after the epidural. I was fine afterwards. About an hour or so later though my bp crashed and stayed there. They pushed 5-6 bags of fluid into my IV in hopes of bringing it up and even gave me a shot of ephedrine. Nothing worked. The L&D nurse did not leave the room for a long long time because she kept expecting me to pass out I think. She certainly asked me a lot. The lowest it got was about 87/38 which I admit is pretty dang low. The highest she managed to get it was 101/53 I think. The baby's vitals never waivered though... they kept saying he was the "happiest" baby they'd seen.
Anyway, jump to the end... About 40 minutes before he was born they decided it was necessary to turn my epidural OFF. Yes, off. They think I had a reaction to something that is mixed in with the epidural medicine which is what caused the bp problem. Since they could not get it up, they decided to turn it off. They also assured me that it would not wear off before he was born. Well, that was partially true. I felt more than I would have liked to.
Immediately after be was born the LD nurse and the LD tech starting making bets on how heavy he was. I knew he had to be bigger than Lily was. Turns out the Tech won. He was over 9 lbs and thats what she was betting on. 9lbs 6 oz. 21 inches long.
He was a big boy.
I felt immediate relief after he was born. I knew my guts were squashed and I was right!

Because he was over 9 lbs they had to monitor his blood sugar level for a certain amount of time. Every 3 hours he had to have a blood sugar test. That made for a long night. Every time we would finally get to sleep they'd come in and retest him. Lily came by to say goodnight but because he was in the nursery for his first round of testing she did not get to see him till the next morning. He also had a good portion of his face bruised during his birth so they also had to watch him for jaundice (bruising evidently tends to increase the odds of it happening). So, his first 24 hours were full of being poked unfortunately.
He is a really sweet baby and very cuddly. We are holding our breath to see if maybe we managed to have a second baby that is as good as the first one was. Of course, its still early.
This past Tuesday we went for his 1 week check and he was not under his birth weight. He was 9 lbs 7.3 oz so we don't have to go back till his 1 month appt.

The video that we took of Lily meeting her brother is precious. Enjoy...

Puerto Rico...better late than never.

2010-03-13T20:09:00.010-05:00

I will start this post with a disclaimer.
This narrative is from my point of view. That means it may include some pregnancy influenced perceptions. Hannah and/or Jimmy (or anyone else for that matter) may not tell the same story.

Sunday, December 27th
It was freezing. Not just chilly, freezing. We packed up the Explorer with what seemed like an awful lot of stuff for 3 days, put our sleepy pj-clad daughter in her carseat, and headed south to the airport.
Once there, we had to figure out how to get everything inside with the number of hands that we had. My mom's joint problems prevented her from being able to take too heavy of a load, my pregnancy prevented me from taking too heavy of a load, Lily had to be carried since we were acres away from the terminal... which left Michael as the pack-mule. I did however find an abandoned "smartcart" in the lot so we were able to haul everything in without too much trouble after that. Did I mention it was freezing? We did not want to take our coats into 80 degree weather though so we toughed it out.
Once inside and on our way to check in it became clear that the "taking the carseat with us" idea was going to be a challenge. The FAA/TSA says kids who would normally be in a carseat are required to be in one on a plane. *They lied by the way. So, after checking in and dropping off our large bags we proceeded to haul the stroller (with Lily in it), her large diaper bag, my purse, a large LLBean tote (toys, books, cooler clothes for L., etc) her carseat (a Britax- probably the heaviest one made), Michael's backpack, mom's carry on, and...that may be it. A guard very nicely let us cut through the stupid strap maze to go to the "family security check area". Every single thing had to go on that belt... including the stroller and carseat. Shoes off, all M's pockety stuff, everything. Then... the diaper bag search... Again...TSA's website says that you can take breastmilk, formula, water, or other liquid in limited quantities for small children- whatever is necessary to get them through their flying experience. I (in true Amanda fashion) had packed enough for a preschool to fly. That is an exaggeration. I packed 3 little 6 oz? bottles of water and 3 little 6-8 oz bottles of white grape juice. Enough. First, they confiscated 2 waters and 2 juices. Evidently the TSA website was kidding. He told me that technically I was not allowed the juice at all, but he would let me take one. $3.89 for 6 of those bottles... anyway... he still tested them for ? fumes? He used what I assume is litmus paper and tested the contents of all 6 containers and then sent us on our way. So, we had to reassemble our caravan of people, totes, bags, stoller, etc and proceed on to the "train". Hurdle #1- getting down to the stupid train....elevator or escalator? I picked Lily up, folded the stroller, and took the escalator. There was a line for the elevator. Hurdle #2- waiting for a train that was empty enough that we could fit on without hitting anyone with stroller, carseat, bags on shoulders, etc. Hurdle #3- moving fast enough to get everything and everyone in the train before the doors closed because as we all know "the doors will not reopen". Lily was watchful of everything but did not seem that interested until we got to the train. She liked that a lot. We figured she would.
We got to the gate with, of course, tons of time to kill- with a 2 year old. We took turns taking walks with her down the strip of gates, looking at planes through the windows and generally trying not to piss off sleeping people at empty gates.

We also went though...probably 3 diaper changes before we left. Note* ATL airport does not have a changing table thing. Seriously?!? So I had to change her on the floor of the busiest airport in the USA's bathroom. Gross.
Eventually, we gave up finding things to do and took her to Paschals to eat something more than a banana and graham crackers. The only snag in this plan is that we had to balance any trips away from our seats and stuff with who could stay and watch them. Mom stayed behind while we went to eat.
By the time we got back, Jimmy's mom had joined mom at the gate. We waited and waited and waited... if I remember correctly the flight ended up leaving about an hour later than what it was supposed to. Oh, they have also done away with the one perk I was really looking forward to using.... NO MORE EARLY BOARDING for passengers with mobility problems or with very young children. Thats right, we had to get in line with the rest of the lemmings to file onto the plane with all that crap and Lily. So, eventually we were able to gather everything up and file onto the plane, hitting who knows how many people with our bags.
Again, I will mention that Lily was the ONLY child on that plane that was in a carseat. You could tell we got bonus pts with the attendants for having her in one, but still. We also sat in the last row of seats. I THOUGHT that was a good idea. No. Those are narrower than even the row in front of it. So, Lily got to sit by the window- required to actually, then Michael, then me. Mom was across the aisle with no one beside her. Of course.

The only 2 parts of the trip that we were really concerned for Lily was going to be take off and landing. We talked on and on about how it was going to be loud and might sound scary but it was ok. We taxied to the runway and went barreling down the strip... Lily: "wheeeee". No problems there. The only real behavioral problem was her kicking the seat in front of her. After about 45 minutes though, she fell asleep and slept till about a half hour or so before landing. Not too bad...
I prayed pretty much the entire time we were flying. The thought of taking my child on a plane 35,000+ ft. in the air was really causing me some anxiety.
Landing was pretty much as uneventful for Lily as taking off. She was definitely ready to get out of her seat though. Of course being the last freaking seats meant we were also the last off the plane. Wonderful planning on my part...
First thing, we grabbed the stroller and loaded it down with stuff and headed to the bathrooms to change clothes. Or at least Lily's clothes.

to be continued...

Waaayyy behind.....Christmas and Puerto Rico

2010-01-20T21:11:00.017-05:00

Wow. I can't believe I don't have anything up from Christmas or Hannah's wedding/the Puerto Rico trip. Time has gotten away from me I guess.
I suppose we will start with Christmas and go from there. This will probably take me the rest of the week, so keep checking back.

Christmas was both a low key and big day at our house this year. Lily "got it" a little more this year so she had a really good time with looking at Christmas lights around town and in yards, listening to music, and messing with the Christmas tree. We did discover that she has a low tolerance for frustration when it comes to decorating the tree. The little hooks and ribbons just about sent her off the deep end. She did get some ornaments to stay on finally but it took quite a few tears and hissy fits.

The weekend before Christmas we joined up with Jennifer and her family and the Evans' and went to Stone Mountain Christmas. It was so so so cold - but warmer than the previous weekend. Lily enjoyed the lights and such but the biggest thing for her was the train ride around the base of the mountain. When the train was pulling up to the loading station I caught her expression of joy at hearing the train coming. She had a fabulous time riding it.

On Christmas Eve we had Hannah, Jimmy, and my mom over for a chicken parmagsian (sp) dinner. A little unusual I know, but since we were all heading out of the state in a few short days we could not go off an leave lots of leftovers to ruin in the fridge. Plus, its cheaper. Anyway, Lily got a "digger" that moves on its' own which kinda freaked her out for a few minutes. She LOVES construction equipment. They are all "diggers" though. So other than her digger she also received a turtleneck with "Lily loves Diggers" embroidered on it from Gwema and an art easel. Hannah and Jimmy gave her a Doctor's Kit which she has really enjoyed using to poke plastic rod like objects into everyone's ears, regardless of whether it is the ear checker or not. The stethoscope is the other big deal from that gift. It makes a "thump thump" noise when you hold it against something so she looves that.

This year her presents from Santa actually caused a tearful moment, which was pitiful Christmas morning. Santa left her a train table and she was immediately sucked in to playing with that...to the point she did not want to open anything else. So, we tried to cover it up with its' art table top thing and she boohoo'd. Way to go mom. Eventually we moved on to open her other larger items: baby doll bed, highchair, stroller, and other dolls items. She had a good day and pretty much played herself out.

Later in the morning we went over to the Evans' house for brunch and presents. Lily really enjoyed opening things this year so it once she got in the zone, she was set. Again, she did not want to move on after a gift, which actually is not a bad thing. I'd rather she show genuine enjoyment from a gift than open it, throw it aside, and rip another one open.

Christmas Trees and Horses

2009-12-13T21:47:00.002-05:00

Today we went to Ellijay to get our Christmas tree. After we picked our tree Lily and I walked down the road to a fence where 2 horses were being kept. They were way on the other side of the field but when I whistled they came right over. I was pretty surprised since they had a full roll of hay and we had nothing for them. But, Lily was so tickled when they started heading our way. I really really wasn't expecting one of the horses to canter across the field at us! I ripped up some long grass to feed them and Lily really enjoyed watching their mouths/lips move. She did not want to touch them though, and I was fine with that. They did not seem to be the most affectionate of horses so I did not want her touching them anyway. (Turns out- I found out later that one of them bit some man's finger off.) Fortunately I have more experience with horses than the average joe so I knew what NOT to do. But anyway, Lily had so much fun with them coming up to see her and sniff her clothes and such. Not that you are able to tell from the video.... :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-30T19:57:00.003-05:00

Lily and her cousin Hazen

Twinkle Toes

2009-11-14T13:40:00.004-05:00

Last weekend Lily expressed an interest in my painted toenails. I asked her if she wanted pink toes and she said yes, so off we went to get the polish.
This was her first time at having her toenails painted. She was very very pleased with herself. It has thrown Michael and I off though because every time we see them out of the corner of our eyes we think she is bleeding.
She is getting to be such a big girl. Her vocabulary is expanding every day. Her latest funny words are "gistusting" (disgusting) and "delicious", both of which she picked up from Max & Ruby. She understands their meaning though. She uses them correctly.

Trunk N Treat

2009-10-24T20:34:00.003-04:00

Today we took Lily to Trunk N Treat at her grandparents' church. She had a great time! She especially liked throwing/dropping the beanbags in the hole. She was one of the only kids there who were dressed for the weather. I felt really sorry for some of them, especially the little ones. What parent thinks its ok to put their kid in a cheapo nylon/polyester costume without anything under it when its 53 degrees and windy is an idiot. There was one little 3ish year old girl in a pink princess dress that looked absolutely frozen. Lily, on the other hand was completely toasty in her fleece butterfly outfit. I had worried she would be too hot but it was perfect for today's weather. She enjoyed "collecting" candy, although she doesn't eat any of it. Memaw and Pepaw brought her some apple crispers, raisins, and cracker sticks though so she had stuff to snack on.

Pumpkin Hunting 2009

2009-10-11T11:59:00.004-04:00

We made another trip to Burt's Pumpkin Farm this year to pick a pumpkin or two. Lily had a great time running between the rows of pumpkins and attempting to lift many.
See album 2 for pictures.

Zoo Atlanta

2009-09-12T19:29:00.004-04:00

Today was Educator Appreciation Day at Zoo Atlanta so we decided to take advantage of the price break and take Lily for the first time. We had planned on waiting till she was a little older, but, a free ticket is a free ticket.
First mistake, waiting until noon to go.
Second mistake, not taking the stroller in. That was an awful lot of walking for someone her size. And 27 lbs is awfully heavy to carry when it is as warm as it was today. I took some pictures but not as many as I would have liked. It was fairly crowded and hard to get in a position to get her and the animals in a shot.
Some things Lily thought was funny...the Orangutans... a young one was swinging about and waiting to pounce on its' very large dad. He would swing himself over the edge of a platform and smack his dad and then pull his hair. Then the dad would smack the kid back. Lily laughed a lot at that.
She liked the pandas which were very visable and close up in the glassed in areas. One was eating bamboo and she kept saying "he's eating sticks!" :) (video below)
She also like the lemurs and their antics. They jumped and hung upside down while we were there and she enjoyed watching them.
In the reptile house she was very impressed with the snakes and turtles and laughed at the poison-dart tree frogs (they were hopping).
We figured that she would be more taken with the elephants and giraffes but only one elephant was out in the enclosure and it was farther away than what she would have liked I think. Same with the giraffes and zebras- too far away.
We went into the petting zoo to see the goats and sheep. There were some massively pregnant goats that I felt sorry for. Lily was just not too sure what to think about them. They were big too so I can understand being a bit intimidated by them at her size.

A Happy 2nd Birthday...

2009-09-07T19:31:00.004-04:00

Saturday, September 5th we had a family cookout up at Amicalola Falls State Park. Max & Ruby were the main decor, even though you can't buy any of their stuff in the US (except videos). So, Mommy worked some magic with the overhead projector at school and made some large cut outs for decoration. I also made a cake that featured Max and Ruby's house.

We cooked out, watched Lily open presents and had cake. Lily got in the creek afterwards which she really enjoyed even though it was extremely cold water.

She seemed to finally "get" present opening this year. Although, she drove Daddy crazy by tearing off teeny bits at a time. :) She oooo'd and ahhhh'd over the tissue paper and the final reveal of the gifts. That was pretty funny.

Her favorite gift this year seems to be the Fisher Price pretend camera that Hannah and Jimmy got her. She stopped after each gift to "take a picture" of the item. :)

Sunday we went to Toys R Us to pick up some furniture for the My First Dollhouse. We also ended up getting an expansion pack for her Thomas The Train set. That stuff NEVER goes on sale so we took advantage of the surprising find.

Today, her actual birthday, has been pretty low key. We took her out to lunch where she ended the meal by petting a lobster (after much coaxing). Other than that, not much has been going on. Just lots of playing with her new toys and scooting around on her giant ladybug.

All of the pictures that I have so far are in Album 2. Jimmy took a bunch and when I get them I will post them as well.

There is another kid who comes into the picture but I kept recording to watch Lily's reaction. :)

Birthday post to come soon!

2009-09-06T21:11:00.001-04:00

5 days later...

2009-08-16T19:55:00.001-04:00

She has suddenly decided "6" is ok to say. Now we can count 1-10 in its entirety.

6 is the loneliest number....

2009-08-11T20:31:00.003-04:00

Lily can count to 10 now but she never says "6". Ever. I have tried to get her on camera counting but she won't do it if she knows the camera is out. So, the picture on this is rather pointless since I am hiding it behind stuff on the table... but its cute to listen to. Notice how long she can draw out the Niiiiiiiiinnnnne. :) I don't know if it really that impressive that she can alternate numbers or not, but as her mother I think so.
She can identify triangles, stars, hearts, circles, and squares with her shape toys/puzzles and will say ABCD. When you sing the ABCs she looks like she wants to sing along but all the pieces just aren't connecting yet. Soon. Her colors are coming along. She will id some of them correctly sometimes but not consistently.
She likes for us to sing "enkle star" (Twinkle Twinkle) and "spider" (EtsyBitsy). I recently downloaded a few songs off of itunes that I remember fondly from being very young and she smiles when she hears them in the car. (6 Little Ducks, The Little White Duck- Burl Ives sings a great version)
Not too shabby for a 23 month old. We are approaching 2 so fast! I cannot believe she is already this big. It so funny to hear the next thing that comes out of her mouth. Its in the last blog post too, but last weekend when she reached up and tickled the sky was just great. Then there are other moments when we can't do much else than shake our head. While I was changing clothes in the bath house area at Fort Yargo's swimming beach she found a deep puddle from the shower run off.... The next thing I heard was a series of smacking splash noises.... the t-shoes had to go in the washer that night. She jumped and jumped and jumped in the puddle. She was having a good time though and I could change clothes in peace so it wasn't so bad. (And no, the water was not nasty.)

Enjoy the video...

Oh, and I uploaded the Fort Yargo pictures into album2.

Trip up to Fort Yargo State Park

2009-08-10T19:37:00.006-04:00

The last weekend of freedom we took an afternoon trip up to Winder to Fort Yargo State Park. We cooked out, threw pinecones, and went swimming. Lily enjoyed the still water that she could walk into and out of, and of course the sand.

At one point while we were eating she looked up at the sky and said "sky" and then she reached up with her fingers and said "tickle tickle sky". It was so cute and funny. I tried to get it on video in case she repeated herself, but of course she did not.

Everyone still has all fingers...

2009-07-29T23:48:00.010-04:00

Today was Lily's first visit with a dentist. I took her to a pediatric dentist that a coworker had suggested. She had a great time till we went back to the cleaning area. The lady asked if I thought Lily would let her "tickle" her teeth. I told her I highly doubted it unless she had a pretty amazing trick up her sleeve. Sure enough, Lily was having none of it. So we changed plans to option #2 which is what they do with most toddlers. She sat in my lap facing me and lay her head back on the dentist's legs. He, Dr. BonJovi (no I am not kidding), brushed her teeth well with flouride stuff and then looked them over. No problems noted, aside from the crying toddler laying in his lap (which is the norm I was told). She got to pick a sticker, a prize, and a balloon as we left. She did pretty well I guess. As well as I figured she would do anyway...

This is what childhood should look like...

2009-07-22T13:47:00.006-04:00

Yesterday evening we met up with my mom (birthday 7/21), Hannah and Jimmy (birthday 7/23) and celebrated the big birthday week - Michael (7/22)- with a cookout at Amicalola Falls State Park.

Lily and I played in the creek while charcoal got ready and food was prepared. She had a perfect spot to throw rocks and splash around. The temperature was perfect with a slight breeze and few bugs. She spent at least an hour in the water, which was pretty chilly. I had to drag her out though.

I tried to take pictures without the flash but it was so dim by that time of the evening it was needed. So, it may appear that she is playing in the dark, but she wasn't...

More pictures in album #2.

Cousins

2009-07-19T20:06:00.003-04:00

This is from our recent visit with David, Britta and Hazen. I finally got around to condensing it for the web. Lily was very taken with Hazen's little feet and belly button...

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

2009-07-09T22:19:00.012-04:00

This year we went camping up near Franklin, NC with Hannah and Jimmy. My brother recommended a campground that he had stayed at before while surveying. All of this coincided with a visit from my Aunt and Uncle from Huntsville, AL who were visiting with David and Britta to meet Hazen. So, we all met up in Dillsboro for dinner and visiting late into the night (at least by some people's standards).Although the campsite/campground was not exactly what we had expected, it was still a nice quiet break from things down here. Lily and I stomped around in the river some and plopped rocks. Michael got the giant tent put up, which wasn't so giant with an airbed in it. I have discovered that camping is worlds better with an airbed- UNLESS it is about 50 degrees. In which case, the air IN the airbed is that cold as well. Even with a down comforter (yes I know, some camper I have ended up being) I was still chilly. I was sharing the comforter/mattress with Lily so I couldn't very well roll up like a burrito, which is what I wanted to do. Lily had her fleece jammies so she was ahead of the game.

Anyway, she was up until about 11pm Friday night, visiting and running us ragged at the hotel Aunt Janie and Uncle John were staying at on the river in Dillsboro. She passed out

in the car on the way back to Franklin. Fortunately we were able to get her dressed for bed without waking her. She looked completely unconscious though so I am not sure she would have woken up anyway. I wanted to take a picture of her but I knew the flash would wake

her for sure. We figured she would sleep pretty late considering her late night. Oh no.... 7:30am she was up... we had a hard time getting going, especially with the cold.

She ate a banana and sat around in the tent for awhile, poking into things.

Michael and I enjoyed speculating on

what retirement in a "retirement RV village" was like...we soon found out. By 8am the retirees' coffee had kicked in and they were up and about shrill-ly calling out

"GOOOOOD MORNING!" and "HAPPY FOURTH!" to one another as they busied about their RVs decorating and getting ready for the big "parade" later in the morning.

We walked down to make sure Hannah and Jimmy, who were located in a much more scenic area, were awake to enjoy it all too.

Later in the morning Lily and I watched the "parade" go around the gravel road that snakes through the campground. It consisted of a golf cart with the 2 Grand Marshalls, who no joke were wrapped in star garland. Following the gold cart were about a dozen walking "seniors" and 2 "hover-round" chairs (also decorated). All of these revelers were banging pots and pans, wind chimes, bike horns, whistles, and other loud items. Several had

their little purse dogs with them. It was quite a sight to see. Lily was just not sure what to make of it. She stared as it went by, then walked out onto the gravel to watch it go down the hill and around the bend.

After eating a bite, we decided to try to find a scenic area out near Highlands. I knew of a particular place that is just gorgeous but it turns out it was closed for updating the parking area, stairs, and walkways. So we ended up pulling over to see about a trail that went off into the woods. Jimmy and Hannah went to size up the situation....or so Hannah thought.

While on this mini-hike Jimmy proposed and Hannah came back sporting a lovely ring on her left hand.

After all of that commotion we went into Highlands for pizza. Highlands is very very different from the way I remember it 10-12 years ago. None of us had a high enough income to park along the main parking area....ha. It was pretty snooty.

We spent the rest of the day hanging around at the campground with David, Britta, and Hazen. After dinner we left and headed home. Lily had pretty much had it by that point, and so had we. She lasted about 4 miles and was out for the night.

Fortunately for us, I had thought to bring a 2nd set of jammies to put her in for the ride home. So, straight from the carseat to the crib once we were back at home.

Please go to album #2 for all the pictures we took.

Father's Day 2009

2009-06-21T23:09:00.008-04:00

Howdy to all...Today we drove up to Fannin County to see my Dad and spend the afternoon with him. We decided to go swimming down on the Taccoa River. My siblings and I grew up playing on the banks and rocks of that river (along with the shores of Lake Blue Ridge) so it was nice to take my little Lily to a place we enjoyed so much as kids. She did not get quite as much out of it as we did back then, but she's young yet.

We picked up a life vest for her since it IS the river and all. You just never know what can happen so we felt it best to be on the safe side of course.
She had a really good time glopping her feet in the sandy mud at the bank and plopping rocks down into the water a few feet out. She fell over a few times but, thats what the vest was for! Only one scary moment when she took off out from the bank and got past watchful eyes before we realized what she was doing and then launched herself out into deeper water to follow me and her Uncle Adrian who were swimming across to the other side. She got a mouthful or two of water but she was ok.

You may notice in other pictures/videos that I neglected to put a swim diaper on her- she has not gained a massive amount of weight in the bottom- its just absorbent gel doing its job. Actually, it started to look as though her bathing suit was stretching out badly, so I took it off after a little while!

*see album 2 for photos

Happy Father's Day to all the dads and dad-like folks out there....

Gymboree videos

2009-06-13T00:44:00.007-04:00

As mentioned before, Lily is doing Gymboree this summer and although I did not have my film crew (daddy) with me today, I took some quick videos after class was over. Sorry for the odd shots at times. Its hard to "spot" for a toddler and keep the camera pointed in the right direction.

On the 2nd video, you will notice that she is stepping on the big toe of her opposite foot...she tells me, "It's stuck!" :) I thought it was funny. She also frequently tells me "careful!" (wonder who she has heard that from). Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds lately and sometimes will repeat a whole sentence that we have just said which serves as a warning to us!

Also, on a different note, I have let some of you know but I will let everyone know that it turns out I will be going to court at the end of June. The offer that I received this week was greatly lacking- about a tenth of what should have been offered.

Water water everywhere...

2009-06-04T06:46:00.004-04:00

Lily LOVES water. We started by getting her a water table to play in but after watching her dump buckets of water on herself from it, we decided to go with a big girl pool. That may have been a bit much since she really just gets in and gets back out, with some splashing in between.

*Pictures in album 2.

An elephant in the room...

2009-05-16T12:12:00.003-04:00

Michael does a great elephant impression that has always entertained Lily. Now she tries to mimic him but just does not have the lung power to put behind her lips. So, it just comes out as...well, you will see. :)

Planting flowers

2009-05-09T15:44:00.005-04:00

Potting soil was fun this morning.... She did a good job, although when we were done she wanted to move all the dirt BACK.

Hazen Oren Marine...

2009-05-03T12:54:00.003-04:00

New nephew!

2009-05-01T05:42:00.003-04:00

Say Hello to H.O.M.

We don't know his name yet, but those are his initials...we'll know the rest this weekend.

Born- 4/29

10:15 pm

7 lbs, 3 oz

Tunnels and tents...

2009-03-28T17:28:00.004-04:00

Today I went to a large consignment sale and found this tent and tunnels for Lily to play in this summer. For now, we will play with it in the living room on rainy days.

Forks and Sandboxes

2009-03-15T12:50:00.006-04:00

This post is a conglomeration of various items. Lily has (finally) been getting interested in using a fork. Up until now she has been perfectly content to use her hands for everything. I have not pushed it though and now she seems to be enjoying stabbing at food. We act impressed and wow'ed when she does it and I think that also helps. We are not making much progress with using a real cup, but honestly, I don't care. She won't go to Kindergarten using a sippy cup I promise.

We have gotten a sandbox for her this past week and she is enjoying being able to dig in something. Unfortunately it has been raining all weekend so we have not been able to get in it in a few days... maybe Tuesday.

Not much else is going on here. School has been more stressful lately due to layoffs for next year. My county notified about 100 teachers that they would not have a position next year. So far, I am in the clear... but I don't know that it is over yet. The county still has not decided about pay cuts on top of the layoffs. Things are going to get worse before they get better in the field of teaching/education. When your job/pay depends on the tax digest, forclosures and families moving away cause major problems. Still nothing for Michael...

I can't get the sandbox video to load so I will have to try it separately later.

Finally!

2009-03-01T16:32:00.013-05:00

Finally, on March 1st, we get some snow! Better late than never... As of 4:30pm we have a good 3 inches in our yard. I am assuming we are not going to school tomorrow since there is slush on the road and it is supposed to freeze solid tonight at 23 degrees. There are more pictures in album #2 and I will upload some more tomorrow I imagine...

I had to go to Kroger around 1:00 this afternoon and was not too surprised to find that people in Gwinnett county do not know that you are supposed to turn on your lights when it is snowing. Idiots.

Let's Go Fly a Kite....

2009-02-23T20:03:00.006-05:00

Sunday afternoon we decided to take our new kite up to the park and let Lily see it fly. She was not enormously impressed, but would watch it for a little while. Mostly she liked running to it and staring at it when it fell to the ground.

The funny part of the experience was with the "chicken legs". As it was flying around I commented to Michael how odd it was that it had plastic things hanging down under it that looked just like floppy chicken legs. He agreed and we laughed about it. Then as it swooped around it looked more like a bird of prey about to swoop down and grab one of us. All of which was funny considering it was a nonthreatening looking butterfly. After it fell to the ground I went over and looked more closely to discover that it was actually the TAILS that were folded up and rubberbanded that had been looked over when we assembled it. HA

There are more pictures in album #2.

Belly button....

2009-02-09T19:13:00.002-05:00

Big girl picture

2009-01-21T21:29:00.006-05:00

Doesn't she look like a "big girl" in this picture? :( Where is the baby going?

Different things...

2009-01-10T22:33:00.003-05:00

Today we drove up to Gainesville to meet up with my mom, sister, brother and sister in law. We went out to lunch together and got to visit as one big group. The three of us (siblings) have not been together at one time since Thanksgiving of last year at my mom's house. David and his wife, Britta, are expecting a baby at the beginning of May. They are waiting to find out what it is though so we will all have to live with the suspense of it. If it is a girl, they will be set on clothes.

Not much else is going on on the moment. School has started back, and with it, the early morning drives north to Hall Co. Lily is doing or saying something new almost every day it seems. Her sleeping is FINALLY getting back to normal. All of the breathing treatment medications had really interrupted her sleep- and therefore- our sleep.

As you can see in the photos in album #2 (January stuff) she loves her books. It is a nightly ritual now. She will pull out all her books and sit wallowing in them while she flips pages. Her favorites are the "peek-a-boo" books, animal books, and books that have pictures of stuff in them, foods, toys, cars, animals, clothes...

Below is a video clip of Lily "roaring" like a lion. Daddy taught her that.

Smile, its 2009!

2009-01-01T10:57:00.010-05:00

I cannot believe this is the same baby girl who made her web debut a year ago. I looked back and saw her photo from New Years Eve last year and was so surprised. Below is a video of her showing off some of her words. Her vocabulary has been growing almost daily the past week or two. Sometimes the word "sticks" and sometimes its just repeating what we tell her it is but she sure is trying... Earlier in the week she repeated "yellow" and we are working on associating it with the color. She also has learned "hush" (for the dogs ) and is working on a hand full of others. Her list includes: mama, daddy, bad dog, doggie, puppy, wufwuf, kitty, meow, tree, hot, oww!, uh-oh, WOW, woah, eye, keys, mine, itsy (for itsy bitsy spider), baby, awww, nightnight, ball, yellow, bye, hey, "boobahs" (I'll let you figure that one out), belly, juice, cheese, apple, banana and "all done". Thats all I can think of offhand.

She has her own little variations of her way of saying train, "Thomas" (the train), milk, teeth, bottle, shoes, flower, book and (believe it or not), "touch down".

Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T11:35:00.009-05:00

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

2008-12-19T22:31:00.000-05:00

A hunting we will go...

2008-12-13T22:30:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-12-03T22:20:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-11-08T21:42:00.004-05:00

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)

2008-11-04T19:33:00.003-05:00

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....

2008-10-26T20:23:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-26T15:49:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-18T20:43:00.001-04:00

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

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

2008-10-10T20:15:00.002-04:00

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)

2008-10-01T21:06:00.004-04:00

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...

2008-09-14T20:42:00.002-04:00

We are claiming these are Lily's first steps.

Lily's First Birthday Party

2008-09-07T13:44:00.005-04:00

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!...

2008-09-07T12:41:00.002-04:00

Almost walking...

2008-08-27T20:16:00.005-04:00

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...

2008-08-11T20:59:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-09T12:52:00.002-04:00

Big girl toys...

2008-08-03T20:09:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-22T14:19:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-09T23:02:00.001-04:00

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

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

2008-07-04T21:05:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-06-23T20:37:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-06-07T18:16:00.006-04:00

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

2008-05-30T22:41:00.003-04:00

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....

2008-05-25T14:21:00.003-04:00

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

2008-05-15T18:09:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-05-07T21:28:00.004-04:00

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?

2008-04-25T18:24:00.006-04:00

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?

2008-04-13T00:05:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-04-07T19:11:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-03-30T18:17:00.004-04:00

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

2008-02-02T20:57:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-20T12:59:00.000-05:00

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....

2008-01-16T22:03:00.000-05:00

Big girl toys and snow...

2008-01-16T21:04:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-01-12T13:59:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-01-06T17:20:00.000-05:00

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...

Didn't quite make it till midnight...

2007-12-31T23:10:00.000-05:00

Miss Lily could not make it till midnight to bring in the new year...

End of 2007... What a year

2007-12-31T20:28:00.000-05:00

2007 has been quite a year in our family. On January 10th we found out that I was pregnant with our first baby. In May, my sister Hannah graduated from Agnes Scott with a double major in mathematics and astrophysics. We also found out that everyone had been WRONG about what gender the baby would be. According to family and friends it would be a boy. We let our families know at a cookout what to expect. We gave them a bib that said "I am not a boy". We then spent the next 4 months struggling with a choice of names for her.

At the end of June, my brother David married Britta Spencer. The main event for the year for us was the arrival of our daughter September 7th. Lily Claire Evans has been a joy to watch grow. It is amazing that she has grown and learned so much already at nearly 4 months old. She is beautiful and a very good baby and we feel very blessed to be her parents.

Michael continues to work in software development for a company in Norcross. I am still teaching in Hall County. We were very fortunate to find a superb babysitter for Lily. The only thing better would be if one of us could stay home with her.

I plan on using this site as a way to keep family and friends up to date with our family news. We hope that you all have a wonderful new year in 2008.