Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Alert and Attentive!

Today Lilli's daily report card had two words written in - alert and attentive. There's a little section with various dispositions like happy, cuddly, sleepy, fussy, playful, etc on it, but they had handwritten those two at the bottom and checked them. (On a side note, she pretty much always has happy, cuddly and playful. When she has fussy you just sort of wince!) And this evening she has really been both of those!When we first get home we have Pippin time - we play with him and let the two of them lick each other a little before I wipe her down. Then we usually play in the floor a little and work on our rolling - and WOW! Today she truly rolled from back to stomach for the first time. She is constantly rolling from side to side, and twisting around in various pretzel positions but just never tucks that arm under to make a complete roll. Tonight she scored a 10 from all judges (me and Pips)! She also spent a lot of time sitting unassisted, using her arms as support and also her stomach. She is still very unsteady but tonight she was really showing a ton of progress in her balance, particularly by leaning forward so she won't go from side to side as much.And her latest trick of the day - sucking on her feet! She was going to town on her tootsies tonight! I got some pics of it I'll have to upload next time I dump my camera on here. She's been playing with her feet for probably about 2 months now, but this is the first week she's decided they taste yummy. We've recently swapped from the slow flow nipples to fast and her liquid consumption has increased quite a bit as a result, and I guess with the added foods twice a day now she's just hungry all the time! She's doing great with her solids - she's opening her mouth in anticipation of the food and gets whiny if I'm not spooning it fast enough!

Have a great night!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Daddy Time


I'm pretty sure Lilli is going to have a great time next week with Daddy while I'm gone to Atlanta on a business trip.


At the very least, there will be tons of strange and interesting pictures to document their time together!


I doubt she will even know I'm gone! Of course if Pippin left for a week, it might be a different story altogether!


Tomorrow I've got to start putting together my list of what all we'll need to take for a few days at my parents house. I'm pretty sure dog crate + dog bed + bouncy seat + swing + strollers + Exersaucer + suitcases for 4 are not all going to fit in the car, along with all of us! It's going to be interesting!!!!!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sleepy Girl

A week or two ago I mentioned we were starting to wean Lilli off the Swaddle Me (at her blatant requests). We've been wrapping her with one arm loose, and that seems to be working well (except for the whole she's probably teething thing so she wakes up between 1-4 times a night now wanting her paci. Blah.) BUT, as far as the wrapping goes she's doing well with the one arm and over the past two weeks has provided some fun morning photo ops!

One morning she greeted us with the model pose:

She's outgrown the wedge now. It was at its outermost setting, and the way she scoots and moves she'd get stuck like this with her free arm stuck about and start fussing.

Here's the "I'd like my coordinating foot free, please" pose, and I guess she ready for breakfast so she was having a little snack on the swaddle wrap.

And here is one morning she was **actually** still asleep when we went in to get her! Very rare!!! Brent calls this her "left turn signal" pose. I guess she's been watching all the cyclists in our neighborhood!
It's always interesting to see where she is each morning! She's usually completely sideways, with some various combo of her wrap undone. Yesterday she had completely turned, with her head where her feet normally are. Today she was sideways, waving her paci in her hand. She's really taking to pulling it out, waving it around, and then tossing it somewhere (when it's not chained to her.) I enjoyed this recent post on this little boy's funniest sleeping positions. I don't know them personally - they are friends of a friend of a friend, but they have a baby several months older than Lilli and also 2 Boston Terriers so it's fun to look at some of their pics.

Speaking of, Lilli's infatuation with Pippin continues to grow. While we were cooking dinner a few nights ago she was in the floor in her Bumbo and he was at the other end of the kitchen in one of his beds. She started squawking and waving her hands around trying to get his attention! We moved her chair down next to him and she was as happy as a clam! She spent the rest of our cooking time trying to pull his bed closer and get his attention. She still laughs hilariously when we play catch with him, and any little scratch or huff he makes makes her giggle. And he eats it up. Tonight when I was cooking he went walking past her and when she stuck her arm out at him he went right over to lick it, tail wagging like crazy. As soon as we get home in the afternoon we have Pippin time. We sit in the floor and let them enjoy each othe before wiping all the lick off her. Usually Brent misses it, but on this particular day he was already home so he took some pics.

She loves trying to grab his tongue and also touching his face. Anytime she pokes him in the eye or grabs an ear too hard he just walks away.

She also likes to open her mouth when he's licking which makes it so much easier for his tongue to get straight in her mouth. He's so fast he can usually get one or two licks in on her face before I can shove him away. On this particular day she's wearing her 50 cent used My First Easter PJs. I had taken them to school as her extra clothes. Since she very rarely every spits up I didn't want to send anything nice, and on this day she had a pee explosion. That's the only time she's come home in her extra clothes which is not bad for 7 or 8 weeks now!
Here's to a short work week this week!!!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Lilli's First 5K - 5K For Fatherhood 2009

I guess technically this was not her first 5K. Technically her first 5K was this same race, just last year, when I was somewheres around 10 or 11 weeks pregnant. This race was the "race that started them all" for us. I first ran it back in 2004 on a whim. A friend who lived a couple of blocks over had just started running and we had started running in the evenings with her. We decided to put our two weeks of experience to the test and found this 5K at someplace called "Shelby Park". Little did I know on that June day that it would be the first of many races, and in a few years we would only live a half a mile away from Shelby Park.

I don't have any pics of us racing from 2004, we probably didn't even have a digital camera back then! Here I am - super skinny after my first year of running - in 2005. I had just finished my my first half marathon - CMM - a couple of months earlier and thought I was big stuff! I placed in my division for the first time - I think I was either 2nd or 3rd.
Here I am in 2006. Brent must've run it that year because there's only after race pics. I had just finished my first full marathon earlier that year, and this was the first time I'd ever placed first in my division. I tore it up that year - 3 full marathons and tons of age division awards at the shorter stuff! Far and away that was my fastest year of running!

Here I am in 2007. At that point Brent had retired from running and was back to picture taking! I held my ground that year, kept my first place division rank and was even the third female overall. Not bad!!!

Enter 2008! The year of the preggo!!! I took it slow and easy, so no hardware, no PRs, just another race for the recordbooks. And here's how long it's been since I pinned on a race number - late October! I think I was around 28-30 weeks pregnant? Something like that...


Want to make someone mad? Fly by them when you're enormously pregnant....or pushing a running stroller. I look so short here!


I think in years past the race has started at 7:30, but this year's start time was 7 am. Blah!!! Although we certainly don't even remember what it's like to sleep in we do try to keep little bit asleep until around 7 on Saturdays. Well, it would've been a fat chance today anyways. She started stirring around 3:30 am. Ugh. She must've been super excited about the race. In an effort for me to try to get a good night's sleep I put in earplugs and Brent said he got up with her about 4 times to replace her paci. I think this may be a fussiness from the teething situation that we're not a big fan of! Ironically enough, she fell back to a deep sleep right around alarm time at 6 am. We already had all our gear laid out the night before, so we got dressed, feed Lilli and headed down to the park. It was already wickedly muggy before the race even started. I wish the race was at a cooler time of year, but it's always right after Father's Day since it's a race to benefit inner city kids who don't have a father figure.

Lilli and I tried to start in what looked like a good spot in the pack, but I quickly found we had started way too far back. It's very frustrating when inexperienced runners don't know where to line up. If you don't know - GO TO THE BACK!!! It's so hard in the beginning to get around slow people, and stinking impossible with a running stroller. The first section is very narrow on the Greenway, so we passed when we could and twice I got so frustrated we jumped off the pavement and ran through the grass. Why have a top of the line runner if you never go off road?? Brent was exactly where he always is around the halfway point to cheer and take pics, and then off she and I went to finish via a lap around the lake and back to the start! All of the volunteer course monitors would cheer Go Baby Go! when we'd pass, and I had one sweet girl tell me she didn't know how I was going so fast in that heat with a stroller! I had several people ask if I could push them as well, and heard a couple of people tell each other they're way too slow if a baby is beating them! Ha!

Anyway, it was really hot and muggy this morning. The path is not very shaded, so it was just sticky and sunny. My first mile was around 9:30, which could've easily been a 9 if I wasn't stuck behind so many people. Mile 2 and 3 were each right around 10, and I crossed the finish line with a watch time of 30:03. Not bad, but I would've REALLY liked to be under 30. And it's a far, far cry from my usual low 24:00's. My overall pace ended up being 9:47 for the 3.1 miles.

Here we are heading around the final curve, heading for the finish:
Here's Lilli after the finish: She woke up really quickly once we weren't running anymore.
Last year and this year Vince Gill served as the celeb race chair. He pretty much says Go! and then stands at the finish line cheering. Last year I had my picture made with him (and told him I was pregnant, making him only about the 4th person to know at that point) so this year I wanted mine and Lilli's pic with him. Vince doesn't know a thing about running - and he really doesn't like touching sweaty people. I kept getting closer to him and he'd back away. Vince really needs to RUN it. But he might start with figuring out how long the race is - he made the comment that many people here can run the 5 miles faster than he can drive it. Buddy, a 5K is 3.1 miles, not 5. Regardless, Lilli was totally unphased by his celebrity status. Atta girl!
Just like last year, Vince performed a few songs before the awards ceremony. Last year he took requests, but considering none of the runners nor the inner city families knew any of his songs, it was a bit awkward when no one requested anything. This year he sang three songs, none of which we knew. We like his "Mountain" song about his brother's death, but he didn't do that one. It was still really good! (for Vince Gill and all!)


We didn't win an award today, I was only about 30 seconds off 3rd place in my division though. And I totally could've gotten first in my division if I had run solo. But, Lilli doesn't need no stinking medal - she had the best prize of all, her paci on a string:



Hanging with Daddy post-race, telling him how fast we were and how many people we passed!



I got a race number for her baby book (which I haven't touched in.....4 months....). I think she had fun!

I'm not sure what our next race together will be, probably Tomato Festival 5K in August. I won't run Oktoberfest with her, I'd like to PR there and it's a very crowded and hilly race so she'll just have to be my cheering section for that one!

Have a great night!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

L-I-L-L-I A-N-N-E

One of my coworkers brought Lilli back a pair of Mouse ears from her recent trip to Disney World.

They took a little getting used to.....


before we figured out that the Bumbo was the best place to get a photograph of her with them on. She is so wiggly and squiggly these days! Of course since we never feed her (ha!) she decided to smile while gnawing on that hand....


And in this one I was able to pry away the hand but there's not much you can do about the drool lately! This was also about 1.5 weeks ago when we still had her mattress propped up to help her with her drainage, and I totally forgot to hang a blanket to cancel out that lovely backdrop! Oh well!!

Her pink Mickey ears now proudly reside on her bookshelf and will be enjoyed for years to come, until we take her to Disney ourselves! Thank you Auntie Johnna for thinking of Lilli and bringing her back some Mouse ears!!!!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

5 Months of Lilli!

Happy 5 Month Birthday!

Your Birthday - January 24, 2009
7 lbs, 6.5 ounces 19 inches

One Month - February (first smiles!)
9 lbs, 1 ounce 21.5 inches

Two Months - March
10 lbs, 12 ounces 22 5/8 inches

Three Months - April
(No official weight)

Four Months - May
13 lbs 1 ounce, 23 7/8 inches long

Five Months - June!! And starting to sit on your own with a little help from Boppy!
Unofficial - Measurement of 25 inches tonight and 3 conflicting weight measurements - 14.2 pounds, 13.2 pounds and 13 pounds!!!


Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Lilli Anne will make you Jump!Jump!

I think Lilli loves her new Jumperoo:

Her huge smiles and grins erased all doubt from Brent's mind as to whether or not she REALLY needed both an Exersaucer and a Jumperoo. I never could find one at consignment that I liked, so I did have to pay retail for it (aaargh) but I earned Rewards Points at BRU, points on my Discover card and used a $5 coupon for it. AND, I only paid $7.50 for her Exersaucer at 1/2 price day at a consignment sale, so that deal of the century makes the two giant pieces of plastic invading our once classy home much more bearable!


But, shortstack is a shorty short like her momma and can't reach the floor without a little assistance. I think our choice for her booster is pretty classic, especially considering I calculated up exactly how many dollars worth of diapers we've already gone through in her 5 months with us. Thanks to you babe we probably will Die Broke!

Happy eve of Lilli's 5 month birthday!

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Fussies

I really like this pic of Lilli & I in the Cry Room. We pretty much make it until the beginning of the sermon each week until Little Miss Chatty Cathy starts losing it. At that point she's ready for a nap but who wants to do that with so much going on around you?? So that's when we usually head to the Cry Room and let her fight her nap there, until she ultimately passes out on me. Sometimes she stays asleep on the walk down to Babyland, but usually someone will touch her and wake her up. Thaaaanks!

This afternoon one of her teachers mentioned she's been a little fussier today, sort of whiny, and that she might be teething. Brent felt around in her mouth tonight and didn't feel anything starting to pop out, but she looked uncomfortable when he'd graze the top of her mouth. According to Google teeth usually start on the bottom, though. She's been fussier tonight, too - squealing and shrieking somewhat uncomfortably as we were cooking dinner. I guess we'll just have to see if any little teeth pop out soon!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Little Mermaid

To help Brent celebrate Father's Day in a relaxing way we headed to the pool after a nice afternoon nap of one glorious hour!

We've been meaning to take Lilli to the pool since it FINALLY opened a few weeks ago, but we've just never found the time and it can be a little difficult to manage an outing like this between naps, bottles and everything else going on. We were all napped and fed this afternoon, so we sunscreened up, blew up her floatie and off to the new and improved Downtown Y we went!

I've been going to the downtown Y at least 4 days a week since I started at Lifeway, it's just next door so it's a great place to burn calories at lunch instead of consuming calories and blowing money! All through my pregnancy I continued working out, and was even there a few hours before going into labor back in January. Lilli's birth coincided exactly with the transition from the old facility to the new and 3x bigger facility, so I never got to see it until I came back to work (Their limited nursery hours just didn't coincide with our eating/sleeping schedule, and I got plenty of working out done with Lilli and the running stroller.) Brent still hadn't seen the new facility so it was great showing him how FABULOUS everything is there now!

The flip side of living in such an urban environ is that we have never actually seen any other kiddos at the rooftop pool over the years. So enter us with our ginourmous float and baby to disrupt the hip scene of rooftop lounging amongst the 20-somethings! Of course there were no more lounge chairs and for some reason they are not stocking towels up there this summer. So, Brent drug us in some chairs from the adjoining sun deck & I trekked back down and then back up 5 flights of stairs to finally get us situated. Whew.


And this time she loved the pool! Way better than a plastic pool in the back yard. She wasn't super crazy about her float, but she really enjoyed being held in the water and kicking her feet. I think she's going to be a natural! And how many kiddos can say their first pool experience involved a gorgeous view of the downtown skyline? There were actually two boys there today, and their dad was excited to see another kid there. And we really didn't disrupt all the sunbathing. We played in the water half an hour or so and then loaded everything back up and used the nice new family dressing room to get Lilli back in dry clothes before heading to Sonic for some ice cream. It felt great on the roof, the billboards said it was 99 degrees but up there a nice breeze was blowing and the water felt perfect.


I think all that swimming really wore her out, though. It's tough being a baby with so much to do!


Sweet dreams!

Brent, Rachel, Pippin & Lilli

Saturday, June 20, 2009

To My Daddy!


Happy Father's Day to the best daddy in the whole wide world!!! No other daddy in the whole world is as fun as you or plays as many fun games as you do. I love it when you blow on my tummy and scare me by making my rubber duckie bark at me. It's so much fun when you fly me across the room and pretend I'm a rocket ship.

And I bet no other daddy would play Wii with me, or show me interesting things on the documentary channel. And you're so funny when you act like you're going to let the stroller go and make mommy angry. I love the bedtime story you read me every night even though I cry sometimes and you always pick out just the perfect pair of pajamas for me.


Thank you for putting together all my fun toys and running out at all hours to buy emergency replacement batteries for them. And thank you for not getting angry at mommy for all the cute clothes and shoes she buys for me. We have so much fun in the morning listening to loud music on the way to school, I promise I won't tell mommy about it. And it's so fun the way you accessorize the outfits mommy has already picked out for me, you know just how I should wear my socks or what fun pair of shoes will match my outfit.


Happy Father's Day Daddy, I love you!!!!!

Love,
Lilli A.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day from Lilli and Pippin!