Christmas and such...

This Christmas was Lily's first Christmas. Of course we went to my Dad's for Christmas Eve, as usual. We didn't get there till about 7:30pm and I think we got home at like 2:30 in the morning. And the oddest part is that Lily stayed up until we were in the car to come home...and amazingly not overly cranky. We hung out, visited with family, opened presents, and Lily stood up for the first time on her own. Yes she did. All by herself. I was on the floor, she did her little army crawl up to me and pulled herself up using my body...no actual help from me though. So amazing watching their milestones. We didn't get a picture of her standing on Christmas eve, but we did get on of her on Christmas day...


Now I am going to warn all. Since it has been a month since I posted, it is going to seem like picture overload...

All three of the kids dressed in red.

Chad being festive with his lights display...

Lily in her Christmas dress.

Dade proclaimed he is now Santa Clause

And Lily did NOT like Santa Clause!

Okay, maybe not complete picture overload, but still quite a few. All in all, Christmas went well, but I am glad that it is over. Lily is now in the middle stages of being mobile...army crawling and now she can stand. She is trying to crawl up on her hands and knees and I'm sure walking is right around the corner...sigh. They grow up too darn fast.

Thanksgiving...

For Thanksgiving we had dinner here and had Glenn and Calla over. The guys did most of the cooking which was so nice. Lily played all day and was so excited at dinner. I skipped the baby food (bad mommy!!) and did table food. She had turkey, mashed potatoes (made with boob milk), carrots, and green beans. She LOVED every last bite. Now we actually have 2 Thanksgiving dinners because we all gather out at my step dads house on the day after Thanksgiving for dinner out there...it's pretty much pot luck, but everyone knows what they are bringing. I even bought Lily a portable high chair to take out there so she could sit like a big girl! Lily had the same things out at Papa Charlie's except she got to have some sweet potatoes out there (I caught my sister before she added all the extra seasonings to them) and she devoured all of it. Funny thing is she ate more than Dade!!! But then again Dade didn't eat anything out at Papa Charlie's. I didn't want to fight him so I said fine, just no desserts.

Here is Lily with some mashed potatoes on her chin!

Clapping for the first time!!

So I am in the kitchen, Dade and I are doing the dishes (i'm washing, he's rinsing). I'll wash some, and while Dade is rinsing, I'm over feeding Lily baby food. And while that is all going on (oh and I'm making dinner too), we are singing "This old man"' to Lily and I looked over and she was clapping...CLAPPING!!!!! All on her own too. usually we will clap when she does something on her own (I love to encourage her and make a big deal out of it). She is learning so much right now. It's cool, but man she is growing up so fast!

Lily can do something new...

Last night I caught Lily "creeping" to get to things she wants instead of just rolling. I had to catch it on video (On my phone)


She loves paper so I put it in front of her to entice her a bit...tehn of course moved it back a little...mean mommy! Lol!

Here is another one...


*sigh* she's gonna really be on the move now...I better hurry up and finish baby proofing and get another gate to keep her contained. She already basically owns the living room anyway...Lol! The boys like to occasionally sit in the living room with their lap trays and watch a movie while eating (I know...bad mommy)but I told them tonight that it's gonna have to cease for some time. We'll do it on pizza nights or something, because tonight Lily kept trying to pull their trays over and was reaching for Dade's sandwich at one point. Oh well, I'd rather us eat in at the table together anyway.

Today, I had to go to the store to get miss Lily some more baby food and puffs. We walked into Giant Eagle (I love their brand of organic baby food) and I thought instead of putting Lily in the sling like I normally do, I put her in the seat in the front of the cart. She wasn't too sure of it at first, but I think once she saw I wasn't leaving her in their ad walking away (the separation anxiety has begun...) she was fine and looked to be having fun...and she looked like such a big girl!! My baby is growing up!


Then when we went to Target, the seat in the front of the cart was WAY too big for her...oh well. Now I gotta made/buy her a cart cover...don't want those icky germs all over her.

Lily turned 6 months and had her check up...

Lily turned 6 months, well the day we had to go to the hospital, on November 10th, 2008. She had her 6 month check up on the 13th. She weighs 16 lbs. 7 oz. and is 26 1/2 inches long and her head is 16 1/2 inches. She isn't as heavy as I expected ( I think cause by the time the boys were 6 months they weighed 20lbs...) They said she is still very long for her age, and her weight matches her height so that is good. Her head is still on the small side (no biggie) but it is gradually getting up to "normal" on the charts. She had to get her shots, plus I opted for the flu shot, so she had to get 4 shots in all, 2 in each leg and do the oral roto-virus vaccination. She barely even cried when they gave her her shots. She had her bink (since they wouldn't let me nurse her while she got her shots...that's what I did for Dade)so I think that helped her with soothing a little, plus as I held her arms I was down in and by her face shhhh-ing her and giving her little kisses and telling her it was almost done...she reached for me immediately and gave the nurse a mean look for just a moment and then gave her a bog smile. I was expecting her to be fussy on the day of her shots and then pretty much cry all day the day after, because that is what she has done for both her 2 and 4 month shots...and this time she didn't. She was barely fussy. She slept a little more the day of, but no biggie, that just meant I got to nap too. :-)

Lily's first trip to the ER...

So last night around midnight Lily woke up crying and as usual I let her cry a little...next thing I know Chad had brought her downstairs...which is normally a big no no, but he had a very worried look on his face. He said he heard her cough through the baby monitor and it just didn't sound right. As soon as he got closer I could hear it in her breathing, very raspy and almost forced, like she was having problems breathing. That immediately scared me. Chad held her and put her in her carseat while I gathered a few diapers and things to occupy her at the hospital. She cried all the way there, and as much as I didn't like that, I at least knew she was breathing. I did notice that she seemed alright until the car got warmer, so I turned the heat off about half way there. As soon as we got there they got us back to Triage and immediately in a room. A nurse came to check on us and Lily was all smiles and "talking" to everyone. part of me felt bad because now she seemed okay. She didn't cough much but you could hear it in her breathing, a deep raspy-ness. The Dr. immediately said he thought it was Croup. I had told them I just knew she didn't sound right, like she couldn't breath. I was afraid she had picked something up off of the floor and put it in her mouth earlier and had gotten lodged (grated this is midnight, she went to bed at 8:30. I figure if something had gotten stuck it would have caused problems before now...but who knows). Th Dr. ordered neck x rays just to be sure. Within minutes we were taken back to get the x rays...I had to put her on this bicycle looking seat and then they close this clear tube like thing around her while I held her arms up...(see below)

(that isn't her in the pic...got it from a google search) I felt so bad...they warned me that she would most likely cry a lot, but she actually did really well. I stood in front of her, holding her hands and he head still, and she didn't cry until I moved out of her sight...the x ray techs were sort of surprised. They made sure they got the x rays, sent them to the Dr. and then we were on our way back to the room. About 20 minutes later (if that), the Dr. came to the room, said the x rays looked good and it was definitely Croup that she had. They were going to give her a steroid shot to help her airway, then we would be on our way. They told me that if she started to cough and get bad to bundle her up and sit outside with her, that the cool air would help her a lot, or we could get the bathroom all steamy and sit in there, and that too would help her. Needless to say, she slept in our room in her pack and play for the next two nights so we could keep an eye on her. We borrowed a humidifier from Glenn (Chad's brother) and Erin and ran it at night for her. She is doing a lot better. I can occasionally hear a little raspy-ness in her voice when breathing before bed, but the humidifier helps with that. I know Chad said that he barely slept that first night. He said one minute you could hear her raspy breathing and the next you couldn't and he was scared she has quit breathing, but she didn't quit breathing, she had just changed positions and you couldn't hear her as much...kind of like when people snore, and they change positions and you can't hear the snoring anymore.
It was such a scare and I am soooooooooooooo glad that she is feeling better.

Pics of kids at Dawes

I took the kids to Dawes Arboretum to snap some photos of them while the trees still have some leaves on them....







Plus I had just gotten the boys' hair cut (it'll be a while before Lily gets a haircut), so it's a great way to show off the new do's...well, I love showing the kids off anytime!