Little Lil is Growing Up

Our Little Lilly Pill ( her most used nickname, and for a reason) turned 1 on March 2nd!
Her personality has Chris and I laughing our heads off and quite worried for her teenage years. She is super dramatic, but soooooo fun and delightful! I have learned to keep EVERYTHING that I don't want her to see and/or hold far from her sight because if I have to take something from her hands-she will throw herself on the floor in full tantrum and scream bloody murder until I return the item, then she'll smile and giggle with delight--yeah, so quite the drama queen! Although not walking yet she is very physical and loves climbing over things, under things, being tossed up in the air, being hung upside down, climbing up the stairs over and over and over, dancing, etc., etc. Her activity level is off-the-charts. I thought girls were supposed to be more mild mannered and boys were the ones with this kind of energy?
I was recently looking at pictures from a few months back and I was shocked at the transformation she has undergone that has brought her from being a "baby" to a little toddler (almost)! She's getting around the furniture and walls easily but insists on being on her tippy toes. I thought she would be walking by now, but she just will not put her heels down so...maybe a few more months? I will post a video of her soon so you can see her in action. We love watching her learn and try to communicate with us. We have "conversations" all day long.

Steep Learning Curve

= FREEDOM


Disclaimer: This post is all about babies and nursing. After 10 months of fussing/bottle-REFUSING, cutting date nights short, phone calls from a stressed Daddy or Grandma, excessive night wakings, etc. etc.
Lily just spontaneously decided to take a bottle about a month ago...
...and it has changed our lives!
I am not trying to bash nursing, because I believe in it and I will try to nurse all future children... and I am definitely not trying to bash my child, but I will just say that some things have a very steep learning curve and for us keeping Lily happy and satisfied via nursing has been one of them. It all started making sense to me ( the way-too-frequent feedings, inability to nap, slowed growth) and I have come to the frightening conclusion that she has been borderline starving for the last 10 months. She's been eating solids since 4 1/2 months, but she eats like a bird and her weight percentile has been steadily decreasing since her 4 month appointment--definitely a worry since she was a peanut to begin with. I think she just never got enough milk. I literally tried the bottle weekly and sometimes daily...to no avail for 10 whole months!! THAT STUBBORN LITTLE BUGGER!!!
I'm not really even sure why I am posting this except that it has been this huge life-altering phenomenon as a fairly new mom to be able to leave for longer than an hour and a half and know that my child will be happy and full; to actually be able to go on a childless date with my husband- heaven forbid; to be able to go to my hair appointment and not have to leave the chair in a frenzy with wet hair when I get a frantic text!
My sister tried to drill the concept of getting a nursing baby on a bottle asap so you aren't stuck as her only source of nutrition/comfort... and I just didn't listen. I'm sorry Whit! (boy am I sorry...)

Anyway...I truly feel like Lily's whole temperament has changed this past month...not even kidding. EVERYTHING is now better, easier, less stressful and less dramatic than it used to be. I guess you have to learn some things the hard way...

A Stroke of Really Bad Luck

We got a call from our neighbor on Saturday night saying "Uh...hey you guys better come outside..." and when we did we found the alarming scene shown below. A drunk driver had come swerving up our street and somehow managed to clip the back bumper on Chris' new truck and drive with two wheels along the entire length of his car, before tipping over. Highlights of this evening included:
* Practically the entire neighborhood congregating in front of our house along with an ambulance, a fire truck and two cop cars.
* The woman's incoherent apology and inability to walk the straight line
*The woman attempting to climb back into her tipped, smoking vehicle for her cigarettes
* Her begging every neighbor on our street to keep her startled and upset dog (an innocent passenger) overnight while she was taken to jail so it wouldn't end up at the pound. My sweet elderly neighbor Dennis obliged.

But the good thing was no one was hurt and we would much rather it be a smashed car than someone's child. We are super bummed though... In the meantime Chris is loving driving his rental Dodge Charger;)
We still aren't sure how she managed to shatter the window
Chris thought I was naieve for being in disbelief that a mid-thirties-ish driver of a Landcruiser is the type of person to get a DUI. I thought this type of behavior was reserved for celebrities and white trash folks...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I vividly remember how I felt at this exact time last year. I was 6 months pregnant and bursting with anticipation for our daughter to arrive in a few short months. Chris was knee-deep in his MBA program. We were living in my inlaws' basement with no bedroom for our pending arrival. There were no job prospects in his horizon and with the economy in its funk we had no idea what blessings or misfortunes 2009 would bring us. You could say that the future was one enormous question mark. I remember playing out every possible scenario in my head, i.e. "what if we have the baby, and Chris doesn't have a job yet and I have to go back to work while he looks for a job?"... "Who would watch the baby?"... "What if he gets a job and we have to move somewhere awful and start our family in the middle of nowhere?"... "What do we do for insurance if neither of us is working?" and on and on and on...
Here it is 2010 and I am almost brought to tears thinking about the blessings and opportunities that were handed to us this past year. I honestly feel like this was a year of miracles for our little family. Our beautiful and spirited Lily came to us in March and just as my maternity leave was about to expire, Chris was given the opportunity of a lifetime when he received funding for his start-up company. I remember stringing my boss along telling him that I was definitely coming back after I had the baby and then praying earnestly that I wouldn't have to...and then literally the day I was due back at work Chris was hired as a consultant by his team of investors, and then a short while later they signed the deal to invest in his start-up. I remember fretting constantly (and driving us all crazy) about what I would do with Lily because she wouldn't take a bottle and fearing the logistical nightmare that commuting and working and caring for Lily and Chris' job hunting would cause. And I remember the utter elation, relief, and gratitude we felt when we realized that our hundreds of prayers had been answered and not only did Chris' deal come through, but I wouldn't have to go back to work and with the equity buyout by the investors we would have the opportunity to buy our first home in our beloved Salt Lake, which is home to us, and where we'd always dreamed of raising our family. This truly was a year of miracles for us and I must say that I was a little sad to see 2009 go...
We are counting our many blessings at this time and we consider you, our friends and family, to be huge blessings in our lives.
We love you all and wish you wonderful things in the new year!!
Happy 2010!!

and Merry Belated Christmas too!!

Yes. This is a dog bone. We decided this year that Santa got Lily's gifts mixed up with the dogs'. Lily was mesmerized with the dog bones and would throw a tantrum when we tried to take them from her... and the dogs were mesmerized with the tinker toys...

The wrapping paper and ribbons came in second to the dog bones

Ruby pouting and whining about having to share her bone

What did I just tell you?

What did I just tell you?

Are you not listening?

I guess we need new couches anyway...

What can I do to make you more comfortable?

Thanksgiving at Dad's "Farm", Part II

These pictures are of loved ones that make long plane rides worth it: Dad, Lindsey and Rachel (also Tammy, Kurt and Trent--not pictured). It pains me that we literally only see each other a few times a year. We all live in a different state, so we count it as a miracle when we can get organized enough to all get together.


Hiking with Dad and Lindsey

Lily and her Aunty Linds

Me and Rachie

Thanksgiving at Dad's "Farm"

About a month ago my dad left big city Atlanta and moved to a tiny little town in Vermont, called Woodstock. He's always dreamed of having land and living a quiet little existence and now with his career winding down he jumped at the chance to live his dream. We thought he went crazy until we saw the place (we still think he's a little crazy). The population of the town is 1700. It is a picturesque, quaint little town and now with his land and his farmhouse and his tractor, etc. etc. my dad is a self-proclaimed "fake farmer." He has the land and the barn, just no cows to milk or sheep to graze...He lives in a cute farmhouse, built in 1790. Yes, you read that right. It is adorable and charming, but very funky. None of the walls or floors are straight, flat, square or perpendicular. If it weren't so dang far away I would go there every chance I could get. There aren't direct flights and the closest airport is a 1 1/2 hour drive from their house, so let's just say that flying/layovers/long car rides and Lily don't exactly paint a pretty picture. The first picture in this post is of how we survived our flight: tylenol before and sugar during (exemplary parents, we know). While we were there we had lots of fun with things that have wheels: atvs, motorcycles, tractors, etc. We each gained an embarrassing amount of weight for such a short trip because of my step-mom's fabulous and fattening cooking (Thanksgiving dinner was just the tip of the iceberg). The highlight of our trip aside from being with family we rarely get to see was driving to Sharon, Vermont to the birthplace of the prophet, Joseph Smith. We attended church and visited a monument erected in his honor and the small plot of land where his birth home rested. The peace and the spirit surrounding that place is hard to describe. Loved it! It was a great way to end the Thanksgiving holiday and made us so grateful for all that we are blessed with.

The longest flight of our lives

The barn, house, and swimming hole

Fun on wheels

Fun on wheels, Part II

The white bench is where the prophet's house rested.