A Day in the Life of Lily

I get asked what a typical day is like for us quite often, so I thought I would do my best to document it. It will be interesting to look back on in the future. I chose to document today because it was a low key, hang around the apartment kind of day.

5:30 am - I start hearing noises and know Lily is awake. She's happy and entertaining herself, so I don't rush in to get her up.

5:50 - I go get her, nurse, we play on the bed and change her diaper (it's poop, which is usually the case if she is awake before 6)

6:15 - Go back to our bedroom and wake up Jim and play in our bed. This particular morning she was all about giving lots of kisses! She would lean forward and put her mouth on ours when we asked for a kiss!

6:30 - I make breakfast then Jim feeds her. Today she had oatmeal with mango puree mixed in. I also fix myself and Jim cereal, then I go sit in bed and eat and have a couple minutes to myself.

6:45 - Lily and Dad playtime

7:00 - All 3 of us play on the floor. Sometimes we turn on the TV and watch David Letterman, who is not as funny at 7 am...

7:45 - nap

9:45 - wake up, nurse, change diaper. Today when I got her after her nap she had figured out how to take her pants off. That was a first.

10:00 - lunch time. Today she ate half a cut up banana and a packet of plum, berry and barley puree. Lunch is almost always some kind of fruit.

"Lily, don't throw your food on the ground." ... "Ya? And what are you going to do about it?"

10:15 - change clothes, play on the floor with mom

11:00 - independent playtime in the crib.

11:15 - play with mom/suck thumb and refuse to leave mom's lap. My plan was to have her continue to play by herself in the living room while I did laundry, but Ms. Snuggle Bug didn't want to leave my lap today.

11:45 - Give her a 4 oz. bottle of formula. This girl loves her bottle, and you can tell because she didn't try to grab my phone when I took this picture.

12:00 pm - nap

1:45 - wake up. change diaper, have another 4 oz bottle of formula

2:00 - have a snack while I wash dishes. Today it was puffs and bananas; we usually only have finger foods at snack time, no more purees.

2:15 - playtime with mom

2:45 - independent playtime

3:00 - put on Baby Einstein. I don't know what it is about this video, but she will sit/stand and watch the TV for all 27 minutes.

3:30 - get ready to go to the pool. Today Jim surprised us and came home early!

4:00 - Playtime at the pool (if we don't go to the pool, we go to the playground or grocery shopping, something to get us out of the house)

5:00 - nurse, dinner. Tonight she had cut up Zucchini and bananas, and Jim chose a puree packet called Fish Pie. Yumm!!

5:30 - bath time. This doesn't happen every night.

5:50 - playtime with mom and dad (usually Jim is not home in the evening before she goes to bed)

6:15 - change diaper, put on PJs.

6:20 - nurse, bedtime!

Usually bedtime is not until 6:30-7, but the munchkin was pretty tired and cranky tonight and we felt like we were just torturing her. Even with 2 almost 2 hr naps today, she was acting tired all day. I hope it's just a growth spurt and she's not coming down with something. I'm still battling a sinus infection, but she is finally all better and my worst fear is that I'm going to give this cold right back to her. Maybe I shouldn't have let her kiss me so much today, but how can you resist??

So far, I think this is the easiest age. She can entertain herself longer and is figuring how some of her toys work. She is on a pretty predictable schedule, which makes it much less stressful when leaving the house, and she needs very little discipline because she's still not walking and getting into things. She goes right down for naps, and always sleeps for at least 1.5 hrs. The biggest challenge we have now is that she starts to get "bored" and fussy in the late afternoon, especially since it's hot and we are couped up in the house most of the day.

First Mother's Day

I was lucky enough to spend my first Mother's Day in Dubai with my mom. We were all still jet lagged so our day was pretty low key, but we got out for a little while and took Lily to the pool.

We brought this floatie back from the US. I think we got it at Target for about $10, then found the exact same one in the mall here for $60!!

All Lily wanted to do that day was crawl up the steps and sit precariously on the edge and play with her toys.

This is the only picture I have of me and my munchkin from Mother's Day; we were just not in a picture taking mood after being up all night. Thumb sucking is becoming a common site here lately, which worries me and Jim...

In the shallow baby pool her feet can touch the bottom, so she can push her self around in this float. I can't get too far away from her though because every once in a while she tries to dive out of it (especially if I get too far away).

We love our pool. It has tons of shade, so I don't have to worry as much about hats and sunscreen, and it has a nice breeze that keeps it cool even when it's 100+ degrees outside. I even saw her shiver when I took her there just a few days ago and it was 102! It's starting to get to the point where we can't do our afternoon walks anymore because of the heat, so I think we'll be going to the pool pretty often.

May 26th, 2012

Well, it's official....Lily took her first steps on May 26th, 2012. The entire family took bets while we were in Texas as to when it would happen, and I think Granny (Jim's mom ) is the closest; she chose May 28th. Now, she's definitely not "walking," and we had to pretty much trick her into it, but she did it! Jim and I were sitting about 3ft away from each other walking her back and forth between us, letting go of her hands and coaxing her to walk. Most of the time she would drop to all 4's and crawl the rest of the way, but then she finally took a step toward me one time before falling into my lap. When I picked her back up she just squealed with excitement and had the biggest smile on her face! We couldn't believe it, but it seemed like she understood what she did! She did it a couple more times after that with more coaxing, but soon got frustrated with us. Maybe now that she knows she can do it she'll try harder. I have a feeling it will be like when she rolled over - she does it once by accident, then doesn't do it again for another 2 or 3 weeks.

Also, I want to write this down so I'll remember it for the next kid - I started doing "independent playtime" with Lily this week. It's something that I read about while I was still pregnant, but just thought it sounded silly and a little overkill. The concept is that you put the baby in the playpen for a certain amount of time with only a few toys, and it encourages them to be creative with the toys and work on their focus and concentration. We started on Tuesday (after a disasterous first swim lesson and I decided something needed to change) and my goodness it has made a huge difference in less than a week! I started with 5 minutes twice a day, and we're only up to 10 mins now and I just can't believe the improvement in her attention span and ability to entertain herself already. I felt like I was starting to become Activities Coordinator all day long, which is exhausting with a child that has a 5 second attention span. I couldn't leave the room, or even get up off the play mat all day or she would start whining, like she was saying "entertain me! I'm bored!" She would do this thing where she would crawl in and out of my lap, sucking her thumb and whining, again like she was bored and didn't know what to do with herself. Now I notice her playing with toys longer, and playing with stuffed animals that she never paid attention to before because they didn't "do" anything. She's so much happier too; I don't think she gets so over-stimulated anymore because she's not constantly looking for new input. I don't use the playpen because our apartment is too small to have something like that out consistently, so I put her in her crib  instead. I play some Disney music for her and open all the curtains and door to make it totally different than naptime, and so far there doesn't seem to be any confusion between naptime/playtime. I will definitely be starting this sooner for the next kid. I think I did the typical first time mom mistake and felt guilty leaving her by herself for any significant length of time. Everyone always says to talk to babies constantly to help build language skills, so that's what I did. I would just lay next to her all day and talk and babble, and I realize now that she's become dependent on me for entertainment, and it was becoming exhausting. Supposedly a 10 month old can do independent play for 30 mins twice a day, so that's what our goal  is. I'm hoping someday this will make an easy transition to "quiet time" when she drops her morning nap.

To make this post even more random, I have to include this pic of the munchkin with a pacifier. We were playing on our bed and I gave her a seldom used diaper bag to explore the contents of and she found a pacifier and put it in her mouth. I told Jim to take a picture quick because I think babies with paci's are so cute, but she doesn't ever use one. When I looked at the picture later I realized she had it upside down. Poor girl doesn't even know how to use it!

At the Top - Burj Khalifa

While my mom was in town, Lily and I took her to the top of the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world!) Luckily I figured out that the ticket prices are 1/4 the price if you buy them online instead of at the door; even then they are $30, but at the door they are $120!! I can't imagine paying that just to go up an elevator! It was barely worth the $30 we paid. 

After living in Taiwan and going to the top of Taipei 101 a handful of times, I can say the Burj Khalifa designers need to work on their "At the Top" experience. Taipei 101 has 2 gift shops, a cafe, an ice cream shop, an entire floor of jewelry and souvenirs, and an outdoor observatory. It also has a room that you can walk in and see/learn about the damper used to counteract the wind, and there are signs over every window telling you which buildings you are looking at, and which direction various cities are located. It just makes it more interesting. The Burj has a rinky dink gift shop and an outdoor observatory. No signs, no nothing. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that it's still a work in progress, but a note to our visitors: I will probably not be joining you on any future visits. I will take you there and wait in the mall, but it's just not worth another $30!

I heard somewhere that Dubai has the most skyscrapers in the world. I don't believe it because this is pretty much it.

Here you can see the river that runs around Burj Khalifa and the equipment for the fountains.

Me and Lily in the outdoor observatory. We didn't stay out there very long; it was 106 degrees that day!

You can see our apartment in this view. We're across the street from where the river ends in the middle of the picture. 

It's definitely a cool thing to do once, and I do appreciate that we live within walking distance (even in 106 degree heat) of this kind of stuff.

Lily James is 9 months old!

I better get this written before the munchkin turns another month older! We were in Dickinson at Mimi and Babo's house on her 9 month birthday so we didn't have our normal set up with the chair and bird pillow, so we had to make do. 

Here's what Miss Lily James has been up to in her 9th month of life:

- She doesn't stop moving. I had to take these pictures right after nap time while she was still waking up with the hope that she might sit still for a few seconds. She is still pulling up on everything and can walk while holding onto furniture, or while holding someone's hands. We also found out that she can climb stairs while we were in Dickinson. Thank goodness we don't have stairs in our apartment.

- Thanks to her Oma, she learned how to "patty cake" (clap her hands) and do "So Big" (she raises her hands above her head when you ask her how big she is).

- She can blow raspberries better than any adult I know, and she does it non-stop. She did it on the airplane to and from Kansas City, and everyone thought she was too cute.

- She loves to play peekaboo and understands the concept now.

- She's started wrinkling her nose when she laughs.

- She will bounce up and down and dance when music is playing.

- She eats a lot of table food now. We went out to eat a lot in Houston and she ate anything we put on her high chair - cheese, eggs, fish, chicken, pasta, strawberries, mushrooms are all new foods this month. She is a great eater, but I made scrambled eggs and she wasn't too thrilled with them; that might be the first food she doesn't like.

- She eats finger foods at every meal except breakfast (oatmeal) and does a really good job of feeding herself; in fact, if she drops food she will often search in her chair and bib until she finds it then shoves it in her mouth!

- Something I started doing this month was cutting up an apple into small pieces, adding a splash of lemon juice and some cinnamon, put it in a bowl with saran wrap over it and microwave for 3 minutes. The apples come out warm and soft so she can chew them and she loves it! She will eat almost an entire apple in one sitting like that.

- She still eats 4 full meals a day, about every 3.5-4 hrs.

- We are down to 2 naps a day (halleluja) which makes it much easier to get out and do stuff in the afternoons.

- She's finally sleeping through the night again (~11.5 hrs/night) after fighting off a cold.

- She still only has 2 teeth, the bottom two. She had some pretty fussy days this month so I thought the top two were close to breaking through, but nothing yet.

- She wears size 4 diaper, size 12 month PJs (barely) and size 12 month and some 9 month clothes.

- I'm guessing she weighs around 22-23 lbs. I don't know how tall she is, but she had a major growth spurt while we were in Houston. Overnight all the size 12 month clothes we bought (that I thought we would save until we got back to Dubai) started fitting her.

- She's become so playful and seems to like everybody. I was worried about being around so many people during our trip and that she might get overwhelmed and cling to Mama, but she did great! 

Kansas City

Lily and I went with my parents to Kansas City for a reception for Karry and Aaron. A lot of Aaron's friends and family live there and they couldn't make it to the wedding, so Aaron's family had a very nice reception for them at a country club. A lot of my mom's side of the family made it too since they live in the area, including many cousins we haven't seen since they were babies.

Lily got to meet my cousin's son, Aidan, who is 5 months old.

Always have to have a twin picture! (my mom's twin brother Kris, mom Kathy, Karry and me)

My mom with two of her brothers, Kris and Dick, and sister Nancy.

Most of the cousins from my mom's side.

 After the reception we went to the Marshall's house for some BBQ.

Love this picture of me and my chubbalub on their back deck.

On the way back home, Lily threw the fit of a lifetime in the plane going from Kansas City to Dallas. She never took a nap that morning and I knew she was tired and needed to sleep so I was trying to get her to settle down and sleep in my lap, but she just got really REALLY mad! I finally just let my mom give her a bottle and she fell asleep in her arms. The only reason I didn't give her a bottle from the start was that she had just had one during take-off to make sure her ears were ok, so I didn't think she'd take another. I'm not sure what I was thinking 'cause this girl never turns down food!

 Here she is crashed out in my mom's arms. She slept like this for about 45 mins, until someone walked by talking very loudly on a cell phone.

On the sky tram to our connecting gate Lily held on to the bar just like everyone else! It was too cute.

Story Time at Mares Memorial Library

We finally managed to make it to story time at the library where my mom works, which wasn't easy since it's right in the middle of nap time. I wish we could find story time here in Dubai because I think it would be good practice for Lily to learn to sit still and focus on one thing for longer than 5 seconds. I spent the whole time keeping her from pulling up on MiMi's legs and crawling into other kids laps. She obviously doesn't have my shy genes yet!

Time to Catch Up

I'm not sure why I could never find the time to blog while we were in Texas, but thanks to Jim for at least posting a few pictures! A lot happened while we were there, and I'm going to try and recap most of it. 

First of all, Lily did pretty good on the plane ride over. Unfortunately, our flight left Dubai at 10:00 am so she was awake for about 10 hrs until she finally crashed in my arms. She took 2 short 30 mins naps in those 10 hrs, but that was it. Luckily she was really good while she was awake; the TVs and remotes on the back of the seats in front of us kept her attention for a long time. She crawled around for a little bit in the exit row, and we were luckily sitting near lots of people who seemed to think she was pretty cute and were very friendly to her when she crawled into their space. The worst part of the trip came when she had a major blowout diaper about halfway into the flight. She hasn't done that in months and of course she does it on the plane!! Oh well, we cleaned her up, but I'm sure the entire cabin could smell it. We finally made it, then we kept her up until about 9 pm that night before putting her to bed. She woke up about 4 times that night, sleeping at some point on each of mine and Jim's chests. I think she just didn't know where she was and needed some reassurance. But, after that night she was back on schedule and sleeping through the night!

Sunday morning, April 15th, we had Lily baptized at the 8:00 am service at my hometown church in Dickinson. Lily did great through the entire service, and even kept her bow on until right when we went up to the front. I was thankful to be able to share this with some family members since there will be so many other events that will just be the three of us. 

Later that week family started arriving: my grandma, Jim's parents, my aunts Holly, Nancy and Uncles Roger and Rob. Jim's sister Emily also made a last minute trip to Houston (and probably got a better fare than those that planned months ahead!). 

Friday night, the 20th, we had Karry and Aaron's rehearsal dinner at Haak winery in the wine cellar. Lily lasted for a little bit and then went home with her Granny, Grandpa and Aunt Emily. 

My family at the rehearsal.

Lily with her Granny.

Lily with Aunt Katie at Dinner.

Jim feeding Lily her dinner. Not an easy thing to do anymore without a high chair. Those hands grab everything within reach!

My side of the family at the rehearsal.

Pretty blue-eyed baby!

Jim and his parents and sister took care of Lily the day of the wedding while I was getting hair and make-up done at the vineyard. It was nice to have a "day off" and be pampered! The wedding was beautiful and the weather was perfect. Even with all the dancing later that night I never got too hot. 

All the girls.

Me and my sisters.

One of my favorite things about weddings is visiting with family that we don't get to see very often. We were lucky that my grandma (on the left) and her twin sister (on the right) both made it to the wedding. My grandma has now made it to all 7 of her grandchildren's weddings! This is Marjaleen, me, Karry and Madeline, the twins! For anyone that's ever complemented me on my thick hair, I have my grandma to thank! Even at 85 yrs old, her hair is still super thick with very little gray!

My family at the wedding.

The next two weeks were spent playing at MiMi and Babo's house. This is a picture of Lily at the top of the stairs. We had no idea she could even climb stairs!

We played with Lola.

And tormented Lola.

 

And played with Oma.

Oma fed Lily lunch and a snack every day, and taught her to "patty cake" and do "So Big." It was a productive week for Lily and Oma! 

And, we fought with Lola over Babo real estate.

Finally, we finished the trip with a weekend in Kansas City for another reception for Karry and Aaron, but that will have to wait for another blog post because this one is getting way too long!