Belly laugh at Five Guys

At lunch with Lily, Karly and Karry pre-wedding

Lily's Baptism (Katie's perspective)

Climbing the stairs at Mimi and Babo

Packing!

I used to have this packing thing down to a science. I knew exactly which carry on I needed and exactly what was to be packed in said carry on. It took Jim and I 30 seconds to negotiate who would take which suitcase.

Needless to say, it's a lot more interesting now. We sat on the couch for 15 mins this morning trying to figure out the best suitcases to take and how to get all of them plus a baby in a car seat to the taxi stand and then the airport.

We are also packing lots of extra stuff that will stay in Houston. This suitcase is full of sweaters that I'll never need as long as we live here, and never should have been shipped to Dubai. If only I was thinking more clearly back when we were packing.

These two suitcases are for Lily. Before you start thinking less of me, the big one is full of clothes and toys that she's outgrown that will also stay in Houston. The small one is also full, but probably half of that will stay too; I don't think she'll still be wearing size 9 months when we come back in a month.

We took Lily to the doctor today to make sure her ears and chest are clear before we leave, and everything looks good! I just hope the little congestion she does have doesn't bother her on the plane.

I put Lily to bed at 5:45pm tonight. I know it sounds ridiculous, but we're getting up really early tomorrow anyways, and I'm hoping she'll be ready for "bed" on the plane by 5pm tomorrow. That means she would sleep the last 8 hrs of the flight. Plus, I was exhausted. We had a really easy day, and our nanny came from noon to 5, but the last 45 mins of the day were rough! She didn't want to eat, didn't want to take a bath, didn't want to get a diaper on or pjs on. Everything was a battle! It's crazy how just 45 rough mins at the end of the day can just wipe me out! I wonder sometimes how I survived her newborn days when I used to walk laps around and around our apartment complex to calm her down. I remember being ecstatic one time when she was about 6 weeks old and I put her in her swing and she sat there for 5 minutes without crying. I remember thinking that was the longest she had gone without crying since her sleepy jaundiced days. Thank goodness she's such a happy baby now!

Score

Disclaimer: This post is probably only interesting to the grandma's and the aunts. Well, maybe not even them!

I stopped at Pottery Barn Kids while we were at the mall the other day and I found a pillow sham from the bedding set I've been looking at! Lily decided to model it for you. The sheet set is is for her toddler bed (which will eventually be just her crib with one side removed). I didn't get a bigger size because I have no idea what size bed she'll get when she moves to a big bed (it will depend on where we live and what furniture we have). The green gingham is also a pillow case. I want to use all her bird decorations and her wall decal for a while and I think this will go perfect. Hopefully I can still find another sham, then eventually I figured any pink and green sheet+comforter set will match. Now all we have to do is wait for her to grow up! (Not anytime soon, though!)

Peekaboo

I might be biased, but I think Lily is pretty darn smart. It's crazy how much a baby can understand without actually knowing how to speak yet. I know it's just peekaboo, but I love that she understands how to play now! I took these two videos today (she's feeling much better!)

Parenting Fail

I had my first parenting scare tonight. Lily and I walked over to the pharmacy today to get some Vicks vaporub for her. Later this afternoon she was sitting on my lap after a bath and I rubbed some on her chest; she actually sat still on my lap for a while so I put the jar on the floor...ya, 20 minutes later when she was ready to play again I totally forgot about it. I was getting her dinner ready and heard something so I went to check on her and she had two fingers in the jar. She had a little on her cheek too which made me worry that she tried to eat it. I called the number on the jar right away - while panicking and trying to get her dressed in case they said go to the ER. Luckily they said just a little taste is nothing to worry about; they only worry when a kid eats a whole jar. This kind of stuff always happens when Jim is out of town!! In case you didn't realize it, let me remind you all the events that Jim has managed to avoid:

1. First earthquake in Taiwan

2. My first typhoon in Taiwan

3. First time the fire alarm went off in our TW apartment building

4. When my morning sickness first came on full force

5. During Week 4 of Lily's life which will go down as the roughest week of my life!

6. First time I set the fire alarm off in the Dubai apartment

7. Lily's first fever

8. And now Lily's first *almost* poisoning

You know, all those things that no one wants to deal with by themselves! Of course he doesn't do it on purpose, and actually, I don't think he could have better timing even if he tried.

A Series

"Challenge: accepted."

Challenge: complete.

Not Quite the 1st Easter I Had in Mind...

Well, my grand plans of getting Lily dressed up and taking pictures on Easter were called off when she woke up with cold symptoms again. The poor thing woke up at 3:30 am with literally a layer of snot all over her face. I took her to the doctor that morning, and she was just pitiful for the rest of the afternoon. Cough, runny nose, can't sleep, can't get comfortable. I knew if I put a dress on her she would just wipe her nose all over it! (Really, the only reason I wanted to put that dress on was to make sure it fit so she can wear it when she gets baptized on Sunday. Oh well, we'll take our chances!) So, this was the best we could do. At least she (we) got a chocolate bunny!

Looking forward to an Easter Egg hunt (an no cold!) next year!!

Lily James English is 8 Months Old!

Lily turned 8 months old on April 7th! Here's what she's been up to:

- She is pulling up on everything! She can also pull up and walk sideways along the couch, and I've even caught her letting go a few times and balancing a couple seconds before falling on her butt. Luckily, she's learned to balance well enough that she can sit down and not fall down.

- She loves to feed herself! The meal time fits have greatly decreased since I began cutting up small pieces of banana, mango or potatoes for her to eat while I sneak in the pureed stuff. I still like to give her some pureed mixes just to get more variety in her diet. Otherwise, she would eat bananas all day everyday if we let her!

- She's been battling her first cold this month, and it's been bothering her forever! I thought she was getting better until yesterday and we were back to square one with no sleeping, runny nose and a cough that wakes her up when she does fall asleep.

- She has two teeth now! Her bottom two front teeth are in and are too cute.

- She doesn't really have any favorite toys yet. Her favorite things to do are to crawl all over the apartment and explore, climb all over mom and dad, or practice pulling up on anything and everything. Sometimes in the late afternoon she will tolerate a walk in the stroller.

- She laughs when we throw her toys in the air, say "ROOOAAAR," or tickle her under her arms or on the bottom of her feet.

- She weighs somewhere between 20-21 lbs (75th-90th %tile), and is about 28" long (75th %tile).

- She wears mostly 9 month clothes, but 12 month pajamas (and is actually not going to last much longer in 12 month pjs)

- She really is pretty quiet, and is not saying anything close to mama or dada, but she just started saying baba. I think she's just too distracted with all her exploring to bother with talking!

- She still takes 2-3 naps a day. The 3-nap days are getting more infrequent.

Happy 8 months Lily Bug!!

A Trip to the Playground

Lily and I took a trip to the playground today on what will probably be the last day we can go out at 2pm and not get heat stroke. It was cloudy today and really nice out.

We did a little of this:

And a little of this:

But mostly a lot of this:

But my personal favorite is this..."now what mom?"

Happy Easter Friday! (Church services are held on Fridays here) Since Jim is in China, and I don't have a drivers license, we didn't make it to church today. I have no desire to take a taxi. It's not the getting there that's rough, it's the wondering if you'll ever catch a taxi home that I don't care for. We learned our lesson the first week we moved here when we waited an hour for a taxi after spending 5 minutes at a random furniture store trying to furnish our empty apartment. Lily will still get dressed up on Sunday for pictures! Have to get some wear out of these fancy dresses she has, even if we don't go anywhere!

An afternoon date

Jim and I had an unexpected afternoon date at the Dubai Mall today. Since he left for Shanghai tonight he came home early - about 2 pm - and our nanny was there until 5. Lily was still napping so we snuck out and spent the afternoon at the mall! It was the first time we had been out of the house together without her since we moved here in January. Jim got a haircut, I got some cute camel souvenirs for a birthday present, and then we just walked around and had some frozen yogurt!

We discovered this giant aquarium in the mall, and I can't wait until Lily appreciates this kind of stuff.

We stopped at Pottery Barn kids, where they have a cute birdie bedding set that I've been eyeing for Lily for when she graduates to a big bed. Well, now it's about 90% sold out, and I'm kicking myself for not getting it because it's perfect to go with all the other stuff she has in her room. Maybe I'll get lucky and find it in Houston when we go back next week.

What do you notice about this picture?? How about the part where Lily is standing completely balanced while only holding on to Sophie the Magical Teething Giraffe. I know some day too soon she's just going to let go and start walking. (Also, she thinks it's hilarious when we put her toys in our mouth.)

I'll end with this chubbalub on her daddy's shoulders. She's decided lately she really likes her daddy, and she crawls directly to him when he walks in the door and she thinks he's hilarious. Sometimes she just grabs a fist-full of his hair and giggles. We joke that she took 6 months to warm up to me and 8 months to warm up to Jim.

An afternoon date

Practicing her "Babo"

I think someone is excited to see her Babo!

Learning to feed herself...

...and sharing a bit with Dad.

First time she stood up in the crib!

Sleepyhead

Sometimes she sleeps so hard in her car seat!

A New Nanny

We are trying out the nanny thing, and had our first nanny come yesterday afternoon. This is only a temporary nanny since we're about to leave for Houston for Karry's wedding, and hopefully we'll get the same one for consistency when we come back. We are going through a pediatric clinic that provides this service so we don't have to worry about sponsoring anybody, and they are all nurses. We are just doing 2 afternoons a week from noon-5 so I can get some homework done. Day care is just not working out. Lily refuses to nap there and it just throws off her whole schedule and I'm starting to think it's affecting her sleep at night. Hopefully if she stays home for naps she can stay on schedule better. Our first day didn't go well because Lily knew I was home (I was in the office trying to watch a lecture for school) and just cried and threw a fit until I came out. I have a hard time letting go and letting the nanny do her thing when Lily is crying because I know I can go pick her up and calm her down right away. Next time I think I need to just leave and go to Starbucks or something and work so I'm not hovering over everything the nanny does. Hopefully this works out because it's so nice to get stuff done during the day and have more time in the evenings with Jim. Now if we can just find a babysitter to come over some evening after Lily goes to bed so we can go out to eat! We are craving a date night, and I'm pretty sure it's the first thing we'll do when we get to Houston!

Food Coma

Lily has been eating us out of house and home lately. Tonight she had half a sweet potato, half a carrot, a packet of pureed spinach and a slice of watermelon. And that was just dinner. She still eats 4 meals a day now at almost 8 months. She ate about the same amount (if not more) last night and still woke up at 5 am hungry. This is a picture of her after dinner. She looked like she could just be rolled to bed!

Today Lily discovered a new laugh, kind of a squeal. I think she was pretty excited about it because she spent the morning laughing randomly at nothing. I looked over at one point when I heard her laugh and she had knocked over a basket we have that holds blankets and had pulled herself up on it and started laughing. She normally is so stingy with her giggles!

Speaking of pulling up on things, that's all this baby wants to do all day is pull up on anything she can get a grip on. This includes the couch, the entertainment center, her bookshelf, kitchen cabinets, my legs while I'm making dinner...I feel like she just started crawling and it won't be too long before she starts walking. I'm afraid she'll be walking be walking during the summer and won't be too happy about being couped up in the apartment. At least, that's how bad everyone tells me the summers are here in Dubai, but I bet none of them are from Texas!

The Beginning

I hope this blog can serve as a record keeper for our adventures in "bringing up baby." Mostly, I don't want to forget all the things I've learned by the time the next kid comes along. I also have so many more details about our Lily bug that I want to share with family (things that only a grandparent might care about, and that Facebook World could probably care less about) that I always forget about during phone calls. Maybe this will help the 5 gajillion miles between us and our families and close friends seem a little smaller!

Oh, and hopefully it won't ALL be just about Lily. Maybe someday Jim and I will get out of the house alone together and have something worthwhile to add to the blog!