...the absolute love of my life.Friday, July 29, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Almost Crawling
My tiny baby girl is getting so big. It is really amazing how much she changes every single day. We have been giving her tons of tummy time and she has been making the best of it. Giggling at herself, rolling all over the place...
She has now perfected sitting on her own. If she starts to fall, she catches herself. She can sit for long periods without me propping her up again and again. When she gets tired of sitting, she will purposefully topple herself over.
Late last week she started this....
She's up on her knees! I nearly screamed with glee when I saw her doing this. She is ALMOST CRAWLING! She can't really get herself to go anywhere or keep her belly up off the ground for too long but it's a start. I am sooooo proud of her!!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
First Trip to the Zoo
Last Tuesday we packed up our baby gear, grabbed Grandpa and went to see some animals. Lily was all for it....
Grandpa and Dadddy were bravely facing the heat for their little one...
The BOB was put to good use
Lily stared at fish and lizards alike
Mommy and Daddy in a self picture
Lily and Grandpa
Ooooooh....elephants
And monkeys in a tube
See baby girl....
Daddy will do anything for a smile from his little girl
NOTHING comes in between Lily and her nap
It turns out it was naptime for most of the animals too
Rawwwwrr - this poor lion was so old and wrinkly
Pretty zebras
I love giraffes but they sure are smelly
You know flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp, right?!?
Cheese Grandpa!
Another fun day as a FAMILY!
Grandpa and Dadddy were bravely facing the heat for their little one...
The BOB was put to good use 
Lily stared at fish and lizards alike
Mommy and Daddy in a self picture
Lily and Grandpa
Ooooooh....elephants
And monkeys in a tube
See baby girl....
Daddy will do anything for a smile from his little girl
NOTHING comes in between Lily and her nap
It turns out it was naptime for most of the animals too
Rawwwwrr - this poor lion was so old and wrinkly
Pretty zebras
I love giraffes but they sure are smelly
You know flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp, right?!?
Cheese Grandpa!
Another fun day as a FAMILY!Sunday, July 17, 2011
Lily's Week in Review
I have been back at work full force for a few weeks now and it's rough. I cherish every minute I get to spend with my precious new family. My little girl grows every day and I am so fearful of missing even one new face, milestone or even one poopy diaper. Every moment is fuller now, every breath has new meaning and it is all so awesome. This has been a good week for our little one.
More smiles and two new teeth...now she has both the bottom front two completely in and the top two partially in. My poor baby has been teething like CRAZY.
More happy times with mommy as we were getting ready to have our first family pictures taken
More experiments with solid foods. She has now had peas, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples and green beans. Surprisingly, she doesn't like sweets at all and has refused the bananas and apples. I have tried mixing them in with rice cereal and it's still a no go. Somehow I will get her to eat some fruit.
Goofing around some more with daddy
Lunch out with Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, Karen and BFF Sophie from China
That tongue is a killer. It must be soothing to those new teeth.
Beautiful Sophie at the FlipBurger
Karen, Sophie, Lily and Mommy
More tummy time. Lily can now roll in any direction, is pretty sturdy at sitting when she wants to and can grab things from all directions. Still no crawling or pseudo-crawling but it may not be far off.
We took a trip to the mall with Grandma and Grandpa and Lily had her first carousel ride with Grandpa. I think Grandpa may have giggled even more than Lily.
Grandpa and Lily after the carousel ride
Cheeeeese, or is it mooooooo?!?
Loving some green beans and hamming it up for the camera
I love this life!!
More smiles and two new teeth...now she has both the bottom front two completely in and the top two partially in. My poor baby has been teething like CRAZY.
More happy times with mommy as we were getting ready to have our first family pictures taken
More experiments with solid foods. She has now had peas, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples and green beans. Surprisingly, she doesn't like sweets at all and has refused the bananas and apples. I have tried mixing them in with rice cereal and it's still a no go. Somehow I will get her to eat some fruit.
Goofing around some more with daddy
Lunch out with Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, Karen and BFF Sophie from China
That tongue is a killer. It must be soothing to those new teeth.
Beautiful Sophie at the FlipBurger
Karen, Sophie, Lily and Mommy
More tummy time. Lily can now roll in any direction, is pretty sturdy at sitting when she wants to and can grab things from all directions. Still no crawling or pseudo-crawling but it may not be far off.
We took a trip to the mall with Grandma and Grandpa and Lily had her first carousel ride with Grandpa. I think Grandpa may have giggled even more than Lily.
Grandpa and Lily after the carousel ride
Cheeeeese, or is it mooooooo?!?
Loving some green beans and hamming it up for the camera
I love this life!!Saturday, July 09, 2011
All about the food
It's always been all about the food in our house and, with Lily, it's no different. It was so hard to get her to swallow baby food but she is making great progress with every attempt. We are trying to introduce the new foods one at a time weekly. Last week was the sweet potatoes and this week....peas! We are trying to follow the suggestion of introducing the more savory foods first. As long as she does well, Lily will have bananas or apples next week. 
It is so much fun to watch my munchkin experience new things. Her face and personality are priceless. I am still overwhelmed every day at my capacity to love this little person.
Experiencing things through her, even peas, is amazing. And that face....oh that sweet green globbery goo covered face. Love it!!
I'm so proud of our little family. Through spit up, poopy diapers, razzzzberries, giggles and belly laughs we are a unit, a family and, once again, it is better than my best dream.
It is so much fun to watch my munchkin experience new things. Her face and personality are priceless. I am still overwhelmed every day at my capacity to love this little person.
Experiencing things through her, even peas, is amazing. And that face....oh that sweet green globbery goo covered face. Love it!!
I'm so proud of our little family. Through spit up, poopy diapers, razzzzberries, giggles and belly laughs we are a unit, a family and, once again, it is better than my best dream.Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Oh-oh say can you seeeeee....
The 4th of July was special this year...because we have our own little patriotic girl to share it with.
One of my former co-workers/friends made Lily this beautiful little dress to celebrate her first holiday as an American.
I think she looks adorable as always (with Grandma holding her)
Happy 4th of July to everyone!!
One of my former co-workers/friends made Lily this beautiful little dress to celebrate her first holiday as an American.
I think she looks adorable as always (with Grandma holding her)
Happy 4th of July to everyone!!Sunday, July 03, 2011
Chicago Rummy
My family plays a TON of cards. Our game of choice is Chicago Rummy. Everyone who I ask has never heard of it but we have been playing it ever since I was a little kid. Some of my fondest memories are sitting around the table at my grandparents house enjoying each other and playing this game. I am so happy that we have now introduced our little Lily to it. Although she really just wants to chew on the cards, I am sure we will have a new member of the card game in no time. We spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday, had some great bbq chicken and veggies and chilled out...
Lily cheesing at Grandma as she took her picture.
Priceless smiles.
I think you should discard this one Mommy.
Lily cheesing at Grandma as she took her picture.
Priceless smiles.
I think you should discard this one Mommy.Roly Poly
We have been having lots of floor exercise time lately. I spend time on the floor with Lily on my off days and Jeff is diligent about giving her tummy/floor time on the days I work. We are really working on Lily's trunk control, her ability to roll all directions, reach for objects not within her grasp and not directly in front of her and prolonging the time that she can tolerate not being in mommy or daddy's arms.
Of course our Lily is amazing and makes huge strides every day. On June 16th, we saw plenty of back to tummy rolling over (as seen here)...
...but she couldn't quite make it over her shoulder to accomplish the tummy to back direction. This week while I was at work, Jeff got her over that hump and she is now rolling successfully in all directions. There is no stopping her, really. If we put her on the floor on one side of the room, she can make it to the other side in no time. She is so proud of herself and we are so, so proud of her.
Our little girl is so much fun and her personality emerges more every minute. Of course now we have to be super careful because she is semi-mobile and is loving her new-found ability. I can't wait to see what's next!
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Sleep Schmeep
Sleep, oh precious sleep....how I miss thee. We have issues. Or just one issue I guess. Sleep. I was back to work 3 days this past week (I work 12 hour shifts so that is back to full time for me) and I work 4 days next week so gone are the days of a light schedule and trying to ease in to the mommy routine. My days at work are rough, non-stop, fast-paced and super high stress (although I love what I do). The environment requires that I be rested or else my days are miserable.
Lily is at the very least inconsistent with her sleeping. I have read that a LOT of adoptive families have persistent sleep issues and I'm afraid we are becoming one of them. Don't get me wrong, it's not horrible and I'm really not to the point of breaking from sleep deprivation but it is an issue. We have only been home a month so I'm not classifying this problem as chronic quite yet.
Fortunately Jeff is still home with Lily during the day and can give her the naps that she needs while she still needs to lay on us to sleep during the day. He is even weaning her from that a little and she took one or two naps in her pack-n-play this week. Her nap times, however, are different every day (maybe our fault) and the duration of her naps varies from 20 minutes to 2 1/2 hours. For the past 5 nights, I have had the most awful time putting her to sleep at night, though. Literally from 8pm until 10:30pm I have been rocking her, walking her back and forth, patting her back, jiggling her, singing to her just trying to get her to konk out. This is taking a toll on my arms and back but mostly, it makes me feel like a little bit of a failure and deprives her of the ability to fall asleep peacefully. For the past 3 nights (2 of them work nights for me), she has woken up around 11:30pm and been awake for the majority of the night. Therefore I have been awake the majority of the night rocking her, playing with her to try to tire her out and just functioning as a zombie while she gazes at me wide-eyed and full of energy. How can she do it?!? She still functions normally during the day, takes her little naps and has her smiley face. I have to say, I'm struggling while I'm at work. I have downed more coffee and diet coke this week than ever before. I am even contemplating caving and starting on that 5 hour energy stuff just to get me through. It doesn't help that we have been soooo busy at work this week and I haven't even been able to take a lunch break.
Please don't get me wrong. I wouldn't change my little girl for anything in this world. I know we will make it to the other side of this. She just may be 4 years old before we do. Even in the middle of the night, I stare in to those eyes and just melt and I have no choice but to kiss her yummy cheeks and sing her "I love you" songs. I just wish we could get a solid 4-6 hours sleep and sing when we wake up.
On top of the sleep issues, I am having working mom's guilt. I don't want to work. I want to play with my baby all day and not miss a second of her life. I have waited so long for her that it just seems wrong that I haven't had more time before going back to work. But it is what it is. We will make the best of this and Lily will be with at least one person who loves her more than life at all times. We are so very fortunate for that. But for now, I will feel like crap at times, be tired more than not but still be the happiest mommy in the world.
Lily is at the very least inconsistent with her sleeping. I have read that a LOT of adoptive families have persistent sleep issues and I'm afraid we are becoming one of them. Don't get me wrong, it's not horrible and I'm really not to the point of breaking from sleep deprivation but it is an issue. We have only been home a month so I'm not classifying this problem as chronic quite yet.
Fortunately Jeff is still home with Lily during the day and can give her the naps that she needs while she still needs to lay on us to sleep during the day. He is even weaning her from that a little and she took one or two naps in her pack-n-play this week. Her nap times, however, are different every day (maybe our fault) and the duration of her naps varies from 20 minutes to 2 1/2 hours. For the past 5 nights, I have had the most awful time putting her to sleep at night, though. Literally from 8pm until 10:30pm I have been rocking her, walking her back and forth, patting her back, jiggling her, singing to her just trying to get her to konk out. This is taking a toll on my arms and back but mostly, it makes me feel like a little bit of a failure and deprives her of the ability to fall asleep peacefully. For the past 3 nights (2 of them work nights for me), she has woken up around 11:30pm and been awake for the majority of the night. Therefore I have been awake the majority of the night rocking her, playing with her to try to tire her out and just functioning as a zombie while she gazes at me wide-eyed and full of energy. How can she do it?!? She still functions normally during the day, takes her little naps and has her smiley face. I have to say, I'm struggling while I'm at work. I have downed more coffee and diet coke this week than ever before. I am even contemplating caving and starting on that 5 hour energy stuff just to get me through. It doesn't help that we have been soooo busy at work this week and I haven't even been able to take a lunch break.
Please don't get me wrong. I wouldn't change my little girl for anything in this world. I know we will make it to the other side of this. She just may be 4 years old before we do. Even in the middle of the night, I stare in to those eyes and just melt and I have no choice but to kiss her yummy cheeks and sing her "I love you" songs. I just wish we could get a solid 4-6 hours sleep and sing when we wake up.
On top of the sleep issues, I am having working mom's guilt. I don't want to work. I want to play with my baby all day and not miss a second of her life. I have waited so long for her that it just seems wrong that I haven't had more time before going back to work. But it is what it is. We will make the best of this and Lily will be with at least one person who loves her more than life at all times. We are so very fortunate for that. But for now, I will feel like crap at times, be tired more than not but still be the happiest mommy in the world.
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