Home again, home again

Lilah and I flew home to NC on Saturday. It was a pretty good trip and our first soon to be round trip without Jonas coming too. I was a little worried about flying semi-solo, but Lilah was great. She smiled at everyone all day, even though she didn't nap very well. What a sweet baby. Katie Madding Buckingham came to visit with her two little ones early Monday, and we had a great time playing with the little ones and catching up. It is amazing how fast they are growing. Lilah and Eve were able to interact a little more than last time, although I think Eve still thinks Lilah is pretty boring. She is a baby on the move and Lilah certainly is not more interesting than all the cool things she can now get into. Monday afternoon Jonas' mom joined us for a visit just before Katie returned home. We had a great time playing with Mimi and Lilah got caught up with some missed kisses over the last few months.  Marianne was able to stay the night, so we got to hang out for half of Tuesday too. It was a great visit and we are sad to see her go.

Lilah has started rocking her head side to side, sort of like she is dancing. Pretty funny to see, and I think she enjoys it too. Sometimes she involves her chest too, and she does this whole body wave, and then smiles. Too cute.

Tonight we are trying to rest up before the true chaos arrives tomorrow. My sister Katie is picking up my brother John and his family from the airport.  I am very excited, especially since Lilah can play with her cousin Guillaume again. They were two and five months at Christmas, and now they are coming back at six and nine months - should be a huge difference. It will be neat to see them together. I am very excited, but also very tired, so for tonight, it's time for bed!

Finally new pictures!

I have been having a very hard time uploading pictures to the Walmart website over the last several days. I don't know what was different tonight, but I was finally able to upload the pictures from the last week and a half. Some of them are pretty darn cute. Lilah has so many expressions, some are awfully cute and then the next will be the silliest face. She is crazy. We are getting ready as we end this week to head home on Saturday! I am very excited. We will see how we do without Jonas this trip. I think Lilah will be fine - if only she didn't have so much stuff! We will be home for just over a week and I am really excited for Lilah to see her cousin Guillaume again. I can't believe it has been so long already! Enjoy the pictures - I just emailed out a new set. See most of you soon!!

New foods, new faces

Hello again! So we have tried a few new things since last time. I had great hopes after Lilah loved the rice cereal, so we tried sweet potatoes on Wednesday. Lilah was not impressed! She made some of the most disgusted faces, and they even made her gag a few times. I had been giving them full strength, so the next few days I gave just a little sweet potato with mostly rice and breast milk. It still got a funny face occasionally, but much better than before.
I was hopeful with the bananas on Saturday as well. I figured they had a much more mild flavor and would be well received. Not so much. Again, she acted as though I were feeding her dirt. I taste everything I give her, and I thought they tasted pretty good. Freshly fork smashed with a big of water and then pureed... how can you beat that!? Almost smoothie-like. We have some pretty funny pictures to go with it, but I think diluted is the way to go for now. I guess good fruits and veggies are an acquired taste? We are going to try avocado this week, and maybe I am naive, but I am excited and still hopeful!
As far as activity goes, Lilah is over rolling over and just wants to sit up. She has taken a few spills lately from this upright position, and she is getting pretty good at a controlled descent to the ground. Especially falling backwards. I am feeling much more comfortable leaving her sitting while running into the kitchen, but I will put a pillow beside her if I am going to be gone more than for a few seconds. She is getting more daring too, diving after toys mostly. She loves blowing raspberries while playing. Just in the last day she has started sucking in with her mouth open, so that drool stays in her mouth and doesn't go down her chin. Pretty funny. She also has started gargling her spit in her mouth while she is lying down. I call it her Chewbacca impression.

A time for flowers

Yes, I still have to post Easter pictures, but I took some new ones today on a different camera that I had to talk about. We were supposed to meet up with the mom's group to go see the tulips about 40 minutes south of here this morning. Bernie and I rode together to the meeting place, and as it turns out, the trip was postponed to next Monday. We decided to go anyway, despite the looming dark clouds. It turned out to be fairly dry while we were out and about, but the tulips had not quite fully bloomed yet. I guess the freezing weather lasting further into the year had something to do with it... Well, there were a few little beds of tulips in bloom, and HUGE fields of beautiful daffodils. The babies were very cooperative (Bernie's son Nick is 9 days younger than Lilah) up until we decided to take pictures of them by the flowers. Lilah was fascinated by the gravel around her, and the only moment she looked up I was able to snap a hilarious picture. She really looks quite mean. Jonas calls her Bruiser. We had a very nice time and laughed for quite a while over the attempted photo shoot. Plus, we got to stop by the outlets on the way home! It turned out to be pretty nice that the rest of the moms didn't go with us.

We are on our third day of rice cereal now too. She seems to be enjoying it just as much as day one, and doing better with taking the spoonfuls. I think she really enjoys eating. Go figure. I think we are going to try bananas next, perhaps Friday or so. We are having the playgroup here tomorrow, so I might take a poll on how long to wait. I have heard anywhere from 3 to 7 days. I like the sound of four. The only changes I have noticed so far have been in her diaper. Not all that excited about what is to come in that regard! There is a pretty big variety in our particular playgroup on what to give and when. I am a little more traditional and paranoid whereas the moms that have older kids are a little more experimental and relaxed. I try to be relaxed but it doesn't usually work. We are doing okay so far though, so I may just stick with it.

A taste for cereal

Today we decided to try rice cereal with Lilah. My expectations weren't that high because I've heard many stories from friends about cereal firsts. We made a good bit just trying to get the consistency right, and gave it a shot. It was messy, but Lilah acted as though she had always been eating from a spoon! She was diving into each spoonful and making cute little grunting noises between each scoop. Success! She ate every bit of what we had prepared and probably would have eaten more. She's going to be a fun one to feed!

Breaking new ground

This has been a busy week! With Jonas back in town things are a bit back to normal. Lilah had a few nights of poor sleep early in the week, but has returned to her normal of ten to twelve hours. Surprising really, considering she is cutting her first teeth. I wasn't expecting them for another little bit so I hadn't been looking, but I checked her gums out on Tues and saw two little white spots just below the surface. Yesterday you could feel the sharp corner of the bottom left one, and today the whole top of it has broken through. She is doing pretty well with it, especially with a little Tylenol and an extra nap or two during the day. She is normally a very happy baby but this week she's been extra sad. I know she doesn't understand what's happening, but it's awfully cute.

She is a great sitter-upper now, and you can tell she is really trying to figure out how to get to those toys out of reach. She's a smart one! She's getting really good at throwing things too, which is a shame. Especially when it involves things that she chews on. Which is everything, actually. I'll try to snap a photo when we get more of a tooth in sight. They'll be pretty cute by the time we come home! Two weeks and counting!!

Oops, I did it again

Today Lilah was sitting in her high chair while I was working in the kitchen. She was playing with a chain of plastic rings that she was chewing on and slamming into the tray. After a few minutes she dropped them on the ground, and as a good mom would do, I picked them up and returned them to her. After another minute, she dropped them again. I again gave them back to her and this went on about five or six times when I looked at her and asked, 'are you doing this on purpose'? She just grinned. After that, every time she dropped them I would look over and she would be looking back and smiling. Already a little trouble maker, but she's so cute at it.

We are still doing well with Jonas out of town, but it will be so nice to have him back. He has been talking to Lilah on the phone each day. It's funny to see her react to his voice. She looks for him and smiles. She will be very happy to see him tomorrow night! (As will her momma). Thankfully she has been sleeping well this week. At least one of us is!