Big Turkey

Dearest Lilah -

You've been though your first "major" holiday this year now, and I'd say you passed with flying colors! We had dinner at your Uncle and Aunt's house with them and your grandmama and your cousin. Because I have been sewing all the Christmas gifts on planet Earth, I felt badly about not ever making anything for you, so I made you a little brown velveteen dress for the special day. Then I took an image of your hand and made a little applique hand turkey to baste onto it. It was adorable, if I do say so myself. Probably the best thing is - if I get upstairs and actually do it - you'll get to wear it again this holiday season with a gingerbread man applique on it, and then you can probably just wear it plain after that a time or two more before you grow out of it.

And boy do you grow. Your weight hasn't changed much over the past couple of months - you're still shy of 19 pounds - but you are definitely getting taller. I don't know how much taller (the growth chart I'm planning to make for you is not yet cut out, see above re: Christmas and All the gifts on Earth), but you've outgrown your 9 month pj's enough to make me feel guilty about stuffing you into them at night. So into the bin of baby girl clothes they'll go. This also means we get to go PJ shopping, so yea us! Sadly, I find very few that I like; I like you wearing pjs with feet because you pull off socks and then lie in bed with little ice bricks for feet. But you need some pjs that aren't just fuzzy fleece so that when the weather gets warm again, you aren't roasting in your own precious juices overnight. Dilemmas, dilemmas.

You've also been doing a lot more in your quest for mobility. You've now decide to crawl properly at all times (unless you slip on something in the floor, then it's as if you think someone made you get down to drag. This has only happened twice that I know of since you decided to crawl via your knees at all times). You also have started to let go of things after pulling up. It's so funny; you'll pull up on the coffee table, put a fun object in each hand and when you sort of "stand back" to admire them, you'll precariously wobble a few seconds before realizing you aren't holding on to anything and you'll either plop right down on your butt or you'll make a frantic grab for the closest solid object, the latter option often to the dismay of the family pets. I think the worst things about your new-found mobility and freedom are that you end up falling a lot and bonking your head or your mouth. Tuesday you fell forward a little while holding on to the coffee table and busted your mouth, resulting in blood and a lot of tears. Luckily, you recover quickly and I think I've been able to fake being ok with you nearly busting your head open so that you don't get too scared and continue crying.

You have also caught on to the one sign language sign I have used consistently: More. Although, you use "more" to mean "eat," it seems, so it's sort of a win/lose situation. I am working very hard to teach you that there are other signs for things, and you like to put your hands on your head when I say "Good," so I'm sure that I'm failing! But you have your own way of communicating, and you're not bad at it, so we get along pretty well most of the time.

I can't believe I'm getting ready for your first birthday party in just 30 days. 335 days ago, I never thought this day would come. I thought you were going to be that itty bitty floppy baby of mine until you were five and just suddenly grew up and went to Kindergarten. It still happens that everywhere we go, you make a friend. Today we were in JC Penney and you made friends with the lady in line behind me, the sales clerk and a woman checking out at an adjacent register. The clerk said you seemed like such a happy baby and asked if I stayed home with you. When I confirmed that I did, she said that she could tell because she thinks kids are happier in general who stay at home with their moms. Now, there's no way that this can be applied across the board, but I think when you have the right mom and the right baby, then it can be true. And we're just the right people for that job right now.

I'm sure I've forgotten a lot that I wanted to right down about this time. It's just that my days are very full with you (and all those Christmas crafts) and I just can't seem to fit it all in. But we're having a good time, you and me, and your Daddy, too and I just couldn't be more excited to watch you experience your first Christmas and birthday and then I think we'll just do it all again next year.

Love,
Mommy

Solid

Dearest Lilah -

Today, at age 7 months and 4 days, we gave you your first taste of solid food.

We gave you Avacado.


You weren't really sure what to do with it once it was in your mouth, and you made some funny faces we didn't quite catch.


But you were definitely excited and wanted more!

I am not going to lie and say this isn't one of those sad Mommy moments for me. You're not my tiny baby anymore. You'll soon be picking up little toddler sized bits of food and eating them by yourself. In fact, you tried to help yourself to the bowl today.

I'm also selfishly going to miss breastmilk only poopie diapers. They do not smell like full-grown man poop, and I am not looking forward to those. At all. And not having to carry food around? Yeah, I enjoyed leaving your diaper bag at home 90% of the time.

But I am glad you are growing up and growing well. And this is just a part of that.

I hope you enjoyed your first bite of for really real food. It's just the tip of the iceberg. I've got all kinds of things to make and share with you!

Love,
Mommy

Thank goodness I remembered.

Dearest Lilah -

Mommy has a little problem with her memory. She means well; she lies in bed at night, composing great letters for this blog to help her remember all the cool things you are doing. She wants you to be able to know when things happened, and not have to live with "Hm...I don't really remember." No, instead she'd like to say, "Go read your blog. It has everything." This is because we assume you'll be curious about everything like me. It's a fair assumption; You should see how you sit and stare at people. People who are talking to you. People who are not talking to you. People who you think might need to talk to you. Nosey. That's what you are. But curiosity must just start out looking that way when you're a baby.

Anyway.

When you ask me when was the first time you got stung, I want to be able to say it was August 1, 2009. We had gone to the Saturday market and were enjoying our time there for the first time in weeks. I had just declared defeat with the crazy coupon project I was working and we went out for breakfast and to buy some veggies and meat from our favorite farmers, Amy and Chad. You were with your daddy while he talked to Chad and all of a sudden you started to scream and cry. Chad said maybe it was because his beard was a little longer than it should be, and we kind of laughed but I was worried. You are not the type of baby to burst into screaming tears like that. And you were inconsolable. I was sad. I couldn't help but feel like that was a hurt cry...the same kind of cry you cry when you get a shot. We got you out of the carrier and I just held you myself for a little while. Sometimes mommies do that; it's not that we can really DO anything to fix the unknown problem, but we feel better just laying hands on you and feeling you to make sure you're alright ourselves. You quickly settled back down as we headed back to the car. During the walk is when we noticed the big, red welt on the base of your thumb. You had been viciously attacked by some sort of insect. The next day it was a little blister and seemed to me like an ant bite, but I can't for the world of me figure out how an ant got on your thumb when you were being carried by your daddy. I guess we'll never know exactly what manner of evil insect got you, but now we have to be extra certain to keep an eye on you if you're bitten again, just to make sure you don't have an allergic reaction. It's mostly gone down now, and you never even acted like it hurt you after the initial bite. Never tried to scratch it or acted like it itched. That makes me wonder if babies don't notice things like that, or since you all don't have a frame of reference if you just don't know that you can do anything about it so you just suffer through it. Sad, really.

You had a good first on the first, too, though. Your cousin Seph had his fifth birthday party out at an equestrian center not far from our house, so you got to ride a horse for the first time!


I wish I could have caught a picture of your face the first time you saw that horse. It was as if you thought, "THAT IS THE BIGGEST DOG I HAVE EVER SEEN!" The pony let you ride him a few steps while daddy held you. You pet his neck. You were completely entranced. It was precious. We were going to go on the hayride to the petting zoo, but it was getting near dinner time for you and so we left after your horse encounter.

In a move that might just win me "mother of the year 2009," you experienced another bad first on Monday, August 3. We have always sort of propped you in the corner of the sofa and been able to run a plate to the kitchen or put laundry from the washer to the dryer. That's what I was trying to do when I left you on the sofa that day. I had put the little half circle pillow on the outside of you so that if you fell over for some reason, you wouldn't fall off the sofa. But I couldn't shake the image of you falling off. You were just too big now. You just seemed too nosey. And then there was the dog and there was the cat and they were walking around...but off I went to the laundry room to throw some clothes from the washer to the dryer.

That's when I heard it.

*THUD*

You hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Head first, of course, because it weighs the most of anything on your tiny body. And - of course - you hit your face on the power supply to my laptop.

You were crying so hard when I picked you up and I felt terrible. I just pet your head and told you I was sorry for being an awful, neglectful mom. That I would never leave you unattended while elevated again. I pulled you off my shoulder to check you out and make sure you were ok and your mouth was all bloody. You had hit your nose and lip, and the inside of your mouth, where your lip and gum joins, was bleeding.

I wanted to die.

I made my baby bleed.

I was pretty surprised I didn't end up crying myself. I certainly felt like I should. But I didn't, and I think I didn't because when I walked away and left you pushed securely in the corner of the sofa, I KNEW you were going to fall. So mentally, I was prepared.

But that doesn't make it better.

You bled off and on the rest of the afternoon. You even woke up with a bloody sheet when you took your nap, and when you turned your face, it would hurt the tender and bruised puffy lip you sported and it would make you cry all over again.

I gave you a little Tylenol to help with the pain and let you suck on some ice to help with the pain and the swelling.

You have since fully recovered.

Your grandfather was funny; he kept telling me not to let you go to sleep because you might have a concussion. I got mad at him for saying that, but I could only be indignant because I had already asked your daddy if I should worry about you possibly having a concussion. He said if you didn't throw up you were fine.

The last first to report happened yesterday.

Another good one. Well, good to me, anyway.

At least they seem to balance out, right?

I took you to Furman to see Miss Kay, Miss Helen and Miss Karen because it was Miss Karen's birthday. We had picked her out some pretty stripey purple carnations and I had wrapped them up in pretty paper. You can't show up at a party without a gift, you know. After the party wound down, you and I stayed to chat with Miss Kay and Miss Helen. You were showing off, making your funny squishy face and starting to babble. That's when it happened.

You said "Mmmmmmmmmmmama."

My jaw hit the floor.

Miss Kay and Miss Helen started clapping and cheering for you.

I just said, "Well, you've never said that before!"

It was nice to finally get some recognition after the two months I've been listening to you say "Dadadadadadadadaddydadadadaddydadadadadaddy."

I'm still not sure you associate the sounds you make with either of us, but when we got up this morning and started to walk upstairs you said, "Dada." and I said "He's upstairs" and you said, "Mama" and I said, "I'm right here."

It was so cute.

YOU are so cute.

Many people told us that tonight as we walked around town for First Friday. One woman said that you looked like a porcelain doll and were just beautiful.

As you can imagine, this is not a horrible thing to hear. In fact, I am always open to hearing how beautiful my child is.

And so now my task is to make sure you grow up to behave as pretty as you look.

Love,
Mommy

Like a fish

Dearest Lilah -

Aside from the moment of your birth, you've never spent any measurable amount of time submerged in water. We have a little mesh chair that you sit in when taking your baths, and we just pour water over you as needed. Up until now, that's been the easiest thing to do. But lately you have started to get all "I want to sit straight up and not recline in my seat" on us, and that makes it more difficult since the chair tends to tip forward when you do, and I have had many flashes of the horror that would be you face-planting it into the side of the tub. But we have been reluctant to run the tub and let you sit in there, splashing away in the water because of the very sad crying faces you made at Jack's birthday party when Daddy held you down and let you put your feet in the baby pools. We had decided that you didn't care one bit for standing water and that would be that. Maybe you'd just grow up taking showers as a tiny person, who knew? But then we got the opportunity to go swimming this week and so I just decided if worse came to worst, then at least we could sit on the side and make vitamin D together.

Boy was I wrong to worry! You ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. You splashed. You kicked. You made like a duck in your little baby boat and paddled yourself in circles. It was HYSTERICAL how happy you were! Sadly, being the crap Mommy that I am, I had forgotten the camera at home. (In my defense, I had taken the battery out to charge it and forgot it because we were running late and I didn't walk past it in the mad dash out the door.) Luckily, Miss Beth - our hostess at the pool along with her sweet girls - had her husband bring out her camera to take a few snaps of your inaugural splash.


Kicking. Kicking. Kicking.


Big old grin indicates the pool <3!


On your own in your little baby boat! You tried to gnaw your way to the water below.


Here I am, just so you don't grow up thinking I abandoned you in a floaty in the pool all alone.

I think, baby girl, that we'll be able to start sitting you in the tub like a big girl now.

Love,
Mommy

Six Months Old and Baby Firsts

Dearest Lilah,

Oh my goodness! My sweet little baby is now six months old! And you are so right on schedule with all your milestones. Such good news! You can now sit up for quite awhile unassisted. You could sit indefinitely if you never got interested in a toy out of your reach. And bless your heart, even when you tip over and fall flat on your face, you don't cry. You just look surprised, and then you flatten out and continue your quest for the toy that was eluding you. I'm not so sure that I'm ready for you to be mobile. Mommy has a lot of cleaning up and Lilah-proofing to do before she's ready for that!

Your first tooth is coming in nicely. At your six month check up today, the nurse practitioner said she saw your other bottom front tooth getting ready to join us, too. Oh my! TWO TEETH! I haven't even gotten used to the fact that you're going to have ONE tooth, let alone two! You weighed in at 15lbs, 1oz - exactly double your birth weight - and were 27 1/4 inches long. You are tall and thin, just like...well, just like no one we know! Where are you getting that from? Maybe you will even out when you start to eat real foods, but if you keep getting taller, you are going to dash my hopes of you ever wearing any of the clothes I bought for you to wear this winter! :-)


You also experienced your first Fourth of July this year! We headed out to the Saturday market that morning and you wore this little dress that said, "Miss Independent" along with a bib proclaiming that it was your first 4th. We then headed out to Target and then had to find Mommy some sparklers!!! You didn't manage to stay awake until it got dark enough to play with them, and surprisingly, our neighbors' bottle rocket wars right outside your window didn't seem to bother you, either! I decided it must be all that James Bond you help Daddy play! Daddy and I took some special long exposure pictures with the sparklers we had, though, and I wanted to make you something to remember the day by, even though you were asleep!

Another first for you was the super short trip we took to visit Aunt Jan Jan and meet her mama and daddy in Pigeon Forge, TN. I had not been to that area since about 1990! It was a lot different than I remembered. Also warmer, since I went around Christmas time :-) You are still not loving riding in the car, so it took us about 4 hours to make the 2.5 hour trip. But once we got there and out of the car, you had a pretty good time! When you needed to take a nap, Miss Curly took care of you and rocked you to sleep. I can't even do that! She has some special skills!!

You finally got cranky when it was past your bedtime, so we went back to the hotel after grabbing some dinner from a restaurant across the street. You were so tired, but you did so well! And I was SUPER proud of how well you slept in that hotel room! You had a little alcove where we put your bed and, though it took you a few minutes, you fell asleep just like you normally do, which I'm sure wasn't easy with Mommy and Daddy whispering just a few feet away!

This is you on the hotel bed!

The next day, we didn't get to meet back up with Aunt Jan Jan because she had all her family stuff going on. We missed her, but understood. I mean, afterall - she had come down to see them, not us! But we were glad for the few hours we did get! And we hope to go visit her in Detroit one day soon, maybe this fall if we can make it work :-) That might be your first plane ride!

Since Aunt Jan Jan was busy, we decided to poke around Gatlinburg a little. I bought you a few new things at the Carter's outlet and then we walked the main strip in Gatlinburg. I told your daddy we weren't leaving without an airbrushed t-shirt or an Olde Tymey photo, but he wasn't going for it. I was persistent, but he knew that sooner or later, I'd get tired and ready to go home and would leave without it. He's a smart man when it comes to me, Lilah. Remember that when you are looking for a husband: A man who is smart on you is a man who pays attention and cares. Even though we didn't get airbrushed shirts, we got matching socks, and I can't wait for us to wear them :-) We also got something better than an Olde Tymey photo: We got a photo of ourselves in the GENERAL LEE! It was the most badass car of the late 70's and early 80's, babygirl. Until KITT from Knight Rider came along, it was THE star car of television.

You might have even been as impressed as I was to be sitting in that awesome car!

And we actually got a family photo in, too. Well, sort of. Daddy was on a business call when a woman asked if we wanted our picture taken after seeing me take one of you with Daddy. I said sure and thought he'd tell the person to hang on, but nope, there he is, on his business call in our family vacation photo. That right there should give me argument enough for why I deserve a family Olde Tymey photo the next time we go there!


You have now been to all the states that surround South Carolina, so you're going to have to get right with traveling so you can branch out of the southeast! I can't wait to show you the world!

Love,
Mommy

More presents for me!

Dearest Lilah,

Bless your sweet heart - you have given Mommy a new holiday to celebrate! Mommy loves holidays that are just for her; just ask Daddy. He'll tell you about how I celebrate "Birth Month" for the entire duration of February because I think I'm just that special. :-)

For my very first Mother's Day, you were sweet enough to tell Daddy that I like to pick out my own presents. Luckily, Daddy ignored all the hints I dropped about wanting this necklace:
I wanted this necklace for mother's day SO BAD. I wanted silver January with a red jewel on your birthdate. However, the Friday before Mother's Day, it was featured on the Ellen show. So NOW everyone in the free world will be wearing this necklace. It doesn't make it less awesome...except that yeah, it does a little bit. Anyway, due to Daddy's negligence in attending to my every whim, I was able to pick out TWO beautiful necklaces at our local art festival, Artisphere. One is an oxidized sterling swirl with a pretty little chocolate diamond in the center. The other is a mixture of oxidized silver with gold and highly polished silver. So pretty, and so awesome to have them as a reminder of my very first mother's day!

On Sunday, Gramma and Grandpa came up for lunch. We showed them the garden and took a few pictures before they left

Later we had dinner with Uncle Tripp, Aunt Gina, Seph and Grandmama. You sat with Grandmama while we ate and laughed and laughed. You seemed to have a good day with all those people giving you good love!!

And the presents keep coming! Today, Miss Big Girl, I put you in the floor to play while I folded clothes next to you. And there you went, rolling over from your back to your front! You seemed so proud of yourself, like, "Hey - did you see that? I can move!"

We also went and visited your baby friend Hannah today. You were so sweet; you looked at her like she was the most amazing thing you'd ever seen. And when she started to cry, you started to cry. I hope this means that you have a great capacity for empathy, and will always think of others feelings, consider what they are going through, and how your actions may affect them. I feel that would be one of my great acheivements as a mother if you learn this.


You've had a hard day today; you're teething and having some tummy troubles. You went to sleep at 6:30 so I can only imagine that means another long/late night for us. I hope that you know that even when I'm so tired I can barely function, I still love you to pieces. I know you'd rather sleep all night and get good rest and that you're not doing this to be mean to me. But I would appreciate it if you'd start sleeping a little bit longer at a time. Mommy still needs her beauty sleep!

Love,
Mommy

First Easter -

Dearest Lilah -

Happy Easter! Continuing our trend of being slack, negligent parents, we did not invite the Easter Bunny to stop by the house this year. Our thinking is that since you are only three months old and are not going to remember this year anyway, we can let some other child get the attention from the Easter Bunny this year and wait until you are a bit older. But that didn't mean that you missed out on all the Easter fun. We spent the day traveling around Greenville to visit with family and friends!

First we went to Uncle Tripp and Aunt Gina's house for brunch. You were not having a good morning and were pretty grumpy visiting there. It was too bad, because you don't often get to see them and I was hoping you would put on your smiley show for them. But oh no. Upside down "U" mouth most of the morning! No smiles for Uncle Tripp. No smiles for Aunt Gina. No smiles for Grandmama. Nope, even when you were sitting with Uncle Aaron you weren't your usual happy self! But we had a great brunch and then watched Seph hunt for his eggs. You had to have a little nap around noon.

A couple of hours later, we went to Nana and Grandpa Bob Cooper's for dinner. We had a delicious spread...you sat so pretty with Daddy at the table and fell asleep not long after the salad course. After a short nap, you rejoined us for the end of the meal and then proceeded to be totally cute for the rest of the afternoon! You smiled and giggled and checked out your friend Meredith! You had a good time watching Evan and Indy play with his star man. You would laugh and smile every time they ran by. You really did will for Tim and Beth and Danny and Nichole and Uncle Zufall!

You are conked out now, sleeping like crazy. I hope you enjoyed your first Easter, baby, and I look forward to teaching you all about the meaning of this holiday when you get older.

Love you -
Mommy

A quarter of the year -

Dearest Lilah,

Well, you have survived us for three whole months, and we still couldn't feel more blessed to have such a good baby! You have started being so much more interactive the past couple of weeks...when I change your diaper, you like to grab my shirt sleeve and pull it to your mouth. You have started laughing like a real person now instead of just doing your little cough laugh. You are also sleeping more and more...the past two nights you slept 6 and 7 hours straight and then after eating went right back to sleep for at least 3 more hours. Mommy appreciates that so much!

I can't believe that this time last year I was about to be pregnant with you. That seems like SO long ago! And I know it's because the last three months have been so different for us...it seems like FOREVER ago that you were a new baby, but also it doesn't even seem like you should already be three months old! And you're getting so BIG! You've grown out of a lot of clothes...we are having to do wardrobe switches in your dressers. So it sort of looks like a tornado hit your bedroom right now. :-)

Tonight we went to eat dinner with Uncle Brian at Chick-Fil-A. I watched as everyone in the restaurant looked at you and then talked amongst themselves about you. I saw so many people mouth, "Isn't she cute!" and one of the workers said how sweet your daddy and Uncle Brian were to hold you while I ate unencumbered. She doesn't know that your Daddy always does that for me, and Uncle Brian just loves to hold you, it had nothing to do with letting me eat and everything to do with him holding you!

It was a big day for our friends today, on your three month birthday. You got a new playmate today, as Hannah Kate McCurry was born. She came into the world at a whopping 9 pounds 10 oz, which was a full two pounds and two ounces more than you when you were born! Thank goodness you were small!! Aunt Kristi is a trooper for having two nine pound babies!

Well, it's late and I'd better get to bed. I've gotten spoiled the past couple of nights getting some good sleep. We've got a big couple of weeks coming up, so I hope to add a lot here.

We love you baby - thank you for joining our family!

Roll, Baby, Roll!

Dearest Lilah -

Your daddy came downstairs yesterday afternoon with news. He was keeping an eye on your while I cleaned up for our dinner guests who were on their way.

"Our baby knows how to roll over!" he said.

"How do you know?" I asked, skeptical, because you are not supposed to do that yet.

"Because I put her down on her tummy to nap and when she woke up she was on her back, looking right at me!" **

"Well, wow!"

So there you go. Age 11 weeks and 2 days, you rolled from front to back for the first time.

Now - this was most likely a fluke since you can't seem to work your arms in general, but we are proud of you just the same.

**Yes, we are horrible parents who - due to your excellent neck strength and control - allow you to sleep on your stomach for naps. It's something else you can talk about in therapy.