Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

While remembering our veterans and our troops...
We made many of our own memories today.
This bright blue eyed beauty
certainly gives us something to celebrate
every single day.
Little moments, like her first time in a pool,
her giddy excitement at something so simple, yet so new,
really make for very special days.
She partied like a rock star,
playing with the BIG girls,
being held by countless people,
withstanding sun and heat, bubbles and bows,
with nary a meltdown or whimper.

We are so blessed.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Lost and Found


OH MY GOSH, look at all the preppiness on that girl above!

So... I've been on a tirade lately because I lost the battery charger for MY camera. Sure, sure...we do still have that REALLY nifty REALLY expensive camera of Clay's, but I refuse to take it out of the house, and really, we're never home. Without my camera, I missed photos of Lila's entire first week of her new big girl room at school. I didn't realize how often I've been reaching for that little camera until I couldn't any more.

In a semi-genius move, Clay decided we should see if HIS camera battery charger would work for my camera batteries. I got into his camera bag to get HIS charger, and there it was. MY charger. WOOT!!!

Now that I have my camera back, I loaded the battery into it only to realize there is lost footage on there! There were a bunch of cute pics I could have posted, but forgot about! So...let's pretend it's early May again and delve into the lost files, shall we?

First, we have DERBY week!! Derby week in Louisville is a huge party week, and our school does it up right! We have different events every day. Lila's class was a bit too small to participate in some of the events, but we went all out for the ones we could! The whole school went on a Derby Parade through the hospital, and each class dressed as a different Derby event. Lila's class was the Marathon! Lila was all decked out in her sweatband (with a BOW, of course!), her leg warmers, and her shorts (you can't see in the pic) with ruffles all across the booty. I'm sure she would be taken VERY seriously if she showed up at the actual marathon in this ensemble! Instead of "bib numbers" like you would get in a real race, the kids all got bib NAMES, more like names the Derby horses might have. I can not IMAGINE why Lila's bib name was The Trendsetter, can YOU???
And on that note, I know you'll be SHOCKED to hear that Lila provided "sweatbands" and "tennis shoe" socks for many of her friends who were not quite so blessed with such accessories.
Rainbow Brite or Marathon runner? Hard to tell...
The class of older babies (that Lila is in NOW, but wasn't then) went through the parade as the Bed Races! Yes, that is a real Derby event!
The toddler class was Millionaire's Row! They turned the big buggies into Limos and all dressed to the NINES! They even had a "stereo" boom box in the trunk of their ride. Spinners on the wheels, a Mercedes symbol on the front bumper, and tinted windows! Ridin' in STYLE!

Here are the kiddos schlepping over to the hospital for their big debut. I think the class seen here is dressed as jockeys.
Unfortunately, I can't find any pics of Lila and her friends all dressed up for our Derby Fashion Show. I'll have to add those later.

In the random photos category, guess who's playing peek-a-boo like a champ?
I bet you guessed it right! Lila Jane loves her some peek-a-boo, and will cover her face with anything available. She thinks it's hysterical! And she's right!
Be sure to note Lila Jane's awesome outfit with matching shoes! Aunt Carrie Beth has been doing more big shopping for Miss LJ! CB actually picked out some SUPER cute flip-flop style shoes to match this outfit, but Lila's feet are TINY. I returned the 6-12 mo. sized shoes and intended to get the same shoes in 3-6 month size. Except they were also too big. As were the 0-3 month size!! I ended up getting these closed toed shoes in the 0-3 month size, and they are still big on her! At least she'll have room to grow in to them! I also went on and got the shorts in a 12 month size because that big ol' diapered booty made the 6-9 month pair a bit snug. I wanted to make sure she'd be able to wear them all summer! My goodness this girl is doing some funny growing!

We have a big day planned tomorrow! We're hosting our first party since LJ came along. We used to throw huge parties pretty often, but somehow having a baby changed matters a bit. I think we're going to have around 20ish people for a family-friendly cook-out tomorrow afternoon for Memorial Day. Clay laughed and said he NEVER thought he'd be sending out invitations for ANYthing that said "family-friendly". HA!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

1/2 Year!

0 months:
1 month:

2 months:
3 months:

4 months:
5 months:

6 months:
Lila Jane! You are SIX months old! You've been with us for HALF A YEAR!! This has definitely been the fastest half-year of my life! You have done SO much this month!Mother's Day weekend you sprouted your FIRST TOOTH! Within a few days, your second one popped in right beside it. They are your bottom middle teeth.
You've also started sitting up unassisted! You still topple over pretty easily, but you can sit for a few minutes all by yourself, and for a good long time with a boppy pillow behind you! You love the new freedom this gives you to reach , grab, and play.
You are one of the most easy-going babies I've ever been around. You fuss sometimes, but you rarely ever really cry. You've gotten yourself on to a pretty good schedule. Generally, you wake up around 7:30-8am, get changed and dressed, then have your first bottle. You play for a while, then are ready for a nap around 9:30 or 10. You wake up happy and ready to play some more, then take another bottle around noon. More play, then afternoon nap sometime mid-afternoonish. You take another bottle around 4, then you're set til we get home from school. You sometimes fall asleep on the way home, but you're always ready to play and eat dinner when we get home. That's when the real sleepies start to catch up with you, and you often have to have a little nap around 7:30-8 to get you to bedtime. At 8, we do the bath, books, bottle, and bed routine, getting you down around 8:30-8:45. You'll start in the BIG kid room at school next week, so we'll see how that changes your schedule.
You've been eating LOTS of new foods! Daddy and I give you anything and everything we think you can swallow. You've had pizza crust, toast, Indian soup and naan, banana pudding, all kinds of fruits, fried rice, french fries, pasta, roast beef, mashed potatoes, and more! You aren't very keen on those little jars of baby food anymore! I want to expose you to as many different spices, seasonings, textures, and flavors as I can before you get old enough to start thinking there might be things you aren't supposed to like!

You've had your first major bout of allergies this week. You're very snotty with two cases of pink eye and lots of coughing and hacking. A couple times you've gotten so choked up that you spit up entire bottles. That's a yucky mess!! We've been giving you Benadryl, but it doesn't really seem to be helping much. We go back to the doctor tomorrow for your 6 month well-check, so we'll find out if there's anything else we can do for you then.

We're officially weaning you off of your Propranolol you've been taking for the hemangioma in your lip. Dr. O'Daniel, the plastic surgeon, is VERY impressed with how good it looks, and is ready to see if it will stay small without the medicine. It's MUCH smaller than it originally was, but there is still some noticeable swelling there. The important part, though, is that the swelling has gone down enough that it is no longer affecting the upper white part of your lip. He says that's the hardest to surgically fix without leaving scars. With the swelling only in the pink lip part, he says that even if we need to go in later for some surgery, it will be a very simple outpatient procedure that will leave no scarring at all. Mommy still really hopes we won't have to do that, but we'll do whatever we need to do! We'll wait a year or two to make any decisions on that.

Daddy and I really thought you were going to put a big kink in our social lives. We wondered how we would do eating at home every night, staying home on weekends, missing our friends. We shouldn't have worried about ANY of that! You are such a good baby, you just go along with us wherever we go. You actually seem much more content when we get out and about than when we stay at home. We can easily take you to restaurants, too. We just pack you some food and a few toys, and you play and talk and charm everyone around you. We are pretty sure you're the best baby EVER, and we are absolutely certain we are the luckiest parents EVER!! We love you to the moon and back, Lila Jane!

Sunday, May 02, 2010

What does ZRBT spell?