Well, everyone… since last update I had a birthday and apparently 31 is much, much older than 30 because I’m already losing it (no “already lost it” comments, please!). Yesterday we went to my sister’s house (and Como Zoo and Buca’s) to celebrate my sister’s 30th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTIE LISA!). We also had small celebration for my mom’s birthday and my birthday since both had recently passed. When we left to go home, I actually FORGOT my birthday presents.. and, what may be even worse for Lily’s loyal followers - I FORGOT MY CAMERA! So, all the beautiful pictures I’ve taken since last update and have been meaning to dump to my computer and upload are all at my sister’s house in East St. Paul! I know the adorable Lily pictures are one of the main reasons a lot of you read this blog, so I will wait for a full update until I get my camera back. Just wanted to update you on the lack of updates.
Hope everyone has a good week!

From Lily - Virgin…

Ok, WOW. Seriously if she doesn’t slow down I really WILL be updating talking about driver’s ed! It seems almost as if she has LESS interest in crawling then ever before. She can get on her hands and knees and rock back and forth (and scoot backwards) but she whines about it the whole time. She really just wants to stand up and take steps.. I really wonder if she might not skip the crawling stage entirely. As for saying words - she’s been able to say “mama” and “dada” for a few months, but it always SEEMED like just kind of babbling - like she didn’t know it was referring to Jason or I. The other day we noticed when Gibson walked in front of her that she said something that kind of sounds like “goo-gee”, but (how to explain this) the “tone” or pattern (?) of the word really sounded like “kitty”. Jason and I laughed and said “oh, look - she said kitty!” just totally kidding around of course. The weird thing is that I’ve now heard her make that EXACT same sound at least 2 more times when Gibson catches her eye, and I really wonder if she IS saying “kitty”? Maybe she can say “mama” and “dada” and mean it, too - but how do you know if she understands it? BABIES ARE SO UNCLEAR! heh

From Lily - Virgin…

From Lily - Virgin…

Immediately when we got back into town we lowered Lily’s crib mattress to it’s lowest setting. We are planning on spending some time this week buying stuff to help baby-proof the house and will hopefully set it all up this weekend. I keep telling Jason that Lily is not going to wait for us to get our act together - she could start really moving ANY day and I think it’s going to go VERY quickly. We have more excitement this week as Uncle Shawn, Aunt Shannon, and Cousins Arian, Tali, and Eanna (I believe) are all going to be in town W-F because Shannon has a conference to go to for work. Thursday is also Grandma’s birthday, and Saturday is MY birthday. NEXT Saturday (the 23rd) is Auntie Lisa’s BIG 3-0 birthday, too! She’s looking for suggestions on how to celebrate (or mourn), so head over to Lambertville if you have any suggestions for her!

From Lily - Virgin…

Finally, I’ll leave you with this cute Lily-video! This was just before we lowered her crib, and it’s not a great video because it doesn’t really show you what she can do - but she did it ALL herself. She pulled herself up to standing and is holding onto the crib rail and “walking” (side-stepping) up and down the crib a little bit, trying to get to the kitty. As you can tell, Gibson is THRILLED that she’s getting more mobile and wants to “pet” him! Enjoy!

P.S. I keep forgetting to mention that she also started CLAPPING a few weeks ago - it’s really cute! I have to try and get it on video.

From Lily July 26 …

From Lily July 26 …

Well, internet, I feel like I should have so many more things to tell you, but my mind is blank right now. We spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa’s this past week, and they keep threatening to kidnap Lily so I don’t take her away to Virginia for a week! Jason and have both been crazy-busy at work trying to get things wrapped up for us to be gone next week, then come back immediately into CRUNCH TIME! Mid-August to late September is the absolute WORST time of year for us, and I’m not looking forward to it - but at least we have a vacation first! I’ve also been running a bunch of errands and doing laundry and starting to pack, but tomorrow is “pack like crazy” day. My brother is picking us up at 4:30 AM (YUCK!!!!) on Sunday to bring us to the airport, so we have to get everything done before we go to bed tomorrow night. I plan on posting an update (with pics) once we return, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Lily had made some big developments while we’re gone - stay tuned! Either way, once we come back is major baby-proofing time.

I hope you all have a great week, and we’ll meet back here when we get back!

From Lily July 26 …

EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to mention one of Lily’s FAVORITE new activities! She did this for a good hour on our bed yesterday - she starts out sitting, then THROWS herself forward onto all fours, rocks back and forth a bit (optional), then plops on her tummy and rolls to her back and tries to sit up to do the whole process again. It’s really pretty cute, but not when she tries to practice this IN THE BATHTUB and in her crib when she’s supposed to be sleeping! Today for nap time she got herself on her tummy and scooted around the crib and ended up with her legs sticking through the slats and hitting the wall. Then, I think she felt stuck and got scared so started crying. I’m already starting to miss the days I could just sit her on the floor and let her play and she’s not even fully mobile yet! Every day she seems more like a little kid and less like a baby and I don’t know how it happened so stinkin’ FAST!

I hate to post another update so soon after my last one, but I have to keep you all “in the know” for any special Lily-happenings. This morning I noticed Lily’s very first tooth has finally broken through! Now suddenly the last few nights where she woke up SCREAMING make a lot more sense. Oddly, it’s probably the first time I DIDN’T blame teething, since I’ve been blaming teething for every tantrum and bad mood since she was 4 months old and there have been no signs of teeth - until now!

…that there’s no OFF button!” (said to me today by a wise man, known as my husband).

From Lily July 18-21

From Lily July 18-21

Oh my gosh, what to even share with you wonderful internet viewers? Lily is still growing and changing very quickly and I think I fall more in love with her everyday. She still has no teeth, and doesn’t crawl, but manages to get around somehow! If she’s on her tummy she can scoot backwards pretty well (I think she’s TRYING to get up on her knees but hasn’t quite figured it out yet) and of course she can spin herself around in circles, which is always interesting. I know she’s going to just figure things out one day fairly soon and the chasing will begin, so I keep trying to get motivated with baby-proofing a bit early but that requires being HOME for more than 2 seconds! Maybe someday.

From Lily July 18-21

She has also learned to play peek-a-boo, which is ADORABLE and I had a really cute video of it the other week but our memory card got corrupted and had to be reformatted so I lost it. I took another video that I’ll post below but it’s not quite as cute as the first one! Lily has also started making this “OH” face on a regular basis and I have no idea why - maybe the world just amazes her. She’s even making a little “oooohhh” sound to go with it sometimes (watch the video below and you can see the “oh” face once or twice, plus her lovely habit of sucking on her bottom lip)! She’s also started doing this thing with her hands when we’re feeding her baby food - immediately after we put the food in her mouth, she shoves her fingers right in. I don’t know if that’s her way of “contributing” to feeding herself or what, but it certainly can be messy because she gets half the food on her hands instead of swallowing it, then proceeds to rub her eyes or touch her hair, etc. You get the picture. This weekend my great-aunt Gloria is coming into town with some of her family, so we’re going to spend some time with them and go to a “picnic” at my Aunts (and Grandma’s) house - to which I apparently have to bring that green jello salad stuff.. internet, don’t let me forget! THEN, (exciting news) a week from sunday Jason, Lily, and I are flying to VIRGINIA so Lily can meet Auntie Chandra, Uncle Aaron, and Cousins Akasha and Aria! Woohoo! We’re very excited about the trip and more than a little nervous flying with a baby! I’m sure it will be fine, but any tips or tricks are welcome! Sorry for slacking on the updates lately, I’ll try to keep posting at least semi-regularly so none of you miss out on your Lily-fix!

From Lily July 13th

From Lily July 3-11

We have had a busy, busy week (and a half?) with LOTS of new experiences! On the 4th of July we headed to Wisconsin to go to the cabin my siblings and I pretty much grew up in during our childhood summers. It was quite a different experience this time, with 7 adults and 3 babies crammed into a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom cabin - but it was so much fun! The time went way too quickly and I wish I could get back there more often. Right away when we got there on the 4th we took Lily, Claire, and Abby to the beach club so they could all go swimming in the “big pool” for the very first time! Lily wasn’t too sure about it at first because the water felt a little cold, but she quickly adapted and then she LOVED it! The twins seemed to like it pretty well that first time, too - but the next time we brought them it wasn’t quite so successful. Perhaps it was too close to nap time?!?

From Lily July 3-11

Along with swimming, we also helped introduce the twins to watermelon in the mesh feeders! They LOVED it, and it’s good timing because Abby already has the beginning of a tooth popping through! Claire and Abby also tried sweet potatoes for the first time while we were up there, and Lily got a mini-serving of my Dad’s spaghetti which was a hit. We tried to let the girls play together a bit, but they’re still a bit too young to really get into it. Lily tries to grab their feet, hands, or heads and suck on them (sometimes pulling them in by the eyelid - ouch), and Claire and Abby just look at her like they don’t know what to think! I did give them all some tummy time and had all 3 babies rolling over repeatedly once when Lisa was gone, but of course once “Mama” was back the twins refused to cooperate!

From Lily July 3-11

Now, I know that 3 babies this close in age will tend to draw attention - but man, in such a small town it was like they’d never seen babies at all! We got stopped constantly and many people wanted to know if they were triplets - I guess I can’t blame them since they are so close in age and do look a little bit alike. I’m sure this is something they will get very sick of hearing as they get older - especially Lily since she’s the “and one” in “twins and one”, which probably doesn’t make her feel too special.

From Lily July 3-11

Once we got back to the cities, we decided to help Lily celebrate turning 7 months old by taking her to the zoo for the first time. We decided to go to the Como Zoo (free) and there were WAY more people than I expected to be there. We literally drove around the whole parking area twice before we even found a spot to park. Lily is a little young to really appreciate the animals, but she seemed to like them and she LOVED watching the other people. Sometimes there would be an animal right in front of her doing something neat and we’d be pointing at it saying “Look, Lily!” but she was too busy smiling at the little kids next to her that were looking at the animal. Maybe next year things will be different, but it still was fun! We even thought about stopping at the Whiz Bang Days carnival since we’ve never gone, but there was a carnival at the Zoo so we just walked through that one instead. Maybe next year we’ll make it to Whiz Bang stuff.

From Lily July 13th

By the way, there are not one, but TWO albums of pictures this time! Notice the different links under the pictures - one is July 3-11, the other is July 13th. Be sure to check them both out to see evidence of all the fun we’ve been having!

From June27-July1

So Lily has had quite a busy summer!  She’s been seeing all kinds of new places, trying new foods, and making friends with tons of new people and animals (who, when you’re 6 months old, are people too!).  In the last week she has especially gotten to see her cousins (and her aunty Lisa) quite a bit, which she and we are happy about, and has also finally gotten to go down to Grandma Gayle’s horse farm and meet the kitties and the puppies and the ponies!

Aunty Lisa has been working from home over the summer doing transcription work over the Internet.  This means she can work anywhere that has broadband, so she’s been hanging out at her parents’ house to work and get some help watching Claire and Abby.  Since Jill also hangs out there fairly often, the two of them have actually gotten to see each other more than once in the last month.  This also means that Lily has gotten to spend some quality time with her cousins.  As you can see in the following two pictures, Lily is still Lily

From June27-July1

From June27-July1

After all of that fun, we made the three and a half hour trip down to my mom (Grandma Gayle)’s farm.  The drive was really pretty uneventful, though Jill’s stomach turned over on a few of the hilly Southeastern MN roads, at which I laughed, having grown up there and gotten used to the “I left my stomach back there somewhere” hills. 

My brother Shawn and his family met us out at the farm,  and it was really nice to spend some time with them and see their daughters (only two of whom, Taliesin and Eanna, were present) for an extended period of time.  It was really nice to see my Mom too, and since she was up in the Twin Cities dropping a friend off earlier this month, we got to see her twice in one month!  Sadly it has been quite a while since that happened last. 

One of the main planned activities for our trip to the farm was to introduce Lily to some of my favorite childhood friends: the kittens that live in the barn, and the Ponies and Appaloosa riding horses that Mom raises and trains.  There is some sort of law inherent in the universe that creates special bond between little kids (especially little girls) and Kittens, and also between little kids and Ponies.  We got to witness this, as you can see:

From June27-July1

From June27-July1

And then there were the horses and ponies.  A while ago Grandma Gayle found and acquired this really sweet pony named Jessie.  Jessie is one of those ponies that is so quiet that you can pile on as many squirming children as will fit onto her back, and she still just stands there and looks at you with the same wise and gentle look as always.  How can you not love a pony like this?

Considering how major a part of my childhood the horses were, it was really special for me to bring Lily and introduce her to Jessie.  Based on the look on Lily’s face, I’d say the feeling is mutual

From June27-July1

From June27-July1

Like I said, Jessie is so calm that you can pile multiple kids onto her back, so we tried just that.  Behold three happy little girls:

From June27-July1

This meeting was extra special because Jessie wasn’t alone - she had a little baby with her too!  Because of this we couldn’t take Jessie out and walk her around, but the baby was so cute, and it was really cool to watch Taliesin make friends with the only horse on the farm that was her size.

From June27-July1

After all of this fun, we ended up with the following happy baby:

From June27-July1

But she hadn’t really gotten to walk around on a horse yet, and going places on the horse is half the fun of it, so we got out Romeo, who, although now 17 years old and very fat and docile, was once our breeding stallion and is still the largest horse on the farm. Romeo is a very well trained horse, to the point that you can lead him into the barn, drop the reins and walk away, and he’ll be standing there waiting for you when you get back.  As you can see, Lily approved of our choice of steed for her:

From June27-July1

From June27-July1

From June27-July1

  All in all we all had a really fun time seeing everyone and watching Lily make friends with all the animals.  Hopefully this is just the first of many such visits to the farm and encounters with her friends Jessie and Romeo that Lily will have. 

And as crazy as all of this was, our fun isn’t over yet: we are going to the Cabin in Wisconsin after the 4th of July, and Lily gets to go in a swimming pool (a real one) for the first time!  The excitement never stops… 

We hope your summer is as fun as ours.

From Lily June 22-25

(photo for Alix, per request)

From Lily June 22-25

Lily made a stunning new development this week. Twice in one day, she PUT HERSELF TO SLEEP (nap time and bedtime)! Seriously, we laid her down awake and she just grabbed her lamb, rolled onto her side, and went to sleep. It was amazing! At night time, she even slept through the WHOLE night. The next night she pretty much did the same thing again and we were just about beside ourselves. Of course, we knew it couldn’t last and it didn’t. Night 3 went back to normal, but for now we’ll cherish the memory of those 2 fabulous nights and hope for a repeat performance in the near future.

From Lily June 22-25

Other exciting news - today while Lily was over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Auntie Lisa and Cousins Abby and Claire came over, and all three babies went swimming for the first time! It was just a little wading pool, but it totally counts - and they all had fun! I can’t wait until we go up to our cabin and I can bring Lily into an actual swimming pool.

From Lily June 22-25

Speaking of Auntie Lisa and Cousins Abby and Claire - I saved some of the best news for last. Lisa has also started her very own blog (Life at the Lamberts), so we can follow her adventures raising twins and try to keep up with Lisa’s insanely busy life. I’m especially excited because I don’t get to talk to my sister as much as I’d like, and whenever we get together it’s 3-baby-chaos so I’d love to keep up with what’s happening with them and get to know my nieces a little more! Now, I’m going to take a cue from Lily and go rest for a bit so we can keep this craziness going another day.

From Lily June 22-25

From Lily June 14-18

Once again, sorry for being a little belated in posting - I think I’m still recovering from this past weekend! Jason’s birthday and father’s day were a lot of fun, but BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! On Saturday morning, Jason’s brother (Uncle Shawn) and his wife and kids (Shannon, Arian, Tali, and Eanna) came to visit! We always have a great time with them, but man does our little house get crowded! Shortly after they arrived, Shannon, Arian, Lily, and I drove to St. Paul for my friend Nora’s baby shower! We were fashionably late (ok, it wasn’t fashionable - we were REALLY late.. sorry!) but Nora said she forgave me if she could hold Lily, and she can’t take it back now! Lily did really well, except she really reacts so crazily to other babies that sometimes I worry she might hurt them or something. Remember how she beat up her cousins? Or how her Grandpa had to physically restrain her while she was interacting with Cousin Abby? She’s like that every time she meets a new baby, and the other babies always seem more mellow so I’m not sure if this is “normal” or not. Anyway, at Nora’s shower was another little baby boy who I know has some developmental difficulties and wears a helmet. His mom thought he and Lily would get along so she kept bringing him over to Lily, who would promptly grab and eat his face and GRAB HIM BY THE HELMET so I was a little worried she was going to hurt him - unintentionally of course, but still scary! I’m just a little unsure what to do in those situations!

From Lily June 14-18

After Nora’s fantastic shower, we hopped over to my sister’s house where my parents were babysitting the twins so Shannon and Arian could meet them. We visited only briefly, then headed home to relieve the boys (Jason and Shawn) from watching Tali and Eanna, and make dinner plans. We ended up at Old Chicago which went REALLY well for having 4 adults, 1 teenager, a toddler, and 2 babies! They even brought the table a big cookie for dessert to celebrate Jason’s existence. We came home and put the kids to bed, then wandered off to sleep ourselves.

From Lily June 14-18

Sunday morning I woke up and ran to the grocery store to get some breakfast items then cooked breakfast for everybody! (I know, I know - believe me, nobody is more shocked than I am. Look how becoming a Mama changes me.) We spent most of the rest of the morning (and early afternoon) playing with the kids and trying to unearth our floor from the mounds of toys and cheerios, and who-knows-what while Jason and Shawn went for the longest bike ride known to man. Look for them to appear in the next edition of the Guiness Book of World Records! (Just kidding, Jason! ) After they returned, we headed out to the mall to pick up Lily’s beautiful 6-month pictures and then on to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a spectacular father’s day feast. Shawn and Shannon (et al) came with to our parents house and visited for a bit before they had to make the trip back to Rochester. The father’s day celebration went well - Lily spent some time with her other cousins (Claire and Abby), but I think she was pretty worn out from the entire weekend. She gave Jason a tshirt with her picture on it that says “Daddy’s Little Girl” and a new wallet, and a framed picture of her and I - he seemed to love everything. Grandpa received a t-shirt that said “Best Grandpa hands down” and Lily, Claire, and Abby attempted to put their handprints on it. Yes, attempted is the word - I won’t get into it. He also got a little digital picture keychain that can hold 50-some pictures of his adorable granddaughters to show to the world, so he doesn’t have to choose which ones can fit in his wallet anymore.

From Lily June 14-18

From Lily June 14-18

P.S. I almost forgot to show you ALL of Lily’s 6 month professional pictures! Tell me which one is your fav. (click on the picture to see the full album)

lily 6 month pro pics

From lily june 13 …

Wow. My baby girl turned 6 months old today. SIX MONTHS OLD. It’s so unbelievable that time has passed that quickly - and man, is she growing up fast! People always tell you it goes fast, but I think you just have no idea HOW fast until you experience it yourself. I saw a newborn baby in Target the other day and I can already hardly remember the 2.2 days when she was that small - that’s seriously how fast it seems to go! It’s like the time from Halloween to Christmas. One week it’s suddenly Halloween, then a week later it’s Thanksgiving, and the next day is Lily’s birthday, and the day after that is Christmas. That’s the “feels like” timeline, people.

Sorry I’ve been slacking on the updates lately - life has just seemed SO busy I keep losing track of time. Today Lily and I had to go shopping, and go visit people at work, and have a lovely dinner with the Beaverson’s. Tomorrow is Jason’s birthday and Nora’s baby shower, and Uncle Shawn, Aunt Shannon, Cousin Arian, Cousin Tali, and Cousin Eanna are coming to visit! Sunday is father’s day and we’re celebrating Jason’s birthday with my family. Hopefully I’ll be able to post more early next week, with tons of exciting pictures from this busy weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend, and remember - tomorrow is flag day.