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.