3 months old

Three months already. Lily is changing so fast now. It seems like she's different every day. A few updates on her:

-Talking up a storm. Beginning to sound more like babbling and less like cooing.
-Loves to watch her parents talk.
-Reaches and interacts with toys. LOVES her floor gym. She's getting better and better at holding on to toys. Can knock over blocks that mommy or daddy stacks.
-Holds onto mommy's hair frequently.
-Starting to put things in her mouth besides just her fist & and arms.
-Sucked on just her index finger on August 4th.
-Loves when mommy shakes her whole body, especially when dancing to music.
-First laughed on August 1st.
-Sleeps at least a few hours in her crib every night. She usually makes it until 3 or 4 and sometimes all the way until 7.
-She's getting better about putting herself to sleep in her crib. If she's tired but not too tired she does really well. She needs her arms swaddled, a pacifier and her rain forest soother (it plays music and has lights).
-Still likes to go to sleep late and get up late. We're trying to move bedtime earlier but she's stubborn! Ideally she'd go to sleep around 6:30 or 7 PM so she'd be ready to go for the day at 7 or 7:30 AM but sometimes we sleep in until 9:30, 10 or almost 11 a few times.
-Prefers napping with mommy or in her swing, not so crazy about napping in her crib.
-Steam rolling over everything. She's very good at rolling from her back to her stomach. In her crib she only rolls over her left shoulder, on the floor she'll roll either way. She has rolled from her stomach to her back several times but not as frequent.
-Excellent at scooting in circles and straight ahead.
-Wears 3-6 month clothing (6-12 month socks!).
-Wears a size 2 diaper in Pampers Swaddlers.
-Still 100% breastfed.
-LOTS of drool! Are teeth coming soon?
-First play date on July 31st. Lily played with Eleanor (2 months old) and Sierra( 3 1/2 months old). Mommy works with Eleanor's mommy, Sarah. Sierra's mommy, Beth (and Sarah) were both in mommy & daddy's birth class. Lily loved Eleanor's toys and she showed off her rolling skills.

How Lily is developing:

I know you!

Even though your baby has been able to recognize you since he was just a few days old, he may now be able to show it. About half of babies this age begin to exhibit an obvious recognition of their parents.

Most likely he'll still smile at strangers, especially when they look him straight in the eye and coo or talk to him. But he's beginning to sort out who's who in his life, and he definitely prefers you, your partner, and a select few over others.

Your baby may quiet down and make eye contact with you, or he may search for you in a room and move his arms in excitement or smile when he finds you. He may even find your scent calming and comforting.

A big spurt is happening in your baby's brain development that coincides with significant behavioral changes. Your baby is more attuned to the outside world and more sensitive to changes in his environment.

The part of the brain that governs hand-eye coordination and allows a baby to recognize objects is developing rapidly now. His hearing, language, and smell have also become more receptive and active. When your baby hears your voice these days, he may even look directly at you and start gurgling or trying to talk back.

Early language development

Research shows that babies whose parents speak to them extensively have significantly higher IQs and bigger vocabularies when they get older than other children, so interaction is especially important right now. Set a solid foundation by exposing your baby to a variety of words.

Talk about your surroundings when you take him for a walk, and point to and identify objects as you roam the grocery store aisles. Your baby can't repeat these words yet, but he's storing all the information in his rapidly developing memory.

If your home is bilingual, your baby will benefit from hearing both languages spoken regularly. Don't worry if some of his verbal skills seem to lag a bit at first. He'll not only catch up later, but he may also excel in his general language skills.

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First time interacting with a toy on her own. She wanted to touch the bee's eyes.

Always rolling over in the crib and often getting legs or arms stuck in the rails.

Trying out the scooter with Daddy.

First time sitting in the high chair. It's a fun place to play with toys.

A couple days later, she put one of the boxes on her hand all on her own.

Playing in the grass outside. Lily & mommy went on a 6 mile walk.
First hints of laughing, we didn't officially call it a laugh until a couple days later.




Just being cute in general.

5 Years!

The 27th of July marked 5 years of marriage for us. Sometimes it's hard to believe we've been married 5 years and other times it feels like we've been married forever! Since Gary and Cat decided to get married in Maui we were lucky enough to visit many of the same places we visited on our honeymoon almost 5 years ago. We even stayed in the same hotel. It was a much different trip this time around.

July 27th, 2003:


That was a fun party, wasn't it?

July 27, 2008:
(Unfortunately Daddy isn't in the picture but we know you're not here to see us anyway.)

How'd we spend the day? Walking around Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and having lunch at PF Chang's with Lily.

Next month will also mark 5 years living in Los Angeles and 5 years that Scott has been in graduate school. November will mark 5 years for me working at the VA/UCLA. We feel so fortunate for everything we've experienced in the last 5 years. We feel especially lucky to have Lily in our lives now. She's definitely the best thing that's happened to either one of us.

Phew!

We are finally home safe and sound after 4 flights, 3 states, 2 National Parks, 8 grandparents, 7 aunts and uncles, many, many hours in the car and too many other relatives and friends to count.

It was a long 2 and half weeks but so much fun to spend time with family and friends and it really solidified how lucky we are to have such a good baby. Lily did remarkably well on all legs of the trip. We really couldn't have hoped for a more well-mannered baby. Her worst moments bookended the trip--puking all down the front (and inside!) of mommy shirt while waiting to head to Maui in the terminal of LAX and then a little bit of fussiness on the flight back from Sacramento to LAX. Overall a great trip. Lily's a star traveler already.

So what's new in Lilyland? She's smiling up a storm. It's the best feeling in the world to see her smile. Hard to ever be upset or sad when you see that every day. She makes HUGE laughing faces but so far no sound comes out. I'm sure any day now the giggles and belly laughs will start. She awake a lot more during the day. She loves to play on her floor gym. She reaches for toys and grabs a hold of them. She's still figuring out that she can move them once she's grabbed a hold; but she loves to look at her toys. Sometimes she gets a little fussy just because she wants to lay down and play. She loves the flow in the dark planets now suspended from the ceiling in her (and our) room. She finds them hilarious and loves to watch them.

A review in photos...first stop Maui.

Lily with Daddy and Uncle Gary on his wedding day

Chilling in Lahaina


Hiking down to the blowhole that wasn't really blowing


The whole family in front of the Iao Needle


On top of Haleakala, Lily's first National Park. Yes, we are still in Maui, just 10,000 ft up.


Then on to Northern CA and Oregon.

Meeting her Great-Great-Grandma Smith


Aunt Melody with cousin Isabella, Lily and mommy, and 2nd cousin Stacy with 3rd cousin Jacob


A short hike to a waterfall


Crater Lake with Aunt Anna


Hard to believe Lily's cousin Isabella is only 20 days younger than her.


Isabella prefers sleeping on her side while Lily prefers the "touchdown" position

Remote posting from a lanai in Maui

2 months old!

Lily is two months old today. We're celebrating her birthday in Maui. We arrived here on Tuesday night and we'll be leaving on Wednesday night. Lily was a good baby on the flight over. She cried a little bit but I don't think she annoyed anyone too much. She sat on mommy's lap most of the flight but also really enjoyed stretching out over two tray tables. Her ears didn't seem to bother her and she didn't even spit up on mommy during the flight (but did while we were waiting at the gate to get on the flight). Her favorite part about Maui so far is the waterfall outside of our room and tiki torches. She'd star at tiki torches for hours.



On the 3rd we all went to Uncle Gary and Aunt Cat's wedding. Lily was very well behaved and didn't cry at all during the ceremony. She slept through part of it and then woke up abruptly when the conch shell was blown. The luau after the wedding was a little harder for her, she was getting hot because it was so warm and humid. Lily, mommy and daddy watched the luau from the back but still got to see most of it. Thankfully she didn't get upset until after we ate. It was too bad our table wasn't tiki torch adjacent.



Lily had her two-month checkup about a week before we left for Maui. She needed to get several shots and her pediatrician and parents wanted to make sure she didn't have any kind of reaction to the shots before we traveled thousands of miles away. As expected, she's growing like a weed. She's already 24 inches long (grown 3 inches since birth) and now weighs 12 lbs 4 oz (up 3 lbs 7 oz since birth)! She's definitely a health girl. She's over the 90th percentile in height and weight. So she's not fat, she's tall too.

She has changed a lot in the last month. Here are a few updates on Lily.

-She rolls onto her side and smacks her lips when she's hungry (when she's sleeping next to me she snuggles into me looking for food).
-She rolled over from her back to belly on July 2nd!
-Still loves lights and also flames like tiki torches.
-Finds loud music soothing (was kept in a deep sleep by a live band on the 4th of July).
-Loves faces. Prefers to look at mommy's faces if in the room, then daddy, but looks at everyone's faces.
-Coos and oos and aahs a lot. Has a talkative time in the mornings and evenings.
-Smiles a lot.
-Tries to sit up! She wants to move so badly and is already trying to sit upright on her own.

How Lily is developing:

Into complex designs

At this point, your baby will begin to move beyond his early preferences for bright or two-toned objects toward more detailed and complicated designs, colors, and shapes. Show your baby — and let him touch — a wider variety of objects. Good choices include plastic cookie cutters, soft balls, and stuffed animals.

Hear ye, hear ye

Your baby can differentiate familiar voices from other sounds and is becoming a better listener. He also can show you that he's in tune with his environment. Notice how he looks to see where certain noises are coming from.

An ongoing conversation (although still one-sided!) can help your baby develop his sense of place. He may even watch your mouth as you talk, fascinated by how it all works.

A helping hand

The chaotic first months are over and your baby's schedule is probably becoming more predictable. If you and your partner are raising your baby, it's important for both of you to get a chance to care for and bond with your baby. Make sure whichever one of you is not the primary caretaker gets regular time alone with your little one, for bathing him, changing him, and just getting tuned into his needs.

Sleepy sounds

Lily was making these really cute noises while she was napping in her bouncer. Since then she'd rather sleep on my chest than by herself; but since she's still has a little bit of her cold, she gets what she wants.



This was our exciting Friday night with the Dodgers.

Bath time

Here's a video of Lily enjoying her bath yesterday. For some reason she found the roll of paper towels very interesting.

One month old!

At one month Lily is:

-Making eye contact with me.
-Listens to me talking to her.
-Loves her swing, and can go to sleep in her swing.
-Likes her bouncer, will tolerate it for a while at times and only a few minutes other times.
-Takes a pacifier sometimes, usually spits it out fairly quickly but it soothes her.
-Has only eaten breast milk.
-Has taken 2 bottles reasonably well.
-Has mostly gray eyes.
-Usually gets up 2-3 times at night to eat.
-Usually goes back to sleep after eating at night but sometimes stays awake for several hours in the middle of the night or needs her swing to get back to sleep.
-Usually sleeps in bed with mommy & daddy or in the swing but has slept in her crib a few times.
-Has had her first cold.
-Is wearing all 0-3 month clothes.
-Is wearing size 1 Pampers.
-Has amazing head control and has since she was less than a week old.
-Loves to look at lights, the mylar balloons she got in the hospital that are still floating, out windows and at the sky.
-Loves her car seat when it's moving.
-Is a really hot baby and gets overheated easily.
-Loves to naps on mommy.
-Grunts when she's hungry, snorts if she's really hungry and cries if mommy is too slow at providing food.
-Loves the water. Loves baths in her tub and showers with mommy. Loves the water running over her head.
-Likes diaper changes and likes to be naked.
-Doesn't like putting on clothes over her head, especially when daddy is slow at getting them on.

Talking to her Horton stuffed animal while she's getting her diaper changed.

Bath time.

Talking to Horton again.

1 Month old!

1 Month old - with Charlie