Lily is 3 today!

More to say later, today we are celebrating!

An interview with Lily

Mommy: What is your favorite show?
Lily: Nice shows. Dora. And I like Beauty and the Beast.

M: What is your favorite color?
L: Pink!

M: What is your favorite food?
L: I love all your food you make for dinner and breakfast and lunch.

M: What is your favorite animal?
L: Elephants, tigers. I think I love dogs, it runs to me so I can be happy. (mommy note: She told me this story several times that day, about a dog runny to her and how it made her happy.)

M: What are you really good at?
L: Playing with toys.

M: What are you not so good at?
L: I can't make animals.

M: Who is your best friend?
L: Avery, Skylar and the new Avery. (mommy note: Lily has recently met a second Avery.)

M: What is your favorite thing to do?
L: I like to play with Abigail.

M: What is the best thing about having a sister?
L: I just want to jump with Abigail. The End. There I told you a story. (mommy note: I think she was getting tired of my questions by this point.)

M: What do you want to do when you grow up?
L: I want to stay in my own house.

M: Tell me something that is really funny.
L: Want me to tell you a joke? A joke about America? yabababyaba yayayayaya

M: What is your favorite thing to wear?
L: I love dresses.

M: What makes you cry?
L: No nothing.

M: What is your favorite toy?
L: I love Rex and Woody. Rex really scares you. (mommy note: Two characters from Toy Story.)

Lily's dreams

Lily woke up from a nightmare last night. She woke up crying and was quite scared about it. She rarely wakes up at night and if she does she almost always goes right back to sleep on her own. She dreamt there were mice in her bed. She didn't want to sleep in her bed alone any more so she came and slept with me and daddy took her bed. In the morning she was still concerned about the mice so Daddy told her they were gone, she kept asking for more details and he told her he threw them out the window. The rest of the day they she kept bring the mice up saying that daddy took care of the mice and threw them out in the snow. She said they should go to someone else's house. She told me they were just playing in her bed but she didn't want them in there.

How do you explain a dream to an almost 3 year old? I told her it was like she was watching a movie that she was in but it wasn't real and the mice weren't really in her room. She just looked concerned and confused. She wasn't scared to sleep in her bed again though. We have no idea why she was thinking about mice.

Then and now

Then (August 2008):

And now (June 2010):

Funny how we still think this toy is pretty exciting, although we haven't seen it in about a year and a half.

Great-Great Grandma Flora Cora Smith April 25, 1912-June 17, 2010

Four generations - July 2008.

Abigail and Lily's great-great grandmother passed away on June 17, 2010. She was 98 years old. She was born in 1912, the same year the Titanic sank. She saw Mount Lassen erupt as a young child. She was a major part of my life growing up. Outside of my immediate family, she was probably the most influential person in my childhood. When I was young, she lived (with my great-grandfather) on an 80-acre cattle farm in Cottonwood, CA about 25 minutes from our house. Us kids visited often and spent many weekends there. We spent a lot of time in her huge greenhouse re-potting and watering plants, taking walks to the end of their property to look at Cottonwood Creek and eat figs from the trees, feeding the baby cows with huge bottles or the bigger cows crab apples that had fallen to the ground. She had an organ in her den that I don't remember ever playing and Pac Man on Atari that we did play once or twice. We sat on the floor in her dark, stuffy living room and were so bored watching Jeopardy and other game shows. We sat at our kid-sized table with our tea set at the end of the kitchen counter. We stretched our imaginations playing in an old truck camper shell that was on the ground in the yard. We climbed bales of hay up to the ceiling of the barn. We even briefly had a pony that bucked us off and then soon after found a new home. We had our own room where we slept on a daybed with pictures of sailboats on the walls. We went to early dinners at North's Chuck Wagon where they charged kids by how much they weighed (maybe not so PC these days) and loved getting to choose what we wanted to eat from the buffet (hand carved roast beef!). We did all the things that kids should do with her.

We played games. Grandma Smith loved to play games. I'm pretty sure she gave me my competitive nature. She never threw a game just because you were younger than her, she wanted to win just as much as anyone else, but never in a mean-spirited way. Right up until 98 years old she played games with us. I remember her playing pinochle with her friends weekly when she lived with my parents (in the late 1990s and early 2000s) and being on a bowling league well into her 70s. She loved to play dominoes with us kids and RummyKub and Phase 10. But she was always willing to play any game and was deeply offended if she wasn't invited to play. I'm sure this helped keep her mind sharp until the very end. She was also a big baseball fan. She loved the Braves, but I don't recall her having any ties to Atlanta. We went to many Giants games in San Francisco growing up and she often came along to see the Giants play the Braves. She also liked the Lakers, which never went over well in our house. But she enjoyed watching all sports.

It is for all these reasons that we chose to name our second daughter in her honor. Abigail and her great-great grandmother share the middle name Cora. Growing up in our family she is sure to be a lover of games like her great-great grandmother. I'm sorry that they were never able to meet in person but I know she's still here in her daughter, granddaughter, and 4 great-granddaughters. And we'll make sure her great-great granddaughters know her.

Meeting Lily for the first time - July 2008.

Lily and Grandma Smith - September 2008.

September 2008 with Lily.

Christmas 2008. Lily helped her open her stocking and tried to pull out her earrings.

the BIG sister

Lily is a wonderful big sister. She's very concerned about Abigail. She imitates everything we do to soothe her ("It's OK Abigail." while shaking her bouncer). She holds her hand when they're in their car seats next to each other. She'll also tell me if she's sleeping or awake in the car. She's very proud of herself if she can get Abigail to take her pacifier or if she gets her to stop crying. She's also a little jealous. If Daddy rocks Abigail, Lily needs Daddy to rock her. She likes to be called a baby. She needs Daddy to feed her sometimes (despite having been eating on her own for at least 6 months). She will tell you she is NOT a big girl. She is a baby. We heard this would happen. This was one reason we didn't try to potty train her yet because we thought that might regress too and I didn't want to potty train twice (or run up the stairs to the bathroom 80 times a day at 9 months pregnant). So we'll cut her some slack. She's only two. She always seems so much older but she's two and right now she needs some babying. That's OK. The whining though, oh the whining. Hopefully that doesn't last long.

On all other accounts she's doing wonderfully. I'm convinced she's a child genius. :) She is speaking in sentences pretty much all the time. She drops a few words here and there and we try and repeat the full sentence back to her. Her memory is amazing. We can tell her something once and she'll remember it. This can also be a bad thing. Once her Aunt Melody told her she needed to brush her teeth because she had bugs in them (just joking around with her) and now she's convinced there are bugs in her teeth.

She's still very sensitive. If she gets in trouble, she often cries, it seems more like tears because she's sad about being a disappointment (which is really sad to see). She is sometimes afraid of her Papa Jerry (like when he pretends to be a monster). She was nervous about her grandparents in general for a little while. She hadn't seen them in person in 6 months (only over Skype) so it was a little weird for her. But after a few hours she warmed up and let them pick her up. She's so good at sharing. She'll share toys and snack with her friends without being asked. She gets confused when other kids take things away from her though. If it's a prized toy she gets upset and cries but mostly she's just confused.

She can count up to 13 and is working on getting up to 20. She knows her alphabet and she can identify all of her letters and numbers (1-9). Although sometimes when she's saying the alphabet she goes back to A again after P but if reminded about Q she'll finish the remaining letters. She knows all the basic shapes and some not so basic (like rhombus). She basically knows her colors but sometimes still gets some of them confused (red and green). She knows a ton of animals, she must know at least a hundred or so. She's way beyond, cat, dog and rabbit (she knows flamingo and toucan and cheetah). She loves dinosaurs and visiting the "dinosaur museum" (Yale Peabody Museum). She loves books. She reads 3-5 books every night with her Daddy before bed and we probably read a dozen more throughout the day. She likes books about dinosaurs especially right now. She still likes Elmo and Sesame Street a lot.

She's beginning more imaginary play. She makes her animals and toys do things and she narrates what they're doing. She can occupy herself for longer periods of time playing on her own. She mimics what she's seen other people do. For example she was walking around holding her stuffed rabbit over her shoulder bouncing up and down saying, "it's OK, shush, shush, shush," like she hears us say to Abigail when she's crying. She is a parrot 100% of the time. She repeats anything anyone says. Literally every word. We have to start watching what we say and also make sure we're speaking grammatically correct if we want her to. She always wants to know where things or people are, even if they're still in sight. We're not sure if she's hyper-sensitive about losing something or if it's just a phase. If I go upstairs to go to the bathroom she'll say, "Where'd mommy go?" at least three times. Even if I told her where I was going. It was particularly sad after her aunt and cousin left when she asked where they were at least a dozen times the whole day after they left.

Lily pitching to daddy.

Lily and Bella hanging out.

Doing ring around the rosies with cousin Bella, they unexpectedly "all fell down" on top of each other.

Holding her baby sister for the first time.

Lily holding Abby's hand.

Lily's best buddies, Avery (yellow) & Skylar (running), at Skylar's 3rd birthday party.

Walking the balance beam at gymnastics.

Doing a "v-sit" on the balance beam.

Getting her medal and certificate for completing gymnastics.

Making biscuits with grandma. She tasted all the raw ingredients & decided raw biscuits don't taste very good.

Abby at 5 days

Our first picture as a family of four.

Abby is doing really well. She's a really easy going baby overall, hopefully this isn't just because she's still in her sleepy phase being only a few days old. She does still sleep a lot. Her wakeful moments are really sweet though. She likes looking at lights and looking out the windows at the trees (and maybe listening to the birds?).

She's a champion nurser. Even the nurses at the hospital were surprised by her skills (laying on her back eating lying next to mommy at less than 24 hours old). Her pediatrician thinks she's doing great and complimented her on her poop at her first office visit Wednesday (and how often do we get compliments on our poop?). She's still below her birth weight at 8 lbs 11 oz (down from 9 lbs 4 oz at birth) but she has until her 2 week visit to make that up. And mommy's milk just really came in the day of her checkup so she should gain that back very quickly now (her pediatrician is not concerned at all). Especially since she loves to eat. She goes through stretches of 3-4 hours of eating every 45 minutes or so. But our few nights at home so far she's slept for about 3 hours in the early morning hours so that has been nice for us all. She's sleeping in a co-sleeper next to mommy's bed. Which is basically like a bassinet that attaches to the side of the bed. This has been very convenient, more so than I even imagined. Having her right next to the bed but not in it lets us keep our space but still have her so close by. Plus she actually sleeps in it well. Lily always preferred to be very close to me, Abby doesn't mind the extra space. She can also sleep without being swaddled, but doesn't mind swaddling either so she's pretty easy going. I've already given her a pacifier and she can keep it in her mouth pretty well. We don't use it often but it helps sometimes to get her to drift back to sleep just after she's eaten. Or give me a few extra minutes if Scott needs to stall before I feed her.

She doesn't do much at this point, but it's exciting just to see her little smiles and smirks in her sleep and listen to her grunts. She's not a big crier and she actually wakes me up to eat by grunting and not crying (if I can make any conclusions about anything after only a couple nights). Lily gets a big kick out of her holding onto her hand. This is especially cute when we're riding in the car and they hold her hands. Lily's also good about telling us what she's doing in the car since she's facing backwards and we can't see her. Abby has really long fingers and toes and she usually keeps them spread out rather than clenched in fists like most newborns. She started out in size 1 diapers and skipped the newborn size altogether (good thing we didn't stock up ahead of time!). She's wearing newborn sized clothes right now but they are already snug and I doubt she'll get through wearing each outfit once (but these were mostly all Lily's so at least Lily wore them too). She took her first trip to the park today. Lily and Bella were in dire need of some time outside so Melody and I took the whole crew. Abby was awake most of our time there sitting in her car seat in the stroller or in my arms just looking around at everything.

It's funny the things that are the same as they were when she was still inside me. Like she still gets hiccups quite a bit and she always has an awake and active period right around 11 PM.

It's a joy to have two children. Even though I still have Scott and my sister here I'm starting to get used to the idea of having two kids and the juggling that will take. I know I can nurse Abby and read a book to Lily simultaneously so that's a step forward. Lily's good about helping where she can. She's not old enough to change diapers or watch Abby even for a few seconds but she's good at handing me things if I'm tied down nursing and just being a good big sister. She almost has an obsession with handing me my water bottle. If she finds it anywhere, even only a few feet away from me, she hands it to me and says, 'herego mommy". And water is very important for a nursing mom, so it's helpful. So far she hasn't been the least bit jealous. She's shown a little resistance to me and not wanted to cuddle with me as much, but I think that's already waning (she wanted me to lay her down for her nap the other day). I know their relationship will change as they both get older but for now it's good. And it's wonderfully fulfilling to have them in my life. Scott's a wonderful father to them. Lily adores him, of course. She loves that he plays rough with her sometimes and loves that he's the one that reads her books every night before bed. He's also the one that finds and fixes things, which is always important. I can't wait to see how his relationship with Abby develops and is different or similar. Our lives are incredibly joyful.

Resting in our room.

Coming home from the hospital.

Holding hands.

Lily visiting the hospital for the first time and holding her sister for the first time.

Lily's 2!

Remember this face?

My little baby is 2! I can hardly believe it. The second year went by even faster than the first. I hope they don't continue to speed up like this. She continues to amaze us of course. She seems borderline genius to me and I'm definitely not biased about these things.

A few milestones:
--Wearing a size 3T tops and 2T bottoms.
--Wearing a size 5 or 6 diaper depending on the brand.
--Wearing a size 7.5 or 8 shoe.
--Is currently obsessed with her "baby and mommy" puppies. Two small stuffed dogs.
--Current favorite book is "How do dinosaurs say goodnight?" by Jane Yolen
--Also currently obsessed with dinosaurs, the "dinosaur museum" aka the Peabody Museum at Yale, and just driving past the Peabody to see the large triceratops statue in the front (pronounced "cera-tops").
--Likes to categorize animals by size, big ones are "daddys", little ones are "babies", etc. If there are two it's usually a daddy and baby and then she'll ask, "Where'd mommy go?"
--Can count to 10, and knows many of the numbers up to 20, but not in the correct order yet.
--Can say the whole alphabet.
--Recognizes all but a few letters, V is sometimes called W, X is sometimes K, mostly letters that look similar to other letters.
--Recognizes all numbers 1-9.
--Has had a recent increase in appetite and eats up a storm.
--Favorite foods are typical toddler favorites: mac & cheese, hot dogs, grilled cheese, quesadillas, etc. But she's also really good about eating fruits and vegetables and will ask for things like broccoli without prompting.
--Drinking 1% milk now instead of whole milk.
--Is talking more and more in complete sentences. Sometimes a word is left out but she isn't just saying single words any more.
--Is very concerned about ownership of things and often tells us who things belong too, "mommy's fork, daddy's fork, Lily's fork". She also likes to claim things as her own if she wants them, "Lily's iPhone" is the most common one we hear.
--Getting her 2-year molars in. One is already in.

She is incredibly excited for her little sister to be born. She loves going to mommy's doctor's appointments and hearing the baby's heartbeat. She talks about hearing the heartbeat all week long in anticipation of going to the appointment. She also likes to put her head on my stomach to listen to the baby, which she says she can hear. And she likes trying to feel it kick, but she usually isn't patient enough to wait to feel it. At a recent visit the doctor put the doppler (what they use to listen to the baby's heartbeat) on Lily's chest so she could hear her own heartbeat. This has only convinced her more that she has a baby in her own stomach. She frequently tells me "baby kick Lily!" I think sometimes she's telling me this when her stomach hurts or just when she wants attention. She's also already sharing with her baby sister. She gives my stomach things and tries to show it things like toys. She even gave it her blanket and pacifier, her most prized possessions. She's also very concerned that the baby is hurting me and will talk about the "owies" the baby is giving me. So I have to make sure she knows that I'm not hurt and I have to cover up my hobbling around a little bit so she's not worried.

Despite her excitement about being a big sister, she is convinced that she's a baby. When asked she'll say, "Lily baby, not big girl". And she asks Scott to hold her and rock her like a baby. Sometimes she'll also ask to be fed like a baby. She also calls all kids "babies" even kids bigger than her, so her definition may be a bit off. Actual babies are usually "tiny baby" or "really tiny baby".

Her memory is amazing. She remembers the smallest details and it often takes me a while to figure out what she's talking about because she remembers small details from days or weeks earlier. When revisiting our day at the zoo today she was talking about the monkeys and remembered that they were eating carrots. She loves learning all these little tidbits and facts about things--animals especially. She'll tell you that a daddy lion has a mane, a baby horse is a foal, a cheetah runs fast, and a tiger has stripes.

She also has a new "job chart". This is partly to remind mommy and partly to give Lily responsibilities. Her "jobs" are mainly things she should be doing every day like brushing her teeth and getting dressed and she gets stickers for doing each task in the morning and at night. We started with a big wall chart but we've moved on to a smaller chart on a clip board so we don't have to come back downstairs after teeth brushing and face washing to put the stickers on the chart. There isn't any reward for any of this, the stickers are enough of a reward for her at this point. She loves doing her jobs to get the stickers. One of her jobs is to "pick up toys" which is pretty hard for her to do (she's easily distracted and wants to play with whatever she's picking up) so that's the one we're really working on.

She found some eggs in the front yard on Easter.

Lily running around the backyard at The Breakers, a Vanderbilt mansion. It was actually large enough for her. I took advantage of the grandparents being in town and let Bauby do all the chasing--I enjoyed the audio tour and then sitting in the grass.

Wants to eat whatever Daddy has--in this case a pickle and a couple potato chips.

At the Cherry Blossom Festival where she got her face painted.

Exploring the neighborhood. She usually tells you where to stay and then explores different areas.

Drinking water with mommy on a hike at Wintergreen Lake.

A trip down memory lane:

In the hospital after her first bath.

Lily and Daddy on her birth day.

First day home from the hospital.

Happy Birthday to Lily!

She's not two until Wednesday, but we had her birthday party today since her "favorite" Avery is out of town next weekend. A birthday party without Avery would have been a disaster.

Lily in her birthday dress which used to be mommy's dress several years ago.

We had her party at a local park with a big sand box--Lily's favorite. She loves digging in the sand and it can keep her occupied for a long time. So we brought some new sand toys for all the kids and just let them do what they wanted.

Lily requested mac & cheese and hot dogs for her birthday lunch so that's what we had. And and Elmo cake. She was very specific about that request. Her favorite characters right now are Elmo and Mickey Mouse. It was a tough choice for her but Elmo won out and an Elmo party is what she wanted.

The party set up.

Lily poking the sand before her friends arrived.

Singing Happy Birthday to Lily.

Lily's big present this year from us and from her Bauby & Papa was a playhouse. This is set up in the basement for rainy days and the winter. We seem to get at least one rainy day a week so even though it's warmer out now we still spend some days inside. She loves the playhouse of course. It has a doorbell that she rings each time she goes in or out the door. And it has a phone that she carries around everywhere she goes. She loves playing the basement and it's an excellent distraction if I need to fold laundry. She'll still get a couple more presents on her actual birthday and we're planning on taking a trip to the zoo on Wednesday for her actual birthday.

Lily's house.

My biggest parenting mistake yet...

...Not getting a shopping cart.

The cards were stacked against me I just didn't realize it until it was too late. Morning playgroup at the park was fine, the walk back to the car was a little unruly but she was walking with her pal, Avery, so they were a little distracted. It was 11:30 the plan was to run to the grocery store quickly to get a few last things for her birthday party tomorrow. I also needed 3 things from the dollar store next door--I even knew what they were, so I didn't get a cart. This often starts a screaming match and I was going to be fast. Lily had other plans. First she wouldn't stay with me, which wasn't out of the ordinary. Then when I tried to hold her hand or arm, she made her whole body go limp. Then she just laid out across the floor refusing to move--and laughing hysterically. I tried all my usual tricks, "Can you help mommy carry this?" "Can you help me find something with Elmo on it?" It worked for about 15 seconds and then she was off to hide down another aisle. She even got to pick out some raisins to buy. But it was all short-lived.

Then we got in line. The aisle was too wide and the cart in front of us didn't keep her corralled. I gave her her water cup. And she ran off, head tipped back drinking water, across the store. I caught her and picked her up, and she went limp like a rag doll, only worse, a squirmy, fidgety rag doll. So I had to get the items from my little hand basket onto the cashier's belt. Lily actually agreed to help with this and then ran away again. Everything was ready for the cashier, I even got my reusable bag out and ready. That didn't stop her from glaring at me. I got Lily back, handed my cash to the cashier and Lily ran off again. Got her back, cashier had bagged everything in plastic bags (4 items, 2 plastic bags, no wonder there's a plastic island the size of Texas in the Pacific). Got my change, re-bagged everything myself, all the while the cashier is glaring at me, like I'm ruining her day. Meanwhile, I have Lily squirming in one hand, the diaper bag slung over my bag, my open wallet, a handful of change, and our (reusable) bag of purchases and then Lily decided to throw her cup on the ground. I'm holding all of this stuff and Lily is making me more and more frustrated and I poked her. In the stomach. Not hard, but I still felt guilty. And she says, "Mommy poke Lily! Mommy poke Lily!" In a surprised sort of way.

So I lean over to pick up the cup and all the change from my wallet dumps all over the floor. Of course it does. This turned out to be a blessing because it distracted Lily for 10 seconds while she picked up all the coins (a current obsession). So I shoved wallets and change and cups in bags as quickly as possible. And then she was off again. By the time I was off after her I couldn't see where she went at all. So I announced I was leaving without her while I continued to look. Then I heard her by the door to the store saying "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy? Are you Mommy?" in a very worried voice. Finally got her, and everything else, and got out of the store. We still had to go to the grocery store. Can you guess our first stop? The carts.

22 months

Lily is going to be 2 in 2 short months. It's hard to believe. Some days I feel like she acts more like a 4 year old though.

She's beautiful, she's sweet and she's so smart. She still loves her kitchen and she prepares meals in it multiple times during the day. She likes to make pizza dough and soup and she likes to show you how to eat it. Usually she says "hands" and she wants you to pretend to pick up the food with your hands to eat. She also likes to make food for her rabbit. She'll open his cage and leave a row of plates and bowls at the front of his cage. If he doesn't come up to them she shouts "try it! try it!" to him. She loves when he comes up and smells the bowls and sometimes he'll pick them up in his mouth and toss them around--she usually finds this hysterical.

She loves working on her numbers and letters. She loves counting but she still skips 7 & 8 when she counts to 10. I think she thinks this is a joke because when I correct her she laughs. She starting to want to count past 10 also, she really likes the number 13 and often just says "9, 10, 13" so we're going to start counting higher. She can also recognize some numbers. '8' for sure, which is funny since that's a number she always skips. The other day in the grocery store she just started telling me what all the checkout lane numbers were. She's also starting to have some number sense. If there are two of something she always says, "two babies", "two cups" or whatever it is.

She's also getting close at having the whole alphabet down. She sings her ABCs on her own to practice. She has an ABCs DVD that she loves to watch. She can get through 'I' in the alphabet all on her own and then she'll add in other letters along the way for the rest of the alphabet. She knows some letters by sight as well. She knows 'O' and 'W' and a few other letters. She wants to learn all the time. I can see her mind working all the time and figuring things out.

She is talking up a storm. She talks non-stop. Her vocabulary is huge, she's always surprising me with the words she knows. She's also starting to string words together into short phrases. Her pronunciation is also getting much better. Occasionally she'll still says a word or two that I don't understand but she's getting a lot better. She says, "Here, go mommy" all day long and hands me things. She's also very good about saying, "Thank you mommy" when I give her something (like lunch). She's a very sweet girl. She's saying a few other short phrases as well and is putting together words on her own.

She sleeps about 10 hours or so each night. She's been staying up later until 9 or a little later some nights. It makes it a little easier for her to talk to her grandparents on the West Coast. She looks forward to that so much. She often gets out her play laptop and says she's going to "Skype" with "granma, bauby, papa". She's still napping, which is a great break for mommy during the day. She's still napping for close to 3 hours every day. Hopefully she'll keep that up for a while longer.

She's made some friends here that she loves. She talks about them all the time. Her two best friends are Avery (20 months) and Skylar (2 1/2). She asks about them every day and always wants to do things with them. Although when they're actually together she doesn't do a whole lot of playing with them. That will come with time, but for now she just likes to see them. She's really good at sharing. Most of the other kids her age are taking toys from the other kids but Lily is sharing. She doesn't get upset if another kid takes her toy and she'll pass out toys to the other kids. She recently had a few kids over to our house. At first she was a little surprised with the kids playing with her toys but she got used to it quickly and did well. Now she asks for kids to come over all the time.

She's really interested in babies too. She talks about her baby sister a lot. She recently said that her baby doll's name is "baby sister". She's always talking about the baby in mommy's tummy. She's very excited to meet her. She likes seeing other babies too. One of the 3 year old boys Lily plays with has a 3 month old brother named "Rocco". Lily is constantly asking about Rocco and wants to see him. She always points out babies and baby strollers.

We also took a trip to Philadelphia this month to visit Papa Jim while he was on a business trip. Lily loved seeing her papa and also swimming in the pool and looking at the pond inside the hotel. We ended up leaving a little earlier than we planned because a big snow storm was rolling in the day we were driving back. We still went to Independence Hall, took in some sights and had a Philly cheesesteak before we headed back but we thought it'd be smarter to drive during the day. We hit one rough spot in New York City where the roads weren't plowed or salted yet but overall the drive wasn't too bad.

Lily got some new teeth this month. She got her 1st eye tooth last month and this month two more popped through. She has one more that's just getting ready to pop out. They don't seem to bother her too much. A few times she's said she has said her mouth hurts but mostly she just chews on her fingers or her sweatshirt.

This is what Lily does if you say "Cheese!".

Standing next to a possum at a children's museum.

Our family in front of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

The story of Lily Renee's birth

She's finally here! And we're finally home. We made it home from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. We had wanted to leave Tuesday but the pediatricians wanted to watch Lily for one more day.

Lily's birth was intense. I started having regular contractions on Sunday afternoon but nothing was painful. It wasn't until Monday afternoon at 3 PM that the contractions were regular and painful. At 4 PM I told Scott to call the midwife. The longer we waited the more traffic there would be and I didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in the car. She told us to come in. When we got to Labor and Delivery I was only 2 cm dilated but 100% effaced. Our midwife was with another mom who was pushing so we saw a Resident and her sidekick medical student. She spoke with our midwife and they agreed that I should leave for 2 hours and come back and see how I was doing. They gave us a few suggestions including walking around Westwood or just going home. I thought I wanted to walk but on the walk from Labor & Delivery to the car I realized I wasn't really in a state to walk around. The contractions were painful and I felt really conspicuous during them. We went home.

I tried taking a bath. The bath felt really good but it still hurt a lot during the contractions. I staying in for about 30 minutes or so and then decided to lay on my side on the bed. Scott quickly ate something during this time but I wasn't able to eat anything. I laid on the bed for the next hour or so while Scott rubbed my back and tried to provide emotional support. Things progressed to feeling worse and worse for me. I know I told Scott I thought I was dying. I told him I needed an epidural. He kept reminding me that I could do it and we would just see what happened. As it approached 8:00 PM (which would have been our 2-hour mark to return to the hospital) we started to get ready to go. This was a slow process because the contractions were so close together. I had to stop for each one and really focus. I told Scott I didn't know how I would make it back to the hospital. In my mind I was imagining what would happen if we had to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital.

But we were able to get on our way. We stopped several times on the way down two flights of stairs and out to the car. The ride to the hospital was not fun at all. Thankfully there wasn't any traffic so we made it there quickly but each contraction was very hard to deal with sitting in the seat with a seatbelt on. We parked in the emergency room parking lot which is supposed to be a 15 minute loading zone. We decided to walk up to Labor and Delivery instead of being checked in through the Emergency Room again. We thought it might be faster and I didn't want to go through there again, probably a little out of embarrassment. When we got out of the car I told Scott I was getting the epidural. We took the elevators up to the 2nd floor to L&D and the floor was being waxed. We only had to walk over a couple of feet of wet floor but the workers wouldn't let me walk over it, meanwhile I'm in serious pain but they are worried about me slipping. We took the elevators down one floor and took a different set of elevators up.

We walked into L&D and found someone to get a nurse for us. We were standing in the hall waiting when two nurses came walking down the hall to greet us. I remember being incredibly frustrated that they were walking and not running down the hall. I got changed and laid on the exam table in triage. They asked me some questions. They asked me something about how much pain I was in and I said I wanted the epidural. At this point the only way I could get through a contraction was to wrap my arms around Scott's neck, lay my head on his shoulder and sway back and forth with him, and moan.

Our midwife, Ann, came in to check me. She said I was at 6 cms. She said I did really good work while we were gone. They weren't expecting me to be that far along at all. They checked me into a Delivery room, into a gown, and into the delivery bed. The nurses started setting me up with a heplock (basically an IV line that isn't connected to anything) and Ann came in to talk to me. She examined me again. She told me I was at 9 cms with a bulging bag of waters. I had progressed 3 cms in about a half hour. She said she knew I had been asking about an epidural. She said at this point she could order the epidural or she could break my bag of waters and we could continue naturally. At this point I was between contractions so I was feeling relatively OK. Scott encouraged me to have my water broken. I considered the epidural but also thought about how it would take a few minutes to get started and how difficult it would be to be still while it was placed. I decided to have my water broken.

Ann proceeded immediately. I'm pretty sure she was trying to do it before my next contraction and before I could change my mind. She told me I would feel warm liquid gushing out. It was not painful at all, there was enough pain elsewhere that I barely noticed she had done it. Unfortunately there was meconium in the fluid. This is baby's first bowel movement and if Lily were to swallow it during her delivery it can cause problems. Ann notified the pediatricians of this and they would have to examine Lily immediately after she was born to make sure she didn't inhale any of it. I was disappointed by this because I've always imagined holding her immediately after she came out.

I did notice more pressure at this point but I don't think really more pain. Ann told me to tell her when I felt I needed to push. I told her I didn't know what that would feel like and she told me that I would. After a couple more contractions I told Ann I was pushing. It was a strange feeling that came over my whole body and there was no way I could have stopped myself from doing it--my whole body pushed. This overwhelming push only happened one more time during the rest of the labor process. I had been looking forward to this point a lot because I had heard that it's usually more enjoyable since you actually get to do something and the end is in sight. At first I struggled with it. I was getting through each contraction making noise and it took me a while to figure out that if I was making noise I wasn't holding my breath and I needed to hold my breath to push effectively. I think I only realized that in the last few minutes of pushing. I told Ann and Scott I was a terrible pusher and I didn't know what I was doing, they tried to guide me and Ann was trying to figure out why I was holding back. I'm still not sure why I was either. I think I may have been preparing myself for a long pushing stage--which luckily never happened. I also had no idea what point I was at. I think people were telling me but I wasn't processing it. I felt her crowning but I wasn't sure what it was. Scott finally told me that her head was out and with another push she came out the rest of the way.

She was immediately passed off to a group of pediatricians that had rushed in at the last second. They were working around here. I saw a little oxygen tube placed by her nose and they were thumping her chest to get the fluid out. It was hard for me to grasp what I had just done. Scott was standing in between the bed where I was laying and the nook where they were attending to Lily. I think he was as shocked as I was. Lily was perfect. She didn't breath in the meconium and her 1 and 5 minute APGARs were 9 and 9 (out of 10). 10 fingers and 10 toes, no birthmarks and no conehead.

Then I had to deliver the placenta. The resident was still assisting Ann. They gave a slight tug on the placenta to see if it was ready to come out and it was not. That was an uncomfortable feeling. A minute or so later they told me to push and I pushed it out. That was probably the most gratifying part of the whole birthing process. My whole body felt relief after it was out, it was like a huge sigh through my whole body. Later I asked to see the placenta. The resident showed it to me and showed me all of the parts, the sack that held Lily, the part that was attached to my uterus and the part that attached to Lily. It was really amazing.

After the placenta was out Ann had to massage my uterus to get it to start contracting. She massaged my stomach which wasn't the most comfortable feeling but it didn't really hurt. Then I got my baby. The pediatricians passed her off to Scott and asked what her name was. Scott let me announce it to the room. Everyone was giving us their congratulations and I got to hold her. She was beautiful of course. I couldn't believe I was finally meeting her. A few minutes later we started breastfeeding. I think this was around 10:45 PM or so. She did a great job.

At that point Scott had to go move the car. Since everything happened so fast our car was still parked in the patient drop off spaces in the emergency room lot. We didn't even have our camera or the rest of our things. When Scott returned he started taking our first pictures of Lily. We had to spend 2 hours in the Delivery room so that the nurses could monitor me and make sure I wasn't hemorrhaging. They were watching my blood pressure because it was getting pretty high. I still felt out of sorts with myself but I didn't really feel bad. The nurses gave Lily a bath and showed Scott how it was done. They also gave her a Vitamin K shot and put antibiotic ointment in her eyes. Ann ordered some blood work on me to make sure I was OK or if my body was just recovering from childbirth and my blood pressure would go down again.

Then it was time to move on to the recovery room. The nurses helped me into the bathroom to clean up. I tried to go to urinate but couldn't and they helped me to get the blood cleaned off me. I got into a wheelchair with Lily and we made our way to our room. Unfortunately we had a roommate. The nurses showed us around the room and said Scott could stay until our night nurse came and checked in with me before he left since visiting hours were long over. He was reluctant to leave but extremely exhausted as well. The nurse came in later and helped me to the bathroom. While she was there she helped Scott change his first and Lily's first poopy diaper.

And our day was finally over at about 1 AM. And Lily and I were on our own for our first night together.