21 months

I can hardly believe that Lily is nearing 2 so quickly. It seems like she's growing up so fast now. Every day we see more and more of her personality. She has so many opinions now about everything. Fortunately she can still be 'tricked' into diaper changes or getting dressed even though she doesn't really want to do it. It just takes a little bit of distraction.

She is talking up a storm. When we're driving in the car, she constantly talking. She likes to point things out to me that she sees out the window (especially buses, but also trucks, and birds and the clouds). She's always watching for things. In fact, if she's getting upset about being in the car, I can distract her by asking her to look for buses and tell me when she sees them. She's also very good with her spacial memory while we're driving, when we're getting close to the library (even before we can see it), she tells me "library" and "library books". The library is one of her favorite places to go, so she's always excited when we get close. And every time we turn onto our street she says, "bunny, hi" and "house" (because she wants to say "hi" to the bunny. I can't even keep track of how many words she knows. It must be in the hundreds. She's always surprising me with a word she knows that she'll just spout off out of no where. And there are a lot of words I don't understand. Sometimes this is very frustrating to her because she's trying so hard to tell me something and I can't figure out what it is. A lot of what she says is still much easier to understand in context (and especially if she points to it when she says it).

She can count to 10. She loves to count things like each stair as we walk up them (although she hasn't really gotten down saying one number per stair or how to point to each item and count them). And right now she's going through a stage of skipping 7 and 8 after being able to count correctly a couple weeks ago. She's learning the alphabet too. Right now she can only say "A, B, C, D" and then a few random letters here and there that she repeats with us. But she is very interested in the alphabet and seeing letters and numbers in print. She got extremely excited when we were in the store a few days ago and she noticed all the prices along the shelves. She loved seeing all those numbers. As typical parents, we think everything she does is so advanced and spectacular.

She is starting to memorize her favorite books. She has a book about ocean animals that lists three facts about an animals and it has flaps that you lift up to finish the fact. She has memorized what's under all of the flaps in the book (12 in all). If I read the beginning of the phrase, she can finish all of them ("I have a long NOSE. I swim in the WAVES. I eat small FISH."). She goes through the whole book. She is completely obsessed with books. She loves to read. We read constantly throughout the day. She get's upset and demands "read it! read it!" several times during the day if I take too long and she picks up my hand and puts it on the book if I ignore her for too long. We go to at least one story time at the library each week. She has a harder time paying attention when there are so many other kids around but she loves kids and loves wandering the library picking out books. She keeps books in her bed now too. She goes to sleep at night reading books to herself after Daddy or I read her a few books and she'll stay in her bed in the morning before calling for us for a while reading books and entertaining herself. Which is quite nice. She also sits in front of Charlie's cage and reads him books, which is very sweet. She get's mad if he goes to the back of his cage and isn't paying close enough attention.

She adores her rabbit. She's quite obsessed with taking his water bottle off his cage. She tries to give him a drink out of it but she doesn't know how it works and that by taking it off his cage he can no longer drink. She also loves to give him snacks and treats. When I'm making dinner she loves taking him vegetable scraps and if she finds a stray Cheerio on the ground she always wants to give it to him. She's so loving and she's going to make a great big sister.

Her 1st haircut. Now with bangs!

Like mother, like daughter.

Lily touched a big, black snake at the Ranger Station. She wasn't afraid of it at all.

At the Peabody Museum looking at the dinosaur fossils.

Climbing on a bench at the Peabody with some of her new buddies. Avery is on her hands and knees. If you talk to Lily, she'll probably bring up Avery. She's 2 months younger than Lily and Lily is quite infatuated with her right now and talks about her a lot.

Lily "reading" one of her favorite books (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?)

The 2nd trimester

So this baby is already getting a lot less personalized attention, or at least as quantified by the individual number of blog posts per child. Hopefully she will forgive me. At least posts by Dad will be equal (Lily=0, baby #2=0).

I mentioned some time several months ago that we had a few complication early in this pregnancy that could have meant the beginning of a miscarriage or could have meant nothing. Luckily for us, they turned out to be nothing. Bleeding is fairly normal when that embryo is burying itself nice and snugly but it sure doesn't feel normal when it happens to you. The only positive is that we got to see our little bean when it was no bigger than a bean. We never saw Lily this early so it was new and it was so reassuring to see that little heart beating away in there. (I had sort of convinced myself that the doctor might tell me that I wasn't pregnant and that I never was--defense mechanisms. It's amazing how quickly that bond forms.) But here's what baby #2 looked like at almost 7 weeks gestation (which is only 5 weeks post-conception, figure that math out!).


Then at about 20 weeks we were able to see the baby again and found out that #2 is a GIRL. Of course this is exciting. My sister and I weren't the best of friends through our junior high and high school years, but it's pretty nice to have her around now. It's too bad we lived so close to each other then and now we're 3,000 miles apart!

Lily joined us at this visit. There were some toys in the room so she went back and forth between playing, vying for her Daddy's attention, freaking out a little bit about what this strange woman was doing to Mommy on the exam table, and watch the baby on the flat screen TV on the wall. She was definitely interested in the baby and even she could recognize that it was a baby on the screen. Once again I was wrong and this baby turned out to be a girl too. I was basically only going on the idea that I thought this pregnancy was different than Lily's so maybe that meant it was a boy this time. Daddy was right, he thought it was a girl. I still hope we might have a boy some day if we decide to have another baby but I'm really glad Lily will have a sister. She already acts like a big sister to her rabbit and all her stuffed animals. I think she'll be great at it.

Here's a picture of our little angel.

Although I can say that, in utero, she's pretty feisty so far. So much so that the ultrasound technician asked if I could feel her jumping around and had to chase her with the ultrasound wand. She's quite active. He favorite times to jump around are when I just in get bed for the night and as soon as I sit down to relax after doing any activity. A typical fetus, she get's put to sleep by my movement and when I sit still, she wakes up. She gave me heart burn a lot earlier than Lily though.

I can feel the 2nd trimester coming to a close. The "honeymoon" is officially over. Aches and pains are starting to set in and pregnancy is losing it's fun factor. Allegedly my uterus is about the size of a soccer ball right now and it's starting to feel like it. But we still have a long way to go, so there's no sense in complaining yet. I will be very excited when June rolls around though. I'm quite convinced this baby won't be here until early June (despite the May 28th due date).

20 months

Lily's language is expanding by leaps about bounds. Every once in a while she spouts out a word that I didn't know she even knew and I don't remember even saying it to her more than a couple times. Just the other day she said "broccoli" to me. She's only tried broccoli once and didn't eat it but she picked it up somewhere. A lot of words are still only understandable in context but most of the time we understand what she's saying. She really enjoys communicating with us too, she's pretty much talking all the time. I think she says "mommy" the most. She likes to say it so I say "what?" then says it again, and again, and again. I'm sure people get annoyed with our "mommy?", "what?", "mommy?", "what?" back and forth. She thinks it's funny though. She also says "book" a lot, which sounds more like "boooot" because she wants books read to her all the time. Literally, all the time. I think we must read at least 30 or so books a day. She also likes to re-read the same books again and again. Usually I make her get a different book because my brain cannot handle Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you hear? 15 times in a row. But the bonus is that she's starting to "read" along with us, which is pretty cute. She really likes books with a rhyme or a rhythm. She likes to dance along with them as I read. Some of my favorite words that she says are "dorable" because we're always telling her she's adorable. And also, "'mon", which is how she's shortened "come on".

She loves her new kitchen that she got from Santa for Christmas. She likes to make me food to eat. She especially loves to fill up a tea cup with "water" from the sink and bring it to me. She loves it when I say I'm "all done" and always wants to get me more. She also tells me to say "please" and I have to be very specific and say "more water please". Every time she wants me to say the same thing. And we'll do this over and over again at least 4 or 5 or more times.

She loves the snow. She's always been warm, even as a little baby we had to be careful not to over-dress her so I don't think the cold really bothers her. She'd go outside without a jacket if we let her. And she loves to play in the snow. Whenever we're walking somewhere she has to walk in the snow, which usually means walking across people's yards. It's a lot easier when there's only a few inches of snow because she can still walk in it without falling down. When it's really deep she can't walk and she falls over and can't get back up. She also likes to destroy snowmen while her daddy's making them and thinks it's hilarious if anyone get's hit by a snowball.

She also moved up to her big girl bed. It has a trundle under it so it really it a tall bed too. She has a railing up on one side and the other is up against the wall and we have the trundle pulled out about halfway so she can climb in and out of bed. We decided we wanted to move her to the real bed sometime at least a couple of months before the new baby comes so the new baby can sleep in the crib and Lily won't feel like it's stealing her bed. We made the switch now because her bed has been in her room for a while and we've been talking about how it's her big girl bed and she started asking about it and said she wanted to sleep in it. So we let her. Bedtime was easy for her. She went right to sleep; no issues whatsoever. Naptime wasn't so easy. She kept getting out of bed, trying to turn the doorknob to get out of her room or just playing. We made several attempts and I kept having to resort to putting her in her crib to sleep after an hour of not sleeping. Then one day we got home late after an active day and she slept in her bed without issue. The next day she laid down at her normal naptime of 10 AM or so and more problems, so sleeping, playing, got out of bed to get a book to read and ripped the cover off it (a library book no less), etc. I finally just got her up, we ate lunch, took a walk, then took a nap, and no issue again. The same thing played out the next day and I finally figured out what the problem was. It wasn't the bed that was the problem, it was just the time of her nap. And ever since she's been sleeping great in her bed. We are so lucky with her sleeping abilities. She goes to sleep so easily and has so a long time. I worry this means our next child won't sleep. Hopefully we'll be equally lucky again.

She absolutely loved the holidays. She loved the decorations. She loved the lights. She loved the presents. She had at least 3 gifts to open every night of Chanukah since we had 8 gifts for her and she also had gifts from her Bauby and Grandpa, Great-Bauby and Great-Grandpa and Uncle Gary and Aunt Cat. And every night when she was done opening presents she said "more, more" (which she still says and signs simultaneously). Daddy was up into the wee hours of Christmas morning setting up her new kitchen. She had a great time opening up all her gifts. We Skyped (video conference) with her Grandma and Papa while Lily opened her gifts. We were sad not to be celebrating with them in Redding so it sort of made up for it. Lily also got to talk to her Uncle Grant all the way in the Dominican Republic. Next year we'll be celebrating Christmas with the whole Horrocks clan in California.

Opening gifts on Chanukah.

A big snow storm, up to Lily's knees!

Lily doesn't really like making snow angels.

Making Christmas sugar cookies. Lily likes to do everything.

Decorating cookies, some of us ate more than we decorated.

Lily dancing at Scott's department holiday party.

Lily cooking in her kitchen.

Getting ready to sleep in her big girl bed for the 1st time.

We took a trip to Newport, RI just before New Years. Lily was a fan of the indoor pool.

19 weeks!

I'm already approaching the halfway point in this pregnancy. I can hardly believe we've come that far. Although I can say I'm a bit more distracted this time around. Lily keeps me very busy and this pregnancy is just flying by. The baby is getting bigger and stronger. I can feel it kicking in there every day. It's about the size of a mango now. I, however, am much larger than that. I have gained about 10 pounds so far. I gained 35 pounds total with Lily and I hope to gain at most that much again.

Physically I still feel good. The morning sickness is a distant memory now, although at the time I remember wondering why I signed up for this again. I have noticed a little bit of swelling in my legs, which got really bad last time. But some things are different. I have had more cravings--nothing that Scott has had to go out in the middle of the night for though. Stereotypically I have been eating a lot more pickles and ice cream, I don't think the later has anything to do with the pregnancy. Early on I was starving all the time, now I think my appetite is pretty much normal.

Lily knows there's a baby in my stomach. I doubt she gets the whole picture, but she says baby and point to my stomach. She gives it kisses. She is a really great helper and I know she'll be a big help to me when the baby gets here.

We had our first doctor's visit in New Haven. Or midwife visit would be more accurate. We are seeing midwives again for this birth. New Haven is a mecca of sorts for midwifery. In the U.S. 1 in 10 births are attended by a midwife but in New Haven it's 6 in 10. This is largely due to the prestigious program at Yale. The midwife group that we're seeing is similar to the practice we used at UCLA for Lily's birth. It's located a couple of blocks from Yale-New Haven Hospital, where we will deliver. And we'll see all the midwives in the group and whomever happens to be on call when I go into labor will deliver Lily. There are a couple of regular obstetricians in the group and I will also see them during my pregnancy. We saw one of the midwives on the 28th. We listened to the heart beat and went through all of my records from UCLA. Everything was fine and normal of course. All signs point to a healthy little baby growing nice and strong. The big news is that our next big ultrasound will be on January 11th. We'll hopefully be able to find out the gender of this baby then. Lily didn't cooperate very well last time but hopefully this baby will be less modest.

19 months

Lily is changing by leaps and bounds lately--mostly in the language department. She's talking up a storm. We can understand a lot of what she says but some times we have no idea what she's trying to say. If she's pointing to something it makes it a lot easier. She's practicing talking a lot too. Most of the time she's blabbering about something. Sometimes she gets a little carried away and I have to tell her to quiet down a little because she's yelling. She really enjoys talking with us though and I love hearing what she's thinking about. Some of my favorite things she says are "Oh no!", "no way" and "back up, back up, back up".

We're attempting to teach her the alphabet, counting and colors. So far she really only likes to say "blue" and "two". If you ask her what color something she always says blue and if you ask her how many of something there are she'll always say two. She's beginning to learn the alphabet. When we sing the alphabet song, she sings every few letters or so.

She still loves Elmo. She knows she can watch Elmo videos on our iPhones and computers and she wants to do that all the time. She is pretty much attracted to all cartoons though, even ones not intended for little kids like the Simpsons.

Peekaboo

Lily as a Christmas

One of Lily's new best friends

Lily touching her first snow at exactly 19 months old.

Lily putting up Christmas decorations. Mr. Penguin did not survive.

Tunnel in the New Haven train station. On our way to New York City!

Taking a quick nap on our way.

Grand Central decked out for the holidays.

A slightly underwhelming Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

Prettier at night.

Back at Grand Central ready to head home.

Lily was beat after the busy day. She wasn't the only one.

Lily wanted to help Daddy tie the tree to the car.

First snow storm!

It's snowing in New Haven! We've been waiting all day and as soon as the sun started to set the rain turned to snow. So far the ground is too wet and it's not cold enough for anything to stick (except on cars). We'll see if there's anything on the ground in the morning. Lily is very excited about it. She keeps wanting to open the front door to see what's going on.

3,000 miles, a red eye, sleeping on an air mattress for a few nights

It was a long process and we're still not completely settled, but we're finally in Connecticut and things are starting to feel more familiar. We no longer need the GPS to find the grocery store or Target, so it feels almost like home.

We arrived on November 16th and the three of us, plus Charlie the rabbit moved in, without all of our stuff. We slept on a mattress until our truck full of belongings arrived on the 19th. Unfortunately for Grandpa Jim, if he wanted somewhere to sleep that night he had to help unload some furniture. So shortly after finishing his 3,000 mile drive, he got to carry heavy furniture. Luckily on this end of the trip the only stairs were the ones inside our townhouse, but there was still one flight up to the bedrooms and one flight down to the basement (where a large number of boxes still reside, unfortunately). By Saturday (the 21st), the truck was empty and our new house was full and ready to be organized.

We've begun to explore. We're found it's colder here! Surprise! Even after only a couple of weeks we've already begun to appreciate the nice and sunny days. Luckily there have been some. There's also rain. More rain than we saw in the last year in Los Angeles. And there may be snow soon, like Saturday. People have told us it's been a very mild fall. But it usually starts snowing in mid-December, which isn't far away.

Brr. But still trying to enjoy the park.

Unfortunately we've spent an unhealthy amount of time and money in the DMV. Who knew moving to CT would cost so much just to have the privilege of driving? Like $600!