Easter

We had a busy Easter. We had breakfast with my mom and Kent, went to church, came home to feed Lila lunch, and then went to Roman's aunt and uncle's house. Lila got two Easter basket (see below). The Easter Bunny reused a couple things we had around the house (shhhhh, don't tell her), but also got her a stuffed bunny that's really a bear in a bunny suit, and a baby doll. She likes dolls--at the store she will smile and point at all the dolls if we go down that aisle, it's cute. Mr. Bunny left the other basket at Grana Nana's house for her.

She's not feeling so hot today though. She came down with a cold yesterday and today she's pretty congested. This morning she was trying to cry when she first woke up and she was so hoarse she couldn't get the cry out. There's got to be a lot of fluid draining into her chest and she has a little fever. Poor thing has been through the ringer lately.






In her Easter dress


Playing with her goodies. She's been playing with the eggs more than anything else.




Feeling bad. She fell asleep on the couch.

Trip to MN

Lila and I are going to come to MN to visit the second week of June. We arrive Friday, June 13th and leave Tuesday, June 17th. Hopefully Roman will be able to come too, but airfare is ridiculously high right now. We are hoping it will come down to a reasonable enough level to get him a ticket as well.

Reflection

I got the article below in a an email from a good friend on mine who has three kids. It's funny that she sent now, as life around here has become much more hectic since Lila has been walking. I feel like I don't get much done as I am chasing her around most of the time. Roman and I have both been more tired than usual. When I go in her room to put her to bed or down for a nap, I always sit in the rocking chair with her for a couple minutes first to let her unwind. I drape her blanket across me and she lies on me, with her face on the soft side of the blanket. Sometimes she plays with her paci or touches the end of my ponytail, and others she just tucks her arms underneath her body and stares at the things in her room. Many times I'm thinking about what I need to do or just waiting to put her down so I can get a little time to myself. But lately it's in those moments that I think about how big she's getting and how I won't be able to hold her and rock with her for very much longer. One day soon she's going to be running and talking, and too independent to rock in the chair with her mommy. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day things and forget that the times I get to rock with her are some of the best parts of the day. Sometimes she falls asleep and I sit there for a while longer holding her, trying so hard to etch the moment in my memory so I won't forget what it's like to be there with her. Hopefully it works.

Here's the article. I included a couple photos from today afterward.

Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columinst & Author
All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief.

I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read thesame books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing withme in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes thatmake me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than Ilike. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jacketsand move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the tricksoap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except throughthe unreliable haze of the past. Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for menow. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhoodeducation, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Wherethe Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But Isuspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on theplayground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what theytaught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize thatit is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child respondswell to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with astern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to putbaby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backsbecause of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing.Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the researchwill follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr.Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, andactive. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old whodid not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs?Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Lastyear he went to China Next year he goes to college.He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the 'Remember-When- Mom-Did ' Hall of Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, thebad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmaresleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest camebarreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and Iresponded, 'What did you get wrong?'. (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-throughspeaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window.(They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch theSimpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking? But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make whiledoing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularlyclear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on aquilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talkedabout, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night.I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing:dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a littlemore and the getting it done a little less. Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life.When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they wouldbecome who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect theysimply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to berelaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes overthe top.And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the wo rld who have done more than anyone to excavate myessential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was boundand determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.






Our "ward" (aka Grandma Frances' dog) for the last week sunning herself. Sweet dog!

Little Gym

Every Thursday Lila and I take a class at a kid's gym right up the street from our house called The Little Gym. Normally she's not really into it because she's tired--class time was too close to her nap time. She's taking her morning nap a little later now so I think that's the key as today she was interested. I had my camera with and got some shots of her. The class is for kids 10-19 months and I think she's the youngest.






She likes these bars. I think it's because she would use them to walk before she could walk unassisted.




The teacher was walking around blowing bubbles, but Lila's not fast enough to catch any yet.


At the end of class they have a big container of bells for the babies to jingle. Usually the noise bothers her, but today she went over and got the bells by herself and then went and put them away too.




She put these shorts on her head the other day, goofy girl!


I can't see!!

Rough couple days

Well, Lila and I have had a couple tumultuous days! We started the day yesterday with glass all over the kitchen floor. I had to put her in her little play pen area to clean it and then leave her upstairs to vacuum. She HATES the vacuum, and just cried until I was done downstairs. Once that was cleaned we went to her Little Gym class, which she did not care to participate in because she was tired. But once we got home she fought taking a nap.

Then last night I was feeding her her before-bed milk and she just stopped drinking and refused to take anymore, which is quite unlike her. So I took her in her room to sit in the rocking chair before bed. She threw-up all over herself and her blanket. This has never happened before! I took her in the bathroom, cleaned her up, threw the icky blanket in the bathtub for the time being, and put clean jammies on her. I took her back in her room to rock with her again and this time she threw up all over both of us, and the carpet. I'm thinking, "what the...?". So back to the bathroom, all cleaned up, and then we go downstairs to get new pjs out of the clean laundry. Guess what happens next?? All over the red rug and carpet downstairs, and down my leg. Mind you, I had fed her dinner 2 hours before this, so all of this is NOT pretty! At this point I figure we might as well just go sit in the bathroom and wait until she's done throwing up. So we go back upstairs and sit in front of the bath tub--okay, now it's time to call MY mommy!

I thought her mouth must have tasted really bad so I gave her a wet washcloth to suck on. Not a good idea as it immediately triggered more vomiting. Lila is so tired at this point that she is falling asleep, upright, on my lap with nothing but her diaper on. She proceeds to throw up a couple more times and then the dry heaves come after that. I almost started to cry when she started dry heaving. It was awful! My mom came over to help and my friend Beth (who has three kids of her own) was immensely helpful! The puking finally stopped and I was able to put her to bed. I think I barely slept the first half of the night and got up to check on her every time I woke. She woke up on and off starting about 1:45am--it was a rough night for us both. Then this morning, more broken glass on the kitchen floor! AND on top of it all, Roman has been out of town since Wednesday!! Alright, I'm done complaining!

On the bright side, she has kept her morning milk and her breakfast down so far today, so hopefully whatever it was is gone. And my wonderful friend Michelle found out yesterday that she is having a baby boy (due in August) and all is completely healthy with him. Always something good to remember when the rain comes right?

Here are some pictures from yesterday and this morning...she doesn't look any worse for the wear.



Yesterday afternoon. She's been doing this funny squinty thing, it's really cute!


Last night before the "marathon" began. Look at that belly--hers not mine! :o)


This morning, with her favorite book, "Gossie".




She loves to pull out all the tupperware. It's the only cabinet without babyproof locks.



Outfit courtesy of Auntie Nikki


I told her it was time to eat and she came "running". The hand up to her mouth is the sign language sign for "eat".

Some new food

I bought Lila some teething biscuits and she loves them. I gave her one today, and sat her on the couch to eat it. I didn't realize what a mess I was in for. It started out okay, but she just sucked on it until it got mushy. It was everywhere! Lesson learned...feed her the biscuits in her highchair!

She's walking

Well she's walking! We went to a playdate on Wednesday that was organized by the mom's group I belong to. It was at a place called Jumping Party and there were kids ages 4 and below running around and playing. She just watched for a while, and then suddenly she wanted down and took off walking. I guess they inspired her! She took maybe 25 steps around, then stopped and plopped down to play. She spent the better part of an hour roaming around playing and "talking" to the other babies. Every since she's been walking all over. We've entered a whole new world around here!