5 Month Birthday

We celebrated Lilly's 5 month birthday with a $10.99 3 layer Doberge cake last Saturday. It was a fun, little celebration ( only me eating a piece right from the get go). Hard to believe Lilly is five months! She's in 6 months clothing. She enjoys kicking off her socks. And I have a big bagful of clothing that she's already grown out of and will put away. And thanks to her JJ and Mel, she's got a bunch of new clothes. So she will be one well-dressed baby! The queen of Coliseum Street!

5 month check up

New vitals

17lbs 1/2 ounce. Up one pound from 4 months.

25 1/2 inches. Up 1/2 inch from 4 months.

Two more shots down. She was a champ. Cried a bit with the shots. But she really let loose when Dr. G was listening to her chest. I guess, just like she is when she first get's to Aunt Bitsy's house, she despised the cold on her chest. And the stethoscope was probably cold to her. Boy, was Lilly not a happy camper. Screams. Tears. Just not happy. I got so concerned and lost in Lilly's screams ( I was holding her) that I completely missed Dr. G checking her ears. So when finally Lilly calms down, and right before the shot, Dr. G asked if we had anymore questions. I ask her if she is going to do the ears, and she said she just did it. I said, really? I completely missed it. And Mark said I did. And here's where I go neurotic on Dr. G, I didn't believe her. Nor did I believe Mark. So who's the crazy one? I kept asking really. Until after the fourth time, she said she would re-check it. She played it off well. But she probably didn't appreciate me going all crazy on her. But she said she was glad to give me peace of mind and healthy ears for Lilly.

Dr. G also recommended that we start her on solids sometime soon. Lilly took 11 ounces in one sitting Sunday afternoon, so we think it's about time. I went out to the store tonight and bought rice cereal. Maybe for her 1st Christmas feast, she'll get some new food.

Scratching

So Lilly is turning into a scratcher - she loves running her nails over any type of texture. And she loves hearing the nose her nails make. In her pack and play, there is a mesh-type bumper, and when she is put down for a nap, if she's not super tired, she'll arch her back, and run her nails over the mesh. She hears the click click and keeps doing it. She'll also continually do it over the glider in her room as well. For her, it's a different sound than the mesh bumper but she loves it nonetheless. I'm sure she'll grow up enjoying someone scratching her back and arm.

Speaking of back scratching, I could sure use one! Lilly's fighting a cold and her teeth are really bothering her. And it seems like she's had bad gas (must be the garlic salt I've put in the food the past couple of days). So she's not doing well sleeping during the day and at times hates to be on her back, hence the gas. So the tops of my shoulders and neck are sure sore!

Control

Control. It's a funny thing. I'm waylaid in bed, beset by a cold (bad congestion, mild fever, aching sinus, some leg aches), and Mark's taking care of me and Lilly. He's gotten me tea, toast, my breastpump, all the essentials in my life. He's dressed and fed Lilly. And I just can't let go and let him take over. It's control. He reassures me that he knows what he's doing, and I KNOW that he knows and is completely capable. He's done it before. He does it all the time. But I just can't seem to let it happen, well fully happen. I'm in and out of bed, with one excuse or another. I need to get some tissues. I need to get a banana. I need to get tea (Mark did get it for me). But I'm checking up on things. What's she wearing (grey penguin onesie, pink fleece pants, and yellow leopard prints Mary Jane socks). How much is she eating. Who's warming the bottle. I'm finding things that are wrong - even though nothing is. I wouldn't have put Lilly in all those color combinations, but Mark did manage to bring out the yellow in the penguin feet and beak. Mark, Lilly, and Aunt Sarah are going to get lunch, give me some time to rest and relax. We've made the bed. Brought in the computer. And I've checked out the Pay Per View movies. But I've also made the 1PM bottle - it's in the fridge, waiting for Lilly. Control, it's not easy to give up. But who said I had to let go completely?

I made 2 new friends!

So the breakthrough has happened! I met and exchanged info with two new stay at home moms today in the snuggles and struggles class! Yes!! I overheard two moms last week (or was it two weeks ago, I can't remember) about staying home and taking the year off. Unfortunately it was as I was leaving and Lilly was having a meltdown. So today I asked Debbie, the facilitator, if she knew of any other mom groups. She gave me a few but also suggested just meeting other moms in class and exchanging info. Well, toward the end of the class, Debbie brought over a new mom, who lives really close to me. And I was already talking to someone else, who also stays home, she's actually Canadian and gets a one year leave from her company because she's an ex-pat and technically on Canadian payroll. It's awesome. So we all exchanged numbers and email addresses, I had Lilly in one hand and had to put her on the mat so I could write the info. As I gleefully told Mark about my two new friends, I related to him my nervousness on getting in touch with them. I don't want to come off as too desperate, but I would love to have stay at home mom friends to meet up and walk, do lunch, etc. And they are both new moms. So all is good. I might not email them tonight, but definitely tomorrow!

Last night of Chanuka

Here are some pictures from our last night of Chanuka. Lilly 'opened' her last present - the biggest one! - that we saved for last. She won't be able to use her stride to ride Dino walker for a while, but it looked really cool and fun!

Teddy Bear Tea

We took Lilly to the Teddy Bear Tea at the Roosevelt Hotel last Saturday. They had the ballroom all done up with lighted trees, a holiday house backdrop and had Santa, Mrs. Claus, Rudolph, and Snow Princess in attendance. Lilly slept in and got up at 8AM and we needed to be there for 10AM. So getting her to nap would be a tricky thing, so we tried to keep her up, in her pajamas, and not too cranky. Well, we accomplished two out of the three, the crankiness came because she was tired and not allowed to sleep! So we put her in a holiday dress and white sweater and piled into the car. Traffic around the hotel was backed up, as loads of cars, including ours, waited to valet. That should have been our first clue, as to it might have taken a while to get our car back, but with Lilly, she fell asleep in the car, snoozing, we wanted to be able to pull right up and get right out.

We were meeting our friends and their kids, so there were three babies and six adults. The menu called for assorted teas, tea sandwiches ( the applewood smoked bacon quiche was the best!), champagne and mimosas, hot chocolate (really it was a kid's drink but Mark opted for it) delicious cookies, petit fours, and other assorted goodies (the small red velvet cupcake was the best). Anyway, Lilly was a trooper. She didn't appear overwhelmed by the people and new setting. She didn't get freaked out by Santa or Mrs. Claus. She spit up once on me. But other than that she kept her bodily functions to herself. She spent time on our shoulders and laps.

It was great to be there with our friends and their kids. It was a lot of fun, put us in the holiday spirit ( they had a parade of characters in and a second line parade out). We got our picture taken with Mrs. Claus but opted not to wait in a much longer line and get it done with Santa. We weren't getting much smiles from her as it was so it was just as well! But she (as did the other kids) looked precious, all dressed up in their holiday outfits. It's something we hope to make a yearly tradition (definitely won't mind eating those red velvet cupcakes!) with Lilly and our friends. At the end of it, each child get's a teddy bear, and with most stuff these days, as soon as she got it, it went straight to her mouth.

And then she fell asleep in the car. And slept, after we got home, for another two hours!