....And They All Asked For You

That's right, today was Lilly's first trip to the Audubon Zoo! Sorry no pictures, as your guest-blogger (Mark) forgot the camera. Anyway, trust me when I tell you that the pictures would not have been great. Lilly was not at all interested in the animals! We met our friends Bill and Jessica and their 10 month old son, Parker. We saw elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes - everything you could imagine. Lilly could not be bothered to look at any of it. She was more interested in all the people!

I picked her up at one point, so she could see the lion. However, she was more interested in the sign (of course trying to eat it) than she was in the lion moving right in front of her face. She acted like she had seen that already! She did enjoy looking at the gorillas. There was one gorilla sitting up, playing with his toes. Lilly did the same. Puts a new spin on the old phrase: "Monkey See Monkey Do."

But two hours at the zoo is tiring for anyone . . . Lilly included. As we walked home through the park, Lilly was sound asleep. She may not have cared for the animals, but suffice it to say that the zoo was a very successful adventure. I am sure we will be back!

Excessive Crying + JCC = Not a Good Combination

In this picture she's very happy, but alas, this morning, during an hour in JCC babysitting, she was not. I joined this JCC running group, to train for a local 10K, and mainly to get back into running and have company while doing so. And the good thing about it is that I can leave Lilly in babysitting, for a maximum of two hours, while doing so. Once she made six months, I could put her in babysitting, so I made my reservation, and last Tuesday was our first day. She did ok. She got tired toward the end and unfortunately their pack and play is used for storage and not napping. She went back a couple more times and did fine. The babysitter was Cory and Lilly was taking to her.

But today Cory was not there. Hannah was. And it seemed like Lilly was fine when I left her. But apparently 25 minutes into it, Lilly just lost it. Well, according to Hannah, another baby came in, and I guess Lilly didn't want to share the attention, so she started crying and just wouldn't stop. And 15 minutes later and still crying she had to be removed from the babysitting room and I had to be called. But I was out running (apparently you aren't supposed to leave the building, I guess for this reason) and nowhere to be found. So Lilly was passed between the ladies at the fitness desk before finally settling with a trainer. I come in from the room, and hear her crying, so I go toward her and she quiets down.

The ladies at the fitness didn't say she couldn't come back but if she kept this up then it wasn't going to be good. I told them she did so well with Cory, and she said that perhaps it was just her reacting to the new person. I've got another hour booked for 8:15 Friday morning, so we'll see. Hopefully no tears, but if there are, I hope they are limited to 14 minutes and 59 seconds and under.

Sam's Club Trip

I took Lilly to Sam's yesterday afternoon. She snoozed in the car over there, but woke up as I was moving the carrier into the cart. So I took her out of the car seat and put her in the baby Bjorn, facing out, so she could see everything. Boy did she love it. She also had better access to my fingers, namely my thumb, on which she could chomp.

But she chewed on my fingers and then went onto her own, which probably taste better than mine. So I had both hands in which to wheel the massive shopping cart full of diapers, string cheese, AAA batteries, bottled water, toilet paper, and hummus, among other items. I wanted to get a rotissere chicken but they weren't ready when I went by the section. The worker said it would be about five minutes, but I forgot, and when about my shopping, and was headed to check out, when I ran into him again and he told me the chickens were ready. So I turned the cart around and went toward the back of the store.

On the way there, we stopped by the baby clothing where I noticed spit up on the floor, then my left shoe and then all over Lilly. So I searched through the diaper bag for a spit up cloth but could only find anti-bacterial hand wipes so I bent down cleaned up the floor, left the spot on my shoe and then wiped Lilly off, with a new cloth.

It was only when I put her back into the car seat carrier did I see how much spit up she had all over the onesie.

Sam's Club is known for handing out free samples but Lilly didn't get any and still managed to leave the store with food on herself. She was wiped out and fell asleep in the car. Once awake, I put a new onesie on her.

Projectile Spit Up

Last night was a good refresher and bottles, Lilly, and burping. I bathed her and get her ready for bed. And we usually give her formula, anywhere between an ounce and eight. All depends on what she wants. Well she was super cranky so I made the last feeding her sole feeding (normally she eats right when she wakes up from her last nap, but this time she didn't nap and when she would have gotten up was when I bathed her. Make sense? Man that was an explanation!) and so I got the 8 ounce bottle and pour the formula in. 8 ounces in all.

You can probably see where this is going. She gulped it down. Took a small breather, but no burps and she went for more. And she took down the bottle like a pro. And so after it was over, I stood up to help get the gas up better. Walked no more than 3 or 4 steps to her dresser when, and I kid you not, I see a fountain of spit up come rushing out of her mouth. Now she's spit up a lot before, a lot at one time, but never the rush of bodily fluids like this. Literally I felt like she had the exorcism spit up. It was a lot and it came three times in total. And drenched my left arm, back of my pant and sock. Got all over her and the swaddle blanket. A dab when on the rug but the majority went onto the floor.

I freaked.

But she was silent. Perhaps in shock over the amount of fluid she just threw up.

I called Mark, asked him to come home, and then went over what happened in my mind. And realized that she wasn't in danger, just enjoyed the bottle a little too much. And so I went to change her. Mindful of not getting her near my left side.

And when we picked out her new sleeper, she gave me a smile, so I knew she was alright.

Now me, that would take a shower, dinner, and Modern Family, and Mark to get me through. Not going to lie, did view the monitor more last night. But the floor is clean and Nature's Miracle cleaning spray definitely gets out anything.

Some More Items

Lilly had a great first trip to Dallas. She met loads of new people, saw new places, and celebrated her first new year. Of course, she was asleep and in bed by 8pm, but we had a great time. Mark and I met Laura and Michael for a great dinner at a place called Suze. JJ and Grandpa David babysat. She also got her Chanuka presents from my parents and opened them in Dallas - she got some toys, clothes and the Toy Story 3 DVD. In the picture, as is everything that she touches, goes in her mouth and she wants to either suck or bite. The Tuesday after Christmas, I felt her first tooth. And since, with some doses of Tylenol in between, the tooth has come up and a second (the front bottom two) one has come in as well. So she likes to bite down on anything - spoons, thumbs, teething rings, anything she's not particular! And last but not least, we celebrated JJ's birthday. We took her to lunch at Bistro N at Nordstrom's and then got some frozen yogurt for dessert. In the picture we're finishing up lunch at the restaurant. So we had a good time in Dallas and will head back for an April trip. Hope you all had great holidays!

Meeting new friends

In addition to meeting family members, Lilly also met new friends. We were able to catch up with some of my high school friends and their kids as well as meet up with some of our friends from law school. In this picture Lilly is meeting Caroline, the daughter of our good friends from law school. The two will no doubt be Mardi Gras buddies, having ladders placed next to each other, so they can catch the best beads and stuffed animals. But we got lunch at Matito's, a Mexican restaurant in Dallas, the Sunday after Christmas. It was great seeing them and meeting Caroline. Here the two babies are checking each other out. Caroline was particularly impressed with the paint on the wall, Lilly just enjoyed being held!

We're back, with lots to report!

We're back, up and running, well sleeping right now, and she's not actually running, not even walking. We were in Dallas for close to two weeks and had a great time. There Lilly met her Aunt Miriam and Uncle Jeffrey as well as Sam, my parents dog. Here are some pics from Lilly's first day in Dallas.