Auntie Jayne

This afternoon I got word that my friend Jayne (my coworker, a fellow member of our Ladies' Happy Hour group, and Lily's honorary "Auntie") lost her year-long battle with pancreatic cancer on Christmas morning. Jayne was spunky, kind, and passionate -- some of the qualities I hope Lily develops as she grows up. When initially diagnosed with cancer, Jayne underwent a six-week course of chemo and radiation. When she was ultimately told that there was no hope, she chose to enjoy the time she had left. She cashed out her 401(k), gave her house to her son and daughter-in-law, and moved to England to spend her final days living with a close friend there.

A few weeks before leaving for England, Jayne had a final gathering at her home here in Albuquerque. Family and friends gathered to say goodbye. Here's a shot of Jayne from that night, giving Lily a goodbye kiss as we got ready to leave.

Compliments

Today Lily and I went out to run some Christmas Eve errands. At Kohl's the cashiers were raving over what a cute little thing she is. Then it was off to the grocery store. I was getting her strapped into the shopping cart in the entryway and this woman came up next to us, grabbed a cart, and started hurrying into the store. She got about two feet past us when she stopped, backed up, looked at Lily (who was smiling at her and wearing her Minnie Mouse sweatshirt with the hood that has mouse ears on it) and said, "You two just made my Christmas," then walked into the store laughing.

In other news, Lily is doing a lot of talking and consistently using words to indicate things. This morning Jason and I were sitting on the floor with her and she looked at us, smiled, and said, "Mama eh dada!" (I'm assuming the "eh" noise was as close as she can come to saying "and.") She's also now saying "baba" for "bottle" and still saying "up" a lot as well.

Early Christmas

This morning Jason took JJ back to his mom for Christmas, so last night Jason, JJ, Lily, and I did our Christmas together. First we went over to Emily and Thomas's place for dinner and the kids' gift exchange, then we came home to do ours. I got Jason and JJ a PlayStation 3, so JJ got me the American Idol karaoke game for it. Jason got Lily a ride-on ice cream truck and JJ got Lily a GloWorm. Lily went crazy for her new toys. She rode around on that ice cream truck like the queen bee she thinks she is. Pretty cute stuff.

Today Little Miss turned eight months old. Time sure does fly. I can't believe she's already eight months old, crawling all around, chatting up a storm and celebrating her first Christmas.

The Clapping Mini Me

I have a mini me. Lily is in a phase where she wants to do whatever I'm doing. If I'm reading a magazine, she wants a magazine to read. If I'm eating, she wants to eat something. If I'm holding a remote, she wants to hold a remote. It's cute, but not quite as fun when I'm on the computer and she decides she wants to crawl over and press buttons.

And in other news, she has mastered the art of clapping. She now does full-on, two-handed, repetitive, noise-making clapping. And she is very proud of herself. It's adorable.

Today I had to buy her some 12-18 month pajamas. The 9-12 month ones still more or less fit her body, but they're way too small on her feet. Poor Lil.

All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

Lily is working on a goal of getting her two front teeth just in time for Christmas. Yesterday morning her top front right tooth popped through, and the left shouldn't be too far behind. She looks pretty adorable with those two bottom teeth, but I think having her two top teeth will make her even more charming, if that's possible.

Learning

This morning Lily and I were sitting on the living room floor playing with her toolbox when Jason came home from work. He walked in and Lily lit up with a big grin when she saw him. He stopped in the entryway to take off his shoes and put down his stuff, so Lil started to crawl toward him to say hello. She realized that crawling wasn't going to get her there as fast as she wanted to go, so she looked at me, held out her arms, and yelled, "Up! Up!"

It's so exciting to watch her when I can really see the wheels turning inside her head. Earlier today she was sitting on the floor playing her toys and I was lying on my back next to her. I picked up one of her soft blocks with my teeth, and she started to laugh at that. I turned my head back and forth so she could see it in my teeth, then dropped it from my mouth into her lap. She picked it up, smiled, and put it back in my mouth, then laughed when I took it with my teeth and shook it around again. We did that for a while, then I started to turn my head all the way to one side (where she couldn't see the block anymore) and back again. She'd smile every time I turned back to face her. After doing that several times, when I was turned away from her I dropped the block out of my teeth, so when I turned back around the block was gone. She looked surprised for a minute, then grabbed my shirt to pull herself up and look over the other side of me (where the block was), so she could grab the block and put it back in my mouth.

Happy Girl

Today when I walked into daycare and said hello, Lily turned and smiled at the sound of my voice. She looked up at me, gave me a huge grin, clapped her hands once, and called out, "Ma-ma-ma-ma!" It was quite possibly the happiest moment of my life.

Clapping

I've been working on teaching Lily to clap for things when she's excited. When she does things she's proud of I clap and smile and say, "Yay, Lily!" to her. She really likes the fanfare, and is definitely starting to pick up the clapping. She hasn't figured out how to clap multiple times, but often when she's really excited, she'll smile and laugh and bring her hands together one time in front of her in a single clap. The latest thing that gets her excited? When Jason gives me a kiss. For whatever reason, she's thrilled to see that.

Talking

Lily is getting super, super talkative. She is a constant stream of chatter. This morning she babbled during the whole drive to school, then babbled as we walked in. She was quiet for a moment when we walked into her room, then saw her teacher and started babbling again excitedly, as if filling Margaret in on what she'd been up to since the last time she saw her.

And the babbling is turning into real words. *Some* people say she has no idea what she's saying, but I'm pretty sure she knows what both "up" and "mama" mean. She says "up" to me any time I pick her up, and she says "mama" to me sometimes as well. Yesterday she didn't want me to leave daycare when I dropped her off, so she held out her arm to me as I was about to leave and said, "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma." She also seems to know that when she's singing, she should say, "La-la-la-la-la." Admittedly, there are some syllables that don't seem to have any meaning yet. For, example, she says "Ruh-ruh-ruh" without any rhyme or reason, and she says "Da-da-da-da" to Jason, JJ, the dogs, the Christmas tree, her toys, etc.

Big Girl

One thing I forgot to mention is that the other night when I took Lily to the doctor, she weighed in at 22 pounds. For those of you who aren't experts on baby clothes sizing, clothes marked 9-12 months usually have an associated weight range of up to 22 pounds. That's right. Lily (at 7.5 months) is just about to size out of clothes intended for one-year-old children. I just had to buy her a bunch of new pants in the 12-18 month size, and today I busted out the few 12-18 month shirts and onesies I have to get her going with those. My daughter is the most adorable little giantess in all the land.

Ear Infection

Tonight when Foster dropped Lily off, she didn't look quite right. When he handed her to me, I could feel that she was really hot, so I took her temperature, which was 102 degrees. I called her pediatrician's office (they stay open until 10 or 11 on weeknights) and told them we were on our way down. Turns out poor Little Miss has an ear infection. After the doctor's office we popped into Walgreens for some amoxicillin, then came home and Lily went straight to bed after getting her first dose.

I also want to say that I really, really love everyone at Lily's pediatrician's office. Every time I go everyone is just so nice and friendly. It's really great. They all tell her what a smart, strong, adorable baby she is and make a big fuss over her, which she loves. Lily's usual doctor (Dr. Allison) wasn't working tonight, so she was seen by Jeff, the nurse practitioner. He was raving about what a sweet and pretty little girl she is and said, "That Dr. Allison gets all the pretty girls. It must be the accent." (Dr. Allison is Australian.)

Family Tree

Last week Foster and I were asked to provide pictures of Lily's family members to daycare so they could do a family tree project. On Monday I took mine in, so this morning her teacher showed me the final product -- a little posterboard with "Lily's Family" written on it that contains a collage of all the pictures I took in (one each of me, my parents, my sisters, my brothers-in-law, my dogs, my nephews, and Jason and JJ). It's very cute, and they hung each baby's collage down low where they're within the kids' line of sight. I thought it was a great idea, so I think I might do something like that at home to hang in her nursery.

Let's Get Physical

Lily is really working a lot on her standing and crawling now. She's a pretty good little scooter, and getting stronger every day in terms of her ability to pull herself up to standing. This morning we were sitting on the floor playing and she crawled over to the coffee table, then reached up, grabbed hold of it, pulled herself up, looked at me to make sure I was watching her . . . then lost her balance and fell. I caught her just in time to prevent her from hitting her head on the table.

Tonight she was with her dad, so Jason, JJ, and I were out to dinner. I was telling Jason of how she almost whacked her head this morning and how I thought it was likely she was entering a phase of lots of little bumps and bangs as she tries to get more coordinated. Fast forward half an hour to me picking her up at her dad's house. He handed me an incident report from daycare (her first) that they have to fill out any time one of the kids hurts him- or herself. Evidently Little Miss was using a bookcase to pull herself up to standing and bonked her head on the shelf. She's totally fine (she had a little red mark on her eyebrow but is otherwise unphased), but I have to sign the incident report and give it back to the school to acknowledge that I know she has a boo-boo.

Weekend Update

It was an exciting weekend for Little Miss Lily. On Friday we did her Christmas portrait. I picked up the prints on Saturday and they are adorable. I know I'm biased, but man, they're cute. I'm very pleased. I sent out my Christmas cards today and included a print in each one to spread the cuteness nationwide.

Also, Lily had a really good weekend in terms of physical development. She's getting much better at crawling and was making her way all around the living room on Saturday. A few weeks back she started to pull herself up to standing if she was sitting on a chair (like her little piano bench, for example), but wasn't yet strong enough to do it from a seated-on-the-floor position. She's been trying it a lot at home and daycare, but didn't quite master it until Saturday morning. She was sitting cross-legged in front of me and grabbed my arms for support and pulled herself up. She startled herself a little, but I gave her a big smile and a "Yay, Lily!" (she LOVES having people cheer for her, especially if clapping is involved) and she got excited and wanted to do it a few more times, then wanted to show off her trick even more when she saw Jason.

And finally, on Saturday night I took a big step forward: Jason and I got engaged. He proposed at my house with just the two of us (Lily was taking her evening nap), the ring, and the lights from the Christmas tree. I'm gaining a wonderful husband, and Lily is gaining a stepdad who totally adores her. The Jackson girls hit the jackpot with this one. As soon as Lily got up from her nap she spotted the ring on my finger. She grabbed my hand, flashed a big grin at me, patted my hand excitedly, then tried to take the ring off so she could hold it. When Jason and I picked up JJ Sunday afternoon, we gave him the news. (He had been in on the secret so he knew it was coming.) He first confirmed that I'd said yes, then said, "Cool! Lily will be my stepsister!"

Holidays

There's been a lot going on in Lily's life lately. On the 21st her gammy and gampy came to town for a visit. They were here for a week of quality time with little Taters, and it went well. She had a bit of a cough during the visit, but still managed to be her charming self.

On the 23rd Lily turned seven months old. It's hard to believe that she's closer to a year old than she is to birth. It's not hard to believe from a size perspective, though: she' the size of a one-year-old child, and the clothes I've started buying her are in the 12-18 month size.

On the 24th Lily's new friend was born! Her Auntie Emily gave birth to Connor Patrick two days early. He was 6 pounds, 13 ounces, 20 inches, and devastatingly handsome.

On the 25th we celebrated Thanksgiving. We celebrated a day early so we could include Jason and JJ. We did the whole works for our meal and then set up the Christmas tree, which Lily loves.

In other news, Lily has a suitor at school. There's a little boy named Yaakov who is about a month older than her and apparently quite smitten. Yesterday when I picked Lily up her teacher told me that earlier in the day Yaakov and Lily (the only two in the infant room who can sit up on their own) were sitting on the playmat, playing with some toys. Lily started to cry, so they looked over and saw that Yaakov had scooted over so he was right up next to her and had his face against hers. They initially thought he was trying to bite her, but then realized he was kissing her. Lily was not pleased. The only boy she likes to kiss is Jason (big, slobbery, open mouth numbers), so she was rebuffing Yaakov's advances. Her teacher said that all day long poor Yaakov kept getting close to her and throwing his arms around her, hugging her close, and kissing her cheeks. They eventually separated them so Lily wouldn't feel terrorized. When lily and I left daycare yesterday afternoon, Yaakov cried as he watched us walk out the door.