September 7

Chris and the kids and I were out on the deck this morning, the children collecting acorns and me collecting veggies from my garden (my first real tomato, a handful of sun-sweet tomatoes, and nearly a cucumber but it wasn't quite ripe), when I had an idea. It was a beautiful morning; we should go play at the lake nearby!

So we did. I packed a lunch, Chris packed the shovels and pails, and we were off. It was a great decision.

Chris has found a perfect play spot at the lake, where it's not too crowded, the sand is perfect, and there's plenty of shade. I heartily approve.

Lily approved, too. She was pretty content to bask on the blanket in the dappled shade.

Hi, sweet girl!

(Daisy chose the tie dye today. She really enjoys picking out her sister's outfits!)

We saw lots of rowers today (Daisy calls them "rowboats") and the kids waved excitedly each time they went past.

Such a big boy!

That hair is uncontrollable! Actually, it's very easy to control with a little clip or elastic, but Daisy only allows it 30% of the time. 

Chris took a break from playing with the big kids to come play with Lily.

She was pretty excited about that.

And then he rocked her to sleep.

What a good daddy!

Finally, it was time for lunch and then home for naps.

He looks worn out, doesn't he? He was whining and fussing and I couldn't figure out why, until I realized that he had gone to bed after 10 pm the night before (the Cardinals game, remember?) and still woken up at 6 am. He was tired!  I couldn't believe it took me so long to piece it together.

This girl was still feeling perky, though. Here, she's showing you a piece of pineapple that was on her leftover gluten-free pizza that was lunch today. 

Such a fun morning!

September 6

Lily is seven weeks old today!

I weighed her on our bathroom scale, and she clocked in at 10 pounds, 13 ounces. She definitely has more rolls on her than I remember Caleb or Daisy having.

Speaking of rolls, I'm getting serious about losing mine. So today I gritted my teeth and did it: put the maternity clothes away and got out my regular clothes. Sure, only 10% of my wardrobe fits right  now, but it's better than wearing maternity clothes at this point. Plus, it will give me incentive to lose the baby weight!

While I pulled, sorted, organized, culled, and sifted through my clothes, Lily slept peacefully in her co-sleeper and Caleb and Daisy played happily together in the other room.

See? Sweet, sleeping baby.

(Daisy picked out the outfit today, including the socks.)

Lily was pretty sleepy today, which apparently was too good to be true, because I've now been working at getting her to sleep for two hours. Even worse is that I'm without help tonight; Chris and Caleb are with a friend and his son at the Cardinals game.

Chris texted me this picture:

Caleb did the exact same thing at his last Cards game, exactly two months ago: he was so afraid that there would be a home run, and thus, fireworks, that he plugged his ears the whole time.

That boy is strange.

And here are the boys with Fredbird. I'm not really sure why Caleb is dangling there, limply, but I'm sure there's some reason...

But I suppose I should make a renewed effort to get Lily to sleep. When I started this post, I thought I finally had her down, but now she's squawking again. I think I'll just take a deep breath and remind myself that this stage may seem interminable, but it's really very short-lived. I will get through it, and soon she will be a toddler.

The days are long, but the years are short, right?

September 5

Today was Lily's first MOPS meeting!

I'm launching a blog for our group, and one of my responsibilities is taking pictures of the moms in our group for our directory. So today - our first meeting - I wore Lily on my chest while I ran around and took pictures of 64 women. She was fantastic! Then I took a break and pulled her out of the wrap, and she was a happy camper. 

Hi Lily! Welcome to MOPS! This is how Mommy stays sane!

The woman holding her is my friend Liz, who I've known since she worked with my youth group in middle school and high school. Now she's the mentor mom at my MOPS table. Funny how some people come back into our lives!

I went back to picture-taking, and Lily got passed around my table. Each mom said the same thing: "I think she's hungry! She was sucking on my shoulder/nuzzling my chest/pecking at my neck". And each time, I tried nursing her, to no avail. She was not hungry. She was tired. It seems that Lily prefers to put herself to sleep by suckling. The problem is that she won't take a pacifier. I keep trying, and she'll lick it, bite it, wiggle it around in her mouth... anything but suck on it.

I've been okay with this, and have been just letting her nurse whenever she wants. But the problem is twofold: 1. It's really nice to have an "easy" button when she's fussy for no reason.

2. Several times, including last night, Lily has nursed and nursed and nursed - 45 minutes last night, for example. But I have a GREAT milk supply, so she got milk that whole time. It was way too much milk for her, and out of nowhere she gagged and coughed all of the milk up, all over our bed. It was a mess. And as I said, this has happened several times.

So, how do you teach a 7-week-old to take a pacifier? We really need to get on this. That, and taking a bottle. But these things take time, and that's one thing I just don't have when I'm also taking care of a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. Hmmm... these are the dilemmas of a stay-at-home mom.

September 4

This morning, Caleb asked me when MOPS starts again. When I told him that it starts tomorrow, but he won't be going because he will be at preschool, he nearly lost it. Once he had regained his composure, he asked if we could go on a playdate. I looked at our MOPS calendar and told him that our next non-Thursday playdate was in two weeks, but that wasn't soon enough for him. He wanted a playdate NOW!

Because it was later in the morning and most of our friends were busy, I convinced him that we could go on an adventure instead. So we packed a lunch, hopped in the car, and checked out a new outdoor outlet mall nearby. It was unexciting. Then we headed to a park to picnic and play.

Lily is definitely a fan of picnicking. 

I suppose she'll like it even more once she can eat real food and play.

In the meantime, Daisy and Caleb's antics were enough to entertain her.

(She might have been trying to nurse on Daisy's shorts. I fed her mere moments after taking this picture.)

The girls took long naps this afternoon, so while they slept, Caleb and I had some snuggle and reading time. Then, I had a hankering  for a root beer. I asked Caleb if he wanted to try my root beer, and he was shocked. Appalled. 

"But root beer is not for kids! Root beer is for grownups!"

I explained to him that root beer is not actually beer, it is soda. 

He still didn't want to try it. Claimed it would be "spicy". I explained that he called soda spicy when he was a baby and didn't have words to describe the tingly feeling soda makes on your tongue. That it was actually sweet and fizzy, not spicy.

Then he was willing to give it a go.

After his first sip. He was unsure.

But after a moment to think about it, he decided to take another sip.

He likes it!

He asked me to pour him a little more, but then decided that bit was a little too fizzy on his tongue. Funny boy.

Then he took this picture. His cars made an S on the floor.

September 3

Aside from some crummy naps, today was beautiful. 

We had an easy, peaceful morning, largely because I went on a baking spree yesterday afternoon, so the kids had some grain-free chocolate zucchini muffins and cranberry applesauce waiting for them for breakfast. Things were so smooth and the weather so lovely that we decided to walk Caleb to preschool instead of driving. Caleb and Daisy rode in the BOB, and I wore Lily in my wrap. It's exactly a mile and a half from our house to school, and we made it in 33 minutes, including a stop at the high school track to watch the marching band practice.

After we dropped Caleb off (a boy at school had a backpack that looked like a giant turtle shell, and now he wants one, too), I put Lily in the BOB for the walk home. Remarkably, she was awake, quiet, and content the whole way home. Way to go, Lily!

(Daisy did not want her picture taken. And yes, it was cool enough this morning to justify Daisy's pants and cardigan, but Lily didn't feel too cool in her short sleeves.)

After naps, we headed out to play on the front porch. While I was gathering all of the necessary items to keep Lily comfortable on the porch, Caleb and Daisy made a discovery: 

Cicadas!

Specifically, they found two deceased cicadas. I brought out their magnifying glasses, and the kids were happy little scientists.

Moments like this make me feel like I'm doing an OK job as a mom.

See Lily there in the background? She was just hanging out.

Caleb's find. I asked him to describe everything he noticed about it, and he was pretty thorough.

Then we compared the two. They were remarkably similar, but one "has a mouth" and the other doesn't.

Meaning, one had a gaping hole in its face. Caleb used that hole to skewer the cicada with a stick. Then he asked me, "If I plant the cicada in the ground and give it water, will it bloom?"

At first, I tried to explain to him that a cicada was a bug and not a plant.

Then I realized I was getting nowhere, so I found his watering can and filled it up for him. 

See the cicada on a stick, in the center of the foreground?

Water!

Lily just watched. I think she was amused.

Daisy was definitely amused. And amusing.

September 2

The cruel irony of fun, busy days is that by the time I get around to going through all of the pictures I took of us having fun, I'm exhausted and I just want to go to bed.

Today was definitely a fun, busy day. We had planned to lay low and just hang out at home today. Chris got up with the kids, took them to the nearby high school track to play (it's one of their favorite things to do!), took them to Caleb's preschool to play on the playground, and came home to eat breakfast. But when I realized how truly lovely the weather was after a week of unbearable heat, we decided to do something fun. I suggested the lake, then the Garden, and the kids were adamant: they wanted to go to the Botanical Garden. It just happens to be the big Japanese festival there this weekend, so a quick call to my dad procured us tickets for us and for Amber and her kids (who, happily, were available for a spur-of-the-moment visit). We hopped in the car, and away we went!

We met up with Amber and her kids in the children's area, where there was face painting (Caleb chose an American flag, and Daisy wanted Hello, Kitty but backed out at the last minute) and Japanese clothing for the kids to try on.

Caleb was so excited to try on this kimono. It had beetles on it, and he chose the red sash himself. (You know, red is his favorite color...)

He spent quite a while solemnly inspecting himself in the mirror.

Then Mary joined him, dressed in a kimono of her own.

This picture kills me! 

The child looks so utterly miserable, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't. I don't understand him at all.

Goodness. Aren't they darling?

Then out to the beautiful sunshine. Daisy kept asking if she could touch the water.

We walked over to a martial arts demonstration, said goodbye to Amber and her family, and headed to the Japanese Garden. Lily was wrapped up on my chest the whole time, and I must say that she rocked her first Garden visit!

Because Daddy was there, the kids got to walk on the zigzag bridge. Caleb was terrified. Can you tell?

The pond in the Japanese Garden is filled with koi, and there are large koi flags hanging throughout the garden. Caleb loved them, and kept asking if we could have a fish flag.

Wouldn't you know it... on our way out, a vendor was selling fish flags. Normally Chris and I don't buy souvenir-type junk; we have enough junk in our house, and we're much too cheap to waste our money on even more junk. But Caleb and Daisy really liked the fishy flags. And when we found a vendor selling several flags on a stick with ribbons...

Well, we caved. But it was so much fun, and the kids love them! 

While the kids had fun playing with their flags, I had fun playing with sun flare. I'm still not entirely clear on how to control/manufacture it, but it was fun to experiment.

After I showed him a picture of himself with a rainbow on him, Caleb willingly posed for many more pictures.

HA!

This totally reminds me of Waiting for Guffman. 

(Did you know that Chris and I watched this movie with Amber and Michael the night of our senior prom? Who ever would have thought we'd all end up married, playing with our children 15 years later...)

I love this shot. Do you see why it was so much fun for us to buy them those silly little fish?

Happy, happy children.

But this blog is supposed to be about Lily now!

Chris grabbed the camera and took a few pictures of her while I held her.

She was rocking a baby mohawk today.

Hi, sweet girl!

Caleb, tooting his horn for the camera. After I took his picture, he asked to see it. His first comment? "Where's the rainbow?" There was no rainbow, so we had to take another one with some sun flare in it.

Meanwhile, Daisy wanted to hold her sister's hand, so I helped a little bit.

"She holdin' my hand!"

These girls. How sweet.

September 1

Even though it's now September, it was stiflingly hot today. Luckily, we spent all morning at church, then Costco. Then we went home and took naps. While we slept, it stormed a little bit. Hooray for storms!

Daisy and Lily were still napping when I decided to do the grocery shopping, so - miracle of miracles! - I got to do the shopping alone. As in, all by myself. As in, no baby strapped to my chest. For an hour and a half, I was child-free! It was a miraculous feeling, and even better was that when I returned home, Lily was still asleep. (Because there's nothing worse than coming home to a screaming baby who can only be consoled by Mommy.)

After dinner, we all played outside. Lily and I retreated back in pretty quickly once the mosquitoes found us, but we still enjoyed some porch swing time before that happened.

Aren't they cute?

He tried to give her a bottle today.

It didn't work.

Daisy wouldn't take bottles, either. I really want to get this one to take them - it would provide so much freedom for me!

Daisy ate some of her dinner, including the beef, which she usually hates. Her reward was a popsicle. Little did she know that it was a smoothie popsicle, full of vegetables and healthy fats and all kinds of nutrients. Mwah hah haaaa!

Love that girl. As I type this, I can hear her on the baby monitor, singing instead of sleeping. She's singing, "Peeeeeanut, peanut butter... and jelly!" over and over, and I love it.