Lilyisms

I've been working on Lily's baby book, a book covered in random scraps of paper and post it notes with quick scribbles marking a mini Lily first since she's turned 1....smiling on command, nodding yes, holding my hand to cross the street, blowing kisses, counting 1-2-3, shaking her booty to music, rubbing her hair with her hands when I'm about to get in the shower knowing I'll be putting shampoo in my hair and then getting the lotion off the counter (with a slight grunt and on her tippy toes to reach) once I turn the water off knowing I'm about to grab it are some that come to mind. I love knowing when she says "bop" it means help and when I come into her room to get her up after a nap, she likes to first lay on her stomach and tap her foot against the mattress because she knows I'll tap my palm on the mattress to imitate her....so grateful for all of this.

House shopping has slowed down but the two houses we put offers in for that came back too high for us are actually still interested (no other offers have come in) so the game continues....time actually might be on our side.

Nate did the Portland Triathlon today and looked strong and fast out there. I rave about Blue Lake but one thing Portland Triathlon easily trumps Blue Lake on is the give-aways...long sleeve dri-fit shirt (cool looking too), gloves, bike socks and a metal water bottle are the main items and then free gelato and free beer after the race are nice perks to compliment the free meal...well done.

Here are a couple pics from our weekend around town and one video of a Lilyism - imitating one of my facial expressions.

The Weekend in Pictures

It's been a good weekend. We're waiting to hear on another house offer on another house, but we're not letting it stop us from getting out and about. Here are some pics and movies from the weekend, starting Thursday. What, Thursday's not the weekend? Hey, we start early around here...

Lily getting ready for the weekend with a little harmonica playing. The harmonica was a gift from our new neighbors, what a great gift!



At a concert/show in the park on Friday night, Lily was in the mood to dance




She also stole the chair of the people sitting next to us

On Saturday she let her hair down after a swim at the club

Today we went to a street fest on the East side of town and saw this guy

Lily even gave us the treat of holding our hands as we walked back to the car

The House Game continues

While Nate was at band practice last night, I watched a visually beautiful movie "A Single Man." The beauty of the movie didn't cover up a lack of substance; it was actually a damn good movie. One of the last lines in the movie that resonated with me was

" ...in my life, I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief moments, the silence drowns out the noise, and I can feel rather than think, and things seems so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life in these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize everything is exactly the way it's meant to be."

We have been very hopeful this past week that the offer we submitted on a house would lead to an agreed upon price after some friendly countering. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the counter offer would come back a week late and higher than the list price....not even kidding. We're going to keep playing the game with this house but realize that if it does work out, it might be a while.

I lost a close match last week in my warm up tournament to USTA 5.0 Sectionals coming up this weekend that bummed me out a bit more than expected only because my serve failed me when I needed it most. I think the loss actually fueled me to go even harder at the Blue Lake Triathlon the next day. I shaved ten minutes off my time from last year, woohoo. I didn't feel the pain as much this year like last year and I hit that zone where the adrenaline rush gives me such a a high that the pain disappears for a moment and I can't help but smile.

Thankfully, Lily is busy nodding yes these days so the no phase hasn't started. We're still working on her biting out of frustration but besides that, she's being such a fun and adventurous little girl. She seems to climb even higher, move even faster, and stands on smaller and more wobbly objects every day.

Here is a pic from the tri and then a classic example of Lily dealing with a challenge


Hmmm, I'll just pick up the stroller...

This is kinda hard

This is getting frustrating

I'm going to bite the stroller because this sucks

So frustrated!

O wait, I got it, it's all good

We are in the game

We have just submitted our first offer on a house. It's a spunky old (1890 old!) Victorian just 4 blocks away from where we live now. Our dream has been to live in a house with a yard, one more room, off street parking, in Nob Hill near Wallace Park. We definitely have many more house desire details in our dream (because we sure have had the time to think about it) but we are willing to compromise on quite a bit if we get the house in the ideal location.

Lily is 14 months now and is all about walking(Frankenstein style), climbing, and trying to jump. We're much more about playing in parks than taking long walks these days. If she's not in her high chair, car seat, or reading a story on one of our laps, she is moving...ALWAYS MOVING. The imitation game is also much more front and center these days so we are more aware of what we're saying and doing, more doing at this point. Her talking is still babble and I would guess only has a vocabulary of around 10 words (but doesn't say them consistently) but wow, the amount she understands amazes me every day. I can say "what would you like to wear today?" and she'll go to her drawer and pull out an outfit and is already showing picky signs about what she wants to wear (I had to dress her in a heavy sweatshirt on a 90 degree day). I used to use the ergo carrier 99% of the time and now it's only about 50% because of her weight and her desire to be more mobile. I thought I'd have her weaned by now but I still breastfeed right after she wakes up in the morning and before her bedtime story. I enjoy it, I'm lazy about switching up what works, and I'm letting her give me a sign which she kinda is with nursing for shorter amounts of time. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by the fact that I'm still breastfeeding but at the same time I'm really proud of myself for making it this long after the nightmare start I had.

It's a busy week ahead with house stuff (our place could be on the market by the end of the week), a tennis tournament, and the Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon...lots of stuff that we hope goes really well and smoothly this week.

Here are a few recent pics of Lil', enjoying her corn on the cob and playing in the park.

Hot and Cold

As we sat and ate dinner tonight, feeding Lily some of our Thai food, I thought about how glad I am that she is a good eater most of the time. She still has her moments of refusing to eat something she loved the day before or dropping her food on the floor piece by piece, but for the most part she eats very well. Right after that good thought I remembered that she had cried all the way home for half an hour in the car yesterday, so the good moments are tempered by the very difficult moments. Then there are the moments of sheer delight, like when I peeked in on her as she was waking up from her afternoon nap today and there she was laying on her stomach with her head propped up on her hand like she was laying on a beach enjoying the view. I'm thinking of these ups and downs as they hit on a point that I read about in this article and the article that it's responding to: http://www.babble.com/mom/health-and-relationships/parents-are-happy/. Namely, the point that parents have higher highs and lower lows than non parents. I find it to be definitely true. Do I find, as the graph shows, that my average happiness is lower now versus a couple of years ago? I don't think so, but it doesn't sound that crazy either.

Anyway, it's been a while since we blogged. In the meantime we took a nice vacation back to Chicago and Michigan and hung out with our families. It was great to see everyone and introduce Lily to Klinger Lake and Thunder Road, hopefully she gets to keep adding great memories at these places as the years roll along. Here are a couple of cute pictures from the trip, there's also a full album posted on Picassa, linked from the upper left of the main page of our blog. The first pic is with Lily's Aunt Emily, cousin Sophia, and Great Grandparents Mitchell. The second is with her Aunt Sonya, Uncle Eric, and cousins Ryan and Emma.

Smily Girl

Lily is now our 13 month old walker and she's understanding more and more. The other day we asked her to smile and were surprised when she responded. So here's Lily's version of a smile:

Corny

One of my goals after Lily turns one was to sign up for Lily's first official class, so actually pay money for one. I have really benefited socially from the Mommy & Me group at the hospital and Book Babies at the library but it's time to get Lily trying something new. I signed us up for a movement class at the Children's Museum, thankfully with a friend of mine. It is the corniest class I've ever taken and Lily is a bit too young to follow along so I can't throw in the "I like it because I know she likes it" card. She seems to prefer to hang out at the door looking out the window, probably thinking "let me out." We do have our moments of fun in the class, but man, a bit too few and far between.

My tennis leagues are over for the summer and I'm happy with my game and even happier with some of the contacts I've made. I can definitely tell that I'm mentally stronger on the court which I know has to do with having a kid and being older; it's not about the focus as much as thinking clearly on the court. What I would give to have this mental strength back in my hay day. I'm looking into playing an individual tournament this summer so we'll see.

Lily has definitely picked up on the walking, figured out how to knee walk, and has picked up a little personal hygiene too. Here are a few videos of her doing her thing.