New Baby, new blog

With the addition of the second Pope baby, we thought it only fair to move over to a new blog where baby #2 could be fairly represented. We're sure the blog space won't be entirely even, but the title should at least reflect to expansion of the Pope family. Please follow us now at: http://popekiddos.blogspot.com/

No worry's all of the posts from this blog can be found there as well.

Our little sailor!

It's quite shocking that it took until Lily's 17th month before she sailed in a sailboat. Especially since her grandpa has a sailboat--but life (and a nervous mommy) get in the way sometimes. She had sat on a sailboat before but I don't think it really counts if it's still tied to the dock.



She liked looking at everything. She liked waving at the boats passing by. But most of all she wanted to go swimming in the ocean.





But most of our time in San Diego Bay sailing around was actually spent down below. Sailing time overlapped with napping time and it didn't take too long to figure out that it was time to go to sleep.



I had hoped that it would be fairly easy for her to fall asleep due to the rocking. But if I'm with Lily she has a hard time falling asleep, she's just too distracted. So I had to hold her and rock her to sleep. At over 26 and half pounds, this is getting harder and harder to do. But somehow the things that are necessary just get done and eventually she did fall asleep.

We laid in the Captain's quarters in the bow of the boat. My foot is propped on the side of the boat because, although I requested a flat ride, when it comes to sailing, flat is relative and that port tack kept trying to throw me around the front of the boat. Now picture my foot on that wall rocking Lily back and forth for 20 minutes. And tell me why I don't have Angelina Jolie's arms yet? Thank goodness for Google Reader on the iPhone and that my mother-in-law keeps at least a dozen pillows on that boat at all times.





Lily steering us back home. No one told her we were aleady back at in the slip.

Lily with Bauby and Captain Grandpa.

Gymnastics class

Lily took a 5 week gymnastics class during the month of August. It was Friday mornings but I'm lucky that my bosses like me and are flexible and don't mind me coming in a little late for 5 Fridays.

And so Lily started her Foxes & Pups class Josephson Academy of Gymnastics. It was supposed to be a group class but only one other kid showed up and to only one of the classes, so Lily got a private class. She was a little hesitant about her teacher, Lindsay, for about 5 minutes and then loved her.

She loved running so fast she'd fall down on the trampoline.

She loved stacking the foam blocks and then knocking them all over.

Throwing blocks into the foam pit.

Jumping, jumping, jumping.

Lily loved gymnastics. All of the floors had mats on them so she could run and do crazy things without getting hurt. She learned a lot in her class actually. She learned how to jump! By the end of the class she was getting air on the trampoline. She also got a lot better at safely climbing down off things and just a better awareness of being near the edge of things. And she just had so much fun. Plus the end of class meant she got a stamp on each hand and the top of each foot and she found that incredibly exciting.

16 months

We are quickly approaching a year and a half--how did that happen? The first year went by fast but the second is going by even quicker.

Lily is a little animal lately. She has so many opinions and wants every single thing a certain way. She just told daddy last night that babies, mommies and daddies don't need to go to sleep. But puppies do and she gave daddy her puppy to put to bed instead of her.

At her 1-year checkup we told her doctor that she really only knew 2 words that she used a lot and we were sure she knew the meaning of. He said babies her age usually knew about 3-5 words and probably somewhere around 18 months-2 years she'd have a real word explosion. We can see now that this explosion is starting to happen. She understands basically everything we say. She responds appropriately to just about everything that's said to her. Sometimes she says "NO!" but she definitely knows what we're saying and that she doesn't want to do it. "Mine" has also crept into her vocabulary. She can't really say "bunny" or "Charlie" yet, so she just calls him "mine". She says this to basically everything else that she wants too, food, remotes, shoes, etc.

She's also becoming pickier about food (thanks Daddy!). If she has something in her mouth that she doesn't like she spits it out--like sticking her tongue out and spitting until it comes out. This happens several times during a meal. She's decided that she doesn't really like red meat any more, or really meat in general. Sometimes she'll eat a few bites of a kosher hot dog but she doesn't even really care for that. She would eat an entire watermelon and baskets of raspberries if you let her though. She has already figured out that food in season tastes so much better, at the height of their season those are her two current favorites. And always cheese. She usually does a pretty good job of grocery shopping with me at Whole Foods because they have a lot of cheese samples, we try at least one of each.

She's also testing out her vocal chords. She can't make all the sounds yet but she tries so hard to repeat what we're saying. It's so cute to see her trying so hard and she's so proud of herself when she gets it. A lot of words sound the same right now because she doesn't have all the consonant sounds down yet. So "baa" might mean "ball", "bath", "bird" and any other number of things.

We also have some of Lily's favorite books that we read frequently (usually daily) where we do certain actions during the book. Like she has a "first words" book that has a picture of an item with the word underneath it (ball, shoes, hat, face, hands, etc). She'll sit and go through the book on her own now and say the words she knows, or the signs if she can't say the word and she'll even do the action on her own. So in this book, for all the body parts, you have to touch the book with that body part, so you smash your face in the book for "face", slap your hands on the book for "hands" and put your feet in the book for "feet". She does all this on her own (if she doesn't just skip to the feet page because that's her favorite part).

She has a bit of an obsession with her feet. I think she gets that a little bit from her mommy, my toes are a bit more dexterous than most and I've been known to pick things up with my toes. But Lily as taken it to a whole new level. She's always doing something with her feet, she's always washing them with paper towels and holding onto her blanket with her feet. It's quite funny. And of course she prefers to be barefoot.

She's also learning how to count. She likes to walk up the stairs on her own just holding onto mommy or daddy's hand. When we do this we count each step (just 1-5 and then start over). She'll now say "two" and "five" with us (and before we even say it).

We went on another trip on a plane this month. I swore I wasn't going to fly again alone with her until we were forced by FAA regulations to buy her a seat (at 2 years old) but I did it anyway. Somehow I convince myself that it won't be that bad. We just flew to Redding, which isn't that long of a flight but on our way there we had a brief stop in Arcata (turning a 2 hour flight into 3 hours). On that flight we actually got a nice flight attendant that asked the woman seated next to us if she'd move to another seat so we could have more room (since there were a couple extra seats). That made the flight a lot more bearable. Lily had her own space to squirm, throw toys, etc. She looked like such a big girl in the seat buckled in.

She wasn't so sure about the seat belt keeping her in place but unlatching it 800 times was fun.

On the way back we weren't so lucky (even though there were extra seats). Lily of course did not want to sleep. She also did not want to sit still. At least it was a direct flight on the way back though. And she had a fun time with her Grandma and Papa, all her Aunts, Uncle Dusty, and her cousin Bella. She was a little clingy on this trip and didn't really want anyone except Aunt Kellie to pick her up. I think she might have been a little uneasy since her daddy wasn't there and she wasn't sure why. She was QUITE happy when she saw him at the airport and sprinted down the sidewalk to greet him. She does love her cousin Bella though. They are at the stage when they only want to play with whatever the other one has and they get very jealous if one of them is getting more attention, gets the snacks first, etc. But they also want to hold hands and give each other kisses; it's very sweet.

A few milestones:
Wearing a size 6 or 6.5 shoe.
Still wearing 18 month or 24 month clothes and 2T shirts.
Wearing a size 5 diaper.
Knows a lot of body parts: eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears, head, hair, cheeks, belly button, hands feet, toes and probably a couple more
Starting to play games like Simon says. She'll play along with me if I say "put your hands up!" then "put your hands down!".
Words: up, hi, baby, ball, bird, bath, hat, hot, mine, mama, dada, papa, octopus (opt-o), two, five, down, boom, shoes, bye.
Still knows a lot of signs and signs a lot. Baby and bye are the only words that she can say and sign.
Knows a lot of animal sounds: dog, cat, cow, sheep, fish, monkey, duck, snake.
Two new teeth, she got two new molars, one on each side, so she has 3 of 4 1st year molars.
She will try and repeat anything you say to her.
Favorite toy: a stroller from Bauby, you could definitely say that she's obsessed with it. We have to hide it sometimes.
Favorite books: One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish; Where is baby's belly button and First Words.

Riding in the grocery cart car at Ralph's.

She must carry one of her bags to daycare each morning.

Refusing the admit the diaper bag was too big for her to carry.

In a park in downtown LA walking to the Central library.

Reading books at the library. She loves books!

She's getting so good at eating with a fork. She still switches between using her right and left hand.

Snack time on the plane. This was right before she ripped the napkin into a million little pieces sending cheese everywhere.



Waiting for our bag to come off the plane. Lily knows the drill.

She can swim just like Aunt Kellie.


This is an old picture, but it was just too funny. Grandpa had the lawnmower out and Lily thought it was like her push toy, so she told Grandpa to go get it and they pushed their toys together down the street.

First bike ride!

We went on our first bike ride with Lily over the weekend. She had a blast. Every since she turned one we've been going wanting to buy a bike seat to take her on a bike ride. We've been hemming and hawing between two different front-mounting seats, we finally decided on the iBert. We knew we wanted a front-mounting seat because they're more stable and we'll be able to have a conversation with Lily while we're riding.


Lily loved it as we expected. She liked pointed at things. Although she did get a little upset if I got too far in front of her and daddy. Like she was telling daddy to catch up.

15 months

You can imagine how loud this is.

Official stats:
Weight - 24 lbs 11 1/4 oz (75th percentile)
Height - 32 1/2" (95th percentile)

Lily had a doctor's appointment this morning to celebrate her 15 month birthday. This visit was particularly difficult. We think she remembers the exam room. She wasn't happy to be there. Even before the doctor came in she kept trying to get on the ground and was pointing to the door trying to get out. None of the procedures went very smoothly. She didn't like the nurse or doctor touching her and she had particular disdain for the two shots she got. She was happy as soon as we got out of there. She's growing wonderfully and symmetrically. She's still long and lean. Hopefully she'll be blessed with that figure her whole life. She's a little below normal on her words (has 2, average is 5) but she has so many signs to make up for it. Signing with babies and toddlers has been shown to help vocabulary not hinder it so I'm not worried that she'll catch up and catch up quickly.

Lily has finished her swimming lessons and has now moved on to gymnastics. She loved swimming so much. Although Daddy couldn't stay and watch otherwise she just wanted to wave to him the whole time and show off. I was pretty impressed that she could hold onto a kickboard and keep herself above water. Then I could hold her feet to show her how to kick. She prefers to kick both legs simultaneously like a frog though. She's gone underwater a couple of times (me dunking her very briefly). She's surprised but she doesn't hate it or cry at all. She likes to put her face in herself, probably mostly to lap up the water like a dog. Gymnastics is going well too. She has a private class since no one else signed up for her session. She likes jumping on the trampoline, she's mostly just bending her knees but she can make the trampoline move. And she likes the big foam block pit and just exploring and climbing on things.

She's a real jabbermouth. She's talking and babbling all the time ("daba-daba-daba-daba"). Her signing has really taken off too. She made up her own sign for cat (tipping her head over so her right ear is touching her shoulder). I'm not sure how she came up with it, but she consistently does it whenever you ask her to show you "cat" or she sees a picture of one. She still only says three words "hi" ("eye"), "up", and "apple" but she says those a lot (especially "up"). She actually just learned "apple" on her birthday. We were looking at a book together and she just said "apple", while pointing to one. She's been practicing saying it a lot since then, it's very cute. She tries to mimic a little bit but not much yet. Hopefully that will be coming soon. I really look forward to hearing what she has to say. Although it's amazing how much content we can get out of a few signs and grunting/pointing at things.

She understands most of what we say to her. She's very good at following directions, "get your shoes", "take this to daddy", "where's your milk?", "let's go outside", etc. She responses appropriately to almost all those cues and a lot more. If only she'd listen to "stop throwing food on the floor" and "stop dumping milk out of your cup".

She's taken a new liking to her stroller. Whenever she sees it she gets really excited that she's going to ride in it. So excited that she jumps up and down, pointing and grunting. I'm not sure why that fascination started.

Her papa, grandma, Aunt Melody, Aunt Anna and cousin Bella recently visited for 9 days. Lily had a blast with them. While they were here Lily was able to go to Disneyland twice, the aquarium, the zoo and the beach. She loved all of it of course. And she loves her cousin. She's pretty good at sharing things with her and she likes holding her hand (more than Bella would like) and they even danced together (until they somehow toppled over--see below). Lily is pretty much obsessed with the water, we have to watch her carefully. She'd jump right into a pool or walk right out into the ocean--she doesn't have any fear at all. When we were at the beach she kept wanting to go deeper and deeper into the waves and enjoyed them splashing into her. When I let go of her hands she just walked right back out into the surf.

She had her first night away from mommy and daddy the first weekend of August. It was a little tough on mommy but we all survived. I'm not sure how much Lily even noticed. Mommy and Daddy went up to Santa Barbara wine country for a wedding (congrats Kelly & Mike!) and bauby and grandpa came up to stay with Lily. Lily enjoyed being the center of attention and showing off all her skills--especially her dancing skills apparently.

Milestones
Wearing 18-24 month pants and dresses, 2T shirts
Wearing a size 6 shoe
Wearing a size 5 diaper
Has 6 teeth (got a new molar on the bottom left below her other molar)--still so many teeth to come, hopefully they'll just get here soon.
Words: hi, up, apple
Signs: milk, more, food, water, cat, alligator, elephant, bath, brush teeth, dance,
Animal sounds: dog, cow, monkey, fish
Can point to: nose, mouth, tongue, hair, head, belly, eyes, ears, hands, feet. Loves pointing to others' features too.
Favorite book: One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr. Suess
Favorite toy: Elmo

Aunt Melody, cousin Bella, Lily and I in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

The carousel in Fantasyland.

Dumbo ride.


Lily loved Its a Small World, so interested in everything and threw in some dancing every once in a while.

Lily was trying to show her cousin Bella some sweet dance moves.

Playing in the water at the park.

The end of an era

I didn't mention this in Lily's 14 month update because I wasn't entirely certain we'd passed this milestone at the time but it appears now that we definitely have.

Lily is officially weaned.

She actually hasn't breastfed since about a week before she turned 14 months old but she had gone a couple of days without breastfeeding previously so I wasn't completely sure she wouldn't still nurse again. This was a bittersweet transition for me. She's growing up and that's hard to face even though it's exciting and I love seeing her grow and learn. But this was a major physical bond between us. It was the one major thing that only she and I shared. No one else could provide that nourishment and comfort to her. There are still times when she only wants comfort from me but those are becoming fewer too and the connection isn't as tangible. The actual process of weaning wasn't terribly difficult and almost happened on it's own.

We didn't attempt to start weaning at all until Lily turned one. Breast milk (or formula) is supposed to be her major source of nutrition until she turned one. Other food is just for practice and fun--not for it's nutritional value. I think parents/people are often in a rush for babies to grow up. I'm excited about things to come but I'd be happy to keep Lily as my little baby as long as possible. Once she turned one, whole milk was OK. Adjusting to that took a little while but she adapted quickly. We switched to whole milk and dropped bottles all in one swoop. I thought it might be easier to go through one difficult patch rather than two (by switching to whole milk and then switching to sippy cups later). My next step was to just stop offering breastfeeding as an option. If she asked I let her but I didn't offer it. I kept around our morning feeding/cuddle time the longest but eventually I just stopped that as well. She never really put up a fuss about it. She can't say she wants milk or wants to breastfeed verbally but she has been signing "milk" for months and months. Fortunately for me probably, that's a generic "milk" and I don't know when it meant breast milk or whole milk. So if she signed "milk" I gave her milk in a sippy cup. She didn't seem to mind. About a week before she turned 14 months she nursed for the last time (although we didn't know for sure it'd be the last time then).

Overall it went about as best as I could have hoped for. I don't think it was particularly rough on her or me. I don't think we rushed things. We didn't stop the day she turned one. These were all things that were important to me. Before Lily, I was always concerned about her getting to the point of being able to "ask for it" and knowing that was too old to nurse. I don't feel that way any more. I wouldn't feel like a bad mother if we were still nursing now or even 6 months from now. I feel like it was a slow transition for us over almost two months and it was the right time for us.

Breastfeeding was a wonderful thing for me. It was difficult at times but rewarding and convenient too. I had hoped not to have to give Lily any formula at all but in the end she did get formula at day care for a few months when I decided to cut down and then completely quit pumping at work. It wasn't what I hoped for but it was fine and she (obviously) is fine. I am definitely proud that I supported most of her nutrition through her first 12-14 months of life.