Uncle Grant

Uncle Grant left on a mission on December 3rd. He spent a couple of weeks in Salt Lake City and since New Year's Eve he's been in the Dominican Republic. He sent a picture of himself today. We miss him a lot already. Only 22 1/2 more months to go...

8 months old

Another month has gone by already. It's hard to believe Lily is 8 months old already. She's getting so big so fast and it seems like she learns so much so quickly. This has been a busy month for her. She really started crawling and now she's pulling herself up to her feet and even starting to walking while holding on to things. I'm sure she'll be walking before we know it.

She celebrated her first Chanukah and her first Christmas with lots and lots of presents. It took her a little while to figure it out but by the time we got to the last night of Chanukah she unwrapped presents like a pro. And she got just as much enjoyment out of the wrapping paper as she did the present that was wrapped inside.

She enjoyed spending a week with mommy's family up in Redding. She spent a lot of time playing with her cousin, Isabella. She's only 20 days younger than Lily but Lily's still much bigger than her.

8 month weight - 19 lbs 1 oz (official since we made a sicky trip to the doctor's office)

Milestones
Crawling! (12/13/08)
Learned to clap and now claps all the time. (12/12/08)
Pulls up onto her knees a lot but it still a little unstable
Wears a size 4 diaper
Wears 12-18 month clothes
Starting to voice her opinion more
Absolutely does not want to go to sleep on her own any more
Starting to learn sign language; we're working on "milk" to start with
Favorite toy: her Fisher-Price "iPod", it plays nursery rhymes and she thinks it's fabulous. It was a Christmas gift from grandma.
Loves reading
Still likes to do things with her feet. Sometimes tries to pull mommy's hair with her feet while she's nursing.
Survived another cold! Thanks cousin Isabella!
First tried meat- some Christmas turkey on Christmas Day
Loves music. Even if a car ride has become very frustrating Raffi always seems to stop the crying. Usually in just a few bars of music.
Crib was moved down to it's lowest setting. It's too dangerous now that pulling up is getting easier and easier.

Where did all these toys come from? Yikes! Toy storage has since been purchased and utilized.

Lily with mommy, Aunt Melody and Isabella.

Cousins in their matching Christmas pjs on Christmas morning.

Opening a present on Christmas morning.

Taking a break from unwrapping to do some finger chewing.

Lighting the candles on the 2nd night of Chanukah.

You got a problem with me, Penguin!?!

Isabella needs her older cousin to take make sure she's doing OK.

Lily thought that Isabella needed to be rocked.

The airport isn't such a bad place to hang out.

Roooaaaarrrr!

Lily's 8 month update is long overdue- and I'm almost ready to post it- so in the mean time, Lily had this little development over the weekend. See those little bumps on her bottom left? Her first tooth is here! Click on the picture and you can really see it. We had to wait until she was sleeping with her mouth open (thanks to the cold that won't go away) to get a good look at it. Lately anytime anything gets near her mouth she licks it so it's been hard to get a look at it. You can definitely feel it if you put your finger in her mouth though (and she'll promptly BITE you, and lick you too).

We knew it was coming because she's been drooling A LOT and chewing on her fingers all. the. time. And finally one came through. Those little stinking eye teeth are still showing through her gums but don't seem any closer to coming through.

Oh Christmas tree...

We're a little late since we're leaving to visit Grandma and Grandpa on the 24th, but we got our Christmas tree this evening and got all of our decorations up. Lily loves it of course. She loves the lights and she loves glass ornaments on the tree.

And we got Lily's little corral set up because she's officially crawling! Yesterday she took her first forward crawl. She's still figuring it out so she only goes about a foot before she gets distracted but she's definitely crawling now.


So now she can be confined if necessary. There are toys on one of the panels so she has a lot of fun playing with the toys and turning on the music. And she's even starting to pull up on the walls.

7 Months!

Miss Lily Renee is 7 months old already. She is growing up so fast. She's going to be a year old before we know it. She's advancing in leaps and bounds and is so interactive and playful and just an all-around happy baby. She adores playing with other kids. She was playing with a 3rd or 4th cousin at Thanksgiving and she just thought he was the best thing since sliced bread. There were several other kids there but Blake was her clear favorite. He made her crack up laughing for at least a half hour.

She's starting to imitate us more. If we show her how to comb daddy's hair with her little brush, she'll do it on her own. She loves books. She likes to look at them herself. Her favorite books are the ones with animals that have fake fur on them so you can feel what the animals feel like. She also loves to look at herself in the mirror. We're pretty sure she still thinks it's another baby and she'll even give herself kisses.

She's getting to be a big girl too:

Weight: 18.5 lbs
Length: 28.5"

-Favorite food (not counting breast milk): apples
-Least favorite food: green beans
-Can sit up on her own without any help.
-Can go from her hand and knees back to sitting.
-Likes to dance.
-If she's upset in the car, turning on her CD will make her happy.
-Thinks puppets are funny.
-Loves to splash.
-Says "ma-ma-ma" when she gets upset.
-First trip to Disneyland (11/21).
-First trip to Sea World (11/29).


We found a long string. That was fun.

Watching Shamu.

Cheering for the black and white knight at Medieval Times.

Hanging out with Uncle Grant waiting for the parade to start at Disneyland.



That rabbit is going to get her to crawl.


Watching the parade at Disneyland.


Playing with her new friend at Thanksgiving.

The next adventure...

So the life of an academic is to never be settled I guess. It looks like our next adventure will take us all the way across the country to New Haven, Connecticut. It's a short 2,881 miles away.


Daddy has gotten a Postdoctoral Researcher position (aka "postdoc") at Yale University. It goes without saying, but Lily and Mommy are very proud.

The schedule for moving is still a little tentative but Daddy may finish his PhD sometime this spring/early summer and then we might move in late summer/early fall. It is pretty clear that this time next year we'll be in a different city, on a different coast, and certainly in different weather (it was chilly in the 60s today in Los Angeles).

The life-goal is for Daddy to get a job as a professor at one of the University of California schools (perhaps Mommy & Daddy's alma mater?). This is a very lofty goal but we are sure it's within reach.

1st Trip to Disneyland and fun with Uncle Grant

Lily got to take a visit to Disneyland with mommy, Uncle Grant and Grandma Sue. Uncle Grant and Grandma Sue came down for a visit for a few days and Uncle Grant wanted to take a trip to Disneyland, so off we went.

Riding on the merry-go-round.

In front of the castle with its Christmas lights decked out in Mickey ears.

Her first ride was It's a Small World. She fell asleep while waiting in line (oddly, that was the longest line of the day); but she woke up as soon as we got on the boat and got going. She loved looking around at all the lights and moving parts and listening to all the singing. She was enthralled and just kept looking back and forth.

It's a Small World and the Carousel where the only rides she went on. We also watched the holiday parade and she enjoyed that as well. It was pretty loud in certain parts but she was pretty entertained watching everything go by.

Lily had a great time playing with her Uncle Grant. She like sitting on his shoulders and pulling his hair. She loves pulling everyone's hair, actually.



Uncle Grant leaves tomorrow for his mission. He is going to the Dominican Republic and will be gone for 2 whole years. We are all very sad to see him go.