Snowmen at the end of March?!?

There we were, preparing ourselves for another spring break full of sunny walks along the trail, nice spring breezes to cool down the house, sunglasses, short sleeved shirts and shorts, and what happens? A brief reminder that we still live in Colorado, not Hawaii!

We woke up this morning to a few inches of snow on the deck and snow flakes drifting down to join their buddies already landed.

But hey, it's one more excuse to get Lily into her snow suit and hat and go romping through the snow. She seems to have enjoyed it a bit better than the last time we put her in snow, but she's still not so sure about this cold white stuff.

It's That Time of Year Again

The days are getting longer, the sun is getting brighter, the temperature is getting warmer. It clearly is that time again. It's nap time! My spring break started with a bang, as Lily and I took naps throughout the day and generally enjoyed not having to be in school. Even the dogs joined in today (not that they don't sleep 23 hours out of each day normally).

The plan is that I won't spend every day in a state of continual sleep, but today just called for it. I have big plans of taking walks, going to the park, getting together with my fellow teacher friends, and rubbing it in the face of every other poor working fool that I have the next week off! Have I mentioned that the breaks are one of the many great things about teaching? Here's to a week of fun, sleeping in, and enjoying our changing weather.

Roll Over, Schmoll-Over!

It seems like just about the time we finish taking all the pictures and telling everyone about the amazing new thing Lily can do, she does something else to send us into a picture frenzy! The latest is the trick of rolling over. Just a week ago, she hated being on her stomach and there wasn't even a hint that she might start to roll over. Then what do you know? Spend a few minutes on your stomach, get made fun of by your cousin Bryce who can already roll over, and the will power kicks in. It seemed like it was literally one minute she was struggling just to keep her head up, and the next minute she was rolling over like she'd been doing it for eons! Now we've entered into the wonderful world of having to make sure she can't roll off of whatever we put her on. We can no longer just lay her on the couch or bed and assume she'll be in the same spot when we come back. So far she hasn't rolled off of anything, but she definitely moves around!

Before we know it she'll be crawling around on the floor and pulling things out of cabinets! We can't wait!

Does Anyone Have a Better Tasting Bottle?

Since starting back to work in December, we have had to leave Lily with a friend from church during the day. While she does great at Honey's house, she has decided that she doesn't like bottles. It doesn't matter what's in it, or what kind of nipple we use, she won't even look at it without erupting into tears. Our crazy girl has started herself on the starvation diet! She frequently will go 10-11 hours without eating. We're not sure if it's protest for having to be away from home and me for 8 hours a day, or if we over did the prune juice early on and now she associates bottles with the ever so appetising taste of prunes. But her stubbornness has certainly come out! I think she gets that from her father, as I am never stubborn! So after asking every possible person we could think of for advice, we tried to start her on rice cereal. She dislikes that even more than bottles. We tried a sippy cup, and that just made a mess. We tried putting a bit of sugar in the cereal, and that just made it worse. We even tried cherry juice in the cereal at the suggestion of a friend, and all that did was turn her white bib wonderfully pink! So we were at a loss. The doctor was no help, he just shrugged and said she wouldn't let herself starve! So God took over. I had about three days where my milk wouldn't let down. So for three days, if she didn't eat from a bottle, she didn't eat at all. That was all it took. She finally decided that if she wanted something in her stomach, she was going to have to take a bottle. For a week now, she's gone great guns with bottles! And wouldn't you know it, as soon as she started doing well with a bottle, my milk came back in! So right now she eats like a professional burger eater at a contest, at least from a bottle. We still haven't figured out the cereal or baby food thing. I guess she'll come around on her own good time!

See You After School, Mom!

While I fully expect Lily to have mastered Calculus, Advanced Cellular Biology, and World Literature within the next year, she's not the one going to school. Starting on December 18th, I had to leave my precious girl and return to the hallowed halls of learning at Deane Elementary. My return started with a bang, as we got to have two snow days due to our outrageous amount of snow, and then we started winter break. But after the New Year, I went back full force. I jumped in feet first, actually ready and somewhat glad to be back in the beginning. But, unfortunately, that excitement has worn off and now I'm counting down the days, hours, and minutes until schools out, just like my students! I've had to learn the delicate balancing act of grading, planning, and preparing only during the eight hours I'm actually at school, so that when I'm home, my attention is solely on Greg and Lily. No more 12 hour days for me. I frequently get asked if I miss her during the day. The answer is always yes, but I am so busy that I really don't have too much time to dwell on it. But I'm making it through, without too much Lily withdrawal. And think, only three more months until blessed freedom! As of right now, the plan is that I won't be returning to Deane next year. The idea from the beginning was always that I would be a stay-at-home mom once we had kids, and with the exception of this short five month sidestep, God has blessed us so that staying home is a possibility. Lily and I are both very grateful for all the hard work that Greg has been putting in and will continue to put in.

Oops! We blinked!

Well here we are again... Three months have gone by since my last posting and I have yet to update all of Lily's adoring fans on how she is. I deeply apologize; to me it feels like I've only blinked and the past three months flew by. So much has happened in the past few months that it's hard to keep track of it all. But here goes...
On the 5th of December Lily got her two month vaccines (only a few days late), and we were praying that she didn't react to them as her cousin, Eden, did. She seemed to get through them alright, with only a few hours of crying. Since the 5th was also my birthday, we got to celebrate that by going to bed early! Lily also decided that her present to me would be one of those rare sleep-all-night nights that I dream of one day having every night. I couldn't have asked for a better gift. Starting on the 19th, Denver received about fifteen tons of snow. School and work were cancelled all over the city and we got to dig out our cars to go anywhere, not that there was anywhere worth going in 15 tons of snow! But Lily and I got to spend some fun days with Grandma, as she was off of work too. Then came all the excitement and festivities of Christmas. This year was the year for almost all the grandchildren (and therefore almost all the great-grandchildren) to come out to Colorado. Uncle Mike, Aunt Sarah, and cousin Eden came out, as well as Emilie and Jim, with Lexi and Anna. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Grandma, Mike, Sarah, Eden, and Sarah's mom and grandmother in a cabin in Estes Park. It was so great! We played games, ate a bunch of food, went shopping in Estes, and just generally laughed at the two little girls. That Eden is quite a hoot! Then for the afternoon we joined the rest of the extended family at Aunt Karen's house.
Since people had a few days off for the holidays, we went and did a number of things. We got to take Eden and Lily to the Children's Museum. Then Lily went with Bryce, Lexi, and Anna to the Zoo. The zoo was great fun, as we got to see a number of exotic animals that looked just as frozen as we were in the 30 degree weather. But the giraffe took advantage of the cold and found himself an icicle to lick. All in all, December was a great month!