Growing Gormans: October 2012

Everything is "Umm." Lily will now look at something and say "Umm" or "Aumm." It's her new favorite word. She says "Mom" only when she's upset. Any other time I'm just "Umm" like everything else.
Lily is now crawling under and through things. Particularly Dan's and my legs (see the video below). She will actually make it a point to crawl under or through something if she sees an opportunity to do so.
Lily has gotten her 2nd tooth! It's right next to her 1st one on the bottom.
Lily turned 9 months old on Sunday, the 14th. I know I say this every month, but our baby girl is growing up so fast.
On Monday, the 15th, Lily had her 9 month checkup at the doctor's. She now weighs 20 pounds, 6 ounces, and is 28 inches tall. Yes, I am replacing "long" for "tall" with her height now. Since she can stand up I figured it was time. Lily dropped from the 97th percentile in weight to 56. She is 54th percentile in height, and 67th percentile in her head circumference.
Lily got her first flu shot Monday during her checkup. She did great. Only cried for a couple of seconds. Afterward, she passed out in the car and didn't even wake up when I took her out of her car seat to go into the stroller.
If I forgot to mention it last week, Lily is now in the regular car seat instead of the infant carrier. Still facing backwards though until she turns one. It was more roomy for her to be in the bigger seat when we went upstate and I decided I wasn't going to put the other one back in the car when we got back since it was a major pain to get it in. The only thing that sucks about having the regular car seat is that if Lily does fall asleep, there is a great chance that she will wake up when I take her out of the car. With the infant carrier, we could just leave her in it until she woke up, and move her anywhere we wanted. Oh well. We knew it wasn't going to last forever.
On Wednesday, the 17th, we started giving Lily snacks that she can pick up and eat herself. Yogurt melts, cheese doodle type looking things, wheel things that smell like maple syrup. Lily likes to eat them and gets extremely excited and happy. We're also starting her on meat, which she isn't too excited about.
On Thursday, the 18th, I brought Lily with me to my Lymphedema doctor's appointment. While waiting, an older woman kept saying that Lily was a boy. I kept correcting her, but she kept making the mistake. Her explanation of calling Lily a boy was - 1: "All baby clothes these days are the same for boys and girls." Lily was wearing a pink and yellow flowered shirt. 2: "Oh, I guess it's because of how short her hair is." Uh, DUH! She's a baby. Babies don't have long flowing hair at 9 months old you idiot!

This Week In Pictures

I absolutely L-O-V-E Lily's sweater!

"Who are those cute boys on the vase?"

"OH! They're my cousins Greg Jr and Garrett!"

Who's on the phone Grandpa?

Choices, Choices. What to play with? (she picked the wooden spoon)

This Week In Videos

This is a long one, but well worth the watch - especially after the 3 minute mark!

The loud noise you hear is the landscapers outside.

My MIL is too funny. Listen to the very last thing she says before I decided to end the video.

I love it when Lily gets excited about something. She breathes really hard in and out through her nose!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Week 37

On Saturday, the 29th, we dropped Lily off at my parents house for her first sleepover so Dan and I could have a night to ourselves to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary. Dan and I had a nice dinner at Sakura, a hibachi japanese place on Main Street in Farmingdale. Then we went home and relaxed. We were very tired from Friday night. Lily kept us up ALL night. She just wouldn't stay asleep. So, good for Dan and I that we got to sleep peacefully Saturday night even though I missed Lily terribly. Bad for my parents and sisters who were up all night with Lily.
On Monday, the 1st, Lily said "Mom." I swear she did. I would point to myself and say "Mommy" and Lily would respond with "Mom." Dan heard it so I'm not making it up! It feels good to hear, but it will feel even better when I know for sure that she actually knows I am Mom.
Also on Monday, the 1st, Lily started giving things to us. She reached out her arm to me as she was holding a toy. I took it and she laughed. She did the same thing Monday night with Dan. She reached out her arm to him as she was holding a water teether. She put it to Dan's mouth and laughed when he took it.
Sometime this week (I forgot to write down the exact day) Lily started making raspberry sounds with her mouth.

Week 38

On Saturday, the 6th, Dan, Lily, and I went upstate to Hamburg for a wedding. An 8 hour car ride that took 11. It started out bad as we were stuck in traffic near the G W bridge for about 1-1/2 hours. While stuck in traffic (non moving BTW) Dan got sick and threw up. Luckily we had a plastic bag in the car. Lily was terrific for the ride. We stopped about every 3 hours to feed and change her. She never complained, except when we were about 20 minutes from our hotel. By that point it was almost at the 11 hour mark strapped down in her car seat with little activity all day. Dan and I are so proud of her!
Because Lily had little to no activity for the 11 hour car ride Saturday, she did not want to go to sleep. She was a little delirious by that point and was laughing for no apparent reason. She would stand up in the pack n play to see Dan, then she would move to the other side to see me. She did this about 20 times in a row. Lily did have a first that night: She walked a bit holding onto the edge of the pack n play! She's gonna be walking in no time - Oh No!!
On Sunday, the 7th, since the wedding wasn't until 5pm, we decided to go to Niagara Falls. A 45 minute car ride seemed like a breeze after the 11 hour one we had the day before. It wasn't the best weather upstate. It was cloudy and cold with a light drizzle from time to time. For some God awful reason, we decided to go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride. For those who don't know what that is, it's a boat that takes you into the horseshoe of the waterfall. They should rename the boat to the Maid of the Downpour. Seriously, what a bad parenting mistake by us. Even with those rain bags over us, we still got drenched. Poor Lily. She cried the whole time. All I could do was give dirty looks to Dan while trying my hardest to hold onto Lily and not get swept away by the wind and water. I know it was not Dan's fault and I wasn't mad at him, but I was pissed that I agreed to take the boat ride with Lily. After it was over, I removed Lily's drenched socks and I wrapped her in my arms with a dry fleece wrap I had. Almost immediately, she passed out. All of her crying and being on that boat going through the Falls really exhausted her. She was wiped out!
Sunday night was the wedding in Orchard Park, NY. Dan's cousin Kathleen's son, Keith, got married. This was Lily's first wedding. Her second will be her uncle K.C.'s in 5 months.
Monday, the 8th, we headed home. This time it took us a little more than 9 hours. What a difference from the ride up.
On a side note, why is it that once we got off the Island, there was absolutely no changing stations for babies in any of the places we stopped at. We stopped at a couple of Mc Donald's, an Arby's, and a Wendy's. There wasn't even a changing station in the rest room of Niagara Falls information center. WTF is up with that? You go anywhere here on Long Island and even the men's rooms have changing stations (or so I am told). When I asked a worker at each of these locations we stopped at if they had one (after not seeing it in the rest rooms) They all said no like it wasn't something that they would even think to have. The only place that said they were trying to get one installed but their corporate office keeps saying no was Arby's. I hated changing Lily's diaper right in the middle of the restaurants with people around, but what else was I to do? Now I was "one of those parents."
On Tuesday, the 9th, Dan took Lily to her Tots-On-Track class. Dan had taken off from work was part of his mini-vaca for this wedding trip. Since he was off, I suggested that he take her to class so he could see Lily interact with the other babies her age. I enjoyed the time to myself. I did the laundry - and folded it! And I even scrubbed the tub. All this without any interruptions. It was nice (how sad is that?).