Baby oh baby

I have always been a “baby person”.  I was the one who babysat all the cousins and for just about everyone else we knew.  I worked at day cares and preschools.  I even nannied one very cute little girl for about a year.  Babies smile at me in the store and friends babys that won’t go to anyone else go to me.  People asked me all the time when I was going to have my own.  But one thing or another wasn’t “right’.  We were broke, or more importantly I was in a bad relationship.  Which some people didn’t think really mattered, but I did.  Then I got divorced and spent some time by myself getting my head together.

Then things were right.  I was married to my best friend and everything fell into place.   Fast forward 8 months and Lily’s born.  And boy let me tell you now I’m a true baby person.  I loved my cousins and all the other kids I took care of but none of it was like holding that little Peanut in my arms.  I even love all the hard stuff and parenting is full of hard stuff.

One of the hardest things and something that surprised me was that my baby is growing up.  Every day she is learning something new and no longer as helpless as she was the day before.  I love watching the little gears turn and discovery and excitement wash over her, it’s the greatest thing ever.  But I can’t imagine my little baby girl as a 1 year old or OMG a 10 year old.  I am just going to miss this little person so much when she’s gone.

I love all the decisions that parenting comes with.  Yes they are hard but each one of them shapes Lily just a little more.  I love being a stay at home Mom but could do without the stress of being a one income family.  I love deciding when and what to feed her because I’m hoping she isn’t as picky as I am.  I love deciding to cloth diaper because its more healthy for Lily (it doesn’t hurt that Bum Genius diapers look so cute on her) and I love being able to decide where Lily sleeps, which is usually with me.  I love making all the decisions that go with Lily, all the little every day ones to the big life altering ones.  They are all part of this crazy hard job and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In all of this I used “I” a lot but my Hubby helps me decide and stands behind me on the things that I feel are important.  Having Waldo as my partener in all of this is the best thing that I could do or my children and myself.  Having him by my side also helps me appreciate single parents more.  I have no idea how they do it all.

Go check out Tatiana’s Babies of 2009 Carnival at It was a Very Good Year.  Lily wasn’t born in 2009 but she only missed my a week.  🙂

6 months old

My Sweet girl is 6 months old now, I can’t hardly believe it. Where did the time go? It doesn’t seem like 6 months ago I was at the hospital asking what I was suppose to do with the squirmy little thing when we got her home. The doctor and nurse giggled.

Dear Lily,

My goodness this last month was a busy one for you my little sweet girl. You have had a few “firsts”, you grew a lot and you really matured. Some time over this last month people have pretty much stopped stopping us in every store to comment on how tiny you are. We still get told that you are beautiful all the time but rare are the amazingly tiny comments.

Some of the cool things from this past month are:

You had your first food
Lily's first food

You rolled back to front at our breastfeeding group, twice now.  It was on a table and scared/surprised me.

You giggled this sweet back of your throat spurt giggles (sort of like deep sort of cough but not really) and you only laugh when you are good and ready too.  Which I hear is a family trait.
26 weeks old

We have worked out a pretty good night time routine which includes a massage that you LOVE.

You have started to not scream every time I put you in the car seat.  You still cry I’d say 75% of the time but that 25% is a heavenly drive.

We celebrated your first father’s day
Lily and Daddy on Father's day

You are still wearing mostly 0-3 month clothes but some of the 3-6 month stuff sorta fits. In fact the cute purple outfit you wore in you week 26 picture is 0-3 and just about falls off.

You are finally using all those cloth diapers we bought before you were born. I love them. And one nice side effect is they help hold your pants up.

getting so big

You are my Buddy, my Partner in crime, my best friend.
Love,
Mama

Sorry I’m a couple of days late again.

First solid (sorta) food – nom nom nom

This past Sunday Lily had her first bit of sorta solid food. We went with homemade rice cereal. I wouldn’t have attempted making my own but Lindsey had just done a post about making her own and it seemed really simple so I went with it. It was really simple. I used organic sweet brown rice, which gave a nice little bit of sweetness to the cereal which was nice.

At first Lily had no idea what to do with the gloopy stuff I was putting in her mouth. But with each bite she got more and more of a hang of it. It was amazing to watch the little gears working.

First bite
Lily's first food

Rice cereal bubble
Lily's first food

The fingers are tasty too
Lily's first food

Lily's first food

Lily's first food

The food was everywhere by the end of it
Lily's first food

This is my first attempt at video editing.

Lily’s first solid food from Christy Wiggins on Vimeo.

Check out wholesomebabyfood.com for more homemade baby food recipes and information.  Its a great reasource.

*post edited to add links*