11.11.11

Today is a special day. Lila is 9 months old! It is crazy how much we love her every day and the joy she brings to our lives even though she is basically just an inconvenience to the rest of our lives. (Only from a totally objective point of view, of course). In reality she is the most wonderful little responsibility we have ever had. Here are some things about her:

suddenly hates diaper changes. her sparse hair is just a bit thicker. graduating to size 12 month clothes. will laugh every time you throw her in the air. pro crawler. will stand against anything that will hold her weight. loves cups and spoons. learning how to use a sippy cup- currently bites the transitional sippy cup nipple, feels the liquid come out, and pulls the cup away to play with the liquid in her mouth, to later bite the nipple again for another taste. wears size 3 diapers. won't take a bottle or a binky. decided not not like any food except her grain cereals. much of the time is only happy when mommy is holding her. scared of her grandpa Faber. does her sway dance when standing on just about anything. loves mirrors. licks her reflection in the mirror. still scratches like crazy. is learning that when mommy feeds her there are 2 sides. puts her arms through sleeves. has had some mini tantrums. loves holding chapstick, hasn't figured out how to take the lid off yet. loves pulling at mommys jewelry. likes going places and watching new things. loves cords and outlets (we finally got outlet covers, whew!) just gets cuter every day.

Lila's new thing is to freak out when we try to change her diaper, flip over, and hang over the side of her changing table to try and touch the diaper genie. On her back, screaming bloody murder. Once she flips over, totally quiet. crazy lady!

Something exciting

We have something exciting brewing. I have been thinking a lot about it, while at the same time not thinking about it because I don't want to get my hopes up. A lot of things have to come together in order for it to work out. But it would be oh, so glorious.

I would be happier, and get to do something I really want to do.

Todd would be happier, and get to try something he really wants to try.

Lila would be happier too.

We would learn new things.

We would make good (even best) friends.

We might be able to make good use of our home.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, that is because either I don't want you to know since it is not official and I'll be crushed if it doesn't happen, or because I just haven't told you yet. Or you just aren't smart enough to figure out that what I told you about is what I am referring to in this post... If you do know, wish us luck!

Halloween

Aside from the sore lack of trick-or-treaters, Halloween was pretty good. Todd's brother Scott and his wife, Lisa hosted a great Halloween party on Saturday night. There was a lot of good food and costumes and we played some fun games. Lisa even thought of a GREAT idea and made a little wall where we could all take pictures of our families. We played mafia and the mafia won every time. Good thing I won twice! I guess I have an affinity to draw the evil roles. Lila was adorable in her costume.

Usually it is like pulling teeth to get any of the Itri boys to dress up. So Todd assumed this year was the same. I tried to tell him that at a recent Itri wives girls night we all vowed to make our husbands dress up. But he didn't listen. So when he found out I was right and he looked like a goon as the only one not dressed up, he let me take a makeup crayon to his face. He was Star Burns from Community. Oh and I dressed up as a flapper. I also have some pictures of me in my Halloween scrub top before work on Friday night. It's the only festive scrub top I own. I don't even have a Christmas one.

Dance Dance Dance

Lila has become quite the little dancer. Want a taste? here you go!

Happy Halloween.

Well. It is now 10:12 p.m. Our door has been graced all of 4 times by masqueraders looking for a sweet treat. I guess it's time to turn out the light, and soak my depression up in the remaining chocolate.

I had high hopes for my new home.

The girl

Sometimes that's what we call her. Here are some of the latest:

She sucked on her thumb a few times. It hasn't really become a habit though.

She wakes up with bedhead:

She smiles:

And frowns:

Sometimes Husbands are Nice

Look what Todd bought for me.

Dread Callings

So remember how I posted a while back about dread callings? Well Todd got out of his. Got a new calling. A little more busy but much more his kind of calling. But me? Well I'm just getting into the thick of it.

I put off my choir directing duties until September. A lot of wards take the summer off so don't judge. Anyway, so far we have had 5 rehearsals. A total of 1 male has come. Luckily he has come every week, but we had to make practice at 9:30 a.m. just to accommodate his meetings. Pretty sad when you have to change your whole choir time for 1 male voice. Besides that we had 4 ladies. 4 gals and 1 guy doesn't make for much of a choir. And then there's the thing where my pianist can't play the piano. I love the woman, I really do. And I am so grateful that she practices the songs. But it is just hard to teach a choir their parts when they can't even hear the piano play it right. So now my dread calling is a little more dreadlier.

However, I have seen a bit of light today. So the first several weeks we were working on "This is the Christ." I am so smart that I thought it was a hymn and we were just singing a different version of it. I thought it wouldn't be too hard because the notes and the print was big. Ha Ha. Shows how much I know! There is a nice little acapella section, we change keys I think 3 or 4 times, and the sopranos end on a high F. I guess I should have looked at it a little closer! So the good news is that we will probably sing it for Easter (yes, I typed that correctly), and we moved on to a hymn from the hymnbook. My pianist is playing that beautifully, and we had 3, yes 3 new ladies join us today. And one of them can comfortably hit that high F in This is the Christ. We sounded so much better. One of them is going to bring her husband next week. And there are 2 members of the bishopric that will sing with us. We might have a choir after all!

Welcome home, Elder Darren

My little brother came home! He was on a mission in Canada for 2 years. He got back 1 week ago today. It was weird, I wasn't sure what to do since I have never been there for anyone's actual homecoming before. And there is a possibility I might never have another sibling go on a mission, so the pressure was on to get it right!

Here we are anxiously waiting. There was one missionary who came down by himself about 10 minutes before Darren did, so we were all worked up over that for a while.

Then later, we finally saw the group of black suits through the very small area that we could see people walking before they got to the escalator, and then down he came!

So I love this picture because of my dad. I wish you could see his face a little better, but I watched him for a few minutes and it reminded me what a wonderful dad I have. He had tears in his eyes and you could see that while I'm sure he was glad to see his son, that's not why he was so happy. I know my daddy was so proud of his son for completing an honorable mission, and thats where his real happiness was.

Lila Meets her uncle! A little rocky at first, but when mommy got close she warmed up.

Mommy and Lila hangin out while everyone else gets to say hello to Darren.

Lila is 8 months old!

Here are some things about her:

loves to crawl and roll. stopped taking a bottle. still no hair improvement. still in size 2 diapers (until we run out). likes to swing and slide with mommy at the park. loves her daddy. curious. can't sleep if it's too cold. climbs up on furniture. still loves to pull hair. starting to turn her nose up at any food but grain cereal. stayed in the chapel for a whole sacrament once. is always loud (happy or sad) in sunday school. met her uncle Darren! squeals with glee any time you help her walk. loves other kids and trying to grab their faces. mommy is her favorite. still doesn't sit more than 5 seconds. when she wants to be held she will try to follow mommy around a room, changing directions every few seconds as mommy runs around cleaning or getting ready. probably still hates binkys but we stopped trying. can play with electronics, cords, CDs, paper, or other no-no items forever, but gets bored of her normal toys in less than a minute. wears size 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes. tried a sippy cup- no luck. Won't put small items in her mouth. parents say HALLELUJAH! to that. doesn't like baths but stays quite and mostly holds still during them. we think she is starting to recognize mommy's voice on the phone when she calls from work. still loves the outdoors. brightens every single day in our home.

I worked today, so my pictures are limited to the short time I've been home, but here's what I got. Please take note of her playing with my lunch for tomorrow. A burrito in a baggie. That kept her entertained for at least 10 minutes-we had to take it away from her- while her toy landed on the floor only a few moments after she stuck it in her mouth.

Addendum: after posting about my little lady, I was feeding her some applesauce (not very successfully), and she started clapping! It was so cute. I love her.

Bum Sleeping

One of the cutest things babies do is sleep with their bum in the air. It is just so dang adorable.

Stressed

Have you ever been so stressed that your head just starts hurting? Like the long-term kind of stress. As in days long-term (as opposed to hours). It's like my head actually hurts, rather than I have a headache. Impossible to describe. Just so many things. Hard things. Frustrating things. Unfair things. Sad things. I just hope it ends soon.

I have gotten to the point where when people ask me how I am I can't even say I'm fine. I tell them that I'm not doing that well.

But, just so you know, I am aware of how freaking awesomely amazing my life is. Yes, I do know that despite all the day to day stinky stuff, I still have a beautiful and healthy daughter, a husband who loves me and is on track to be able to take care of me the rest of my life, a good job that pays well in the meantime, a wonderful (and true) religion to help guide my life, safety and security in a my community, more than enough food to eat, and loving family close by both on my side and Todd's. So yes, I do understand that in the broad scheme of things I have no room to complain.

But yet, my head still hurts.

I'm crafty!

I did something crafty. I am not very creative so this is a big thing for me! Here is a picture of our old desk. We weren't really using it anymore, and we were going to give it to DI. But instead I did this:

My niece and nephew have already gone to town on it. It kept them entertained for quite a while. Mission accomplished! Of course it doesn't really erase very well, but I don't think the little kids will care that much.

Teefers!

I finally caught those little buggers on camera!

Comments

I love comments! Every time I post I check for the next few days to see if anyone has commented on my fun and witty passages. (haha). So I am making a concerted effort to comment more on the blogs that I read. I love to read them, I love when people update them. And most of the time I thoroughly enjoy all that I read. And now I will try to be better at telling you all. Yes. We'll see how long this lasts.

Root Canal and Fruit for Breakfast

Yes. I am the unlucky one. I thought I was taking good care of my teeth. I had a cavity filled right before I got married. I had done well since then, no new cavities to be filled. But at my last cleaning in January, I found out it had cracked. My dentist fixed it the same week Lila was born. It was sore for a while, then the pain would wax and wane. It was worst when I would eat. But I just had a new baby, then I started back at work so I ignored it until my new cleaning. Yup. Infected. Root canal. My dentist said some teeth can't handle having too much work done on them. This particular cavity had been difficult, I remember both times, different dentists getting that "hmmm. how should I go at this?" face and the appointments taking extra long.

So yesterday I had my root canal. One of the roots would't stop making pus, so it was hard for my dentist to dry it in order to fill it. Yummy huh? Aren't you glad I'm going in to such detail? Anyway, I am lucky he was eventually able to dry it because if he couldn't he would have had to leave it open to drain and I would have had to come back later to get it filled. So he was able to fill it, but said it would probably hurt a lot as my tooth tried to make more pus and pushed against the filling. Well, he was right. I had Top Ramen for dinner with the noodles all broken into little pieces so I could swallow without chewing. Whenever I accidentally touched my teeth together, it caused sharp, stabbing pain. Some ibuprofen every 6 hours didn't quite take that away.

So this morning I knew I would starve unless I got something to eat that was chew-less. So I loaded Lila into the stroller, and walked to jamba juice. It is only about 8 blocks there, some good exercise, and of course Lila loved it since she got to be outside. Then when we got home I fed her some bananas. And she went for it! I think she finally decided she really liked them. She did eat them one other time in the evening, but this was the 5th attempt, so she is 2 for 5 on bananas. I think she is doing a lot better in general about eating. I think at first maybe she just didn't want anything other than milk. The spoon and the new flavors were a bit much for her. But now she is slowly getting used to it and I think she likes it more and more. So we had a nice morning with fruit for breakfast!

Lila turned 7 months old on Sunday!

Lila has been growing like crazy. She is more fun every day. Here are some things about her:

ticklish. smiles. usually takes 2 naps a day. wakes up to eat once a night. either doesn't like eating in the morning or doesn't like fruit. crawling. little hair wispys are getting longer. has left scratches all over moms arms, face, chest, and back. doesn't really like baby toys. but loves mobiles. loves peas. hates turkey. likes squash. likes ham until you give her peas. loves mommy. loves sucking on paper. has two little half teeth on the bottom. I only found out about the teeth because I let her suck on my finger. loves the outdoors. walks when you hold her hands for her. still likes pulling hair. gets lots of comments on her pretty eyes. smiles for the camera. won't let me get a picture of those teeth:

Dishes

Why are dishes so awful? Why do they pile up so high? How come they start to stink so fast? What makes the food stick so much to dishes that even procrastinating a little makes it seem as if they have become one? Why does it seem to take longer to clean up the dishes than cooking and eating combined? How did my mom convince me to use a food net catcher thingy over the drain to protect my garbage disposal? Isn't that why we have garbage disposals? So why do I do it anyway? Did you know I saw on the news once that the kitchen sink has the most germs on it? (compared to toilet flushers, playgrounds, doorknobs, cell phones, and a myriad of other everyday things).

Despite all this, I still feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when that sink is empty, the sink disinfected, and the dishwasher humming. I think I get some kind of pleasure out of doing such an awful task because I do it so well. Yes, I scrub each dish until it looks clean before putting it in the dishwasher, and most of the time I would rathe handwash the items that didn't fit in one load so I can officially empty the sink. I guess I probably go a bit overboard. But gosh dangit my dishes are sparkling and it's all because of me!

My favorite part of the day

So I have a new thing that has become my favorite thing to do on my days home alone with Lila. In order to understand why this is my favorite part of the day, you have to understand that I do not have a cuddly baby. She is so wiggly and hates to face me tummy to tummy. Any time I hold her that way she twists and fidgets until her back is towards me.

So in the mornings we get up and hang out for a while. Then I feed her and we go for a walk. We walk not too far to the park and swing on the swings. At first she sits on my lap. Then after a while I flip her around and she rests her head on my shoulder. For some reason the whole time we are swinging she doesn't wiggle at all. By the time I finally decide it's time to go home my bum is pretty much numb because I don't want to shift my weight on the swing and bother her stillness. Sometimes when we walk home I even wrestle with the stroller with one hand so I can keep her still against my chest. And if you have ever pushed my stroller you even with 2 hands it can be hard to keep it on course. But it is so worth it for the little while I get to have her so close to me.

Yup. Definitely my favorite part of the day.

Anniversary

So I started writing a post about our anniversary as we drove home from Colorodo. It turned out to be about 5 pages single spaced in my word processor, so I decided to use that for my journal and not bore you or post something so long that no one would read it. Instead here are some things about our trip.

1. We went to Denver

2. We saw the Phillies kill the Rockies. 3 times.

3. Lila hated it.

4. We ate good indian food.

5. We went shopping!

6. Everyone in the ballpark LOVED Lila in her Phillies onesies.

7. Once she didn't wear her onsie because she pooped for the first time in 5 days on the way to the park.

8. The extra onsie we had was Rockies colors. oops.

9. We left something one night and were able to retrieve it from the lost-and-found vault.

10. Our hotel room had a closet that fit the pack 'n play.

11. Lila didn't sleep well in it anyway.

12. We ate hot dogs at the ballpark!

13. We didn't get to see Cliff Lee pitch.

14. Megan likes live baseball! (saying that is about as shocking as when she announced she would be a nurse. I make this comparison to point out that I am NOT joking.)

15. Lila likes live baseball.

16. About half the fans there were Phillies fans.

17. Since we have a baby we got to park right across the park one night without a pass.

18. The rest of the time we were able to find free parking not too far.

19. People are a lot nicer to opposing fans if they have a baby.

20. I love you Todd. Happy anniversary.