All's well on the baby front this week. And the baby back. I still have the cutest baby in the world! Right now she's looking particularly stylish in her little Longhorn polo onsie. :) She still likes to look at the baby in the mirror, but not as much as she likes to play with this musical flowers toy she has. Right now she's licking it...

She seems to think that Mommy and Daddy are pretty fun to play with too. Sometimes she'll just stare at me for a long time like she's mesmerized - it's really sweet! I thought it would be too early for her to show a real interest in books, but I've been reading them to her anyway. However, she's already staring at the pictures and reaching for the books!

She's still refusing to do much head lifting for us, but we at least know that she *can*. She does really like to be held sitting up so that she can look around freely.

I don't know how I forgot to mention this before - Lila slept through the night for the first time last night! She went to sleep around 9:30 p.m. and didn't wake up until 7 a.m.! :)

Here's Lila with her cousin, Hope. Hope is crazy about Lila and can't wait for her baby sister to be born! :) 

Doug, Lila, Grammie and Keith. Lila got a *lot* of attention on Thanksgiving Day! 

Papa Joe, Grammie, Hope and Lila. This shot was taken during the family photo fest. 

Doug, Lila, and I got back to town yesterday evening and are all enjoying the comforts of home! We had a *great* time in Houston and it was hard to leave, but once we got back here I realized how much I missed my house. :) Lila was pretty much the center of the universe while we were at Grammie and Papa Joe's. She got more attention than she even wanted sometimes, but she handled it very well!

Funny and disturbing - she waited until we got home last night to poop, at which point it had been almost exactly ONE WEEK since the last time she did it! Eek! Doug is battling our laundry monster today and doing a fabulous job! There was quite a bit needing to be washed before we left and after we tossed in all the clothes from the trip it was just ridiculous. Now it's off to church in a little while and a relaxing day of spending time together...

Lila was officially 3 months old on Monday. She's such a big girl! As you can see from the photos below, she did her first little baby push-up in the bath a couple of nights ago. She still won't do it outside the bath though. We give her at leat a few minutes of belly time every day, but she doesn't like it. She'll either get frustrated and fussy or just start falling asleep (or both). At least we know now that she *can* lift herself up! She's also good at rotating in a clockwise direction while lying on her back. :o)~

She's totally into looking at what's around her now. And she usually decides the most interesting thing is whatever requires her to crane her neck into an unnatural position to see it!

Well, it's off to Houston in a few hours. Here's hoping the drive is uneventful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Why are babies in hats so cute?!? 

This was the first time she did a little baby push-up. What a big girl! 

This is the first time she's actually grabbed one of the toys hanging above her! How fun! 

Lila laughed out loud for the first time while awake yesterday! She's done it in her sleep a couple of times, which is very funny to hear. Yesterday I was holding her and she just laughed. I'm not sure she did it because she thought something was funny or just because it was a noise to make though. She wasn't smiling when she did it. I got all excited and made the noise back at her and she did it again! Too cute!

Doug did something funny yesterday too - he spewed a mouthful of water all over the kitchen table. He was taking a drink and I said something that he thought was funny (i wasn't *trying* to be funny) and choked and - SPEW! It surprised me and I screamed, which I thought for sure would wake Lila up since she was asleep in the living room, but she slept right through it! Maybe you had to be there, but it was very funny. :)

Doug and I are going to see the new Harry Potter movie at noon! Hehe hehe hehe... We're going to see it at the Alamo Drafthouse where they are serving Butterbeer and Pumpking Juice and other Harry Potterish things! :o)~

So, I've already started packing Lila's bags for our trip to Houston. The non-essential things, obviously. I also have an ongoing list of things that we'll need to make sure we remember to pack before we go. Baby wipes, Extra Pacifier, Manual Breast Pump (do i have one of those?), Pack 'n' Play, Boppy, etc. etc. etc. I know that even if I forget something, it will be fine.

I just want the trip to be as smooth and bump-free as possible. Lila keeps us on our toes enough without me forgetting to bring something essential. Like socks. We don't want those *teeny tiny toes* to get cold!

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week?!? Time has been going by so quickly since Lila was born. I feel like the holidays are going to be over before I know it! We're going to visit Doug's family in Houston for Thanksgiving. This will be our first trip with Lila and I'm a bit nervous. She is generally a really easy baby and doesn't mind being in the car.

However, driving to Houston is a bit different than just driving across town. I'm guessing that one of us will be riding in the back seat at least part of the time and I want to stop periodically to take her out of the car seat and play for a few minutes. So... this trip might take more than the usual 2.5 hours! This will also be our first overnight visit since she was born, which means that we'll be packing a *lot* of stuff. I hope I don't forget anything!

Lila wearing some very silly house shoes. 

Father an Daughter spending some "quality" time together. 

"Umm... Dad... I don't think this is how you put on a cloth diaper..." 

Lila letting me know how she felt about being burped, bathed, clothed/jacketed/socked, and put in her car seat... 

Already a Longhorn fan... :) 

This is Baby Dedication day (some new photos that uncle Keith took). 

Everyone had a good time! 

Lila is almost three months old. While I can't believe she's getting so big, it also feels like we've had a baby for longer than three months! Crazy! She's still a happy girl who talks (coos) a lot. In fact, she's currently talking to the ceiling fan. Makes lots of funny noises, but it's still mostly grunts and coos. She gave a real laugh for the first time this weekend - in her sleep!

I talk to her a lot, of course. Sometimes we have little conversations and Doug and I amuse ourselves greatly by "interpreting" what she's saying. I read an idea about putting a tape recorder by her to preserve her first sounds. I don't think we actually have a tape recorder, but we can record her talking with the video camera. She probably won't appreciate the videos of herself until she's grown, but I enjoy them.

We have a funny clip of Doug making her dance when she was just about a month old and I've made nearly everyone who has come into our house since then watch it! :o)~

I had what I think was a pretty major accomplishment last night - I cooked dinner! And it wasn't macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. I made Garlic Baked Potatoes and chicken breasts with bell peppers and onions. And it was all pretty good! Of course, Lila had to spend some time sitting in the swing, watching me cook, but that was because she decided to stop taking naps yesterday afternoon.

She was normal in the morning, but from lunchtime on I couldn't get her to sleep for more than five or ten minutes! I suppose she would have slept longer if I'd let her sleep on my chest, but I had other plans. I wanted to do exciting things like laundry and cleaning our bedroom, but she decided I didn't really need to do those things. Anyway - dinner - it was good and we got to have a relaxing evening afterward! :)

I find myself with a rare lack of things to talk about today. So I guess you'll get random thoughts... Does anyone know how to go about getting published in a magazine? I mean, I haven't done any research myself yet, but I'd like to submit a funny story or a devotional or anything really, but I don't know where to begin.

Have I told you about trying to take my child's thumb off while trimming her nails? It was the first time I'd gotten any skin and it was pretty bad. I mean, it was a tiny little boo-boo, but it was on a tiny little thumb, so it looked really bad. She even ended up with two miniscule dots of blood on her shirt. I felt awful! Especially since she had just had her shots at the doctor the day before and wasn't feeling very well. She, of course, recovered from the ordeal much more quickly than I did!

Lila is finally big enough to fit into lots of cute 3-6 month clothes. Unfortunately, she pees, poops, or spits up on these cute outfits with amazing speed. 

Lila with her Noni before Meredith's wedding. This dress was our second choice - she peed out the back of her diaper onto the first outfit *while I was putting it on*! 

This outfit lasted about one hour before she peed out the side of her diaper. Isn't it cute?!? 

Brief baby update: Lila is staying very busy these days, looking at and listening to all the things around her. She is starting to get into touching things too (faces, toys). I've assisted her in petting the kitties so she can feel their soft fur (and to get them used to it)! She enjoys looking at (and sometimes grabbing for) all of her toys, but Frilly the pink stuffed horse is her definite favorite.

Now for a story: My cousin Meredith got married this weekend. The wedding went great and she looked like she stepped from the pages of a bridal magazine. Beautiful! It was a fun reception and Lila got a *lot* of attention. After my aunt Teresa got through with her, she had lipstick marks all over both cheeks! We kept her out pretty late though and by the time we got home she was so tired she was just nuts!

Here's the part that could only happen to me... During the reception, Lila had a poopie. So, I grabbed all the gear for changing here and headed for the ladies' room. The reception was at a really nice place so it had very nice restrooms as well. Well decorated and solid wood doors on the stalls. One of the stalls was larger than the other and had a little table in there (not ideal for changing a diaper, but passable since I'd have my hands on lila the whole time) so that's where we went for the change.

I carried Lila in, closed the door, locked it, and then checked the door handle to make sure it was really locked... and the handle came off in my hand. I did not panic at this point because the lock was a separate knob that you turn and I figured I could pull on that to open the door. So I went on with the diaper change, got Lila clothed again, loaded everything up, unlocked the door and pulled.

Nothing. The door wouldn't open. We were LOCKED in the bathroom! Okay, not to worry - I'll call out to someone else in the restroom and they can open the door from the outside. I started calling and no one could hear me! I knew there were people out there because I could hear them, but between the wood door and the party going on they couldn't hear me!

At this point I did begin to get kind of freaked out. And to make matters worse, Lila (who was already getting quite tired) could tell that I was freaked out so she got scared and started crying. My child does not cry. She fusses, but I can count on my fingers the number of times she's really cried! So I'm locked in the bathroom with my crying baby and no one can hear me!

I tried to calm her down, but it wasn't working so I had to put her down (on the floor on her changing pad) and let her cry while I tried to get the door open. Not good for the nerves! I tried sticking the door handle back on or at least holding it on to turn the mechanism inside. No good. At this point I was imagining us being stuck in there until someone got worried enough to come and find us.

Then I noticed that there was a window in the room. Oh, please tell me it opens... it does! So I open the window (i've picked lila up by now, but she's still crying) and look out. There just happens to be one guy out there enjoying the view, so I start calling to him. I'm pretty sure he thought I was a total fruitcake, but he came close enough for me to tell him that we were locked in the ladies' room and ask for help.

While he was gone getting someone to rescue us, I was wondering if the door would even open from the outside. I was picturing myself having to hand the baby out the window to someone and then climbing out in my dress and heels. Oy. Thankfully, someone who worked there came and let us out - the door opened without a problem. I was only annoyed that she didn't seem to think this was a big deal at all!

Once we were out and among the people again I started to calm down and Lila started to calm down. I gave her to Doug for some snuggles since *he* wasn't the one who had locked her in a bathroom. Whew! That's going to make me think twice about going into one of those full-door bathrooms again. Especially with a baby!

I had a new adventure with Lila today. She and I went out to run errands this morning and she really did quite well. I had a long list of things I wanted to do and figured I'd just keep going until she got tired of it and then we'd come home. I actually made it most of the way through the list! She finally started to get hungry while we were at Victoria's Secret and to make sure that I couldn't put her off until we got home, she also pooped.

So, I got to change an icky diaper and nurse Lila in the dressing room of Victoria's Secret. That all went relatively well. However, while I was standing in the check-out line, trying to hold her and maneuver the stroller with a pile of bags on it, she decided to spit up all over me! Yuck! Better me than the merchandise, I suppose... :o)~

Lila and Grammie - look at that big ol' head! (Lila's. Not Grammie's.) 

A very sad little girl who had her first round of vaccinations and didn't feel well. Mommy felt so bad that she bought her a kitty and Lila named her Hiccup. :( 

"Can I help you?" 

Our little Longhorn. She's got spirit, yes she do, she's got spirit, how 'bout you? 

Isn't she cute?!? 

If you are pretty sure that a discussion of baby poop will disgust you, then don't read this post.

We started giving Lila a vitamin supplement on Monday (because, according to the pediatrician, breastfed babies don't get enough vitamin d). On Tuesday, her poopie turned green! I was pretty sure this was due to the vitamin, but called the doctor's office just to check. Turns out that, yes, the Iron in the vitamins we're giving her can make the poopie change color and/or consistency. Call back if they get firm, difficult to pass, or mucousy.

Okay, so this morning she had one that I would describe as mucousy (it was also abundant and smelly). I called the doctor's office again and spoke to a different nurse who said she didn't really worry about mucousy poopies (she didn't use the word 'poopie') unless the baby is also acting like she doesn't feel well. Well, Lila seems to be feeling fine, she just has weird poopies! :o)~