My favorite holiday ever

I'm sorry, for some reason, my computer isn't letting me put these pictures in order. So they're a little jumbled.

I like the Archer slide show. It continues down at the bottom.





Yesterday, we went to visit Tyler's brother Jason and his fiance Megan in Huntington Beach. I felt like such a bad mother because I didn't bring a jacket for Lillian. It was so windy: my hair isn't in a rubber band, that's just the wind.


And, we're back to the picnic.





All the kids did relatively well with the fireworks. Lillian was more confused than scared, and Archer had his protective ear wear, which, I'm sorry to say, I don't have a picture of. But, it was great.

Thanks everyone for such a great holiday!

The skinny on Lillian's head

So, as most of you know, Lillian has an abnormally small head. On our pediatrician's advice, we went to a pediatric neurologist this morning. She said if someone had handed her Lillian's growth chart, she would have guessed that there was a 98% chance that she would have had mental delays or been mentally or physically handicapped. But, after looking at her, she says that in her opinion, she just has a small head.

So, we're supposed to keep our eye out for anything abnormal. But, as for now, she's as normal as they come: she crawls like a champ, can pull herself up to standing, has a good parachute reflex, gets into the kitchen drawers and cabinets and pulls out all the tupperware and bowls, she even says a few words (woah, bye-bye, thank you, and eye).

On a side note, the neurologist even measured my and Tyler's heads, and all those people who made fun of me for having a big head can just eat their words, because my head is 50th percentile! Tyler's head is a bit bigger, coming in the 60th percentile, so you can still make fun of him, I guess.

Antigen Matching

I just got a call from Johns Hopkins. I'm 2 out of 6 matching antigens. Whatever that means. She said the person with the closest to 6 out of 6 wins. Anyone else?

I think she likes it.

Beach Day

We're throwing a party for our friends who are graduating and/or moving away. We decided to have a corn feed at the beach, so we thought we'd go down and check out the scene, and see if Lillian was into it. She did OK.




I made her touch the water, and she hated it.

PS, I didn't know what a corn feed was until I moved to San Luis Obispo, so I don't know if that's a normal term or what, but basically, you cook the corn in the husk in sea water. It's really good.

Cottage Cheese

Apparently, I wasn't doing it fast enough with the spoon. She got so frustrated that she started grabbing it off the spoon and putting it in her mouth herself. So, we cut out the middle man.

The black hole

It's convenient to blame the recent black-hole quality our apartment has assumed on a certain little one with little hands that move things from one place to another. However, when said little one moves things, it's usually from the middle of one room, to the middle of another. At most, she'll take a shoe out of my closet and try to put it in a drawer in the kitchen. The following two items have disappeared into thin air: Tyler's watch and one of Lillian's church shoes. Just gone. The fingernail clippers were lost as well, which is what prompted me to write this entry, but I found them as I sat down at the computer.

So, keep your eyes open for the watch. Tyler's really starting to miss it.

It's almost over!

For a year now, Tyler has been working on his senior design project, "Odin's Fury." It's a cargo plane that had to be able to take off and land in a short distance on a muddy field and carry something so wide, so tall, and so heavy. Tyler's touching a model of the plane. Last night, they had their poster reception and today is the final symposium. Hooray! This project has meant lots of late nights, group meetings at all hours, weekend trips to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Edward's AFB, and other places I can't recall.

I overheard him talking to Lillian last night saying, "After tomorrow, I can be your dad again. We'll play together and go on walks."


If you look at the pictures on the left, you can see that Odin's Fury can carry a tank, cargo, and storm troopers.

Mohawk

While getting ready for church this morning, Tyler re-styled Lillian's hair.

It didn't lay right all day.

Boo allergies

Year one: I never had allergies until I moved to San Luis Obispo. My first spring here, I thought I had a cold that was lasting for months. Tyler suggested it could be allergies, so I got a prescription for Allegra, and life was wonderful again.

Year two: My second spring here, I was married and had no insurance. I got through the first part of allergy season with a lot of Kleenexes and Claritin, but was still mostly miserable. Then, I experienced something called Eustachian tube malfunction (Caitlin, I know you feel me on this), and I couldn't hear or breathe, or see. Thus, going from mostly miserable, to all miserable.

Year three: I was pregnant and developed asthma to go along with my allergies. My doctor said that Claritin was no longer an option, so I got along with Benedryl and lived in a fog for 3 months. Then my asthma got worse, so I had to use a steroid inhaler, which gave me a permanent sore throat.

Year four: Which brings us up to date. I took a Claritin the other day, and it did about as much good a mint. I tried a Benedryl against medical advice, and Lillian slept for 17 hours. What to do? I bought some allergy relief eye drops, but the soothing relief promised remained illusive. Then, I saw it on Oprah:
The one they had on TV looked like a little tea pot but they didn't sell those at the neighborhood Rite Aid. This is the one I bought, and it's essentially a squirt bottle. It comes with little salt packets, so you mix up your own saline, and rinse out your nose. It's very far from what I'd call 'pleasant.' I do it twice a day and while it doesn't keep me 100% allergy free, it keeps me at a tolerable level.

Garden!

I decided I wanted a garden, which was tricky because of our living situation: upstairs apartment, all parking lot, no grass. So, I had Tyler build a planter that would stick in between the cars and the gate at the end of the parking lot.


Our bishop lives on a couple acres, so we went up to his property and asked if we could dig a hole. Not only did he give us that dirt, he also donated their compost pile, which is contained in the black trash bag.




Because we got started late, we just bought starter plants. Italian giant and Sugar sweet tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, basil, red bell pepper, cucumber, watermelon, and in seed form: romaine lettuce, giant radishes, and one pumpkin.

The dog sweater

I have a friend named Patrick. Patrick is an engineer, a mechanical engineer I believe.


Whether it's the fact that he's Chinese or an engineer, I'm not sure, but Patrick views the world very differently.


He thought about what to get Lillian. He pictured a baby crawling and thought, "babies crawl on all fours, just like a dog.


"Wouldn't it stand to reason that if a baby assumes the posture of a dog, then dog clothing would fit much better than people clothing, which is designed to have the arms coming out at the sides, instead of the front?"


And that is how Lillian came to be the proud owner of a doggie sweater.

Pillow to the face

Why do babies like this?

Easter Eggs

In the spirit of the Ashby family, we tried to take our easter egg dying up a notch this year. Notice the use of crayons, and this year met the debut of using candle wax.



Also, I came out of the bedroom to find this, and no Tyler, who was supposed to be watching the baby. Apparently, he found a new babysitter.

Bib Advice

Lillian hates her bib. Sometimes. Well, maybe 70% of the time. If she forgets it's there, or if she doesn't see me put it on, there's no problem. But, other times... tonight, for example, Tyler was feeding blueberry and apple puree to a bibbed Lillian. She noticed her bib and started to tug at it, but I told Tyler to not let her take it off; who wants more laundry? She pulled and pulled until it came unvelcroed. Later that night during her bath, I noticed that in the throes of bib-pulling passion, she had actually cut up the back of her neck. That was a first, but is it the last?

Do I force her to wear one?

Do I just feed her naked?

Do I only feed her non-staining foods like cheerios and vanilla yogurt?

Do I just let all her shirts get stained?

Am I fighting a losing battle against the laundry anyway, thus any attempts at prohibiting staining or soiling are, in essence, futile?

Taggie blanket 1.0

With Allison's help and good suggestions, I have completed my first taggie blanket. It's pretty much just a square of fabric with little ribbon tags all along the outside. My husband was very confused about how the baby was going to fit into such a small blanket. It's not for wrapping them up, it's more of a toy.

Thanks Allison!

Alcatraz

When you break the rules, you go to prison. When you break the prison rules, you go to Alcatraz.


On the ferry.


Everyone around us thought this was pretty much the cutest thing they'd ever seen.


San Francisco from the island.


This cell was where Frank Morris made a dummy head to make it look like he was asleep, and with two others escaped through an air vent. They were never seen again.

Lillian was such a trooper. After this we took a bus to Chinatown, which for her, was the highlight of the trip; every bump in the road, every person who walked past, it was all pure ecstasy.