Month 20

In June, we took an impromptu 5 day vacation to Riviera Maya in Mexico. No, this isn't the sort of thing we usually do It was one of those rare opportunities that come up when you have a job in the publishing industry. Sometimes PR companies randomly seeming send people on these awesome vacations completely paid for and this time it was Danielle's turn. She unfortunately had to turn down a trip to Orlando a few week prior due to my previously planned trip to Minneapolis. But this trip to Mexico promised to be even better. The fact that it was partially celebrity related and partially kid related made it the perfect trip to bring her family along on too. The purpose of the trip was to cover events surrounding a concert by a touring group on minor mostly singing celebrities as well as the opening of the Little Big Club children's center at the hotel that we were stayed at that was becoming a Hard Rock Hotel in the near future.

Unfortunately, it rained for the majority of the trip. Though with Lily, it's easy to have fun regardless. We danced, we swam, we ate lots of cookies, and we got to hang out with Barney. That's a pretty solid vacation for a one year old. For the opening of the Little Big Club children's center / daycare, everything was completely dripping in Barney, Thomas the Tank Engine (Train Tank), Bob the Builder, and Angelina Ballerina paraphernalia  And along with that opening was a red carpet and party with these guys, a whole stage show, and a breakfast with them the next morning, so Lily had plenty of opportunities to give Barney a hug and she didn't waste one of them.

One day when we got to the hotel after being out, there was an unexpected Barney performance in the Lobby. When Lily saw him, she flipped out. This was one of the highlights of the vacation for me. We put her down and she RAN for Barney, right pass the barriers and stopped and danced. She did her signature backward leg kicking move and spun around. When Barney was done with a song, she did her sign language for "more". When Barney started singing his "I love you..." song, she cried because she knew he was done. It was super adorable. At the end she got to go up for a hug. Well the way she hugs, head first saying "Awwwe". She didn't want him to go. The vacation could have ended right there and I would have been satisfied. She loved it so much.

Other notes from Mexico:

• We had a hot tub in our room. Tried it out, Lily only liked it when it was empty so that she could throw stuff into it. 
• She got a babysitter one night in the hotel. Played with some weird international kids. It went really well.
• Went on a tube ride at Xcaret. Lily wasn't so sure about it, but we strapped on a life vest and floated around for an hour while she just hung out and looked confused. 
• Went swimming at the hotel. Her favorite part was playing on the 4 inches of water perimeter around the pool, which scared the crap out of us. She also had some of those fun pool toys. What are those called... oh right, plastic cups.

I was happy to have all that time with my girls in Mexico since I spent 4 days in Minneapolis for the Eyeo festival. As much as I had fun out there, I was tough to be away. We tried to skype and learned that it's great when it works and completely awful when it only sort of does, which is the majority of the time. It's such a tease when you get audio but the video keeps freezing and going in and out. I don't have any plans on leaving for any length of time, but before I do, I'll be sure to have a reliable to spend virtual quality time with the fam.

The Photo Shoot

The day after our Cayman Island vacation, we booked a photo shoot with Sarah Jordan McCaffery, a photographer that we know from high school who does amazing portraits, especially of children. Call us crazy, but we booked it for Sunday morning after getting home from the airport 9 hours earlier. It was the only time we would be able to do this since she lives in Boston, and it was worth it. My sister Jen tagged along and served as assistant, student, and baby sitter. She was a great help. So here are some of our favorites shots from the shoot. You can see more here.

As you can see, Sarah did an amazing job. Definitely check her out if you're looking for a great child photographer.

Month 19

This month's major event was our family vacation to the Cayman Islands. It was Lily's first time as an international traveler and first time on a plane. We went with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Chris for a week and stayed in the family timeshare at Moritt's Tortuga Club. I've been hearing about this place for years, so it was good to see that it actually exists and that I'm not married into a delusional family that has collective memories of a made-up place.

We hadn't had a vacation since the year before, so we were ready. It was also mine and Danielle's first time flying since having Lily, so the flights were a bit more involved than we remembered them being. We were afraid how Lily would do with being constrained for 4 hours and with the pressure changes and everything. She was fine is our 9+ hour car rides to North Carolina, but there were breaks where she could run around at rest stops with jungle gyms. No such thing on an plane. I'd say she was pretty good, but definitely had bouts of boredom and/or frustration. It took a lot of work on our part to make sure she didn't have a meltdown. Being the wonderful Mom that she is, Danielle made sure we were well equipped. We brought all sorts of snacks, a DVD player with a stack of movies, toys, stickers, and coloring books. When we went through all of those things and it was time for a nap, all we needed was our secret weapon, Grandma. Everyone took turns trying to entertain her on the plane, but Grandma's special touch put her to sleep and gave everyone a little break.

Our trip consisted of just a few things. Swimming, sitting on the beach, eating, and drinking. Everything you'd hope for a relaxing vacation. Oh and running around after a toddler. So this wasn't one of those "sit by the beach while someone refills your mojito" type of vacations. It was more of a "lets take turns playing in the sand, walking around the resort, changing sandy diapers, and sitting in the water for 5 minutes at a time" kind of vacations. And that's not a complaint. I love running around and playing on the beach with my little girl on a beautiful island. I'd take that any day. But tt can be a bit tiring sometimes. Though we all got our turns doing that. It was great that we had the support of the family there too so that Danielle and I had time to relax together here and there. We even had a night where we got to go out to dinner, just the two of us. We went to a restaurant called "Upstairs at Kaibo" near Rum Point, which was beautiful and had a rare rum collection which made for some crazy-ass mojitos.

Each day we tried to do something a little different as a family. The mornings were pretty much the same; Grandpa would go scuba diving in the morning, Grandma would go claim a palabla by the beach, and Danielle, Chris and I would play with Lily until we were ready for the beach. Each afternoon we'd switch it up. We went to Rum Point a few times, hung out with the Martin's Cayman friends, Carl and Julie (and got wasted), and one day made our way to the other side of the island. Our time share was on the secluded side of the island so it was kind of nice to see where "downtown" was. We ended up hanging out at this outdoor shopping center called Camana Bay, where they have these outdoor fountains for kids to play with. We figured Lily would love it. And she did. There were two areas, one for little kids, and one that was much bigger and more powerful. It started slow and low at about 3 2 1/2 feet high, so we didn't know that it eventually became more Bellagio-like. Lily liked it until it got nuts. We had to jump in and save her a few times. I had the forsight to put my phone aside in case something like this happened. That night, we ate at this Tapas restaurant where you can watch the fountains light up and dance.

During the entire vacation, Lily was making friends. She's a very friendly kid. She just goes up to people, does her goofy flailing hand wave and adorably says "hiiiii!" Maybe it's annoying to some people, but how can you get mad at a cute, friendly, 18 month old that just wants to say hi. At the Own Roberts Airport (on Grand Cayman) as we checked in for our flight home, she made friends with one of the airport workers who held her while we got all of our stuff together and got our boarding passes.

We also met this older guy who tried to cheer Lily up when she was crying on on the plane home who did an amazing Donald Duck. I thought that it was the real actual Donald Duck. I'm still not convinced that it wasn't even though Wikipedia says that the original is dead and the current one is about 40 years old.

Overall we had a great time. I think Lily had fun seeing and doing different things than she does on a normal day. It kind of makes me sad that she's too young ot remember this stuff still though, but I keep reminding myself that all these good experiences do add up to her having a happy childhood which should help make her a happy adult.

Month 18

This is all we got for this month. She's a happy, nutty kid.

Month 17

Here's the month 17 rundown of cool shit that Lily does:

• High fives
• Picks up cell phones (or any object that looks like a cell phone) and goes "Hiiii!"
• Stands up, bends over with her head on the ground and looks through her legs and then waves to you.
• She likes hats now. After grandma bought her a hat for Easter, she wouldn't stop wearing it and learned to say 'hat".
• For Easter, we took her to an awful Easter Egg hunt in Brookdale park. All she did was play with the hay.
• She does this fake sneeze after anyone else sneezes. It involves a lot of spit. She seems to think it's hilarious. So does her little friend, Laura.
• She's been doing a lot of collecting and sorting. She must get that from daddy.
• Whenever she wants to be picked up or wants to sit in a chair, she say "Up!". but not just "up". It almost sounds like a question. "Uuuup?"
• She knows most of her face parts (teeth, eyes, eats, nose, hair). She also knows belly button (for which she has to lift her entire shirt to show you), hands, and feet.
• She puts her finger in her mouth when she hears teeth brushing or the words "teeth" or "brush", including the brush in Goodnight Moon.
• She knows lots of animal sounds. Moo, baa, guck (duck says "guck") and our favorite - the chicken move. You can't say chicken or be around a chicken without her putting her wrists to her neck and flapping her arms.
• She knows a lot of words and now really tries to repeat what we say to her. It's getting scary.
• She's learning her manners. She's learned "please" and "thank you". It comes out as "peece" and "dane-dyoo".
• Instead of "mama", she finally says "mommy". It was very exciting the first time she said it, though it sounds more like "mammy".
• She likes to do grown up things like sit on big chairs/benches, feed herself, dip her food in ketchup. 
• When she tries to feed herself using a fork or spoon, she holds them very daintily with her thumb and fore finger on the end of the utencil. She hasn't been very successful with that yet. 
• She seems to have gotten over her fear of older men I think and is friendly to everyone. She likes to blow kisses and wave to people. It's awesome when she does it on command.
• She likes to play in the dirt. Anytime there any sort of mess on the ground or floor, she has this annoying impulse to rub her hands in it. The substances that she's done is include, but are not limited to dirt, milk, food she doesn't want to eat anymore, and poop.

Month 16

I guess it's been a while since the last post. The month 16 post was started and not finished a few weeks back and here it is. We hope to put the next one up soon. But we probably won't. So here's month 16.

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Lily is turning into a doggie. She barks all the time, loves to play with our shoes, fetch them even, and just wants to play outside. The kid never stops moving.

But she does more than bark too, thankfully. She says a lot more than the 2 or 3 that she started with. Here's our list so far:

• Baby
• Cheese
• Cookie (kuh-kuh-kuh)
• Boot
• What's That? (Wuz-ah?)
• Good
• Chicken
• Mmmmm
• Woof woof
• Meow (more like raow)
• itsy (for itsy bitsy spider)
• sweet
• apple
• Gigi
• Pop
• Juice (joosh)
• cluck
• moo
• Elmo (sounds more like owl)
• Kids
• goes "ahh" after she drinks or pretends to drink

She also throws a lot of kisses, wags her finger no, knows where her belly button, noes and hair are, and likes when we sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Wheels on the Bus, and When You're Happy and You Know It.

I feel like I keep on saying this and hearing from other parents and I'll continue to say this, but right now is my favorite age. I also keep saying that I don't want her to grow up, but each age gets more favoriter. She's just so much fun. She seems to really have a sense of humor and wants to make people laugh. She still loves her cardboard box, which tends to be her homebase when she wants to hide. She's also really into her books (well ripping them up and standing on them at least) and brushing her teeth. She's kind of terrible at it right now though. She likes to gnaw on it and lick it, but we figured that getting the damn thing in her mouth would be the toughest part.

In March, we got to go down to Raleigh our new Nephew, baby Benny. We thought that Lily might be excited to see a real life doll, but she didn't seem to care. We would say something along the lines of "Oooh Lily, look at the baby" and she would just blow a half-assed kiss and continue on her way. We were excited to see how she plays with her cousin Nathan too. The last few times that they got to play, she was too little to be able to keep up with him, so we thought that now that she's always on the move and trying to get into trouble, that they would be on the same page, or at least in the same book. She hasn't learned how to really share yet and she's a bit too little to be able to take any of the wild 3 year old boy roughhousing. Though if she learned anything from our weekend, it was her first lessons in self defense. They did a lot of chasing after each other. We had a lot of fun in Raleigh though, except for her horrible diaper rash as a result of her teething. I don't know when this kid will cut that out and just finish growing her damn teeth. We were even able to sneak out to the city sans kiddos and let Gigi and Grandpa Ed run around after the lunatics. Overall, we had a lot of fun hanging out with the Raleigh contingent of the family. Even the 10 hour car ride was bearable thanks to Chick Fil-A, a fast food chain that serves delightful chicken as well as provides an only slightly smelly place for kids to play.

Month 15

Lily speaks!

Well sort of. She's been "talking" for a long time already. Like the nonstop jibber jabber to herself that you hear from crazy homeless people in the subway, but way more adorable. The difference now is that she actually says some real words. This month, she's been able to formulate the words "cookie", "cheese", and "baby". She knows what she likes I guess. She also barks when she sees a dog (usually on TV, since dog is a four letter word in our house). I can't wait till she puts words together to make sentences. I want to here how she understands this wacky world we live in. You can tell that she's starting to understand what we say now though. She'll be cursing in no time.

Since Christmas, she's been playing with a lot with her new toy, a big-ass cardboard box from her new big-ass bean bag chair that she got for Christmas from Aunt Janie. I don't think she quite knows what to do with the bean bag chair, but she knows that that there are plenty of things to do with a box. You can put things it in. You can push it around. You can hide in it. And best of all, it's big enough for adults to fit in, so you can jump out and scare her. She loves being scared. Its her favorite.

Luckily, this winter hasn't all been about playing inside with cardboard boxes. We've had a few days that allowed us to actually play outside. Lily's been to the park more times than you normally would be possible to in a North East winter. Nanny Carol has also been taking her to the children's library here in Bloomfield. It's great. There are a ton of books, which she loves to pull off the shelves, lots of dirty sticky toys for her to add slobber to, and other kids for her to run up to and steal toys from. I wish we could be there during the day to watch her play and get into trouble, but Carol's doing a great job keeping her happy and busy for much of the week. I'm really curious to see how she plays with other kids. The only playdate that she's had was with the twins, Jake and Madison, who are the grandchildren of the Danielle's parents neighbors. They're a few months older, but you'd never know it, based on their personalities. When Lily first saw them, she went right up to each of them to touch their noses, which sent them hiding in the corner. I have to admit, Lily can definitely be aggressive. At least she goes after what she wants. She played pretty well with them except fot the occasional toy stealing, but she's learning that that's kind of a jerky thing to do.


You'll know what she wants by her pointing and "talking" at it. And if she doesn't get what she wants, she'll let you know about that too. She's such a good girl, but she hasn't grown out of her extremely loud high pitched screaming when she's upset yet. She's also started wanting me and Danielle a bit more. For a while, she never seemed to necessarily want to be held or picked up. Now you can actually get a few shnuggles in before she wriggles out of your clutch. When you hold her, she seems to hold you back too, which I found to be cute. It's the closest thing she does to an actual hug.

Next month, we plan on making our way down to Raleigh to play with the new baby in the family, little Benjamin Connor. My sister Jen had him a few weeks early, but it worked out well. We just can't wait to actually meet this new little guy. It'll also be good for Lily to play with Nathan a bit more too. Since their last meeting, she's grown up a lot and can probably handle little boy shenanigans better. And she can probably handle whatever food he shoves into her mouth this time too. It's just so weird that she's not the baby in the family any more. For any new parents reading this, everything you hear about your baby growing up so fast is true. I don't know what to do with that information, but just be prepared and play with your baby as much as possible while they still are one.