This month, we started getting help with Lily during the day. From Mon-Wed, we've hired the new nanny, Carol, to watch Lily, and we couldn't be happier with her. She's a very loving, grandmotherly figure. She has a ton of experience with kids, professionally as well as with her her own children and grandchildren. She's very family oriented and immediately felt comfortable leaving Lily with her. She also doesn't like to just sit around, so a lot of walks and trips to the park will be had. She also likes to bake and brought us some of the most ridonkulous brownies one day. Besides the fact that we actually have to pay her, there have been no downsides to having Carol around at all. She's amazed by how good Lily has been so far that she feels like she needs to do more for us, so she made us chicken quesadillas one night, went through our fridge and spice cabinet and threw out all of the old expired stuff, organized all of Lily's bottles and stuff, and dusted everything in the living room. Hopefully we'll be able to afford to have Carol around for a long time.
As for Lily, she seems to be a bit more alert. She's always looking around and scoping out new things that she could put in her mouth. She also is a bit more grabby. She tries to grab everything. When she wakes up in the morning and I put my face in the crib, she likes to grab my beard and play with that. I love those tiny little fingers. They're just exploring all new textures and things around her. This actually led to the discovery of her own feet. One day when grandma was watching her, she walked in to find Lily's socks pulled off. She put them back on and Lily just pulled them off again. Now that's just one of the things she does now, just sits around and pulls on her feet or whatever bugs or ballet slippers that seem to be covering them.
In the most exciting Lily news of the month, she rolled over. SHE ROLLED OVER! It's crazy to say out loud, but I was actually very proud. This was the first time that I felt like a proud parent because of a goal that that my daughter worked so hard to accomplish. I only hope that her goals keep getting bigger. I won't be too proud of her if she's 30 years old and her biggest goal in life is figuring out how a doorknob works. Carol told us that she was really close to rolling over that day, so when we got home, we put her down and tried to lure her into rolling over with her toys and Singamajig (check this out if you don't know that those are). Sure enough, she lifter her big ol' head and flipped over with the rest of her body to follow. So we tried it 2 more times and got the same result. You can check out the 3rd time below. The next day, we laid her on her mat, not expecting anything and 10 minutes after Danielle left for work, I went upstairs to brush my teeth and started hearing a Lily whimper coming from downstairs. When I came downstairs, I found her rolled over on to her arms. The silly goose apparently didn't know what to do once on her stomach again without the support of her arms, so whimpering was the best option. So now that she's been rolling, she hasn't been talking as much. It's as if she's like "I already know how to do that, I'm on to new things, boo".
For the next month, we have our first family trip ahead of us. We'll be going down to Annapolis for a good ol' Garrison wedding. My cousin Jill is getting married and it should be a fun one. We'll be staying at a hotel with My parents and siblings and nephew Nathan. We don't know how to pack for something like this, but Danielle doesn't seem too worried. I'm pretty sure that we'll forget something, but I think they have babies in Maryland, so I'm sure we'll be OK.
