Photo purge

What a nice morning! I woke up today rather slowly, but now that I'm rolling, I feel like this is going to be a really good day. I'm watching a gnat fly around Glenn's open terrarium, so I'm not as worried about the Venus fly trap starving. Lily is chasing ice around her high chair tray, and I'm thinking about the couple of errands and house tasks I have to complete before I can craft later.

Because it feels like an agenda sort of day, I thought it was about time I purged a few photos of Lily's more interesting ventures that haven't made it out yet. No real story line here, just some catch ups. (there's that word again!)

A few weeks ago, we had some friends over for some terrarium building. We made open and closed terrariums, ate some food, and channeled our inner Martha. Lily kept crawling over and grasping the soft ferns, certain that they would give her those leafy green nutrients she's missing out on. (No, Dad, I haven't been sneaking broccoli purée into her applesauce anymore.) The photo at the top of the post shows Lily and her Daddy enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Lily is quite the social butterfly. She is on a first name basis with all of the faculty in my program, and she makes it to all of the best parties. Here, Lily plays at Nana's feet during her cousin Blake's second birthday party.


I had mentioned in an earlier post that Lily was a nature girl. Several months ago, Lily got to visit the Dallas World Aquarium when we met my dear friend Jen and her family on a hot summer's day. She looked at some of the biggest fish in the larger tanks and she seemed very interested in the waterfall. Here we are posing for a photo op.


Lily also experienced the State Fair this year; we hope to make it a yearly tradition. It wasn't very interesting for her this year, but I can imagine that before we know it we will be shelling out lots of money on feed for the petting zoo and deep-fried who knows what. Here, you can see Glenn dragged me to the truck display, which was fine because it was an excellent vantage point for Big Tex and the Cotton Bowl.


Speaking of Texas institutions, Lily also made her inaugural visit to North Park to see Santa Claus. Honey came along to help out, which was very good. A six month old in pantyhose is not the easiest creature to wrangle, but Lily did great! She was very interested in Santa; in fact, there are more pictures of her just checking him out than looking at the bell-jingling photographer.


I'm so fortunate to have the flexibility to spend lots of time with my baby girl. I love it that she's so good in public, too. She started getting out with me pretty early, I guess right after the six-week mark, when I started going to postnatal yoga with Jenni Alterman at Rescue Yoga. Jenni helped me make it through my pregnancy fit and healthy, and her postnatal classes were awesome. Lily would usually nap through the hour-long class, and once she got a little older she became a wiggly little resistance weight for me. One day, after our yoga, we met a friend for tea and she snapped the following photo. I used to worry that she slept so much-now I just pray for her to take a decent nap!

Aaaaaalrightey then!

It occurred to me this morning that I rarely write about myself and Glenn. I know, I know, most people want to read about the baby, but just a quick update and we'll move on to her.

Glenn is loving his job at Tillman's Roadhouse (a photo of a seating area near the bar opens the post). It's this great restaurant in the cultural district of Fort Worth. He was hired as the lead cook and has moved on to become the tournant. This means that he jumps in when other cooks are "in the weeds" and helps them get back on track. Some nights he works a station, though; I always know he's been on the grill when he comes home smelling like he was downwind from a barbecue cook off.

I'm completing my thesis for my MA in art history. It focuses on two pieces of early colonial Mexican art from Huejotzinco, in the present day state of Puebla. The first is a set of eight native-produced paintings that were taken by the Spanish and used as evidence in a lawsuit that the conqueror Hernán Cortés brought against the Spanish government. The second is a large altarscreen and the legal contracts drawn up to create it. The writing is slow-going, but I'm finally confident that it will be finished this semester and I'm looking forward to graduating in May. (the 15th, mark your calendars!) Below is one of the paintings.


Alright, so on the Lily front, not a lot new to report. She is standing up unsupported for short intervals, still chattering away. Still army crawling and pulling up on whatever she can get ahold of. Her hair has started to get really curly when it's wet. I love it, and I've started fluffing it up. When I think of curls, volume, and a little bit of crazy, of course, my mind goes straight to the televangelists. So, when we do this to her hair, we call it televangelist hair.


I've tried letting it air dry from this state to see if it will stay curly, but no luck. So the other night I tried drying it with a blow dryer. Surprisingly it didn't bother her, but it didn't curl either. She ended up looking like Ace Ventura. As you can see below, she didn't mind.

Doe, a deer

I feel like I'm always playing catch-up! This morning, I've been attempting to update my thesis bibliography while Miss Lily army crawls across the floor (and always toward a slightly unstable table that may find a new home in the garage for a while.) Thankfully, since Glenn was home with us yesterday, I was able to catch up on some housework. So now, it's time to catch you all up on what's going on in Lily's world.

For those who like facts and figures, Lily is now eight months old and clocking in at 19.5(ish) pounds. I'm not certain about her percentiles, but I feel like she's approaching average rather than remaining on the side of the overachievers. On Sunday, she finished a ten-day round of antibiotics for the third appearance of a cold that became an ear infection. Even sick, she's such a cheerful little thing. Aside from the boogersome nose and rattly cough, the only indication that she didn't feel well was her increased desire to be held and cuddled. As soon as the Tylenol would kick in, though, she just wanted to play.

Play time has become more exciting. For a few weeks, Lily has been trying to stand up in her tub. She would plant her chubby little elbows on the side then slowly push through with her heels, ending up in the bear walk position. Of course, I made her sit back down and tried to prevent it in the first place, but you kind of want to see how these things pan out. So, I had the bright idea of bringing her (empty and dry) tub out of the big tub and into the living room to see what she would do. Clearly, the thing gave her confidence.

Placing the tub near the ottoman, I placed some random trinket (maybe the internet card) in her line of sight on top of the ottoman. She looked at me, looked at the ottoman, then, with hardly a hesitation, she leans over onto the side of the tub, gets her little legs underneath her body, grabs the side of the ottoman, digs her little toes into the tub, and pulled up to standing. I was totally shocked, but she looked at me like "this is what I've been trying to show you! I want to stand up in that tub! I can play limbo with that faucet! I will swing from the handle! I am AMAZING."

So, this complicates things a little. I let her do it a few more times until Glenn points out that encouraging her to stand in her tub will show her that it is okay to do and she will be too hard to wrangle while bathing. (True.) We don't do that anymore, but this is okay because she can pull up with the ottoman now with no other prop. I still have to place something up there for motivation, but she does a great job of getting it. (the grainy video is from my cell phone.)

She is also waving by flapping her hand and sometimes opening and closing it, but this only has a 60/40 chance of happening as an actual response. She still babbles, chatters, and laughs constantly. In fact, in the morning, I'm often woken up by her talking ("BABABAA!!!" If you've seen Mars Attacks, you know how it sounds.) instead of crying, which is a nice development. The newest sound to make it into her repertoire is a tongue click, which she does while also sticking her tongue out and smiling, so it's super cute. She is turning book pages much better now; one book has a sound effect on the last page and she will slowly turn it back and forth so she can hear the noise start and stop. Turning lights off and on has become something of a hobby as well.

One of the funniest things she has come up with is what Glenn calls her "10 Point Buck." Just before Christmas, she started doing this funny pose, where she places both hands, palm facing out, on her forehead. She makes this deadly serious face, and it is hilarious. The photo at the top of the post captures this new feat.


As usual, I'm left thinking about how far she has come, and wondering about what will happen between now and the next chance I get to write a new post. I think she will be crawling completely (not doing the GI Jane belly dragging thing that she's doing now) by Valentine's. I'll keep you posted!