Must...stand...up!!!

Let's begin by noting that Lilienna has blueberry juice on her leg...

She's crawling all over the place, and the general feeling is that it won't be too long before she's running all over the place. Thank you Henry for giving daddy a little practice!

And here we step back in time a few minutes to see just how Lili got blueberries all over her. She has fun when she eats, that's for sure!

Been a while

Lili loves to jump high in the air (with a little help from daddy) and daddy likes a little workout now and then to keep the flab at bay. Everybody wins again!
Sometimes she jumps really high, and then gravity stops working and she checks out the chandelier for a while. She thinks that's hilarious.

Lili also loves her little backpack. She was checking out Gettysburg from the big people's perspective. Very cool.

George!!

Lili couldn't wait to see Curious George at Arts Fest. She didn't tell mommy he was going to be there and talked her into going somehow. I believe she said something like 'aba buhbabbah dada mo ap-puh!' that sealed the deal. And mommy thought she was asking daddy for more apples...Ha! Anyone can see the subliminal message to go to arts fest in there.

Fancy camping

Lili had a great time camping at Shenandoah National Park. She learned that an inflatable mattress closely resembles the big bouncy castle at the carnival she's heard so much about, and thought that most of the time spent on it should include rolling and diving around. She calmed down the second night and really settled into sleeping in the wilderness (if a 200+ site campground really counts as wilderness). The deer wandering around camp made it feel wild, but Lili was right at home.

We thought everyone should experience what we like to call 'squishy face'. Enjoy.

Birthday girl

Lili likes birthdays. Well, she's only had one, but she really likes getting presents and being the center of attention. Oh wait, that happens all the time. Never mind. But she really likes wearing Pooh ears.

She loves her exercises too. Daddy wishes he could have so much fun doing situps.

The finalists in the world raspberry championship duke it out in the final round. Unfortunately for all you left coasters, Aunt Kathy took home the runner-up prize to our Grand Champion of the World.

Lilienna thinks it's very nice to share, until she wants her drumstick back, thank you very much. Gracie looks more interested in the toob thingy anyway...

Finally, Lili enjoys her new lounger. She can now sit and rock away the minutes while mommy and daddy make her a bottle. Ah, the good life...

Thanks to Grandma for almost all of the above photos!

Memorial Day plus

Had to steal one from Grandma's camera; it's just too cute not to. Daddy just told Lili a really funny joke and made her promise not to tell anyone else.

No way, daddy! You can't say that!








Lili got to play in her new pool on Memorial Day. Lucky girl; it was hot hot hot outside. She was cool cool cool in the pool.





















What? I'm playing! Can I help you with something?

Fairfax County nonresidents

Lili, Mommy and Daddy went to Burke Lake Park in northern Virginia over the weekend during their visit with cousin Henry, Aunt Carrie and Uncle Jon. We got snagged at the gate as nonresidents of Fairfax County and hit up for eight bucks. I think the missing hubcap gave us away. It was a very nice park...

Lili was in heaven - trees and kids everywhere. She was hanging out in her carrier soaking it all in.
Daddy's been accused of slacking recently on the blog - many apologies. I had a great excuse all written down, but Jasper ate it.

This is being posted from Aunt Carrie's beautiful new Power Mac G5. Droool... These photos are copyright 2006 Carrie Milton Photography, all rights reserved. I just made all that up, except her business, it's real. Shameless plug. (And she didn't get a chance to edit the pictures, either, I just grabbed them straight off her camera. Coulda made us into a painting or tin relief or something with photoshop, but I'm too lazy.)

-Bonus Easter shot -

Two of every animal

A few shots from Noah's visit with Lili.


How big is Lili? Sooo big!

Jumpin' & drummin'

Lili loves her jumper, and her doctor says it's a good workout for her legs. Everybody wins!

She's had a great few weeks. She recently decided that baby food isn't cool enough for her anymore. She insists on eating small bits of big people food. Her current favorites are gluten-free applesauce pancakes (one of daddy's favorites too), mango, kiwi fruit, avacado, sweet potato and cooked apples. Her bottom left front tooth is oh so close to popping through; we'll take teething over any of the other issues she's had recently.


Lili's taking after daddy with her interest in percussion. She'll whack anything with her drumsticks...anything.

The whole family (minus the kitties and doggie) is taking a Baby Signs class. Lili already had 'milk' and 'all done' down; the class is really more for daddy's sake.

Roller Coaster

Lili's getting over a couple of ear infections and a couple of stomach viruses. The last few weeks have been a little rough. She's feeling good again, making sure that mommy and daddy don't get any sleep to catch up for the last few weeks. Her current favorite is to take a half-hour power nap and then play and smile and roll around as mommy and daddy watch bleary-eyed...
We are thrilled that she's feeling better. Her digestive system is starting to work things out and her doctors say she looks great.
Everybody wish Lilienna a happy nine month 'birthday' tomorrow on St. Patty's Day!

Yay!!!

Well, after a crazy month, Lili is feeling wonderful! She has been sleeping well the last few nights and playing and smiling during the day. She is meeting one therapy goal after another and making us all come up with new goals for her. Hmm...crawl, walk, take over the world!

Here she is sitting up on her own. She can sit up for up to ten minutes by herself now, and catch herself (most of the time) when she leans over.

She's even doing daddy's work for him. The quality has gone way up.

She has a new G-tube called a MIC-key button that sits right up against her skin. We attach a tube to it when she needs it, and can remove it the rest of the time. She's fighting off the last little bit of bronchiolitis, a cold that got into her lungs a little. We're working on getting her a different thickener so her digestive system will have a better shot at working normally. And your tax dollars are hard at work for Lili, as she just got approved for Medicaid. Actually, I think a health savings account would be a much better idea. Then Lili would learn to manage her own health care costs more efficiently. Last 2 sentences: sarcasm.

Hospital pics

Here are some pictures from Lili's stay in the hospital a few weeks ago. Mommy got to hold her the evening after the surgery.

















2 days after, she was reaching for Mommy and getting more alert.



She is doing very well now. We have been battling keeping gas at bay; the g-tube is a big help with that. She is eating very well; we've only used the g-tube a few times to feed her. We've decided to go with feeding her home cooked fruits and stuff (which as you can see by our last post, she loves to eat on her own) and formula, to eliminate the unknown foods that make her uncomfortable. We could run an experiment to figure out what they are, but then she'd be miserable for four months and then go off breast milk anyway.
When the gas or constipation isn't bothering her, she is happier than ever.
All of our initial follow-ups went very well. The incision is healing excellently, and the g-tube site looks fine. It still looks interesting to mommy and daddy, but dozens of doctors and nurses have said it looks good since day 1. The surgeon wants to see her again March 1 to replace the g-tube with a 'MIC-key' button that will be practically flush with her skin. We've also had a nurse come to our house a few times to help us learn all this new stuff.
We'll keep you posted!