Lily at Two Months

 

I can’t believe how quickly two months have gone by.  Before Lily, I didn’t even know it was possible to enjoy time with a newborn.  She is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. 

About Little Miss Lily at two months:

• Up to 13 lbs 3 oz (birth weight: 7 lbs 15 oz) – now wearing 3-6 month clothes
• Up to 23 1/4 inches long (birth length: 20 inches)
• Lily’s pediatrician was very impressed with her head control – sometimes I forget she is only two months old.
• Goes to bed around 8 pm every night.
• Either sleeps completely through the night (until about 7 am) or wakes up once between 1:30 am and 3:30 am.
• She rarely cries.  Honestly, she cries when she is tired and doesn’t want to be held.
• Lily sleeps in her own crib at night, in her swing for naps.  We are trying to transition her to sleep in her crib for naps.  We win some, we lose some.
• She still hates pacifiers. She tries so hard to suck her thumb, but its usually trapped under the other four fingers. 
• Lily has her “Owl Baby” that is an owl/lovey blanket.  It has tiny little wings that she will gnaw on to calm down.
• We’re still working on taking a bottle. After four failed bottle brands, Lily will finally suffer through a Dr. Browns bottle. Whatever works.
• Mommy returns to work in 3 weeks.  I never thought I would want to stay home with a newborn (I couldn’t wait to get back to work after I had Luke . . . someone take my child, PLEASE.) but she is such a dream baby.
• Luke loves her.  He holds her regularly, loves to show her his toys, gives her hugs and kisses.  Lily has become quite a resilient baby with Luke as her big brother.
• Lily is such a smiley baby – she loves to be talked to and works very hard to focus on the mouth of whoever is talking.  She is working hard at laughing and we have gotten a few guffaws.

Mostly, I have found that I am completely infatuated with my sweet little girl.  We were able to visit my old campus and see some of the teachers – she was sweet and smiley for them, too! We’ll be going back this week to visit some of my previous students – they survived my pregnancy and crazy hormones, so they should get to see the product!

Baptism Dress

Linda, my wonderful mother-in-law, graciously loaned me her family’s baptism dress for Lily’s use.  We haven’t yet had Lily baptized (soon, soon) but I wanted to at least take a few pictures of her in it. Hopefully, she won’t outgrow it before we actually baptize her. It is truly a gorgeous dress – so much nicer than anything you could find in a store.  I love how much history it has to it.  I hope that if Lily is blessed to have a daughter someday, she too will get to wear it.

And for posterity sake, here are all the wonderful pictures of everyone who took pictures in the special dress.

Linda

 

Aunt Nancy

 

Auntie G

 

And little Miss Lily

And . . . we’re done. (plus a dress close up!)

Glass Pumpkin Time!

Just about every year, I go to the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch in Palo Alto.  It is such a fun event and a wonderful way to support local artists.  It is always a fun adventure.  Last October was a rough month for the Bickels, so I missed last year’s event.  This year I was able to go, leaving Lily in the capable hands of Todd and hoping that I wouldn’t miss a feeding.  Poor Lily is still pretty unwilling to take a bottle, though Todd can get her to usually take an ounce or two. (aka: not nearly enough)  So I didn’t want to be gone too long, but I was thrilled about my freedom.

A few years ago, I went through the entire picking glass pumpkin process in “’Tis the Season to be Fall-y” which you can check out for a catch up if you missed it the first time around. 

This year, I told myself and assured Todd I would only be getting one pumpkin – a pink pumpkin for Lily, as I bought Luke a little blue one when I was pregnant with him. Seriously. Just one pumpkin. Seriously.

So, that was a pretty epic fail.  I bought 3. I did find the pink pumpkin, which turned out to be more of a violet, than a pink.  There was a really pretty pastel pink pumpkin, but it was big and $75. Couldn’t justify.  So I got this one, bigger than I planned, but super cute! I liked the spots. I think I was in a “spotty” place this year.  There was a leopard print-ish pumpkin that I liked, but it was swooped up by my partners in crime. There’s always next year!

Since I was in a spotty place for pumpkins, I found this cute little purple pumpkin with that silvery stem I was looking for.

But my favorite by far is the last pumpkin I found.  I was feeling nostalgic and really wanted a somewhat traditional orange pumpkin.  Then I found it.  The one with the matte stem.  In the previous post, I said I wanted more matte stems.  Ta da! The poachers wanted this pumpkin badly. But it was not to be. It was mine.  Now I know the artist that I like.  I have two of his pumpkins now: similar shape, same style stem. Woo hoo!

This is my current collection.  My friends all have tons more than I do, but I love my little glass pumpkin patch and they are so fun to take out every year! Each family member has their own pumpkin that represents their favorite colors and styles, so I like that they remind me of my family.  They are certainly not a cohesive style or set of colors, but they’re mine and I love them!

I will be looking forward to next year’s Glass Pumpkin Patch festival!

Pumpkin Patch with Cousins

We try to get a trip to the big pumpkin patch with the cousins every year. Some years are better than others.  Last year didn’t happen, we barely made it to the patch in time for Halloween.  Let’s put it this way: by the time we got to the pumpkin patch, all pumpkins were half price. You know how I love a bargain!

This year we made it though.  We did the traditional photos:

Height chart:

Pumpkin King (next year we can add Pumpkin Queen!)

Jumping in, on and around the hay

And the ever popular train:

Luke talked Todd into getting a big ol’ bag of kettle corn. Kettle corn the size of Lily.  Normally, I don’t like kettle corn, but this was actually good!

 

Hanging with Grandma:

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Time with Papa:

Finally. Lily is 7 weeks old and we have a family picture. Sheesh.

Me and my girl:

And of course, picking out the perfect pumpkin:

To prevent Luke from choosing an enormous pumpkin, the rule is that he has to be able to lift it on his own. That made choosing very difficult.

 

Success!

 

Carting all our pumpkins:

Overall, very successful adventure! This won’t be our last pumpkin patch for the season though, so look for more pumpkin patch pictures coming up!

Pumpkins in the Park

Every year in Downtown San Jose, the city hosts “Pumpkins in the Park” a few event with costume parades, costumes, cider and a pumpkin patch.  There are quite a few booths from local organizations.  I was surprised at the number of booths dedicated to sustainable farming, composting, free trade foods, etc. 

Todd was going with my father to the San Jose State University (both their alma mater) football game last Saturday (10/13) and thankfully my mom offered to help with the kids.  Bless her heart.  I’m still trying to get a hang of being a mom to two kids.  High fives all around to moms who do this on a daily basis with more than two kids.

Mom was game for the adventure to Pumpkins in the Park so we set off for Downtown SJ with Luke in his Halloween costume (getting a lot of use out of it!) and Luke was stoked that he got to ride the “wire train” (Light Rail) to downtown.

I didn’t take too many pictures, as even with help, I still feel overwhelmed about the whole thing.

Waiting at the station with Grandma:

Luke participated in a hula hoop contests, dance with some Chinese dragons, bounce in a bounce house and of course, pick out a pumpkin.

He did have this pumpkin picked out, but when he got to the register to pay, Luke changed his mind and decided to go with the little $1 pumpkin.  Needless to say, Mom was happy.

And how was Lily during all this, you might ask? An angel. Slept the whole time. We stayed about an hour and decided to go home and have lunch.  I was so surprised – Luke even stayed on scheduled for lunch and nap. Woo hoo! I was even able to take a nap when both Luke and Lily napped at the same time.  Noella = winner.

Luke’s Halloween Decorations

I gave Luke some Halloween window clings to decorate our dining “room” windows with.  Little did I know, Luke would treat them like a felt board.  So Luke will sing “Three Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Fence” and act out the whole song with the window clings.  It’s actually pretty cute and I love to hear him sing.

The First Six Weeks

Okay, that’s kind of a lie, it says one month, but I got distracted and finally got around to it at six weeks. Oh well.

Lily is sitting with Fancy Hello Kitty, with lovely heels, and they are in fact the same size.

I love my sweet little Lily.  Granted, I am totally biased and therefore will post a ton of photos that may seem all the same, but to the proud mom, are all slightly different. Seriously.

At six weeks, Lily is a super star baby.  She eats like a tank and is up to 13 pounds and will eat however often I offer.  Please note adorable double chins and cutie cute rolls.  She is napping regularly during the day and this last week has been rocking at sleeping at night.  She is sleeping anywhere from 6 –8 hours at a time which is most epic for me.

Luke still adores Lily and wants to hold her every opportunity that he gets.  What is most surprising is that when he does hold her, she inevitably starts to cry and Luke wants her gone immediately.  As in, he is awfully close to giving her a big ol’ shove off his lap, so adult supervision is extremely important.

We are all so amazed at how quickly she is growing – I’m already sad at how old she is.  I think knowing that this is my last baby makes me a little weepy about the whole thing.  Lily is so sweet and cuddly and has become such an adored part of our family. 

First Captured Smile

This is Lily’s first non-banner related smile captured on film. I think she’s cute.  I shall keep her.

Lily’s Joy

We have finally gotten to the point where Lily gives “social smiles” instead of just gas smiles.  (Equally cute, but more rewarding)  For a while, she was only giving those few and far between smiles to . . . not Mommy, not Daddy, not Luke, but . . . her name banner.  That’s right. The banner that hangs above her changing table that has her name on it.

I don’t know if it is the shape or the pattern or the color or what, but Lily is just as happy as she can be on her changing table.  She is fine there for however long you want to leave her on there.  In fact, when Grandma babysat her for the first time, she just laid her on the changing table, pulled up a seat and hung out for a good long time.  I know that if Lily is mad about something, putting her on the changing table will always be a winner.  And if it doesn’t work, well, she is MAD and isn’t going to take it anymore.

Thank you, Auntie Sam, for the banner.

Heaven only knows where I would be without it!

Happy Birthday, Todd!

 

We’ve come a long way baby!

So this is Todd’s birthday, circa 2002.  We had been dating for a few weeks and I was already invited to the family birthday dinner out.  Black Angus – sweet! I was pretty fancy with my dyed black hair and my strawberry daiquiri. Rebel! Anyways, we look super young.  Or maybe two kids has just made us feel really old.

Poor Todd came home sick today on his birthday, so we spent the day being lazy. Okay, he spent the day being sick and I used Todd being home to be lazy.  And to celebrate. With laziness.

Luckily, I had baked cupcakes last night and frosted three (yes, just three) to sing happy birthday around and of course, eat.  Luke told Todd that he should request “blue car cupcakes” for his birthday.  I suggested Funfetti cupcakes because that is what we had in our cupboard. Sweet.

Todd took care of his own birthday gifts this year as he got what he really wanted: two A’s games.  The first was last week when the Oakland A’s clinched the AL west title and then last night’s AL division game against the Detroit Tigers.  Even better: the A’s won both games resulting in a very happy Daddy.  Definitely worth more than the face value of the tickets!

The last time the A’s went to the playoffs was 2006, where both of us played hooky from work for a few games.  Things have changed a bit since then!

Luke definitely approved of the cupcakes!

Happy birthday sweetie! You are the best husband and father I could have ever hoped for.  Even though I knew it back in 2002, you have proven time and time again how amazing you are!

Lily’s Newborn Photo Shoot

I’m not sure if all hospitals do this, or if it’s a Kaiser thing, but a professional photographer comes around to the newborns and does a quick photo shoot.  Our poor photographer came by over and over again, getting brushed off due to nursing or sleeping or doctor visits or family visits.  But she eventually got some cute shots, especially the one of Lily and Luke. It’s amazing how much Lily has changed and grown, even in the last short 6 weeks.

Lily in Daddy’s hand.

Luke and Lily