Category Archives: Lila

When It Rains, It Pours and Sometimes You Also Get Hit By Hail

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There’s only one word to describe the past week …. rough.

It started on last Friday night. Lila woke up at 2 am crying, which she never does. I got her out of bed and gave her some milk. She calmed down and went back to sleep. But not even 30 minutes later she was crying again for me.

The crying continued the rest of the night and none of us got much sleep. The rest of the weekend, she continued to be fussy, lethargic and flatout miserable. I felt awful for her, but thought it was just teething as she was drooling and her cheeks were red.

On Monday Luke flew out to Mexico for a week, so I decided that instead of being home alone, I’d drive us to San Francisco to visit my sister’s family. It was risky given how fussy Lila had been acting, but I decided to take my chances with her in the car for 3.5 hours.

Well yeah … that 3.5 hours turned into SIX because the Bay Bridge was out. We were stuck in this for 1.5 hours and Lila was screaming for all it.

Bay Bridge traffic jam

I was in the middle lane in six lanes of traffic, so there was no way I could even get off to tend to Lila. At one point I rolled the windows down to get her some fresh air and her screaming caused a woman in a convertible next to me to stare in disbelief.

When Lila woke up the next morning in San Francisco she had a red rash on her face and stomach. I thought at first maybe it was the detergent my sister uses or possibly a new food we tried the night before for dinner. But throughout the day her condition worsened – the rash spread to her whole body, she was crying a lot and pulling at her hair.

I decided to take her to urgent care around 5pm. The doctor told me she had a virus (didn’t say what it was called) and that the rash was a symptom. She prescribed some baby Claritin and Tylenol. Once Lila took the medicine she got much better and just wanted to sleep.

I felt awful for not realizing she wasn’t teething or having a reaction to food, but was in fact sick. Here I am dragging on a six hour car ride when she felt awful. I gave her lots of snuggles and told her how sorry I was that I didn’t realize she was feeling so bad. She has perked up since and seems to be on the mend.

I thought things were going to be looking up until yesterday my credit card number was stolen off a receipt I threw away at Walgreens (while buying Lila medicine) and the bandit was charging up a storm. Thankfully Amex restricted the charges and cancelled my card.

Then to cap off this hellish week, this morning I got a parking ticket.

Ugh.

Here’s hoping I got all my bad-luck karma out of the way this week.

Mid-Summer Fog

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Sorry I’ve been a little MIA lately. This tends to happen around this time the summer. I’m not sure if its that we’re coming off a vacation home, or that it’s hot out so I want to be outside, but I find it hard to get motivated to write in July.

Life lately has been a series of ups and downs. On the up side, our trip home was wonderful. Lila was showered with love and attention from her grandparents on both sides along with other family and friends.

_MG_0228 _MG_0376 _MG_0476 _MG_0568_MG_0142 _MG_0199 On the down side, we all got sick during our trip home. Lila picked it up from daycare when I had to put her in for two hours while I met with a potential client. She passed it to both Luke and me, but I got it the worst. My sinuses were so swollen I was convinced I had a cracked molar because my gums and whole jaw were aching. Not a fun way to spend vacation.

Since we’ve been back, I’ve been working on getting Lila into more of a routine so we can plan things better with friends. But baby girl is all over the place with her sleeping. One day she’ll wake up at 6:15 am and the next it’s 9:00 am. Then with her napping, she’ll sleep 45 minutes one day and 3 hours the next. I wish I could say “Lila naps from X until X every day” but we’re not really there yet.

I’ve been working hard though to find things we can do together and with other moms and babies. Yesterday we went on a hike with friends we met at church, I’m trying a baby boot camp class on Wednesday and I have a regular play date set up with a friend and her baby on Fridays. My goal is to get to a place where we have some regularity to our days. Mondays we do this and Tuesdays we do that. We’re getting there slowly yet surely.

In the past few weeks Lila’s development has really taken off. She’s got SIX teeth now at just 7.5 months. We started baby-led weaning after she showed signs of wanting to feed herself, and girlfriend has been housing food ever since. Today for lunch she ate a whole avocado, whole peach and five blackberries. _MG_0657 baby led weaning She’s also figured out crawling and is on the move. I had to finally set up our baby gates today when I found her under our computer table grabbing at some wires. It’s really incredible to watch her grow so quickly. It’s good to be back home in Nevada and into our day to day groove. I think my summer motivation block has lifted and I plan to write much more regularly. I have some posts brewing in my mind, like how consulting has been going for me, why Lila has been sleeping in the closet and my never-ending dental debacle. So, stay tuned!

Dear Lila: You’re Seven Months Old

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Dear Lila,

This week you turned seven months old. You have one tooth almost all the way in on the bottom and four (!!) coming in on the top. You are a little peanut at just 14 lbs 8 oz, but long at 27 inches.

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Lately you’ve been working really hard at crawling. You get up on your knees and hands and rock back and forth until you fall on your belly.

Two of your other favorite things to do lately are scratching and grabbing. All the time we hear your little nails scratching on whatever surface is near you. Unfortunately this also tends to be my skin, so I’ve been diligent about keeping your nails clipped. When I’m holding you, you often reach out your arm to grab whatever is near and sometimes far. This morning you tried to grab the ceiling fan.

I love watching you explore your world.

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You like eating and have tried a lot of food now. Every time you try a new food, you get a confused face with the first bite. But after a few more bites you usually love whatever we’ve given you. Yesterday it was carrots.

You love your independent play time. I set you on the floor with some of your “toys” and you’re content for an hour or so. Right now your favorite things to play with are just every day household objects like an old remote, plastic hanger and wooden spoon.

IMG_3694I try to get you outside to play at least once a day. It seems like the outdoors is your element. You love the wind hitting your face, feeling the grass and smiling at the people and dogs who pass us.

IMG_3747Just recently you started getting very sad when I’m not in the room with you. Right now I’m writing this sitting next to your crib while you fall asleep because you kept crying when I left the room. It can be frustrating not being able to get time to myself, but I know that one day you won’t want or need me like you do now.

IMG_3770Sometimes it makes me sad that you’re getting older, but most of the time I feel grateful that I get to watch you grow and learn every day. I am so lucky to get to spend my days by your side. You’re Daddy and my’s little side kick and you make even the most mundane tasks fun.

We love you always and forever little girl.

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Love,

Mommy

In the Car with Lila

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This weekend we drove to the Bay Area to visit my sister’s family. It was so nice to spend some time celebrating Easter around people we love. The weekend was filled with a trip to the farmer’s market, mass at the opera house, an Easter egg hunt at the park and finally a lovely brunch at my sister’s home.

Lila had so much fun being around her big cousin Mabel. She just kept looking at her with such adoration.

Around 3:45 on Sunday it was time to say goodbye and start the four+ hour drive home (depending on how many times we stop for Lila). I wasn’t looking forward to being in the car at all. About ten minutes into the drive, we hit traffic, that slowly turned into complete gridlock. Ugh.

Right about that same time Lila had a big poop, so while the traffic was at a standstill, I jumped into the backseat and changed her diaper right there in my lap. I was wiping her down when I looked out the window and a truck was right next to us, able to see everything going on in our backseat. Thankfully the driver smiled and looked away. We had a good laugh about that one.

With Lila all strapped back in her carseat, I jungle-gym climbed back into the front seat to settle in. We were in gridlock traffic for another hour and a half before we finally started moving. The whole time in traffic Lila was just staring intently at herself in the mirror we set up on the back seat so we can see her in the front mirror. Seriously for about an hour straight every time we looked back, she was just staring at herself with a blank face on. We cracked up every time we looked at her!

About three hours into our drive, I stopped to nurse her. We walked her around outside at a park to get her some fresh air, but all too soon we had to strap her back into her carseat. She didn’t like that AT ALL. Little sweetie was crying and complaining for about ten minutes when I got the idea to put on some children’s music on Pandora.

As soon as Journey’s “Open Arms” lullaby version started playing, girlfriend was ENTHRALLED. The crying stopped immediately. I guess she has a penchant for Journey just like her momma.

For the next 1.5 hours we shuffled through all sorts of baby music and assessed Lila’s preferences. She would smile and listen intently to anything with a xylophone (gag!) or children singing. She would squawk her disapproval for any slow lullaby or anything with an older man singing. We were thoroughly entertained.

That night after 5 1/2 hours on the road, we got home and tucked Lila into bed. I realized that what normally would have been a miserable day stuck in the car drudging through traffic, turned out to be five hours of smiling and laughing all because of our little girl.

I find that these days I can be happy doing the most mundane, even unenjoyable things, just as long as my baby is with me.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!