Unseasonably Beautiful Weather

We've had a couple of days of absolutely beautiful weather here (highs in the upper 60s, maybe even low 70s) lately, and Lily and I have made the best of it. We got out the big stroller and spent quite a bit of time in the backyard. Lily got to play, and I got some work done. (We had a terrible windstorm about a month ago that took one of the trees in our backyard down and brought down limbs off of several others. We have quite a mess to deal with out there.) While Lily enjoyed the fresh air and watching the world around her, I picked up small limbs and branches so as to start the process of making our backyard pretty again.

Studio Mommy vs. Walgreens

I'd spent the last week or so thinking "I really needed to get out my backdrop and take Lily's Christmas pictures if I want to include pictures in my Christmas cards this year...." And this came after several weeks of debating with myself over whether to do Studio Mommy pictures or take Lily to a professional studio for pictures. Since I was relatively unhappy with Lily's last/only set of studio pictures, I opted for the Studio Mommy option. A couple days ago I actually did get out the backdrops and get Lily all dressed up and take a whole bunch of pictures. (I think I took over 70 pictures in an attempt to find one where the lighting was decent, the baby was looking at the camera--maybe even smiling, and nothing was blurry due to the moving subject.) I spent another day or two trying to decide which picture to print, and then yesterday I finally went online and placed my order for prints. I went in to pick up my prints this evening, and the photo people at Walgreens wouldn't give me my prints because they claimed that they were professional photographs and that I needed a copyright release from the studio before they could give me the pictures. After trying to reason with the photo people, I ended up leaving the store angry, confused, and without my pictures. When I arrived home, Jimmy went to Walgreens to try to reason with the photo people and retrieve my pictures, but he was also unsuccessful. I then wrote a very articulate but perhaps not-so-polite letter explaining that I give myself permission to print the pictures that I have taken. Anyway, after providing the photo people with the letter, I finally got my pictures. I think I'll be finding a new place to print pictures in the future....

Carrots!!

We're beginning to introduce vegetables into Lily's diet, and we started with carrots. While she didn't seem particularly fond of the carrots, she certainly didn't mind smiling for the camera....

Duck Thief

I believe Lily's filched a rubber duckie. I picked up Lily from her babysitter this afternoon and then went to a local coffee shop (my normal Thursday place actually) to get a late lunch and hang out with Lily before driving back home. When I took Lily out of her carseat, I found that she was sharing her seat with a rubber duckie (and it wasn't one of her rubber duckies as her duckies stay in the bathtub). As far as I can figure, Lily filched the duckie from one of two places: the babysitter's house or the foster care shelter/office. (Lily's babysitter does short-term foster care for infants, and sometimes she has to take Lily with her when she takes her other baby for doctor's appointments or parent visits or whatever.) I hope the duckie came from the babysitter's house, because stealing toys from foster children is just wrong on so many levels....

Thanksgiving Break

My poor blog has been neglected this past week as we were out of town. Lily (and Jimmy and I) got to go visit her Grandpa and Grandma B. (my parents) in Kansas for the week. They don't have the internet at their house, which explains the lack of blog updates for the week.

Anyway, it was a wonderful trip. The 8 1/2 hour drives each way became 12 hour drives because we made quite a few extra stops for Lily. She actually traveled pretty well considering the amount of time she spent in the carseat. The trip was pretty exciting for Lily. She got to meet all of her aunts and uncles and most of her cousins on my side of the family, and she got to spend time with her Grandpa and Grandma. (Isn't the Lily and Grandpa picture cute!!) The trip was also filled with lots of those little baby "firsts": first trip to the farm, first time to sit in a high chair, first real food (baby cereal--and whatever else Grandpa snuck to her while Mommy wasn't looking), first time to ride like a big girl in the grocery cart, first snow storm, and a first pair of shoes.

Jimmy and I enjoyed the trip too. It was the first real time off that Jimmy had from work since our trip to New Orleans this past August. (He has days off here and there, but he lives only a few houses away from his office and often ends up going in for things even when he is technically "off.") I spent a few days working, but I took plenty of time to relax too. I managed to sleep in a couple of days since there were other people around to play with Lily in the mornings. Jimmy and I even got to go out (together!) for beers one evening; we figured out that we hadn't done that in at least 15 months!

I always like going to visit everybody; it just makes me wish I lived closer so I could visit more often....