Auntie visits Texas!

Ok, time for Auntie Kelly to actually do the wonderful Houston update. I had the extreme joy of spending a week in Texas; first half was a mini-college reunion in Austin, and the the second leg of my Texas journey involved way less tourist time and way more baby time. I flew to Houston on Sunday afternoon and had a great few days relaxing, playing with Lily, and even jet skiing over ridiculously scary waves (thank you Fred). I even left Texas with...drumroll please...a Teva tan (gasp!). I know, the horror. But it was worth it.

Here we are when I arrived, slightly delirious and frizzy-haired, but so excited to see my niece. And who cares if she's more interested in measuring spoons than her auntie! That would all change.

She does this hilarious Frankenstein-arm thing where she thrusts her hands out, arms and fingers very straight, and lunges for your face. It's more charming than I made that sound.

SOMEBODY has a clean diaper!

Everything is way more fun with an 8-month old baby around, including random car rides.

Just chillaxin at lunch. Not a care in the world.

Katie and I went to Bath Junkie, aka heaven on earth where you can create your own bath/beauty products with amazing scents. However, it is not a good place for the indecisive.

Those are my large containers that would force me to check my bags on the way home (as they are over 3 oz. or whatever the terrorists can't use to smuggle in explosives).

Katie experiences so much joy at Bath Junkie; she knows each employee intimately (no joke, we walk in and it's immediately, "oh did your sister-in-law have the baby?? omg!"). Literal Bath Junkie junkie.

I made an almond/peach/buttercream concoction that is SO amazing. Though one of my friends here smelled it, coughed a couple times and was like...you put that on your SKIN? Dude, at least I don't smell like frankincense & myrrh. For reals.

I want to open one of these in San Francisco. Who's with me? Financing, anyone?

...ok, so 80% of this post has become about lotion. Back to the real stuff. So, Fred took me jet skiing through some of the coolest areas...bayous, lakes, and eventually ridiculous crashing waves that made me scream "I feel like I am riding a mechanical bull!". Here we are in a calm moment, after we met Katie and Lily for lunch off the water.

After our adventures we all calmed down and went to dinner in Kemah on the boardwalk. LOOK AT THIS CHILD. Holy cow, I love her.

The parents, looking remarkably well-rested.

The boardwalk is really pretty.

...and in conclusion, this is me and a shark. Who knows, really.

So anyway, best Texas trip ever. I compiled a few really cute Lily videos, but youtube is taking its sweet time to process them. In the meantime, here is a short clip as a placeholder. Enjoy!

Fun times!

This past weekend, we went to the Alvin Wild Animal Park for Peyton's (our friends' daughter) 3rd birthday party and we had so much fun! Here are Lily and I during the party:

Lily's "baby blues" are sensitive like Fred's and my eyes so she wore her super-cool shades while in the front-pack with Fred. Surprisingly, she kept them on!

The tram ride around the park was SO neat! There are all sorts of exotic/wild animals (zebras, longhorns, camels, etc) that come right up to the tram to eat food from the bucket you're holding out for them. It was funny to witness the camels running perfectly alongside the tram, hoping to get more food! The ostriches kind of scared me - they are a little aggressive when diving their heads down to take food from the bucket. Fred was very amused by my fear of them (especially when our friend Marty put his food bucket right by the side of my head!) and I liked this picture he took of me and one of my ostrich "friends"! :) Is that the longest neck ever???

Although the tram ride was really loud and bumpy, Lily still managed to drift off to dreamland about 10 minutes into the ride. We'll have to take her back when she gets a little older so she can actually see all of the animals!

A few Saturdays ago, we also took a family trip down to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science. Lily was all set to go in her stroller (no more infant carseat - she's a Big Girl now!) and she was all wiggles and smiles in the front-pack carrier:

After going through the Butterfly Exhibit, we walked through Hermann Park (it was such a beautiful day!) over to the Houston Zoo. By this time, Lily was napping in the stroller so she missed the primates exhibit. She did wake up while we were walking through the birds exhibit and she was looking at us with this expression like "what are those chirping sounds???". After the bird exhibit, we walked through the indoor aquarium and Lily LOVED it! I took her out of the stroller and help her up to the glass tanks and she was reaching for the fish and pressing her hands against the tank. It was so neat to see her so interactive and intrigued by the fish. Here I am holding her at the aquarium:

I can't believe that she will be 6 months old on Friday! She has been so much fun lately and is so alert and expressive. I love to just watch her taking everything in. Sometimes I catch her watching Bella and smiling at her - it's so cute! She's also learned her name, I think. We play a game where I say "Lily... Lily..." when her head is turned away from me and after I say her name once or twice she'll whip her head around to look at me and give me a huge smile and sometimes a little giggle too. It's times like that that I just melt and can't believe I get to be the mother of this sweet, fun, wonderful little person! :)

Our little Valentine

Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone!!!

And, in other news, Lily thinks her toes are tasty!!!

4 weeks old!

I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since Lily was born! The days have seemed to fly by so fast and she has changed so much in such a short period of time. Everyone told Fred and I that the depth of love we would feel for our child would be indescribable and it's completely true. The new love of Fred's and my life is this little brown-haired, blue-eyed baby girl... my heart sings every time I look at her, hold her, and hear her little noises.

We had a great day yesterday - a quick trip onsite at JSC, lunch with Amy at our favorite Mediterranean restaurant, and stops by Babies R Us and Sam's Club. Lily did great and wore this cute little outfit (unfortunately, her time in the outfit was short-lived due to a major diaper blowout which Daddy was nice enough to clean up!):

This morning we gave Lily a bath and then Fred took her outside to air out in our beautiful fall weather while Bella sniffed around for a bit.

After all that excitement, it was nap time!

We just got back from a walk around the neighborhood and it is a beautiful night tonight. Fred is about to make a pumpkin pie... now it really feels like fall!

4 1/2 hours!

Last night was a great night! Lily slept for her longest extended period between feedings (4 1/2 hours) and then went back down in her cradle pretty easy and slept for an additional 3 1/2 hours. Whoo-hoo! It doesn't sound like much but those extra few hours of uninterrupted sleep have made a huge difference in how I felt during the night and my level of tiredness today. Hope she can keep this up!

Yesterday was my birthday (last year in my 20's) and we took Lily into the office to meet my co-workers and have birthday cake (carrot cake... mmm!) that Hilary made for me. I was a little nervous beforehand about how Lily would do at her first "social function" outside of the house but she ended up doing really well. She even let Amy hold her for a long time - I'm thinking she probably recognized her voice from hearing it every day while in the womb (since Amy sits right next to me). It was really nice to get out of the house and see everyone at work and catch up on what's been going on there. After our office visit, we took Lily on her first trip to Target and Starbucks! She pretty much slept the entire time we were there but I think she enjoyed the trip... :)

My sister Kelly took this picture of Fred holding Lily and I love it!

First outing

Today we took Lily on her first outing. Up to this point, her only outings have been a few walks around the neighborhood, two pediatrician appointments, and a car ride to drop off Auntie Kelly at the airport. Today, we took Lily to lunch at a Japanese restaurant, then picked up a few things at the grocery store, and then stopped by a jewelry store to drop off my new ring to be sized. During the entire outing, Lily slept with only a few minor peeps here and there. She did great! We timed the outing perfectly - we headed out right after her feeding at 11:30 and walked back in the door at 2:30, just in time for her next feeding. She had the cutest outfit on today - a denim jean dress with little flowers on it - but unfortunately, no one had the chance to see it since we kept a blanket on her the whole time we were out. Oh well! It was so fun to be out in the world with her today - we can't wait to take her more places! It was also fun for me to be back out in the world... I think this was the 5th time I've ridden in the car since we came home from the hospital 2 1/2 weeks ago!

Begining of night number 2 of contractions

Here is my first post ever on a Blog. I thought this would be a great time to get started on a blog. Nothing like a last minute idea as we're about to head out to the hospital.