Wow! What a schedule.

I am quite shocked at how precise Lylah can be with her schedule, especially in the mornings.  Her schedule is usually as follows:

6:00 - Wake up (I think because it's getting light outside)
7:00 - Eats (a minute over and she might fuss!)
7:30 - Play time
8:30 -  Nap
11:00 - Eat
1:00 - Nap
3:00 - Solid food meal/eat
5:00 - Nap
6:00 - Fussy hour
7:00 - Bath
7:15 - Eat
7:30 - In crib
8:00 - Asleep

The thing that really amazes me is the timing of her own body clock.  She has no concept of time, except what her body expects.  She doesn't always stick to this schedule exactly, but I can always count on her waking up at precisely 7:00 A.M. for her first feeding.  And 6:00 at night is definitely the 'witching hour' for her!  She will fuss from 6-7 P.M. unless she is very occupied.

In fact, her schedule is helping my schedule get ready for school.  I am quite accustomed to waking up early and don't have to adjust my sleep schedule entirely from summer time to school time.  Shannon and I will be needing to go to bed earlier during the school year.  We stay up about every night after we put Lylah to bed.  We eat dinner about 7:30, and lately have been staying up until midnight watching Breaking Bad (a great series by the way!).  That alone time with Shannon is nice because we don't have that all day with Lylah around.  It just doesn't happen!  But from 7:30 on, it's alone time.  I value my time with Lylah, and I value my alone time, but in very different ways.

Fussy Pants

It seems like some days, Lylah just wants to fuss.  She might wake up in a good mood, be fed, changed and doing just fine - Then suddenly, and without warning, she begins to cry.  We will try everything to stop her from fussing!  We give her toys, sit and play with her, give her a pacifier, help her stand, and do just about everything in our power to 'cheer her up.'  Occasionally, those things work.  Mostly, those things do not work.  One thing that always does seem to work with Lylah is picking her up and walking around with her.  The only other thing that we have found that seems to keep her from fussing is taking her outside and letting her look around.  Lylah really likes the outdoors.

This is Lylah's angry face

Her fussy face usually includes her bottom lip curling out and her eyes shut hard.  Her voice really seems to be developing very well, given that my hearing is slightly lost at times during a fuss session.  

The fussiness is hard, because we want our little girl to be happy.  On the other side of things, we understand that she will not always be happy.  Fussiness is a part of all of us.  Even adults get fussy, but some just look better than others when it happens.  It's all good though - especially when she finally cracks a smile.  Lylah's smile, or a little gitggle makes all those heart splitting fussy sessions disappear.    

Right now, Lylah is on her big blanket playing with her toys.  She has stopped fussing.  She managed to get a blanket over her face

But she got the blanket off and managed to look cute

Things that make Lylah laugh

Lylah has been smiling for about two or three months now, and is now starting to develop a giggle.  So far we have found the things that make Lylah laugh include:

1. Lots of kisses, all at once!
2. Tickling her sides
3.  New dolls
4. When we say "hi baby!!"
5. During her diaper change, we say " all refreshed!" when wiping.
6. Peek-a-boo: This morning, Shannon went into Lylah's room after her nap and Ly had the blanket over her face (no worries, it's a very light blanket). Shannon slowly brought the blanket down and then said "PEEK-A-BOO!" Lylah's face lit up with smiles and happiness- even after the third or fourth time of Shannon doing it!

Here is  a short video of Lylah laughing after a tickle session, and saying "All Refreshed"!

Lylah also likes to give kisses to us; however, her kisses are quite different from yours and mine!  She takes both hands on either side of our faces, pulls us into her face, then opens her mouth and just sticks out her tongue.  Shannon and I are pretty sure this is her version of a kiss (she just doesn't have it completely down yet).

Just a few weeks of summer left

Shannon and I were discussing last night that we only have a few more weeks before school starts back up. We both have mixed feelings about going back to work, and sending Lylah to daycare.  I feel that we picked an amazing daycare for Lylah.  It's called Primrose School and it's actually an accredited private school and daycare.  They will teach Lylah a lot, and send us updates and lessons to go over with her at home!  The facility was very clean and seemed to be very well run when we were there.  Everyone entering had to have their own unique code to get in!

Sometimes, we just go in Lylah's room while she is sleeping and stare at her.  I never realized being a parent would be so awesome!  She is just an amazing little girl and the feeling that Shannon an I both get when she is around is very hard to describe.  It's really just pure love, plain and simple!

We were thinking about taking Lylah to the pool today; however, Shannon is supposed to skype with her mom before 11 A.M.  Then, at 11, the U.S. women's Olympic soccer match comes on.  Shannon loves watching women's soccer, and that will last a couple of hours.  Then it will likely be too hot and crowded to go to the pool.  So, Lylah will probably be watching some soccer today after skyping with grandma!

Skype is a great thing!  It allows both sets of Lylah's grandparents to see her and interact with her.  Sure, it's not the same as being here, but you can't get much closer than video chatting if you are hundreds of miles away!

New developments:  - Lylah is now rolling back and forth from her stomach to her back at will
                                     - Lylah is trying to grab and hold onto tables when standing
                                     - She has developed a high pitched squeal, which she uses sometimes while      
                                        laughing, other times while crying.

Coffee is my friend

After Shannon and I have agreed that I would be the morning person, it really doesn't work out to my benefit all of the time because I have to be the one to get up if I have put Lylah to bed the night before (Shannon does the same if she puts Lylah to bed), and I have the morning shift as well.  However, if I want to take a nap, Shannon let's me sleep as long as I want so I don't mind getting up early.  I love naps.

Lylah woke up at 4:45 this morning though.  She has been waking up between 5 and 6.  I try to hold off feeding her until 7:00.  Most days it works.  Today it didn't.  I tried to rock her back to sleep in her room, but she was quite awake.  I usually end up taking her into our bedroom and letting her sleep on my chest for about an hour and a half.  She then usually wakes up promptly at 7:00.  We both know that is the time to get up and make a bottle.

After her feeding at 7, Lylah has discovery time for about an hour.  She does a really great job of playing independently in her bouncer from about 7:30-8:00.  There are lots of little toys for her to grab and experiment.  At 8:00, she will start to fuss, so I take her out and she has tummy time.

New developments: Yesterday she rolled from back to front
                                    We began solid foods 2 days ago (only around her 1 o'clock feeding time)


Lylah with her bouncer:

Morning Routine

I take the morning shift now every morning.  When Lylah was born, Shannon and I got into a great routine.  She is a night owl, and I am a morning person.  Both of us are cranky at our respective non-awake hours.  Those times are sacred.  So, for a while, Shannon would be responsible for getting Lylah between 10 and 3 A.M., and I was responsible for 3 - 7.  At 7, we were both awake and would go to work about 7:30.  My mom was in town while we both finished out the school year.  She retired in November of 2011, so it worked out perfectly!  Mom was hesitant to stay with us for a month, but time went by very fast for all of us, and it turned out that she really loved doing it.

Then, when summer hit, and we began bathing Lylah every night, Shannon thought it was a good idea to switch off the evening bath/feeding routine (so that I got time to do that with Lylah).  Will continue later...

Lylah's college fund

Tonight I have decided to set up an account with Smartypig.com.  This website allows me to save for Lylah's college fund (Which has been something I have wanted to do since she was born).   Smartypig is a really neat website that allows me to save, allows us to post updates about the progress of her saving fund, and gives me a goal and a time frame which to attain this goal.  My first goal for Lylah is to raise $1000.00 by July 15, 2013.  The really neat thing about smartypig is that anyone can contribute to her savings account that believes in the cause!!!!  I would imagine this will likely include Shannon and my parents and perhaps grandparents (those who know how to use a comupter).  Feel free to donate if you get a wild hair, but begging for  money is not the reason I share this information.  I want to, instead, share our goals with Lylah and what our own thought processes are while raising our little bug.  Have a great week!!  I am usually checking out www.ebaumsworld.com about this time every night.  It's a little bit of free, stupid entertainment for men.  It has no real value, but while your wife sit's over and does some pinterest, maybe you can blow off some time at ebaumsworld.  Just a thought.

Smarty Pig Link below!!!!

https://www.smartypig.com/loves/85d2e96c-8ac7-4409-8b2d-13dc58085585

Cliche "New Dad" post

Ok, I'm a new dad!  Yippee! Hooray!!!!   I love Lylah with all I have!! Picking Lylah as a baby name was easy for me and Shannon.  Lylah stems from Lily (shannon's favorite color).  We couldn't name her Holly Green, or Kelly Green.  Lylah was definitely our favorite.


Wait, hold everything.  Lylah is right here in front of me as I am typing.  Lylah just pulled the blanket over her head.  I am watching her from the computer.  Now she's putting the blanket it in her mouth.  She's about to cry.  I'm gonna pick her up now.


I gave her a pacifier and she's good now.  


Here's a picture of us.

Mommy and Lylan at the pool.  We fought on the way out to the pool.  Shannon was stressed that  I wasn't doing enough to help her get the baby ready (after attempting to defend my case, it turned out that she was right).  These things are going to happen, I tell you.


Anyway, they look real cute in this picture and the rest of our day was pretty awesome!  Lylah loves outdoors!