Lily's First Christmas

We just got back from Virginia where we spent the last five days celebrating Lily's first Christmas, and what a Christmas it was! As I've mentioned before, I think everyone was extra excited for this Holiday season, especially me. It was quite joyful! This Christmas was made extra magical by the fact that the entire time we were in Virginia, and even when we returned home, there was snow! Lily even got her first snow suit!

Last Wednesday we arrived at my parents house just in time to join them at the Pulaski Fire department Christmas dinner. I haven't been to one of those in years, but my dad wanted all of his family there. Check out that proud "Deano" holding both of his grand babies! There were in fact, many proud grandparent moments. Lily fell asleep with my mom holding her three different times and spend time snuggling with both of her Hall grandparents.












Both of our families went overboard buying special presents for Lily and we came home with our car fully loaded! In reality, this was much more fun for me than for her. I greatly enjoyed opening all of the cute clothes and toys and have already washed them so she can start wearing or playing with them!
This week was also special because of all of the family that Lily got to meet. At Josh's grandma's she met not only her aunts, uncles, and first cousins once removed (yes, Josh and I researched how these relationships work...I know...dorks), but also her new second cousin, Kyra, who is just a month younger than she is. On my side, she also got to meet some cousins and second cousins including my cousin Chris and his family who were in on a rare visit from Botswana!




It was truly a special five days filled with family, food, and fun. Everything a Christmas should be! I'm sure this is one I will never forget. Now I just can't wait for future Christmas when Lily can make memories of her own!

Leaving Lily Part 2

At Thanksgiving we left Lily for the first time, with her grandparents, while Josh and I went to a movie. It was nice, but stressful. Being away from her is an interesting thing for me. It can be very freeing. Just this past Sunday Josh watched Lily in the morning while I went to the grocery store and then took her with him shopping while I made dinner. It was really wonderful. It was so much simpler to go to the store worrying about getting her in and out in the cold. It was also nice to clean and cook without having to keep checking in on her or entertaining her. That day, being away from her was freeing because I knew she was safely with her Dad who loves her and knows how to take care of her.

This coming weekend, however, is another story. Josh's band is playing the cocktail hour for a wedding of a friend of a friend and I just found out that I'm invited. Normally I would be excited. It would be a fun way to spend an evening. With Lily, however, it's a tough decision. I know that Josh would like for me to go. I know that it is just a month before I'll have to leave her all day (that's another post). I know that I should probably go. Still, it has been stressing me out. I asked one friend who I knew I would trust with her and who I know would take good care of her, and had just started to feel comfortable with that situation when I found out she had other plans and couldn't keep her.

I think it is all worked out now and I've found two other friends who are going to tag team and keep her. I know for a fact that they will take good care of her. I know that they both know how to take care of a baby. I know that she will be fine. Still...it's stressful. Do all new mom's feel this way?

The Hall Family Christmas Card!

Did you know that those photo Christmas cards that everyone sends are expensive! Since we didn't send out birth announcements, I was really excited about making and sending Christmas cards this year. I set up a photo shoot in our guest room and took pictures of Lily in all of her Christmas outfits. I put together an extensive list of over a hundred people that we would want to send a card. I went online and researched the different companies that made cards. I was shocked at the prices. The cheapest I could find the cards was around fifty cents per card. Add to that the fact that stamps are forty-four cents per card and that gets quite expensive.

For those of you who don't know, Josh is quite frugal. He balked at the idea of spending around a hundred dollars to send Christmas cards, so we got creative. We realized that you can print 4x6 photos for ten cents a piece at Wallgreens and buy 4x6 envelopes for ten cents a piece at Staples. By using Josh's amazing Photoshop skills to create our card we were able to cut the cost of our cards almost in half! Below you will find a sneak peak of the Hall Christmas Card 2010! Check out that cute baby!

Gotta Love the Christmas Spirit!

Since having Lily I've noticed that when parking I tend to try to leave a little extra room on the driver's side of the car to make it easier to get her seat out. Today we were headed to Target which was pretty crowded and the spot that I wanted, close to the carts had a car parked pretty close to the line on my driver side, so I ended up parking a bit further over than I typically would. I intentionally checked to make sure that the car on my passenger side would be able to get out and, while I know it was a bit squinchy, it was not really that close. When I got back to my car after shopping, however, I found this note on my window. Seriously...who hasn't had someone park too close to them and had a difficult time getting in the car. Heck, I've even had to crawl across from the passenger side on one occasion, but I wasn't that upset, and I've never left a note. It amazes me that on such a cold day someone would go to the effort to find paper, write the note, and put it on my windshield. Some people...

2 Months, A Check Up, & Immunizations

Lily turned two months old on Sunday. On Monday she had her two month check up. She was eleven pounds even and twenty-three inches long! She is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Her head circumference is the 25th percentile, but in all ways the doctor said she seemed perfect! What a wonderful check up after all of the drama of her first few weeks. I'm so glad that she is right on track.

Part of this check up included her two month immunizations. Vaccines are a hot parenting topic right now and I have to admit that I had some hesitations about the current recommended vaccine schedule. I just finished reading the book House Rules about a boy with Autism who's mother blames his disorder on his vaccines. After some research (none of which showed a link between current vaccines and Autism or any other disorders) and discussions with a friend who is a pediatrician and parent, however, we decided to follow the AAP recommended vaccine schedule.

This meant that Lily received six vaccines on Monday! When I read that schedule in some of my parenting books I was a bit freaked out. I couldn't imagine my little girl getting SIX shots. I really was nervous about her short term reactions (pain, fever, fussiness, etc.). I just hate to see her suffer and couldn't stand the thought of putting her through that. Going into the appointment I was quite apprehensive. It didn't help that I ran into a friend there who's son had just received his four month vaccines and was screaming his head off. Still, for Lily's sake and to keep face with the pediatrician, I tried to remain calm.

Luckily, it was not nearly as bad as I had feared. For one thing one of the immunizations (rotavirus) is an oral vaccine, and several of the others are combined, so it was actually only three shots. Amazingly, the two nurses who came in to give them were able to give all three at one time, so Lily only had one big scream. Granted, it was the biggest, breath caught, scream I've ever seen from her, but she recovered fairly quickly. She was only slightly fussy as we left the doctor.

Later that day she did seem to be a bit sore and would whimper and sort of cry every time I moved her, which was a bit sad. I spent much of the afternoon in my bed holding her and trying not to move too much. A dose of baby Tylenol helped and she has seemed fine ever since. Overall, it was not really that big of a deal. I'm starting to learn that I'm going to have to accept that there will be things that hurt her and times when she will be sad, but she and I will both survive!