Another Milestone!!!

WOW!!! Our superstar girl sat up tonight on her own!! There was minor assistance from dad to get her in position, but once he let go she maintained it for almost 2 minutes!!! We were ecstatic while Lil, being her usual chill self, took it all in stride.

House updates

The house has been repainted. Gone is the blue-green hueso reminiscent of stagnant water, cheese mold, and other such images. Instead the house now sports a sunny yellow glow. It's a substantial improvement and comes just as the tulips we planted last year are starting to bloom.

Inside we've gutted the living room. The 70's era paneling just had to go. In the process we discovered two lighting sconces above the fireplace as well as the outline of a long since removed built-in cabinet. In what era did it seem like a good idea to tear out built-ins???

Fortunately, out neighbors have the exact same fireplace so I'm planning to reverse engineer the design and recreate the built-ins.

Lily is 6 months old!

Wow - I can't believe it's been six months since we brought Lily home. It's so hard to imagine life without her and at the same time I am a little sad when I think about how quickly her babyhood is passing. It's all so fleeting...and amazing. Here are her latest accomplishments...

• She is almost sitting up on her own!
• While not frequently, she is rolling over onto her tummy. Her arm occassionally gets stuck, making her look like an adorable little manatee flailing on her side.
• Sing-offs happen a lot. We'll look at each other and exchange ahhhhhhhh's. Hopefully she's wind up with a much better singing voice than moi.
• Dexterity - it's improving everyday and now include mom-n-dad nose grabbing, glasses pulling, etc. She's also obsessed with petting things - the sofa, burp cloths, even Paco!
• Kicky La Rue. My new name for her....she really loves to kick and flail about, which included slapping her dad with a loud SMACK the other night. He was stunned, I nearly fell off the couch laughing.
• Finger and thumb sucking...not new, just more frequent.
• Smiles, smiles, smiles - she's still as generous with them as ever.
• Drool, drool, drool. I've been saying that I think she's teething for the past 2 months. Now I REALLY think she is and hope the tooth comes soon and stops tormenting her.
• Chunky Monkey! She's now almost 17 pounds of pure joy. I love her every pudgy inch of her - especially how her little arms are tubes with a crease and then a hand...no wrist!
• Lily. I said her name the other week and she looked up!
• Feet are awesome. Lily has discovered hers and loves to hold her toes like a wee yogi.

She really is the best baby ever. I am so, so proud of her and can't seem to stop bragging and giving thanks that we were so blessed. What they say is true - a mother's love is an incredible thing.