Finally....an UPDATE!!

Wow! Have things gotten busy in our household! I apologize for neglecting the blog...but rest assured, it is not the only thing that has gone neglected over the last few months (I'm thinking of housework, in particular)!

The last time I blogged, it was just after Thanksgiving. We had a great Christmas break. Lily, as you can imagine, got immensely spoiled with her first Christmas. We now have more toys than we know what to do with! Brian and I, thankfully, also got a nice break from grading and studying--which we appreciated very much. Here is a picture of Lily on Christmas Eve, looking quite festive:

Posing on Christmas Eve

Reading a book!

And, above, is a picture of her doing one of her favorite things--READING. She loves to read! She is also, at 14 months, developing quite a vocabulary (she says, ball, mama, dada, flower, keys, cheese, woof woof, and lots more).

Lily also celebrated her first birthday on February 4th--it was hard to believe. She began walking right around the same time and is now quite the pro. Right after Christmas she developed her first cold, which was no fun! Unfortunately for her unknowing parents, this was just the beginning of a string of ear infections. Actually, she did not get several ear infections, she just had one VERY resistant double infection that would not respond to oral antibiotics. The weekend of her birthday party she started running high fevers (104. 5) . Eight days and one hospital stay later, both of her eardrums ruptured and, finally, the fevers subsided. Unfortunately, the infection did not, so a few weeks later she had tubes put in her ears to help the fluid drain. So far, we have had no further problems (keep your fingers crossed!).

Here's a picture of her on her 1st birthday:

Not feeling too good, but giving that cake a try!

Apart from that, she is just one big troublemaker... :) But that is a one year old for ya!

She's into EVERYTHING!

How cute is this?

Brian and I are doing pretty well. We are trying to get the house and the yard ready for Spring, which is proving to be a big task. Brian's still teaching at WNCC and I am about to finish my second semester of grad school. I have, however, decided that I am going to put graduate school on hold for awhile. The decision was difficult, but, as a result of coaching the speech team this year, I have decided that I would like to become a secondary teacher. I am planning on earning an English endorsement and then beginning a transition to teaching program. Wish me luck!! It is a pretty major change in direction for me--which can be a little frightening at times.

That's all the news in our life for now. I will try to be better at updating in the future!

Getting Ready for Turkey Day

We are eagerly awaiting Thanksgiving day this year. It is mine and Lily's "first" Thanksgiving--I'm hosting!! :) Lily has a special Thanksgiving bib that she has been pointing at since we bought it, so she is very excited to finally be able to wear it! We are also ready for the short vacation that this holiday provides and a good (hopefully) beating of Colorado by the Huskers!

Lily is as busy as ever. There is now no "break." She is in constant motion. In fact, we bought her a play-pen (aka, baby jail) so that we can get bathroom breaks and other quick chores done without worrying about her crawling down the stairs or getting into some other type of mischief.

Baby jail

She doesn't like it one bit, as you could imagine! But, we tell ourselves it is a necessary evil :)

Lily has also been experimenting with new finger foods. We had one scare where she choked on some Gerber puffs (because she shoveled five in at once) but it all ended happily. She LOVES any food that she can eat herself! We are hoping that all the practice makes her Thanksgiving meal even more exciting.

That's about all our news. I am trying to plan the Morrill Speech Meet and still plugging along at school. I think we have about 2 1/2 weeks left, so almost done!! Brian is also done at about that time, so Christmas break is much anticipated at this point!

Here are some recent pictures:

Having fun in the high chair after a yummy meal!

FINALLY napping! :)

Ready to go!

Showing off her newly refined eating skills!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!