Off To The Store
Monday, September 17, 2007
We went grocery shopping tonight, & it's a good thing, too. We were running out of things to make for dinner. It's always loads of fun taking Lily to the store, I think because it's the perfect environment for her.
I used to think that she liked being in public, out amongst her people, and it's true, she does. But there is another element to it, one that Kelly mentioned in passing one day and that had not ever occurred to me. Lily is really happy when she's in public and buffered from the public by Mommy and Daddy. She's happiest when everyone can pay attention to her, talk to her or make some silly face at her, and she can react however she wants to without worrying that they're going to try to hold her.
Lily and her adoring crowds.... She gets more attention on a trip to the store than I might get, well, ever.
Posted byJeff Miller at 10:01 PM 2 comments
Some No Sleep Today
Sunday, September 16, 2007
She won't sleep. She didn't take a nap all day yesterday & she's not about to do it today, either, if she can help it. She managed to fall asleep for a little while while we were out for a run/bike ride this morning, but that's that. She's just playing in her crib, crying out every few minutes something that must translate as 'Hey Guys...'
I think we're gonna have to go to the park or something.
Posted byJeff Miller at 1:33 PM 2 comments
Early Morning With the Millers
Friday, September 14, 2007
Lily has had an ear infection lately, and it wasn't responding to the first round of medicine, so we've had to start another. Needless to say, she's been a little uncomfortable & cranky, so she's been waking in the night the last few nights. What we usually do is hold her & rock her back to sleep for a little while and try to put her back in her crib. But, she seems to want equal time with Mommy and Daddy, so we both get to take turns. This morning, however, she started crying at 5:45. Too late to try to rock her back to sleep, but a little too early for us to get up. It would not have been the end of the world if we had to get up for good, but it's nice to avoid it if you can, right? Kelly got her and sat with her for a few minutes, while I made a morning bottle and waited on the couch to see what would happen. Like, waited on the couch under a blanket resting my eyes. After a few minutes, she came out with Lily & we all took a nap on the couch together for an hour. Lily is not much of a cuddler, either, so we were surprised that she put up with it, but the lengths of time between bouts of pacifier sucks just got longer & longer until they settled into a contented pattern. Nice way to start the day. And since we made cookies last night, we should have an O.K. night, too (fingers crossed). Aunt Tyrra's coming over & Lily just lovers her!
Posted byJeff Miller at 11:32 AM 0 comments
Waconia House
Monday, September 10, 2007
Here's that house in Waconia I mentioned the other day. What an interesting thing to see up close, especially that chimney. I can't recall seeing a chimney like that on any other type of building but a factory. It looks like a miniature smokestack.
But the roof is really the thing that draws your eye to it when you see it up close. There's something amazing about all of that texture, that blasted, beaten, pounded to splinters wood roof.
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Posted byJeff Miller at 8:40 PM 0 comments
At the park, in Waconia
Sunday, September 9, 2007
We had a fun day today. We got to see Grandpa & Joan, we got to eat pineapple & strawberries ( and to throw a bunch of other various foodstuffs to the floor), and we got to swing in the park. Boy, was it some park, too. I wish Lily was a little older, so she could revel in its glory. It was that cool, Im not kidding.
When I was a very little kid, my Mom took me to a park in Oak Park, IL, not too very far from where we lived, but far enough that we didn't go there very often. This was the coolest park ever, though my memories of it are vauge enough that it might just be my imagination swelling it to something it never was. But, so what, it lives in my memory even if the edges of it are frayed or it never set quite right. Those really early memories that are like a flip-book rather than a cartoon, a little jagged with some frames missing.
Anyway, this park had a train. A little kid train that you could get in/on & ride around. I think I might have ridden it once. I'm pretty sure I did, but if I didn't, then I at least saw it operational, with a conductor running the locomotive, red bandana, hat and all. Every time I went there, I looked for the train first thing, going 360 degrees around the shack where I presumed it lived when it was outside the normal hours of operation. I wanted it to be there, waiting for us to run up & hop on. I was hoping to hear a whistle, or a choo, or a chugga-chugga or even some calliope music. I have an impression of autumn leaves covering ground around the shack. And of a padlock on the door.
I think about it now, and am a little sad, but it was still a really good park, as parks are rated by the little kids who ride on the rides and try to bounce each other off the teeter-totters and wade in the kiddie pools. I want Lily to have something like that, a memory of something sweet to last for thirty years & more.
Did I mention that the park had an Olympic pool, like with the three diving boards lined up by height ascending. That was the best.
Posted byJeff Miller at 8:46 PM 0 comments
Big Day
We're going to Waconia today, to visit Grandpa Pete. It's sort of a belated birthday visit; we were supposed to go out last weekend, but since Lily & I were sick, we had to cancel. Lily's taking a little nap now (on her tummy, butt up in the air), so hopefully her fuse will legnthen just enough so that we don't have to break out and assemble the pack-n-play for nap time later. We have successfully proven that she will sleep under rooves not her own, but I really hate trying to push my luck.
Anyway, we're looking forward to the trip. Lily gets so board on weekends unless we've got the pedal to the floor from sunup to sundown. We've got to take full advantage of autumn, since I got the impression this morning that there are only going to be a few nice weekends left this year, before we have to turn our attention to indoor activities.
Also, it'll be showtime for Lily, star of the Millers. She is just getting old enough to ham it up nice for her audience, which serves to reinforce the positive reviews. Mommy and Daddy are just... Understudies? Gofers? Grips? Something like that.
Batteries are chargning for the camera now, hopefully there'll be enough juice in them to bring the camera. There's a house across the street from Joan's that has a roof that cannot even be described, you have to see it for yourself. That, and the walls appear to have load-bearing vines helping to hold the whole thing up.
Posted byJeff Miller at 9:39 AM 0 comments
Lily Bird
Saturday, September 8, 2007
One day, she will ask why she is called 'Lily-Bird.' Should I make something cool-sounding up? Or should we just say, "Ah, some kid called you that at daycare & it just stuck."
Posted byJeff Miller at 7:26 PM 0 comments
baby asleep
Lily fell asleep, not in the car, not in her stroller, but being taken out of her car seat. That's a first - usually that's when she wakes up (she did that earlier in the day, when I took her to the store for "Something To Do").
What's weird is, now she's giving every indication that she's going to go all the way, sleep from, like, 5:30 all the way through to tomorrow. That's not without precedent, especially when she's been slacking in nap-taking, but still. You have to look at her a little sideways when she does something like that, like she's an ad just too good to be true. Like she's just looking to catch you off gaurd & deke you & make you pay.
Can't really complain, just a sense of apprehension. Hmm.
Posted byJeff Miller at 7:09 PM 0 comments