New Summer Pics!

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Lilah is 3 months!

Here are our latest pictures of Lilah. She turned 3 months old on August 11th. Last week was busy as we celebrated granny's birthday, had a community group dinner with all of our friends, had our PEPS group meeting, celebrated Lilah's friend Grace's 1st birthday, and spent Saturday night with Gretchen and Vaughn, and Lilah's cousins. They love her and Faith was dying to hold her, and finally got another chance as she's been asking so many times when we've seen them. :) Next weekend we head to Leavenworth for the weekend to see grandma and grandpa and have a mini-vacation away from home.

Summertime!

I can't believe how fast the time flies by! Next week it'll be 3 months since Lilah was born and our lives changed forever. Wow!

For being new parents though, we have had a pretty busy summer.

A few weeks ago we headed up north to do the ALS Double Day ride. Well, I actually didn't ride this year since I was on baby duty and am part of the committee helping to put the ride together. Lance rode (two days and 95 miles) with his friend Rob and had a really good time. We were both exhausted after the long weekend, Lance from riding a bike for all that distance, and me from trying to balance taking care of a baby and being in charge of the food portion of the ride (which you know is VERY important). I told everyone I felt like I rode 95 miles...seriously! I found out what it is like to pack for a family of three now, which is not fun. For just two days away we had two huge bags and I started packing and making lists days before. I know it'll only get easier, but I'll be more anal.

Last weekend we celebrated my 31st birthday (yikes!) and then Lance headed up to Whistler for Rob's bachelor party. He had so much fun and I was a single parent for the weekend. It was easy and just fine, although our little peanut decided for a few nights that she didn't want to sleep all through the night. That was a bummer when you're used to getting 7 or 8 hours of sleep and then waking up to a hungry baby at 2:30 in the morning. So, we moved little missy to her own room this last Tuesday night. All is well so far, and she's sleeping mostly through the night, with some late night stirring, but it's 8:21 right now and I think I hear her finally getting up. Yippee (for now)!

This summer has been fun for Lilah and I during the day when daddy's at work. We've went on walks with friends and she now will sit outside in the sun with me. Well...she sits in the shade and I sit in the sun and I read or watch her. :) She got a chance to wear her bathing suit when we went to Julie's pool, although she just slept in the shade. Next year I'm sure she'll be having tons of fun playing in water when it's hot. During our heat spell we were fortunate enough to borrow a window air conditioner to make it bearable in here for a few days. Lilah actually slept really good. The days we didn't have the air conditioner we ran errands and visited my mom where it's cooler, by the water in Edmonds. I've been able to escape a few times for happy hour too, and have seen a lot of my girlfriends and all their babies and little ones. It's really fun to get together with all the girls (yep, we all have girls- but Gretchen's pregnant with the first baby boy due in October). :)

Our next adventure will be going to Leavenworth in a few weeks for the night, and then we hope to get to Spokane to see Shane and Kelli and their cuties in September.

Well, Baby Einstein is entertaining my new tv lover (she is so enthralled by the tv, we have to shut it off all the time because she is not allowed to watch it), so I'd better go get her and get on with bath time!

Lilah is 2 Months!

Lilah turned 2 months on July 11th. Yah! She is such a good little peanut. She is sleeping so well (if you can believe it - 6 to 9 hours at night!), although I'm so nervous that at any time she'll start waking up every 3 hours again. :) Lilah loves to be around her mommy and daddy! As long as we're around, she's happy and smiling. We can put her down on a blanket, or in her vibrating seat or in a Baby Einstein mat, as long as we sit and show her some attention, she's good for awhile. She is making so many noises and thinks she's telling us a whole lot. Our lives have changed, but we've figured out how to have time for ourselves (after we put her to bed) and have went on quite a few date nights. We're even getting brave enough to go out to eat with her, and she does really good (we come equipped with plenty of milk for her though). We think she's the most beautiful baby we've ever seen, and really, I don't think it's just our bias. She honestly is the cutest! Here are our most recent pictures of our princess!

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Life at the Wiley House

Things with our little family have gotten a lot easier and we're having even more fun being parents as we figure out (sort of) what we're doing. :) Lilah and I stay very busy during the week - we go and visit friends and sit in the sun (so far though she does NOT like the sunshine like her mama does), we go on walks (she is starting to like her stroller a little more and she doesn't love the carseat, but will deal with it usually), and we have the occasional visitors. Lilah gets to see her granny and Aunt Mandi a lot because they come during the week to watch her so that I can workout, take a shower, fold laundry, and eat without being super rushed. Lance and I have been out on some date nights while granny or Uncle Kurt and Aunt Gayle babysit. She always does really well for them and they love her! On the 4th of July, Lilah came with us to downtown Kirkland since our community group from church volunteered as "crowd control" in the parade. Luckily for Lilah and I, we just got to be daddy's "accessories" and didn't have to wear the orange vests. She did really good though and lasted the entire four hour stretch with the loud noises and warm weather.

We're loving this fun stage with Lilah right now. She is "cooing" a lot and talking to us...Lance says it just "melts him" when she does that. I told him to just wait until she can actually talk! She'll have him wrapped around her little finger! She's definitely growing and now is out of all of her newborn clothes, which is fun because now I get to put her in some of her cute dresses and summer outfits. She's still a petite little peanut, but at least she's not swimming in everything. We love that she is also doing so much better sleeping at night. For the last week, she sleeps from about 10/10:30 to between 3:00 and 5:00! It's wonderful! And, Lance or myself gives her a bottle at that time at the night since I seemed to be up with her for at least an hour nursing her and trying to get her to wake up or stay awake. I'm happy to say too that her poop blowouts have calmed down, although Lance and I videotaped a good one the other day. She makes the funniest face when she's pooping (she gets very red, her nostrils flare, her eyes get big and she shrugs her shoulders). So, we had to get it on tape...but the joke was on her poor mama as we taped, I got a lap full of runny, smelly poop. Some day she'll be very proud of herself. :)

Enjoy our newest pictures from the end of June until just recently. She really is so sweet and so cute...we just love her to pieces!

Skinny Mini

Lilah turned a month old on June 11th! Oh my gosh, it's gone by so fast...I know all parents say that, but even with our hard nights and trials, I still can't believe that a little over a month ago she was not even out in this world yet! Before we know it she'll be 5 and going to Kindergarten and I'll be saying the same thing. :)

Last week I decided to take Lilah to Evergreen to get her weighed as Lance and I had been worried about how small she still was and that after a month she was still only fitting into her newborn clothes. So, she weighed in at only 7 pounds, 13 ounces - a lot less than some babies are born at! After feeding her with a lactation nurse, I found that I wasn't supplying enough milk for her and so we have been on a strict feeding plan all week. This includes breastfeeding, then feeding her with formula to make up what she's not gettin from me, and then I pump. Doesn't sound so bad? Well, this procedure takes 45 minutes to an hour. My little angel will fall asleep during the feeding, or think she hates the formula and refuse to drink it, get distracted, spit it out, which all adds to the feeding regiment. I told the nurse though I would do anything to get her closer to where she should be, which is around 9 pounds. The poor thing has been hungry for a few weeks at least, so she seems to be a little more mellow and lasts longer between feedings (although she still hates the carseat and is not a big fan still of car rides - darn!).

I apologize to all of my Husky friends and I debated not to put the picture of Lilah in the Cougar onesie, but that is part of her daddy's Father's day gift. I put this onesie on her and took pictures to put in a frame for daddy. Do I think she'll be a "Future Cougar" really? No way. But, it'll make Lance smile and she still looked pretty cute in it. Sidenote: I think she really didn't like having it on because as soon as I put it on her, she peed right through her diaper and on the onesie. So, a future Dawg she will be....