Week in Review

I feel that usually my blog posts are mostly about Ava and since she is the more active of the two girls it is normal. However Lily is quickly growing up and I have decided to try and tell you a bit more about her this week. I think some people think the first child is a "blink and you miss it" phase of life, but I think that it is number two and beyond. Gone are the days to sit around and simply admire my precious child. Now there are more chores and more things that need to be accomplished each day. I feel that I have reached a "I blinked and missed it" moment with Lily. WHERE did my baby go?

Lily is now 7 months old. She has no problem whatsoever sitting up on her own these days and she also can crawl two or three steps at a time before her belly hits the floor, so she is officially crawling. The other day I left the room to check my email, leaving the patio door open as Ava was wandering in and out. I heard Lily start to fuss but just put it out of my mind as she does that regularly enough it didn't seem out of the ordinary. When I went back to the living room there was Lily sitting up looking at me - from the patio outside!! Apparently she must have cried out as she went over the door threshold (it's not that far down) then recovered nicely and enjoyed her freedom eating dirt.

Lily also is really starting to try and communicate more, which usually comes out as raspberry blowing , screeches, or gutteral growls. I swear, somedays I think she is more of a bear than a little girl. But the interaction between Ava and Lily is so sweet to watch. The other day I brought Lily into the living room after a nap and started to put her on the floor away from where Ava was lining up her toys. "Ninny sit here" Ava called out to me and patted the floor beside her. So I sat Lily down there and Ava promptly handed her a toy and said "There you go Ninny. I share with Ninny." (In full disclosure this moment was extra sweet because 99% of the time Ava screams "That's mine!" and takes toys away from Lily; she has been landing regularly in timeout due to this transgression.)

Ava's new thing this week is making up her own sign language. I told you before how she likes to say a word and then tack on "Like this" and show you the sign for that word. Well, this week she added the "signs" of toot, commercial, and dinosaur to her repoirtoire. "Ava toot. Like this." "Mommy, dinosaur! Like this." Trust me - they do not cover the signs for T-Rex or passing gas on Signing Time.

I forgot to tell you that last week my friend and neighbor Ashley cut my hair (I know, she is so multi-talented isn't she?). I had been living with the excuse of "I have a baby and that's why I look like this" long enough. When the baby is now 7 months old and has a daily routine, I should indeed be able to fit showering somewhere in there. So I am back to my short do - and loving it! The day I cut it Elliott came home from work and visited with me a few minutes before he noticed my hair. "Did you cut your hair?" Yes. (Elliott - pregnant pause with stricken look). "Today?" The poor guy thought I had maybe cut it several days ago and he hadn't noticed. Ha ha ha!

This week I have been kept busy with domestic stuff. During one of my Freegan runs, I got alot of produce and turned it into a dozen jars of strawberry jelly and 10 jars of salsa, along with some baby food peaches, pears, and appleasuce, plus extra veggies to cook up for dinners. We also just wrapped up a garage sale yesterday. Several other friends participated - Lizzie, Lisa, Babette, Gina, and Ashely - and we all made out pretty well. Ava enjoyed hanging out with us in the garage and "shopping". The best part - TONS of stuff is now out of the house and very little left to take to Goodwill. Yeah! So today I am kept busy by cleaning up the remaining items and also prepping food for Freezer Group this Tuesday (I was invited to sub in again this month). Now that I have a deep freezer that is extra exciting! We still have a few meals left from the last time I did it, June I think, because I like to sprinkle in new recipes and meat sales with the freezer meals. That is actually why it is SO perfect for me - there is always something in the house to eat, so there is less of an excuse to eat out.