The walking dead has returned. Sort of. I spent yesterday morning at Patient First and last night in the ER trying to figure out what’s wrong with me. Still don’t know - everyone is calling it a virus. If that’s the case, it’s one nasty and drawn out version - we are on day 10 of it and all of us are sick to death of it, especially me. I feel more human today than I have in the past week - now if I can just eat and keep drinking water, I’m sure I will improve.

Since I last blogged, Lily went to the doctor to find out the great news that she had lost a pound since her 12 month visit, and had dropped into the 3rd percentile overall. She’s very small. We have to make sure this isn’t a trend - she doesn’t eat a whole lot and she’s extremely active, so our pediatrician wasn’t overly concerned about it. He said he’d be more concerned if we brought her in for her 2 year check up and she was still continuing to lose weight. In the meantime we just need to have her eat as much as possible!!! It’s doesn’t help that she is going through a picky eating phase - I guess paybacks really are hell, and all those years I refused food are now coming back to me twofold in my own daughter.

Thankfully Mike has stayed healthy through all of this. Basically I’ve been sick since before we went to Texas, which is annoying, to say the least. I have almost forgotten what it feels like to have energy, and I really don’t take my health for granted any more. If I had any doubts about Mike getting his “tubes tied”, they are gone now. I’m not blaming the pregnancy for all of my health problems, but it sure doesn’t help . . . and I think two is enough. I will hopefully blog more regularly now!

May 26, 2004

Lily was at Grammaw’s and Grandpa’s today. I thought I’d post some pictures of her new favorite pool. You know how when a mother says, “My child never does ______” (fill in the blank with your favorite phrase), that guarantees that the child will do whatever they said the child wouldn’t??? So it was today that I guaranteed Lily would not pee or poop in the pool, based on a summer’s worth of data collected last year. Sure enough, mom puts her in the pool this afternoon (following a large lunch), and Lily decided to pollute the water. I wasn’t there, but all of you who know my mother can imagine the sheer horror, and terror, of the small brown turd floating in her pristine kiddie pool. She said she was jumping around trying to get Lily out, because as you can see, Lily loves to drink her pool water.

After all that excitement today, here are some other cute photos of her in her bathing suit.

May 23, 2004

We had quite the active weekend - Lily should be sleeping well tonight. Physically she is making huge leaps and bounds - learning to crawl up things by using her feet as suction cups (or her rendition of a suction cup), learning to slide, climbing everything (including our bookshelves, legs, and any furniture she can heel-hook), and running as fast as she can. It gives me a heart attack, but the worst that can happen is a skinned knee I suppose.

Saturday we ordered all the new baby furniture we will need for Number Two. We got a crib, a dresser, and a changing table that converts to a dresser later in life. We also ordered a crib guard for Lily - because soon she will be ready for us to convert her crib into a toddler bed. The thought of her being free to leave her bed at will is a little frightening! We took her to the mall and let her play and run around like a maniac. She was so tired after playing all morning that she fell asleep in the car. I can tell you, the last time she fell asleep in the car, she was about 3 months old. My child DOES NOT sleep in the car.

Today we took her to Deep Run Park, where we played on the teeter totter, slides, swings, and learned to walk across a suspended “bridge” (it’s only 2 inches off the ground). After lunch and a nap we went out for a walk. Soon it will be bathtime and bedtime - and both Mike and I need that almost as much as she does.

I do have one non-Lily related note - I must tell it on the mountaintops for XM Satellite Radio. Okay, I accept that we live in one of the worst cities for radio. For a place as big as Richmond, we must have the WORST radio stations. I think even Raleigh had us beat, and Raleigh was about as white-bread as it gets. Finally after a year of watching most of the radio stations either fail or be taken over by some huge conglomerate where the playlists are prepared in some factory somewhere, I gave in and bought Mike (maybe US would be more appropriate in this case) the equipment for XM. Not only did I have it installed in his car, but I bought another set of equipment for my car, which he uses on trips. Now whenever he takes my car, he can just take the unit out of his car and drop it into mine. We were both enthralled with it - no commercials, no people screaming about furniture and car sales . . . no Britney Spears (unless you want that, of course), no annoying morning talk shows. In addition to the best programming I’ve heard since my days in college radio, they have non-stop CNN, ESPN, Weather Channel, and for those of you who desire nastiness, an additional $2.99 per month fee for the Playboy Radio Channel (which, I must tell you, we did NOT subscribe to). I almost can’t wait to get into the car just to listen to it. I’m sure it’s like any new relationship - the honeymoon will end at some point - but hey, for $9.99 a month, not having to listen to crappy Richmond radio anymore feels like it’s FOREVER.

Another work “week” is winding down for me - looks like this afternoon I’ll be trudging through someone’s file cabinets in an effort to whittle down my huge bill that we are trading on. Hey, whatever it takes to become debt-free. That sounds almost anti-American.

Lily is trying to talk these days - mom swears she said “milk” and “grandma” yesterday, but neither Mike or I are buying it. At least the grandma part. She barely says “mama”! Regardless, she is trying - I’ll give her credit. We say a word, and she attempts to repeat it back. Usually it sounds like she’s blowing a raspberry at us, but I think the intent is there. I’m not overly anxious for her to start speaking, considering her favorite word is “no” and her favorite gesture, when annoyed, is to start slapping at me, a table, a ball, or whatever tends to be in her way at the moment. I’ve got the beginnings of a teenager on my hands! Since the “terrible twos” have started early, I’m hoping that means she’ll be over it by the time Child Number Two arrives.

Speaking of “dos”, as Mike and I fondly refer to Child Number Two, I’m having one of those months where I question my sanity. I remind myself regularly that I fear my abilities as a mother mostly because I’m so ridiculously tired when pregnant. Looking in the mirror makes me break out in hives - most women grow out when pregnant. My entire body widens. I feel like a wall with legs most of the time. Kidney stones, bladder infections and puking aside, I’m just not a pretty picture of a pregnant woman. Someone told me recently that I was “glowing” - I about died. It was probably just the light reflecting off my hormonally-activated pimples. I have many honest friends who are also mothers, and all of them have admitted to questioning what they were doing when getting ready for Number Two. All of us at one time or another have said, “Why am I doing this to myself? Child One is sleeping through the night, eating, and will possibly be out of diapers soon. So I had to go and screw it up. More breastfeeding - more sleepless nights - more looking like a giant spit up rag.” These same friends reassure me that when Number Two arrives, all of those complaints are forgotten, and faith is blind, so I’m trusting that I will be able to rise to the occasion and be a good mother to Dos.

And no, we’re not seriously considering naming the baby Dos. Dos Del Bueno? Let’s get a little more ethnic sounding, shall we?

Speaking of names, if you have any good ideas, please email them our way - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Girls names are easy - Mike and I agree on many of those, but there was not a single boys name we both liked. We find out the sex of Dos on June 3, so I’ll post on the blog when I get home from the ultrasound.

I know it’s been forever since I last blogged, but a kidney stone and a trip to Texas put me back a bit. It’s Lily first day back in her house, and mine too. She finally slept last night, waking up only once, and she’s almost back to her normal cheerful self. She was mostly devil-like at Risa’s house, but still had moments of her regular personality despite her sleep-deprived state. She’s like her father - doesn’t like to be out of her routine!

She enjoyed being with her cousins Nate and Tori, and Michael too - Beth was in from Hawaii for a buying trip that coincided with our trip to the Longhorn State. It was good for all of us to get together. Lily went swimming for the first time this season, spent many hours on the trampoline scaring the crap out of me (she kept diving for the edges), and tore Risa’s house apart. She was really good on the way home as well and slept for close to an hour and a half on the plane. On the way out she slept for 45 minutes, which gave us nearly two hours to entertain her without letting her feet touch the floor. You try that with an active 17 month old child! Beth took some good pictures with her digital, so hopefully she’ll send me some copies and I can post them.

In the meantime, mounds of laundry await . . .