billandcorrie.com

OK, I know no one feels sorry for us, but we have had a couple of chilly days here in Florida.  Wind chills below freezing in the a.m.  I’m not looking for sympathy from the folks back home, but it is kind of a bummer way to wrap up our stay.  The weather hasn’t really been beach-worthy for the last week or so.  I think our last day, Friday, is supposed to be sunny and 65, so maybe we’ll get one more chance to relax on the beach.

When we planned this trip, I kind of worried that a month away from home would feel too long — that we’d be a little homesick.  But, as we start packing up to head home, I wish we were staying another month!  Bill is ready to move here.  We do have some things to look forward to at home, though.  Our new dining room set will be delivered soon after we get back, and we’ll get to check the progress on the Mustang, which is having restorative paint and body work done as we speak.  Those will be fun pictures to post!

Lily just got up to start her day, so another marathon day begins!  The good news is, she slept through the night last night (well, after she was up for half an hour around 9:30 last night).  I function so much better on an uninterrupted eight hours.  Happy Thursday!

We visited the town of Seaside, a picturesque little beach community about 30 minutes from Destin.  (Thanks for the recommendation, Tanya!).  So picturesque, in fact, that it was chosen as the filming locale for the movie The Truman Show.  And, truly, as we were touring the area, I did feel like we were about to drive into the backdrop a couple of times.  It is an idyllic little town with sherbet colored houses surrounding the town center, which contains as many sweet shops as art galleries and sidewalk cafes.  It was a gorgeous day, with a bluegrass band playing at the centrally located amphitheater, and we definitely got the eerie feeling that we could be on a movie set, with our every move videotaped.

Eeriness aside, what a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  We found a neighborhood playground, and Lily got to swing in a “big girl” swing — the first swing she’s been in since her infant swing (never a big hit).  This swing was much more to her liking.

After some rescheduling, we visited our friends, Matt and Amy, in Gulf Shores yesterday.  They were visiting Matt’s parents and family for several days and invited us to join them for a day of fishing (Bill and the guys) and shopping (Corrie and the girls).  I think the boys got the better deal for the first half of the day, since Corrie, Amy, and Amy’s sister-in-law and mother-in-law were responsible for getting a total of seven children out to lunch — not exactly a relaxing day of leisure.  But once several of the children were napping or otherwise occupied, we took the two babies and went to the outlet mall, which was fun.  And once the guys returned (with nothing but fish tales to show for their afternoon), the girls ditched them with the kids and went out for cocktails.  We rejoined them later for dinner at Matt’s parents’ stunning home.  I’m not kidding, this house is something right out of Better Homes and Gardens.

It was a full day, and we were all tuckered.  It was a little over a two-hour drive back to Destin, which we timed to be after Lily was asleep for the night.  She slept great on the trip, but the day must have left her out-of-sorts, because she was up repeatedly in the night.  So — yawn — it has been a day of recovery for all of us.

Well, I’m off to make dinner.  I’m desperate for fresh seafood, since we are, afterall, right here at the Gulf, but it is nowhere to be found in the numerous restaurants around Destin.  It is fried fare as far as the eye can see and, surprisingly, not even all that fresh at some of the places we’ve sampled.  So I bought some very fresh sea scallops this afternoon at the seafood market to cook up myself.  That means chicken for Bill, as he is in year eight of recovery from a batch of bad mussels, and he can’t quite stomach any type of seafood yet.  I would think that was ridiculous if it hadn’t taken me at least that long to get over my queasiness of Little Debbie Star Crunch, which stemmed from a stomach flu as a child.

And, because I know most of the people who read this blog don’t do so for Bill and Corrie updates, I have videos of Lily showing off a couple of new skills (and I promise she was not injured in the making of these videos, though she always appears perilously close to injury!):

Lily is upwardly mobile:

Lily is so big:

We found this swimsuit in a local boutique, and we knew Lily had to have it.  And today the weather was nice enough to try it out on the beach.  Lily got quite a bit of attention from beachcombers, including a 14-month-old named Charlie (who might have just been coveting her Cheerios).  So, nevermind that the child now owns four swimsuits.  A girl can never have too many, right?

We have witnessed an interesting phenomenon here in Florida.  The folks here are very friendly — Bill thinks this is in direct correlation to the warm climate — and the median age is 72.4.  And what we have found is that, with the over-70 set, all babies are perceived to be male.  Lily could be dressed head to toe in pink, and still some kind elder will pass by and say, “Well, hello there little fella!”  Yesterday we were at the grocery store (where Lily is practically a celebrity among all of the kindly older folk fawning all over her), and a 70+ couple stopped and commented “What a little guy!”  Lily was wearing hot pink pants with ruffles at the cuffs and a light pink hoodie.  Bill joked, pointedly, “Yes, we hardly feed her.”  And still they walked away saying, “Well, he’s a cutie.”  Bill and I just shared a look and laughed quietly after they passed.  We’d have to put the baby in a prom dress for anyone to recognize she’s a girl around here.

Speaking of friendliness.  This place is amazing.  I don’t know if it’s the fact that we’re surrounded by vacationing retirees, or just good ol’ Southern hospitality, but people stop us left and right to greet Lily and try to get a wave or a smile in return.  I think in general it is a lot easier to “love thy neighbor” when it is sunny and 70 versus sleeting and subzero.  I have a tough time keeping my spirits high at this time of year in KC.  Darn it, if we didn’t have such strong ties to our family, friends, and church in Kansas City, we’d be free to relocate!

Happy weekend!  Happy three-day weekend to some of you!  We’ll be visiting friends in Gulf Shores on the Presidents Day holiday, so we’ll get to take a mini vacay from our vacay.  Fun, fun!

What a sweet start to the day Lily and I had this morning!  Bill got us each our own flowers, plus cards and candy (chocolate covered cherries for me, pink and white heart-shaped marshmallows for Lil).  We  are dressed in pink to commemorate the holiday.  That’s probably the extent of our celebration, though, since dinner out with Lily is far from romantic.  I’m thinking of whipping up a gourmet meal instead (well, at least a meal).  I’m becoming addicted to trying new Rachel Ray recipes, and Bill got me a copy of her magazine as well (hmmm…so was it really a “gift” for me?).  I find her recipes to be invitingly unintimidating.  Generally I like a recipe to have no more than six or eight ingredients, and as little chopping as possible.  I am a famously slow chopper.  My friend Ashley says she is, too, and we speculate that it is because we are too concerned about exacting standards when it comes to uniformity of pieces.  Type A.  I will buy pre-chopped whatever when possible, and I consider it well worth the cost for the time and energy savings.

My parents, who have joined us in Florida for the past week, will be leaving today.  So it’s back to a whole lot of Lily and Mommy time now.  All last week I was relatively successful at getting her down to two naps, but strangely they were not any longer than the three catnaps she was taking before.  So instead of three 30-40 minute naps, it was down to just two.  Hmmm.  Not what I had hoped.  And now for the past couple of days, she has been waaaay cranky for that lunchtime nap, so we’re back to three.  This is not a child who will have an arbitrary schedule imposed upon her.

Oh, and another interesting development.  That nice long 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep we had been getting?  It is now punctuated by 1-2 (or last night, 4) crying spells.  And she won’t take the binky anymore, which makes things challenging.  Sigh.  The wise words of my hairdresser ring in my ears.  She has raised two daughters, and she said when new mothers have asked her “Does it ever get any easier?” she has responded, after a pause, “It doesn’t ever get easier, just different.”  I’m starting to realize that…

Today ended the longest 10-day waiting period of our lives.  We received word from Lily’s pediatrician that the test she underwent for cystic fibrosis was negative.  He had ordered the test as one last disorder to rule out because of her petite size and slow weight gain.  Although he didn’t actually think she had CF — the test was simply to rule it out — as her mother the only words I heard were cystic fibrosis, and my head started swimming.  We rushed to get the test done before Lily and I left for Florida (Bill had left earlier that day), so that we wouldn’t have a month of waiting until we returned home.

Today we are breathing freely once again.  Now I think we and the pediatrician are all feeling that we can just accept that Lily is a petite peanut and move on.  She’s pretty much on track to be around 16 lbs at a year, which is what both Bill and I weighed at that age, so she seems to come by her stature naturally.  Bill and I chose not to share the information about Lily being tested with too many people until we had the results, but today we are about to burst with the good news.  For those of you who were praying with us, thank you.

 We are all celebrating with McDonald’s cheeseburgers!

I’m a little overdue, as she technically turned nine months on the third, but I feel I should chronicle Lily’s big girl status.  At nine months, Lily:

• Sleeps 11 to 11.5 hours through the night, though she tends to wake 1-2 times when teething.
• Takes three naps, each 30-40 mintues.  We’re working on consolidating to two longer naps (wishful thinking?).
• Weighs 14 lbs, 2.5 oz, and is 25 inches tall.  Wears some 3-6 month clothes and some 6-9 or 6-12 month stuff.
• Has four teeth — the front bottom two and the top two.
• Eats like a bird, and less when she’s teething.  She likes avocados most of the time, and sweet potatoes, chicken, bananas, yogurt, pears, applesauce, and baby oatmeal when she’s in the mood.  She has fallen out of favor with her previous fave, butternut squash, and she has never really taken to green beans.  We mix flaxseed meal, butter, or tahini into whatever we can to try to pack more calories into our little bird.
• Likes to feed herself whatever we’ll let her, particulary crackers and pizza crust.
• Has golden hair — much lighter than the light brown hair she was born with.
• Has brownish eyes, which still seem to be in transition, but shine copper in the sunlight.
• Smiles easily, at family, friends, and people in the grocery store.
• Laughs only when something is suitably silly.
• Gives kisses — wet, sloppy, “kisses” with a wide open mouth.  They are received with caution, as they can quickly turn into a bite if you’re not careful!  She likes to bite noses.
• Is crawling everywhere, and fast.  She is also pulling up on everything and starting to cruise.  She loves electronic anything, so she is drawn to all sorts of fun things that require us to intercept.
• Loves to try to grab Angus’ tail and to taunt him with tasty things, then snatch them away.  And, although Angus recognizes and respects the difference between his toys and hers, she does not reciprocate.  What’s Angus’ is hers, too (also requiring a lot of hasty interception from mom and dad).
• Babbles from time to time, but is holding out on too many ma-mas or da-das until she has perfected them.
• Waves bye-bye, sometimes.

She is looking more and more like a soon-to-be toddler, especially with the rapid increase in time spent on her feet.  But I love that I can still see so much of that tiny baby I met on May 3rd, especially when she’s sleeping.  I want to hold onto that forever…

My big girl at 9 months

Lily was a champion traveler; she slept a good deal of the time on the plane.  In fact, after the second leg of the flight, the gentleman behind us stood up and said, “Well, I didn’t know there was a baby on this flight!”  Lily was a little out of place, too, amongst the many tracksuit-clad septegenarians en route to Florida.  She therefore garnered quite a few ooohs and smiles.

In typical Bill fashion, he had arrived at the rental house early and unpacked everything; he had even made a trip to the grocery store and stocked the fridge.  Since we were already settled in, we were able to hit the beach first thing.  The house is a few blocks from the beach, so it comes equipped with a golf cart (heaven forbid we should get any exercise while on vacation!).  Angus looks right at home sitting shotgun in the cart, while I ride in back with Lily, safely secured in her carseat.

Today started off in a muggy fog, but it burned off by late morning and was sunny and 70 at noon.  While not every day promises to be so temperate, it was a fine welcome to the Sunshine State.  We introduced Lily to the sand and surf, and watched her take it all in.  Literally, she did take in a bit of sand, but I think we managed to limit it to a couple of handfuls.  What fun to see things through fresh eyes…

Later, while she napped, Bill and I each had a glass of wine poolside.  That’s probably as close to the pool as we will get this trip, as the water is frigid, and the air temp will typically only be in the low 60s.  But we were basking in the ambiance!  We are starting to think this trip should be a February tradition…