Lily Tipping

It’s like cow tipping, but with Lily.

Lillian has figured out (?) that she can roll onto her stomach immediately after we put her down on her back to sleep. The first few days this happened, she would freak out and start crying because she couldn’t get back onto her back to fall asleep. This got really old at night when she’d start crying and one of us would have to go tip Lily so she could go back to sleep.

However, Lily isn’t bothered by being on her stomach suddenly and has mastered falling asleep on her tummy. I still sneak in at night and turn her before I go to bed, but at naptime, I’ve been leaving her be. Most of the time she uses her Chewy Bear as a pillow and other times she sleeps with her little face smooshed into the mattress. When she wakes up, her face is red where it was smashed and she looks like she’s sunburned for a few minutes.

The other day, she tried to roll to get a toy. From her tummy to back and then tummy, easily covering a few feet and reaching the toy. You could see the little wheels in her head turning and she realized, that wasn’t a half bad way to get around. Luckily, she hasn’t tried it since. With Ella, I’d always write, “Oh, she’ll be crawling any day now!” and nothing happened. With Lily, I think if I write it, it might actually happen, so I’m not going to jinx it. I enjoy her somewhat immobile lifestyle. I can currently keep up with her ability to scoot backwards at a snail’s pace.

In Ella sickness news. Yesterday she stayed home from school and rested well, got rid of her low fever, ate well and was generally happy and normal. Woke up this morning on her own, was within her normal range of grumpiness, ate as if I hadn’t fed her in days and was generally happy as we drove to school. While at Target, I got “The Call” … well, my heart jumped when the phone rang, but it was not Ella’s school and totally unrelated to Ella. I chuckled at my worry over the phone ringing. Well, apparently while in some dead zone in the midst of homewares, I missed “The Call” and it went to voicemail. I checked my voicemail upon check-out – I know, I hate those people on their cell phones while checking out too. But, I was sure to be extra polite to the cashier… turns out Ella had been crying on and off since I’d left her because her nose was running. They were fine keeping her, but just wanted me to know she was sad so I wouldn’t be concerned upon picking her up later with bloodshot eyes. Well, I threw in the towel and picked her up anyway. Why burden them with my child who was being over dramatic over snot. Apparently, she was perfectly happy and content when they’d let her wash her hands. Greeeeat. But, Ella also was scheduled to have her Special Ed evaluation to see if she qualifies for 3-5 yr old services. I really want her to rock her evaluation and not qualify so we can wrap up this chapter of our lives, so I figured she could come home, rest up…perhaps take a hit of Tylenol and be ready to rumble! No such luck. She hung out at home, ate some lunch, had a low fever again and then finally, after many many tears fell asleep for a nap. I cancelled the evaluation so she could rest up. I need her firing on all cylinders for this one. We’ll see how she’s feeling when she gets up, and maybe we’ll try again tomorrow. I don’t know what this illness is. It’s annoying, that’s for sure. I don’t want them to think I’m “that parent” who sends their child to school even when they’re sick because they don’t want to deal with it. I’m not, but she has seemed fine both mornings when I sent her, no fever or troublesome symptoms other than maybe a common cold.

It’s just frustrating trying to care for her when I don’t really understand what’s going on or what to do. She doesn’t seem sick enough for the doctor and doesn’t even seem that sick most of the time. Then I have Lillian who is plenty healthy but always seems to need a bottle when Ella’s feeling her worst, so I have two children screaming at me.

In funny Ellaisms, yesterday when we were discussing our day at bedtime, I asked Ella what animals we’d seen at the zoo, she looked at me very seriously and said, “real ones.”

Lily has also started giving me kisses. It was as if she knew I needed a little extra love today because I was feeling so down. Granted, her kisses consist of her opening her mouth wide and licking/sucking on my face while humming, but I’ll take it. I did have to wipe my face down after a particularly good smattering of love.

Lily has suddenly mastered the art of Cheerio eating. Half of them are actually making it her mouth. The other half get stuck to her face, end up in her clothing or appear mysteriously throughout the house.