Everyone has a soundtrack to their life, be it music or the everyday sounds that one encounters day in and day out.

I love to listen for the song of the first robin of the season, as celery green leaves pop out on trees and crocuses peek through the crumbly dirt in my garden. Hearing a steady staccato patter of rain on the metal roof of the cabin during a thunder storm is the best way to fall asleep in the summer. I love the rustle of the leaves in the fall, when the air smells like smoke and you want to nestle into a comfortable chair and sip hot chocolate while reading a great book. The squeaky crunch of the first snow as the dog leaps ahead on the trail, when the only other sound is your own breathing and the twitter of unseen birds in the bushes, is the best part of winter.

I thought all these sounds were beautiful until today.

Today my daughter discovered her voice. My music today was her. Listening to her shy, soft, pretty little voice melts my heart. Tonight she sat on her grandpa's lap and had a sweet little conversation with him - looking into his eyes as he looked into hers. Later on she sat and had a talk with her grandma, and the look on my mom's face was pure bliss.

I love these little moments - they are brief, but they stay in your heart forever.

Lily was 2 months old on Tuesday! The weeks are just flying by. She had her 2 month checkup. She is now 12 lbs 9 oz (more by the time I post this!) and 24" long. My little girl is not so little! She had her first set of shots on Tuesday. I was not looking forward to these...I am fine with needles, just not with my kid being in pain! My mom was right, the shots were harder on me than they were on her. She was ok after the shots, but later that night she spent a good 25 minutes crying so hard I though she was going to throw up. She was PURPLE. She's ok now though, thanks to lots of cuddles and a little bit of baby Tylenol.

Did everyone like the snow this week? My wonderful husband has been 'predicting' snow since Labor Day. He refused to listen to me regarding the weather in September. For as long as I can remember, the weather is always nicest in the weeks leading up to my birthday at the end of September, right through until Thanksgiving. After that, it can be unpredictable.

This has been a crazy couple of weeks. My mom is now the 'bionic grandma' as she had a pacemaker put in on the 13th. She was having some issues with dizziness that didn't allow her to drive until the docs fixed her up. This means that my dad has been 'driving Miss Daisy' since the end of June. She should be driving again in a couple of weeks. Wednesday Keltie and I made our first venture out to the Stars and Strollers movie at WEM. We saw 'Employee of the Month'. It was ok. Honestly, it wouldn't have mattered what movie it was, it meant we were able to get out of the house! You don't have to worry about your kid disturbing anyone, you can walk around with your baby if you need to, they provide a change table and diapers, and the sound isn't too loud. (Someone should have told the teenagers skipping school to see the show that it was what I am now calling 'Babies and Boobies' day. I don't think that they were counting on seeing a bunch of nursing moms!)

Thursday I was awakened by my husband asking where the nearest hospital was. He was is an extreme amount of pain and was the color of my high school locker - putty grey. I got up and told him we would go to the hospital as soon as I fed Lily. He called my mom to see if my dad was around to drive. Dad was at work, so Mom said she would look after Lily. THEN, my silly husband said he would take the BUS to the hospital. Yes, the bus. I told him to sit down and wait 5 minutes. We went and picked up my mom, and headed to the hospital. By some strange stroke of luck, there was only a couple of people in the emergency dept waiting room and Grey Nuns. I left Mom with Lily and went in to see how Bryan was doing. Mom took Lily up to her office to show her off while I sat in the hall with Bryan. Both mom and I thought he had a kidney infection or kidney stones. Turns out it was both. 5 hours, 1 IV, 2 shots of Demerol and a CT scan later = and he has a small stone and an infection. They sent us home with good drugs, antibiotics and told Bryan to drink like he hasn't drank before.

Dad says he will keep the windows closed so he doesn't hear Bryan holler when the stone is, well, gone... (ouch!)

How does the saying go?

This too shall pass...

One year already! Today is our first wedding anniversary. We celebrated last night, and went for dinner at Madison's Grill at the Union Bank Inn. We had the reception at the UBI and wanted to celebrate with a special night out. This was also the first 'date' that we have had without Miss Lily. Grandma and Grandpa Carbol babysat for us so we could enjoy some time as Carrie and Bryan and not Mommy and Daddy for a few hours. Of course, halfway through dinner I confessed that I missed my kid! My mom wondered why we were back so early... As usual, Lily was great and didn't give them any trouble. She watched the hockey game with Grandpa, and hung out with Grandma.
We realized that out of all our pictures of Lily, we didn't have one of the three of us together, so I had my dad take a few. This one is my favorite, we have a non-goofy one to send to other people. I couldn't resist the bunny ears...in my baby album my Dad did the same thing to me...it's one of my favorite pictures. 

Pretty in pink...


 

I just looked at our blog this morning...and realized...I don't have a single visible post at the moment; time to change that!
Currently I am still reeling from the aftermath of "Lilyfest", aka "Baby Shower 2006" . There is a small pathway that I can tread between the couches to the television; the rest of the space taken up by countless bags filled with all sorts of things for our darling Lily. I'm fine with that, it's a great thing to see peoples generosity in this matter, Carrie was quite beside herself about it; I just let her know that its partially a reflection on how well liked she is...Bad thing to say to a nearly tear wife, makes them fully teary.

I'd like to thank all that attended the "Lilyfest", Lily has some neat things, I put her swing together yesterday and picked up the batteries and there she is at the moment, she loves it, it lulls her right to sleep...Which makes me love it.

And as an added bonus after the aforementioned "Lilyfest", my wife's uncle and aunt were in town, a rarity at best; they were last in town together at our wedding. Oh wait they were in town in late July I believe when I was attending my Microstation course, and Carrie headed out to the lake to see them. But, that being said, it was the first time since our wedding that I had seen them. Was an enjoyable night, oh just got censored....Granted I did ask about it first, so I self-censored...ack I'm self-censoring myself now! What's next...Drinking coffee...?! Nah that will not ever happen, baring some sort of accident where I lose all my functioning taste buds that is. Anyhow...As I was saying, was an enjoyable night, we went to Brian and Bonnie's afterwards and played my favorite game...Pass the baby! Faye was amusing, she was worried that she would actually make Lily cry...for those unfamiliar with my daughter, she has only cried when the following conditions have been met...You crush or bend one of her limbs the wrong way...She needs to be changed...She needs to be fed or she's tired of whatever position she's been in and needs to be moved. Otherwise, she's just a warm little bundle that you carry about and otherwise stare at. Well she was that little bundle for about 5 minutes or so before she decided to play one of her favorite games of late...."toot and toot again", not the quiet ones like dad, the loud ones, where if they were just a bit louder would shake window panes, she stopped conversation when she did it last night, and it started a new game of "pass the baby", right to dad.
Followed by her next favorite game of late..."Let's make daddy go change me" which involves her sitting with dad where she basically facilitates daddy going to change her.
But all in all, the evening was a good one, its rather amusing to see Barry and Brian in the same room, they verbally spar with each other; the same thing that I do with my wife and friends....Granted our sparring is more akin to myself being a punching bag. I occasionally manage to swing back after a good blow and bonk them in the nose, just like a punching bag. Oooh I'm babbling, time to stop, I got my point across, no I didn't, but well I posted!