Last entry for a little while....

Lilia and I are leaving for ATLANTA! tomorrow to visit my family. I am so excited! I haven't been to the states for 14 months!!! I'm not even sure I remember how to drive on the right side of the road!?!?
Here is Lilia reading some stories. "Pajama Time" is a favorite right now :)
This was from church the other day. These are our friends Cynthia and Brooke.
Lilia in her fluffy fluffy church dress.
Lilia in no dress.
Daddy reading to Lilia. She loves it.
Ha ha!! Still no dress!
who?

Roll over!

Lilia rolled over! I was excited because although I was at work, Jill caught it on film. Enjoy!

4 Months Old!

I don't have a lot of exact numbers on her height and weight and such as I was unable to get Lilia in for a 4 month check up (even though I called three weeks in advance) and we are leaving for the states next week.... However, I did take her to the triage clinic the other day and wormed my way in for some questions and a weight. Lilia is 17 lbs 6 oz!!!! Or according to my brother, "a seriously chubby baby!" The nurse in triage and the doctor at the clinic thought that she must have been formula fed and were surprised that she is exclusively breastfed. Go Lilia! She is so chubby that she is actually wearing 6-9 month clothing!!! She is certainly her father's daughter. I will have to post some pictures of Cliff as a baby sometime soon.

In other news:
She is still talking up a storm and like to yodel like "Tarzan"

She pulls blankets and rattles up to her mouth and she tracks objects well.

She turns to sounds and voices.

She tries to pull herself up to a sitting position when I hold her hands and she is laying down. When I do pull her up she keeps her head level. Speaking of sitting up, she wants to be completely sitting up in her stroller. She does not like to be reclined in the stroller or her swing anymore.

She ROLLED OVER yesterday. From back to tummy. I guess most kids do it the other way first, but my mom said we all rolled over from back to tummy first. She has been working on this for weeks now and I was ignoring it until yesterday.

She doesn't do it very often but she does laugh out lough every now and again and it is the funniest sound. It makes Cliff and I laugh so hard that we usually scare her and then she laughter turns to tears.... maybe that's why she doesn't laugh very often...

She is drooling a ton. I hope this doesn't mean that we are starting the teething process....

She also loves to stick her tongue out... (much like her mother,) and she can lick her CHIN. She definitely got my tongue and not Cliff's little stubby tongue. Her's is very very very long. I tried to get a picture of it all the way out but she is too fast. I call her "Lilia lizard."

I guess that is about it for now!

SENSE

Think about it....

Lilia in the Bumbo Chair

I LOVE watching T.V. in my bumbo!
Wow I am hooked!
This is a good part
Don't you know you are interrupting me with all of these pictures?
Must not look away from the screen...
huh??
Oh alright... I'll give you a few shots...
Drool?
Happy!
Mom, you're so silly
Oooh a rattle!
Fun stuff!
I almost don't fit in the bumbo anymore! I'm already over 17 lbs at 4 months old!!!

Remembering Thailand....

Remember these? I bought them for about $3 each in a Muslim village that was entirely over water (on stilts)

Well, I finally got them framed!! Don't they look great??

I'm so happy with them!
Beautiful!!

Batik Fabric from Indonesia

Cliff brought us back lots of fun things from his cruise this summer. This is what he got me from Indonesia!

Daddy is Home!! (For a little while anyway...)

Hello, folks. I just got home from my summer underway. I don't call it a cruise because I don't want people to confuse what it really is. I've now been to Indonesia and Australia. I'll tell more about that later. This blog deals with the best part: coming home. I did not arrive back to port with the boat; I was part of the crew that flew one of the helicopters back. Due to some maintenance considerations, we had to fly off the boat, pick up a part, fly back, and finally fly home for the last time. We were supposed to be about 100 miles away from home when this all started, so Jill was told that I would be home between 10 and noon. To make a long story short, when we lifted off the deck for the first time, home was only 45 miles away, so we ended up finishing around 8:45 am, and Jill wasn't even at the hangar yet. No one really expected us yet, but it was okay as we had some work to do. I told Jill not to worry about it and I would call her when I was done. Sean offered me a ride home, so I took it and surprised Jill and Lilia by walking through the door. I hadn't even changed, and I got to see my daughter for the first time in nearly three months.
In the photo shown above, we are having some good re-acquaintance time by taking a good look at each other.
Above, I'm a very happy daddy.
Above, I thought I'd try to see the world from her perspective. I think she appreciated it.
Despite the sad-looking face above, she was really in quite a good mood.
Daddy and daughter together again! She's so much bigger, so much stronger, and she laughed for the first time a day after I got home! I am also a big fan of her not being in the hospital. I'll post more later, but until then, I'm enjoying the baby.

-Cliff

We're Comin' to America!

Airfare is booked! We will be in the states from the 23rd of September to the 23rd of October!! Woohoo!!! It will have been 14 months since I have set foot in the continental U.S. and the very first time for Lilia!

Raspberries!

This is actually a picture from a couple of weeks ago but I haven't uploaded any recent photos....


So today Lilia blew raspberries!!! She has been trying to for a couple of days now but today she was very successful and ended up with spit and drool all over herself and her outfit. It was pretty cute, though. She is also getting really good at holding a rattle and she even watches the rattle now and brings it up to her mouth! At first she would just shake it and drop it and I'm not sure that she really even knew it was there, but now she does! She has also come to enjoy sitting up. This is assisited, of course, but the other day we tried her out in the bumbo for a little while and she did great! She loved it! Any time she is on my lap now she wants to be sitting up completely - not reclining at all and she will pull herself up. So much for the days of just holding her laying down in my arms.... wait.... did I ever have those days?

Ah the joys of being a first time parent.....