I babble better than anybody else!

ba ba ba a WAH beh!

Do you like my Christmas dress?

Just a quickie! These were taken at Auntie Michelle and Uncle Charlie's Christmas Ornament Exchange...

Posing with Mama and Dada

What? I'm just cleaning this table...

Dada, what are you doing on the floor?

Race For The Cure

We all know that Lily is expert in all manner of baby sports, like swings and slides. But a couple weekends ago, Lily did her first 5K run!

Lily, Mama and Dada all participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, benefitting breast cancer research. Since our good friends Matt and Jennifer had walked 60 *miles* for the same cause just a few weeks prior, it seemed like the least we could do. :-) As you can see from this picture, Lily was an honest-to-goodness registered race participant. In fact, if you look closely, you'll see that, unlike her parents, Lily was officially a TIMED racer. We think there's a decent chance she won in her age class (although riding in the Baby Bjorn is probably considered cheating).

Anyways, the event was very cool...the course wound its way through beautiful Balboa Park, and we couldn't have asked for better weather! We were there as part of a team from IvyHour, and the whole thing was coordinated by Mama and Dada's good friend Christina (shown here giving Lily a congratulatory snuggle at the end of the race). Christina and her team did a really great job recruiting a big team, setting up the IvyHour tent, making sure there were yummy snacks for all the big people, even arranging for a massage chair complete with masseuse! Yay Aunty Christina! I don't think she had anything to do with this dude threatening people with scissors during their massages, though. What's up with THAT, Uncle John?

Lily's Best Baby Friend Forever, Zoe, was also a race participant (albeit untimed, presumably because she had heard what a good crawler Lily is, and assumed Lily would be unbeatable). Here you see Zoe posing with her daddy alongside Lily and Mama. (I think Zoe and Lily may go to the same hairdresser...)

Lily was an absolute trooper, and I think actually enjoyed all the fresh air (not to mention the attention and snuggling), so we'll probably do more of these in the future. Good exercise, great company, and a wonderful cause...who could ask for anything more?

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...*

I mentioned in the Thanksgiving blog that Lily achieved one more milestone during the holiday, but that I wanted to wait for a better picture. Well, it's still not TOTALLY clear but here goes. Lily, give us a smile!

OK, now, let's take a reeeeeeaaaaaallllly close look at that lower gum:

I realize it's still not all that evident, but take my word for it, that whitish patch just left of center is Lily's very first tooth! And the dark line right next to it is the second one, close behind. Lily is making very nice progress towards having a full-on toothy grin. You can feel them very clearly if you stick a finger in there (still pretty safe because there are no opposing upper teeth, although them things are SHARP! Dada does not envy mama when the top ones start coming in...)

* disclaimer: Lily would like me to make it clear that, while dada is making a musical reference in this title of this blog entry, she most assuredly would like presents in addition to her two front teeth. Toys preferred.

Thanksgiving 2007 - all my peeps came to see me!

Well, we're back from a brief holiday blogging hiatus...and boy, a lot sure has happened since our last post! So without further ado, let us bring you up to speed on Lily's first Thanksgiving.

Well, our holidays got off to a VERY good start with the return of Po Po and Gung Gung. They came and visited us for ten whole days! How neat is that! Although Lily did make a special point of staying up late to greet her grandparents, she was more or less on her way to bed, so no photos. But by the next morning, as you can see, Lily was very proudly welcoming her grandparents to "her" house, and although Lily and Gung Gung may SEEM uncertain of each other in this first picture, it was actually a very happy reunion.

The first day we mostly hung around the house, but by Sunday we were ready for an outing, so we headed down to Balboa Park to wander around. Lily loves fountains, so of course we had to check those out. We also spent a long time in the botantical garden, looking at and smelling all manner of interesting plants. By the end of it all, Lily was quite sleepy, and enjoyed a nice snuggle with Gung Gung on the way back to the car.

Later, after a good nap, Lily took her grandparents to her favorite park near our house, where she and Lovey proudly demonstrated their tandem swinging skills.

So anyways, we filled our days with such entertainments (not the least of which being mama and dada's second wedding anniversary! Yayyy!! But this is Lily's blog, so enough of that...). Po Po especially enjoyed seeing how Lily gives her mama and dada a bath. Hey dada, how come you're standing so far back?

Then, on Tuesday, crrrrrrazy Aunty Cathy and her family joined us! We hadn't seen them since our San Francisco trip, and Lily was MUCH more at ease this time around, and really enjoyed Aunty Cathy, Uncle Paul, and most especially cousins Tyler and Joshy. The young ones really hit it off this time around, and had much fun over the rest of the week playing with each other.

And then...Thanksgiving! The extended Mojica clan came down to join us for the holiday itself, so we had nineteen people in total at the house. How fun! Cooking was a community effort, with mama, dada, Po Po, Nana, Aunty Cathy, Tata Rina, Toto Kevin, and Uncle Paul all contributing deliciously to the overall feast. Dada's contribution was this huge turkey (at over 20 lbs, a good 30% heavier than Lily, but not nearly as good-looking).

Coincidentally, that very day turned out to be cousin Madi's birthday! So naturally, we had presents, singing, and CAKE! Happy birthday, Madi!! Please also note Lily's partially-closed eyes. This is the direct result of her having been the victim of about two thousand flash photos that evening. Lily now knows the minimum time interval between the autofocus assist light and the flash, and closes her eyes accordingly.

As part of our Thanksgiving festivities, we also tried to get a nice picture of the girl cousins wearing their Christmas dresses. As you can see from the below, we had mixed results.

Last but not least, Lily and two generations of mommies pose for this cute apres-bath picture.

The next day, we took a trip to the Wild Animal Park. Dada was especially excited about this because it was an opportunity to try our his anniversary present, a cool new jogging stroller (not that dada jogs, but it's also good for general off-roading. It wasn't too long before Lily abandoned it in favor of her more accustomed role as mama's belly-warmer, but cousin Joshy made sure the high-class transportation did not go to waste. Enjoy it while you can, Joshy! One more inch and you're over the height limit!

The really cool thing about this week, though, was that Lily really seemed to bust out a lot of new skills. Of course, she extensively showed off her new crawling abilities, but this week she was all about standing. Lily pulls herself up all the time now, and has even balanced unsupported for a second or two. So walking (or at least "cruising") may not be that far off!

She also was initiated into a long-standing Li-Scholz-Brient family tradition, specifically eating Po Po's watch. Generations of babies have eaten this watch, and as you can see, Lily is no exception. She also added her own twist by taking an interest in eating Gung Gung's watch, too. An equal opportunity watch-eater, our Lily is!

Also, apparently, grooming. I guess Lily really paid attention to the gorillas and other apes at the Wild Animal Park...

This is dada's favorite part...Lily learned to "talk" (albeit, in this case, with some assistance):

She will also now babble consonant sounds (i.e. "wa wa", "ba ba", etc.) without dada helping. This is actually kinda significant, as that was one of the only milestones she was kind of behind on.

Then, the day before Po Po and Gung Gung left, mama taught Lily how to feed herself with her hands! This was fun (even though Lily cheats if you put the food close enough to pick up with her mouth).


There's actually one more milestone that was pretty much achieved this week, but we're going to wait until we have proper photographic evidence. How's that for foreshadowing?

Well, that's pretty much it! We loved all our visitors, and we hope they come visit again soon so we can show them more tricks.

What a nice birthday surprise for Daddy!

Wow! As if crawling were not enough, check this out!

Surprisingly deep voice for a baby, though...

Did Daddy's birthday present come early?

Wednesday, November 7th, approximately 7AM...so what's the deal, kid...can you crawl yet?

Cue dramatic music...

I'm calling that a successful crawl! You go, Lily!!!! Since those first tentative, um, steps, she's progressed at an almost alarming pace. This morning she crawled pretty much the entire width of mama and dada's bedroom. The secret, we have discovered, is to have the right "bait". Most any semi-taboo item will do, but telephones and remote controls are particularly effective.

I guess when you get right down to it, we have taught our baby to "fetch". She does not bring the item back to you, however.

A very cute side bonus: if you manage to slip the bait item away from her without her noticing, she will get quite puzzled and sort of rotate in place looking for it.

what do you supPOse Our girl is attemPtING to do?

"...so the dollar is at its lowest point vs. the Euro ever, it's gone from like 83 cents to $1.45 during the Bush administration...oh, wait, could you excuse me for a moment?"

"Errrnnnh"

"Hang on, just let me brace myself a little here...

"ERRRRRNNNNNH!"

"Ah, much better. Okay, what were we talking about then?"

Lily's first Halloween

Yesterday was Lily's very first Halloween! Now, of course, she's too little to trick or treat, and she's not supposed to eat candy yet (unless we puree it...hmmm...), but that doesn't mean we can't dress her up and take embarassing pictures. Hey, did someone say embarassing pictures? Sure, got some right here! Here's Lily in her costume. She's a Lilybug!

But she really doesn't like her hat. Oh, Lily! Pleeeeeease? It's so cute!

Here you see Lily being comforted by a boy in a bear suit. Hey, who is this mysterious fellow?

Later, we all went to dada's workplace so dada could show off his Lilybug to his co-workers. Lily is happy now because no one is making her wear her haaaaaat.

There were many other cutie-pies at HP too. For example, this Bee Girl and Chase the Builder. Hey, Chase! Can we fix it? (Yes we can!)

After HP, we went to our friends Ron & Lisa's house for a little Halloween party. This was WAY fun. As you can see, there were many cute monsters and monstresses here.

For her part, Lily did a very good job of staying cheerful and mellow, even though it was getting past her bedtime.

One might even say she was a cool dude(ette)

She even consented to wear her hat again. Well, for a minute, anyways...

Ok, that's about it! Happy Halloween, everyone! Hopefully next year I'll have teeth!