Our Adventures in So Cal

Here are pictures from Lillie's first trip to Disneyland, to the California Science Center, and then another trip to Disneyland (today). My family came down to see Lillie and visit us for a couple days. It was fun to have them around.

Us at the science center. We look terrible and that's because we felt terrible. We hadn't gotten enough sleep those couple days and had spent the entire day before at Disneyland.
But Lillie still looks cute.
Eric rode this bike across a cable, which is balanced by a big weight below. It was three stories high. I would have been way too scared to do it, even though it's next to impossible to fall.
Our little princess posing with us in front of the castle.
Lillie waving hello on the dumbo ride, her first ride ever at Disneyland. She slept right through it...and the Peter Pan ride and Pirates of the Caribbean. She was awake in the Tiki Room though, she was so content watching the birds singing.
Lillie is so spoiled. She's not even two months old and has already been to Disneyland twice. I didn't get to go to Disneyland a second time until after I was married.

5 Years

This last week it was five years since Eric and I got engaged. It doesn't seem nearly that long ago. I was way too young to get married, by anyone's standards, and we were both poor as dirt. We had only been dating for 5 months, but had spent every one of those days together. We even had the nickname of Caric (sad, huh).
Anyway, the other day I was putting away some books in the office and came across the poem book that Eric had given me the day of our engagement. He had written this poem (it honestly is pretty dang good) and then had cut out a space for the ring to fit in all the pages (probably took forever). It was fun to take it out and read it again. I can't believe that it was five years ago. Such good times, then and now.

Our Week in Review

Last week Lillie and I (Carrie) went to the doctor for her month check up. She had gained 14 ounces in 14 days, tipping the scales at an even ten pounds. It is crazy that a month has already gone by, it has been so fast and yet so slow... it's weird to think about life before her, it seems like it was forever ago. At the same time, she has already changed so much.
My parents and two youngest sisters came down for the long weekend. We had a ton of fun, we went to Disneyland for Lillie's first trip to the happiest place on the planet. She did pretty well considering it was a long day. We got her a little Minnie Mouse, because that's what I got on my first trip to Disneyland, when I was six, and I loved the thing. It was a blast for me too because I could finally go on the fun rides. My dad even forced me to go on Splash Mountain, which I'm really too chicken to go on. I hate the feeling of losing my stomach.
Eric worked on his first actual patient today on his sealant rotation. It's surprising that they let first years do this kind of stuff, considering he'd only practiced once on a classmate and it didn't go perfectly, as it messed up his bite and the dentist had to drill it down. And these poor patients, all they see are the blue scrubs and dental tools in hand and they automatically assume that the students had previous patients. But it went well with his patient. I'm so proud of him. That puts us one baby step closer to the DDS.

We took our camera to Disneyland, but the battery was dead. My mom took a couple, but she hasn't emailed them to me yet. So the pictures will be coming...

Sleep? Not Overrated

This picture is Eric trying to make Lillie the "happiest baby on the block"... this used to really help, but not lately.

I had no idea what sleep deprivation felt like before Lillie. I had been sleeping a minimum of ten hours a day during my pregnancy, I was so tired all the time, or so I thought...the only difference between then and now is that I used to be able to just take a nap when I needed it. The last couple of nights have been doozies. Lillie sleeps all day but at about 6 o'clock the last two nights she would be wide-awake and decided that she would stay awake and fuss for the next 6+ hours. And then I still have to get up a couple times during the night to feed her and then struggle to get her back asleep.
So we decided we'd had enough of that and that we needed to do something about it. We borrowed a book from our friends that many people in the ward had raved about, it's called Save Our Sleep. The main points are that children need a schedule to follow and that they need to learn to put themselves to sleep. Today is our first day and I have to admit that it was really hard to listen to my tiny baby cry the loudest and the longest she ever has. But she finally cried herself to sleep. We'll see how this goes. This is going to be as hard for me as it is for her, I don't like having to follow schedules, but I think she needs it.

Baby Blessing and Family Visit

Well, its been a couple of weeks and already Lil' Lillie has gained a couple of dozen pounds. It seems like she is growing faster than we can keep up with. The last doctor visit (at 2 weeks old) she was 9 lbs 2 oz! She has already grown out of many of her newborn clothes. She is starting to realize that she has lungs with which she can get our attention, and its becoming interesting at night sometimes, but we're surviving.
Lillie's Baby blessing was Sunday and we were lucky to have my parents, grandparents, and some aunts, uncles and cousins here to help out and celebrate with us. It was a great time and Lillie was an angel through the whole thing (she slept). She did look very cute in her dress but didn't feel up to posing for the camera afterward.



It was nice to have my parents staying with us to help us catch up on some things and to help with the little one. School was crazy busy for the first time all year which wasn't very convenient but we had a good time.

And did I mention that the Giants upset the Patriots?!?!? Way to go Eli!