Hanging Out with Fr. Steve

Fr. Steve came over last night for dinner. We are extremely sad because he has a new assignment that is going to take him to the southside of Indianapolis. For those of you who don't know Fr. Steve, he married us, baptized Lily, and was Tyler's boss while he worked at St. Luke. You may also know him from the witty posts on the blog. We will miss seeing him so much, but are excited to go visit him at his new residence. And Fr. Steve...you better come visit us so or we are going to have one unhappy baby on our hands.

Lily was entertained the majority of the night by Fr. Steve's collar. Don't worry...we disinfected it before he got it back. But she also decided to do a little entertaining herself. She figured out how to play peek-a-boo with her dress. ha! Even though it's not ladylike, it was hilarious. Here's a clip of it!

Splish Splash

I hadn't taken pictures of Lily in the bath for a long time! What is cuter than a babies' tushie? I also have another water story. Lily and I went swimming On Tuesday at Grandad and Nana's house. She loved it as always, kicking her feet like crazy and splashing everywhere. She got a little brave this time. I was holding her and all of a sudden she dunked her face in the water. When she came up she had quite the confused look on her face, but was not scared at all. I'm so mad I didn't have the camera! I'm not kidding, she must have done it over 20 times. Even when she got a mouthful, she didn't mind. She also thought she would try blowing bubbles underwater like Nana and I. So she started making the blowing bubble noise above the water and then dunked her head again. I thought that was pretty clever of her.

Next week we are going to Glen Ellyn for our annual 4th of July festivities and Lily will get to experience another pool. I can't wait for her to show off her new tricks to Grandma and Grandpa Mayer.

A Trip to the Zoo

I picked the gorilla, because I knew Tyler would like it!

Chillin with the butterflies...too bad I didn't get any pics where you could actually see them!

We had a great time today! Lily loved watching the animals from the stroller, hence no pictures with the animals. She took her first carousel ride. She liked it before it started moving, but wasn't so sure once it started going up and down.

They have a really cool section that has just butterflies. There are literally thousands of butterflies fluttering around. It was awesome!!! I definitely recommend it if you live in Indy. I'm excited for future trips to the zoo when Lily gets excited to see all the animals!!

A cook?

Do we have a future cook on our hands? Lily LOVED playing with the spatula today. I was able to tidy up the house, answer some emails, and make this post, all while she played with the spatula. I think we will be playing with the spatula more often. Also, as I type she is trying to consume the pot. ha!

Our big plans for the day are going to the zoo for the first time!!! It's absolutely gorgeous here and the temperature is perfect. I hear that it's supposed to start getting muggy, so we figured we better go today. Check the blog later today, because we are sure to get some good shots with the animals!

Cheerio Game

Grandma and Grandpa Mayer came to visit today!!!! Unfortunately, Auntie Emily could not make it. She's been sick all week. That cut the Mayer's visit a little short...they drove up this morning and left this evening, but Lily could not be happier that they visited. She loved all the funny faces Grandpa made and she loved being held and fed by Grandma.

We went out to dinner and Grandpa came up with "Put a Cheerio on the Forehead." Lily would get so confused where the Cheerio went and make all these hilarious faces. She had a Cheerio on her forehead for over 1/2 hour. There were definitely some people looking at us like we were crazy.




Although this visit is short, we plan on going to Chicago twice in July!! Lily will be excited to hang out with her grandparents again.

8 months old

Eight months old and I totally can't believe it! Her new tricks are waving and drinking from her sippy cup all by herself. She has been napping much better too...between 1-2 hours!!!!! She got Dad a running stroller for Father's Day and can't wait to ride in it!! She's also VERY excited because Grandma and Grandpa Mayer and Auntie Emily (hopefully) are coming to visit this weekend.

This round of photots she didn't care so much about the sign, but totally loved Mr. Bear!




She's just checking things out in this picture.

I have sooo many of her with her eyes closed. ha!

Tricks with Dad

Now that school's out Tyler is home more often. It's great to have him here in the mornings. He still goes into the office everyday, but the hours are not as rigid. This season he will be coaching varsity football, so he will be home less at night. :( Lily and I are excited to go watch his games on Friday night. For those of you who have never seen him coach, he gets rather animated. It's quite fun to watch. Let me know if you would like to come to a game with us. I believe they start in August.

Lately, Lily has been waving to people (sometimes). She copies the motion and gives a big smile. Also, when she is on her belly, she can move herself in a circle. She still hasn't quite figured out how to move forward and backward. I'm just fine with that though! I feel like it's going to get crazy once she starts to move. We definitely need to do a little babyproofing around here. The nose has been running and the drool has been dripping, but no teeth yet. We're thinking any day now.

Here are some pictures of Lily hanging out with Tyler. Check out those thighs...those are some rolls!! I remember when she was first born and I could wrap my thumb and pinky around her leg.

View From Our Driveway

A huge storm came through Indianapolis again last night. At one point I looked out the window and all I saw was gray stuff moving around. I couldn't see anything in our front yard. It definitely freaked me out. There are lots of trees down in our neighborhood and parts of the street had 3 feet of standing water. A couple of the streets are blocked. The people across the street had a 20 foot branch land on their roof and it made a hole through the roof. We are all safe and sound here. We just have a few branches down and some standing water in the back. Here are the pics I took just from our driveway.



The thing in the front of the picture is just mulch that we haven't spread yet!


Oh! And here's Lily rocking out in her Boilers onesie. She wasn't too worried at the storm. I did actually go get her out of her crib and one point, but she just kept sleeping.

Lake Shafer

We had another great Mark Family reunion. It was estimated that there were about 100 people there. Lily had her first donut (thank you Uncle Bill) and got many other yummy things to eat...more than I'm sure I know about. We had fun hanging out with the other babies Lily's age: Nathan who is one day younger than Lily and Michael who is exactly 1 month younger than Lily. We're also excited because my cousin Kate is expecting in November, so hopefully Lily will have a girl around her age to hang out with.

Lily stayed up late (10 PM) both nights and woke up early both mornings. The good old Indiana Beach mattresses are all covered in plastic, so it definitely makes for some interesting sleeping. I won't be caught up on sleep for at least I week.

For those of you who don't know, Indiana Beach is the amusement park we've had our family reunion at for roughly 50 years. Among the many rides and delicious food, there are also lots of tatoos and even some mullets. But it's a great family tradition and Tyler and I are looking forward to the days we get to take Lily on some of the rides and spend all our quarters on Skeeball.




Here's Lily hanging out with Brother John. She thought he was fun and he even did a great job feeding her dinner.

Lily and I with Kara and Nathan and Lisa and Michael.

Lily hanging out with Gregory and Katie. It was Katie's first reunion with us. We hope we didn't traumatize her too much.

IT'S A MIRACLE!!!!!

Lily Grace Mayer, on the night of June 2nd, SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!! She didn't wake up until 6:30 a.m. Now I was a whole other story. Starting at about 1 a.m. I began to wake every hour, thinking she would wake up. I actually even went into her room just to make sure she was breathing and she was.....just sleeping there like a baby. Let's hope this trend continues. Although, I feel like I may have to retrain myself on how to sleep. It's been over 8 months since I actually slept through a whole night. I definitely didn't sleep that last month of pregnancy.

I feel as though I have been slacking on the posts lately. Lily and I have not had a free moment and it shows no sign of stopping. This weekend is the big Mark Reunion at Indiana Beach, which always promises to be a fun/interesting weekend. Today Lily got her pictures taken at JC Penney. They did a wonderful job again. And don't worry Grandma and Grandpa Mayer, the pictures will be ready right before you come to visit in a couple of weeks! :)

We also brought Tim and Katie Healy dinner and got to hang out with new baby Norah. She was born 2 1/2 weeks ago. It's funny to see the picture of the two of them and think that they will be in the same grade in a couple of years.

I have a feeling my next post won't be until next week. I nanny tomorrow and I have about 3 billion things to pack for the reunion. Literally, you have to pack everything right down the the bar of soap at the kitchen sink. Tyler and I are especially excited because we get to share a double bed that has plastic sheet covering it. That always promises a wonderful night of sleep. I will be sure to get some pictures at the reunion. Lily will get to hang out with her two cousins, Nathan and Michael, who were born within a month of Lily.