Natalie & Ryan: Bumps and Bruises

Ryan and Lilly are out for a Sunday walk, so I'm going to try and update everyone on yesterday's events, while I have time.

It's funny how when you have a very important day planned, and in your mind, you see it going perfectly, but then fate steps in and is like "Nuh uh!" and makes everything difficult. All we had to do was get everyone to survive until 5:30 for pictures. Not too hard, right? Wrong. The first thing Lilly did when we got her up yesterday morning was go running into the office to say good morning to daddy, when she fell and bumped her chin on the door frame...leaving a really red line down her chin...and also setting the tone for the day. She was a bit sensitive and cranky after that. The day continued in the same fashion. She was falling and bumping her head on everything!! I eventually just told Ryan to put her in the pack'n'play so that we could minimize the amount of bruising to be seen in the pictures.

At around 1:00, Ryan decided that he wanted to go for a really long walk. He wanted to see how far North AND South the green belt behind our house went. North, it went as far as the Point of the Mountain. South, he got to the freeway overpass. I didn't go with him because I wasn't feeling well and I had a ton to do. I never realized how peaceful 2 hours of alone time can be. I actually enjoyed getting to iron shirts and quietly do chores. I told Ryan that was the best gift he could give me. Lilly enjoyed the walk, and even fell asleep for the last bit. We didn't even bother taking her out of her jammies, so she was all snuggled up and warm.

Once they were home, I had to run out to grab the last few details for family pictures. I ran to Walmart for balloons, but they were out of helium. Dangit. Then I ran to Hobby Lobby for a wooden 1, but they didn't have any. Dangit. Then I went to Kid-2-Kid for a bow for Lilly's birthday party. Then I ran to Smith's to get her cake and some balloons. The cake was adorable! It was as custom ladybug "colossal cupcake," and it only cost $2.50!! Well, seeing as I'm a dumb blonde and the day just wanted to be difficult, the cake didn't survive the ride home. So I had to hurry and call in another cake order. They were able to pop one out real fast, so all was fine...I hurried off to get ready and decided that it would be fun to take Lilly into the shower with me. We still had yet to try taking her in with one of us, so I did. Well, she HATED it. She screamed and cried, and acted like she was drowning. Daddy had to save her while I finished. Oh well. Sorry, Kevin and Jan, I tried.

Right as we were getting ready to leave for the pictures, Lilly decided that she was so over the day. We woke her up from her nap and she just wanted to throw a fit. Like a legit tantrum. So I got down on the floor with her, she crawled into the space between my legs, and laid her head down on me while I sang to her. It seemed to work. By that point, I was getting really worried that the pictures wouldn't be as cute, since Lilly was so cranky. But, everything worked out. I told Ryan that I would exchange a crappy day for good pictures any day! And that's what we got. We did an outdoor session for family pictures, and an indoor session for Lilly's 1 year/cake smash pictures. At first she wasn't so sure about the cake. She kept looking up at me like "is this really okay?" Once she felt like she wasn't going to get in trouble, she went all in. The photographer was saying that Lilly was the epitome of a perfect cake smasher, and that all the parents come in, expecting their kid to devour the cake, but they don't. She said we were lucky that Lilly was playing along. I cannot wait to share the pictures on Wednesday, because my goodness, they are priceless.