Father's Day

In honor of Father's Day, I wanted to share this picture of our awesome dad! Let's be honest...if one of us was going to stay home with the kids full time, I think it might be him. He is so good with both of them, and they sure love their daddy. I think everyone's favorite time of day is when daddy gets home. Lily goes running to the door saying "daddy, daddy, daddy's home" and Jack gives him big smiles. Mommy is glad too! We are very blessed with a great daddy!

In honor of Father's Day, Lily climbed up in Josh's lap and said "I love you, daddy!", which is her newest adorableness. Jack is also doing some Father's day tricks. He laughed at Josh for the first time today and rolled over! They each had their own special way of saying "Happy Father's Day!"

Little Sponge Brain!

Lily is definitely entering the "brain is a sponge" phase. She is constantly watching everything going on around her with they eye of a careful observer. And she's not just watching, she is learning! In just the last few weeks, I am finding myself constantly shocked by the things she can do that I didn't realize she could do.

Just to name a few, she can:
Stick out her tongue if asked (no demonstration needed)
Play patty cake
Brush her hair
Grab daddy's nose (and hold hers out to be "beeped")
Find and kiss her baby doll when asked
Kiss mommy or daddy when asked (if she wants to :)
Stand if holding onto any little thing (even a wall)
Climb the stairs (when daddy lets her)
Remove all the toys from her basket and climb in
Shake toys when asked
Say "bye" and "hey" like she knows what they mean
Regularly ask for "more" using sign language and saying "mo"
Say "nanana" for banana
Do sign language for milk and say "mi"
Say "dada" and "mama" regularly and with meaning
Eat almost anything cut into small pieces
Identify several toys by name

I still think I underestimate her sometimes and look at her as a little baby, but she is learning so much every day. I love all the learning, it is totally awesome! I have a feeling the next few months (and years) are going to be a blast!

A Tooth!

Horray! Lily has the start of a tooth. Yesterday, I was doing the feel of her gums that has become a regular part of our day, and I felt the start of a tooth! It is the lower right front. I called Josh right away and made him feel it as soon as he got home!

I was honestly starting to think she wasn't going to get any. Most of her friends, who are younger than her, have been getting teeth for a while. While she was chewing and drooling for a while, she didn't seem to be having actual teeth coming through.

The great news is that it doesn't seem to be bothering her much, if at all! I have lots of teething toys, but she doesn't seem to interested in any of them. Yesterday, she had her first teething biscuit. I'm not a hundred percent sold on those things. She did really enjoy it and it kept her quite and occupied for a while we were out to dinner. But, they aren't supposed to be able to get choke size pieces, but Lily did. They are also incredibly messy! I might just stick to hunks of bagel.

Lily and the Kitties

Since Lily has become mobile, her chief goal is to capture our two cats. If one of them comes within her sight, she lets out an excited little squeal and is off after them. The funny thing is that the two of them have responded very differently to her advances.

Mr. Sophie seems to enjoy the attention. He is incredibly tolerant. He will let her grab him and roll around on him without even hardly flinching. He could easily escape, but chooses to stick around and let her wallow him. It's sort of cute, but I sometimes feel bad for the poor cat and have to intervene.

Nutmeg, on the other hand, is trying to kill Lily. I'm pretty sure. She does not like being gotten, but she is tricky about her escape. She doen't just flee and hide somewhere. No, she tries to lure Lily to her death. If we are downstairs, she will stay just out of Lily's reach and go to the steps where she stops about four steps up and flicks her tail to lure Lily to try to climb after her. If we are upstairs, she does the same thing, only going about four stairs down. I am convinced she knows that Lily can't navigate the stairs and is trying to get rid of the little pest that keeps chasing her! :)

9 Months - "Never Grow Up"

Today Lily is nine months old! I know I say this all the time, but it really does seem like time is flying by. It's probably hormonal, but I am feeling super sappy and sentimental today. Yesterday, Josh made me (and yes, it was by force) listen to the Taylor Swift song "Never Grow Up". It is like torture for me at the moment. It is impossible for me to listen to without sobbing. This is the first verse and chorus:


Your little hands wrapped around my finger
And it's so quiet in the world tonight
Your little eyelids flutter cause you're dreaming
So I tuck you in and turn on your favorite nightlight

To you, everything's funny
You got nothing to regret
I'd give all I have honey
If you could stay like that

Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
don't you ever grow up
Just stay this little
Oh darling don't you ever grow up,
don't you ever grow up
It could stay this simple

I won't let nobody hurt you
Wont let no one break your heart
No one will desert you
Just try to never grow up
Never grow up

Seriously...just posting that, I'm sitting here with tears streaming. I can't even conceive of the next two verses (they deal with being a rebellious teenager and moving out on your own). It is mind boggling to me how a young girl like Swift, who is not a mother, can so capture what I feel for my daughter. If you haven't heard the song, you should. It's beautiful...just be prepared to cry!

Six Month Checkup

Yesterday was Lily's six month checkup. She is doing great. She weighs 16lbs 9oz (75th percentile) and is almost 28in long (99th percentile). Her head is still the 50th percentile which I think actually makes her look more proportioned than most babies. I was surprised that they made me fill out a check list of her development and actually had trouble answering some of the questions.

One question asked if she could rake and pick up a small crumb or cheerio. I had no idea. I thought I wasn't supposed to give her small crumbs! Another question asked about if her feet were flat when you pulled her to standing. I felt slightly deficient because I had never noticed her feet position before. A friend said she thought they should give you that list ahead of time so you could put your baby through the tests and have a good answer! :)

Overall thought, Lily is doing great. She is growing and developing just as she should be. She really charmed the doctor and nurse with her sweet smile and chewing on her toes (which was accompanied by a giant fart while naked on the scale causing the nurse and I to laugh which then made Lily giggle...super cute!)

BTW...my amazing photographer friend Star was here a few weekends ago and took some really cute pictures. Here are a few of my favorite funny faces! Click on the picture for a larger image and check out facebook for more!

Lily Rolled Over!

Today Lily was playing on her play mat. She was making cute sounds, so Josh ran to grab our flip cam. Amazingly, while we were filming, she rolled over for the first time completely on her own! She was super cute and "celebrated" with me like she knew she had done something important. We caught the whole thing on film! It was a serious parenting WIN! :)

Tummy Time

Lily is not really one for much tummy time. She love to lay on her back, and isn't a big fan of being held too much, but she tends to squirm and fuss when I put her on her tummy. All the books, however, say that it's essential for them to develop their core muscles needed for rolling over and crawling.

I think part of the problem is that with our hardwood floors there wasn't really a convenient spot to lay her down downstairs, thus I didn't give her a ton of tummy time when she was really young. In an attempt to create a downstairs play spot, I purchased this pinwheel playmat for her. She love it...on her back. She will lay on her back on it for long periods of time. She's even gotten to the point that she'll roll onto her side so she can grab the ears or rings and see the designs. She'll even spend more time on her tummy. Not a lot of time, but more time than before.

This past week she has almost rolled over on the mat several times. She will roll from her back to her side and even get her leg over, but can't quiet get her shoulders to cooperate. At one point Josh helped her by rolling her over to her stomach and using the momentum he helped her with she kept right on going back over to her back. I think we are getting very close to having a rolling baby!

They Grow Up So Fast!

Just this past week, Lily turned three months old. As I believe I've mentioned before, the passing of time is a strange thing. Sometimes it seems like she has always been with us, and sometimes it surprises me how much time has passed.

It's funny, but now she seems to be getting bigger and heavier almost every day. When I look back at pictures of me holding her those first few weeks she seems so tiny and fragile. Now she is a strong hearty girl. She holds her head up and has started to smile and laugh in delight. It is precious and I love to see how she is learning and exploring now.

But I have to admit that I am quite sentimental and a bit sad about her "growing up" so fast. Yesterday I packed away most of her three month clothes because she is too big for them. (Well, I should say she is to long for them. Many of them would still fit around, but her little legs can't stretch out in anything with feet!) It made me tear up a little. I love her in those little clothes, just like I loved her in her newborn clothes and it seems like she hardly wore any of them. It simply amazes me how fast they grow!

Look at the pictures below. You'll notice that in the first two pictures the baby is cuddled up against me, and in the second two she is looking up at me, but in the last, and most recent one, she is facing out as if watching the world...sigh!

I know this might sound crazy, but I'm already missing the newborn days and starting to think about having another little one. I always thought I would want a boy next to round things out, but I'm starting to see how nice it would be to have another little girl. Who knows, maybe by this time in a year or two there'll be another little girl to wear all of those cute clothes!

Look at that growing baby!

1 week

3 weeks

5 weeks

8 weeks

12 weeks

2 Months, A Check Up, & Immunizations

Lily turned two months old on Sunday. On Monday she had her two month check up. She was eleven pounds even and twenty-three inches long! She is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Her head circumference is the 25th percentile, but in all ways the doctor said she seemed perfect! What a wonderful check up after all of the drama of her first few weeks. I'm so glad that she is right on track.

Part of this check up included her two month immunizations. Vaccines are a hot parenting topic right now and I have to admit that I had some hesitations about the current recommended vaccine schedule. I just finished reading the book House Rules about a boy with Autism who's mother blames his disorder on his vaccines. After some research (none of which showed a link between current vaccines and Autism or any other disorders) and discussions with a friend who is a pediatrician and parent, however, we decided to follow the AAP recommended vaccine schedule.

This meant that Lily received six vaccines on Monday! When I read that schedule in some of my parenting books I was a bit freaked out. I couldn't imagine my little girl getting SIX shots. I really was nervous about her short term reactions (pain, fever, fussiness, etc.). I just hate to see her suffer and couldn't stand the thought of putting her through that. Going into the appointment I was quite apprehensive. It didn't help that I ran into a friend there who's son had just received his four month vaccines and was screaming his head off. Still, for Lily's sake and to keep face with the pediatrician, I tried to remain calm.

Luckily, it was not nearly as bad as I had feared. For one thing one of the immunizations (rotavirus) is an oral vaccine, and several of the others are combined, so it was actually only three shots. Amazingly, the two nurses who came in to give them were able to give all three at one time, so Lily only had one big scream. Granted, it was the biggest, breath caught, scream I've ever seen from her, but she recovered fairly quickly. She was only slightly fussy as we left the doctor.

Later that day she did seem to be a bit sore and would whimper and sort of cry every time I moved her, which was a bit sad. I spent much of the afternoon in my bed holding her and trying not to move too much. A dose of baby Tylenol helped and she has seemed fine ever since. Overall, it was not really that big of a deal. I'm starting to learn that I'm going to have to accept that there will be things that hurt her and times when she will be sad, but she and I will both survive!