Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Thursday, December 19, 2013

{39 + 40 + 41 weeks}

Can I take a minute to complain about how difficult these pictures are getting to take??  Don't get me wrong, I love this project, and already love looking  back to see her change from week to week, however it's a real pain in the arse to get the picture these days.  For one, our weekends seem to fly by and I am constantly forgetting to take the picture on Sundays.  So then Monday rolls around and I realize I have to try and squeeze it in after work - well it gets dark at like 2 in the afternoon these days so I don't have a chance of using natural light when I get home at 5:30, and I HATE using a flash. But I do, and just deal with shadows and harsh light.  But worst of all, this kid does not like being on her back, and REALLY does not like staying still.  So getting her to lay down, look at me, and not roll over and crawl away in 2.5 seconds is pretty much a miracle.  This was so much easier when she was a tiny blob of a newborn and just laid there for me to take endless pictures.  SIGH.





It may be a giant pain in my butt, but it will all be worth it I know.  :)



{to see all of Lilly's weekly pictures, click here}

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

{9 months}





9 months!  Holy cow!  She's officially been on the outside as long as she was in the inside.  CRAZY.  This girl is busy these days, let me tell you.  She is officially on-the-go, all the time.  She is so much fun right now!  And she's starting to look so grown up...FINALLY her bottom 2 teeth have cut through.  I was starting to wonder if she was ever going to get teeth.  They've just barely popped through the gums, so you can't see them much yet, but they're coming in!  We had a few rough days/nights because of it, but she is definitely on the upswing and {almost} back to her happy self!

This month included 2 celebrations ~ Mama's birthday, and Lilly's first Thanksgiving!  My birthday was pretty low-key this year {I'm officially old.}, but it was fun to spend the day with my girl.  Thanksgiving was a hit, probably her favorite holiday to date since it all centered around eating, and that's one of her favorite things to do these days. She eats just about anything and everything, and loves it!  In fact, she gets quite upset if you eat in front of her and don't offer her any. :)

Her little personality is really starting to come out, and she's interacting SO much now, I love it.  She plays peek-a-boo, does "touchdown" anytime the word is spoken, crawls everywhere, may or may not have said her first word {she says "hiiiiiiii" all the time, and at least half of the time says it to someone, but we haven't officially counted it as her first word yet...}, she's just an all around good time. I'm sure I'm just a typical mom here, but I feel like she is SO smart.  She is really starting to understand things, repeat things we do, and it just amazes me.  I love watching her learn. :)



Stats ~ 19lbs 3 oz (65th percentile)
             28 1/4" tall (75th percentile)
             17 1/2" head circumference {75th percentile)

I don't know if she's actually lighter than she was a month ago, or if it's just the difference in my scale at home and the scale at the doctor's office.  I wasn't sure they read it right when they said 19lbs 3oz, Matt and I both were expecting her to weigh more.  The doctor even said she looks chunkier than that (in the nicest way).  She is crazy active all day now, though, so she very well could be getting leaner.  Looks like she may be tall and skinny. :)

Size ~ mostly wearing 9 months, a few 6 month things still fit

Sleeping ~ we seem to have finally turned a corner in the sleep department, once we got past the teething nightmare.  That caused us several nights of a million wake ups, and a lot of snuggles.  I don't mind the snuggles, but I hate seeing my baby in pain. Luckily that only lasted a few nights, and since then we have slowly been getting better nights of sleep.  I hope this trend continues. :)


Eating ~
  she still eats breastmilk 5-6 times a day, eats dinner with us every night, and has a snack usually at Grandma's house.  I stopped keeping track of the new foods she tries, because at this point it's almost something new every day.  She eats what we eat for the most part, and I usually add in a fruit or veggie for her.  She loves veggie sticks for a snack, and I don't think she's tried a food she hasn't liked yet.  Some things she definitely favors over others (cheese, yogurt, bread, bacon, avocado), but she's tried everything we've given her and never turned anything away.  Atta girl!

Likes ~
 waving, saying "hiiiiii" (in the sweetest little high pitched voice), the remote, watching Daisy play ball, hearing various animal sounds (for some reason the monkey and dog really crack her up), reading books (Daddy reads to her every night before bed, and I often catch her when she's playing by herself "reading" - turning the pages and babbling to herself, pointing at the pictures), food, standing, socks (but not on her feet, she just likes to carry them around...), pointing, banging toys together, I could go on...

Dislikes ~
 diaper changes or changing clothes, the carseat, laying down on her back in general, not getting a bite if you are eating in front of her

Current Nicknames ~
 boog, boogie, Moe




Monday, December 16, 2013

Lilly's first Thanksgiving


Gobble Gobble!

Let me just say, that this holiday could not have come at a better time in this kid's life.  She is finally getting the hang of eating solid food, and LOVES TO EAT, so this holiday had her name all over it.  And her shirt - gobble gobble gobble - very fitting, as that's just what she did.

We started our day off at Mama T's for Thanksgiving lunch with the family.  Lilly enjoyed turkey, mashed potatoes & green beans.  She happily ate alongside everyone else, and just all around enjoyed herself.  I'm telling you, put food in front of this girl - she's a happy camper.


We came home from our first Thanksgiving celebration and started preparing for the next.  Not only was it Lilly's first Thanksgiving, it was our first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner.  We had Matt's side of the family over for dinner, and it was so much fun. :)  Before the table was full of food I thought it was only fitting to sit the baby on it for a photo op....







Or 3. :)

Anyway, as I said this was our first time hosting - aka my first time cooking - Thanksgiving dinner. I had lots of help from my wonderful Mother in Law and Sister in Law, so it really wasn't bad at all.  My biggest fear was messing up the turkey, but I think we did ok!  Matt even looked like a pro carving it up...


And, once again, Lilly gobbled her food right up.  I think she tried a bit of everything at this meal, and holy cow did we have tons of food.  She had more turkey, ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, stuffing, bread...and I don't even remember what else.  As you can see, she was one happy turkey. :)



All in all, I think everything turned out great!  It was so fun to have our house full of family, and I certainly wouldn't mind hosting again.  

And I think Lilly will agree with me that Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays out there.  Any holiday that centers around eating is a winner in our book.  :)


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

{36 + 37 + 38 weeks}




{to see all of Lilly's weekly photos, click here}

Thursday, November 7, 2013

{8 months}


It was another busy month for this baby - between trying tons of new foods, starting to crawl, starting to wave & clap, and her first Halloween, she's been a busy girl!  It feels like she is learning something new every day at this point, I'm constantly amazed!  She is now all over the place, crawling like crazy, and into everything.  Such a curious girl, she loves to explore.  She is still a happy happy girl, although it seems like teething is back which has caused a few fussy days here and there.  We still don't have any teeth to show for it, but the amount of drool and constant gnawing on anything and everything point directly to teething.  I'm starting to think she's going to wake up one day with a mouth full of teeth. :)


Stats ~  no doctor's appointment this month, but according to our {unofficial} measurements: 20.5 lbs

Size ~ still wearing 3-6 month and 6 month onesies, moving into 9 month pants and in both 6 and 9 month sleepers.

Sleeping ~ we are still fighting sleep...I guess it's the price to pay for the crazy amount of development going on.  She averages 10 hours a night, and lately that includes at least 1 (often several) wake-ups in the middle of the night. Her wake time in the morning has been inching its way up too - basically there's not a whole lot of sleeping going on in our house these days.  She's never been a great napper, and that hasn't changed much either, it's sort of a vicious cycle.
 I guess this is payback for all the long stretches of sleep we got in the newborn phase.  Oh and don't forget to throw daylight savings in the mix - I remember "fall back" used to be great because you always got an extra hour of sleep....ha!  Once you have a kid that goes right out the window. 
We have made one bit of progress in the sleeping department, though, she is now sleeping in her crib in her own room! Finally. :) It's going well so far, and I'm not waking up to check the monitor nearly as many times as I expected...

Eating ~
  she still eats breastmilk 5-6 times a day, and most nights also eats dinner with us.  On the weekends she'll often have breakfast, and she has finally started to partake in lunch at Mama T's on Saturdays.  Some of the new foods she's tried this month: apples, cheese (loved it), sweet potato, pears, cheerios, chicken, egg, yogurt, tomato, green beans, bacon (devoured it), and more.  We're to the point where she usually gets some of whatever we're having, along with a fruit or veggie of some sort.  She snacks on veggie straws and cheerios while I'm in the kitchen cooking in the evenings, as well.  She is finally starting to actually EAT some food, for the first month she mostly just played with it. 


Likes ~ both of her toy pianos, kisses on her sides (this gets the best belly laughs), looking at pictures of herself, crawling around and picking up the tiniest objects possible (the other day she literally picked a single dog hair out of the carpet. really???), the sign for "milk" (I guess it's the milk she actually likes, but every time I do the sign she gets way excited), her stuffed giraffe, story time with Daddy

Dislikes ~
 naps, being tired (this kid is the happiest baby on the planet, until she gets tired - then she immediately turns into Miss Cranky Pants), the car (this is hit or miss - either she's fine, babbles to herself and eventually falls asleep, or she screams bloody murder starting the minute you buckle her in.  I don't get it.)

Current Nicknames ~
 boog, boogie, Moe

Monday, November 4, 2013

{34 + 35 weeks}



{to see all of Lilly's weekly photos, click here}

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Lilly's first Halloween

well, Fall is now officially upon us, and you know what that means... HOLIDAYS!  This year has already been so much fun experiencing all of Lilly's "firsts", and I won't lie, I'm ridiculously excited for the next couple of months. :)

First up is Halloween ~ on my top 5 list of favorite holidays for sure.  This year was even more fun, because now I have a little person to dress up!  We went to our group of friends' annual Halloween party {yes, we brought the baby} and sported our family costume...


We were Germans. ha.  so clever, aren't we?  Our costumes are store-bought - yes Matt is wearing stockings - and I made Lilly's.  leftover fabric + a onesie + a hot glue gun = German baby {aka baby German}

Of course Lilly couldn't just have one costume.  On Halloween night she also dressed up:


As a flower :)  {are you sensing a theme with my costume inspiration...?}


We went trick-or-treating with Lexi, but of course being past this girl's bedtime, I'll let you guess how she spent the evening.  Let's just say there was less candy eating, more snoring. :)

Before we went out on the town, though, I had to squeeze in a quick little photo session to document my girl and her first Halloween.





 I decided to try painting pumpkins this year rather than carving {although Matt of course still carved one...must be a guy thing}.  Lilly got this purple one, and then I painted one white with a G.  I thought they came out pretty stinkin cute!  {and by "I painted", I mean "Matt painted", just for the record. he's the resident painter around here, I just come up with the ideas.}


And this last picture just cracks me up.  No idea what is happening here, but her face and pose is pretty much priceless.  Saving this one for the senior yearbook. :)


Hope you had a fun and not-too-scary Halloween!  I'm off to go eat another Kit Kat bar.  Or two.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

pumpkin patch


a couple of weekends ago we made our first annual family trip to the pumpkin patch to start off fall.  Planning on making this one of many traditions for Lilly {and what can I say, I'm a sucker for family traditions}  It was such a fun day, and perfect weather.


 We went to KC Pumpkin Patch in Gardner, thanks to a Groupon. :)  It was awesome...so much to do there besides just picking out pumpkins!



Lilly even got to see some farm animals up close and personal for the first time.


we eventually made our way to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins, stopping to go down a few slides on our way.



 And then came the obligatory kids-sitting-in-the-pumpkin-patch photos





And then, about 2.5 seconds after we finished pictures and loaded up our pumpkins, someone fell asleep.  Surprise, surprise!  We took a little family photo on the way out, but the diva was busy napping.  Clearly she had way too much fun.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

{32 + 33 weeks}



these pictures are getting increasingly more difficult to take.  this girl just does not like the idea of laying on her back and smiling at me - she instantly starts to roll over so she can crawl away.  it's so funny how the first few weeks I just plopped her down, and casually snapped a few pictures, then it evolved into me having to hold up a toy or dance around to get a smile, and now it's a full on production.  usually dad has to help us, and it's a serious challenge to get this picture done every week.  BUT, I am over halfway through her first year and have managed to keep up with them every week, so I'm not quitting now!!  just getting more creative :)

{to see all of Lilly's weekly pictures, click here}

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

on the move

Just as I thought, right after she turned 7 months Lilly started crawling.  And by right after, I mean literally - it was the next day.  She was a little wobbly at first, but has since become a pro and is now all. over. the. place.

Here are a couple videos of this girl in action:

The first one was only 2 days after she crawled for the first time, and as you can see she was still learning :)  {ignore the weird sounding lady in the background - note to self: do not talk to child while taking video}

http://youtu.be/1lLEntjBmjY

And this one was a few days later.  She is getting much better!  And clearly very proud of herself, as you can tell by the constant babble  :)

http://youtu.be/lJ7roDf0I54

Sunday, October 13, 2013

{7 months}



This was a busy month for our little booger! she figured out how to get up on her hands and knees & rock back and forth (and I'm sure will very soon be crawling), had her first runny nose, went to her first Chiefs game, ate solid food for the first time, and attended 2 weddings!  Whew!

{first chiefs game!}

{all dressed up for Aunt Jess' wedding}

She is really developing her little personality, and is constantly making friends everywhere we go.  She is curious about everything, and very determined to crawl.  I know it's coming any time now! She has done great at the various events she's been to this month, and we are constantly told how great of a baby she is.  Well, yeah! :)  Time is just flying by, but every day is so much fun with her!  The best part of my day is when I get home and she sees me and just squeals with delight.  Melt my heart!




Stats ~  no doctor's appointment this month, but according to our {unofficial} measurements: 19 lbs (!)


Size ~  still in 3-6 month, and mostly 6 month clothes. 3-6 month is getting small, so I’m trying to rotate through all of those outfits ASAP before she can’t wear them anymore.  I have a lot of 6 month things, but not much 6-9 months…guess it’s time to go shopping!

Sleeping ~ 
we are still working on this whole sleeping thing.  The past month hasn’t changed much, she’s been getting up earlier, naps are spotty, and she’s even started waking during the night here and there.  There are probably a lot of things to blame, and in the end I’m just hoping it’s a phase, albeit a long one, that will soon pass.  I really hope those 12 hour nights will come back to us eventually…

Eating ~
  we started finger foods shortly after her 6 month birthday, and it’s been going great!  She loves it.  Her first food was Avocado, and since then we’ve tried Banana, Egg, Peaches, Broccoli, Apple, and Cheese.  I’d have to say Cheese was her favorite of those, or the one she ate the most of anyway!  She still doesn’t actually “eat” much, but mostly just plays with her food and is working out how this whole eating thing works.  It’s very entertaining to watch, let me tell you.  See for yourself:  








I’m 100% happy with our decision to go with the Baby Led Weaning method, and can’t wait to keep introducing new foods to her!

Likes ~
 these haven't changed much...dogs, anything cold, Sophie, seeing herself in the mirror, "touchdown!", "talking", blowing raspberries, her blocks, bath time now that she can sit up and play with her bath toys.

Dislikes ~
 the car seat and diaper/clothing changes continue to be her nemesis, and if she’s playing with something and you take it away she usually isn’t too happy with you.  

Current Nicknames ~
boogie, Lilly bean, Moe (what little hair she has sticks up into a Mohawk after she gets out of the bath, and with that Daddy now calls her Moe.)

Hey, Moe!