Lillian - 12 Months

Considering that Lillian is already 13 months and I'm just now starting this post, I'm thankful for the notes that I keep throughout the month marking her milestones at each age. Time goes so fast and skills are learned so quickly, it's impossible to remember if she was able to say/sign/do/accomplish ______ before she hit whatever 'month' birthday if I don't write it down!

However as Lillian turns 1 year, the feelings I have are just as much work mentioning as the physical and cognitive achievements. She is walking, she is understanding more, she has so much personality (she is a ham - in the way that she performs for attention AND in the way her little legs have maintained a few good rolls and her cheeks their good 'squishability'). She doesn't feel like so much a baby anymore and it's so easy to forget the struggles we were having not even 3 or 4 months ago as she figured out life and we figured out Lillian.

I think it's a funny thing to say that I don't remember my life before kids... I'd say that we're at a stage where we remember life without kids, but we have finally REALLY adjusted to the lifestyle changes they require. Maybe I've said that before, but I think the feelings of how different things are have finally quieted down. I think in many ways kids get easier as they approach 1... in other ways, I think YOU get adjusted to your new life! Either way, I would say that we wouldn't change our lives to go back to life without kids! Lillian is truely the apple of our eye.

For Lillian's 1 year birthday, we celebrated with b oth of our families in College Station. It was extra special, because Grandad (Michael's dad's dad) met Lillian for the first time. Aunt Sara made Lillian's cupcake cake, Lillian smashed and ate a strawberry cake, we opened presents, and of course, took lots of pictures! The day was a near perfect celebration with the ones we love, but we definitely missed Uncle Marcus! The pictures of her covered in cake and icing are missing.... so once I find those you'll get a separate post.

- Lillian is a great eater and she especially loves avocado, black beans, turkey, ham, cheese and pears... really, if it is orange or yellow she loves it! Corn, sweet potatos, strawberries, grapes, oranges and so on. She'll eat it as baby food if it's green or occasionally if it's mixed with other stuff (e.g. she generally won't eat peas, but she did eat pot pie with peas in it the other day!).

- Her separation anxiety is so much better when she goes to the nanny, but as we go to the church nursery more we are still seeing tears. This will get better with time we know.

- She is much of a daddy's girl lately and will cry when he leaves much more than she fusses for me.

- She LOVES to say "da-da" too and typically will still say it when we tell her to say 'ma-ma' ... then she laughs! Part of me wonders if she's doing it just because she's seen us react to that before.

- She is walking everywhere... she doesn't crawl to get where she wants anymore!

- She is signing and pointing all of the time, though lately she's signing for food when she's thirsty sometimes and signing 'finished' when she's really not done. I have a suspicion that sometimes she's 'finished' with a certain food and is ready for something else.

- As far as Lillian is concerned, every animal says "Woof" but sometimes we will get the quack for duck and HISS for snake.

- She is sleeping all night from 8 or 8:30pm to anywhere from 7:15 to 8:30am

- She sometimes will get 'nose' and 'eyes' correct, but more than that she loves to try and wriggle those little fingers into your mouth!

- Speaking of mouths, hers has 9 teeth with 1 molar completely through and the others swelling up.

- She gives the bestest, wettest, open mouth kisses

- She understands to put her paci in her bed when we wake up in the morning and after naps (though don't think those little arms won't be reaching in through the slats as far as she can get them trying to get the paci during playtime).

- She understands when we're telling her not to do something... though sometimes she'll give it just a few more trys before she lets it go.

- We experience a few arched-back mini-fits a day when we take her away from something she wants or when we have to stop playing for a diaper change or something less fun. They are short lived and usually consist of about 5 seconds worth of protest (longer if we end up on the changing table!) . :)

Her hair has been getting thicker and thicker lately so I'm hoping that in my 13 month post (haha which I already know about since she's 13 months and 3 days ;)) I'll be able to report some curls - if I have a child with board straight hair I'm going to have to hire a consultant for styling tips!

Until we meet again....

Lillian - 11 Months and our 1st Christmas!

A few days before 1/12/12, the day Lillian turned 11 months, she knocked out a big milestone...independent steps! Daddy is a bit of a procrastinator sometimes (he admits it,
so I don't feel like I'm outing him in this venue) and so it cracks me up that
she squeaked in a few things - like walking(!) - in the last few days of her
'10 month'. :)

Her record was 3 consecutive steps before she turned 11 months. Throughout her 10th month she
has been standing independently - not long after turning 10 months she began letting go of things and standing around, but before she would take a step, she would hold onto something and then walk along. She was increasingly interested in toys that she could walk alongside (she liked walking along and PUSHING her walker, rather than riding inside) and so it was perfect that for Christmas she got a baby stroller and a baby to ride inside! It cracks us up to watch her put her baby in there (because she forces them in head first and then leans on them with all her weight to really push them down in the seat tight!).

For Christmas we did stockings and presents with the three of us in Dallas and then went to College Station to celebrate with each mine and Michael's families. Lillian received some clothes, new hair bows, a doll house, a stroller, a pop up tent and tunnel, her first baby doll and more. Needless to say, it was MORE than a great first Christmas! A lot of her interest was still in the boxes and ribbons, but I'd say the thing she loved the best was whichever toy that cousin Jackson was playing with at the moment!

Her signing has also gotten more consistent and she will sign "more", "dog" (by patting her hand on her leg), "finished" and "milk". She is waving hello and goodbye and clapping. When she wakes up in the morning she immediately begins looking for and 'calling' Huck by patting her leg, she also pats her leg and looks around for Huck when Michael puts her to bed and includes
'...thank you God for Huck..." as part of their prayer - cute!

We are feeding Lillian more and more of what we eat, though I'm still supplementing with baby
food. She eats breakfast, lunch and dinner, nurses 3-4 times per day, and also benefits from an afternoon snack. The "snack" is a nice little helper for grocery store runs too! Yeah!

Lillian is taking two naps a day, a short nap in the morning and a longer afternoon nap if we are
lucky, but lately things are a little funky thanks to colds and teething. Her hair is getting thicker and she's holding strong at 8 teeth, but the molars are not far behind! She goes to bed around 8:30 most nights and sleeps through the night - she sleeps with her lovey (she has three different ones that we rotate), a paci, and on rare occasions a blanket if I feel like it is particularly cold.

Lillian is still pretty good in the car or stroller but getting a little more restless as her mobility is increasing - I imagine that her tolerance is only going to decrease further as her walking progresses.

She is more fun by the day. Smarter by the day. Amazing!

Lillian - 10 Months... serious countdown to 1 year!

Above: Lillian's first taste of a sucker, a cherry one, on Thanksgiving at Ninny and Opa's.

Lillian is 10 months old today. She is getting so very big and doing big girl things like pulling to standing (and sometimes letting go to stand independently), eating bigger chunks of food, playing games (like peek-a-boo) and letting her little personality show. She is still a great errand runner, she is persistent and she is a ham for any 'fans' that she encounters at church, at the store, etc.

She's more and more interested in regular food and she loves chicken and turkey (yes, her first taste of meat was at Chic-Fil-A! Who wouldn't love that?!) and feeding herself. She's less interested in the things I offer her on a spoon and prefers to pick things up herself like peas, pieces of green beans, grapes, corn, strawberries, blueberries, oranges, cooked pears or apples, PUFFS (of course!), cheese and more. She ADORES the baby yogurt and the baby oatmeal with banana cereal.

Sleep... thank goodness we are getting so much of it! It's hard to imagine how we ever survived the first 7 months of Lillian's life, but now she is rewarding us with full nights sleep almost every night. We still have the occasional middle of the night wake up thanks to all of the teeth this girl is getting and two colds we've had over the last couple of months, but it doesn't even COMPARE to where we were! Lillian typically goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up sometime between 5:30am and 7:30am to nurse. If it's on the earlier side of the spectrum she'll usually go right back to sleep... and usually sleep in pretty well till 7 or later. We do occasionally get to sleep in until 8:30 or so and if I put her in bed with me and she's feeling especially generous, we've had mornings that we've slept until 9:30am! MIRACLE!

Lillian really enjoys being tickled and she will raise her arms or expose her ribs (wherever you are tickling) to let you do it again and again. She will look for daddy when she hears his voice if he's been away and she will crawl over to you when she wants to see you or if she wants you to pick her up. She is to the age where she knows what to do when you're trying to dress her, but because she still HATES having clothes put on, she resists even more effectively now than she could before. She is a squirmy little girl on the changing table!

Lillian loves bath time and doesn't mind water splashing on her face or running down from her head. I can put her on the floor in the shower and she will play with toys until it is her turn to soap up which just amazes me - I think we are going to have a total water baby by next Summer! She's startled by sudden loud noises - sometimes a sudden loud laugh or sudden applause gets her... but usually it's just the dog barking that freaks her out. That said, she still LOVES her Hucklebear and he usually gets the most laughs out of any of us!

She takes her tumbles in stride usually getting back at the climbing, standing, exploring right away, but we did have her first busted lip this month. She celebrated her first Thanksgiving with a trip to College Station during which she tasted her first sucker and more importantly, we found out she will have a NEW COUSIN in June 2011 because David and Sara are pregnant!!! EXCITING! She also made a trip with mommy to San Antonio where she played with YaYa (my mom) while I worked in the San Antonio office for the day. I am PRETTY certain that she said her first word this last month when she repeated consistently "Da Da", but she doesn't know to associate it with Michael for certain yet. She isn't signing anything back to us yet, but there is no question in my mind that she knows the sign for "MILK" because we have one anxious girl if we sign it and don't get her to some milk ASAP! She has yet to shake her head "Yes" but she does shake her head "No" at really funny times which has made for good enteratinment - like tonight when daddy said "I'm hilarious" and she shook her head no. HA!

Below: The first pic is hilarious to me because we were trying to figure out the timer and it took like 500 pictures. It makes me laugh because of how Ninny is just throwing her arm in the air :) The one below it is a little more serious.

Below: Have you ever seen a bigger sweet potato!? The potato... not the baby! You can see the busted lip a little bit in this pic

- She's transitioning from 9 to 12 month clothes

- She weighs about 20 lbs and is a little over 2 feet tall (ha!)

- She has 7 teeth (4 on top and 3 on the bottom) and she is cutting her 8th tooth on the bottom right

- She is knee crawling and walking while holding onto things

It's going to be so interesting to see what unfolds the next two months as we approach 1. The physical strides are amazing and the speed at which she is figuring out how to work things, how to ring bells, how to turn lights on and off, etc. is picking up as well! Until then, just enjoy how timely this update is! :-)

Click the image below to watch the video of Lillian taken 3 days after she turned 10 months and decided to shake her head YES!

Lillian - 7 Months, She knows what she wants when she wants it... and how to get it!

So I'm terribly behind... Lillian is 8 1/2 months as I write this (and SUPER older as I publish it!). Fortunately for all of us, I already had a 'checklist' here in the blog of the things that were so 'right now' in Lillian's life as she turned 7 Months. And here they are!

- She has 'conductor hand' - whenever she has anything in her hand she holds her hand up over her hand and waves it back and forth as if she's directing a symphony (baby genius anyone?)

- She is army crawling to what she wants

- She started a sippy cup and she's pretty good at holding it, but not yet good at tilting her head back to get the liquid to fill the nipple

- She loves glasses (mine and hers), but always wants to take them off

- She raises her arms when she's ready for you to pick her up

- She is in LOVE with tags, buckles and straps

- She hates getting dressed (particularly putting her arms in sleeves) and is very squirmy for diaper changes

- She has started solids and though a bit of a rough start (lots of crying and head shaking and refusing to eat) she now eats pears, oatmeal cereal, baby yogurt, avocado and carrots. She's eaten sweet potatoes but we need to try them again because lately they've been a challenge.

As far as her activities go, when she isn't army crawling, she loves her walker, exersaucer (and can now turn around on her own to play with other toys), her jumper, and other musical toys. She's also started expressing her frustration through whines or tears if you move her from a toy she wants (or maybe something that isn't a toy that she wanted to play with - she LOVES electrical cords of course!) and I imagine that is a new addition to her 'skill set' that may be around a while!

Sleeping is getting better, but she's still waking up about once a night to eat sometime between 2 and 4 am. There are no new teeth this month - just the bottom two that we spotted in her 5th month of life.

Last but not least, at around 7 months her awareness seems to have skyrocketed. She is VERY attentive to me, daddy, Huck, other dogs (loves them!), other people, noises etc. Loud noises that never phased her before are scary and she will hear the noise and then look to us to see if we heard it too and how we are reacting.

Favorite age so far :)

Lillian - 9 Months

So I promise I'm trying to get back into the groove here, but work and home remodeling have taken over my life... oh yeah, and I have a precious, very mobile little girl!

Three days after Lillian turned 8 months, we went on a trip to College Station to see mine and Michael's families while Michael went to Lousiana for a guys weekend like he does every Fall. On that trip, Lillian began crawling on her knees - before that moment she had been army crawling. And, just like I suspected, once she realized that she could crawl on her knees, she began pulling up. At my Ninny and Opas house in Bryan, Lillian pulled to a standing position using her walker that we'd parked on the carpet (to keep it from rolling away). She returned to that walker again and again that weekend and tried and tried again to stand.

In true kiddo form, once she figured out that she could do it, she wanted to do it again and again and again. Crawling to things so she could pull to standing, falling, more crawling, standing, bonking her head, etc. consumed months 8 to 9. She is a VERY busy girl and it keeps me pretty busy just trying to keep up!

Once she became a little better at pulling up she decided she'd start reaching for new things and sometimes letting go, allowing herself to hover unsteadily on her two feet. She squats, she kneels and plays, she is doing everything she can to get to the things she wants! She's also started climbing on some things, putting her knees up and then figuring out how to get her feet up as well. The picture below is taken from above and it's classic 'mobile Lillian' - as she walked along the outside of her crib she saw her paci and lovey blanket on the inside... she just had to have them!

The consonant sounds abound with "mama" and "dada" and "lala" and "gaga" all over the place, but none of them clearly tied to any person or thing, and none of them repeated too consistently just yet even with prompting.

This sweet little girl has a mouth full of teeth. We talk about her 'chompers' and they make for such an adorable smile! We're at 7 teeth now with 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom. You can see in the pic below that the one tooth to the left of her two bottom teeth has come in strong, but there aren't any signs of the other one of that pair just yet!

Lillian - 5 Months

Lillian is 5 months old - the age of the smallest babies I can remember keeping as a babysitter in High School ... but now I’m the mom looking for a babysitter and she feels so ‘big’ to me.

This has been my favorite month so far with the smiles, talking and expressions multiplying. The ease at which she rolls from front to back and back to front as she wishes is amazing. As is the dexterity she has in her hands – getting things to her mouth, manipulating toys and her paci to chew on the parts that she wants (and yes, she often prefers parts other than the nipple). She’s still putting her thumb in her mouth quite a bit – ADORABLE! – but it’s not a comfort to her like her paci is… it’s really more of a favorite to chew on, rather than suck.

It seems this month has really been a ‘perfecting’ month for things she started doing last month. She is so alert that anytime we’re out she just loves looking at the people walking around, the things on the shelves, etc. We are definitely getting to an age with her where we’ll need to start trading off with friends for date nights (you watch our baby one week and we’ll watch yours the next!) as she is more interested in being part of the action now when we’re out. That’s just part of her growing up!

I finally finished up my old job with Zimmerman this month and began working part time as an independent consultant. The week before Lillian turned 5 months she began her stay with the nanny – two days a week for 4 hours/day. She goes to our friends house just a couple blocks over and shares the time with baby Jack who is just a month and a half or so younger than L. This will be an adjustment for me since to date she has really only stayed with friends and family, but I think it will be a good thing. This last month is also the first time she stayed in the church nursery for parent’s night out and she did wonderfully – Michael and I went to PF Changs and ate too much… but it sure was good!

This month in Lillian's life we also celebrated Michael's first Father's Day. I am LOVING the second picture with that huge grin on her face! We went to Papasitos - the ONLY place Michael cares to go for a special occasion!

• Little L is starting to get the hang of cause-and-effect. She has a “Shara Tiara” doll that when you put a new tiara on the doll she plays a ‘magical’ sound. After a couple of times of her Nana and Uncle Marcus showing her how it works she now goes straight to work on that tiara when you hand her the doll.
• She has started touching our faces and holding on more with her legs when you hold her on your hip. One morning we were asleep in our bed after Michael had gone to work and I woke up to her clawing at my eyes with those sharp baby finger nails like “Open up! It’s time to play!”
• Lillian is in between 3 and 6 month clothes. She’s long but ‘slim’… the kind of slim where you have rolls on your thighs and creases in your forearms.
• We haven’t started cereal yet at the recommendation of our pediatrician so L is eating pretty frequently during the day (every 2 to 2.5 hours).
• She naps 2 to 3 times a day with an hour long nap in the morning and then if I’m lucky a 2 hour+ nap in the mid-afternoon. Sometimes she’ll cap nap sometime in between those two, but it’s usually not longer than 45 mins.

Above: Lillian naps during the 4th of July parade in our neighborhood. Something tells me she'll enjoy that more next year!

• Bed time is SOOO much easier with our routine pretty consistent. She eats, bath & lotion, PJs, eat, story, prayer and 2 to 3 mins of rocking.
• At night Lillian goes to bed around 9pm and usually wakes up somewhere between 3 and 4am, around 6 am, and then for the day between 7 and 8am.
• Lillian is still our little water baby and enjoys getting in the pool and loves bath time.
• People still comment most on her squish-able cheeks still and her bright blue eyes.
• She’s lost almost all of the darker long hair on the back of her head from when she was born and the hair she has is so blonde and getting longer…but b/c she’s so blonde she’s still looking pretty bald. Bald is beautiful didn’t you know?

We haven’t had a lot more of the scooting around though she has been rolling towards things she wants a lot more lately. Here’s to another great month…. Because it will probably be that long before I write again! Whoops!

- Natasha

Lillian - 4 Months

Below: Lillian in the grass at her Nana and Papa's in College Station Memorial Day weekend.

Below: Cousin Jackson and Lillian enjoy the shade.
Below: A spectator at Daddy's triathlon this month - not her first race to watch, but her first tri!

Below: Michael before starting the race and me with Lillian in the Moby.

Lillian is now 4 months old. I look at her newborn pictures and the Lillian that couldn't hold toys or laugh or find her hands feels miles away. The development that is happening at this stage is remarkable. Every day it seems that Lillian is acquiring or perfecting a new skill that Michael and I wonder at!

Click on the images below to enjoy some videos of L from this past month.

"Screetch"

This is what I call "grumpin'" where L just sort of pouts it out, but isn't crying.

In the last month Lillian...

• Found her feet. She started watching as her feet flexed in her car seat; then, intentionally kicking things; then putting her feet together to 'grab' things. Now she brings those little feet up to her hands and holds onto her toes or heels.
• Rolled from back to tummy! Last month she'd done some good tummy to back rollovers, but this month we go both ways.
• Began her 'baby crunches' where she lifts her head when you pick her up to 'help you' or when she's laying down and doesn't want to be.
• Puts everything into her mouth. She's getting toys there more often, a good portion of her fingers are in there these days (though she does favor her thumb and pointer finger with one on each side of her mouth) and she's especially drooly.
• ...She still has love for her paci though. She likes it as her 'cue' for bedtime though we can take it out before we lay her down, but we also use it during the day she gets fussy or starts yelling at inappropriate times. Communion anyone?
• Loves 'standing' and putting weight on her legs. She will tolerate sitting if she's in a good mood, but certainly doesn't like it as much.
• Still looooves some talking whether you're listening or not and she's certainly letting out some high pitched noises these days.
• Giggles! It's still short and more like a series of a couple fast "ha" "ha" cough type noises, but it sure is cute!

Below: Lillian with her Ninny giving her the biggest grins! LOVE!!!

• Tries to get her knees up under her and scoot - this has only happened a few times so far and happened the week before she turned 4 months, so we'll see what this coming month holds in that regard.
• Still loves baths which have become one of my favorite times of day. She smiles and smiles as we prep the water, she LOVES the squeaky little rubber ducky and she doesn't even cry as we pull her out of the water into the air to dry her off. She's great until we start to put her clothes on.... haha
• Started smiling if you raise her up in the air above your head, but she likes to do it slowly still. Fast seems to freak her out.

From the battleground of sleep (or not sleeping as the case may be), this month has been a challenging one.

• We tried to begin moving Lillian's bedtime from 10:30 ish, toward 8:30, but no matter how gradually we did this we usually spent around 2 hours of fussing and fighting before any sleep was had. She would wake up about an hour after going to sleep and want her paci put back in (at the least).
• Lillian left the days of sleeping 4 to 5 hours the first part of the night like she was doing between 2 and 3 months and returned to nights of eating every 2 and 3 hours. Thinking this might be tied to the two weeks I returned to the office and a change in her schedule, we tried to ride it out, but as we neared 4 months we had a series of nights where she was up literally once every hour and I slept on the floor in her room. Desperate, we visited the pediatrician who suggested we try feeding her every 2 to 2 1/2 hours throughout the day to see if that improved things. As Lillian turns four months we are still experimenting with this to see what happens!
• Some tears were shed by both of us over naps this month, but she is finally napping in her crib - occasionally on her side, occassionally propped up on the Boppy under close supervison, but always listening to music, swaddled with her blanket/bear.

At her 4 month appointment Lillian weighed 12.7 (in the 25th percentile), was a little over 26 inches long (in the 90th percentile) and was still wearing a lot of her 3 month sized clothes with the real challenge being the length... everything is big in the waist! :) People most comment on her pretty blue eyes and her CHEEKS! They are pretty squishably delicious!

Lillian - 3 Months...and she' s got something to say!

Well it's obvious I'm a little behind on Lillian's 3 Month posting, but things have been pretty busy here at the Anderson house to say the least!

May 12th Lillian turned 3 Months old and the books and a couple online sites will argue she's becoming an infant and is no longer a newborn - this feels so true when I think about all the skills you take for granted that we've watched her acquire this past month. The most noticeable thing is how much more she is 'talking'! She will willingly have a conversation with anyone that will join her at the changing table, the elephant or monkey on her play gym (but not the lion b/c he doesn't jingle or sing, he's just stuffed), and with any other variety of toy and person when she's awake.

Click on the image below to watch the video made on the day L turned '3 months'.

We took quite a few trip this past month as well - three road trips to be exact - including her first. What can I say, when Lillian starts something new, she goes big! For the most part she did pretty well in the car with a little bit of frustration as she started to get tired at the end of each three hour cycle and we only had a few blowouts... diaper blowouts that is.

Our first trip was a road trip to College Station so that Lillian could meet her Opa (my grandpa). We went for the weekend and stayed with Ninny and Opa, but also spent time with Nana (Michael's mom), her Aunt Sara, and Aunt Ashley and cousin Jackson.

Below: In College Station - Lillian all snuggled up with Opa.

Below: In College Station - Lillian gets her first 'real' bath in Ninny's kitchen sink.

Below: Ninny dries off L on the kitchen counter - she loved it!

Below: In College Station - Cousins! Our nephew Jackson holding L's hand. So sweet!

The next weekend road trip was for a sadder occasion - to bury my dad outside of Huntsville - where Lillian was a complete angel resting outside under some trees in a camping chair while we dug dad's grave. It was warm, she wore a pink sunhat that was still a little too big for her and she just loved looking up at the contrast between tree tops and sky and watching us work. She was so sweet and brought joy on what was otherwise a sad day.

And the last road trip was to attend a wedding in San Antonio for my cousin Brynna and to attend a memorial 'party' of sorts in honor of dad. My only request was that she sleep through the wedding ceremony and she did - she did really well that whole weekend and got to meet a lot of family that she hadn't met before!

Below: In San Antonio - at La Fogata with my mom.... whose grandma name is newly up in the air.

Below: In San Antonio - At Uncle Dale's house with Kat making Lillian laugh.

Below: In San Antonio - with my Uncle Fran (my dad's brother) and Alexandra.

Below: In San Antonio - with uncle Levi.


Pic Below: Natasha, Lillian and Michael at the wedding which was held at Sunset Ridge (that's where Michael and I were married!) Look at us, coming full circle with our little family of 3 now!

Pic Below: My brother Marcus, mom with Lillian and me.

In other news this month...

• Lillian has rolled over a couple of times, though she doesn't do it consistently since sometimes she can't seem to bend her arm in toward her body for the direction she wants to roll. These are front to back rolls.


• She is VERY talkative, very smiley, and better and better with her hands.


• At night she's still hovering around a later bedtime, 10 or 11pm, but my goal this month is to start getting to an earlier time and to get her into her crib and out of our room.


• She’s still a swing-napper and that’s the habit we’ll be trying to break this month as well. Yikes!


• Her 0-3 month clothes still fit and she seems long and skinny to me though I don’t know how much she weighs since we won’t have a 3 month appt.


• She still looks like daddy according to the majority of the people that weigh in, but I still see some of my baby pictures in her.


• Bath time is still one of her favorite times and she’s even happy as you pull her out to dry her off, while you put lotion on and while you diaper her. She crashes a little bit when you try to put her PJs on, but she perks back up after it’s done.


• Lillian loves a paci and seems to care less if it falls out now after she falls asleep which is nice.


• We have 'trained' her to know her 'calm down cues' and if this child melts down usually all it takes is a swaddle, a paci, and turning her on her right side to quiet her up. She likes a vigorous bounce in this position at times she's really upset. She's not as big a fan of the rocking.


• L still loves walks too - if you can get past the cry she may give you while being strapped into the car seat she'll just stare and stare looking around on the walk and usually be asleep before it's all said and done!

This has been a great month as we learn more of what makes her happy, calms her down, etc. We feel like we know what she needs a little better than before, which is great b/c that helps us get out and about still with confidence.

Also, at the 12 week mark of Lillian's life I returned to work for two weeks, during which time I gave my notice, and soon I'll be working part time in a new job while staying at home with Lillian. We are so incredibly thankful that this lifestyle change is an option for us! A combination of Nana, Ninny and Opa, and our good friend Megan from church, provided care for Lillian while I went to the office. We were so thankful that Lillian has people that love her that were able to spend time helping us with this transition.

We are really settling into life as our little family now and it's so funny... like, this is the life I said I wanted and here it is. A home, a little white dog, Michael as my husband, and our beautiful little daughter the start to the family I'd always hoped I'd have. God is so good.

Lillian - 2 Months

Lillian is 2 months old today, April 12th, and she is so stinkin' precious and fun! The first month was joyous, but hard (sometimes very hard!), so now as we head into Lillian's third month we are really enjoying the nights that are easier, smiles that are more frequent, and her little personality that we're getting glimpses of.

• Sleeping has gotten so much better and b/c it's so much of the adjustment of having a new baby, I'm giving it it's own section!
• Week 5 there was this special thing we'd do to put her down for bed where we'd swaddle, turn her on her side laying on my legs, and jiggle back and forth while running the blow dryer. (Ha! I should have videoed this!) That worked beautifully for 3 days... on the 4th day Michael tried to 'work this magic' and 25 mins later she was still awake and fussing. That night marked the end of that trick and we had a few really bad nights that week.
• Week 5 aside, starting in week 6, Lillian would go down between 11pm and Midnight (she's still hovering around a 10:30 or 11pm bed time) and most nights give us a 4 to 5-hour stretch of sleep. One night she gave us 7 hours - MIRACLE! - but that has only happened once so far.
• Sometime in the coming months we'll be working towards that earlier bedtime, but for now round her 11pm bedtime and after the 4 am-ish feeding she goes to sleep like a dream - we feed her, swaddle her in one of the wraps with Velcro, and then turn her on her side with her belly against ours and bounce/jiggle while patting her bottom. Her eyes get heavy and we put her in her bed.
• Now she's still sleeping in her 'newborn napper' of the pack and play and is napping in her swing, so we're liable to have a little sleeping boot camp sometime in the coming weeks, but for now I'm totally content to have this little bit sleeping within arms reach.

The changes in sleeping have really helped morale and the feeling confident in knowing what we're doing... this contributes to us being able to enjoy her during the day more with all her new developments!

• She is clearly smiling at us and the voices and faces we make these days as well as 'talking' some when we talk to her.
• She is content on her activity mat for longer as she stares at the animals hanging overhead and she kicks her legs and waves her arms.
• Though a betterigh sleeper, she is still a sleep fighter at the end of her three hour eating cycles during the day and she starts to get fussy when it's time to start that cycle's nap. It's pretty much 0 to 90 in no time. Even once you get her to settle down, she likes to 'flare up' with one good whine or a few screams before she totally gives it up.
• She is very tolerant of diaper changes.... actually, on the changing table is one of the places she's smiley-est.
• We still hear that she looks like Michael more often than we hear she looks like me and people are always saying things like "her nose is so distinct" and "her nose isn't like a regular baby nose" - both of which I'm taking as compliments because I'm totally biased.
• My dad, her Pappy, and Michael's parents, Papa and Nana, came to visit Lillian this month.
  

• She went to her first 'race' to watch daddy this month as well. Michael and Clay SMOKED the Big D half marathon (with seriously record times) and Lillian, dad and I showed up to watch.

We think Lillian is the most beautiful baby ever, because as Lesley said when she was here for Sara's bachelorette weekend - "once you have a baby you think they're the cutest, smartest, funniest..." etc. and that is so true!

At her two month check-up Lillian was in the 75th percentile for head and length (23") and in the 50th percentile for weight at 10lbs 2oz.