Lillian - 14 Months, Trip to Arkansas and Easter Fun

Well, it is a losing battle these days to try and get the blogs done on time, but at least I'm trying.... right?  It's the thought that counts?

The 14 month photo shoot is a perfect representation of what it is like to HAVE and live with a 14 month old.  She is ALL over the place, climbing, unloading things and stirring up trouble... well not too much trouble, she's actually a very sweet little girl with just the right amount of mischief and just the right amount of toddler-feisty.

At 14 months here is the quick run down-- on Lillian.
- She is a great eater (meats, veggies, fruit*s, water, milk, etc.) and is eating almost entirely table food.
- She is a champion nighttime sleeper, sleeping 11 to 12 hours each night.
- She takes 2 pretty predictable naps each day - one in the morning 2 to 3 hours after she wakes up, and one sometime in the afternoon starting between 2 and 3 that lasts anywhere from 2 to 3 hours (though 3 hours is rare).  That said, there is a funny video below of Lillian on a day with a rate afternoon-nap-skip.  She's exhausted and it's always so funny to see her like this because she totally fights it - without a doubt she gets that from me.


- She's a daddy's girl and is really enjoying having him at home since he left his job in February
- She is saying "Bubbles" "Daddy" "Mommy" and still signing a lot of other things without trying to use words for the sign (like Milk, Please, Bye, etc.)

We did a lot between 13 and 14 months.  She took her second trip out of state to EJ (one of Michael's college roommates) and Erin's wedding in Arkansas where she did NOT ruin the ceremony by talking and was kept quiet with animal crackers and milk.  She danced her heart out till pretty late at the reception with the 2 year old nephew of the groom.  I don't know what Michael thought of that love connection ;)  During this same trip Lillian had her first visit to Harding - more on that in a separate post!

This last month we also celebrated her second Easter... where she was actually old enough to walk, carrying a basket, and hunt for eggs (which made it way more fun than last Easter!).

(Below: Lillian tries her hand at carrying her own basket.)

(Below: Our group of Sparkman babies - Jayme and Kynlee, Emily and Alice, Sara and Harper, the BUNNY, Me and Lillian, Andress and Jack)

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 - 6 Months

It's time for the freak out people. Does anyone else realize that we're on the downhill slope to 1 yrs old? All the 'big girl stuff' on the horizon just reminds me how big this little baby is getting.... but alas, there are new joys to come that we are enjoying (and, ahem, as Michael reminded me this morning "Don't worry... we'll have another... couple...").

6 month old Lillian could not be any cuter or more fun. She is precious. She is smiley. She is snuggly. She is smarter by the day. She is flexible (and taking advantage by chewing on those toes). We LOVE this month and we feel like we REALLY know Lillian and her moods now - she's our baby and we mostly know what to do with her. Hooray for that!

The latest with this adorable little girl...

• She KNOWS and LOVES us. It's precious the way she will lean towards the person she 'wants' these days. She'll put her lean on towards daddy if she's ready to spend time with him.
• Daddy comes in every day and says "Hey cutie!" or "Hey pretty girl!" and gets her attention. If I ask "Where's daddy?" or she hears his voice, she is all about locating him. Same with Hucklebear (her second love!).
• Lillian is showing some love to us touching our faces, our eyes, hanging on to our shoulders aaaand she offered me her paci the other day.
• She is 'feeling' of textures and patting on things constantly. She opens and closes her hands on the throw pillows, on the carpet, on the fuzz in her "DOG" book, on her sheets when she lays down to sleep... everything.
• If I'm holding her on my hip and she gets excited she bounces up and down and kicks her feet.
• She sits up unsupported these days, but she is a little unpredictible at times - if she gets excited or sees something she wants that's off to the side, she will still throw herself at it and knock herself off balance.
• She is definitely doing 360s on the floor and TRYING to get somewhere these days as well. It's probably her biggest frustration these days... that she can't move as quickly as she wants. Mostly, she looks like a frustrated fish out of water! (Click on the image below to play the video).
• 
• We have grown two bottom middle teeth this month and thankfully they seemed to come in without too much drama.
• This month Lillian has decided that she is a tummy sleeper (up until this point if I put her on her tummy she would immediately wake up, raise her head and look at me like "WHY am I doing tummy time? I'm SO tired right now..."). For this reason, among others, we have also ditched the swaddle.
• She is eating about every 3 hours and napping about 4 times a day for 30 mins.
• At night she goes down around 8 and generally wakes up around 1 something (and cries for 5 mins or less and goes back to sleep) then again around 3 or something (and eats) and then sometimes around 5 to fuss a bit, hopefully more like 7ish to eat again and start her day. We're still pretty sporatic... but at least at the time that I'm writing this, manageable.

Last but not least, I've decided that God blessed me with a great, flexible baby... which also means she is a great errand-runner! I am not a very rigidly scheduled person, but I tried to be for L especially during months 3 and 4...however I've found that a rigid schedule doesn't work well with L ... or maybe isn't necessary. Either way, she's my little girl that 'hangs in there' when small group runs long, or will snooze through dinner to get tide her over and generally does it pretty easily. I mean, she is still a baby, so we help her cope the best we can!