Lillian - 18 Months: All Toddler, All the Time!

Lillian is now 18 months old and she is such a little person these days.  Every Sunday people remark how much you're growing up and how much like a little girl you are... not a baby anymore!

I would say that my favorite thing about this age with you has been your incredible, growing vocabulary!  It's almost one new word a day that you seem to be repeating and it's been incredibly helpful in your communication and alleviating some of your frustration.  It's also adorable the way you pronounce some words, like how flower is "flouw flouw" and how "Huckle" (for Hucklebear) occasionally becomes "Huckle-baby" as you try to pronounce his whole name.

The most challenging thing of the last month has been naps.  You've been down to one nap a day for quite some time now, but for about 3 weeks your one nap a day has been less than an hour - with few exceptions.  This is hard for you because it's not enough rest to break up a 12 - 13 hour day of playing and it's hard for me because I too need rest and time to do my part time Marketing & Advertising job.

The things that most 'mark' this age for us are:
- Saying goodbye to everyone: when the waiter leaves the table, when the guy passing communion walks away from our pew, to people walking away from us in Target.
- You also LOVE to 'leave' and close the door and say "bye bye".  Some of our doors don't latch and so it's just a matter of a push for you to get back in the room.  You did it the other day to a door that DID latch and didn't understand why you couldn't come back in from your exit.
- Obsessed with babies (which is great news because you're going to be a big sister soon) - you say "Baby" whenever you see a car seat or stroller and try to look inside.
- You love shoes of all kinds and you get so frustrated when they're too big and won't stay on your feet.
- Love your Hucklebear - and ask for him first thing when you wake up in the morning or from a nap - though we've had to work more on 'gentleness' the last month as you try and play with him and get rough or sometimes push him out of the way.  He is less patient with you these days now that you are more aggressive with him, but he is still a very sweet boy and I know he will appreciate your 'play' more over time.
- Somewhere around here we dropped your paci simply by doing everything else in your nighttime routine and just NOT giving you the paci.  Mostly your daddy took care of this.  We would put your paci in your bed in a corner (so it wasn't as visible when we lay you down) and then we quit putting it in altogether.  Somehow this transition was miraculously easy... thank you thank you for that!
- You are obsessed with phones and say "hello" into anything that seems like a phone.  You say "hello" and "bye bye" when we begin or end a conversation on the phone.
- Also obsessed with daddy!  You ask for him when he is gone at work during the day, you take the keys to the front door and say "Da Da" as if to open it, you hear a mower start outside and ask "Da Da?", but you LOVE to play coy with him when he comes home.
- You are a great night sleeper 11 - 12 hrs a night usually from 8pm to 7am or 8pm to 8am with occasional flukes where you'll get up extra early or sleep in.  You are less flexible than you used to be with bed time for small groups and dinners out, probably in part because of the tremendous energy it takes to be a toddler and in part because you hardly sleep during the day.
- Still a great eater (though sometimes this is touch and go if you are overtired).  If you are picky with something one meal you will love it the next so I usually don't stress over it too much if you won't eat pineapple for lunch because you'll be asking "more" "more" at dinner.
- You love the pool, riding in the front seat of the car and 'honking' the horn, and your friend "Dane" whose name you can say and will ask for obsessively at times.
- Last but not least, you are definitely experiencing the toddler frustration.  Though your vocabulary is increasing greatly it is still hard for you to communicate your needs - or even KNOW your needs.  You will be so irritated that you can't carry all of the toys at once that you need to carry, or you can't play with something you'd like to play with.  Sometimes a simple "Lillian, let's leave that in the drawer please." will send you into a back-arching screaming fit, but I know that will improve with time.... we'll just have to give it a little time... :)

This month we attended Uncle Marcus' Baylor Law School Graduation (at the end of July) with Ninny, Opa, Yaya, and Marvin & Debbie Walker. (picture at the top and then one below with Ya Ya) And Baby Knox came to visit us in Dallas since I still could not travel - you LOVED HIM!!!! You brought your own baby and put her in the carrier, offered her Knox's paci, and loved laying down next to Knox on the floor (see picture, bottom). Though we really had to watch your steps and 'offering' him toys this positive experience with such a tiny baby really makes me excited to see you with your own brother.

We love you so much and know that you are going to be a wonderful helper to your little brother Reed. In the meantime, we are enjoying our time alone with just you, watching you turn into a little girl before our very eyes.

Lillian - 17 Months

Well, true to form I am behind on my posts, but fortunately I had some notes written about 17 months so I'm not completely winging it here!

Climbs on everything
Words she says: no-no, oh-no, Huckle, up, please, thank you, rock (sounds like 'crah, crah'), bye bye, puppy, turtle, Dane, mama, dada, lambie ('mami'), Papa, Nana, banana, apple, Opa, YaYa, baby, more, juice, shoes, socks, eyes, toes, ball, bubble and  more!
Still signs milk for any kind of drink
Snuggles so well when she first wakes up or before she goes to sleep
Asks for dada during the day
Clingy and not wanting to go to the nursery or wanting to be held in the store, while cooking dinner, etc.
This month she met baby (cousin) Knox the weekend after he was born and went on her first alone trip with daddy to do so (I was restricted from travel thanks to some pregnancy complications)
Went to the Dallas World Aquarium with the Fox family
If she has fruit she calls it an apple
She is carrying everything or loading it into bags or wagons to tote it around - this is also a source of frustration because she can't always carry all she wants to
Understanding more complex commands
Still likes to close the trash or cabinets more than open them
Points to clock radio to Dance because she wants music
Aaaand she is dancing lots
Likes when we sing but covers her ears and then asks for more

 

Lillian - 15 Months, Our little dancing machine.

Well Lillian is 15 months.
Lillian is a true toddler these days and is a BALL OF ENERGY. Like, really full of energy… like too full of energy to nap… but more on that later.

(Below: Lillian's latest 'fave' place.  Huck's bed. Yuck. You'll also see her do this in the video below.)

She is super vocal these days but it hasn’t been until the last week or so that we’ve been able to understand a few of her new words. These days she is saying:

- “Mama” and “Dada” (still)
- “Woof” for dogs and lots of other animals
- “Quah Quah” for “Quack” and this is also pretty much what she ‘calls’ ducks
- “Hiss” for snake
- “Bubble” which she also sometimes uses in place of “Ball”. She also calls balloons balls and goes nuts when she sees them!
- Just this last weekend she said “Papa” “Nana” and said “Pa” after making an “O” shape with her mouth for “Opa” (her great-grandpa).
- She has said “Shoes” and “Eyes” a few times, but not consistently and once she said “Let’s go” after we said it, but has yet to repeat that! Of course!
- “Crawk Crawk” for “Rock Rock” when she’s rocking in a chair.
She is still signing (and NOT saying) “please”, “dog”, “more”, “milk”, “eat”. She also waves hello and goodbye like a champ but still won’t say “bye bye”. She gives great high fives!

She’s pretty funny to watch these days as she burns up all that energy that she has...
- If she hears music that ‘strikes her’ – it’s hard to say what it is that gets her going exactly – she begins dancing… standing, in her highchair, in her car seat. It’s adorable and her smile while she does it is contagious.
- She also does this ‘fast dance’ jig kind of thing right now where she runs in place basically. It makes me want to sing “She’s a maniac, maniac,…”
- There is lots of climbing, a lot of it to get into chairs (big chairs, little chairs, etc.)
- She tries to get things into the chair with her (books, dolls, larger toys) which makes the climb up interesting.
- Loves rocking chairs and regularly sits in chairs that don’t rock and tries to.
- Can make laps for hours around our living room and through the kitchen pushing any number of her toys that she loves to push – cars, strollers…. things without wheels like her rocking chair!
- Also loves to carry things much larger than her and will scream in frustration if she can’t get it to where she wants.
- If she gives you a hug (just to love on you) or if you’re comforting her she will ‘pat’ your shoulder – this is one of my favorite things she does!
- Bangs on the fridge and signs for either “eat” or “milk”
- Loves wrestling with daddy. Running into him and laughing and falling over.
- And she loves ‘horse’ rides on our legs or belly. If you lay on the floor, she WILL come over and sit on your stomach and bounce until you give her a ride.

(Below: Lillian dancing to One Direction... and then bonking her head.)


(Below: After a quick recovery from above head-bonk, we are back at it.)


In other news, Lillian is a champion night sleeper, sleeping through earaches, molars, eye teeth and more like a champion.  She typically sleeps from 8:15 or 8:30pm to 7 or 7:30am.  During the day however, this month has seen a great departure from sleep with naps being few and short. I believe we’re in process of dropping our morning nap but as I write this Lillian is hardly getting 1 to 1 ½ hours of sleep during the day, which makes our wakeful time challenging some days.

She has all of her teeth except for her eye teeth, but the bottom two should break through any day now. Her hair is longer in the back with little curls the way Michael’s was when he was little and by far, she still looks the most like her daddy.  At her 15 month appointment she was 31" tall and 24 1/4 lbs. On a side note, she LOVED the nurse at her appointment... so much that she cried when she started to walk away AFTER she'd just given Lillian her shots! Nurse Susie said "Now THIS never happens!"

She still loves baths and walks, but likes her car seat a little less. She’s still a pretty great eater but particularly loves raisins, Cuties, black beans, avocado, eggs, pancakes, peanut butter, apples, pears and asparagus. She likes chicken, salmon and other fish but is sometimes funny about beef.  Other than that, there is very little she won’t eat although like any kid she has her picky meals.

Her comprehension is tremendous so we’re both really looking forward to her vocabulary catching up, but we are still enjoying how interactive and funny she is at this age – her little personality is just shining through more and more!

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!