Lilly Rae - Week 31

Sunday, January 13

I am not used to saying that my baby girl is 7 months old.  I had a hard time getting used to saying she was 6 months old!  Where is the time going?  Every day is like a new adventure with Lilly and it has been amazing seeing the world through her eyes and experiencing things for the firs time with her.  Today we were lucky to have a 70 degree day so we could go out in tshirts and needed our sunglasses!  Lilly absolutely loves taking walks and we love showing her off around the neighborhood ;o)

Monday, January 14

Darren played golf this morning, so Lilly and I had some mommy/daughter time.  Lilly helped me cook breakfast and seemed to really enjoy sitting up high so she was almost eye level with me.  Relax people, I was right there with her while she was on the countertop and she is not strong enough to tip the Bumbo.  (those of you who don't know, this Bumbo seat that she is sitting in was recalled because some parents were leaving their kids in the seat on a raised surface by themselves...not smart).  Anyway...these are some of my new favorite pictures of Lilly.  We are so lucky to have such a happy baby.  I told Darren that if I used up all of my luck to get Lilly, I am ok with that (even if we never win the actual lottery).  

I had to take a picture of this because this never happens!  Lilly falls asleep on me all the time, but it's always when she is nursing.  She has never sat with me in my lap and just fallen asleep until today!  She would do this with Darren a lot, but never me.  It was so sweet!  She looks so adorable when she is sleeping.  My little angel!

Tuesday, January 15

Darren and I were not looking forward to the end of track out and neither was Lilly.  Look at that face!

Wednesday, January 16

Today was hard for me because I had to drop Lilly off at Kristi's for the first time in 5 weeks.  I know she loves going there and we are SO lucky to have such an amazing daycare situation, but I miss my baby girl so much!

It's great that Kristi's daughters love Lilly and play with her when they get home from school.  I was very excited to see this picture of Mia reading books with Lilly :-)

Thursday, January 17

Today was a big day!  Lilly cut her first tooth (bottom right)!  When I got her home from Kristi's she was in a great mood, but she was chewing everything very vigorously and she was drooling like crazy!  I let her bite my finger at one point and I felt her tooth!  I was so excited I actually teared up.  I can't believe my baby girl is getting her teeth.  I took some pictures of her with her crazy drooly face and I actually caught her with a big bubble on her lip!

  Kristi caught Lilly "kissing" herself in her mirror.  She loves to do this :o)

 Pretty soon that smile will be filled with little white chompers!

 Here is the bubble picture.

 I don't know what she was saying in this picture, but she sure told me!

 One of my new favorite pictures of my beautiful baby girl!  Look at that little tongue!

I had to post this because I think it is hilarious.  I like cover Lilly with a blanket when she is nursing for warmth, but I normally would only put the blanket on her up to her neck (like you normally would).  Well she will reach her arms around (blindly mind you because she is still nursing) and feel around until she can grab something (i.e. a necklace, my hair...whatever she can).  Recently she has started grabbing the blanket and not just holding it in her hands, but yanking it over her head!  She loves it!  Maybe it reminds her of the womb or something. 

Friday, January 18

We had a 2 hour delay for our workday today, which was great because it gave me extra time in the morning to be with Lilly before going in to work.  She loves my phone, so I have learned to turn the camera so I can snap some cute pictures of her gawking at the phone. She also tries to grab it, as you can tell!

Lilly had a good time at home with Daddy before meeting me and my teammates out for lunch.

Saturday, January 19

We are devising ways to try to coax Lilly into crawling (hehe) like putting her toys in front of her and trying to get her to crawl to them.  She tries SO hard to move, but she just can't coordinate her arms and legs yet.  She can spin in a circle and actually move herself backwards, but not forwards yet.  I know she will get there soon, I am just being impatient :o)

Lilly got all dressed up to go to a party at one of Darren's fraternity's brother's house.  We have so many cute outfits for her that we rarely put her in since we mostly just hang out at home, so it was nice to have an excuse to dress her up.  I forgot that I bought a few new headbands for her that are nice and soft so she hardly notices they are on.

Everyone loved Lilly at the party.  She was SUCH a good baby!  Darren and I said on the way home how amazing she was.  She hardly made a sound the entire time and she just hung out with us while we socialized, and then played with us on her blanket.  I feel so lucky to have such an amazing, beautiful, sweet and happy daughter.

 All dressed up and ready to go!

Playing with mommy's phone.

Lilly Rae - Week 30

Sunday, January 6

One of my new favorite things that Lilly does is “hug” me when I am holding her.  She puts her little head on my shoulder, wraps her chubby little arms around me and starts squeezing me with her sweet baby fingers and I just melt. 

We played a cute game this morning where I would give her a big kiss on her hand and say “mwah!” really loud when I pulled my hand away.  She was giggling every time and then she would put her hand back up to my face asking me to do it again.  It’s amazing how she is learning to communicate and how she is learning how to “play” more.   

Lilly is 30 weeks old!

And she is still completely fascinated by the sign!

Lilly loves being upside down now.  I think part of it is just that she is so excited that she can move all over the place, she wants to just explore every different way to move and see things.  Below is a video of her being "upsidedown baby" on her Boppy pillow.

We were trying to coax Lilly into crawling to the iPad, but it kind of backfired as she became mesmerized by the characters on the screen.  She is so close though!  You can see it in the video below.

Monday, January 7

We had a play date with Emma Lane tonight!  It was beyond cute to see the girls playing together on the floor because they both have so much more control of their bodies now, Emma especially.  Emma was crawling around and exploring while Lilly tried to explore Emma’s face with her hands!  They are about the same size and age, so hopefully Lilly was a little inspired seeing Emma crawl around so easily. 

We went to dinner at Michelangelos and it was great to sit and catch up with Matt and Jess.  It’s crazy how quickly the time goes and how long it can be between our visits.  Both babies were extremely well behaved in the restaurant, which made for a nice meal for everyone. 

Lilly and Emma enjoyed playing together and enjoyed playing with the puppy dog toys.

Tuesday, January 8

Lilly did the cutest thing this morning.  She was sitting with me and Darren was sitting on the couch next to us.  She was looked away from him and when I said, “Where’s Dada?”  she turned and looked right at him!  She did it twice in a row, so it still might be coincidence, but it was adorable! 

Lilly had a great morning with Daddy while I went to redeem a very thoughtful Christmas present (mani/pedi at the local salon).  Then the three of us went to get lunch at Joyce and Family Restaurant.  This was on my trackout “bucket list” of things to do because this place is less than a mile from our house and we had never eaten there.  I was a little nervous to go out because last week we didn’t have a very good lunch out with Lilly being so fussy, but she was a perfect angel this time.  She sat in her seat and entertained herself while we ate.  The server commented on how small and adorable she is and that his 3 month old baby was bigger than her.  She seems so big to me compared to my little peanut that used to curl up on my chest!

Wednesday, January 9

After a nice morning nap, we went out for a walk.  Track out is great and I love being home with Lilly, but it is absolutely necessary to get out of the house at least once a day because one can go a bit stir crazy otherwise.  Luckily the weather was fairly nice, so a walk seemed like the perfect thing for today.

Lilly is really goo at sitting up on her own now, though she does tip over and not catch herself!  She just rolls onto her belly or back as if nothing happened.  It'd kind of funny how babies do not have that reflex or instinct, but they are so close to the ground, I guess it doesn't matter that much :-)

Thursday, January 10

We went to the new Bagels Plus today because they were giving away free samples to kick off their Grand Opening.  Lilly was in a very good mood and sang the entire way there and then during our entire visit.  I have several minutes of video, but below is a great clip.  I know it's all nonsense, but I could listen to Lilly sing all day, every day and never get tired of it.  She is so vocal!  She even sings herself to sleep.  

Sleepy baby taking a nap on Daddy.

It was another nice day so we took a walk in our carrier.  I love her penguin hoodie.  She looked so cute!

Friday, January 11

We went out to lunch at On the Border today and then went to Trader Joe's.  Lilly was the perfect baby all day and just hung out with us and enjoying walking around.  We are so lucky that she is so relaxed in public (knock on wood).  I can be a very high stress person (I know, you're shocked!) so if I had a high stress baby, I would be in trouble.  Lilly was obviously made just for us because she is perfect for us and every day is a true gift because I have Lilly in my life.

Saturday, January 12

Lilly had one of her best days over track out today. She was so relaxed and just hung out with us and enjoyed one of our last days of vacation.  It was beautiful outside so we took a walk around the neighborhood, but it was also a great day for basketball, so we watched a few games. 

I think what I am going to miss the most is the mornings with Lilly.  She just sings her Lilly songs, snuggles up with me and relaxes with us.  She may get up early (i.e. 6:30 a.m.) even over vacations, but I look forward to waking up and seeing her smiling face, even when the sun hasn’t come up yet.  I hope I can convince myself to get up earlier in the mornings before work so I can have some extra Lilly time.  I know this thought will be hard to hold onto when the 5:30 alarm goes off, but I am hopeful J  

Lilly has always loved mirrors, but now she has a big soft one that she can play with herself.  She talks to herself, bangs on her reflection and even "kisses" the baby in the mirror while playing (as you can see below). 

 She also likes to grab at her toys in her toy baskets under the coffee table and grab at the basket, so we decided to let her sit in the basket with her toys so she could get to all of them at once.

 It was 75 degrees today (yes, really), so we went outside to enjoy the sunshine.