Lilly Rae - Week 49

Sunday, May 19

How cute is our Lilly???  She is so beautiful!  

 

 Can you believe the difference here?  I tried to find pictures where she has a similar expressions.  Beautiful at 9 weeks and beautiful at 49 weeks.  This little angel amazes me every day.

 Lilly still loves playing with a water bottle.  It's so funny how she can entertain herself with this.  She loves the crinkly sound it makes and she loves chewing on it.

 Look at her face!  She poofs out her lips and then she breathes through her nose really heavy and makes a loud breathing sound.  She and Maggie then both crawled (walked) over to the window and stared at the birds together.  It was really cute.

I finally gave in and put Lilly in big girl pajamas (no feet!).  Darren was at a meeting, so I sent him the picture.  This is Lilly brushing her teeth with one of those small, rubber, fingertip brushes.  I used to do this for her, but she likes to do it herself now...sort of.  She isn't great at the brushing part, but she chews on it, so I figured that's good enough for now.   

Maggie decided that while I was giving Lilly a bath that she couldn't wait to go outside and she peed on the landing of the stairs...awesome!  So I grabbed the Spot Shot and tried to clean it up while watching Lilly play on the floor.  Apparently Lilly decided that cleaning the pee was more interesting than her toys because she started climbing the stairs to get to me!  So then I was standing behind her so she could climb and I didn't have a heart attack, and leaning over her to clean the pee before she got to that area.  As she got close, I would put her back to the bottom of the stairs and then let her climb back.  We did that for about five minutes (it was a lot of pee!)  I guess it's time to put the gates up on the stairs!

Monday, May 20

Lilly had a great time eating dinner tonight.  We gave her some frozen peas and corn, and then a piece of pizza crust.  Normally she doesn't eat pizza crust, so I wasn't too hopeful, but she loved it today!  It was great!  She gnawed on the crust and even ate some peas.  She was so smiley and she was laughing and really enjoying herself.  It made dinner fun for all of us.  

I had suction cupped this bowl to the tray and put her peas in it, but somehow she manages to get the bowl up (which is weird because i tested it when I stuck it and I couldn't get it off!)  She tried to get a pea out of it with her fingers at first, but then gave up and just did things the easy way.

 We have closed off the living room as Lilly's play area.  We used her toy box on one side of the couch and an ottoman that we borrwed from Chad and Michelle on the other side.  Lilly has discovered that she can almost fit between the ottoman and the couch...

 ...but not quite!  Our little escape artist is trying to get away from a room full of toys to go explore the rest of the house.  Silly girl!

I am still nervous about Lilly being in the big bath tub so she is still in her baby tub.  She still loves bath time though, so I think it's ok!

Tuesday, May 21

Kristi has done a great job of introducing finger foods to Lilly.  Today she gave her a large piece of cold banana.  Lilly loved it!  She sent us these pictures and Darren was really nervous that she had such a big piece, but I was so happy!  I really want to get away from the pureed food and not have to deal with it at all, so this is a great step!

We are so lucky that Maggie is an amazing dog and Lilly loves her so much (her first word was Maggie after all!).   This picture is a little dark, but it's one of my favorites from this week.  I didn't stage this at all.  Lilly crawled right up to Maggie and started patting her legs and then as she put her hand out to pet her, Maggie gave Lilly her paw and Lilly took it.  I really wish the picture came out better because it was so adorable!

If Lilly is ever upset about something or extra fussy, the best way to get her to smile and laugh is to call Maggie over.  Not Mommy, not Daddy...Maggie!  I should be jealous.  Ok, I AM a little jealous, but I also love it.

Wednesday, May 22

Here are a few more Maggie and Lilly moments.  Clearly Maggie is not too upset that Lilly is grabbing her tail.  Don't worry animal lovers, she is not pulling it or anything; Lilly is actually very gentle with Maggie.  I think since we allowed Maggie and Lilly to interact pretty much from the day we brought Lilly home that they are used to each other now and have learned a lot about how to interact.  Maggie has a great instinct for where Lilly is and does a great job of avoiding stepping on her, bumping into her or knocking her down.  Once in a while she slips up if she gets really excited, but nothing big :-)

I was lucky enough to spend the day with Lilly today because Kristi needed a day off.  It was SO nice to have this extra time to spend with my little angel.  I wish I got an extra day every week to spend with my baby girl.

Lilly was trying to escape again, so I decided to get on the other side and snap some pictures.

 These turned out to be some of my new favorite pictures of Lilly.  Why was she smiling so big?  Perhaps because she was looking at Mommy?  Nope!  She was watching Maggie!

If you need further proof how much Lilly loves Maggie, listen to her laugh as I call Maggie over and she runs up to Lilly and then runs away a few times.  If you ever need a pick me up, just watch this video.  Lilly's laugh is so contagious!  I have watched this over and over and I can't stop smiling each time!

Thursday, May 23

When we picked Lilly up today, Kristi was so excited because Lilly had a new trick. Lilly can gesture "Shhhh" and put her little finger up to her lips.  It's so cute because when she does it, she sometimes even makes a noise sort of like Shhh.  Darren and I were so excited to see her do this!  It's amazing how excited we are when she does these tiny new "tricks."  It doesn't seem like much, but it's amazing to see her learning new skills.  This is one of the ten thousand things I love about being a mom!

We had an afternoon/evening out today.  I went to get a massage in Cary and while I was relaxing, Darren and Lilly did some shopping.  Then we all went out to dinner at Wild Wing Cafe.  Lilly was awesome and enjoyed some Cheerios and a french fry while Mommy and Daddy had dinner and played a music trivia game.  This was a great restaurant to go to, especially with a baby.  It was loud enough that Lilly's noise didn't make any difference, there was a lot for Lilly to look at and distract herself with, the staff was incredible and they had a menu with something for everyone.  We definitely want to go back.  

Friday, May 24

Lilly does some of the funniest things lately.  We are working with her on a few small things like finding small things that we put under boxes or buckets, putting small objects into larger objects, playing peek-a-boo, and following commands.  Lilly is really good at putting some of her small toys into her little back pack and learning how to put her nesting toys together correctly.  I love seeing her learn!

 Lilly loves her lovey blanket so much!  She will bury her face in it and make an "awww" sound because we always say "awwww" when she does this.  You never think about the things like that you do until your baby starts imitating it and then you realize: Oh!  I do say "awwww" every time she snuggles her blankey, don't I?

When she got up, her lovey was in her mouth!  How funny is she??

Lilly started putting her tiny little foot into one of her nesting blocks and then picking it up with her foot.  Talk about creative!

 We don't really let Lilly watch TV at home.  Sometimes we'll have something on in the background, but rarely.  It's funny that she is so interested in the remote!  It's like she's trying to get the TV to work.  She even points it at the TV and presses the buttons!

 Changing Lilly's diaper has become a big challenge.  She really wants to play and be on the move, so laying still for even 30 seconds is too much to ask.  She literally starts crawling away!  I don't want to hold her down because I don't want her to hate diaper changes, but the alternative is not appealing either.  I couldn't help grabbing the camera today to snap a picture of Lilly crawling away while I tried to hold on to her and get her to come back to put a diaper on.  I will save this picture for future boyfriends to see ;-)

Saturday, May 25

We had such a great day today!!!  First Kalan and her beautiful children Camille, Leila, and Gentry (sorry if I spelled their names wrong!) came over for a play date.  We have seen Kalan a few times since Lilly was born (Kalan was with us as our doula when Lilly was born), but we have been meaning to have a real play date for a long time!  Gentry and Lilly played together pretty well (though Lilly was kind of grabby with the toys at times) and Kalan's beautiful daughters entertained the little ones and made them smile so I could take some pictures.  How cute are these two babies??????  

 That night Jared, Carissa, Addie and Drew came over for dinner.  It was so nice to hang out with them.  I am always impressed by how great Addie and Drew are with Lilly.  They are so great at being gentle and understanding that she doesn't know how to share yet.  Addie even let Lilly play with her lap top toy.  Lilly was very interested in being like the big kids, so she sat on the couch with them at one point and watched some of Monsters, Inc.

 Lilly wanted get a closer look at Addie, so she decided to crawl on over!

 Addie was a good sport while Lilly climbed into her lap.

 All the kids enjoyed playing in the ball pit.  The big kids did a great job of including Lilly and being careful of her when she was in the ball pit with them.

 I absolutely love this picture!  You can really tell how excited both kids are to be playing together!