September/October

So one thing I have definitely learned about having a toddler is that it is absolutely exhausting and that you hardly have any time to yourself; hence why I have not been able to blog in a long time.  

The unfortunate part of this is that Lilly is doing SO much right now and I haven't blogged about it...grrrrr!

So here is an update on what Lilly's been doing (as much as I can remember).  

You'll also notice that there are a lot more videos and fewer pictures.  I learned that photos are pretty hard to capture when your baby never stops moving!  This blog only supports videos that are about 30 seconds long, so I can't upload many of the videos we have, but I uploaded what I could!

Lilly is great at giving hugs!  She runs up to us and puts her little arms around us and squeezes.  I just love it!  She gives kisses too.  She leans her little baby head in and usually makes an "mmmm" sounds like she is trying to say "mwah!"  Nothing melts my heart more than a huge and kiss from my beautiful baby girl!

We are working on using our fork and spoon on our own.  Darren really hates Lilly getting messy, so he is not as big a fan of this part as I am.  I think it's adorable!

Lilly imitates EVERYTHING we do now!  It's amazing!  She is like a little sponge absorbing every word and movement.  One of the funniest things we have noticed is that she learned to shake her head no!  So we would ask her, Lilly are you ready for bed? and she would shake her head at us!  So cute!

She also started to blink on command, which doesn't sound that impressive, but it is so cute!  We would look at her and blink and then she would do it back.

When we read books, we will point to things and say the word and quite often she makes a sound that is very close to the word.  She says quite a few words now, but mostly it's just her own language.  I love that she is working hard at repeating the words though; she seems like she really enjoys learning already!

As you can see from the picture below, Lilly also likes to imitate us in other more useful skills like brushing her teeth.

Lilly loves the stairs.  I think it's partially because it is gated off and she doesn't have free access to the stairs ;o)

Lilly is great out in public!

Lilly has really enjoyed her swing set.  Her swing makes her sleepy sometimes.  She loves climbing all over the jungle gym part and she especially LOVES the slide!!!

Playing out in the sunshine is so much fun!  Lilly loves splashing in her water table!  She is so expressive and it seems like she is making up entire stories as she plays.  I love seeing her imagination at work!

Lilly is also a real comedian (gee, I wonder where she got that?)  She loves to put on a show and to get Darren and I laughing.  When she put these sunglasses on, we were cracking up so she started making funny faces like pushing her lips out and then pushing her walker around.  It was hilarious!

Sometimes it's more fun to not wear clothes ;o)

We like going out and about with Lilly.  We went to Bass Lake for their Friday night fun with Trish Miller.  Lilly loved dancing around the deck, seeing the other kids, and listening to the music.  She is definitely a social butterfly.

We have started a new Saturday morning ritual of going to garage sales.  Since Lilly is up at 6:30 every day, we figured, what else is there to do that early on the weekend?  I love saving money and I love getting things for Lilly, so garage sales are perfect!  We have found some amazing things including some cute boots for Lilly and one of her new favorite things: her ride on car.

Lilly has earned the nickname "danger girl" because she is a little daredevil.  She loves to climb on things, jump off of things and go really fast!

Lilly and I went to Pullen Park for the first time with the Smiths.  Lilly loves climbing around the toddler playground, and I loved that I wasn't worried she would scrape her knees since the ground was cushy.

Lilly enjoyed riding the train with Drew, but she was not a fan of the boat ride or the Carousel.  I think she needs to be a little older for those.

I think Lilly's favorite part was running around the open field and seeing all the other kids and dogs.  There was a 3-legged black lab walking around and Lilly wanted to go see it.  When the owner said it was ok, I let Lilly pet the dog, who lay down so she could reach.  Lilly leaned down and hugged the dog and the owner said that was the cutest thing he has ever seen.  That's my girl!

Lilly still loves bath time, though lately we are battling the fact that she wants to stand up all the time!

We go for a ride on her car at least once a day.  Lilly loves this thing!

Lilly's hair is crazy right now.  It's at that weird in between stage where it's not really long enough and it's not short, so it's very tricky to "style".  Lilly will rarely let me put it in pigtails, so most days we just let it do whatever it's going to do.  Some mornings are worse than others...like this one!

While riding in her car one day (surprise surprise), Lilly reached out and grabbed Maggie's leash.  She didn't pull it or swing it around, she just held it nicely and helped me to walk Maggie.  I was impressed that Maggie didn't mind at all and walked calmly the entire way.  These two love each other!

Lilly LOVES babies!  As soon as we got these two babies, Lilly needed to have them with her EVERYWHERE.  She carries them, feeds them, hugs and kisses them, and even tries to take them for walks in her walker.  I LOVE it!

Lilly loves going to the dog park with Maggie and seeing all of the other dogs.  She howls with laughter as the dogs run by and has met a lot of really sweet dogs the past few weeks.

We met baby Kristin the day after she was born.  I was nervous that Lilly might be too rough since she has never been around a baby that young before, but she did really well.

Lilly was very interested in Darren's beard!  She continued to rub it and look at him as though she didn't understand what was on his face. She definitely loves her Daddy!

Lilly loves the stairs.  She is constantly trying to go up!

I guess climbing the stairs is hard work because she stopped on the landing and had a snack ;o)

Lilly is very interested in shoes.  She points to them and wants us to put them on.  This day she picked up two and insisted that I put them on...too bad they were two different shoes!

Lilly still loves Elmo.  She enjoys giving him hugs and kisses and the books that she reads over and over (and over and over!) again are all her Elmo books.  Lilly is a total book worm right now.  When we go to get her in the morning, she points to her books and wants to read before she even gets out of her crib.  When we're playing, she will grab a book and come over and sit in our lap and get ready to read.  I love this so much!

Giving Elmo kisses!

Lilly really enjoys her slide!

Lilly went through a few days where she was obsessed with toothbrushes.  She wanted hers, ours, the play ones we have...anything.  I guess I should be glad she is excited about dental hygiene!

I love this picture!  My family is running through the lawn together!

This is a funny story!  We were shopping and while we were waiting for Darren to check out, I was walking Lilly around and there was a display of baby stuff, including soft baby dolls.  Lilly pointed to the dolls, so I let her see one.  Then she pointed again.  So I gave her another one.  This went on until Lilly was snuggling with five babies!  She was holding all of them tight to make sure they didn't slip away. When it was time to go, I told her to say goodbye so she leaned in and "kissed" the babies and let me put them away.  It was SO cute!

One day after a long run at the dog park, Maggie was completely exhausted and cooling off on the floor.  Lilly walked up to her and gave her a hug like she often does.  Then she actually climbed on top of Maggie.  I stood close to make sure they didn't hurt each other, but Lilly just leaned down and was hugging Maggie and Maggie didn't seem to mind.  It was adorable!

We went to Dog Days in the park in Holly Springs and Lilly was in heaven!  She was so excited to see all of the "aggies".  We came across a Bermese Mountain Dog puppy named Summit whose owners had him incredibly trained for 12 weeks old.  Lilly LOVED him!  She was petting him and hugging him and everyone around us was saying how cute she was (and how cute the puppy was!).  A photographer from Cary Magazine snapped this picture and it was on their website.  He was kind enough to give us the rights to the picture, too!  

We bought Lilly a baby doll stroller because she has been such a good "mommy" lately.  She loves pushing her babies around in her stroller and making sure they are ok.  This video captures 30 seconds of some of my favorite moments with Lilly the past few weeks.

It wouldn't be fall without visiting a pumpkin farm and taking picture!  Lilly is not great at sitting an posing for pictures anymore because she is always on the move, but we managed to snap a few cute ones.

We had an amazing time at the zoo with the Robinsons.  It is amazing the difference a year can make in how we experience the zoo.  Last year Lilly and Emma were not mobile and though I think they enjoyed it, they had a BLAST this time!  I loved watching all three girls experience the zoo and how amazed they were to see the animals.  I think Lilly liked the giraffes the best, but I might be biased because they are one of my favorites ;o)

Lilly and Emma were born less than 2 weeks apart, so seeing them together is always so much fun!

We were trying to get the girls to hug and Emma was brave and came to give Lilly a hug.  She did the typical baby hug and leaned her head in.  Lilly was smiling, so she clearly liked her hug!

Lilly loved pointing at the animals and "talking" to them.  I know she is trying so hard to tell us everything she is thinking, but she just can't yet.  She understands so much, but she just can't tell us what she wants.  One word she can say perfectly and she uses to her heart's content is "up."  This is a blessing and a curse!  I think she says up at least 100 times a day!  We pick her up to reinforce the word, but then she almost always wants to get to something she can't have or she wants to just get back down!  It's like she is just testing us to see if we'll do what she says, the little stinker!

Lilly's hug looks more like a choke hold (according to Darren), but it's the thought that counts!

I LOVE this picture!  It seems like Lilly is trying to warn me of a rogue animal approaching behind me, but she was actually just pointing because she wanted me to hold her.  ;o)

I love this picture because I think it is a snapshot of Lilly's personality right now.  She is a very happy girl (most of the time!), but she has a trickster side to her and a little gleam in her eye that makes her so funny and full of life.  I love this little girl more than I ever thought possible.

THIS is the kind of thing I want to see Lilly imitating!  How old does she have to be before she can start vacuuming?  ;o)

Another thing that Lilly learned is "Shhhh!"  She puts her little finger up to her lips and says, "Shhh!" perfectly.  I love it!

I will admit that this "stage" in Lilly's life has been the toughest for us thus far.  I wouldn't change anything for the world and being a mom is the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life, but it is exhausting!  She desperately wants to tell us things, but she can't communicate fully; she has so much energy and wants to play all the time, but Darren and I are working full time (plus we are both involved in shows at the theater) so we're tired and it's hard to keep our energy up.  She makes me laugh so hard and the joy I feel when I am with her is unlike anything else I have ever felt...but it's also a challenge.  It's a good thing that I LOVE a challenge!