November 2014

I wish I had a reality show so that someone could follow me around with a camera and capture all of the amazing moments with Lilly.  Unfortunately (fortunately??) we don't have a camera crew, so we have to settle for trying hard to remember all of the funny things she says (which I likely only remember about 5% of) and snap pictures as quickly as possible.  

I am not sure what it is lately, but we are having so much FUN with Lilly!  I guess as she gets older and her unique personality starts to shine through and she is learning so much every day.  Don't get me wrong, parenting is still the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life.  There are tears (not just Lilly's!), bursts of frustration and anger and days when I feel like I will scream if I have to say, "sit on your bottom" or "use nice words" again!  But...

I never feel more blessed, loved and thankful than when I am with my baby girl.  She amazes me.  

The month started with a birthday party for Allie!  We went to Monkey Joe's in Raleigh to celebrate.  We ended up being late because Lilly took a marathon nap, but we arrived in time to sing Happy Birthday!  Lilly was scared of the Monkey Joe character when he came into the birthday room, but she didn't cry.  A 7 foot tall purple monkey would intimidate me too if I were Lilly's size!

Lilly had a blast jumping with Zoey and Addy on the little kid bounce, but the rest of Monkey Joe's was a little too rough for her.  Jason took the girls down one of the bigger slides, but other than that, we stuck with the toddler spot :-)  

We are so fortunate to have amazing friends in the neighborhood, especially with kids Lilly's age.  Darren took Lilly over to the Stott's house one night while I was at the theater and he sent me this picture of the girls all engrossed in a show after dinner.

Lilly loves Maggie Moo.  Sometimes she gets annoyed with Maggie if Maggie gives her kisses or bumps into her.  But when they play together, the giggles are infectious.

I was feeling pretty sick at the start of the month.  Lilly was watching me get some medicine from the medicine cabinet and I told her that I wasn't feeling well.  She grabbed my leg, squeezed it and said. "Hug!"  I actually teared up I was so touched!

Lilly has started to cover her mouth when she laughs sometimes and it's so cute!  I am not sure exactly what was making her laugh here (probably Darren??) but I am so glad we captured this new adorable mannerism.  

Another dinner at the Stott's!  They did such a good job of keeping Darren and Lilly company (and fed!) while I had my show at the theater.  It is hard for me to be away from Lilly and Darren for a whole week as we prepare for the show, but I also love that she gets some special Daddy time :-)

Lilly is definitely my daughter.  She is stubborn, wears her emotions on her sleeve, stubborn, imaginative, stubborn, funny...did I mention stubborn?  ;-)  She is also a singer and a reader.  This little girl will be surrounded by toys, electronics, dress up clothes...etc and she will sit down with a book.  I have always loved this about her and I will continue to foster her love of reading in every way.  I was talking with Michelle about this recently because Allie is such an avid reader and we were already getting excited about when we can read Harry Potter with our kids :-)  Obviously I have a lot longer to wait than Michelle does, but being readers ourselves, it's exciting for us to see that love being passed down to our girls.

Lilly went through a short phase of wanting to wear nothing but dresses on the weekends.  We would wear them to church on Sunday anyway, but then she would ask to keep her dress on and be dressed up all day.  We like to let Lilly make some of her own choices, especially something as simple as what she wears, so why not?  :-) 

Seeing her sitting in the dirt in her pretty dress and tights didn't even bother me!  You're only a kid once!  When else can you sit and dig in the dirt???

Cutie pie all bundled up to go and play outside!

Surprise, surprise, Lilly is sitting with a book again :-)  Her hair...well, that's another story!

Lilly was very excited to celebrate Zoey's birthday!  She always tells us that Zoey is her best friend, which is too cute for words.  She loves all of her friends, but since they are so close in age and have so many of the same interests, these two gravitate toward each other!  Their eyes light up when they see each other, then they run and give each other a big hug.  I missed the beginning of Zoey's party because I had a show that day, but I made it in time to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl!

We had a rough week before Thanksgiving.  Lilly had a 103 fever on Sunday (which is the highest fever she has ever had).  She was in an overall good mood, but had no energy and just wanted to cuddle.  We gave her one dose of fever reducer, but during her nap I did a lot of research on fevers (which may sound weird, but we have not dealt with this before so I wasn't exactly sure what to do).  What I read confirmed the instinct I felt which was to not medicate.  As long as her fever stayed where it was or below and if she wasn't in pain, we should refrain from Motrin or Tylenol.  So we just rode it out that day.  She had a low 100-101 fever for most of the day, so we knew we couldn't send her to school the next day.  

Darren stayed home with Lilly on Monday while I went to a training.  He said she was a little out of sorts, but that she hadn't had a fever.  So we decided to send her to school the next day. 

I had a weird feeling all morning.  I talked to my teammates about it and told them that I had a gut feeling that I would need to leave early.  I started planning in my head who could cover my classes and how to adjust my lesson for coverage.  Around 12, I stopped worrying and figured I was just being paranoid.  I went to my PLT meeting and at 1:45 another teacher came into my meeting and said, "Your baby is sick," so I left without a second thought and got right in the car.  Lilly's teacher said she had a low fever 100.5 and that she was tugging on her ear.  I brought Lilly to the doctor, but there was no ear infection.  We spent another afternoon cuddling and watching Frozen, and I stayed home with her the next day.     

Lilly was using her blanket as an Elsa cape as we tried to reenact Let It Go.

During out day at home, Lilly asked me to do her hair.  She then proceeded to hand me about 10 bows.  I managed to get them all in her hair!  Anything for a sick little girl!

I was trying to find different things to do that might distract her from the way she was feeling, so we painted.  We used Qtips like we had done at Marbles before.  

Lilly was having a rough time the next day.  She was lethargic, cranky, and just out of sorts.  I had never seen her like that, and I was worried.  I brought her back to the doctor and she had an ear infection.  She did an amazing job at the doctor, by the way.  She was calm, polite and very patient.  I was so proud of her!

A lot of rest and some antibiotics helped our baby girl bounce right back!

Lilly loves playing dress up, and she used to love when I painted her toes.  We hadn't done it in a while, but she saw my toes and asked if I would paint hers.  So we sat on the bathroom floor and I painted her toes.  When she asked if she could have a turn, how could I say no??  First, it was just too cute that she wanted to paint my nails, and second, it would get her to sit still for a few minutes while her nails dried ;-)  We don't have a picture to capture the moment, but Darren got in on the fun as well!  Hehehe...

This.  This is my joy.  I love this girl.  Sometimes when I have her in my arms, I have to consciously restrain myself from squeezing her too hard because all of that love just swells up and spills out through my arms!  When I hold her, we love to squish our cheeks together.  When she wraps her little arms around me and squeezes, I swear it is the best feeling in the entire world.  Each squeeze is like a little burst of strength for me to help me forget any frustrations and it's a physical reminder of how much we need each other.    

Happy Thanksgiving!  We hosted our first ever Thanksgiving, which we dubbed "Friendsgiving" since we celebrated with the Stotts.  I was very excited to cook my first ever turkey!  Of course I needed to do a lot of research and learn about the proper way to do it ;-)  I think it turned out great!  It was so fun to hang out with the Stotts for the holidays and the kids had a great time playing together!

I cannot even count how many pictures we have of Lilly sleeping when she was a baby (I guess you have a lot of those when your baby sleep 18-20 hours a day - not that I am complaining!!!)   What a huge change to see her sleeping in her crib at 2 and a half.  I can't believe how TALL she looks in this crib now!

Lilly was learning her full name at school, so we asked her to tell us her full name at home.  She said, "Lilly SEE-gool".  Darren and I looked at each other.  We are used to people mispronouncing our name, but we definitely did not want Lilly to be one of them!   We both gently corrected her and told her that her name was "Lilly se-GOOL" but she was VERY adamant that she was right and we were wrong.  It was hard not to laugh as we argued with a 2 year old, but eventually, we convinced her how to say it!  (see below).  It also made me realize that I wanted to make sure she knows our names as well.  Her and I started talking about Mommy and Daddy's names.  It hit me that if she is ever lost or separated from us, I want her to be able to tell someone our actual names, not just Mommy and Daddy.  

More to come!