Sunday, December 23
I used to think it was weird when people would say they watched their baby/child sleep, but I understand it completely. My heart fills up every time I see my sweet angel sleeping and I am almost brought to tears at how beautiful she is. I know it sounds weird, but it still blows my mind that she is mine and this perfect, beautiful angel is my daughter.
We had a very eventful day today. Lilly had to take a mid afternoon bath after a "poop incident" but I didn't mind one bit because bath time is always fun with Lilly. She looked so cute wrapped up in her towel holding her rubber ducky that I had to come down and get Darren to take a picture.
While hanging around on the couch, Darren was playing with Lilly and since Lilly loves Maggie so much, he wanted to let Lilly lay on her. We weren't sure how Maggie would react, so Darren stayed close and was very careful, but Maggie did not seem phased at all. Lilly was in heaven!
Lilly is sitting up on her own for short bursts, but we still used the Boppy to help her. Plus, the Boppy is a great way to show how much she has grown.
Maggie is trying to help Lilly learn how to crawl. She's the only one who gets around on all fours, so it's worth a shot!
That night we went to Chad and Michelle's for dinner and to watch Pitch Perfect. Lilly was too excited to see everyone to go to sleep and apparently she really wanted to see the movie, because she stayed up until the last 20 minutes or so. More time with my baby! :-)
Monday, December 24
Lilly sleeping in her Daddy's arms = priceless. I almost ruined it with the flash of the camera (you can see her face scrunched up here)...
Luckily, she didn't seem to mind too much. I think she's completely relaxed and sleepy here!
Carissa, Jared, Addie and Drew came over for Christmas Eve. We have a tradition of having pizza (and wings) on Christmas Eve to keep things low key and low stress. It was nice to just hang out with everyone. I love the holidays, but we all know how much work they can be as well.
After dinner, Addie wanted to play with Lilly while she was sitting in her high chair, so she stood in front of her and danced and sang a song. Lilly was cracking up! It was so adorable. I have a video of this, but it's too long to post. :-(
Lilly is still teething, but no teeth have broken through yet. She loves chewing on her cold teethers and anything else she can get in her mouth!
Drew really loves to play with Lilly. He was doing a great job of bringing her toys to play with. Carissa wanted to make sure he didn't bombard Lilly with too many things, so she told him only one toy at a time. Lilly had a toy and I went over to give her something and he told me, "One toy!" It was so funny!
Tuesday, December 25
It's here! Lilly's first Christmas!!! We were so excited to see Lilly open presents on Christmas morning. I know she is too young to really understand, but she actually did a great job tugging a the paper (when she wasn't eating it). We opened presents right away then let her take a little break to nap and eat breakfast and then we opened some more.
Lilly took a break from opening presents to actually play with some of her new toys! She really loved Violet, the talking puppy that she got from Kristi and family. She also really loved the radio that Santa brought her.
We wanted to get a few pictures of Lilly in her Christmas dress before opening more gifts. She looked so adorable! I worried that the dress was not very comfortable or that she might get it messy, so I took the dress off and just left her onesie, tights and bloomers on. This was a great plan except for the fact that she leaked through her diaper onto the onsie, tights and bloomers and she can't wear the dress without these things! Oh well! At least we got a few cute pictures of her in the dress.
I love Lilly's face in this picture. She really looked excited to see her new toys!
Mmmm...this paper is delicious!
Everyone is always saying that Lilly should be a piano player because she has very long fingers, so we figured we would get her started. She loved banging on the keys and "making music" right away.
We went to Jared and Carissa's for Christmas with the Smiths. Chad and Jared's parents, sister and brother-in-law were there was well. It's so nice because they all treat us like family and even bough gifts for Lilly so she would be included in the gift exchange. We had a great time (as always) and Lilly got some great new books, an adorable outfit and a new hooded towel with bath toys. Here is Erin with Lilly.
Wednesday, December 26
Darren told me that he needed to go to Apex to pick up my birthday present, so Lilly and I spent the afternoon hanging out. Little did I know that my birthday present was actually my friend Jess coming to visit! I truly had NO idea that she was coming, so it was an amazing birthday surprise :o) It's been so long since Jess has seen Lilly I was extra excited for her to see how much she has changed and grown.
Here is a video of Lilly playing in her bouncer!
Airplane!
We are still working on how to crawl, but in the meantime we are very interested in the blanket.
We went to dinner at the Aviator that night. Lilly had some applesauce and I put Cheerios on her tray to keep her occupied while we ate.
Thursday, December 27
It was my birthday, but the best present was brought to me on June 10. I was lucky that my amazing husband and friends wanted to make sure that the big 3-0 was memorable for me. Chad and Michelle came over for dinner and Cold Stone ice cream cake.
I know, it's another picture of Lilly sleeping, but look how cute she is!
Friday, December 28
Lilly really likes the Laugh and Learn Puppy that Santa brought her. She grabs the puppy and rolls from side to side while squeezing it and making it talk/sing. I love that she is learning to "hug" and snuggle up to things. Mommy loves hugs and snuggles!
I learned this trick from Michelle! Lilly loves to look at herself on the camera on my phone, so I switch the camera to the front camera and she can see herself and I can take cute pictures. She was giggling and grabbing at the camera the whole time, but I managed to snap a few. Lilly definitely loves her own reflection and laughs every time she sees herself in a mirror so this was perfect.
Saturday, December 29
We had an ongoing joke during Jess' visit about Lilly's radio toy. The woman who sings the songs was VERY into singing "Baa Baa Blacksheep" and sang it with a lot of gusto and coloration. Darren was mocking her, which was making Lilly laugh...ok, ok, it was making Jess and I laugh, but Lilly liked it too.
After hitting a few stores in Cary, we drove home and Lilly was not too happy. Luckily Jess was in the back to sing her songs and then discovered how much Lilly loves peek-a-boo! Jess was a great sport and played peek-a-book with Lilly for almost 10 minutes to get her to stop fussing. I can add that to the huge list of reasons why I love Jess.
Look at how happy Lilly is to be playing with Jess!
Darren discovered that Lilly loves to "play the drums" on his head! I know that sounds weird, but she was giggling so hard when he was doing it. These videos don't quite do it justice, but they're worth a peek.
