Lilly Rae - Week 47

Sunday, May 5

Lilly was running a low fever today, but she didn't let that stop her from playing and having a great Sunday with Mommy and Daddy.

We can hardly keep up with Lilly anymore!  She is always on the go and has a lot of energy.  I love that the simplest things are incredibly amusing and fun for her.  She has a lot of toys now, but she is still completely entranced by books and she loves to play ball.

I know I say this every week, but it's hard to believe that Lilly is 47 weeks old.  We are starting to plan her first birthday party.  Where did this year go?

Monday, May 6

Kristi wasn't feeling well so I took the day off to be with Lilly.  I was glad to be home with her because she still had a little fever.  Plus it was production week at the theater for Wizard of Oz, so I had rehearsal almost every night this week and was really going to miss my Lilly.  

Lilly was completely entranced by the window.  She loved peering outside and watching the squirrels and the birds jump around in the grass.  She would pull up on the window sill and just stand there staring and babbling to herself.  I was nervous at first, worried that she would fall and bang her chin on the window or let go and fall back, but she did great.  I still have first-time-mom syndrome and I can't help being worried.  I am getting better though!

This is a great shot of Lilly yelling at the birds outside and then pointing to them so I could see.

I am not really sure what she was doing here, but it was funny!

Lilly can finally pull up on the table!  She used to be a little too short to reach it.  She is growing so fast!

Tuesday, May 7

Lilly is clearly my daughter because when we brought her home after work and set her down to play, she bypassed all of the toys and went straight for her bookshelf.  I am so glad that she already loves books!

We went to Chick-fil-A tonight for teacher appreciate night (yay for free chicken sandwiches!).  Lilly was a champ while we had dinner and then on our way out, she met the Chick-fil-A cow.  I have to admit, that cow is HUGE!  She was perfectly fine waving to him but when he reached to get a hug, she was a little nervous.  She didn't cry but she actually shuddered while we were walking out the door!  I didn't even know what happened at first, but I definitely felt her shudder in my arms!  

When we got home we went for a walk around the neighborhood.  Darren carried Lilly since we weren't going to walk for long.  I grabbed a few pictures of the two of them.  Darren's face lights up when Lilly smiles at him and laughs with him.  It makes me so happy!

Wednesday, May 8

Kristi sent me a few pictures of Lilly today and told me that she was completely fascinated by the air coming out of the air vent today.  She would look down at it, poke it with her finger and then gasp and look up at Kristi.  I wish I had been able to see it, but I think the pictures tell a pretty good story.

I was at the theater with rehearsals tonight, so Darren sent me a few pictures of Lilly's night so I wouldn't miss out.  She is doing better eating, especially for Darren.  She looks like a little girl not a baby now!

I think bath time might be Lilly's favorite time of night.  She loves playing in the water and has no qualms about getting water in her face or in her eyes.  Darren has started using the shower curtain as a splash guard because Lilly has started splashing so much.  I guess it's kind of our fault because we used to splash lightly with her when she was a baby and now she is a lot bigger and stronger and she is showing us how to really splash!

Check out these action shots!

Thursday, May 9

It won't be long before Lilly doesn't fit in her infant seat anymore.  Look at the difference from when she was two weeks old.  Unbelievable!  

Lilly had a great night playing with Daddy while I was at rehearsal.  It was hard to be away from Lilly for so many nights this week.  I would get teary eyed when I would get Darren's texts with pictures of Lilly.  It was good for me to get out and do something fun for myself (plus make some money) but the truth is, being with Lilly is something fun that I do for myself.  Do I need a break sometimes? Of course!  But there is nothing in the world I would rather do than be with my baby girl!

I mean, come on!  Look at that face!  :o)

Friday, May 10

Lilly tried Pizelles at Kristi's today.  Pizelles are an italian waffer cookie that I know well.  I thought it was awesome that Lilly was trying something that reminded me of my Nanny who, unfortunately, Lilly was never able to meet.  Also, look at those curls!  Lilly's hair is starting to curl at the ends.  It looks so cute!

Lilly has really become more confident with standing.  She pulls herself up on anything and everything (including me!) and has no fear about standing by herself and playing.  She has fallen over a few times, but has learned that it's a pretty cushy landing on her fanny.  ;o)

Lilly has had a runny nose all week so we have gone through a lot of tissues.  Lilly was not very happy about us wiping her nose over and over, so I tried to make it more entertaining by making the tissue into a little puppet.  This was great to get her to let me wipe her nose, except then she wanted to play with the tissue.  Oh well!  There are far worse things, right?

Here are a couple of videos of Lilly playing.  She likes to climb me like a jungle gym.  It's very cute.

Saturday, May 11

We went to Anna's Pizzeria in Apex because we were picking up something in Apex already and had a couple (of course!).  Lilly wasn't interested in her Cheerios, so I figured I would let her try some lemon, thinking she wouldn't like it and would make a funny face (I know, mom of the year right here).  She actually liked it!  She never pulled away and made a sour face; she actually kept coming back for more.  It was really cute. The waitress brought us some orange slices and gave Lilly a few pieces of that too.  I'm glad she is eating a few more solid foods.  I want her to get exposed to a lot of different foods while she is young.

Lilly now "cruises" from the windowsill to her other toys like her table and her stage.  It is incredible how much her balance has developed over the past week or so.  I am not rushing anything, but I am betting she will be walking within the next month.  She really enjoys standing and moving around, so I think she wants to walk and will soon figure out how.

I think I was disturbing her.  Oops!

I was taking this picture while Lilly was reaching for my camera, so unfortunately I cut off the top of her head, but it's still a cute picture.

Here is video of Lilly cruising from the window to her table.  I can only upload 30 seconds, but she did this back and forth and on to her other toys for probably 10 minutes.

Lilly Rae - Week 46

Sunday, April 28

We let Lilly dive into her new toys today.  It really would have been a shame to make her wait until her birthday to play with these, especially since she is growing up so fast and she might not be interested in some of them 6 weeks from now.  Can we really be that close to having a one year old?  I feel like I was just posting pictures of her ultrasound and announcing that we were having a baby!  I try so hard to really enjoy every moment with Lilly because they really are going by fast.  Even on days when she is cranky (or I am cranky) at the end of the day I am still so thankful for that day with Lilly and thankful for all the days to come.  

It is definitely much more challenging to take Lilly's weekly picture now that she is always on the go.  We managed to get a few cute ones, but it took some coaxing!

We went to Jared and Carissa's (and now Chad and Michelle's too) tonight to celebrate Michelle's birthday.  The boys entertained Lilly by building towers for her and then letting her knock them down (or at least not getting upset when she did).  They do such a great job playing with her and being gentle.

Monday, April 29

Kristi sent these picture of Lilly hanging out with Mia (Kristi's daughter) today.  Lilly has always really liked Mia and tends to cling to her when she is around.  Luckily Mia adores Lilly and loves playing with her.  I love the picture of the two of them.

Tuesday, April 30

Lilly's hair is getting pretty long now so I can actually put some barrettes in it!  I can't wait to put her hair in pig tails and pony tails and braids and...well, I guess I should learn different ways to do her hair.  I am definitely not great in the hair department.  Luckily I know someone who is and can teach me :-)

I was trying to take Lilly's picture, but she was more interested in trying to get the camera from me.  So I decided to use this to my advantage and grab a few cute shots with my phone while we played tug-of-war war with the camera.

Lilly won of course and rubbed it in my face that she had the camera.  Hehe...

I opened up a toy that someone had bought for Lilly before she was born but it was a little advanced for her until now.  I took all of the pieces out, put the stickers on, set it all up for her...and she played with the box.

Lilly really likes climbing all over us now.  I think she likes that she can get to us whenever she wants and she thinks it fun to crawl on something that is not just a flat surface.

Lilly has really good taste in books ;o)

Wednesday, May 1

Lilly does the cutest thing when I get her out of her crib in the morning.  First I should explain that she has started lifting her arms up when we reach down to pick her up or when she wants to be picked up.  So anyway, when I get her in the morning I reach my arms into her crib and she reaches up for me (I LOVE that!).  Just recently she has started reaching up, then stopping, looking around for her security blanket, grabbing it and then reaching up again.  I am glad she has a blankie that she can have to make her feel safe and snuggly.  We accidentally forgot to send it to Kristi's one day and Kristi said she had a much harder time going to sleep.  So we definitely learned from that and we make sure Lilly always has one of them (yes, we have two!)

One of Lilly's new toys is a talking, singing, dancing Elmo.  I am not sure exactly which one it is, but it tells jokes and sits on a little yellow stool.  Lilly was getting a kick out of it and loved his mouth.  She didn't even mind when it "chomped" down on her finger.

Lilly also loves her new "stage" toy that plays  music and has a huge mirror she can look at.

She really loves this toy...

...for 5 minutes at a time and then she moves on to something else :o)

Thursday, May 2

 Lilly is on the move!  As soon as we get home in the afternoons she is exploring every inch of the house and following us around.  We started contemplating rearranging the furniture in the living room to create an enclosed space for Lilly.  She is very interested in the windows right now so I had to raise all of the blinds and ties up the cords.  She was really excited when she saw Maggie playing outside.  She stood at the window and tried to hand Maggie her toy through the window.  It was funny to watch her smush the toy against the glass to give it to Maggie.

We decided to open up a toy that Michelle and Chad had given us.  It's a blow up car ball pit!  Lilly loves playing with balls, and this keeps them all in one spot.  It was great to see her playing in it today. I especially loved the effect the static electricity had on her hair :-)

When we picked Lilly up today, Kristi said, "I hope you don't mind, but..." which is a slightly scary phrase to hear from your daycare provider.  Luckily she ended this sentence with "...Lilly tried pizza today and loved it!"  Kristi knows that we are trying to keep Lilly's food as natural and organic as possible, but I have no problem with her trying something like pizza.  In fact, Darren and I had pizza for dinner that night and gave her a piece of crust, which she loved!  Tonight was the best meal she has eaten for us in a long time.  She had some frozen vegetables, shredded cheese, half a jar of food and a piece of pizza crust.  It is really exciting to see her eating regular food, and also to see her feeding herself!  I will not miss pureed food.  

Friday, May 3

Darren was doing a favor for a friend and driving her ti a relatives house, so Lilly and I were on our own for the evening.  We had a great time together and it was nice to just get some mommy/Lilly time. We went to the grocery store and saw a parent of a former student.  She probably told me 15 times how beautiful Lilly is and she kept on saying that she should run because she had to get dinner to her kids, but then she would stay another minute and keep playing with Lilly.  This went on for 5-10 minutes before she really left.  Lilly is such a little charmer :-)

This is my new favorite picture of Lilly.  She is so beautiful!

Saturday, May 4

We went to the Grower's Market today to get some fresh fruits and veggies.  I am so excited that strawberries are back in season!  After that we went out to lunch at a new place in Apex because we had a Living Social deal.  There was only one other table there at the time and Lilly kept on turning in her seat to look at the guy in the booth behind us.  She was waving to him and giving him the Lilly charm.  The guy was waving back and had a huge smile on his face as he told his wife that Lilly was waving to him.  Lilly is such a rock star in restaurants.  She just sits, eats some Cheerios, drinks from her cup and charms every person in the place.  It's nice that we can still go out (knock on wood!)

 Lilly has been doing such a good job standing (with support).  I think she will be able to stand on her own shortly.

I took some video of Lilly playing and crawling around today.  This is a short clip.  Enjoy!