9.29.09

I've been back to work full-time for 3 weeks now and although I am very fulfilled and at ease with having a normal routine again, it is so tough to find time for extras. I suppose if Lilly wasn't so darn much fun and so unbelievably sweet and cute it would be easier to not spend every waking minute of her time at home with her. But alas, I can't help it! She makes us laugh constantly... and even does it to avoid going to sleep sometimes because she knows we can't resist laughing back, thus stalling sleepy time. What a trip.

She is on a big "uh ohhhh" kick right now. We think she picked it up at school because we didn't start saying it at home until she started. Now we say it all the time so she'll repeat it! Tonight I stacked up her caterpillar cups to make a tower and before she knocked it down she grinned and said "uh ohhhhhh". Sly little devil;).

Oh!! And we think she's getting her molars. Ayy papee. It hasn't been bad, but she chews on her thumbs in the back parts of her mouth, drools a little bit (she's not normally a thumb sucker or a drooler), has a runny nose and just seems a little off. In the meantime, she's rockin' this fabulous grill!

9 Months Old!

9.18.09

Lilly turns 9 months old tomorrow. Here are some of the things she's up to:

Tonight we went out for pizza and salad and she tasted diced ham, shredded cheese, hard boiled egg yolk, crackers and veggie Mum Mums. She didn't appear to dislike anything.

When someone opens the door to her classroom, no matter where she is she cranes her neck to see who's there. Everyone tells me she's looking for me, but today as I was rocking her someone opened the door and Miss Inquisitive shot up from my lap to check it out. Where's the loyalty, kiddo?

My visits at school are fewer and farther between lately as she has major separation anxiety when I leave. I'm afraid of creating more chaos for her teachers, so I do a lot of peeking from the doorway and waving hello from behind the counter. Her teachers are awesome and never make me feel bad, but I remember being in their shoes and it is a little irritating, whether they admit it or not!

Her teeth seem to have slowed down a little. She's holding steady at 8-- 4 on top, 4 on bottom. And boy can she bite!

She's says "fa fa fa", "va va va", "ckkkkkk", "ba ba" and "muuuuuum!"

She's about 50% proficient at waving hello and good bye. I don't know if this means the 50% of the time that she does it are a fluke or if she actually knows what she's doing, but only feels like playing along half the time. Either way, it's adorable and makes me laugh every time.

Climbing, climbing, climbing. Not cruising-- her climbing doesn't involve furniture or window sills. She loves to climb on me, which I love because every few minutes she takes a breather and for the first time in her life she'll lay on me, flopped over... and CONTENT! No fussing, whining, grunting, growling or crying. And it's fun to see her stand while holding on to my shoulders!

And the biggest of all...


She crawls! She took 3 crawls last night and I was so bummed that I had to waste the rest of the evening with her at a meeting and then come home and put her straight to bed. I wanted to take her out of her bed and watch her crawl some more! Tonight after dinner as I was getting her bottle ready I put her on a blanket of the kitchen floor. Before I knew it she had crawled off the blanket and onto the linoleum and was crawling all over the place! It must be a lot easier than the carpet!

9.15.09

Lilly had her first fair experience today. I am fairly certain she tagged along in the belly last year for an elephant ear, but this time she got to witness all of Hocking County's finest with her own two eyes! She. Was. Fascinated. I don't think she blinked the entire time. It may have been a little yucky and the animals a little stinky, but it was well worth the $7 apiece to get these snapshots (and an elephant ear for the road).

This horse had just nibbled on Lilly's hairbow. Seriously! He nibbled it!


"Did you see that, Mom?"


"You have more teeth than I do!"


She never batted an eyelash.



She loved seeing all the animals. I wasn't sure she'd "get it" but she definitely checked each one out. Here she is with the rabbits.


Her favorite was the pig barn. Ewww! (They were pretty funny though.)


Watching a goat show. She was glued! I think she was into their cute goat noises.


Huge pumpkins!


Munching on a Mum Mum while Mommy and Daddy ate Elephant Ears. Maybe next year, babe.

9.6.09

Lilly, you may not remember this, but way back last fall, just before you first attempted to enter the world at 31 weeks, your Great Aunt Pam, Great Aunt Bonnie and Treanse Grandma threw us a Baby Buckette baby shower. It was the greatest party ever and goes down in AP and UD's book as THE best party ever thrown at their house. That's saying a lot, little Beansie, because it was all for you! We had Mommy's favorite almond cake, tailgate food, fake money for parking, an auction of Buckeye's gear, stadium seating in the garage and Molly even came to take pictures. Our closest friends and family were there to shower you with love galore.

Well, this year you are HERE! On the outside! Because you slept through the entire game, it was only fitting that when you woke up I dressed you in an outfit given to you at this very shower and took you outside for a photo shoot. I learned one very important thing yesterday, Lilly.

You do not like grass.

9.6.09

Today was a big day for Lilly. Matt and I took her to Babies R Us to try out carseats and shop for an umbrella stroller. The stroller was easy, but the carseat has been bugging me for weeks. It's such a big purchase and marks the end of conveniently carrying Lilly around in the carseat. Granted that's an extra 20 lbs I won't have digging into the crook of my arm, but it still makes me a little sad to think of my baby girl chillin' out in a big girl carseat.

So after plopping her into each seat at BRU and not liking any of the seats, we took a lap around the store just to get away from the carseat aisle. Well, guess what we happened upon? A CLEARANCE SECTION! Woo hoo!

Everyone seems to love the Britax Marathon and even though I fought it tooth and nail, I can't deny a good deal when we practically run it over with our shopping cart. Evidently this was ordered online and returned the store, making someone else's trash our treasure! And Lilly's first gender specific piece of baby gear! (And as an added bonus, Britax sells carseat covers in charcoal grey-- perfect for a future baby boy;))




You can't deny the girl looks pretty darn content. And Mommy and Daddy's wallets were happy at the end of the day. (And as a little PSA, Babies R Us accepts those lovely 20% off Buy Buy Baby coupons, although some, like the Dayton BRU, do not so maybe call ahead to be sure.)

So it's good-bye to the happy little green infant carrier and the stroller frame and hello to the big girl gear.

9.4.09

Little Lilly Boo has bronchitis:( This poor girl seems to be sick more often than not. Seems she inherited my horrible immune system. I had to go into work last night to close the center, so I took her with me and kept her in my office. It was only 2 hours, but those were a LONG 2 hours! It's one thing to keep an 8 month old entertained at home, but quite another in a baby-unfriendly office. I packed all of her favorites (cell phone, camera, comb, paper) as well as the baby-friendly toys I like to push on her (pretend cell phone, pretend camera, etc.) but no dice there.

Thankfully she loves the Praise Baby DVD, so I brought it along and set her up to watch on my co-director's desk. Here she is in the "Praise Baby Zone". (If you haven't seen these DVDs, I highly recommend getting your hands on one or go to the website and watch samples. Matt and I even fall into the trance and, after about 4 months of watching the same "Born to Worship" DVD every.single.day, we still aren't sick of it! Lilly whips her head around within the first couple notes of the Intro and it's smooth sailing for a solid 30 minutes.)



And yes, she is doing something very un-lady-like. Mom's timing is impecable!