Lilly 12 months

I started this post almost a month ago and never got around to finishing...life this year so far has been...BUSY.  On Valentine's Day we celebrated Lilly's first birthday with a Winter ONEderland theme.  Lilly was also dedicated this day.  The gown she wore was the same gown Tyler wore for his baptism.  It was such a special day surrounded by family and friends.  Here are a few pictures from her special day.

A few decorations..the quality is terrible.

All of the family that came to town for the special day.

Great-Grandparents

Grandparents

Chastain Family

Daniel Tiger is a favorite, and books!

She wanted to blow the candle out after I took it away :)

Surprised the hat lasted as long as it did.

Sharing her cake, she's a sweetie!

She didn't make a huge mess!

 

Lilly 11 Months

Did I type that correctly, 11 months!?!?  Pretty sure I blinked and my infant turned into a toddler.  This month has been full of toddler personality.  ;)  Lilly has been working on cutting four wisdom teeth and it has made for a bit of a fussy baby at times and a lot less sleep for her.  She has started becoming more independent..I could cry!  This month she learned to say uh-oh, hot, all done, dog, and ball.  Lilly's favorite games to play this month have been pat-a-cake and peekaboo.   Lilly learned the meaning of "no" and "yes" this month, and will shake her head appropriately in respond to most questions.  She learned to drink from a straw, climb stairs, play ball (she's gotten pretty good at bouncing and rolling it back to me).  L is not yet walking, but she is cruising and climbing on everything.  She has begun memorizing her favorite books and "reading them with me".  She constantly amazes me with the milestones she is hitting.  When asked about future sports her response was as follow:

Me: Lilly are you going to be a dancer?
L: Shakes head no, and then yes..she isn't sure about this.
Me: Are you going to play soccer?
L: Shakes head yes.
M: Softball?
L: Yes.
M: Cheerleading?
L: No.
M: Piano?
L: Yes.

I can't wait to see which of these she decides to do as she grows.  We celebrated 11 months by having some homemade chili and buying a new fridge.  Now for photo overload.  We love you, Squirt.

 I'm done with this chair Mama, coming down.

Always making a mess for me to clean. :)

 The many faces of Lilly.

 Bye, Mama.

 She was over the photoshoot so she crawled to the living room to play ball.

Lilly 10 months

This post is coming a few days late...we have been in survival mode this week.  Lilly learned to pull up the day after she turned 9 months old and she isn't slowing down.  Lilly has added a couple of words to her vocabulary this month.  "Up, up, up" is one of her new favorite phrases to say.  This month Lilly is okay having dairy through breast milk!  Yay!  This has been a game changer with nursing.  It's so nice to be able to have food at group events again.  This past week I took Lilly to the doctor to get her eye checked out, it was a bit gunky with a foul odor.  Never would I have guessed that she would leave the appointment with a diagnosis of ear and sinus infections and have to be on her very first antibiotic.  I was hoping we could avoid these for a bit longer, but when baby is sick you do what the doctor recommends.  Lilly started having fevers around 24 hours after starting the antibiotic, which I found a bit strange seeing that she had not had any prior.  After four days on the antibiotic and three days with fevers Lilly developed a rash.  Most likely an allergic reaction to Penicillin.  No big surprise there as Tyler and I are both allergic.  Poor kid, with her parents genes she may end up with quit the list of allergies.  So back to the doctor she went today.  They had to draw a bit of blood and Lilly was "very brave", as her cousin Jacob would say.  She did not fuss at all..definitely one of those that was harder on momma.  With a new antibiotic we are hoping we will make a turnaround soon.  

Lilly 9 months

This was a very fun month for us!  Lilly started saying MAMA, and she uses it several times a day to get my attention.  Lilly has two more bottom teeth, for a total of four on top and four on bottom.  Lilly's personality continues to shine; she is an easy going, loving, talkative, LOUD, happy, sweet, attention loving girl.  She has been quite the momma's girl this month (mostly in the morning and before bed), but is still happy to be held by anyone. Lilly learned to clap, wave bye-bye and CRAWL this month.  She is getting around quicker by the day.   Lilly has formed quite the attachment to Tyler's old baby doll.  She loves reading; we read between 5-15 books every morning after nursing, we also go to story time on Thursday mornings.  I do believe she is going to be quite the chatter box.  She has already begun to mock words Tyler and I say.  We are still working on getting up to three meals a day, Lilly is content with just milk.  I have introduced Lilly to the potty, in hopes that when the time comes it will make the transition a little easier.  I would REALLY like to have her potty trained before (if ) we have another little one.  We had her nine month checkup this morning and she is PERFECT :).  She weighs 18 lbs 8 oz and is 28.5 inches long.  Grow baby grow!  This month pictures were more difficult to take, she is a baby on the move!

 

Honey and Poppa

Honey and Poppa came to visit this past Thursday for a long weekend.  Friday we all went to Tate Farms to pick out a pumpkin.  Honey did a lot of painting for us while she was here.  Our doors look so much better, thank you!  Poppa and Tyler helped some of our friends from our missional community move.  All while Lilly and I stayed indoors with a cold and watched a bit of football.  Honey and Poppa were able to attend church with us for the first time, and after we went to lunch!  We love having them visit.  I REALLY wish most weeks that we had at least one family member closer.  I have tried getting almost all of my family to leave NC to no avail.  Maybe soon?