Dancin' Machine

Lily has started to get dance fever lately. Whenever music is on, I catch her doing a little dance. Sometimes I even catch her dancing when there is no music on. I ask her if she's dancing to the music in her head...

Here's a little snippet of her. I'll try to get more on video, but like most kids, she stops doing her thing once the camera comes out.

Christmas 2009

First, I decided to show Dixon and Leo some blog love in this post. I thought they looked so cute sitting here, waiting for Santa Claus. They have both gotten much more used to Lily and even allow her to pet them (or in the cat's case, grab him by his tail and pull out hunks of hair).

Now on to Christmas! We were home for Christmas this year, so Santa knew right where to find Lily. We started on Christmas Eve with a trip to church. Lily was on her best behavior and nearly made it through the whole service. Then we came home for lots of Christmas Eve snacks and present opening. Lily got a Mr. Potatohead that she really loves. Though the eyes may end up in the ear holes, she enjoys putting the pieces together.

While Lily slept upstairs, Santa visited and left her a little chair, Mega Blocks, a latch board and a stocking with a toddler toothbrush, bowl and spoons. She loves it all! More Christmas photos here!

She Walks!

Big news! Lily took her first steps this weekend! She has been walking a little here and there, but it's mostly been a controlled 2-3 foot stumble between parents. On Saturday, she took her first real, balanced steps. She managed to walk a good 10 feet all on her own! I imagine we're going to be chasing after her full-time pretty soon!

Wagons and Snowstorms

We got a record snowfall in DC this weekend, with 16 inches by the time it was over. Also this weekend, Lily got an early Christmas gift from my parents--a red wagon. She spent the better part of the weekend climbing in and out of it, while it sat indoors.

It now resides on our front porch, but that didn't stop Lily from getting in it (and out of it and back in it again) while Ethan shoveled snow (and I watched). I tried to interest her in the snow but she was much more interested in her wagon. Can't wait for the snow to melt so we can hit the road in it!

Is That You, Santa Claus?

We tried to take photos of Lily in her Christmas dress for our Christmas card, but like most other photo shoots with her, she refused to smile. And getting her to sit still? Yeah, right. But we did manage to get a few cute ones of her, despite her best efforts. There are more pictures in her December photo folder.

Videos-a-Plenty

I just realized that it's been a while since I posted any videos of Lily. We take tons of video of her but somehow they never make it from the camera to the computer to the blog. Just not enough hours in the day!

Here are a handful of (somewhat) recent videos of Lily:

Lily kept hitting herself in the head with a stack of paper plates (who knows why?) and every time I would say, "Thunk," she giggles.

Lily has discovered the light switch in our dining room. It's almost at her level and she has fun turning it on and off.

Lily being giggly with a puppet.

This is a couple of videos put together of a nice day outside putting up Christmas decorations and walking on the sidewalk.

Up the Stairs

Lily has recently discovered the stairs. See a picture-by-picture guide to how she tries to navigate the stairs.

(**Note to concerned grandparents: don't worry, we keep the stairs blocked with a baby gate. This was a completely supervised attempt to climb stairs. No Lilies were injured in the making of this blog post.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

The day before Thanksgiving, Ethan and I were able to join Lily at daycare for a Thanksgiving lunch. The teachers made Indian headdresses for all of the kids. As you can imagine, it stayed on for about 1.2 seconds...barely long enough for me to take a picture (see above).

On Thanksgiving, we headed to Baltimore to spend the day with Lily's Uncle Luke and Aunt Michaela, plus a couple of their friends. We all pitched in to make a fabulous meal while Lily got to spend some quality time strolling the neighborhood with Aunt Michaela. We had a great time and are very thankful that we got to spend the holiday with family!

Sick Day

Lily has been a very healthy baby, with only one ear infection and a couple of minor colds under her belt...until this weekend. Poor thing caught a nasty bug and was feverish, pukey and generally unhappy all weekend. I thought she was on the road to recovery on Saturday afternoon, but her fever spiked Saturday night. We spent the better part of the early morning hours rocking her and holding her. She was a sad, sad sight.

On Sunday, she stayed in her pajamas all day, was extra cuddly and just wanted to sit in mom or dad's lap and snooze. As you can see in the photo, she and Ethan also spent some quality time watching Sesame Street.

I am happy to report that she got a great night's sleep last night and woke up this morning with no fever. She is home with Ethan today so she can rest but I think she's on the mend, just in time for Thanksgiving.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Lily got together with a couple of her baby friends on Sunday and I am just amazed at how big and active they all are...especially compared to last year at this time...

This photo was taken December 8, 2008.

Number Nine

Last night, I spied tooth number NINE popping out of Lily's gum. That would explain the recent fussiness...and her new found love for frozen teething toys (see above). She scoots around the house with it hanging out of her mouth like a dog with a bone. Nine teeth down, only 11 more to go!

Happy Halloween!

Lily had a great time on Halloween dressed up as a cute little ladybug!

We headed down to Old Town on Saturday afternoon for trick or treating at the stores on King Street. Then, we went to our neighborhood Halloween party and parade. Lily and our neighbor, Will, shared a wagon ride to the parade. They were both too cute!

Lily somehow managed to get by on only one 30-minute nap AND stay up until 8 p.m. Halloween makes a girl too excited to sleep!

A Girl on the Go

Lily loves to walk using her walker. She has about three different ones to choose from, so there's no shortage of opportunities for her to practice! When we get home in the afternoons, we usually take a few minutes to walk on our sidewalk outside. She's really good at it and it's only a matter of time before she's walking all on her own!

No No No and 12 Month Doctor Visit

Lily definitely has an opinion on most things and is learning how to express it. Of course, the usual way is to arch her back and scream her head off when we try to get her to do something that she doesn't want to do. Lately, she has started to tell us in a more calm, civilized manner when she doesn't want something: with a vigorous headshake. It's really cute, if not dizzying (for her.)

We also took Lily today for her 12-month check-up. It was not the most fun trip she's had to the doctor--she got FOUR shots plus a finger stick to test her iron and lead levels (since we live in a 60-year-old house). The test results were both good _ normal and low, respectively. As for her growth, we were not surprised to find that she's a big, big girl (this explains why she wears 18-month clothes!):

Height: 30 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 22 lbs, 8 oz (75th percentile)

To put things in perspective, one year ago, when she was born, she weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 21 inches long.

ONE!

One year ago today, our wonderful Lily made her entrance into the world and life has not been the same since. Being parents has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of our lives and we would not trade a single moment of it with anyone.

Lily, we love you so very much and and so excited about all the things that you will learn and do in the NEXT 12 months of your life. We can't wait!

Beach Baby

We spent the last week at Topsail Beach, NC, with my family. October at the beach is a grab bag of weather. We had 80 degree days and 50 degree days, but overall, a fun time was had by all. Lily got to visit the beach for the first time on a cold, windy day but she still had fun investigating (that means EATING) the sand and picking up shells.

On warmer days, we got to get into the pool and spend some time on the swings.

Since her first birthday is coming up next week, my family threw Lily an early first birthday party complete with balloons, her own cake and lots of presents.

Lily (and her parents) had a great time with the whole family! Here are more pictures from the trip.

Love the Baby

Lily is full of hugs these days, which is the sweetest thing ever. One thing she really loves to hug is her doll, who doesn't really have a name so we just call her Dolly. She'll pick up Dolly and give her a big squeeze. I can hand her any of her other stuffed animals and say, "Love the monkey/bear/Tigger/bunny/baby," and she'll hug them too.

Of course, my favorite is when she hugs me. She is such a sweet girl. We are so lucky!

11 Months!

Yesterday, Lily celebrated her 11-month birthday with her Daddy, who was celebrating his birthday as well! We had a great time at Cox Farms, home to pumpkins, giant slides, hayrides, farm animals and every child in a 50-mile radius!

It’s been a very busy month for Miss Lily, as she is growing and changing at hyper-speed! Highlights from the last four weeks:

• Lily decided that she no longer wanted to eat from a spoon. No amount of coaxing could get her to open her mouth. The only way she’d eat is if we gave her finger foods. While it’s cute to watch her feed herself, we were not really prepared to have to start cooking her meals yet! Luckily, this trend only lasted a week or so and now she’s back to letting us feed her, as well as feeding herself.


• She’s walking (assisted by one of us) a lot now. She’s not too steady on her feet but she sure loves to try. If you get anywhere near her, she raises her arms up for you to walk with her. Last weekend, we headed to Stride Rite, got her measured (she wears a size 5 ½--that’s BIG) and bought her first pair of shoes.


• Lily has become a pro at scooting around on her behind. She just sits there, digs her heels into the ground and launches herself forward. I think she likes it better than being on her belly because she can reach more things (and get into more things she shouldn’t be in!).
  
• Lily has learned to pull up in her crib. While she’s not pulling up anywhere else in our house (and that’s probably a blessing in disguise), she has mastered pulling herself to a standing position in her crib. She likes it when we pull up the blinds in her room so she can look out the window from the crib.

She just continues to charm the pants off of us. She is such a sweet, funny (and sometimes mischievous) girl and we cannot believe she will be one next month!

Woof! Woof!

This morning, I was hurrying around the house trying to get Lily and I ready to head to daycare and work. I put her down in the dining room with her toys while I ran down to the basement for just a minute.

As I'm coming back up the stairs, I hear the familiar sound of Dixon's dog food rattling in his bowl. But it's not Dixon who's eating his food...

Lily had scooted herself into the kitchen and put a handful of dog food in her mouth! Luckily, I was able to fish all of the kibble out of her mouth before she swallowed any of it.

Guess it's time to think about those baby gates, huh?

Where's the Baby?

Whenever we go out, Lily loves to look at babies and I always say to her, "Lily, do you see the baby?" but typically there's no real response.

The other night, while I was changing Lily's clothes, she was holding the box of Pampers baby wipes and on the box is a picture of a baby. Just for the heck of it, I said, "Lily, where's the baby?" and she pointed at the picture of the baby! We had never practiced that before, so I was so impressed when she did it!

I, of course, had to recreate it the next day for the video camera. I wanted to be doubly sure, so I gave her two pictures of a baby to point to...she's a genius! :)

(Excuse my squealing every time she does it. I get so excited!)

The Electronic Babysitter

I know, I know...no TV before the age of two. But yesterday I needed something to keep Lily occupied for 15-20 minutes so I turned on an episode of Sesame Street. When it comes to TV, Lily is just like her Daddy--when it's on, she is transfixed. No amount of calling her name gets her attention. Trust me, this is something that I will only do once in a while, for obvious reasons:

Lily really liked Elmo and Murray the Monster. She just stared. I don't think I even saw her blink.

Then she decided to make herself more comfortable.

10 Months!

Lily is 10 months old now. Regular readers of her blog may notice that I no longer take her picture with the sign telling how old she is. Yeah, that doesn't work any more with Little Miss Grabby Hands.

This month she has continued to grow and thrive. She still scoots around on her belly quite often but what she really likes to do now is stand. She can't pull herself up on her own but if you take her hands, she will stand right up. She likes to stand on the couch and look out the window, stand up in her crib while holding onto the rail or just stand right in front of you while holding your hands.


While she still likes to feed herself, she also likes to feed us. She will pick up food off her tray and offer it to whoever is feeding her. If you open your mouth, she'll even feed you. The member of the household that's the most excited about this development is, you guessed it, Dixon:

The Art of the Nap

It might not look like it but it takes skill to get the blanket wrapped all the way around you while you lay on your stomach, with one arm behind you and a pacifier in your mouth! Lily has obviously mastered the art of the nap!

Pure Joy

One of the greatest things about having a baby is getting to see everything through her eyes. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true. Things that I take for granted are so interesting or fun to her. She finds joy in the littlest things.

Case in point: we bought Lily a little $5 inflatable baby pool yesterday. She LOVED it. It made her so happy and she had such a good time all by herself, splashing around in 4 inches of water. It makes me happy to be able to make her happy, so yesterday was a win-win for us all!

Just Because...

Our little explorer discovered that she can see herself in the reflection of the brass kickplate on our front door. She stared at herself for about 15 minutes!

She wants Dixon to be her friend SO badly. He's thinking about it...