Thanksgiving Waffle House Tradition

For many years now my family has held a tradition of eating Waffle House for breakfast every Thanksgiving. We weren't able to be with my family this year since we are in Atlanta but we kept the tradition alive and Lillian had her first Waffle House waffle!

We also take a family picture every year. Here are a couple from the years past

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

And just the 3 of us for 2013

Lillian's 36th Week

Sleep: We had a harder week than normal. I now realize it may have been because Lillian is cutting her second tooth. A couple nights this week she woke up hungry and a few times she woke up but would go back to sleep when we put her paci back in. Last night she woke up about 11:30pm and would not stop crying. I tried feeding her and she wasn't hungry but as soon as i picked her up she fell asleep in my arms then would cry as soon as i put her down. Kevin finally thought to give her Tylenol and once i did she was fast asleep. She ended up sleeping soundly until 6:45 woke up to eat then fell asleep again at 7:00am until 7:45am. Poor thing was worn out. 

Eating: Trying to nurse as long as she will eat and give as many new solids as possible to get her liking as much as possible.

We have hit an all about mommy phase. We went to Nashville again this weekend because my sister would be there and Lillian would not take a bottle from anyone but me and would throw a fit if I left the room. Luckily she would let other people hold her or my arms would be worn out. We are hoping it is due to teething and will pass. But I do enjoy the extra snuggles, most of the time, the middle of the night snuggles can be held to a minimum. :)

Other Happenings:

- Like I mentioned we went to Nashville (yes again) lol saw my sister and parents. We took some pictures that might be our Christmas card so you can't see those but these are other random ones I took. I stuck her in this basket because she crawling all over the place and I needed to keep her contained. lol. Turned out she is pretty cute in a basket. 

She has been making this face a lot when we try to take pictures.

- We went to the Nashville Flea Market and got a few things. I love places like that but i have noticed people are getting more and more pricey with their "junk" ever since pinterest.
- Lillian has started pulling on her hair on the back of her head lately. It doesn't seem to hurt her but she is pulling out her hair.
- I am trying to get her to like water so she used a sippy cup for the first time.

- I was loading the dishwasher tonight and looked down to find this. She'll be pulling to a stand in no time.

- One of my best friends Addie came through Huntsville today with her husband Rusty and they stopped by to say hi, so of course we took pictures.

Lillian's weird smile again

Lillian's 35th Week/8 Months

Lillian turned 8 months old today!

Eating: Nothing new. Lillian is still nursing and trying new foods. I had forgotten a bottle nipple while we were shopping over the weekend so we bought a straw sippy cup to see if you could drink her milk that way. Not a success but she now has a cute lady bug sippy cup when she is ready to drop the bottle.

Milestone Moment: Lillian is cutting her first tooth!!!! Hard to see from picture but it is her bottom left. its a teeny tiny white dot. (she obviously did not want me to take a picture.)

I noticed it while we were in the car and thought it was just food but when I rubbed my finger along her gums it was SHARP! We were so excited. Kevin said he was so proud he almost cried. I think he has love/hate thoughts of her growing up like I do. So happy to hit another milestone but so sad to see that gummy grin will be gone soon.

So far she is not a "bad" teether (all those stories you hear about constantly waking and crying and drooling) although i'm sure she is just bottling it all up  to explode. lol. Anyways the only time we even notice she might be in pain is when she is sleeping. So far we have given her baby oragel and baby Tylenol to help with any pain. She doesn't drool very much for teething but we have noticed she randomly spits up lots of clear liquid so we assume she just swallows all of that extra saliva and that's what she is spitting up. She has also had a runny nose now for a few weeks so that may be teething related or just due to the cold weather. She has that nasty baby nose (no details needed if you are a parent you know what I am talking about) and she hates for you to wipe it. Literally she throws the biggest fit and as soon as you move your hand/wipe away she is back to smiling. Lol.

Sleeping: During her naps and at night she has been moaning in her sleep or will one or two times cry out, but always goes back to sleep. Any waking up at night we associate with cutting this tooth. She did have two nights where she woke up and would not go back to sleep. I finally would feed her and she would be back to sleep withing minutes. I have got to be better about getting her more food during the day.

Other Happenings: 
- Crawling around like crazy
- Napping with Papa after a busy day of not eating or sleeping on schedule (momma's fault)

- Lillian is making lots of vocal sounds which is very entertaining to us, except while in church.
- Chewing on everything she can get in her mouth...

toys

or momma's car keys while relaxing in the buggy at Kroger

- Lillian has also recently started crying more whenever Momma isn't in the room with her. She has always been so good about going to other people and this week she has become a big momma's girl. Hopefully it is temporary while she is teething and needing momma's comforting snuggles. 

Lillian's 34th Week

34 Weeks old!

...and so it begins of sticking out the tongue

Sweet blue eyes 

...and crazy face. 

Eating: Doing awesome. I know people say working out doesn't affect their milk supply but I think it does for me. I haven't worked out in about 2 weeks and my supply feels back to normal, almost more than what she eats. A couple times Lillian would be nursing and then not want to continue on the other side. So I would pump the other side then feed it to her and she did great. I think she was getting too distracted while nursing and couldn't see anything like she can when she has a bottle.  We tried more broccoli this week and also added some avocado. The avocado was a huge success. It is easy for her to actually eat and she ate maybe half of the avocado the first time. The bad thing about these colorful foods is the colorful messes she makes and her burp clothes are getting more stained. We don't have a set time of when she eats solids but I usually try a little for breakfast after she nurses and then when Kevin and I eat dinner which is about 5ish if she is awake.

first time to try pasta. Most of it ended up in her lap but I think she liked the different texture.

Mmm...Broccoli!

I posted this video on Facebook but if you haven't seen it it's pretty cute. 

Sleeping: Lillian still had her runny nose and a cough this week. Daddy went out and got vapor rub to put on her feet and it seriously made all the difference. Even though she was still congested she slept great. She may have woken up in the middle of the night this week due to being congested but it has been a great week of sleep. I can also tell from her naps that this cold is wearing her out. A few mornings she slept for 3 hours. Although she has been sleeping great she has also been waking up at about 6 every morning. Sometimes she will fall back asleep in bed with me but most mornings she is ready to eat. I hold off until about 6:30am and once she eats she falls back asleep for 45min. or so then we get out of bed play a little, eat some oatmeal or banana then back to bed. She goes back down without a fight and has the best naps.

Other Happenings:
- I've mentioned it before but Lillian loves to dance. Mommy and Daddy don't have the best moves but we get some smiles. Dancing to Lady Gaga
- Lillian won't go back to the doctor until 9 months which will be mid Decemeber. I wanted to see how much she has grown because my weak arms know that she is gaining the weight. I jumped on our scale and the got on it again while holding Lillian and it came out to about a 19lb difference. She was 1 oz away from 17lbs at her 6 month appointment so we are doing about a lb a month since.
- Nana came to town for just the day Friday and we went shopping. Lillian is like her momma and gets tired of shopping quickly.

Lillian's Nursery

I realized I never posted pictures of Lillian's Nursery. Not that y'all necessarily care, most nursery's are all the same. A crib, changing table, diaper bin, etc.. but so we can remember all the hard work Daddy did I will post these pictures.

We have been renting a house since we moved to Huntsville and all the walls are the same color. They are a bluish grey. I love the color but I wanted her nursery to be very simple and neutral. You can see the old color in this picture of Kevin and Poppa putting the crib together. Kevin ended up painting it a light khaki cream color and did it all in one night.You can also see her changing table that use to be brown and we painted it to match the crib. Kevin's Mom actually got the changing table at a garage sale really cheap.

He also replaced the ceiling fan because he said it "made too much noise" and bought some fake Lillies for her (He spoiled her before she even arrived).

The pillow my best friend Kinsey got for Lillian. Perfectly matches the color scheme 

Like I said its pretty simple. There is nothing on the walls because we didn't want a lot of holes in the walls.

And of course every child needs a piggy bank. I had been saving all my change since I got pregnant and deposited it in her piggy bank.

I originally started this post back in July and forgot to post it. She now has a swing in one corner of her room, a recliner in the other. And I recently found this gem that is going to hang over her crib once we figure out the best way to hang it. 

And the most recent addition that's not necessarily pretty but very handy is our shelf above the changing table. Lillian kept kicking the wipes off the table so we put this shelf up.

Like I said it is very neutral with touches of pink, which I actually didn't want any pink to begin with but Kevin convinced me and I love it. Many late nights early mornings were spent in this room.

Lillian's 33rd Week

Happy 33 Weeks old to me!

Wearing the shirt mommy's best friend Kinsey got me!

Eating: She is doing well eating. We give her solids after I nurse her but we have also started spoon feeding her yogurt, oatmeal, and Gerber organic 2nd foods puree. The reason we are not solely letting her feed herself is because she doesn't ingest enough of the foods to keep her sleeping at night. The two days I did not feed her puree or yogurt with the other solids were the two nights this last week she woke up in the middle of the night to eat. I cannot produce enough milk (I've tried the fenugreek and pumping often to help but doesn't help). We do not feed her solids in place of milk so I feel good that we will continue to keep on nursing until 1 year old. This is my goal but I also feel the purees help keep her full.
 We are trying more veggies again this week. She has done awesome with broccoli which makes this picky momma happy. We know she loves fruits and she has gotten a good taste of Chick-fil-a chicken too. :)

Sleeping: As long as she gets some solids during the day she sleeps from 7:30 pm until 7 am with that small wake up around 5:30 am. She still takes 3 naps a day. If the first one is her normal 2+hours then the second is usually around 1-1 1/2hrs. If we have a play date in the morning she may only get an hour morning nap but she makes up for it with at least a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. The third nap is her catnap. 30 min-45 mins. Some days she will not sleep at all but if she seems the least bit tired I will always put her down and she falls right to sleep.

Daylight Savings Time: I wasn't sure what to expect to happen Sunday morning this past weekend since it was daylight savings time. Sundays are already a hard day when it comes to naps. Lillian has a tendency to wake up around 5:30 am, then fall back asleep until 7ish. Well she woke up at 5:30 am but it was actually 4:30 am. It took her some time but she fell back asleep but then woke up at 6 am and was super fussy. She was hungry and nothing I could do would distract her enough. I ended up feeding her at 6:15 am and then we had breakfast around 8 am. We left for church and I was able to get her to fall asleep as soon as we got there but unfortunately she only slept for 30 minutes. 9 am-9:30 am. My cousins (who help with kids classes but don't actually teach) watch her while we go to class. When we went to pick her up from them around 11:15 am she was crying and even when I held her she wouldn't stop. She was sooo sleepy but if you even attempted to lay her down in your arms she would scream, she didn't want her paci or bottle. We finally got home around 11:45 and she was in bed for a nap by 12 noon. Poor thing slept for 3 hours solid! She woke up just in time to eat and has been back on her schedule since.

Other Happenings:
- I think we can legit say we have a crawler. I finally had my phone with me and got this video. Its not the best example but you can tell she no longer just scoots/army crawls on her belly. While I hate that she is so mobile now ( I was in no rush for her to crawl)  I get so excited when she hits developmental milestones.
- Lillian figured out that her floor mat is a puzzle

- We had a nice weekend. We didn't do much except hang out with Daddy and a little shopping and it was perfect. We went and watched Daddy fly his airplane again on Sunday and here are some pictures of God's beauty in the fall.

- My best friend Kinsey "Smith" Morgan gave birth to her precious little man Sunday night/early Monday morning. Welcome to the world Gerald Glenn Morgan, III aka Tripp!