6 Month Photo Shoot

I wanted to get some more recent nice pictures of Lillian but didn't want to dish out the money to pay someone. I'd rather save that for  a family photo shoot when she is like a year old. We have a nice DSLR camera and Kevin has a good eye for pictures so he took some in our back yard. They turned out AMAZING! How could they not though with this beautiful face. Enjoy!

She loves looking in the mirror

love her little mouth here

Her lips are puckered in a lot of these pictures because she has been making a raspberry sound lately.

Momma was playing peek a boo behind daddy and the camera so she cocked her head to the side.

This is one of my favorites!

Typical Lillian chewing on her thumb

Sweet eyes and lips :)

Lillian's 6 Months Doctor Visit

Lillian turned six months last Thursday September 19th.

I'm getting good at getting the picture at the wrong moment

I am behind on this post because I was waiting for her doctor appointment we had today. Her appointment was at 8:45am. I thought this would be great time when I first scheduled it but it is not. Her morning nap is from 8:30ish to 10:30 or 11am. She was not pleasant when they measured her. I was able to get her to take a quick 15 minute power nap while we waited for the doctor to come in. After that she was wonderful. (normally I would hate to wait 15 minutes for the doctor but I knew it was better for all of us if she could sleep even just a little.) For some reason I thought they told me she wouldn't have any shots this time but I guess I was wrong. She had a total of four shots, normally there are just two but the vaccines are combined and this time they weren't. As usual she did awesome with the shots. She cries while the nurse pokes her but once they give her the oral vaccine she is back happy and smiling.

So sleepy...

Paci doing its job. 

She is now 16lbs 15oz 75th percentile. 27 3/4in. again off the charts. Here is her 4 month visit and 2 month visit stats. I always forget to ask for the head circumference and it's not written on her sticker but I think it was like 16 or 17 or I could be way off? I'm never concerned about that unless they are.

We went and got our car seat checked to make sure we are installing it correctly and she is safe. We passed but they did say that she is so long and the car seat has a max height of 30 inches. I have a feeling by 9 months we will have to transition to a new seat.

The doctor also mentioned how beautiful her skin is and again said she is a TV baby. :) I have a feeling though as she gets older it will be filled with freckles like momma and daddy.

Kevin and I have grown more and more in love with this precious sweet girl (if that's even possible). Here is a list of things I love and remember about her these last couple of months.
Lillian:
- I love how your eyebrows raise up and down when you are exploring a new object
- I love that you feel a calmness when I pat you on your chest to help you fall asleep.
- I love your big smiles when you wake up from a nap and we come in to get you. How could anyone make you go back to sleep with that big smile grinning at us.
- I love that you bury your head into my neck when I pick you up.
- I love your personality
Momma and Daddy love you so much!

Lillian's 26th Week

26 weeks old!

Nursing: No new changes as far as feedings go. She is fidgety while she eats and sometimes give me "nipple lash" as my friend Kate likes to call it. We tried a couple more solid foods this week although I still don't think anything is really being ingested. Last week we had only tried bananas and eggs. This week we tried carrots which she loved gnawing on, celery which she seemed apathetic about but did nibble at, plain toast and an apple. She LOVED the apple surprisingly because it was a Granny Smith and I thought it would be too tart but she chewed on that thing for a good 15 minutes. We did have our first scare of gagging which then became choking. Kevin jumped up and I ripped the tray off the high chair and he leaned her forward and only hit her back once and she must have gotten it loose because she was fine and it didn't seem to phase her much. We tried eggs a few more times and eggs whites once but she spit it out quickly. Not sure if she didn't like the taste or just wasn't hungry that morning.

Carrot 9/12

She turns her head to the side and always eats from the bottom of her fist.

Celery raw

Apple 9/17

Sleep: Going down at night at about 7:15-7:30pm. She doesn't fall right to sleep but she lays there quietly and eventually falls asleep within 15 minutes or so.  She'll wake up anytime between 4:30 and 5:30am and we just put her back to sleep and she sleep until 7am. I am very happy with that and Kevin is great about getting her back to sleep if she wakes up anytime after 5 am before he heads to the gym. Some of her naps she has been really fussy at first so I have to pat her chest for a few minutes and it helps. Still taking 3 naps but that last one is only 30 minutes at about 4:30pm.

Other Happenings:
- We went to the park a couple times this week because the weather has been gorgeous. Here are a few pictures.

worn out from the park

- Lillian is becoming more inquisitive. I feel like she is learning more and more every day. If we give her an object to hold she just stares at it and her little eyebrows raise up and down.
- She does this thing with her legs when she lays on her back where she raises them and slams them against the floor multiple times. It doesn't seem to hurt her and she laughs as she does it. She does it at night time too but her legs bounce a little in her crib so i think she likes that and thinks it will happen all the time she does it. 
- Just today she has started this thing where she coughs, a lot, and it sounds fake.
- She grabs food well with both hands and has recently moved the object from one hand to the other.
- We noticed she tends to grab things or hold things with her left hand primarily but has used her right some too so we are waiting to see if she is left handed like her Papa or somewhat ambidextrous like her daddy.
- We have had to use her paci more often in public as she has become more vocal, primarily church.
- Speaking of church nap times are hard on Sundays. She usually goes back down for a nap at about 8:30am. We leave for church at 8:40 and worship starts at 9am and then classes are at 10:15am. Sometimes she'll fall asleep on the way to church but then wakes up as soon as we get out of the car.  10 minute power nap. She won't fall asleep during church because to much to see and hear so either I or my cousin will take her out to try and get her to fall asleep, sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. She doesn't go to class yet so she may fall asleep while we are in class but not likely. Then she has a bottle at 11am. Poor thing is so exhausted and if we go out to eat its another nap time she may miss. This last Sunday you could tell she was tired as soon as we put her in the car seat she fell asleep. We took her into the restaurant in her car seat hoping she wouldn't wake up and she never did. She slept for a good hour then when we got home we put her back down and she slept for maybe another hour or more.

- She loves music. She has a toy that plays baby Einstein music and lights up and it will keep her attention for forever. We have an Apple TV instead of cable and they have a radio app so I'll turn on top 40 hits and we have boogied down a couple times and she loves it. I'm hoping her love for music will continue and have Daddy's musical talents. (actually I hope she gets all of Daddy's talents.) When we are travelling and she is past her nap time I turn on Pandora on my phone and play it and she instantly calms down. She likes to hold the phone too while it plays. (i know she'll probably get cancer). but it is was funny to see her hold it.

- I finally got her a soft floor mat to crawl around on since we have hardwoods everywhere. I found this special gem at a consignment sale for only $10 and it came with 25 puzzle pieces. That junk is at least $30 everywhere else I’ve looked and for not nearly as big. We keep it as a 4x4 in our living room. I feel like she has be doing better as far as creeping around and rolling over since we bought it. Plus we can learn our colors and letters as she gets older. Here is a picture of me deep cleaning it since it was a consignment find.

And a picture of Lillian loving it plus some of her and Nana enjoying the view from the floor.

- I finally bought some bubbles (happened to remember while i was at Kroger and they aren't the best quality). Since I couldn't blow more than one or two at a time Lillian didn't seem too enthralled, but when she caught eye with one she stared it down until it popped.

Six Year Wedding Anniversary

This weekend Kevin and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. Typically I would say something like "whoa, I can't believe it's already been 6 years" but in reality it doesn't seem like a long or short time. It is normal to me. We dated 3-4ish years before we were married and I only ever dated one other guy so Kevin is really all I know and I love it!

Birthdays and Anniversaries are special to us but we don't always go all out for them. We make them memorable and special. This year was our first anniversary with Lillian. My mom came down Friday afternoon and watched Lillian while Kevin and I went out to dinner. Thanks Mom! Kevin was craving some wings and I pretty much always eat chicken so we ended up doing dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, fancy right ;), and dessert at Yogurt Mountain. We love fro-yo now so it has become our go to date spot since we moved to Huntsville.

Kevin's cup is always way more full than mine, he gets more ice cream and I get more of the candy/toppings. After dessert we went back home. Like I said we keep it simple but it was enjoyable to get out and talk with just him. 

We tried to do something small and special all weekend so Saturday we went to a little orchard on the side of the road and picked up some apples (Kevin proposed to me in an apple orchard) and shared an apple cider slushie. It is the yummiest drink ever, it is essentially frozen apple juice but no sugar or preservatives added. Lillian got to try some too but was either too cold or to tart for her.

The weather was wonderful so after we went out to the park and Kevin flew his RC airplane then we let Lillian swing and Kevin took her over to the dog park. I am not a dog person so we will never have a dog but it was so funny to watch Lillian watch the dogs run around. Some came up to the fence and she would just stare at them and when any of them barked she would bust out laughing. it never scared her which surprised me but so funny when she laughed. After the park Lillian went to bed and Kevin and I watched the original Superman, a little tribute to our wedding because we incorporated Superman into the wedding ceremony. Kevin and I walked back down the aisle to the superman theme score and our ring bearer carried a superman stuffed bear down the aisle. 

Isn't he a cutie. Hard to believe he is like 10 yrs. old now. 

Sunday the 15th, our actual anniversary, Kevin treated me to Krispy Kreme before church! We went out to Mexican for lunch, we could live in mexico because he LOVES mexican food. Sunday night we ended the weekend with another trip to watch Kevin fly his airplane. Its pretty cool. He has a camera on the plane so you can watch on his you tube channel.  

Neither one of us are perfect (Kevin is pretty darn close) but we strive to be the best spouse for each other daily and I am so very thankful for the 6 years we have had and hope for at least 60 more!

Lillian's 25th Week

25 Weeks Old!

This picture makes her legs look so long to me

Note to self* don't take pictures right before nap time. Poor thing was too tired to smile.

Nursing: I am continuing to nurse like normal, 4 meals a day, and will continue as long as I can. My goal is 12 months as I have read its the best thing for them. We tried our first solids this week.(besides rice cereal, if that's even considered a solid) Instead of traditional baby food we are trying out Baby Led-Weaning. I have done lots of research online about it, talked to some friends about it, and read lots of blogs from people I don't even know so I could fully understand what exactly Baby Led-Weaning is about. For the sake of typing it all out you can go to the website http://www.babyledweaning.com/. You can buy a book on Amazon, I still need to buy and read it. All of my information came from online. Essentially, BLW is feeding your baby food in its normal form, no mush, whatever you are eating. My friend Emily has done a great blog post about it after she did it with her daughter you can read here. Kevin and I talked about what our plan for Lillian would be and I told him what all I had read and learned about different methods and he was on board for trying out BLW. He is great about making sure I feel confident with anything I do for her and never questions me after. He is also great about reading any research I send him so he understands it as well. I am very grateful that he is involved. So far here is what we have done and learned.

First Solid: Banana 9/6/2013

The mushed up pieces are what was left after she tried to pick up the pieces and ended up just mushing them in between her fingers. Instead of large pieces we just gave her a half of the banana and that was easier for her to grasp. I know she ended up ingesting some of it but for the most part it went in the trash. We felt good about it. She wasn't going to starve because I had already nursed her like normal but she now has a sense of what a banana tastes and feels like. 

Second Solid: Eggs  9/10/2013

again she did not ingest much but she seemed to like eggs. 

My only problem so far is I don't know what to give her. BLW says you can give whatever you are eating but I realize there are also some things better to start off with and I read no salt. Any advice would be appreciated. We have only done it those two times so far and it's been breakfast foods so Daddy could be home to experience it too. BLW is said to help kids not be so picky so we are all for it so she doesn't end up like Mommy who hates vegetables! Two things we have learned so far: 1. bananas should be ripe so they don't cause constipation. 2. One of these two foods caused some suspicious black string-like substance in her diapers. 

Sleep: Sleep has been the same. If she wakes up in the night she falls back asleep within minutes. She still wakes up around 5 something so Kevin will stick her in her swing and she sleeps until we go wake her up around 7am. If she wakes up anytime after 6am I just bring her back in bed with me and hope she falls back asleep. We went and stayed at my parent's house this weekend while Kevin was out of town. Poor thing had to sleep in their linen closet because everywhere else was too bright. She still takes her best naps in her swing and in the pitch black. We did finally wean off of the swaddle. I tried it a few weeks ago and she wouldn't fall asleep or would wake up a bunch so we kept swaddling and I randomly decided to try it again this week and for 2 nights now she has done great without it. 

Other Happenings:

- Lillian makes this long fairly loud moan when she is tired. It's so funny, I think it is how she relaxes herself.

- Moved up to size 3 diapers

- Lillian is sitting up on her own unsupported, she occasionally will fall to the side still.

- No crawling forward yet but scooting backwards and around and around in circles a lot. 

- Loving our video monitor. I love to be able to see how she sleeps, her arms are always spread out, she plays with her ears as she's falling asleep.

Our Sweet Girl is growing up!

Lillian's 24th Week

I don't mind football but I am not sitting on my couch every Saturday watching the game. However since Kevin actually graduated from Georgia Tech this is who our family cheers for.

Nursing: Since Kevin and I were out of town for half the week Lillian didn't do much nursing but has still been a champ. I have been freezing pumped milk ever since Lillian was born. I only pumped if we had to be out somewhere or if I needed Kevin to feed her, so the milk I had saved up was just from engorgement or anything extra after morning feedings when I am more full than what she eats. After 5 months we had enough milk saved up for about 17 meals (she eats about 8 ounces each feeding). She would only need 14 meals worth while we were gone. I had a bunch of 4-5 oz bags so my mom just used two of each so she may have eaten more than 8 ounces a few feedings but apparently she ate every last drop. I took my pump with me out of town and came back with 112 ounces to replenish my stash.

Sleep: Thankfully my parents came down and stayed at our house all weekend to watch Lillian so she was still in her normal environment. They did a great job at keeping her on schedule and said she slept through the night every night and if she did wake up she must have put herself back to sleep because they didn't have to go in to soothe her. She does still wake around 5ish but usually because she has a dirty diaper or the sun is coming through the window too bright. We just give her a paci and she falls back to sleep until about 6:30-7am. Her naps have changed she use to sleep really well at her morning nap but not just sleeps about an hour and then her afternoon nap is now her good long 2.5-3hr. nap.

Other Happenings:
- We left Lillian for the first time this week. Kevin was in a wedding in Hilton Head, SC so my parents came down to watch her from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon. I am so grateful they were willing to come down. It made it a whole lot easier, on me, leaving her knowing she was being well taken care of. They of course loved spending time with her and all the reports came back good each day. Here is a picture of us from the wedding. (One of my brothers did this for his wedding too but if you are getting married do what these guys did and buy suits instead of renting them. They usually come out to be about the same price as renting a tux. And the only difference in a suit and tux is that shiny part on the lapel and pants. Plus now Kevin has a nice suit.)

It was a beautiful wedding and venue and the whole weekend was wonderful. Here is a picture of the bride and groom during their first dance.

- Naturally my parents spoiled Lillian and bought her two new toys she loves playing with.

This is an old school toy (i'm pretty sure we had one similar) but it's so versatile. She can develop motor skills grasping the rings, learn colors, and we count the rings. She really likes to knock them off the tower right now.

Nana also found this awesome inflatable pool from Kohls for like $5. (I have said it before she is good at finding the bargains.)

Lillian wasn't sure about it at first and she did take a few nose dives face first but Mommy was watching her very carefully and she never inhaled or swallowed the water.

She loved splashing. (Yes that is my knee, I got in too so I could hold on to her better)

This one makes me laugh with one hand relaxed on her knee and the other back in the water like she is leaning back soakin' up the sun!

- When Kevin and I first got married we started a tradition of collecting ornaments for Xmas tree every time we went on vacation, after a few years we started to forget or never found one we liked so i decided now that Lillian is born we would start a new tradition. Anytime we go on a vacation (not just out of town to visit friends or family) we will buy a T-shirt. I'm totally a T-shirt kind of gal. Hilton Head is where Kevin and I went on our honeymoon 6 years ago. We both got Salty dog shirts at that time and they are good quality shirts so I wanted to get another one. Of course thinking of my new tradition here is the cute little shirt we got Lillian.