My 29th Birthday!

birth·day

  [burth-dey]

noun

1.

the anniversary of a birth.

2.

the day of a person's birth.

3.

a day marking or commemorating the origin, founding, or beginning of something.

4.

the festivities or celebration marking such a day or anniversary.

Duh we all know what a birthday is and Friday May 2nd was my Birthday!!! I think birthdays are the most special holiday (in a greedy way) not because you get gifts but because it's YOUR special day. People HAVE to be nice to you on your birthday (at least they should). Growing up we always got to decide what we wanted to eat for every meal on our birthday. Seriously anything. I think one year my brother had Reese cups for breakfast. Kevin is great about carrying on this tradition and said I could have anything I wanted. Well I love breakfast anyways so I was obviously going to pick a breakfast food for breakfast. The options I was pondering were Krispy Kreme donuts or Waffle House. I love both but we don't get waffle house much and always seem to find ourselves at Krispy Kreme on Sunday mornings so I chose Waffle House. We waited for Lillian to wake up and headed out before Kevin had to go to work. Since we did waffle house we totally skipped showers and I am not a happy person until I have my breakfast so there was no time to waste. Here is Lillian and I getting a quick birthday photo while we waited for our food.

Do we have sleepy eyes or what!

After breakfast we came back home, daddy went to work and Lillian went down for a nap. My mom and dad came down for the day with my PawPaw so he could see Lillian. He is a loud guy and talks non-stop so I was a little worried Lillian would be scared of him but she was great. I was able to capture a few pictures of him holding her. 

We went out for Lunch, my choice, so I picked Little Rosies. It's Mexican and I don't know why but I have been craving it lately and Kevin isn't a huge fan so this was a perfect time to go. We didn't do much the rest of the day and my family left later that afternoon. Kevin and I didn't really have any plans for that night. I like family time for birthdays so we actually went grocery shopping (something I don't like to do by myself but can't let Kevin go alone because he doesn't use the coupons) then picked up some yummy P.F. Changs to go for dinner. I had some awesome Mongolian beef but apparently they don't know how to cook brown rice because it was hard and gross. We put Lillian to bed and enjoyed our dinner and watched a movie. Nothing too spectacular but all about me and whatever I wanted to do. Oh and there was a funny story about the cake. While shopping at Kroger I decided instead of going out for "fro-yo" I wanted an ice cream cake. I prefer ice cream cake over regular cake or cupcakes. I knew they sold cakes at the store so we went and got one out of the bakery freezer. Well when we went to cut it the knife went straight through, not a good sign because the one downfall of ice cream cake is it is so hard to cut. Well we found out the hard way that the bakery puts some of their cakes in the freezer next to those Carvel ice cream cakes and we grabbed a regular cake instead. It was still really good, chocolate Oreo with cream cheese icing. It ended up being a good thing because we shared it with some friends and didn't add on any extra pounds before our beach trip. 

Lillian's present to me was her walking!! She is still working on it but she took a good 4 steps or so. We got it on video here Then Sunday we were at a friend's house with super soft carpet and Lillian took about 8 steps multiple times there. 

When we were heading out the door for breakfast I saw these beautiful flowers and a box on our table. I use to always say I think flowers are a waste of money but my mind changed somewhere along the way of life and I love them now. They make the house feel so cheery. 

Kevin surprised me with this Pandora bracelet. I typically wear my cheap Target sports watch and a hair tie on my wrists but I love this bracelet for two reasons. 1. Kevin picked it out and the first charm is Lillian's birth stone. 2. It is something nice I can wear when my sports watch is not appropriate and each new charm will symbolize something special for me. Every piece of nice jewelry I have is something Kevin bought me over the last 10 years we have been together and I haven't lost any of them. They are very special to me just as he is. Okay, enough with the mushy gushy. I had an awesome 29th birthday thanks to all my friends for the well wishes! 

Lillian's 2nd Easter

Happy Easter from our family to yours.  "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." I Peter 1:3

Here is an "Easter" song I have always loved when I was younger and always try to remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSwXq6xJNEs

A lot has changed since Lillian's first Easter and 1 year later. She got bigger but her bow got smaller. :)

 

My parents were in town because my cousin's wedding was Saturday night so we were glad they got to spend Easter with us. We went to church then headed to my cousin's house for a yummy lunch. We have been blessed to move to Huntsville and be near family who is always gracious to invite us over for holiday/family dinners. 

After lunch we came home and took naps then went up to Monte Sano for a picnic and to watch Daddy fly his RC Plane off the mountain. 

Kevin's plane is set to fly on auto pilot and it took a little longer to come back than we thought, so we were worried it had gone down never to be seen again. Luckily it flew back perfectly. 

First Easter Egg Hunts

This isn't Lillian's first Easter but it is the first year she can somewhat participate in the egg hunts. We had two this year that we went to. The first was with our moms group. Not many showed up so there were tons of eggs. We have a smart momma in the group who stuffed all the eggs with great little prizes. A few had chocolate (that momma and daddy may have already eaten) but the rest were stickers, tattoos, balls, goldfish, bubbles. Lillian actually did pretty well once she realized what she was suppose to do. She can't walk so I let her crawl from egg to egg. That didn't last long because she found dog poop so then I just bent down holding her and she would pick up the eggs shake it then put it in her basket. She shook the eggs because she loves her little egg shaker music toy and thought every egg would make that sound. Here are the pictures from Lillian's first egg hunt. It was cold out and very sunny so she didn't smile much but I know she did actually have a good time.

Listening to Mrs. Amanda read Peter Rabbit before the hunt

Special thanks to cousin Teri for our cute outfit. It is reversible and the other side has a cupcake she wore for her birthday.

Friends checking out all the eggs they got.

Lillian is easily distracted so this was the best picture we could get together. 

Our second egg hunt was at our local library. It was for children preschool and under. I am very thankful they did that for the community but it was full of kids and only lasted about 5 minutes before all the eggs were gone. Lillian's two friends Cohen and Hagen were there too so we had fun at least seeing them. 

They read an Easter book before the hunt. They were going to read a couple but I think since there were so many kids they just did one.

Lillian, Hagen, and Cohen. All born within a month of each other

Checking out all the eggs they got.

Lillian's 13th Month Summary

Not sure I remembered what all went on this month but I tried to jot stuff down throughout the month. Lillian turned 13 months old on Saturday April 19th.

"Mom, seriously put the camera down"

She does not care to take posed pictures so this was the best I could get

Sleep: Lillian's naps had become shorter (1.5 hrs. down to about 40 mins.) I thought maybe she was ready to switch over to just one nap a day so we tried it on Tuesday March 25th. Normally Lillian wakes up between 7 and 7:10 I nurse her and we hang out in bed while daddy gets ready for work then we eat breakfast around 7:45 am then she goes back to sleep at about 8:45 am. I was trying to spread things out to keep her awake and occupied so I didn't feed her actual breakfast until about 8:15. Then we watched baby Einstein, played, got dressed and headed out of the house. Luckily there was a story time going on at the library at 9:30 that morning. She cried the whole way there but she did great while we were there. Next (about 10 am) we went to the grocery store and she did awesome. But back in the car she started getting fussy and about 7 minutes from home she fell asleep. I woke her up fed her lunch then put her down for a nap at 12 pm. She woke up an hour later. Not what I was hoping for. Long story short the next day she woke up with a runny nose and very fussy she was finally cutting her 3rd tooth so we put transitioning to one nap a day on the back burner for now. She is sleeping great at night though, 11-12 hrs. About a week later she was back to sleeping an hour in the morning and about 2 hrs. in the afternoon.

Eating: Not much has changed she still will eat a ton of food one week and then not as much the next.  She generally eats whatever we are eating plus some extra veggies. She has started becoming a little more picky in that she refuses some foods one night then will eat it the next. More of like a taste preference for the night. She does eat veggies better first if we don't show her the fruit until after a few bites. She loves the little squeeze pouches of apple sauce or the fruit and veggie if i can find them on sale. I find it hard to pay $1.40 for 4oz of pureed food. She did have kale chips with Daddy for the first time and actually liked them.

Teeth: We finally cut a 3rd tooth on March 26th. She has had her four top front teeth slightly showing through the gums but one finally came through. It was her far left one of the four. You may notice in the pictures she has her paci. She used to only get it when going to sleep or in church but we realized it helps her while teething too and unfortunately I think now it is a habit we will have to break. oh well whatever makes her happy right! ;)

Walking: Lillian is standing on her own more and took 1 1/2 steps on her own while we were outside on March 28th. She has only done that maybe 2 or 3 times and I have noticed she has better balance when we are outside on the grass than inside on the carpet or hardwood. We practice her walking from Momma to Daddy and she loves it. We praise her big time and it gets her all excited so she doesn't last long before she starts to lose balance from the excitement.

We had Lillian's birthday party early so on her actual birthday we made sure to celebrate. Barnes and Noble has a Kids Club and on your birthday you get a free cupcake or cookie, 30% off list price on any one kids' book or toy for your children for joining and $5 reward for every $100 you spend on kids’ stuff online and in stores. We headed there after her nap and got our cupcake that ended up tasting like 3 days old, read a birthday book, and played with the train set.

(Her dress my cousin Teri made and is reversible with a bunny on the other side so we wore it to our Easter egg hunt too!)

Doctor Appointment: We had Lillian's 1 year checkup on March 21st. We had to wait again so she wasn't in the best mood when we got back. She is more aware of whats going on around her now and did not care for the doctor checking her ears and throat. He actually was smart and gave her a tongue depressor too and that helped distract a little. She still hates to be laid down (except for going to sleep) so that made her upset and then she had to get shots which were painful but as usual by the time we got dressed and out of the room  she was all smiles waving bye bye to everyone.

April fools day was not a good one for us. Lillian fell and hit her head pretty hard for the first time that day. Scared me to death I picked her up and immediately saw a bruise and big 'ol goose egg. Luckily it was on her forehead (pretty hard spot) and was not indented. If it is a dent instead of a goose egg go to the ER. I knew she was not seriously injured because she was crying and never lost consciousness but I still called Kevin at work in tears and he came home to check on us. Very happy that we live so close to his work so he could do that. It helped calm me and Lillian down. It had happened right after a nap for her so I didn't have to worry about her going to sleep. She was fussy later in the afternoon but I was too scared to let her go to sleep although she did end up falling asleep about 4.5 hours later during dinner in her high chair. Kevin was cooking and turned to look at her and she was out. She never falls asleep (unless in her crib or swing) unless she is REALLY tired.

Here is a picture of her poor little bruised forehead the next day.

On April 6th Lillian's fever had been gone about two days and I noticed a rash on her belly and back when I was changing her. I got worried it was an allergic reaction because I had given her peanut butter that day on some goldfish. Naturally I took a picture and sent it to my mom.

It's very hard to tell in this picture but she thought it could be Roseola. Very common virus in children but hard to know they have it until the rash shows up. So we are not sure if she had the fever, runny nose, and "loose stools" because of teething or the roseola. It was gone a day later so I never called the doctor.

We had some weather friendly days this month and took full advantage of getting outside a couple times. 

Crazy Sleeper

It is weird not posting weekly updates anymore but I plan on doing them monthly if I can remember everything that happened that month. Until then I had to make a post about how Lillian sleeps. We have a video monitor through an app on our phones,tablets, or computer. The camera itself is a Foscam IP camera (not sure of a model number but Google it and you get something that looks like this

and we use a free app called IP Cam Viewer lite. It's simple and was way cheaper than the actual baby video monitors. It has lots of features but since we just use the free app we just have video monitoring which is enough for me. If I wake up in the middle of the night worried about Lillian I just pull up the app and I can clearly see her and her chest moving up and down. Here are a couple pictures I have been taking since Lillian was about 6 months old. She is a crazy all over the place sleeper. Please ignore the adds from the screenshots. Like I said it was a free app.

One paci for the mouth and one for the hand

Daddy sleeps like this too. Must be dreaming of laying in a hammock.

She was actually still asleep here. Scared me to death when I first pulled it up

Push-ups in her sleep. Makes her Daddy proud.

I find her like this a lot.

When she wakes up from naps she always stares right at the camera like "hey Mom come get me"

Surely that can't be comfortable

She sticks her legs through the slats a lot too but has never gotten stuck

These two are from just a few weeks ago and the first time she ever tried to stand up in her crib

Conducting the Baby Einstein Orchestra in her sleep

Playing with her hair

Sleeping sitting up

We have a hair twirler

This was one of the first ones. Crazy sleeper = crazy hair

Too long to sleep sideways anymore

Booty in the air is her typical position