Merry Christmas Lillian Mae!

Merry Christmas!! We all love you!

Pictures!

The top pic was Lilly with her first balloon at her first bday party! She thought it was the coolest toy ever! And yes Logan is giving her a sucker. She couldnt have birthday cake yet!

Also, on another note, I really did have a good time visiting everyone in Missouri. It was still worth the trip to surprise everyone! We were even able to take a 5 generation picture. Lilly got to spend time with many family members and we both loved it! Here are some pictures fromt trip:

Update! Update! Read all about it!

(I'd like to post more pics but blogger is being dumb so for right now this is all you get. I promise to add more later...)

I'm sorry I haven't been on here to keep everyone updated. I feel like I went on vacation and everything was a whirlwind after that. Speaking of vacation, many of you know how rough it was. For those of you who don't, let me put it this way: NEVER never never EVER go on a ten day vacation without Daddy with a 6 month old. It was horribly stressful and probably one of the toughest times I've ever gone through, including my last semester of college. Lilly wouldn't sleep so I would get roughly 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Some nights were better but I honestly think that I was only able to have one night where I got around 6 hours of sleep and that was because Grandma took her from me and babysat while I tried to sleep.

Things really didn't get much better after I got back. Lilly has really created a strong attachment to me now thus creating this clingy little baby who cries if her mommy is farther than 5 feet away. Logan and I have struggled with her sleeping habits and her attachment to him. We have since then moved Lilly downstairs into her own room, in her own crib. Yes yes, Mommy is growing up! :) It was hard but very needed. We also decided to let Lilly cry herself back to sleep at night instead of me waking up to either give her a pacifier, nurse her, or whatever else would work. I felt so guilty that first night but wow! what a world of difference it has made. Lilly is sleeping entirely on her own and we can tell she's much more rested and I can tell that I'm not waking up 3-4 times a night. She's becoming more independent every day when it comes to sleeping. Tonight I wanted to rock her for awhile but she wouldn't have it so I laid her down and she grabbed her Tigger and snuggled up with it and kind of looked at me like, "Come on Mom! I want to go sleep her. Leave please!"

We have also gone through the first cold of Lilly's life. Then after the cold had subsided a bit I noticed fluid coming from her ear so I took her to the doctor and found out she had infections in BOTH ears. Poor poor little baby. And poor poor Mommy and Daddy. :) We suffered too let me tell you! We have had one little grumpy baby the past few weeks. Finally on Wednesday I started seeing glimpses of my happy little girl again. I was so overcome by joy! She's back to giggling and smiling. Yah! Tonight she actually played by herself and with Daddy while Mommy was in the other room for a full hour! I was starting to think that would never be possible. hehe.

And although all of this has been going on and it may all seem negative, I am still greatly enjoying being a mom. I have long days, especially this week because I started working full time at a home day care. I do love it and like being able to still be with Lilly all day but it is taking a lot out of me. But those long days, have glorious nights and I am reminded by how wonderful it is to have a little girl who wants to love on and cuddle with me.

Lilly is completely mobile now. She crawls all over the place. Thanksgiving was lots of fun having her keep joining me in the kitchen. She has even started pulling up on my leg and trying to get up the stairs (time for a gate). She has gotten into the dog food so it is now into a more secure location. That is, until she realizes she can crawl all the way down the hallway. She is also waving at people. That has been so cute. People get all giddy about it and it suprizes them too. Her word she likes to repeat over and over is "hey" and "babba." It's so much fun to have her express herself with facial expressions. We've been having a blast playing with her. She also has two teeth and man, can she ever use those two teeth. She has learned the joy of animal cookies as well. They aren't as messy as those teething biscuits at least.

I feel like this age goes so fast. I'm barely realizing one new development before she starts on another! It's hard to keep up! It's has been a lot of fun though. I can't wait to see what comes up next! :)

Dear Lilly at 5 months

Hey there pumpkin!

Wow, what can I say about these past two months. So much has happened it's hard to know where to start. You've grown from a little blob of jelly to a baby that can support herself and look around. You sit in your high schair now all by yourself and you're eating more than just yummy good stuff from mommy. Unfortunately, with that come really stinky poop that makes me want to pass out or lose my breakfast sometimes. I remember the night Logan came in with this look of utter amazement and said "she has human poop!" I laughed so hard and you laughed at me laughing.
I love it when you do so many things. I love it when you try to take the spoon from me when I'm feeding you and it gets all over your hair and your eyes and your neck. I still don't know how it got all the way under your diaper and stuck onto your butt that one day! I love it when we're in the car and I can call your name and you stretch your neck real hard to see me and then give me the biggest smile like you thought you were the only one in the car and then suddenly there I am! I love it when you are starting to get tired and you just bury your head into my chest and leave it there for a few seconds. Or when you just lay in my lap after eating and you just stare up at me with this look of complete satisfaction and contentment. I love it when you are having a blast in your jumperoo and I'll walk by and you automatically raise your arms and look at me with the most hopefull look on your face. These moments make my heart melt and I fall in love with you all over again.
I know that right now is a bit of a tough time because you are growing so fast and feel like you can do anything but then get frustrated when you can't. You have started rocking and lunging forward, so I know that crawling will come soon and I am just not ready for that at all. I can't believe you are going to be crawling and then walking soon. It just doesn't seem to have been that long for you to be crawling yet!

Well, I want you to know that I love you so very much and although you recently have liked to wake me up early early in the morning or be really really cranky at night, I still love you and will always love you. Thank you for being such a wonderful happy baby.

Aunt Amy and Uncle Chris meet Lilly!

Amy and Chris made there way to Arizona this past week. We had a blast visiting with them. They both did a great job watching over her and giving me a little bit of a break. Lilly even got spoiled a little! Amy kept buying her presents. Chris even bought her a Tigger. She likes snuggling up with it to sleep. We had fun going to the zoo, up the mountain, playing at the dog park, and lots of other places. Here are some fun pictures of their visit!






So Lilliy has officially found her legs and feet. She has also started chewing on her feet and is now able to sit up well enough to sit in her high chair to eat! So my mom gave me the advice to mix the cereal with pears or applesauce and I'm sooo glad she did. Lilly has absolutely LOVED eating it now. She starts grunting and whining when I don't give it to her fast enough! Logan was able to feed her on Saturday and Sunday so I took some pictures!

Lilly says mama!

So not too many things to report....ok,ok, you're probably thinking, Lilly saying "mama" isnt much to report? :P You're right! I was in the car and Lilly is blabbering and then clear as day she says mama. She stops, then starts blabbering and says it again! She hasn't said it since no matter how hard Logan tried to get her to say it. So we've been dealing with teething and it is no fun. There really hasnt been too much else going on but I'll post some pictures for you! Top left is when we went swimming and the bottom right is a sneak peek of her Halloween costume!

Eating time!

At Lilly's 4 month check up our doctor told us to start cereal since Lilly was still eating every 2 hours and seemed interested in food. We have noticed that she watches us eat and eyes our food. It is cute to see her stare at Logan taking bites of his food and then she sticks out her tongue. So last Monday I started feeding Lilly rice cereal and the looks on her face were hilarious! From what I can tell, Lilly does not like rice cereal. I tasted it and I don't blame her. I think it's tastes like wet cardboard. It is so bland. She keeps pushing it out so it's also a big mess.









With the rice cereal has come a lot of crankiness and not sleeping. She refuses to take naps and at night she has been fighting sleeping too. We aren't sure whether the cereal had something to do with it so we stuck with the cereal for a week and since things have not changed, we are taking a break to see if it helps. So far she is still fighting it so it might not be the cereal. We'll see!

OK, so I have something else to add to my list of things I'm not supposed to do. :) Logan and I went to Arby's tonight and Lilly was a little cranky so I handed her a fry and she put it in her mouth! At first she kinda scrunched up her nose but then she smacked her mouth and started gumming it. It was so cute. I ran out to the car and grabbed the camera. I got some great pictures. The funny thing was that when we took the fry away she started cryng so we gave it back to her and she stopped! I can't believe we already have a fry-lovin baby. What have we got ourselves into?!

Camping with a 4 month old

For labor day weekend the Freeman and the Garland family joined efforts to go camping for four days and three nights. We trekked across the Superstition Mountains, through Apache Juntion and Mesa where the trip finally came to an end at the bottom of the Mongollon Rim. The campground was covered in beautiful tall pines.









We had everything set up and sat around the fire eating hot dogs the first night. Lilly went to bed early but at about 10 pm she woke up a little upset and scared I think. She didn't recognize where she was and it was a strange new environment. Most of the next day we looked at other campsites and wrote down our favorites. The next day we went on a hike and I felt bad because Lilly got a little too much sun. She didn't seem to mind though. I really think she liked the outdoors. She slept in all four days. She was happy and content the whole time. She loved sitting by the fire, probably bcause of how it warm it was.

I think by the time we made it home we were all happy to be back though.

Meeting Aunt Tara

Lilly got to meet her "aunt" Tara a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to write about it yet. We had a lot of fun and Lilly liked to cuddle with Tara. Tara and I did lots of shopping so therefore Lilly did too. I think Lilly got more things than I did! She was really tired of being in her carseat so by the end of the week when I put her in it she would whine and cry and stomp her little feet. I never knew that babies knew how to have tantrums at such a little age! Thursday night Logan babysat Lilly while Tara and I went out for a girls night out. It was the first time Lilly went to bed without me feeding her and it was a little hard for me but I had a good time.









The Saturday that Tara left, Logan and I were able to enjoy the Broadway presentation of The Lion King while Aunt Pam and Uncle Brian babysat. It was SOO good. I got chills and didn't want it to end at all. Logan and I had a good time relaxing and just being with each other. Here is a really good picture of all three of us right before we left. Aren't we a beautiful family? :)

Rolling Over

We finally captured her rolling over on video! It's so cute, just look!


Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Giggles and Thumb sucking

Lilly has officially started to giggle. So far Logan can provoke the most giggles and it's usually when he's giving her a bath. I've heard her giggle twice. The first time was in the mall when Logan was playing a game with her. The second time was when all I had to do was roll over and look at her after waking up in the morning! Logan can get her to giggle when he washes behind her ears and kisses her neck. It's so cute and we keep trying to get her to do it more and show other people but so far no one has heard it yet. She is also sucking her thumb. Sometimes she wants her pacifier and sometimes her thumb. If we give her the pacifier and she doesn't want it, she scrunches her face all up and spits it out and then sticks her thumb in her mouth. She looks at me like "DUH mom, I want my thumb not that stupid plastic thing you keep shoving in my mouth, don't you know any better?" So now when she sleeps we her slurp slurp slurp. We put her to bed one night and we kept hearing this sound and we were wondering what it was. Finally it dawned on us that it was her sucking noise coming across the baby monitor!

Lilly has totally been grumpy these past few days so in any of my free time I've been holding her as much as possible. Tara came to visit so this whole past week has been shopping and sight seeing. Plus Matt was here the week before. So, needless to say Lilly has spent a lot of time in her carseat. We do have some fun play times though. Even with the grumpiness she is still a happy baby with lots of grins and gurgles. She's started to try a say "k" and "d" sounds now. Logan was changing her one night and came in all proud and told us that she said the word "Ikea" and so for the next half hour we're all staring at Lilly trying to get her to say it again. :) Most of the time I can't make out what she's saying because of all the slobber, but it's stil so darn cute!

Pic: Doesn't she look cute in her dress Aunt Tara and Uncle Chris got her? She's finally able to wear some new clothes!

"The Manny"

Last week Matt Ewart came to visit Lilly and of course us too. I really think it was just to come see a different part of the U.S. which he didn't really take to. The desert was too brown and dull for him. :) We had a lot of fun and took in a lot of things in just 3 short days. Matt really took to Lilly and was an AWESOME babysitter. He dubbed himself "the Manny" off of Ice Age. And boy was he like that too. He toted her around and even wore he front carrier with her in it, which we now call a papoose because of him. He got her in and out of the car and held her at home all the time. He kept saying that he wasn't ready for kids but he sure fooled me! He made my job very easy and I quite enjoyed feeling spoiled. Lilly got to hike up a little mountain at Gate's Pass and enjoy a bottle while she was at it. Mommy was tired after that endeavor! After that we visited the Botanical Garden but Lilly got really hot so we took a break in the only cool place we could find- the bathroom. And yes, you may think this is gross but Lilly was really hot and I felt really bad for her so I laid her down on the tile in the bathroom to let her cool down. She seemed to enjoy it though. :) It was a lot cooler and made a much happier baby. We had a lot of fun with "the Manny" and I know we miss him!