M.I.A.

Sorry we've been missing in action for the last few weeks!  Around the end of February, Lora and Lillie traveled to NC to hang out with Grandma, PaPa, etc. while Jake traveled to Hawaii for work (or so he says!).  She also finally got to met her great grandma Lillie, her namesake.  Needless to say it was awesome to finally be able to introduce them and it was obviously love at first sight for both of them.  Since returning back to MD, Lora has started back to work full-time.  It's been challenging and tiring to say the least!  Parenthood certainly is an adventure, or maybe a mystery is a better description.  Trying to figure out what Lillie wants at any time is like trying to read a mystery novel with an ending that keeps changing.  I guess it makes sense that her likes and dislikes will change rapidly since she herself is physically changing so rapidly (she's now 12 lb 2 oz and 23 in).  To exemplify, here are a few things we've learned over the past month:

1.  Lillie absolutely loves being held and will sleep for hours like an angel in someone's arms.

2.  Lillie loves her pack-n-play and will sleep like a rock in it.

3.  Lillie hates her pack-n-play with a passion and refuses to sleep in it.

4.  Lillie hates the bouncer seat.

5.  Lillie loves the bouncer seat and it's one of the few ways to get her to sleep.

6.  Lillie hates being swaddled and is doing a decent job of being able to sleep with her arms free.

7.  Lillie keeps waking herself up with her arms and hands and will now only fall asleep and stay asleep when swaddled or held (see #1).

Somehow, the only thing we've learned that has not been amended is that she loves to be held when sleeping.  Unfortunately this is something that we can't do 24/7 even though we love to cuddle with her.  Any volunteers out there to travel to MD and hold our baby 24/7?  I wonder what she'll teach us next??

Aside from keeping us guessing with her sleeping preferences, she's also keeping us guessing as to when she's going to laugh.  She laughs when she's falling asleep, which is adorable, but has yet to laugh out loud when she's awake.  PaPa and Jake claim that they heard her laugh when we were down in NC but I don't know if I believe it!  She's definitely getting close though because she'll sort of squeal and squeak when she gets super happy.  We'll have to figure out how to post some video of it.  

All in all, she's getting bigger, stronger, smarter, cuter, and more beautiful every day.  As such, we are falling in love with her more every day, even though I didn't think it was possible to love her more than the first time we laid eyes on her.  Parenthood is pretty sweet, or I'm just delirious from lack of sleep (just kidding!).