Mid-May visit to PA

In mid-May we traveled up to Lancaster to see Grammy, Pappy, Aunt Jess, Uncle Jason, and Cameron. Before we left we had a chance to show Lillie the flowers in our front bed. She really enjoyed the purple irises.
As soon as Lillie and Cameron saw each other they grabbed each other's hands. It was very cute.
Although Lillie has caught up in size Cameron is still a little bigger. Here he puts his arm around his little cousin.
However, he quickly tired of that cute stuff and started throwing elbows.
Lillie fought back by chomping on his arm.
In the end though, they have each other's back.
Lillie showed Pappy her new favorite game. She likes to be taller than everybody so that she can look down at everyone. However, I'm not sure who had more fun with Lillie's game, her or Pappy.
Despite the elbow throwing incident of 2009, Lillie showed Cameron and Aunt Jess how to use her new seat.
Cameron thought the seat was pretty sweet.
Before we left for home we went out to eat in memory of Great Grammy, who passed away just before Lillie was born. Great Grammy would have loved these two very much and she is missed a great deal by all of us.

Lillie is growing like a weed and really starting to become aware of her surroundings. We are having a great time growing with her. She started daycare two weeks ago, which was hard on us and tiring for her. She is used to getting her beauty sleep between feedings but at daycare she has plenty of stimulation to keep her awake all day. So we are all learning to deal with this new change in our life. Other than that, Lillie is now beginning to sleep in her crib opposed to her vibrating bouncer. She now knows what her hands are and how she can use them to her benefit. She is also aware that her feet exist but she isn't really sure what they are there for yet. It's fun to watch her learn these lessons.

After eating Lillie loves to hug Mama and look around for Daddy. This activity makes her become all smiles.

Lillie is also becoming aware of Iris. Iris has begun to rub her head on Lillie's hand if it is out there and she will even give Lillie a sniff from time to time. Lillie hasn't yet reached for Iris but she does like to watch her.

This week we tried Lillie's seat. Being upright without Mama or Daddy holding her was a little confusing at first.

However, Iris came by to assure Lillie that all was good and Lillie relaxed and began to enjoy her new lounging option.

Lillie is also a champ at eating from her bottle now. Daddy no longer gets the angry-red eyes when trying to stick this rubber milk source in Lillie's mouth. In fact, Lillie goes after it when she sees it. It took a good deal of patience and persistence from Lillie, Daddy, and Grandma in NC, but she was ready and fine with the bottle when she started daycare.
While the new seat is a lot of fun, the old activity mat is also increasing in fun value. Monkey is always following Lillie around and has established himself as Lillie's #1 go-to friend for smiles and laughs (after Mama and Daddy that is).
Now she has the hang of the new seat and really likes her time in it. No problem holding that head up. In fact, the manager at Lillie's daycare asked what we feed her because her daughter who is a month older still doesn't hold her own head up when on her tummy. Lillie continues to pack weight into her cheeks and legs. Daddy has begun calling her "Stay-Puft Marshmallow Baby", and Mama calls her "Chunky Muffin". Of course, "Chow Monkey" is still the name we both use.
She has really become interested in those feet. Not sure what they do or why they don't function like the same as the things on the end of her arms, but she sure has fun checking them out.
Last month Lillie visited PA and hungout with her cousin Cameron.  They got matching outfits at their baby showers and obviously had to try them on. They are too cute for words.
In NC for Daddy's birthday Lillie and her big cousin Greyson helped blow out the candles on the volcano birthday.
Lillie really loves to suck on her fingers now. Not a big fan of the pacifier, but the fingers work magic. She is very opportunistic and will also make use of anybody else's fingers that happen to be in the area when needed.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks to go with the last post.

Lillie and Lillie sharing some of life's secrets. It is truly wonderful to see these two people together.

Our little cup cake flashing that smile.

Now-a-days Lillie seems to be quite content in her bouncer, especially with the morning sun helping keep her warm.

Putting Lillie up on our shoulders to burp is no longer working so well. She wants to see what is going on all the time and facing the wall just won't cut it.

A good head scratch is worth a baby's smile, or at least Lillie seems to think so.

Tummy time is starting to get exciting. Again, this girl needs to see what is happening around her so as soon as she hits the floor her head comes up.

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!).

10 lbs and counting!

Lillie had her one month check-up today at which we learned that she now weighs 10 lbs and is 22 in. long!  Our little chow monkey definitely loves to eat!  In addition to eating, Lillie has learned to smile, which of course we love.  She still likes to sleep, as you can see below, but sometimes she has to keep one eye open so that she won't miss something important.  And of course she still has to practice the Monster Mash dance, even in her sleep sometimes.

Aside from all of the eating, smiling, and sleeping, Lillie still finds time to do a little crying.  We won't show you a photo of that, but we will show you a photo of Iris' reaction.  Apparently Iris is a fan of the ostrich technique of trying to hide from your problems!

Over the weekend, Grammy and Pappy came to visit.  We enjoyed hanging out at the house and relaxing with Lillie.  We also went down to the city dock in Annapolis for our first family portrait by the water.

 

The amazing mirror

Here is Lillie's jungle activity mat picture. She usually enjoys the mat for 10-15 minutes and then she is ready for something else. We can't wait for her to start trying to reach for the items, but for now she enjoys looking at the lights and the mirror.

4 Weeks Old

Lillie has reached 4 weeks old as of today. Friday will be her one month birthday. She is growing and beginning to make lots of new and cute faces for us to take pictures of, such as this one.
Lillie also experienced her first snow this week. We got about an inch and a half, so not too much. Just enough to get Lillie outside for a couple quick photos.
Lillie is getting more and more time on the floor with her jungle activity mat. Although none of the exciting things hanging from the jungle mat are as interesting to Lillie as a light bulb, she does like to check herself out in the mirror.
She is also getting to spend some time in her bouncer. She doesn't like to spend too much time in the bouncer but the vibrations do seem to help with her hiccups sometimes. This past weekend the weather was warm enough for us to get Lillie outside again. On Saturday we took her downtown for her first trip to the city dock in Annapolis. We met Ross downtown for lunch. Ross is the Naval Academy Midshipman that we sponsor.Sunday was warm enough to be outside without a jacket. Before watching the Super Bowl we took Lillie outside for a breath of fresh air on our screened in porch. Shortly thereafter our friends Andrew, Michelle, and Will came down from Towson to hang out before the game.Lillie continues to like her baths. This weekend she got to try out her hippo towel. Overall life is simple but sweet.