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.

First Visit to PA

This past weekend was really exciting because it was Lillie's first out-of-state car ride. It started with Papa coming up from NC on Friday for a quick visit and to pick up Grandma who had stayed with us since Lillie was born. While we were very thankful and needful of her hel
p, Papa, Chris, Greyson and the rest of the NC family needed her back. While it was a tough goodbye we didn't have much time to fuss before we were in the car and heading north to Lancaster, PA to visit for Pappy's birthday.


On Saturday night Lillie also went out to her first restaurant. Things went very well, and Cameron and Lillie decided to catch a little shuteye while the everyone else ate. While Lillie chose to have her dinner as well while we were out to eat, both she and Cameron were back to sleep by the time we got back to Grammy and Pappy's house. They presented us with a perfect photo op.


The next day Lillie visited Dradder and Great Pappy for the first time. Aunt Judy and Uncle Pete were there as well and everyone thought that Lillie was really cute. Great Pappy had a huge smile on his face and whenever he wasn't holding Lillie he was on the edge of his seat trying to watch her. Dradder really liked Lillie's hair and everyone laughed at Lillie's callick/mohawk. Everyone made comparisons to Lillie and Jake when he was a baby and Dradder told her favorite story about walking with Jake when he was young and filling in a hole in the road with rocks.


Lillie had a good drive home after all the excitement and in general had a really good experience with her first trip away from Annapolis. While its always sad to say goodbye to family it did feel good to get back home again. Other than her big adventure to Lancaster, Lillie has been getting some belly time and is already lifting and turning her head from side to side several times while on the floor. Here is a picture of a tucan that kept on sneaking up and kissing Lillie on the nose. She had her eye on that sneaky Tucan.

Lillie's Life: Week 2!

Lillie celebrated her 2 week birthday yesterday (and yes, we had cake again!).  At her check-up yesterday, we were surprised to learn that she now weighs 8 lb, 7 oz!  Doctors are typically happy if a baby regains their birth weight during the first 2 weeks, but Lillie almost surpassed her birth weight by a whole pound!  She's also 1 in taller than she was at birth.  Everyone who sees her comments on her long limbs, fingers, and toes.  Do we have a future Olympic beach volleyball player on our hands??  In the meantime, Lillie has been practicing her monster mash dance for Jake..

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This past weekend Lillie got to meet her Uncle Chris for the first time.  He was certainly smitten, as you can tell from the photo below.  

And last, our photographer posted a sneak peak of the photos from Lillie's session on her blog.  You can check them out here (click on blog once on the site).  We're still waiting to see all the photos from the session so stay tuned...