Simon the Photographer take on Lillian

Simon borrowed my camera to take some pictures of Lillian the other day. He is getting much better at aiming at the subject. As always, he took hundreds, but these are by far the best.

Busy week already!

Lisa's 2014 Forth of July Visit

On Forth of July weekend Auntie Lisa came to visit. We were all really excited to celebrate both the holiday and her birthday! On the 4th we went to Vickie and Joseph's house where Lisa, Alan, Joseph and Simon played ALL of the football. Simon was a rock star tackeler. Lisa and Simon lasted the longest - it made me tired just watching. 

The rest of the trip we went to street festivals, of course to scooters, out to eat a few times, lots of playing with the new train set and generally had a great time while Lisa was here. We had bunches of pictures and there are some here and some after the jump. 

Julie helping Lillian explore.

Playing Mario.

Baby wearing expert!

Loves music at the street fests!

Going for a walk to breakfast, Simon was cold so wearing my sweater.
Shortly after this he switched to Auntie Lisa's sweater.

No visit would be complete without some Train Time.

And some Lillian time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

More pictures after the jump...

Pictures of the day: Lillian crawling

Perfect summer day

This morning we went to the green city market by the Lincoln park zoo. We found a beach ball and played for hours after sampling all the free treats. What a great day :)

So photogenic. Haha!

Lillian is 8 Months Old

I say this every month, but man does time fly! This little girl is such a sweet part of our life and I am so happy to have her. She is flying through her milestones quite quickly and any day I expect her to look over her shoulder at me, laugh with joy and then run after her brother to play.

1. She crawls everywhere, usually with one foot and one knee. For a week or two she did a happy noise and a lunge/belly flop as she got close to her target which was totally adorable, she has already stopped doing this and is super fast crawling and able to transition to sitting with no issues..  
2. She can pull up to standing easily and on anything. (Watch out for small chairs or empty laundry baskets which will tip over!)
3. She will walk when you hold her fingers, but she hasn't figured out cruising yet. When she tries to cruise she steps on her own foot and tumbles over. I give it another week before she has this one figured out.
4. She falls all the time, especially when pulling up on something that isn't quite enough weight to hold her, and is usually a trooper about it. I think she's going to end up with more bruises than Simon ever got at her age.
5. We dropped her crib to the lowest setting. 
6. We did sleep training and she usually goes down around 5:30 every night - about half the time she'll happily play in her crib for an hour or so before falling asleep. She still wakes up once in the night, any time between midnight and four, for a nursing session and then sleeps until between 5:30 and 7:30 depending on how loud Simon is in the morning. 
7. She takes two naps: First around 9:00 and second around 12:30. 
8. She is eating a bunch of foods and really enjoys eating. We started with purees but now have her eating pieces of banana, super steamed carrots and puffs. She has had yogurt and prunes, but everything else she has had has been a vegetable. 
9. Still nursing and taking a bottle as a primary source of nutrition. Unfortunately we are running to the end of the freezer stash of breast milk and since I'm not pumping at work there isn't a way to keep it up. This week we started to introduce formula and she is getting 1/3 BM and 2/3 formula for her bottles during the day. I plan to continue nursing in the evening/night/morning. 
10. She has started trying to clap and will happily wave at you for goodbye or hello. 
11. She will have whole conversations by growling. SO CUTE!
12. She cries when I walk by but don't pick her up. 
13. She is the happiest darn baby I've ever seen. She has a smile for everyone and laughs with joy often. She will cry when she's hungry or if she wants to be picked up, but it's a communication method. 
14. We are starting with baby signs (to nip crying as communication in the bud!)
15. When she is on the floor and Simon walks/runs by she laughs with joy and starts crawling after him, not infrequently he then starts running away from her shouting "no, Lillian!"  We always remind him it isn't his job to take care of her and he can't yell at her, but it's a totally funny interaction and a little glimpse of the future.

Lilly day

Simon had a doctors appointment today so I just had Ladybug and this afternoon Simon is taking a monster nap so it's girl time. 

Food is tricky!!!