Lillian's First Step

Lillian took her first steps on Saturday morning August 2nd. Amazingly there was whole crowd to witness! Alan, Emily, Simon and Colleen were all in the room watching her as she took her first hesitant step, then had a controlled decent and a very fast crawl. She is only 9 months old so we are prepared for our little girl to be a mover and a shaker.

Every day since we have coaxed her into taking another step or so, but she is not nearly as excited about it as we are and refuses to perform for a camera. I gave up waiting for a picture!

I want this

Lillian has been fiercely teething and her two top middle teeth just broke. When I set her down on her changing pad the first thing she does is sit up and grab the ora-jel and try to figure out how to open it and put it in her mouth. Precocious. 

Sick Simon

Poor Simon threw up this morning. He came into my bathroom as I was stepping in the shower and started whining and I sent him downstairs to get Alan to give him breakfast (which is his normal routine - Simon knocks on the cellar door and Alan stops exercising to give Simon a yogurt or cereal). But this morning when Alan walked up the stairs from the basement Simon was sitting in the Blue Chair right at the top of the cellar steps with throw up on the floor in front of him. Poor kid doesn't remember ever throwing up before and didn't know what to do so he just sat quietly, holding Kitty and waiting for someone to come help him. 

He spent the first hour of the morning throwing up and finally he told us he was hungry. We gave him a bit of oatmeal which he devoured and some Tylonol to try to head off the fever he felt like he was getting. Within an hour he was definitely fever-full, but it broke while we were reading stories. He spend the morning relaxing on the couch reading with me and then watching some Thomas the Train. Went down for nap without a complaint and will hopefully be feeling better this afternoon.

Skyping with Auntie Amy

Auntie Amy was reading the Cat in the Hat for Simon while they Skyped. They both got their tea ready before they started the story.

Lillian's 9 month pictures

I've been trying to take a monthly picture of Lillian and I've been pretty good about it. Here are the 9 month pictures. Lots more after the jump.

Lillian is 9 months old

Nine Months Old Already! Below are some notes on Lillian now.

1. She has started the very beginnings of speaking. When you say up, she repeats 'ph, ph'. We're not 100% sure if she's mimicking or trying to learn the word, but I still think she is on track to say her first word before she turns one. I predict it will be up - just like her brother. :) (I'm pushing up, Alan is awesomely pushing mama.)
2. She can stand for 20-30 seconds on her own and then has a controlled decent. Alan's been helping her walk while holding only one finger, which she is okay with but she much prefers holding two fingers when she goes on walkabout.
3. She can cruise around like there is no tomorrow, but she is best at circular things. 
4. She love, love, loves her brother. If Lillian wakes up from her nap before Simon she crawls all around looking for him around every corner.
5. She laughs with joy when she sees someone she knows - like me or Alan coming home from work.
6. She has slept through the night, 5:30 pm to 5-6pm for 6 nights in a row (that makes it the new normal!)
7. For her sleep routine: She takes a bottle or nurses, then we sing a song and rock her a bit then put her into bed awake, usually very wide eyed awake. She looks up at you with big eyes, watching as you walk away. When you touch the door she cries, you open and close door and she cries for about 10-15 seconds and then gives up and plays for 10-15 minutes and falls asleep. 
8. She usually naps for about 2 hour stretches and is taking two naps. She goes down for the first between 8-9 and the second between noon-1.
9. We mainly gave her veggies purees, though she had some applesauce and prunes
1. Broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, peas, beats, sweet potato, mashed potato, etc 
10. She has started eating foods that are more solid as well.
1. cubed avocado, cubed carrot, cubed sweet potato
2. 1/4 blue berries, cheerios, rice cakes, scrambled egg, yogurt, watermelon, banana bread, pretty much anything I'm eating that I think she can chew. 
11. When she is fussy she usually has a reason, she is hungry or tired. Though sometimes she will fuss because she is lonely and wants to be a part of the action. 
12. In general, Lillian likes to be in-the-thick of things.  Lillian jumps right in, exploring and touching things to learn. 
13. She is definitely in the phase where she puts everything into her mouth. At the park the other day she was putting wood chips in her mouth faster than I could pull them out and finally I had to just confine her to the swing. (She would much rather have eaten every wood chip in the park.)
14. Like her brother, Lillian absolutely loves the drawers on the TV stand. She usually crawls right up to them as soon as you set her down in the living room.  Then she reaches out to them, pauses with her hand about an inch away and then looks at you and then goes for it. We say 'Not for you, Lillian' and then remove her hand and move her. She laughs. Then we play it again. Just today I said 'not for Lillian' and she let go of the handle, sat back, looked at me, then went for the drawer handle again. I guess that's progress! I think she knows she's not supposed to touch them at least and does it now for the attention. 
15. She loves singing. She loves it when you sing, she loves to listen to the radio and if she's in the car with no music on then she will sing to herself.
16. She licks everything. Everything. Arms, knees, pant legs, couches, toys, walls, floors - you name it, she licks it. She especially likes to lick (or try to lick if I'm fast) shoes. *shudder* I really try to be fast to prevent the shoe licking. 
17. Loves the little riding car as much as Simon loved it. She just sits and holds the wheel at 10 and 2 and smiles at the world as it goes by. If you stop the car she cranes her head around to figure out what's wrong, if you stop too long she reaches to the ground to see if there are any leaves she can pick up and eat. 
18. Suddenly she has decided that she no longer loves diaper changes. In fact, they might be torture. She wiggles, she twists, she tries to crawl right off the edge of the table - anything to get away. When she has the new diaper on she sits up and tries to find something to put in her mouth.
19. She has a little tick, a slight head shake like she's saying no. At this age Simon had a head tilt that was similar. She will grow out of it, but it's super cute and looks like she's either super excited or disappointed with you depending on her expression.

Sunday Park Day

Sunday afternoon we went on a family walk and stopped at Merryman Park. We haven't been here much since they redid it because the main feature is rope climbing, but Simon was great at it. He needed a spot from Alan since it was his first time, but it won't be long before he'll will be up and down it by himself. We also spent some time swinging and then went to The Piggery, which is a great new place up on Addison. Nice, calm family afternoon.

Relaxing after his climb.

Loves swinging!

Practicing swinging by himself.

Focus, Mama, they're winning!

Is it still Daddy? It IS!