A few more pictures from my phone (May 2014)

Spring session of music class, Lilly and her buddy, Reed. Both are sporting some awesome hair.

Music is her favorite!!

Playdate with her friend, Owen, at the Seattle Children's Museum!

Lilly & Owen just taking it all in :)

Hehe, looks like she is taking the selfie ;)

Amazingly adorable ponytail!

Summer Vacation Has Arrived!!

Guys! It's finally here! I'm officially off for the summer with my little bestie! 

Eek, I cannot contain my excitement. (Well...can I ever? No.) But, seriously. 

And, if we want to get technical...I'm still teaching Creative Movement classes 2 hours a week at the preschool & will be visiting my summer camps everyday where I will probably end up teaching and dancing because I cannot resist. But--- AH! I'm "off" and get to play super mom everyday. So cool!

Remember that Bucket List I made for Lilly Belle & I?

We have already checked off a few of the items on that list. She is at such a fun age right now and I am soaking up every-single-second of her littleness. Yes, littleness. 

Here is the list again in case you forgot what was all on it ;)

Items we have crossed off include:

-Going swimming (twice already!) We went alone one evening when it was super nice out and we needed to get out of the house. Lilly Belle enjoyed lounging in the kids chairs and playing with a sweet neighbor girl named, Alice (how cute is that name?!) We also went swimming with Daddy, Uncle Clint & Auntie Mel a couple weekends ago. We love our pool and feel lucky that we have one this summer. (*getting technical again- it's our apartment pool but whatevs)

-Painting! You can read my post tomorrow all about Lilly's first painting experience. Here is a sneak peak....

-Of course, we have been reading :)

On Wednesday we will be able to check off "Visit Wisco Family" & while we are there I am sure we can check off "Wisconsin Dells" and visiting the zoo!

So much fun ahead of us! 

Lilly Belle 10 Months : Just Pictures

Lilly loves coming with me to dance class. She loves music, dancing & being around all the kids. This photo was taken while she was watching the kids practice their hip hop routine.

Lilly went to her first baseball game and we got to sit in fun seats with free food because it was for Uncle Chris's work. Girlfriend stayed up until 11pm...would not go to sleep. She was perfectly happy just hanging out. Angel baby.

Piggies at the park. Lilly is still super observant! Sometimes we just go to the park, sit in the grass & watch the kids when we're done swinging. She loves waving at everyone and listening to the kids.

Besties. These two are always next to each other. She wakes up from her naps saying "dog dog" ... he walks past her room while I'm nursing her and it's all over "dog dog! dog dog! dog dog!" 

Her favorite is to go for doggy rides around the living room. I hold onto her and he walks around the room and she belly laughs. He doesn't even care,  he just licks her to death when we're all done. It's hilarious. (Note* this was a day where she had a tantrum every time I changed her so we have an unbuttoned onesie with no pants. Also...her sweater used to be her Auntie Cirrah's) :) 

This girl cannot get enough of macaroni and cheese!

Silly girl in her toy corner. She took all her toys out and then shortly after got super frustrated being surrounded and not really sure how to escape it all. 

Super concentration!

When she's really trying to do something...the tongue comes out (just. like. her daddy)

Playdate with her buddies :)

Lunch date with Daddy at U-Village

Learning how to go "cheeeeese"!

Playtime in Kids Cove at the mall aka: germ city 

Silly baby!

She does this everyday. 

Big girl in her Tinkerbell chair :) 

I cannot believe how much she has changed in just one month! 

Love this girl!!

Lilly Belle: Ten Months

For Lilly Belle's 10 month photo shoot I had to practice my patience & reminded myself throughout "it's only a sticker, it's only a sticker..." ;) Our little girl is busy, on the move & full of energy! There would be no sitting still for my little best friend on this exciting day :) 

Ignore the dog hair...Cogsy refuses to follow the no couch rule & on this day he got away with it one too many times - embarassing. 

Mommy took a deep breath, took a picture of the damn sticker and then...let your curious little self go to town figuring out what it was. :) 

and then...we went and put some piggies in because the headband I made you was too tight :) 

LILLIAN BELLE : TEN MONTHS OLD

Weight: no clue :) Oops. I know she has a great little belly & still some chub on her arms and legs, so we'll go with Weight: Healthy! 

Health: Lilly has been healthy so far this month. No teething, colds or anything :)

Sleep: We had 2 amazing nights this past month that she slept 10 hours straight through the night. And then...2 days later we moved and she had her own room. So...I'm still an exhausted mama who wakes up to feed my sweet girl at least twice every night. I know, I know... we need to let her cry. I'm almost ready. ... I think. 

Social: Lilly Belle continues to be our little social butterfly and now add to the list...entertainer. I brought her to Hip Hop with me and she had the entire class laughing as she would go "ha ha ha!" and then wait as they all laughed. Once they stopped...she would say it again "ha ha ha!" and then the whole class along with LB were belly laughing. I love that I can bring her with me sometimes. She loves it. She loved watching the "big kids" and "dancing" with them. 

Lilly now likes to say, "hi" when we walk in the door.  In her own way of course it is not clear but we know that is what she is saying because she waves at the same time. 

She is quite the little ham and loves to give strangers at the store scrunchy flirty smiles :) 

She is obsessed with watching kids and being around kids. She especially likes when they are older kids, she's not so interested in babies. She loves to wave and give sassy smiles to everyone we see and now lets other adults hold her no problem. 

In the social department...she is definitely my mini. Yay!! 

**Side Note to my Lilly Belle: Go girlfriend! Make friends with the world. I'm all for that. Never stop waving and smiling at everyone. You put smiles on so many peoples faces everyday. See...you're already changing the world :) 

Schedule: Lilly continues to take a long morning and another long afternoon nap if we let her just do her thing without lots of plans and excitement during the day. For the most part she can stay up for 2-4 hours.

On average (without interruptions) this is our day with her...
7am (isn): wake up / nurse / cuddle with us in bed watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
7:30am : Eat breakfast
8:00am : Morning Nap
9-10am : Wake Up and play or run errands 
12:00pm : Nap
1-2pm : Lunchtime
3-4pm : Last nap
6:00pm : Dinner / Bath...etc.
7:00pm : Bedtime
All night long...wake up mommy for nursing and snuggles ;) 

Diet:  Lilly still nurses a few times at night, when she wakes up & then 2 or 3 times during the day (sometimes) and then before bed. Somedays lately she won't nurse at all during the day. I think she is going to ween perfectly at my 12 month goal. I'm fine nursing her before bed and when she wakes up after that, but I too am feeling ready to be done nursing during the day. Is it silly that a lot of the reason is so I can wear all my clothes and normal bras again? 

Our little peanut eats basically everything we eat now. Everything from macaroni and cheese to Chipotle ;) I could and probably will do a separate post on this because we are having so much fun with meal time! She loves eating!! 

Clothes: She is wearing mostly 9 month clothes but I just got out all of her 12 month clothes and they fit her perfectly as well. She also still fits in her 6 month onesies.   

Baby Gear Love:  We still swaddle her every night with her Aden & Anais swaddles and love them but she's usually unswaddled within about 10 minutes. We found we still need to swaddle her anyway as it is her cue that it is actual bedtime and not a nap. She still uses her shopping cart cover almost daily & we love our Britax stroller and Ergo. She is now all done with her baby tub and is in the regular tub which she loves because we have a big garden/soaker tub. She crawls all around in there lol.

Crying: She really doesn't cry that often. Usually just when she is tired and wanting to go down or if we are putting her arms in her sleeves she fusses and gets mad. She still cries when I drop her off at Jodee's too but only sometimes Jodee said she stops right away once I'm gone :) And lately, as of super recent, Lilly will throw a full on temper tantrum, throwing herself all around and flipping to her tummy when I try to put her in her carseat. We use lots of distraction like puffs to avoid this. Matt doesn't want to switch her to her big girl carseat yet (I think he wants to keep her little) but I'm going to go out and get it asap because it's clear she is ready and is no longer a fan of laying back in the car. She wants to look around more. 

Likes:  I think her favorite things are still music, water, mommy/daddy, nana/papa & being around kids. She loves going to her Kindermusik class each week and could still stay in the bath for hours if we let her. Lilly Belle loves Peek-a-Boo & tickles. She is just such a happy baby. It's hard to pin point what are her favorites because she is just so easy going and happy. 

Lilly still loves music! She likes when we sing and dance with her. Her favorite thing is when we tickle her tummy with our noses and play a game trying to give her kisses and she pushes us away. I think other than music, her favorite is just being around other kids. Put her in a room full of kids and she is as happy as can be!  

Milestones:  As of May 24th, Lilly Belle can officially crawl! She is everywhere! And, as of May 25th, she now takes steps while holding our hands. She has been difficult to contain. Our sweet girl who used to be so good at sitting still and just "chill in" is now still incredibly sweet but all over the place!! It is hilarious to watch her chase Cogsy around. She is talking more now as well and added a few new words to her vocabulary: dog dog, ca ca (Cogsy) - also a new letter sound for her/Hard C, daddy daddy daddy (saying it as fast as she can), and her own version of "yay!" I will count her social growth as a milestone as well because that has been amazing to watch her transform from a quiet and timid baby to outgoing, strong & independent :) I love it! She is still observant and still has moments of quiet, but she loves to talk! 

And...for a picture overload. I need to do like 3 more posts to fit them all from this month. We had a busy and exciting month :) 

Zoo day on Mother's Day

Dinner at the Space Needle to celebrate Auntie Mel graduating from WSU

Girlfriend lasted through an almost 3 hour meal at the Space Needle without crying or fussing once. 

Love her sweet little profile.

She has perfected standing this month!

Sweet happy girl

Lilly learned how to go from laying down to sitting up this past month...and then soon after learned how to pull to stand in her crib. She thought it was hilarious for a while. 

Sometimes I just cannot handle her cuteness.

Helping mommy & daddy move :) 

Selfies with my best friend are always the best entertainment - she loves making silly faces with me in the camera and then we send them to daddy at work ;)

Out of order, but Lilly ate with us at Chili's in Spokane before Mel's graduation.

Pre-first swim! Someone was excited to go in the water (which she totally knows what that means)

She doesn't look too excited in the picture, but once we got in she was so happy - I wish we had more pictures that captured that.

Only other picture because then Daddy got in with us. Nothing like a first time swimming being at a Holiday Inn ;) 

Daddy snuggles & awesome hair :)

WSU tulips :)

...which she apparently thinks are amazing!

Proud of her Daddy for getting accepted into WSU!

Fell asleep during Auntie Mel's graduation. Insisted on leaning back like this so I had to hold her head up. She wanted nothing to do with snuggling on me ... whats new? 

I feel her independence, I can relate to her independence & 100% accept it because I am exactly the same.

Hanging out at the zoo

First smoothie from a big girl cup! Mmm

This girl loves to swing! In this picture I was saying "wave for Daddy" to send this picture to him at work

I love her little nose :)

More to come...this was only the beginning of pictures. 

Lillian Belle,

You are perfectly amazing. I love everything about you. You are strong & know what you want and are determined when you want something. Most of the time, you find a way to get it. In this regard, you are my mini me. You are also so sweet and well behaved. You aren't as quiet as you used to be. You've become quite the talker. I could listen to you talk all day! When it comes to your mannerisms and your good looks, you are 100% your daddy. I'd say you are the most perfect blend. 

My prayer for you is that you always know yourself and stay true to yourself. We will always be here for you and believe in you. 

I love you my sweet girl,

Mommy