Annual Pig Luck 2014

I always enjoy going to the Pig Luck at my brother in law's parent's farm. It is such a beautiful farm and I like spending time with our family. It was even more fun this year to get to watch Lilly Belle experience meeting all the animals! She got to meet some cows, horses, a pony, baby chicks, and piglets. There was even a Reptile Show this year! I love watching her do new things and this day was no exception. 

Cousin Quenton & Lilly Belle are always so sweet to each other. He is always protecting her. I loved watching them interact during the reptile show. 

Cuties!

Mr. Q being brave with a very large tree frog on his arm.

Lilly thought it was pretty funny when Q man was up there.

Uncle Clint's Stepmom, Paulette, loved spending time with Lilly Belle. She doesn't get to see her that often so the last time she saw her was at Mel's graduation and she wasn't even crawling yet. Here they are checking out the piglets, which Lilly Belle fondly referred to as, "dog dogs". You can't blame her on that one, Cogsy does tend to resemble a pig... ;)

"What is dat??"

Nana loved seeing all the kids in one shot :)

"Hey guys, what are you eating? Why won't my mommy eat those??" (apples)

Just chillin' with Cousin Clare and acting way too old...

Our little gang.

Me and my mini :)

"Cheese!" We totally look alike in these next ones :) Only I think she's going to be lucky and get daddy's nice small teeth instead of my huge giant teeth lol.

Uncle Clint thought she might have a better view of the piggies from INSIDE the pen ;) Lilly Belle wasn't so sure! Ha, I just love this picture!!

So sweet :) She loves her Uncle Clint!

We got to meet Traveler. He was so amazing with the kids! Letting them feed him and pet him. So patient and kind with them.

Baby chicks! Lilly Belle was really concerned about the box being open and kept saying, "Close! Close! Close!" while trying to close all the flaps on the box. I don't blame her, they were kind of flapping around and although I knew they weren't going to get out, I think she was a little worried that they were going to escape. Sweet girl.

Daddy let us take the ferry home (which I love!). The views are beautiful and it was a nice day :) I really love the PNW!

I love these two with every ounce of my being...

We had a nice day together (once I ate, because apparently - according to Matt - I can't do things when I'm hungry...note taken). ;)

Sweet Sunday

Some weekends you just need to do nothing. 

That is exactly what we did last weekend and I loved it. Such sweet time with my little family.

Matt took some pictures of me and Lilly playing since we never have any :)

I totally wore this all day on Sunday & even ran some errands. Don't judge.

We may not have a yard, but I do like to get outside with Lilly Belle everyday for at least an hour. We play on the patio, put a blanket down on our walkway like this, go to the park or go for a walk. Or sometimes, we do all those things in one day. We both always feel better when we get outside. Just cannot wait for the day when we have our own yard and can play out there together. This sidewalk isn't cutting it. 

Little Mommy

For the first time, Lilly Belle was interested in take care of her babies. 

I melted.

She always holds them and kind of moves them around in her tent, but she has never "played" with them before and so when she did, all on her own, without any of my guidance, it was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.

She picked up her baby Stella doll and gave the baby doll it's paci. Then she picked it up and walked over to me with it to hand it to me saying, "Shh Shh Shh" So I held it like she wanted me to and said, "Shh Shh Shh." I asked her, "Is your baby going nigh-night?" And she then, all on her own, started to rub her dolls hair and continue to say, "Shh Shh Shh." Then she walked back over to her tent to grab another baby. She did the same thing, handing it to me so I could rock the baby while she rubbed their hair. "Gentle rubs" - just like we've been trying to teach her with Cogsy ;) Then...I just turned to a puddle when she went in her tent, grabbed a blankie, put it on the dolls that I was now sshhh-ing and rocking for her and she put the blankie on them and said, "Nigh-Night Bah-Bay." 

She then wanted me to put the dolls in her doll bed. I thought that was so sweet, too. So, I helped her put them in her doll bed. I thought she would continue to rub their heads and put blankies on but...nope, reality check mommy - she's still 13 months old ;) She then crawled in with them of course...

Oh sweet girl. I love her so much.

One day. One day not anytime soon, she will be a great big sister. 

Until then though, she is still my sweet little baby.

5:00am Because I'm Awesome.

Every morning, (now it will change because I'm writing about it), Lilly Belle sleeps all the way until 5am before waking up to nurse. 7pm-5am people. In this house, that.is.huge! 10 hours. Meaning if I went bed at 7pm (yeah right), I'd get 10 whole hours of sleep.

I wrote a few days ago about our new goals and I wanted to write about them again because they've already been so life changing and I've been so happy & less stressed. 

9:00pm

Every night at 9pm I take a shower. I actually have time to shave my legs now - who knew?! And now I'm a rebel and let my hair air dry. Sometimes...I don't even brush it. *gasp*

10:00pm/11:00pm

I try to get to sleep around 10pm, but that doesn't happen. I have been going to bed at 11pm with Matt.

5:00am (5:22am)

I wake up with Lilly Belle to nurse at 5am (today she let me sleep until 5:22am and those extra 22 minutes made me feel so alive-but really.) 

5:30am (usually)

I wake up in the glider realizing Lilly Belle is now sleeping...as am I. I put her back down in her crib and sneak out for my coffee. While my coffee is brewing I usually start to tidy up our kitchen if we didn't do it the night before. I don't do the dishes, I save those for Matt since it's "his job". Unless...I'm feeling like I want to be extra awesome, then I'll do them for him.

5:45am

Wake up call. 

My sister-in-law, Megan, and I have been trying something new this week and I-love-it! I call her, or she will call me, at 5:45am to make sure the other one is awake. It really does help so much just to say good morning to her that early in the morning and wake up that way. We don't like have a 5:45am conversation or anything, because who wants to do that? We just say good morning do a little "how are you?", say have a good day and then get our mommy "me-time" before our kids wake up. It feels like the day has begun and there is no way I could go back to sleep after that. I know she is probably loving it, too. I drink my coffee, do my make up & hair, read blogs, work on my Etsy and catch up on emails/invoices for work if I need to. I also clean if I hadn't the night before (like last night Matt was sick so we did nothing but watch like 4 episodes of Million Dollar Listing LA & Beachfront Bargain Hunt) we're awesome. 

6:30am

Little Peanut starts stirring. This is my "get your shit together quick" warning. If I haven't gotten to my make up, hair and getting dressed yet, this is when I get off the computer and do that.

She happily plays in her crib, singing and playing with her new breathable bumper (because we may or may not have had to almost call 911 the other night due to her chubby thigh legit being stuck...Matt may or may not have panicked when he went in and I may or may not have screamed to him "GRAB THE VASELINE" when I could no longer remain calm...which I did -remain calm- and got that little chubby thigh out - without injury). OH wow, I am the queen of tangents. 

Ok - 6:30am (again)

Lilly Belle stirs. I "get shit done". 

7:00am

I go in and get her. Unless she starts to cry sooner, then she gets to snuggle in bed with Matt.

Read: Lilly Belle crawling all over the bed while Matt does everything in his power to not let her play flying squirrel off the edge.

We all go out into the kitchen together and sit at the table to eat breakfast together while listening to Subsonic Radio. I love this time of the day mostest. Yes, mostest. 

8:30am

Matt leaves for work and Lilly Belle goes down for her 1st nap of the day. When I clean up breakfast and then usually go on Pinterest or something ;)

Unless we have Kids Club, in which she usually skips that first nap & I'm at work...

Lilly Belle: 13 Months

Now that Miss Lilly Belle is 13 months, I've decided to do her monthly posts a bit differently. I am just going to write about new things she has learned & things she experienced. Now that she is no longer a "baby" but instead a "toddler", some of the things we used to write about don't change as quickly as they used to.

Lilly Belle - 13 Months Old

Social Butterfly

Lilly Belle is definitely our little social butterfly. She continues to wave at everyone-everywhere we go. She now loves to blow kisses and make kissy faces as random people (ex. grocery store or my dr. appt). I started my job working in the kids club at Sammamish Club & she has loved that so much. It's been like "school" for her. She plays with all the kids and explores so many new toys each time we go. She loves the other teachers there and has just had a blast. I'm so glad I have this job and that it is something for both of us. 

Sweet Summertime

I can't believe our summer is now over :( I had such a hard time the last 2 weeks knowing that now fall is beginning (which is my favorite), but I have to start working more again. I've basically had the whole summer off and found that I love nothing more than being with Lilly Belle all day. We didn't get to accomplish all of the things on our bucket list, but boy did we have fun together! We took a few trips to the zoo, played with friends, went on walks, went swimming, played outside & visited Daddy at work a couple of times. It was short and sweet. 

More, More, More!

Lilly loves to eat. For a while we were having a really hard time getting her to eat vegetables other than in her pouches or hidden in smoothies, but slowly she is getting better about it. She loves snack time the best because she likes to have freedom to play while she eats. Sitting in her high chair for a meal is just not enough (hmmm...sounds terrifyingly familiar). She has now had everything that we couldn't eat during the first year - strawberries, honey, whole milk & peanut butter. She loves strawberries and honey, but she isn't too thrilled with peanut butter just yet. She has loved when I make her smoothies lately - I usually do milk, yogurt, banana, blueberries & spinach. It is my way of making sure she is for sure getting iron everyday as at her 12 month appointment, her iron was a bit low. She will drink an entire cup of smoothie :) She still loves string cheese, bananas (which she calls Na-nanas), all fruit really, cheddar bunnies, pouches, yogurt her oatmeal cereal in the morning & now honey on waffles or toast. She still isn't doing so great in the milk drinking department, but we're working on it. 

Nursing & Sleeping

Lilly Belle still nurses before all of her naps, before she goes to bed, when she wakes up in the morning and sometimes she will wake up around 4:00/4:30am to nurse. I just had my yearly check-up and discovered (well, I wasn't surprised), that I don't really have much milk - she is just nursing for comfort really. I'm okay with that. I know she is still getting something because I still leak every now and then, but I could definitely stop (nutrition-wise) and she would be the same. We are not ready to stop yet; either of us. Every now and then I will try to put her down for nap without nursing her and she freaks out and I don't like it either, so for now we will continue nursing around 4-5 times/day. 

Lilly Belle now (usually) takes a longer morning nap and a longer afternoon nap. Sometimes we will still have days with 3 short naps, but she is definitely starting to transition into 2 naps. We have found that the longest she can stay up at a time without freaking out when it is time to go down, is 4 hours. 

She still goes to bed every night at 7pm and usually wakes up for the day between 6:15 and 7am. She then goes down for her morning nap about an hour after she wakes up. That nap lasts anywhere from 1-2 hours. Then she takes another nap after or sometimes before lunchtime. 

Little Miss Chatterbox

I need to get her that book. Girlfriend is talking up a storm! She is constantly talking. If she isn't talking, it is because she is eating or reading her books. She can say so many words now! It's amazing to me how much she is comprehending, too! We filmed her during bath time the other night and she said, "Princess", "Bath Time", "Pluto" and a few more just clear as could be. Matt and I kept looking at each other in awe. She likes to have conversations with us - and we love it even more! It's adorable. She can almost copy every one & two syllable word we say. Her favorite phrase to say right now is, "What is that?" (Wha-is-da) So much fun!
Other commonly used new words/phrases: Uh Oh, No no no no no, Thank You, Don't want to (in Lilly language)

On The Move

Lilly Belle is not walking just yet, but did take her first few steps this month. She could totally do it. She's so ready. She can walk with Matt and I holding each of our hands and go just as fast as we do. She can run with us if we hold her hands and walk backwards too...she just won't let go! I think she needs to know that she is going to be able to do it well before she will let go. That frightens me a bit because I don't want her to be afraid to fail. We keep saying that she is going to walk anyway now...we'll see...

And now for some fun pictures from Lilly Belle's 13th month :)

(and in no kind of order because 'ain't nobody got time for that'...and also none from my phone because oh boy...there are just too many right now. another day.)

We went to lunch at Daddy's work and had a minute to shoot some hoops.

Some nights Lilly will stand here at the window waiting for Daddy to get home.

We had cupcakes a cute little place Downtown Olympia with Daddy, Nana & Uncle Chris.

Lilly Belle helped Mommy make sweet potato muffins - yum!

We do this a lot...emptying out the diaper bag.

Being cute!

Her eyes...

And sometimes...we now throw tantrums.

We like to hang out in our tent and snuggle with all our 'friends'.

And sometimes we practice taking a few steps...

"Who says this cool bed has to be for my dolls??" (does this almost everyday)

Watching Toy Story & eating some veggies.

She sits like this all the time!

Celebrating her birthday at her 1st birthday party!

Loves the American Girl doll store! She is obsessed with babies.