11 Months

our baby girl is almost ONE! she has accomplished quite a lot in such a short amount of time. i am amazed every day at the new things she is doing and learning. she is growing up so quickly! sometimes i really miss holding her in my arms and just watching her sleep but i truly LOVE watching her explore everything and babble to us, watching her grow into her own little person is the most amazing thing ever!
11 month stats (estimated)
she weighs around 21-22 lbs. and is around 29 inches tall...healthy girl! :)
she has 3 teeth, two bottom and one top, working on the second one up top now
wears some 9 month clothes still, mostly 12 months
wears size 4 diapers
favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, bread, pizza...really her favorites depend on the day, one day she will love peas the next day she will spit them out! mac and cheese seems to be a staple and bananas...i think she might turn into a monkey she eats them so much!
we are also working on transitioning from the bottle to the sippy cup for her formula...with not much success yet!
her "tricks" at 11 months
walking (she still crawls mostly because she gets there so much faster) but she will just let go and start taking steps when she feels like it too! watch out!
talking...says dada all the time, says baby (especially when looking at her books with real baby faces), we think we have heard mama a few times (my mom claims she has too when watching her) but she hasn't said it nearly enough for me to count, ha!
shakes her head no (she cannot shake it yes so this gets pretty comical, everything is no!)
waves hi and bye bye
is starting to blow kisses (kisses the outside of her hand) so cute!
will sometimes give kisses (open mouth!) when asked
can point to her ears (we are working on other body parts now!)
claps
does SO big
her favorite things...
playing in her "drawers" (the two drawers we have designated for her...one in the kitchen with all of her bowls/utensils) and the other in our bathroom with a bunch of my junk in there! i think i pick up these items about 100 times a day! we need to work on putting them all back, we have mastered taking them all out!
reading books, she just recently will sit still in my lap long enough for me to read her a few books (she loves when i whisper the words in her ear)
touching/playing with the blinds in the kitchen (yes, not a good thing...we had to start using a firm "NO" and moving her away...the start of discipline...yikes! i'm not looking forward to that!)
playing in her "house" she got for christmas from nannie (going through the door and playing with the mail are her favorite things to do)
watching/dancing to the yo, gabba gabba theme song and mickey mouse club theme song
playing peek a boo (she will initiate the game herself now when given a cloth/blanket)
we are so lucky to have such a sweet baby girl!

Christmas in Iowa

we headed up to stanton on the night before christmas eve to spend time with brian's family. christmas eve we spent the day letting lilian and the twins entertain each other, always a fun sight! christmas eve we exchanged gifts with everyone and had a wonderful meal brian's mom prepared. then we all went to church together. we thought lilian would be sleeping at this point (church started at 9:30) but she didn't want to miss out on any of the action! she stayed awake and was starting to get antsy halfway through so we didn't make it through the whole service, but we gave it our best shot! we'll try again next year!
christmas eve morning

lilian with andrew and lauren (4)

lauren and her barbie car we got her

andrew opening his fire truck

grandma and lilian

grandpa with lauren and andrew

our first christmas as a family

christmas afternoon we drove back to kansas city and did our little family christmas which was mostly watching lilian open the gifts we got her and pull things out of her stocking. that night my parents came over for dinner and watched lilian play with her new assortment of toys (which by the way i am on toy overload and she is not even one yet!) the best christmas gift of all...lilian took her first steps on christmas night!!!
our new stockings, love them!

lilian discovering what was in her stocking

playing with daddy in her new tunnel from santa


i'd say she made out pretty well for her first christmas, wouldn't you?

we are so blessed! we hope you all had a wonderful christmas with loved ones!

More Christmas Fun!

one of my immediate family's christmas traditions is going out to a nice christmas dinner sometime in the weeks leading up to christmas. in the past we have gone down to the plaza (which i love being able to see the lights) but now with the little ones we thought it would be easier to stay closer to home. we tried a new restaurant in lees summit, called rumors, it was delicious. before dinner we exchanged gifts at my parents' house since bryan and alison were going to be in maryville over the holidays. enjoy the pictures!
curtis opening his yo, gabba gabba boombox

helping lily open her gift from grammy and pops

she got her very own chair!

doing "SO BIG" in her big girl chair

we got mom professional pictures of all of her kids/grandkids, she loved them!

the lute family

1st Family Christmas

our first family christmas gathering was with my side of the family on sunday, december
12th. i invited everyone over for taco soup and then we opened presents. we did our christmas a little early this year since both my brother and i would be traveling for christmas and nannie and ross would be spending time with ross's family. nannie and ross got lilian her laugh and learn house. it is complete with all sorts of fun noises (door bell, open/close, windows opening with birds singing) and fun things for her to do. it is definitely a toy that she will grow with and use for awhile! thanks, nannie and ross!

nannie and ross

nannie helping lilian open her first christmas present ever!

curtis and uncle bryan

the lute family

nannie got lily this christmas bench as well, her and santa fit nicely together on it!

Bath Time Fun

these pictures were too funny not to post. lilian LOVES bath time! she has started getting mommy VERY wet in her fun as well. she loves splashing the water everywhere and making a huge mess but her grin is too darn cute to resist! as you can see, ralph enjoys when she takes baths as well, he literally tries to get in with her. is there anything better than wrapping a baby up after bath time? it is the best scent on earth!



"SOOO big!"

Visit with Santa

we have always heard that bass pro shop has the best santa so we knew we wanted to take lilian there for her first real visit with him. :) some friends from work said the line was usually crazy on the weekends so we decided a monday night the second week of december we should be great! we picked her up from laurie's, changed her into her christmas dress (thanks grammy!) and headed straight there. since santa didn't even start seeing children until 5 we thought we would be one of the first in line...nope! we waited over an hour but it was a success, well, sort of...no tears, but no real smiles either...we'll take what we can get! the whole place is set up so adorable though, it will definitely be one of our christmas traditions to go see santa there each year. enjoy the pics! she wasn't sure what to think of that beard, he was so nice!

daddy and lilian before santa, you can see how cute everything is decorated

success! no tears!

Sick Turkey

well, we definitely didn't have the thanksgiving we imagined...instead of being in iowa with brian's entire family we were here at home loving on our sick baby girl. :( she woke up monday morning with a fever and wouldn't stop crying...we weren't sure at that point if she was just teething (working on second bottom tooth) or had an ear infection. brian stayed home with her monday and tuesday. we found out tuesday she had a double ear infection as well as cold/flu like symptoms. we were hoping once we got her on the medicine she would start feeling better and acting more like herself...but, wednesday when she woke up i noticed a huge rash all over her tummy and some on her face. we called the doctor again, went in again and found out she has an allergy to either penicillin or to one of the additives in the medicine we were giving her to treat the ear infections. he checked out her ears and said they did look a little better so we are praying they will clear up! he did give us another medicine as well so we are hoping there are no side effects on that one. poor girl, she cannot catch a break! it is the worst feeling to not be able to alevate her pain. we stayed in our pjs all day playing with lilian trying to get some smiles and laughs from her. although we wish we were able to spend today with our families we were thinking of everyone and love you all very much! we have so much to be thankful for in our lives!

her rash :(

althought it looks terrible, it didn't seem to bother her at all, thankfully!

So Big and Using her Walker

Finally! A Tooth!

last wednesday through friday lilian was waking up through the night and she had a super runny nose/congestion last week as well, all signs of teething, but as i have posted before, she has had these symptoms before and still no teeth. well, friday we were giving her a bath before bed and brian thought he spotted something in her lower gums...yep, a little tooth was trying to break through! she is finally getting her first tooth at 9 months! needless to say friday night no one got much sleep due to her being cranky and then saturday was much the same. we tried frozen washcloths, teething rings, and tylenol...they seemed to help temporarily but then there would be times you could just tell she was in pain, poor thing. he was super clingy to me, just makes you sad when there is nothing you can really do to make the pain go away, and knowing that this is the first of many teeth to come, yikes! hopefully the first one is the worst (that might just be wishful thinking though!) by monday she was doing much better. other milestones this weekend...she is pulling up on EVERYTHING and starting to cruise on the fireplace and anything she can stand up on. it is crazy!! i seriously shed a few tears this weekend, she is getting her first tooth and standing up and walking (with help of course, but still) she is growing up toooo fast! everyone always says that they grow up too fast but it is so true! tear.

9 Months

i am late posting from all the craziness with halloween but our little lady did turn 9 months last week! going to visit amelia (see below post) i realize just how much she has changed over these past 9 months. it is so hard to believe i had her 9 months ago, she is so close to being a year old which is crazy to me!! each day i feel like she changes more and more. some days i see tons of brian in her and other days i feel like she looks like i did in my baby pictures, time will tell i suppose! the doctor said she looked great at her check-up. she still has no teeth (but has a runny nose as we speak and has been waking up in the night which i hear are signs of teething so maybe one is coming soon? or maybe she is just irritable and the weather is making her sick! who knows!?)

her stats at 9 months...
weight 20.2 lbs...70% what a chunky monkey!
height 26.5 in...20% takes after her mom!

what she enjoys/interests
-CRAWLING everywhere!!! we cannot sit still long before she is across the room and into everything!
-she now pulls herself up as well...we have taken out almost all furniture in the living room so all she really has to practice on is the couch but she is pulling up on that every chance she gets
-says DADA all the time! (i am a little bitter can you tell) she even looks at me and says dada :)
-loves to clap!
-books! LOVES her peek-a-boo books now that she can open the flaps and smiles every time she sees what is hiding behind!
-anything that plays music, loves to wiggle to the music, especially loves her standing piano music toy
-her sing-a-ma-jig (yes, this is really the name of this toy) it is pretty funny, talks or sings when you press his tummy and opens his mouth as he talks/sings, she loves to eat his ears as well
-still in love with ralph and lunges at him every chance she gets and takes a nice handful of hair out while doing so (he, on the other hand does not find this very amusing!)
-the cord to my phone charger, seriously loves this and throws a fit when i take it away
-bath time, she now has an inflatable tub that fits inside the big tub which is much easier for us!
-sits and spins herself around 360 degrees, i guess she wants to see the room at all angles!
-loves peek-a-boo and loves when i hide under the counter and pop up while she watches in her high chair
-does great drinking out of her sippy cup, we are trying the kind with no handles now too and she can do it! big girl!

dislikes
-her car seat, usually gives us a little fit when getting in it!
-pears
-all the baby food meat we have tried (this is quite a face to see!)
-when you take away something she is not supposed to have

eating habits
-still eating mostly stage 2 baby foods. we have tried a few stage 3 foods and she gets a funny face and isn't sure what to do with the big chunks. she did love the broccoli and cheese though. still loves squash, peas, green beans, and sweet potatoes with corn.
-loves her mum mums and puffs
-we have tried some more table food but she mostly spits it out so we will continue to try!
-i have weened her from breastfeeding so she is getting formula all the time now and does not seem to mind (mommy doesn't mind letting daddy give her the early morning bottle either! ha)
-she gets around 20-24 ounces of formula a day
-eats one container of fruit and 3T cereal for breakfast, 1/2 container of veggies and fruit for lunch, whole container of veggies for dinner and another serving of oatmeal or rice cereal

daily routine
(i am sure this is not interesting for anyone to read, but while i have the time to type it will be nice one day to look back and see what her days were like at this age!)
sleeping totally depends on the day...some nights sleeps through until 6-6:30 other nights wakes a few times and needs her back rubbed to go back to sleep (still working on that self soothing...not going so well!)
7-7:30 up for the day
8:30 eats fruit and cereal
9:30 5-6 oz. bottle
9:45-10ish nap time (usually anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half) these good naps ALWAYS happen at laurie's, never for us on the weekends, go figure!
12:00 lunch, veggies and fruit
1:30 5-6 oz. bottle
between 2 and 3 usually goes down for her 2nd nap, again this ranges in length from 30 minutes to an hour and a half
4:30ish snack bottle 3 oz.
7:00 dinner, veggies and oatmeal
7:15 bath
7:30 bedtime bottle from daddy and bed

happy 9 months, precious baby! we love you more than you could ever imagine!

Happy Halloween

we celebrated lilian's first halloween this weekend! saturday night our friend dee had her annual, over the top costume party so grammy watched lilian for us while we attended that. we snapped a few pictures of all three of us in our costumes before heading out! lilian was a ladybug and did not mind wearing her costume too much either so that was a plus! brian was mario from super mario brothers and i went as little red riding hood.


on sunday we got to babysit kaiya, what a treat! she is seriously a perfect little girl. i cannot believe she is in first grade, i can remember the day she was born! she is hilarious and so smart. lilian LOVED having her here for the day. kaiya would read her books and help me change her and get her in the car seat. she was wonderful with her. we ran errands and everyone thought they were sisters (and i secretly loved it and didn't correct them, ha ha!) we made halloween cookies and played around the house mostly. it was so cute watching them interact together.

how beautiful is kaiya!
on halloween night we took lilian over to my brother's house to visit them and meet the new addition to their family, a dog they adopted on saturday, named bell. then we went over to my parents to "trick or treat." my parents got her puffs and mum mums in leau of candy, pretty cute! we also stopped by our babysitter's house as well as a friend of mine that lives in our neighborhood. our little ladybug was a hit!

our little buggy

cousin curtis was batman!

grammy and pops with lilian

uncle bryan, love this pic of them

Welcome Baby Amelia

our good friends, colleen and drew, welcomed their new baby girl, amelia kate, into the world on monday, october 25th. i work with colleen and drew and brian have become good friends as well. we are so excited to have another friend for lilian to play with and grow up with! we went to the hospital to visit them monday evening. lily tried grabbing for amelia and spoke to her in her own language. i think she was trying to say, "i am so glad you finally got here, i cannot wait to play with you!" mommy and baby are doing great. we visited them at their house on saturday and brought them lunch. lilian showed amelia a few of her tricks, i.e. crawling and clapping. congrats to colleen and drew! she is precious and we know lily and milly will be great friends!

i cannot remember lily being this small! they grow up TOO fast!

lilian with her new friend. how do we look as a family of four? ha ha

Favorite Things

lilian is at such a fun age right now. i took some pictures the other day of her doing some of her favorite things so i would have them for my memory and to show her one day. she is crawling everywhere so sometimes it is hard to get a good picture! she is loving life and i couldn't love anything more!

she loves these peek-a-boo balls that make sounds when she shakes them. she has now figured out how to bang two of them together to create her own sound as well and loves it.

ralph is definately her bff. he is a constant source of entertainment for her and is sure to bring a smile and a laugh from her!

playing tug of war with ralph

she is loving these peek-a-boo books. she lifts up the flaps now and for some reason loves the page with the pig on it, she must know her grandpa has a pig farm!

talking to her book

love this face!