4 Months Old

Our baby is already 4 months old! She had her 4 month appointment on Friday (along with 2 shots...we split up her vaccinations which makes it a little easier on mom!) The doctor said she looked great at her check up. We are able to start rice cereal now (pictures to come!) and are excited for summer to arrive so we can try out the pool with Lily. Hopefully she will love the water as much as we do.

At four months she enjoys putting EVERYTHING in her mouth (especially her hands, sometimes both at one time) this just started a few weeks ago. I even thought she might be on the verge of teething but I haven't felt any teeth coming in yet. She loves her blue bouncy seat still, looking in the mirror, smiling, laying on her back and having you talk to her and read to her, she has laughed a few times but we are trying to get her to laugh as much as she smiles!

The fussy stage has definately passed (thank goodness!) She definately will still let you know when she is tired or hungry, but she is more like a typical baby now, which we are very happy about! She is still on medicine for acid reflux and we are not sure if that is the solution or a combination of the medicine and her getting older. Hopefully as time goes on she will just get happier and happier! We are loving her smiles and watching her grow, what a blessing God has given us.

Lilian's 4 Month Stats...
Weight 13.6 lbs. (40%)
Height 23 3/4 in. (30%)

Ahhhh...Sleep!

well, friday night lily finally did it...slept through the night! in one of my earlier posts i explained how "sleeping through the night" according to pediatricans really means 6-7 hours, she has been doing that since about 3 months but friday night we put her down at 8:30 and she didn't wake up until 6 o'clock on saturday! it might have had to do with the fact that she had a few of her 4 month shots that afternoon, but we will take it! we are hoping to get more and more nights like that and then start a trend. :)

happy anniversary

today b and i celebrated our second year of marriage. sometimes it feels like just yesterday we met and fell in love at james walker, while other times it feels like we have known each other all our lives. i always knew how lucky i was to marry him...someone who makes me laugh ALL the time, supports me, and loves me so much...now, having lilian, it makes me have a whole new appreciation for him and our marriage. one of the reasons i fell in love with him was how i saw him interact with kaiya and his niece and nephew, i knew right away he would be an amazing father. getting to watch him in action melts my heart daily...he is so wonderful with lily and it makes me love him even more (if that is possible).



last night i had one of those nights when you lie/lay (i always get that wrong) in bed and think about how blessed you are and just do not want anything in life to change...although that is the one certainty in life...change. as much as we want things to stay exactly as they are, in a blink things change. i just have to remind myself to slow down and enjoy each moment for what it is...don't rush things, take them as they are, live for today as if there were no tomorrow.

Lilian's FIRST Iowa Trip!

We were able to take Lilian back for her first trip to Iowa this past weekend! We were very nervous about the long car ride (3 hours) and how she would do, but she did awesome! She slept almost the entire way, woke up about 20 minutes before getting to Brian's parents' house. I was very impressed! Saturday Lilian got to meet Aunt Andrea (Brian's sister) for the first time.


Lilian with Aunt Andrea


Grandma Rhoda holding Lily

We also took her to visit Adam and Belinda and their baby girl, Iyla, who is 9 months old. It was so fun watching how mobile she is and letting Lily watch her. She loved watching Iyla play with her toys and crawl around. It was adorable and made me wish we had more friends with little ones that lived closer.


Iyla (9 months) and Lilian meeting for the first time

Saturday night we went over to Leanne's house for dinner where Lilian got to meet her great grandmother for the first time. It was a big weekend with some very important introductions to be made! One of the highlights was Lauren holding her while singing and rocking her, too cute!



Sunday we took her to church with B's family. She got a little antsy, but overall did amazing for her first trip back! Here are a few pictures of her first trip to church.


Family pic before heading to church

Sunday was of course also Mother's Day which has a whole new meaning to me this year. I cannot describe how amazing it feels to be a mother. It is something I have dreamed about since I was a little girl and now to have my own precious baby is the most incredible feeling. My life has a whole new purpose and I feel so blessed and honored to call Lilian my daughter.


Lilian and Me on my first Mother's Day!

We can't wait to take her back a lot this summer to play with the twins and visit her family. We love them all so much!

First Week at Sitter's

last week was miss lilian's first week at the babysitter's. we are extremely lucky that we are able to take her to laurie. our close friend mona took her daughter kaiya (the flower girl in our wedding, we adore her!) to laurie and now kaiya is in kindergarten, she watched her from birth to kindergarten. she was wanting to start watching another baby and it worked out! lilian is the only one she watches which at first i was apprehensive about, thinking maybe she would need more socialization but i am so thankful now...especially since she is a pretty high needs baby (at least right now!) she has done really well so far. we drop her off at 8 before work and then pick her up around 4:30. laurie is great about emailing me too when i check up on her throughout the day. laurie has 2 daughters of her own, one in high school, and they play with her as well which i love. she said she had a great week and even starting grabbing for a toy in the play gym on friday, yea! it is such a wonderful feeling to know our baby girl is being loved on and cared for so well each and every day. we are lucky!

special visitors

brian's sister, leanne, and the twins, lauren and andrew, came down for a visit on friday. it was brian's last day watching her before we both are back at work tomorrow so it was a nice treat for him. he met them at the indpendence center and the twins played in the play area and then shopped for some new shoes. they all came by school so i could say hello to leanne, lauren and andrew...we had not seen them since mid february! it was so sweet of leanne to drive down here just for the day (drivng 3 hours both ways with 2 three year olds i am sure was not easy!) the twins are adorable and growing so much! lauren kept kissing lily's head, it was so cute. it will be so fun when lilian gets a little older to have the three of them play together!

3 months!

lilian turned 3 months old this week! we tried taking her to the mall to get professional pictures taken and she was not having it! we got through a couple snaps and then she let it be known that she did not want her picture taken. we thought maybe a nap in her stroller while walking around the mall might help, so we tried that and then went back to the picture studio...but, strike two! so, long story short, i will be the one taking her 3 month pictures and we'll hope at 6 months we do a little better at the studio!

lilian at 3 months enjoys...smiling, cooing and talking to mommy and daddy (a lot!), looking at her black and white pictures books and colorful books now, her blue bouncy seat from aunt leanne (this has been a lifesaver!), her jumperoo with a pillow underneath in short periods, her fish aquarium (crib toy), her white noise cd to help her fall asleep, and being carried in the baby bjorn.

she usually takes 2-3 naps a day...one about an hour after her morning feeding and the other in the afternoon (which is usually a longer nap) around 1 or 2. she will take another cat nap in between dinner and bedtime. her bedtime is 9:30 and she usually wakes up between 3:30-4, so she is "sleeping through the night" according to pediatricans (however, we would love for her to surpass the 4:00 feeding!) after the 3 or 4 o'clock feeding she'll sleep until around 7:30 or 8. she can hold her head up very well and turn it from side to side on her tummy. we practice rolling over but i think that is a long ways away!

she still has her fussy times. we started her on a new acid reflux medicine last week and are hoping that will help with her tummy issues. we are going to give it another week and see if we notice any improvement. we are hoping just her getting older will solve most of the problems.

Daddy's Girl

although going back to work (this was my first full week back) was difficult, knowing brian was home obviously made it SO much easier. of course i was calling and texting him throughout my days at work to see how the little pumpkin was doing. halfway expecting him to tell me what hard work it was and how he had a new found appreciation for me and the 12 weeks i stayed home with her, however, that never happened! she was an absolute angel for him all week. he would email me asking if he should wake her up from a 3 hour nap....WHAT? i didn't even know how to respond, she never took 3 hour naps for me! the best was thursday when he had to take her to the dmv to get the new plates for our new car (we got an acadia...the 2 door accord was not cutting it!) i was nervous for him...he texted when he got there saying he was 11 people back in line. however, with his luck, somehow she fell asleep 5 minutes in and slept the entire time! the lady at the desk even asked if he gave her benadryl before he came in, ha! i told him i would have been too chicken to even attempt to wait in that line. so, those were just a few stories of her week with daddy. i think i definately have a daddy's girl on my hands!