Lillian's 1 Year Stats

We finally got Lilly to her one year appointment.  There was a scheduling mishap at the doctors office.  Let's just say the young lady that scheduled her appointment no longer works there.  It still worked out that I could take her while Cecilia was at school.  Lilly has some serious separation anxiety, and is such a Mama's girl.  Its totally normal, but you can just tell from the scale picture that I took how nervous she was to be away from me for all of three seconds.

I expected her to be about the same as Cecilia was at 1, but I did not expect her to be smaller!  At least she's proportional.  Here are her stats:

Weight: 17lbs, 13 ounces (20th Percentile)

Height: 28.5 Inches (25th Percentile)

Head: 44cm (25th Percentile)

Dr. Jill says that Lilly is right on track.  Overall, Lilly did great, but I will never get over baby cries from shots.  Dr. Jill was very impressed with how many words she has.  I started a list even because there were so many.  Lilly's vocabulary is growing by the day, and I love to watch her study my mouth when I am trying to teach her a new word.  It is so sweet.  As of today Lilly has 18 words!  Here is the list:

Mama, Dada, Sister, Ball, Bye-Bye, Done, Shoe, Pop, Grandma ,Up, Uh-Oh, Phone, Duck, Quack! Quack!, Doctor, Pen, Kitty, Dog

Here are some fun things to remember about Lillian at this age:

• She does not sleep through the night.  Although, she did sleep through the night on her birthday.  
• She is in no rush to walk.  She hasn't even taken a step by herself yet.  
• She is very verbal.  She has been since birth.  She talks and talks, and she will sing and dance too.
• She loves her little rocking horse.  She will sit and rock and say "OOO! OOO!"  I think that is her version of "Yee Haw!"
• She has not attached to any particular thing like a blanket or stuffed animal.  She is perfectly content with her thumb in her mouth and if she can hold on to my hair she is set.  
• She is a terrific eater.  She loves food!  Tomatoes, fruit, and noodles are her favorite, but she has yet to reject anything. 
• She has mastered her sippy cup, finally.  It took a while, but we finally figured out which cup she liked and now she's a pro.
• She has no hair.  Ok, she has a little hair, but you have to be holding her to see it and it is all in the back.  Maybe by her second birthday she'll need a haircut.
• She takes two solid naps everyday (Hallelujah!). 
• She has six teeth, four on the top and two on the bottom.  A third bottom one is starting to make its appearance.
• Her favorite thing to play with are books.  She likes to pull them all off the shelf and throw them as far as she can.  She also loves to play with any ball.
• She has figured out how to arch out of her car seat before you can buckle her in.  
• She is such a snuggle baby.  It makes it really hard to lay her down in her crib when she snuggles into you, sucks her thumb, and melts your heart. 

In so many ways I feel like Lilly is still a baby.  Probably because she doesn't have any hair, and she is so snugly.  I haven't been nearly as emotional about her turning one as I was with Cecilia turning one.  On the back of her birthday invitation I compiled one photo from each month over her one year of life.  I was quickly reminded of how difficult it was in the beginning when she was throwing up all the time (We actually found out through a post-partum nurse friend of ours that this was most likely caused by the bottle of formula she received in the hospital before she had enough colostrum in her system.  Note to self- if this happens again, use donor milk, not formula).  I am so happy she is healthy now.  Here are the photos I selected for Lilly's one year snapshot.

We love you Lillian Jeanne!!

Lillian Jeanne is O-N-E

We celebrated Mothers Day and Lillian's Birthday on Sunday.  It was a perfect afternoon on the back porch.  It was mostly family in attendance, and a few close friends.    I started in search of a theme and came across a bee cake in a cake book and went from there.  I designed the invites and was thrilled with how they turned out.

I would like to thank Pinterest for helping me plan all the details and menu for the party.

Jon and Mom helped me make all things yummy, while my Dad and brother wrangled the littles.  We had a delicious menu with pulled pork, corn & tomato salad, fruit, veggies, homemade coleslaw, and blackberry mint lemonade.

I made lemon blueberry cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting and fondant flowers and bees for our guests.  

Lilly had her very own bee cake.  Her cake was super easy.  It was just one round cake cut in half and then I sat the two halves next to each other.  I used paper doilies for the wings, M&M's for the eyes, and pink fondant for the smile.  The original picture that I had found of this cake was all fondant and way prettier, but I thought it would just be mean to expect the one year old to dig into a fondant covered cake.

The birthday girl was not too thrilled to be away from Mom.  She did ok, but was definitely most content with me.  Ah, she is such a mama's girl.

Here she is telling everyone how old she is :)

Cecilia did great.  She loves playing with her cousins.  I caught this cute picture of them.  I love it!

I made those fun tissue paper balls and had every intention of hanging them.  Um, yeah, no.  It was ok though because Lilly loved playing with them.  Here she is with her Godparents: Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Pete.

It was time for cake.  She was very skeptical about the whole process.  She didn't seem phased at all by the singing, and she practically asked for permission to try the cake.  Her sister showed her what to do, and then she got the hang of it.

Stella was waiting in the wings, of course.

Lillian received so many wonderful clothes and toys.  I'd say her summer wardrobe is practically complete.  We feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family that bless our kids with their generous gifts.

Happy Birthday Sweet Lillian Jeanne!  We love you so much!!!

A Visit to the Memorial

It was the 13th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine this year.  Jon and I decided to take the girls down to the memorial on April 21.  We had never been as a family before.  We picked up Jon's dad on the way and then went to dinner at our favorite Littleton family restaurant: Angie's.

The Memorial is so beautiful and peaceful.  It was nice to go and reflect.  Some of the words in the outer circle really hit me hard and different this year.  Different because I am a parent now, and I can relate more to what our parents were feeling that day.  I still can't fathom it.  If I think about it too much, I think the feeling would consume me whole.  Of course, the girls really had no idea why we were there.  Cecilia was awfully curious about the water, and I think it took every ounce of self control for her to not jump in. It was still good to go.  It is a place that will always be apart of our lives, and we hope to bring our family often through out the years.  We want our children to know what happened, and why it has made us who we are today.