Lily took her first, unassisted steps on June 25th. She was standing at her saucer and London got her attention, so she let go and stood there for a moment and when London moved Lils decided she wanted to go with her so she took two steps before she realized what she'd done and then face planted.
Lily started crawling recently and has achieved good speed and mobility in the last 2 weeks.
Today, July 1, she stood up on her own for the first time and remained standing for a good few moments before reaching for me. She's now done the same move 5 times in the last 5 minutes.
Mama and Papa are in her regular vocab, as is BAHBAH or BUBHb (when she wants something) and she's signing "want/give" and starting to sign for "eat".
Lily is 8 months and three weeks this Thursday.
New teeth routine: Fussy night, nursing non-stop, next day tongue exploration.
Lily is walking all over with two handed assistance and today she is doing very well with just one hand being held. She's walking around the perimeter of her saucer and other furniture items. And she just recently developed wings that she flaps rather seriously when she feels like it.. We're convinced she will fly soon.
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Well, this afternoon, while on the phone with Russ, Lily decided to start crawling and not just up on her toes, knees drug forward, and then into a roll. She's still frustrated because walking is so much faster but she can't figure out how to stand up on her own just yet so I guess she decided crawling will do for the moment.
She's pulling herself up on her saucer, the table, her aquarium, her crib, and legs. She wants to walk everywhere, and if you won't help her she will walk with the help of whatever she can hold on to. She can stand on her own for a few seconds and really enjoys her new found mobility.
When she stands up at her crib (inside), she will hold on with one hand and then let go and smile triumphantly until she starts to wobble, at which point her face shows a bit of confusion and then she'll either grab the side of the crib to steady herself or she'll plop on her butt.
She's scooting along on her little trike, sits up on her own, and today her second tooth came through. She got her first tooth (bottom, right) the first week of June and has been working on this one for the last two weeks. I will write more later on her pattern of cutting teeth for future reference.
She loves her drum, eats ice and my nose, fake sneezes in response to your real one, and sticks her tongue out to taste the wind.
She's a kick and is growing so well. I will try to write more...
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Formerly known as our anniversary...
Cecily's Father's Day gift came a day early -
Saturday morning...
Lily is in bed with us. Shock.
She is awake, we're not. Bigger shock.
She's poking Russ and playing with his hair while keeping something touching me.
Such is the morning routine when we're both home upon her greeting the day. This morning, however, she decided to surprise us both.
We have been speaking mumum and papapa/dadada to her for oh, 8 months or so... She started in with the mumumum at around 4 months and uses it very well... However, she has not said so much as a pah or dah, until today.
It's Sat, June 14th, 8am. She is waking us up. A smile from me.. giggles. Now look at dad.. he awake? A smile from dad... "papa".
Russ opens his eyes.
A quizzical look on his face; she has his attention.
He asks me if he heard her correctly to which I can only reply that I don't really know, I haven't heard it before, but it sounds like it..
Lily rolls over, face to face with me. "Mama", says a little grin and squinty eyes. And these words I know, very well. :)
Then, as if she sensed Russ's anticipation, she rolled back over to him, face to face, and says "Papa" again. Big smile of satisfaction washing over both hers and Daddy's face.
"Papa..."
"I guess I will be Papa."
"That ok with you?", I ask.
"Yes." With a warm smile.. "That's what she wants me to be, then I'm Papa."
Happy Fathers Day, a day early.
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With the full knowledge that I have not written in weeks... I will try to begin again and though I can't take up where I left off this evening, I will try to backtrack over the next week.
I am discovering that unless I make time for things like writing and projects, my time is taken by my little person and the many, many things that come with her existence.
My days consist of keeping her busy, fed, clean, drool free, not rolling off the couch, not having her lips licked by London, and remembering to feed myself.
She's decided recently to explore the value of pooping only once a week, and three or four times a day when she finally unloads. She's teething and easily gets over-tired now, so we're working to balance everything.
She's become quite vocal; she expresses delight, irritation, expectation and excitement, outright frustration, and general happiness.
Our mornings and evenings have become conversation opportunities. She is very responsive to our vocal invitations as well as our physical games. Peek a boo both by placing a blanket over her face that either she removes herself or we remove for her, or by covering our own face with the blanket has become a daily activity.
She loves her lelephant... it's an elephant head attached to a square of fabric and she is working on eating the poor thing's nose, and when she finishes the nose, the ears will come next. She also likes to eat blankets, her bull dog, Spots, the giraffe, my hand, daddy's fingers, my shoulder, her fist, dad's bicep, her plug, and anything else she can bring to her mouth. Ah, to taste everything is to experience it!
Such a perspective on life.
She is still sleeping through the night, most nights. She feeds at bedtime, wakes me 4 - 5 hours later to eat, and then about the same time Dad's alarm goes off, she decides it's time to be awake.
She loves mornings! She is so happy to be awake and she smiles for an hour. She giggles, chats with me (for a good hour, I'm not kidding), grabs my boob, wants to eat her blanket, sits in bed, lays in bed with me, rolling all over, stands on my stomach regularly, and climbs on dad on her tummy. She's making Russ and I actually like mornings.
She giggles at London, mom and dad, her giraffe, the tv, the plant, and mostly Savannah. She likes Savannah! Which is good because it's mutual.
She is still sleeping in her little snuggle nest, but it is no longer located on our bed, but inside the bassinet in the co-sleeper, next to our bed. Russ got sick about three weeks ago now, and instead of having her in bed and close to us, I moved her into the co-sleeper to keep her from getting sick. Then I realized how nice it was to not have to be so careful not to rock the boat (our waterbed) and so, she has stayed in her little sleeper. She's doing very well.
Grandma and Grandpa have taken care of her twice now, allowing Russ and I to grab a quick dinner and breath alone. She's gone to the zoo (more on the monkeys later) and the Botanic Gardens, the mountains a couple times, a good amount of walks, the Star Lighting, and so on. We're having a blast.
There is so much to write about, but I will split everything up into smaller entries so check back often if you're following this blog as I will do my best to be more disciplined in adding entries from now on.
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Cecily's First Christmas, first New Years, first noisy yawn, giggle, laugh, smile of recognition, trying to crawl, sitting up almost alone, raising herself off her tummy, etc....
I will be back tracking over the next few entires to chronicle all of Lily's firsts!
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We will go to our midwife, Julie, next week for our final happy baby and well mommy visit. We'll find out just how much this kid weighs and measures next week, but we're guessing she's about 9 lbs and 23" or so at this point.
She's started feasting and sleeping like a giant the last couple days. We can only assume she is again growing!
She's started to find other interesting things to think about and look at while she's at my breast, so she will start to suckle, pull herself off to look around and then without warning chomps! It's funny... thankfully my nipples are sound and not sore. And she not only chomps but makes a chomping sound that just adds to the overall humor factor.
She's much more alert now. She will sit up right and look around, reach out for things, smile and talk to you in response to your noises, and follow you around the room with her eyes/head.
She often will stand herself upright and if you just let her stand there, after about 2 seconds she'll topple over sideways, with legs still locked.
She likes mirrors, and especially likes the baby that looks back at her. She likes her bouncer - we have a champion boxer in the making. And she very much likes being held, ALL THE TIME. :) Thankfully Savannah and Russ often relieve me so I can accomplish other things, like a shower.. HA!
She likes to squeak and when I squeak back, she squacks. So, I squack and then she grunts, gurgles, snorts, or neighs... like a horse. Russ's dreams of me giving birth to a basset hound turned into me giving birth to a little horse. You should hear her, she does an exceptional rendition of a baby horse.
AND THEN THE BURPS & FARTS!! Man, this kid can compete with the best! She can launch milk (in chunks, mind you) a good three feet from her little mouth, usually right at my face! She burps as loud as I can and the farting is hilarious. She has the super power of not only exploding across the entire changing table, but when in public she has the notable ability of gaining the attention of all within a significantly large earshot!
Curly hair, steel blue eyes, rosey skin tone, & her own little voice. She is quite a joy.
London continues to be a very good Nana, following baby around wherever she may squeak.
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We went up Dakan today to get pics of Russ for his Christmas cd...
It was rather cold.
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Obtaining this swing has been quite an adventure. We waited too long to order the swing in the first place and delivery was scheduled for the 16th, which would have been just in time for her arrival, but the vendor didn't deliver on time and after three weeks of excuses and weird stories, it took filing a claim with Amazon and a few serious words to finally get them to send us the swing.
It arrived while we were away on our very first trip to Grandma & Grandpa's and I was so convinced it would never arrive that I ignored the box on the front porch; Russ had to bring it in and insist that I look at the shipment. To our amazement, the product inside of the demolished box was actually in new condition, and save a few smudges, the swing was perfect as ordered.
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Watch Her Sleep - It's Quite An Accomplishment
It's so hard to get a moment to write everyday, as I'd like to. So much happens of course, every day, and I am trying to chronicle all of it for our memories and for her if she wants to read about it someday, but time seems to pass so quickly I can't keep up. Except, of course, at 3am when she's interested in nothing but being awake. :)
On Friday, Nov 2, I laid her on her back on the couch and went to fill my coffee. When I returned, I discovered a wiggly little baby mostly rolled onto her stomach. She was in the process of eating her hands and her feet had managed to wedge themselves against the support pillow I placed on one side to keep her from rolling off the couch. She pushed herself sideways far enough that she managed to turn herself over. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised.
Then, two days later, on Sunday, I laid her on her stomach on my bed (on a foam pillow) and when I returned from the bathroom I found her on her back. At first I thought maybe a dog had jumped on the bed and rolled her over, but the I realized I'd left them outside.
Mom stayed with us for a few days again this week. This was the week she'd originally taken off (vacation) to stay with us. Her assistance (especially through the night) was most welcome. Cecily had a growth spurt at the end of last week and decided that sleep was way over rated, and eating needed to become constant. While my mom was with us, she decided to all but return to her over night sleeping schedule, but then yesterday she ate all day long and finally, after a huge glass of chamomile tea (which made her smell like chamomile after I fed her) she fell asleep. I got about a 3 hour chunk and then we were awake again... from 4am on (It's now 5pm and I have not had a chance to nap at all).
She is sleeping now, and has been most of the day; tonight should be fun.
She is wearing her "Daddy's Girl" outfit today, and she met her great grandmother today. She is grandma's 12th great grand child. Grandma Kathy is in a care facility in Boulder and we actually made the trip from CR to Boulder without stopping!
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Entry coming soon....
This pic was taken at 14 days
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