Lily's 9.5 Months!!!

I don't know why I continue to slack on my blog! Being a mom is pretty time consuming and Lily is so much more active that by the end of the day all I want to do it put my feet up and veg! So by now (2.5 months since my last post) so much has changed. Month 8 was a big month for Lily, from one day to the next baby girl was crawling, laughing, waving bye-bye, and she got her 2 bottom teeth! She's such a big girl now. She's also just started clapping, using one baby finger to point at things, and trying to stand on her own! She has been scaling on EVERYTHING and ANYTHING she can pull her self up on. We sing a lot more and she loves "the itsy-bitsy spider", sometimes if she's eating and doesn't want to open her mouth all I have to do is start singing it and she opens wide like a baby bird! Hilarious! She also does the cutest thing where she scrunches her noes and breaths in and out...doesn't sound that cute, but we call it "viejitos". HAHAHA...it's a mexican thing!

We also recently started attending classes at The Little Gym with Jill and Braden! I used to work at one in Austin so I was nervous to take her to the one here. I was scared I would pull a "typical monica" and try to take over, but the staff and instructors are awesome! I had no problem sitting back and enjoying the class with Lily. She's becoming so independent and brave! She crawled through this tunnel all by herself!

When Lily turned 9 months I took her to take some portraits, but professional pictures are no longer as easy as when she was newborn - 6 months. All she wanted to do was crawl away and explore the studio. She would fuss and refused to smile if I sat her down. It was actually quite a work out chasing her around! (The picture below is "viejitos")

Easter just passed and Lily was NOT amused by the eggs, baskets, confetti, bunnies...nothing was entertaining! Hopefully next year she'll be more in the SPRING SPIRIT and enjoy herself more. She was absolutely adorable though!

Lately I've been giving Lily her bath in the big girl tub (but still in the baby tub). We had to move from the kitchen sink because she was grabbing things and splashing EVERYWHERE. She was a little apprehensive at first, but she's got the hang of it now and she's free to splish splash while taking her bath!

Lastly Lily had her first spaghetti. The pictures say it all! Enjoy :o)

Lily does something new everyday and I really do want to keep up with things on the blog. Sorry if I don't write as often as I should! Keep checking in though, I'll get back in to it, I PROMISE ;) Take care!!!

Lily's 7 Months

Lily is 7 months now! I feel like I always talk about how "crazy" it is that she's getting bigger and stronger, but it really is just that. Sometimes I look at her and I can hardly remember holding her when she was tiny! She's about 18.5lbs. now!!! That's more that double her birth weight!!! Yesterday she stood up all by herself in her crib. I left her for just a minute sitting in her crib and when I came back she was standing. It took me a minute to remember if I had left her like that! I took a video! She's beginning to babble NON-STOP! Mornings and nights are her chatterbox times. She also sticks out her tongue a lot and when she eats she moves her jaw like if she's chewing. It's hilarious! Another new thing we are doing is weaning :( Yes, I know...it's sad. I wanted to go a little longer, but now that Lily is staying for extended hours with her father, she needs to be able to drink from a bottle. The only problem is she despises the bottle. At first I though it was the...formula...but she wont even take B milk from a bottle. I've tried all kinds of different bottles, but NOPE! It's so tough! All I can do is keep trying...wish us both luck!

Here's a little video of Lily Bean taking a stand!

Solids

Lily is finally eating solids! I had started her right at 6 months, but into her 2nd veggie she got sick so I decided to stop until she was better. I didn't think she would enjoy it or be able to taste her yummy foods. So far she's had sweet potatoes, green beans, and peaches. She just finished up her 4 days of peaches. Next up, butternut squash! I've been making her food for her (not the peaches, Jill made those). Today I made butternut squash, peas, and carrots! The peas were yummy, but I feel bad that she's going to have to eat the squash and carrots...yuck! Without some sort of seasoning or delicious butter, it's not so yummy. I've been using the website www.wholesomebabyfoods.com for recipes and helpful hints. When I say "recipe" all I really mean is steaming/baking directions. Anyway, I'm excited to be able to start giving her food, I think she's really ready. She grabs at whatever I'm eating or drinking and sometimes it looks like she's chewing when she's watching me eat. She also got a new high chair from her grandmother Nora, it's super nice!

Lily's 6 Month Portraits!

I forgot to post some of Lily's 6 Month Portraits!!! (no more professional pictures until 9 months!) I feel like we have taken so many pictures of Lily bean, but it's so hard not to! Ok, I lied about waiting until 9 months, she has a photo shoot on Tuesday but only because she's going to be on the cover of the Rio Grande Valley Kids Directory! It's the March cover, but we're shooting it now. She has to wear something "springy", I have a few options...I'm thinking either a shorts/tank outfit or a green polka dot dress...decisions, decisions.

Here are a few of her pictures! She was sick, but she still managed to be adorable!

Baby Girl's First Christmas

Since Lily was sick we didn't go out of the house this Christmas. I was so excited to dress her up and show her off to family, but with her being sick my plans had to change a little. I didn't want to take her out and have her passed from person to person (germ infested person to germ infested person). She's just starting to get better and I didn't want all of my hard work of sheltering her to be for nothing. Lily's first Christmas was really laid back. We just woke up early and opened gifts. We stayed in PJ's all day long and played with a couple of her new toys. She got so many gifts, it was nuts! I put most of them away and I'll bring them out a couple at a time and put a couple away too. It's just way too much and she doesn't really know the difference. Over all I'm really pleased with the way the day went. I had envisioned "baby's first christmas" very differently when I was pregnant, but at the end of the day it was perfect. A smile on her face and wrapping paper in her mouth :) Just PERFECT! I hear the second Christmas is better because they understand a little better and they get really excited....we'll see. I could never have guessed what this Christmas would be like, so I wont start thinking about next either! Here are some pictures of princess Lily on Christmas morning.

Being cozy while we round up her uncles

The first gift she opened!

All of her gifts! She got a carseat and a walker (from Grandpa Felix), a play pen, countless toys, clothes, curtains, and elf on a shelf (from Grandma Norma) for next year.

Lily's dad spoiled her as well! He got her tons of toys!

Thank you for this walker Grandpa Felix!!!

Lily's Sick :(

So, in the previous post I mentioned that Lily had gotten her first illness. Well I took her for her vaccines appointment with the doctor and it turns out she was too sick for vaccines. I was pretty sure that was going to happen because she had the sniffles and I know that typically doctors don't give vaccines when baby's immune system is low. What I was NOT expecting is for them to tell me that Lily had a VIRUS! I mean, I guess an illness can be either a virus or a bacteria, but when they told me they were going to test her for the flu virus and the rsv virus, I did not expect either test to come back positive. They swabbed the inside of her nose (painless) and left to run the test. Fifteen minutes later the results were positive for rsv, which is basically a bad bad cold. AAAAAAANNNNNDDDDDDD commence water works....I don't know why I started to cry, but I just couldn't help it. Lily wasn't crying and everything the doctor was saying was very reassuring, "very common", "easy to treat", "she'll be fine", etc. I guess I just wasn't ready to hear that my baby had "tested positive for a virus", those words are just scary. Also I guess I always just assumed that breast feeding created a magical force field that protected her from any illness EVER (I'm only half kidding).

The doctor gave me a decongestant and prescribed a breathing treatment (with a nebulizer). The nebulizer caused me to cry just a little harder. Again, the doctor was very reassuring, "breaks up congestion quicker because it goes straight to the lungs", "only takes about 5 minutes", "common form of treatment". Still though, the fact that I need to treat Lily with a MACHINE, was just too much to handle on top of the whole "baby has a virus". The doctor put his hand on my shoulder and was basically choking back laughter and said, "Everything is going to be OK". I KNOW THIS! I'm just emotional. She's my first baby and it's just overwhelming.

That was on Thursday, today is Sunday and she's doing very well. Three days of breathing treatment and it's not as hard or overwhelming as I imagined. She does gag and (depending on if she has a full stomach) spit up after she takes her medicine. I feel bad for her everytime! So, doctor said she would not be herself for 7 - 10 days and her cough could linger up to a week longer. Luckily she has NOT had a fever (knock on wood). Here are some pictures of my Lily bean on her six month birthday.

Waiting in the lobby for our appointment with the pediatrician...not at all expecting her to have a VIRUS!

My super sick baby before her breathing treatment! You'd never guess what wasn't feeling well

Taking her treatment, although, I found it works much better if she's sitting up

The nebulizer

Today we had to get out of the house so I took her out on the swing...she actually fell asleep swinging :) She's so precious!

I can't believe I let the whole month go by...

Month five was quite eventful! Lily learned to sit up on her own, she had her first big holiday, she started solids...she also got her first cold!

The day before Lily turned 5 months she started sitting on her own. I would prop her up and she would stay for a little while. As the month progressed she got much stronger and was able to hold her self up much better. Here are a couple pictures...the beginning of the month and then towards the end of the month.

Lily went to visit the doctor and he was really impressed that she was sitting up on her own before turning 6 months :) I was pretty proud of my little Lily Bean! Once she got sitting down she started propping her self up on all fours! My mom says I shouldn't be in a hurry to get her crawling, but I'M NOT...baby girl does it all on her own. Here's a picture of her on all fours.

She gets up and rocks back and forth, she doesn't go anywhere though. She's able to scoot backwards sometimes. She's getting stronger and stronger everyday!

So, Thanksgiving was also this month. Lily slept through most of it and since she wasn't eating solids during that time she didn't get to taste anything, but she did get to wear a pretty dress and an adorable romper, and she got to see some extended family.

A couple weeks shy of turning 6 months I went ahead and started Lily on solids. When she was four months old the doctor said she was a chubby girl and that I could skip cereal so I decided to go ahead and do that. I'm still breastfeeding as her main form of food, but I have already introduced sweet potatoes and she's currently on green beans. All of her food is going to be homemade. Next up will be pears and then peaches, then we'll go back to veggies and alternate again. Here's a picture of her first feeding. She eats like she's done it a million times! She's pretty good at keeping her hands back and out of the way.

She did really well and I did post a video at the end of the blog for your enjoyment :)

Also a new fun thing this month was her new swing! It took me 3 months to get my hands on this swing. My dad put it up outside and the very next day it got really cold and it hasn't been swinging weather since! I'm glad she got to enjoy it for that day though, and I'm sure we'll have tons of swinging days soon.

So to cap on her fifth month Lily got her first illness :( Nothing too bad and the doctor said in her first year she would (and should) get sick 3 times. She mostly just has the sniffles. She's on a decongestant and she's doing well. She hasn't been waking up too much.

Lily will be turning 6 months in a couple of days and I can hardly believe that it's been 6 months since I was in the hospital and we were meeting for the first time. It's amazing how fast the time has passed. I look at her and I can't even believe how big she's gotten and how much she can do now. It's like I blinked and she's this totally different baby. No longer just a little blob. She has her own little personality and her own little quirks. Lately she does this thing with her right arm, when she gets excited she flaps it like a little chick. It's hilarious...I'll have to get it on video. She's also babbling A LOT...she's going to be a chatter box like her mommy! Sometimes I swear I hear words, hahaha...but she's still a long way away from saying words and KNOWING what she's saying. In a couple of days she has her 6 month portraits. I'll make sure to post pictures once I've taken them. Hopefully I wont go a whole month without writing again.

Also, I'd like to say congratulations to my good friends Dawn Graustein, Ceci Garza, and Connie Reinhardt. All of these awesome gals welcomed new babies. Dawn had baby Abby, Ceci had baby Delilah, and Connie welcomed her second baby, baby Austin. All cuties!!! Lily has a bunch of new friends :)

We're looking forward to Christmas and hopefully we'll have a lot of pictures to post!

Here's that video of her eating!