A Fever, but not for more Cowbell

After one of Lilli's late afternoon naps yesterday she just felt warm. We've probably taken her temperature at least a thousand times over the last 7 months (she's fussy! she must be sick!) but never actually gotten a temperature out of it. Sometimes she's been so fussy we've gotten all the thermometers out, absolutely convinced one of them would tell us something was medically wrong with our precious, but, nope, they've all just said "you have a fussy baby, deal!" Well, bulls eye on Sunday night.
I had literally just picked up a new pacifier thermometer on Sunday afternoon, so I first had Brent clean that one and it came back with 102.9. Huh??? I expected it to give me the old ha!ha! lady you just have a fussy baby, but not this time. Clearly not believing it, I had Brent get all the thermometers, and since this one seemed serious we did the good ole rectal temp - 101.9. And you know you can't argue with that one. She was lethargic and whiny, and just looked pitiful. We called the pedi on duty and he gave us the lowdown on Tylenol, dosage, etc. It was a looong night. She woke up pretty much every hour, so it was pretty easy to stick with the every 4 hours Tylenol plan.
I had a doc appt at lunch today for my 6-month baby followup, plus Mondays are pretty busy for me at work, so Brent stayed home with her. She slept a lot and fussed a lot. She can only stand playing for about a half an hour every few hours, but she'll give it a go and then just get whiny and want to be rocked. So the glider our moms got us has gotten much, much usage over the last 24. Today her temp has usually been right around in the 101 range, so she's got another day off school tomorrow (with me this time). Brent talked to her nurse today, and there's a fever virus going around (along with about everything else in the world...) where pretty much your only issue is a fever. She doesn't have a runny nose (until she screams her head off for a while), cough, or anything else going on with her. She hasn't been eating quite as much, and hasn't kept to much of a schedule with it, but that's to be expected when you feel under the weather. If she still has a fever Wednesday then we have to take her into the doc. Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll sleep great tonight and wake up tomorrow good as new!

August has just not been her month! First the stomach bug, and now this! I certainly feel lucky that up until this month she's only had a slight cold (back in May), but I am ready for some healthier days. I can't wait until she gets her flu shot at her 9-month appt! I think from now on we may plan to be 5 minutes late for church and avoid the opening "shake everyone's hand" segment. Why 5,000 people want to shake my baby-who-could-care-less's hand is beyond me, but I am over this germ sharing mess!

(On a side note, none of these pictures are of her sick. They're just a)I hate crawling! It makes me angry! b)Don't you dare try to feed me a puff! Those are not to be eaten! Now give me back one of Pippin's toys or the cord to the blinds and c)Babies blink in pictures, too.)

Wired

We had a little Miss Fussy Britches on our hands today. She was actually pretty good in church, and took a semi-decent nap, but it went downhill from there. The Sunday school report was that she got fussy and frustrated after her dress kept her from trying to crawl. Next week I'll probably recommend that they tuck it into her bloomers if it should happen again. I think her enormously dirty diaper was also a culprit of the fussies, and she really acted like she was teething today. She also made some sort of scene with Brent at Zaxby's when I went to the bathroom. It must've been bad because he was standing up, heading for the door, when I came back out and the lady at the table next us gave me a sympathetic look! So I sat in the back with her on the way home and she just stared at me and held my hand the whole time. Look at this sad, tired little face!

She was def ready for a nap, and one thing her teachers are working on is getting her to put herself to sleep at nap time. She's about 50% successful with that right now, so I put her down awake this afternoon and went into the kitchen to make some baby food (squash, carrots and sweet potatoes today). I could hear her stirring over the monitors for a little while, and once it got quiet I went to check on her.


Yeah, that's her foot sticking through, resting on electrical sockets, and there's also a pacifier hung in them, too. She ended up there because she spends her time in her crib now crawling - backwards, of course, so she ended up there, with nowhere else to go, and passed out. We're going to have to get some of the covers that you can use the socket with. This scene reminded me of one of my fave baby bloggers and one of her recent posts about how everything in their crib was "wrong", too! I guess we prob should get a bumper, but I think all that junk is hideous. We don't even have a bedding set, the quilt is pointless since you don't use it, and we had my mom custom make the drapes, so what's the point?
That's the top view. She woke up in the middle of her nap stuck, literally. Brent had to pry her leg out from the bars and let's just say that nap didn't end well. She had started out up at the other end with her blankie.

She did get back to sleep, in a somewhat similar formation with just a foot through. She's starting to sleep on her stomach now with her rear up in the air.

And here she is working on standing. She can stand pretty well on her activity table now. We still have to be right there if she starts leaning, but as long as she can hold onto something her balance is much improved.
Time to get ready for bed. Where does the weekend go????

Play Ball!

The rest of the week went by really quickly here in East Nash.

Lilli continues to work on her crawling. She still goes backwards though, which makes her very angry and frustrated. I've been sending her to school in mostly sunsuits and onesie/shorts combos all summer, but her little knees have been SO carpet-burned all week that I bought her some new cotton pants last night at Target. A lot of her 3-6 cotton ones are a little short & jeans can be tough to crawl in so I loaded up on some additional 6-9 months.

One thing she learned last week was that it's ok to just take things away from people. So she now likes to take things away from Pippin that he is currently chewing on. Oddly enough he has a filter that tells him the difference between what's his and what's hers. Pretty crazy considering many of her toys are basically dog toys with a rattle instead of a squeaker. Lilli, on the other hand, has zero filters on anything. I barely caught her before she had a rawhide in her mouth one day this week. Luckily, Pippin is a very sweet spirit and when she takes his toys he licks her in the face. Seriously. I guess at this point he considers any attention good attention!

Brent cracks me up by sending me random pics to my work email about once a day. Sometimes they're of what she was doing at daycare that morning, or in the car, or sometimes something funny from earlier in the week. Friday afternoon he sent me this one with the subject line "Scary scene I walked in on yesterday afternoon". Ha! One of her favorite things to do right now is to "hook me". I'm not sure where it came from, but she loves to "tackle" me and of course Pippin was showing us how much we were missed during the day!


We're soaking up as much "cruise" time as we can before the daylight totally escapes us. People loooove Lilli in her little car. Since we live in such a happening neighborhood and have wonderful sidewalks it's easy to walk her past all the restaurants/coffee shops, etc infused within the neighborhood. People LOVE to wave at her, roll down their windows, smile, and so on. I've even had a Harley biker guy (on his way to bike night at a neighborhood Baptist church) slow down, stop, and tell me how cute she is. I like to think we're bringing some smiles to the East side! (Hopefully she will not drive with her feet in 15 years when she starts driving for real!)

One of Brent's old roommates recently sent us a gift card for Lilli. It's great fun to get gifts now and buy toys instead of other newborn necessities. I picked out this basketball goal for Lilli. I thought it would be good hand-eye coordination and it's not enormous so that's a plus, too!

She likes to pull down on the basket and other spinning/tugging things it has, but it really takes both hands for her to hold the ball right now so she doesn't really shoot. She'd prefer to chew on the ball instead! I think this one will be a good one to grow with and have a long life. The goal has various adjustable heights for when she can stand unassisted, etc.
But she does put other things through the hoop - like her books! Ha!


Here she is at Mexican tonight. She was great (as always). She stayed in her buggy while we ate and then sat in my lap while Brent cleaned the table off. She can entertain herself for days just banging on the table and trying to reach everything.

And here she is at the coffee shop with me tonight. I had my haircut this afternoon and also did some grocery shopping and was really wanting some iced coffee. I was going to walk with Lilli and get some once I got home, but Brent was getting hungry for dinner when I got back so we walked to one of the neighborhood coffee shops after dinner and split some iced coffee. I love being able to walk our errands! We can walk to the grocery, loads of coffee shops/bakeries/restaurants, the bank, post office, library and so much more! Love it!!!

It's hard to believe there's only one day left in the weekend!

A Different World

It's a very different experience when I pick Lilli up from her new class every afternoon. They're just getting up from their afternoon nap and there are kiddos crawling everywhere. (There's usually 4-5 there in the afternoon.) This afternoon when I walked in Lilli was over by the ball pit, she had pulled herself up and was trying to figure out how to get in. When she saw me, her usual excited flapping hand gestures just didn't go with her current activity and she head-planted onto the floor! Ouch!!! A little bit of loving for a minute or two and she was just fine, but I imagine she falls on her head a lot these days because she is pulling up on everything, but just doesn't have the balance to know what to do. We're going to drop her mattress down this weekend because it's only a matter of time before she pulls up in her crib.

I always bring Lilli's carseat into her room with me every afternoon (car seat "parking" is in the nearby little auditorium). There's a lot to do at pick up: a)pick up Lilli, as she'll cry if you don't immediately grab her upon being discovered, b) sign her out, c)get her daily report card, d)check her mailbox for any parent letters or artwork and e) get her empty and extra bottles. It's a lot to do, and of course I always talk to her teachers about her day and what they did. And I also always bring my camera in with me, in case there's any cuteness going on. In this new class, Lilli's car seat has become a magnet for crawlers. Yesterday I was pretty sure Cleo was going to ride out on top of Lilli. She had gotten all in her carseat, played with her chimes and even grabbed my camera and made off with it. Today, she brought a friend: Alex. They both played with her toys and were pretty much in the car seat with Lilli. I just had to snap a pic of Lilli's groupies. They just love each other! These 7-12 month-ers are so funny and random! I'll have to look on the wall and see how old Alex is, I'm guessing 9-10 months. Both Lilli and Cleo are so small for their age he just looks huge!

I love how sneaky Cleo looks peeking above the car seat!Right after I took this one, Cleo reached in and grabbed Lilli's pacifier! It's ok, I saw Lilli take Madden's a few weeks ago. What goes around comes around....


Have a great weekend!

FFN: Centennial Park

This week for our family fun night (FFN) we went to Centennial Park for a picnic, stroll, and to feed the ducks. Originally for this week I had wanted to do one last weeknight at the pool, but with the crazy cool August temps I decided a picnic would be better! Since Monday was forecasted to be a perfect day, Brent grabbed some Subway sandwiches on his way home and once we fed Lilli we headed for the park. (One thing I have learned about FFN is that it must include some sort of dinner - by the time we feed Lilli and cook something for ourselves it's usually at least 6:30, and to be home for bed/bath by 8:00ish for Lilli means a VERY short FFN!)

The park was full of people exercising and enjoying the nice night, but we were still able to find a secret hideaway overlooking the lake to enjoy our dinner. Lilli played with some toys while we ate.

We took a family photog (but she was way too interested in her toys to smile!)

And I even took one of Brent and Lilli! It seems there's tons of me and her, but not so many cute ones of Brent and Lilli!

And Brent got a cute one of us working on her standing/steps:

After we ate we took some old bread over to the geese and ducks. They were all fighting over the bread, and Lilli just sat in her stroller watching, with her feet stuck straight out the whole time!

Then we went for a stroll around the lake and I stopped to get a photog of Brent and Lilli in front of the Parthenon. I guess I sort of forgot to get the Parthenon in the photo! Oops!!!


We had a great FFN at the park! We love going to the park, but we've mostly been going to Shelby Park lately - I think this was the last time we've been to Centennial! I've already got an idea for next week, and I'm sure there will be more picnics before it gets too chilly (and dark) to be outdoors. I've been trying to think of some fun ones for this winter, maybe we can do some weeknight playdates or even start testing out places like Chuckee Cheese. I'm sure she'd enjoy the puppets and I bet Brent would enjoy the photo booth, as he has at many a friend's birthday parties!!

Freshman

Lilli has survived her first two days in her "big girl" class! In the baby class, she was always the first kid there by about 45 minutes every morning. Brent usually drops her off around 6:45-7, and none of the other kids ever showed up until around 7:30. We always liked that because she got TONS of love from several teachers and they'd always grab her as soon as Brent got buzzed in. Not the same in the Creepers and Crawlers! It seems she'll be getting there at the same time as Avery every morning. Here's Lilli & Avery:

Lilli had been in her new class all of, oh, 5 seconds, and was happily digging through the box and found two perfect blocks to chew on. Avery, a 9 month old, agreed and is now seen chewing on her two blocks. Since he's a crawler all she could do was stare and smirk! It's ok, this morning he was pulled up on the chair and she was a little closer so she started grabbing his bum, which of course everyone found very entertaining! I think Lilli and Avery are going to have quite the relationship.....
Her new room has lots of fun new, bigger kid toys. Apparently the yellow car is something the boys fight over. And regarding the ball pit, Ms Donna told Brent "you're not really a part of the class until you've fallen out of the ball pit". Oh dear. But I am preparing for lots of bruises and bumps, she's pulling up on EVERYTHING. She's great at the pulling up part, it's just the balance and hanging on that are sometimes lacking! Tonight she took a head dive into her singalong piano thing. Ouch!

She came home pretty tired last night, you could just tell it had been a different day! She and Jada (the kid who taught her to blow bubbles) are the only two who can't crawl, and these kiddos are everywhere! It's one very active room!!! (You move out of this class when you turn 1 and into Ms Barbara's room - and Lilli is her favorite! Can't wait until she's 1!) This morning good old friend Cleo just crawled right across Lilli. Tonight her little knees were all red, I could tell she's been scooting and working on her crawling all day to keep up with these kiddos! She still mostly goes backwards at this point. I think she had been spit up on or drooled on by one of the other kids because there was some sort of drool patch on her back that she could never have done. Ha! Ms Shannon said this afternoon she's mostly been hanging with Cleo and Jada, the girls are sticking together! The rest of the class is boys, and she's already picked up this odd squeal I've heard one of them make both yesterday and today while he's eating. More monkey see, monkey do-ing! And Ms Violet told me this afternoon she's been her usual smiley self, so she seems to be adjusting well.

And she has slept very well the past two nights! Tonight she literally passed out during her bedtime bottle and didn't even wake up when I put her down in her crib and in her sleep sack. Poor baby!

That's all for tonight, I'll have to post pics from our picnic at the park later this week!

Happy 7 Month Birthday!

Happy 7 Months of Lilli!

Your Birthday - January 24, 2009

7 lbs, 6.5 ounces 19 inches

One Month - February (first smiles!)

9 lbs, 1 ounce (45th %) 21.5 inches (55%), head: 70%

Two Months - March

10 lbs, 12 ounces (50%) 22 5/8 inches (55%), head: 65%

Three Months - April

(No official weight/measure)

Four Months - May

13 lbs 1 ounce (35%), 23 7/8 inches long (30%), head: 85%

Five Months - June!! And starting to sit on your own with a little help from Boppy!

Unofficial - Measurement of 25 inches and weight measurements - 14.2 pounds

6 Months - July Official Stats (which is actually 6months, 1 wk) - 25 3/4 inches long (50th percentile!), Weight: 15 lbs, 8 ounces (40th percentile), Head: 75th percentile


7 Months - Unofficial Statistics: 16.2 lbs, 25 3/4 inches long (which I don't think is right and we'll re-do tomorrow, I know she's gotten longer in the last 3 weeks because she has outgrown a ton of her 3-6M PJs this past week!)
At 7 months you are a happy, giggly, easy going girl. You've got no fears of strangers or anything else, and you absolutely LOVE to be scared! Your favorite game is to have one of us jump out at you from behind a door or from in the closet and yell Boo! I bet you will love roller coasters one day. You're still madly in love with big brother Pippin and he and his toys will be the first thing you crawl towards. You're OH SO close to crawling, and you can scoot backwards pretty easily. You can also pull yourself up on all kinds of things, and can go from sitting to standing by just holding our hands. Your little legs are STRONG and you can thank your momma for that one! You've become a tummy sleeper over the past few weeks, and your one and only word is Momma! You like all your fruits and vegetables and are eating a ton these days! We can start to see the buds of your first teeth on their way, so it won't be long until you've got some pearly whites. You love stroller rides, swinging, and just generally being outside. And thankfully you love posing for the camera, which makes your Daddy VERY happy!

Mobile Napping

Man, where in the world did this weekend go??? We were on the go pretty much all the time and poor Lilli had to do all her napping in the car! She only takes about a 10 min nap at church now, and today she didn't even do that (when there's the two of us to climb, people to make faces at, and a diaper bag to destroy who has time for a nap??). Of course the first thing she did when we sat down this morning was start up with a "Momma"! She didn't say it at all Friday or Saturday, so of course she was holding out for church! We HAD to go to Nashville West after church to pick up some prints of Lilli, so she got a nice half hour nap in the car, and woke up right after Brent came out of Costco with our pictures. (Hopefully I'll have some very exciting news about where (or should I say several million 'wheres') those pictures may be used!) Anytime we go to Nashville West we always eat at Blue Coast Burrito. Out of all the many restaurants Lilli has eaten at that's probably her most frequent haunt, she's had many a bottle on the patio there.

I think she's loving sitting in the actual high chair these days!
I'm pretty sure she's telling me she can't WAIT to order off the kids menu! If she doesn't like burritos I don't know what I will do! She's highly interested in our food now, and constantly grabs at our plates and glasses.
We got home and only had about 30 minutes before we had to leave for Infant CPR class at Lilli's school. Just long enough to get changed and climb around on Daddy for a few. She's pretty unstoppable these days and ALWAYS on the move! A total monkey.....She fell asleep in the car ride over to school (only about a 10 min ride) and slept in her car seat there for about another half hour before having some extra playtime with a few of her classmates and Miss Rachel while we learned about CPR and other kid first aid tips. The class was very informative, and I feel a lot more comfortable heading into the Cheerios and table food phase. From there we had to stop at the organic grocer for a few things, then visited with our next door neighbor who hadn't seen Lilli in a little while. They just love seeing her and couldn't believe how much she had grown. She was so tired when we got inside Brent rocked her about 20 minutes before we had to leave AGAIN! We were home just long enough for me to throw some cookies in the oven and change out the purse again for another bottle-on-the-go. Tonight was life group at our Sunday School teacher's house, so we headed up to Hendersonville and once again she napped along the way. She did really well tonight, esp considering how sleepy and on the go she'd been today (and really all weekend). She didn't get fussy until the end, which is pretty good considering how short her attention span is. Since she was at the extreme end of her tiredness I sat in the back with her on the way home - when she's extremely tired she SCREAMS in the car - which we got the "pleasure" of enduring the whole way to and back from Hohenwald last weekend. Tonight she wound up once or twice, but since I was in the back I could hold her hand and that always makes her happy. She was OUT when we got home - even when Brent took her out of her seat she didn't even wake up, and I don't think that's ever happened. She ate her bottle and quickly went to bed about a half hour later than usual.

So tomorrow starts another week and she'll have her first day in her new class tomorrow! Cleo's parents were in our class today and they were very excited to see Lilli's name moved up to her class. I'm sure Lilli will be very happy to see some of her old buddies tomorrow and have an entire new room of toys to break in!

Goodbyes

Friday was Lilli's last day in the Infant I class at her daycare. It seems like we dropped her off for her first day of school just the other day! We're very excited for her to move up to the "Creepers and Crawlers", but it's still very sad and just another sign our little girl is growing up! We made sure to take her teachers - Ms Sammie, Ms Violet, and Ms Rachel some gifts on Friday and a note to let them know how much we appreciate them. (Her other teacher - Ms Dameah is on bedrest - she's expecting a baby who wanted to show up about 14 wks early, so for the past 2 weeks she's had subs for the other afternoon teacher.)

Here's her note from Thursday (from Miss Rachel): "She was very talkative! =) Loves to say Ma Ma. We will miss her when she moves up!"

And her note from Friday (from Ms Sammie): "We will miss Lilli's smiley face in our class but will be sure to say hello every day! We had a going away party for Lilli today - sat in a circle and told old stories. We laughed and smiled a LOT. Had a great day plus a fire drill!"

Awww! When I picked her up Friday afternoon she was playing in the floor with their little buckets of toys and it just felt SO sad! Miss Shanice told me all about their fire drill (and how in the world you manage to get them all out at once!), and how much they would miss Lilli! I can just see them having circle time and telling Lilli stories - HA! I probably don't even want to know what some of those stories might be! When I was putting her in her carrier Maevy (the little girl with all the hair) reached out for her and Lilli reached back - they held hands for a minute before I untangled the two of them. Lilli is going to miss her little pig-tailed friend! Hopefully Maevy will move up before long and they can be reunited.

When I left I noticed Lilli's name had already been moved from her door up to her new class, and her mailbox had already been replaced by some kid named Henry who must be taking her old spot on Monday. I'm pretty sure at least a couple of times next week I'll keep trucking right past her room!

Here's Lilli with Ms Rachel last week. Ms Rachel is so sweet and just loves to play and sing with the babies! I would love for her to move up to the next class with Lilli!


Here's Lilli with Ms Sammie on Friday. These are so cute! I haven't been around Ms Sammie as much since she's the morning teacher. Lilli always gets lots of love from Ms Sammie every morning!

These will definitely go in Lilli's scrapbook (that is if I ever make one!) I know I have a picture of her with Ms Violet (an old one) but I don't have a clue where it is. She comes in after Brent drops her off and is usually gone before I pick her up.

I'm sure Lilli will love her new teachers just as much! Miss Jamie has been itching for Lilli to move up for several months now, and it looks like there's lot of fun toys in her next room, too. They even have one of those little inflatable tubs with all the balls in it. I can see her loving that, and she'll start computer training in her new classroom which CRACKS ME UP! I can just see her checking her email or whatever you do at 7 months on the computer, but I'm sure it will really help her development.

She's been working on her crawling tonight, and WOW is she close! She scoots back pretty easily, and she even got forward some tonight, too. We took some video but she's in nothing but her diaper so it looks a little ghetto. At our 6-month appt her pedi prescribed a special steriod oil we have to put on her head once a week for an hour which should hopefully help clear up her awful cradle cap. Ever tried having something on a baby's head for an hour? Yeah, not easy! But we do always strip her down to just her diaper for that time (so it doesn't get on her clothes). I'm going to call her doc this week, the oil has helped but it's still pretty bad and I think if we put it on twice a week that might be better. As the week goes on it starts looking worse and worse, and is really flaky by Saturday. We've tried every OTC thing for it, and this is the first prescrip we've used and it does work better but I've got to believe there's something that could really kick it out there.

That's all for tonight, gotta press Lilli's dress for tomorrow. As if it will actually stay wrinkle free for more than 10 minutes! We're also taking an Infant CPR class at her daycare tomorrow afternoon. Since we're supposed to start giving her table foods (like Cheerios and Puffs) I want to make sure I know what to do if she should choke. The class is only $10 and they're offering childcare! And we'll also get to meet the parents of some of Lilli's little classmates, so it should be fun.

And the Winner Is.....

Momma!

It's sort of come out of nowhere this week. Yesterday Miss Rachel mentioned Lilli had been saying ma ma ma ma that afternoon, and she also said it several times last night. When she & I went out for her walk she said Mama! really loudly once, and although it definitely "counted" I was the only person who heard it, and it just seemed sort of random. Today Miss Rachel said she said it a lot more, and then tonight - she just let 'em roll! I truly haven't been actively working with her on words, I don't even know when they're supposed to start talking because we've been so focused on crawling and standing lately. As we play I say colors and animals/shapes of whatever toy we're playing with, but I really don't try to prompt her with words. So I have to say this is VERY surprising!

REALLY, the true purpose of this post is pretty overshadowed by the new Momma revolution! On Sunday, Adam came up to us and told us to bring Lilli over Thursday night for a playdate with Rachel so we could have a hot date (our words, not his!) I mean, how often does someone just walk up to you and say "drop your fuss bucket off and go out and party like you're 20-something again!" I gotta say that's the first time it's EVER happened in the last (almost) 7 months and it was pretty surprising. And that's why everyone needs friends like Adam and Tonya!! We arranged all the details this week and we headed out to Hermitage after work to drop off Lilli. In all my random list of "Lilli details" (she must stand at all times, she eats like a horse, blankies are her Kryptonite, she wants to crawl but it makes her angry) I didn't even BEGIN to think to let them know she was starting to randomly spew forth Mommas! Imagine their surprise! Ha!!!

For our side of the story, Brent and I had a lovely dinner at Outback. I know, razzle dazzle, ha! But we don't have one too near us, so it's truly been 4+ yrs since we've eaten there and I just love their chicken (again, we are odd!) We split some cheese fries, I had some grilled chicken (smothered in bacon and cheese) and B had a chicken sandwich. It was nice to have a dinner where we knew no interruptions would come from OUR kid and that we could safely order a appetizer and not try to calc how much time we might have to eat our own dinners before hitting an impending bottle/bed/poop deadline from Lilli Bit. Afterwards we shopped around in a pet store for a new toy for Pippin (I still can't find the exact same toy some friends sent him once from Chicago and it's been 3 years of looking now!), and stopped into Kroger to take some dessert back to Adam and Tonya's.

From all reports Lilli and Rachel had a nice playdate, and hopefully Lilli didn't teach Rachel any bad tricks! I guess I'll hear in a few days if she picked up the Momma bug! (which would be much better than a stomach bug!)

I left my camera in case anything funny were to happen, since we pretty much document every moment of her life! Here's Adam with Rachel & Lilli. I'm pretty sure Rachel is thinking "You can play with all my toys now, but give me a few months and I'll be throwing them all at your head and saying "Mine!"
Here's Lilli hogging the toys again....She tried to sneak one or two of them out in her bag (shhhh!).....


So, it was a great and historic night! A)Mine and Brent's 2nd date since Lilli was born almost SEVEN months ago!! B)Another playdate with Rachel (And my how they have changed!!) and C)We're officially counting today as her first words - Momma!

Big, Big Thank you to Adam and Tonya (and Rachel) for watching Lilli and keeping her entertained tonight and for being witnesses on this historic occasion!!! So now we'll start working on Daddy! (and of course Pippin!)

Moving on Up....

Lilli has some exciting news - She'll be graduating from the "baby" class at daycare at the end of this week and moving up to the....."bigger" baby class - the creepers & crawlers. A lot of her friends are already in there - Jada, Cleo, and Tristan, and then she'll have several other new friends to make! It's very exciting - esp since she's been the "old maid" of her class for the last 3 or so weeks after Jada moved up, but also a little sad as part of how quickly she's growing! Miss Sammie, Violet, Rachel and Dameah have all been such a big part of her life and a huge help to us! They helped cure her of her "I will only nap in the swing!" stance and have really been key in getting naps in the crib squared away.

As part of how much she's growing and changing on a weekly basis, she's now becoming a lot more "involved" in restaurant outings! Last Friday night we tried out the new Vietnemase restaurant a few blocks over (called Far East Nashville). She started the night out in her carrier, as she always does at restaurants.

She was being quite the little social butterfly, flirting with all the waitresses and anyone nearby. She is really NOT a shy baby! After about 20 mins, and EXACTLY as our food arrived she decided she was WAY too confined, so in the interest of us actually being able to eat we thought we'd try her in the booster seat:


She has become VERY interested in what we're eating at all times!! Hopefully one day when we actually want her to eat Saigon Chicken she'll be that into it! She does great with her solids, and if she wants more than one container or if you're not feeding her enough she will most certainly let you know with a little temper tantrum! After she was in the booster she was fine, no more fussing, and I think she enjoyed being part of the table. And trying to tear apart the table...


Sunday afternoon on our way back from Hohenwald I needed to stop at the grocery store, so we decided to let her try sitting in the buggy. She was SO tired from the day that she really didn't react much to her new grocery surroundings, but she also didn't fuss and considering how tired she was that says a lot!
We got lots of ooohs and aaahs around the store, and it's much appreciated how people are less likely to ram you when the little one isn't protected by the big carrier! Of course that could also be the difference in Publix in Brentwood versus our awful ghetto grocery stores....
Have a great night!