She just keeps growing

Our girl is so big she can get up on the couch without assistance. It's a recent achievement and still takes some effort as this clip reveals.

Very pregnant

Here is my latest belly shot. This was taken last week at 32 weeks pregnant. Currently we are 33 weeks, only 7 weeks remaining. Holy crap. Scary and exciting.
PICTURE REMOVED!!!!!


Overall I'm feeling good. I have little complaints like heart burn, restless legs, difficulty turning over and getting out of bed, etc. Nothing too major at this point. Some days this kiddo makes a very good effort at escaping, by clawing at my cervix or hoping if he bunches his knees up good enough and pushes with his butt somehow he'll get out. Other days he's quiet and only moves enough to reassure me he's okay. Soon enough we'll meet this little guy and we are very excited about that. I can't wait to see what he will look like. Lily looks so much like Randy with his skin color (thank goodness!), darker hair color, eyes, etc. In quite a few recent photos and in some on her facial expressions she is starting to resemble our niece, Sydney. So now that we know what our girl looks like I can't stop wondering what our boy will look like.

Lily signing

One of Lily's favorite books is a basic sign language book. It has approximately 8 signs and each page shows a infant/toddler signing. She used to sign apple all the time but now she is signing all of them. Check her out...







To note...most weekends are spent in just a diaper with a onesie. Today it was just a diaper and shoes. Per request of toddler of course.

The Grandparent Fix

I was talking to my mom-in-law and she said how grateful she was for the Lily pictures I put on my blog. I could tell by the tone in her voice she was more than grateful because they don't live close and this is their connection to Lily. Photos are the only way to convey Lily growing up. That is the main reason I started my blog, to communicate frequently with family and friends and get them as many pictures of Lily as I could. My side of the family also tells me how much they like seeing and hearing about our lives. We aren't that interesting to the general public but it's special to me that my family can check in on us 612 miles away.

Randy was just telling me how much space (20 gigs out of 60) was being used for Lily photos. I believe photographs are of extreme importance. Randy has also taught me that not everyone moment can be photographed and the importance of the moment is more meaningful than missing that precious moment to grab the camera. Based on my taking many photos and trying to also live in the moment you can tell we have quite a few moments. I have recently looked back to a year ago or longer and am reminded of a place we visited or a silly face Lily used to make but doesn't anymore. It saddens me that I will not remember every single minute of Lily's life. Photos are my way of keeping these moments precious and alive in my memory.

To provide the grandparents with their Lily fix for the week here are some recent photos...

20 Months Old!

Our little girl is 20 months old today. It's so crazy to think back to 20 months ago and how much our lives have changed. In a good way. As she gets older she becomes more and more entertaining. Her little personality is emerging more everyday. When she says "mama" or "poppa" we melt. Her little voice is so sweet. She will repeat anything we ask her to. Last night she told Grandma McG. "luv uw" a few times. She also tried saying happy birthday but it didn't come out as clear. She still loves playing with her baby dolls. Yesterday she wanted to open one of her boxed cabbage patch dolls that have sat on her floor since she was born. Not sure what made yesterday the day to add to her doll collection. Last weekend we spent some time with my friend, Kris, and her girls, Syd, Taryn, and Brooke. While I was giving Brooke a bottle Lily helped by putting her hand on the bottle and smiling. It was nice she didn't get jealous that I was holding another baby. I'm hoping her mama instincts will help once her brother arrives. In the meantime we are enjoying our time together as much as possible. This time is so special and is limited. I know she won't remember it but each time she hugs me and kisses me I am reminded she loves me. After we read our bedtime books and I sing to Lily she will reach her little arms around my neck and hug me. That is the best feeling in the world. I love you Lily.

We have one sensitive little girl. Lily is starting to show her sensitivity a lot more these days. For example, the daycare lady asked Lily to come out from under the table because she didn't want the little boy sitting at the table to kick Lily in the head. Lily replied with sticking her bottom lip out as far as possible and with huge tears in her eyes as if she had done something horribly wrong. Yesterday at the mall playground a girl (approximately 4 or 5 years old) dropped a toy right next to Lily. When Lily reached to pick it up the girl loudly shouted "NO!" and grabbed her toy away from Lily's hand. Lily looked to Randy and I with her lip starting to shake and huge tears welting up in her eyes. This reaction, of course, breaks my heart. These are 2 completely different situations and if she is in the line of getting hurt I can handle seeing her lip extend and some tears. But when a mean, little girl is rude and causes this reaction I don't like it. It still breaks my heart when I am reminded of her reaction.

Father's Day was fun but similar to many other days. I wanted to prepare a nice, hot breakfast for Randy but he insisted on doing the cooking. Then he proceeded to mow the lawn and fix his boat motor. Not the relaxing type of day I envisioned for him. He did get two Father's Day gifts...





I'm not big into video games but I have to say Guitar Hero II is very addictive. I'd also like to say I jammed out really hard but Randy would would dismiss this notion rather abruptly. I tried, that's about all I can say. Our first encounter with Guitar Hero II occured a few months ago during our date day. (Date day=skipping work and leaving child at daycare). Anyhow, while in Best Buy I decided to try this guitar game and I was pretty bad. There might have been some booing (from the game of course and not other customers) and the screen might have flashed the word FAILED across it. Randy picked it up and went through an entire song as if he played this game many, many, many times before. I was a bit shocked and had to capture the moment...

Lily Video

Sorry this video is sideways. I forget to keep it upright when taking video sometimes. I thought this was cute to share. Lily enjoys singing in the car. You can't really hear her much but she usually repeats the last word or two. This was taken on the way home from Joy's last Sunday so she was getting pretty sleepy.

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend. I especially enjoyed the weekend because Randy was with us all weekend! Saturday morning we watched our niece, Sydney, play a game in her soccer tournament. They lost that game but Syd played excellent like always! Afterwards, Randy hung out with Lily while I ran some errands and got home in time to put both of them down for their afternoon nap. Randy won for being the easiest to put down but Lily didn't put up much of a fight either. I decided to soak up some rays (with sunblock of course!) and started a new book. Both Randy and I have been reading nightly thanks to getting rid of our cable. Lily and Randy were both sleeping when I had to leave for my hair appointment. While I was gone Randy and Lily went to the community pool to meet Joy and the kids. Afterwards they ate dinner with everyone while waiting for me to get home. My hair appointment (full highlights) took 4 hours! My stylist keep telling me I had a lot of hair but 4 hours later I was done! My uncle Larry should be happy that I returned to blonde.

On Sunday Lily and I turned into cheerleader mode at Randy's ultimate frisbee tournament. Here is Lily watching while sitting in someone else's chair. It was the perfect size for her!
















Lily wanted in on the action so she tried to join Randy when possible...




















After Lily's afternoon nap (we snuck in a movie--Dejavu--it was good) we all went to the community pool for a dip. Lily remained on Randy's lap most of the time but she did walk around the pool with assistance. Once she decided to walk on her own but lost balance and dunked her head. She was a little shocked but wasn't too upset. Lily is a people watcher and liked to climb into her stroller and watch everyone else.






















To end our fun weekend we hung out at Joy and Bobby's house. We jumped (I took pictures!) on the trampoline, picked strawberries, and ate burgers. We had a great time with our nieces, nephew, and Joy and Bobby.

Internet is B-A-D

As if I didn't have enough distractions, I am now addicted to this site...

A quick hello

Sorry I have been neglegent with posting lately. We changed our internet service and were without access until yesterday. I typically post at work anyhow but I left early yesterday for a doctor appointment and I'm leaving any minute now!!! I'm off to spend the day with my little girl.

My doctor appointment was great. Normal. Quick. I waited about 35 minutes to be seen by my actual doctor for approximately 2.5 minutes. I don't mind, I get caught up on reading magazines.

Maybe I'll post more tonight. We also cancelled our cable so I have more free time in the evenings. I actually organized my greeting cards last night. Randy commented he thought only grandmas had a collection of greeting cards. It's nice I can still surprise him almost 13 years later.