Lily Update

Lily turned 1 year old on June 12th 2009. We were in AZ for her first birthday and a lot of friends and family turned out for the big bash. We had her birthday at my sisters apartment complex by the pool. It was a party with all the food fixing's and the best part is all the cousins were there and we all had a blast. Unfortunately, I lost all my pictures off my camera so all I have of her birthday is video. Big bummer!

Here is the video of Lily with her cake. I must say, for being as excited for food as she usually is, I think she got "gun shy" when every one was staring at her. I had high expectations because a month earlier, she was at her cousin Haven's (a couple months older) party. My cousin put all the babies on the table and let then dig into the cake. Lily went for it! She pigged out and I thought "Man! She is going to be awesome at her birthday party." Well of course she did exactly the opposite. She was a big dud with the cake but for memory's sake, I will post the video any way. (Thanks to Nicole who made her cake).





She got lots of awesome presents too so, "Thank you all who made her birthday and special one."

Another fun mile stone is that she started walking one week before her first birthday. Of course, I got that on video too:)



Lily is a busy body and once she started walking, she NEVER crawled again. I think she would walk a mile if I let her. It's a wonder that I am not thinner for all the chasing around I do! The girl can RUN!

I love when kids figure out that they too can actually play peek-a-boo! Lily played peek-a-boo with Josh by herself for the first time also while in AZ. This is quite adorable. She loves her daddy.




Since we have been home, Lily has fallen in love with Baby Einstein, books, Starfall (an amazing on line learning web site) and climbing. Some of her favorite books are:
Hands Can
Quack, Quack
Opposites
Splash
This adorable puzzle book she got for her birthday
And pretty much anything her brother will read to her:)

She won't even let us have a second in the morning. Before I can even get to the couch to sit down, she will already be chasing me with a book in her hand. She then looks at you and says "up!" and proceeds to climb onto your lap. It melts my heart every time!

For those of you who have young kids and don't know what Starfall is, you should check out the website http://www.starfall.com/ . Vinny started on it at 15 months and by 17 he knew all the letters of the alphabet, capital and lower case. He is also full on reading and hadn't even started kindergarten yet. It really works and kids love it. Lily will sit for 30 to 40 minutes at a time and and be mesmerized the entire time. In fact, now, when I get on the computer, she runs up to me and says "Up!" because SHE KNOOOOWS:)

Lily is probably about 24 to 25 pounds however, she is thinning out because she started walking. This makes us very sad because we soooo loved her fatness!

Lillian is definitely lacking in the hair department. I can finally put little pig tails in, but she is still pretty bald on top so I hide that with a bow. I call it "creative combing" and I do it to hide the "Skullet".

Lily loves to climb the slide in Vincent's room and can do it with no problem. She also likes to climb the playground equipment at Vincent's school. Vinny couldn't start at the bottom of a slide and climb up until he was about 3.

As far as talking, she is saying some words and knows her animal sounds. I always push my finger into her belly when I say "Moo" and now when I ask her what a cow says, she pushes her finger into her belly and says "Mooooooo". It's too cute!

She has 8 teeth and is cutting four molars at the same time. Luckily, she hasn't been too cranky. She just doesn't sleep the best.

Lillian is very loved by all our friends and neighbors here in UT. The neighbor kids have to hug her every time they see her and she is just fine with that. In fact, she lights up every time she sees them. It is fun to watch kids as they start to love and recognize the people around them.

Lily is fun, adventurous, smart, loving and expressive. I just love to watch her facial expressions. She is a joy and I'm so glad she's mine.

One of the funniest things about Lily is her uncontrollable urge to dance when she hears music. It is an automatic response.

Here's Lily jammin' to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"