Lilly in Blue

Blue is definitely Lillian's best color.  Navy, light, royal, teal, it doesn't matter.  I wish I had more pictures of her in blue to post, but I snapped a few this afternoon in her adorable blue and white dress that was given to her by my friend Katie. 

Lillian continues to amaze us.  She has some words down like dog, dance, all done, momma, dada, Teeti.  She signs more and eat (which is funny because I have only shown her a few times - I didn't sign with Ryan either).  She is FINALLY sleeping through the night.  And by sleeping through the night, I mean 10-12 hours at a time.  She doesn't need as much sleep as most babies (and even Ryan at his current age), so once we realized that, we are not battling over sleep much anymore.  She does resist going to sleep and cries everytime she goes down, but usually not for long.  She naps anywhere between 1-3 hours a day, so overall she gets about 12-13 hours of sleep a day.  Ryan still gets 13 (sometimes more) per day.  Every child is different!  She is cruising along furniture and letting go for very brief moments, but still sits to crawl where she needs to be.  I doubt she will be walking by her first birthday, but you never know.  She doesn't have any teeth yet!  She has two swollen little buds on the bottom gums, so I imagine it will be soon.   I will miss that gummy smile when they pop out!  She is refusing all baby food, except the pouches that she can feed herself .  So I have to cut everything up into tiny bites for her, but she will literally eat anything and everything that I give her.  She even ate a spider (traumatizing for me - I got it out before she swallowed it, but it was alive!) and dog food (which she swallowed when she saw me running over to her to get it out of her mouth).  Let's say she has an adventerous palette! 

Lilly's favorite toy is a baby doll and matchbox cars.  She also loves anything Ryan has. They are starting to "scream" over toys a little.  But Ryan is getting better and will sometimes ask "Is it my turn to play with this?" before snatching it away from Lillian.  She loves to wear bows and will feel on top of her head for one daily.  If she picks one up, she tries to put it in her hair.  Sometimes she pulls one our of her hair, but will attempt to put it back in.  It is so cute.  She has started drinking cows milk and is not a huge fan.  I have to mix it with some pediasure or breastmilk in order for her to drink it, but she is getting there. 

She can clap, dance, pretend to read, raise her hands when some one says "Lilly is so big", do the hand movements to The Wheels on the Bus, and give high fives.  She is a wonderful baby, and always has a smile on her face. She is just so much fun and we are so excited to be celebrating her first birthday in 2 weeks!!

Park

With this beautiful weather we have been having, we go to the park all of the time.  I rarely have my camera, but always have my phone.  Here are some pictures and 1 video of some recent park visits that I captured with my phone.  Ryan and Lilly love to be outside.  Ryan will climb on everything at the park.  He even does the monkey bars (with my help, of course).  He loves climbing rock walls.  I have to stick close to him so I can spot him while he climbs these big structures.  We are so lucky to have so many great parks and 1 giant hill in our neighborhood! 

Ryan on top of the big hill.  He loves running up and down. 

Our first time to fly a kite with Ryan.  He really liked watching it, flew it for a second, but prefered to have Rob or I fly it. 

Watching the kite.

Eating Cheetos with Eva.  For the record, Cheetos are way messy! 

Finally, A Big Boy Bed

Ryan finally got a big boy bed!  We agreed that we wouldn't move him into a regular bed until he climbed out of his crib or turned 3, whichever happened first. Well, neither have happened, although we have seen him climb in and out of his crib while playing.  We decided to move him after he spent the night at his Grammy's house.We put him in the pack and play to sleep, he barely fit.  And I mean he was crammed in there.  He slept all night, but we realized that in order for him to sleep at his Grammy's or Grandma and Grandpa Reckers' house, he has to sleep in a big bed.  His crib converted into a full size bed, so we just needed to buy a mattress and some bedding.   He asked for a Thomas the Train bedroom, but anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn't be able to handle that, so we opted for an adorable train themed room.  I found his bedding and fell in love with it.  It still feels like a little boy's room with out being too cartoon like or too mature.  Note the framed Thomas picture and the Thomas blanket under his quilt (he likes to put the Thomas picture on the pillow next to him while he sleeps).  That seemed to satisfy his Thomas need (thank goodness).I haven't finished decorating his room yet, so I am just posting pictures of his bed.  I have found some really cute train accessories though.  More pictures to come!

I decided to have a little party for his new bed.  We called it a "Big Boy Bed Party".  We all piled in his new bed and ate cupcakes.  He thought this was pretty cool and wanted us to sing to him, so we sang "Happy Big Boy Bed" to the tune of Happy Birthday.  It was so very cute.  He absolutely loves his bed.  He shows everyone his new bed the second they come in the house and he looks forward to taking naps and going to bed at night.  I think he is sleeping better and longer.  He has always been an amazing sleeper, but is even better now, if that is possible.  He hasn't tried to get out of his bed by himself yet.  I explained that mommy and daddy have to put him in and take him out, just like in his crib, and so far that has worked.  I am still unsure as to how I will handle it when he does decide to get out on his own. 

The first night he was in his bed, I snuck in and took this picture (and the one below) while he was asleep.  It looks like the light is on, but my flash is just really bright. I can'tt believe that he didn't wake up!!

 He looks so small.

Random Ryan

Fresh from a nap

2 of many of his favorite stuffed animals that he sleeps with or totes around.  Grey Kitty went to the park with us one afternoon.  Might have been Ryan's favorite park visit of all time.  He loved having Grey Kitty there.  Luv Bug is from Grammy for Valentines day.  When you push his hand, it says "Happy Valentines Day Ryan.  grammy loves you to the moon and back."  When he sleeps with Luv Bug, I will hear that over and over before he falls alseep and after he wakes up.

Being silly in Daddy's shoes

Then decided he need to wear my scarf.

He has dot paint (it looks like Bingo markers) and he painted his face while I wasn't paying attemtion.  This is the worst picture but i couldn't get him to pose for a normal one.  On a side note, it is a great picture of his inherited dental issues that we will be paying a fortune to fix in the future  :)

He took my camera one day and snapped this picture and the one below.  Don't think he is our budding photographer, but I suppose time will tell.

Grandma Reckers' Birthday

I am so behind on my posts.  I had 80 pictures on my camera that needed to be uploaded. 

Grandma and Grandpa Reckers flew in for 8 days in February.  Ryan and Lillian had a blast!  They always love to see their granparents.  Valentines day is Grandma's birthday, so Ryan helped me make a cake.  My camera was out of batteries during the actual cake making, so I don't have pictures of that, but I have pictures of the best part!  The cake decorating, candles, and eating the cake! 

Lillian has never had cake before.  Like Ryan, I have limited her sugar consumption throughout her first year.  Grammy decided that Grandma's birthday would be a great day to introduce cake and boy did she LOVE it.  You can tell by the pictures below.  Ryan was also being super silly during dessert and decided to make a few more of his funny faces.