Close to crawling

Lily is officially up on her knees and rocking back and forth. She hasn't figured out how to move in a forward direction but she's getting closer and closer every day. Time to babyproof!

Grandma Sue and Uncle Grant are arriving for a visit today!

6 months old

Happy half-birthday Lily!

Lily is 6 months old already. Can you believe it? We can't. Her personality is starting to come out more and more. She's such a sweet girl and we're so lucky that she's so easygoing. She loves to play. She's having a lot of fun now that she can really interact with toys. She loves picking them up and swinging them around. She love slapping things with her hands. She loves holding the book while we're reading to her. She loves to read. She watches the books intently but sometimes looks back at us to see what we're saying. I can tell she can't wait until she can do it all on her own.

She loves her friends at daycare and they love her. One of her friends, Abby, can only say about 5 words but one of them is Lily and she calls her name all the time. She loves to watch the other kids play. At the end of the day she sits in a high chair and watches over the rest of the kids. She does start to get upset when the other moms come before I get there. She knows when the other kids start to leave that I should be there too. Noushi, her daycare provider thinks she is so smart for figuring this out.

She is getting so big! She got weighed and measured and is still going strong.
weight - 17 lbs 11 1/4 oz (90th percentile)
height - 28 1/4" (off the charts!)
head circumference - 44.2 cm (75-90th percentile)

Milestones
1st solid food (10/22 - rice cereal & 10/25 carrots).
1st trip to the zoo (10/26).
Can sit up for about 5-10 minutes unassisted (has a little trouble falling over when reaching for something).
Can stand while holding onto something unassisted.
1st hike.
2nd cold.
Slaps everything!
Kicks everything!
Grabs everything!
Scoots all over.
Wears size 3 diapers.
Wears 12 month clothes and even 18 month clothes in some brands.
Has a very long torso and normal length legs.
Loves peekaboo.
Still loves toys that talk/play music.
Loves it when mommy says "Yummm" & "Yummy", when emphasis is placed on the mmm's.
Got up on her hands & knees (11/4/08)!
Moved up into her big girl carseat (11/5/08).

Waiting in line to vote.


The very long line we waited in for an hour and a half so we could vote.

Just after she got up on her hands an knees for the first time. Daddy saw her do it the next day too.


First ride in the big girl carseat!

She's so happy!

New picture of Jennifer and Lily

For my first post I would like to post a beautiful picture of Jennifer and Lily that I took recently.


She is doing great, playing with everything, moving around, just perfect.

Happy Halloween!

A cute little mouse heading to daycare.



A sleepy mouse after taking a walk to go see daddy in the lab.

The LA Zoo

A week ago we took a trip to the Los Angeles Zoo. It was their special "Boo at the Zoo" celebration so all the kids were in costumes and a lot of the animals got pumpkins to smash and eat. Unfortunately it was about 90 degrees outside so Lily could not wear her costume. She had a really good time. Some of the animals are still a little boring because they don't do a lot, but many of them were very exciting. Lily especially loved the flamingos. They are bright pink, noisy and were moving all around. And now we're annual members of the zoo so we'll be making many return trips.

Looking at some animals.

Sitting in the grass at the zoo. She wore her elephant t-shirt to see the elephants, although she fell asleep by the time we made it to see them.

Lily's first "solid" meal

Lily had her first solid meal on the 21st. Her 6-month well baby visit with her pediatrician is coming up so we wanted to start solids just before her visit in case anything came up. We've wanted to wait to feed Lily solids until 6 months because it lowers her risk of developing an allergic reaction to something she eats, she'll be less likely to develop diabetes and plus several other positive outcomes.

We decided to start her on an organic rice cereal just because it's easy and there's really no chance of an allergic reaction. Plus it's fortified with iron since she'll no longer get enough iron from me starting at around 6 months. Her cereal is mixed with breastmilk.

We're glad we waited until we did. Lily didn't have a tongue thrust reflex at all (younger babies will push the food back out of their mouths with their tongue because they don't know how to swallow yet). Lily figured it out from the first bite--in her typical over-achiever fashion.

Lily is eating one "meal" of solids right now. For quite some time, the solid food she's eating will just be to learn how to eat and won't really provide much for her. For her first year of life breastmilk will still be her main source of calories and nutrition, as is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Lily's first vegetable was carrots and her first fruit was bananas. She has also eaten pears. I will be making as much of Lily's food as possible. She is eating jarred carrots because carrots have a tendency to be high in nitrates which is dangerous for babies. Jarred carrots are tested to make sure their nitrate levels are safe. Lily is also eating an all-organic diet. We eat as much organic food as possible so it only makes sense that we'd want the same for Lily. We are especially concerned about keeping nasty pesticides and other chemicals out of her little body. Tests have been done on babies' blood looking at contaminates and the results were scary. No thanks!


Yum-O!

Messy face. Lily loves the Cat in the Hat.