First bike ride!

We went on our first bike ride with Lily over the weekend. She had a blast. Every since she turned one we've been going wanting to buy a bike seat to take her on a bike ride. We've been hemming and hawing between two different front-mounting seats, we finally decided on the iBert. We knew we wanted a front-mounting seat because they're more stable and we'll be able to have a conversation with Lily while we're riding.


Lily loved it as we expected. She liked pointed at things. Although she did get a little upset if I got too far in front of her and daddy. Like she was telling daddy to catch up.

15 months

You can imagine how loud this is.

Official stats:
Weight - 24 lbs 11 1/4 oz (75th percentile)
Height - 32 1/2" (95th percentile)

Lily had a doctor's appointment this morning to celebrate her 15 month birthday. This visit was particularly difficult. We think she remembers the exam room. She wasn't happy to be there. Even before the doctor came in she kept trying to get on the ground and was pointing to the door trying to get out. None of the procedures went very smoothly. She didn't like the nurse or doctor touching her and she had particular disdain for the two shots she got. She was happy as soon as we got out of there. She's growing wonderfully and symmetrically. She's still long and lean. Hopefully she'll be blessed with that figure her whole life. She's a little below normal on her words (has 2, average is 5) but she has so many signs to make up for it. Signing with babies and toddlers has been shown to help vocabulary not hinder it so I'm not worried that she'll catch up and catch up quickly.

Lily has finished her swimming lessons and has now moved on to gymnastics. She loved swimming so much. Although Daddy couldn't stay and watch otherwise she just wanted to wave to him the whole time and show off. I was pretty impressed that she could hold onto a kickboard and keep herself above water. Then I could hold her feet to show her how to kick. She prefers to kick both legs simultaneously like a frog though. She's gone underwater a couple of times (me dunking her very briefly). She's surprised but she doesn't hate it or cry at all. She likes to put her face in herself, probably mostly to lap up the water like a dog. Gymnastics is going well too. She has a private class since no one else signed up for her session. She likes jumping on the trampoline, she's mostly just bending her knees but she can make the trampoline move. And she likes the big foam block pit and just exploring and climbing on things.

She's a real jabbermouth. She's talking and babbling all the time ("daba-daba-daba-daba"). Her signing has really taken off too. She made up her own sign for cat (tipping her head over so her right ear is touching her shoulder). I'm not sure how she came up with it, but she consistently does it whenever you ask her to show you "cat" or she sees a picture of one. She still only says three words "hi" ("eye"), "up", and "apple" but she says those a lot (especially "up"). She actually just learned "apple" on her birthday. We were looking at a book together and she just said "apple", while pointing to one. She's been practicing saying it a lot since then, it's very cute. She tries to mimic a little bit but not much yet. Hopefully that will be coming soon. I really look forward to hearing what she has to say. Although it's amazing how much content we can get out of a few signs and grunting/pointing at things.

She understands most of what we say to her. She's very good at following directions, "get your shoes", "take this to daddy", "where's your milk?", "let's go outside", etc. She responses appropriately to almost all those cues and a lot more. If only she'd listen to "stop throwing food on the floor" and "stop dumping milk out of your cup".

She's taken a new liking to her stroller. Whenever she sees it she gets really excited that she's going to ride in it. So excited that she jumps up and down, pointing and grunting. I'm not sure why that fascination started.

Her papa, grandma, Aunt Melody, Aunt Anna and cousin Bella recently visited for 9 days. Lily had a blast with them. While they were here Lily was able to go to Disneyland twice, the aquarium, the zoo and the beach. She loved all of it of course. And she loves her cousin. She's pretty good at sharing things with her and she likes holding her hand (more than Bella would like) and they even danced together (until they somehow toppled over--see below). Lily is pretty much obsessed with the water, we have to watch her carefully. She'd jump right into a pool or walk right out into the ocean--she doesn't have any fear at all. When we were at the beach she kept wanting to go deeper and deeper into the waves and enjoyed them splashing into her. When I let go of her hands she just walked right back out into the surf.

She had her first night away from mommy and daddy the first weekend of August. It was a little tough on mommy but we all survived. I'm not sure how much Lily even noticed. Mommy and Daddy went up to Santa Barbara wine country for a wedding (congrats Kelly & Mike!) and bauby and grandpa came up to stay with Lily. Lily enjoyed being the center of attention and showing off all her skills--especially her dancing skills apparently.

Milestones
Wearing 18-24 month pants and dresses, 2T shirts
Wearing a size 6 shoe
Wearing a size 5 diaper
Has 6 teeth (got a new molar on the bottom left below her other molar)--still so many teeth to come, hopefully they'll just get here soon.
Words: hi, up, apple
Signs: milk, more, food, water, cat, alligator, elephant, bath, brush teeth, dance,
Animal sounds: dog, cow, monkey, fish
Can point to: nose, mouth, tongue, hair, head, belly, eyes, ears, hands, feet. Loves pointing to others' features too.
Favorite book: One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr. Suess
Favorite toy: Elmo

Aunt Melody, cousin Bella, Lily and I in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

The carousel in Fantasyland.

Dumbo ride.


Lily loved Its a Small World, so interested in everything and threw in some dancing every once in a while.

Lily was trying to show her cousin Bella some sweet dance moves.

Playing in the water at the park.

The end of an era

I didn't mention this in Lily's 14 month update because I wasn't entirely certain we'd passed this milestone at the time but it appears now that we definitely have.

Lily is officially weaned.

She actually hasn't breastfed since about a week before she turned 14 months old but she had gone a couple of days without breastfeeding previously so I wasn't completely sure she wouldn't still nurse again. This was a bittersweet transition for me. She's growing up and that's hard to face even though it's exciting and I love seeing her grow and learn. But this was a major physical bond between us. It was the one major thing that only she and I shared. No one else could provide that nourishment and comfort to her. There are still times when she only wants comfort from me but those are becoming fewer too and the connection isn't as tangible. The actual process of weaning wasn't terribly difficult and almost happened on it's own.

We didn't attempt to start weaning at all until Lily turned one. Breast milk (or formula) is supposed to be her major source of nutrition until she turned one. Other food is just for practice and fun--not for it's nutritional value. I think parents/people are often in a rush for babies to grow up. I'm excited about things to come but I'd be happy to keep Lily as my little baby as long as possible. Once she turned one, whole milk was OK. Adjusting to that took a little while but she adapted quickly. We switched to whole milk and dropped bottles all in one swoop. I thought it might be easier to go through one difficult patch rather than two (by switching to whole milk and then switching to sippy cups later). My next step was to just stop offering breastfeeding as an option. If she asked I let her but I didn't offer it. I kept around our morning feeding/cuddle time the longest but eventually I just stopped that as well. She never really put up a fuss about it. She can't say she wants milk or wants to breastfeed verbally but she has been signing "milk" for months and months. Fortunately for me probably, that's a generic "milk" and I don't know when it meant breast milk or whole milk. So if she signed "milk" I gave her milk in a sippy cup. She didn't seem to mind. About a week before she turned 14 months she nursed for the last time (although we didn't know for sure it'd be the last time then).

Overall it went about as best as I could have hoped for. I don't think it was particularly rough on her or me. I don't think we rushed things. We didn't stop the day she turned one. These were all things that were important to me. Before Lily, I was always concerned about her getting to the point of being able to "ask for it" and knowing that was too old to nurse. I don't feel that way any more. I wouldn't feel like a bad mother if we were still nursing now or even 6 months from now. I feel like it was a slow transition for us over almost two months and it was the right time for us.

Breastfeeding was a wonderful thing for me. It was difficult at times but rewarding and convenient too. I had hoped not to have to give Lily any formula at all but in the end she did get formula at day care for a few months when I decided to cut down and then completely quit pumping at work. It wasn't what I hoped for but it was fine and she (obviously) is fine. I am definitely proud that I supported most of her nutrition through her first 12-14 months of life.