1 Year Old!

Happy Birthday Lily!

Has it really been a year already? I can hardly believe its been a year already but on the other hand I can't remember what it was like before she joined our family. Reflecting back on what I was doing at this time last year is very emotional for me. We were so anxious to meet her! And one year ago tonight at 10:06 PM is when we were first introduced. If anyone other than me is interested in re-living that day and night, my detailed account is here.

So what has Lily been up to? She's started walking! We are so proud. But she may be even more proud. She definitely has pride in her accomplishments and she's not afraid to start clapping (which means we should say "Good job!").

The end of a long day.

Weight - 21 lbs 11 oz
Height - 31"

Milestones
-Wearing 12-18 month clothing in most things, but 24 months or 2T in most shirts unless they are a long style.
-Wearing a size 4 diaper, but moving up to a size 5 soon.
-Size 4 shoes are getting tight now.
-Walking! Can easily take 10 or so steps. But prefers to hold onto things if she has the opportunity.
-Loves to dance. Likes to have music on to dance too.
-Very interested in reading books. Likes to read the same books over and over again. A new favorite is a "My Little Word Book". She likes to flip quickly to the pages that are full of animals and then she grunts at the animals.
-Loves animals! Grunts when she sees animals. She makes the same noise when daddy comes home.
-We made it breastfeeding for a whole year which was my goal to start out with. She started drinking formula in addition to breastmilk a while back and I stopped pumping milk at work about 2 months ago but she continues to breastfeed several times a day and even more on the weekends.
-Scared of jack-in-the-box and some things that talk loudly (Elmo Live doll). When she's tired she's scared of loud noises in general (Grandpa sneezing!)
-She likes to try eating by herself with utensils. Sometimes she'll refuse to eat when her daddy or I are feeding her but she'll continue to eat if she's feeding herself.
-She's becoming a pickier eater. She used to eat everything but now she has tastes and sometimes she'll flat out refuse to eat things (she hates beets! which is a bummer because our CSA has a lot of them).
-She has a few words that we're fairly certain she knows the meaning of. She says "mama" (and "mom mom"), "dada" and "hi". We first knew she was saying "hi" because she picked up a toy phone put it to her ear and said "Hi!" That was her first official word in our opinion.
-She's also become a better imitator with sounds and facial expressions. We'll say a sound an animal makes and she'll try and repeat it.
-Very loving. She's very good at giving kisses and hugs. She gives them to us and also to her stuffed animals, especially her animals. She loves them so much. She sleeps with a stuffed dog every night that she loves very much.

She was entranced by the candle.

Her birthday party attendants kind of missed out on the cake smashing but on her actual birthday she did a great job!

Trying out the tricycle. She figured out the bell right away.

Practicing eating with utensils. She's pretty good!

Helping Daddy put the seatbelt on the new tricycle.

She just wanted to put away all the sticks instead of building with them.

Eric Carle (of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and the illustrator of Lily's favorite book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? drawing his favorite animal at the LA Times Festival of Books).

Clifford the big red dog. Lily loved him and he gave her a book too.

Lily was very interested in Mickey.

She didn't really know she was standing next to Minnie until we walked away.

On a ride at Disney's California Adventure. Do you see a cell phone anywhere? I lost it on this ride.

Picking up eggs in Uncle Gary and Aunt Cat's backyard.

Opening up her Easter basket.

Lily LOVES "cousin" Sammie!

Uncle Gary is so fun.

May 5, 2008

One year ago today was the day I became a mother. I can't believe it's been a whole year already. It's gone by so fast. It really has been the best year of my life. Even though it's trying sometimes this is the best thing I've ever done. Raising her is my proudest accomplishment. Birthing her naturally was my biggest triumph. Every day I learn new things about her and about myself and Scott. Scott and I had a loving and strong relationship before Lily but since she's joined our lives that bond has only strengthened. Raising her together is the most important thing we'll each ever do and she is always our number one priority. Every choice I make is a reflection of that.

I knew I would love her. I thought about holding her for the first time. I imagined rocking her to sleep. But I never imagined how my heart and my whole body would ache to see her when she was away (even just sleeping in the next room) or the joy that I would feel when she laughed. It's completely overwhelming and wonderful. I know all mothers think their children are perfect but we truly got the perfect little girl. She's smart and funny. She teases and jokes. She's acrobatic and brave. She loves the wind. She adores animals--even the ones most people ignore like pigeons. Her face lights up when her daddy walks in the door at the end of the day. She's a mommy's girl when she's sad or tired but when it's time to play no one is better than daddy. She's a voracious reader and a wonderful dancer.

She's everything that I thought she would be and a million times more. I know she will continue to amaze me in the years and decades to come. Happy Birthday Lily. We love you so much.

Coming home for the first time.

Only a few days old.

She seems closer to a teenager than a baby sometimes.

We have a walker!

Well the beginnings of one anyway. Lily has officially taken her first steps. Yesterday she took three small steps twice in our living room. She's still crawling pretty much all of the time or walking while holding onto things but the beginnings of walking has begun. Ask me in a week if we're still excited.

Lily's 1st Birthday Party!

11 months

Another month has gone by already. One month until she turns 1! I can hardly believe it's been almost a year since she was born. But I also can't remember what our lives were like before her. How did we spend our time?

Lily is a crack up these days. She's hilarious and sometimes on purpose. She likes to have our attention all of the time. She'll often lean really far to one side to get into our field of view. When she wants to give us something (usually a book, but sometimes toys), she'll grab our hand, turn it over and put the item in it. Usually this is because she wants us to read a book for her. She definitely has favorite books. She's always giving us the Eric Carle books (Brown Bear and Polar Bear) just like she was doing last month. But now, she's also giving us two new books Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb and also Ten Apples up on Top. Just like with the Carle books, these also have a sing-song rhythm. Sometimes she just watches intently while we're reading, sometimes she laughs and sometimes she dances.

She's so close to walking. She's very good at standing on her own. She can push herself up onto her feet without pulling up on anything. On her hands and feet she pushes her butt up into the air and then pushes off her hands to standing. She's loves practicing this on our bed. Every morning when she wakes up she comes into bed with us to nurse and cuddle for a few minutes. She loves standing up, clapping her hands and then falling back on her butt. She also likes slamming her whole body back into the bed. Unfortunately she doesn't look where she's going and a couple of weeks ago, she slammed the back of her head right into the bridge of my nose and make me see stars. It didn't hurt her at all but it sure hurt me. I thought I was going to get a black eye. Now we're a little more careful about watching where she's going, lest we want broken noses and black eyes.

She's been sleeping really well at night. She goes down to sleep at night with absolutely no problems whatsoever. We turn off the lights, turn on the nighttime music, nurse in bed, then she goes in her crib with her blanket, pacifier and puppy and goes right to sleep on her own. She never makes a peep. She just lays down and goes right to sleep. Occasionally she'll wake up a couple of times during the night very briefly and goes back to sleep without needing anything from us. Every once in a while she'll get up earlier than she's supposed to (like at 5 AM) and want to nurse and then go back to sleep with us. Since this is pretty occasional I let her. Typically, she'll get up for the day between 6-6:30 AM.

Napping isn't so great. She doesn't really like to take naps. Morning naps are hit or miss. She always takes at least 1 nap each day though. I don't worry about it too much. She's pretty agreeable even if she doesn't want to take her 2 naps.

Milestones
*Wearing 12-18 months or 18-24 month clothing. Sometimes the pants are still too long though.
*Wearing a size 4 diaper.
*Wearing a size 5 shoe.
*Loves music and dancing.
*Loves to read and be read to.
*Loves to eat.
*Loves to eat whatever mommy and daddy have.
*Tries to put on her own clothes. Sets her socks and shoes on her feet. Tries to put bows in her hair.
*Is the center of attention of her daycare buddies. She's the ringleader.
*Very opinionated. Shouts if you do something she doesn't like. But she's easy to distract and will forget that something made her mad.
*Loves to dance. Loves music.
*Likes to shake her head back and forth (like to say 'no') and loves it if you do it back to her then she'll do it again. She loves this game.
*Can stand on her own.
*Can go from squatting to standing and back again without holding onto anything.

Lily at the beach on her birthday. First time in the ocean!

Happy to be at the beach.

Busy at work.

Egg hunt within our complex. But there were no eggs left!

Playing in the grass after a hike when Aunt Kellie was in town.

Garlic rolls. Yummmm.

A tunnel at the playground.

Walking and reading and Aunt Kellie's visit

Swings



The cargo ropes

She's so proud of herself.

Waiting for the bird show to start at the zoo with Aunt Kellie.

Hiking through the Santa Monica Mountains. Not a bad way to spend the first day of Spring.

Aunt Kellie came to visit for 5 days. It was her Spring Break and after her next semester she's going to Rome for a few months and we might be in Connecticut by the time she returns. All of the Horrocks siblings were relatively close together but in a matter of less than a year we'll be scattered all over the globe (Oregon, Connecticut, Dominican Republic, Italy). At least most of us have definite plans on returning to the West Coast.

While Kellie was here we visited Santa Monica (the beach, the pier and the Promenade), took a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains at Will Rogers State Park, and spent a day at the zoo. Kellie was also lucky enough to get to babysit Lily for two days while I went to work. She didn't even quit after day 1. We had fun and we hope Aunt Kellie did too. Now we just need to get Aunt Melody and family to come down some time.

Save the Date

You're Invited!
Lily's 1st Birthday!
May 9th, 2008
11 AM to 1 PM
Los Angeles

Invitations to follow.