Ten Months Old *May 13, 2012*

Double-Digit Months!! How did this happen so fast?!? I can't believe that we will be celebrating this little one's FIRST birthday in just two short months!!  She is such a joy to be around and one of the sweetest babies that I have ever seen. How appropriate that her 10-month birthday is on Mother's Day to remind me just how lucky I am to have this precious little one (and her sister Lila too, of course!). 

Here's what you're up to:

*You weigh 17.0 pounds and are about 26.5 inches tall. (although our scale at home seems to weigh higher than the doctor's scale, so these home measurements are a little off).

*You have TWO teeth! Those little suckers took a while to come in, but they are growing fast, and your mouth looks so cute!

*You are now crawling on all fours. You only do your little army crawl every once in a while. You have a cute little monkey walk on all fours also.

*You pull up on EVERYTHING and are cruising around most things that you pull up on. You are getting bold, only holding onto furniture with one hand sometimes!

*You really like to be held, and you hate to be put down most days. However, you still do a pretty good job playing by yourself when you aren't being clingy. You love it when your sister plays with you too!!

*You still love playing with empty water bottles and fruit snack packages. You love the iPad, and you also love this little light up lantern.

*You sleep great still! Bedtime is at 8pm and you usually wake around 7/7:30am. You get a bottle, and if we don't have anywhere to go, you will go back to sleep until around 8/9am. Naptimes are at 10:30-12pm and 2p-4pm.

*You are so good about getting yourself to sleep, and you love to snuggle into the bumper pads.

*Your solid food eating has picked up again. You will eat at least one full jar at each feeding (8am, 1pm, 6pm), but sometimes you eat 1.5 or 2 jars!

*You still don't love the jars that have peaches, peas, or spinach. You do love jars with bananas, sweet potatoes, chicken, or turkey. You hate solid, solid foods. You will spit out anything with a little texture to it, although you didn't seem to mind Apple Cinnamon Cheerios.

*You are getting to where you love your milk (formula) now. You will drink at least four 8-ounce bottles per day.

*You LOVE sippy cups. You haven't figured out how to get anything out of them yet, but you love to hold them and chew on them!

*You're wearing a mixture of size two and size three diapers now.

*You are wearing mainly 9 month or 12 month clothes (although the 12 month clothes are a bit big). You have grown out of your cotton 6 month sleepers, but you still fit into the fleece 6 month sleepers.

*You look up to your sister so much and are starting to fight back when she takes your toys.

*You HATE getting out of your baths. You will pitch the biggest fits when it's time to get out...although you don't do it as much for your daddy.

*You are really ticklish and laugh a lot. You think sneezing is so funny too.

*You say "mama", "dada", "Lila", "hi", "bye", and something that sounds so much like "alli".

*When anyone says "hi" or "bye bye," you automatically start waving.

*You love playing peek-a-boo and you will pull a shirt or towel over your head and play for a long time.

*You went strawberry picking again this month and actually got to pick some yourself. You were moving all over the place and pulling up on the bushes!

Lila and Alli at 10 Months

Lila and Alli love to sit in their Pottery Barn chairs, and have since they were able to actually sit by themselves. When I was doing their 10-month photo shoots, they gave me almost the exact same pose, which I thought was cute. Lila's pose is a little more active, which matches her personality, but Alli's looks so similar...even their hair looks similar!

My little Lila-December 2010

My little Alli-May 2012

Born to be Sassy

If anyone says that personality doesn't begin at (or even before) birth, then I will have to definitely argue that it certainly does! My Lila has always been a sassy girl, even as a tiny little baby. She could smirk before she could smile, and she has the most expressive eyes! Here are a few pictures that illustrate my point:

almost 3 months old

six months old:

seven months old

...and even today (at 2 years old), she is sassier than ever!

She is definitely a little handful, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. She keeps our lives very interesting, and she keeps us all entertained daily! Love you Lila boo!

JLGC Annual Dinner and Holiday Ball Reveal

Last night the Junior League of Galveston County hosted their Annual Dinner at the Tremont House in downtown, historic Galveston, Texas. The Tremont House is an old hotel, and it is absolutely beautiful! I got there early to help Ronnie (our arrangements committee chair) set up, and she had the ballroom looking stunning by the end of our set up. I have really enjoyed serving on her committee this year and am equally as excited to be under her on the Holiday Ball committee for next year!

party favor

the menu

Ronnie did an amazing job as arrangements chair this year!

The dinner was so much fun, and at the end, we got to reveal the theme for next year's Holiday Ball (our biggest fundraiser every year). Our theme is Casablanca Night and it was revealed to the League by Ronnie and her amazing intro. After Ronnie built up and announced the theme, a few of us went around the ballroom dressed as cigar and cigarette girls (like they had in the 40's) and passed out candy cigars and cigarettes with the Casablanca Night logo attached to them. Everyone was so excited to hear about our awesome theme, and it was so special that we were at the Tremont, because the ball next year will be at the Tremont House as well! I'm so excited to continue the planning for our biggest party and fundraiser for the 2012-2013 League year!

part of the Holiday Ball (and fundraising) committee

My perfect attendance award :)

Casablanca Night theme tag

Sick Day

We had quite the traumatizing morning at our house. I won't go into too much detail, but it involved Lila getting sick (really sick, for the first time), me freaking out a bit because I don't do throw up well, Alli freaking out because she wanted out of her car seat and to be held, and Chevy freaking out because he didn't want to be trapped in the dining room while I cleaned up the mess. Needless to say, I'm sad that Lila is sick, but I do love the relaxing day that it brings (which is why I now have time to write this post!). This is what she has been doing ALL DAY...nice change of pace to the crazy scream-infested morning that we experienced!

Alli was also much better after her nap, so this afternoon has been a million times better than this morning!

Lila: 24-27 Months

Lila Milestones and Memories from February 3-May 3, 2012

February 2012 Memories (24-25 Months):
*Celebrated your 2nd birthday with a Minnie Mouse Party at our house on January 28, 2012.
*You LOVE your baby sister especially when you play with each other in your crib. You wish that she could nap in your crib and get upset when she has to go to her own crib.
*You started saying many more real words. Some that I can remember are: piglet, tigger, frog, ribbit, ketchup, flowers, orange, bear, whale
*You've also started saying phrases: "there she is", "where is ___?", "where are you?", "night night ____", "bye bye____"
*You have gotten a little better about eating, but you still only eat foods other than waffles with ketchup.
*We went to Atlanta to visit family, and you did great on the airplane. You played with my iPad for most of the time, and you even fell asleep for 20 minutes.

March 2012 Memories (25-26 Months):
*We went strawberry picking at Froberg's Farm at the beginning of the month. You ate a few from the vine, but were mainly concentrating on putting them in the bucket. You had a great time!
*You loved playing in the bluebonnet patch with your sister. You loved pulling the flowers off, but we had to remind you not to hurt the flowers. When we were driving away you said "bye bye flowers!".
*You love to go through the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Roll Call "nonold"(donald) "daisy" "pudu" (pluto) "ninnie"(minnie) "coo coo"(mickey)
*"Mine" is your favorite word, and you even say it to yourself ("no mine yi-ya (Lila)")
*You are beyond obsessed with my iPad, and your favorite app is the Zoo Train. You are getting really good at making pictures and words with the app. You also search YouTube for your favorite videos. I don't know how you always find the same ones no matter which device you're using (our phones or the iPad).
*You can count to 10, although you skip 6 most of the time for some reason
*You can also count objects up to ten, sometimes with one-to-one correspondence, but that's mainly luck because most kids don't develop that skill until they're 5-8 years old
*You know most of your letters and can say the words "triangle, circle, and star" really well.
*You love to sing "Twinkle Twinkle little Star", "ABCs", Winnie the pooh song, and "Jesus Loves Me". If we try to sing along with you, you shake your head and want us to stop.
*You are so compassionate, and anytime someone is crying you say "It's alright". You really try to make Alli feel better when she's crying.
*You love to say your prayers before bedtime and before we eat. You love to thank God for mommy, daddy, Alli, woo woo, and the rest of your family!
*You got your first of four 2-year molars...they didn't effect you near as much as your first year molars.

April 2012 Memories (26-27 Months):
*You grew even more obsessed with the iPad, but it works wonders on the airplane :)
*You will eat almost anything as long as it has syrup, ketchup, Polynesian or Chick Fil A sauce on it.
*You've started saying the /d/ in "donald" and you don't say "tow" for cat anymore, you actually say "cat". It came out of no where :( I guess that's a good thing though.
*You have gotten to be a MUCH better listener, after a few rough weeks at school!
*You went on another airplane this month, and you visited the best place on Earth: Auburn University!
*You got your 2nd two-year molar...and we definitely noticed a change in behavior! You acted much like when you got your first set of molars!
*You LOVE to watch Elmo again. You still love to watch Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too. You are also really into Barney again.
*You have started repeating everything that we say, and can actually say most of the words. Your language has really taken off this past month.
*You are saying so many phrases now that I can't even keep up unless I follow you with a pencil writing it down (which I probably should).
*You also mis-pronounce some words that are really funny. My favorite is when you say "efalent" for elephant.
*You've gotten to be a decent eater in the last two weeks. Your favorite meals are Creamy Chicken Casserole (from the JLGC cookbook), Chick Fil A, squeeze yogurt, refried beans and rice, enchiladas, apples, bananas, string cheese and bagels with or without cream cheese.

END OF QUARTER STATS 
Weight: 27.4 pounds
Height: 34 inches

Strawberry Picking Take Two

On Monday, we met some friends of ours at Froberg's Farm to pick strawberries. This was the second time this season that we've gotten to go to the farm, so the girls were berry-picking pros! The strawberries were a little small this trip, but the girls still managed to pick half a bucket full.  They really just have the most fun walking up and down the rows and playing in the dirt, so I was glad that we managed to come home with at least a few berries!

Alli having fun

Lila working hard picking berries

On this trip, Alli was all over the place! My what a difference a couple months make at this age (the post about our trip in March is here)! She was pulling up on all of the bushes, monkey walking in the dirt, and she even managed to pick a berry off of the vine. The girls were working together at one point, and it was so cute to watch!

The girls working hard together to fill up the bucket

Lila and her friend, Elle, had a great time together, as usual. We are trying to get together with the Disibios as much as we can before they move to Dallas in May :(  It was another great day at Froberg's!

Elle and Lila, such cute friends!

Adilaide's Birthday Party

This past Sunday, we went down to the Moody Gardens Aquarium for Lila's friend, Adilaide's birthday party. Adilaide's mom and I met at our Wednesday morning Bible study, and Lila and Adilaide enjoyed playing together in the church nursery.  The party was so much fun and the girls had a great time playing with their friends.  At one point during the party, we were brought into a room to see a real penguin. The penguin was so cute, and Lila was mesmerized with it. Lila and her friend, Cecilia, had a great time running around the aquarium screaming their little heads off and climbing on all of the decorative rocks (they probably should have gotten in trouble for that, but oh well!). Thanks Valori for a great party!

watching the penguin

The girls having fun and chowing down

Lila, Cecilia, and Adilaide