Lilah, 12 Months

Wow, this took me awhile!  Here is Lilah's 12 Month chair picture and her stats.  Birthday party pictures are coming, I promise!!

Weight 21 lbs 15.4 oz  89th percentile
Height 30 1/2 inches  68th percentile
Head 18 1/2 inches

See, I always say she is my petite child!!

Now I just need her to take a loooong nap so I can catch up on uploading pictures and get this blog up to date!

A Shout Out From B

Dear Aunt T and Uncle Jon,

It was about this time last year that you made the decision to move up here to be closer to us.  Do you remember?  You and I spent a whole week together!  Mommy and Daddy had to go the hospital to have my baby sister and you took good care of me.  We worked on cutting and we made pictures for Lilah.  We went to the Zoo and we visited Lilah too.  I had so much fun with you! 

Then you made it your goal to get jobs up here, and it wasn’t very long before you did it! I was so glad!

I have loved getting to spend so much time with you both this year.  So has Lilah.  I especially like it when I get to come to your house and play with Itz.  The bubbles are fun too.  I also like playing golf with you and swimming and playing at my house and going to the zoo.  Uncle Jon even helps me pee in the potty and feeds Lilah bananas…I bet he never thought he’d do those things!  And I am so lucky to have a cool Aunt who can make cool dinosaurs for my room!

I love you Aunt T and Uncle Jon.  And Itz, I love him too.

Love,
Brian Thomas

(and Lilah too…she’s too little to tell you, but she keeps singing “more” so I think she means she wants more Aunt T and Uncle Jon too.  And Itz.)

One Year

My sweet baby Lilah,

Today, you are one.  In reality one year is such a short time, but it’s hard to remember what life was like without you. 

Your sweet smile, blue eyes, larger than life dimples and fire cracker red hair (and temper) have completed our family.  Your little evil laugh cracks everyone up and your fearless attitude keeps us all on edge. 

Brian is a different boy than he was a year ago.  And that has a lot do with you.  He is such a great big brother to you.  He can be a little too rough at times, but he loves you deeply.  And boy do you love him too.  I remember being so afraid of what my love for you would do to my relationship with him.  A stranger told me that it would all work out.  She said, “you love your kids, and they love each other, that’s just how it works.”  She was so right.

You really are a sweet little girl.  You love to laugh and to make others laugh.  You are silly.  You love to cuddle.  You are incredibly independent.  And you certainly have a mind of your own.

You get around just fine even though you aren’t quite walking yet.  You eat well…everything we put in front of you.  You can say mama, dada, buba, (sign and say) more, (wave and say) bye bye, nana, and p-p-p for pappy…we’re working on that.  You are still nursing, but it’s getting to be less and less frequent.  You are a wonderful sleeper most of the time.  You sleep from 9 or 10 until 9 or 10 the next morning with a break around 6:30 or 7 for nursing most nights.  That’s pretty great compared to what your big brother used to do!

I love that you gave up baby food before your first birthday.  You just decided last week you were over it.  And that was that. And you sign more for food.  Constantly.  Especially at Kroger when you see food you recognize! You are such a little eater.

I also love that you love baby dolls.  You smile from ear to ear when you see one of your babies.  You are already a little mommy! 

I love that you splash like crazy and dive into the water like a fish.  You are quite the little swimmer and you are completely unafraid. 

I also love that you mimic the things that we do just to get a laugh.  Right now your favorite is, “go bananas.”  Lord it’s cute!    

You are our little Lu Lu baby.  It’s been so fun to watch you grow these past 12 months.  I can’t wait to see what’s to come!

Love,

Mama

Cars Party and Other Birthday Fun

Brian's 4th Birthday party was celebrated at the park a few weeks ago.  He wanted a Cars theme, so of course that is what we did.  He had been asking his Auntie La La for a Cars cake since maybe March!

Brian was soooo excited the day of the party.  This is the first Birthday where I feel like he really "got it" completely.  It was so much fun the plan with him and to see him enjoy the day!  Shawn kept telling him to quit micro-managing us.  He wanted to be sure every detail was just so!

Helping to set out the M & M bowls.

Someone was pretty excited about the balloons.

Party favors!

Taking it all it.

Pizza and Max.  Doesn't get much better.

The cake.  Oh the cake.  This was the original made by Auntie La La.  It wasn't meant to be this year but...

Brian made it all better.

Presents!

Love having these parties at the park!

The little sis!

Lots of kissing babies!

All the babes!

So, as you can see from the millions of pictures, the party was a hit! 

On Brian's actual Birthday, we went to the Reds game.  The kids had fun.  Sometimes the noise was a bit much for Brian, but Lilah managed to sleep through a large portion of the game!  Both kids were pretty much worn out.  Brian did get a visit from the Reds and received some cool presents!