So big!

It has been far too long since I've updated. In the month + since I last posted, Lila has grown and changed so much!

Even though spring is right around the corner, Lila has decided that a few of our Christmas ornaments (!) must stay out. She is particularly fond of these silver balls. We've decided to just let her have them. They make her so happy.


Lila is working on at least 4 new teeth, and when she gets new teeth, she gets horrible diaper rash. We brought her home one evening and her little tush hurt so badly that she couldn't sit in her high chair. It was so sad! So, we put a cushion on the floor and opted for a picnic. No picnic would be complete without a balloon, right? Lila's daycare celebrated the first anniversary of its opening and they handed out balloons to all of the kiddos as they left that day. Lila chose green balloon and kept it with her the rest of the evening.

As always, Rocco was nearby and enjoyed the floor picnic as well.

A few weeks ago Lila and I took a road trip together to visit my family. Daddy was swamped with work, so he wasn't able to join us, but we still had a good time. Lila got to see so many family members, including a tiny new baby cousin.

Here's Lila with her Auntie EM and her cousin Jeremiah. Jeremiah played so nicely with Lila. He shared his toys and was very patient with her.

See that puppy in the background? Lila followed that dog around all weekend and barked at him. It was the funniest thing ever. Next time you see her, ask her, "Lila, what does a puppy say?" and she'll tell you.

Here's Lila with Mama, Auntie EM, Grandpa, and her great Grandma and Grandpa. Four generations!

Lila with Mama, Auntie EM, and Great Grandma. I think she's wondering when we're going to dive into that cake...

Lila with her great uncle Kevin.

Lila with Auntie EM...

Lila with all of the girls. Well, not all of the girls...but everyone that was around that weekend, including 3 week old Abigail. How funny is it that we even got the new baby looking at the camera?


In addition to new teeth, Lila has several other new accomplishments to boast, including WALKING! She can walk while pushing a toy! She's not quite steady enough to walk unsupported - yet - but she is well on her way. Mama and Daddy are scrambling to Lila-proof the house!

Lila is talking up a storm these days. She has so many new sounds, and at times her babbles sound like she's telling a story, complete with inflection in her voice. She loves to take her toy phone - or a real phone - and put it up to her ear and chatter away. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, it seems! :) She brushes her own hair, tries to put on her own shoes and socks, and even grabbed one of my hair ties and tried to put it in her hair. It's amazing knowing that she has been watching and learning all of these months. It's a little scary, too!

Lila will try to feed herself with a fork or spoon, but she doesn't quite have it down yet. We still give her a utensil at every meal, but she usually winds up trying to feed us instead. :)


Here's Lila yesterday (Saturday) morning, chilling on Daddy and Mama's bed. Check out that bed head! I can't believe how grown up she looks in this picture. Our baby is a toddler!

Everyone told us that Lila would be more and more fun the older she gets, and it is so true. She blows kisses, giggles, pets her puppies, snuggles with her stuffed animals, plays peek-a-boo, and we look at each other every day and say, "I love her so much!" She's her own little person now, not just a baby anymore. (Sniff, but only a little...)

1 year check-up

Today Lila went in for her 12 month check - up (a few days shy 13 months).

Lila weighed in at 20 pounds, 10 ounces and is 27.5 inches long. She's growing so fast!

Here's Lila playing with Dr. K.


Lila in her gown, getting ready to get weighed. I love the tiny little gowns!


Lila is really enjoying daycare. There are so many friends and fun toys to play with. At the end of the day, Lila rarely wants to come home. One day she clung to her teacher and waved "bye-bye!" to me. Silly girl! I suppose I should be sad, but I'm not. I'm just glad that she is so happy there.


On Super Bowl Sunday Lila and I went to the (indoor) water park for an afternoon of fun. Lila is a little fish! She had so much fun splashing, swimming, and playing in the fountains. I can't wait to get her enrolled in swimming lessons this spring!


This weekend Lila's aunt and grandma are coming for a visit! Pictures coming next week!

Lila gets down with her bad self

Lila would like to perform a short concert for you.

Lila turns ONE!

On Monday, January 24th, our little Lila turned one.

This day seems like such a long time ago, yet it also feels like just yesterday.


Now here she is, so grown up, on the eve of her first birthday.




Lila is changing and growing so much every day. She has recently started sleeping all the way through the night - perhaps Mom and Dad's favorite milestone yet. She is napping well and seems more rested and happier during the day now that she is sleeping longer and more soundly at night. We're hoping that her nights of being awake for hours on end are behind us, for her sake as well as ours. Everyone is so much happier in our house with solid sleep!

Lila is eating 3 meals a day of solid food now. She's pretty much eating what we are eating, chopped into tiny pieces. She's still got just the 4 teeth, so she likes to bite and then gum food down. With only a few exceptions (watermelon and avocados) Lila has really liked the foods we have given her. She really enjoys yogurt, black beans, clementines, homemade whole wheat bread, cottage cheese, peppers, lentils, peas, curry, tofu, and apples.

Lila is still nursing in the mornings and evenings, and is still taking breast milk at daycare 3 times a day. Just yesterday they transitioned her away from the bottle to the sippy cup (or "zippy cup" as they call it - hee). Lila wants nothing to do with "zippy" cups at home, preferring to drink out of regular cups, so I was really worried about how the transition would go at daycare. I was also kind of bummed that we were going to have to get her started on the sippy cups - one more thing to wean her off of - when she doesn't even like them. We decided that even though she'll take her milk in the "zippy" cup at daycare, we'll continue to only use regular cups at home. Hopefully that will prevent any sort of need for us to make a big transition later on. Anyway - apparently Lila drank all of her milk out of her "zippy" cup yesterday with no problems. All that worry and it was a non-event - yay!

Lila has her one year check-up later this month and then we'll talk about partially weaning her onto cow's milk while still nursing in the morning and evenings at home. I'm not a huge fan of giving her cow's milk - not for any nutritional reasons, but rather because I really dislike cow's milk, so why should I expect my child to drink it? Then again, her dad loves cow's milk, so maybe she'll love it (or at least like it) well enough to drink it a few times a day for the fat, calories, and nutritional supplement to her food.

Lila is quite the chatterbox these days. She is saying, "mamamamama!" and "daaaad!" (practicing for her angsty teen years), and "baa!" She also likes to blow raspberries and do the yodel thing where she makes noise and pats her hand over her mouth. Of course she also likes to sing.

Lila likes to stand, and is frustrated that she's not walking yet. She does not want to sit down, but has also not quite figured out how to put one foot in front of the other. Soon! She's very content standing at the edge of the coffee table playing with her toys. That's her favorite.

Such a busy little girl! Without further ado... on to the big birthday!

Lila's friends and family joined us on the Saturday before her birthday to celebrate with us. She had such a great time!

Here's a video of everyone singing "happy birthday" to her while Mom and Dad present her with her mini birthday "cake".



Lila was not sure what to do with all of the attention... and that crazy hat!

After some coaxing, she decided to dive into her birthday dessert (a whole wheat apple muffin with yogurt "frosting").

Tasty, but why are all of these people still staring at me?

Lila's Grandpa and Grandma flew in from New York to spend her birthday with her. Here she enjoys a chat with Grandpa.

Lila loves to sing and dance, and she particularly loves making her own music. She is a huge fan of the maracas at daycare, so we decided that she needed a set of her own at home. Here she is singing and shaking the maracas for Grandpa and Grandma.

She is now the proud owner of a tambourine, too. Her favorite thing to do is play the tambourine with the maracas. Smart girl!

Lila especially enjoyed opening her birthday cards and gifts.

Her Godparents went all out and got her a pony. Of course she loved it and she immediately decided that it needed kisses. Her new favorite thing is kissing. Open mouthed and sometimes with a little bit of tongue. We've got to work on puckering.

Lila enjoyed a relaxing bubble bath after her big day. So sleepy!

Another one of Lila's favorite gifts is her new car. (A pony and a car for her first birthday? Wow!) She would like you to know that the only acceptable way to learn how to drive is pantsless and with a maraca in hand. Of course.

Look out, world! Lila, coming through! BEEP, BEEP!

Hey, look what Daddy found in the laundry!

Lila LOVES clementines. And beans. But especially clementines. :)

This has been an amazing year, in every sense of the word. It has been the hardest, most rewarding, most tiring, most joyful year of our lives. We are so excited for this year and all of the changes and exciting things that it holds for our sweet girl - and us!

Happy first birthday, and happy second year of life, little Lila!

Counting Down to ONE!

Lila is a busy, busy girl these days! She is more interactive than ever. She waves all the time, and she even blows kisses (that one's courtesy of her daycare ladies). She says, "dada", "Daaaaad"! - practicing for her teen years - "mama," and most recently she's picked up the "n" sound. She also loves blowing raspberries with her lips.

Below are her weekly photos leading up to the big First Birthday.

But first, Lila would like to share with you the agony she felt over her Vikings stinking their way out of the playoffs this season.


It was a rough day at our house. Last year, Lila was born on the day that the Vikings lost to the Saints. I was in labor with her while the game was on, and we both remember hearing cheers and exclamations of upset coming from the hallway and other rooms in labor and delivery. We brought Lila purple jammies to wear for the game, fully expecting that she would be born in time for the game and that we'd be resting and enjoying dinner while cheering on the Vikings. No dice. She was born after the game ended.

Here are Lila's final weekly photos leading up to her birthday...

Such personality! I couldn't resist posting two pictures from this week. :)

I can hardly believe that when I took Lila's first weekly photo, she looked like this...

Such a wee, tiny peanut! It's fun to look at pictures of Lila when she was first born and see how much, even then, she looked like...well...herself. Y'know what I mean? At the time we couldn't possibly imagine her being the talking, scooting, eating, talking, talking little person she is today. It was so hard to envision her as a toddler, and especially a little girl. Now we see her personality emerging and when we look back over the months, we realize that it has been there all along.

What a year it has been!

New Year's Eve (aka: Christmas 2.0)

On New Year's Eve, a big box of Christmas presents arrived in the mail. There were presents for Ed and for me, but most of the presents were for Lila. She had a BLAST opening all of her gifts! Here she is with all of her packages.


All right, let's get started!


Rocco supervises, of course.

Books and toys! Lila and Rocco both approve.

A BIG present! This is going to take some help from Daddy.

Lila loves her new bath toys.

It's safe to say that Lila thoroughly enjoyed Christmas...both days!

Happy Tuesday!

I'm sure that you've noticed as the weeks have gone on I've become less and less diligent about updating Lila's blog. I feel bad about that...but then I stop myself. We've been trying to calm the craziness in our lives, so we've been spending lots more time doing this...


...and less time worrying about what we "should" be doing. As Lila is less than a week from her first birthday, I look back at the past year and wonder where the time has gone. Everyone says that time flies when you have a baby, and it is SO TRUE. Never has time gone so quickly as it has in the last year. The bigger and more independent Lila gets, the more it reminds us that soon enough she will be all grown up, so we had better cherish this time while we can. And so we are.

I've got the weekly photos of Lila on the camera, but I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. So in the meantime, here are a few camera phone pictures.

On Sunday we went out for breakfast. Lila had a great time flirting with all of the other patrons in the restaurant. She ate her breakfast and then promptly put her toy scuba diver in her mouth. She kept him there for a good 10 minutes... just looking around, as if nothing was out of place.

Silly girl!

Here's a picture from last month. This is the first day that Lila started getting sick, so she's got circles under her eyes. Poor girl. The reason I took this picture is because (well, because she's adorable! But also because) Lila's wearing a very special sweater. Her Grandma M made this sweater 40 years ago for her daughter, and Lila's rocking the look today. I just love special clothes like this - clothes that have been loved by other wonderful women and girls in Lila's life.

For old time's sake, here's one of my favorite pictures of my two favorite people.

Wishing you all a week filled with your favorite people!