Lily is 8 months old!

Well, this Sunday, Lily turns 8 months old...

For awhile, I couldn't see past 6 months.  6 months seemed so old and I just couldn't see it, but here we are...8 months.

Lily is doing fabulous.  When ECI came on July 13th, Lily was 22 lbs 9 oz and 29" long and working on her 9-12 month milestones.

Here are some of the fun things she has done this month!

She refers to Brandon as "ya-ya" and she is saying "ma-ma" in reference to me.
Dancing- July 15th after her Kindermusik class
Walking along the couch and her toys
Letting go while standing and balancing
Babbling lots- Almost like she is trying to hold a conversation with you
Crawling super fast!
Lily is drinking out of a sippy cup 4x a day and only gets a bottle at bedtime...I honestly think she will be fine if I take away the bedtime bottle, but I just can't do it yet!  That's totally a mommy issue!
She is mimicking while playing...We play farm with her stuffed animals and pretend to feed them the farm veggies.  She picks them up and mimics what we do. 
She has learned how to safely get down from standing.  For awhile, she was plopping down, but now she has the muscle strength to slowly lower herself into a sitting position.
She is loving regular food...just loving it.  Girlfriend is a veggie baby.  It's all I give her for meals and for snacks I give her fruit, yogurt or a fruit cereal bar.  Last month, I started giving her sliced turkey and she loves it too. 

Here are some of the fun things she enjoys this month!

Barney...Barney brings lots of smiles in this house.  She doesn't care for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as much anymore, but still watches it first thing in the morning.
She is on a roll with independent play.  She will play by herself for a good while.  It makes things so much easier now that she can get around and doesn't need me for entertainment purposes!
Musical Instruments....since we have been going to Kindermusik, she has started liking to make noise with her xylophone and beating on other things.  I need to get her more instruments!
Taking the majority of her balls out of her ballpit.  Thanks to cousin Drew for teaching her this!!!!   :)
Baby Mum-Mums...Can you say obsessed?  We can't even say cracker to her until after she eats her food.  She would eat them all day if she could!

Lily is in 18 month clothes...The 12 month clothing we have fits, but is getting kind of tight.

Here are a few videos!


In this video, if you will see how independent she is becoming...she is like, "I can do this.  Let me go and I'll do it by myself!"


In this video, you can hear her starting to say da-da!

If you want to see more pictures, you can visit our Picasa site at:
Our Picasa Photo Site
We also have 82 videos up on youtube now!  Here is our page there:

Our YouTube videos

Lots of nothing going on...

We've been kinda bored around here the past month.  Lil and I are spending a lot of time in the house unfortunately watching Disney Sing A Long dvds because it is just so hot out!  We have those great pools, but it is just too hot and sunny to bring out little red.  To top it off, we've had severe ozone warnings the past week here and they recommend staying indoors...especially with the little ones. 

Lily is doing so many fun things.  It is so exciting watching her discover herself and her world.  Everything is new and exciting and she always greets new things with a smile.  I wish I still had that innocence, or at least the ability to look at new things with excitement instead of hesitation.  She really is amazing and brings a whole new light to life. 

So, I hate to say it but I think last month, I started to go through a little PPD.  I felt like I was losing control.  I consulted the doctor though and they adjusted my meds.  I have to say, it has made a WORLD of difference.  I feel really good now.  I feel like I am able to really enjoy and embrace the sweet moments instead of getting frustrated because she won't go to sleep or because she won't stay still!  I had to do something about it and I"m so glad I did.  Everything is going by so fast, I don't want to look back and regret being frustrated while putting her to sleep instead of enjoying it.

Anywho, she is doing great and we are all doing good over here.  Brandon is working tons, but that's ok.  I can't wait to do Lily's 8 month update.  She is doing so many fun things these days and we are ridiculously excited about them.  It's kinda pathetic that we video everything on our phones, but the iphones are great to catch all these moments.  We are so proud of her...I think our youtube account has like 80 videos...

This past week,  Jennifer brought us an amazing gift!  75 bottles of pre-mixed Similac Sensitive that was donated to ECI by one of the families she works with!  Unfortunately, this family is having lots of problems.  The family had triplets and two of them died and the other one is very handicapped.  The mom then got pregnant with twins and both of them are very sick.  One has her organs reversed and the other has severe bowel problems.  They are on WIC and are trying lots of different formulas.  They bought the 75 bottles of the Similac Sensitive and then had to switch to one with a probiotic as the last attempt before the one with the bowel problems gets a feeding tube.  We are the only ones of Jennifer's clients that are using Similac Sensitive so she brought them to us!  We are so very grateful.  Formula is expensive and Lily is now drinking about 23 oz/day, so the 75 bottles will probably get us all the way through her first year!  We may not have to buy formula again for her!  Yeayyy! 

Things are really changing for us around here.  As I said in one of my last posts, Lil is crawling now and is all over the house.  We have been childproofing everything....to say the least.  I'll update around the 1st with her 8 month update!

Lily's last neurology appointment; and house guests!

It seems like just yesterday I was having to post about this for the first time and today, we have officially gone to our last neurology appointment at Texas Children's Hospital.  The last one scheduled.  Today (Thursday) we are starting the process of weaning Lil off of her medication and do not need to see Dr. Proud unless Lil has another seizure.  We will go down a dose a week, so by the end of the month, she should be completely off of it.  Dr. Proud prescribed us a DiaStat gel in case she has another one that lasts more than 5 min or she starts having clusters of them again.  I hope we don't have to use it, and as much as I am over the moon that we over this hurdle, our appointment today was was kinda of bittersweet.  It was seriously like we hit a huge milestone.  Like these seizures are truly a thing of the past.  Don't get me wrong, it's not like we walk around all day just completely unable to get over what happened, but today I had an odd feeling when Dr. Proud sent us on our way.  I just can't explain it.  It was sadness, mixed with fear but mostly a resolution.  I think...I still can't pinpoint it. 

Lil has been doing great.  Crawling everywhere and really playing on her own a lot.  I think we will be expecting a few more teeth soon because they seem to be bothering her a lot this week. 

This week, Candice, Dave, Abby and Drew are coming to visit!  They are moving from San Diego to Maryland and Dave is driving through and gonna stop by.  Candice and the kids will be in LA, so they are going to come by too on Tuesday!  Lily is going to love playing with her cousins.  I am so excited to see them all together!  Hopefully the weather cooperates and we can bring the kids to the pool.  I am dying to bring Abby and Drew there!.  I really think they are going to love it!   Then they leave and drive through to Covington and then on to Maryland where they will be living for a few years.  Hopefully, we will be able to get up there soon and visit.  We are throwing around a few ideas...

Anywho, battery is about to die!  Take care! :)