14 Months

Holy Moly-Lilly is 14 months! I swear time has sped up somehow!! What has my sweet little Miss been up too?? Lilly, you love books! You bring me books to read all throughout the day. However, you rarely let me finish a book with you sitting in my lap. You like for me to read while you are playing--sometimes if I stop reading, you bring me another book and go back to playing. I draw the line at reading when you leave the room, though. Some of your favorite books include The Tawny Scrawny Lion, The Boy and the Tigers, Old MacDonald, The Jolly Farm, Toes-Fingers-& Nose, and the list could go on and on.

You spend lots of time with family. Both sets of your grandparents give you plenty of attention--I am not saying you are spoiled rotten (but I could..haha). You have gotten two new teeth this month! You are up to seven teeth. You have three teeth on top and four on bottom. You have had one tooth on top that has been right underneath the gum for two months now!

You play all the time! You are such a ham!! Tonight, we played chase for a long time (nothing makes you feel older than trying to keep up with a 14 month old). You were so funny. I would chase you and then I would run from you and when you moved closer I would scream and throw my hands up and then you would laugh so hard that you would fall down. It was hilarious!! It made tonight a night that I will cherish and remember forever! You are far too busy to give me many posed photo opportunities lately (i.e. the above one eye closed photo above).

There are people who carefully sit down on a couch and then there are people who just plop down--apparently you are the latter. Haha. Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Oksana got you this couch for your birthday. You love it!! You also have a rocking chair that you like. You are getting to be such a big girl! You are still my baby girl, though--and still will be even when you are old enough to read this by yourself.

You are using the grocery cart as a foot rest. You are always doing funny things like that. You are still into everything. We are worried we are going to have to figure out a discipline plan soon because neither your daddy nor I are going to be able to spank--but we aren't sure you are ready for time out. For the time being, we just try to distract you! The only problem is that you are too smart. You have figured this out and now try to distract us. For example, our end table opens up and I keep stuff in there like envelopes, books, the lap top. Whenever you try to get into it, I just hold it closed. Now when I do that you try to give me your paci or a toy that we usually play with together and when I go to grab whatever it is, you make a dash to try and open the end table before I can get my hand back on it! I am sad to say that sometimes your distraction techniques work and you manage to sneak whatever it is you want.

The next few pictures are just you playing on your couch!

(Except this one--this is of you playing with one of your many toys! Honestly, you could have no toys and you would be perfectly content playing with hangers, tupperware, and bowls and spoons...you love some hangers!!)

Back to the couch...

You are talking a little bit now. You say "dad-dee" and "momma" (you have said dada and mama for a while, but this is different), you also say "no" and "more" and "hi" and "bye" and you sign finished. You have figured out the meaning of finished!! I will lay you down to suck out your nose and before I can begin you are waving your hands around telling us "finished"--you hate when we have to clean your nose out!!!! You also say it when you are done eating...even if we are out eating and you are the only one that is "finished".

Your hair is getting longer--I am afraid that you are growing a mullet with a rat tail, but my fingers are crossed that the front starts growing soon. Haha. I am just kidding, you are so adorable that you could pull off a rat-tailed mullet if you needed too!! Your hair is also getting thicker--the back curls a little after the bath, but I don't think you are going to have curly hair. Strangers and people we see out are always commenting on your big brown eyes. You have one big dimple and one little dimple--just like your Mommy! You really are kind of a mini-me. You have also started putting yourself to sleep most of the time--you hum yourself to sleep--it is adorable!

You get a new bruise every day and I have no idea where most of them come from. You are just so busy and are always falling down or into something. You are eating more stuff lately, but I still worry that you aren't eating enough healthy food. You are just a texture freak! You have started eating yogurt--you really like the very vanilla flavor.

You also love your brother! You have been giving him lots of love lately. In these next couple of photos, you are just giving him some hugs!! You are a sweet big sister. I am so proud of how you interact with him. To be such a young big sister--you really are gentle.

Whenever I see you two smiling at each other, my heart smiles, too!

I think this might be one of the first pictures of just the two of you looking at the camera together! Sweet success!!

Also, yesterday, we took you to your first Razorback game!! You really enjoyed calling the hogs and signaling "touch down". You clapped a lot. We left the game at half time because unfortunately the game started right at nap time. We will definitely be taking you to more games!

Lilly, although I do not know how it is possible, we fall more in love with you every day!! You are such a wonderful little girl with a gigantic personality and we are just so proud to be your parents!!!!!