Weekend in the Berkshires

We had a great weekend in the Berkshires with my parents, who are vacationing there for the week. Lily had a lot of new firsts while we were there! On Saturday we went to the Shaker Village, where they had baby farm animals. Lily saw pigs, turkeys, and bunnies for the first time! We also saw goats, sheep and cows. Lily really likes sheep and goats. This is the second time she been around them now, and both times she has just LOVED them! She was a little afraid of the piglets though. I can't say I blame her. One of the piglets tried to eat the poor girls sock! (Not to mention Sean's shoe laces, and my hair!)

Here's a picture of the piggies eating Sean's shoe lace:


Meeting the sheep:

Meeting the baby goats. These two were really cute!
Meeting the cows:


I did a mini photo shoot with Lily because the area was just so beautiful! Here's my favorite shot:Saturday afternoon we took Lily swimming for the first time. She wasn't to sure what she thought about it at first. There were a lot of other kids splashing around in the pool, so I think it was overwhelming for her. She didn't cry though, even when she would get splashed by a kid jumping in the pool. She just was taking it all in the whole time she was in the water.

We took her swimming again on Sunday, and this time she really seemed to enjoy it! There were no other kids in the pool this time, so she wasn't distracted. She started kicking her legs to try and get around the pool a bit, and she kept sticking her face in the water to blow bubbles. What a difference a day makes!
On Sunday we also went on a short walk to see a waterfall. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the falls, but it was so beautiful! It was also Lily's first time seeing a water fall!


Another exciting thing from the weekend, Lily's 3rd tooth is starting to come in! It's the top on her left. On Saturday she was really fussy and I noticed a white bump in her gums. I don't think the tooth has broken much of the skin yet, but I'm sure it will today or tomorrow. I think there is a small break in the skin, but her gums are so swollen there I can't really tell for sure. I
had a feeling she was due for another tooth soon. She's been drooling up a storm lately! I'm sure her 4th isn't to far behind now too!

In all we had a pretty great weekend! I think we'll try to get back to the Shaker Village again soon. It's not to far away from us, and Lily loves the animals! We'll definitely have to get her into the pool more often from now on too! I'm sure she's going to be a fish, just like her mommy and daddy were as children!

Have a good week everyone!

End of week randomness

Last weekend Sean lowered the mattress in the crib. It's not hard to imagine why with this little girl who thinks everything is something to pull up on. I couldn't use the crib as a safe place for her to play anymore! She still stands up in the crib every chance she can get, but at least there is no longer the danger of her falling out! Here are some pictures of her playing in her crib, with her mattress newly lowered:





Lily's been working really hard on her balance while standing lately. On Wednesday we were outside playing, and she let go of my hand while standing! She stood all by herself for a good 30 seconds before sitting down again! I've been trying to get her to do it again ever since, with not much luck. I hope soon I'll be able to capture it on video! Until then, here's a picture of Lily outside that day. If you look closely, you can see her two bottom teeth! She got those at the beginning of March.Last night we took Lily on her first trip to the library. We went to one of the children's programs called 'Born to Read'. There was only one other girl there, but they had fun playing, singing, reading and rhyming together. The other girl was almost 2, and Lily was just fascinated by her. Lily was following the girl all over the room, trying to play with her! It was very cute! We're planning to take Lily to a lot more of these library offered programs from now on. She just loves to socialize with other kids!

This morning I was finally able to capture her new favorite sound on video. She's been doing this for about a week...and it still cracks me up every time!

Have a good weekend everyone! Lily's going to be going swimming for the first time! Expect to see pictures of that sometime early next week!

8 Months Old

Dear Lily,
Today you are 8 months old! I can't believe how fast you're first year is going by! You're growing bigger and bigger by the day. You're starting to fill out finally, but you're still tall and thin. We'll have to wait till next month to see how much you've grown.
This past month you learned a lot of new things. The most exciting thing was learning to crawl! Over the month you've really perfected it, and can get around with no problem now. I'm constantly running after you to keep you out of trouble!
Another big thing you mastered this month was to pull yourself up to standing. You raised yourself for the first time on March 15th, and have used every opportunity since then to practice. Just this past week you have started learning to cruise! It makes me so proud to see how quickly you are developing!
A couple of other new things you did this month were trying to clap and making kissy faces and noises at us. You also love to say mama and dada now, but you're new favorite thing to babble is glarb glarb glarb. You've also started to mimic me when I sing to you, by singing la la la in a very high pitched voice. I love when you sing with me!
You're diet has evolved a lot this month too. You now are eating stage 3 jars, which have a lot of small chunks for you to gum. You're starting to really get a hang of chewing your food! I'm starting to make you're food a lot chunkier too. You've also found the joys of flavored puffs this month. You get very excited when I pull out the yellow container for you! At first you had trouble getting the puffs from your hand to your mouth, but now you are a pro at it. It only took about a week for you to really improve your pincer grasp enough to feed yourself the little puffs!
Today, on you're 8 month birthday, we took a nice long walk around the neighborhood together! You love looking around when we go out for walks. Today all the flowering trees opened up just for you! It was just beautiful outside! When we were finished our walk, we sat outside for a while so I could take some pictures. In the middle of our photo shoot the neighbor's dog came over to greet you. You were determined to crawl after him when he went back to his own yard!
Here are a few of the pictures we took together this morning! You just get more beautiful every day! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you, and we love you so much!
Love,
Mommy

A Couple Videos

Here are a couple cell phone videos from yesterday. The first is of Lily riding a rocking horse for the first time in Pottery Barn Kids. The second is of Lily with her friend Kyan when we met up for dinner last night.

Burlington in a Day

Yesterday we went up to Burlington to meet our new nephew. After our visit with the new family, Sean Lily and I enjoyed a few hours around Burlington. First we stopped by Sprout (a great natural parenting store) and picked up Lily a wooden toy camera. She's always after my camera, so we figured she'd love to have one of her own!

After picking up her camera, we went down to the waterfront. I did a mini photo shoot with Lily, and then we just spent some time as a family . It was so nice to be back there again! This is her new face. She scrunches up her nose and snorts...it's SO funny! I'll have to get it on video one of these days, before she gets tired of it!
Per my Dad's request, here's a picture of Lily standing. She's using her daddy to lean on!
After the waterfront, we walked up the street to the playground, and Lily had her first ride in a swing. Here's some video of her first ride:

After the park, Sean and I took Lily to Mazza's farm. There Lily met the goats, sheep, geese, Zack the Yak, and Annie the pony. Lily really loved the goats, and they loved her too! They kept sticking their heads through the fence to greet her.


Zack the Yak

The farm also had a small play ground, with this big play tractor. Lily had fun pretending to drive it (or in reality, trying to eat the steering wheel!)

She also had her first ride down a slide.
More with the goat
Right before we left, the geese started talking up a storm. This one in particular was pretty funny. Here's some video of him:



In all it was a very good day. We had a few hours to bring Lily to all our favorite sights in Burlington! Sorry for the picture overload...but believe me when I say that this is just a small sampling of what I took! I hope everyone has a good day!

Nostalgic

Today I'm feeling a bit nostalgic for Lily's pregnancy. Last night I was going through my pregnancy journal. It's funny to think how much our lives have changed in just this short year. For example, this time last year we had just found out we were having a girl, and I was complaining about sciatic pain. So much has happened since then, and Lily has grown SO much! This time last year she was less than 1 pound! Now she's at least 15lbs by my estimate!
So for fun I thought I'd post a picture from Lily's first ultra sound!


And a couple from yesterday for comparison!

I hope everyone has a good day today!

Almost summer!

Yesterday was beautiful again, so Lily and I took some time to sit out on the grass. Lily was fascinated by the acorns and the leaves on the ground. Of course she wanted to see what they tasted like!

Checking out the acorn:

Seeing what it tastes like:

Mean mommy took it out of my mouth!:


More Pictures From Yesterday:

Hanging out with my friend

Lily and her friend Kyan went shopping at Target over the weekend with their Dad's. Lily is just fascinated with the lights!

Tornado Lily

This morning our house was hit by a tornado named Lily. Her new thing is pulling stuff off of shelves. Today she set her sights on our CD's, and wasn't satisfied till she had pulled everyone of them off our shelf. Here are a couple pictures I caught of her making the mess.

This week Lily really mastered how to crawl. She doesn't creep around on her tummy any more like she use to...she always up on her hands and knees now! Her favorite thing is standing though! She'll stand using anything she can get her hands on to pull herself up. This is quite scary for mommy and daddy because she takes a lot more tumbles now. She's always ok after a quick cuddle though, then she's off to find something new to stand up on! She's starting to try to cruise this week too. She's hasn't mastered it yet, but she will take a few side steps while holding onto the couch, or will reach out for an offered hand and carefully step towards you. I'm sure she'll be a pro at this in a few weeks time!
I'll leave you all with a picture of Lily playing with one of the cats squeaky toys. How nice of them to share with her!