Lily

I wanted to do a separate post about Lily, and share some updates about her. She's super fun and cute and learning so much every day! It's so fun to watch her learn and grow.

She is trying to walk sometimes, but still only goes a few steps before crawling again. She's too busy to slow down enough to figure it out. And she's funny in that she doesn't repsond at all to us trying to help her practice. But on her own, she does focus on it sometimes.

Her focus has been much more on trying to communicate. Every day she is saying lots of new words. It's really amazing. She has even started finishing familiar songs as we sing them. It's clear she really wants to communicate with us. She says hot, no, nana (banana), moo, grrr, baba (bottle), hi, bye, book, boat, ow, up, wow, whoa, and more that I can't think of right now. She also pants like a dog whenever she sees one in a book or on TV. It really surprises me that she can distinguish a dog from all other critters. The funny thing is that she doesn't really say mama or dada, but this morning, she did say Anna. Also this morning, when I showed her a choice of 2 dresses to wear to church, she said, "pree" (pretty).

Lily still has a milk sensitivity, so she still drinks hypoallergenic formula. We're trying to transition to other high calories foods, but she's kind of picky. The formula shortage has been hard on us. When we first switched to formula, we couldn't find any of the name brand stuff, so we found that the Target brand worked really well, and was significantly less expensive. But then all of a sudden at the end of November, all store brand hypoallergenic formual disappeared. Scott spent a day running to all the CVS's and Walgreens that had any left (Target was completely out.). Luckily the name brand is now back on the shelves, but it is seriously expensive. A can that lasts about 3 days cost $38! So, we feed her eggs, cheerios, crackers, and fruits and vegetables. I keep hoping she'll learn to like peanut butter or avacado or that her body will start liking milk.

Lily is so lucky to have her whole family always around. It's been interesting to note that unlike our other kids, she really doesn't favor mom or dad. In fact, a lot of times, she wants nothing to do with me because the kids are so much more fun. On school days, she tries to get to the stairs and really wants to go down where she thinks all the fun is happening. She gets so excited any time I take her down. All the kids are so excited to see her too, and she just starts flapping and kicking and clapping and saying, "Yay!" The kids are so good to watch her and play with her when they aren't doing school, and she adores them.

One of Lily's favorite things to do is look at books. I get new ones from the library each week, and she just loves them, especially touch books, and open the flap books. Lily loves to climb. She really likes to climb in her toy drawer. She got a slide for Christmas and loves to climb the ladder. She tries to climb the TV stand, and pretty much everything else. It's so cute to see her lift her little leg even when there's no way she'll ever be able to get it high enough.

She also loves music. She loves to play the piano, and can pull herself up on the bench. Any time she hears music, she starts to dance or sing along. She's so sweet! We still can just hardly believe how lucky we are to have a baby as sweet as she is in our family. It was such a huge surprise, and has been a huge adjustment. (I miss sleep and having any time to myself.) But we're so grateful for the joy, light, laughter and togetherness she has brought to our lives.