Lily's Life: 14 months

14 months old…..does it get any better or could she get any sweeter? The things that stick out most in my mind of the past months since she turned 1 are her language development and her independence. She knows 2 words in sign language “more” and “eat” but mostly she talks or uses body language to communicate with us. At this point we can carry on a conversation with her and she seems to understand us and we can understand about ½ of what she says. I’ve been amazed at her recollection of things and people. Even though she doesn’t get to see some of our extended family very often she still knows them and can say most of their names: Nana, Poppy, Grami, Tammy, Jeff, Jared. And she can repeat things that I never would have imagined that she could say. For example, Maw Maw’s sister Dot and her family came for a visit after Thanksgiving and Tonya (Dot’s daughter) gave Lily a baby doll. Well, after they left we were trying to pick a name for the baby and when we said, “Beth would be easier for her to say than Tonya”…..Lily immediately said, “Tonya”. I guess the baby has 2 names now. :)

As I’ve become very aware that she picks up on EVERYTHING and mimics and repeats a lot of what we do I pray that we can be good parents living in a way that honors God and is filled with Christ’s light and love. There are things that she says that I wonder “where did she get that?” and then a few days later I will catch myself saying it. “Come on, let’s go”…..she says it all the time now and it’s really funny and cute! I say it when I’m trying to herd her into a different room or I’m trying to get her ready to go somewhere. Most of the time Lily says “Come on” especially when she wants you to take her somewhere (outside, to the refrigerator, etc.). Today she said it and led me to the kitchen, pointed at the refrigerator and said “apple.” I about fell out! I didn’t even know she could say apple.

She also mimics our actions! We noticed that Lily was doing this funny little tip toe thing but she was only doing it on one foot. We couldn’t figure out what was going on until it dawned on us that Joe and I had both been limping for several days. I guess she didn’t want to be left out so she decided to join the crippled crowd.

Some of the other common words and phrases are:

tree (tee)….she loves the Christmas tree! and is really upset when the lights aren’t on (first thing she does each morning is go to the tree to make sure we turn on the lights)
card (when she points to the Christmas cards)
dominoes (it’s not completely clear when she says it but you can definitely tell what she’s saying) – and just a side note about these FUN toys :)….Maw Maw has some at her house that Lily likes to play with. So a few days ago she was over there and she had an outfit on that had pockets and she discovered that she could put the dominoes in there. She likes to put them in and she loves the sound they make when she walks around. Maw Maw had to change her clothes later in the day and Lily was very upset. She didn’t understand where the pockets went.
Socks, shoes, Diggy (her pet dog that Blake gave her), hey baby, hey Daddy, hey Mommy, TV (TD), and she can make just about all the animal sounds (sheep, kitty, dog, elephant, monkey, horse, chicken, duck, octopus (yes, her Daddy has his own special sound), rabbit (hop), cow, lion, snake

And then there are the “words” that she says very often that we can’t make out: is she, katy, she she

I can’t say it enough how much I love and adore this girl. She is just so much fun and keeps us laughing. A day with Lily is a GOOD day – watching her pretend with her babies (putting them in the swing or in her highchair or covering them up with the blanket), seeing her dance around the room when she pushes the button on the keyboard that plays a song (I plan to put a video on the blog of this – it is so cute!), chasing her around and hearing her sweet laughter and squeals, cherishing the moments when she brings us a book and crawls up in our laps for us to read to her, listening to her play in her crib (talking to her puppy and Diggy), watching this little jump thing that she does ( I need to get it on video!) but she gets on her knees and jumps up and says “go go go” and then she falls forward and says “ahhhh”, laughing when she brings me a pillow and says “nay nee” (I guess she knows that I usually put her head on a pillow when she nurses), looking at her when she is sleeping and has turned completely around and upside down in her crib, seeing her with her Daddy when he rides her around on the lawn mower or takes her out to look at the moon, watching her when she doesn’t know I am (especially when she’s trying to figure something out – putting little toys inside of bigger ones or “reading” a book, or stacking blocks).

She has 12 (almost 14) teeth now and that has been tough on her for the past couple of months. I think it has a lot to do with her irregular sleep schedule. She was waking up a lot at night and not wanting to go back to sleep. Maybe we are having a bit of reprieve because for the past 4 nights it has been WONDERFUL! She goes to bed at 7:30 pm and wakes up at 6:30 am.

Another thing that we are so very thankful for is Lily’s health. I am amazed that she’s never had a cold, runny nose, or a cough especially since she’s in the nursery at Church at least 3 or 4 times a week. There is always some bug going around with the kids and I’m not sure how Lily has skipped out on them. I know that it is inevitable for her to get sick but I’m just praising the Lord that it hasn’t happened yet :) We took her back to the doctor today for her booster shot for the swine flu vaccine. That has been a very controversial topic but after much thought, discussion and prayer we decided to give her both the regular flu shot and the swine flu shot. So far, so good. She hasn’t had a bad reaction to any of them. We weighed her as we were leaving the office today and I was a little bummed that she only weighs 22 lbs. 13 oz. She seems to be so tall and slim and at some point in her life that will be a good thing :) but right now I wish she were a bit chunkier. She is a pretty good eater, she eats 3 meals a day and 2 snacks and she nurses at least 4-5 times a day. Here’s an example of a day’s menu for Lily:

6:30 nurse

8:00 eggs, toast, mandarine oranges

9:30 yogurt

10:00 nurse

12:00 turkey, green peas, sweet potato

2:30 apple, cheese

3:30 nurse

5:00 crackers

6:30 tacos, beans

7:30 nurse

Her favorite foods are: cheese, cottage cheese, mandarine oranges (or clementines, satsumas – I don’t know the difference in these but she likes them all!), apples, cheese toast, lasagna, black eyed peas, oats (with a little butter and sugar).

It may seem crazy to write down all these details, but I never want to forget what and when my sweet girl did all these wonderful things….and I can’t even remember where I left the cell phone. :) Here are a few photos of our 14 MONTH OLD SWEETHEART!

isn't she sweet when she first gets up from her nap

she's thinking "could you lose the flash until I fully wake up"