The Grays

Lilly LOVES books – as long as she can put them in her mouth or play with them.  She used to sit still in my lap while I read to her and now she is too interested in crawling and exploring to just sit.  She likes cloth, touch n’ feel, and peekaboo books but looses patience with anything else, so a lot of times I just read aloud.  I was reading ‘Goodnight Moon’ to her before naps and bedtime – now I just recite it from memory!

Lately Lilly has been interested in one thing more than anything else:  pulling herself up.  She loves crawling around and finding different objects to pull herself up on, her favorites being the bouncer, Bill, or me.  She’s getting stronger!

Whenever Lilly is working to master a new skill it seems as though her sleep is somewhat disrupted.  The last few days she has been working really hard at crawling and pulling herself up, and her naps have been rather eventful.  Yesterday was the first time EVER that she didn’t take a morning nap – she decided to move around in her crib for 1-1/2 hours instead.  In the afternoon she slept for awhile but woke up several times and sat up.  I had to go in, lay her back down, and remind her that it was nap time.  Today she wriggled around for 20 minutes and then started to detach the mobile from her crib!  Once removed, she fell asleep while sitting up (woke up a few minutes later, confused, and fell asleep on her back).

Thankfully her evening sleep has not been interrupted (yet).  She still sleeps from 7:30pm-7am.

Lilly is a busy bee!  Mondays we meet with the Beaumont Moms Group (either a formal meeting or to walk the mall), Wednesdays we take a Kindermusik class, Fridays we go to Gymboree, and Sundays are reserved for daddy-daughter swim classes at Goldfish.  Since she stays home with me I try to get her out for ‘social time’ once every day.  We also see Grandma Judy and Grandpa Bill and try to meet up with Laura & Arbor and Karen & Heidi whenever possible.  Next week I’m going to start taking her to the daycare at the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that I can work out.  I feel like the first 4 months went by rather slowly, but now that she is so busy and moving about the weeks go by sooo fast!

I just think this is the funniest video ever.

Watch out – Lilly is mobile!  She has become a true crawler.  See the video below!

Now that Lilly is crawling about she seems to have declared her independence.  Much of her ‘play time’ is spent on her own as she crawls away from Bill and I to explore.  She loves pulling books off the bookshelf and chasing after Roary.  It’s time for us to take the next step in babyproofing!

Sleeping in her carseat (a rare event!)

I took Lilly to the opthamologist today to have her eyes checked.   Over the past few months we have noticed that her left eye is a bit ‘lazy’ when she looks in certain directions. We have been sensitive to this because my mom was born with crossed eyes. The pediatrician said that if we still noticed it at 6 months we should take her to see a children’s eye specialist, so we made an appointment.  Her eyes were dilated and the doctor said that her vision is normal and she will likely grow out of it.

I was a bit worried about the appointment (surprise, surprise) because Lilly had to miss her morning nap.  She was an absolute angel and wasn’t unhappy for a single second.  Grandma Judy kept us company for the 2-hour appointment, and Lilly completely passed out in her car seat on the way home!

This past week Lilly has been waking up at night with nightmares.  It usually happens before I go to sleep, and I can recognize whether she’s having a nightmare or not right away because she lifts her head up and lets out this HORRIBLE, escalating cry.  She usually calms down pretty quickly when I go in, but Monday night it took 5 minutes of rocking and shushing to get her to go back to sleep.  I can’t imagine what she’s dreaming about and hope that it’s a phase that passes quickly for her!