Winter Class Lineup

Now that we’re back from Arizona we’ve decided to change Lilly’s class schedule a bit. We stopped Goldfish Swim School for accouple months so that we can spend our time on other things Sunday mornings (will resume in April for Bill and Lilly time) and I decided to take Lilly out of My Gym for now as well (longer drive and she wasn’t enjoying it all that much). So, here’s our week:

Monday: Parenting Group (morning), Dinner with Nana and Bapa (4-7)
Tuesday: usually a playgroup
Wednesday: Lilly goes to school (8:30-4:30)
Thursday: Aunt Terry in the morning, Music Together (11:15-12)
Friday: Oakland-Steiner (Waldorf) Parent-Child Class (9-11:30), weekly Whole Foods trip

We added the parent child class on Friday mornings and are enjoying it. The Waldorf program is definitely different and a bit less structured than I’m used to but I love the fact that Lilly is so involved in her learning. My favorite part of the class is when we all sit down for snack time (homemade oatmeal, rice pudding, bread, etc.) with our little glasses of tea and then the kids help with the cleanup.

Changes coming ahead: Lilly will be going to school 2 days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) beginning in March. She loves it there and we think it will help with the transition of having the new baby.

New Demands

Lilly is becoming so much more like a kid every day.  The past few weeks she has been giggling a LOT and thinks that certain things and certain people are really ‘silly’.  This morning she was running around chanting “silly Dada, silly Dada” repeatedly while giggling.  She also has very specific demands of us and will literally grab out pant legs to direct us where to go and explain what she wants us to do.  Over the weekend Bill was dragged all around the house while Lilly instructed him on where to sit and what to play with.  She moved toys out of the way so he could sit right next to her and watch her color for awhile.  Recently she also seems to understand the concept of ‘hurt’ and wants me to kiss her hand, head, etc. when she falls or runs into things.  These new behaviors give us another glimpse into her personality.  So sweet!

We will try to get a video of this to post over the weekend…

A matter of size

During my previous pregnancy with Lilly and this pregnancy people are constantly telling me how small I am.  With Lilly I measured about 1 week off but the doctors/midwifes never thought anything of it (aside from changing my due date) and reassured me that things were progressing normally.  This time around the same thing has been hapenning (measuring a bit small with no change of due date) but we decided to do an ultrasound today just to make sure that the baby was growing at a normal rate.  He/She is right on track at 2  pounds 3 ounces today and everything looks great.  I’ve gained 15 pounds so far and will probably gain another 10+ these last 3 months.  So when people tell me that I look small I’m just going to be thankful that I’m not huge, I feel great, and I have plenty of space for this baby to grow!

18 Months!

18 Months

18 Months

Weight: 23.4 pounds
Length: 33″
Head: 47 cm

Hard to believe that Lilly is a year and a half old today!  It’s amazing how much more of a ‘kid’ she is now.  She has a super-sweet temperment and, as grandma would say, is a very ‘reasonable’ child – she understands everything we ask of her and much of the time will comply with our requests.  Lilly loves to ‘help’ (and ask for help) and spends about an hour a day playing with dishes in the sink.  She is definitely more prone to tantrums, although they are very predictable and usually occur when we take her away from something she is interested in.  Lilly is purposeful in her actions, thrives on her routines (wonder who she gets that from?), and likes things to be done in a certain way or put in a certain place.  She continues to show interest in the way things work and are put together and is our little engineer.  She is talking constantly and knows over 100 words.  She gets very concerned when someone acts in an unexpected way or something breaks, and will have entire ‘quiet’ conversations with people during down time or just before she goes to bed (usually me).

3 Weeks in AZ

We just returned from our 3+ week stay in Arizona with my parents.  It was wonderful to see aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and then have some time alone with Grandma and Grandpa.  We went for golf cart rides every day (Lilly LOVES the golf cart) and I was able to run every day as well.  Lilly was especially sweet with my mom and called my parents ‘MOM’ and ‘DADA’ or ‘BA’ (she says it differently than she does for me or Bill).    The weather was colder than usual but I was completely happy with mid-sixties and sunny every day!  It was a wonderful time and we are looking forward to heading back there soon!

Potty Training, really?

So this afternoon Grandpa made a mistake:  he put Lilly in a swim diaper instead of a regular diaper.  Well, swim diapers don’t actually hold any liquid so Lilly’s pants quickly became wet (to say the least).  When we got home from a ride in the golf cart I realized this just as Lilly was squatting in the living room saying, ‘pee pee’.  This was odd behavior for her so I asked if she wanted to go to the potty.  She started to say, ‘potty potty’, and ran to the bathroom.  My mom and I put her on the potty and…she peed!  A minute later we took her off, she asked to pee again, we put her on the potty and…she peed again!  It hasn’t happened since (probably had something to do with the swim diaper?) but she is definitely more interested in the potty now.  Planning to buy her a ‘play potty’ this weekend!  I’m sure there will be lots of updates on this one…

Let it be said that I was NOT prepared for this and have done nothing to encourage Lilly to use the potty aside from acknowledge her when she said ‘poop’ or ‘pee’.  Wasn’t planning on  facing the potty training thing until after the baby arrived until now.

Babymoon!

I just returned from our Babymoon in Disney World!  Bill and I met in Orlando Thursday evening and spent the long weekend together in the ‘happiest place on earth’.  We could not have picked a better place to celebrate this time together.  We stayed on the Disney property at the Swan Hotel, spent most of Friday at the Magic Kingdom and finished off the afternoon/evening at Epcot, dining at San Angel’s Mexico Restaurant at the World Showcase (I was surprised by how delicious the food was – best Mexican food I’ve had outside of Mexico!).  Saturday we toured Hollywood Studios and returned to Epcot, where we ate dinner at Via Napoli.  Our favorite rides were the new Toy Story temed interactive rides and the Monsters Inc. ‘laughing’ film, as well as the classics.  Unfortunately I was pretty sick with a bad sinus infection and cough that kept me up most nights, but that didn’t take away from the excitment.  Sunday we had brunch with the Disney characters and walked around Downtown Disney before parting ways in the evening.  Lilly had a blast staying home with Grandma and Grandpa and loved the gifts we brought back for her.  Now it’s time to focus on baby #2 – less than 13 weeks to go!