The Grays

Lilly at ONE YEAR!

Weight: 21 pounds (50th percentile)
Length: 30.5 inches (90th percentile)
Head: 46 cm (75th percentile)

525,600 minutes of Lilly and enough joy to fill a lifetime! Lilly is one year old today and we are so happy to celebrate this huge milestone with her first trip to The Beach! I feel badly that she spent much of her birthday on the plane (even though she had fun and was a perfect angel), but I know we will make up for it in the coming days!

 Yesterday was a very special day for us because we celebrated Lilly’s 1st Birthday on Bill’s 30th Birthday!  We had an under-the-sea-themed party for family and a few friends at our house.  It was a beautiful day and we were delighted with how everything turned out.  We were a bit uncertain with how Lilly would react with the number of guests and she could not have been any happier.  She wasn’t too excited about her vegan birthday cake, though.  She enjoyed playing with it but only ate a bite or two.  You can check it out in the video below.  We keep re-living the party over and over in our heads – what a wonderful celebration for our daughter and her #1 daddy!

For more photos, click here.

Lilly took her first steps today!  We got home from Nipigon at noon and were playing in her playroom shortly after when it happened.  Lilly was trying to stack blocks on my head and would pull away and stand on her own for several seconds.  She did this a few times and  kept standing longer – finally she took one step towards me…and a minute later she took two!  The fresh Northern Michigan air must have done something for her!

We just got back from a great, long weekend up North.  Bill and I drove up Friday morning with Lilly and were excited to have her back at Nipigon.  This visit was full of family firsts:  Lilly started ‘walking’ across the room when her hands were held, she spent an entire hour floating in Lake Huron with Nana and Boppa, went on her first boat ride, and ate her first ice cream cone!  It was a beautiful, HOT weekend so we spent most of our time outdoors – much of it next to a shaded kiddie pool.  We can’t wait to get back there!

For more photos, click here.

The past few weeks we have noticed some big, fun changes in Lilly’s personality.  She is much more ‘vocal’ about her likes and dislikes, even though we can’t always figure out what she is trying to say!  Now when she wakes up she immediately stand up and points to a book on her bookshelf.  If we don’t pick her up and read the book of her choosing right away she gets very upset!  Too cute…can’t wait to see what her second year will bring.

We celebrated a particularly wonderful Father’s Day this past weekend.  We spent most of our time outdoors enjoying the sunshine with Lilly.  Saturday we went downtown for the River Days Festival.  Sunday we ran the Run for the Ribbon 5K at the zoo (see below), went to our Goldfish swim class, had some fun in the sandbox, and grilled outside.  Another busy weekend in the Gray household – so much fun!

You can see more Father’s Day photos by clicking here.

This morning we ran the Run for the Ribbon for prostate cancer at the Detroit Zoo. It was a beautiful day for the run and I beat my time from last month by another minute. We didn’t actually run through the zoo like we were hoping, but we still plan to participate again next year. A great event!

Lilly is 11 months old today!

Lilly’s newest cousin, Tevin Lawrence Sessoms, was born yesterday at 11:40 pm, weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces and 19 inches long.  We can’t wait to meet him!

Our master crawler/climber decided to take off running with her push toy today. Maybe she’ll walk one day, after all! 🙂