The Grays

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!

Lillys first swim lesson

Fun in the Water

Yesterday we took Lilly to the Goldfish Swim School for her first swim lesson.  Bill went in the pool with Lilly and I sat poolside, taking photos and videos the entire time.  We’re still not sure who had the most fun!  Lilly loved the water and once she got comfortable was flapping her arms non-stop and splashing Bill in the face!   We are still ‘conditioning’ her to go under the water (she has to keep her eyes and mouth closed first – now she closes her mouth but not her eyes) – but were really impressed with how well she did for her first lesson.  Looking forward to this daddy/daughter activity every Sunday!

Lilly is doing a great job sitting up – and can now get herself into a sitting position on her own.  The first time she did this was last Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa Sessoms.  I was so upset because she sat up on her own when I was in the other room and I missed the whole thing!  Today she has done it several times. She’s got some strong abs!

Lilly is getting closer to crawling her way across the room every day.  She can crawl a few feet and then scoots and reaches the rest of the way to whatever she wants.  Here is a video of her trying to knock down some blocks…she had already crawled about two feet before I hit record on my iPhone.

I never understood the skill it takes to change the diaper on a crawling infant!  When I change Lilly she immediately flips herself over and squirms around, trying to grab anything in reach or scoot herself away.  I rarely use the changing table any more (when I do it’s a real struggle).  Instead, we use the floor and just hope that she doesn’t get away!

Lilly and I went to our first Kindermusik class at the Birmingham Community House today.  She seemed to really enjoy it, and we got a CD to practice with at home – I’m going to have to re-learn some of the songs I knew as a kid!  We will be going to the music class every Wednesday, and several moms from the playgroup go with their babies as well.  It’s so nice to get out with Lilly a bit more and see some friends.  Looking forward to it!