The Grays

Lilly’s sitting, grabbing, and scooting skills are improving daily. She can sit for 5-10 minutes on her own, even when she grabs various objects and turns to see different people. I feel comfortable leaving her in a sitting position on her own as long as she is away from hard objects, etc. She puts her butt in the air and can inch forward but still prefers rolling about to reach different objects. Oddly enough she is most likely to ‘scoot’ when she is tired or cranky. Enjoy the video!

Check out this super cute video of Lilly with her new toy.

Lilly has dropped her late-afternoon catnap.  She has been taking two, 2-hour naps (morning/afternoon) and one 30 minute nap around 5pm to get her through to bed time, but she no longer needs it.  Yay – more playtime!

Over the holiday break we were able to catch up with some of our good friends from Darden who happened to be visiting family in the Phoenix area at the same time.  We miss the friends we made in Charlottesville and it was really nice to see them again.  We plan to see both couples in Chicago in March.

Bill and I spent New Year’s Eve with Mark, Pinata, Leela, and Lilly.  After putting the girls to bed we played Taboo and watched Love Actually (I can’t believe they had never seen it before!).  We intended to have a glass of champagne at midnight but forgot to watch the clock.  A low key NYE – just the way we like it!

We aren’t big on new years resolutions but have both committed to cutting meat out of our diets and running a half-marathon (possibly another marathon for Bill).  Our focus is obviously on Lilly, and we hope to make this a fun and exciting year for the whole family.

Today we took a day trip around Goodyear.  We started out with lunch at Ajo Al’s, saw the Biltmore Hotel, and went to the F.O.E. for drinks and a few friendly rounds of butt quarters (don’t ask unless you really want to know).  Good times!

Lilly’s first Christmas was a huge success.  We started things off with Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma Judy and Grandpa Bill’s house.  Great-Grandpa Bill, Grandma Peggy, Uncle Mick, Uncle Jack, and cousins Jessica and Gordon joined us for dinner and a gift exchange.  Lilly was a natural at opening her packages – she went right for the bows and tried putting all of the wrapping paper in her mouth!

Christmas morning was spent at our house with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Martha.  The grandparents continued their tradition of spoiling our little one 🙂 and Aunt Martha had fun playing with Lilly while Bill and I finished packing for Arizona.

Our flight to Arizona left at 5:45 on Christmas Day.  Thankfully the airport was dead and the plane ride was mostly uneventful.  Lilly slept for the first 20 minutes and then was up for the rest of the 4 hour flight – grabbing on to the poor guy next to us and ‘talking’ to the people who passed by.

Lilly quickly adjusted to the time change with no problems at all.  Christmas morning in AZ (26th) we opened stockings, had a lovely brunch, and opened packages.  We were thankful to spend the time with Uncles Mark and Todd, Aunt Pinata, and cousins Leela, Jason and Billy.  The past few days we have spent relaxing, going for walks, and playing pickle ball.  We even went out to a movie for the first time since Lilly was born – Avatar.

To see additional photos, follow this link

Today Lilly sat unassisted for over one minute on several occasions.  She is getting better every day.  We still have to place her correctly, but I’m sure we will turn around and watch her roll herself into a sitting position some day soon!

Bill and I woke up at 6:25 this morning to Lilly crying out for us and quickly realized this was the first time she woke up!  Normally she wakes up once between 2 and 4 and then is up for the day around 7am.  This meant that I got 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in 5 months!  It was absolutely divine.  She has definitely been sleeping better in general – still has the occasional night where she wakes up and wants to be soothed several times (once or twice a week), but she is always easy to put back down.

I thank Heidi Gee for the fact that Lilly slept through the night.  Just before putting her to sleep Jerry, Karen, and Heidi were over (Ethiopian carry-out…yum!)  and Lilly was absolutely enamored with Heidi.  She became really quiet and didn’t want to take her eyes off of her.  I think watching a toddler run around really wore her out!

The past few days I have been trying to push her schedule back by about an hour so that the transition to Mountain Time is easier on all of us.  She now goes to sleep around 8:45 and has been waking up at 8am.  The plane ride will likely mess up all the advanced work we are doing, but hopefully she will adjust to life in Arizona quickly!