I just pulled the jumperoo out of the closet this past week for Raelynn to try out. She seems to like it so far, she doesn't jump just yet but she does play with the toys. Take a look..
And here’s Lilly right around the same age…
Yup those are books…we are not very tall people and apparently don’t have very tall kids :)
This past weekend Lilly had her first Soccer Tots class and it was a big hit! We did a trial class at the beginning of the summer and Lilly was a little skeptical about following directions from another adult and she was a little skeptical about the other kids. My cute little girl would rather have a deep conversation with an adult than play a game with kids her age (note to self must bring Lilly to more play dates). Its amazing what a difference 2 months make, Lilly listened and followed all of the coaches directions, she was not scared of the other kids and she didn’t demand to be picked up once!
They really don’t play soccer, but they do a great job of wearing toddlers out! Lilly stretched, ran around the field, kicked a soccer ball around, chased me and Mike with a pool noodle, kicked over cones and stood them back up with just her feet (this required a little help from Daddy). What was Lilly’s favorite part you ask, well it was the part at the very end where she got a sticker from the coach! Lilly is very obsessed with stickers, that will be a future post I promise. Ok, now on to the pictures..
Sitting on a circle, last time Lilly refused to sit by herself. This time she gladly plopped down on the color of her choice
Did I mention this is a parent participation class? Of course all the pictures are of Mike and Lilly, but we did trade baby duty and I got to play a little too
Stretching
Standing on the white line getting ready to run across the field. Lilly is still talking about standing on the white line. It’s funny what she remembers.
Lilly running across the field. She’s not the fastest runner, but she giggled and laughed the whole trip across the field.
Daddy helping Lilly walk backwards. Did you know most toddlers can’t walk backwards? I’ve never thought to even teach Lilly to walk backwards..hmm
Soccer star in the making?
Where was Raelynn during soccer? Chilling in the stroller smiling and talking to anyone who would listen to her squeals. I really meant to take a picture, but I was too busy laughing at a dozen or so toddlers bumping into each other.
This was on a different day, but still super cute…Lilly found my brand new running shoes behind the treadmill and decided to put them on. It’s hard to be mad at her for playing where she shouldn’t when she is acting so cute!
Raelynn and I get to spend some alone time at least twice a day, before Lilly wakes up in the morning and during Lilly’s nap time. This day Raelynn was being especially cute, so I decided to play photog.
She has those big brown eyes just like Lilly! I could get lost looking into her eyes, they are so sweet and innocent.
Smile #1, big open mouth smile
Smile #2 a little crooked but still really cute
Smile #3 such a sweet smile, she has just started to smile at us and put her chin on her chest like she is being bashful it is super cute
There is a neck in there! I was starting to think she was missing that body part, I had not seen it in weeks.
Beautiful little girl.
I don’t know how many times I have to say it, Raelynn is so sweet and content with everything. She is a social butterfly, she will smile at just about anybody who talks to her (much different from Lilly who would stare you down until she knew everything about you and what you ate for dinner last night). She is also a talker/squealer, she rarely ever cries, but man she is loud, she wants everyone to know where she is at all times. Raelynn is also a sleeper, oh I love my sleepy babies, Mike and I both love to sleep so I am very happy that we passed that gene on to our kids. Right now Raelynn is sleeping 11 hours just about every night and she wakes up every morning with a big smile for me when I walk into her room.
We took her to the doctor about 3 weeks ago because she was spitting up a lot, much more than I had ever thought a baby could spit up. It turns out she has reflux, she is what is called a “happy spitter” she is gaining weight really well (as you can see), she is generally happy and is not phased by the mass amounts of spit up she is producing. We decided to put her on an antacid to reduce the acidity of her spit up so it doesn’t damager her esophagus. Hopefully she will grow out of this as she get bigger, because Mommy is pretty tired of smelling like spoiled milk all the time. But for now we are propping her up for 30 minutes after she eats and I cut broccoli out of my diet (darn no more yucky green veggies).
In a nut shell I love this kid!!
Seriously, it feels like I was graduating high school just a couple of years ago, not a full decade! In the last ten years, I attended 3 colleges, married a wonderful man, moved 6 times, suffered survived 2 deployment and added 2 beautiful little girls to our family, just to name a few. Anyways, a group of people from high school meet at the Baton Rouge zoo last weekend with our families. It was fun, but oh so HOT! Here are a few pictures that I took before the heat made me forget that I brought my camera along.
Lilly and Raelynn sporting their matching LPC shirts
This giraffe was so close to us it could have licked our heads
Taking a stroll through the zoo, of course Lilly didn’t last long in the stroller when she saw that Flynn was walking around like a big boy.
Big sleepy tigers
Lilly and Flynn in the tiger cage
Turtles, we drank lots and lots of water that day
Flynn and Lilly looking at the otters, they were following the bubbles so they could see where the otter would come up.
“Look Momma, I’m a big bird”
More stroller time, I can’t wait for it to cool off outside so I can take this baby out for a run with both girls in it!
This was Raelynn pretty much the entire time, chewing on her blankie or sleeping…I think I’ll say it again she is such a content baby, then again she really doesn't have a choice, she just goes wherever we go. And for now is just along for the ride.
Genetics…mmm I think Lilly got my genes when it comes to motor skills and pure clumsiness. I recently joined pinterest, it is by far my favorite website right now. I found this project for Lilly to help her practice her fine motor skills. It involves a pool noodle and a piece of string. I found a noodle on sale at big lots the other day and decided to try it out.
First I cut the noodle into 1” sections.
Then had Lilly pick them all up and put them in a bag
I tied one noodle piece to the end of a string and had Lilly go to town.
It took her a long time to figure it out, but she finally got the hang of it.
She was so proud of herself
When Daddy got home she had to show off her new “game”
Look at that she got a bunch of “rings” on there!
She has not played with them too much since this day, but for $1.50 it was totally worth increasing her fine motors skills just a little. Next I may add numbers or letters to each piece and have her put them in order.
*Ok so you may be wondering where is Raelynn while Lilly is doing all this fun stuff. Normally Raelynn is sleeping, she definitely got the sleepy gene, she has been taking a good 3 naps a day and sleeping about 11 hours at night. Now that I wrote that here she’ll probably stop sleeping through the night or something crazy like that :)
I am still amazed that Lilly has not asked to return Raelynn! Raelynn is in love with her big sister that is her favorite thing to watch, it must be the constant movement and silly noises that Lilly makes all the time! Here are a few pictures that I snapped the other day while they were playing.
Lilly is teaching Raelynn how to play with her toy
Such a happy baby!
Seriously Raelynn is so happy, she’s almost always smiling or squealing!
This is what happens when you tell Lilly to smile
And this happens when you tell her to say “cheese”
One morning last week Lilly and I decided to forego our normal banana and cereal for breakfast and make some yummy muffins. Lilly asked to help me bake them, then I cringed thinking about the mess we were about to make (most of you know I’m not a fan of messes in my house) and I decided to at least let her mix the batter. I read in one of my many parenting/kid magazines that kids are more likely to eat food that they helped make. Despite my mini anxiety attack it was a total success, Lilly did really good she didn’t spill a drop of it.
I know I’ve posted many pictures of Lilly and the dogs, but she loves them and it is so cute to see her interacting with them. This pictures makes my heart happy Lilly loves Doc and Doc dog doesn’t mind “having tea” with Lilly one bit! I love my Doc dog, she has be there for me through so much over the last 8 years, she was my roommate, my protector, and my best friend through 2 long deployments and has moved around the country with us like a champ. Yes I love Maximus too, but Doc was my first baby and will always hold a special place in my heart.
Sorry for the lack of pants, they are just an extra layer that needs to be taken off to use the potty.
