HELYO!

As I am sure most all babies do, Lila loves the phone. I just recently got a new phone. I was kind of excited because she loved my old phone so much I thought I would just be able to give it to her and she would no longer try to jerk mine out of my hand while talking. Nope, didn't work. Those little ones know better, don't they? There is no fooling them. Here is my little chatterbox. Considering I average 4000 minutes a month on the phone, I would be worried if she didn't know how to use one! :) She use to just say "Hi, Hi" all the time, but now she likes to actually say Hello (Helyo). She also can tell when I am about to get off the phone because before I even say goodbye, she starts saying, "Bye Bye." I guess when she hears me say, "Ok, I will talk to you later, yada yada yada yada" she knows I am about to hang up so she starts saying bye bye. I love it!
I love this face!

So I will remember....

Yes, I am behind once again. So that I will remember, I need to jot down a few things about sweet Lila over the past few weeks. If anyone actually reads my blog, this will probably be a boring post. Remember, I am keeping this blog in order to document things since I don't tend to keep up with a journal very well and never started a 2nd year calendar. You will probably also find lots of bragging on my part. But hey, isn't that what mommas are suppose to do? Anyway, one thing that I failed to write down about our trip to Alaska is Lila's new word she came home with courtesy of Mr. Mason. Usually Lila calls Mason...Yiya (Lila). She now calls him yeayoh(Yellow). His favorite color is yellow and he likes to call all colors this as a game. We played with him all week, saying, "I said Blue!" He will say, " I said Yellow!" All of the sudden one day, Lila bursts out with Yeayoh! She now still says Yiyah when she sees him, but adds Yeayoh after it. It is so cute. She also says Baby now a lot clearer. She said it before, but right before we left for the trip, so likes to enunciate...BAAABEEE! (Lots of syllables... like her momma, I guess?!) Lila hasn't been herself this week as she is cutting 3 molars at once. She has been quite fussy and very clingy to both Michael and me. She is usually very outgoing and a dancing machine, but she has been very quiet compared to normal. However, one thing that made me go...."She's a genius!" is this: Our neighbors got a new kitty cat, Elvis. We went over to visit and Lila loved him. She wanted to hold him and kiss him. He was meowing up a storm. As we left, on her own she started meowing over and over. I thought to myself, "Good Job." I guess it really is better for them to hear it in real life than me imitating it. Anyway, the very next night, while we were eating dinner, Michael was talking to her and I just decided to ask her what a kitty cat says not thinking she would do it. "MEOW!" she said. I about fell over. Yes, I know.....all moms think their child is the smartest. I don't really, but I was very proud of this new accomplishment. She has continued to say it even when we are not talking about it and I just ask her out of the blue. One thing I have noticed now though is she says meow when I point to a cat in her books instead of "kitty cat" like she use to say. I guess I have bragged enough for one night.

14 months!!

Can she really be 14 months? She is not suppose to be able to reach the door handle! They really do grow too fast! Here she is being silly playing with Mamaw and Papaw. She loves her red rocket rider!

My little climber

For those of you that were concerned, we have actually been working on baby boys nursery this week AND I bought a few outfits for him so he won't be wearing all pink. :) As I was trying to clean everything out of the bedroom so we could paint, I turn to find this: (Please excuse the nudiness...we had spaghetti for lunch so Lila was only in her diaper cover.)

Matching Clothes

Does anyone know where to purchase coordinating/matching boys and girls clothes? I have not idea where to look and would like something for Lila and the new baby.

Just 10 more weeks?

Am I seriously already 30 weeks pregnant?!? I cannot believe it! Thankfully, I still feel really good and have been blessed to have such great pregnancies. I will say that I am starting to worry about so many different things. Sometimes I wonder if we really know what we are getting ourselves into. I mean, how am I going to take care of a baby while chasing a 16 month old? What am I suppose to do with Lila while I am trying to nurse? Is Lila going to feel neglected? This whole "I only want daddy" thing really has me bothered. I am so glad that Michael is an amazing dad and that Lila loves him dearly, but I am also thinking that I have such a short amount of time with just her before baby boy arrives. I want our time together to be really special and for us to spend a lot of quality time together before then. It is hard for me to think that it will never be just the 3 of us again. Although it is exciting to think about adding another, at the same time I worry if I have enough love to go around. I already worry that Lila doesn't know just how much I love her. Heck, I worry that my dog doesn't know how much I love her. Even with my friends and family, I have always felt that I don't spend enough time with them, or show people just how much I care about them. It is 10 x's more difficult when it is your own child. I know I will love this baby boy so much, but I never want Lila to doubt my love for her either. I already feel like this pregnancy as gone too fast and that I haven't done for him what I did for Lila and so that makes me feel guilty. I am afraid I will be really sad when it is over...it's like I haven't concentrated on him, talked and sang to him, or read to him like I did with her. I mean, the poor kid doesn't have 1 single item of clothing to wear when he comes out. I could dress a village with Lila's clothes. I know that everything will be fine, and that I should just be thankful that I can even get pregnant and have a family. There are so many people out there longing to have that, and I just have to remember that God chose us to raise these children and that they are his. All I can do it trust him and pray that we will be the best parents we can be. With that being said, I am getting really excited to meet this little guy! I know our world is about to be turned upside down, but I can't wait!

More Alaska

Notice the ship at the bottom of the picture. That is a BIG ship. Like over 100 feet long. It really puts it into perspective how big this glacier is.

Beautiful Talkeetna ended up being not so pretty. It was a gross, rainy day, but it really is a neat little pioneer town. Just as I had finally worked up the nerve to leave my child and fly in a tiny 10 seater plane around and over Mt. McKinley and land on a glacier, they canceled the flight! Michael was super bummed, and I actually was very disappointed that we didn't get to see Denali or the Mountains. I guess that means we will just have to go back! Anyway, I did come back with some great trinkets. There were all kinds of homemade goody's there. Baby Boy may not even have a onsie to wear, but he now as a super cute knit hat made from organic cotton from Alaska. I got to meet the lady who made it, which was cool as well! One of the stores had this cute little duck that sang and danced to one of Lila's favorite songs, "If you are happy and you know it." It flapped its wings when you are to clap and stomped its feet and moved around too. As you can tell...she LOVED IT!
Michael and I got to sneak off and do a little hike by ourselves. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun just enjoying each other and God's beautiful earth. I do think Michael was a little worried about Bears since we had seen several on our trip and there were signs posted about recent bear sightings. We also heard some other hikers blowing their "bear whistle." We were suppose to take "Bear Deterrent" but we forgot. We just made a lot of noise and talked a lot while we were out. I thought this picture was funny of Michael looking up in the hole of the tree.
We meant to take this picture when we arrived, but were too anxious to get our luggage and get out of there. Here we are before leaving Alaska. Let's just say that an overnight flight with a sleep fighting 13 month old was NOT fun! She was more interested in blowing kisses and waving to everyone at 3:30 in the morning than she was in sleeping. There were actually 25 kids on that plane, but I was still worried about disturbing others. The lady beside me slept the entire way and didn't even notice Lila. If she would have just sat still for 2 minutes it wouldn't have been so bad. We were just exhausted and wanted to sleep and all she wanted to do was sit down, stand up, roll over, do downward facing dog, and crawl all over us! Needless to say, we didn't really sleep. Before we knew it, we had arrived in Cinncinatti for another 3 hour layover. I think I won the "Crabby Traveler" award for that trip back. I love the fact that Lila just wants to lay down in her own bed and go to sleep, but there are times, such as these, that I need her to lay her head down on my shoulder and snuggle with me and sleep. Even sleeping in the stroller would help, but she doesn't do that either. Like Mother Like Daughter..Nosey Rosey! We did make it home and Lila's schedule is still messed up, but we will get there. All the kids did great adjusting to the time out there. When we came home though, Lila didn't want to go to bed until 10 or 11 (7 or 8 in Alaska) and sleep until 10 or 11. She is at least going to bed at her normal 8 o'clock central time now!
I must say, I was so proud of Lila while we were there. I kept waiting for her to have a day where she just melted down because of change and lack of sleep, but she never really did. The worst was just the flight back. She woke up so happy every day and was super excited about playing with everyone. I think she is bored with just me now that we are home. She loved playing with Mason and Kaley and became super attached to daddy! I have majorly had my feelings hurt because it wasn't that she just wanted daddy...it was that she didn't want me at all!! What 13 month old doesn't want their momma?!? I even shed a few tears over it. I know she just isn't use to having Michael around this many days in a row, but it still makes me sad.

We did have some major milestones while we were there though. Lila took her first steps on July 14th in HOMER, ALASKA!! The great thing about it is Michael and I both saw it. She took two steps with her left leg and was almost going in a circle. Michael and I both yelled out loud. She then took a right, left, then a right, left, right, left! It was so exciting. She is still hesitant some, but is actually moving a little faster now than when before she would take a step and think about it before taking another! She also cut a molar while we were there. Poor thing...I didn't even know it. I knew she was teething because she was drooling pretty bad, but the next thing I know I see this ginormous tooth! Although she acted totally fine the whole time we were there, she had A LOT of dirty diapers...like 4 or 5 a day! I felt so bad for her. I still don't know if it is from teething or just from her schedule being messed up. We are back to our normal 2 a day now though! Anyway, she was just perfect and we had a great time! I will say that although I hate the humidity here, I am glad for the warm weather and sunshine!