Strawberry Pickin'

Graham turned 8 months and Lila is officially 2! Now that the day is here, I can actually breathe a little easier. I have accepted it and am excited about starting this new year with my sweet little girl!
Oh, did I mention that when trying to tickle her toes and play with her this morning, she looked at me and said, "No, Mommy, Leave. Me. Alone!"
Oh dear...bring on the terrible two's.
So, to celebrate the big days, we went and did some berry pickin'. There wasn't a lot left, but we had a great time! Ok, so actually, Lila wanted to leave the whole time and Graham kept trying to eat whatever he could get his hands. Plus,it was the first day this year that is was REALLY hot (besides her party, of course.) Other than that...we had a grand time and got a really good deal on some yummy strawberries!










After we picked, Mason and Baby Jenna came over to play with the birthday girl for a while.


Lila didn't care much for opening presents, (which is a good thing considering I haven't even ordered her real birthday present yet). So instead we gave her this left over wrapped gift from Christmas. (Just in case you are wondering what the red and green JOY paper is for.) :) As you can tell by seeing her shove Graham's paci in his mouth that she is a great big sister and loves to say "CHEESE."













Graham, the most adorable little boy I know. I mean really, is this smile not to die for?!?!
This month has been SO much better! Poor thing, I think I was starving him. He had started waking up through the night again, multiple times. I had cut back on solids in hopes of getting my milk supply up, but that just wasnt' working either. Once I finally bit the bullet and decided to try and supplement a bottle with all my pumped milk, it was a huge relief. I am still nursing, just not every feeding. He is now also eating 3 meals a day. He literally went from having cereal once a day and one other veggie or fruit, to lots and lots of food. Luckily, he has liked everything I have given him so far. Whenever we give him something kind of sour, he smacks his lip and scrunches up his little nose and mouth. It is too cute! He still isn't crazy about milk, (no wonder my supply is low) and that little stinker has to have the tempature exactly right. He is REALLY stubborn and gets furious if you take a toy away from him. He is perfectly content just sitting up and grinning at you. He likes to play and has great eye hand cordination. He loves to watch Lila and just laughs and laughs at her. Now, if only he would get on all fours and follow her around! I will admit, I have one Lazy little man on my hands. I use to lay down and take naps with him in the afternoon, but now he loves my eye lashes and lids and would rather play with them (which really hurts by the way) than go to sleep. So, I had to put a stop to that, but he is at least taking naps in his own bed now. He LOVES to be read to. I don't do it enough, but when I do he is so happy. I think he is cutting more teeth again, so we will see which ones are next!
I truly can't believe he is 8 months old. He is so sweet though and I am treasuring every moment with him.

A long post about the number of the day....2!!!

The past week I have felt nauseous and a little weak. I am not sure what it is other than I have all these mixed emotions about my first born turning 2! TWO? Really, already? Two doesn't sound like a baby anymore. :(
This week has been bittersweet. It not only means that Lila is growing up, but so is Graham. It means he is getting a lot closer to one, and that just doesn't seem like it can be.
I am SO proud of my little girl and all of her accomplishments. I love the fact that she runs, jumps...well, sort of (her feet don't make it too far off the ground), and talks to me like a little adult. But, I also want to just swaddle her up and snuggle her up on my shoulder like a baby. Oh, who am I kidding, that child has never snuggled a day in her life. Speaking of, there are some things about this girl that hasn't changed since the day she was born.
1. Lila is known for her famous furrowed brow...you know the one:

2. She doesn't like to be messed with. That includes touching her toes, hands, anything.
3. She NEEDS sleep to be in a good mood. However, she has never gotten lot of it. She sleeps hard at night, but naps are just not her thang! She has always tended to get more hyper the more tired she is. She also tends to be a little more lovey when she is sleepy, (which I like.)
4. She is TERRIFIED of loud noises. As a baby she would burst into hysterics from clapping in church. Today she will not step foot out the door if someone in our neighborhood is mowing.
5. This girl has always known what it is she wants. I wonder who she gets that from? :)
I know I haven't posted all of her little sayings lately. Honestly, it has been because I can't keep up. She surprises me every day. Such as when she walked by G's bottle and said, "There's Grahams bottle. It's empty. Graham's bottle is empty." EMPTY? Really, she said empty?
When asking her where her paci was. She said, "look in the basket." When it wasn't there, she told me to "Look in a different one. Look in the pink basket." Or when she tells me "I need my water in the frigerator mommy." Now, I know I am a first time mom and as my favorite saying goes, "every old crow thinks hers is the blackest", but seriously...this little girl can talk away.(Although, apparently she doesn't say a word in Sunday School. Go figure) I love to hear her sing her ABC's and Jesus loves me, (this is her new favorite.) and to hear her count to 14.
I must say though, Lila is in this stage where she will not let me read to her. She loves her books but SHE has to be the one to read them, not me. So I fear that she isn't learning anything new because her version of the book isn't always quite correct. :) She is using her imagination though, so that counts for something right?
I really think she is ready to start potty training, as you know I have mentioned on here before about her pottying experiences. I just haven't done anything with it yet. I am also ready to take away the beloved paci. We have slowly been weaning it from her. We leave it at home for the most part when we head out somewhere and I try to limit it at home to just sleep time. We are going to be gone a lot during the summer so I am not sure if it is the best time to be working on the pottying and taking away the paci. We will see.
She was great at her 2 year check up. She FINALLY did not burst into hysterics when we walked into the exam room. She even actually laughed a little. As usual, she was super quite, but we were so proud she didn't cry. Now, if only she is that good at the cardiologist in July...
Lila is 50th percentile all the way around. She is going to be a tiny thing like her daddy and me. Yes, I use to be tiny back in the day! She weighed 24lbs and 10 oz. It's hard to believe that Graham almost weighs the same. She is 34" tall.
So, back to the point of this post...BIRTHDAY PARTIES!!
Since Lila turned 2, we had to have 2 parties, right?!!?
I honestly went from, "no party this year," to "just a small playdate" to making a monkey cake!!

Do any of you all remember this atrocious cake I attempted to make last year for her actual birthday? Yes, I had a "real" cake for her party. I would not have served this to guests. I've come a long way in a year.

We had the most perfect day at the park for monkeying around.


Lila had a great time with her friends and was super excited about her "monkey cake and ice cweeeaamm"
When asking her what type of party she was going to have she responded with, "Monkey cake birthday party!"
Thanks to all who came. Once again, I totally forgot to get a picture of the whole gang. Instead, here are some cute snapshots from her big day:
PARTY #1

TA-DA!

Lila and I have been taking a parent and child class at Let It Shine Gymnastics at their Spring Hill location. (Just a little plug here for them...all the proceeds go to Missions, so go sign up today!) Lila loves it and walks in like she owns the place. If I do say so myself, she really is quite good. Just the other night while playing in the yard I asked her if she wanted to do her forward roll. She squatted down and did it perfectly. Of course all night long I was already planning and discussing with Michael if we were going to move our family to an Elite gym and how we would save all the money for her to compete in the Olympics! :) But then I remembered she is not even 2 and anyone who was ever a gymnast knows that you really don't want your child to be one. Yall KNOW what I'm talking about. I quickly decided I would settle for G being a professional baseball player.

Kidding, kidding!

This week was trophy week. (Technically it was ribbon week for our class since none of us have been there long enough for a trophy.) Here is my little gymnast now. The lighting was not very good and I didn't even get a decent picture of her with her ribbon. Oh well..I am still so proud!








We have also been playing hard the past few weeks. Let me just tell you, this kid is fearless (although you couldn't tell by the look on her face in this picture! haha!)

I am so glad she is busy though. There usually isn't much downtime in our day.
Lila got to go to the awesome Jump Zone with her buddy and wonderful neighbor, Coben. He showed her all the ropes and just what to do. The slides were SO big! I thought there was no way she would actually go down them. Boy, was I wrong! The only picture I was able to get of her coming down the slide is the one above. All the others ended up being a big white blur from where she went by me too fast. She would just giggle and laugh and want to go again when she got to the bottom.




Even G-man got into the action:




We are looking forward to lots of sunshine and playtime this summer. That will also hopefully mean lots of long naptimes!