One of Lilly Rose's favorite activities {bath-time}

What our 6:00 hour usually looks like...

The pink butterfly is Lilly's favorite. She holds it pretty much the entire time.

 I'm sure this mirror was clean, or at least I thought so! I'm hoping these are just streaks from the steam! Anyhow, it seems to be the only towel picture I took. At least the baby is clean!!

And this puts us less than an hour away from bed time!! Love a smiley, clean-smelling baby.

Lately {13 months}

Today Lilly Rose is 13 months old. I am not necessarily keeping up with the monthly post but because I haven't posted her latest in a while I figured today was a good day. It just so happens Billy is at work and Lilly Rose is napping so it works out. :) Here's a few of my favorite things my girl is doing lately:

 

-- Putting herself to sleep! Let me say it again, Lilly Rose puts herself to sleep without me rocking her! <Insert Happy Dance here> I know this may not be a big deal in other households but in the Bird house I kind of had my girl spoiled. (although, can you really even spoil a baby??) For the first 12 months every. single. night. Lilly Rose was rocked to sleep. If she happen to wake just an hour later, she was rocked back to sleep. And I LOVED it. That's why we did it. It was such a special and sweet time that I really enjoyed.

 

Then, the first birthday happened and Lilly Rose must've gotten the memo that she is considered (not by her mama's standards) in the real world a "Toddler". Given her new status she began to wiggle and fuss through me trying to put her to sleep so one night I just put her in the crib (after thinking for a full 10 minutes, if i wasn't enjoying it any longer and she obviously was not then why do it). I said, "goodnight, Lilly Rose I love you so much, goodnight sweet girl" and that was that! Night one we heard crying for 15 minutes (I told myself at 20min I would rescue her) but she feel asleep. Night two, crying for 5 minutes and night three she only fussed for a minute. So, Lilly Rose, you are now a dream sleeper as you go down at 7:30 all by yourself and wake up at 7:30. This mama actually has a full evening now to enjoy as I wish.

 

**Disclaimer: I realize from posting these details that my week of blissful sleep will end tonight. I did put off posting about this new change because I wanted sleep and quite frankly, didn't want my peaceful 2-hour viewing of the Bachelor interrupted on Monday night. Priorities people.**

She only cuddles with her daddy this way, so sweet.

 

-- Dancing Queen! I really need to get this on video, it cracks me up every time. Lilly Rose likes to "get low" (I have no idea where she's seen this unless it is in her genes then I'm to blame), shake her head to the music and shake her little body all while trying to clap hands and giggle. Cutest. Thing. Ever. She really does just love music. Especially when her daddy is playing the guitar and singing to her. We realize the 'get low' dance moves might not be so cute in a few years but now, it's just adorable.

 

-- Walking better but not by herself just yet. We witnessed a few steps and then nothing. Lilly likes to walk holding onto our hands and does a really great job but if we let go, she'll sit. Earlier today I was practicing with her and she immediately sat down when I tried to let go. So I picked her up and told her she can stay 'mama's baby' as long as she likes and doesn't need to walk anytime soon. I'm really not pushing her to walk as that will bring on an entire new dimension to our day.

 

-- Laughing: Lilly has the sweetest little giggle and it's so funny when she gets tickled. I love to make her laugh and find her laughing at something. She's such a joy to us! I feel extremely blessed to be her mama, this little girl makes my heart smile so big!

 

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart. - Winnie the Pooh

First steps {two!}

This just happened moments ago...

Doctor Visit {12mo}

Last week Lilly Rose had her one year well visit. When I scheduled the visit months in advance she was on a different schedule so driving to the appointment I was a little worried because it was right in the middle of her bottle/nap time. My worries proved correct when she started fussing and just did not seem to have time for what Dr. Baker had to say. Ugh! It only went down hill when I had to hold her down for 4 shots and lets not forget a prick in the big ol' toe either. Poor baby took one in each limb and let me (and everyone in the building) know how unhappy she was about it.

 

Through the drama we did walk away with a few good nuggets of information: 

1) we can start giving Lilly cows milk and ween off the formula. Glory!

2) I was told not to worry about my table-food picky eating girl. She "won't go off to college eating Gerber veggies, so don't fret, she is fine" - thank goodness!

3) Lilly is 19.5lbs, 10-15% bracket and 31in, 95% bracket. I think someone takes after her daddy... yet another reason to say, "Glory" - haha!

4) I realized I can never have enough snacks packed away in my purse, if only I had another rice snack I could have avoided her fussy fit while speaking with the Dr.

 

snacking while we wait

 

The toe owie :)

 

Our self portrait we take at every visit

 

 

On the drive home, all tuckered out.

 

And here's a picture from yesterday. Billy was off work so we had a nice family day with nothing on the agenda, those are the best.

Birthday {33}

Saturday we celebrated yet another Birthday... Mine. I feel like that's all we do around here starting in the Fall. Not only do we have major holidays, we also have every member of our family's birthday AND wedding anniversary (on my side). That is 8 birthday's and 3 wedding anniversaries. Not that celebrating isn't any fun but by January I'm ready for a cake-free diet! My body needs it. I'm even contemplating juicing! That's a whole other post. :)

Thanks to Yaya for watching Lilly Rose Friday night so Billy and I could have time out on the town. It was equivalent to the gift of GOLD having free time with my love, no sippy cup & pampers in tow. We even got to take the car, that hasn't happened in a very long time. We went shopping, had a nice dinner and topped it off with a petit four (maybe two!). Ahh, so nice! However, once we pulled into the garage I couldn't get inside fast enough for a hug. I imagined that's what it would be like if I were working outside the home every day... pulling in the garage so anxiously ready to squeeze my girl. Extra thankful this week for my time at home with her while we have it.

 

I didn't break the camera out during the birthday weekend but as always, I snapped some pix along the way with my phone. 

Gifts and Petits Fours -- what more could I ask for?

Lilly Rose was giving out tons of sugar!

She must have known it was the best gift of all!

I just have to spill the details on this gift in case anyone that may read this need a makeup solution like I did. Being organized makes me happy but it makes my husband giddy. I realize that doesn't sound manly but it's true, he gets so thrilled when things are organized. We were tired of my makeup taking residence all over the bathroom counter, drawers and under the sink. Everywhere were trails of beauty products needing a proper home. In comes this little beauty that stores everything perfectly. It was the birthday gift that made both of us so very happy.

Annnd my new obsession, Lollia hand creme. Okay, I realize that makes me sound old, possibly even older than I am! Yikes. But seriously this Lollia creme is amazing, truly my new favorite item. I'm a product lover by nature but this one takes the cake. :) You must try it, you can get some here.

2013 {fresh start}

Whew! Now that I have all the birthday and holiday pictures out of the way I feel I can start fresh. We did however bring in the new year yesterday with a sick little one, that's not so much of a fresh start I guess. We'll get there. Lilly Rose starting coughing last Saturday but I really didn't pay much attention to it since I had a cough and I thought she was mimicking me. Yep, she does that already. Much to my surprise, Saturday night/Sunday morning was sleepless with a sick little girl. It's just miserable when your kid is sick. She was cuddly and didn't care much for anything except being held so I knew it was bad. Thankfully, her fever never went over 102 and I had helpful tips from a few mamas (thanks, Katie!). We survived the worst of it and we all slept for a full nights sleep last night - this is big news given the last week around here (goodbye 3am steam showers and couch sleeping!).

 

I saw a lot of people on my social media say they were so glad to see 2012 go. For us, it was a really great year - we were able to live our dream of parenthood and see our LR grow into a toddler (ugh, I've been avoiding that "T" word!!). I am however really excited to see what God has in store for our family this year and am thankful for a fresh start. Happy New Year from the Birds. :)

Christmas {recap}

Last week we celebrated the birth of our Savior! We had a 'Happy Birthday, Jesus' cake and everything. After having our little family Christmas we packed up for the day and headed to Papa and Yaya's to enjoy Christmas with the family.

This past Christmas was probably my favorite in a very-very long time. While last year bringing Lilly Rose home from the hospital was special, we were in the hospital for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. SO...it was wonderful to be home and celebrate as a family. Jordan, Oana and Carlo were with us too which made the day even more fun. And in usual tradition, mom and dad went overboard with the gifts so it took over 2 hours to unwrap. That wasn't the best part though, we had a special time together, that was what made it so merry & bright... it was a very Merry Christmas!