Baby #2

Dear Kennedy,

While I'm in the letter writing mood, I thought it appropriate and important to address you, too. I have not given you adequate blog time over the past 8+ months and for that I am deeply sorry. There are many excuses I could list here for you that you won't understand until you're much older but let's just start fresh.

You are my baby baby. More than likely, my last baby.
I plan to hold you much more than I held your sister and I plan to love you till the cows come home. I can't wait to see your beautiful face and look into your perfect eyes and count all your fingers and toes while listening to you gurgle and coo.

I love having you with me each and every second because I know you're safe and being taken care of. I fear the day I have to leave you behind, separated from me on your own for the first time. Just know there will always be a piece of you and your sister with me wherever I go and that I'll never be too far away.

I can't wait to see you wear bows, dress you in frills and play dress up all for a little tea party with me and Lily. The girls. Daddy's girls. You cannot even imagine what an excellent father you have here waiting to meet you, Kennedy. You already amaze him with your active tootsies and your consistent hiccups. I think he's a little bit scared (as am I) about having you and Lily all to himself two days each week, but he's going to be just fine. I'm actually more concerned that you all will end up enjoying those two days more than the four I'm planning to spend with you!

You are a sweet, little soul who I can't wait to meet and hold and kiss on. I dream of the day the nurses bring you to my bedside and hold your anklet up to my wristband to listen to the little lullabye that indicates YOU are MY baby. There won't be a better feeling in the world!

I love you, baby girl! Keep growing. Keep getting stronger. You've got quite the big sister to contend with at home.

18 months and counting...

Here are Lily Grace's latest specs:

Weight: 24 pounds (50th percentile)
Height: 34 inches (95th percentile)
Head: priceless (literally off the charts) **I don't think there are enough chocolate Teddy Grahams in this world to apologize for this physical attribute, baby girl.**

It just means lots of brains, right?
Must be the case because her vocabulary strengthens everyday! Thanks to her father she has recently mastered the art of telling you where her butt is.

I would say she's exceeding 50 words and is definitely starting to put things together:
"Bye bye, Troy's dada."
"Ready go bye bye."
"Sit down, dada/mama/Bear."

Of course she can also identify animals and people in pictures and can recite what the animals say. Sometimes the praying mantis and/or hippo are called "mommy" (with a giggle) but other than that, she's usually right on.

Likes:
playing in water (pool, bath)
cold pizza
bagels, eggs, BLUEBERRIES
books
going to the tennis courts with daddy
tv (much to my dismay, she's a remote hog and loves her cartoons)

Dislikes:
getting out of the bathtub
going inside after playing outside
diaper changes are a hit or miss
brushing her teeth
anything I do to piss her off (i.e. hug and kiss John while saying, "MY, daddy." That doesn't go over too well.)

Contradiction:
She loves her baths but hates being bathed. Go figure.

Cheers to another fun 18 months!!!

How do I love thee....

Dear Lily,

I love you times 18 months.

78 weeks.

547 days.

A ton of hours and minutes.

And about a gazillion hugs and kisses.

...plus infinity.

I love how you know what most animals "say." Moo and ah-ah-ah being your favorites.

I love how you can say apple and duck and milk clear as a bell but you refer to butterflies and flowers as "ah-flies."

I love how you know what you want (when you want it) and how angry you get when mommy's ESP fails you.

I love the way you get irritated and throw your hands over your eyes, stomp your feet and try to cry as if to say, "This is too complicated! I can't take this anymore! It's so hard living with you people!"

I love how just singing the first few notes of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" makes you grin from ear to ear.

I love how good you are with your daddy that it makes him call me at work to ask, "How did this child become so perfect?"

I love your sideways glance and smirky little grin that tells me you're about to feed the dog your dinner........again.

I love when I find you in your room quietly sitting in the rocking chair listening to your music as you thumb through a book.

I love how you ask to see your "sissy" and give her kisses through my tummy and also how you very clearly let me know when you're not that interested in discussing anything at all about "sissy."

I love how your right thumb automatically inserts itself into your mouth when you grab onto your blankie (which you lovingly sort of call either "munkey" or "mine").

I love how you're being very patient with me and this potty ("poppy") training thing. I'm intimidated and I think I'm failing you. You are telling me when you're going but I'm too scared to start the process. Please forgive me if you grow up with bathroom issues.

I love it when someone wrongs you and you point to them and say, "Not nice!"

I love how you say "night night" and "bye bye" to everyone and everything.

I love how you rest your 95th percentile noggin on my shoulder when you're sleepy.

I love when you plop yourself down on the ground next to me with your hand resting on my leg as we blow bubbles.

I love how ridiculously excited you get when daddy gets home and you make him sick with happiness when you run into his arms.

I love these last 18 months more than other time in my life and I thank you for putting up with me as I continue to try to figure out this mommy thing. You definitely make it much more fun than I ever imagined possible!

My sweet Lily, how the time has flown and how you have positively changed our lives for the better.

Happy 18 month old birthday, my perfect bug!

Happy 4th of July!

Yes, I was toting around an unpatriotic, red-white-and-blue-less child to celebrate our nation's birthday. We didn't have anything appropriately American to wear this year and I couldn't muster up the energy to go to Old Navy the morning of the parade.
So, God bless the USA and all those other things.
(Hopefully that will make up for it.)
We headed out to the Marietta parade again this year! It was much cooler weather but a much longer parade than last year.

Lily took the chair from her pregnant mother

You know you're living in the South when you see:

Something called the Backyard Brigade...

...and this....

On the actual holiday, we were invited to a friend's pool for the afternoon which definitely provided a nice break from this oppressive heat.