Dear Lily Bean,

You’re now 18 months old, that’s a year and a half and that’s a pretty long time. You are amazing my little sweet girl.

The last couple of months have been full of change for all of us.  One of the biggest things was that we moved to California to be closer to our family.  The move wasn’t the easiest thing for you, you don’t do great with change and new people.  We could tell that you missed the old house a lot; for the first week or so every once in a while you’d just look around and start crying.  It’s been about three and a half weeks and you are doing much better.  You are still my super shy baby girl but you are starting to get to know some of the family and starting to come out of your shell a little.

My sister, your Aunt Jody and her boys were visiting here from Oklahoma and in the last week you really took to Aunt Jody and her boys.  We were at the Tribble Family Reunion the other day and you crawled across the table leaving me to go see Aunt Jody.  It was great.  She took you into the bounce house and made all the bigger kids sit still so you didn’t get scared, it was so cute.

We are currently living with your Grandma Rita and Grandpa David and true to form you took your time getting used to them.  Grandma Rita got smiles after about a week and now you will let her hold you.  Grandpa David had a much harder time winning you over but he finally got you on his side.  It didn’t surprise me or Daddy at all because you have always been slower to warm up to men.  Last Friday 6/18/10 Grandma Rita and Grandpa David took you on a walk to the park.  This was a hugely huge thing for us.  This was the first time that someone other then Daddy or I were watching you.  You did much better then I did.  I was teary and worried the whole time you were gone.  When you all got back Grandma told us that at one point you looked around for us and when you couldn’t find us you just shrugged it off and enjoyed your time at the park.  I was so glad to hear this.  I feel that the attachment parenting that we’ve been doing has totally paid off.  You are comfortable in your trust that Mommy and Daddy will be back soon so you don’t have to stress on it.  Of course this doesn’t always work, you have some serous separation anxiety when I use the restroom or go to do the dishes some days. 🙂

Some of the other changes that you’ve made lately and some things continue to stay the same.  I love it both ways.

• I’m still your comfort item and I love it.  When you get a bump or hurt feeling I’m the person you look for and more often then not you want to nurse.  I’m happy to do it.
• You sign banana, drink, nurse, eat, more, please, thank you, you’re welcome, cracker, brush teeth, all done, and I think one or two that I’m missing.  You don’t have very many real words, we mostly count on sign to communicate and it’s working great.  We talk to you all the time so I’m sure the words are going to come soon.
• You do have some words.  You say Hi and Bye when you are talking on the phone, which you love to do.  But you won’t talk to a real person on the phone.  When you hear someone on the phone you just look confused, like how did they get a real person in that tiny thing.  You also say kitty and jibber jabber all the time.
• You love water.  I took you swimming at Grandma Gail’s and you just loved it.  We are going to take a Mommy and Me swimming class with Aunt Jolene and Olivia next month, I can’t wait.
• You will eat just about anything these days.  Grandpa David has a few fruit trees and so far you love everything you’ve tried.  Cherries, nectarines, apricots and plums.  We’ve also give you watermelon and grapes and you can’t get enough of either of them.

You are dealing with what I must assume are vampire teeth coming in so you are practicing your monster personality.  And by that I mean we are dealing with your monster personality. Wednesday and Thursday of last week were particularly bad,  clingy, easy meltdown, cranky days.  You must have seen me looking up phone numbers for local gypsys to sell you to because Friday you were back to your sweet wonderful self.  The last couple of days are a crazy mix of sweet monster attitude.

I have so much more to say to you and about you but that will have to wait for another day.  We need to go play outside a little.

I love you,

Mama.

Dear Lily,

You are 16 months old today, I just don’t know where the time went. As fast as the past 16 months have gone I can only imagine how fast the next 16 years are going to go. This past month you have just blossomed into a independent little person. Don’t get me wrong, you are still a Mommy’s Girl through and through but you also want to do things yourself and you have ideas about how things are suppose to go. It is so much fun watching you learn and grow, you change each and every day.

You are learning signs and using them all the time. You have mastered more, drink, eat, brush teeth, please, nurse/milk and you are learning thank you and telephone. I’m learning new signs all the time and trying to teach them to you so this list grows all the time.

You have mastered the spoon. You have yogurt for breakfast most mornings and for the longest time I’ve put the yogurt on the spoon and then gave it to you and you put it in your mouth. This month you figured out how to get the yogurt on the spoon yourself and go from there. It is pretty messy but you love being independent so it’s worth it.

You have 8 very cute little teeth, the top four front and bottom four front. I think you might be getting a molar but can’t tell for sure.

For about two weeks you gave me a glimmer of hope that one day you might sleep for longer periods of time and I loved it. You slept for 4 to 7 hours at a time and it was so nice. And then one day it was over and I cried a little. 🙂 This is one reason that I think you might be teething again.

You are a full on walker now. You still fall a lot and have a very cute little toddle but everyday you get more confidant and fall less.

You finally hit 20 pounds. Yay! You are getting so big. I look at you sleeping on my chest and can’t believe that you are the same little baby that we brought home 16 months ago. You are the coolest little person that I know and I’m so proud to be your Mama.

I love you Lily Bean,
Mama

I take hundreds of pictures of Lily each month and only ever put a small portion of them here so I thought I’d start adding more at the end of the month.

Lily showing off her new outfit and shoes

We all got new shoes

Lily loves computers

Happy girl

The babywearing was my idea not hers

Enjoying the sun

Spaghetti

I love the raised eyebrows. It’s something she does to make me laugh.