February 20

As the wind gusted and howled and tried its best to blow our house down, Lily sat in the late afternoon sunshine in our front room and played with the big kid toys.

This girl loves looking out the window! I suppose it's even more exciting when the trees are bending and branches are waving all over the place...

She was playing with some Duplo blocks, but dropped them. See how she's streeeeetching to reach them? She's getting really stable with her sitting! I suspect that soon she'll begin scooting, just like brother and sister did. I suppose I need to start cleaning the floors again!

Got it! Can you see her little tongue sticking out from all that exertion?

Her hard-earned prize.

And look at how happy she is, despite her crusty nose.

Hi, sweet girl!

(I love that you can see her real eye color in this picture - a lovely brownish gray, not unlike the couch in the background. I think the salesperson called the color of the couch "mink". So Lily has minky eyes?)

February 19

Lily is seven months old today!

To celebrate, my mom came over for a visit. OK, actually, the visit was completely unrelated to Lily's seven-month birthday; Mom just needs the kids like a drug, so she stops by as often as she can.

Mom and Daisy sat down at the piano to play a bit, and when Caleb realized there wasn't room for him on the bench, he grabbed his guitar.

Smart kid! Maybe we should start a family band!

Grandma taught Daisy how to play the knuckle song, and Daisy was so interested! After a few tries, she thought she had it down.

Grandma went on to play something else, but Daisy stopped her. 

"No, Grandma!"

She insisted that Grandma take her hands off the piano,

and started playing away.

Look at that look on Mom's face. Do you think she's handled a child like this before?

Daisy was so pleased with herself!

Meanwhile, Lily sat and listened intently.

After naps, I remembered that I needed to take seven-month birthday pictures for Lily. The sun was setting, and I just sent my beloved lens off to be repaired, so I was working with my not-quite-as-great 50mm lens. Still, I got a few cute photos of my big girl.

Caleb wanted desperately to be in the pictures, but I told him I needed to get some of Lily first. Instead, I enlisted him as my "Photography Assistant". His job was to make the baby smile. 

He did it a bit too well; most of my pictures involve her smiling at him, not at my camera! In the picture above, she's waving at her brother. 

And drooling.

At the same time.

She's a talented girl.

Oh my goodness. How sweet is she? Today, my mom brought over a box of pictures from when I was a baby. Lily looks just like me!

I must admit - I was a pretty cute baby.

Goodness. I love this girl!

 

I'm so glad I thought to pull out this dress; it fit Lily perfectly! This is one of the ones that Chris' grandma, Elnora, made for his mother when she was a baby. Not only is the dress darling, but it's a priceless family heirloom and Lily rocked it.

Soon, Lily found a way to let me know that she was done taking pictures. Funny girl!

Lily's seven-month stats:

Once I knew I'd gotten a few keepers, I invited Caleb to be in a few. He brought his car friends, Moon Lightning McQueen and Moon Mater. Lily was fascinated!

Then he snuck in for a kiss.

Then I thought maybe, just maybe, I could take a few more pictures in a different pose. 

I put Lily on her belly,

and she totally wasn't having it.

Or maybe she didn't mind the pictures, she just didn't want to be on her tummy?

Caleb politely requested that I photograph his cars on my reflector.

What a sweet little helper I have.

Happy seven-month birthday, Lily!

February 18

It was 61 degrees today. 

I'm not sure whether it was really a good day, or whether the sunshine and warmth just made it seem good, but either way, the day is over, the children are sleeping, and I feel happy.  I call that a win.

The girls and I dropped Caleb off at preschool (he had the Mystery Box today, and chose to put a toy fire engine in it.The last time he had the Mystery Box, he hemmed and hawed for days before deciding to put a paint brush in it. None of his classmates guessed. This time, he knew right away that he wanted to put Red the Fire Engine in the box, and his friend Zachary guessed.), then headed to the post office. I'm finally sending my precious camera lens off to be repaired after the dreadful dropping incident of 2013. You may notice that my pictures will look different for the next few weeks - I'll be shooting with my 50 mm lens all the time. 

After the post office, we headed home and I put Lily down for a nap. Before I put her down, Daisy asked to do a "craft".  I helped her trace her hand on a piece of pink construction paper, and she spent the fifteen minutes I was with Lily decorating that paper. 

You can see her "craft" underneath her plate. She proudly exclaimed, "I drew a cross! I drew a cross! I drew another cross!" at least 35 times.

Also, when I offered her a piece of cheddar cheese for a snack, she asked that I use a cookie cutter to make it into a bear. Anything for my little princess! Look at how happy she is!

Then we played outside, and I took zero pictures. It was lovely!

After we fetched Caleb and ate lunch and put the big kids down for naps, Lily got her alone time with all of their toys. If she didn't find Caleb and Daisy to be so entertaining, I think it would be her favorite time of the day.

After Lily went down for her afternoon nap, I worked feverishly to get all of my dinner prep done so that when the kids woke up, we could have an adventure.

Caleb woke up first, and I proposed an adventure to him. He replied, "Um, how about I just keep playing here instead?" Boo. Since the kid clearly doesn't know what's good for him, I persisted. Luckily, all of the children woke up at a decent time, so we headed to the lake!

They wanted to bring buckets, but we couldn't find shovels for them. Instead, they settled on nets.

It may have technically been warm out, but the lake was still mostly frozen and the wind on the beach was strong and icy! She didn't mind.

He wore his new running shoes. After we finished at the beach, I let him run on the path. He likes when I pretend that it looks like his feet are on fire when he runs, because the soles are orange. He did great running, until he stopped paying attention, crossed the center line on the path, and was nearly run over by a serious cyclist on a recumbent bike. It was bad, but hopefully it was a learning opportunity for him.

This is a terrible picture of our reflection in my car window, but I wore Lily on my back in the wrap. It was our first time wrapping outside of the house, so I was a bit  nervous, but she did great! With all the icy wind, I was especially thankful that Lily was wrapped up in a few layers of fabric.

Also, that sunhat?

Seriously. Isn't she the cutest baby ever? I put that sunhat on her before we left the house, fully expecting her to immediately rip it off her head. Instead, the opposite happened. I put the sunhat on, and she looked up at me and grinned. Girl knew how cute it was! She kept it on the whole time, for the whole car ride home, and during play time with Daddy when we got home. I love it! Maybe she'll be my cooperative one?

February 17

Today was a bank holiday, and we had a fun playdate planned with MOPS friends. Chris was even going to go with us! And then it iced, and schools and our playdate were cancelled. Since the roads were icy, we didn't think it was safe to have any alternative adventures, so Chris got to experience a Do-Nothing Monday with us.

The best part of the day, though, was this afternoon when Chris, Lily, and I announced we were going to go snuggle in our big bed. Within seconds, Caleb and Daisy had dropped what they were doing to come roll around in bed with us. 

When we were pregnant with Lily, Chris and I saved our pennies to upgrade from our queen-sized mattress to a king-sized one. We knew that another baby meant we would want more room in our bed. Days like today remind me that upgrading was totally worth it.

I big puffy heart love this photo. Daisy was snuggling her sister, and Lily just loved it. 

Sweet Lily, I hope every day of your life you have this certainty that you are cherished by your family.

Daisy tickling Lily.

Lily loving it.

Me turning into a puddle of goo. I love these girls!

Seriously. Are you dying? I'm dying.

(Though I am both distracted and mortified by Lily's old-man pants. We'll blame that on the cloth diapers, or on Daddy pulling them up too high.)

Oh, my goodness.

This little girl, with her perfect little teeth and her curls and her big brown eyes and her heart full of love for her siblings! I love her!

And this slightly-out-of-focus man with three-day-weekend stubble. 

His children delight in him, and I am fully aware of how blessed I am that he's mine.

It's the little baby foot and the little baby hands in this photo that I love. She was practicing her rolling; she's not yet rolling from her back to her belly, but she's almost there! (I'll blame that on the cloth diapers, too.)

And then this happened, and then I melted again. 

Caleb and Daisy were snuggling, and she kept saying, "I love my Caleb!" 

It was so, so sweet because they were both truly enjoying a big, rolling snuggle, and it was completely of their own volition. They bicker and they fight more often than not, but I hope that my children will always enjoy each other this much!

And then they turned their snuggle into steamrollering. Too funny.

Sweet Daddy. Sweet baby.

Sweet family. We are blessed, blessed, blessed.

February 16

This day seemed unusually long. Not bad; just long.

Lily started off the day with a nice, big poop. Finally! (I know you probably didn't want to read about that, but it's kind of a big deal in our world, so it's blog-worthy.) Then I got her dressed for church. We came out to say good morning to Caleb and Daisy, and Caleb immediately asked me to place Lily on the couch so that he could read a book to her.

Look at that sweet big brother in his new robot jammies and Valentine's Day socks! He outgrew his 4T jammies, so he has all new 5T jammies. After these, I'll have to start buying him big-boy jammies! What do big boys wear to bed? Do they even wear jammies? It's funny what things make you realize that your little boy is suddenly not so little; for me, it's not the fact that he wants to read a book to his baby sister. It's the jammies.

And then they convinced Chris to read them all a book. They went to the library yesterday, so there are lots of new books to read!

 (I promise Chris doesn't have a bald spot - his hair was still smooshed from sleeping.)

Then we went to church and headed home. Poor Lily was awake the whole time, and fell asleep in the car on the way home. After a nice long nap, she had some one-on-one time with Mommy and Daddy while the big kids slept. 

I know I've done a lot of complaining lately about Lily's sleep, but really? She is a remarkably good baby. As long as it doesn't involve sleep, she is phenomenal. She's cheerful, cooperative, and rarely complains about anything. If we set her on the floor with  a pile of toys, she is happy, happy, happy!

She's also pretty cute.

That's her playing peek-a-boo with a scrap of fabric that goes in the empty tissue box. Hi, sweet baby!

Completely unrelated: those jeggings she's wearing are size 18 months. On my not-quite-7 month old baby. She's not really that big, it's just that the cloth diaper takes up a lot of space, and I hate the way that pants that are the right size always leave her ankles exposed. So 18 month jeggings it is!

February 15

I can't for the life of me remember what we did today.

I know that I didn't get out of my pajamas all day. (I might have worn my jammies to the grocery store after the kids were in bed. Don't judge.)

I think Chris and the big kids went to Costco.

Oh, and naps didn't overlap at all, so while the big kids napped, I played with Lily and Chris did the taxes.

Exciting stuff around here!

Lily had a yummy lunch of egg yolk and coconut oil.

See, you thought I was being sarcastic when I said "yummy". But I wasn't. She loved it!

She's getting the coconut oil (along with a ton of probiotics) because she hasn't pooped in nine days. It's somewhat concerning, but I figure it's just her little system adjusting to something other than breast milk in her belly. I can't remember ever hoping more for a baby to poop!

But she's clearly not bothered by the situation, so I'm trying not to be bothered, either.

Tomorrow, prunes!

UPDATE: No worries, friends. She woke up the next morning with a giant poop! Hooray!