10 days or less!

Baby time is getting very close now! 10 days until my c-section...or less if babycakes wants to come sooner! I am sooo excited! I didnt want to have any baby showers this time around because I got so spoiled by having 3 showers for Lily (not that long ago!) and because we dont know the gender it would be harder for people to shop. But over the last month, I was suprised by a diaper shower from my girlfriends and from my work! Mamas cant turn down diapers- these were a great suprise! I didnt do a great job taking pictures....but here are the cupcakes we had at Andrea's. Of course I had to eat one of each color. :)

    About 800 diapers...should be good for at least 3 months- YAY!

My unit decorated my cubicle at work after breakfast and a diaper shower.

Thanks everybody!!!

My large and in charge belly at 37 weeks

                     
           My baby girl and I before church on Sunday, Aug 26th

On Sunday afternoon, we took Lily to Fun Station Jr for the first time. We're trying to get some fun activities in for Lily before she will have to adjust to big sisterhood.

Lily walking down the long, creepy Fun Station Jr hallway..not sure what to expect!

                           Oooh a giant slide, this will do! :)

We met some friends there, which made it extra fun! Somehow I went all summer without seeing Lisa or Rosina (or their kiddos!) It was great to see them! Below is Lisa with her son Connor and her niece Abigail.

           Lily enjoyed tokens and all the lights on the machines.

These next 3 pictures are our attempts to get all 5 kids in one picture. In my head, they were all going to be lined up smiling...here's the reality!

     Jamie attempting to get Cooper to come down for the picture

Fun station Jr was a lot of fun and Lily had a blast! However, I need to go back when I'm not 37 weeks pregnant and sluggish as all get out. This place truly exhausted me. :)

Sometimes I just think  Lily looks too cute in her school clothes. She finally learned how to say "Elmo" this week, so this shirt is perfect. :)

We asked Lily to dance in her chair. It helps for bringing out her smiles!

Last night, I put Lily in one of her two Big Sister shirts for bed. You mention "big sister" or "baby" to Lily and she kind of gives you this look like, "Who me? No, thanks." We are hoping Lily warms up quickly to her new baby! (I've been told to call the baby hers, and maybe she'll resent it less??)

 I know I already posted Lily's 18 month milestons and such, but she finally had her 18 month check-up yesterday, so I wanted to add her height and weight stats.

As of 8/30/12 (18 months, 20 days).....

Weight: 25.4 lbs, 65% percentile

Height: 32.5 in, 70% percentile

Head circumference: 47.1 cm, 50%

These stats were actually suprising to me because Lily has always been 50% percentile for weight AND height...she shot up (and out!) in the last 3 months. Maybe Lily is going to be tall like daddy after all. But lets hope she doesn't have a size 13 shoe. :)

The pediactrician asked Clint how many words Lily can say. Clint guessed 15-20. That made me wonder how many she knows, I feel like it has to be more than 20. And just over the last two weeks, Lily will try to repeat almost anything you coach her to say. That doesnt really count as words she knows and says on her own, but it is a good step in vocabulary building..and super fun for us!

This morning Lily said "I love you" for the first time!! We were both there to hear it, but I guess technically she was being held by Clint and talking to him. Its ok, I think it counted for me too, and we made her repeat it....so an "I love you" for each of us!

So at 18.5 months, Lily's vocabulary now includes: Mama, Mommy, Dada, Daddy, Papa, Grandma (she just learned this one), bubbles, baba (bottle), wawa (water), ball, wee-wee (swing/wagon ride), uh-oh, oww, potty, Elmo, I love you, Nilly (Lily), yes, yah, no, this, drink, me, night night, eat, more, please, cheese, eat, yummy, blanket, banana, car, hat, tree, and she keeps saying "Ah meee" which we can't really decipher.

So I think she's closer to 30-35 words, but she is adding more each day! This is a really fun age for that reason.

Today is my last day of work before maternity leave (Hallelujah!), and tomorrow is Lily's 2nd tailgate. Daddy already had her in her nole gear today to get pumped (And he says its National Collegiate Attire Day- or something like that!). Happy Friday!!

 

 

Summer Birthday Parties!

Two of my closest friends, Jenn and Stefanie, have daughters with summer birthdays. Stef's daughter Allie was born 8/26/09 and Jenn's daughter Emily was born 7/12/10....so this summer brought Emily's 2nd Birthday and Allie's 3rd birthday! I never blogged about Emily's bday last month, so I thought I'd combine pictures from both. Both of these birthday girls are as sweet and adorable as they can be!

On Saturday August 25th, we went to Allie's third birthday party at Mason's School of Music. It was such a perfect place for a party for a little one turning 3! You can choose between a music or dance theme, and Stefanie chose dance, but really we got to do both. :) The party started upstairs where the music room was open for the kids to play with all sorts of musical instruments and another room was set up for making princess crowns and crepe paper twirlers. Then, we went down stairs for a dance party! They lady who led it was great...and there were hula hoops, parachutes, colored scarves, and all sorts of stuff for the kids to play with. Allie was a perfect birthday princess!

Allie is just too, too cute!!

Stef did a great job with the goodies and disney dance mix cds!

Amelia is seriously cute! And she wore her crown so well!

Lily's first hula hoop experience.

Lily started pushing her hula hoop around like her toy vacuum, it was pretty funny!

Allie is such a sweet sharer! Lily wouldnt wear her princess crown, but it made a good balloon weight!

Thanks for a great party, Stef! :) Defintiely going to consider having Lily's party here when she turns 3 or 4!

And here are pictures from Emily's party....all taken by our friend Krysten, who takes such beautiful pictures! This was Saturday, July 10th at Tom Brown Park by the lake. Also a great spot for a party! The Hill family moved up to north Georgia in May, so it was so great to see them again!! I miss them so much! Jenn did such a good job with the Sesame Street theme... and what kid doesnt love Elmo??

Ready for the fun!

 A cute way to do favors!

Lily and Amelia are 3.5 months apart, they always play together well. (Ignore my awful roots!)

 My baby girl enjoying the party!

                                   Look at all those bellies!

Emily has the most beautiful eyes!

 Thanks for a great party, Jenn! Happy 2nd Birthday to Ms. Emily Grace!

Lily Kate at 18 months

Wow, my baby girl is already halfway through her second year of life! We are on the road to the terrible 2's...although Lily gives us a sneak peak of those terrible twos every now and then. :) She is getting more and more opinionated, verbal, independent, demanding, and head strung by the day. But along with those things, comes more affection, more communication, more games, more giggles, more dancing on demand (hillarious!), and more skills that make me so proud every day. Lily has an incredibly good memory. On Friday I gave Lily an orange sand sifter toy with puffs in it to keep her occupied in the car on the long trip to my parent's house. (Worked like a charm!) Then on Sunday I handed the same toy but without the puffs. After examining it carefully, Lily gave me her best puppy dog eyes and signed and said "More please".. followed by three more signs of more, more, more and a pouty bottom lip. Lily definitely remembered the organge tray had puffs before...she is acting more and more like Pugsley with her passion for food. Lily's teacher told us that she ate three plates of pancakes at daycare last week. And she pre-eats breakfast at home with us too! Tubby, tubby.

Here's more of what she's up to at 18 months:

Games: Lily likes to make up little games around the house. Last night Lily stood on the couch and slid her back down the back of the coach until she landed on her bottom. Then she got up and slid down again. Repeat about 25 times. And she cracked herself up everytime!

Diaper changes: Lily cries or fusses for about 9 out of 10 diaper changes! We try to sing and make silly noises, but Lily cant be bothered to be changed. Hoping she exits this phase soon!

Words: Lily finally said her name! My mom is so good about coaching her on new words. Lily always comes back from a day spent with my mom impressing us with new words and skills. This time it was "Li-ly" which came out more like "Ni-ly" but was completely adorable to us. :) Lily hasnt acquired too many other words since 17 months, her favorite things to say are "Mama", "Dada", "nooooo!", "Bye Bye", "Hiiiii", bu-BUBLES!", "weeee!". One cute thing Lily picked up is she will wave at my belly and say "Hi baby". Or lean her head on the belly like she's hugging the baby. We still dont think she "gets it", but she will defintiely learn soon what all this big sister talk has been about when the baby arrives. :)

Sleepovers: Lily had her second sleep over at my parents' house on Friday night- Aug 17th. The only other night she spent away from us was in early May when we went to Appalachicola for our anniversary. Lily did great! We enjoyed running several errands Saturday morning kid-free, but by about 11 am I was missing Lily like crazy and was happy to have her home!