Lily's 1st Birthday!

We can hardly believe our little girl is 1! We had so much fun celebrating her birthday! We had 2 parties for her, one with family, and another with friends. First of all, the thought of several infants and toddlers running and crawling around my house was terrifying!!! -Plus, it was just too many people to have in one place. So we celebrated on Lily's actual day of birth at our house with our family. It was a butterfly themed party and we served BBQ from Luptons, (Luptonscatering.com). -Delish! It was so wonderful watching our family celebrate with Lily, you can truly see just how much everyone loves her...and Lily loves her family too! She had such a great time being spoiled rotten by everyone! And let's just say she has a killer 18-24 month wardrobe!!! ;) She received so many beautiful gifts, thank you so much everyone! However, I think she enjoyed her cake most of all that day! She literally dove into her cake...with her whole face! It's was hilarious! She ate about 1/4 of her small round cake by herself! It was so funny watching her, we almost forgot the fact that she was consuming a ridiculous amount of sugar!!! Here's a few pics and a video of Lily enjoy her first taste of birthday cake!

The next day we celebrated Lily's birthday with our/her friends at an indoor play area for babies called Kidz Club. This place is awesome! I didn't have to do a thing. The owner was great, she set everything up, was so great with the kids during circle time, and even cleaned up at the end. If anyone in New Tampa is looking for a great (and clean) place for your babies to play or have a birthday party, I highly recommend Kidz Club! Lily had a blast playing with her friends, chasing after bubbles, shaking her maracas, dancing to music and just being let loose to run and play in a baby safe zone! She even enjoyed her first taste of pizza, which like everything else, she loved! Again, I think the highlight for her was being able to go to town on a jumbo cupcake that we had decorated to match her ladybug party theme. She had the drill down this time and got right to it, and before I could blink, was once again covered in icing! Here's a few pics from her second party.

Thank you so much to everyone who celebrated with us, and helped make Lily's first birthday so memorable!

Lily Camille is 1!

It seems like just yesterday I was showering, flat ironing my hair and applying make-up to go to the hospital to have my baby. I remember my eagerness to finally meet her, see her face, and learn what it would feel like to finally hold my baby. Nothing prepares you for the instant hold your newborn baby takes of your heart and over your life. It has been the most amazing year of my life, getting to know Lily, and experiencing all of her "firsts." I consider it such a Blessing that I am able to be home with her everyday to experience these things with her. Needless to say there is minimal flat ironing of hair and make-up application these days, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Thankfully, Lily has been the easiest and happiest baby, and we have so much fun with her.

In this first year, we have seen her (big) personality emerge, and she loves to be the center of attention. (Scary!) I hate to admit it, but the apple didn't fall far from the tree, I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up wanting to pursue a career in show business! (Yikes!) Lily loves music and singing, and bath time is when she really gets into it! I sing to her as I bathe her and she sings along with me. She even matches pitch if you can believe it! I will hold a note and she will match it and hold it with me, and she also keeps rhythm on her own. However, she is also quite the bookworm! I've been reading to her since she was a brand new baby and she absolutely loves her books! She chooses to "read" her books over playing with toys anytime. Now she points to the pictures like Mommy and she is trying to name the pictures and babble, as if she's trying to make up a story. So, I guess as long as she stays interested in books, I'm ok with the fact that she has innate musical abilities. Lily is a very social baby, she loves people and prefers to "hang out with" older babies and kids instead of ones her own age. She plays very well with others and seems to enjoy staying busy. Swimming lessons seem to be her favorite activity so far. We started lessons at 6 months and she is definitely a water baby, you should see her kick!! We also go to story time, take music classes (www.MusicTogether.com), and go to Gymboree Play & Learn.

At 12 months, Lily weighs 21 lbs., 15oz. (70%), is 30 1/2 inches long (90%), is walking, has 5 teeth, has begun signing with us, and believe it or not actually says 12 words and knows what they are. (Mama, Dada, night-night, dog, outside, this, that, agua, all done, up & Lola.) She is trying to say Grandma, but right now it sounds more like "Amma." -And I guess it's time to watch our vocabulary because she is constantly trying to mock and repeat us. Her Dr. said this is advanced for her age and it doesn't surprise me too much that she would be a little advance in this area, I'm told that's how I was as a baby. Hopefully she won't get in as much trouble in school as I did for being too social, maybe Daddy's "quiet gene" will balance her out a bit! ;)

As Lily is entering her Toddler years, we are really having fun with her. Looking after her and keeping up with her has definitely become a lot harder, but it's the best hard job I've even had! Lily brings us more joy than ever imaginable! Especially after realizing how quickly this first year flew by, I am treasuring every moment with her! Her next well visit with the Dr. is at 15 months so I will update more then.

Hugs & Kisses!!

Lily's 1st Easter!

This was by far the best Easter ever! Having a little one around just makes every holiday so much better. Especially now since Lily is so much more aware of what is going on and understands things. Her personality is really emerging, and she has lots of it! We took Lily to an infant Easter egg hunt at Wiregrass Mall, we met her friend Olivia there. I didn't expect much, and thought that there would be minimal egg hunting happening. When we arrived at the infant section it was the funniest thing, they had eggs scattered all over on the ground, and the little ones would just pick them up and put them in their baskets. Lily and Olivia gathered eggs together so nicely, even sharing eggs with each other. It was adorable to see them getting excited about the eggs and proud of themselves for putting them in their Easter baskets. They had a great time and Lily took a long nap after her egg hunt.

Unfortunately, Daddy worked on Easter Sunday so it was nice to celebrate with him on Saturday. Sunday morning my Mom and I went to church with Lily. It is so funny because Lily loves church, and behaves really well. She loves to wave at all of the people and sing, loud! -Even after the song is over! ;) At the end of service the priest always walks down the center aisle and since we were on the end of the aisle, Lily stuck her hand way up high and waved really big at the priest, who had no choice but to unfold his hands and wave back at her. It was so cute!

After church the 3 of us went to brunch at the Temple Terrace Country Club where Lily decided to eat everything in site! The child has a very healthy appetite! The Easter bunny was there for anyone who wanted to take pictures with him. I brought Lily up and she was terrified!!! She pushed away from him and started crying like she meant it! In her defense, he was a really ugly Easter bunny...his eyes were all faded out and scary looking! Oh well, maybe next year!

Just as our food was settling it was time for dinner at my parents house, where we were joined by my brother, his girlfriend, my aunt, cousins, uncle and grandpa. We had a full house and Lily loved all of the attention from everybody! Lily gathered more Easter eggs in Grandma & Grandpa's yard and received lots of Easter goodies from her family.

Thanks everyone! I know Lily had a great first Easter. It was so wonderful watching her eyes & face light up as she enjoyed her first Easter! Here are a few pics from Easter Sunday.