Wait it's March?

So I feel like a slacker! I sent that nice Christmas card and sent everyone to look at our blog and then I didn't update it for 3 month! Oops. So goes the busy life of the Bair's. For those of you who are friends with us on Facebook, know that little girl is getting over her first ear infection. It is a double ear infection so we go back to the Doctors on Monday for her 18 month check up and to look at how her infection is doing.

Our 4th Anniversary

With that said I already know how much little girl weighs because of our infection appointment. A whopping 21 lbs and I think 8oz? Yea this child is a tank, not! We are starting to move into 18 month pants which we need for the length but struggle to keep them staying on her waist. Shirts depending on the brand are 12 or 18 months. As she is growing and going through more clothes I am noticing more and more the discrepancies between sizes and brands. Why can't they just all use the same template! But anyways, the consignment season is upon us so I am excited to clean out of all the old clothes and get some new ones for little girl. We get great hand me downs so thankfully the sales that I buy from are just to fill in the holes.

Lily loves eating chicken nuggets, most of the time ;)

Officially Lily started consistently walking Jan. 17th. She had taken steps before that, like in the video from our last post, but now she is a walking machine. For only walking for a total of 2 months, little girl is a pro! Ever since we found an MLS size 1 soccer ball at Target (where we do Family date night) she has been dribbling around the living room with Daddy. Here is a video of little girl walking 2 weeks after she started.

Lily is a big reader and loves Mickey & Minnie Mouse

We have also noticed that little girl is VERY focused, VERY particular (see video for proof). She is not saying a lot of words but definitely knows how to tell us she wants or needs something. We have mastered "hi", "bye bye", and "uh oh". Within the last week we have been working on "please" or like Lily says "teese" and "thank you." Unfortuntely "no" has been appearing more too. Although she doesn't say a lot of words when she wants to say something she does. For example, "ducky." We were having bath time and I showed her the rubber duckies and she repeated me instantly with "ducky." Like with walking little girl does what she wants, when she wants. I wonder where she gets this from??

Lily loves puzzles!

Lily's first snow play time, She loved it!

Mike is excited that he only has 1 class left of his masters and my job (and Jamberry) is going great. Not too much is going on besides that soccer is ramping up again. As of the second week of April the Bair family will have upwards of 5 soccer practices a week. This will be the biggest adjustment for Lily and I because I have never worked full time while coaching in the Fall or Spring with Lily. I will have to go right from work to soccer and won't get to see little girl much :( But on weekends little girl and I will hang out while Mike has 2 games and I only have 1. Please pray that God gives me the strength to make it through and know that this is only for one season of our lives! I can already feel my mom guilt levels rising just thinking about it. I think that is it for our update so Happy St. Patrick's day from our redheaded little girl :)

More puzzles!

A Day at the Zoo

Lily and I  went with our MOPS group today to the zoo. I was a little hesitant because it was going to be a long day with no nap but Lily was a champ. First we got to go to a short class where we pet some animals. Lily pet the humongous cockroaches, the Madagascar Tenrec, a possum, and the duck. She especially liked watching the duck walk around.

Then we made our way to the giraffes, which was the most exciting part of the day. Because of our sweet MOPS connections we got to go into another area closer to the animals. The giraffe came right over and Lily and I got to pet him!

 I was so surprised how close he got. Went back and forth along the fence so all the kids got to pet him. So awesome!

Then Lily and I found the aquarium. Lily really likes looking at the fish at Wal-Mart so I knew she would enjoy looking at the huge tanks of wildlife.

The penguin exhibit was Lily's favorite but when I went to let her stand against the glass it proved to be a little overwhelming. She did much better at the shark tank :)

Then we went through to the end of the zoo and saw the Kangaroo.

A great day all in all. Little girl loves those animals.

Turning One is So Fun!

 Today was Lily Michaella's first birthday! We had an amazing time the past two weekends celebrating with both of our families so today we invited some close friends to the park. It was so great to hang out and enjoy the beautiful weather to celebrate Lily turning one! Mike and I can't believe 12 months have flown by this quickly but as everyone keeps reminding us, kids grow up so fast. 

Looking at these photos one year ago is on the left and today was on the right. All I can say is WOW! Lily is the best gift we have ever been given and we can't wait to watch her grow more every day. 

She is the most outgoing, sweet, crazy, silly and content little girl I have every met. She fights laughing so hard but when you can get her to giggle it is totally worth it. She has her own little language and is such a ham in front of an audience. I love the moments she will sit, cuddle and watch the world around her and then during playtime Lily shows off her independent side. Lil, Baby Girl, Lily Girl, Stinker, Lil Lil, Silly Lily are only a few of her nicknames. She loves watching TV with Mommy in the morning. Lily likes to sing some tunes or dance as she crawls. She loves to chase Daddy around the living room. Watermelon and Cheerios are her favorite snacks. Lastly, her favorite toys are balls,any kind, which explains why we got her an awesome ball pit for her birthday. She played with it for 35 minutes straight!

This is my most favorite picture of the day. I love my little mini me. 

Oh and of my awesome Hubs who has been an amazing Daddy to our daughter. I love watching them together and their precious relationship.

Looking over the last year has really made us appreciate our soccer family. We live far away from our parents so most of the help and support we get with Lily is from people we know from our large soccer family. I don't know what we would have done without their love and support the past 12 months. So a big "Thank You" to you all. Lily is so loved and  I know our parents appreciate it too, knowing that we have people out here who care about us so much :)

11 Months Coming Through

Someone is exactly one month away from turning 1 and it's this girl! Lily is 11 months old today. I can't believe that we will be celebrating her first birthday so soon. Of course I have been perusing the net for months to see what presents are best for one year olds and what kind of healthy cake to make her, but I am sure no matter what we do she will love it.

Anyway, this month Lily did a lot of fun thing like....
1) Was in her first wedding as a flower girl for my brother's big day.
2) Attended her first wedding as a guest for her two best friends as they tied the knot.
3)Went in her first full sized pool with her play date buddy.
4) Was tricked into standing on her own but prefers to sit and crawl as fast as possible. It is seriously crazy how fast she can crawl.
5)Went to her first town fair and won a prize with some help from Daddy.
6) Tried a lot of regular solids. She loves celery sticks and gnawing on carrots. She is also a big fan of Italian food.
7) Has her 6th tooth coming in.
8) Lily can now wave hi and goodbye without someone waving to her first. It is adorable.
9) Learned to drink from a regular cup and always smacks her lips afterward.
10) Because I am incapable of ending at 9, Lily is the best girl ever!!! We are so lucky to be her parents!

Watching her become a toddler is crazy but so much fun. I am already excited to share her first birthday celebrations and I am sure there will be so many pictures to post!

10 Months What?

Yes at this point it is only 52 days until Lily's first birthday and I know the next two months are going to fly by with the start of soccer looming daily. Where has the time gone? I feel like I was pregnant yesterday but in reality this time last year we had just gotten the nursery painted, furniture put together and were patiently awaiting the arrival of our baby girl. How crazy!

Ten days ago when Lily turned 10 months old, Mike and I were looking through pictures and the baby we met has grown into this almost toddler with such personality, energy, smiles, bright eyes and red hair :) Her facial features have really become her own and we love watching how Lily reacts to everything she sees. She is very mobile, crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, cruising across couches and tables. Lily is also very vocal saying "dada" mostly, "baba," "hi," and "mama" have all made appearances as well. Cheerios and anything else you put on her plate are Lily's favorite. And here are some of the highlights of Lily's 10th month...

Lily's first flight






                                             
Lily's first family reunion


                                                                                                                       







Lily's first time at the beach!

                                                                                                                                                     



Not too found of sitting in the sand by herself                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Lily's first fireworks!

9 Months Already!

Lily lounging at the store

I can't believe Lily will be 9 months this weekend! I will be in NC for the next few days so Mike will get a nice weekend with Lily. And although my last post included some of this month too there is still a lot to talk about. This month has definitely been the most difficult with Lily having two bottom teeth coming in and we can feel a third about to emerge on the top. Poor girl won't nap, crying alot and not much consoles her. I will be really happy when we get a break from teething and cutting teeth. I'm sure Lily will be happy too. Lily also crawls around speedily now and is attempt to get into everything. Child proofing the house is in full affect.

May 23-25 Lily's first weekend away with Grandma

May 26 Lily's first time in a lake
             *Ever since her time at Brady's run she now splashes all over the place during bath time which Mike took a great video of.

Big Girl seat!

May 28 Lily learns to pass a ball, see adorable videos here, here, and here :) As the sports crazys that we are this was very exciting.

June 1 Lily gets a convertible "big girl" car seat

June 4 Lily made her first craft for Father's Day. I will post pictures after Mike gets it :) A big thanks to Artsy Doodle Craft Studio for their help. If you live in Western PA I highly recommend checking them out.

After I get back from NC we are going to try to be more intentional about weaning off the bottle and getting Lily to use a sippy cup. She has used them a couple of times but just to try it out.

Good girls at Chic Fil A get cows :)

Brady's Run

Lily wasn't so sure at first

Success!

We are also helping Lily feed herself now. We scoop the food, she takes the spoon and into her mouth it goes. She is using her left hand too and as my Grampy would say, "Left handed people are the only ones in their right mind."




We hope to get Lily in the ocean when little girl and I travel to MA at the end of the month. It will be Lily's first time on a plane and first family reunion. Lots of excitement for sure.

8.5 Months of Lil

Can't believe little Lily is 8.5 months old. She is getting so big! April and May were very big months for Lily. Here's why...

April 20th- Lily's first Easter

April 25-27 Lily's first soccer tournament with Mommy in OH

April 28th- Lily says "Dada" and won't stop :)

April 29th- Lily learns to scoot/army crawl

May 3rd- Lily goes to her first graduation

May 4th- Lily attends her first bridal shower and was the life of the party

May 11th- Lily's family dedication and Mother's Day

May 13th- Lily learns how to go from stomach to crawling to sitting

May 17th- Lily's first tooth is on its way in while at her first tournament with Mommy and Daddy in OH

May 20th- Lily pulls herself up on the couch for the first time


All of that within a month really. My mind is boggled. Being this little one's mom is a crazy adventure. Lily is definitely turning into her own little personality. She likes to hear herself talk and play with her basket of toys. She loves children! The three of us went to lunch and our little girl made noises at the young boy sitting at the table next to us until he looked at her. Then she gave a huge smile and the boy waved at her. Lily was loving it. Mike better watch out. This month Lily learned what "No" means and sometimes cries when she hears it. She sure keeps us on our toes whether its being more mobile or talking non-stop. We love our little Lily Michaella and can't wait to see what she does next.

                                           

Officially SAHM

For those of you not familiar with blogging/chat room lingo SAHM stands for Stay At Home Mom. As of today that is what I am. Sure I coach and work in retail at night but I will be home with my little girl during the days. For the past couple of months Mike and I have been trying to find more ways to make extra income. We found that cleaning houses was something I could do and bring Lily with me. It only took a couple of weeks for Miss Lily to make it very apparent that although I thought it was a good situation, she was not fond of it. I would find myself feeling guilty as she would cry more and I would let her so that I could finish a room or I would hold her while I cleaned. The house also wasn't baby proof in any way so I couldn't let Lily roam out of the pack n' play without me watching her. That wasn't alright with me so I turned in my broom and microfiber cloth to stay home. Now I can make my house clean instead of someone else's.

To be honest I think it took me almost 8 months to be okay with being a SAHM. It had to do with the financial aspect but more so my convictions which were conflicting daily until now. I was raised by a single mom who did a fantastic job. My mom worked at a school so she was always home when we were, so I value what she was able to do for us and want to be able to provide the same care and opportunities for Lily. At the same time I am a workaholic...kind of.... and always need to be doing something. I spent a lot of money on getting a degree and think I should be using it since I will be paying it off for the next 10 years. Also after the chores are done at home and Lily is asleep I don't know what to do with myself which is why I have been working part time during the day.

Now that Lily is 8 months next week and she is starting to be more mobile and interactive I find it more fun and fulfilling to be home. I don't regret working the last 8 months because I needed it to feel like a regular person and to have a transition between life without and life with our little girl. I still have my retail at nights at least for the summer and coaching for as long as I can. A regular person to me now is being a Mom. Sometimes it's lonely but Lily's little smiles are worth it.

Talkin' & Scootin'

Mike and I had a crazy great weekend. We both took our team to tournaments in Ohio and had some success. Lily was with me and my sister and Mike had 3 teams to take care of. Considering the long drive and long days living out of the car Lily did very well. She got fussy a couple of times and I couldn't blame her since she was in the stroller or car seat for most of Saturday and Sunday.

Lily loved the trophy so I had her help me hand
them out to my team :)

But when we got back home Lily had a lot of energy. Monday night and Tuesday morning were very exciting. Mike taught Lily how to say "Dada" on Monday night. She has been doing it in long babbles but all it took was Daddy playing with her and it came right out. Check out the adorable video here.

Then Lily slept until 8am which I loved :) Started our morning play time and Lily was done with her superman pose (see example below). She was ready to move. Excuse my poor video skills but check out those videos here and here. 

The Superman pose

I know she turns 8 months in 8 days but milestones like this can't wait that long to be shared!

We have a lot going on in the next 2 weeks so Lily's 8 month post will be a little late but full of fun details on our little girl and her family. Can't wait to see everyone!

7 Months and Everything Else

Oops, a bit late again. Lily is growing so fast and learning so much that it is hard to keep track of everything she is doing! For starters she now does it all, well kind of. Lily reaches for anything and everything, then it all goes in her mouth. She stole food off my plate today and proceeded to try and eat it. Still no teeth! She has been trying to imitate Mike and I even more. Before it was just movements but now it is exact sounds as well. She waves at people when we run errands. Crawling is still a work in progress, check out the video here (Just a heads up it is a long video:) Her personality and attitude is showing more and more daily. Mike and I get a real kick out of it. Watching Lily grow up is scary and amazing at the same time :)

 Lily can feed herself!

Steals my drinks constantly!

Wal Mart trip Lily was reading everyone a story

First trip to the park, with a snack! Lily really 

             wanted to play with the other kids.

We are truly happy to be dedicating Lily on Mother's Day at our church. We have so much going on in the next couple of months and because of all the wonderful events we will get to see family more than we usually do with living six hours away from our closest family. It might even call for more than one blog post a month!

Spring has Sprung... I wish!

Yes it is the first day of Spring in Western PA and snow flurries are twirling down. Lily is not impressed so she decided to take a three hour nap! I am one productive Momma this morning. Today she will be going on her first Rita's trip so that I can get my Happy Spring free water ice. I am super pumped! Will post pictures later!

Anyway in the past week we have painted the dining room, pulled up carpet, ventured into the world of home projects, sanded, primed and painted our dining room floor. Mike and I were exhausted because that took us but mostly Mike a week to finish. I am so glad it is done now! For the walls we picked Behr's Porpoise (left) and for the floor Behr's Subtle Touch (right). I wanted to do a white floor because of all the woodwork in the room but had to compromise for grey since my man knew how dirty our dog's feet can be. Good thinking! We used the best prime ever (Zinssers) and barely had to sand using an orbital sander over places the carpet pad was stubborn. One coat primer and one coat Behr's porch paint, leave for 24 hours and boom, new floors!
    









Here is a small portion of the room so you can see what the colors look like
with the woodwork, oh and our printer :)




This was my own little project from Pinterest. Some people attach cork board while others made wood strips into the hook holders. I am not that handy so I got command hooks and put then right on my old cabinet doors. I have been using it for a week or so now and love it! So much easier to find my measuring supplies and my "Misc" drawer is cleaner and easier to close :)

That week I also took Lily for her 6 month appointment. She grew 2.25in and almost exactly 2lbs in 2 months so now she is a whopping 26.25in long (50-75th percentile) and 14lbs 6oz (25th percentile)! I would say we have a tall string bean on our hands! Lily only had to get two shots this time and we chose a sticker for her at the end. The light wasn't helpful but it says "Official Leprechaun Spotter."

 

In the upcoming months Lily will be traveling all over OH, PA, and MD for soccer so good thing this little girl loves road trips! I also wanted to announce that we will be having her dedicated on Mother's Day at our church. Mike's mom and mine will have the information so either talk to them or us if you would like to come. Of course pictures will be posted afterward if you can't make it!

My last thing is for all my engineer friends out there. This is Lily at the doctor's office using her blanket to make a bridge to hold her bottle up while she drinks. Not the most flattering picture but oh well, thought ya'll would appreciate that ;)

Happy Half Birthday Lily!

Like my previous post said 3.7.14 was crazy so these are the only pictures of Lily I have from that day. We celebrated this day with Steak n Shake, going to Gymboree, buying Catching Fire, and some movie snacks.

 

Let's fast forward to 3.8.14 which was an awesome family day to celebrate Lily.

We woke up at Lily time, 5am and drove to Northeast OH for Mike to coach three soccer games. During the games Lily and I had tummy time, met some new people, and she took a short nap. She impressed everyone with her quiet nature and what a good baby she is, which we already knew ;).

Her very excited face!

Watching Daddy's team play

Dressed in team colors

   Then we went to Pizza Hut, Lily's favorite of course, before our drive home. Lily and I took a nap during the ride and it was glorious. The rest of the day was just relaxing at home which was a perfect time to enjoy how much Lily has grown over the past 6 months.

          

A couple of moments from the last week because Lily likes to hit some milestones on time :) Falling asleep in her toys trying to prove to me she is too old for naps after fighting so hard to stay awake. Lily sitting up all by herself for almost an entire episode of The Bachelor. I am teaching her early how not to find a man! Lily sitting in the stroller for the first time without her car seat. She was so proud of herself smiling at people all over the mall.

 Lily can also wear bows in her hair now! So fun. This month she has eaten apples, bananas, sweet potatoes and squash. Bananas were definitely her favorite and now she knows how to smack her lips. Lily also tries to communicate with us even more. She coughs and sounds like a dolphin. Lily will usually do this when she wants to eat. Mike is really good at imitating her so she gets a kick out of that. On the crawling front she has gotten all the way off her belly. Here is a super cute video of me finding her like this after a nap.
Lastly, here is a fun look at what Lily looked like in here car seat right at 1 day old, 3 months and 6 months.

                  

I know you can't see her whole body in the second one but her length from 1 day to 6 months is crazy! And the pink fluffy jackets adds some width but Mike and I can't believe how big she is getting! Now its off to the doctors to see just how big that is. We have an over/under bet on 16lbs 5oz, I picked over so Mike gets under and even. Any guesses? I'll update again soon on how the doctors visit went.

Oh and thanks to Marti Aiken Photography for
 taking some family pictures. I will post those next time too, promise!