Uncle Grant

Uncle Grant left on a mission on December 3rd. He spent a couple of weeks in Salt Lake City and since New Year's Eve he's been in the Dominican Republic. He sent a picture of himself today. We miss him a lot already. Only 22 1/2 more months to go...

8 months old

Another month has gone by already. It's hard to believe Lily is 8 months old already. She's getting so big so fast and it seems like she learns so much so quickly. This has been a busy month for her. She really started crawling and now she's pulling herself up to her feet and even starting to walking while holding on to things. I'm sure she'll be walking before we know it.

She celebrated her first Chanukah and her first Christmas with lots and lots of presents. It took her a little while to figure it out but by the time we got to the last night of Chanukah she unwrapped presents like a pro. And she got just as much enjoyment out of the wrapping paper as she did the present that was wrapped inside.

She enjoyed spending a week with mommy's family up in Redding. She spent a lot of time playing with her cousin, Isabella. She's only 20 days younger than Lily but Lily's still much bigger than her.

8 month weight - 19 lbs 1 oz (official since we made a sicky trip to the doctor's office)

Milestones
Crawling! (12/13/08)
Learned to clap and now claps all the time. (12/12/08)
Pulls up onto her knees a lot but it still a little unstable
Wears a size 4 diaper
Wears 12-18 month clothes
Starting to voice her opinion more
Absolutely does not want to go to sleep on her own any more
Starting to learn sign language; we're working on "milk" to start with
Favorite toy: her Fisher-Price "iPod", it plays nursery rhymes and she thinks it's fabulous. It was a Christmas gift from grandma.
Loves reading
Still likes to do things with her feet. Sometimes tries to pull mommy's hair with her feet while she's nursing.
Survived another cold! Thanks cousin Isabella!
First tried meat- some Christmas turkey on Christmas Day
Loves music. Even if a car ride has become very frustrating Raffi always seems to stop the crying. Usually in just a few bars of music.
Crib was moved down to it's lowest setting. It's too dangerous now that pulling up is getting easier and easier.

Where did all these toys come from? Yikes! Toy storage has since been purchased and utilized.

Lily with mommy, Aunt Melody and Isabella.

Cousins in their matching Christmas pjs on Christmas morning.

Opening a present on Christmas morning.

Taking a break from unwrapping to do some finger chewing.

Lighting the candles on the 2nd night of Chanukah.

You got a problem with me, Penguin!?!

Isabella needs her older cousin to take make sure she's doing OK.

Lily thought that Isabella needed to be rocked.

The airport isn't such a bad place to hang out.

Roooaaaarrrr!

Lily's 8 month update is long overdue- and I'm almost ready to post it- so in the mean time, Lily had this little development over the weekend. See those little bumps on her bottom left? Her first tooth is here! Click on the picture and you can really see it. We had to wait until she was sleeping with her mouth open (thanks to the cold that won't go away) to get a good look at it. Lately anytime anything gets near her mouth she licks it so it's been hard to get a look at it. You can definitely feel it if you put your finger in her mouth though (and she'll promptly BITE you, and lick you too).

We knew it was coming because she's been drooling A LOT and chewing on her fingers all. the. time. And finally one came through. Those little stinking eye teeth are still showing through her gums but don't seem any closer to coming through.