On the move...

Well, life has changed once again! Lily is starting to really understand how crawling works. It takes her awhile, but she can get to something she sees. I have started to rearrange furniture, books and shelf items accordingly.

We spent Easter with my family at my parents' house. It was so incredible to see Lily with her cousin Evie. Evie is the age Lily was when we moved to Tennessee. Wow! It is amazing to realize how much she has grown in just a few short months. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, eight months is such a tiny little blip in time-but the amount of change possible in that time is phenomenal. It makes me wonder how much I could change about myself in eight months. If Lily can go from where Evie is right now-holding her head up and smiling (sometimes!) to where she is now-crawling, eating solid food, telling exciting stories in baby babble, clearly indicating what she wants/needs-then how much could I accomplish? I'm not going to embark on some weird self-improvement kick, but there are some things that I could improve about myself.

I guess I'll check back when Lily is 16 months old and see how far I've come. I can already see how far she will be!

If at first you don't succeed...

Try, try again! Lily is making a pretty concerted effort to crawl. Unfortunately, she has only succeeded in scooting backwards across the floor. This morning, however, she pushed herself backwards almost all the way to the wall and then proceeded to turn herself around in an effort to scoot back towards me. She is certainly planning out her strategy and working with her current skills.

No teeth yet...just bucketfuls of drool. In fact, Lily was laying down on her bedroom floor today and was momentarily choked by the amount of drool her mouth is producing. I could see the look of panic cross her face which quickly morphed into a tortured scream. Immediately her hands are thrust out directly towards me in a "mommy, save me!" plea.

Her dad says that she is a "mommy's girl"-he's right.

A crazy day

Today was our first brush with a tornado warning since we moved to Tennessee. Lily and I spent a good amount of time on the floor of the closet while we listened to the weatherman give updated accounts of how close the tornado was coming. I did not grab any toys before heading to our little hideout, but Lily had a leather belt of daddy's to chew on to keep her occupied.

I think that Lily is starting to get her first teeth. Part of me is excited about this new development, but the other part of me is rather wistful. I love her soft pink grin and I know I have precious little time left with it until it becomes a toothy little smile. I think the worst part about it is that I know there is very little I can do to make it painless for her. All the Orajel in the world will only do so much.

I think the teethins is what caused Lily to have a horrible time getting to sleep tonight. She could not keep her eyes open at six, so I put her in bed. About thirty minutes later, she woke up screaming and would not go back to sleep so I sat with her on the couch for awhile trying to soothe her. As much as I wanted her to go to bed, cuddling with her on the couch was so nice. I know there are times in my life that I will look back with longing on moments like those. With her feet nestled on my knees and one hand on my shoulder, Lily put her cheek on my collarbone and drifted in and out of sleep. The feel of her soft breath on my neck and her fingers lightly grasping my shirt are those little memories that will stay with me. Of course, she then spent the next ten minutes giggling and talking while I tried to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing (that always spurs her on!) In the end, though, I know that holding my little girl and soothing her to sleep is something that I will not always be able to do. I won't always be able to hold her whole little body in my arms for ages just snuggling my nose into the side of her neck. But for now, while this seems to help those painful little pearly whites push through, I'm there.