Back in Cincy

Lillian and I spent the last week and a half in Sylvania visiting friends and family. We are now back in Cincinnati, and settling back into our routine. The time away was great! Here is a recap:

On the way there, Lillian was resting up for all of the action:Lots of swimming:

Each day, she would stop in Great Grandma Betty’s room and hug the animals:

A visit to the Toledo Zoo, and Lillian’s first time on a merry-go-round!

New shoes! The shoe professional said her feet were extra-wide and the tops a bit pudgy causing a ‘muffin top’ effect. Boo.

Now that we are back, Lillian is resting peacefully. She may sleep for days in order to recover from being loved so much by everyone during our stay!

Receiving

I have really been working on ‘receiving’ lately. Compliments, help, grace, time - I am really bad at receiving those things. I think I first realized this when I noticed that I really dislike opening gifts. Reacting to gifts makes me vomit inside! I feel like no matter what my reaction be, it is not going to appropriately express how I actually feel about it. Or like when a group sings ‘Happy Birthday’ to you – even after a few cocktails, I feel extremely awkward. I think the most relatable ‘bad at receiving’ action is when complimented. I am so quick to brush off a compliment with a lame sarcastic comment that most likely starts with ‘Your Mom…’. Why is this? In all of these examples, people are most likely being genuine and I have a difficult time allowing those things to make me feel good.

When did I learn to shun these super nice things? I don’t think that it is something born in us; Lillian is AWESOME at receiving. If you pour out love to that girl, she will take it, absorb it, and in most cases send it right back at you in a wonderful way. Give that girl a compliment, or the smallest bit of attention and she soaks it up. I really do think that it benefits her. I never want to take her ability to receive away from her so I am really going to work on getting better at it myself.

A great place to start? Receiving help. Something about being a young new mom makes me feel like I should be super woman. Cleaning, cooking, working out, looking hip ALL THE TIME. This is just NOT realistic. It’s not. Stop doing it.  I am so lucky to have people around me offering to care for Lillian to give me some time off every now and then. Or even Brian wanting to care for her at the end of the day. Sometimes I deny these offers because I feel guilty for wanting that time away from my sweet kid, or I worry that if I accept these offers, I will be perceived as a bad lazy mom. The reality is that this time needs to happen so that I can recharge and come out on the other side being a better mom to Lillian.

So there you have it. That is what I’m really focusing on right now. If you see me rejecting the option to receive, call me out on it, for real. I may respond with something about ‘Your Mom…’, but really, I will appreciate it!

Wordless Wednesday

I Never Want to Forget…

These curls! Seriously!!!

Baby in Box

Sure, Lillian was showered with tons of fun baby toys for her first birthday, but who needs Fischer-Price, when you can play with a plain old cardboard box? This box gave us a few hours of pleasure. Even though Duke isn’t featured in the pictures, he loves boxes too and played with Lillian for awhile.
                         

*note: These pictures were take a couple of months ago…I don’t dress my baby like this when it is 90 degrees out!

Wordless Wednesday

Start to the Summer

Our Memorial Day weekend was full of fun! We celebrated and visited with old friends, made some new ones, and enjoyed the sunshine!

One of our activities this weekend was swimming! We may have dipped Lillian’s feet in a pool once or twice last summer, but today I count as her first official swim! She is a water baby and LOVED it! After about a half hour, she was all shriveled up and happy about it. We are ready to spend LOTS of time in the water this summer!

Learning to Walk

Lillian is on the brink of walking! She has been walking while holding on to the furniture for some time, and this week she started standing on her own for a few seconds. She will be walking soon! I met a mom at music class yesterday who said she held her daughter back from walking because she was afraid. Afraid? I am so excited for her! And she is a speedy little crawler in our well baby-proofed home, so I’m not too worried about it being more difficult.

For her birthday, she got a little stroller to push. She loves to cuddle the baby and will then walk back and forth across the living room. She hasn’t yet learned how to turn the stroller around when she hits a wall, so I find myself spending most of the afternoon walking back and forth. Back and forth.

Wordless Wednesday

Baby’s First Birthday

Finally! A recap of Lillian’s 1st Birthday and the big celebration!

First of all, any good party starts with stellar invitations. And who better to create stellar invitations, than amo-ink?! Inside the small envelope were daisy seeds for guests to plant around their homes. Of course, there were matching thank you notes as well! Great job Amy! Notice any similarities between the flower design and flowers on the website (aka flowers from my baby shower thank you notes)? Carrying the theme right on through!

Before the party, I enlisted the help of a few crafty friends to assemble paper flowers to serve as decoration at the party. It doesn’t get much better then paper flowers!

                              

Grandma and Grandpa MacDonald hosted a 40-person celebration in their home and it was absolutely wonderful! The food was delicious and we got to celebrate among beloved family and friends.

                              

Lillian handled the entire day like a star! During the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’, she contemplated the green frosted cupcake in front of her. I was ready for a mess. But, like her Momma, she apparently does not like messes, and did not enjoy the frosting on her fingers one bit! This may have been the cleanest first bite of cake, or cupcake, in baby history! She took a few bites when I put the cupcake up to her mouth, and that was that!

                              

Our family and friends were overwhelmingly generous, and I was worried that after opening the first card, Lillian would crawl away to play with a piece of tissue paper. I was completely shocked when she sat through ALL of the presents and actually paid attention to each one! Such a good guest of honor!

                              
                              

Finally, on her actual birthday, I thought it would be nice to treat her to a feast of pancakes and juice! It was the thought that counts…