Lillie Ann Turns One

One whole year with Lillie Ann and what a year it has been.  If I had only known how our little world would change in the months after she was born.  Of course, our world was rocked in all of the normal newborn ways but in mid-March, the world fell off its rocker!!  While things have seemed in a complete mess if you turn on the news, there have also been really sweet times that resulted from the rona.  Because of the complete fear whenever the news of the coronavirus broke and the social distancing requirements, we slowed down A LOT.  No dance so no dance recital.  No work for me for several weeks.  No church.  We didn't see our family for over two weeks.  Some of those things were no fun, but it did allow a lot of quality family time for us. Even in the months since March, things are still slower than normal.  Lillie Ann's first time to go shopping anywhere, including Wal-Mart, was whenever we started Christmas shopping in November!  She was eleven months old!  Callie had been to Disney World twice at that age.  It has just been an unusual and weird year, to say the least. 

Whenever we found out Lillie Ann was on her way, I was a little overwhelmed.  Maybe even a lot overwhelmed!  Callie was just sixteen months old and I knew that adding another baby to our family was going to take my attention away from Callie and lock me down.  I was right, but since life was basically canceled for a big part of this year, being locked down wasn't so bad.  There was nothing to miss! 

Lillie Ann was a fairly easy baby.  She has not always been a great sleeper, but in comparison to Callie as a baby, she hasn't been so bad.  Lately, she has been going to sleep around 9:30pm and will sleep until around 5:00am.  She takes a bottle and will sometimes sleep as late as 8:00, if I am not working.  I normally have to wake her up to put her in the car seat whenever I am working.  

She is getting a little personality and learning to communicate with us without saying a word!  She lets Callie have it whenever she takes something from her, so  I think she is going to be able to take up for herself!  She has learned how to give sugar, waves bye bye and in the last few days has starting "smiling" with her eyes closed whenever we take her picture!  She is SO CUTE.  I tell Austin all the time how darn cute she is.  I could just eat her up!  

Over the last month or so, she has become quite a mama's girl.  She especially wants her mama whenever it is bedtime!  For a long time, Austin would lay down with Lillie Ann and I would lay down with Callie.  We have somewhat swapped.

She has a fake whine that is something to see.  If she falls down, or doesn't get her way, she crinkles her nose and whines but there are no tears.  

She is not a good eater.  She likes hot dogs and toaster strudels-- that's about it.  I do not eat hot dogs!  She would also eat her weight in cheese puffs.  She likes to drink sweet tea from a straw and will fight Callie for a Capri Sun.  We switched her from formula to whole milk about a month ago and she has handled that like a champ. I did try to give her milk from a cup the other night instead of her bottle, and that did not go well.  We will try that again soon. 

She weighs twenty pounds and has six teeth with one on the way.  She is pretty petite like Callie was as a baby!

She doesn't really have a favorite toy, but she really likes the Woody Callie got for Christmas.  She also loves to play in laundry.  She is very entertained whenever I fold clean clothes and I even caught her last week putting some of her clothes in the dirty clothes hamper!  Another favorite for her is unpacking her bag!

I knew having Lillie Ann two years and one week after we had Callie would have its challenges.  For several months after she was born, I would have told anybody that having kids that close together was not a good idea.  I didn't know what I had gotten myself into!  BUT.  Now, I would not trade it for anything.  I think the hardest year is behind us, and they are already so much fun together.  I spent a lot of this year feeling torn between them, but now that Lillie Ann can walk and is starting to play, it is a lot easier and so sweet to see them together.  Before Lillie Ann was born, I honestly didn't think I could love another child as much as I loved Callie but that just is not true!  I think I love them both more everyday.  Lillie Ann is the perfect little addition to our family and I truly cannot imagine life without her.  She makes us more complete!  Happy 1st Birthday, Lillie Ann! We love you so much!

Callie Turns 3!

 

I have no idea how my Callie girl is turning three years old.  The past year with her has been so much fun, but has also had some VERY trying times. 

Callie is hilarious, dramatic, sassy, STUBBORN and into all typical little girl things.  She tells me at least once a day that pink is her favorite!  She loves barbies, unicorns, princesses, shopping and sparkles.  She is super shy whenever we aren't at home, and will even tell me before we go somewhere that she is going to be shy! 

Callie is very into “helping” and tries to do a lot independently. She also wants things done a certain way, ALWAYS.  Most of the time, she wants me to do everything from getting her out of her car seat to cutting up her food before she eats.  If I don’t do it, and her daddy does it—she will make life miserable.  She doesn’t always want me, but nine times out of ten, she does.  Sometimes life just has to be miserable because I am trying to teach her that she doesn’t always get her way!

Nothing makes Callie happier than a bag of junk.  No matter where we go, she always wants to pack a bag/take something with her.  She usually brings home a bag from where ever she comes from, too!  She still calls Mama Jim “Bim” most of the time, although she is very capable of saying Mama Jim!  She loves to go to Bim’s house and tells me to “text Bim and see if she’s home.” 

Callie sings Let It Go on repeat and only knows those three words of the lyrics.  We have watched Frozen, but she goes back to Toy Story every single time!  She always wants to watch “when Andy growed up”, otherwise known as Toy Story 3!  During the fall, she found a love for the movie Halloweentown, which was also one of my favorites growing up.  She will randomly quote the line in that movie “you don’t even trust your own kids!”  I doubt she even knows what that means!  She also quotes Toy Story, “I don’t want to play with you.  You’re broken.” 

She has been a good eater since day one, and loves a snack like her mama.  Austin comments all the time that she is my kid because she gets giddy over snacking and always wants to do it on the couch!  She always tells me that since she ate her good food, she wants a snack.  We love a snack! 

Callie loves her cousins and calls them her “friends.”  She calls Joy “Go Go” (she can’t get the J sound) and it is super cute. 

As for the trying times of this year, she was VERY attached to her paci.  During the fall she gnawed a hole in all of them.  We saw it as a perfect opportunity to get rid of the paci.  We didn’t take them away from her, but she didn’t want them since they were “broke.”  She was quite a handful for several months while she transitioned from paci to no paci.  It was very bad.  We were not okay.  I told her all the time I was going to take her somewhere for somebody else to take care of her (daycare), and I would have had to for my sanity if she had not turned a corner.  She got her share of spankings and I loaded her up for a ride in the car seat several times just to constrain her and have some peace!  It was a rough couple of months. 

Her role of big sister is growing on her, and as time passes, she pays Lillie Ann (better known as Willie Ann to Callie) more and more attention.  Up until Lillie Ann was a good nine months old, she ignored her existence.  She has warmed up to her now and it is fun to see their little friendship grow. She likes to feed Lillie Ann, loves to make her laugh and never fails to let me know when Lillie Ann is disrupting what she’s doing! She says “get her” a lot.

Occasionally I catch myself stopping to appreciate how much fun it is having a little girl who makes all of my girl mom dreams come true.  Here’s to soaking up this year with my three year old!