The Carters: May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Good, the Bad and the REALLY Scary!

So, let's start with the really scary and get that out of the way. Lillian made it abundantly clear on Saturday that she can no longer be left alone for even a minute and proved to me that this parenting business is not for the weak of heart! I had her laying on her changing table after putting a clean diaper on and had knelt down to get something out of the bottom drawer when I heard an awful thud. Oh yes, my future gymnast had flipped herself over the side of the table, where she hit the door on the way down, and landed on her belly on the hardwood floor. Needless to say there was lots of screaming and crying (from both of us!) following this fall. We immediately called our pediatrician's office and were given a list of head injury symptoms to be on the lookout for. For humor, I would like to share these symptoms... 1. Vomiting (Lillian spits up so much after each feeding that it's hard to distinguish it from vomiting) 2. Sleepiness (When she fell, it was 30 minutes past her nap time so she was barely able to keep her eyes open) 3. Fussiness (Seriously, have you met Ms. Lillian?!? :)). Let's just say I spent the remainder of the day convinced that my child had a traumatic head injury - thank goodness for my calm and rational husband!!!
While we are on the not so pleasant topics, we will address "the bad" as it relates to what toys Lillian likes and does NOT like. Many of my friends with children around Lillian's age have the doorway jumpers that their little ones absolutely love. We didn't have one, so after church today Brad and I headed to Babies R Us where we bought this item that we were sure would provide her/us hours of entertainment - Ha! She hated every second of it and I have the pictures to prove it. :)
She does however LOVE her exersaucer, which leads me finally to the good. This is one toy that I can always depend on to make her happy and give me a few precious moments to get some things done. As she is teething, EVERYTHING is going in her mouth these days and her very favorite is the pig from the exersaucer. Lillian is beginning to love being around other children and we had two great opportunities over the past few weeks for this to happen. First, my friend, Cile, brought her precious little girl, Emma Kate, over to meet Lillian. It was so cute to watch how Lillian couldn't take her eyes off EK and listen to her trying so hard to "talk" to her. Secondly, we got to go to Alex City over Memorial Day weekend for a Carter family reunion and a birthday party for our niece, Carson, who turned 5 years old. She is getting to be such a big girl and is so sweet - hopefully Lillian can follow in her footsteps!

The changing table that was the scene of the fall...

Lillian loving her exersaucer...

Did I mention that she HATED the jumper?!

She has started sleeping this way and I think it is adorable...

She also enjoys sitting in her Bumbo...

Lillian also loves this doll that her granddaddy got her...

Lillian and Emma Kate...

Not that you can tell by this face, but she loves her oatmeal cereal...

Carson's birthday party...

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Lots of Growth and Change...

that is the theme of our lives these days! Lillian is now 4 months old and weighs in at 14 lbs and 9 ozs which places her in the 75-90th percentile for weight. Our girl is 25 1/2 inches long and that puts her in the 75th percentile for heigth as well. We gave her rice cereal for the first time this past week and I swear, she has "fattened up" more already from it. We decided to add this when we did because our wonderful child that was sleeping 11-12 hours every night since she was 10 weeks old (yes, I realize this is amazing!), suddenly started waking around 2:00 am each morning. As I believe in moving forward and not backward, this needed to cease and QUICKLY - of course it had nothing to do with my frustration at no longer being able to sleep through the night! :) We still haven't quite gotten our angel sleeper back yet, but are making progress so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Lillian was invited to her first birthday party on Saturday for her sweet friend Hannah Claire, and we had such a good time. We also went on Saturday to meet our cousin's newborn little girl (and Lillian's future BFF :)), Avery. I cannot believe how tiny she is and it makes me realize how much and how quickly Lillian is growing. Another highlight for Lillian (and for us) was the trip we took to Pensacola to visit my dad that DID NOT end up in the hospital - Hallelujah! All of these events were made even better by the fact that Lillian did not scream the whole time and showed the "happy baby" side our herself that we MUCH prefer. I will spare the details, but let's just say we went through a very rough patch where she "freaked out" every time we went somewhere where there were people other than Brad and I. This was especially hard for me and I left a few events in tears thinking poor Lillian hated people and would not be able to handle any social situations (a little dramatic I realize). I believe that we have worked through this little "phase" however, and I couldn't be more relieved!

While Lillian has certainly done amazing amounts of growing and changing, I can see that I have as well. I feel that this little girl has pushed me (sometimes to the breaking point :)) to become a much better person than I was before she came along. Through her I have gained the patience I used to pray for, the self-sacrifice I never even thought to pray for and mostly, a level of love that can only come as the ultimate answered prayer. So even though there have been hours and even days along these past 4 months that I felt I might be in over my head, I realize that with His help, our little family may just continue to change and grow closer to God and into the people he wants us to be!

Here are some pictures from the last month:

My first Mother's Day...