Sleeping Beauty

This is what I found when I checked on Lily this morning. I think it's so cute how she tucks her hands under her head.

Berry Cute

4 months old

Lily is 4 months! She went to the doctor this morning and is 15 pounds and 26" long. She grew 1.25" and 1 lb last month. Once again, the doctor said she looks great and everything is right on track. It was a great visit, except for the 4 shots Lily got at the end. OUCH! Luckily, Grandma and Papa are visiting today to give Lily extra love and attention while Mommy works. The doctor gave us the green light to try rice cereal.... so expect pictures/videos soon!

My sunshine :)

Lily loves her mobile! Mommy loves it because it plays the Purdue fight song :

I am happy that I can capture a lot more smiles on camera now. I haven't got a laugh on video yet, but I'm working on it. She's giving us more and more giggles and I'm loving it. It's the best sound in the world!

Lily hasn't mastered rolling yet, but she's getting close. Here is her "half roll". She likes to twist herself around to watch tv.

My First Mother's Day

I am so happy to be a Mom! We had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and were lucky enough to celebrate with both of our Moms. On Saturday we met my parents (Grandma and Papa) for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and a little afternoon shopping. Lily was awake through most of the visit, but barely made any noise. She still gets very shy/quiet when in loud/scary places. But after hanging out with Grandma and Papa for a while, and once we got in a quieter place, Lily showed off her smiles and giggles for the grandparents to see in person.

On Sunday, I celebrated my first Mother's Day by sleeping in. :) I woke up with Lily for her first feed at 6:30 am, but then she and I went back to bed from 7:30 - 10:30. That felt good! While we were sleeping, she sent Daddy to the store and there was coffee cake and flowers waiting for me when I got up.

In the afternoon we went to Nana and Grandpa's house (Matt's parents) for an early dinner. Nana LOVES the twighlight movies so we watched New Moon and taught Lily about Edward, Bella, and Jacob. :)

I feel so blessed to be a Mom. It's something I've always wanted and I couldn't imagine my life without children in it. It's definitely a tough job, but it's all worth it when I see Lily's smile or hear her laugh.

Feliz Cumpleanos

Today is Chips' and Salsa's Birthday! I can't believe my "kitties" are 3 years old. If cat years work like dog years, then today is their 21st birthday. Not a bad way to spend Cinco de Mayo. :) Chips and Salsa came from separate litters and are actually a few months apart, but I thought Cinco de Mayo was a fitting birthday for cats named after a delicious Mexican snack.

Mr Chips

Princess Salsa

Weekend full of firsts

This weekend was crazy busy. We took Lily all over the place! And she did an amazing job, per usual. We are so blessed to have such a great baby. On Saturday, we participated in an Ovarian Cancer walk in downtown Chicago to support our friend Rich, who's mom passed away from the disease. That was Lily's first trip to Chicago and first time seeing Lake Michigan. On our way home we took Lily on her first trip to Woodfield Mall. (I'm teaching her to love shopping) Sunday was Lily's first time at Church and first time going to a restaurant with Mommy and Daddy. Pictures first, then stories...

Lily, in her official team KMK onesie

The Cincys and the Kiticks

Mr. Kitick, Lily, and Me

(Nice hair, huh? They don't call it the "Windy City" for nothing)It's always fun to participate in the walk and help a good cause, but it sure is tough getting downtown. And even tougher with a baby involved. Our normal 1 hr drive took 2 hrs due to construction on the interstate. Then we had a 20 minute walk from our car to the cancer walk. On top of that we had to do a feed and a couple diaper changes for Lily. I managed to bring a bottle of milk for Lily but forgot the nipple, so I had to try nursing in public for the first time. I've used a privacy blanket before, but never outside. Without going into to much detail, the wind was not my friend and the world probably saw more of me than they should have.

We left our house and hour early and got to the race an hour late! We found the team pretty easily around the half-way point and finished the race with them. Then we did the 20 min walk back to the car and sat in traffic for another two hours to get to our next destination. So I think we spent 5 hours in transit to do a 1 hour walk. Oh well! At least Lily wasn't too traumatized by it all. She slept through most of it and only got slightly cranky when she was hungry or had a wet diaper. Again, we are truly blessed to have such a good baby!

I have been nervous to take Lily to church because of germs and not knowing how she'd do. But she really impressed me today. She didn't cry once! She liked looking around at all the new faces, listening to the music, and looking at the stained glass windows. I'm sure things will change once she starts crawling, so we're going to take advantage of this stage as long as it lasts.

Since most restaurants are jam-packed on Mother's Day, we decided to celebrate a little early and go out today after church. Check out my "flight of pancakes".....Yum!!! I was sold when I saw Turtle, Smores, and Brownie pancakes on the menu. Each pancake had all those yummy ingredients on top and inside. It was so pretty and delicious, I had to take a picture. Hooray for my first Mother's Day!!

New Wardrobe = New Photos

Lily just about 3.5 months old, but she has graduated into her 6 month clothes. She doesn't NEED to be in the new size, but I was getting a little tired of dressing her in the same clothes she's been wearing since February. Plus, so many of the clothes are cute summer outfits! I hope the weather cooperates so she can wear them all a few times before she grows out of them.

This is Lily's first 6 month outfit! I hope the pants were supposed to be capris. Otherwise it means I waited to long to dress her in this outfit. The hat and sandals were purchased with a different outfit, but I think they work great with this one too.
It was a beautiful day, so Lily and I played outside for a little bit. Her sandals are a bit too big and would not stay on, so she got to be barefoot in the grass. It was the first time her little feet have touched grass. I wonder what that feels like to her. Sometimes I try to look at the world through her eyes and it helps to recognize the little things I take for granted every day.

So cute!

On a different day this week, it was much colder so we had to bundle up when we went out. This is still a 3 month outfit, but it's her first time wearing sneakers!

I found the sneakers when I was packing away the old sizes and bringing out the new. Unfortunately, her feet are too big for them and this will be the only time she'll get to wear them. It's too bad, because they were really cute and when perfectly with that sweat suit.

While on the topic of footwear, I found another treasure in Lily's room. Lily has pink slippers, just like Mommy! They came with a robe she got at a baby shower. They stay on her feet a lot better than her socks, so we are using these often. Lily's hands and feet get cold easily (just like mine) so these will be great for the summer outfits that don't really have socks or shoes that match.

I have heard of sewing your own baby clothes before, but it's not often that someone designs their own. This dress was sent to Lily by our college friend, Mara. Mara works for Wal-Mart and at one point in her career, she designed baby clothes for the Faded Glory brand. This was one of the dresses she designed!

Lily liked the dress very much... well, she enjoyed eating her dress. Lily can grab objects very well now and she especially likes grabbing fabric (i.e. the dress she's wearing, her blanket when she's falling asleep, her doll that's made of fleece, her pants when I'm changing her diaper). And everything that she grabs goes into her mouth.

Finally, here's another new outfit she can now wear. It made Matt smile when he came home from work and saw her in it.