Lyla Mae, 25 weeks old - Big day!!

Lyla finally rolled from tummy to back! I was truly beginning to wonder if she'd ever show interest in locomotion... Okay, not really, but the thought crossed my mind, considering Timothy was crawling by this age.  As you can see, she is very deliberate in her movements.  My cautious little girl. :)

In other news, Lyla got to try bananas for the first time! She was VERY interested, and promptly took the spoon away from me to feed herself.  I must say, she did very well!

Lyla Mae, 24 weeks old

On the Polar Express

Wassup, yo?

Really, mom? Enough with the pictures!

Lyla Mae, 23 weeks old

I love that my babies love each other so much!!

Lyla Mae, 22 weeks old

More smiles... and brother cuddles.

Lyla Mae, 5 months old

Whatcha doing, mommy?

Ahhhh, yes, she's getting so big! And so very fun! In the past month, she's become more and more aware of her surroundings, and has developed clear preferences for and opinions about different people, places and things.  She finds Billy and Timothy infinitely amusing, while only mommy will do when she's tired or upset.  She also loves - and I mean LOVES! - our bed, and will be instantly cheered (in most cases) when we put her down on it.

She's still not rolling, but she's been working on her fine motor skills, and is very adept at passing objects from one hand to the other, getting it to her mouth, and is very determined when she wants to get something.  Interestingly enough, she can sit up with very little support, which Timothy did long after he crawled, so it looks like they're not going to be following the same developmental path.  She's also quick to grab anything that is within her reach, so ladies - and gentlemen not of the Harrigan clan ;) - watch your hair!

All in all, she's still delightful, and getting more so every day. And little girl, we're in no hurry for you to grow up.  You take all the time you need.

Girl Power!

When I met Billy, he already had 3 nephews and 2 nieces.

Circa Christmas 2005

Fast forward a couple of years to Timothy's arrival, and the girls were outnumbered 2-1.

Summer 2008

So, when we found out that we were having a girl this time around, the girls had one thing to say: Girl Power!!

Thanksgiving 2010

And while the age difference is 6.5 and 7.5 years or so, I have high hopes for them being close.  Lyla was very happy to sit with them at Thanksgiving, even though she had refused everyone else except for me that entire day. 

Also, I have a cousin, Martha, who is about 10 years older than I am, and I've adored her from day one.  Growing up, I thought she was the most beautiful, intelligent, amazing person I'd ever met (still do!), and even though I was probably more than a little annoying at times, she always made time for me and let me tag along and hang out with her. She, her hubby & 2 boys even came up from Mexico for our wedding!

With Marthita & her hubby Rafael

So, yes, I'm excited that the girls aren't so greatly outnumbered anymore, but mostly I'm excited that Lyla has such awesome cousins to show her the ropes of girlhood!

Lyla Mae, 21 weeks old

That's right, I'm smilin'!

Here Comes Santa Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus!

Lyla Mae, 20 weeks old

 

Still not rolling, but scooting around pretty well, anyway! 

Another fun Tilden Park visit

We took Gwapah Bisto Mingass to the steam train ride at Tilden Park on Sunday.  It was really fun, and amazingly for the middle of November, it was about 80 degrees! Timothy and Gwapah got to ride twice, and Lyla had her first Tilden ex-utero experience.

Thanks for playing with us, Gwapah!

Cabbage Patch Kid, Part II

I don't know if it's a universal baby thing, or a just my babies' thing, but I can't get enough of this face they make! You can see Timothy's in this post. Lyla likes to kind of spit/raspberry when she does it.  Heehee!

Nap-avoidance, Timothy style

Timothy: I don't wanna have quiet time, mommy!

Me: Well, buddy, mommy needs some quiet time, so that's what we're going to do now.

Timothy: I want to cuddle sistuh for a minute.

Me (feeling all warm and fuzzy): Okay, just for a minute, buddy.

Timothy: Take a picture of us, mommy!

Me: Okay!!

Yes, I know, I know.  Don't judge me.  You'd fall for that one too!

Ever wonder why there are so few smiling pictures of Lyla?

Unaware that the camera is out and rolling:

And now she notices it:

So yes, I promise you she's a very smiley, very happy little girl - she just happens to be a bit camera-shy at the moment! She must get this from me, because - ask Peggy - apparently Billy was quite the ham as a little one. ;)

Tandem bath time!

Lyla has officially outgrown her little sink bathtub, so we've had to change things up a bit when it comes to bath time.  We have another small bathtub that fits inside the tub that we used to use for Timothy, but he always wants to take a bath whenever we give her a bath, so that doesn't work so well.  Oftentimes we just bring her into the shower with one of us, but she tends to sleep in a bit, so she's not usually up when Billy showers in the morning, and it can be a bit tricky for me to shower with her alone because there's no one to hand her to when we're done.  

So, I decided to try giving Timothy and Lyla a bath together, and aside from being a little hard on my back, it's great! They both really seem to enjoy it.  I think things would be much easier if we had a bath ring/seat for Lyla, as she's quite slippery and wiggly, but not too shabby.  The photos are from the second time we did this, (obviously with Billy's help this time). 

Snug as a bug in a rug

No two ways about it...

this one was blog-worthy!

Timothy woke up quite refreshed from a much-needed nap this afternoon, and the following conversation ensued:

Me: Hey Timothy, what do you want to do this afternoon?

Timothy: I want to go to Kwissmass!!!

Me (chuckling): You want to go to Christmas?

Timothy (with wonder and excitement in his voice): Yeah!!

Me (laughing heartily): You're awesome, buddy!

Timothy: Yeah, I'm a weawwy awesome boy!

These are the moments that I live for day to day. 

Lyla Mae, 19 weeks old

That's what I call multi-tasking!

4-month stats

Weight: 13lbs 8ozs = 50th percentile
Length: 24" = 50th percentile
Head Circ: 15.5" = 75th percentile

So, she doesn't weigh as much as I thought she did, but she's still considerably bigger than Timothy was. My little baby Squish!

Puzzles

Over the course of the last month or so, Timothy has gone from needing very hands-on guidance to complete simple puzzles to being a jigsaw puzzle pro!  Here he is, showing off his newest puzzle, a 46-piece, 3' high A Bug's Life masterpiece (notice the Vanna White hands, heehee!):

Raaaaawwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Timothy got to have his face painted for the very first time yesterday!  Isn't he the cutest tiger you've ever seen?  On our way home, he told me he was Winnie the Pooh.  LOL!

Lyla's new BFF

Sophie the Giraffe.  I finally caved and got one of these with a store credit I needed to use.  And yes, I finally see what all the hype is about.  The toy itself is basically a glorified squeaky dog toy, but Lyla LOVES it (and so does Timothy!).  I mean, from the minute we got it out of the package, she's been enthralled with it!  This is actually an item for which I may need to buy a back-up.  Bizarre, but true. 

Lyla and her papa

Papa loves me lots.

Hey, where'd he go?

My ears aren't that big!

Aren't they sweet? <3 <3

Lyla Mae, 4 months old

 

Lyla is a joy to be around, plain and simple. She is a very happy little girl most of the time - just don't mess with her beauty sleep! She continues to be a good little eater, though she's very distractible, especially if Timothy is around.  She's reverse-cycling a bit because of this, which I think is good preparation for when I go back to work in a few weeks, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that we've hi the dreaded 4 month sleep regression.  She's still sleeping well, she just nurses a few times while we both sleep.  It's a win-win, if you ask me!

Developmentally, she's working on new skills all the time. She's vocalizing more and more (and more loudly!!), and she's discovered her hands and feet.  She'll often be waiving her arm around, catch sight of her hand and just stop and gaze at it for a few moments.  So cute!  She's also becoming very determined when she sees something she wants to explore, so it's definitely time to clear off the changing table!  Still no rolling, but I'm sure it'll happen soon enough.

Appearance-wise, she's growing a bit more hair, and believe it or not, it's coming in lighter.  I've said it before: the day she wakes up blond, I'm buying a lotto ticket! :) I will have to post her stats on Tuesday after her well baby visit.  I'm guessing 15+ lbs (For a bit of perspective, Timothy was 13lbs 9ozs at 7 months!)

All in all, this is going much too quickly. Timothy's infancy was over in a flash, but each day seemed like it dragged on forever.  Not so, this time around!

Trick-or-Treat!

Curious George & the Man in the Yellow... Rain Suit?

Cheeeeeeeeeze!

The cuteness!!!

Pumpkin carving