Lily is six months old (yesterday) and this is what we know about her so far:
You cannot say her name without singing or smiling. It's next to impossible to say Lily with any meaningful forcefulness behind it. We'll have to employ her full name in future discipline situations.
She is the "smiley-est" baby. When you make eye contact and smile at her she will respond with a huge and bright smile. At least once a day, we have a smiling contest. In the mirror, I smile at her her and she smiles back. Her smile is always bigger.
Lily LOVES her big brother. She looks for him and can spot him in a room of people. She makes sounds or moves her body to get his attention. She loves it when Jack plays peek-a-boo with her; it's the picture of pure joy. She cries when he gets upset and will look at me when he gets put into time out. As if to say "give him a break Mom, he didn't too anything too bad." I'm fairly sure her first word will be "Jack."
She sleeps well. She pretty consistently sleeps from 8pm to 645am without interruption. If she does wake up, I trod down the hall to her room, replace her pacifier and we both go back to sleep. For naps, you can put her in the crib and walk away. She needs a bit more help to fall asleep at night. But, I absolutely don't mind rocking her to sleep. It's amazing how I can spend all day with her and Jack and sometimes have the limits of my patience tested but sit with her at bedtime in the rocking chair and think there aren't enough hours in the day to be with her. She also needs her Nana Blanket close to her face if not entirely over her head.
Lily eats well. She guzzles six ounces of formula four times a day. She will fuss if you interrupt her mid flow. We've tried solid foods and haven't found a food that she exceptionally likes. We have found that green beans don't like her.
Her eyes are blue. I think we've passed the stage where eye color changes. Hers are a watery blue. She and Jack both have the same eye shape and amazingly long eye lashes. Both of them also have deep and dark circles under their eyes like they are totally sleep deprived. Her hair color has changed. We were sure she was a red head when she was born, she grew blond for a minute at around four months old and she's currently working on becoming a brunette.
She has amazingly sensitive skin. The slightest touch will leave a red mark on her skin. We douse her in lotion after every bath. You can tell if we miss a day, her skin becomes very dry and scaly.
She is strong. She always wants to stand up and be on her feet. She lifts her head while on her back; like she's doing baby abdominal crunches. She can roll over and she's working on sitting up unassisted.
We just noticed her first tooth. A small bump on her lower gums. She wont' let you touch it.
She hates to have her face or nose wiped.
She has a birth mark on her stomach close to her belly button. It looks like a smudged finger print.
The hemangenioma on her right shoulder is about the size of half a golf ball and seems to continue to grow. It doesn't seem to bother her or cause her any pain or grief. However, now that she is more mobile we're more concerned about it impeding her development or range of movement. We test her to see if she favors her left arm over the right arm. We explain her bump as the boo boo she was born with.
Her tickle spot is under her right rib; gets her every time.
She has several nicknames: little lovely Lily, silly billy Lilly and on fussy occasions "Miss Priss."
We love that she is here and we love our family of four.
