Spring has Sprung!

And oh, is it ever nice! The snow is melting, the robins are back and as colourful as ever, and the plus weather! Oh, how I missed thee!

You can be sure that we've been taking advantage of the nice weather to go for family walks - Me, Mike, Lily and Kira have gone out each day this weekend. Once, to get a delicious caramel Caretto from Second Cup, and once just to get out in the neighbourhood. Lily loved it, too. She seems to love looking at the scenery, snacking on Cheerios, and being her usual cute self.

I am definitely not a Winter person, so I have been waiting for Spring since Fall ended. In the Winter, I pretty much stay inside almost all the time. If I'm not at home, I'm at work. If I'm not at work, I'm in my car. If I'm not in my car, I'm in some other building! Yes, I do get out and do other things, too, but I just don't like the cold. I'm hoping with Spring here, it will be incentive to get out every day (except the rainy days) and go for walks, or to the park. Maybe finally get back to my pre-pregnancy weight! :P

Now, if only Lily would learn to walk! She did take some steps yesterday, but she's not close to walking yet. I'm looking forward to the toddling days!

I'm Baaaaack!

Yeah, I knew it would happen... So, it's been a couple of months, how are my few but faithful readers doing?? :) So what's new since last time I wrote? Well, Lily is out of her Pavlik harness... our appointment was December 21, and we were given the go-ahead to move on to the next brace... the "Rhino Cruiser Brace", which is for naps and night time only. It was a fantastic day when we found out, such a wonderful early Christmas present. Since then, she has become a speedy crawler, pulls up to standing at every opportunity, stands on her own and will walk behind her push toy. No steps on her own yet! But for being out for 2 months, she's doing great.

January 4 was my return back to work. Lily loves her daycare, so it has made the return so easy for me. I'm thankful for that. She's such a happy girl that I'm not surprised, but she has done much better than I anticipated! I thought there would be some clinginess on leaving, but she's great. She loves to wave "bye-bye" to me when I go!

January 25 was her first birthday! On the actual day itself, we just bought some store-made cupcakes and let her have some. She made a mess, and wasn't sure what to do with it at first! But once she realized it was yummy, she had no problem eating it! Then on the 29th we had her family birthday party. She had a great time! Her Nana even came from Saskatoon to be there for her birthday. This time, Lily knew exactly what to do with the cake! I made a bear-shaped chocolate chocolate chip zucchini cake (why not sneak extra veggies in?).

Lily loves talking (she can say quite a few words, like cat, turtle, potato, frog, and more... and she also can mimic words on occasion when we ask her to say somethig. Only when she wants to!), reading and playing, and loves to be picked up all the time. She especially knows when Mommy and Daddy are busy (making dinner, cleaning bottles, etc.) and can't pick her up right away. That's the exact moment she chooses to want to be picked up! She's quite a character, and is such a joy every day.

Winter Wonderland!

Last night we had our first real dump of snow of the season. Personally, I'm not a fan of winter or snow, but I've decided it's not fair to Lily to let that rub off on her (hehe!). Today, I got her all bundled up in her snowsuit for some fun in the snow!

First of all, it takes longer to bundle up a baby in a snowsuit than you actually spend outside playing in it! With boots, snowpants, mittens, a sweater, jacket and toque, not to mention a squirmy baby getting increasingly angrier with you for restraining her and dressing her up, it's a real work out! Then, sitting said baby down while you get your own boots, jacket, hat and mittens on (without her toppling over in all the extra layers) is another challenge. Grabbing the video camera and camera and getting out the door is issue 3.

Once we were outside, Lily loved it! I sat her in the snow and showed her you can throw it up in the air, cover your legs and move it around. She giggled and put her mittened hands in it a bit, too. Then we walked around the backyard and I even helped her make a snow angel! We were outside for maybe 10 minutes, then it was time to go back inside and TAKE OFF all the winter gear. Phew!

Here are some pictures of our adventures of the day!

Waiting for Mommy to get ready

Fun in the snow

Just sitting around

I'm not so sure about this covering business, Mommy

My first snow angel!

And a video too, why not :)

Need for Speed

Lily's crawling has already improved greatly! Here she is speeding along... more later.

She's Crawling!!!

Yet again, another video! She really is learning so many new things!

Learning, Learning, Learning!

It's amazing seeing all of the new things Lily is learning in such a short period of time! It's obvious that she is understanding us more and more... here's a video of her identifying the dog, Mommy, Daddy, and her own soothers! :)


As I mentioned before, Lily gets more and more mobile every day. I'm sure she'll be crawling in her harness soon!

Lily has learned a new sign: More! See another video :)


And finally, Lily can easily roll over from her back to her stomach while in her harness! She even prefers to practice this instead of nap! Yet another video! :)


It's funny how babies learn so many new things at once... almost like they wake up and say, "Now what can I do that's new today? How can I impress Mommy and Daddy?" Whatever it is, I just love it! I love watching her learn new things.

Catch Up

Oops, seems like I've fallen behind in my blogs! Here are some updates of what's going on with the Beesons:

Lily:
We have got one determined little girl on our hands. Lily is so close to crawling, she is very good at going forward a few inches if there is something she wants that is just out of reach. If it's any further from her, however, she just ends up going backwards, and her object of desire just goes further and further... and we eventually get a frustrated Little Bean! But it's amazing watching her learn, especially in her harness. She gets on her hands and knees, rocks for a while, then sticks out her left leg and pushes off with her foot. She hasn't discovered she can do the same with her right foot yet, but once she does, I will be proud to say I have a clever little girl who has learned to crawl in her harness! Pavlik Harness, you can't stop Lily!

Tooth #3 looks like it may soon make an appearance, today I was able to see the white of the little points under the gums. I know better than to make bets as to when it will come, but I think by the end of November it may cut, if not sooner.

Growling has made a reappearance in this house. Lily makes the most ridiculous monster/growling sounds, it always makes me laugh! She even babbles in her monster voice sometimes! I'll upload a video later, it's on my phone and I need to transfer it to my computer.

Mike:
Mike is enjoying his work, as usual. He's looking forward to the Christmas holidays because he should be getting time off. He's looking foward to spending more time with Lily!

Christina:
I just bought the Wii Fit Plus and am having lots of fun playing it! Not only is it fun, but it gets me up off of the couch as well :) I did a 40 minute workout on it yesterday, and now I'm a little sore. Today I was only able to get 25 mins in before Lily woke up. As someone who is competitive, it's fun trying to beat my own scores.

I'm not looking foward to going back to work in less than 2 months, but at the same time it will be nice to see my coworkers. I hope Lily reacts well to daycare. I'm sure she will, but until you're there, you always worry.

I've already started my Christmas shopping... this has never happened before! When I was in university, I often only started after my exams were done, meaning at least December 15th! This year, it's fun to shop for Lily's first Christmas!