April 2015 in Review

In April we hit a lot of new milestones with our Lily and Marco.  So many things happen and I forget to write them down and then the information is lost forever.  However, this is what I did remember to write down during the month...

Lily has been singing up a storm and if we let her she would sing 10 or 20 songs before her bedtime... just to prolong going to bed.  I've tried to limit the number of songs to one or two... but Lily is one smart cookie.  She knows that if she asks to sing a church song, when its bedtime, I will cave and we will always sing primary songs.

These songs now include:
I am a Child of God
Jesus' Baptism Song
Teach me to Walk in the Light

I had no idea that she knew the words to these songs, but some nights when I am singing them to her, she will sing along with me.  I purposefully stop at some phrases to see if she will carry on... and about 75% of the time she will continue singing.  It really goes to show that your children learn so much from you and even though they might not show it right away - it will eventually manifest itself.

Speaking of bed-time.  By the time Lily is going to go to bed, I'm pooped and the bedtime routine is short.  One thing that has made this easier is putting Lily to bed with Minnie Mouse instead of her doll-doll.  It's easier because we don't have to wrap up doll doll and kiss her and sing to her, etc.  I just have to make sure Minnie Mouse is with her and she is so so happy.

Besides Minnie Mouse, Lily has a few other favorite obsessions: Monsters, Minnie Mouse, Crayons, and Puzzles.  My favorite is her obsession with Monsters.  I have no idea where this one came from but she thinks that it is so funny that she tries to "scare" us like a monster.  Of course we act afraid.  We are terrified.  And it just makes her laugh and do it again.

Each day I am astonished with how much her vocabulary increases.  Here are some of her favorite phrases (translation may be included).
~ " [Insert name here] Made a mess"
~ Silly Mommy (or cow, or marco, or daddy, or lily)
Fall down (Anytime she slips, or anytime something falls off the bed/table/couch she likes to dictate to us that if fell and make sure we are aware).
~ Where Daddy go?
~ Go see Big Truck.  Go see Garbage Truck.
~ Animals: Giraffe, Elephant, polar bear, baby lions
~ Go nite nite mommy
~ Eggs.  Eggs. Eggs.

Some other fun little facts about our little girl...

She hates having her hands dirty.  And says "Wash Hands. Sticky Hands." Quite often throughout the day.  She will even go pretend wash her hands in her kitchen sink if she spies Michal or I washing our hands after using the restroom.

Easter was so fun to watch her gather and open eggs.  Somehow Lily got ahold of the eggs before easter and you think it would have spoiled the surprise... but it actually was a blessing in disguise because it made her overly eager and capable of finding and opening eggs. Otherwise she probably would have had no idea what to do with the eggs (or how to gather them).

Lily has decided to start dressing herself. She comes up with the most ingenious, creative clothing combinations. Take a look below and decide for yourself which is your favorite!

Lily had zero potty accidents this month!!! Hallelujah!!!

In fact, there have been a few times Lily has gone upstairs to go Potty by herself.  She then tries to bring me her "potty", so I have to carefully watch her... because she is notorious for sneaking off upstairs and reading to herself or putting together puzzles, or pulling out ALL of her clothes.

Lily loves to pretend like she's going to sleep.  Sometimes when she wants Michal or I to "pretend" to go to sleep... she is up to something and runs to go find the chocolate Michal's hiding.  Or wants to play with a toy we normally wouldn't let her play with.  She is clever this little girl of mine!

And lastly, we decided to buy a zoo pass and go to the zoo. (The Zoo Pass was $75 annually, but it would cost us $41 each time we decided to go.  So once we went twice, we made our money's worth on it.)  We went about 3 times in April and Lily was in heaven looking at all the animals.

Marco hasn't had as many milestones.

But he is a growing boy and getting smarter and stronger each day.  (Even though we are terrible at remembering to do tummy time).

If anything makes up for lack of tummy time, it's the bumbo.  Marco loves to sit in the bumbo and look at everything going on.

Marco started sleeping through the night. Then the last day of April... he stopped because he goes to bed significantly earlier.




Marco loves to give big smiles when he wakes up from a nap or when he is done nursing

He loves to grab ahold of fingers and play games with you... like smiling and then turning away pretending he is shy.

As Lily would put it: "Marco mouth bubbles."  He is frothing, which is totally typical for his age.

And even though Lily is such a great helper to always give Marco his binkie ("Marco kee-kee."), he hates his pacifier/binkie - loves his thumb. (Lily wouldn't take a paci after 4 months - so he is a little earlier than his sister at giving it up.)

Marco was blessed the last Sunday of April.  Michal voiced a beautiful baby blessing and we had some really great friends stop by the house afterward.  It was really such a perfect day.

As far as the two of them together go, Lily just loves, loves, loves her little brother.  She would do anything for him and loves making sure that he is included in everything. 

She even makes sure that he gets Princess stickers on the back of his hands.

And she makes sure he gets he daily dose of snuggles (or smothering).

In other news: The month of April has been extremely rainy.  It has been hard getting out for our normal walks.  But we have made do.

We even decided it would be more beneficial to buy a double stroller to make our walks easier.  Best purchase of the month!

Overall, I'd say it's been a pretty good month!