Lilly's First Birthday

So I have a confession to make...my second child is definitely suffering from "second child syndrome".  I really want to try hard and make sure that Lilly has as much attention as her big sister had.  I am failing!  When Lainey turned one, it was a huge to do!  I think I probably started planning her birthday party when she was about two months old...not so much for Lilly.  Sure I had an idea of what Lilly's theme would be, but that was about as far as I got until about three weeks before (and really I only got it together enough then to send out invitations).  Seeing as life these days is jam packed (coupled with the fact that Lainey had such a big birthday party this year), I decided to try out an "open house" theme for Lilly's party.  My idea was that people could come and go as they please, get their picture taken with Santa, have some milk and cookies, and be on their way.  I must admit-it went pretty well!  I think everyone had a great time, and I was a lot less stressed!  So less stressed in fact that I did not get one single picture of the milk and cookies set up :( (See what I mean...second child syndrome!) 

the invite thrown together in like 2.5 seconds--love me some free clipart!

Santa, his elf, and the birthday girl

The best Santa around a.k.a. Crunkle Jake

So nice to have family close for birthdays now!

Lilly's BFF, Hadley--Lilly did not want to smile for ANYTHING this day!

This picture cracks me up!  Lilly's boyfriend, Crosley, was trying to lean in for some lovin', Lilly is looking at him like he's crazy, and Hadley's staring off in to space! :)

He was such a good Santa!

This would be the only picture I got of the decorations.  Pathetic, I know!

Lilly's party was especially fun for me because it was a great gathering of people from all aspects of our life.  I couldn't help but sit back and thank God for all of the awesome people He has put in our lives here and the fact that my parents and brother and sister-in-law are able to be around for so many big things in our lives now.  Feeling very blessed lately!

One Year!

Here's what's going on in Lilly's world these days:

•Lilly weighs 22.5 lbs. and is 29 inches long.  She is in the 75th% for weight and the 50th% for height.  We're used to the weight percentile, but this average height percentile is really throwing us off! :)
  

•Lilly is talking all the time.  She still babbles a lot, but she definitely has some distinct words: "Da Da", "Uh-Oh", "Hi", and "Thank You" which comes out more like "dank oo".  She will repeat "Ma Ma", "Papa", and "Nana", but hasn't started calling anyone by their name except for her Daddy (jerk!)

•Lilly is still sleeping well.  She now sleeps with a blanket and her taggie blanket her Nana made her.  She goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes up sometime around 7 the next morning.  She is down to one bottle before bed, and to be honest, I'm not sure when we will ever get rid of it!

•Lilly is eating everything we eat...and a lot of it (hence the 22 pounds!).  She really likes avacado, peas, and ham. 

•Lilly is wearing 12-18 month clothing and a size 4 shoe. 

We cannot believe it's been a year!  Lilly is still the sweetest, cuddliest, most fun-loving girl around.  She always has a smile on her face, and she LOVES playing with her big sister.  We can't get enough of our Little Boo!

My friend Sarah took some pictures of our girl for her birthday.  You can check them out here!

What's that? I can't hear you!

Baby girl has spent half of her little life with ear infections.  She has had 5 double ear infections in her short little life, and we had gotten pretty good at detecting them.  Our pediatrician referred us to an ENT, and he said this was a clear case of a girl in desperate need of some tubes!  Bless her poor heart...she failed 3 out of 4 hearing tests in BOTH ears!  We're thinking this now explains why she doesn't really say any words at 11 months. 

We got surgery scheduled, and today we went to have it done.  I have been VERY anxious for the past week or so thinking about this surgery.  I know that this is as routine as a c-section these days and these doctors do a million of these a day, but there's still nothing that can quite prepare you for your baby being put under anesthesia.  Ironic thing (or more like God speaking), our small group just watched a lesson on fear.  One of the things talked about in the lesson was how the things you fear the most are the areas in which you trust God the least.  This really hit me hard because I fear losing my children on a way too often basis!  I kept praying for God to take this fear from me and replace it with the peace that only He can give.  We went in, and I could feel all the thoughts and prayers being lifted then.  Lilly did great, and the surgery went off without a hitch.  It's amazing how God gives us those "slap in the face" moments when you realize He really does have control.  Thankful for a successful and uneventful surgery and hoping our Little Boo can finally hear and get some relief!

Fair Time

We've started a new tradition since living up North.  We head to my parents every year for the Knox County Fair.  It's a good time, and it gives Nana a chance to show off her girls to all of her friends. :) 

I had never been to a county fair before my parents moved here, so it's been quite the experience.  There are your typical carnival rides, 4-H presentations of animals, and three nights of concerts.  We happened to get a cooler weekend which made it much nicer.  I am definitely looking forward to the coming years with this tradition. 

Lainey rode a horse for the first time.  We pulled into the parking lot, and this man was riding his horse around directing traffic.  Lainey walked up to him and asked if she could pet the horse, and he got right down and asked her if she wanted to ride it.  She jumped at the chance and was loving life!  She later asked Nana to get her one. :)

Lainey and I got wristbands so we could ride all the rides we wanted.  We learned that lesson the hard way last year, so we're now prepared for wristbands every year!  Lainey loved all the kid rides, and we attempted some big kid ones as well.

This is one of those "big kid" rides we attempted.  I am a thrill seeker for sure, but I've always been leery of rides that travel around and are thrown up and down every few nights.  I decided to get over my fear for the sake of my thrill seeking child and ride some of the "big kid" rides with her.  Big mistake!  The thing about all of these rides is that they look a lot more mild from the ground than in reality.  We decided to go on the Octopus, a ride that is named because it looks like an octopus with legs out that go up and down and round and round.  Fun, right?!? 

Well after being (very loosely) strapped into our car, the ride got started.  We quickly learned that this was not going to be fun for either one of us.  I was literally hanging onto my daughter for her dear life.  My dad finally had to ask the ride guy if he would stop it because we were all getting a little nervous.  He graciously did, and Lainey and I got off the ride swearing to never do that again!  It would have been fun riding with another adult, but I learned my lesson about riding with my four year old.  We decided we would stick to the ones that spin round and round in one place, not round and round while moving up and down in the air!



Here's my sweet girls before the Hairball concert.  Hairball is a local 70s and 80s cover band that is AMAZING!  They really do put on a fantastic show, and have now become a permanent part in the fair lineup.

When we weren't at the fairgrounds, we were hanging out on the farm. 

Lainey with the beans she had planted earlier this year.

Picking and shucking corn for the first time

  This may be one of my favorite pictures of all time because you can just see how much these two love each other!  I am a Daddy's Girl for sure, but Lainey is certainly giving me a run for my money on who is Papa's favorite, ha!

Enjoying the fruits of her labor. 

Sweet sisters hanging out on the farm, and by hanging out I mean taking a million pictures for their crazy momma!  

And finally ending the weekend at Nana & Papa's church.  Crunkle didn't plan on matching the girls, but we figured it was picture worthy.

I can't express how wonderful it is to live this close to my family.  Can't imagine ever being as far apart as we were ever again!

Farm Life

Lainey has spent a lot of time at Nana & Papa's farm this summer!  My parents live on a farm, but are nowhere near farmers!  My dad just wanted the land and the scenic view, and we love that the girls have such a fun and different place to play.  Lainey has officially spent about 3 weeks there this summer, and only one of those was with Mommy around.  She goes to my parents and doesn't think twice about her own parents.  We only get to talk to her if we call her!  She loves the room to run, and she loves being able to play outside ALL day and night!

 Lainey loves to go golfing with her buddy, Carter.  The two of them especially enjoy driving the carts. :)

Lainey was able to help her Papa plant beans earlier this summer, and this past week she got to see how much they've grown. 

My mom has an above ground pool, and Lainey has really become a little fish.  I am amazed each time she comes home at all the new pool "tricks" she has!

And who doesn't love a good slip and slide?!?

This is one of my favorite pictures.  We're slightly obsessed with having "fire camps" at Nana & Papa's, and this girl loves her some marshmallows!

I am so thankful to live only 3 hours from my parents and to have parents that are so willing to take their grandchildren for extended periods of time.  My dad has said several times lately that he would be perfectly fine if Lainey came to live with them. :)  So blessed to have them in our lives!

Five Months!

May 3rd already??  Well baby girl is five months old, and she is getting more and more fun every day!  We've had a rough month in the Tosic house.  Lilly had her first ear infection, and quite frankly, we've not gotten a ton of sleep this month.  As my mom pointed out, we've been extrememly spoiled with her, so by me saying we've not gotten a lot of sleep, it's still more than most!  She seems to be better now and is back to wanting to eat again.  I'm pretty sure she's now making up for lost time, ha!
•Lilly weighs around 14 pounds.  She lost some weight in the last month since she rarely ate.  She's such a sweet little peanut!  We're not sure how long she is...we'll save that for her 6 month check up!
•Lilly is laughing all the time.  The best part about it is she laughs without being tickled--she just laughs because she thinks something is funny.  Her sister is still her best entertainment.
•Good news...Lilly has moved to her crib!  It just happened last week, but hey-we've had a rough month, remember?!  She's doing okay in her crib.  Most of the nights she has made it the whole night.  On the couple of nights when she's woken up aroun 3 or 4, we cheat and bring her to our bed.  We are definitely from the school of "whatever works" until the summer! 
•Lilly goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until 6:30, wherever that may be!

•Lilly is up to 7-8 oz. bottles.  We tried cereal, but she is not feeling it AT ALL!  I'm being a bad mom and sneaking some in her bedtime bottle...it's seemed to work.  She is still on breastmilk, and I have cut my pumping down to only twice a day.  I tried to quit once last week and after almost throwing up from the pain at 3 in the morning, I decided I'd go a little longer.  I forgot how awful it is to quit!
•Lilly is still wearing size 2 diapers. She's wearing 3-6 month clothes, more leaning toward the 6 month side!

•Lilly REALLY wants to move!  You can tell she has the desire, she just can't quite get it figured out yet.  She pushes herself all the way up, but then she cannot figure out how to get those knees underneath her.  It's only a (short) matter of time before she's mobile!  We also think teeth are in the near future.  She constantly has her hands in her mouth!

How we got another blonde haired, blue-eyed baby is beyond us, but boy am I counting down the days until I get to spend lots of time with this sweet girl soon!!!

Catching Up

Life has, as always, been a little hectic these days.  We've been going nonstop and loving (almost) every minute of it!  I wanted to get a few pictures documented so I can somewhat be able to remember what life was like during this time.

Here's Lainey before church a few Sundays ago.  Jovan really wanted a picture in this outfit because he thought she looked so cute.  I asked her to pose, and this is what I got, ha! 

Lainey started soccer a few weeks ago.  She's taking it through a group here called "Tiny Toros".  There is a club league here, Toros, and the older girls are the "coaches" on Saturdays.  We had Lainey playing through the YMCA last year, and it was basically a complete joke.  In this program, it's a little more pricey, but I feel she is actually learning fundamentals, so it's worth the money.  They all have this lovely neon yellow shirt.  This picture is from her first game, and I'll have to add some new ones after this weekend.  We've had some changes to her wardrobe such as soccer cleats and some fabulous neon yellow soccer socks.  Not really sure why neon is so popular these days, but what can ya do?!

Here are the girls in their matchy-matchy zebra dresses.  Bless their hearts!  They were both sick in this picture!  We have been battling some illness here in the Tosic house this past week, and we're hoping there is an end in sight.  Lainey had strep throat last week, Lilly had a fever paired with an awful ear infection, and I had the stomach flu this week.  Lainey was great once the antibiotics kicked in, but her little sister has had a ROUGH time lately!  She weighed almost 14 lbs. at her 4 month check-up, and she has since lost a pound this month because she has had so many eating issues. :(  Her poor ears just haven't allowed her to do much.  We got to the point where she had to have three days of shots...hoping these ear infections don't become a regular occurance!

This picture was taken of the girls yesterday.  Getting a good one of both of them is nearly impossible, so this was the best we could get.  I still think they're pretty cute! :)  We're looking forward to a weekend home to recover and relax!

Four Months!

Cannot believe I am writing Lilly's 4 month post!  Time is flying by.  We're trying to enjoy every minute of it, and as much as I don't want time to go faster, I am looking forward to seven weeks from now when I get to hang out with my girls all the time for summer break! 

Here's Lilly's as current as can be info.  I'll update her actual weight and height after we go to her check-up next week. 

•We're guessing Lilly weighs somewhere around 14 pounds.  Still a healthy one!
•Lilly has started giggling.  She is very ticklish, and we love getting her to laugh.  She also laughs at her sister.  Lainey plays peekaboo with her, and she just laughs and laughs.  It is about the sweetest thing I've ever seen!

•So I thought that Lilly would be in her own room by now, but she's not...
  I don't know what is wrong with me, but I just can't put her in her own room yet.  I know it's completely     ridiculous, but I'm not making any apologies for it!  It's something about knowing she's the last one that makes me not able to let go of my baby.  I did feel a little better this week when I went to my yearly check-up with my doctor (whose daughter is a week younger than Lilly) and she told me her daughter is still in her room too :)

•Lilly goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until 6:30.
•Lilly still drinks about 5-6oz. bottles a day. She's still on my milk, and I'm still pushing to make my 6 month goal!
•Lilly is wearing size 2 diapers.  She's wearing 3-6 month clothes, more leaning toward the 6 month side!  She's a little chunk!

•Shortly after she started rolling on her tummy at the beginning of last month, she also was able to roll back over.  You cannot put her on her back without her rolling right over.  This has presented a slight issue while she is sleeping, and that too may be contributing to why we're not putting her in her crib yet. 

• Lilly took her first road trip this month.  We drove to Memphis on a last minute trip, so she has now been to 4 states.  She was an amazing traveler and I was constantly reminded of what a blessing she is!

And just for comparison's sake...Lainey at 4 months:

 



Rough Week

This has been a crazy week in our house.  We recently started Lainey in swim lessons, dance, and tumbling, so that takes up three different nights in our week in addition to small group and the day-to-day responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, and lesson planning.  This past week we also got to throw in two nights of conferences for me in which I worked 13 hour days.  Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED by the time Friday rolled around.  Luckily we had a staff development day Friday so we didn't have to teach all day after our lovely meetings with parents! 

Besides being exhausted, Friday was a big day for us.  Our best friends here in Nebraska, Bryce and Tina,  had Match Day for residency placement.  Bryce is going into the field of pathology, and we were absolutely certain that they were going to be here for residency.  We were able to watch Match Day on a live feed, so we knew right when they did where Bryce had been placed.  Our worst fears came true, and we found out that Tina and Bryce will be moving to Denver for the next 4 years.  We are absolutely devastated, but we know God has a plan for them.  After LOTS of tears yesterday, we've been able to come up with several positives about the move----like the fact that we've never been to Denver, and that Jovan's region is Denver so he gets to travel there.  It's going to be hard to lose them for 4 years, but we're hopeful they will make the return home when it's over! :)

Lainey helping Ms. Tina blow out the candles on her birthday cake

Lainey loves Tina and Bryce!  We're waiting to tell her about the move,,,not looking forward to that one!

And after a completely crazy week, I can look at the following pictures and realize how completely blessed my life is.  I am so thankful to have these girls!!!