Cinder-Lily

March madness is well under way and Lilia was not about to be left out. Matt helped her with her clever team name, but all the picks were her own. It doesn't look like Cinder-lily has a chance in the Van Schepen family bracket challenge, but hey...at least she made her dad proud by picking Minnesota to be in the final four!  Here's how she made her picks...

6 months

latest happenings

Fun fact: because of Chicagoland's latest snow storm, we are now only about 2 inches below our average for the year...which is pretty good considering the record we set earlier this winter for the most consecutive days without snow.  And I think snow is always prettier when it results in a snow day so Lilia and I could spend the day with Matt!  Here's a few pictures from from out our front door...

Lilia celebrated her 6 month birthday recently.  She's still rockin the 90 percentiles in weight (19 lbs. - 94th percentile) and length (28 inches - 98th percentile)!  She continues to be a happy baby that sleeps great through the night, and we are loving her little personality that develops more every day.  It's becoming harder to take these pictures by her moose because she is very into tags...

grabbing things like the camera...

or putting things in her mouth to chew on them.

Her latest trick that she's working on is sitting up on her own.  She's getting pretty good at it, but wanted to show off her leg strength in these pictures instead.  She's veeery wobbly, but loves to stand up with help.

looking pretty proud of herself...

My wonderfully talented husband made this book/storage shelf a couple weekends ago.  Add a rug, some fabric storage bins, and my own little name frame creation, and Lilia has her own little corner to keep her toys and books.  I still need to paint it...but that's a warmer day project for this summer.  Lilia seems to approve!

happy valentine's day!

I got a card in the mail?! (gasp)

Wait...what? This isn't an edible card?

I can't tell who it's from!

Oh I see now...it's from Grandpa and Grandma VS!

That was so nice of them to send me a card!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I'm trying to keep smiling...but, mom...I'm really ready for a nap. 

Can't you tell by my sleepy eyes?

See...told you...this sitting up stuff is hard work!

weekend

Sometimes just hanging out at home, not really doing a whole lot, is the best kind of weekend...

her favorite way to suck/chew on her pipe lately 

playing with daddy

not sure if lilia is laughing at matt's face or his kisses

Lilia slept in this morning but was quite content to just wait for us to come get her.  This is how she was looking at us when we opened up her door this morning....followed by a big smile.  What a way to start off a Sunday morning!

loving life

Lilia is in such a fun stage right now.  She absolutely loves to play in her little walker cart thing - I think because it allows her to stand up on her own and move around a bit.  Plus, it has many things of various shapes and textures to put in her mouth, which is a must these days.  It seems like if something is not in her mouth, drool is coming out...or maybe both at the same time.  And when we have her on the changing table, her toes or both thumbs will do the trick...

She's also becoming quite the mover.  She gets herself onto her stomach to sleep all the time, loves rolling around on the little play mat, and can even wiggle and scoot around if something is a little out of her reach.  When I checked on her napping the other day, she had moved herself all the way to the edge of her crib where there's no bumpers and was holding the bars with her head resting against them!

She loves to interact with people and easily wins them over with her bright-eyed smile. It's pretty hard to refuse, if you ask me!

new tricks

Last week, I was telling someone that it seems Lilia was just 3 months old.  Well, time really has gone fast because that's also the last time I updated this thing!  Well, we'll start with Christmas break, where we experienced quite a few firsts...

first teeth -- pretty quick and relatively painless, but pretty sure it led to her first cold which also got her to experience her....

first trip to the doctor (other than her well visits) -- we were in Iowa at the time, so Lilia was able to meet my pediatrician to make sure that croup cough wasn't anything more serious.

first time in Minnesota -- her dad was pretty proud of this one.

first time seeing snow -- we hadn't had more than a dusting in Chicago (and still haven't! I think the record for consecutive days without snow is still growing by the day)

first bubbles -- we try so hard to get a video of this, but she knows when the camera comes out and refuses to humor her crazy parents.

and celebrating declan and hannah's first birthday parties!

Matt thought she needed his hat to stay warm
 in the frigid temps last week.  Lilia seemed to
think that was a good idea as well :).

Well, since getting back from our far and long Christmas travels, a typical day for us includes rolling over any time I put her on her back...

...sticking anything and everything into our mouths (most recently, her toes)

...loving her new scooter toy thing

...and freely giving smiles and giggles (as long as she's not hungry or tired!)