Flowerchild,

Baby girl, you love bring outside. "icccceee" (in your voice)
You adore our flowers we've planted. I can't get mad at your sweet face when you walk up to me grinning and wanting me to smell the flower you picked out of the bed. -_-

We spend our days yelling at the birds (boyds) and walking around barefoot on the sidewalk.
Your Jiddo (grandfather in Arabic) built you a rock box and you will literally spend hours picking up, inspecting rocks and the throw them back.
You also play in your little sand table, and enjoy dumping sand EVERYWHERE. When bath time comes, there is sand in ever roll you can imagine and I love it.
This is by far my favorite stage with you baby. You're so fun and are do determined and smart.
It's beautiful.
Xoxo.

Ears.

Let's talk ears shall we? They're ugly most the time. You have to clean them and they are one of the few things on your body to never stop growing. (old man ears anyone?) So, how come some people are born with ears that don't work well. Suchas hearing, or in Dovie's case- infection prone.

Yes, yes. Formula fed babies are more prone to ear infections. Yes, I wanted and tried and really still hate myself for not being able to BF. But why Lilly? I never lay her down with a bottle. Never propped it. I feed her (up until she started doing it herself) , yet she still gets an ear infection or double ear infection at least every 1-2 months. She's on multiple antibiotics almost all the time. She sleeps awful because she's in pain. I feel like I am always going her some form of Tylenol or Advil which I don't like doing, but she's in pain. Why would I deny her of being pain free?
Anyway. I took her today because I was almost 100% sure she has an ear infection. She had a double ear infection last month due to rsv and was on 2 rounds of antibiotics! That's 20 days straight of that! Horrible. And now she's got another one.
We were finally referred to an ENT (ears, nose, throat) doctor and I'm very skeptical on getting tubes. (which will probably happen.)
Putting your baby down for a procedure is scary, and I know people tell me "my kid had it. They're fine! She'll be fine!" and I believe them. It's just so scary with me.
But I suppose a procedure beats the hell out of my kid being and living on antibiotics forever, right?

Ugh. I guess we will see when we actually go there. Until then we wait. Here are some pictures from our doctors trip this morning.
Xo.

Planting our flowers.

Yesterday afternoon we decided that right now is a good time to plant flowers in our flowerbed. If you know me, I've been waiting to do this since, uh, forever. 

I was born and raised in the house that we moved into in February. I lived there until I was 15 when my family built a house and then rented this one out. Brandon and I rent it from my family now, and are attempting to fix up the yards and everything else. Ever since I was little we had flowers, roses, a garden in the backyard and always fresh cut green grass. And we're slowly getting it back to that. 

Sweet little house, we love you and I'm back! 

We bought a small amount of flowers just to try them out, see if they'll grow and last, and if they do, we'll go get more. So don't mind the sad, pathetic-ness that is my flowerbed! 

Also, Lillian helped by digging in the dirt, tasting the dirt, and falling face first on the driveway.

These of course are all pictured except her falling. The result of her falling is here though.

Xoxo! 

Rest in peace, Harley boy.

Handsome boy!

You were the best pup anyone could ask for.

Brandon found you years ago licking a Mcdonalds wrapper out at a skate park.
You were his ever since.

We brought you to our first apartment back in '08.
You loved it. You got treats galore, and slept in our bed.
We got you costumes and sweaters, and you were my little baby.

We moved to Austin, and you came with us.
We played in the sweet grass, you went to the dog park and growled at every dog that came near you.
(rude) and we took you to creeks.
You refused to get wet, and instead opted to sit.

We had so much fun, and I hope that you had a good life.
When we moved back here and I was on bedrest with Lilly, you couldn't get on our bed because I couldn't pick you up. You were pushed to the back burner when she was born, with her colic and everything else with her in the hospital and such. And I will never forever that.
I feel awful.
I should've done more for you. And I'm sorry.

You were getting older, using the bathroom on yourself and slept all day.
I'm sorry.
We brought you here to your own backyard. You seemed to love it, but were just growing older and less happy. You slept all day, and were barely eating. I'm sorry.

You were put to rest yesterday, March 13th. We buried you next to your best bud, Boomer.
We love you Harley, and I will never forget you.
Best side-kick ever.

Rest in peace buddy.
Mama & Daddy love you.

(You had to be in picture of Brandon proposing to me!)

                                 

Dress up. 

Christmas 2011

Snaggle tooth.

Doing what you did best; Peeing on things.

Furr ball.

New cut.

Walking around in Austin.

Austin fields. 

New shades.

Result of you refusing to go in the creek.

Snuggled up with mama in bed.

Happy birthday, it's your day!

It's time to celebrate!
(if you can guess that song, I'll love you!)

Here are just a few quick phone snapshots of the Doves party.
The weather was awful, so indoors everyone stayed. (little bitty space for 20+) anyway, my best friend Eleni made Lillian's cake & Brandon's mom made her smash cake.
All in all, a beautiful day for a beautiful girl and tons of gifts!
Xoxo!

Just recently,

I've been taking a lot more pictures of Lillian as keepsakes because, well, she turns ONE TOMORROW. ONE.
12 MONTHS.

I can't help but look at old blog posts, pictures, and cry. Cry, cry, and cry.
What happened to my baby? Everyone tells you the first year goes by too quickly, and it does.
Cherish the snuggly little frog baby on your chest mamas, because soon they will be walking around with their own baby (dolls) and it makes you incredibly sad.

Don't worry, I won't blab about her turning one anymore, I've got a whole other blog post set up for that.
Yes, get pumped.

(Current favorite thing: HER GIANT BLUE BALL.)
We've found a new obsession. And it's chalk.
All day all the time, we're outside coloring with chalk (and tasting the different colors of course.)



I've been trying to get Lilly on a really good, 3 solid meals a day schedule with lots of snacks in between, and I've been slowly adding a little cows milk to her bottles every couple of days. Cows milk is really constipating her, so I'm hoping she'll get used to it fast because, she's always had troubles with her poos and I struggle with getting all the fiber I can in her diet. And water, lots of water.

(Lots of things going on in this picture: Baby Einstien watching/ Re-introducing blueberries and grapes [still not a fan] / fuzzy bed head/ concentrating on her morning poo.)
[Any other mom get this excited over their baby pooing regularly? I'm a freak I tell ya.]



I've found out since walking, she hates sitting down. In her car seat, high chair, etc.
It's hard and incredibly frustrating.

Anywho, I'd like tips on how to transition better from formula to cows milk and also on how to get them eating a lot more food during the day instead of a couple of bottles.
Go!
Follow me on twitter & facebook for lots of pictures. And by a lot I mean, like, TOO MANY.
I really need to pull out my camera and take actual photos, but frankly I'm too lazy to upload them and edit them when I could just do it on my phone. I'm terrible, I know.

Xoxo,

Link: the watch cat.

Ever since I became pregnant, Link has been around me constantly and took a very big intrest in my growing belly. The days on bedrest, he'd lay right next to me with his paw on my stomach.
After having Lillian, he was a bit skeptic, (she screamed 24/7, remember.) but after a good month he was near her constantly.
If she'd fuss during the night in her basinet, which was right next to our bed, he'd claw at our bedroom door until I got up with her to make a bottle.

He's always been in the same room as her (unless he's napping on our bed of course, guarding a baby is serious and tiring business.) He'd lay under her bouncer while she kicked away. He also would lay on her play mat so she could kick him. Adorable.

I've noticed this right away, but since we just moved into our new house and Lilly's crib isn't in our bedroom anymore (We had a 2 bedroom apartment, we were too scared to leave her a in a room by herself.) Link lays by her bedroom door. ALL NIGHT. He doesn't move, make a noise or anything. He lays there. Right in front of her door, waiting for her to wake up.
When she does wake up, I can hear her on the monitor and I lay in bed listening to the goofy things she does or just try to get like, 5 more minutes of sleep, he claws at MY DOOR. Meows constantly until I get up and go open her door and let him in.
She wakes up and points at him making her kitty noise, and has a huge smile on her face.
It's the cutest and sweetest thing ever. Total genuine affection.

They spend their days laying on each other. Playing, sharing food and chasing each other up and down the hall. So, here's pictures. Lots of them of the two besties.





Oh yeah, and then there is Obi. He could care less about Lilly, if she comes near him or not. He doesn't like her sticky hands to touch him, he's content with just watching the birds all day.
We love him too, but lets face it. He's a different kind of guard cat. One that keeps the birds in check.


Xoxo,