8 months old :(

I can't believe my baby girl is 8 months old. I feel like this summer is gonna fly by (because summers always do) and then it's gonna be her first birthday. I'm about ready to cry thinking about it right now.

She has been a squirrel lately. Cracking us up and wearing us out. Last night, it was like she wanted to be held, but was squirming to get down the whole time. Then we'd put her down and she would want back up. She's just a hoot.

Lila's friend Elle came to visit her the other day. Elle's mom came to visit me. :) They were cracking us up. If they end up being anything like their moms, we're gonna be in trouble. I can't wait for them to get older and they can actually play together. Right now, there's just a bunch of eye gauging and hand holding. :) They were so sweet though.

Lila is starting to finally discover that she can move around and get stuff. She's not interested at all in crawling and I think she's going to skip it completely. She can scoot herself to get to stuff, but if it's too far away then she just forgets about it. That's my lazy girl!! I honestly don't know where she gets that because in all seriousness, neither Neil nor I am lazy on a regular basis. She is finding out that she can actually pull herself up on things other than my hands or Neil's hands. She getting so big so fast. She is very interested in walking more than anything. She pulls up on our fingers and immediately starts to take off. I'm not so sure I'm ready for this. :(

We went swimming last weekend at my Grandma's house, and by swimming, I mean we put our toes in the water on the top step. It was FREEZING. The weather started warming up early this week, but we had bad storms and cool weather today and probably tomorrow. I feel like we're never gonna get to swim. She was most in awe with Connor jumping around in the water and going off the diving board. She was screaming at him the whole time. It was so cute.

I've got a super long weekend this weekend and hopefully it will warm up and we'll have some great weather. One of my great friends Medley Wilson is getting married to her high school sweetheart, Clay Ford on Saturday. Aren't they so cute! It should be a blast! Hopefully I'll have pictures from the wedding for my next blog. I wish y'all the best marriage!

It's gonna be Lila's first wedding and I'm hoping the reception will be fun for her! She loves music and dancing so we can only hope. Next weekend we have another wedding out of town and Neil is in it! Should be an interesting weekend. I'll blog later about it.

I'm going to try to get some updated pictures and videos put up on here too. I just have to find the time! :)

Summer...maybe

The weather here has been so crazy lately. It will be 70 degrees in February, then 30 in March. Last Friday it was 85 degrees during the day and a storm came through and it's been in the 50s and 60s since then. It's crazy. I feel like we just woke up and forgot we moved to Alaska. At this rate, we'll never get in the pool this year because it won't warm up enough to get the water comfortable.

Lila loves being outside too and I feel bad because we can't go out and play like we were a few weeks ago. I don't want her to catch another cold or be miserable with sinus stuff. Ugh...I just hate it.

Tonight, Lila literally fell asleep mid-bite. I was cracking up. We did some exercises today to try to get her out of her "comfort zone" as far as sitting goes. She is a champion sitter, but won't transition into crawling position or sit up from lying down. It really just pisses her off to have to do it. I know this isn't a big deal yet, since she's only going to be 8 months old on Friday, but I just wanted to make sure that if there is something I can do to be helping her, I am.

Sometimes I feel like being a working mom is putting her behind. Neil and I work with her when we're home with her, but we don't get to do it all day with her. I know I'm making myself feel guilty for no reason, but sometimes you just can't help but think that way. We are a totally realistic family and like millions of other families, we both have to work. Wouldn't it be nice if we BOTH got to stay home with our daughter every day and take in every second of her growth and development?! HAHAHA We'd probably drive ourselves crazy! Maybe we should start playing the lottery! :)

I can't believe that almost 8 months have gone by since we were in the hospital awaiting her arrival. It's just so crazy how fast time really flies when you're having fun!

Sweet Little Stinker Face

Oh this girl! She is so funny. She's already developing such an attitude, I told Neil this morning that he was gonna end up witnessing a lot of mother/daughter fights in the years to come. She kicks and rolls every time you try to change her diaper. When you put her in her car seat, she arches her back and tries to fight the straps being fastened. To get her to eat is just as much of a chore these days too. If it's not something that she absolutely wants, she shakes her head "no", or purses her lips together or knocks the spoon out of the way. Whatever it takes. She's a mess.

On the other end of that, she is talking more and more. I sometimes wonder what her little brain is trying to get her mouth to say to us. Then other times, I think, maybe I don't want to know! :) He voice gets sweeter and sweeter everyday. It's so soft and angelic, like nothing I've ever heard before. When we're at some kind of sporting event, she hears others yelling and then she'll go off on a rant where she does the same thing. It's hilarious.

Her fine motor skills are getting very good too. She learned in no time at all to pick up a Puff and put it in her mouth. She has gotten really good at it and I think the girl thinks she can live on puffs and although it's nice to give her something to keep her occupied while I'm making dinner or doing laundry or something, I have to assure her that they do not meet her daily requirements of vitamins and minerals! :)

She loves the dogs. She could watch them all day. Just playing or walking back and forth or even just laying there; she loves them.

Posts #25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

1. Son of a Sailor - Jimmy Buffett

2. Wannabe - Spice Girls

3. Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band

4. Coconut Telegraph - Jimmy Buffett

5. Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani

6. Ignition (remix) - R Kelly

7. Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue - Toby Keith

8. Kerosene - Miranda Lambert

9. The Hurricane - Bob Dylan

10. Lollipop - Lil Wayne

Quite the diverse set of tracks, don't ya think???

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets - Jasper (Australian Shepherd), Ringo (Black Lab)

Day 28-Something that stresses you out - People who lie and manipulate, being away from my family, the dogs when they are misbehaving (Jasper jumping on the door to come inside or Ringo chewing through an AC unit cord), people who think they are too good to help out others in need, hypocrites. I try NOT to stress out very much, but sometimes there's no getting around it.

Day 29-3 Wishes - I wish that gas prices would go down. I wish people were nicer to each other. I wish that there were more hours in the day. The list could go on and on.

Day 30-a picture

This "30 Day" challenge only took me like 4 months to finish! I think I'll be done with these for a while. I'll probably do another post today though on Miss Lila Jane! Check back tomorrow if it's not done today. :)

Posts # 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, & 24

#19 - Something you miss: I miss sleep. There are nights when my mom has Lila stay all night and we always think " this will be amazing" and then something will happen...thunderstorm, other crazy weather, anniversary, etc. I have been traveling this week and still have yet to have a good night's sleep.

#20 - Nicknames: LJ, Linds...I think that's about it. I don't have very many.

#21 - Picture of yourself: So here is a pic of Neil and me because I'm so not sure that I have and actual individual picture of myself! I had really blonde hair here. It's a lot darker now. I hope to try to keep it closer to my natural, but it's so hard when summee comes around.

#22 - Favorite city: I don't know that I can answer this. All I know is that it's a city that is on the coast and is a lot warmer than Harrisburg.

#23 - Favorite vacation: I really don't know about this one either. Retro speaking, I guess I would say my senior trip to Cancun with some really great friends! I can't think of any other girls I would've rather spent this time with!!!!

#24 - Something you've learned: I've learned that if you want something done right, you should do it yourself. Bottom line!