First Pictures of the New Baby =)

Randomness

We had a great long weekend. We started it early with an afternoon date on Friday. Anson and I went to lunch and to see a movie - Tropic Thunder. I didn't enjoy the movie much. It's a guy movie! But, it was better than being at work.

Saturday we cleaned the house, and Saturday night I went out with my girls to dinner and putt-putt. We were celebrating Mindy's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINDY!!

Sunday we took Lily swimming. We wanted to go back to Griffith's Park but we drove all the way there and the pools were empty! So, we ended up going to Clearwater, which is double the price to get in. The water was sooooo cold. We didn't stay long. Lily was shivering. Sunday evening we went over to Anson's cousin Matt's new house in Tallmadge.

Monday we had a cook-out at my parent's house and then went down to Jill's for some volleyball. We had a packed weekend but it sure was fun!

Here are some updates on new things with Lily...

She is quickly learning how to use her fork to feed herself.

Yummy hot dogs and apples.
Nothing really special about this pic...she's just cute!
Lily and Colton at Matt's house on Sunday. Colton is so sweet. His mom, Teri, said to Lily "How are you doing sweetie pie?" So, Colton sat down, put his arm around Lily and repeated "How are you doing sweetie pie?"
We successfully weaned Lily off the bottle!! She's now drinking her evening milk from her sippy cup. Last Thursday was her last bottle (sob, sob).

Next are a few silly videos. Lily loves to spin around, make herself dizzy and then fall over.

This video is Daddy tickling Lily and Lily laughing really hard!

And finally, we taught Lily how to tickle back. This video is her tickling Daddy. She's really cute because she usually screams when she tickles someone.

Girl's Night...celebrating Mindy's birthday!

This sundae was free - can you believe it? Lone Star is the place to go for your birthday!

15th Month Check-up & the Fair

Today I took Lily to her 15th month check-up. Everything is going well! She is growing just right...a little too fast for my liking, though. Here are her stats:


Weight: 21lbs, 3 oz = 25th percentile
Height: 30 3/4" = 60th percentile
Head = 80th percentile


Our next task is to wean her off her night bottle, which I am not looking forward to!


Here are some photos from the Portage Co. Fair from Saturday. We went with Jeremy & Renee. It was a lot of fun and Lily enjoyed touching some of the animals.

15 Months on Earth...Amazing!

It's amazing how much a little baby learns in just 15 months here on Earth. Lily amazes us everyday. She is learning and growing so quickly!

She shakes her head no at everything! We've been encouraging her to shake her head yes but it doesn't always work.

However, last night Anson took Sampson to the park. I thought I heard him pull into the garage and I asked Lily "Is Daddy home?" She shook her head no. Then, a few minutes later, I heard Anson for sure, and repeated the question. This time she shook her head yes. I was so impressed!

Lily says "apples, apple juice, up, doggy, mama, dada and nana."

She loves books and picks up on things really quickly. We bought her a new book on Sunday and I read it to her only a few times, showing her where the fish, lobster, dolphins, etc, were. Then I asked her where those things were on the pages and she pointed right to them. Again I was amazed.

Lily definitely has her likes and dislikes. And, she's not afraid to voice her opinion! She has little tantrums on a daily basis.

Lily loves to climb on her toys. The higher, the better. The wobblier, the better. In the photo below, she's standing on her rocking giraffe.

Last night at dinner, Lily pointed to where we keep our bananas. Anson asked her if she wanted a banana and she shook her head yes. So, Anson gave her a banana and she ate it. That's was really neat because she was able to tell us what she wanted =)

Lily will go get her binky and her blankie when asked. She will also bring you toys - Elmo, Abby, Baby, Froggie, Bunny or Care Bear - when asked. She recently learned how to make her Care Bear sing and she pushes her hand over and over and over and over...

That's all for now. Her 15-month check-up is on Monday.

Jetskiing

I'm a little behind on posting, but better late than never. Here are a few photos from jetskiing last Sunday. We really did take Lily out, and Anson got us up to about 20 mph. But, she started fussing so we took her back in. She's not too fond of her life jacket.

Holding Mommy and Papa's hands.
Just chillin in her Dora chair. She amazed us all because she sat in this chair for a long time. She really liked it.
Playing with Uncle Jamie
Taking her water shoes off.

Babysitting...Daddy Style

This past Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of baby sitting Lily and Jen and Ken Waybright's son Zachary for about 4 hours. Mae had left that morning to go to Ottawa Canada for an overnight business trip and Jen needed someone that she trusted to watch Zachary while she went to a Tastefully Simple Party. Originally Mae had told Jen that we both would watch him, but eventually remembered that she was going to be out of town. I said that I would still do it, as 2 toddlers didn't scare me. I got home around 5:20 and quickly downed some food because I knew I was going to have to feed Lily as soon as Mae's parents dropped Lily off at 5:30. I got her food ready and then she was home. I fed her and cleaned her up just in time for Jen to arrive at 6 to drop Zachary off. He hadn't been fed yet either, so she told me what to give him and then she quickly left so she could get to her party. Here is a couple of pictures of him getting ready to eat dinner at the Cross household.

Yes... Don't I look so innocent...

Quit taking my picture...Do you know how many times my picture has been taken in the last 15 months????? GEEZ!!!

After dinner, I cleaned him up and then moved him over into the baby cage area so that the 2 could play together. Overall, they did quite well together. Neither one of them have a concept of sharing yet because as soon as one of them would pick something up, the other one was trying to take it away so he or she could play with it.

See what I mean....It was like this all night long :-)

This Elmo chair sure is comfortable...

The night went relatively quick. I didn't do much besides just watch them and make sure they didn't hurt themselves. I changed both of their diapers before putting them both into their pj's. As the night wound down so did their happiness. Lily started crying and then Zachary did. Zachary started grabbing my 2 index fingers and would pull me because he wanted out of the play area. I let him run free for a little bit so he could go see Sampson in the other room. At one point I was holding both of them on the couch and they were both laying their heads down on my chest. It was very cute, but it did not last long as both were not comfortable.

One last picture before Lily headed up to bed and Zachary's mom came to get him. Both of them would laugh when Sampson would go by and especially when he would lick their fingers from the outside of the play area.

That about wraps up my evening with the 2 toddlers. It certainly gave me plenty of practice for when there are more kids in our household. Hope you enjoyed the story, pictures, and videos.

Anson

Splishing and Splashing at Clearwater

Sunday we took Lily to Clearwater to go swimming. My parents met us there and we spent the whole afternoon swimming and laying in the sun. It was a beautiful day!

Before we left, Daddy made us Blueberry pancakes and bacon...yummy! Lily looked like she had bruises all over her face and hands from the blueberries. The stains didn't wash off until we got in the pool =)

Playing in the shade before we went swimming. When we got there we had to wait to get in because they were having a 20 minute break.
Watching the princess splash around. Clearwater is great because they have a baby area that is just deep enough for Lily. She sure loves the water.
She wasn't a fan of the floaties though.
Taking a water break. Bathing in the sunshine. Lily also loves to drink water, especially from Papa's water bottle.
Back in the pool and loving it.
They have a baby slide too. Lily liked to go down it.

Photoless Blog

Hi all! This is going to be a photoless blog because our camera is in the shop. It is almost out of warranty so we took it in to get a few things fixed. It stinks not having it!

Here are a few things we've been up to lately:

• Baby Girl turned 14 months old today! She's such a big girl. She's cuter than ever and melts our hearts every day. She's also a monkey. She climbs on everything and usually falls and hurts herself. But she always gets up and does it again.
• Sampson has lost 7 pounds! He now weighs 100 pounds. He still has another 10 or so to go, but the doctor was proud of us. Anson took him to the vet this morning because he's been having gunk in his eyes. Doctor said it's just allergies and gave us some drops.
• We just got back home from a bike ride. We bought a new "Copilot" seat for Lily to ride on the back of Daddy's bike. She's wasn't a big fan of the helmet, but she seemed to like the ride. We rode down the street to the Coventry Crossings allotment. It's a really nice neighborhood. We can't wait to live in a place like that in a few years.
• Anson has been going to a chiropractor for his back pain. It's really been helping him and we are both so glad. He has to go about 3 times a week. He has a lot of alignment problems!
• We have our annual sales meeting next week at GOJO. I'll be busy every day and evening. I'm sure I'll be exhausted by Friday.
• Tomorrow we are going to Anson's company picnic at Goodyear Metro Park. It should be fun but we hope it doesn't rain.

Well that's about all for the Cross Family Update. We hope all is well with you! Remember to leave us a comment so we know you stopped by!

Love,

Anson, Tamara Mae, Lily, Sampson, Slater and Peeve