Beeps, Squeaks and a Few Milestones to Boot

Beeps and Squeaks, that's what we call the noises Lily makes these days.  Honestly, is there anything more wonderful than the happy sounds your children make?  Notice I specified the happy sounds your children make.  Wink Wink  

Lily, A.K.A "Owl" due to her uncanny ability to turn her head almost completely around to see what's going on behind her is a pretty quiet baby.  Her sounds are still pretty limited, "Mamama, mmmmmmmm, "pblt pblt" with her tongue, squeeeeals of excitement, short giggles and the one that really gets our attention from it's sudden and sheer powerful noise alone, "AAAAAAAAAH!"  She appears to have a pretty good sense of humor because she always seems to know just the right times to blow bubbles as if she doesn't like what she's hearing or is trying to make a point.  Either way, she's a laugh a minute.  Especially when her big sister joins the party.  These two are going to give us a run for our money. 

Yaya has just amazed us!  There has been no jealousy or envy over Lily.  In fact, completely the opposite.  She would give Lily the shirt off her back evidenced by sharing and even giving Lily her clothes and every safe toy she has.  She dotes on her like a tiny little mom.  The other day, we came back from shopping and Yaya laid out a picnic blanket.  She set up a beautiful tea party for the three of us girls and her dolls.  She was so proud to host Lily's first tea party and wanted it to be perfect. 

Yesterday, she decided it was time for Lily to go for a ride on her pink step stool.  She flipped it upside down and asked me if I would put Lily in it.  At first I said it wasn't a good idea but she promised she would go slow and added if we didn't try it now Lily would be too big to fit.  I caved and off they went sliding along the floor big sister pushing little sister in her "car."  Yaya promptly pushed Lily to her cardboard consession stand where she propped her behind the window and began yelling to the customers (Scott and me), "Come get your refreshments!"  We waited an eternity for moments like these.

Yaya turned 6 in July.  We celebrated her birthday in my parent's backyard again.  This year the theme was all about the movies.  My dad bought a huge screen for his yard and after the kids played games, swam and ate cake we showed "Happy Feet 2."   The invitations I made looked like the red tickets you get at a carnival to ride rides or buy a raffle ticket only they were giant.  We decorated cupcakes to look like bags of popcorn and there was a wagon full of boxes of candy for the kids to watch during the movie.  Each kid received a plastic popcorn box, a magic wand or light saber, a box of candy and a box of popcorn as a party gift.  We hung mason jars with battery operated tea light candles in the trees.  My dad put out LED rope lights along the sidewalk to make a movie theatre path to the BIG Screen.

The best part of her birthday was that my nephew and brother were able to be here.

Oh my! In addition to birthdays, vacations (pics and stories to come), attending vacation Bible schools and enjoying daily life we've had a summer full of milestones big and small. 

Here are a few of Yaya's milestones

*she went across the monkey bars all by herself

*she lost her first tooth with the help of aunt Allison

*she drove Boppies boat and went crabbing with him

*she can tie her shoelaces all by herself

*she took her first hip hop class and loved it

*she learned how to swim across the pool without her water wings

*she made friends with a dragon fly 

FYI, it's killing me to resize my pictures in order for them to fit because their clarity is now destroyed! 

Here are a few of Lily's milestones

*she's sitting up all by herself

*she's rolling and rolling and rolling all by herself

*she's graduated to cereals, veggies, fruits and even a few solid foods like rice and cheerios

*as of July 28th she weighs 15lbs and is 6 months old

*she's becoming a beach baby just like her big sister

That's our crazy whirlwind summer wrapped up in a completely unorganized nutshell.