Happy (half) Birthday!

A whole 6 months has passed since we first held Lilly in our arms.  How is that even possible?!  Every day is more fun than the last and we just look forward to what is in store.  She's now sitting up on her own and loves checking everything out around her.  She seems pretty content just chillin' wherever we place her.  I don't see her crawling anytime soon, but guess we'll see.  Corey's mom thinks she'll walk before she crawls and, honestly, that wouldn't surprise me.  She's never been a huge fan of tummy time and, quite frankly, holding up all that body weight is no small feat :-)

Lilly is 27.75 inches tall and 19 lbs 6 oz.  That puts her in the 98th percentile for height and 93rd percentile for weight.  Her head size is still off the charts.  She is one consistent little grower.

Likes: Anything she can get in her hands on and immediately put in her mouth, sweet potatoes, bath time, her silly dog, Tyler, sleeping, getting tickled and giggling.

Dislikes: Tummy time for more than a few minutes, being gassy, skipping naps

Helping momma wrap presents...tissue paper immediately went in the mouth

Give me that wrapping paper...I'm sure it tastes yummy!

First bath in the big tub

Shocking...right into her mouth the toys go :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

While my parents were here over Thanksgiving, we also decorated for Christmas!  My mom's DIY crafty-self helped us make bows to place throughout the tree as well as a tree topper.  Since we won't be around to fully enjoy it over the holiday, I wanted to get everything up before we hosted Thanksgiving.  Let's be honest, I don't need an excuse...if it wasn't for people looking at me weird I'd probably keep it up year round. I'm definitely the person to keep the Christmas tree up as long as possible.  That's basically the reason I prefer the fake tree approach as we can leave everything up for a full month before AND after Christmas...at least! There's something so cozy and warm about the lights, and tree, and all the memories splattered all over the tree.  My mom has always given Bryan and I an (at least one!) ornament for Christmas each year and I now have all of those ornaments for our Bruno family tree.  And, a few years back, Corey's Christmas gift to me was an ornament from every place we've traveled together as well as a few from Russia and Rome which him and I traveled to, respectively, but that hold an important place in our hearts.  We've now made it a tradition to get an ornament everywhere we go.  Every year when we take out the ornaments to hang on the tree, we get to re-live all of these wonderful memories from Hawaii, Cayman, New Orleans, Disney, San Fran, and Sonoma...from Cabo, Rome, Moscow, Traverse City, Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis.  If you can believe it, the list goes on.  We are very lucky to have traveled to many wonderful places.  (Great) Grandma Lillian always said to travel as much as possible.  Hopefully we have, and will continue, to make her proud.

That's a good looking tree if I do say so myself.  It was totally worth fighting others at 7am on December 26th last year :-)

So much to be thankful for

As I mentioned in my earlier post about our visit to Chicago, my mom couldn't make the trip due to a knee injury.  While we were very disappointed (not nearly as much as she), it ended up working out as her and my dad made the trip to 'the Lou' just a week later to stay with us for a full week; including Thanksgiving Day!  To say they enjoyed their visit would be the understatement of the year.  While we spent most of the time at home, Lilly did venture out for a little shopping with Grandma and Grandpa.  She even got to meet Santa!  I hosted my first Thanksgiving which I'd have to say was a success! Thanks to my mom for her help in the kitchen and to Carolyn and Meredith for bringing a few dishes as well.  It was such a special week and we're already looking forward to their next visit.  But, first up is our visit to Michigan for Christmas!

We are thankful everyday for all the happiness our little lady brings to our lives, for family and for good health.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well, surrounded by friends and family.