Lillian Seven Month Update

Hi everyone! Lillian went for her checkup this week. It was supposed to be her 6 month checkup, but due to scheduling issues, it was a 7 month checkup. She topped the charts at 21 lbs. 9 oz. and 28 in. She's very healthy except for some minor allergy symptoms. She constantly rubs her eyes to the point of distraction and waking herself up, so the doc gave us some eye drops. They seem to help as she gives us more than two hour sleep stretches at night. Her record is about 5 hours, but she's inconsistent at this point. In other news, a cute little tooth finally popped through: the bottom middle one. She hasn't started crawling, yet, but she's still doing pushups and rolling around like crazy. She's also actually enjoying her food lately. It took a few days of trying, but she now gets excited to eat a bit in the morning and late afternoon. She's had brown rice, barley, and oatmeal as well as bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes. It's been fun getting back into puree making. I hope to get even more adventurous with her than with Robert, but we'll see what she likes. Robert didn't end up doing purees for very long as he was more interested in finger foods.

Anyway, enjoy these pics of her eating and wearing her new summer bonnet that Aunt Julie just sent. It's so cute and reminds me of the ones I wore when I was little.

Milestones

It's a big week at the Kunes' House! Robert is starting to toilet train this week. I took a picture of him in his new boxers. We had a serious talk about the commitment to wear underwear and not diapers, to strive for dryness, and to take the final steps out of babyhood. He said he was up to the challenge....and then peed in his underwear about 10 minutes later. Nice. It's gonna be a long week. I'd appreciate your prayers.

In other less messy news, Lillian is our house superhero this week. She's been doing push ups and trying to crawl already! She'll be 7 months in 3 days. While I'm glad she's progressing, I'm not ready to chase a crawling baby, yet! She still hasn't gotten those teeth we thought were coming in a few months ago, but she's working on a bottom middle tooth. It's just about to pop through the gums, and she's not happy. That molar that's visible just under the gums never came in. So this could be a big month for her: crawling and teeth. Should be fun! Right?!

Look Who's Sitting Up Tall!

Only two more days until my little girl turns 6 months old! I can't believe how fast time is flying. I know, all parents say that. But it seems to be going much faster with two children than it did with just Robert. While I'm glad that Lillian is getting older and much less "sensitive," I was thinking just last night that I no longer really have an infant. And for about one second, I was nostalgic and a bit sad. Then I looking at her happy, healthy, smiling face. This age suits Lillian much better than infancy! She is laughing and smiling (mostly at the Kunes boys) all the time. She just loves to watch her brother play. He is starting to love her more and more, too. He's always loved "his baby," but he's actually trying to play with her these days. He sits next to her on the floor and plays with her toys with her. He tickles her toes and fingers and is quite gentle with her (for a two year-old). She especially loves it when he puts his face right near hers and lets her grab his curls. One would think it would hurt (it does when she grabs my hair), but he loves it and laughs! So basically, at six months Lillian is happier than she's ever been, loving life, and loving her family. Happy six month birthday my sweet girl!

Lillian's Take on Life Lately

So I bet you're wondering what we've been up to lately here at the Kunes household. Well, it's been exciting, as always! Just last night we had a fire truck at our house! Mommy and Daddy burnt our Super Bowl chicken wings on the grill and someone from the busy road behind our house called the Fire Dept. when they saw the smoke. Boy was Robert excited when he had his own personal tour around the fire truck! I was just excited about the pretty lights.

My brother got a new big boy bed! He's sleeping so well in it--no problems at all. You'll notice that the sheets are pink. They are Dora sheets and came with the bed that Mommy found for cheap on Craigslist. Robert loves Diego AND Dora, so he was thrilled with the sheets. I figure he'll give them to me when he decides it's not cool to sleep on pink sheets! I got his old crib. I don't like it at all. I still prefer the double bed I share with Mommy. But she's going to start making me sleep in my crib very soon. Boo!

My brother's been taking pictures. He got this close up of me. Pretty good, huh?!

Here we are on a lazy Saturday just playing. Robert likes to be in all pictures, so here he is in front of me.

Here I am playing with my toy that Mom figured out how to hook onto the swing. It's supposed to go on a stroller, but hey, this works!

Here is Robert building "tall towers." He builds them up and knocks them down while I watch. I can't wait until I'm big enough to knock them down!

I love this thing! If I'm not busy swinging myself in my swing, it's my favorite. Yep, you read correctly. I figured out how to move my body back and forth to swing myself in the swing. It's fun! We'll have to get a video of it...

Robert and I were sick for a very long week. We had cold symptoms, but he had a fever for 6 days straight! Boy are we glad that we're feeling better--FINALLY!

Here's my new exersaucer that Mom found on Craigslist for cheap! I love it!

Robert and Mommy have been making fruit smoothies for breakfast and popsicles with the leftovers. Can't wait til I can have some of these! Only a few more weeks before I can start trying solid foods!

My Daddy built this "train table" for Robert. They had fun building it together. Robert likes to play all kinds of things on it. My Daddy is so clever! Robert wants to be just like him when he grows up. He even told him that he's going to grow up to be a Daddy Priest, too. Boy does Robert melt Daddy's heart. Robert told me I could grow up to be a Mommy. That sounds good to me. I'm certainly a Mommy's girl!

This is Robert eating his black eyed peas, black beans, and collard greens on New Year's Day. We all ate them for good luck. Well, mine came in the form of Mommy milk, but it's still good luck!

Mommy couldn't resist this shot of my chunky thighs. This picture does not do them justice. I'm a big girl, but I'm nowhere near as big as my brother was at this age.

A baby in a sassy black frock? Not sure about this one....but I'm pretty cute in whatever I'm wearing!

My brother has been quite the artist lately. He finger paints in the nude...how very Jackson Polluck-esque!

Well, that's about it for us. We'll check back in with you after I turn 6 months, coming up very soon. Can you believe how fast I'm growing? We can't!

Guess What We Did Today!

Those who really know me won't believe it's true. But IT IS! We got Robert's hair cut--a little. He was a complete angel. It didn't hurt that they had cool chairs to sit in, lollipops, and a train table to play on while you waited. He actually loved it. And I held it together as best I could. I purposefully wore mascara so that I wouldn't let myself cry. The sweet lady who cut it was so sensitive. She at least acted like she loved his curls as much as we do. She cut them ever so gently and sparingly! Some military family went before us and had their baby's four curls cut into what the mom called a "boy haircut." I was a bit worried the stylist would think I was there for the same. I wanted to tell her that if that was the "boy haircut" we'd opt for the "girl haircut." I didn't have to, though, because I think from the look of Robert's mophead she could tell I wasn't going to part with those curls very easily. She cut just enough to get it out of his eyes and get rid of the tangles. She was also careful to heed my warning about cutting the top too short and creating a mullet. She did a beautiful, uniform cut. He's just as cute as ever! Thank you Pigtails and Crewcuts! You helped us through a huge milestone, and Mommy did just fine. Now on to toilet training...

Christmas Highlights

Haven't had a chance to really blog much about our Christmas holiday. Christmas Eve was kinda rocky. It was my first as a priest's wife. It was lonely out there in the congregation by myself with the children. We didn't make it past the Prelude, either, since both children started melting down. I took the children home and at least took their pictures since they were all dressed up. It was a sad evening. Rob did come home between the 5p.m. and the 9p.m. services to help me get them to bed. He came home again around 12:30 that night to find Lillian and me passed out in front of White Christmas. I think it's going to take a while to get used to Rob working on big family holidays. I tried to think about Mary and Joseph and the celebration of Jesus' birth, but I was still lonely.

It all picked up the next day when Rob's parents arrived and really helped the celebration get started. We had a great few days with them, and it turned out to be a family filled holiday after all.

Four Month Old Lillian

Our sweet baby girl is already four months! She's smiling all the time and laughing now. She finally likes to play with toys without getting too overwhelmed, and she can roll over both ways. She loves to watch her brother and smile at him. I hope this means that they'll be good friends. She's still what I like to call a "sensitive" baby, which is really just a nice way to say she's pretty needy. She and I still sleep together, though I'm proud to report that she has been moved to her "own" room right next to her brother's room, which is a step in the right direction. We're no longer sequestered in the spare room on the other side of the house! She and I sleep in her new room on a double bed. She's taking more naps by herself in her cosleeper bed throughout the day, but winter colds and teething (she's getting her molars first!) have set us back from doing any major nighttime sleep training. The doctor says don't expect much until Spring. She's doing much better throughout the day, though, as far as sitting by herself, playing, and being generally happy when all of her immediate needs have been met. She's weighing in at 16 lbs. 9 oz., which is 3 lbs. below her brother when he was four months. But she's as healthy as can be! We love her bunches and bunches. Robert still calls her "my baby" and asks where she is if he hasn't seen her in a while. I've also caught him introducing her to other children at our MOMS Club playdates. "This is my baby sister, Lil-Yin." He's finally mastering the "l" sound and pronounces her name like the Southern Virginia matriarchs at church. It's precious. I need to get it on video. Speaking of video, I'm putting one up of Lil-Yin laughing, so be sure to check out the link over to the left under "Videos."

Love y'all!