Grow baby, grow!

In the last 2 months Lilah has grown about 3 inches! We measured her height on the back of great-Grandma's door before we left for Virginia and then again when we arrived back in Michigan yesterday. Here is the proof!

You can see Nathan written at the top of the photo. That's how tall Nate was when he was 13 months! Gotta love family records. We will certainly be starting our own measuring door once we settle in Mozambique :)

Lilah - 12 months

Lilah's quirks at 1 year:

• Steps - Lilah started standing on her own just after her birthday and was taking up to 5 steps a week later. She is still at the 5 step stage. Walking while holing on to our hands is her favourite thing to do.
• Signs - She signs more, please, up please, blows kisses and waves bye and hi. She is pointing at things more often as of today.
• Words - Dadda, Mamma, Ana, Lilah, Amen, Hi, Bye and attempts any words we give her (though they usually come out as Dadda or Bah:)
• Eats - She has gone from eating all table foods to being a fussy duck. If Lilah is not happy with a food I'm trying to feed her she'll bat it out of my hand or grab it from me and throw it on the floor. I have to hide my smile as I attempt to teach her this is not ok. :) She's certainly not as compliant as our little Eliana was :) When she's hungry though, she'll eat just about anything. When Lilah turned one we stopped the bottles and she uses sippy cups now, but also loves drinking from a straw.
• Sleeps - still on 2 naps a day and around 12 hours at night
• Games - peek a boo, clapping, dancing, hide and go seek, sneaking up on big sister, tackling mummy and daddy, kisses, blowing kisses, walking

We love you our sweet tempest :)

Eliana 2.5 years

Eliana is getting close to being 3. Can you believe it? Even in our eight weeks here in Virginia people have been commenting on how much she has grown. Eliana and Lilah have been attending 'culture school' from 9-3 M-F while Nate and I have been in sessions. It was very hard at first to say goodbye to our girls in the morning, but they have adjusted very well. Eliana has especially LOVED preschool and asks to go even on weekends. Some of her favorite things to do these days are:

• be pushed on the swing
• climb
• play on the playground
• jump and skip
• pretend to be different animals
• chase her friends around
• go for runs together as a family
• go for drives together
• preschool
• sing and dance together
• read books
• have cuddles in the morning

We love you our sweet baby girl!

Lilah 12 months

We celebrated Lilah's 1st birthday a couple of weeks ago, here in Virginia

I baked her a white chocolate cheesecake

Which was Lilah's favorite part of the party :)

The party poppers and balloons were big sister's favorite :)

It was a happy birthday. We love you Lilah. You make us laugh everyday with your bright spirit, sassy smile, sweet cuddles and big, sparkling eyes.