The Cup

I had read several articles that said children should not have any bottles by age 2.  I asked about this at one of our doctors appointments and tried to find out if the main point was to teach kids how to drink from a variety of cups using various methods (ie. sippy cup, straw cup or a regular cup with no lid)  The doctor said cups without lids provide practice of different oral muscles so we have been giving Lillian a cup for a while here or there as long as it was supervised.  She has gotten a lot better at it now and doesn't often spill when she is drinking.  I find the only time she makes a mess now is if she gulped too much and tries to hold it in her mouth while she swallows.... then some spills out down the front of her.  The only other times she spills is if she is trying to put the cup down by herself or scoot it closer to her with one hand.  Here is a video of her taken today of her using her cup.... with a bit of a surprise at the end :)

Maryland to Cali

This is our second time making this trip.  The first time we decided to take the Southern route and follow Route 66 most of the way, stopping at the Grand Canyon, some cliff dwellings and catch a show in Branson.  Rather than doing that trip again, we decided to take the Northern route and went up through Niagara Falls and Mt. Rushmore.  Hopefully Lillian enjoyed this trip more than the last time when she was just 3 months old.

And her feeding the animals at Bates Nut Farm.  They were very gentle animals and I was surprised she tried it by herself.

Crayons

Every time we go to a restaurant and Lillian gets a kids menu we practice coloring, we have not done any of this at home.  She has the hang of it now, on our trip from Maryland to Cali I let her use a pen and the marks showed up a lot better so I think she has it down now!  This video was before that.

Big Balls at the Soccerplex

We have an indoor soccer field here and on certain days they close it off for kids.  A friend told me about it so Lillian and I went with her to go check it out.  I think Lillian was so overwhelmed by the amount of things to do that she ended up not doing much at all but running around the entire field. 

Lillian the Book Junkie

Lillian is a total book junkie.  With my reading specialist background I knew she'd be into books but I never imagined this quick!  Usually every waking moment she will run toward you with a book saying "gook, gook".  She knows many animals and knows ones we have given sounds or signs to the most.  When teaching English to second language learners we use a total body approach method where they see the picture, hear the sound, and have a motion attached to it.  It is no surprise she is catching on quickly that way.  We are continually helping her make connections between illustrations, pictures and real life animals.  I am surprised how quickly she has been able to recognize the same animal in all contexts.  The following video is her reading one of her books at a restaurant.  The background noise is a little loud but if you listen carefully she does "read" the book.  I'll take another video soon of some other books she reads.

Going for a walk

Being a big girl

Lillian has always enjoyed doing things the way mommy and daddy or any big person does it.  Recently she has taken going up stairs like a big girl.  She does it when there is a bar low enough for her to grab onto to help support her.

Feeding ourselves

Lillian can feed herself with a spoon now but it is messy!  She has been doing this for a while and we have found if she isn't in the mood to eat much we can get a little more in her by letting her use some utensils.