1st Tooth!! :-o

Lilli got her first tooth. So exciting! Hopefully this means that we will now have a break from the painful teething she has been going through!

New skill:

Blowing and catching kisses.

And here are a couple more photos.

This is how Lilli prefers to be carried / held!! (Sorry the photo's not upright - again!)

Ohhh...

A couple more new skills already!!

Standing up

Wow, she's really on a roll now! In the last 2 days Lilli has just been doing heaps of new things. Even if she is just doing the old things but in a different way or in a new combination. It's so exciting!!!

She does high fives. I say high five and she gives me one, then she puts her hand back up and waits for me to give her one back.

She does her So groß game, then high fives, then winks, then claps hands, and then starts again with the So groß, etc.

She sits on her bum and shuffles forward to get her toys.

8 months old today!!!

Lilli is 8 months old today!!! Wow, I just can't believe how fast the time is going. The other fantastic thing that happened today is that Max got his visa to come to NZ! Yay. Soon we will be a family again. :D

We have had a pretty quiet week this week. We went into Pukekohe to shop for some decorations for Lilli's room so that we could make it look like a little baby girl's room. We got Pooh wall stickers, Dora the Explorer, Fairy Girls, and other gorgeous girlie stuff. Lilli slept while we decorated and we surprised her with the finished result when she woke up. She loved it. :) Mission accomplished.

Lilli's accomplishments over the last 2 weeks:

Claps hands - you say clap hands and she does it!

She cocks her head to one side to look at things - she seems to think they'll look better from that angle.

She leans around things to see what's behind them.

She winks - or her version of it anyway. Very cute. Pops has spent the last couple of days teaching her this new skill!

She pulls all sorts of funny faces like an Ooh face but she really exagerates it.

She talks to the sheep. :)

She leans forward and pulls onto her knees.

She stands up in the bath by using the side to pull herself up.

She waves ta-ta (bye bye).

She loves playing her piano and even tries to play it with her foot as well.

She dances more and more.

The following photos wont upload the right way up but I've uploaded them anyway. Sorry guys. :(

Soooo groß!!! :D

Watching telly with Pops.

Huh?? :D

Back in Auckland - Very Busy

We picked up Mummy's old car to borrow on Monday morning (12 October) and then went up to Aunty Annie's for lunch. Uncle Toot came home and had lunch with us as well. While Mummy was in the bathroom expressing some milk for lunch Uncle Toot gave Lilli a chocolate biscuit!!! Aunty Annie grabbed it off her as quick as she could but Lilli loved it and got a few sucks in first! After lunch we headed back to Auckland. That night Lilli did not sleep - she was awake until 2.45am and then slept until 5am and woke up again. Both Nana and I tried to get her to sleep to no avail. We still don't know if it was because of the chocolate (I'm sure it would have gone through her system already but who knows) or if the trip home unsettled her. Haha Needless to say, both Nana and I were buggered the next day! Actually it took me a good 3 or 4 days to stop feeling so tired.

Lilli and I stayed at home on Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th to try and get some rest and catch up on some sleep.

Thursday we went to lunch with Mary as we do pretty much every Thursday. On Friday we went to lunch with Jan. We also loaded up the car each day with stuff to come out to the farm and took stuff in for the garage sale that we will be having at a later date at the Howick house once everything is moved. Lilli is quite the luncher now - she sits either in a highchair or on Nana's knee and has her lunch with us like the little lady that she is becoming. :)

Today we are staying around here. We may pop into Waiuku to do a few things but that will be it.

Ooh...

>

Back to the Specialist for my test results

On Friday morning Lilli, Nana, and Mummy headed off to Rotorua for the test results and hopefully an explanation of what happened after Lilli was born. Deryck and his wife Sharon are really lovely and he found that I had HELLP syndrome after Lilli's birth but I don't have it now which is good. What they found when they were trying to find if I had HELLP syndrome is that I have a sort of auto-immune disease which is called SLE - short version as I couldn't even remember the long one, let alone say it! Hahaha. Basically what it means is that if a couple have a similar genetic makeup then the women doesn't register her pregnancy as a separate being - she thinks it is part of her, so she registers the placenta as a foreign body and sends out antibodies to 'fight' it. I have only a very minor form of it which is lucky because women with major SLE have multiple miscarriages and often have preterm babies and low birth weights. It's not good but hopefully won't be a problem for me and the fact that my last pregnancy went so perfectly is a good sign that any future ones will be fine too. Lilli was a little cherub throughout the appointment and was giving Deryck big smiles and talking to him as if she knew what he was talking about. He told me well done, that she is a beautiful baby. He remembered me from when I saw him in the hospital and he told me that Lilli was breach, then the following week she had turned back around.

Then Mum went back to Auckland and Lilli and I picked up my old work car to borrow for a while and went to stay with Brett & Michelle and the kids until Monday. We had a great weekend and Lilli just loved being with the girls. It was so cute seeing her with them as they are 7 and 9 and so they were just awesome little babysitters. They played with Lilli and kept her entertained all weekend. Kayla even fed her. :)

On Saturday we went out to Amanda's to catch up as we didn't see her last time we were down. Susie came over as well with Delton and Ticayla. Gosh they've grown! Delton doesn't have as much hair as Lilli, his is really short but it looks cute as cause he's a boy and Lilli looks really girly next to him. :D Ticayla was just beautiful as well. I couldn't believe how much all the kids have grown, Terry is looking like a little boy now not a toddler! Freaky. Plus Delton is crawling - so cute watching his little bum go side to side as he crawls!

On Sunday we went up to see Toot and Annie and the boys but they were out so we went into town. Then in the afternoon we went to the CT club with Poppa and Trish to watch Bathurst (car racing - huge event in Australia & NZ racing calendar). Lilli was the star of the club - I had people coming up to me the whole time we were there telling me how well behaved and happy she is, and how gorgeous! :D It was funny too because it was more men than women coming up - don't get me wrong, heaps of women were coming up as well - I think nearly everyone there came up at some point. Lilli took it all in her stride sitting up in the big adult chair with her toys or standing on Mummy and jumping up and down while grinning at anyone and everyone. Little character - no wonder everyone adores her! Her poppa just thinks she's wonderful (which she is) - he's very taken with her. The only bugger was that I didn't think to take any photos over the weekend except when Lilli was in the stroller in the garden with Michelle and I! Will have to get some photos of her with the girls next time I'm down.

Playing ball

Hanging for a moment...

Jumping

Ohh, what's that??

Laxing back after a hard out play

Feeding herself - so clever!!

Elmo guitar - one of her favourite toys

Outside in Michelle's garden

Gorgeous new track suit that Nana bought

Lilli is a marmite (or vegemite) girl! Check out the marmite face. :)

A visit from Aunty Freddh & Nana Dot is up starying with us

On Saturday Nana, Pops, Lilli, and Mummy went around looking at showhomes to get some ideas for the alterations that Nana and Pops will be doing at their house. Then we went into Pukekohe to Mitre 10 (a hardware store) and Lilli went for her first ride in a 'supermarket' trolley! She loved it!! Haha she was so cute. Then we went around to the supermarket and she had another ride in a troller. There she was sitting up straight and tall, smiling away at anyone and everyone, and going vroom vroom with her little right hand 'accelerating'. Just gorgeous!!! Then we went back to the farm and Aunty Freddh came out to see us. Freddh picked up the small stroller I bought for going shopping and bought is out for me which was great as it saved us a trip into the city. Then we hung out and had a catch up. She stayed until Monday morning.

On Monday we went in and loaded up some stuff at the house in Howick and bought it out to the farm. Slowly we are getting stuff out. First we have to make room for it as the house at Avoland is much smaller than the one in Howick but we're getting there. At lunchtime Mum went to pick up Nana Dot as she has been staying with us this week. She has had lots of cuddles and laughs with Lilli which is great.

Lilli's achievements since returning to NZ:

Jumping constantly in her jumper - she's getting very skilled

Talking non-stop - mainly deh da ba and ma, dada lots and mama when she's upset or angry! :)

She knows how to growl now and went through a few days of growling us all the time

She knows how to shout which is hilarious when you're walking round the supermarket and shes yelling out to everyone!

She sits up all the time now and basically hardly ever goes on her playgym, prefering to sit up and play with her toys.

She loves music (as we all know). Now she has her Elmo guitar, bongo drums, and various toys that sing to her.

She dances when she's playing her guitar.

She plays catch with her ball and throws it back to you! Soooo clever!!!!

She plays peek-a-boo! She holds a blanket over her face while you go "where's Lilli, where'd she go???" then she pullls it off her face with a big grin and you go "boo!!". Hahaha. Just too gorgeous. :D

Stats:

Weight: 8.8kgs

Will have to measure her and put it up next time.

Can't believe our wee girl is 7 months old!!!

On 19 September Lilli and I went to stay for a night with Poppa which was cool. Sam was having his 18th party up and Toot and Annie's so we went up their with Poppa and Trish to watch the rugby. Lilli was great and we left early to go home to bed. What a terrible night! I got NO sleep at all as Lilli's slight snuffle and sneezes had eventuated into a cold that got steadily worse and worse as the night went on. She was inconsolable the poor wee girl. On Sunday she got even worse and by Sunday night Annie and I knew that she would be having a rough night. She could hardly breath through the mucus in her nose and throat which frightened her. I sat up with her until 1.30am when Annie came in a said she would take her for a couple of hours so that I could get some sleep (I had still only managed 3 nights of uninterupted sleep since we got back from Germany). So I took the opportunity and managed to have about 3 hours sleep which was so great. Then Annie brought her back in to me at abount 5am and when to get some sleep herself. We went to the doctor on Monday morning and were told that her temperature was not high and that I would just have to keep an eye on her and ride it out. I had another hard night that night and found that sleeping her in her stroller helped as I could raise her quite a bit to help her cope with the mucus. Then I took her back to the doctor the next day as her mucus turned a bit green. He prescribed some anitbiotics and panadol and she started improving after that. Each day she got a little better and after about a week she was back to where we'd been before her cold. Still not sleeping through the night but definitely improving. It didn't help matters that I had a bad cold as well and am the one that gave it to Lilli :( Anyway it's all good now as she is much better.

Lilli has turned 7 months old!! Wow, the time is just going so fast. She is still a beautiful little baby and such a sweetheart. Everyone just adores her - for good reason. She is such a happy, smiley baby. Even managing to smile when she was feeling terrible with a cold.

So just want to tell everyone that I was going to do visits and catch ups with everyone but when Lilli got sick I cancelled all plans to get in touch and start organising visits until she got better. I even had to stay a few extra days in Rotorua before heading back to Auckland because she needed the time to get over her cold before the trip back up. I will catch up with everyone on my next visit.

With her Aunty Annie

Here she is playing soccer/football with Sam and Matt on her 7 month 'birthday'.

We are back in Auckland now and have been so busy lately helping Nana and Pops move from their house in Howick out to the farm in Waiuku. Lilli is teething really badly now too - poor darling must think life is just one horrible thing after another! :) She handles it so well but unfortunately she is cross cutting which means she is cutting a tooth that shouldn't come through until she is about 15 months old. Plus to make matters worse she is cutting 2 teeth at once! One in the middle as per normal and the one on the side. Other than that we have been great. We have been to bbqs and drinks and having a good time. :)

Check out this gorgeous tracksuit bought by Nana.

Ohhh...

Loves chewing on that keyring.

Ohhh, sleeping beauty!