Your First Christmas

Dear Lily,

Your first Christmas was a busy one. First, Grandpa Mando and Grandma Norma came to visit and brought you some fun gifts.

Here you are with a little buggy that lights up and plays music. Your legs are just long enough to allow you to inch along the floor.

New laptop. Sweet!

And then we were off to Seattle to visit Aunt Heidi, Uncle Steven, and your cousins Audrey and Jack. No major meltdowns on the plane, fortunately.

Audrey and Jack playing

"How come I didn't get a cinnamon roll?"

Playing with Mommy

Playing with Audrey and keeping an eye on the Christmas tree

Practicing standing/bouncing on the couch

I think this is the Public Market, but I'm not sure.

Happy...3_...err, 29th(?) Birthday Mommy!

Visiting with our good friends Kim and Zach with their new baby Grant. Keep it real, Grant.

Taking a break with Jack

One morning Audrey and I decided that we were going to form a super secret spy club. Here we are crafting a super secret spy periscope out of household items to peep around corners and couches. We even set up a headquarters and established a secret alphabet code. Aunt Heidi cracked the code right away so we had to bring her into the club.

Waiting in line for the carousel

Weeeee!

The Calder exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. It's not a trip to the museum for the Ramirez family without Daddy getting admonished for using a camera (without flash, even) in the museum. This was not exception.

"What do you mean they're not showing Sesame Street on this flight?" Traveling home was an ordeal. We nearly missed our connecting flight in Phoenix and we had to literally run, Amazing Race-style, to our gate. Mommy gave them a smile and they let us on.

Happy New Year, everybody!!!

Driving

Beep beep!

Lunchin'

Having lunch at the Seattle art museum.

Hanging Around

Playing with your cousin Audrey. What a cute couple!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Riding the carousel

Riding the carousel with Daddy in Seattle!

Coffee Break

The Ramirez traveling circus pulled up its stakes and journeyed to
misty Seattle this week. More to come.

Clap, clap, clap!

Update: 8 months

Dear Lily,

Today you are 8 months old!! You have had quite a month! This month you got to visit with a lot of family. You really enjoy it when there is a lot of activity in the house. You are very observant and watch everything we do. The biggest milestone of the month would be your ability to wave hi and bye and clap your hands. The first thing you do when you wake in the morning is wave hello. It's the cutest thing I have ever seen. Grandma Mandy even taught you "adios" and you will now wave to that too. Your receptive vocabulary is growing everyday. Daddy is constantly coming up to me and showing me new words that he has taught you. These are some of the words that you know for sure: mommy, daddy, up, bye, hi, book, bird, tree, butterfly, take a bath, gentle, scratchy, pop, bubbles, milk, shake, clap, dance. You often times will say "pa pa pa" for "pop pop pop. You now babble with /m, p, b, n/. You have been saying "mama" but I'm not sure if it's on purpose yet.

You are still not crawling but are VERY close. You get on all fours and scoot around backwards. You like to be pulled to a standing position and can even take a few steps when we help you. I still think you are going to start crawling any day now. Your third tooth is about to erupt. We can see it but it's not quite out. Daddy and I think that's why you've been kind of irritable lately. We are ready for you to be done with teething.

Next week we are traveling to Seattle to spend the first part of Christmas with Aunt Heidi, Uncle Steven, and your cousins. If Daddy and I promise to buy you a pony will you please be good on the plane?

Love,

Mommy

Books

Lily,
You have recently developed a love for books. Sometimes I will find
you sitting on your playmat flipping through the pages of one of your
books all by yourself.

Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree!

Dear Lily,

It was a chilly morning with the season's first snow having just passed us. In this family we look for the tree that finds us, and find us it did.

After bringing the tree home, we put on some Christmas music and decked the house and trimmed the tree. We seem to get more and more carried away with the Christmas spirit each year. Maybe one day we'll have a Griswald house. Maybe.

I guess you like the blue ones too, now.

Ah ha!

Caught you red handed! One of your current favorite activities is
taking apart your playmat. You scoot around to each corner and pull
out all the yellow pieces.

Peek-a-Bowie!

Cookie Party

Lily,
Today you went to a cookie making party. You seemed to like to squeeze
the dough. You made your first cookie! I'm not sure if I should eat it
or save it.

Thanksgiving

Dear Lily,

This year for your first Thanksgiving your Grandma Mandy, Uncle Brandon and Uncle Cristoph flew out to have some turkey with us.

Here we are at the Liberty Bell.

And here you are with Mommy, again, in front of the Liberty Bell.

Here you are guiding a tour inside Independence Hall. The people were surprised to hear from you that in 1776, "Ba ba baaa ba ba ba baaaa ga." I had no idea you knew so much about American history.

Relaxing at home.

Mommy was very proud of her gravy.

Thanks to the Internet, Daddy learned the proper way to carve a turkey as seen here.

Waiting in line for your uncles to get their first cheesesteak.

Here's Grandma and your Uncles on top of the Empire State Building. What a view!

Grandma felt bad that you couldn't make the trip so she got you your first New York shirt.

They loved Times Square at night. I promise I'll take you one day.

Learning Spanish songs with Grandma.

We all had such a fun time the week just flew by. We can't wait for the next time!

Rock Star

You're already better than Ringo!!

Turkey Coma

Turkey coma setting in.

Where's the Turkey?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!!!

Tight Fit

Lily at 1 week

Lily at 6 months

You're getting close to outgrowing your car seat. Look how small you used to be!

All You Need Is LOVE

On the campus of U Penn posing next to a reproduction of the iconic
Philly LOVE sculpture.