Lilly is 6 months old!

Seriously.  Where does the time go??  6 months already.  My sweet, sweet baby is getting so big!  We came back from her 6 month check up and all I could think of was "twinkies!"  She has the EXACT SAME STATS as Abby at 6 months!  16 lbs. 12 oz. and 26.25" tall.  Lilly's head is in the 50% though as oppose to our other little bobble head baby.  :)  She got 4 shots today, cried twice and is now asleep in her crib.  She's also really getting the hang of crawling.  It's not 100% official but she's definitely rocking back and forth on all fours and can crawl/army crawl several feet if I just turn around for 2 seconds.  Gotta keep an eye on this little wiggle worm!  Can't post without some pictures.

Abby getting some quality Lao Yie time on Monday before he flew out to Australia on Tuesday.  Abby's so sweet.  She asked where Lao Yie was on Tuesday and started crying when I told her he was on the airplane already.  :*)  She misses him already!  Then she asked "Can we skype with him?"  Of course I said yes.  :)

SPOILER ALERT!

Abby's going to be Snow White for Halloween this year!  I'm not sure if she was more excited about the costume or the box!

I need to sew up the top part - a bit too revealing!

This picture is from 2 days ago but I love it!  It's very rare a child of mine is messy!

Solid food, pre-crawling, chug-a-lug

Man, Lilly is ssuuuuccchh an easy baby {knock on wood}.  She literally eats, sleeps and plays really well.  She only cries when she is hungry.  If she's sleepy, she just falls asleep.  And she sleeps 9-10 hours straight every night!  We started her on solid veggies this week and she's already eating like a champ.  She'll eat anything we feed her too.  She's up to 6 oz. of formula per feeding with chubby thighs to match.  And she just officially started getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth.  We'll probably have a crawler within the next 2 weeks!  :)  This little girl just chugs her milk down too.  Here are a few pictures of our sweet little baby girl.  ♥

Maybe some teeth are coming soon?  I forgot to mention she's a drooling machine now too.

Yummy carrots!

My super cute thumb sucker.  ♥  We just lowered her crib this past weekend.

Abby and Lilly's favorite way to play together.  :)

Independent, Multi-tasking, Chilling, Chen Nap

Miss Independent can sometimes hold her bottle now.  :)

Booger mining and quenching thirst - my little multi-tasker.  ♥

Girls chillin' with Daddy.  

Our first glimpse of the Chen side of Lilly.  She was being a bit fussy so I went to make her a bottle and came back to her fast asleep on the floor.  :)  I love that my girls can fall asleep anywhere.

On a side note, Lilly is such a smiley, happy baby!  She squeals with delight, sings all day long, is currently going through a growth spurt, eating like a piglet this week and growing like a weed!  Thank goodness she's still sleeping so well at night.  

Enjoying the nice(r) weather, Dance class

The weather has been nice(r) in Houston lately so we've been taking advantage and playing outside.  We even took our first family stroll around the block.  I'm too tired to write too much so let's just dive into the pictures.  :)

Sleeping Beauty.  ♥

Lilly's first ride in the stroller.  I love how the wind is blowing in her hair.  :)

Abby pretty much ran the whole time.

By the end, she was done.

Mmm-WAH!

This is my favorite facial expression that Lilly makes.  It's just a blank stare and so innocent.

Mei Mei was getting a little thirsty.  This reminds me of Abby's picture from when she was about the same age.

This is another favorite face - a big SMILE!

I should know by now NOT to ask her to take a normal picture because I will never get it.  : |

Abby is signed up for Dance/Ballet class this year at school and this was her trying on her leotard, tights and slippers to make sure they fit.  She's so huge!  My almost 3.5 year old is wearing size 4-6 year old clothes and size 11.5 slippers.

I was the only psycho-mom who was sneaking around taking pictures of my kid but I didn't care!!  I absolutely LOVED dance when I was a kid and I wasn't going to miss my first born's first class today!  Abby did a great job of listening to her teacher and following instructions.  :)

I just love it!  Abby had SO MUCH FUN in class today.  I hope she continues to love dance!!

Back to school routine

We're back into a regular school routine and I forgot how much I liked it.  Abby absolutely loves school.  She can't wait to go in the mornings and she is smiling from ear to ear when I pick her up in the afternoon.  :)  I couldn't ask for more!  She's signed up for ballet classes on Thursday at school and I'm soooo excited for her!  Abby loves to dance and I loved dancing as a kid so it's a win-win for us girls.  This Thursday will be her first class.  I may have to sneak in and take pictures!

My dad is coming over during the week again which is super helpful because I don't have to wake Lilly up and pack her up for when we drop Abby off at school.  My little girl is still a late sleeper which means she doesn't get up until usually 9 or 9:30 AM.  She's awesome.  Sleeps 8-9 hours straight every night.  Thankfully she takes the bottle with formula like a champ now so the weening process has begun.  I've got mixed emotions about it but the logical part of my brain perseveres.  I'm just savoring every moment of nursing for now.  ♥  The only sad part is that I know this is the last time.

We've got some more "firsts" to report.  We're loving the cooler weather now but our whole family is suffering from allergies now.  Here are some pictures from the past week.

In the last week or so, we've noticed Lilly prefers to suck on her left thumb.

It was Grandma's birthday last Friday so Abby and I made a cheesecake for the first time!  Here is my little sous chef helping me with the graham cracker crust.

My new spring form pan with graham cracker crust in it.

Before.

After.

It doesn't look perfect but it was delicious!  The crust was super crunchy and the cake was nice and dense.  Next time I'll try to make it fluffier and lighter.  It's actually pretty easy to make.  :)

I ♥ when they play together.

Lilly's started recognizing people and she pretty much only lets me and my dad hold her.  Otherwise she cries  and the second I get her, she stops crying.  She just woke up here and I love this time because she let's you cuddle for quite a while.  :)

Daddy and his girls!

Thumb sucking...

Abby is starting to out grow her green chair so she got a new, bigger chair with an ottoman.  For now it's big enough for both girls to fit in.  :)

Poor Lilly.  Abby's clothes used to always match but not Mei Mei.  It was laundry day so she's wearing all she had left.  :P

Abby and I were playing outside and I started to play with the features on the camera.

This one was called Toy Camera, I think.

Fish Eye!

Toy Camera again.

Just look at those loooong Baker legs.

Another first!  It's the return of the clip-on chair!!  Abby was about this age when she started using it too.  We love it and so does Lilly!  I remember Abby really liked being at the same level we were and I think Lilly was also happy to finally see what was going on up on the counter this whole time.  :)

Abby was happy to have Mei Mei join our table as well!  ♥

I foresee many, many more pictures like this in the future.  :)

First This, First That

Today was Abby's 1st day of school again!  :)  We talked about it last night and thankfully she was super excited about school starting again.  We met her 2 teachers on Tuesday and they seem very nice and several parents had good things to say about them so I'm excited too.  I couldn't sleep last night - I think I was more excited for Abby than she was.  {Drum roll.....}  I'm happy to report that drop-off was a success this morning!  No tears from either of us - just lots of standing and staring for Abby but that's on par for her.  I stayed long enough to see her finally move away from the front door and into the classroom.  Still staring.   :)  She's our little observer, for sure.

Abby's 1st day in the Bunny class!  ♥

I wish those parents weren't standing in the background of my picture.

Soaking it all in...

On another note, I've been spoiling both myself and our little Lilly.  This is the first time I've 100% nursed a baby so I've been being lazy and completely enjoying all of our bonding time.  Did I mention I hate pumping?  So we fell into the inevitable trap of Lilly refusing to drink from a bottle.  We tried a month ago to re-introduce a bottle with success but again, our fault, we didn't keep up with it (hence this being sort of a new "first").  But this time Bryce and I were steadfast and after 5 hours of on and off crying/consoling, our baby drank formula from a bottle!  YES!  She did it twice yesterday too!  I'll leave out all the details but I only plan on nursing for 6 months before our trip so I kinda have a deadline that I need to hit.  THANKFULLY we made quick progress and Bryce and I have vowed to keep it up this time.  I see the light at the end of the tunnel for me - the road to freedom is near.  I can finally go somewhere for more than 3 hours at a time soon.  But I sure am going to miss nursing.  I get teary eyed just thinking about it but I know it will have to end sometime.  

Consoling in between bottle attempts.

2 days ago we tried giving Lilly rice cereal for the first time too.  At this point, we hadn't re-introduced the bottle yet but she ate the rice cereal like a champ!  We thought 'wouldn't it be funny if she could eat from a spoon but still couldn't drink from a bottle?'  That didn't seem right.  We decided we jumped the gun and will come back to rice cereal when she's 6 months old like we did with Abby.  That's enough "firsts" for our family this week.  :)

Labor Day weekend and then some

First of all, I have to say that I have the 2 sweetest sisters, hands down.  Lilly is only 5+ months old and you can already tell she is absolutely in love with her big sister and Abby is just over the moon about her little sister.  It warms my heart when Abby tells me she thinks she has the cutest sister in the whole wide world.  They are really starting to interact and play together and Abby's including her mei mei in almost everything she plays with.  And Lilly, being the second child, is willing to do anything her big sis wants her to do.  ♥

Just a quick update on both kiddos:  Abby's really excited about school starting on Thursday!  We have our "Meet the Teacher" tomorrow and she's also excited about that.  I've been kinda spoiled and used to having my Xiao Xiao at home with me this summer so while I'm looking forward to some time with just me and mei mei, I'm going to miss Abby while she's at school.  Abby is starting to slim down and lose some of her baby fat.  She's looking more and more like a child and not my little toddler.  :(  I mentioned before that Abby loves watching Giada.  That still stands and everything make-believe in our house for several weeks now has to do with cooking, baking, seasoning, tea parties, fancy dinners, etc.  If it's got anything to do with food, she's made an event out of it.  Lilly is getting very responsive to her surroundings now.  She's strong enough to sit in the Bumbo too.  She's our good sleeper {knock on wood} and continues to suck her thumb/fingers.  My favorite, and the ultimate trifecta, is when she's sleeping with her butt up in the air sucking one thumb while playing with her hair with her other hand.  I'll admit it, I just stand there smiling and staring at her to make sure I make a permanent memory of that pose.  ♥  She seems to be more clingy to me than Abby was at this age.  I'm pretty much the only person she allows to hold her and while it's tiring for me (and particularly my buff arms), I wouldn't trade it for the world.  They are only this small once and time flies so I will hold her 24/7 if she wants me to.  I just love me some Lilly!

Ok, on to the pictures!  We had a jam packed holiday weekend and Abby played HARD.  We spent all of Saturday at our friend's house where Abby played with 7 other kids for almost 12 hours.  Then we spent all Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa's where the fun continued.  Of course, there was swimming involved which always wears her out.  She got to spend the night Sunday night and woke up to blueberry pancakes and more swimming in the pool!  She had an absolute blast of a long weekend but by the time she came home, she was a super fussy gus in desperate need of sleep.  Needless to say, she was in bed early tonight and I know we'll have our sweet girl back in the morning.  :)

I've been trying to get a good picture of my little thumb sucker.  This is as good as I can get so far.

Double Trouble.

Nuff said.

Did I mention Abby loves to kiss her baby sister?  Luckily Lilly loves it too.  ♥

I was trying to take a cute picture of the 2 of them but with the camera flash, one of them always had their eyes shut.  So I turned the flash off and Mei Mei kept looking down and the next thing I know, Abby's "helping" by propping her head up and this was the result.  Lilly looks SUPER chubbed out but I love this picture all the same!

This picture only made a post debut because Abby took it.  Not bad.

Abby:  Hahaha!  Mommy, she grabbed my hair!  :)

This was so sweet.  It's a perfect example of them starting to play together.  Abby had her little Elmo toy and Lilly was so curious so I put her on the couch next to Abby and she crawled her way up and was reaching for the toy.  Abby was so sweet sharing with her too.  :)  

Look at them laughing it up!  ♥  Abby now requests for me to put mei mei on her several times a day.  I think Abby enjoys the attention as much as mei mei does.

Abby convinced us to drag out the ol' tent to play "Big Bad Wolf."  Lilly wanted in on the action so the 3 of us squeezed in.  It's me and my girls!

Party in the pool!

Abby is "making a pizza" for Aunt Karen.  :)

Grandma and her little thumb sucker!

Deuces!!

More tent time - they just love it!

Their first tea party together!  ♥

Abby:  Yummy tea!

Lilly:  I want some!