Home

A house is made of brick and stone,
but a home is made of love alone.

But what is a house with a 7 month old baby made of?

Well, there might be a big mess in the back yard, due to some thrifty Craigslist purchase of a new play structure. But surely you wouldn't see such signs anywhere else, right?


Oops....the vehicle definitely looks a bit different inside than it did pre-baby. The carseat with the sleeping babe (that she is about to outgrow, I might add!!), the stroller in the back, and the random toys scattered over the seats and floorboard are kind of a new addition since we got Miss Lila.
But inside the house is nice and tidy, right? RIGHT? Hmm....
The Living Room:
The Couch:
The Dining Room:
The Kitchen:
The Pantry:
Cheerios! Now we KNOW we have a big girl!
The Bathroom:
The Laundry:
Note the MOUNTAIN of clothes ready to be ironed. I really did get through at least half of this pile tonight.
More Laundry:
Yes, there have definitely been some minor...er...improvements... to the Cundiff household in the last seven months. And do you know what makes it all worth it?

THIS little firecracker!!!
**Note** For the sake of saving a bit of humiliation, I did not include pictures of either bedroom. Yes, they too are covered in baby flotsam.

**Another note** I am SO loving all of the embroidered items Granny and Papa made for Lila Jane! The onesie above was a special creation for 4th of July. They did an AWESOME job on it! Granny is in the hospital right now after having a stroke last week. If you're out there reading, please send up some good thoughts for her!! LOVE YOU, GRANNY FRANNY!!

School Days

What has our favorite little monkey been up to at school lately? Let's peek in and see....

Painting! You did a wonderful job, especially considering it was your first time painting with your hands! All of your other artwork at school has been made with your feetprints! I can tell from the look of concentration that you took your work very seriously.
Water Play! Water play seems like such a GOOD idea! See, we get to dress you up in fun little hat, rub you down with good smelling sunscreen, and take you outside for a fun time playing in the water on a hot day!!
Your friends all get to go with you!
Lila's take on the matter: "MOM!!! Why in the world did you let them WAKE me up from a nice nap, STRIP me down to my skivvies, take me out in the BRIGHT sun that hurts my eyes, and put me in a constant spray of COLD WATER??? WORST IDEA EVER!!"
"HEEEEELLLLLPPP!!!"
Ms. DeBonna saved Lila Jane from the awful water spray. She was happy as a clam as long as she was being held! This pic is with her friend Sophia.

Let's talk about happier things....
Like CAKE!
Lila's first cupcake!! She was celebrating the first birthday of a classmate.
Definitely has her game face on!
Too bad she doesn't like cupcakes, huh? Wait...what cupcake?? There's no cupcake here!
The post-cupcake bath was definitely needed, and happily tolerated with a belly full of icing!
Fashion Show! Lila had to go around and show all of her teacher friends her new outfit that Granny and Papa embroidered for her! SO STINKIN' CUTE!!

Cookies! If she likes cupcakes, do you think she likes COOKIES??
I'll let you be the judge of that.

Water Play! Take 2.
Lila's take: "You mean we can have water play INSIDE?? And we don't have to wear sunscreen or go out in the glaring sun? I just get to sit here and splash and there's no water spraying on me? Water play is AWESOME!"
She just kept splashing, and every time the water would splash in her face, she'd look so surprised...then immediately do it again!

RUN! SHAAARRK!!

Stay tuned for more of Lila's School Days adventures!!

7 Months!!

Lila Jane! You are seven months old today!! How in the world did that happen? I clearly recall telling you for several months in a row to STOP getting so big. I guess I forgive you for not listening. I know things are getting bad when I start saying things like, "When you were just a baby..." and "When you were just a little girl..." As much as I miss that little baby that used to live here, though, I absolutely LOVE the big girl that lives here now!
You transitioned beautifully into your new room at school. You LOVE that they feed you real food all the time! You are definitely the best eater they've seen in a while (or maybe ever?) at your age! You've kind of started a trend in your room. As other mommies see all the food you eat, they realize their babies are big enough for table food, too, so they are all eating with you! You will eat pretty much ANYthing they put in front of you, and you love to feed your SELF! You get fistfuls of food and just pop them right in.

At dinner one night this week, I gave you green beans. You reached over the pieces I put on your tray and grabbed some big whole pieces out of the bowl! You definitely wanted the bigger pieces! You would pick them with your chubby little fist, suck the long end off of them, then put the short piece that was left back on your high chair tray. I thought it was funny because you did it over and over again!

You're doing better and better with your sippy cup, too. I don't take any bottles to school anymore, as you're only taking your cup there. We give you your cup with meals at home, too, but I still cave and give you a bottle in the mornings and at bedtime. In the morning, you're just so hungry that you get frustrated with the sippy cup. And at bedtime, I give you the bottle because I want to, not so much because I think you'd care. As fast as you're growing up, Mommy still loves that sweet snuggle time with your bedtime bottle!! I promise I won't let you go to kindergarten with it!
You're getting SO big! You're definitely out of your 3-6 month clothes, and I have all of them boxed up. You can wear 6-9 month AND 9-12 month clothes easily. I had bought a lot of 12 month clothes for you to wear this fall, but I'm not really sure you'll still fit into them by the time the cooler weather gets here! I've been visiting lots of yard sales finding treasures for you to wear for the next year or two, so you'll be all set no matter!
Your big 7 month birthday started off with a BANG! The chocolate oatmeal no-bake cookies I made for your party might have been a bit foreboding. I went in to get you out of bed this morning and you had a POOP ball stuck to your foot!! I cracked up laughing! I still don't know how it happened! I cleaned you up and fed you breakfast. You ate a WHOLE 6 oz toddler jar of Cinnamon Raisins and Pears. You LOVED it! I had to clean you up AGAIN and get you dressed in your pretty party dress for your Birthday at school. (Ok, we don't actually have parties every month, but I do bring in treats for her teachers and pretend we're having parties!) I popped you into your car seat and we dashed off to school. You've gotten into a bad habit of falling asleep on the way to school, so I always reach back into the car seat to rub your head and pat your face to try to help keep you awake. Today, I rubbed your cheek, and it was WET! I grabbed a cloth wipe out of the bag in the seat beside me, and reached back to dry the drool off your face. But when I brought my arm back around, it was covered in Cinnamon Raisins and Pears!! OH NO!! You had choked on some phlegm and spit up the ENTIRE 6 OUNCES of STICKY baby food!! In the car!! In your freshly washed car seat!! I almost died.

I knew I couldn't do anything about it in the car, so I got you to school, and carried you into the office VERY carefully in your car seat. If I hadn't been so flustered, I would've taken a picture. I can't even describe the sticky piles of food all over your face, seat, DRESS, arms, etc. I dropped you off in the office, ran to your classroom, and grabbed washcloths, clothes, soap, and rags. I pulled you carefully out of the seat and pretty much bathed you right in the office floor. It was SO yucky! Luckily we have a washer/dryer at school, so I was able to was your clothes and car seat cover right then and there. Lila Jane, life with you is definitely an adventure!

In completely unrelated news... there are some changes going on at the Cundiff house! My front flower beds are finally filling in and looking GREAT!
Mim and Pop gifted us with some AWESOME lawn furniture to go on the front porch with your new swing!
And we got new appliances in the kitchen!! We debated long and hard. We were somewhat torn between a nice vacation and appliances, and the responsible side of us won out. The purchase was long overdue, and we're really excited about the new range and fridge! I forgot to get a pic of the fridge, unfortunately, but it's SUPER nifty!!
With the new pieces, we did some rearranging, and decided we now have room for a work table in the kitchen. Our kitchen is laid out TERRIBLY and we've never had a good workspace at all. We eliminated the "eat-in" kitchen table, as we've only been eating in the dining room, anyway.

Mim and Pop went on a BIG adventure with us to Cincinnati last weekend, and we hit up IKEA for this nice new work table. Ok, we might've gotten carried away and bought a couple hundred dollars worth of other stuff, too, but we actually went for the table.
Finally, in more un-un-un-related news... :-)
Granny and Papa have been hard at work!! Lila Jane LOVES their embroidered handiwork, so she sent them a bag of goodies to decorate for her. They sent back ALL KINDS of cuteness, but you know I'm a bit quirky. My fave had to be this SOCK MONKEY onesie!!! Oh my gosh, at the vintage cuteness!! And did I mention that Lila Jane just happens to own some matching Sock Monkey babylegs leg warmers that are SO cute with it?

I can't even stand the cuteness. THANK YOU, PAPA AND GRANNY!!! We love all of her embroidered items! We use them ALL the time, and get tons of sweet comments every time!
And remember how when I was pregnant, I was pretty adamant that I did NOT want all the pink stuff and frilly stuff and bows and lace and such. Well, guess who's had a change of heart. I still don't do much of the super frilly stuff, but Lila Jane wears dresses all the time, and RARELY leaves home without a bow on her head! Yet again, she's been the trendsetter in her room, and the other mommies are saying, "If Lila Jane has enough hair for a bow, then little so-and-so CERTAINLY has enough!" HA!! The bow-stealer in the room has moved on up to the toddler room, so we are full force with our bows now. Lila loves to reach up on top of her head and yank them out, so I've found that they last a wee bit longer if I put her few little hairs into a ponytail and attach the bows to the ponytail. It's ridiculous and hysterical, and I love it.

Lila Jane, thank you for being Mommy's baby doll and letting me dress you up! Thank you for the waves and squeezy drooly hugs. Thank you for laughing at me every time I try to get you to say, "Mama". Thank you for yakking your breakfast on the way to school, and not somewhere else. Thank you for all of our deep conversations, and for not crying every time I sing to you. Thank you for hanging on to that bedtime bottle, just for me. I love you to bits, little bits.

Swingin'

What's New?

What's new in our worlds? It seems like there's something new every day! This pic is a week or two old, but I thought it was worthy of posting to show Lila Jane's excellent sitting skills. She's SO steady now. They don't even put a pillow behind her at school most of the time. Unless, of course, there are walkers on the loose. When the big walking kids come by, they like to cruise past LJ and topple her over to distract her while they steal her hairbows. Life is rough, I tell ya. Furthermore, I needed to show you the beautiful bonnetted baby with the brilliant blue eyes. Because I like alliteration.
Speaking of those blue eyes... Isn't it neat how they match her bath bucket? I know I've shown her bucket before, but I'm kind of amazed that at 6 1/2 months, she still fits in it beautifully. She adores bath time, and has discovered that bath toys make it even better! She and I absolutely crack up at each other when the little squeeze toys spit all over her!
Lookee what else is new! Ok, new to us. As you might know, I do take after my Granny a bit, and we do ADORE us a good yard sale. And the kind of yard sale that has vintage Polly Flinders dresses for only a DOLLAR each? OH YES, we are fans. Is there anything much sweeter than a little girls simple dress with smocking? AND GOLDFISH EMBROIDERY?? Yes, there is. It's paying ONE DOLLAR for that dress. Thankyouverymuch.
I might've even gone hog wild and bought four such vintage Polly Flinders dresses for next summer. Because they were A DOLLAR each!
Oh, and this girl? She is sporting a pony tail. Yup, all three hairs in one place with a rubber band around them. You can barely see it, but it's there, and we are PROUD. Better yet, the bow-stealers in her class haven't found it yet. So shhhh....it's our little secret.

In other "what's news", Lila Jane is starting to give up her bottles. She's only taking sippy cups at school now, and we're working toward that at home. We'd probably be completely off bottles if mom wasn't such a softie.

Oh, and in those sippy cups? Formula. And why? BECAUSE I STOPPED PUMPING!! Yes, it's true. After a long 6 months, I finally gave up the merry milker. It was a kind of tough decision because it was still going really well. But, after discussion with Clay, who pretty much supported whatever I wanted to do, I decided I was ready. I was ready to have my time and my body back. There are still some residual issues, but I'm hoping the well will be completely dry ANY MINUTE (please).

And new tricks? Lila has them!!! She now waves! She started last Thursday or Friday, and I thought it was just kind of a fluke. But NO, she's consistent, and waving at appropriate times!! Wow, I don't know why, but that one kind of snuck up on me. I didn't really expect waving with intent just yet. I told Clay it's definitely time to ramp up the sign language!

I think Lila is in a growth spurt right now. She's eating like a horse. For lunch today, she ate an entire plate of food consisting of chicken pot pie, green beans, sliced cheese, and some sort of fruit, plus her sippy cup of formula. Tonight for dinner, she had a whole jar of baby food, two chicken strips from some fajita mix, a pile of refried beans, and some chopped tomatoes. (Ok, so we found about half that chicken in her bib later, but STILL!) She still managed to polish off about 6-7 oz of formula an hour later, as well. MY GOODNESS.

I think that's all that's new around here. I keep thinking any day we'll have a new tooth report, but as it stands, we're still at two. OH, and did I remember to tell you that she's now off her lip medicine? We weaned her off it slowly, and gave her last dose on Memorial Day, I believe. We haven't seen any bounceback of the swelling! YAY.

Ok, I think that's all. For now. Until she wakes up and does something new or cute again.

Summertime!

I think summer is officially here! It's hot and humid, but I think Lila Jane is still a fan of all that summer brings. She LOVES being bare-foot, splashing in her pool, and wearing nothing but a onesie to bed. She loves bubbles and grass and waving hello to anyone and everyone!

We had big plans to get her professional 6 month pictures made yesterday, but we were let down by Portrait Innovations. We had an appointment there, but they were running VERY behind, and we finally left with no pictures. We wasted half a day, so I was really upset, but Clay said he would try to get some pictures of her here at home.

Last night was a busy night, though! We dropped Lila Jane off with Mim and Pop for the night, and Mommy and Daddy had date night! We went to a fabulous Birthday Party for Michelle Churchman (Happy Birthday, Michelle!!). We picked Lila up today and ran a bunch of errands. By the time we got home, she was SO ready for a looong nap. This evening, though, as the sun was starting to set, Clay finally got some pictures of Lila in the back yard.




I think he did an awesome job!!!