giraffe for morning snack!

lilyanna decided she'd like a little bit of giraffe for her morning snack today. here she is all ready to go in for the big bite:
going for it.....
oohhh.....sophie giraffe never tasted so good!
who me? i'm.....not.....about.....to.....go.....for the ear too.......

bananas!

to celebrate lilyanna's 5 month birthday, we decided to try giving her a taste of banana. for a few weeks now she has been so interested in us eating and she has been watching our every move at mealtimes. she even started reaching out for our plates and utensils. i took those things as signs that she may be ready to try some food for herself. i did a bit of research and decided that her first menu item would be bananas (of course mashed with some breastmilk!). i was surprised to hear that this is a good first food. i guess they are easy to digest when really ripe and they are sweet like the breastmilk lilyanna is already used to. so bananas it was. here is a video of her first bites:

i think she likes banans. she needs more practise on how to eat solids, versus suckling.....but she'll get it in time. we tried another 1/2 teaspoon again tonight and she did a bit better. next on the menu in a few weeks will be brown rice cereal.

5 months old today!

lilyanna was not having anything to do with getting her photo taken today. so here are the 2 shots we did get that are worth sharing: lilyanna loves to stand, so when we weren't getting a smile or good photo i got teddy to take one of her standing with me.

we love you so much lilyanna! you are a very special girl. these past 5 months of being your momma have been so amazing. thank you for being born!

and this is the last of lilyanna's heart clothing......at least i think it is! this is her sweater dress from auntie amy at christmastime. the photo was taken last week, but i'm just now getting it up here.

SNUG....

....AS....
....A....

....BUG.... lilyanna hardly could stay awake to eat before falling asleep tonight. she loves the bath so much and gets so relaxed in it. off to dreamland for her!

laughing: take 2

here's another try at capturing lilyanna's laughs on video. she laughs quite a bit, at random things and noises. in this video i am slurping my tongue quickly back into my mouth. ignore the rude sound. just listen to her giggles. she's so awesome!

busy busy busy!

since she's been refusing a bottle and, therefore, can't be apart from me all day, lilyanna and i have been very busy this weekend attending the doula workshop. it is a long day and for the most part lilyanna has been a good girl. we haven't had a chance to post the last heart clothing photo, but here are a couple photos from the first week of february.

happy reflections! lately lilyanna insists on not going back in her bed after her 7am or 8am feeding, but 45mins-1.5hrs later she looks like this:

here she is getting some daddy cuddles:

laughing is awesome!

i'm studying this weekend, so uploading photos may not happen. she did wear something with hearts on it today, though. i'll try and get a photo before her bath in a very short while. until the photos start again.....here's a video of her laughing. enjoy!

here is her heart suit from aunt linda and uncle eric. she has taken to blowing bubbles a lot and did so during this photo session. what a silly girl!

today lilyanna and i went into seoul to meet up with some other new mommies and to meet my friend's new baby. on the way home she wasn't on the bus for 5 minutes before she looked like this. looking at me, i guess i should have done the same! then when we got home her valentine's day present from daddy had arrived. we put together her exersaucer and gave her a go in it. she likes it, i think!
and now for getting down to business....

look who's sitting like a big girl! she's sporting her heart embroidered onesie today!

off to dreamland! morning naptime in her heart button onesie.....

happy valentine's day!

loving it!

and then not so much by the time we put on the bib. a little more serious......but still so pretty!

here she is lovin' her "little valentine" shirt!

valentine's week

in honor of it being valentine's week, i'm gonna try to post a new photo of lilyanna in all her "heart" wear this week. here is the first one:

the last little while at home was spent finalizing some wedding plans and visiting with friends. after getting the dress ordered, we found a location (for the ceremony and reception), a pastor and a musician. the rest i think i can manage from korea or do when i get home in the summer. what a blessing to have gotten that much done before i had to come back to korea!


here are some cute photos of lilyanna from before we came back:


our angel:most often mommies have to multitask. here i am in the thick of it!
lilyanna in a hand-me-down from cousin mallory. that was a great thing about being home.....going through mallory's outgrown clothes. they sure won't be needing them for hudson, so we got a whole wardrobe for lilyanna!

lilyanna has a jungle gym something like this one back here in korea. auntie wendy was kind enough to lend us theirs while we were home. lilyanna loves lying under the toys, reaching and playing.

lilyanna having a great time in the bumbo. auntie wendy also lent us theirs while we were home. we have one here that lilyanna enjoys sitting in now.

oh...SO...cute!

we had a great time at home. it was very busy: christmas at the thornes, sip'n'see at nana and grampy's, visiting the changs in milwaukee, back to the thornes to meet hudson, wedding dress shopping, wedding planning, visits from friends.........it was hard to leave. but we'd been away from daddy for 3 weeks, so we were excited to see him.

now on to my workshops for birth and postpartum doula (in one week!).....and then we have about 4 months to pack up our 11 years of living in korea. i want to live in north america, but leaving what we know and going into the unknown is a bit scary. please pray that we find a place we should be in and jobs etc. i like my life in korea, but i've had enough of being so far from family.

new baby.....

.....so one of the exciting things about being home was being with my sister when her second baby was to be born. well we all know things in baby world don't go as we plan, and baby thorne kept right to that! he was born a little early and while i was in milwaukee........so close but still so far away! hudson wayne thorne made his grand appearance on january 2nd. i would have to wait a week to see the little man........but what fun! a boy in the mckay family!

right after landing at the halifax airport my dear parents drove lilyanna and i straight to rothesay to meet hudson. we stayed for a few days and then drove back to NS with auntie amy, who came to rothesay for a couple of days. we also brought baby hudson, wendy and mallory with us.

here is hudson all tucked away in his carseat.

one of the things i wanted to do while wendy was in NS was get my wedding dress so she could be there. here is a photo of mallory trying on her very own "princess dress". she loved it. she was such a great help to me, doing up zippers of the dress i'd taken off, and then on her toes trying to get the one i'd just put on. i only wish we'd gotten a photo of it. it was so cute.
cousins, mallory and lilyanna.....
.....and then again with sir hudson.....

milwaukee

i'm finally getting a chance to blog since returning to korea. lilyanna is having a difficult time getting back on schedule, trying to fight the 13 hour jetlag. we'll get there though! the trip back was just the 2 of us, since teddy went back earlier than us. i was dreading it, but most of the trip was better than i thought it was going to be.

so back to updating you about our trip home over the holidays.......

after lilyanna's sip'n'see we went to milwaukee to visit teddy's family for 2 weeks. teddy's brother, sister-in-law and their son live there. we had a great time, but they are hard working and we only got to see them in the evenings after work. we'll spend more time with them this summer. teddy's parents were also there for the first few days of our visit.

this is teddy and his mom, with lilyanna. here are cousins, lilyanna and harrison with poppa.
we took a family photo of the whole gang.

lilyanna mastered lifting her head off the floor while we were there. what a smile!

cousins, lilyanna and harrison.....

we look forward to being together again.