.... otherwise known as the nickname she'll cringe at beyond the age of, oh I don't know, three?

But it's true, she earned it - Lilah is such a lovable, smily, sweet baby with the cutest little cloth diapered bum, thigh rolls, the whole deal. I may be partial but she and her sister are so beautiful and sweet, I am ridiculously and endlessly blessed to be their mother.

It's been quite a while since the last update but nothing of note to report - Lilah's growing and changing daily, and right now is having fun rolling all over the floor (and yelling when she gets stuck on her belly), trying to stay seated upright, gobbling solids as fast as we can give them to her, and showing *everyone* within a ten mile radius her happy shriek. Lilah doesn't really talk, per se, but she does regularly exercise the higher end of her range. Callie always preferred to yell loudly, Lilah doesn't care about the volume as long as it's a screech. She could probably shatter glass if we got her to resonate enough!

Some other points that she differs from her sister on is laughing. If you toss her up in the air or tickle her chin she'll chuckle, but Lilah is remarkably short of actual laughs. But what she DOES do is smile these beautiful, gigantic grins almost the entire time she is awake. She is such a mama's girl and a real cheese, she'll squeal to catch my attention and then grin big time, or start hyperventilating and crying until I come over, when she proceeds to give a HUGE smile through the (obviously melodramatic and fake) tears. She's an absolute peach and I adore her.

Fortunately for her, so does her sister. Callie is a very good helper, giving Lilah kisses, fetching her pacifier for her, patting her head and mimicking Lilah with her own baby doll. Lilah is fascinated watching Callie run around, as well, and I think they'll be very good, close sisters as they grow.

No crawling yet, though Lilah stands like a total champ, better than almost any baby I have seen around her same age. She's VERY long and still somewhat skinny, but healthy and bright. Perhaps her only downside is that she is the exact opposite of her sister in one key area - other people.

Callie never had much of a preference for me over anyone else - in fact she is a total Daddy's girl and Peter is her favorite. But she is great in nursery, with the grandparents... she loves other people.

Lilah, on the other hand, is a total mama's girl and has been wonderful with me from the start, but the very first time I EVER heard her shriek like she was being murdered was ten minutes into nursery. She HATES strangers and has horrible stranger anxiety, and has for months. She used to pull this with her dad and I had a hard time believing it wasn't him doing something weird, because she was always adorably sweet with me - but the bloodcurdling death knell from the nursery confirmed that she's very different with others than she is with me.

Now that she is getting older it is getting better - Peter has been forced into holding her more, so she has gotten used to someone's arms other than mine, and now she is good for him too. Now that her naps are spreading out more she is happier in nursery provided she has lots of toys to distract her. She's much more challenging than Callie (who is regularly reported to be the 'best' kid in nursery, in terms of being happy, playing contentedly, and not tantruming) but getting better with age.

I do have TONS of Lilah pictures from the past few months that need to be uploaded, please excuse the lack of updates. We have been very, very busy and the pictures have just been shuffled onto iPhoto and left there, but we DO have them and they WILL be up.

Lilah Loverbum is yelling from upstairs for her midnight snack, so this will have to be cut short. Updates are forthcoming!