This is Nuts!

I think Lily will never crawl, I really think she'll go straight to walking. Last night I was sitting with my legs straight out in front of me and had her sitting on one of my legs, kind of straddling it with her feet on the floor. I was holding her hands and next thing I know she's pushed herself to a stand with her legs. I didn't help her at all, except I kept her from falling over.

She's not steady on her feet - as in, I couldn't let go of her hands and expect her to stand up. But every day she gets stronger, I was so surprised that she stood herself right up! When I was changing her to her pajamas last night she was standing up holding on to my shoulders and I noticed that she wasn't holding on for dear life like she usually is, it was more of just something she used to balance herself.

This girl has almost no arm strength - when she's on her tummy she can barely prop her head and chest up. She'll tuck her legs under her like she would if she were on all fours but she'll have her head buried in the carpet. She rarely rolls over. But she'll stand all day if you let her. I tried to get her to take "steps" but she didn't understand the concept of putting one foot in front of the other. Once she gets that, it's only a matter of time.

Even with everything she's been through, I honestly think she will walk earlier than Collin did. He was crawling and pulling up on things at 8 months old, but was content to do that for a long time and didn't walk well until he was 16 months old. I don't think Lily will sit still that long.

Now this is really cool guys...

I am a part of a group of moms that get together to chat and share advice - we have a little message board that we fire questions and stories back and forth. There's girls from all over the world on it. They were a rock of support for me and kept updated through everything when Lily was in the hospital. One of the moms lives in Canada and runs races for charities and the proceeds go to whoever she decided she was going to run for. Anyways, they start back up in the spring and she told me yesterday that she's going to run the very next race in honor of Lily and in memory of Chloe, to raise money for CHD awareness!

I almost fell off my chair! I got tears in my eyes, literally... we have touched people in Canada, that we've never even met! We're going to be getting the word out there and raising money for a cause that is soooo often overlooked in the name of bigger, scarier sounding (but much less common) cancers and diseases. Congenital Heart Defects are the most common and most deadly birth defects that affect babies and there just isn't enough funding and information out there! Did you know that researchers are working on a way to close some defects like VSDs and ASDs through a catheter, or sometimes an incision under the ribs, instead of open heart surgery? Some day, families and babies like Lily may not have to go through what we did!

Okay, that's all for today. Lily was such a good girl last night, I fed her "pumpkins and pears" and it smelled really good, and most of it ended up on her bib and highchair. She cracks me up sometimes!