Summertime!

Our big 2.5 year old girl has grown almost an inch, and gained 7 oz. over the past month! Lia is now almost 37 inches tall. We are still trying to reach that elusive 26 lb. weight mark, however we'll take what we can get. Lia no longer wears a bib or sits in a high chair to eat (except at restaurants). She now sits in her "big girl chair" (booster seat) at the dinner table with us:

We are finally getting to enjoy some summer-like temperatures here in the Northwest. Lia loves to be outdoors and look at all the flowers. Every day she asks her daddy to cut some fresh lilacs so she can "smell" them. So we've been spending time relaxing on our back patio and grilling all sorts of new foods for her to try.

Since being out of arm restraints and back on a normal diet, Lia has really been packing in the protein! She now loves chicken nuggets and tenders, shrimp, sausage, hot dogs, scrambled eggs w/cheese, etc. She even ate several green beans one night (that was a first!) We always offer her green veggies, but she'd never actually tried them (w/out immediately spitting them out) before...

Lia saw her first hot air balloon in the sky last week. She has always loved balloons, and to see one so high up in the sky really blew her mind. Everywhere we drove she kept looking for it and pointing to it.

She also tried her hand at karaoke for the first time last weekend. Our neighborhood block party was held at the home of the family who had the machine. We were outside chatting, when I realized I wasn't sure where Lia had gone. We went inside to check on her and there she was, mic in hand, putting on a show for several of our neighbors. She loved it. We may have a future showgirl on our hands!