When Daddy [or Mommy] Comes Home

I love coming home from campus and having Lily crawl over to me to let me pick her up and give her a hug. She really lives the words of the Primary song I'm so glad when Daddy comes home. This always makes me smile and lifts my heart. She does do this for Kristi too, I'm just away from Lily more often than Kristi is. She also likes waving Hello and Goodbye. Sometimes if I've been on campus or if Kristi and the girls were out somewhere, Lily will see me and say, "Haaa [Hi], Da!" At least that's what it sounds like. Lily often also laughs when she comes into a room and sees Kristi or myself for the first time in minutes or hours. She says "Da" and "Ma" and a couple others words. Anwyn and Kristi are always glad to see me too, of course, but Lily's 11 month old exuberance is very cute.

I don't generally condone comparing kids to each other but sometimes they can serve as interesting reference points for each other. For example, Anwyn was quite a prolific talker. She said at least 6 different words at 10.5 months. Lily hasn't hit that yet at 11+ months old. Anwyn also walked at 11 months and Lily, while getting closer all the time, isn't walking on her own yet. Lily is much more social than Anwyn was though. Lily will readily go to other random people to be held, whereas Anwyn usually shied away from anyone but Mom and Dad. She even shied away from me sometimes - she was [is] really a Mama's girl. Lily hasn't really exhibited any stranger anxiety though.  It's an interesting contrast.  That's what's so wonderful about kids - they all add different things to a family