Hair Cut and Easter Eggs

Last weekend, our girl had her first "big girl" haircut at Cool Cuts for Kids. We met Mrs. Mary Jo and her kiddos for lunch, then tagged along to get kiddie cuts. Lyla was mostly ambivalent toward the whole experience. She did fuss quietly for just a little while whenever Mommy wasn't right beside her. The lovely stylist popped in an Elmo video, which captured Lyla's attention enough to distract her sufficiently. Much to my relief, her hair looked just the same, but shaped up and without the stringy baby quasi-mullet thing she had going on. Pheww! Countless times during the week, I complimented Lyla on her new hairstyle and proudly restated that I was so glad I took her to have it done. The very nice lady took some of Lyla's hair and placed it in a card for us.

Easter Sunday, we helped Lyla "find" her Easter basket, which the bunny conveniently hid right on top of the chair in the living room. She was pleasantly surprised to receive jelly beans first thing in the morning and had a great time tooting her new recorder. She can already play one whole note!

We then headed over to Nonna's house for lunch and an egg hunt with the Wise-guys. Lyla immediately caught on to carrying the basket around and soon after that understood that she should put eggs inside of it. She was having a blast being outside with her cousins, and the candy was a definite bonus for her.

After Nonna's, we went to Grandma and Grandpas for a very similar meal, only this time it was dinner. Lyla enjoyed Grandma racing her through the backyard in her wagon and we enjoyed another lovely meal with family.

HAPPY SPRING! For more pics, go to my Picasa!

New Pictures, New Words and Fresh Giggles!

One-year pictures are up at Visual Empathy! Just go to Kristina's site at http://session.visualempathy.com/ and type in the session code, "lylacake." As always, we are more than pleased with her work. She always does a fabulous job and captures just the right moments in just the right light to capture just the right Lyla. She made some pretty goofy faces this time around. We are going to have a hard time choosing which ones to order!

Lyla had a blast with a runaway neighborhood dog that we took in for a day while we located his owner. Although Luke named him Vincent after his look-alike on "Lost," Lyla just called him Maya. So for one night, we had two Maya's. Turns out his name wasn't Vincent or Maya. It was Logan... and he was very happy to be reunited with his owner.

Lyla has been spending her first month as a one-year old shifting quite rapidly into toddlerhood. She doesn't look like a baby anymore and she doesn't really act like one, either. She's all toddler these days, with the attitude to show for it. She has learned a particularly annoying (loud) cry that she emits when she doesn't get her way, a favored item or food is taken away from her, or when the ever-dreaded "going inside" must occur. It's horrendous and dramatic... but her parents know better than to give in to the racket.

She's communicating a lot better now, mostly by nodding and pointing, but she is regularly using the words that she has mastered. Among her favorites are "uh-oh" when she drops something, "Dada," especially when Luke opens the door to greet us after we arrive home, "Aya" for Maya, "Pap-Pap" for Grandpap, and "no," though she mostly mimics that one after she hears it (and she hears it quite often). She has decided to hoard all the "mama's" that she previously babbled non-stop, much to her mother's disappointment. But occasionally from the back seat in the car, she will belt out a nice, clear "mama" just to get the over-the-top shriek and applause that normally follows after that particular word is announced. And just yesterday, I overheard her and Luke going back and forth with "mmmhmmm's." She is such a ham!

There are a few updates to the March album at my Picasa and I just loaded some for April as well.

Until next time, I leave you a short clip of my favorite giggler: