Dancing and Splashing

We've been BUSY! Since our last post, Lyla has cut two molars on her left side, and the other two on the right are working their way out. We had no indication she was even teething, so that's good! She's learned a bunch of new words, including some animal sounds, and she has started expressing her wants/needs much more consistently and insistently (especially "side?" for "outside"). She readily points to her eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, head, tummy, belly button, feet, and knees. She overly-curls her lip and cries out dramatically if she doesn't get her way. She's just been an absolute hoot and a ham and of course, the videos have really piled up, so it's been tough deciding which ones to share this time around.

Lyla has always really enjoyed music, but this SkyBox song particularly caught her fancy. She can't resist tapping to the beat or dancing around, and for some reason has deemed it necessary to do this from a seated position. At one point, you'll notice, she even gets up to distract herself with another task, but once the music picks up again she has to sit and continue rocking out.

Lyla has been having fun cooling down in her new lil swimming pool. Mostly she steps in, splashes her feet, makes a goofy grin and rough laughing noise, steps out, then repeats. She has been loving the outdoors, and makes requests (or demands?) regularly to go out and play by standing by the door, pointing and asking, "Side?" She will then nod emphatically as if to tell us, "Yes, people. Yes. This is what I'm asking... DO IT!" We are in for a lot of "side" this summer, so hopefully the Texas sun won't burn us up too badly!

Ah, to be so secure and blissfully ignorant as to dance around freely and splash around completely naked and carefree...

I won't bog down Blogspot with too many videos (I already tried and it didn't work!). I'll try to post the others in the next few days.

Until then, catch up on our Picasa Web Albums:

See April if you missed it! Mother's Day, 2009 , May (so far), and... Watch Me Grow has been updated to include her most recent pictures. Apparently, there was some bug and it wasn't loading my updates, but it's all up to date, now!

--Emily

Parks and (Family) Recreation

Last weekend, we went to the park as a family and had picnic dinner in a gazebo by the creek, watched (and chased) the ducks, then played on the playground. Lyla loved her first family park outing. The slide was, by far, the best part - she wanted to slide over and over again! We had a great time, especially since Luke's allergies seem to have been cured by the miracle drug we now know to be Singulair.




Lyla is blowing us away every day with how much she is imitating and trying to communicate. Her signing has improved along with her vocalizations, although she is a little stubborn about repeating things on command (*cough* Little Luke *cough*) . Her newest favorite is "doh," which translates to "go," particularly when preceded by "Ready...? Set...?" and especially when paired with swinging. We'll have to include a swinging video next week.

Papa Sam came for a visit over this past weekend. Our plans to take the boat out on the lake were spoiled by rain. Bummer! But we had fun at home, instead. Papa bought Nerf guns for all the kids and they went to war. Inside my house. We are going to be finding those little Nerf darts for several months, I'm sure. We also went to the Watenpaugh's and Papa and Les couldn't resist taking the boat out, just for 20 minutes or so. Zoe and I went along (I'd never been out on one before) and despite the chilly, damp air (and at one point, some rain), it was really fun. We hope we get to go out in nice weather again soon. Lyla will love it!

The next day, after a blueberry pancake breakfast, we all spent the day shooting zombies (Hooray Resident Evil) and relaxing. It was a really nice visit!

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:

Happy 1st Birthday, Lyla!

On Lyla's birthday, March 19, Mommy and Daddy took her to the zoo! The zoo was "a zoo," as they say... meaning it was super crowded. We found out from a zoo dude that the previous day was a record-setter. I can't imagine it being any more crowded than it was when we were there Thursday. Lyla did really well despite the heat, crowd and being confined to her stroller most of the time. Her favorite part was the aviary - she got to hold a popsicle stick with some seeds on it to feed the smaller birds (parakeets, love birds, doves). It took a little time for some hungry birds to find us, but when they did, our girl was delighted. She was so intent watching the colorful birdies and held perfectly still (mostly) while they ate off her stick.

We also got to see an orangutan showing off to try to win over another zoo patron's orange. She stretched out her open hand as if to say, "Please toss your orange this way." When the lady did not oblige, the orangutan feigned utter sadness by burying her head in her arms and hanging her head sadly. We were cracking up. Lyla stared the whole time... I think she was a little confused by the humanish animalish creature.

When we got home (Lyla crashed in the stroller before we even got to the parking lot), we rested awhile, then helped her open presents from Mommy and Daddy. She caught on pretty quickly, but wanted to play with each gift rather than open them all. We encouraged her to get through them, though, so we could get it on tape... then we taped some playing. She got another Karen Katz flap book, a set of Sesame mini-books, an Elmo puppet, a mailbox shape-sorter, a bubble-blowing hippo and a summer outfit. We went outside to play with the bubbles, which Lyla really enjoyed. She loves to be outside!


The next day was party prep for Mommy, Grandma and Aunt Donna. Lyla had a flower/garden theme. We had to get food ready, decorate cakes, and set up tables/party supplies. Lyla also had her 1-year checkup with Dr. Dickey. Here is the low-down:
She weighed in at a healthy 24 lbs (89%), measured 30.5 inches (88%), and her head was 47.5 cm around (96%).... meaning, she is about the height/weight of a 22-month old and her head is the size of a 3 year old's. It's because her brain is so giant and full of intelligence already!

Saturday, we had all our closest friends and family over to celebrate our daughter's first year. We had a wonderful day - the weather was perfect (although poor Luke couldn't tolerate it for long due to his allergies), the kids had fun painting flower pots, planting daisies in them and breaking (decapitating) the butterfly pinata. They took turns pulling Lyla in the new red wagon Grandma and Grandpap got her. Overall, a good time was had by all and although the big "1" was slightly bittersweet, we made a huge deal out of it and it was totally worth it. Next year, though, Mommy will definitely be scaling down!

See the rest of our birthday pictures at Picasa!

My Milkshake...

Mommy and Daddy have started a diet that allows one cheat day a week. Lyla is a fan of cheat day and she participated today. It turns out, she really likes milkshakes. Are we surprised, though? Not really.




Yesterday, we took our 1-year pictures with Kristina (Visual Empathy). She made a precious little red-velvet cake for Lyla's "cake shots" - we can't wait to see them! We also got some other shots of her playing, reading, laying on the background paper (tee hee) and being her regular, happy lil' self. She did a great job and didn't put up much fuss at all, especially when it was cake time. We stripped her down to diaper only so she could go to town. All in all, she wasn't too messy. At one point, after we knocked the strawberry off the top of the cake, Lyla put it back on top. That must be the Pearson half of her.
We will be sure to post the link to the pictures when they are ready to view.

She has been talking more and more, and recently started to actually use the words she has previously mimicked. For example, today she told our boxer-mix, Maya, "No," when her tail kept wacking her (gently, of course, otherwise Mommy would have intervened). The other day, she picked up my cell phone and held it to her ear while walking around Grandma and Grandpap's house and said, "Heddo?" with the sweetest inflection at the end. I was cracking up!

We have lots of planning to do, still, before her big day this week. Thursday is the real deal, but the big bash won't be until Saturday.

Our Goofball Girl!

We have one goofy little girl. We were able to capture some of her clowning around on tape, this time. Here is our silly goose playing with the pets:

Lyla is cutting her 8th tooth, which should be her last one for a while. Once again, we're lucky that she seems unfazed by the ordeal.

Monday morning was Lyla's last boob meal - we are officially done nursing. The goal was to make it to one year, as per pediatrician recommendation. Well, we got to 11 1/2 months. Go us! It was a bittersweet moment for Mommy, obviously, but necessary. We were down to one feeding/day for a while and Lyla didn't seem to care one way or the other. So, it was a good indication that it was time to move on, despite my urge to cling to the emotional/bonding component. Next month, we'll start shifting from formula to cow's milk.

Our little girl has somehow developed into a social butterfly. Whenever we are in public, she makes it a point to observe each and every person around her, and if anyone's in close enough proximity, she waves to them and flashes a flirty smile. We crack up, along with whoever it is she's entertaining. We're not quite sure where she gets it from, but it's sweet and cute. Also adorable, her little growly noise and "ladehladeh" nonsense she babbles when playing. Just now, she sneaked into the office and startled me with a, "Graaa!" while I was typing What a little ham we have!

--Emily