Our Trouble-Making, Ice-Cream-Eating, ABC-Loving, Daycare-Hating, Chatting-it-up Ham!

So... I forgot how rough it is to blog regularly when working full time and continuing to [attempt to] run the house and manage the family!!! Pheww! (Yes, Luke, I am the manager. ;p )

Little Miss Lyla has adjusted fairly well to daycare, though it continues to be a slight struggle for Luke to drop her off in the mornings, when she is reluctant and teary-eyed. Her teacher says she calms down within a minute or two, though she has a hard time all morning long as people come and go, and during the various transitions from one activity to the next.

Ever since she started, she's had either one very long cold, or perhaps several normal-length, overlapping colds. Ugh! After week two, I offered Grandma double what we pay the daycare. I just cannot stand the image of her anxiously watching the door, or the horrendous sob she blurts out when I come to pick her up and she instantly recalls the terrible heartache and stress she has bottled up all day. After this week, which will complete a full month, I offered Grandma triple, but she's still not sold.

In other news, she is growing leaps and bounds in language development. She cracks us up daily with her hammy personality and new-found chattiness. She definitely thinks she's speaking in complete sentences, although usually only a handful of sounds are recognizable Lyla-words. I specify "Lyla-words" because I'm pretty sure the average so-and-so wouldn't necessarily understand what she's saying, but I know that "Aya" is "Maya," "Aht-sees" is "ABC's," "It's Oss" is "It's a mess!" and "s'keem" is "ice cream." She has been pairing more and more words together to make two-word phrases, usually claiming, "It's [a] ____." Among my recent favorites are "Sit Momma?" when she wants to sit on my lap, "Bye-bye Dada" when she wants to play Hi and Bye with the door, closing Luke out and welcoming him back in, and ordering the dog: "Aya sit... goo guh (good girl)."

She is loving her ABC's - obsessed with her magnetic letters, foam bathtub letters, letters from various puzzles and books and most recently, tater-tot letters (thanks, Ore-Ida). She readily names or points out A, B, C, F, S, X, Y, L, and O, and we're working on learning all the others. I *adore* when she randomly notices words on books, signs or packaging and excitedly shows them to me, pointing out the letters she recognizes. I am pretty proud of her advanced literacy skills, and at just 17 months! :p

And now, a couple of long overdue video clips:

Also, check out my Picasa. As usual, there have been some updates. I am trying to select photos to publish rather than publish them all. Since I got the Rebel for my birthday, I've been even more shutter-happy than before... ... ...

August, 2009 (You'll be happy to know, I spared you approximately 600 photos.)
Fun at the Pool
Children's Museum
Watch Me Grow!

Big Changes for Our "Big Girl"

Well, it's that time of year again - back to school! Only, this year, Lyla is heading to "school" as well. Complete with her tiny backpack and adorable lunchbox, she strutted confidently into Premier Academy yesterday for her first day with Mrs. Ashley and Mrs. Cheryl in the "Upper Ones" class. She's not quite the right age to be considered "upper" (18-months +) but she will be soon enough, and we figured it wouldn't be worth all the transition trouble in a month to have her readjust to new teachers and routines.

Despite the early rise time and lack of breakfast, she was off to a good start, wanting "inside" as soon as possible. She bolted toward the toys and was immediately surrounded by a few curious faces, all poking, pointing, and sharing exciting toddler gadgets with her. But she soon decided she was fulfilled by this magical place and promptly sought out Mommy, demanded "up" and thoughtfully told her new classmates "bye-bye," all smiles. It took some coaxing to get her playing again, and sufficiently distracted so that Mommy could slip away. Peeking in a moment later, she was clinging to Mrs. Ashley with a look of desperation on her face, her knuckles white where she grabbed hold of Ashley's shirt. And if it hadn't already cracked a little by this point, Mommy's heart split open and burst into a million pieces. Just like that.

And so began the worst day ever. It was very difficult not to fly over to school and rescue her, but our grand plan was to spend the week before Mommy goes back in transition, in hopes that going back to work might be a smidgen less difficult. I called about three times during the day and forced Luke to call once so I didn't look like a nut, although the staff at the school seem very supportive and understanding of how insanely hard this really is. Those check-in calls proved to be more upsetting than comforting, though, as Lyla was never in a good state. She wasn't uncontrollably upset, but she was out of sorts - weepy and confused, not eating, not drinking - all day.

Today and forever, Luke is taking her. Reports this morning are worse than yesterday, which we expected, since she knows what's happening. Last I heard, Mrs. Ashley was taking her for some one-on-one time. Sounds like a good plan...

It'll take time, I know, but it doesn't make me (or Lyla) hate it any less.

Lyla's first day of school, classic "in front of the fridge" shot.
(She didn't like the backpack or understand why she was supposed to stand in front of the fridge.)

Fun with Food

Last night, Lyla got a special treat after dinner. Fruit always follows dinner, but this was different... this was... delicious! Strawberries are super, but add whipped cream and, well, who knows where it'll take ya! Here is the fun that followed...

And then the inevitable...

To see the rest, visit the July album!

Boom Boom!

Hi all! I know it's been a while since my last post... one would think with the summer off I'd have more time, but really it's just a matter of my time being used up in new ways. Admittedly, I am far more exhausted at the end of a day with my little stinker than I was all year after a day's work at school. She certainly keeps me busy (and curtails any chances I have of keeping up with housework).

We had a wonderful 4th of July with just our "own selves," hanging out at home and keeping cool. The night before, the 3rd, we went to my sister's house in Roanoke to watch the city fireworks display. She has a great view from her backyard - they shoot them off from a field right across the street. Every year it seems this party gets bigger and bigger. By the end of the night, Shannon had over 100 guests at her house. Good thing her yard is ginormous.

As expected, Lyla loved the fireworks. I prepped her the day before by showing her some fireworks shows on YouTube. Yes, I am a dork that has been trained in preparing students for situations that might cause some anxiety... so these sorts of things come to mind a lot. I think she would have been fine even without the prep, though, as she simply sat back and watched, saying, "Boom!" and, "Noisy" every so often, with a bouncy nod of finality. That lasted only about 3 minutes... then she was ready to run off and play despite the noise and lack of sunlight. Baby attention span = not so long.

We were so glad to spend the evening with our closest friends and even got see a special visitor from out of town. Lisa and Jake were down for the weekend with Elizabeth - she has grown so tall (although our 6-month younger monster outweighs her!) and beautiful. It was wonderful to see them!

Mary Jo and family, Kerry and Craig, Mac and Kristin, and Melissa and Haydrienne came, too, and we had a blast eating hotdogs and partaking in cool beverages while waiting for it to get dark. The show wasn't too bad, either!

15 Months!

Lyla had her 15-month check-up yesterday. Here's the scoop:

Weight: 26.5 lbs.
Height: 32 in.

You read that right. According to Dr. Dickey, that's about the size of an average 2-year old. Her head measured about the size of an average 3-year old. That's just how smart she is.
She had 2 shots, and although that's less than half of what we're used to, it was probably the worst vaccination session thus far. She's just so much more aware of things... she cried a horrible, traumatized cry. You know, the one where you can't catch your breath - it's not a full cry because you're just so shocked at what's occurred? Yeah, that's the one. It went on for around 5 minutes before Mommy calmed her down via distraction. Hooray for counting on Lily Leap!

We've been keeping busy (aka staying away from our boring, unclean house) mostly by keeping wet. In the last week, we've been to a local water park, Grandma's pool (x4 or 5), a local city pool, and of course, the little pool in the backyard. Lyla is a fan of her-size waterslides and shallow water she can wade in on her own (Miss Independent?).


In our backyard, having fun with the hose.


Chillin' at the local city pool. She's so cool.

Today, we went with Kerry to the Grapevine Botanical Gardens. Lyla loved exploring the beautiful gardens and playing on the playground. She tried to pick a strawberry in the herb garden and delighted in feeding the koi in the pond. We had a picnic lunch in the shade in an attempt to stay cool and Lyla played in the water fountain, ensuring complete clothing saturation.

At the Botanical Gardens:

Our Chatter Box!

I am currently on Luke's computer, which means no access to the pictures and videos that I typically load up. So, this post will have to come to you with - *gasp* - no pictures or video! Tomorrow is Lyla's 15- month checkup, so I will be sure to post again very soon with pictures and everything. I'll need to get my computer hooked up again. In any case, here's out latest news:

A few days ago, I tried to make a list of all the words Lyla knows. I am now wishing I had been keeping a list all along, with dates to document. But hey, I guess I can't keep records of EVERYTHING! The list, which Grandma helped me try and compose, consisted of more than three dozen words. I was shocked! I can't believe how much talking she is doing already. It's got to be one of my favorite things. I get so excited every time she says something knew, or attempts to, even if it sounds completely ridiculous. It's amazing!
Most recently, she is dedicated to labeling all that is "noisy," which sounds more like "ois-chee" with an emphasis on both syllables, because all noisy things are apparently very noisy.

School is out, and we've been trying to think of creative ways to occupy our time so we don't go stir crazy at home. Last week, it rained buckets and Lyla we were couped up inside quite a bit. She also had some yucky virus and was running a fever almost all week - up to around 104 some of the time. Other than the fever and a red throat, she had no other symptoms and she tested negative for Strep. "Just a virus" for Lyla mostly meant continuing baby business as usual with a little added fussiness and occasional lethargy. It was completely heart-breaking and I am definitely not looking forward to future fevers. Yuck.

Perhaps all the extra pampering last week aided her in this discovery, but she has certainly made some strides in typical toddler behavior. She's picking up on whining and carrying on -- verging on throwing fits, but it's more like the dropping to the ground or swinging her feet when she doesn't want to go somewhere - usually "inside" -- so we're doing our best to curb this by ignoring as much as possible. It was hard to be too tough on her when she was under the weather and continuing to teeth. I am pretty sure she's finished cutting all four molars (I don't dare reach in and feel... too risky!) but now she's on to her inscisors. She doesn't seem to mind, though, so I guess we are (and she is) very lucky!

Now that it's nice outside (aka ridiculously hot) we are definitely spending more time in the sun. Over the weekend, we went to NRH2O and yesterday, we visited a local pool for a few hours. She's definitely a water baby. Will have more on that in a future update - one with pictures!

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