Always believe . .

Some Spring time pictures

2011-05-05T14:35:00.004-04:00

Spring has FINALLY sprung and with it our flowers our coming out. Lyla is a true girl and loves checking on our flowers and checking to see which flowers are open more today than they were yesterday. I am looking forward to the end of May when we plant our summer flowers together. Here are some pictures of her in our yard checking out what spring has sprung.

Happy Spring to you all!

Lyla's Photo session

2011-05-05T14:31:00.001-04:00

As I said in my other post, here are some of the pictures Lyla took..

Not bad~

Getting Ready for Baby Hewlett

2011-05-05T14:13:00.002-04:00

With only 6 more weeks to go we are getting prepared to make our family of 3 a family of 4. We don't know what the sex of the baby will be and we haven't nailed down any names yet. But we are getting ready. Lyla and I washed some baby clothes today and decided to let them air dry outside in the sunny warm day. Here is Lyla showing off her baby bump!

And my baby bump, with Lyla as the photographer.

This is Lyla again taking the pic. The first time she had used our Nikon, if I look a little apprehensiveit is thatI was sure it is going to end up on the ground.

So here is the latest on the baby. I am pretty much back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Just one pound shy of what I was when I started this. The baby has had 6 ultrasounds. The last one to check growth and it was in the 34th per centile. They are estimating that this baby will be relatively close in size with Lyla. This pregnancy has had many similarities as well as differences. I was sick sick sick again with this one. The extent lasted longer and I lost a little more weight. I feel like I am pretty much the same dimensions as I was with Lyla - just pregnant out in front, but I feel like I am sticking out more. Baby loves to be under my right ribs, just like Lyla. Very active baby - can't really remember with Lyla. A lot more braxton hicks this time around.

Anyways, we are hoping for a healthy baby. That is all that matters. Talk to you soon...

Ultrasound # 5

2011-01-18T21:11:00.002-05:00

We had our 5th ultrasound today. Yes our 5th! We have been lucky to see our babe 5 times this pregnancy. Which is how many I had with Lyla.Who knows if we will see he/she again. This was the big ultrasound. The one where they check out all the body parts and make sure everything is growing and functioning as it should be. Everything looked great which is always a relief. This is also the ultrasound where they can tell you the sex of the baby. Which we have decided to wait and see come June. The ultrasound tech is the only one who knows the sex, and she assured me that it wouldn't be anywhere documented so she is the only one that knows.

Here are some pictures from our ultrasound..

Profile..

A foot

Looking straight on at the babe's face..

This is Lyla's picture that the US tech gave for her to have. As you can tell by the wrinkles it has been well loved in the 8 hours we have had it.

The Us tech switched her machine into 3D and here is a picture of the little babe. All 9 ounces of him/her.
Heart rate was 156 today.

Fun in the snow

2011-01-13T15:03:00.004-05:00

After yesterday where Lyla did not nap I thought we should go outside and get some fresh air in hopes of achieving a nap today. And tada - here I am blogging, watching TV and Lyla is sleeping.
So I guess that the fresh air did help.

Here are some pictures of our outside fun today.

Fall time fun - Memories of September

2011-01-10T21:54:00.005-05:00

Oh don't these pictures make you yearn for the warm sunshine of a nice fall day...

We're back!!

2011-01-10T14:34:00.003-05:00

Fall came and went and now we are here in January thinking - geez I haven't blogged in a really long time!

Reason being I am 18 weeks pregnant! And in true Kelly style this pregnancy has been full of lots of sickness and drama.

Where to start?? We 6 stated the vomiting, of course while we were on vacation to Mackinaw Island and Traverse City. Our trip back ended up with a doctor visit and subsequent visit to the ER for fluid hydration. Zofran wasn't working they felt because I was dehydrated so much. The fluids helped intensely and held me for another 3 weeks. Until I got really sick again - throwing up for 4 days and ending up being back in the hospital again for fluid hydration. I haven't gained any weight yet - lost 12 pounds. Have had 4 ultrasounds in 16 weeks - had 1 US to check for viability, a 2nd for routine sequential screening, a 3rd because of bad cramping, and 4th because of spotting. So ask you can see the last 4 months have been very tiring.

Here is our 2nd ultrasound, done around 11 weeks. The first time seeing our little babe. Lyla enjoyed seeing the babe and asked silly questions like 'is it a monkey? is it a tiger? is it Dr. Duff?' She made the US tech laugh as well as her daddy and I.

Here is the US at 16 weeks, that I had after I had some bleeding. Everything was fine and the babe is hanging in there cozy like a little bug.Luckily I am starting to feel a bit better. Not taking Zofran every day anymore. And I was taking Zofran around the clock, and then 2 times a day and now when I do take it I am usually only taking it once a day. My worst time was at the end of the day and that is still true especially on the days I work but now I feel worse in the am.

I have been lucky that Lyla has been a very good girl through this. She has become a staple visitor at the MDs. They know what sticker she wants when we check out. I counted that I have been to the MDs 7 times in 16 weeks. So my MD is asking me if it is time for me to push as he has seen me so many times.

Anyways, I better run. I hear Lyla awakening... hope to 'talk' to you soon.

looking back at Halloween pasts..

2010-10-31T14:50:00.003-04:00

Just looking back at how much Miss Lyla has grown.

Here she is as a pumpkin on her 1st Halloween just 5.5 months old... I remember that day - it was absolutely beautiful warm day... And here is our bee from last year, at almost 1.5 years old. She still wears the bee vest and I swear she will wear it until it is no longer humanly possible.

And here she is our lady bug this year. . Almost 2.5 years old.

Time flies and she continues to grow....

Happy Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T14:36:00.003-04:00

From our house to yours, my you have a spook-tackular Halloween tonight. Thanks to my sister for giving us Lyla's ladybug costume. It is going to be a cold night, so this will be good to keep her warm..

Welcome to the World Matthew

2010-09-23T16:31:00.002-04:00

Introducing Matthew Poolton, born September 21th.

Congratulations Heidi and John.

Enjoy your 4th boy!

Thanks you for sharing Matthew with me today!

'I am a Robot!'

2010-09-20T15:14:00.002-04:00

Last week Lyla's best friend Caillou and his friend Leo were pretending to be Robots. So Lyla had to be one too. Here is my little robot!

Things Lyla says..

2010-09-17T14:33:00.002-04:00

On the way to Lyla's school today I was wearing a puffer vest. Lyla says to me -

"Muma. What are you wearing?"

"It is a vest - like a coat Lyla."

"No it's not Muma. It's a life jacket."

Sure - to a 2 year old a puffer vest does look like a life jacket. Puts a little perspective on the way others look at you.. Have a great day.

Campa's Boat

2010-09-16T22:15:00.004-04:00

Lyla's Campa a.k.a. Grandpa got a boat this summer. We went for a boat ride on our visit in August and here are some pictures of Lyla's 1st boating experience. Happy faces with her muma.. She was not completely sure of the whole boating thing but did wonderful. She enjoyed trolling around most. When we went fast at first she liked it better than the second time after trolling around. I think she realized we could just go slow and it would be quiet and not windy and such.

Here is our family photo as we ride along..

Check out this little investigator.. just checking everything out...

Not too sure...

Uncle Tyler drove Lyla to Fenlen Falls. Here is the little miss enjoying the falls..

Lyla really enjoyed standing at the back with Daddy and watching the wake from the boat...

Here is our ambassador waving to boats as they go by..

All and all, I think Lyla had a great boating trip - and by next summer she can be the first mate! Thanks Campa for taking us out on a boat ride and thanks Uncle Tyler for the ride.. Until next summer...

Friends for Life

2010-09-16T14:47:00.002-04:00

Here are my bestest friends in the world. We spent the years of our high school life together, went our separate ways, and now we are back to being closest buds again. Most of the girls are actually pretty close in distance to each other. Some of us are far away. But distance doesn't stop us from picking up right where we left of. That is what is so special about our bond, we will always be friends - until we are old and gray.Leanne hosted a family ho-down during the summer at her house for all of us and our families. Here we are before heading off on the wagon ride. We are looking forward to a girls retreat in a couple of weeks. We are going away without kids or husbands to be pampered and spend some quality girl time - drinking wine and catching up. Can't wait!

Look Grandma!

2010-09-16T14:37:00.002-04:00

Here is our little farmer sharing her passion for farm life with her Grandma from the big city. "Check out the combine as it harvests the wheat Grandma."

"It is really loud!"

"Really loud but still cool"

Let's Go P!

2010-09-16T14:05:00.004-04:00

Some of you know that we are fortunate enough to live very close to a high school. This allows us to hear the band practicing from our backyard during the late summer months, it also allows us to go and see the band practicing. We did that throughout the summer and Lyla thoroughly enjoyed it, so we decided to go and see the game with the football players, the cheerleaders, the crowd and of course the band.

We have been twice and Lyla enjoyed it very much. The first time was the best - she was very well behaved and the weather was beautiful. The second was a bit more challenging with typical two year old behaviour. So lets just say, we have seen the game twice and we probably will call it a season. Here are some pictures from our time at the game. As you can guess the home team was in red.. So Lyla really enjoys the cheerleaders as well. To explain 'Lets go P!'. As most of you know we are in the midst of trying to potty train Lyla. Potty training is quite the dramatic event as all you parents know. You sing, you dance you put on all the charms to lure your child to the potty. So, at the game the cheer leaders where cheering to Lyla saying - Lets go D - as in defense, well our little Lyla turned to me and said - 'They are saying - Lets go P!'. She had a big smile on her face and started to cheer along with them. It made both of us laugh.

Checking out the football game...

And boy oh boy did we luck out. We got to sit right beside the band. And they played songs during the game, Lyla was right beside them both nights. She especially like the Tuba.

And this is what we go for - the band playing their half time show.

So next time you are watching a football game and you hear the cheerleaders cheer 'lets go D' remember my little story and it sure to put a smile on your face.

How you have grown...

2010-09-10T16:00:00.002-04:00

Check out these 2 pictures - taken a year apart and see how time flies and changes happen right in front of our own eyes. Lyla is growing up so quickly...

Lyla's 1st Day at School

2010-09-10T14:50:00.004-04:00

Today was the big day. Lyla started Daycare. We were all excited and some were nervous (me) but it turned out to be a great day for our little 'leader'.

Last night we Lyla picked out her backpack and we had to pack it up with the essentials - sunscreen, Dora pants, extra clothes. Lyla decided to help me pack and added a few essentials of her own - a hanger, a tooth brush, her ocean wonders controller, her pajamas, Thomas books in the suitcase, toothpaste, a hair elastic, another Thomas book, and her 3 best friends - Teddy, Reindeer and Horsey. Lets just say the bag was overflowing but she sure was proud of her back pack all packed up.

So after I got her bag repacked, filled out all the rest of the paperwork, and headed off to bed I actually slept fine. Then this morning we woke up and got ready for the big first day. Lyla wanted grilled cheese for breakfast and she also ate a cheese string. I started by giving her cereal and soon found out all she was eating was the sugar on the cereal so I gave into her request for a grilled cheese. Lyla is very into the princess theme right now. Which means she wants to wear a dress all the time. With the change in temperature it makes dress wearing a little more challenging. Good thing I bought this outfit for her to wear on her first day of school.

We did a series of pictures of the front step as we were getting ready to leave. The obligatory pictures with the backpack on and the excitement in her face as also present. This pictures turned out pretty cute..

I especially like the above one - as she is standing on her tippie toes in excitement.

This is Lyla's backpack from behind. Dora and it lights up as well. She can also roll it, but she prefers to wear it.

This is the sweetest one.. Such a cutie pie..if I do say so myself - I know I am biased..

Here we are getting ready to go into Lyla's school...

And at the door to her classroom... (this actually was taken after I had picked her up)

When we drove up to the school I told Lyla that I would be leaving her there as I had to go to the dentist and get some cavities filled. She started to cry and said she didn't want to be at school without me. My little heart broke and of course I had planned it so I could stay for a bit if she needed and that was what I did. I stayed about 45 minutes before I left her. Here she was eating her morning snack which was a pancake, which she exclaimed to everyone that 'It is delicious'. The teachers oohhed and aahhed over her - saying no one had ever said that before, and that she was such a cutie. When I looked around her class - she is in a class of 12 and she is 1 of 2 girls. 10 boys!!!

When you are done eating you have to wait to hear your name called before you can leave the table. When you are done eating you can put your hand up and wait for you name. Here Lyla is waiting for her name...

I left after that. And she was really brave. I said that I was going to go now but I would be back for her after her lunch and she is said in a sad voice 'okay muma.' She gave me a hug and a kiss and told me she loved me. Then I made my quick exit out the door and looked back through the window to see one of the teachers talking to her about the doll house she was playing with. I had a huge ball in my chest and tears in my eyes, but they did not come out as I knew Lyla was being brave so I needed to too.

Then off I went to the dentist for a torturous 3 cavities and 1 bonding! I am still frozen! and hungry!

I came back about 3 hours later and peered through her window and saw her playing on the matt with some toys. I had talked to Ryan who called the teacher for me who told me she had cried after she realized I had left. Miss Betty hugged her and wiped her eyes - this is what Lyla told me. They also went outside which cheered her up too. When I said 'Hi Lyla!" when I walked in the door the look of joy as she hoped up and ran to me. A huge smile and a little voice yelling 'Muma! You came back!" She hoped in my arms and hugged me and kissed me. We were both happy to be together. The teacher told me everything about her being upset and right away she said to me 'She is a leader'. I just smiled - and to be honest I couldn't talk to well because of all the freezing in my mouth - and the teacher said - 'you already knew that didn't you?" Lyla also called Miss Betty silly - which Miss Betty seemed to like. Lyla seemed happy at school and is excited to go back next week.

Here Lyla is which her lead teacher Miss Betty (in blue) and her assistant teacher -Miss Tiffany.

We drove home and Lyla sang some songs they had sang at school, told me what Miss Betty had said about certain things and told me what she had done at school. She received a present from the class - a Disney fairies Frisbee - for joining the class. And we are excited to go again next week.

Summer's Last Hurrah

2010-09-09T22:39:00.006-04:00

Hard to believe that summer has come and gone but it has, and looking back I really neglected my blog. I really didn't blog all summer. Sorry blogger! I guess that is a good indication on how much fun we had this summer. Lyla is growing more and more independent as the days go on - that is not to say that she isn't a muma's girl - as she surely is - ask Ryan! But she is working on potty training, talking like a 20 year old and having the most fun any 2 year old could ask for.

Tomorrow we have a huge milestone - Lyla is starting a day of daycare each week. I will post more on that tomorrow. But for tonight I had to post some of our pictures from our last hurrah of summer time fun.

Last week we went to Nana and Papa's house to spend a couple of days with them and Lyla's cousins. We were only there a short time but we made the most of our time with everyone.

It was really hot last week - in the 90s! And we needed some relief -So the first day that we got there we headed to the splash pad as soon as Lyla had her nap. Splash pads are in almost every community in Ontario - not so much in Michigan so this was Lyla's first experience with the splash pad. It was not without excitement and injury - two typical things in any toddler day. The excitement came just from the fun of the entire scene - fun with her cousins, and fun with water. The injury came when Lyla climbed up on the wall you see behind her in the picture below and decided to have Jillian catch her as she jumped off the wall. . Lets just say my heart was in my throat as I saw this scene unfold - Lyla is lucky she didn't truly hurt herself more than some abrasions.. Just check out these pictures from the splash pad and you can see everyone had a blast....

The 3 friends and 3 cousins....

Lyla really likes her older cousin Matthew. He really entertains her and makes her laugh. she is still talking about him this week and mimicking him... Thanks Matthew for the laughs...

The next day we planned to load up the van and head to the beach. Two sisters and their 4 kids! It was so much fun. We really didn't know where we were going - just to the lake and once we got there my memory of a beach trip when Emily was Lyla's age was our map. We went to Port Franks and had a great September 1st at the beach. The sun was hot, the water was warm and the family fun was great! I can't wait to go back next year, and it left me asking my sister - why we hadn't done this earlier this summer!

Here are our 2 princesses bathing themselves in the water at the beach. I love this picture!

The nice thing about this beach was the shallowness. We were able to go out quite a bit and the girls could lay in the water and enjoy the water. It was really nice..

No trip to the beach is complete without the kids splashing their moms. . Lyla even got in on it.. and on my camera - I have pictures of her coming up to me after seeing the kids splashing Aunt Pam... Lets just say Aunt Pam was no long dry after this splashing ..

Loving cousin Emily...

Loving the beach...

More splashing...

Like I said, great beach for kids - Here is the gang all out swimming together. Thanks Emily for watching over Lyla...

3 of the kiddies ... Sorry Pam - I didn't post the picture of Jillian crying about Lyla not holding her hand...

Lyla loved wearing Matthew's goggles. In fact today she was telling me about wearing Matthew's sunglasses at the beach. I think it was quite the fashion statement don't you?

The next day we all gathered at Nana and Papa's for a lunch and a cake to celebrate family time as well as Miss Jillian's birthday. Matthew spent a lot of time pulling the girls around in the wagon with Lyla yelling 'FASTER!' at him.

Such a cute picture. As we all sang happy birthday to Jillian she reached for Lyla's hand and held onto her hand. Very cute.

Thanks for the great summer visit! We can't wait until next summer comes and we can all play again at the beach and splash pad!

Dora's Cupcakes

2010-08-10T16:00:00.003-04:00

So yesterday morning, Lyla and I had NickJr on and we saw a recipe for cupcakes decorated like Dora. We decided we needed to make these. When Lyla woke up I had the cupcakes ready but we still had to make all the fun stuff for decorating Dora. As you can see my assistant Lyla loved this! Here is the finished cupcake.. So cute - and Lyla loved them and they were great for getting her to eat her dinner.

Viola - here is the presentation.

These were really yummy and you can find the recipe on NickJr.com under recipes. This Sunday is Dora's Birthday movie release. These would be a great idea for the party celebration!

Just an update...

2010-08-10T15:49:00.002-04:00

Time is flying by and I guess blogging has been put on the back burner.. so here I am with a quick update. The summer has been jammed full of just general fun stuff. The computer has been put aside and we are outside any free second we can get.

Lyla is starting the potty training experience. She has been pooping on the toilet since 19 months but has recently started to pee more frequently. Last Thursday and Friday she went all day without accidents! Yippee!! Then some days with accidents, and so far today has been good. The biggest thing with Lyla is that she doesn't want to stop to go pee - she has places to be and things to do!

On Thursday August 5th - Lyla sang the alphabet song to me! So she now knows the alphabet (at 26 months) and can count to 11 (omitting 3 and 4). I am very proud of her. There isn't any word or sentence that Lyla will not attempt in saying. She speaks very well. We are working on her pronunciation as she says -'Yeye-ya' as her name but yesterday Ryan heard her say it more clearly. Lyla is very social and loves kids. She goes up to them and says "Whats your name" Or "What are you doing" or she just follows them around..

Today we went to the local outdoor aquatic center and had a ball... Here is my little swimmer. I couldn't get any other pictures as I was in the pool with this fish the whole time.

Whats in our front yard....

2010-07-13T09:10:00.003-04:00

BABY BUNNIES...

Here is thier home - right smack in the middle of our front yard. In fact, Ryan went over it a week ago with the lawnmower!! And here our the little sweeties... Aren't they cute and adorable!!! Lyla loves them!

Great Wolf Lodge - Niagara Falls

2010-07-06T14:41:00.006-04:00

We had the opportunity to go to Niagara Falls for a wedding a couple of weekends ago and we seized this opportunity to go and stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. This is an indoor water park with a strong nature feel. Lyla LOVED it here. It isn't uncommon that Lyla will ask every day if we can go back to 'Wiley's House'. As I am typing this she is sitting at my side telling me that this first picture is where we went.
So here is a picture of the main entrance to 'Wiley's House' a.k.a. Great Wolf Lodge.
This is a pretty good family photo of all of us. Like I said we had a wedding, so here we are all decked out for our wedding best..

And here is the pretty princess all by herself...

Lyla and Daddy looking at some totem pool artwork...

Now, here was the all time favorite part of our trip. Meet Mo the Moose. Mo and his other forest friends were in the lobby of the GWL, and they would put on a show every day at 10 am and 8 pm. This was a highlight for Lyla. Other times of the day you could go up to the animals and activate them to talk to you by placing your hand on a hand print that correlated with each of the talking animals - a tree, bear and mo the moose.

Here is a picture of the entire gang - Mo, Mother bear, and the tree... During show time other friends would appear..
Lyla and the tree...

So as I said they had show time at 8 pm and then after that they would have bedtime story time. On this particular weekend it was Father's Day and for that occasion they took story time outside that night.. They danced and told stories -- her is Lyla dancing to YMCA.

Here she is listening to the morning show the next day...

They also had a service called cub club. This was a spot that you could go with your child to make a craft or play with toys. They also offered babysitting as well. We went to Cub club-where Lyla colored a t-shirt and made a flower pot.

Sitting on her balcony with her new friend - Moose. In the gift shop she made that moose - build a bear style...

Then of course there was the water park - we spent lots of time enjoying the water spraying and playing here at the water park.

Here is Lyla playing on what we called 'Frog Pond' - which wasn't what the actual name was = but it worked for us.. She loved jumping from Lilly pad to Lilly pad..

This big bucket of water would drop every so many minutes - we loved to see it spill over it made us laugh!

They had an outdoor pool as well - so nice... Lyla loved to swim around here..

They had a great deli and bakery for some oh so good sweets. Here is Lyla enjoying eating a Mo the Mousse.

More fun at bedtime story time - -

The guest of honor was Wiley the Wolf. He came and listened to the stories..

And then you could meet Wiley after - which Lyla still talks about..

They taught the kids how to do the great wolf howl.. here is Lyla howling her little heart out.. And of course, no trip to Niagara Falls would be complete without visiting the falls themselves...

We had a blast at the Great Wolf Lodge, Niagara Falls and we cant wait to go back!

So sad...

2010-05-21T23:40:00.002-04:00

Just packing up our suitcases and getting ready to leave tomorrow. Very sad :( The only consolation is that I know in my heart we will be back here very VERY soon! We would love to get a timeshare here and need to get more information regarding this... so keep your fingers crossed!!

For all of the family members - our plan is to leave tomorrow around 2pm - nap time. We are planning on driving 4 to 6 hours, depending on how our little traveller does. We are going to enjoy our morning here though. Our last hurrah!

Todays photo shoot at the beach

2010-05-20T14:57:00.004-04:00

Lyla turned 2 last week and of course you have to get pictures done for such a milestone. Before we came to Hilton Head I thought about getting pictures done professionally here - both family and Lyla's 2nd birthday. After calling around and finding out the prices - yikes - I have taken to doing my own pictures.... Here are some of Lyla's 2nd year pictures. Thank goodness I brought Lyla's 2 shirt - Thanks Aunt Pam!

Running by a sea shell that caught her eye...

Stopping to check it out...

And picking it up..

Picture of the day....

2010-05-20T14:53:00.002-04:00

Another beautiful day here on Hilton Head Island. We spent the morning on the beach and at the pool. Lyla is currently having her nap. Everything is going well and sad that tomorrow is our last day. Starting to noitice that Lyla is sounding croupy at night and nap time with cough and some stridor.. going to have to watch that. Otherwise we are all having a great time!

Hilton Head....

2010-05-19T14:22:00.005-04:00

Some pictures for your viewing preasure of our vacation in Hilton Head. Can't write anything as Lyla just woke up from her nap and we have to head out to the beach or pool or go bike riding.. what ever we want to do... Hope everyone enjoys the pictures...

Our resort...

anyone knoe how to get this lens flash out??

Lyla's 2nd birthday

2010-05-11T15:59:00.004-04:00

Today my baby doll turns 2! Where has 2 years gone? In fact, her actual birth time is 4:06 pm - so as I type she is 2 years old! She slept right through the 4:06 marker today. That is alright - we are going to celebrate when Daddy gets home from work.

Anyways, back to reminiscing - where has 2 years gone? How can my little baby be such a big girl. I feel like just yesterday that I was bringing her come from the hospital. Where it has been 2 whole years. Lyla has learned so much in these last two years it is astronomical!

Today has been a rainy day -similar to May 11, 2008. It was a rainy dull day the day she was born. Today has been a constant rainy day which reminded me of going to the hospital to have Lyla.

We celebrated her birthday this past Saturday at Nana and Papa's house. The theme this year was barnyard. This was very fitting as Lyla loves anything to do with the farm. She loves going to Nana and Papa's to go to see Windy the horse beside their house, and to go visit Uncle Bill's farm - especially Murray the Cow.

Here are some pictures from Lyla's 2nd Birthday party...

Such a pretty girl!! Love this picture - notice the cow in hand!

Our family photo!

Here is the spread. Yummy barbecued beef on a bum, broccoli salad, rotini salad, veggies.. mm mm it was all so good! Thanks to Huron Shores catering!

Cousins... Lyla loves playing with Jillian and Matthew. She looks forward to playing with them whenever we go to Nana and Papas house.Ta-Da! Here is the cake! It was a 9 x 13 chocolate cake that I made into a barn. Then white cupcakes decorated either like chicks, pigs or sheep! This cake was super cute and not too difficult to make. It was a lot of fun and a crowd pleasure too! The kiddies all loved the pig cupcakes. So much that I have only barn cake left and Lyla wants pig cupcakes for her actual birthday. So today I made more pig cupcakes so she can have some tonight.
After we sang happy birthday and Lyla blew out her candle she picked her pig cupcake right from the tray...

And boy oh boy it was yummy...Here are the girls admiring Lyla's baby cousin Kayley...Opening the gifts...
Jillian was a good big helper..

Here is a picture of Lyla and her grandparents - Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa.

More cousin pictures...

Lyla loved the party hats and the party blowers. She enjoyed blowing the blowers very much!

It was a great 2nd birthday party! We all had lots of fun!

Tonight we are going to have our own small party. I haven't decided what to do for dinner but we will figure it out. It is still pouring rain here!

Dear Lyla -

Today you turn 2! Look at you! You have become such a big girl and such a big helper to me. I always am telling you that you have nice helping hands as you are always wanting to help me in the kitchen, cleaning the house or tiding up your toys. You love to read books and your vocabulary is fantastic. There is nothing you cant say. You talk to me in sentences now! You love other kids and love to play with kids either your cousins or kids at the park or gymboree. You love to be outside riding your bike, going for walks, or playing in your water table.

You have a funny sense of humor and make silly faces all the time. You ask 'why' a lot now. You are learning to potty train and haven't poop in your pants since before Christmas! You are very independent and try to do things yourself. You still need some help. You are even trying to put on your own clothes at times. You love trucks, diggers and cranes and look for them while we drive. You still call me Muma which makes my heart melt. Your favorite shows are Caillou, little bear and Thomas. You are a very sweet girl and I love you with all my heart! Happy 2nd Birthday baby doll! xoxo

Day out with Thomas

2010-05-10T14:26:00.008-04:00

Yesterday was one of the best days ever. First of all it was Mother's Day which is reason to celebrate in itself. And to me, Mother's Day is like Lyla's birthday since she was born on Mother's Day. But yesterday was extra special because we got to spend the day with Thomas the Train! Thomas made his way to Greenfield Village. This was the perfect venue for Thomas as you felt like you were on the Island of Sodor and Thomas was taking us for a ride to show us his island and the village had many similarities to the Island of Sodor. Lyla was super excited about this event. In the morning we just started talking about Thomas and said to Lyla 'Lets go for a drive and see if we can find Thomas.' Sure enough, we found him - and oh it was a great day!

Here is Lyla seeing Thomas coming around the bend of the track when we got there. She was so excited and pleased that we had truly found Thomas. Here he was - our first sighting of our beloved engine.

We quickly made our way to the train station as we were on the next ride. Here we are waiting for Thomas to come into the station to pick us up. Lyla brought her own Thomas on the ride.

Here he comes to get us!

Love this picture.. Lyla with Thomas' number 1 as he coasted into the train station.

Getting ready for the train to leave the station. Can you tell we were excited??

Enjoying the scenery sitting on Daddy's lap as Thomas chugged along.

The one handed family photo as the train rode along.. Truly - Lyla loved it. Even though in this picture she looks bored to death!

The train went through the village and then out into the woods. Here is a shot of Thomas going around the corner, steaming along, pulling his cars.

Back in the station admiring Thomas...

Here is a Cranky the Crane!

Daddy and Lyla strolling along the street to go find Sir Topham Hat...

While Daddy was waiting in line to see Sir Topham Hat, Lyla and I went to the Shed to see where Thomas sleep and to see his wash down station where he has his bath.. Here is the shed and the turntable so Thomas can turn around and go back to work.

This steam engine was warming up as we were walking around.. Here is was blowing his horn at Lyla.

Oh finally! Sir Topham Hat! Lyla wanted to say Thank you to 'Topham Hat' for bringing Thomas to visit us. She whispered it so quiet when we got up to him, but she did thank him.

Here is Topham Hat and Lyla!

It was a perfect day to blow bubbles. They had a tent with bubble wands and Lyla enjoyed this.

Next Lyla went onto the driving track and drove around some small cars. She loved this as well..

Of course, more Thomas photos -- here he comes into the station again....

Lyla looking at Thomas in awe...

A real close of up Thomas... Here Lyla got her picture taken with Thomas. We got a family shot as well, which we purchased and I put it in a frame in Lyla's room. That was the first thing she talked about this morning was her picture of Thomas and us.

The great thing about the village was that it was widespread and you could go away from the crowds and see Thomas coming without a lot of people around.. Here he was coming around the bend...

As he passed by us...

Here was our little engineer as she was waiting for Thomas to pass by..

Other sights to see where the horses - another favorite for Lyla. You could go for horse carriage rides, model t car rides, and old bus rides through out the village..

We opted for the 100 year old carousel. Lyla had a hard time waiting in line for this, but she absolutely loved it and was very disappointed when her turn was over! Here are some cute pictures of her looking for me in the crowd...

Oh boy was she ever proud of her ride on the carousel!

After the carousel, we went to the gift shop and then made one more stop over to the station to see Thomas one last time...

Looking at the time on her new Thomas watch. Funny - every time Lyla checks the time it is 8 o-clock!

Happy Muma's Day!

Lets just say Lyla felt the water with her hands and wanted to go for a swim too!

Exactly 12 minutes after getting in the car here was our girl....

A day out with Thomas was one of the best family days we have had in a long time. Greenfield village provides the best setting for this venue. I would highly highly recommend this for children who love trains and love Thomas. Or as a matter of fact any child would love this. We worried that Lyla would be too young - but she enjoyed all that the day out had to offer. It was perfectly timed as a birthday outing for Lyla as well! We are already looking forward to going again next year.

Today Lyla has worn her Day out with Thomas shirt, played with her new train set, has taken her Thomas Balloon everywhere she has gone and has talked and talked about Thomas! It was so great! I am so glad that we got to go! Thanks Thomas for such a great day out!

Go Jump in Puddles

2010-04-07T14:36:00.006-04:00

This week when Lyla and I went grocery shopping there where rain puddles in the parking lot. She got a huge smile and said to me 'go jump in puddles". I told her no because she was where sandals and socks (yes I know - it is a fashion statement, but when a toddler wants something there is no reasoning with her). Anyways, she giggled about this and was eager to get outside after shopping to again ' go jump in puddles' and this time I did allow for a quick puddle jumping before riding home.
Today the rain had come down hard as we were getting dressed. We opened the window and listened to the rain pouring and even sang 'Its raining! Its pouring! The old man is pouring!'. It cleared and I said to Lyla lets go outside and jump in the puddles. Needless to say, I didn't have to ask her twice. We got on her froggie boots, a hat because she wanted a 'rain hat', and her raincoat - which I don't have. And don't forget her purse! Which I think was a kick back to shopping on Monday because she had her purse then. Of course I took like 100 pictures, here are some of the jumping in puddle pictures for your enjoyment.

Here is one of the initial run through. At first she would just run through them. Then I showed her how to slash in them.

Having a good look at that puddle.

Splash! Splash! Splash!A good action shot of the water coming off her froggie..

One jump...

And one BIG jump....

And kerplunk! She had to jump RIGHT into the puddle...
Checking out the water, as it soaks into her pants..

One dirty and wet bum as she continues to run, jump, splash, giggle, and generally have a ball!

More Splash! Splash! Splash!

Good work froggies!! You sure are dirty! I bet you had just as much fun as Lyla did!

Then the garbage truck came - which is another post all in itself! Hope you are all enjoying the rainy day!

Easter 2010

2010-04-06T14:08:00.004-04:00

The Easter Bunny came hoping into town for Lyla a few weeks ago because I had to work on Easter. We had a great time celebrating Easter as a family and here are some photos from our day.

Lyla got up and found a basket full of goodies for her in the window. It wasn't long until she went on the hunt for the eggs. In retrospect we could have hidden the eggs harder as she was a pretty good egg finder. It also didn't take long until Lyla was into the Chocolate. Lyla is a huge Chocolate lover . There are only a few days in the year where you get to eat Chocolate for breakfast and Easter is one of them. Sure enough, she was into her chocolate bunny in a flash.

Then the egg hunt ensued. Here she is looking in her shopping cart...
and Ta-da! She found one! She was so excited to find eggs. It was very cute!

Another one was behind her rocking chair, and here she is happy to have retrieved this one too!

The week before the true Easter we went to the mall to see the Easter bunny. We actually went to another mall to see him on our Easter Day, but he wasn't as good. So here she is with the Easter bunny.

There was a toddler play area and a large center area with games, coloring, hula hoops and all sorts of good things at the mall. Lyla loved this so much that we went 2 times this week. Here she is enjoying playing at the mall. She had a ball!

All in all, it was a great Easter. Lyla was into the Easter Bunny this year. She understood that the Easter Bunny brought her treats. She sings and dances around to 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail'. She enjoys reading Easter books and pretending that she is a bunny by hopping around. Hope you all had a great Easter too!

A visit with Kayley

2010-04-01T15:11:00.003-04:00

About a month ago, we made the trip to the GTA to meet our young niece Kayley Jessica. It was a real treat to get to meet this little miss. Lyla was excited to get to see her too. Lyla was interested in Kayley, and even now when she sees anything to do with babies she tells me that it is 'Baby Kayley's'. Here are some pictures from our meeting with Kayley.

Here is Lyla giving Kayley a cousin hug.

And a cousin kiss...

And here are G and G.G. with the girls - Grandma and Great Granny that is.

We all had a great visit with Kayley and cant wait to see her again.

Lyla's First Birthday Party

2010-04-01T14:48:00.002-04:00

At the beginning of March, Lyla's friends Charlotte and Jack had the 2nd birthday party. This was the first birthday party that Lyla had ever been invited to or attended for children her own age. Jennifer (C and J's mom) had 3 parties that weekend. This being the first at a play center in which she invited 16 2 year olds! Lyla had a complete ball! And I think all the kids did too! Thanks Jennifer for a great party!

Here are Charlotte and Jack playing at the grocery stand.

The party was at a place called Kiddie Klub and Lyla and I are looking forward to a rainy day in which we can go back in play. It has a large play structure and smaller rooms for dress up play, puppets, pretend play - kitchen and stuff, and a large play table. It is a great place to go and play and even eat. As there is a cafeteria with healthy food choices as well. This would be a great place for a play date.

Anyways, here are the kiddies sitting down for the lunch. My girly didn't sit too long, but she did for a short while...Cake time! Lyla was very excited to get a front row seat for this event. She loves cake to eat and she loves candle time.
Here is Lyla climbing up the large play scape. I had to go up with her - it was fun!

Dear Papa

2010-03-28T22:51:00.002-04:00

Papa?
Feeling better? Leg hurt?
Muma - Papa's leg sore.
Better Papa?
Miss you. Love you. Mmmmhhhhmmm.
Bye

Lyla's Papa had a complete rupture of his quadricep tendon and underwent surgery on March 16th. This unfortunate occurrence happened out of province as Papa was at the brier with Uncle Darren. Things have been an adventure - from getting Papa home to trying to find a Ortho MD to see Papa in Ontario, but we are hopeful that Lyla's Papa will be feeling better soon.

Papa - Feel better soon. Lyla is looking forward to sitting with you again soon! We love you.

One cute girl, one pretty dress...

2010-03-12T16:19:00.003-05:00

Almost 30 years ago this dress was made by hand for me by a very special person. My Great Aunt Margaret made this dress for me and my mom gave it to Lyla. And when my parents were here we tried it on and took some pictures. Lyla was so proud to be wearing this dress. She was so excited to show Nana and Papa. I am going to send a picture to Aunt Margaret to let her see her dress and how good it still looks.

Papa is so silly.. he was making Lyla laugh!

Here is Lyla checking herself out in her mirror.

In this dress, Lyla looks more and more like the little girl from 30 years ago...

'Snow Cows'

2010-03-12T16:12:00.002-05:00

It may be hard to see from these pictures but a highlight in Lyla's life this February was the snow plows. Or the as Lyla did call them the 'Snow Cows'. She now calls them the proper snow plows but when she called them the snow cows it melted any snow on my heart. We would go out side to look at them up close and boy oh boy was that exciting.

Gymboree's Valentine Party

2010-03-12T15:42:00.002-05:00

We went to a Valentine's Party at Gymboree in February and it opened to door to Lyla's love of arts and crafts. Or as Lyla called it 'hearts and crafts'. Here is Lyla making one of her art projects. Here is Lyla and Daddy at the party.

Playing the freeze game!

The highlight of the party was that Lyla got to take a balloon home. She loved this balloon more than anything..

Here are her finished art projects. Since than we have been going to arts and crafts classes and she has really enjoyed them.

Whew! How time flies!!

2010-03-12T15:29:00.002-05:00

Here I am! If you all have been wondering where I have been, I honestly don't really know. I guess life just gets busy. February seemed to have been a bumpy month. Lyla went through a terrible phase where she did not want to sleep in her room alone. Napping was a fight and sometimes non existent unless she slept in our bed. Night time was again a fight and most nights Ryan or I had to lay on her floor for an hour until she fully fell asleep. And she was sleeping so lightly that she would wake up and notice Ryan or I not there , and mayhem would ensue. Then of course because Lyla was not sleeping, she got run down and of course got sick. She had a cold that lead to some croupy like symptoms, ended up at the doctor, steroids given and actually Lyla is FINALLY feeling more like herself now. Then Ryan and I ended up getting sick of course. I ended up sicker than Ryan - with a sinus infection, ended up on antibiotics but the best thing was a steroid shot for me and now I am starting to feel better. Then throw in the Winter Olympics in there - Yeh Canada Eh! And there goes February. As well we made a trip home to see Lyla's new cousin and to celebrate Emily's 12 birthday. So now I am back and I don't know where to start blogging.. so just hang tight and we will see where I start up again...

Mirror Mirror

2010-01-27T16:00:00.004-05:00

Mirror mirror on the wall - who is the cutest of them all... ( I know I am biased)...

Thanks Aunt Pam for this perfect chair for Lyla.

Then it was time for some kisses.. Like I said earlier.. cant get enough of those Lyla kisses...

Shadows in the sun

2010-01-27T15:33:00.004-05:00

Today the sun was shining so beautifully and Lyla was so excited to enjoy some time in her 'shun-sine'. On the way upstairs for her nap Lyla saw her shadow against the front door. It immediately caught her attention and she was waving in the sunshine to see her shadow. It was very sweet and it was very exciting for Lyla. This is my FAVORITE.. Lyla has her hand on my leg, looking up at me and she is saying "Muma! Muma!" It is so sweet!

Here she is checking out her shadow..

This is hard to tell but this is Lyla kissing me. It was very hard to get a picture of this while I was being kissed. But again - very sweet.. I love those kisses !Here is Lyla with her deer!

Hope you all enjoyed the sunshine today and took some time to check out your shadow.

Cutie

2010-01-21T14:59:00.001-05:00

You are my cutie pie Lyla! Thank you for making me the happiest mama ever! I love you!

Lyla's 1st Snowman

2010-01-21T14:05:00.004-05:00

New Years Eve brought us some lovely fresh snow. Lyla loves snow and she was ever so eager to get outside and enjoy it. It was a mild day and the snow was perfect for making a snow man. Through Caillou book and TV show Lyla was well versed on making a snowman.

The first thing Lyla did when she went outside was work on shovelling the snow. Lyla calls this 'blowing snow' and this is another thing she has a love for. She has been asking me almost daily if we can blow snow and sadly we haven't had any fresh snow to blow. She loves to push her shovel around in the snow. Here is Lyla with her snowball. I have a video of Lyla throwing this snowball right at Daddy. It is hilarious.

Here is some of Daddy's and Lyla's 'snowball fight'. They had a ball...

I love this picture. It is one of my favorites - my 2 loves laughing together, caught in the moment.
Oh boy!! Playing in the snow is so much fun!Daddy made the best snowman for Lyla. We decided to make the snowman outside of the patio glass door so Lyla could look out the window and see her snowman. Here is Lyla checking out her snowman . . .

Here is the finished product with my little snow bunny...

It was so much fun. Unfortunately our snowman has seen better days now and we are eagerly awaiting more snow to assist in making a new snowman.

Lyla's Tent House

2010-01-20T15:12:00.004-05:00

Lyla's imagination is growing every day which is so much fun. Once we returned from our Christmas travels we got back into routine. Lyla loves to get into our bed with Ryan and I. She loves to read books and cuddle and joke around. We started to hold the sheets up and she would go under. All the way under, crawl right down to our toes. Then I thought 'Hey - it would be nice for her to have a light under there'. And I brought in this house. She loves to go under with the house. She takes close looks at it and checks it out.

Here she is checking it out...

The one downfall is that my arms get really tired when holding up the house. I am trying to think up a way to keep the blankets up with out my arms.. any suggestions?

Lyla's little cousin - Kayley

2010-01-20T14:45:00.002-05:00

Last time we saw Tyler and Claire - it was just the 2 of them awaiting the arrival of their own little girl. On Sunday, January 10th at 9 pm on the dot, Miss Kayley Jessica made her arrival. She made a quick arrival which surprised both Claire and Tyler, but was a good surprise for everyone. She weighed in at 7 pounds 8 ounces.

The new family is doing well and adjusting to a life of lack of sleep and lots of nursing. We are so excited to meet Miss Kayley in March!! Lyla is happy to finally be the 'big' cousin and is looking forward to meeting and playing with Kayley.

Christmas and Grandma and Grandpas

2010-01-13T16:23:00.007-05:00

On Christmas Day we hopped in the car and made took the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was raining - yuck and Lyla has been potty training and needed to use the facilities and everywhere we stopped was closed :( The poor little girl held it from Mississauga to Pickering. Anyways, enough potty talk. The hope was to get to G and G's house in time for Lyla to take her afternoon nap, rather than trying to get her to sleep on the way, which she didn't. Well she didn't nap when we got there. I think it was too exciting, all the people and a new place to explore. So, she came out to the party. Here she is sitting on the window bench checking out Santa and is Reindeer. Now you will see a theme in the pictures from G and G's house. Oscar the cat. He was the hit of the trip. Lyla called him 'My kitty cat'. She loved to play with him. It is a good thing he is deaf as she sure did squeal with excitement when playing with him.

Nana bought Lyla her own Nativity set this year and we have been teaching Lyla about Jesus and that it is his birthday. Here she is checking out Grandma's nativity set and saying 'Happy Birthday Baby Jesus'.

This is one of the only pictures of Lyla and I on our Christmas break.

Sorry Grandpa, I had to post it. Here is Lyla eating lunch and Grandpa the Reindeer keeping her company and trying to check out what she is eating. Lyla thought she was a big shot sitting at this big table in the kitchen.
Here is Lyla talking with Ryan's Aunt Peggy and Granny.

Lyla enjoyed all things Christmas. She loved all of Grandma's decorations. And just like home, all the lights go on when Lyla gets up in the morning. Here she is checking out Grandma's tree.

More Kitty Kat pictures..

Standing over the vent and enjoying 'windy'. When ever our heat comes on and Lyla is by the vent she says 'Windy!'

Here is Lyla with Grandpa enjoying some Salsa. Funny thing - Lyla now calls Grandpa 'Kitty Kat' since we went to visit.

Grandma and Grandpa got Lyla a cleaning set which was a huge hit! I knew she would love this as she is always stealing my dust pan and broom. Now she has her own - Thank You!! Here she is cleaning with Grandma!

And one last picture with 'My Kitty Kat'.

We had a great trip to G and G's and we were glad to see everyone. Ryan's mom had a dinner party every night - what a lady! I know I couldn't do that! But it was great to see everyone and a great Christmas.

Christmas at Nana and Papa's House

2010-01-08T14:49:00.005-05:00

The first stop on our Christmas tour was my parent's place, a.k.a Nana and Papa's house. Lyla loves their house as it is the county that she loves. She loves the fresh air and open spaces. But more than anything, she loves the neighbour's 'neigh-neighs'. She knows what windows she can see these 'neigh-neighs' from. She is always eager to look for them and asks just as eagerly to go and see them. So these are definitely a high light of our trip to Nana and Papa's house. Here are Lyla's 'neigh neighs 'waiting for her to come and visit them. This visit Nana had bought a large bag of carrots that needed to be eaten by the horses. So Lyla was luckily enough to get to feed them carrots from our hands. She loved it! And so did the horses!

To get to and from the 'Neigh-neighs' we used the sleigh. She also loves going for a sleigh rides very much. Daddy gives good sleigh rides..

On the 23rd, my parent's celebrated Christmas. This was exciting for Lyla as she would get to spend time with her cousins. This time Lyla was able to 'run with the pack'. She loves her cousins very much and loves to play with them. Here is Lyla and Jillian looking at Jillian's My little pony toy. We all hope that these girls will be good friends in the future.

Lyla loved her cousin 'Matt-chew'. She loved playing with him. Probably the funnies thing about Christmas dinner was that Lyla had both Matthew and Jillian eating out of her hand - literally. She would put some butter on her finger and they would lick it of.. It was funny!

Christmas Eve gave us more time with the kids. An impromptu trip to The Young's allowed for more play time with the kids, and an emergency operation on the cat Claire !

That night was our Christmas Eve service at the church. I was so looking forward to this, but we ended up not being able to go as Lyla had a cold. We did however go up to the church to check out the donkey at was outside the church by the stable. Again - Lyla loved this!

We went home and got situated again for Santa's arrival. We had story time by the fireplace with Uncle Darren reading some stories for Lyla..
The next morning, Santa arrived again. And he brought Lyla another Train!
Nana and Papa gave Lyla her very own rocking chair, which Lyla loved. It was ironic as Lyla had been pulling out their rocking chair and trying it out the days before she got her own. We are looking forward to Nana and Papa bringing her rocking chair over sometime in January.

We had a quick breakfast and headed back on the road for the 2nd part of our trip - Ryan's parents house. But, we had a great time at my parents and enjoyed our time with everyone.

Santa's trip 2009

2010-01-08T14:20:00.002-05:00

What a great Christmas we had this year! Lyla has been so excited about the entire Christmas package this year - Santa Claus, Reindeer, Snowmen, lights, Christmas trees.. The whole thing! Everything has been new and exciting for her and she has just loved everything. We celebrated Santa's arrival early. We arranged for his visit to come a couple nights early because of our travelling schedule and it was such a great idea. Last year Santa came after we returned from our trips to Canada and it wasn't the same hype. Christmas felt over and it was as exciting. This year was great. I could hardly sleep because I was so excited for Lyla to wake up on Christmas morning to see her gifts.

On 'Christmas Eve' we drove around the neighbourhood and looked at the Christmas lights and decorations. Everything was snow covered and really pretty. Oh yeah- I forgot before we went for our drive, Santa himself called Lyla on the phone. We came home and spread out some Reindeer food to guide Santa's reindeer. We then came in and got Santa's milk and cookies ready. Lyla taste tested the cookies and said they were 'yummy'. We also put out some carrots for 'Reindeer food'. We then hung Lyla's stocking by the chimney in hopes that Santa would come that night.

Sure enough, Lyla was a lucky girl and you can see the gifts that Santa left for Lyla under the tree. Lyla was really spoiled as she had been a really good girl this year. Lyla's big gift was a kitchen that she now has in our kitchen and makes 'cakes' while I am making dinner. Here is Lyla opening a gift (actually this picture was taken after our trip, as we didn't get all of our gifts open on our Christmas morning). She was really good at opening gifts. She would open a gift and play with it for a while and then move on to the next gift. It was a really enjoyable Christmas morning.
Here is Lyla enjoying her kitchen.

One of the highlights of the morning was a plush horse stable with 2 horses. Lyla had seen this when we were Christmas shopping and loved it so much. She was so happy to see it on Christmas morning and every day she has played with her 'neigh-neighs'. She also got this train and she plays with this daily as well. It is a wooden train and it has blocks that come off and you rebuild it. Lets just say that her train is very frequently 'brookie', which is broken in Lyla lingo.
Those are just some highlights from Santa's arrival this Christmas. It was a great morning that we all enjoyed very much. Thanks Santa for making a stop for our Lyla!!

The Good and The Bad

2009-12-05T21:07:00.003-05:00

No, I am not talking about Santa's lists. I am talking about what we experienced today. Our morning was Fantastic - the good. Our afternoon, not so fantastic - the bad.
I took today off work so that we could go to our Community's Fun with Santa party in the morning. This was a blast. For 11 dollars, we got 5 craft projects, a visit with Santa and a gift bag, a clown with face painting if desired, and a snack. It was a lot of fun and all 3 of us enjoyed it very much. Lyla participated in all of the craft projects with (of course) lots of guidance and assistance. But she tried everything and we accomplished it all. I enjoy doing craft projects with Lyla so this was a lot of fun.

Here is Lyla and I when the man of the hour walked in the room. I saw him from afar and told Lyla. We stopped what we were doing so we could get a good look at the beloved Santa Claus.
Here we are doing the crafts. This is Lyla doing the 'Christmas Crayon Rubbings'. She really liked this one, rolling a crayon over a stencil to produce a picture.

Here we are applying the glue for the 'Snowflake Ornament' that we made that is currently look spectacular on our tree.

The other crafts included Magic Reindeer Food (which Lyla did an excellent job at scooping the oatmeal into the baby food jar), a Santa advent Calender, and a Christmas Necklace (which has been the highlight and she has worn it a lot since she made it. She has even offered Teddy to

'Try' it and her Christmas tree in her room is currently 'trying' it out for her).

Here we are in the line waiting to see Santa Claus. At this point we were next in line and she was super excited to see him. She was waving at him and saying 'Hi San-t-ka' . You can see her necklace in these next photos..
However when it got to be her actual turn she was really shy. She didn't even want to look at him.

Here I am giving her a pep talk to look at Santa. She did turn around and look at him for a brief moment but that was about it.
After seeing Santa, we headed over to make our tasty snack which was a reindeer snack. It was a graham cracker covered with chocolate icing, 2 pretzels placed on top as antlers, and then 2 raisins for eyes and a red skittle as a nose and viola you have Rudolf the red nose reindeer snack. Lyla really enjoyed eating the chocolate icing.

From a distance her shyness for Santa Claus was gone. Here she is waving and saying 'Hi San-tka!"Then came the parents great idea. Lets go to Bronners today rather than next week so Ryan will have an extra day off at Christmas. This is when things go from fantastic to not so fantastic. So historically, I have been able to nurse Lyla and she falls asleep and then I put her in the car and she usually sleeps for like an hour. This has been great for allowing us to go to my parents house a couple of times. Well today, she fell into a deep slumber at nap time and when I moved her into the car she awoke. And since we have turned the seat around, she had lots to look and and therefore, she did not go back to sleep. No sleep - no nap- my poor baby girl :(

I felt terrible about this as she was up early today and she really did need her sleep. But we forged onwards hoping and praying she would fall asleep on our hour ride. But nope, no sleep, no nap.

We got to Bronners to find a parking lot cagammed full of cars. So we parked illegally and headed in. We went straight to the Santa check in to find out that the wait was going to be 3.5 to 4 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!! You read it right - 3.5 to 4 hours!!!!!!!!!! And remember - no nap, no sleep = no way!! I was pretty disappointed as we just drove 1 hour, Lyla lost her nap, and I really wanted her to have her yearly pictures taken with the Bronner's Santa - as he is a really good looking Santa. Oh well!

We walked around the store and looked at the displays and left without purchasing anything. So we went for a drive to basically see some displays in a store for 30 minutes!

Lyla did love the displays - they are fantastic - and here are some pictures of her enjoying them.

We picked up Bravarian Inn Chicken and headed onto the road for our hour trip home. Little Bear in the DVD player, hoping Lyla would fall sleep. But nope, she didn't. And the hour trip took 2 hours. Huge back up on I-75, had to get off and go a different route! What a day! Lyla was in bed asleep by 7:20. And I am heading that way too!

Decking the Halls and Other Stuff Too

2009-12-03T21:45:00.009-05:00

November flew by so quickly that I had no time to blog. My blogging time is usually when Lyla is having her afternoon nap and I have been pulling things out of the basement to turn our house into a Christmas Wonderland. This year has been especially fun decorating because Lyla is so excited about everything. She loves the lights, the trees, the decorations the carols, the nativity set, did I mention the deer. Well she is absolutely in love with deers. Her love started when she went for a walk one day and saw a group of them on a persons lawn. Ryan said she ran up to them with excitement. So, when I saw them on sale in an ad we went and bought two with the intentions of putting them outside. We put together the 'Buck' in our living room and that is where it has been since then. We tried to put it outside but she was really upset and it quickly came outside. She pets the deer, feeds the deer and talks to her deer. I often hear Lyla saying 'Here Deer" and she her handing him something 'Try' or 'Come On deer'. Here is a picture of Lyla and her Deer.. November marked Ryan's 30th Birthday. It feel on a Saturday and as I work every weekend I decided to surprise him and take a day off. I took off the next day instead, as Saturday is football day and I wanted to actually do something on his birthday rather than spend it watching football with him. Although I know he would have loved that as well. So anyways, in the morning we decided to go to our Cider Mill and luckily for us it wasn't busy and the animals were still there. Lyla got to enjoy her first pony ride. She was a little unsure of the whole thing but overall thought it was pretty great. She still talks about her pony and will take her toys and pretend to ride them and say 'Pony' and make the clipity-clopity sound. I am sure she is looking forward to another pony ride in her future as deer and horses are her two favorite things right now.

She got to also pet some sheep, goats, a lama and a yax that day at the Cider Mill. It was a great day.

In other exciting news, we turned Lyla's seat around that day. She was so excited about it that she wanted to sit in it after Ryan turned it around. She cried when we took her out of the seat. She loves to be able to look out and see things now. When the light turns green and we start to drive she often says 'Go Car'. She loves to see trucks and buses.

That night for Ryan's birthday he requested to go to P.F. Changs. We really haven't gone out for dinner that much so we were a little nervous about going out. Lyla had started to have a cough when ever she laid down and on that day she was was cranky to say the least so we were a little nervous going out. The bag was packed with all the essentials to save the dinner. But it was the M and M's that saved the day.

Here is Lyla in front of the Christmas tree at the mall before dinner. Doesn't she look really grown up??

Here are the horses outside of the restaurant. And all dinner Lyla whined about the 'Neigh-neighs'.
God bless the inventor of crayons...

Our 18 month old eating lo mien with chopsticks. She gave it a try.

Blowing out the Candles with Daddy. Lyla is really into birthdays. She says 'Happy Day'. And yesterday on Nana's Birthday she helped since Happy birthday to nana by putting in Nana's name.So she does look a little pale in these pictures. And as I said we were noticing this cough mostly when she would lay down to go to bed. So, she had her 18 month check up and and a low grade fever but otherwise she checked out fine. That night she woke up at 4am coughing and she had inspiratory stridor (a whistling sound with breathing). Her nose wasn't stuffy but her cough was very harsh and choking sounding. It actually made her throw up a couple of times. Anyways, I called the MD the next day and he wanted to see her. Sure enough, she had croup. He gave her Decradon, a steroid, to help with the inflammation of the vocal cords. Lyla did not have a good nap for 4 days. We went back and saw him 3 days later and she said that she was improving -Thank God! It was tiring and Lyla was very clingy during this time.

So as I said we have been decorating. And we got out a train and Lyla loved this. It was a lot of fun. She would put items in the train and take it out as it was going. We have since put it away as we have not as much room.
Here is my little night security officer. She found a flash light and loved it. She spent a lot of time flashing it around and checking out where the light stream went. It was pretty cute.

The same day we went out to eat again for Brunch. Lyla did great. And then we decided to put thee tree up. Lyla was so excited and loved seeing the whole process of decorating the trees. She loved the lights. ..

And she was a great help putting the lights up.
Lyla got to help put the star on top of the tree. I love this picture, it is so angelic.

We also put the lights up outside and finally got the other deer put together. We took Lyla outside after her nap and she went running over to the the flag which has Santa on it and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw another beloved deer. We have had some fun driving around looking at lights. She sees lights and oohs and ahhs as she looks at them. She tells us they are pretty or nice.. It is super cute.

It wouldn't be Christmas if you didn't look through toy catalogues and pick out what you like...

Thanksgiving was thrown in there as well. I actually worked thanksgiving day and I was supposed to work the Friday after, but I got low census and was able to stay home and have 2 days with Ryan and Lyla. We had not had two days together since August! It was great. We spent Friday by going to Windsor for my passport photo and we got to enjoy some Swiss Chalet as well. Then on Saturday we baked Christmas cookies and got our Christmas photos taken. Here are my two kitchen helpers washing the cookie cutters..
And here is Lyla and I cutting gingerbread cookies. She oohhed and ahhed about these as well. She loved cutting the cookies out and was eating the cookie dough raw. She enjoyed cutting the cookies more than decorating. But she has enjoyed eating the cookies now very much. Infact, we are going to make some more this weekend.

Here is Lyla checking out the tree. I love this picture - it could be a Christmas Card picture. The innocence of a child with a Christmas tree..
Another photo favorite is this one below. I have star lights that I hang in the front two upstairs windows. Lyla helped me unwind them and then she took her string and put it in this basket. She loves getting into boxes or baskets right now. So she climbed in and was playing with these lights for probably a half an hour. I finally got them away and they now hang up in our windows. She still loves to go and turn them on and wants to touch them.

This weeks was the lighting of a town that we live near. We took this opportunity to go to see the lights as well that Santa was going to be there with real live Reindeer. Of course when they light the town I was looking down and totally missed it, as did Ryan but whatever we enjoyed it and we are going to go every year.
Here is the highlight - the Deer! Lyla got right up to the the rope outside the fence and yelled 'MOO MOO!" She pointed and screamed and she had a great time.
So that is what we have been up to this November. We have been keeping busy that is for sure and now the house is decorated and we are enjoying the daily lighting of our lights and deers and inflatable bears there will sure be lots of delight from Lyla. Now we just have to finish the shopping, baking and wrapping. I am so excited about Santa this year! Tomorrow we are going to a community Christmas party where Lyla is going to get to see Santa. We are all looking forward to this.

I will leave you with one last photo of Lyla. We have also been enjoying the nice weather that November has brought us. I do think we are going to get some snow soon but we are able to go outside everyday to play on her new slide or to go and visit the deers down the street. The deers that she takes an ornament with her and feeds them their cookie from the sidewalk. It is so great to see her imagination starting to blossom...Oh and by the way, Lyla has pooped and peed on the potty multiple times since she turned 18 months. It started the day after she turned 18 months by telling me she had to poop and she wanted to sit on the chair. She was great for about a week then got her croup, since then it has been hit and miss. But we will keep encouraging her. Until next time... Hope you are having fun Decking your Halls..

Lyla Grace Ann is 18 months old!

2009-11-11T15:49:00.004-05:00

Today is Lyla's 18 month old birthday! I can't believe that she is a year and a half! Where in the heck did the time go!! In 6 months we will be celebrating her 2nd birthday! How can that be?!?

I want to document some of Lyla's milestones but first of all here is a little letter to my daughter. My pride, my joy and my love...

Dear Lyla,

Today you are 18 months old!! A whole year and a half!! You are such a little girl now. Or as you say 'Big Girl' and of course you are a 'Good Girl' too! You continue to amaze both Daddy and I as every day you are learning something new.

You are continuously on the go and experiencing new things daily. You love to be outside. Right now you are loving the leaves and helping Mama and Daddy 'rake' leaves. You ask for the 'rake' before we even get outside. We have a smaller rake that we let you use. You pick up leaves and help put them in the leaf bag. You cry when you have to come in from outside.

When outside you love to 'walk'. You will hold out your hand for me to hold and say'come walk'. We walk down the side walk and you like to look around. You find stop signs and you tell me about the 'stop'. You will crouch down and check things out on peoples lawn. As people are starting to put up their Christmas decorations you are getting really excited. Mama bought you a small plush deer a couple of weeks ago and you love this 'a deer'. You saw some lighted deer this weekend and ran up to the house in excitement. So Mama bought you a lighted deer that is in our living room right now. You get so excited when you see it when we come down the stairs.

You continue to be on the smaller size for weight. We think you are about 22. something pounds but we cant get a good weight on you because you are always trying to turn the scale on and off when you are on it. You are tall though and you recently went through a growth spert and your pants are all now too short. It looks like you are going to be tall and thin - watch out world!

You have 15 teeth. You are presently getting your last 'i' tooth. Eating has been somewhat difficult with you lately. You want to feed yourself and you do a pretty good job at it too. You like to eat Cheerios at breakfast, and currently you are enjoying spaghetti-os, grilled cheese and anything sweet. You love when mama makes a cake and you love icing. You look in the oven and see things baking and always say'cake' even it is a roast of beef.

You are a good talker. You are trying to put sentences together now. You are trying to count and say your alphabet. You can count '1 -2!" Like today when I gave you two stickers you counted 1-2! And when you dropped one you told me 1-2! You are trying to say the alphabet and you always start with A,D and then start stringing along other letters. You can say pretty much anything you hear us say. Last week you started to say 'window' and today when we were driving you told me 'window truck' when you saw the garbage truck out the window.

Speaking of trucks you love trucks. You can spot them a mile away and hear them and know it is truck. Same goes for the sound of a bike, car or airplane. You can differentiate between the sound and tell me what you hear and you are pretty much always right!

You love animals. I would say that your favorite animal is a Neigh-neigh. When we got to Nana and Papas you see Neigh -neighs and you are obsessed with them. You will walk up to the fence where the neigh-neighs are and we have a hard time getting you to leave.

You love your Nana and Papa and Gama and Gampa very much. YOu can say Nana and Papa very well and we are working on Gama and Gampa. You often call Gampa 'car' and Gama 'Nana'. You love to talk to them on the phone.

You still love your teddy he is your number one go to guy. You are very much a mama and daddy's girl and love to be with us all the time. When I am cooking dinner you often want to be held so you can see what I am doing. If I don't pick you up you pull on my pants and cry.

Your favorite television show is 'Little Bear' by far! You will sit on the couch and watch Little Bear after your nap. Than I would say you like Sesame Street second best. Speaking of naps you have one afternoon nap that generally ranges between 1.5 hours to 3 hours depending on the day. You typically go to bed around 8:30 -9:00 and sleep about 12 hours.

You are a sweet little girl who loves to cuddle with me. You will climb up on my lap and just sit with me and you give the best hugs and kisses. You have made my world such a happy place and I can't imagine it any other way than with you!

I love you Lyla!
xoxox

H1N1

2009-11-11T15:32:00.003-05:00

Among all the debate in the H1N1 controversy there are parents wondering what to do. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate. I hear about this on the days that I work. Nurses who talk about what they should do for themselves and for their children. Some don't want to vaccinate themselves or their children, but I decided to vaccinate. It was a spontaneous decision for myself. We had a patient who was only 1 year older than myself who suffered and finally succumbed to this virus. That and the Infectious Disease MD saying that if you didn't get this vaccine we were crazy. It is hard to know what to do when it comes to our children. I vaccinated myself to ultimately protect Lyla. I don't want to bring anything home that could injure her. So when the clinics started to open with vaccines and people were waiting 5 hours for a shot I didn't know what to do. I went to a clinic and waiting 45 minutes outside in the freezing cold in a non moving line, hearing that once you got inside it was at least another hour. Lyla and I gave up and went home. I called her clinic daily to see if they got vaccines and they never knew anything about it. Today I called and yes they had vaccines. A limited amount. They gave me a time of 1:45. I asked if they had anything earlier or later because that was during her nap time. They said the morning was booked and if I waited until later they doubted that they would have any vaccines left - so we took it. They also said that they may not even have any vaccine when we got there at 1:45. But we got it. Lyla got her H1N1 today. In 4 weeks we have to hope we can get her second shot. I feel better knowing that Lyla is protected. I do vaccinate Lyla, although my schedule is altered as we don't give her all the shots at once but she does get her vaccines and is up to date by her next appointment. I believe in vaccinating - that is just my opinion. However, she usually gets sick from the shot the next day, a fever and just cranky. But I will take that over the illnesses and impacts that the H1N1 are having on children this season.

Our Musician

2009-11-05T15:07:00.002-05:00

Lyla loves music. She dances to music when she hears it, she sings songs quietly at times and loudly at other times. When we were at Nana and Papa's house Lyla got a chance to play the real piano. Here are some photos of her enjoying the music...

Gymboree Halloween Party

2009-11-04T15:29:00.011-05:00

Last week our Gymboree had a Halloween party in which you could sign up for. It was a small additional charge but well worth it. All 3 of us had a great time. There was about 20 kids at the party. They split us into 2 groups. We got to do crafts first and then play in the gym. They had parachute time at the end and Gymbo the Clown led a trick or treat parade around the gym. It was so much fun.
Here is Daddy and his Bumble bee looking at cut out pumpkins in the gym. Here is Lyla going up the 'Itsy-bitsy-spider' bridge. They had little pumpkin balls as you can see one in her hand.

We were in the first group to get to do the crafts. When we got there you got to pick out a pumpkin. The first craft was to paint the pumpkin and to decorate it with glitter after. Lyla had never painted before so I had to show her how to do it.

Once she got on to it, she started to paint. She did a great job!!

The second craft was to make a trick or treat bag. This was Lyla's favorite because she got to 'color' and she loves to 'color'. This was the first time she got to use markers too. We helped her put on some stickers and Lyla colored away happily.

After the crafts we got to head back into the gym and play for a while. Here we are putting cut outs of candy corn through the slots.

Gymbo even dressed up for the party. He was a cowboy (his hat had fallen off in this picture)

Lyla found this pumpkin basket and we had yet to get her one. Seeing her playing with this basket made us decide that she needed one for sure. She loved it and was sad to say goodbye to it at the end of the party.

They had parachute time at the end with some songs and bubbles.

Then Gymbo led the kids on their trick or treating parade. She got a straw, a sticker, a rubber duck with a witch's hat, and a bag of pretzels. Good loot!

Here is the 3 of us at the party.

Carving the Pumpkins

2009-11-04T15:06:00.003-05:00

On Halloween afternoon we got our pumpkin that we picked out at the Pumpkin patch and got ready to carve it. I went downstairs for something and saw a booster seat that I had from when Jillian had come to visit a couple of summers ago. I quickly grabbed it and brought it along. Lyla sure did think she was a big girl sitting up at the table. Lyla enjoyed the pumpkin carving experience, mostly she 'colored' on the papers and at times she would color on the pumpkin.

See my big girl.. if you know my brother Darren.. I think Lyla actually looks like him in this photo... At first she didn't know what to think of me drawing on our pumpkin.

Then she asked for the 'color'...

and drew on a face of her own..

She was pretty impressed as Daddy cut into the pumpkin..

And then helped draw on the face again..

Here is Lyla checking out our fancy artwork.

From our house to yours - Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T16:37:00.005-04:00

Well, I started this post this afternoon when Halloween Trick -or Treating had not occurred but I am finishing it now after we are home and Lyla is in bed, so I can share with you some photos from Lyla's 1st Trick or Treating Adventure.

Lyla and I picked out her Bee costume about 2 months ago. Let me say it has been well worn as she has worn it a lot during her play time and dance time. Here are some outside pictures of Lyla in her Halloween costume 'The Bee". Now here is a look back at where we were a year ago. Lyla was 5 1/2 months old here. She had just sat up on her own the day before. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day and we were able to take some pictures outside. Her first Halloween - our little pumpkin!

Here is my bee one year later. I took some outdoor pictures earlier this week and I was glad I did it than rather than today. Today was a cool day with a very strong wind. Luckily the wind did subside for tonight. Look at how she has changed in a year!!Here is the bee ready to go. She wanted to get going to the front of the yard to investigate the porch. She loves to get up on the front porch and check out my pots and look in the mailbox.Here we are tonight. We carved 3 pumpkins - one for Ryan, one for Me and one for Lyla - can you guess who is who?? I was trying to get a picture with Lyla and her pumpkins. She said 'Hi Pies' and called them 'Pretty'.Here is our little trickster. We visited 8 houses and Lyla got a variety of treats from chocolate, to pretzels to a Snowman toy and a bunch of balloons. She had a tight grip on our fingers and was shy to people. That is unless they had a dog and then she would have gone right into their homes. She giggled and got excited when other kids ran by her. She just went with the flow and seemed to know what to do. By the time we got back she understood to take candy from our bowl and put it in her basket. She wasn't scared for the haunted hause/ chainsaw noises that were down the street. She had a great time and so did we! She also enjoyed watching the kids come to our door for candy. I think she enjoyed that as much as anything. Here she is waiting with Daddy for more kids to come. She would giggle and come right to the door when the kids came.

I will leave you with our Halloween family portrait... Happy Halloween!!

Our trip to get a 'Pie'

2009-10-26T15:27:00.007-04:00

Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to get low census at work and was able to leave 4 hours early. This was so exciting for us as a family, as we had not had a day together since Labor day. Ryan was going to take a day off from work so we could enjoy a pumpkin patch day, so this was a bonus. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we decided to race up to our Pumpkin Patch where the fall festivities were taking place. There was lots to see and do there. Animals to visit, Hayrides to find our perfect pumpkin, a train ride and of course more time in the barn to see the animals again.
We had to end the visit with some sweet and lovely apple cider and of course some cinnamon donuts for the ride home.
Here are some pictures to chronicle of our visit to the farm.

After visiting the animals in the barn we got in line for the hay ride. Here is Lyla and I on our hayride to the pumpkin patch. Oh the excitement when we got to the patch. She was so excited, pointing at all the 'pies' which is pumpkins in Lyla lingo. Here she is on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin. She would run up to a pumpkin and point at it and tell me about it. I would then say, something like 'this one has too much green. Lets go find another.' Lyla would reply as 'OK! OK! OK!' and run off to look at another pumpkin. She was so excited and had so much fun in the pumpkin patch.
Here she is on the hunt for the pumpkin..

Daddy and Lyla in the pumpkin patch.

The next 7 photos I have entitled. 'Finding the one - Lyla's Pie Celebration'

After a long search Lyla found the One! You first have to get down low and give it a pat and see if it meets your standards..It is perfect!! Yes!! So do a little dance...
And jump up and down!Don't forget to clap your hands! Doing this while you dance adds to the excitement!
Put is all together and boogie down and you have got the one! The Pumpkin Celebration!

After the pumpkin patch adventure we hopped back on our hayride and headed up to the front of the farm. Lyla quickly spotted the train and we were a little apprehensive on taking her on the train after our last train ride at the zoo. Lyla was a champ and we were lucky, because this was like a 15 minute train ride around the entire farm. I think we saw every acre, so we are lucky she didn't freak out as it would be a long ride.

Here is Lyla and Daddy with the train!

We headed back up to the farm and revisited all the animals. I have more videos on this part of our trip so I will only share with you one picture.

And check out this 'crow' aka scarecrow. He was just massive.

Lyla picked out this ity-bity pumpkin to be her pumpkin. She was so proud of it. She held on to it the whole way home and ate dinner with it and everything.

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch and already we are planning next years trip. It was great as Lyla is so into pumpkins and animals right now.

Bus

2009-10-16T15:12:00.003-04:00

I am a product of the Fisher Price 'Little People'. I grew up with these toys and I have been wanting to get one for Lyla for a while but I have been holding off for the right time. About 2 weeks ago Lyla had a vaccine and this was the perfect time for Lyla to get her bus. Whenever we would look at them in the store she always seemed most interested in the bus. My trusty Kohl's was having a sale and I had a coupon so I got the bus for a steal. Here is Lyla playing with her bus after getting home from her shots.

Everybody in!

2009-10-16T15:09:00.003-04:00

Now here is an example of how Miss Lyla stuffed her bus full of everything that she could find. From one extreme to the other.

Everybody out!

2009-10-15T16:44:00.002-04:00

About a week or so ago Lyla's big deal was to completely empty her bins of toys. It was pretty funny to watch as she took everything out including the bins and then tried to figure out how she was going to get out of this mess!

Pictures of Fall in my neck of the woods..

2009-10-15T16:07:00.003-04:00

Fall is here and winter is around the corner. Yikes! I spent some of my afternoon outside preparing and here are some pictures as fall starts to creep into my yard...

Empty flower beds....still waiting on the leaves to change color.. Lyla's tree starting to change colors..

These flowers, which I have just forgotten the name of, never bloomed until this year. So nice to see them so pretty, thanks to the yard man Duke for moving them..

Our scarecrows - or as Lyla refers to them 'crows!'

My blushing bride hydrangea - it has this pretty hue of red right now..

Here is our Halloween cat blowing in the fall wind...

How does fall look to all of you?

Dancing and Grooving!

2009-10-14T17:02:00.003-04:00

Dance to the music!!

At some time in our day there is a dance party. There is no set time for this dance party, rather it just occurs when the urge hits us. It may be first thing in the morning, after lunch or before bed but whenever it is it sure is a lot of fun.

Here are some step by step directions on how to get the most out of your own dance parties...

1. Grab 2 buckets, put them on your wrists and get into 1st position. (For all of you non ballerinas; Lyla is demonstrating the first position with her feet.)

2. Feel the music and start to groove it. Feel the beat in your knees..

3. Sing out loud at the top of your lungs!

4. Take a walk, keep those buckets up and act like you have better places to be, but you know that you don't because...

5. Because once you check yourself out in a mirror you know you got to..

6.You got to move it, move it!!!

Hope you all take some time for a free dance today!

Cake

2009-10-14T16:57:00.002-04:00

Yes, Lyla has it. She got it from me and it isn't going to stop. It is her love of sweets. Specifically mint and chocolate cake. Here she is enjoying her Mint Chocolate cake. When I make anything in the oven she peers in the window and you may hear her saying 'cake or cookie'. I taught her well.... Oh yeh - she does also say 'hot' too, but that is after we find out what is cook'n!

Swimming!

2009-10-14T16:33:00.003-04:00

We all know that Lyla Water baby! This fall we enrolled her in swimming lessons at the community center and it has been a big hit. It has been an event that we can do as a family as we go at night so Daddy can come along. Which has actually turned out good as Ryan has more guts than me and I don't know if I could 'dunk' Lyla as they want us to do once a lesson.

Anyways.. Lyla has been loving the swimming lessons. She is very excited to go to the 'Pool' and she know when I show her her 'Suit' that we are going to be going swimming. We will probably continue this through the winter as she is enjoying it so much.

I swear she knows when she wakes up from her nap on swimming day that it is time to go to the pool, it seems she always asks about the pool on that day. She also knows that after swimming we routinely get a pizza and bread because when I loaded her in the car last week after swimming she promptly asked me for her 'bun' which is the bread that goes with the pizza. I don't know how she knows this stuff but she does...

Here are some pictures of our water baby!

Memories

2009-10-14T16:16:00.002-04:00

We, as people, are a culmination of our memories. The stories we share with are friends and families are rooted in memories. The experiences that mould us are our memories. Therefore, memories are an integral part of ones life. And with that I wonder - What will I remember when I am old and gray?

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time wondering will I remember this?? Will I remember that?? I don't know why this has become a focus of mine. Is it that I realize just how small we are in the grand scheme of things. How quickly time passes and how those memories fade as time marches on.

Just yesterday I was trying to tell a once funny story to my sister about a memory of Ryan and I in which we went on a haunted tour of Kingston which ended up disastrous with our bus stuck at Fort Henry on Halloween night. That once funny story was foggy to recall and events have dropped out of my memory making me sad that I couldn't remember the details. Thus making me wonder yet again - what will I remember when I am nearing the end of my life.

I hope that I will always remember the night in which Ryan first kissed me. The night that Ryan proposed and the day of our wedding. These are memories that are still quite vivid in my mind. But there are every day events that fade so quickly that I want to remember too...

Then I think about Lyla. There is so much that I don't want to forget. Will I remember how she yells my name even when I am standing right bedside her. Her signature 'Ma-Ma!' I don't think I could ever forget that. Will I remember how she how she reads her storybooks to me? How she wants to do somersaults? How she loves to dance? How Ryan and her cheer for football together? How she dances to music? How she giggles and screams as she plays? How she loves to be outside? And how she cries when we come inside? How she loves her teddy? And how she loves her Mama and her Daddy and gives us kisses and hugs now? These are all things I wonder if they will to become foggy... I sure hope not.

My answer is to start blogging again more, to help me preserve my memories. So, when I am 90 and my memories are foggy my granddaughter can bring me her computer and show me my stories so I can remember my memories...

Lyla's Fall Must Haves

2009-10-01T15:05:00.003-04:00

When ever we go outside there are 3 things that Lyla needs to enjoy this fall weather. These include her coat, which she asks for as she hugs her stomach. Her pumpkin hat, which I was going to return because I figured there was no way that she would keep this on, let alone ask for it all the time. And the third item in her new shoes. I bought her a pair of new running shoes a week ago which she will bring to me and ask to put them on even when we aren't going outside. Yesterday I had her ready to go to Gymboree Music class in her SeeKai Run shoes and she would not leave until we changed shoes.
Anyways, here is Lyla in her outfit. And there may soon be 4 must have items as the coat has matching mittens which she put on yesterday and thought they were a huge hit. The coat I got off line at CocoBons in the summer and it is super cute.
Yesterday at music class Lyla went in in her coat and hat. I took both off and she promptly asked for both of them to be put back on. So she wore her coat and hat for a bit of the class. As a wise woman once told me, you have to choose your battle and this was not a battle to fight as she would have been heart broken and she just wanted to show her teacher and classmates her coat and her hat.

Here is Lyla playing outside yesterday... showing off her attire..

Loving those mitts.

The Neigh- Neigh's at Nana and Papa's

2009-10-01T14:54:00.003-04:00

When Lyla and I went home, Nana and Papa have neigh-neigh's right beside their house. This was super exiting for Lyla as I mentioned she loves animals and neigh-neigh's are one of her favorite. We were lucky enough to enjoy these horses and Lyla could even touch them which was a nice treat because at the zoo there are two fences between the horses and us, so we can't touch them.
Here are some pictures of Lyla and her neigh-neighs...

Thanks Nana and Papa for having us stay with you! We can't wait until we come again in a month!!

A September day on the Farm

2009-09-30T15:55:00.005-04:00

About 3 weeks ago, Lyla and I made an impromptu trip to Nana's and Papa's house. Both Lyla and I really enjoyed our visit because we hadn't seen Nana and Papa since June and we had not seen my sister and her kids since Lyla's Birthday party in May. Lyla loved to be home as she got to see some farm animals which is one of her favorite things in Lyla's whole world.

Cousin Jillian and Lyla made a date to go to a local vegetable farm that has farm animals that the kids could get close to and pet. This was a huge hit for Lyla. Jillian was not to impressed with the smell that these animals produced, but still enjoyed seeing them. This farm also had outdoor activities that the kids could play on. Jillian enjoyed trying all the different activities while Lyla was just content playing in the largest sandbox in the world.

Here are some pictures from the girls adventure to the farm..

Lyla is obsessed with pigs, cows, neigh-neighs, baa-baas, and chickens right now. And all of these animals were at the farm for her to enjoy. The pigs were asleep when we got there but it wasn't long until they were awake. That was the other great thing, going on a weekday allowed us to be the only people in the barn which made it great for the girls to see whatever they wanted. Here are the two little farmers and the most popular animal of all - this little orange kitty. And this kitty was so nice and friendly for the girls to see....

and to touch and pet...

When we left the barn area Lyla was calling for the kitty. The kitty ended up following us for a bit which didn't help Lyla forget the kitty.

We headed over to an area that had slides and at the end there was a lot of straw. Here is Lyla sitting and playing in the straw..

Now both girls playing in the straw..

Lyla's favorite spot, next to the barn with kitty, was the sand box. She sat in this sand box for at least a half an hour as Jillian ran around and tried out all of the other attractions. Lyla was happier than a lark here in this sand box. Jillian wasn't too keen on the sand as it kept getting in her shoe, but there was lots of other things for her to do.

Can you see Lyla? I told you it was the biggest sandbox in the world!

Here is Jillian going for a ride on a horsey!
We ended the day by picking up some freshly baked cranberry-raisin bread. It was still slightly warm and so delightful. The four of us ate a whole loaf as we drove into town to do some shopping.

I am going home in about a month, and Pam and I and Jillian and Lyla have already made a date to go back to the farm. We can't wait!

Oh Deer!

2009-09-21T13:26:00.003-04:00

Yesterday on my way to work at approximately 6:45 in the morning I had a little miss hap with a deer. In that the deer decided to run in front of my car and I hit it. Luckily I am fine. So basically the deer came out of no where. But the odd thing was that I thought about hitting a deer right before I hit the deer. Maybe I am psychic or something.

As you can see from the pictures the deer came out from the right side of the road and hit me on the passenger side of the car. I think I was driving about 40 to 45 miles an hour and I hit the brakes. You could see on the roadway my skid marks, and they were completely straight, so I didn't swerve which is a good thing or I would have been in the ditch.

Unfortunately the impact did not kill the deer. Rather it ended up in the ditch on the opposite side of the road and it was rolling around trying to get up. It ended up going over the ditch so at least I couldn't see it.

I called work and started to cry hysterically. I guess it was the shock of hitting something. Then I called 911 for the police to come out. And then I tried calling Ryan who was still asleep and didn't hear the phone. The police showed up around 30 minutes later . He had to shoot the deer as it was injured but not dead. He came back and told me that it was a really big buck and that I was lucky not to be hurt. Then we checked out the car and decided that I could be able to make it to work. An hour later than normal, I punched into work ... What a start to the day that was! Then everyone from work wanted to know if I had gotten the deer for meat, and NO I didn't.

I have to admit that this was pretty traumatic event. I keep seeing the deer right in front of my face or seeing it in the ditch injured. I am glad that I was alone without Lyla with me. And I was definitely being watched over by angels as I came out unscratched, as I heard so many horror stories from deer collisions.

Here are some pictures of our car...From my work on the 8th floor it looked just like a deer body outline on the hood of the car... I can see it, can you?

Gone is my light, and I could reach right in to the side there and pull out pieces of the car that were no longer attached. They are now in the back seat of my car...

This one is a little hard to see, but just below the wiper blade start point there were scratches on the hood from the antlers. Too close to comfort - they were right in front of my face, almost through the windshield.

A picture from the other side, the dent in the hood from the impact..

Our car is already in the shop for work and we have a rental car. I hope none of you ever hit a deer...

Labor Day 2009 - The Zoo!

2009-09-11T15:50:00.002-04:00

On Labor Day we decided to head out to our local zoo. Lyla woke up in the morning talking about cow and pig. She was indeed in for a trip to the zoo. Even though Lyla had a cold we headed out so she could see the animals for herself.
We enjoy going to the zoo, but it is getting increasing harder to go by yourself with Lyla as she wants out of the stroller to walk and does not like to have to get back in the stroller. So I was glad that we could all go together as two hands are better than one when dealing with any situation.
She was pretty good, other than these struggles with her independence she had a great time.

This visit the big hit was the 'Neigh-neighs' or horses for all of you English speaking folks. There were two horses at the zoo and they came right up to the fence so Lyla could get a good look at them. Here she is getting a close look at the horses...
And here she is telling her Daddy all about the Neigh - neighs...

We then headed over to the polar bear exhibit. I had learned on an early trip to the zoo that the Polar bears like to swim in the morning hours, so we were hoping to see them swim as Ryan had never seen them swimming before. And we sure did luck out as three of the bears were swimming around and putting on a great show for everyone to see.

Lyla was getting tired by that time, and was enjoying her snack but she did enjoy watching them swim as well. While we were watching the polar bears a little boy came along and started to eat her Gerber sticks from her stroller tray. It was pretty funny, the mother was pretty mortified - Ryan and I just laughed...

Here is our little snacker taking a look at the swimming bears...

See the bear swimming in the foreground... to the left of Lyla's head...

There are two bears hanging out, one floating above our head with a pretend ice berg in its paws.

You can then go up to a viewing area on the upper level and see the bears as well. So we went up and the bears were playing right in front of the glass. This is probably as close as we would ever want to get to these huge animals. The female was about 500 pounds and the male (the one facing us) is about 1000 pounds! Massive animals..

Our zoo has a train that goes from the main gate to the back of the zoo property. Every time the train goes by Lyla gets very excited and says 'Choo Choo' or 'Train'. I had been wanting to take her on the train for a while but wanted to save it for a time when both Ryan and I could experience it with her.

She was very excited at first, sitting on the train, talking about it and eager to just be on the train ... Here is her before the train started picture...

And here is her during the train ride picture, after she had calmed down some... She really did not enjoy the train ride at all. It was pretty loud and it goes through a tunnel which is dark - which really scared her. So I guess we will have to wait awhile before we try the train again.

After we got of the train she said 'All Done?' in a little voice but then pointed at it and said 'Choo-Choo' when it pulled into the next station. I think we will be walking the zoo rather than riding the train for a little while longer..

We had a great time at the zoo this labor day... it was a great family outing...

Go Team Go!

2009-09-10T07:57:00.004-04:00

Last Friday we went to our local high school's first home football game. Coming from the great white north, neither Ryan or I had experienced high school sports like this. This is a community event, a social event and a great time for everyone - even a young family with a toddler. Lyla and I went for the music and Ryan went for the sports. There is something for everyone at these events.
Here is Lyla when we arrived at the gates. You can see the excitement in her eyes. We decided to stay outside the gates as there would be no way that Lyla would sit still in the stands. She is a on the go kinda girl. It worked out great. She was able to walk or dance around as she pleased and we didn't bother anyone who was there to watch the game.

Here is Lyla watching the team run out to the field and listening to the band playing their song... it stopped her mid-sentence...

but not for long as she started to say 'Go! Go!' as she could hear the audience cheering 'Go team Go!' She also was very taken by the band's hat as she was talking about their hats to us.

We spent a lot of time walking around. Here is Lyla and her Daddy walking outside the gates. She is smiling at the crowd as they came in, saying hi to people and watching the cars go by.
She was a great greeter... If you can click on the photo - check out Lyla's smile.. priceless!

One of Lyla's highlights was the ambulance or 'truck' in Lyla lingo. She got right down and had a good look at it, pointed at it and talked about it a lot.

Here is Mama and Lyla having a dance..

and another dance...

Our goal was to make it to half time so we could hear the band play. We almost made it but there were flags and time outs and all that jazz so we ended up leaving before the band played as Lyla was done. Maybe next time. All in all, we had a great time at our high school football game. It is a great American tradition - one that we are hoping to enjoy next time the team plays at home.

Halloween preparations...

2009-09-04T14:46:00.003-04:00

Today Lyla and I went to Once Upon a Child to look for Halloween costumes. We had decided to see what the second hand store had to offer before buying a costume for like 30 dollars. I mean this is something that Lyla will wear for one night - if we are lucky - so I didn't want to spend a whole lot on it.

There was one rack of costumes for all sizes of children. Not really organized well and very crammed together in a small space. I was holding Lyla because I thought we wouldn't be long. Lyla quickly made her way to the ground to explore and I searched the costumes. We came to two options... which Lyla tried both on - a pumpkin and a bee. Then we had to make a decision.

So I let Lyla choose, seeing that it is her costume. And what did she choose.... The "Bee'. Just yesterday Lyla was pointing out real Bees to me at the play ground. So I think she made a good decision!

So, we left the store with a costume for Lyla which I spent only $6.50 on. Which made both Lyla and I very happy!

When we got home, Lyla quickly asked for her costume and had to put it back on. Lets just say I couldn't get it off of her.

She danced in it...

She found her 'shun-shine- in it...

And she even ate lunch in her costume.

Maybe she will wear it more than one night...

Marching

2009-09-04T14:33:00.003-04:00

Lyla learned to march this week. Here is a snap shot of her marching in our backyard last night. When I say ' March! March! March!" she breaks into this marching routine. All we need now is the band... Oh Happy Fall!

Gifts from Above

2009-09-03T14:51:00.004-04:00

Sandy

2009-09-02T14:57:00.004-04:00

Meet Sandy. This is the horse that sits at our local Meijer who entertains children of all ages. You can ride this horse for 1 cent. Where else in the world can you get a ride for 1 penny? This is truly a find!

A couple of weeks ago Lyla was introduced to Sandy and she was so thrilled to finally get a ride on it. I didn't get very good pictures as I had to hold on to Lyla, even though she thought she was a big girl and didn't need to be helped on her 'horse'.

Last week I didn't have a penny, so I just let Lyla sit on it without the motion. This week I was sure to have a penny but Lyla didn't want to go for the ride. Instead she talked to the lady who was sitting on the bench beside Sandy.

We look forward to many rides with our friend Sandy!

Lyla's 1st Playdate visitors

2009-08-26T14:48:00.004-04:00

About a year ago, while out on a walk in our subdivision, we ran into a lady with twins. It seemed that our schedules were very similar as we ended up running into each other many times through out the summer and the fall. Fast forward to this summer, Lyla and I again ran into Jennifer and her twins Charolette and Jack. We caught up quickly and decided that we needed to have play date.

Last month, Lyla and I went to their home for a lunch/ play date and this month it was our turn to have them over. Both Lyla and I were very excited about this event. Yesterday we went grocery shopping in preparation for the event. We bought yummy buns and meats and cheeses, veggies for salad, hummus and chips and muffins and cake. We were set to have a great lunch for our friends. When the kids got here Lyla was so excited. I was telling her that her friends were coming over. She saw them coming to the door and ran to the play room and screamed and screamed. Then she came running back, like saying "Come on guys - lets play!". The quickly started to play together giggling and screaming along the way. The biggest hits were Lyla's Seasame Street book set and of course her 'house'. It is interesting to see the kids play together. The twins are so use to having each other to play with and Lyla is use to playing with herself. At times Lyla would play independent and the twins would play together. They loved getting into the house together and throwing the balls out. The loved emptying out Lyla's bins of toys. I didn't get a picture of them playing as they were moving around so quickly but I did get a picture of the kids all having lunch together.

They were so cute at lunch they were giggling and shaking their heads from side to side joking around together.

After they left this is the way that the playroom looked. I think that if you can say that the play date was a success.

And here are Lyla's bins all emptied out!

Lyla and I are so glad that Jack and Charolette came over to play. We are looking forward to playing again soon!

Beep- Beep!

2009-08-14T14:27:00.002-04:00

Beep- beep! Beep- beep! The car went beep-beep-beep!!

There is Lyla and Daddy driving in the car. Some days when Daddy gets home from work Lyla will sit on Daddy's lap and pretend to drive the car. Its pretty cute! Here she is using both hands driving the car! Giggling with Daddy!

Wowsers! That was quite the Beep-beep from the car!

A Waterful Weekend

2009-08-13T14:59:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I took holidays so we could have a weekend together as a family. It was really nice to be home all together and to enjoy some family time. I had taken a weekend off a couple of weekends before and the weather did not cooperate. This weekend's forecast looked to be bleak as well with rain on both days. Saturday was a complete wash out and Sunday turned out to be a very hot day, but we definitely made the most of our time together.
My original plan had been to go to the outdoor aquatic center one day and to the beach the next day. Saturday we went to a Gymboree class in the morning and then in the afternoon we headed to the indoor aquatic center instead. Lyla had a complete blast. She is definitely a 'waters' baby. Here are some pictures of her swimming at the pool.
The first steps in the water. Smiling all the way.. As soon as we walked in the door she was so excited. When we left the house Lyla had no idea what we were up to. We told her we were going to the pool, but to her that is the back yard pool, and she cried when we went to get in the car. This pool definitely made up for any sadness about missing the backyard pool.

Lyla had no fear. She just wanted to walk into the pool and didn't fear anything. She would kick her legs when we told her to. She loved the water falling from the water sprinklers. She definitely had a great time.

The next morning the humidity was building and it was already in the 80s by 11 am in the morning so we decided to head to a local inland lake where there is a beach. This again would be a first for Lyla. So we were excited to do this together as a family.

Here is our little girl in her swim suit cover up walking on the beach for the first time. She has been to the sand box at the school but never at the beach. She was a little unsure of what to think of the hot sand on her feet.

It didn't take long for her to head straight to the water for a dip. At first she just sat in the shallow water and inspected her surroundings.

Soon she was laughing and..

clapping and..

pointing and talking about other children around her.

We took her out a bit deeper and bobbed her up and down and let her bounce in the water. We didn't get any pictures of this.. just memories of her belly laughs. She loved it.

It wasn't long before we headed in for a quick picnic of mostly cheese..

Then our little girl enjoyed playing in the mucky sand.

Don't worry we went for another swim after playing in the sand.

All, in all we had a great weekend together. One that will leave memories with us. Lyla is a great girl and we is a huge fan of the water so we were glad we were able to introduce her to some new water experiences this past weekend.

Sunshine

2009-08-12T14:00:00.005-04:00

Here is my little princess as she discovered the sunshine on our floor this afternoon. It was really cute to see her explore it and to hear her saying.. 'Sunshine' as she played in the stream of warm sun..

Here you can hear her precious voice say 'Sunshine'. Enjoy!

Old MacDonald Zoo Style

2009-08-06T14:36:00.004-04:00

Lately Lyla has been enjoying her Baby Einstein video 'Old MacDonald - A day at the farm'. Both Ryan and I are huge fans of the Baby Einstein video collection. This video alone has added at least 10 words to Lyla's vocabulary. We love them because she is learning from them and she loves the puppets that act in these videos. She will scream and run on the spot when the Cow comes on and rings the triangle, she giggles and smiles in anticipation when the horse is going to snatch up the flower and eat it. I would highly recommend these videos for your children as they are a crowd pleaser for both parents and kiddies.
Lyla's favorite character is the cow. Nana and Papa bought Lyla a stuffed cow when Lyla was very young when she enjoyed the black and white contrasts. Now, she just loves the cow because of these videos and as well because of her barnyard decorations in her room. So, this morning she woke up and started talking to me about her cow. I had already decided that we were going to go to the zoo this morning. So we went down and found her toy cow and then put on her video and had breakfast. After we packed up the car and headed off to the zoo to see the cow in person.
This zoo visit was the best yet. We spent about 3o minutes in the barn (a word she learned from the video), looking at the pig, chickens and cows (all words she can say). She walked around the barn pointed and talked to me about these animals. We had a great time. When we had to leave we had a little girl who was very upset - because she didn't want to get back in the stroller, she loves to walk. Here are some pictures from our farm adventure at the zoo today.

Here she is posing at the fence.

Pointing at the 'cow'.Outside the pig pen. Getting a closer look at the cow...Calling to the 'COW'

Until we return to the zoo we will continue to watch our Baby Einstein videos.. but hopefully we will be back to see the animals again.

She did enjoy all the animals that we saw today - wolverine, chimpanzees, gorillas, monkey and loins. She would get excited and try to make a noise like an animal would. When she saw the pigs she snorted! And of course let out a good MOO when she saw her beloved cow.

Standing up

2009-08-05T15:31:00.003-04:00

This weekend Lyla taught herself how to stand up... A large accomplishment that she is very proud of. When I got home from work on Sunday she plopped right down on her bottom and then got herself back up and smiled at me with a great big smile. She was so proud of what she had taught herself, and both Ryan and I were so proud of her too!

Here is step one -- get up on your knees. Then push up... is step two.. As you can tell by the smile on this monkey, these pictures are kinda joke poses but you get the drift. It is so nice for her to be able to get up easily now rather than scooting to something that she can pull herself up on.

Toliet

2009-08-05T15:18:00.003-04:00

About 2 months ago Lyla discovered the toilet. It all started with her giggling the flusher, then it wasn't long until she figured out how to flush the toilet. We have always kept the toilet seat closed because of reasons of hygiene but now it is even more important. This weekend we had visitors at the house and after they left Lyla and I went upstairs and she wondered into the bathroom with her beach ball and I look over after closing the gate and she is hovering over an open toilet seat with a look of joy on her face. This look of joy is because about a month ago she figured out how to open the toilet seat. And since then she has cleaned the toilet with one of her tooth brushes and she has thrown a toy in it. So now our bathroom doors are kept shut. Whenever the door is left open by accident or we are in the bathroom, Lyla runs to the toilet and this is the face that we see. It makes me laugh because she knows that she shouldn't be near the toilet. Another thing that makes me laugh is how she runs for the toilet at high pace whenever she can. I hear these little feet run and then she bangs on it like a drum. And then usually I yell at her to get away from the toilet and the little feet run away with giggles. Such a funny time - but I am considering toilet locks as if something large goes into the toilet a large plumbing bill will follow.

Anyways, sorry for the long talk about 'the john' but the picture says it all.

On another note - Aunt Pam - this is one of the dresses you gave us from Jillian that still had tags on it - and it looks great. Thanks! :)