Trick of Treat

In true Kelly fashion, I took 150 pictures this afternoon of Lyla's first Halloween...Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween, Happy Trick or Treating!

Updates on Miss Lyla

Time is flying past - way to quickly. I can't believe that we are on the eve of November and today is Halloween. October, as all of the months since Lyla was born, flew right by without a chance for me to update the blog.

This month has had a couple of milestones in Lyla's life. After we got home from Lyla's baptism we started her on cereal, on Monday October 13th. She started with oatmeal cereal. The doctor suggested oatmeal first rather than rice, because rice is more constipating. She really grasped the whole concept of eating cereal very well. She was definitely ready, grabbing for the spoon and helping guide it into her mouth. That and the fact that she could use the spoon as a chew toy. We started her on sweet potatoes yesterday and she thought that was so yummy! She quickly gobbled that up.

She is babbling very well. It sounds like she is saying "Lyla and Dada". Not sure if these are true words or just babbles. But she definitely has gotten these babbles from listening to us talk. When I say "Lyla, Dada and Mama" she zones in on my mouth and stares at it intently as if studying it. She started to say Lyla on October 22nd and Dada followed on the 23rd.

Yesterday I had Lyla sitting on our bed and she sat for a few minutes unassisted. She has been trying to sit up for a while and has been doing so sitting on our knees or on in a groove, but yesterday she sat on an flat surface without anything keeping her up, then she tumbled over.

She has become quite the giggler. She laughs at everything and everything and sometimes absolutely nothing. She is enjoying the games of peekaboo and has no fear. I can jump out and startle her so she just about jumps out of her skin and she just laughs about it.

On Monday October 27th, we put Lyla in her jumperoo for her first time. She just kinda lounged in the jolly jumper at first, then we added some socks to her feet and we showed her what to do, and now she is a jumping queen. She looks so cute bouncing around in it.

So, as you can see we have been really busy in the Hewlett household. We haven't had a weekend together in a couple of months since I have been working weekends. Starting on Monday, Ryan is starting a family leave where he will be caring for Lyla the days that I am at work. We are all looking forward to this change, as Ryan will get to spend some more time with Lyla, and maybe we will get to have some more family time for the 3 of us. I have definitely been missing that aspect, but more so I am grateful that Lyla has not had to go to daycare. Thanks to our parents for helping out with looking after Lyla, we appreciate at it very much. But we are now looking forward to getting back to our normal life, it is straining on everyone to have constant visitors in your house for 7 weeks. This is the first week that I haven't had anyone here and I feel like I am just waiting for someone to arrive.

We have been getting ready for the cold weather, and Lyla has been wearing this cool hat that I bought on clearance before we knew what we were having. Even thought it is a boy-ish hat it looks pretty good on her.

We have been to the Cider mill multiple times, and here is a photo from one of our trips.

And here Lyla is with her buddy Nolan, who is 6 weeks older than her. They were both very interested in each other.

Anyways, that is an update on our little girl. Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween. I will post some pictures of our little pumpkin later today.....

Lyla's Baptism

This past weekend, on October 12th, Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, we had Lyla's baptism. We decided to get her baptized at Granton Wesley United Church. This is the same church that Ryan and I were married in. I enjoyed planning this event, as it was like a little wedding for our little girl. We picked out a dress on line and it was very pretty on Lyla. She truly looked like the belle of the ball.

We went to my parents house on Saturday morning. The last time that we attempted to travel with Lyla it was a night travel. We thought that she would sleep through the entire trip to my parents. Instead, Lyla cried and cried and was very upset. So upset, that we turned back about 25 km into Canada. This trip which normally takes about 1.5 hours, ended up taking 5 hours just because we kept having to pull over and console her. So we decided to forgo the night travelling and go in the morning instead. She traveled very well this way. The traveling did not seem to bother her at all, which was a relief because we had to make the trip this time - no turning back

Saturday was a lot of last minute preparations and running around to get the flowers, the last minute groceries, my sister Pam picked up the cake and just general preparation for the day ahead.

On Sunday morning, she awoke for her 4 am feeding and decided that she didn't need to go back to sleep. It must have been that she was in a different environment or that she was excited about the day ahead, but she was awake until 6:30 that morning. I was worried that this would throw her off because she usually sleeps all morning, and I knew she would be tired now from not sleeping well. She awoke again at 9 am, in time for the church service at 10. But this time, she didn't really want to eat. So now I was thinking that she was tired and hungry, 2 strikes against us. However, Lyla did excellent at the church. She didn't cry when she was baptized. She didn't cry when Lloyd Mardlin walked her around the church to allow everyone to see her. She was a little trooper and we were so proud of her.




This was also a special day for Ryan. Ryan's parents never baptized him, so Ryan decided to get baptized with Lyla. It was nice to see Ryan commit his belief with his daughter.

We then arrived back at my parents house for a reception. I had arranged for a photographer to come to take some pictures and I had gotten a cater for the luncheon. I am still awaiting the pictures from the photographer and I hope that they turned out. In retrospect, it was a little chaotic with everyone trying to get Lyla to look at them for pictures, so I hope that they turned out ok.



The food was great, our caters were "Huron Shores", and I would highly recommend them. We had hot turkey on a bun, garden salad, a vegetable tray, and a pasta salad. We had a arrangement of desserts and I had a cake made that looked like a baptism dress that said "God Bless Lyla" on it. It was both white and chocolate cake. We also served tea and coffee and apple cider. In this picture, Lyla is wearing a dress of mine when I was her age. I had the photographer take a picture to replicate a picture of myself. My mom had found my baby jewelry, - yes I know, baby jewelery ! - a bracelet, and a necklace and Lyla wore those for the day.

My uncle Bill brought over my grandpa's tractor which was very nostalgic for all of us. We rode around on it and thought how gramp would have been smiling down on us from heaven.

The weather was beautiful. A sunny warm day about 75 degrees. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I especially want to thank my parents for all their help in this day. They offered us their home to have the party at, and they put forth a lot of effort in preparing for this day. Thank you so much! It meant a lot to have the party at your home, and we appreciate everything you did in preparation for this special day.

Fall Outing

Yesterday Ryan had a day off from work, which was great because I have been working a lot of weekends so we got to have a family day. We were not sure what we should do so we decided to go over to the Yate's Cider Mill in Rochester and go for a walk, enjoy a drink of cider and have some fresh donuts. It was such a great day! The Cider mill is on the Clinton River and the Clinton River Trail that runs along beside it. So, when we first got there we went for a nice long walk in the woods. Which Lyla slept through the beginning part of it. But once she woke up she really enjoyed herself. She loves to look out the window at the trees and leaves, and loves being outside in general. So, she really enjoyed being out in nature looking at the trees and hearing the river running alongside us. She saw some ducks and a goat, but I don't think those really impressed her. We then got our apple cider and donuts and sat outside and enjoyed those treats.


When we got home we put our "Little Pumpkin" amongst our pumpkins on our front porch and took some photos.