The Good and The Bad

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

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!

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

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

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

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.