Lyla's 1st Playdate visitors

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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! :)

Lyla's New Pool

On Friday, I accidentally put an end to Lyla's pool that she inherited from her cousins. When I went to dump out the water, my finger went through the vinyl. Ryan and I tried to patch it but it was right by a seam so the patch did not work. Luckily for us the pools are now on clearance so we got a new pool for a pretty good deal.

The pool has its pros and cons. Pro being that it has this cool pelican (Lyla and I both think that it looks more like a duck) anyways, this pelican that sprays water out and it came with six fish for Lyla to play with. The cons are that this pool is not as high so Lyla can just walk in and out of the pool. As well Lyla is able to stand up more in this pool which is dangerous and bothers me alot, so we will see how it goes. She usually plays well for a bit while sitting on her bottom then tries to get up and stand near the end. Then she says 'All done' and I take her out and now because it is shorter she steps back in and then it is a power struggle between me and her trying to get her to sit back down on her bottom. So we will see how it goes. When we had the bigger pool she would stand at the side of the pool and say 'Ready' to me so I would lift her up and put her in the pool

Here are some pics of her playing in her new pool.

I think that this pool will be a hit for the rest of the summer. Funny, last night after our walk we came home and I said to Lyla to go show her Daddy her knew pool. Next thing we knew Lyla was in the pool with her clothes on!!

Lyla's New House

Yesterday, after Lyla's morning Gymboree class we went off to Meijer's for our weekly grocery shop. Upon perusing the clearance seasonal items we found this house. Now, Lyla loves the balls that came with this house. And we looked at the balls by themselves and they were double the price so we decided to buy the house.

Lyla has been enjoying this house very much for the past 24 hours. She has started to figure out how to get in and out of the house. And her favorite thing is just to sit in the house and throw the balls out.