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.

Carving the Pumpkins

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!

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'

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.