More January birthdays!

Layla attended her first birthday parties in January (unfortunately both on the same day at the same time), and they were amazing!  We started off the day by attending Liam's 1st birthday party, and let me tell you, everything was perfect.  The theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Kate outdid herself.  The decorations, food, and goody bags were awesome.  She put so much thought into making sure that Liam had a great birthday, and we had a wonderful time celebrating with them.  Liam is such a sweetie and I can't believe it's been a year since we went to visit that little newborn in the hospital...

After Liam's party, we headed over to catch some of Olivia's celebration.  She had a Princess party, complete with a bounce house, face painting, balloon animals, and of course, princess costumes.  It was too cute. Layla received a "Polite as a Princess" bath book in her goody bag that she LOVES and we read every night while in the tub.  I remember Kyle bringing Olivia up to the office as a little baby for a visit, and now she's all grown up (and beautiful)!

We had such a great January celebrating birthdays with our friends!

Six Months

Layla turned six months old in January.  I can't believe we are halfway to a year already!

This age is such a blast, we are having such a wonderful time with our little girl.  Layla, your personality is really starting to come through!  You laugh and smile all the time, still love to be sung to, and love getting kisses! When you get excited, you bury your little head into our shoulders and laugh and bounce around.  My favorite times are just me, you, Daddy, and the dogs on the floor, no toys, just us playing and laughing.  You babble all the time - your favorites are "mamamama" and "blahblahblah".  Personally, I think you know I'm "Mama" - you only seem to say it when I'm around :)  You're sitting up on your own now, so we have a lot of fun playing with your bath toys during bathtime!  You scoot on the floor a little bit, but your main mode of transportation is rolling to get where you want.  We'll put you down, look away for a sec, and when we turn back around, you're two feet over facing the opposite direction!  Time to start the childproofing...

You eat every three hours, starting at around 4:30 AM.  You have oatmeal and fruit in the morning, veggies at night, and four 6 to 8 ounce bottles a day.  We started introducing water in a sippy cup, and can usually get a couple of ounces in you, but it's definitely not your favorite and we usually end up with a soaked bib.

Sleeping...not going the greatest.  You go to bed around 8, but will wake up anywhere from 11pm-1am, then again at around 3, then up for a bottle at 4:30, then back to sleep until around 6:30.  I hear other moms say that their babies sleep 12 hours straight.  We definitely aren't there yet, but that's OK - more time for me to snuggle my little girl!  This time is flying by and I know soon you won't want to be held and rocked, so I cherish any time we have now, even if I am half-asleep!  Here are a couple of cute sleeping pics (notice neither one is actually in your crib).



Nice and comfy in our bed



You still love your swing the best!


 At your six month appointment, you weighed 15 lbs, 15 oz, are a little under 26 inches long, and are in the 50th to 60th percentile for length, weight, and head size.  You are still in six month clothes but I think we're going to have to move up a size pretty soon.  And I have to say, I'm really liking the cold weather because I think you look SO CUTE in your winter clothes.  You are just this little bundle of fleece with a head peeking out and I love it!

You have two new tricks - fake coughing and sticking out your tongue.  I feel bad when we're out in public because one of two things usually happens.  We either walk around with you "coughing" and me ignoring it, making me look like a bad mom that doesn't care that her kid is sick, or someone comes up to us to comment on you or give you a little tickle and you stick your tongue out at them...Oh well!

And even though you are a full year too young, Daddy bought you your first 4-Wheeler - Disney Princess Edition.  You riding around on it (with Daddy's help, of course) is one of the most precious things I've seen you do so far.  You have a very solemn look on your face when you're riding around the living room - you take it very seriously.  You're surprisingly good at staying on it too!

Combo of the 4-wheeler and your new trick!

We love you so much, little girl!

More Birthdays!

I'm unfortunately still trying to play catch-up on the last few weeks with my posts - I'll get there eventually! 

We had another fun birthday dinner at the beginning of the month for Ashley and Mobs.  We went to La Vista, which is the perfect place to sit back and linger over dinner.  We shared some pretty hilarious holiday stories, including our best and worst gifts (by the way, best for me would be my New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys concert tickets - yes, I'm going and super excited about it.)  As always, I had a wonderful night with my great friends and really treasure the times we get together!

There's another special birthday to celebrate so far this month.  Congratulations to Patrick and Emily on the birth of their beautiful baby girl!  She's adorable, and Layla can't wait to meet her future BFF!

Holiday Fun!

Well, the holidays flew by and unfortunately I didn't stay current on my blogging, so I'm going to have to do a very condensed version of the last month...

Nick's office party was at the House of Blues this year, and was really fun!  The band was great, and it was really nice to have night out.  Aunt Jamie babysat for us, and all the baby did was sleep while she was there.

Of course, once we got home, Layla decided to let me sleep for a whole half hour before she woke up, lucky me :)  The line for pictures was too long so I don't have any from that night - next year I'll make sure to wear more comfortable shoes so that I don't mind standing!

Kate also held her Annual Girl's Gift Exchange, which was so great as always.  Kate is the perfect hostess - everything from the food and drinks to the decorations are always gorgeous.  It's so nice to relax, visit with friends, and see all of the cute gifts that everyone brings!

We celebrated Christmas in Corpus Christi and Houston this year.  We kicked off the week by taking our first longish road trip down to Corpus to stay with my parents.  Layla did great in the car!  I will admit, we left very early in the morning so that she would sleep most of the way, but even awake, she just babbled away until we got there.

We set Layla in her Bumbo and just had the gifts around her while we all got ready to start opening.  No one was really paying attention, and before we knew it, we heard a loud "Rrriiippp"  Layla just took it upon herself to go ahead and start on her gifts!  She knew exactly what to do with no coaching, it was too funny.  

Everyone told us she would be more interested in the wrapping paper than the toys this year.  At first, that was definitely the case, although she wore out her new toys that day too!

And of course, since she's at that stage when everything goes in her mouth, the wrapping was no exception.

We continued the celebration with Nick's parents starting on Christmas Eve. Yet again, Layla knew just what to do.

More yummy wrapping paper.  We couldn't get it away from her fast enough!

Layla received such fun toys.  She loved the Grinch!

Unfortunately, someone else loved it as well...They will have to learn to share!

We were so happy to be able to see everyone for Layla's first Christmas.  She is such a loved baby and we are so blessed to have such wonderful family to celebrate with.

These are just a few more cute Christmas pictures.  Kate took the first three - she is such a great photographer and was nice enough to take some pics of Lays so we would finally have some good ones!



Look at those cheeks!



She wasn't too pleased with Santa, in case you can't tell!  At least she wasn't crying...

Nick and I were both feeling pretty under the weather on New Year's Eve, so we just stayed in.  We did have some sparklers, so we lit them in the backyard to see Layla's reaction.  She didn't really know what to think.  She seemed surprised/scared at first, and then just lost interest and started watching the dogs run around the backyard. 

We can't wait to see what next year brings!

Five Months

Layla, you turned five months old on December 17th.  You have changed so much this month!  You are such a character, and make your daddy and I laugh every day.

We started you on food this month, and you love it!  So far, you've tried rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, and squash.  You love everything except the green beans.  You have a hatred of green beans like I have never seen.  You seriously screamed for a good five minutes after I stopped feeding you just because you were mad.  I thought something was wrong - I tasted them and they were fine - I made them!  So I hurried to whip up some bananas for you and as soon as they hit your lips, you stopped screaming and gobbled them down.  I'm scared to try green beans again!

You are eating about 7 oz each bottle feeding, and I would estimate that you weigh around 15 pounds.  You are officially in size six month clothing, and we have had to add a new item to your wardrobe - teething bibs.  I don't see any teeth yet, but you are constantly drooling!  So we have to keep a bib on you or we would be changing your shirt constantly.

You go to sleep at 8 and usually wake up around 3.  I was hoping the food would make you sleep longer but it's actually done the opposite.  You usually just want a quick feeding at 3 and are back asleep by 4 for a couple more hours.  However, you still don't like naps and we usually can't get you to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time during the day in your crib.  You'll sleep in someones arms though!

You are getting so good at grabbing things and are always trying to pick up or reach for anything you can.  You also love to watch people talk to you and reach out to touch their faces.  Also, you are starting to be able to sit up on your own.  We definitely have to hover because you will topple over after a bit, but you've done great and look like such a big girl sitting there all by yourself!

You also have finally started to take a pacifier, and it has made such a difference.  For some reason you just hated them when you were really little, but once we saw this:

we decided to give it another try.  Within a minute of you having the paci, you fell asleep! 

You babble quite a bit, especially in the mornings.  Your daddy and I will just sit and listen to you talk  and squeak over the monitor when you wake up. You'll also "say" things to us and laugh and laugh when we respond.  You've discovered how to blow raspberries, and still love to make the growling noise.  And of course, "mmmm" while you're eating!

You love being read to, which I'm really happy about, and try to reach out and touch the different pictures on the pages.  You have a lot of fun in your jumper, and really like toys that you can get a good handle on and shake.  And, as always, you LOVE the dogs!  You reach out and pet them now and it's so sweet - I just have to make sure I'm right there because you obviously don't know the difference between petting and grabbing a handful of hair.  But the dogs are very patient and gentle with you, no aggression at all.  I'm so happy that you will have a special relationship with your puppies!

We love you more and more every day.  You bring us such joy and we've loved every minute with you!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Part 2

We were so happy to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with both sides of the family this year.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove to Bay City and spent the day with Nick's family, and we had a wonderful time.  The food was great - especially my favorite Hash Brown Casserole that Nick's mom makes!  We also had homemade ice cream, which I've been hearing about for a while and finally got to experience.  Layla was super interested in watching the girls turn the crank to make the ice cream - maybe next year she can actually join in!

It was so nice to relax and visit with family, and Layla loved being held by everyone and getting lots of attention.  By the end of the day, she was pretty tired out and fell asleep in my arms - look familiar??

I guess there is something about Thanksgiving and that position that puts this little girl right to sleep!

Rice Cereal

I was really excited when we got the green light from our pediatrician to start Layla on rice cereal.  She loves her food, and I couldn't wait to see how she took to something more substantial than milk!

So, Nick and I broke out the high chair last night and got her all set up.  I had both the video camera and digital camera out to capture this "first" so we can show it to all of her future boyfriends ;).  She was a little wary at first, but once she got used to the spoon she loved it!  She was making little "mmmm" noises while she was eating, so cute.  I was hoping that feeding her would add maybe an hour or so of sleep to her morning, but so far no luck...maybe this weekend will go better!

Here are a few pictures - what a mess!  It seemed like for every scrape of food off of her face and into her mouth, twice that amount came back out. She kept getting a surprised look on her face, and I could just see her thinking "What is this stuff??!"  We'll see how next week goes with the cereal, and if she's doing well, then on to oatmeal and veggies!