17 Months

Okay so Lyla will be a year and a half in a MONTH. Does that blow anyone else's minds??

This is such a fun age! Lyla is such a sweet little girl, so much fun, so loving!

This past month she has started playing a lot more 'pretend' games. Today she sad her stuffed bear and stuffed dog next to each other and said 'sit' (unfortunately her 'S' is pronounced 'Sh' hahah) and then she got her little stir fry toy and started feeding her stuffed animals! She held the spoon up to their mouths and said 'num num num num.... Good!"

Another game she likes is pretending an unopened ketchup bottle is soap or shampoo. She puts her hand up to the top like she's getting soap and then 'washes' her hands and hair!

She also finally figured out how to get off the couch on her own, thank goodness. Now I don't have to worry about her nose diving off the couch!

Lyla has also started being really 'helpful.' She loves to throw garbage away. Putting clothes in the washer is apparently a really fun game. And she tries to help me sweep! It's so cute!

It still amazes me how much she can understand now. And how much she can say! A lot of her words aren't pronounced perfectly but we know what's she saying. It's all about context! Boo could be blue or spoon! Car could be car or crawl or guitar!

Yesterday after her nap, I heard her saying "Mama! Mama!" So I went in and she said "There she is!" Probably pronounced more like "they-she-ih." I started cracking up.. she is simply the best!

Music to Mama's Ears

Hey there! It's me, Lyla! I have food in my hair (as always!)

I could name a million things that might be considered 'music to my ears'... when Lyla repeats "ove oo" (love you) over and over again after I lay her down for bed... or when I say I have an ouchie and she kisses it and says "all be" (all better)..

But right now I'm talking about actual music! We got Lyla a piano as a late Christmas present (could not resist) and she just loves it! She sits and goes 'plink plink plink' and sings in baby gibberish. What could be cuter?

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately... my computer irks me since 1/3 of the screen is blacked out.

OUCHIES!

Lyla had her first emergency type trip to the doctor on Monday..

We were at a family Christmas party, and Erik was swinging Lyla holding her hands .... not roughly at all .. but suddenly she started crying and I was holding her and she kept going 'ouchie!' but then I gave her kisses and she said 'all ba' (all better) and was alright, but then we noticed every time she moved her arm she winced and cried, although she was still in a pretty cheerful mood aside from moving her arm....

So we took off to the after hours walk in clinic where we waited FOOORREVER. Lyla was in a decent mood. There were some other kids there that were entertaining her, but sometimes she would forget about her sore arm and try to wave with it, and then it was more 'ouchies.'

We finally hear Lyla's name called and we proceed to a room... the site of nurses was more upsetting to Lyla than her hurt arm but once they left (which they did, for a long time) we played and had fun in the doctor's room. Finally someone came in and told us that Lyla would need X-Rays on her arm.... more waiting. So then the x-rays. Not a fun experience for anyone. Lyla was crying and screaming, tears running down her face, snot bubbling out of her nose while we tried to hold her arm in various positions. I think she had to get 3 pictures, and at the end I told Lyla she was all done and she was still crying and started desperately yelling 'all done' through her tears... It was the saddest thing ever.

Then the nurse gave her 2 Dora stickers... :D!

So the dr came in and said they didn't see anything on the xrays and Lyla was moving her arm again. But she probably had a Nursemaid's Elbow, where the radial head gets dislocated or something, and then when we stretched it for the x-rays, it slipped back into place.

WHEW. long day. I think we were there about 2.75 hrs.

Anyway. As far as a first 'injury' is concerned, I think we had it pretty good! no blood, cast, sling, surgery.... I know Erik feels so, so, sooo bad about it. He probably wouldn't want me writing about in my blog...

new blog name

Wow 2 blog posts in 1 week! Who am I?!?

Well truth is, Erik is now working full time and he has to get up at like 5 so he goes to bed super early.. meaning, no late night Call of Duty playing.. hahaha

Honestly it has helped a lot with my productivity (obviously) though it's boring be awake by myself, and I have been going to bed before midnight :O! Again... who am I?!?!

So I hope to start keeping everyone updated on Lyla's Happenings.

BUT I have been contemplating a new blog name, something more general, you know, in case of more children (not pregnant). I tried 'scandinasians' (Lyla, and all our kids, will be of Korean, Swedish and Norwegian descent) but it was already taken by some drunk Koreans studying abroad in Sweden or something really lame like that. Psh!!!!!!!! I hate that once a blog name is used, it is dead to the rest of the world, even if the person who had it originally deletes their blog! How does that make any sense?!?!?!??! It doesn't! I want Scandinasians.

weescandinasians.... pretty long. we'll see..

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wow, this is a much needed update!!!!!

We have been busy lately chasing around our busy busy toddler.

As far as milestones go... now it feels more like, what ISN'T she doing?! She is walking, running, dancing, singing (laaaa lalaa, dododododo), talking, hugging, kissing, crying, stomping, eating, sleeping, throwing, twirling.... the list goes on!

The list of words she can say feels like it grows every day! Most recently, she started saying "nigh nigh" before bed, and amazingly this has improved bedtime protests A LOT! I lay her down, say "night night lyla!" and she says "nigh nigh" and.... silence! no fuss! So parents, make sure you teach your tots to say "NIGHT NIGHT" asap ;) Also helpful for naps! (Now watch, tomorrow will be tantrum city before nap/bed!)

I sometimes forget how quickly she can pick up on words now.. in the car the other day, I said "crap!" and then heard a little "crap!" coming from the backseat.. Luckily I haven't heard that one since hahah.

I see Lyla growing up in so many other ways... she loves to laugh and is always cracking herself up! She remembers and talks about people she knows.. mostly mormor and baba (could be grandpa or grandma), but a lot of other relatives, too. She spends half the morning in the closet browsing her clothes. Then she brings me something and says "on" but as soon as I try to help her with it, she gets upset. She wants to do it all on her own.. unfortunately she doesn't know how to dress herself yet..... I don't know, I could go on forever! This is such a fun age, although we are starting to see some tantrums when something isn't exactly right or when TV time is over... terrible twos on its way?? Yesterday she got mad at me because I wanted to roll her sleeves up before we washed hands! Like sitting on the floor, crying mad! yikes!! This is a whole new realm of parenting.....

Wordy Girl

One big difference with passing the 1 year mark... Lyla is talking up a storm! A lot of gibberish and babbles, but she tries to say a LOT of words! Almost every day she tries to imitate a new word that we say. We are making a list of all her words. So here is the list at 14 months:

Can Say:
Mama, Dada, Chair, Up, Hat, Boo (cat)

Almost Say or Trying!:
yellow, blue, spoon, bye bye, Lyla, ouch, doggy, elevator (she is in looove with the elevator!), fish, niño, baby, paper, jacket, mono, shoe, banana (nana!)

And there are probably more, but I can't wait to see what the list is at 15 months! It seems like the shift to trying words was really rapid and she is just sponging words up!

Weird to think we'll be conversing all the time with real words soon..... eek! Can't wait to hear some of the things she'll say :)!

Halloween!

Lyla's second Halloween.. but the first doesn't really count because Lyla slept the whole time she was in her costume!

This year we dressed her up in a little bumble bee costume I found on amazon, and it fit her PERFECTLY! And it happened to be a gorgeous fall day on Halloween, 50's, so we got to go trick-or-treating. Lyla can't eat candy... she doesn't even know what candy is luckily... but we went to my parents' house and visited the neighbors there, people I've known forever! They loved seeing Lyla. Lyla really enjoyed picking out candy and putting it in her bucket... and dumping everything in her bucket out while we were walking! We visited Grandma who was working at the library where Lyla got the ultimate trick-or-treat surprise... A SPOON! Lyla loves spoons so much.. we call her 'the spoon lady.'

She had so much fun!! I'm just glad it was a beautiful day!