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!

Lyla Does Art Prize!

So today Lyla, Erik, my parents and I went to Art Prize in Grand Rapids. It's this awesome art contest that pretty much turns downtown into an art museum! Really anywhere can be a venue for an artist's work, and if you have a venue, then you can show something! You can walk around outside and look at tons of amazing work, and a lot of buildings are venues so you can check stuff out inside, too! Pretty awesome to have something like this nearby! Artists from around the world compete, but the best part about it is that many of the artists are local! It's great to learn of and support local artists! Anyway, I won't put too many pictures up ... it's only the second day, so I don't want to spoil it for anyone who is going.... But here are some of the things Lyla enjoyed :)

If you're curious, more info at artprize.org!

Here's Lyla at Art Prize last year..... it was freezing, but she didn't know, fast asleep in her Bundle Me... Only a month old! WOW!!!!! WHAT A LITTLE BABY!

And here she is this year!

The wooden bears in the background are the actual art prize entries, but Lyla was more interested in the fountain.

What could she be looking at? This was like a cool little table.....

.....but hey there is a little world inside there!!!!! Lyla thought this was really cool!

Giant Doggy!

Lyla liked his ball ... oh yea Lyla recognizes the word 'pelota' now.. spanish for ball!

A lot of the art is really just giant stuff, like this giant door and giant chair. Still cool. Lyla actually enjoyed it, but the picture I have of her smiling is out of focus. She also tried to climb it of course.

But nothing was cooler than the carousel in the museum!

Here's me... Photo courtesy of Erik!

Overdue Update: Life of a Toddler's Mama

So excuse for the lack of blog posts: busy toddler = busy mama!

Lyla is always on the move.. crawling everywhere, pulling up on anything she can, and walking all around the living room. She is a bit timid about walking on her own anywhere else... just recently, she started feeling confident enough to venture onto the hardwood floor on her own.. progress! Otherwise, we just have to take her by the hand when she needs to leave the living room...

It has been amazing to see what she learns to do every day! Yesterday, I asked her, "Lyla, dónde está tu nariz?" And she pointed to her nose! She has only done it a couple of times since though. She is able to feed herself with a spoon, although it is definitely a messy ordeal. The other day, we shared a yogurt snack and she fed both of us... we were both covered in yogurt, but it was fun, and good practice for her. Most impressively, she can bend over and stand up again without holding onto anything! She continues to be a little imitator, talking on the phone, using the remote and pointing it at the TV, sweeping, brushing her teeth, combing her hair, head banging (haha), etc etc. It's so funny!

We took away the bottles for good about a week ago. It wasn't as difficult as I thought. We did it gradually while Lyla got used to drinking milk and the sippy. At first she wouldn't drink any milk, but now she chugs it like a champ!

There is so much more to look forward to with our little Lyla Soo! We love you!

Lyla's Turns One!

I've been meaning to do a post on Lyla's birthday but haven't had time until now... It's 9:40 am and Lyla is still asleep! She's usually up around 8:30 or 9.

Anyway, so Lyla turned ONE on Thursday, August 25. Here's what we did on Lyla's first ever bday!

In the morning, Lyla played with her new toy, a Leap Frog Musical Table! She loves it!

We spent the rest of the day outside. First, we went to the zoo, and had a really good time, even though zoos are kind of depressing.... Lyla pointed at lots of animals and categorized most of them as either a dog by sign language or a cat by saying "Boo." She calls cats "boo" because my parents' have a cat nicknamed Boo Boo. Komodo dragon was a "Boo."

After the zoo visit, Lyla took a nice 2 hour nap, and then we went fishing for about 20 minutes. Erik and I each caught one. Lyla helped me from her spot in the Ergo. Erik hasn't had much time for fishing this summer, and he had the day off, so we went more for him than for Lyla, although she is happy wherever there is water!

We grilled outside on the patio for dinner...

And then it was cupcake time!! Lyla wasn't too sure about the cupcakes at first. She mostly just smashed hers and smeared frosting on her face. At first she wouldn't even touch it! She would put her hand close and then pull it away!

But she ate a little!

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by and how much Lyla has changed! It seems just like it was yesterday that all she did was sleep, and I cradled her in my arms all day long. And now she is moving, moving, moving!!!

This past month has been a huge one for Lyla! She started crawling AND walking! She gets into everything and really makes a mess of our place sometimes but that's okay.. Lyla started playing peekaboo with her own hands, which is really cute. She has learned to stack and take apart bowls! She understands that she can't eat trash or specks off the ground and now picks them up and gives them to me right away... She likes to "feed" us with her spoon and put toys in our mouths or give them to us! It is pretty cute :)! She has also gotten really snuggly and her stuffed animals have been getting lots of love and hugs lately! Adorable! And she's always saying "dada" and "mama"! Anyway that's a quick update on Lyla's happenings.....

And here are her 12 month stats:

Height: 29 inches (42nd percentile)

Weight: 20 lbs 2 oz (55th percentile)

Head Circ: 17.75in (54th percentile)

A big change from last month where she was in the 18th percentile for height and 65th for head circumference!

What an amazing year, we are so blessed to have such a beautiful and healthy baby girl! We have learned so much and had so many adventures together, and I can only imagine what is in store for us this coming year!

Happy Birthday Lyla, Mama and Dada love you soooo much!

Now onto the toddler years!

play date!

baby owen came to play yesterday! look at this cutie!!!!

big yawn!

'hey, what are you doing.. eating my markers?'

hold my hand!!!

mmm sucking on markers is SO GREAT

what a cute little man!

jam session!

they were so cute crawling around together and playing by each other! they have gotten together quite a few times since they were really wittle babies and it seems like every time they start to interact a bit more! it is so fun!

BIG NEWS!

But first, an overload of cute pictures of Lyla, taken yesterday, THE BIG DAY!

And here is the big news.... Lyla took her first steps on her own yesterday! She was standing and holding onto my fingers and seemed to be balancing really well so I let go, and she stood for a moment and then took EIGHT WHOLE STEPS by herself! She got a bit wobbly so I nabbed her before she plopped! I couldn't believe it! Then later we practiced having her walk between us, back and forth, and she could take maybe five steps at a time, on average. The problem is that she gets so excited that she leans way forward!

This is such a bitter sweet time in our lives! While I am so excited for Lyla to be walking next to me, exploring on her own, running and playing.... at times I still miss carrying her, asleep and snuggled close to my heart, all the day long! It seems so long ago and yet it really wasn't, less than a year!

Here's the little mover!

Growing Up...

IMPORTANT NEWS: Lyla crawls (a bit)!!! She doesn't really like it, she'd rather walk (holding onto our hands) EVERYWHERE. And all day long. My back is sore. Anyway, she crawls every now and again, and just a little, but we are very excited about it.

Lyla's new face

Lyla is picking up on more sign language. Her favorite one is still dog. She does it immediately when she sees a dog... or any four legged creature really, and every so often when she sees her Grandpa (hehe). We thought she might even be trying to SAY doggie... she kept saying "Dangie" whenever she saw Erik's dog. Who knows. She can do the sign for "eat" now. She prefers it over the sign for "more" but sometimes says "more" and "eat" together. Today we were playing in the living room, and all of a sudden she looked at me and did the sign for "eat" so I fed her. Makes life quite easy.

Signing "eat"

She is a pointing MACHINE! The world around her, I'm sure, has always been a strange and fascinating place. But now she can express her wonder by pointing! She points at absolutely everything, it's too cute. It's also helpful when we're walking around with her because she'll stop and point in the direction she wants to go.

It's so amazing to see her growing up a little every day, finding new ways to express herself (including tantrums now and then.. oh joy.. like today when I wouldn't let her keep licking the TV...) and new ways to interact with us (like high fiving, which she started to do today!). I can't believe she is almost one already. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday she was sleeping the days away in my arms, not even able to hold up her on head! And now she stands and takes steps! Unbelievable!

Okay now some beach pics. Some of these were a bit overexposed... woops.

Sandy face.. (she ate some)

Staying cool in the shade, nothing but a diapy

Digging and throwing ... a favorite beach game.

She learned how to brush her hands off

About to go in the water with mama!