First year "firsts"

As this is the last day of Lyla’s first year, I thought it would be fun to put together a list of her “firsts”!

First Day: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:14 AM



First Measurements: 9 lbs 9 oz, 21 ½ inches long

First bath: May 6



First smile: Five weeks old



First time to stand when pulled up from sitting: Aug 2 (13 wks)



First roll over: Aug 8 (14 wks)



First crawling step: Oct 1 (22 wks)

First tooth: January (8 months)



First walking steps: April 5 (11 months)

First words: 11 months “no”, “bye bye” and “baby”

Memory

It is starting to hit me that our baby is going to be turning one this week. I am filled with mixed emotions about it…I am excited to celebrate such a significant milestone, heartbroken that her year as a baby is over, and eager to begin our journey into “toddler land”.

Lately, my mind has been flooded with memories of the past year…some of the memories are a little foggier than others, so I am glad that we took several million pictures and were able to write down a few details here and there in a journal and then later in this blog.

Looking through our pics from the past year, I found this one of me. It was the second to last picture taken before Lyla entered our lives. (The last picture taken was of me on a break in between contractions and I am looking pretty rough…I will keep that one to myself.)



This was taken just 4 days before Lyla arrived. I was putting a few plants in a special garden we were making for Lyla. (Incidentally, that garden no longer exists as we never had time to care for it after she was born.)
Wow, how could the doctor not know Lyla was going to be a little on the big side…look at me!

One of my favorite memories is of course the day/night and following day Lyla decided it was her time to officially meet her mommies. The Tuesday before she arrived was our big 4th grade TAKS test at school and I was totally disappointed that Lyla hadn’t come yet (even though her due date was still 6 days away) because I was dreading a long day of administering this test. However, my principal was giving me special treatment and brought on a substitute teacher specifically to relieve me every hour, so it really wasn’t all that bad…however by the end of the day, my already swollen ankles where the size of logs and I was praying that Lyla would come before the second TAKS test the following day. On my way home, I took a detour to buy a special gift for Lyla that I had been eyeing for months (her hippo Chloe) as I had this strong feeling that if I didn’t get it right then, I wouldn’t be able to get it for her. That evening Amber’s sister, Chan, came over to go for a walk around the block with us. As I walked through the door on our way out I felt a contraction that was a little bit different than the regular Braxton hicks contractions I had been getting off and on over the past week or so. I didn’t mention it to Amber or her sister as I didn’t want to get my (or their) hopes up…although Chan said several times while she was over, “whatever you do, don’t have that baby tonight!” Later that night we were watching American Idol, and I felt a few more of those same contractions. After a few more, I mentioned them to Amber telling her they were a little different than what I was used to…and they kept coming. We got out the stop watch and started to track them as they got more and more regular. I don’t remember how long we did this for (I’m sure Amber knows) but after a few hours we were on our way to the hospital. The contractions came on much stronger and faster than I had imagined they would. I finally got an epidural (which was great for a few hours which allowed me to sleep) but then it wore off twice and then numbed everything except for the contractions. The next few hours where full of moaning, vomiting, laughing, crying, focusing, screaming, cursing, and then finally rejoicing when at 10:14 Wednesday morning Lyla had finally arrived. What an unbelievably amazing memory!

Fun Pics

Lyla being attacked by a giant scorpion!




Hands

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day everyone! We celebrated the day by taking care of my inspection on my car and getting my emissions tested! Lyla's present to me on this "holiday" was to conserve lots of energy...mine and hers...she took a lovely 3 hour nap!







I love this pic...looks like she's doing a little jig.

Signing Time

We have been having a lot of fun teaching Lyla sign language. So far she knows milk, all done, brush teeth, squirrel, bird, airplane, shoes, and more (although shoes and more look exactly alike.) She doesn't use each sign all the time...squirrel and bird were the cutest and we haven't seen her do those in weeks. "More" is her favorite sign right now and she uses it all the time...I think she may think it also means "I want that"...

Our local library has a series of DVD's that we have been showing Lyla called "Baby Signing Time" She loves them!! Her favorite signing song right now is "These are the Pets I Love"...when I sing it to her, after each animal noise she signs "more".

Here's a video of Lyla doing her favorite sign.

Lounging Around

Today I had my back turned to Lyla while I was looking up something on the computer. I heard that she was being very quiet so I turned around to check out what she was up to. She had crawled up in her chair (something she has NEVER done before!) and was quietly watching the rain. Fortunately I had time to grab the camera!



When I took her out of the chair, it then became a game that she repeated over and over and over...



Finally, I had to pick up the chair because she wouldn't stop climbing into it and I needed to start dinner. I finished looking up the recipe and again had my back turned to her. I turned around to find her lounging on the pillows. She is such a goof ball!

Foodie

To our absolute surprise, Lyla has been enjoying some different foods lately! She tried tofu a few days ago and gobbled it all up like it was candy. Then last night she joined in on our dinner of Aloo Gobi (one of our most favorite Indian dishes). It wasn't spicy at all but the flavors of cumin and garam masala were very present. I couldn't believe it! So I took a picture. Maybe she isn't as picky as we thought?

Last First Holiday

So Easter was Lyla's last "first" holiday. We were lucky enough to spend the holiday weekend with lots of family.
On Saturday we went out to Amber's Mom and Step-dad's new home and hunted Easter eggs with cousin Bliss. Despite the chilly weather, it was a lot of fun and Lyla came home with lots of goodies from the Easter bunny.



On Sunday, my parents and Renzo came up to our house where the Easter Bunny made another visit. More eggs to hunt and lots of goodies too!



Lyla had a special Easter outfit that we forgot to get pictures of until right before bedtime. She was pretty tired and this was the best shot I got...still very cute.

Happy Easter!

A message from Renzo and Lyla:

Bluebonnets

Some new pics of Miss Lyla in the bluebonnets...looking very serious. Gotta love spring!

First Steps

Lyla took her first steps on her own today! We were hanging out in the living room and she pulled up on my knee then let go and walked on over (about three steps) to Amber. Of course we didn't get it on video, but we took a seperate shot of her walking to the couch to share with everyone!

Room Changes

Last week, Lyla and I both had colds so we did a lot of hanging out at the house. I finally got caught up on a few projects I have been putting off for...hmm...WAY too long. Amber and I rearranged Lyla's furniture in her room so we could find a space for her new growth chart which I finally hung up. One of the projects I finally finished was making something out of these wooden cut outs that our friend Bryan made. He created them as decoration for a diaper cake he and Jennee made for our baby shower. He only saw the nursery once and was able to find our bedding set online and create templates for these cut outs. He even matched the paint colors exactly! I still can't get over the amazing job he did on these!

Here is the super cute diaper cake. Such a sweet surprise!

Here is Lyla's bedding set for those of you who have never seen it. We decided against using the bumper in the crib and got the idea to turn it into window valances. We had so much fun creating her room!

We originally wanted to use the cut outs as decoration around her room, but then thought it would be neat to turn them into something useful. So I made them into little hooks to hang her jackets (or whatever) on.

There are five that I placed next to her bookshelf behind the door. And then there is another apple that I used to hang her new growth chart from. There is also one tree cut out that I didn't want to use as a hook.

Here's the growth chart we bought for her at Christmas. I'm so glad we finally got around to hanging it, it looks so great in her room!

11 Months

Lyla turned 11 months old on Monday!




She is growing up WAY too fast! I think we are all in shock that her 1st birthday is right around the corner.


Current favorites:
birds
waving to people (especially babies/kids)
remote controls (she loves to take the battery covers off)
cell phones and keys
balloons
books
one handed crusing (usually holding keys or cell phone in other hand)
Big Bear


Current dislikes:
having her nose and face wiped
being taken out of her sand box