A star is born!

Lyla's first ballet recital was this afternoon, and it is clear that this little ballerina is destined to be a star! She seemed a little nervous when we got there, but she took to the stage like a fish to water and did a fabulous job. She can't wait for the big spring recital!

At the end of the show she was surprised with flowers and a dance metal from her wonderful family (she had a total of 10 supporters there!!) who came out to applaud her. It was such a special day!
We all couldn't be more proud of her!

After the recital we all came back to the house and enjoyed some yummy cupcakes (her favorite!) in honor of her debut.

Chalid

Lyla has been talking about her dear friend Chalid for over a year now...so I've realized it's about time he gets his own posting.

We have known about Chalid for quite a while. She first started talking about him while she was attending day care. He and another friend Moby were talked about on a daily basis. She would tell us about what they looked like and what they did, but that they did not live nearby and they went to another school far away. A year later and Chalid is still mentioned daily (however poor Moby has been long forgotten). Chalid always does things differently than Lyla does...or what we ask her to do. Example: "Lyla, it is bedtime not dance time, please lay down and go to sleep." "Mommy, Chalid's mom lets her practice ballet in bed while she is lying down. (Chalid is both a boy and a girl, by the way.)

Chalid doesn't ever wear shoes or have to take baths. He/she eats chocolate/sweets all day and never has to brush his teeth. I will have to start writing down and sharing more about Chalid...he is quite a character.

The picture above is a picture Lyla drew of Chalid just recently. Nice to finally put a face with the name!

Christmas wants

Lyla has declared she wants a real unicorn for Christmas. She even told Grandma that she can find one "at the end of the rainbow."

She also asked for "real music notes".

Santa has is work cut out for him.

First Dance Class

Lyla has been interested in dancing for a while now and has been prancing around all over the house after watching a few ballet related cartoons. So when we saw a Living Social save voucher for a month of dance classes, we jumped at the chance to sign her up! We are thrilled to say that her first dance class was a complete success!
They don't normally allow parents in the room during the class, but since the kiddos are practicing for a recital, the teacher thought it would be fun to bring in a few parents for a small audience. I am sure the teacher quickly regretted that decision as two of the kids broke down in tears at least one other suffered a serious case of stage fright. However, I was thrilled because I got to take a video of Junebug's very first dance "routine" (which by the way was BRILLIANT!).

Professional Pics

A while back we had professional pictures taken of Junebug for the first time. They turned out amazing! So much better than I ever dreamed...it is amazing how the photographer was able to capture the absolute essence of our little one. They all turned out so wonderful, but here are a few of our favorites!

Big Girl

Not only has Lyla said good by to her paci, but a few days after the paci was given up, Lyla decided it was time for her to have a big girl bed. We held off as long as possible, but she made such a big deal about it that we gave in and took the bars off her crib. Boy was she was in heaven! It ended up being the easiest transition by far and we are so glad we waited as long as we did. We haven't had to deal with her getting out of the bed, which was our biggest concern about the whole toddler bed issue. We had a few crying moments, and had to threaten several times that the bars would be put right back up, but overall she did fantastic!
Then, several days later, she decided she was too big for pull-ups at night time and those have gone away as well. All of this happened in a week. I think we all deserve a medal or some type of award. There isn't anything left to give up or say goodbye to...she is officially a big girl!

Bye Bye Paci

When Lyla was just a little over a month old, we introduced her to her very first paci.
Well, introduced isn't exactly the right word...we basically forced it upon her. She was a bit of a fussy baby and there were many times when we had to do Dr. Karp's 5 S's all at the same time in order to calm her down. Her paci quickly became one of the only things that would fully soothe her.

At Lyla's one year well check up the Dr. told us it was time to say our goodbyes to the beloved paci. We tried the method of cutting back the paci bit by bit. She wasn't fooled at all...after several weeks of that we went to the store for new ones. We decided 2 years would be an easier age for Lyla (and us) to handle the transition. Two came and went...and somewhere in there she decided one paci was not enough and had to have another one. One to suck on an the other to hold in her hand or up to her nose next to the other. We have been slowly weening her from them and for the past year or so she has been allowed to have them only at nap time and bed time. We finally set our sights on the summer of her third year to say our goodbyes.
We just had to figure out how to do it. We wanted Lyla to be involved so we talked to her about the paci fairy and all the different ways we had heard how she could say goodbye. Hanging them in a tree in the yard, planting them in the garden, giving them away to a new baby (which she did for a brand new pack of paci's we had in the cabinet- thanks Iris and Lily for going along with it!), or even having a visit from the paci fairy herself...Lyla finally decided on a fun idea I had read about in a magazine.
This morning was the big day! We headed to the Build a Bear Workshop in the mall and she put her paci's inside a brand new bear! She loved the idea of always having her paci's with her even though she couldn't suck on them anymore.

Getting ready the head to the mall.















Lyla had her heart set on a purple bear.




















Putting her paci's in her new bear.

All of the staff at the Build a Bear Workshop were AMAZING! They were so excited for her and made a really big deal about her becoming a "big girl" today. Amber and I were both teary-eyed at this moment. I think this may have been harder on us then her!














Picking out her bear's new heart.



















Giving her new bear an "air bath"














We are incredibly proud of our big girl! She is napping now for the first time at home without her pacis. So far so good...we will see how tonight goes!