Pumpkin time!

The Halloween festivities for 2009 have begun! Below are miniature pumpkins from Steph and Adam's pumpkin patch. Stephanie gave me the idea to write the letters from Layla's name on them. They turned out pretty cute!!

Tomorrow we will enter Layla's pumpkin into the local pumpkin festival. Last year we had this project done at least a week and a half ahead of time...this year, not so much!! Any guess on what Layla is making with her pumpkin? It will match her Halloween costume tomorrow night :-)

Below is a picture of Layla and her pumpkin NOW and THEN

Layla loved painting her pumpkin this year. She got very into it and as you can see on the right, she liked a lot of paint :-)

More painting...

Below is Layla "painting" her pumpkin last year. Look at my little baby here!!!

I tried to sneak a headband on her tonight...didn't go well. This is the only headband picture!

Last year Layla rocked the headband, but she wasn't so into the painting! It was fun to actually have her participate in the project, but oh I just could squeeze those little cheeks below :-)

And here is Layla and her momma. Ryan and I had fun doing this little art project with Layla tonight. I just cannot believe this is already her second Halloween....time is flying by way too fast.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...

off to Iowa we go! Actually we went to Iowa this past weekend to visit my sister, brother-in-law and of course little Shea.

So as you can see the dynamic duo was reunited!!

We were busy, busy with the cute twosome. First we hit up the local pumpkin patch. It was perfect for a couple of young toddlers.

As you can see, Layla measured in when we arrived. Okay, maybe I just had to show you her legwarmers. They make a jack-o-lantern face when she puts her leg together, I have had my eye on them since last fall!

Next up, the slides. Layla loved the big slides. Shea was wearing mittens that his mama put on him and they may have put a small damper on his slide experience :-)

This was a cute little tractor area, and Shea and Layla of course had to try it out.

They went on to pick up, drop, pile and roll some pumpkins.

Next, Shea enjoyed looking at the ponies, but didn't want to get too close. He did get to go back for a second peek later in the visit.

I tried to get a pretty picture of Layla by the mums and Layla decided to dance to the pumpkin patch music instead :-)

We couldn't leave the pumpkin patch without a hayride! BRRR!

(Do you think Layla is getting a tooth?)

Time to leave! Layla and Shea got a wagon ride out with Cassie's birdhouse gourds.

Think that was a big day? Not even close to being over yet!! Next we went to Jumpin' Jane's, an indoor inflatable (bouncy houses) playcenter and arcade. Shea (and Jamie and Ryan, ahem) bounced and bounced. Layla was very nervous at first but ended up warming up and really enjoying herself.

Maybe a little too much...

16 Months

What has Layla been doing this past month? She has been busy exploring every nook and cranny of our house :-) Let's just say safety latches are EVERYWHERE! Layla had her well check at the doctor last week and she was 22lb 10oz and was 30 1/2 inches long. Last year I was always worried about Layla growing too fast and now I am constantly worried if she is gaining enough weight (not really worried I guess, but always checking out those percentiles for sure!). There is seriously always something to be keeping up with :-)

Now for Layla in pictures this past month:

Layla has been enjoying all the sights of fall (and the bouts of warm weather as you can see on the left)

Layla has still been enjoying her meal times and maybe on the top of the list is eating yogurt all on her own (notice the face!). Wondering why she is only in a diaper?? Layla woke up really sweaty from her nap that day so we shed the clothes prior to lunch :-)

Layla also enjoyed some Huskie football. Okay, maybe not. She enjoyed a small portion of the tailgating, but it was raining and yucky out. My visions of Layla running around in the grass were dashed when we woke up to gloomy weather....but she sure looked cute!!



Layla also enjoyed squeaking her squeaker shoes and exploring her Grandma and Grandpa Janisch's large yard (especially the pinwheels in the garden!)

And last but certainly not least, Layla enjoyed time with her cousin Shea. They have developed a new, sweet friendship with each other that is just so funny and cute. Here they are loving on Minnie and Layla is giving Shea a hug.

And you know how I have mentioned that Layla is pretty busy and somewhat of a tornado?? Well, she did quite the number on Cassie's basement this past weekend. Shea helped I'm sure, but Layla did most of the damage (at least it is mostly toys!)...here it is, just a little of the work of Ms. Layla, the tornado.

Reunion

Ryan's high school reunion was Saturday night. Ryan (actually Ryan and Kristin :-)) was in charge of planning it.

Here we are, the party planners (actually the picture is missing Nadia, our one other reunion helper!)

Just as a note to any people with reunions coming up, do not get a spray tan the day before a class reunion. You turn orange and you have to turn any pictures into black and white and you still will look like a nut :-) I keep thinking, at least it wasn't my reunion!!! Ryan insisted I didn't look orange at all during the evening and that the flash must have provided some weird light...nice husband, but I don't believe him!!!

Anyway, the night actually went really well. The turnout was pretty good, people mingled and seemed happy and almost all of the food got eaten. Success!!!

The class picture

We won't mention the part of the 3 guys that stirred up a lot of trouble or the fact that the person in charge kept coming to Ryan and threatening to call the police on the guys (Ryan felt like he was at work dealing with really big students), nope we'll just stick to the nice evening and good to see old friends part. Seriously, if I owned a golf course and someone rolled my golf cart and threw a banana peel (yes, a banana peel) at my bartender (this was all prior to the reunion even starting!!) I think I would have just kicked these guys out. But it is not my golf course and I forgot, I wasn't mentioning any of that

anyway :-)

We are glad that the evening went seemingly well and that we got to catch up with lots of people from high school (I graduated from the same high school two years after Ryan), but you could say we are slightly relieved the whole thing is behind us...for at least five years anyway!

What do Layla and I do all week??

I often get asked, "How do you keep yourself busy at home all day?" Believe me that there is always something to do, but I thought it would be fun if I shared some activities that Layla and I do on a weekly basis.

Layla and I go to swim lessons once a week. Layla has been attending swim lessons at the same gym since she was three months old (we did take a break this summer).

See the diving toys she is playing with below?? These are for the little babies (3-8 month olds) to practice grasping skills during their classes and when we first started Layla was nowhere near able to grasp these sticks. Now she beelines for the bucket after our class and loves to check them out. Layla even has the ability to whip them if she chooses...but of course our little Layla Bug (the swim instructor calls her this too) would never do something like that, hee hee :-)

Oh and here we are in our changing room after class. Mr. Seamus, Layla's cousin, is starting to pass on his love for Crocs to Layla. She insisted on putting these shoes on before I put any of her other clothes on. Layla is just starting to make a "ch" sound for the word shoes.

We also go to a playgroup at least once a week for Layla to play with (aka chase or be chased) other kids and for me to talk to other moms. We typically go to a park one day a week but this week it was rainy so we headed to the library (we love the library, I just counted and Layla and I have been there 4 times in the past 8 days, wish it was the B-Ville library that was so close!). There are 3 or 4 other toddlers almost exactly Layla's age in this playgroup, but this week she was very interested in sitting on the little stools and running after the 3 year old little boys (I get very nervous because she seems to carefully observe all of their actions as they do things like pretend eat each other with dinosaur puppets). Below is Layla taking in all of the happenings during the playgroup.

Next up is toddler tumbling. It is run through the local park district, and this is my favorite addition to our schedule this fall. Layla LOVES it and it is fun for the moms too. Layla loves to go through the mat tunnel and do barrel rolls. Today they taught the 12-24 month olds to do a forward roll (with mom or dad's help). I thought this was crazy at first but it is very basic and safe and Layla kept signing "please" afterwards for me to do it again. So silly.

About 20 minutes into class, Layla went scrambling over to the diaper bag and dug out her sippy cup. This class makes her so thirsty :-) What a big girl she thinks she is!

And last but not least storytime at the library. I love going to this every week, and I think Layla does too. There are stories, songs and a felt board activity each week and it all really seems to intrigue Layla. After storytime, there is coloring time. This week, the librarian complimented Layla on lining up her crayons nicely :-) Needless to say, Layla wasn't too into coloring, but on a very positive note she didn't eat the crayons either! After "coloring," Layla found her favorite stool and a train and was as happy as could be at the table.

When we are not busy with one of these activities we are either playing, eating, changing diapers, napping (Layla, typically not me!), bathing or walking Howie. Poor Layla has so many mosquito bites from all of our walks this week, they are on her head, fingers, leg and even eyelid. I ordered the Skin So Soft oil from Avon to hopefully repel these bugs from our sweet-skinned little girl.

Have a good weekend everyone!!

Clowns

Layla is normally very good in restaurants. She enjoys her meals and normally is too busy eating to cause too much of a stir. Well tonight we went to a local pizza place with our friends Kris and Nicole. Layla was doing great, dipping her pizza nuggets in sauce and then... she spotted the clown.

This is when the screaming began. She was just terrified of this clown that did flip after flip on his trapeze bar. The funny thing was Layla kept peeking around to see if the clown was still there and would scream some more...it was her very first outburst in restaurant, maybe even first of any public place. The waitress turned off the clown (she said this actually happens often) but Layla continued to peek and scream until Kris was nice enough to bring her into the arcade. Thanks Kris!!! He was practicing up for their little baby due in a little over a month :-) We all decided we'd be avoiding this pizza place for a good while...

Someone still seemed a little wary as we were leaving.... Yes, we even tried the pacifier.

Look really carefully, can you see the clown behind her?

Bottles & Dancing

I have two more videos to post. I am sorry I have been so video crazy lately but Layla has been busy learning new things so I am constantly videotaping these new little milestones (although I am not even sure if they would be considered milestones).

This first video is Layla showing a little bit of her maternal side :-) What I like most about this video is that Layla seems to be understanding more and more. This past week this new "understanding" skill has exploded. That being said, I have also discovered that just because she understands more doesn't necessarily mean she listens/follows directions any better (e.g. The direction: "Please don't put the toy in Howie's water bowl" is typically followed by a splash. ). Oh, and Layla typically whips Barney after feeding him, but thankfully she decided to take a nicer approach this time around.

The next video is of Layla and her new dizzy dancing skills. She has figured out how to lift her feet while dancing which leads into the circle spinning. If you are wondering why her "squeak shoes" are not squeaking it is because I took the little squeakers out yesterday for storytime at the library. I figured that squeaks and storytime at the library just didn't mix well :-)