Easter 2011



Our family on Easter morning

All Layla was hoping for from the Easter bunny was a chocolate bunny with big ears.  Thankfully, the good ole' bunny came through.

Here is Layla's Easter bucket.  I used a sand pail and vinyl on the Cricut to make pails for Layla, Shea and Liam this year. 

Egg hunt!  We spent the morning at my parents' house and with my side of the family.

Oh my goodness, these two are cute.  Not that I am bias or anything :)

Three cute cousins!  Three kids three and under are very hard to photograph...can't imagine we will have too much success with four!!





Layla in deep conversation with Shea.  He looks very interested :)



Layla has also taken on a very mothering role with Shea.   Poor Shea!



We headed over to Ryan's parents' house for the afternoon/evening.  We spent a lot of time outside playing and Layla was excited to find out that the Easter bunny also dropped off eggs at Grandma and Grandpa J's house.  She was one lucky girl!

Not quite tall enough for the rings yet!

New favorite shoes.  Layla is crazy about shoes.  These are her "parkle" shoes.

We had such a nice Easter weekend spent with family and enjoying the nice weather! 

Hope you all had a great weekend too.



Happy Easter!

Layla loves her holidays and Easter has proven to be no different.  We dyed Easter eggs (twice) this year and we sure have a lot of hard boiled eggs to eat.  Luckily, Layla likes them too so we have some help in that department :) 
As Layla mixed her potions of egg dye, Ryan and I were remembering two years ago when Layla just wanted to eat the papertowel roll instead of dye the eggs.  Last year, Layla liked dyeing the eggs but was also very interested in drinking the dyed water.  This year, Layla was all business and was very independent with her "Easter tweezers."  Next year, I would guess we will have another papertowel eater on our hands with the baby!

Happy Easter, everyone!!

 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Last week, my sweet mom friends threw a sprinkle for our baby-to-be.  It was such a fun morning at Kat and Holden's house and everything was so cute and Dr. Seuss themed!

Adorable cupcakes!



Poor Stephanie...by the time she arrived the cotton candy had deflated, but I still thought they were festive and delicious!  If you try to make these cupcakes (they are SO cute), Stephanie said the poofiness lasts for about 20 minutes.

The kids played and ate so well together all morning.  They were missing their friend Jack because he was home with his mom and new baby sister!  Little Ella decided to make her debut a few weeks earlier than expected. 
She is adorable and doing great!

The name (I think everyone who reads this blog already knows the name from chatting with Layla, myself, my sister and/or my parents but here it is!).  You will see this banner again in the baby's nursery, so cute!

Here are a couple of the adorable items gifted to Grady, I wish I had pictures of everything but my camera is in the shop getting in tip top shape for the arrival of the baby.  Papa-Papa-razzi....that would be me!  My friend Jessie made both of  these items, the blanket/quilt was made to match the bedding we picked out from Pottery Barn.  I was so surprised she did this and it is beautiful.

Cute clothesline of onesies and outfits.  I cannot believe I am going to have someone so little again!

The grand finale of the party had to be the fish favors!   Perfectly in theme, everyone got to take one home and as you can imagine...the toddlers went wild for this!  Our blue fish, Goldy (Layla named him), is doing well.  Our orange cat, Blue (Ryan and I named him, hmmmm), has taken on a new hobby of fish watching.
 Layla told him, "Blue, you silly.  Dinosaurs and eagles like fish, not cats." :)

It was so much fun celebrating baby Grady for the day.
He is coming into the world to meet a very nice playgroup of buddies.
Thank you to my sweet girlfriends for making the arrival of our second baby so special!!!

Talking

On Wednesday, Layla was officially released from her speech and language early intervention services.  Ryan and I are so proud of Layla and all the progress that she made during her year in therapy.  She went from saying just a couple words a year ago to being a complete chatterbox today.  Layla's therapist and case manager (this is the person who managed and coordinated Layla's speech and language file/goals) said it is very unusual to be released from speech services before the age of three so we are very grateful for how far Layla has come.

Here are Beth and Layla during their last session together.  
That day Beth brought water colors, foam, eggs and squirt bottles to play with....she sure knew how to get lots of conversation out of Layla :)

The transition is bittersweet for us all.  We are of course excited that Layla is doing so well but sad that Layla will no longer be under Beth's care and watchful eye or get to experience Beth's fun "playtime" every week.  Layla loved her time with Beth and learned so much from her (so did I!). 

Congrats to our sweet, talkative Layla!



Warm Weekend

The forecast looked great this weekend so Ryan and I decided to head to the zoo with Miss Layla on Saturday.  After some hesitation with the new baby on the way, we decided to renew our zoo pass anyway.  It pays for itself after two visits and the pass is good for 15 months, so we will unbelievably have a one year old by the time it expires.  Joan, we cannot wait to go with you....and Shea!  Layla is pumped to go back soon.

The day was beautiful and the animals were out sunning in the nice weather.  Layla's favorite was the rhinoceros.  We are pretty sure that she thought it was a dinosaur, and she wanted to go see it twice :)

We saw the giraffes very close up this time but Ryan and Layla are watching the African wild dogs in this picture.  There were tons of baby pups and Layla is fascinated with all things mommy/baby right now.

Layla the eagle!  We have been watching the Decorah Eagles closely (once again Layla loves parents/babies) and so Layla had to check the eagle out.  When I asked Layla what kind of bird she was she told me, "No not a bird mommy, me an eagle."   Anyone else watching the eagles?

And the baby was not forgotten in our day.  He is still hiccuping (love these because I feel the hiccups down low which means he is still head down!) and kicking up a storm and constantly has his booty sticking out of my stomach (Layla did the exact same thing!) so we are reminded often and excited that a new little member will soon be joining our family.

After Layla went to bed, Ryan and I made a little progress on the nursery.  The newspaper clippings represent the items that will go up on the collage wall above the crib.  Soon actual items will go up on the wall and the boxes and Layla's pictures will be moved and I will figure out some type of DIY project to transform the lampshade from pink to red, yellow or navy.  I like completing the nursery in small chunks, it gives us plenty to keep busy with before the baby arrives.

I hope everyone enjoyed the nice weather....storms, stay away!!

Like a Weed

I am now 32 weeks pregnant.  Ryan, Layla and I headed to a growth ultrasound and office visit for this appointment and the little guy is growing good!  He was estimated (give or take an ounce or two) to be at 4lb 15oz, which is in the 70th percentile!  He is only 14oz away from Layla's birth weight and he still has eight weeks of cooking time left.  I told the doctor that I have a feeling I am going to be pushing out something a little bigger this time around :)  Just for some comparison, Layla was 3lb 8oz at her 32 week ultrasound.

3-D picture of the baby.  On the left-side of the picture is his hand. 
The (big?) little guy is really getting smushed in there now.

I am still feeling pretty good.  Some of the joys of the third trimester have caught up with me but I am doing just fine.  I often say I would take all of the aches and pains a million times over worrying about having a premature baby.  Layla's third trimester was a very scary time for Ryan and I and this time around I am round, relaxed and trying to enjoy this last stretch of pregnancy.  Maybe a little too relaxed as we still need to complete the nursery.  I have been nesting, but mostly in the form of sewing and internet shopping!  Are these two items considered nesting??

A few sewing items and a sneak peek at the baby's first initial....

Layla has been very funny about the baby and my changing body lately.  I was wearing a regular shirt (it was a tank top, I was very warm!) of mine last week and when Layla saw me she said, "Mommy, that too little.  Mommy, you wear that after the baby comes.  Mommy, you wear daddy's shirt."  My sister was on the phone at the time and heard Layla repeat this about 5 times.  We both thought it was too funny....and poor Layla was really freaked out!  She also has been very sweet with me.  She does a lot of bending tasks for me now (turning off her nightlight, picking things up off the floor, putting on her own shoes, etc) and tells me my belly is getting too big and she can do it.

Big sister-to-be!

That is the baby update for now.  I go back in two weeks for an office visit, four weeks for an office visit/ultrasound and then the weekly visits begin.    Here's to a healthy last two months!!

Spring Break 2011

One last trip before a family of three becomes four

Wave pools

Excitement

Waterpark loving

Trains serving food

Very special visitors!

Airplane rides

Giant pillow jumping

Go-cart riding

Arcade playing

....and a luggage cart ride to the car!!

Lessons learned: 

A two and a half year old isn't really picky about where you go on vacation.  I swear her excitement for the Dells was the same as it would have been if we had gone to Disney.  Layla.was.pumped. 

Notice the pack and play in the last picture?  Layla wanted to know if we brought it for her baby brother to sleep in :)  She slept in a big bed just fine.  I thought for sure she would need the security of the pack and play since we were in an unfamiliar place....guess not.  Good thing a baby is on the way because I think I am holding this one back!

7 1/2 months pregnant might be a little too pregnant to be jumping waves in the wave pool. 

I am still recovering :)