Oh we love Saturdays...

I have not loved Saturday this much in a long time. This week was truly exhausting! I started school, Laela's second week of school, Ro is working on a class for his doctorate, Laela started walking, Ro worked until 8:00 on a Friday, I puked my brains out on Tuesday night, Laela threw a major tantrum, I missed my third day of school...hmmmmmmm....should I go on? Anyway...I loved waking up to this wonderfully, beautiful Saturday morning.

We did the usual Saturday shopping routine but when we got home this evening we made dinner and Laela ate a dinner consisting of all "big people" food. YEA! She loved the chicken nuggets, fruit, and yogurt. Maybe we are making some progress with the food!

After dinner, we gave the "kids" each a much needed bath. Ro took Allie and I took Laela. Afterwards, Laela thought she was super cool walking around the house in her sunglasses and pj's. Then Laela helped Ro dry off Allie Mae. Oh...Allie thinks she is in heaven when she gets the blow dryer treatment. :)

Finally, watch Laela put Allie in her crate. It is crazy what she can observe, understand and do at one year old. Turn on your volume.

Just because...

These showed up at work yesterday...

Brightened my day and well appreciated after this long week!

Well...the time has come!

Laela Grace is walking! (Please excuse the video. I recorded it vertically and can not figure out how to flip it. Just flip your monitor on it's side to get the best view!)

I went into daycare today to pickup Laela. Her teacher said she had a good day. Nothing big. Then we went to get her bag and all of our goodies and we were on our way. Going out the door the secretary said..."did you hear about Laela?" I said no! What? She said...oh! I can't tell. Sorry! Well...that did not work for me, so I marched right back to Laela's teacher. "What happened today?" She laughed and asked who told. Well, come to find out...she walked around, BY HERSELF, for most of the day. HOLY SHAMBOLES! Ro and I talked about this happening, so I was not super sad about it. Laela has taken 1-3 steps at home, but not really walked. I was a little sad that this happened two weeks into school (not during the entire time I had her with me during summer). Oh well...she is walking now...Lock the doors and hold on. This baby had 14 months to think about all of the stuff she wants to run around and find. OH MY!

Hair Craziness

One of the teacher's in Laela's class decided it would be interesting to see how Laela looked with braided hair...I would rather watch a girlie flick than even try to put a rubber band in Laela's hair (Ms. Independent doesn't like people messing with her hair) so I was amazed to see the job her teacher did. Also, Laela has started practicing her eating techniques by using her own spoon. I use it as a way to distract her such that she eats her veggies and meat. HA! These are some pictures from this evening.
Braids close-up: Hair after the braids:
Yummy dinner time:

Back to school...

Laela Grace and I went back to school today! She is in a room with several of her old friends and they range in age from 13 - 17 months. This morning, Ro walked her in and she did very well. We put her stuff away, pointed her in the direction of the toys, gave her a kiss and headed out. Ro peeked back in the window and she was just looking around. We tried calling a couple of times to check on her, but no answer. :( Seems like she had an okay day. Laela had a little crying spell, she did take an hour nap, and she ate the food we brought (she did not want the daycare food...SURPRISE!) The classroom teacher said she would not leave her bow alone (see the picture below...her hair is crazy because she ripped out the bow and rubberband) and she "talked" all day. Then two other teachers stopped me to tell me that they thought she was a "talker" too. Oh lord! We may have a serious problem on our hands. :) I just knew she would be wiped out and fall asleep on the way home. NOPE! I was completely wrong! She told me EVERY detail about her first day back to school. Sounded like she loved it! When we got home, she played a little, helped get the mail, let Allie out of her crate, took a bath, ate dinner and headed to bed by 6:00. WOW...she was tired! She was out by 6:10. YEA for Laela's great day back at daycare. I will miss spending the day with my baby girl, but I am glad we are all getting back to a routine. :)
PS - You should click here to see Laela's first day picture last year. Too funny...and time flies!

Friendly Friday...

We just wanted to take a minute and say that we are so thankful for our friends. There is not one particular friend, but we are thankful for everyone! We know that if we every need anything that we can count on so many friends...and we are very blessed.

Just the other day a friend thought of Laela when they were getting rid of full plastic grocery sack of bows! Oh man...thanks for thinking of us. :)

Clowns, Dogs, Trains...Circus Time!

I love going to the circus and have for many years, so I was excited for Laela to go. Ro, on the otherhand, not too excited because he does not like clowns. Well, he put on his big boy pants and we were off to the circus with The Hodges'. We rode the DART rail down and back (maybe next year we will just drive because waiting for the train and riding on the 45 minute train ride was a little much for the kids). Brandt thought he was hot stuff when he got to sit in a seat all by himself! :)Laela did great when the show started! It was perfect because they included dog tricks. YEA!
I was for sure Laela would love the tigers, but she was pretty much done at this point. She made it through part of the second half, but she started to get really fussy. I don't think it is fair for her to be crazy and ruin the show for everyone else so we headed to the concession stand area for a little walking practice. Low and behold...Brandt was done too! He did a fantastic job watching and sitting quietly (for the most part both kiddos did.) BUT they were done so we started to make our way back to the DART rail. On our way out we found some water fountains and the kids played for a few minutes. Now that everyone was cooled off a little, we went to wait for the train. We were not sure of the train times and had to wait and wait and wait. There was some good talk time, sweating time, playing time, and even a good picture or two.The Hodges' were great circus buddies! Thanks for joining us. We had a blast and maybe we can do it again next year!

Swim lesson update...

Saturday was Laela's last swim lesson (for now). We are talking about more in the future, but we are not sure when. Nanna joined Ro and Laela for the morning and it sounds like they had fun!Laela can kick like a little froggie very well. Laela's friend, Maddie, is like a fish in a baby body. :)She enjoys being in the water with Ro and even likes to be occasionally dunked!Bubbles...who is blowing bubbles? MADDIE!Laela does not like floating on her back, but Ro tries everytime! The instructor encourages swimming and floating on your back. As of now, Laela will have nothing to do with that!At the end of the lesson both Laela and daddy need a nap. This lesson was short (only about 30 minutes) but both of them were pooped.

Pancakes!

WOW! Look at these amazing pancakes Ro made this morning.
YUMM-O!

They are so nice and fluffy too. :)~ You too can make these with a little Bisquick, whole milk, and 2 eggs.>

Weekend vacay to Galveston!

We are back from our second summer family vacation! This time, we went to Galveston with three other families.Overall, we had a super time! We left Friday morning and whoa, did we have a load of stuff packed! This go round,we took our own carseat with us in a bag so we would not have to depend on the rental car-provided car seat. That actually worked out great because you can fit all kinds of extra crap in there! Not only did it hold a carseat, but also a beach towel, beach toys, and three kinds of diapers (regular Pampers, Overnights, and Swim diapers...yes Laela is a little high maintenance!) We also took a large suitcase with all three of our stuff along with a pack n play. Oh yes...the stroller too! We left home bright and early Friday morning and we were off to the airport with milk, talking and a ton of giggles! The airport went well (and thank you to the lady that told us about the secret security check around the corner, up the escalator, and down the hall). That made it easy with Laela! The flight was good. We did not have a two minute round of screaming like the last trip, so that was very nice! She loved peering out the windows to see what was going on, read the airline magazines, and ate Kix cereal for snack. :)After the flight, we headed to get a rental car. One thing we noticed from the get-go of the trip.....everyone we encountered was extra nice to us. Ro and I have come to the conclusion: People are nicer when you have a cute baby! :) Now...off to the resort to meet our friends. We flew into Houston and drove down to Galveston. Funny because Galveston is really not too far and this was our first time there.

Anywho...we stayed at Pointe West with the Eung's, Milligan's and Mann's. Each couple has one child (and the Mann's have one on the way!) so there were four kids...a 3 year old boy, 8 month old girl, 3 month old boy and Laela. BTW...the 3 year old (Brady) is hilarious! I absolutely loved talking to this little guy. :) All weekend I had plans to get a complete picture of the "gang" but it never worked out! DARN!

We pulled in to the resort area and we loved it. The Eung's were already at the condo when we arrived and the other two couples were not due in for a couple of hours so we headed to the pool. Maddie and Laela are swim buddies so we knew they were going to have a blast! That was an awesome Friday! Oh man...Saturday was nice too! We started the morning with a wonderful breakfast. Everyone pitched in and helped to cook and clean. Then off to the beach. Literally we were a hop, step and a jump away from the beach. It was excellent. (Maybe we will see a beach house in our future!) Laela wore her little crocs and she wanted to keep walking further and further into the water. She did not care that the waves were practically knocking her over! So funny too...when the big waves came, she would say "WHOA!" Here are lots of beach pictures...playing in the sand, fun in the water with mommy and daddy, and just hanging out.

After the beach we went back for lunch and a nap. Then off to the pool. What a great life! When we went to the beach all of the families were on different routines and nap schedules so we went seperately, but we were all able to get it together and go to the pool. YEA! That was a fun time! Sun, talking, babies, families, beers, munchies, water, swimming, floaties...did I mention we had fun?

Oh...this pool was cool because there was a 6 inch area and Laela loved staning in it and pushing around the chairs!Here are the Milligan's. This was Ian's first swimming adventure! He was just chilling in Laela's float...I think he liked it.

Overall...fantastic weekend. Kinda funny how four families just work stuff out with being in a house together. We had a great time with friends....laughing, telling stories, playing games, experiencing other kids/families, cooking, swimming, and playing. We thank the Eung's for inviting us and hope to do it again many more times!