10 Months!!

Lyla turned 10 months old yesterday! It sure is hard to believe that she will be a year old in 2 short months. With the holidays here, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on this past year. I couldn't be more grateful for my beautiful baby girl and my wonderful husband. They both mean the world to me. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family, great friends, my rewarding job, and my good health. Life is good!!

This past month Lyla has experienced some new, fun things. I took her to Artbeast, a music/art place downtown for kids. We met our great friends Sammantha and Marcello there. Lyla had her first painting experience. What a mess is all I have to say about that!! I captured some great pics though:) Lyla celebrated her first Thanksgiving at Nana and Papa's house. She had fun playing with her cousins and enjoyed her first (mashed/pureed) Thanksgiving dinner. Lyla met Santa for the first time. I took her to get her picture taken with him and she was terrified of him. Oh well, maybe she'll be a Santa fan next year!

Lyla still has just four big teeth, two top and two bottom. She has tried some new foods this month; cherries, lentils, persimmons, spelt, cheerios, yellow split peas, cheese, broccoli, turkey, mashed potatoes, black beans, pineapple, and edamame. I am still making all of Lyla's food and she has liked everything I've given her. She is a fabulous eater. She loves to feed herself puffs and cheerios. It is so cute to watch.

Lyla is saying "ma-ma" now. My heart just melts every time she says it. She can wave bye-bye and hello. She is not crawling, but has her own way of being mobile. She rolls EVERYWHERE!! If she sees something across the room that she wants, she will do 8 rolls to get to it. Lyla is such a big girl now that she has grown out of her infant car seat. We have her in her new convertible car seats now.

We look forward to celebrating her first Christmas in a couple of weeks. Happy Holidays to you all! Much Love. XOXOXO

Month 9!!

Lyla turned nine months old on November 2nd. She is getting so big. It's hard to believe she will be a year old in 3 months. I definitely know what people mean when they say to enjoy every minute with your baby because they grow up so fast. It is very true.

Lyla is nursing only 4 times per day now and eating solids 3 times per day. Some new solid foods she has tried this past month have been: barley, tofu, green beans with mint, egg yolk, whole plain yogurt, cottage cheese, puffs and bisquits that she feeds herself, asparagus, asian pears, pork, butternut squash, and pinto beans. She is such a great eater. She has liked everything we've given her.

Lyla has four teeth now. She has her two top and two bottle middle teeth. It's amazing how quickly they all popped through. We are very fortunate in that she has been a good teething baby. Lyla can say ba-ba and da-da now. She can clap her hands, give a high five, and do an indian sound with her mouth on demand. We are teaching Lyla baby signs. She hasn't done one back to us yet, but she watches us and seeems to understand what we are saying and signing. Lyla got her first cold, but she was a Superstar with dealing with it. She didn't even act sick.

This past month we took Lyla to the pumpkin patch, a Halloween party with her Mommy and Me friends, the library for a read aloud, Mommy's 1/2 marathon, and her cousin Brett's football game at Delta High. We celebrated her first Halloween and she dressed up as a Red Lobster. She was a little shell shocked by the costume.

We look forward to the next couple of months and celebrating the holidays with our friends and family. Stay tuned!!

Month 8!!

Lyla turned 8 Months old on October 2nd! Boy how the time has flown. Lyla is getting so big. She is so interested in everything going on around her. So interested that I can't even nurse her in the same room as daddy now!! She gets easily distracted. We have really enjoyed this past month with our little girl. Especially since I was off track for 3 weeks and got to spend every day with her. Lyla sits up all on her own very well now. She is sitting in shopping carts, restaurant high chairs, and the stroller without the car seat.

We went on our first family vacation to Morro Bay. Brett's grandma Faruzzi has a condo there and let us stay for a week. We are so grateful for her kindness. We got to visit her in Hanford on our way down to Morro Bay. It was so great to see her. Lyla got to see and feel the ocean for the first time. It was VERY cold!! We created many memories in Morro Bay as Lyla's first vacation. We really enjoyed ourselves.

We also went camping at Sunset Beach near Santa Cruz for a weekend. We went with Brett's family. Our friends Sammantha, Miguel, and their baby Marcello joined us for a night too. The weather was awesome. We had a great time hanging out at the beach. Lyla was a trooper and did a great job sleeping in the wilderness!

Since I was off track, we got to go to our Wed. Mommy and Me group at Kaiser we had been attending every week before I went back to work. It was fun to see some old friends and babies and meet the newer ones. Lyla seemed so old compared to the other babies. It makes me so sad :(

Lyla had her first sleepover at Nana and Papa's this month when we celebrated our 5 year anniversary and went to a wedding. The wedding was at Wine and Roses in Lodi the night before our anniversary, so we decided to get a room there to celebrate our anniversary as well. Lyla did a great job spending the night away from home.

Lyla has tried many new solid foods this month. She has had sweet potatoes, plums, ground turkey, oatmeal, cauliflower, blueberries, apple juice, lamb, and prunes. She has seemed to like everything. She is a great little eater.

Lyla is such a joy! We truley feel blessed to have such a beautiful, sweet baby. How'd we get so lucky? Take Care! XOXOXO

Month 7!!

It sure is hard to believe that Lyla is 7 months old already! She is getting so big, so fast. She is so much fun and has the sweetest personality. We just love her to pieces.

In this past month Lyla has tried a variety of solid foods. I have made all of her food from scratch using organic fruits and vegetables. She has had organic brown rice cereal with banana, zucchini, yams, peas, carrots, avocado, pears, apricots, yellow squash, and apples. She is such a great eater. She loves to dive forward for her food and get her hands all up in it. Lyla is also sitting up with little help from mom and dad. She has discovered her tongue and likes to stick it out at us. It is so cute. She is doing so good at her babysitter's house while we are at work. We are so proud of her.

Lyla has done some exciting things this past month. We celebrated my 31st birthday at Bella Bru with lots of friends. We went down to Turlock to celebrate Uncle Austin's birthday. We went to my parents' cabin and stayed a night. Lyla got to go on her first hike and put her feet in the river for the first time. She loved it!! We also celebrated her cousin Bodie's first birthday with the family.

I will be off track starting this Thursday for the remainder of Sept. I am really looking forward to spending quality time with our little sweet pea. We are going on our first little family vacation to Morro Bay for a week. We are SO excited!! We hope all is well with you. Take Care! X0X0X0

Month 6!!

How did our baby girl get to be a half a year old? She is growing up way too fast!! This past month has been an exciting and difficult time for us. Difficult because I had to go back to work on July 19th. It has been really tough leaving her everyday. It's definitely been a huge adjustment for me. Life is VERY busy now!! The great news is that Lyla is doing wonderfully with her babysitters (Patty and my dad). It sure makes it easier being at work knowing that she is happy and in good hands.

There has been a lot of excitements this past month because we've done a lot of fun things. We went to a Rivercats game with Nana and Papa. We celebrated Lyla's first 4th of July. We went out of town for the first time and Lyla stayed in her first hotel room. We went to Los Gatos for my half marathon. We've gone swimming and gone to the park quite a bit. We went to the Courtland Pair Fair. We went to a Mommy, Daddy, and Me playdate with my Mommy and Me friends and their families. It was so much fun, because all the dads got to meet. There were 12 babies there!! Lyla had her first taste of solid food a few days ago. We are feeding her Organic Brown Rice Cereal once a day now. She LOVES it! She is such a great eater. She acts like she's been doing it for a long time. She's already a pro.

Lyla is rolling over regularly now. Most of the time she rolls from her tummy to her back. She laughs out loud and talks to us all the time. She is thanfully sleeping through the night every night. Otherwise, I don't know how I would survive. Her next Dr.'s appt is Sept. 3rd. We will find out how much she weighs at that appt. We just adore our Sweet Pea. We definitely treasure every moment we get to spend with her. XOXOXO

Month 5!

Sorry, I'm a little behind on the blog. Lyla turned 5 months old on July 2nd. This past month has been so much fun. Lyla is now laughing out loud, rolling over (periodically), and holding her feet with her hands. I have enjoyed every minute with her, especially since I've known that going back to work was in the near future. I go back on Monday, July 19th. I am so not ready to leave Lyla. It is going to be the hardest thing I've ever had to do. She is going to be in good hands though while we are at work. I am very grateful that I've had the past 5.5 months with her. And I really do have an ideal job for a family. We had to say goodbye to all of our Mommy and Me friends today. We will miss them very much.

Lyla continues to grow like a weed. She is close to 16 pounds now. She is very alert and happy. Her favorite thing to do is play in her excersaucer. She loves her dolly too! She is pretty much sleeping through the night (11 hours) every night now! Which has been wonderful for me. We just adore her and look forward to all of the new and fun phases ahead. XOXOXO