12 Months!!!

Lyla turned 1 years old on Feb. 2nd!! Our little girl is not a baby anymore, she's a toddler! I have been a ball of emotions with this landmark we have reached. I'm sad because the past year went by SO fast and I am happy because our baby is turning into a sweet little girl. I have been off track these past 6 weeks and have loved every minute I've been able to spend with her. We have been doing a lot of activities and have stayed very busy over the past month. Unfortunately, Lyla has caught two colds since I've been off. It's so hard to see her struggling. I guess it's just that time of year and her immune system is still developing.

Some of the things we did this past month was; story times at Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores, playdates with friends, the park, Artbeast, lunches with daddy, Effie Yeaw Nature Center, Postpartum Sculpt Class, Gymboree Music Class, Mommy's school, Turlock, Bella Bru Pizza Night, and Saturday Mommy and Me groups. We had so much fun doing all of these fun things!!!

Lyla is VERY mobile now!! She gets into EVERYTHING!! She crawls all over the house and wants to explore wherever she can. She is standing up on all of the furniture. But not walking yet. Brett and I are in no rush for that though. Lyla got two more teeth, she is up to 7 now. She loves to take toys out of baskets and put them back in. She is still such an awesome sleeper and eater. She is only nursing first thing in the morning and before bed now. She has had her first taste of cow's milk and is still a little unsure about it. At her 12 month Dr. appt. she weighed 19 lbs. 12 oz and is 31 inches long. She is in the 95% for height and 30% for weight. The Dr. says she is tall and lean and very healthy:)

Lyla has tried a variety of new foods this month. We don't have to puree everything anymore, she is eating whole chunks of food now. She has tried mangoes, strawberries, mozzarella cheese, crackers, goldfish, tofu fruit smoothies, navy beans, mum mums, fig cereal bars, and whole peas, barley and corn. Of course on her birthday we let her have her first sweet, a cupcake from Bella Bru.

What an amazing first year it has been. We feel so blessed to have such an adorable, sweet baby girl. She has brought a tremendous amount of happiness to our lives. We love her so much! Take Care. XOXOXO

11 Months!!

Lyla turned eleven months old on January 2nd! We can hardly believe she is only a month away from being a toddler. Our little girl is growing up WAY too fast. We celebrated her first Christmas and New Years. She loved all of the friends and family gatherings. She looked adorable in her Christmas dresses. She was more into opening presents than we thought she would be. She would squeal every time she would open a gift. She is enjoying all of her new gifts. I am on my 6 week off track break from work and loving every minute I get to spend with Lyla.

Lyla has five teeth now and she LOVES to use them. She will eat anything you put in front of her (except for sour kiwis)! Some new foods she tried last month were; couscous, salmon, chicken, polenta, kiwi, beef stew, raisins, red beans w/brown rice, bis quits, and pancakes. She is only nursing 3-4 times per day now and I plan to have her weaned around her first birthday. No more pumping at work for me!! YAY:) I am ready to move on from nursing but I will miss our special bonding time. Lyla is still such a fabulous sleeper. She has been sleeping at least 11 hours at night and takes 2 solid naps during the day. How did we get so lucky?!

Lyla hit a few milestones this past month. She is OFFICIALLY crawling to get to things now. She was rolling for months, then army crawling, and now it's officially a crawl. She is too funny!! She can pull herself up in a laundry basket and in her crib. She is close very close to doing it on the coffee table. She is a little talker. Besides saying ba-ba, ma-ma, and da-da, she is now saying ball, baby, and me. She has also done signs back to us. She has signed milk, more, and all done. It is so cute. Lyla sits up from a tummy position now by doing the full on splits. For anyone that has been around Lyla you know she is a little gymnast already. We do not know how she got so flexible because her parents are totally inflexible! She is very active and busy. She is ALWAYS in motion. Lyla has also started drinking out of a sippy cup on her own. It's truely amazing how much she has changed in such a short amount of time.

We are really looking forward to celebrating her first birthday in a month. It's so fun having this time off right now so I can plan her party. We wish all of you a healthy and happy new year! Take Care. XOXOXO

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