Fabulous Days Please Stay!

I've been feeling pretty lucky with life lately and I'm hoping it stays for awhile! Here's what we've been up to:

Playing dress up, or at least from the shins down. Lila found these pink boots I was storing under her crib and has been bringing them to me ever since. She will throw them at me, sit down and hold her foot out. Then she goes stomping around the house. I didn't know it started so early...

Making funny faces. Lila's new "Ohhh" face. Pretty cute.

Taking Lila to the park. Here's the one shot of her liking the swing. She's not such a fan. Only kid I know that isn't. She mostly just likes to walk around and look at all the kids play.

Palest mexican ever. We got Lila this dress in Old Town while in San Diego. It's a section near downtown of very authentic mexican everything...food, shops, clothes, music, etc. I think she looks gorgeous in it!

Sporting some Halloween spirit.

Lila's hair fits in pig tails!!! Just barely :) I'm mostly just excited we have graduated from headbands to clips!

On Monday, Chris had half the day off for Columbus Day, so we took advantage of the fabulous weather and went to the beach at Anna Maria Island in Sarasota. It couldn't have been more perfect. We were wishing we had a beach house, really, really wishing.

What did she do with all this sand you ask?

Dumped it on Chris. Over and over again. It will take awhile to bury him at this pace, but she thought it was pretty funny.

Who doesn't want a gorgeous bird to add to the scenery?

End of a successful day.

Random Blog for a Random Week

I'm tired of seeing the word "chocolate" in my last post title for so long, so I figured instead of getting a craving for sugar all the time, I'd just post something new.

Lila and I have had some more free time lately since I haven't been tutoring with school having started for my students.

We've spent some time at the mall where Lila has discovered the play place. When we get near it she starts shrieking and squirming to get down. I try to look past the coughing, snot smearing kids and especially the little boy who had a nasty accident in his pants and was STILL playing with his mom right behind him. Ew. I also had to bite my tongue at the cliquish 4 year old girls who told Lila that no babies were allowed to play with them. I still haven't quite figured out why we are supposed to be "as a little child...." Anyway, Lila loves to follow the big kids around and climb on things she shouldn't be climbing on. Here she is as queen of the bridge.

We spend too much time at home since it is still horridly hot here and I can only think of so many indoor places to go to. She was pretty excited about the sewing machine I got for my birthday. Correction, she was pretty excited about the styrofoam that encased the sewing machine I got for my birthday.

Love this face!

We've been to the fountains I've posted about before a couple times this past week.

She loves them, so do I.

Right in the middle of it all!

With her friend, Luke, after getting changed. Well, friend is a loose term at this age. He runs away from her and she points at him a lot.

I tried to post a video at the fountains for my family who want to see her walking more, but it's not working, so I'll try later.

What a Girl Will do For Chocolate!

Lila is a walker! Well, becoming a walker! She started moving her feet a little yesterday, then took about 4 steps to me. When Chris got home from work, she walked to him. It made his day! She wouldn't do it for the camera, so just ignore the fact that I lured her with chocolate. Do take note, however, that she wouldn't let me help her eat it. What a girl! Now she stands all the time and tries to walk more. She still doesn't make it very far, but she's getting better.

(You don't need to watch the last 10 seconds or so... if you were going to watch it at all. :) I didn't edit it.)

Since this post is about a milestone, I'll throw a couple more in there for journal keeping sake. Lila had her one-year-old appt on Tuesday and here are her stats:

Height: 30.5 inches, 89%

Weight: 20 lbs, 32%

Head: 18 inches, 69% (no one cares about head, but there it is anyway!)

Lila has her two bottom teeth (finally!) She didn't cut her first tooth until 11 months. She likes to play with her teeth by catching them on her fingernail over and over. It didn't seem to bother her too bad to cut them, so I hope the rest will come in as uneventfully.

Lila thinks she can swim. I'm going to have to put her in swim lessons early so she doesn't drown. Whenever we are in water, she likes to be on her stomach, kicking her legs and flapping her arms. She has no fear so far and will crawl straight into the water!

Lila is a loud, loud baby. She babbles incoherently but constantly when she is happy. She does say her own version of momma and dada correctly (sounds more like memmom and dadada.)

She's pretty darn cute when she's not screaming to get her way. She is quite adept to making sure we know what she wants.

We are having so much fun watching all the funny things she does.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Happy 1st Birthday Lila Girl!!!

August 2010

August 26th 2011

Fun at Build A Bear with Chris's Family.

Lila's final choice. He even makes monkey sounds.

Excited about the presents, or at least the curly ribbon on top.

She was spoiled rotten!

The Cake! She was dainty about eating it at first, but then stuffed it in by the fist full. That's my girl!

Daddy brought home balloons.

Lila LOVES her new music table. She likes all the buttons and lights almost as much as she loves pushing it around the house.

Lila got so many fun presents from all our family that maybe she will occupy herself for a few days...one can hope, right?

She had such a blast today and I'm so glad her first birthday was great! She spent a lot of time standing on her own then clapping for herself. She leans forward like she wants to take a step, but doesn't know how. It's funny to watch her think about it. I think she started to like all the attention everyone gave her and got really loud and silly by the end of the night. Love this little sass of a one-year old!!!

9 and Counting!

Happy 9 years of marriage to my wonderful husband! This has been a fabulous year for us because we became parents to a very special little girl. It has changed us for the better and we are excited for many more years of love together!

Chris teaching Lila the "important" things in life, like how to putt on an artificial surface in our living room!

Love this guy! Happy Anniversary Honey!

San Diego Vacation

Chris, Lila and I spent two gloriously humid free, beach filled, family fun weeks in San Diego. I wish we could have stayed a month, but two weeks is at least enough to make flying with Lila worth it! Overall she was good but it was by no means a pleasant experience. Luckily the trip was fabulous. I have tons of pictures to prove it...mostly of Lila. I can't believe I got no pictures with great grandparents, cousins and barely any of my parents!

I did get one of Lila with two of my cousins' kids who are a couple months older than her, Bryce and Kaden.

We rented boats and saw beautiful mansions, landscapes and a couple seals.

My niece, Chloe and Bro-in-law, Will.

My mom and nephew, Luke.

Lila driving!

My dad and sister, Audra

Audra's kids dancing in the park. Those kids have some serious moves!

The 3 of us tend to wear blue a lot! Here we are at Newport Beach. Yes, wetsuits were a necessity to enter the water.

Lila loved the sand. She ate a few handfuls to prove it!

Audra and I boogie boarding. Florida may have amazing water temps, but I forgot how much I LOVE the waves. I boogie boarded and body surfed several times over the vacation.

We played a lot of beach volleyball. My feet were sore after a couple days of playing in the sand. Pathetic!

My sister lives near Newport so we BBQ'd at her house after the beach trip. Chloe sat in her doll stroller and since Lila loves to push anything that moves or could possibly move, Chloe got to go for a ride. It cracked us up pretty good since Lila is a year younger than Chloe!

Back at my parent's house we clocked a lot of jacuzzi time in their amazing new backyard. Every morning Lila would crawl over to the sliding door and bang to go outside. Let's just say she doesn't do that here in FL.

Chris and Lila played tag with Ethan and Luke. Kinda a small playing field, but they enjoyed it!

The girls in the hot tub.

Fun in Coronado.

I really wanted to have my dad take some nice pictures of Lila in the backyard since she will be one in a week, but she wasn't having it. She smiled a ton the whole trip except when I wanted these pictures taken. I'm posting some anyway because I think the coloring is beautiful and she looks kind of cute even without a smile.

She loved this car the whole trip.

We did a ton of things I didn't get pictures of like, Lila crawling straight into the ocean with no fear even when the waves lapped around her, visiting with Chris's cousins and kids in San Clemente, opening birthday presents and eating lots and lots of mexican food. We had so much fun and were thrilled that Lila adjusted to the time change and everything else so well. I think my parents will never forgive me for living across the country now that they have gotten to know her so well, but thank goodness for planes and ichat.