Three Things

I am inspired by the updates of Leila's friend Cannon and also a post on babycenter.com to share three things about us that are unique. Leila has not had a lot of time in this world to do anything extraordinary, but there are already things about her that are super-special. If anyone reads this, we would love to know 3 things about our friends that are unique. I am making Patrick's list for him because he forgets we even have a blog, LOL.

3 Things about Leila
1. Her name means "dark beauty" in Arabic and strangely enough she was a dark beauty at birth even though her parents are pretty fair. She is now a blondie!
2. By 11 months she could perfectly communicate her needs to us through talking and sign language.
3. She went to Paris before she was a year old!
Leila's party trick: Sign language and animal sounds

3 Things about Laurie
1. Both my father and I have blue eyes with a brown spot in the exact same place on our right eye
2. I am the oldest of 6 kids
3. I swam in the Blue Grotto off of the Italian Isle of Capri before they closed it to visitors
Laurie's party trick: Elbows are double jointed

3 Things about Patrick
1. He went to the Black Tie & Boots Ball in 2001 when the President was a Texan
2. He has met Stephen Hawking, Gorbachev, General Schwarzkopf, both President Bush #41 & President Bush #43, and Rick Perry, among others.
3. He is an amazing craftsman and has built several pieces of furniture
Patrick's party trick: He can wiggle his ears

3 Things about Shrek
1. He hates water, yet when we come home during the rain he is always soaking wet
2. If you feed him at night, he will eat his food in the morning. If you feed him in the morning, he will eat his food at night
3. He knows when bed time is and will go get in his bed alone at the same time every night.
Shrek's party trick: He can shake hands

And here are some pictures of Leila now that she is one. She is definitely a girly girl. She not only wants to wear her purse, but also her bracelet and her sunglasses. She likes having shoes on, like mommy. She is a hoot. Her Gymboree teacher said they stop putting everything in their mouths around 15 months. I am ready for the dirt to stay on the ground.

Ready to roll

Leila loves to give hugs, especially to her dad (and dog)

Playing with her Uncle Jay, and dirt

Yum! She licked the bowl of cottage cheese clean


I see you Mommy!

When Leila is older, we will tell her we made her make her own toys (just kidding)

This singing pig was a gift from her Uncle Josh and Uncle Jay. She loves it and will spontaneously give it hugs. To catch it on film took a little prompting.

Leila is One!

Well the day has finally come for Little Bit's 1st birthday. What an exciting day. She woke up as usual at 8 a.m. and had a delicious breakfast of organic waffles and watermelon. I would like to point out she eats more than I do sometimes, and I think she is still under 20 lbs. We played for a bit and watered the grass, which takes an hour (I am Patrick's sprinkler system.) She likes to walk with her purse on, up and down the stairs to the deck, over and over and over. She also pushed her new dolly stroller around the house.

We got dressed and ran some errands, then stopped at Piccamolo for her first official cup of ice cream, birthday cake flavor of course. We ran into HEB to grab some essentials and got a small container of the extremely addicting grown-up whole milk macaroni and cheese. This stuff is delish and Leila loves it, so it was perfect for her birthday lunch (along with veggies.)

Next we went swimming and she clapped for the big kids going down the slide at the froggy pool. They loved it and started showing off for her. That wore her out and when she woke up from her nap we went to Gymboree play gym. Everyone told her happy birthday and we stayed for a whole hour, which is longer than usual. She amazed me again when a young baby was crying and I said "the baby is crying" and she did the sign for baby for the first time.

We went home, and had a yummy dinner of veggies, fish sticks, and of course more macaroni and cheese. Some of the food was thrown overboard to the dog but not the macaroni and cheese. When Patrick got home, she opened the rest of her presents from mommy and daddy: a ladybug book and a puzzle that makes animal sounds. She LOVES all of her presents so far, and we have not made it through all of them yet.

After that she was out by 7:30! She was exhausted and could barely keep her eyes open, which was really cute. Of course, we think everything she does is cute. This year went by in the blink of an eye. She is such a sweet little girl now, and so different from the raven-haired infant we brought home. She is hilarious and a little bit sassy. We love you Leilabug!

All smiles at Pop's birthday dinner.

More ice cream, please.

Hugging her new singing pig from Uncle Josh and Uncle Jay.

I love birthdays! Clap, clap.

1st Birthday Party

Leila had her first birthday party and it was a blast. She had so much fun. Thank you to everyone who came! We had some guests drive in from all across Texas and we are so glad they made it. She had almost all of her baby friends here and there were at one time 10 kiddos under the age of two.

Our girly girl had a costume change mid-party into her 1st Birthday tutu. This was just in time for her first cake which was served on her tutu-outfitted high chair, fit for a princess. Leila LOVED the cake. She went daintily at first but by the end she was covered in icing. Yum!