Last Day of School

This was a sad week of goodbyes. We said bye to neighbors and friends and our church. We said bye to Leila's dear little school and her teachers and her Gymboree teacher. Shrek said bye, in his own way, to his favorite haunts on our walks. We move next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. So much for football, Patrick. We are sad not to spend Thanksgiving at the McKinney's ranch, but we will probably go out there later this winter.

The chaos in our house from moving is bothersome to Patrick, Shrek, and I; but Leila thinks it is fun. We close on the house on Tuesday so I will post some pictures after that.

Playing around before school

Ringing "Gymbo" the clown's doorbell in class

Moving boxes are Leila's new toys and chairs

She likes the carpet in our new house. This is the gameroom.

The windows in the living room are the perfect height for curious toddlers (and dogs.)

Leila Ballerina

We have had a blast doing fun fall things. Leila and I went to the pumpkin patch with her play group. The kids had a lot of fun climbing on and playing with all of the pumpkins. They had a barrel for bobbing apples but there was no bobbing since swine flu is around! We are getting vaccinated next week.

We also went to her first kiddie costume party at her friend Ryan's house and it was a hoot. Seeing all of those toddlers in costume was adorable. Leila was a ballerina and too cute for words. Her friend Grant was a puppy dog and she kept trying to pet him. Hilarious!

We went today to a party at Gym"boo"ree and she had so much fun. This time Grant was going after her toys and she literally clung to me for dear life scared of him. I felt bad for her but it was so funny, and she is almost 4 months older than him so it was not like he was going to do anything to her.

Tomorrow she is going to Grandude and Granmary's for her first sleepover while mommy and daddy celebrate their 6th wedding anniversary and look for houses. This will be her first time away from both of us so I am a little worried but her grandparents are so sweet to her I think it will be ok. Plus, they are keeping Shrek too so "da" will be there with her for familiarity. She will get to dress up like Leila Ballerina again and hand out candy like a big girl.

We had milestone this past week I have to mention--speaking in phrases! She is joining words together now.

Leila loved the pumpkin patch and making a big mess

Leila and her friends from her playgroup were so good to pose for this picture

Leila had a lot of fun at Ryan's costume party. Her friend Sophie is a fairy in the background and had super-cute couture shoes on

This is Ryan, her cutie patootie dinosaur friend who is going to be a big brother in the spring!

Grant was a very realistic-looking puppy and Leila petted him a few times, which all of the adults thought was hilarious

Here is our ballerina playing monkey at Gymboree

Those aren't bells, they are Leila's bracelets

Mama and Leila Ballerina

Trying to catch a bubble on her finger--so cute!

Caught on Camera

Leila is what you would call a very active little girl. She basically goes non-stop from 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. She still takes 2 naps a day--supposedly. Where has nap #2 been hiding?

A short list of what our days include: 2 walks a day with Shrek, dirt time, book time, Baby Einstein time, usually swim time (often following dirt time), kitchen time, and bath time. What is dirt time? Let's just say it involves Leila's hands and massive amounts of potting soil and/or mulch. In her hair, on her face, under her fingernails, on her clothes. Yuck! But she is GLEEFULLY happy during dirt time. I don't know if I can take that away from her.

I like to change it up and go places, and she is usually pretty cooperative. This week we went to Gymboree, play gym, the Children's Museum, and the play place at the mall, as well as school. Her report card from day #2 was much better I am happy to report. I arrived 15 minutes early to pick her up and spied on her. I watched as she toddled over to her bag and got "Love," her comfort lovey, out and hugged it. Then she burst into tears. My cue to pick her up.

We have been wondering why the naps are so iffy, and this afternoon I think I figured it out. I have been watching as she is cutting her 2nd molar. Molars hurt. Well I got a good look at her mouth this afternoon, and what I thought was #2 is actually #4! I look and feel around in her mouth as much as she will let me, but 2 on the top just popped through without warning. That brings her tooth count to 12.

One of her Daddy's nicknames for Leila is "drama." When she wants to watch Baby Einstein, she will pick up the dvd remote and hand it to me with a whine.

Caught red handed! She is looking for the sunscreen in our swim bag.

Ohhhhhh Leila.....

Our little one is all girl... she wants to wear scarves on her head and bracelets on her wrists. Here she is enjoying some yummy cookies straight from the box!

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.

Ten months old

My how time flies. Tomorrow our little Leila will be 10 months old. She is still pretty small, but so active! She walks all the way around the coffee table holding on with one hand and pushes her walker across the room all by herself. She walks her walker into our dog Shrek almost every time and at first he would move when she hit him but now he just sits there like a roadblock. I guess he is over it.

Leila is very spirited and independent. She wants to feed herself, and tries to walk by herself, and plays well by herself. I bought a leapfrog activity table for Leila and that is the best money I have ever spent. She is extremely friendly, and smiles and waves at everyone. Each morning she waves at Shrek as he enters her room. She waved at the tv today.

Patrick and I love introducing her to new things together and seeing her reaction. She is extremely animated. We have taken her to the pool, the children's museum, a wedding, Gymboree classes, and of course the Paris trip. I have taken her up to my office at M. D. Anderson several times, and she lets everyone hold her. Also, she learned at maybe 5 or 6 months old to smile for the camera. Is that normal?

I am a little sad the baby stage is coming to an end. I have loved every moment of it, but watching her grow into this little girl with her own personality and opinions is pretty amazing. We both agree we are glad the infant stage is over, but we were watching videos of when she was first born and I got all teary-eyed. Yikes!

Dad makes a slam dunk at Gymboree.

Leila has a cabinet all to herself to make as much of a mess as she wants. Clearly, she wants a big mess.

You can't tell me she is not hamming it up for the camera.

Leila's first petting zoo (P.S. Grandmas, she wants a miniature horse.)

Who is that diva?

Leila's first cottage cheese experience. We think learning to eat should involve all of the senses. It is the only time in your life it is socially acceptable to be a mess, enjoy it!

Leila's favorite book is Eight Silly Monkeys.

She loves Gymboree and kisses from Gymbo! Ryan and Leila are all about Gymboree and are not shy one bit with other kids. I love watching them learn new skills.

Patrick and Leila had a blast at the Children's Museum.

Playing around at the Children's Museum. She loved it. We could have stayed for hours.

We're crawling!

Last Saturday was a momentous day in our household--Leila began crawling! Her dog Shrek has not been safe since. He is so good with her, like a big brother, and he lets her poke at him and play with his collar (under supervision, of course.) I can't leave her alone for 5 seconds now though, yikes! She's had her eye on the doggie door for several months now and I know first chance she gets she is going through it. This week she also began pulling up in her crib to stand while she waits for us to come and get her. Something new every day!

We also started Gymboree with her friend Ryan and his amazing mom, Sarah. Leila was so enthralled with the toys there that I bought some but they must be magic Gymboree toys because at home they are just not as entertaining. Her current favorite toys are Shrek and my sister's dog Lucy who is vacationing with us. Anything she is not supposed to have is also her favorite, which includes the remote control, her nightlight, plastic bags, and mom's cell phone.

This Saturday we had a scare when Leila somehow got her teeny-tiny thumb stuck in the hole at the end of a measuring cup where the ring attaching the cup to the others normally would have been. When I tried to pull the cup off, the plastic was sharp and was cutting into her thumb, making her bleed, and it wouldn't come off. Soap or oil didn't help. Luckily super-dad came to the rescue and Patrick used kitchen shears and garden shears to cut through the plastic! Amazing! I hope we will not be the ones eventually telling you about erasers up the nose. I thought for sure it would be one of the boys to do something like this first, LOL. Here are some adorable shots from her 6-month portraits, enjoy!