3-year Photo shoot out takes

A lot of people ask if Leila is ready for the baby... yes and no. She knows what is going on, we have prepped her, and she is super-excited to be a big sister. She knows she is not allowed to boss us around, only Shrek, and I think she is ready to boss someone else around, haha. But for 3 years, she and I have done everything together and now we will have to share our time. I think it will be hard for both of us. I am as prepared as I think I can be. Everything is washed and sterilized and I have a huge bag of REAL coffee waiting for me to brew in the pantry. The nursery is almost ready, and I will post pictures soon.

We have a busy schedule, though I cut back on activities for the fall. Leila goes to school MWF for 4 hours. She LOVES it, and says each day is "great." She just finished swim classes today, and we will pick those up again in March. We stopped gymnastics in July due to her being promoted into a new class with terrible schedule options! Maybe we will start again in January. And we decided to sign her up for dance. She is so cute, and she loves it. Her little friend she adores is in the class too so I think it will be a great experience. Patrick & I also have Bible Study on Sunday nights. Poor Skylar really is going to be hauled from place to place. I am a firm believer in good sleep habits so we are going to have to figure this one out. Leila was sleep trained and has always been an excellent sleeper (despite the nap battle, she still gets plenty of sleep at night.) Hopefully I can offer Skylar the same training, since it is good for them and for tired parents!

We are currently experiencing what may be the "terrible threes." The twos were great. But all of a sudden we are having a more difficult time, mostly due to Leila not napping. I am sooo tired. She needs a nap, only won't sleep at nap time, leading to some cranky evenings. I am feeling more energetic, so I have not been needing a nap as much. But I still need to rest!

All of this to say, Leila's 3-yr pictures were a challenge. We got some great shots, but also some hilarious faces. Most of these were her imitating her dad, who was trying to make her laugh. She is such a ham. I've posted some of the best out takes below. One of the best good photographs is on our header for the blog.

New School & Unbirthday Party

Leila started a new preschool this year. It is closer to our house and runs a little bit later than her old school, which I think will work out better for us with the baby coming. So far, she said the first day was "fun" and every day after that was "great." Quite a good sign considering all 6 of the 3-yr-olds we know at the school are in the other class. What are the odds?? She is proud to be a Sea Turtle this year and has already made new friends.

Last week her class celebrated her summer birthday and she got to wear a special crown and bring treats for her class. The whole chapel sang "Happy Birthday" to the kids selected to celebrate their summer birthdays today. I am so happy for her to get to celebrate because I think when we were in school those kids got overlooked. When I went to pick her up, every kid in her class had a blue mouth from the sherbert treats I brought, haha.

My camera lens fogged up that morning!

This is the face I got in response to "Say cheese and look at the camera."

All of the selected summer birthdays got to go to the front of chapel while we sang "Happy Birthday" to them.

3rd Birthday Party

WOW was Saturday a fun day... Little Bit's 3rd Birthday Party was a blast. We had a princess-themed splash party and her dad went all out on the "splash" part.... Our backyard was like a waterpark. I think all of the kids had fun! Leila did and she was really good. She loved her cake and is now "officially" 3, according to her. A big thank you to our parents who helped out a lot, especially the dads! And also a big thank you to everyone who drove so far to be here and celebrate her special day.

Leila's 3rd Birthday!

Another sign of how girly our daughter is... She is in denial about turning 3, just as I was about turning another certain age. Today is her birthday, and she told me this morning, "She is not 3 yet, she is still 2 1/2, and she is still a little girl." I am not sure what exactly constitutes a "real" birthday to her--a cake?? A party??

We had another great, long day though! She woke up happy and we had a breakfast of organic waffles and berries. She picked out a cute outfit since I made her wear pants to Jump N Jungle (a moonwalk playplace) and we went and played with a bunch of her friends. Then we came home to eat lunch with her dad and open presents. We had macaroni & cheese and peas for lunch, per her request :)

The big gift from Mom & Dad this year was the Rapunzel dress & doll, which she wore until we had to leave. We also got her some other little things, mostly princess-inspired, of course! And books, my favorite. We had to watch the Tangled movie once she opened the dress, so we did that, skipped her nap, and went to swim class where she did great. From there we came home to change into a dress and then went to her Dude's retirement party. It made for a long day but she was a trooper.

It is hard to sum up Leila in a short post. At age 3, she is such a joy and so much her own person. She is smart, funny, kind, caring, and definitely a firstborn. I say this because, being one myself, I see a lot of the traits I have... such as being bossy, a perfectionist, and determined (We hear, "I do it myself" about 15 times a day.). She is such a little lady; and all about fixing her hair, painting her toenails, and wearing jewelry and playing dress up. She always wants to match and has a certain order for things. She wants to understand things about the world and asks a lot of questions. She loves smaller children and babies, as well as animals. She is basically fearless and was throwing herself down the moonwalk slides today headfirst. She loves to sing songs, read books, say prayers, and play Pretty Pretty Princess EVERY day. Her current favorite lovey is a small pink pig named "Princess Hoppy." Her favorite books/stories for the last few months have been Grover's The Monster at the End of this Book, The Crucifixion (since Easter), the Little Red Caboose, and Pinkalicious. Her favorite shows are Elmo's World, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Clifford. Her favorite movies are both Disney: Robin Hood & Cinderella. Her favorite food is macaroni & cheese and her favorite snacks are Ritz cheese crackers, jelly beans, and Icees. She loves her family and tells me she misses her daddy when he is at work. She has said to me before "I just love you so much," which never fails to make me tear up. We feel so lucky to have this precious girl!

Having fun at Jump N Jungle

Headfirst AND backwards down the slide... It may have been 15 feet long, or more.

So excited about presents!

'August' Barbie was an exciting gift. The doll has a peridot green dress and comes with a matching ring. In 2 months we will again consider such things "choking hazards."

A new game since we have had enough Pretty Pretty Princess for a lifetime....

Disney Princess cd player, wow!

New Books!

And her favorite gift, the Rapunzel dress and matching doll. Leila kind of looks like her I think.

Last Big Trip before Baby

We took one last big family trip last weekend before the baby comes. Let me just say my family is wonderful at traveling and we are so grateful that Leila is easy to take along. She chilled in the car with her movies while we were driving and was excited to sleep in her special beds "just her size." Patrick is great at navigating and packing the car and mom packs lots of snacks and plans the trip so it is fun and not stressful. We hope the new baby will travel as well as Leila!!


First we went to Austin for 2 days to see my sister Lisa and hang out with my Aunt Carla & Uncle Roy & adorable cousin Madison (age 9.) They are the best hosts ever and put up with all of our demands (baby gate, air mattress, etc.) and fed us delicious food! We wish we could see them more. We got to see Patrick's friend from college & his girlfriend and the guys played golf.

We drove straight from Austin to Sea World and spent one entire day there, in the heat, 7 1/2 months pregnant!!! But it was great. Not too crowded, and we got to do everything we wanted. Sea World is a really fun place. The Sesame Street Bay of Play is awesome. The highlight of the trip for all of us was when Leila met the REAL Abby Cadaby. She was on Cloud 9. We fed the dolphins and saw the Shamu show and the waterski show. They have rides for little kids that Leila & Patrick rode and it was just a great day.

Next, we went to a resort in San Antonio and hung out that evening. The next morning Patrick played golf with another college friend and I hung out at the resort pool with our friend's wife & daughter and my college roommate Lisa & her adorable daughter Campbell. It was really fun and did not last long enough. We had to leave that afternoon to come home, but we all missed Shrek so we picked him up first thing and boy was he glad to see us.

Our next family vacation we will be a family of 4, I can't believe it! I did not get any pictures of the 3 of us from the whole trip, oops. Chasing after a 2 1/2 yr-old kept me busy. Now I think I need a vacation from my vacation!!

Hanging out with Aunt Lili at Chuy's... why is the Austin restaurant so much better than the Houston ones??

Singing with her 2nd cousin Madison... So cute! Leila definitely looked up to Maddie and told me, "she's so pretty." Madison was so patient with her, and even told me she would watch Leila while I talked to her mom.

The highlight of our trip... Abby Cadaby herself!!!


And she got her picture taken with Zoe, which was so cool. Cookie Monster was not so cool and actually scared her, and she is not scared of much.

Feeding the Dolphins

Leila and Baby Campbell, who is about to have her 1st Birthday!!

Swimming!

We started Leila in swim lessons at 9 months in a group class to get her familiar with the water and teach lifesaving techniques. She has been attending a swim academy since last fall (with a few months off when I deemed it too cold for swimming, even in a heated pool) and has made awesome progress. She was recently promoted into a class with a 3, 4, & 6 year-old, and she definitely holds her own at just 2 1/2!

She can dive in, swim underwater using her arms and legs, dive to the bottom for rings, turn around, cover over half the width of a pool independently, and climb out on her own. We still have more work to do, such as strokes, coming up for air and going back down, and perfecting diving technique. I still have to watch her to make sure she does not get too deep. This is not the type of program where they throw you in to see if you can swim, so I am still not 100% confident in her survival skills in the water. BUT we have made huge progress and I am thrilled with the results. I am hoping by the end of this session in September she will be swimming independently. We spend a lot of time in the water so it is really amazing to watch our little fish go. This is an old video so she has improved a lot since only 3 weeks ago.

Our Princess and her Frog

I mentioned before Leila is not only not afraid of creepy-crawlies, but she LOVES them. Ants, spiders, worms, and especially frogs. She will say to me, "Mom, do you like snakes?" And I will say "No!" To which she will reply, "I like snakes." And she DOES.

In saying this, imagine her delight when a little toad showed up in her pool outside. This little guy was the highlight of her day. She held him, and talked to him, and took him down the slide. I swear I saw her kiss him, but I really hope I am wrong!

He was fun until we went to release him in a marshy area near our house. As if by magic another toad appeared in the pool a few days later! The new guy got to ride on the slide too. And mom and dad cleaned the pool, again :)