Big Days for Leila!

Leila has had some milestones lately that should not go unposted!

 

JUNE: First Dance Recital, ever!  What a night!  She was a star!  Not the slightest bit nervous, excited to be on stage AND wear makeup, including mascara, which she begged I buy for her (note: recitals require a lot of makeup for all the dancers!) She had a ballet routine and a tap routine.

 

AND, mastered the diving board and the slide in the deep end of the pool, at 3.5 YEARS!!  We are so proud!   Considering swim team at 4 years, we will see.

 

AUGUST: Turned 4 Years old!  Our little Leilabug had the best Dora-themed party with so many of her wonderful friends.  We got her a big girl bike, which she promptly rode around the block with her new tutu on too!!  Leila is so cute it hurts some times.

 

SEPTEMBER: 1st Day of School!  Leila is in PK-4 and, according to her new teachers, "Had probably the best 1st day of school ever.  She is so sweet."  Awww, her mom almost shed a tear over that!  What a nice thing to hear! 

 

This is so cheesy, but she is such a blessing to us, and just a really amazing girl.  She is so funny, and curious, and has pretty much completely mastered the DVR/kindle fire/iphone/computer games/shows on the computer.  Pretty soon she will be explaining things to me & Patrick.  She is a vocabulary princess like her mom and picks up on new words really quickly.  The other day she said something we ate was "scrumptious" and I laughed out loud.  She has watched a lot of television while I am tending to the baby (no lectures, please) and can identify shows by the title of the episode and recite lines.  Hilarious!!!  She has also pretty much completed a 100-piece puzzle by herself (48-pc puzzles mastered @ 3.5.)  She can recite books as if she is "reading;" I know other kids do this too but it is neat to watch.  I am just amazed by her and of course I am mentioning all the astounding things, but I am her mom!!!  We love you so much Leilabug!!!

 

 Ballet Routine: Meet Me in St. Louis

 

 Tap Routine: On the Good Ship Lollipop

 

 Happy Birthday Leila!!!  Squeaky clean after a bath following swim class

 

 From her mom & dad: A dance class tutu dress in her favorite color

 

 New Bike!

 

Cutest View

 

 Dora Party!

 

 The friends we could get in the picture

 

 1st Day of School!! My how she has grown

 

 Ready to go

 

 I can't wait to see my friends!

 

We went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science over Labor Day weekend... Fascinating, especially for a tiny 4-year old!

 

Scootin' Skylar

Now that we have Skylar's tummy troubles figured out, she is a new baby at 10 months.  She is wiggly, and silly, and HAPPY, and we are too!  Our baby girl is into everything.  She is not still for one second.  She can crawl, and cruise, and.... Scoot!  No, not on her bottom, ON A SCOOTER. 

That baby loooooves her sister's scooter.  She is attracted to that thing like a magnet.  We have to hide it from her or she will find it anywhere!!  She immediately knew how to balance, and smiles a huge smile as I (carefully) push her around the house.  We have tile, so she can go everywhere.  It is hilarious. 

I have been really delinquent in posting about my darling baby.  Turns out multiple kids=no time.  Shocking, right?  Here are some more cute pics of my baby girl.

 Every fair-skinned baby needs a hat bigger than she is

 What are you looking at?

 Peekaboo!

 Who's there?

 They call me Tiny

This is what happens when you crawl in chalk

Skylar, Show Me Your Teeth

Little Skylar now has two tiny teeth.  The first appeared the day she turned nine months, the second a week ago.  These little teeth are taking a long time to make an appearance.  Once they were actually visible, I tried to get a picture.  What was I thinking? 

Here they are!  Tiny pearls.

Skylar's Nursery

I have been meaning to post pics of Skylar's nursery for months.  She is 8 months old now and it has been finished for... 8 months.  Our theme was lavender & butterflies. It is so pretty and I wish we spent more time there.  We are usually downstairs.   Patrick built the bookshelf himself to match Leila's.  He also refinished the chest of drawers and the changing table.  He is amazing!

Skylar is crawling really fast now, pulling up on everything and trying to walk.  She likes to push baby strollers and such.  She is so active.  I have been meaning to work on sign language with her--we used it with Leila and it was so helpful.  Somehow we get too busy but I work on the words I remember.  She loves to eat and especially likes those Gerber puffs and melts.  She kinds gets hysterical over them, actually.  So far she likes everything now, even avocado.  I learned she just does not like it pureed, she likes chunks.  She is having a tough time with digestion so we are taking solids kind of slow. 

My two girls LOVE each other. It is really sweet to watch. Skylar laughs at everything Leila does. Leila always makes her smile, and tries hard to make her laugh. She makes silly faces and will entertain her when I have the baby in her highchair while I cook. Sometimes it keeps her from screaming... sometimes not. "Skylar the Screamer" is going to haunt her.

Shuttlebration

We were there!  I took the girls to Clear Lake Park to watch the shuttle come in on Clear Lake.  It appeared to be pulled by a tug boat.  We got the last parking spot there, but the girls were unimpressed.  We left before the shuttle got too close because they were tired.

Skylar's 6 month portraits

My has she grown!  Thankfully, Skylar had a good nap that morning.  Once she decided the camera did not want to hurt her, she actually smiled.  In fact, she she did surprisingly well and we got many more good shots than I expected.  She turned seven months yesterday, and is about to start crawling.  She is sitting up pretty well.  We are still introducing solids and she has yet to cut a tooth.  She is still terrified of a lot, but honestly I am ok with a child that is not a daredevil.  Skylar is my cuddlebug and a pretty happy girl.  We love you cupcake :)

 Patrick says: this picture sums her up (see her expression in the photo above above)

Sister Fun: Skylar & Leila both at 6 months

 Each photo: Skylar on the left, Leila on the right