Sunday, December 16, 2007

More Holiday Fun

As the holidays roll on, we took Lyla to a couple of holiday parties Friday. The first was at Uncle Arthur's office. Lyla had fun playing with the other kids there and showing Uncle Arthur how to revise his fiscal strategies to increase returns on investments. She also liked drawing with crayons and having a snack.

After partying in mid-town, we headed downtown for dinner. Lyla enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich at Soup N' Burger. Dinner became a stalling tactic between parties before we headed down to the Muppet Workshop for their holiday party.

Lyla quickly discovered where her muppet friends were hanging out. She was thrilled to spend some time exchanging hugs, kisses and tickles with Ernie, Telly and Oscar (or Grouch as she calls him). Within a couple of hours, Lyla was a pro, showing everyone where the muppets were. She was a little disappointed she didn't get to meet Elmo, but was thrilled to celebrate with the muppets in attendance.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Let the Holiday Season Begin!

I can't believe it's actually been a month since the last post! Since then we've been to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. I don't have quite so many pictures as I thought I had, but if you check out the latest gallery you can see some of the family at Aunt Emmy's house on Thanksgiving and at my mom's house the Saturday after. Lyla loved hanging out and playing with all of her family. She was glad to finally be able to tell everyone that she's going to be a big sister in June, too.

Back home in Astoria, we got ready for Hannukah as I started frying up 12 pounds of potatoes and onions who were willing to sacrifice themselves to the glory of latkes! We had a smaller Hannukah party this year, but were happy to have a close group of friends come and celebrate the holiday with us. Lyla really liked the potato latkes and seems to have made the bold choice of apple sauce over sour cream.

We've been lighting our Hannukiah (Hannukah menorah) every night and Lyla loves it! As soon as we say, "it's time for the lights!" she points to the menorah and gets ready for me to light them and Erin and I sing the blessings over the candles. Then we sit together and open presents. Lyla likes to hand presents to Mamma and Dadda, regardless of who they belong to and then help open everyone's presents. She's had plenty of presents between her parents, her Mima and her cousin Arlyne.

Lyla also experienced her first big "owie" as she was running around with daddy, she missed a step and face planted into the dining room floor. Ow! She bounced back remarkably well and actually seemed to enjoy dunking her pacifiers in a bowl of ice water to try and keep the swelling down from her split lip. You might be able to notice the swelled lip in this picture. Of course, later in the day, she was still quick to play her favorite chase/run away from Daddy game. We happened to have a doctor's appointment for her follow-up flu shot and the doctor checked out her lip and said all would be well soon enough, but she might prefer soft, mushy food for a little while.

That's it for now, but we're heading into Christmas in Wisconsin and the New Year in Astoria, so we'll have more in the New Year! Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family and we hope you have a very happy 2008!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Big Time Talker

At Lyla's recent doctor's appointment, the doctor asked how many words Lyla can say. We said about "a ton... about a half a million". The doctor then asked if she said more than 10 words. We assured him that she does. Later, Erin decided to count up how many words she actually has in her vocabulary. The tally came to over 50!! She also loves to pick up the phone and say, "hello". I'm dead when she's a teenager.

I wanted to take this chance to point out that those of you who read this blog are no longer mere recipients of Lyla's life. You can be an active part by posting comments! Click the "comments" link below each blog post and type away!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween



Well, Lyla already did her Halloween costume over the weekend, so for the actual holiday you just get to see her in this cute little "Happy Halloween" shirt.

Yesterday, Lyla had her 15 month doctor's appointment and measured 33 1/2" (97th percentile), weighed 25lbs. 6.2 oz (75th percentile) and had a head circumference of 48cm (95th percentile). Everything else checks out just fine and she's in great shape (as we already knew). Pretty nice treat for halloween.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Halloween Parade

Now I can even test out how much easier it is to add new blogs here. I've got another one right away. There isn't too much to tell since I posted two days ago, but I did put up the newest photo gallery that covers everything mentioned in my last blog. (It's over there on the left, under the Guest Gallery) In addition, we've got some really cute pictures of Lyla in her Halloween costume as Little Red Riding Hood. We took her on a little Astoria Halloween walk with the Astoria Mom's group and then went over to the Beer Garden with some of our friends. Speaking of walks, I got some great footage of Lyla (in costume) showing off her new walking skills, so check out this video.


Saturday, October 27, 2007

Family Visits - Erin Blogs


Album cover, right?

In order to make the whole updating thing easier, I'm trying out a new system using an outside blog site (Blogger). In addition to saving time messing around with code, this will allow people to post comments, which will be a lot of fun, I think! If all works well, you should still see the gallery links on the left and the links to the past blogs. Now, without further ado...

Another guest blog, by Erin! [no add-ins by Eric this time... except... GO SOXS!]

These past few months have brought with them huge changes – Lyla is now walking and talking fairly proficiently. She is no longer a baby and has definitely entered toddlerhood. Lyla took a fair number of steps when we were in Oshkosh the first weekend in October and then really took off last weekend during our time at Uncle Arthur’s house in the Hamptons. I guess she just figured her home was small enough it wasn’t worth the bother to walk from place to place, but once she had some larger spaces to deal with she needed to practice her upright mobile technique. She now walks all over and is pretty proud of herself for it.

Lyla has also exhibited some remarkable maturity and has entered the “terrible twos” at 15 months. She can throw quite a tantrum when she doesn’t get what she wants or is told “no.” She alternates between doing the stiff board routine and playing limp rag doll when we try to pick her up to stop or comfort her. She is really very dramatic about the whole thing. I have tried to explain to her that Dadda’s hot coffee cup is really not worth all the fuss, but she isn’t buying it. She is starting to speak in two word phrases – her favorite being, “No, mine!” Lovely……

On the upside, Lyla gives great hugs and kisses and likes to walk around saying, “Mama, Dadda, Lyla” over and over again, so we are fairly confident that she is pleased with her family situationJ She also LOVES her baby dolls and often needs to wander the house collecting all three of them to take into her crib before bedtime. She was amazed when we visited Oshkosh and got to spend time with a real life baby, cousin Will. Lyla would get right up into his face and say “Baby!” just in case Will was having an identity crisis. Lyla also loved hugging and kissing Will so much that we sometimes had to watch that her love did not become too vigorous. Another highlight of the time in Wisconsin was that Lyla thinks her cousin Keira is about the coolest thing since sliced bread. The girls had a blast running around, laughing, playing together, and jumping on Gramma Jane’s furniture. Keira was a great sharer and even taught Lyla her special technique of using raspberries as finger puppets before eating them. Lyla still employs this method when faced with a raspberry.

Last weekend, Mima flew in and then we all drove out to Uncle Arthur’s house in the Hamptons where we did some hardcore apple and pumpkin picking. Lyla loves the “papples” as she calls them – especially chomping into a whole piece of fruit. She did quite a number on her apple (and her shirt) during our time in the orchard. Mima kindly agreed to wake up with Lyla in the AM so that mom and dad could catch some extra zzz’s and Mima and Lyla could have some time together.


Coming soon: Halloween!!!