Winter Wonderfun

I rushed the last post, so I'm actually adding on the next day. This is speed of light blogging for me, I know.

Yesterday's snow caused enough slushy mess on the sidewalks that I stayed home from work instead of trudging through the snow with a stroller. We had a great time in the snow and walking around the neighborhood a bit. Lyla has definitely become more comfortable with the snow since our visit to Wisconsin in December.

I mentioned before that Lyla went potty for the first time right before the new year and she has continued to go sporadically since then. She's decided to train herself, it would seem. We're not getting rid of her diapers yet, but it's a great start.

Thanks for the comments I've gotten concerning dead links. I think I've got them all taken care of, but if you catch any let me know.

Also, for those of you who can't figure out how to leave a comment, just click the comment link, then type in your message, copy the code that is presented to you and when you get to the buttons at the bottom, choose Name/URL. Type in your name and you don't need to bother with the URL, then you should be able to submit your comment. Let me know if it doesn't work for you.

Lyla and Website Updates

Lyla Gets to Work!
Lyla's 18 month doctor's appointment on 2/12/08 (a little late) had her measuring in at 34 1/2" (95th percentile), weighed 26lbs. 10 oz (75th percentile) and a head circumference of 48 1/2cm (95th percentile). The last month has involved a lot of house rejiggering as we get ready for Pidge's arrival. First, we emptied out our work room and moved much of it into the garage, which will become a work space. The we had the room painted a lovely shade of pink. We were never particularly fans of stereotypically using pink for a girl, but we've avoided it as much as we can and Lyla loves it, so there ya go. We put in Lyla's big girl bed and toy box and should have her dresser setup this weekend. Her mattresses (there's a trundle underneath in case she needs room for company) come in tomorrow. Erin's friend Kieron is going to visit and will have a chance to break in the room and then we'll start moving Lyla from the nursery over and then start switching the nursery from girl-y to boy-ee.

As a note, we are not actually naming our next child Pidge, however it is a Slattery family nickname (ok, used once maybe, we're not sure) and we're using it as a placeholder for now. We might keep using it later if we want to torture the boy.

We are still accepting name recommendations. Erin has shot down my following choices, so don't bother suggesting:

Ace Axel Bodog Clint Ferris Iago Jack King Lord Moss Oz Prince Rex Rock Sky Wiley

Well, our warm and cuddly, super friendly and generous website hoster Chris Pepper moved his server, so you may have noticed some dead links and such over the last few days. You might still notice some, so if you do, please let me know and I'll fix them up when I have a chance.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

YEEHA! Tons of love from Lyla and her parents.

The Big Game

With the Packers out of the game, Lyla is primed to cheer solely for perfection!

First Shots of Pidge

For those of you who just can't wait to see him...

2008 Comes Rolling In...

You may not have noticed, but I popped a January 2008 Gallery link over on the left hand navigation a few days ago. I think this year, I'll just put a new gallery up each month and add pictures to it as I have them. Then I won't delay putting up pictures until I have time to write my little blab fest over here. Plus, I'm going to give up trying to put pictures up in the text field, except for maybe one picture at the top. It gets a little tricky trying to get the code to work with me otherwise.

Just before we kicked off 2008, Lyla decided she'd try to get in her first trip to the potty, so on December 31st, she grabbed her crotch said, "potty" and had us sit her on the throne. She actually got a little tinkle out, though her next couple of trips she didn't and rarely asks to go potty any more, but it's a good start!

Our 2008 started off with a lot of fun as Uncle Arthur came to visit on New Year's Day and had a great time playing with Lyla. He said that we should freeze her, because she was at the peak of cuteness and playfulness. We tried to explain that she's always like that, but he couldn't quite believe it.

The following weekend we were very busy with a trip to the Museum of Natural History. It was the last weekend of the Mythic Creatures exhibit and I... um... I mean Lyla, really wanted to see it. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside, but she LOVED seeing all the critters, especially the great big dragons. She enjoyed the huge eyes of the kraken, too, but kept wanting to go back to various dragons. After going through the exhibit, she brought Erin all the way back to the beginning and then we all went through the whole thing again, but a little bit quicker. We definitely need to hit the museum a little more. Lyla really loved it. Luckily, we could take pictures in other parts of the museum and were able to catch the action as Lyla and I barely avoided being stampeded by elephants.

The next day, we shipped out to the Bronx to meet up with Jeff Mazur with his son Adam and Sam Mazur with his kids Zach and Nicole. Lyla loved seeing the monkeys and had a nice up-close view of some tigers. Unfortunately, the Gorillas appeared to be on vacation for the weekend, so we didn't get to see any. Adam just wanted to see peacocks and he got to see plenty of them, though he couldn't catch any.

After that things went a little downhill. When we came home from the zoo, Lyla had a high fever and Erin felt sick to her stomach. I stayed home the next day and played nursemaid to both of them. Erin started feeling better, then seemed to come down with whatever Lyla had and Lyla seemed to get better and then relapse. Everyone was relatively healthy last weekend, but Lyla seems to have picked up yet another sickness and has been running a fever. The doctor said she has just been very unlucky and picked up about 4 different sicknesses in the past month. Hopefully, her immune system is getting stronger with each one and she won't get sick again until she's in high school and has a paper due the next day.

This weekend, Mima came to visit and spend some time with her favorite grandchild. She also babysat while Erin and I went out for a nice dinner Friday night and then again while I had a birthday party with about 20 friends in attendance. Before the party we watched the Patriots continue their NFL dominance on the way to an undefeated season. Unfortunately, at the party, we watched the Packers in their loss to the Giants. Sorry to all of our Packer fan family and friends! On the bright side, we won't have any problems in the house when the Patriots win the Superbowl, since they'll just be beating the Giants. We may, however, have issues on the subway.

In other family news, we found out that the next baby Black will be a BOY! We're all very excited and looking forward to having a whole new world of child rearing. Feel free to post your suggestions for names in the comment field for this post. The winning name gets to have our boy named with that name. We may not choose to use any of the names suggested, though and names that begin with "E" will not be considered.