Happy Halloween

Some oldies but goodies. Have a great day!

My Sick Little Chickie

Does this look like a sick girl to you? Well it is. The smile may be deceiving, but maybe the snot all over her face gave it away. Lyla has been sick this week (the first time ever!), so we've been laying low and doing whatever we can to keep her occupied. We took her to the doctor and its just a bad cold, but It's so sad to see that little face in pain. She just doesn't know what hit her. Lucky for us, it's not affecting her sleeping one bit. She been sleeping a solid 11-12 hours a night, with a few sniffles and sneezes here and there. She's very sad she is going to miss her cousins for Halloween :(

Happy Birthday Papa!

This is when Lyla was about one month old. Sorry we couldn't be there with you today, Dad. See you next weekend!

Central Park Pumpkin Patch

Alternative title to this post: What I did to get this damn picture. Yesterday, we took Lyla to the Central Park Pumpkin Patch. We were going to take her last weekend to the Madison Square Park fall festival, but we ended up skipping it because the weather was kind of yucky, Mark's parents had just gotten into town, and she was a little under the weather. So I was determined to take her to Central Park this weekend. Well, the weather was ominous but it was not stopping me. I bundled her up in as much pumpkin themed clothing I could find and off we went. When we left the apartment, it was drizzling. I called it "misting", Mark called it "raining", so we settled on "drizzling". We carried on. Mark carried her stroller down to the subway, we changed trains at Grand Central, got off at Hunter College, and Mark carried her stroller up from the subway. At that point, it was pouring. I pulled out our umbrella and tried to cover me and Mark, but he told me that my umbrella was made for "half a person". He proceeded to walk in the pouring rain, his patience with me dwindling. He said he wanted to turn around and I started to pout. We proceed. We briefly check out a witch on stilts. Lyla is intriqued but not really interested. The leaves in Central Park look beautiful. Mark is in a better mood because it has stopped raining. We find the line for the pumpkin patch. It is a long, long line, but moves pretty quickly. As we snake around the barriers that have been set up, Mark says to me "I feel like we are on line at amusement park but without any of the fun...This isn't a pumpkin patch, it's just pumpkins placed on cement." We did get to take some really adorable pictures of Lyla while we were on line. We finally get into the "urban pumpkin staging area" and Lyla is EXHAUSTED. She cannot keep her eyes open and probably would have fallen asleep in the hay stack if I would have let her. She refuses to look up at me or smile. A fun day was had by all, whether they like it or not.

Lyla Grace is Eight Months Old!

Lyla turned eight months yesterday. She is still a happy, funny, easy-going little girl. She can wave, clap hands and do "cheers." Her favorite things are Sophie the Giraffe, her Time for Bed book, her blocks and any type of small electronic she can get her mouth on. She is absolutely, totally enthralled with a cute little girl that looks back at her in the mirror. Lyla loves to smile at and kiss that little girl. Lyla loves when Daddy throws her up in the air and when Mommy gives her a million kisses in the nape of her neck. And we love to hear that goofy chuckle and see toothless grin. Lyla is officially a rug rat :) Just a couple of days ago, she became a full-fledged crawler! Her technique is flawless, but she hates doing it. If you put her down in position and put the remote control on the other side of the rug, she will crawl over to it as she moans, groans and grunts, as if she's thinking "I can't believe my mom is making me do this by myself." If you make her do it over and over (what can I say, she amuses us), she starts to take breaks every few crawls. Sometimes, if she doesn't feel like crawling, she'll just stay in position, on all fours, perfectly still, for minutes. Lyla is standing up while holding her crib, lifting herself to the couch and pulling herself up to a sitting position when she is lying down in her stroller (if you put the shade up, she lifts herself out so she can see beyond the shade (nosy little girl)). It's really cute when she crawls over to me, gives me a big hug and then pulls herself up while holding onto my shoulders. Lyla can feed herself her bottle without any help from me. She still loves her food and really loves when we give her little nibbles of whatever we are eating. She likes her puffs and you can often find one or more of them stuck to her somewhere. The other day I put her in the exersaucer for a bit. When I picked her up, she smelled like bananas. She must have found a few errant banana puffs, that little bugger. And she loves to wear ridiculous hats ;)

Mark's Birthday

This weekend we celebrated Mark's birthday. His parents planned a last minute trip to NY and we had a great weekend relaxing and catching up. They had not seen Lyla since the summer -- before she could even sit on her own -- so she had a lot of new "tricks" to share with them. We just hang out around the apartment on Saturday watching football and playing with Lyla. Lyla showed Bammie and Pa how she can wave, clap hands, play peekaboo, steal Bammie's earrings and just be cute. After a tough Irish loss to USC, we changed our dinner plans from Delmonico's to Les Halles, a casual restaurant right down the block from our apartment. It was a great change. The restaurant was cozy on a cold night and the food was yummy. I gave it my best effort to get Lyla to sleep in the restaurant but she was too nosy (we call it "curious" at this age ;) and didn't want to miss any of the fun. Eventually, I gave in and took her out of her stroller. When I gave her to Pa she gave me this look like "Ha, Mom, I won." Bammie and Pa came over on Sunday after Brendan's birthday party for one last birthday celebration with Crumbs cupcakes. Red velvet is Mark's favorite. Lyla trying to blow out Daddy's candle. If our hair looks a little wild, its because we just spent two hours in the rain! Not good for curly hair. Poor Lyla Bell is doomed to have an afro once she gets hair. Happy Birthday Mark and thanks Bammie and Pa for a fun visit. See you soon!

Brendan Turns One!

On Sunday, we braved the cold, rainy weather to celebrate Brendan's first birthday! Phil was awesome and picked us up-- his city-dwelling, carless friends --, drove us to Staten Island AND dropped us off back in the city after the party. We hadn't seen Phil and Marla or Nick and Melanie in such a long time, so it was worth enduring the elements to catch up and see how big Brendan and Luke have gotten. Bundling up and heading out. The party was at a beautiful victorian carousel. My little bunny wabbit Brendan the Yoda with his mommy, Princess Marla Phil was Joe Paterno Lyla was a little freaked out by JoePa Luke and Nick Lyla's first spin on the carousel horse went okay, but by the second round, she was reaching up for Mark and wanted to be in his arms. We stuck to the cozy benches on the carousel after that. She looks less than thrilled here, but I promise, she liked it! She loved the balloon animals. And then she was done for the day :) Thanks Phil, Marla and Brendan! Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

We love you!

My Little Jailbird

This is Lyla's new move when she doesn't want to sleep. She pulls her bumper down and screams so we know she is still awake. We call it the "Jailhouse Rock" :) She usually gives up after a minute or two and passes out with her little hands hanging out of the crib.

Long Beach Fall Festival

Last weekend we went to Long Beach for the annual Fall Festival. It is my favorite event of the year and we are always lucky to get beautiful weather. This year was no exception. I was really excited to put Lyla in her first of three costumes -- a little ladybug. Hanging out with her "little" cousin before dressing up. She is the best and just goes along with whatever her crazy mother has planned. When we first put her down on the grass, we weren't sure if she could keep herself upright. Her big bubble bottom was getting in her way. We think Nicolas actually thought she was in fact a ladybug and not Lyla Grace. Nicolas was a dinosaur (holding a lobster...) and Chrissy was a monkey. Our attempt at a group shot of the kids. A "behind the scenes" shot of my crazy family all competing for the best shot. At one point, Nic said "I'm going to the beach." A sleepy ladybug At the festival, our first stop -- the food tent for "grownups". Mark and I did a very fast wine tasting -- $5 for 20 wines! And then we scarfed down chili and sliders so we could go play with the kids. Nicolas got to go for a ride on a fire truck and went to the petting zoo. Apparently the "10 minute limit" didn't apply to Nicolas. We couldn't get him out! He loved all the animals. "That's a chicken." "That's a goat." "That's a turtle." When we asked him which was his favorite animal, he said the cow (there was no cow). Lyla and I held a snake -- but didn't get any pictures on my camera. If Dina sends me her pictures I will post an update showing that Lyla and I had a boa around our necks! He thought the fire truck was really cool. Lyla and Nicolas both went on the carousel, which was about as fast as a gravitron (for those that don't know what the gravitron is, its fast...) I was holding on to Lyla for dear life so she didn't slip off that horse.