It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Memorial Day Weekend -- the unofficial start of the summer -- is here!  We have been busy buying beach toys, sunscreen, swim shoes, tons of bathing suits, and, of course, a 10 trip train ticket to Long Beach!  Grandma and Papa, get our room ready 'cause here we come!

As usual, my parents have done a great job getting their back yard ready for summer. It is our summer headquarters morning, noon and night. Iced coffees on the deck in the morning, post-beach dips in the pool and outside showers (unofficial rule -- no indoor showers after Memorial Day, even if its raining :), and of course, bbqs at night.







Lyla can't wait to jump in the pool.


I know we will have to be super vigilant this summer because you can't trust this cute face for one second!


Happy Summer!

Lyla Grace is 15 Months Old!!

It seems like overnight Lyla became a big girl. She is chatting up a storm, usually telling me what to do and exactly what she wants. She points to what she wants and if I don't get the point she pushes me over to whatever she is looking for. Her vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds by the day. She will basically repeat anything I say, but her favorite words are "hi", "bye", "no", "nana" (for banana), "shoes", "open" and "baby". We taught her a bunch of fun words too -- "uh oh", "ta da" (as she lifts her arms up), "nah" (as she shakes her head) and "knock knock" (while knocking on her head).

She is imitating a lot more now too. She will follow me when I lift up my arms or touch my nose and she tries to follow the dance moves on her cartoons. She can kind of do "itsy bitsy spider" and "wind, wind sugar baby" but her favorite part is when we clap for her at the end. She is doing great sorting shapes and stacking blocks and is starting to separate different toys into similar groups.

Lyla is shaping up to be a pretty good eater and has a big buddha belly to prove it. She is definitely a carnivore. Her favorite food is meatballs, followed a close second by turkey meatballs :) She also loves pizza with chicken and broccoli. She is doing great with a straw cup, but still has a few bottles a day. And we still have not gotten rid of the paci...

Lyla has three teeth and a fourth that is about to break through. Her hair is coming in a lot more now and she has the cutest bed head in the morning! She is sleeping great -- still from 8pm to about 7am, but unfortunately inching towards an earlier wake up call. Her naps have gotten much more regular and she usually takes a good two hour nap right after lunch. But when she is with her daddy, she loves to take an early morning snooze right on his shoulder.

We changed pediatricians and are waiting for her medical records to be transferred, so no official stats on height and weight yet, but my guess is that her weight has outpaced her height for the past few months...too many meatballs, I guess.

Cousin Dylan

Dylan is so great with Lyla Grace. Even when she is dragging Lyla around like a rag doll or playing "fetch" (where Dylan throws stuff and Lyla runs to get it...), she is so sweet and nurturing with her. On Friday, we went to see Dylan in ballet class getting ready for her big recital. We got there a little early so the girls had some time to play beforehand. Dylan stood right behind Lyla the entire time holding her back gently, just in case Lyla lost her balance and fell down. Too cute.


But the real fun was had in the ball pit, where Dylan completely covered herself in balls and Lyla had to climb on top of her and try to dig her out.


Where's Dylan?


Here she is!




Beautiful Dylan


Lyla started to "drown" in the ball pit and we had to pull her out. I was taking pictures as my daughter was being swallowed up by balls.


Thank goodness for Grandma.


Thanks for playing with Lyla!  Good luck at your recital Dilly!

Two in the Tub

We got home from the park yesterday totally covered in a mix of sand and sunscreen that was stuck to the kids like cement. We stuck Lyla and Chrissy together in the little baby tub on the den floor. They had a ball splashing each other (and us). Look at those bodies!

A Birthday Party!

Lyla was invited to her little friend Dahlia's birthday party last weekend at Hands On. Her and Dahlia take music class together at Hands On and have play dates a few times a week. It's kind of cute that she has a whole social life independent of me.

Miss Nicole started the party with her usual rendition of Old McDonald. Look at all the good little kids sitting in a circle. Where is Lyla? If you look closely, she is behind Nicole trying to break into the cabinet and steal the balls.



Caught in the act.


What did I do?


Despite her general misbehaving (I'll call it "curiosity"), she was adorable dancing to the music.



We did have a breakthrough at the end of the party. Lyla drank her very first juice box (or at least the half that she didn't squeeze out onto my shirt).

My Slide Girl

Lyla loves the slide. My mom came in a couple of weeks ago on a gorgeous Friday and we took Lyla over to Hudson River Park to play in the playground. All she wants to do is climb up and slide down. Over and over and over and over again.



Down...


...And back up


Can we do it again?

Mornin'

How great is it to wake up to this every morning?

Howdy Austin

Last weekend we went to Austin for Justin and Natalie's wedding.  While we have been to a lot of weddings since our wedding in 2002, with different groups of Mark's friends, this was the first time the whole group  was together since our wedding.  Since then, we've added lots of wives and kids to the group.  Everyone left the kids home this weekend and had some grown up fun.  Long story short, I was still recuperating on Wednesday.

Austin is a really fun city and we got to roam around a bit on Friday and Saturday before the wedding. We went to a great pool called Barton Springs and got to see a guy weeding the grass in a thong...apparently he's known as the "thong man". Go figure.


We got to tour the Texas capital, which is really quite beautiful, and Mark got to take a picture with W.


Back to the wedding. Natalie was a gorgeous bride. She made her own wedding dress, isn't that crazy? And it was gorgeous.


She made ANOTHER dress for their first dance. Also gorgeous.


This was the table just for the wedding party and their guests.


Sean, Matt, Mark and Joey


Mark and Joey.  Mark is going to be Joe's best man at his wedding in September!


Mark and Cannella, who came over a few weeks ago and brought Lyla the cutest Tea Collection dresses -- in the right sizes!  He's now Uncle Justin :)

Sean and Sara


I got really sunburned at Barton Springs that day and tried to cover it with big hair and a chunky necklace.  Didn't work so well but after a few glasses of champagne, I didn't care.


Mark and the groom.


Thinking they are back in college.


Mark showing off his "moves" on Joey.


Joey, Cory, Andy and Mark


My favorite picture.  It was the very end of the night and no one was really seeing too straight.


Second attempt at the shot


And the newlyweds are off...We can't wait to hear about their honeymoon in South Africa!


Next up -- Laura and Joey's wedding in Denver in September!!