Lyla Grace

My niece, Lyla Grace arrived on May 1st.  She was born at 3:30 pm and weighed 6lbs and 3oz and was 19.5 inches long.  She is a tiny little lady with black hair and dark eyes.  She has a cute little mouth and makes lots of little piggy noises.  I was able to hold her on her Birthday and sing her a little song and she fell right to sleep.  Skye and Shannon are doing well.  They are slipping into their new roles as, Mommy and Daddy.  Hoping to get by this weekend or next so James and Owen can meet Lyla.

Lyla G. or Lil G are my nicknames for her ;)

15 Months

Owen turned 15 months this past Friday!   He's really grown into a little boy since his first birthday and each day he's learning something new, as are James and I :)  He's become extremely active, lots of chattering, and even repeating a few things here and there.  I'm really enjoying this part most!  He's even started signing to us this week.  This has been so amazing!  It's when we prompt him, but he's got a couple of signs and if we can get him to sign, Please and Thank you, Mama will be VERY happy. 



We've had our challenges lately with naps, sleeping, screaming, and little fits. Normal 15 month old stuff I guess.  Owen was such an easy going baby and a wonderful sleeper that this is all new to me.  His voice has gotten SO BIG and loud lately!  And he really knows how to get our attention these days. I mean really knows!  I'm doing my very best to keep him busy.  My goal each day is to physically ware him out so he can nap and sleep well at night.  Owen's been working on these back molars (and other teeth) since December. Needless to say,  it's been a very long process and I will be SO HAPPY once all of his teeth are completely  in.  I think he will too :)  This has been a big contributor to his mood lately.

Now that the days are longer and warm, we're taking walks down to the park in our neighborhood, playing with his water table in the back yard, and still getting to the gym a few days a week.  He loves going there! As soon as I put him down he runs off to be with the other kids and to see what they are up to. Rarely is he even looking back, but I think that's because he's gotten so close to the girls and he feels comfortable.  It's such a great break for me and I like knowing he's happy and having fun. 

My biggest challenge right now, is getting out of the house with him.  Even though I have my stuff together it takes us so much longer.  He's on the move, busy running from room to room, or right under my feet.  And once we get out of the house, he wants down so he can run and play.  I carry him under my one arm and he looks like he's flying in the air.  You know that hold :) Legs kicking and arms waving. LOL! Where it would take me 30 minutes before, it's taking me an hour or longer.  There are days when I say, we are staying home today and we'll play outside later.  Outside time makes it all better!

This is exactly the way James stands

Having fun splashing

Yay for sunny days!

The sticks keep getting bigger

I'm looking forward to his vocabulary expanding even more so he can communicate with us.  I can only imagine how frustrated he must get.  He knows what he feels and wants, but only has a few words in his  vocab and 2 of them are No and Stop it.  LOL. So hoping a few signs along with time, love, and lots of patience will help us all. :) Oh, and a good sense of humor!

He's such a little boy now and with a big-strong personality! :) Growing up way too fast!

Owen's stats from 15 Month check up:

• Weight 23 1/2 lbs (yay! he finally put on weight) 25-50%
• Height 31 3/4 inches 75% (his height has slacked off)
• Head 18 3/4 inches 50%
• Size 18-24 months clothes
• size 4 diapers (we started using size 5 and got rid of the night time diapers)
• drinks from sippy cups only (No More Bottles!)
• using his spoon and fork with each meal (still likes to pick up things with fingers)
• runs
• loves to hide from me (he will wait it out too)
• climbs (we have a real monkey on our hands)
• rocks on his air plane
• loves sticks (must have on in his hands when outside)
• can say a few words: Mama, Dada, Doggy, Stick, No, Stop it, Ut Oh, Hi, Aidan, and we are working on Lyla (comes out like Myla)
• loves to wave at every person he sees
• gives a good high five
• will give you a hug when you ask (mainly daddy gets them)
• loves the dogs
• barks like a dog, growls, and he might think he's part dog -part boy
• has dropped down to 1 nap a day
• favorite food right now is watermelon (he could eat it at every meal)
• he is all about James right now
• has been healthy going on 6 weeks now (knock on wood)

Happy Birthday balloon to get us through the grocery store

he has his balloon and my sports bottle

before I could get him home for his nap

Easter Highlights

We really had a great Easter weekend!  James and I had a sitter Friday night so we could attend the Good Friday service. The service was so nice, but it was long.  It was the fist time I had been to the Greek church on Good Friday.  Next year if we make it, we'll make sure we eat dinner before we go. We were starving at 10pm. But it was a good reason to go out for dinner afterward, just the two of us.

7 Dz dyed eggs

Saturday we did yard work and made sure all the food was ready for our guest on Sunday.  It was a long busy day.


Owen was being shuffled around and I think all the commotion and teething put him in a bad mood. So much so, I had to take a Mommy time out.  Lol  Later in the day, Elaine and her family stopped over and then Chrissy came over to pick up the eggs and we had a great time chatting. Owen's Egg Hunt with my MomGroup was rained out that morning so I had to get rid of a bunch of eggs. Like 5 dz!

Dying eggs in the evening was therapeutic for me

I got so into it

And loved dying the brown eggs they were unique

I miss doing creative projects - this was so much fun. I felt like I was in color theory class!

Saturday night I finished up the Easter Bunny cake.  I think it was the best one yet.  It's face was very sweet this year.  I decided at the last minute to leave off the wiskers and it really made a big difference. The kids really love this cake.  My Mom made this when we were kids.
It doesn't seem like Easter unless we have the Bunny cake.

His ears are different shapes, kinda like Emma's :)

Sunday Morning we were up early and getting ready for church.  James dressed Owen in his suit while I finished up.  It was so cute to look over and see Owen on his lap with a tie and sport coat on.  I thought, wow he's truing into a little man.

Boy, he looked so much like James that morning.

Dressed and ready for church - we were 5 min. ahead of schedule too

 

 

At church with Daddy

He had a hard time sitting still

Grrrr, Mom stop taking my picture!

This is Owen's serious face

He did well considering it was an hour long

We kept passing him back and forth

I was tired too

Cutting a tooth on the bottom

The church had an Easter Egg hunt for all the little children.  Owen didn't know what to think.  He was more interested in picking up sticks and bark on the playground.   But it was a good photo opp. :)

We headed home for a late lunch and another egg hunt, but we had to take family pictures with these beautiful trees before we could leave. At home we had a traditional Greek Easter menu with a little Southern flare.  I did a good job at preparing this time around so it all went smoothly.  Well, there was a slight issue with the lamb being too rare and the smoke alarm kept going off, but it wouldn't be right if there weren't a little drama, right ;)

photos outside the church

my boys

we took this one ourselves - cheese!

smell the flowers

the pollen made him sneeze

being silly

holding Owen up so he can smell the flowers

Cousins: Colt and Chloe

Aunt Cassandra

the kids table- Owen wanted to pull the table cloth off

and he's after Chloe's drink

Uncle Chris and Owen

those long arms come in handy

the Easter Bunny finally arrived at 6:30pm

books and toys and a few chocolates for Mom and Dad

Poor Owen was absolutely exhausted after all the festivities time for bath and bed