Lyla at Three

Our little girl is three! Lyla is such a blessing to our family! She is spunky and full of personality and excitement for life. Lately, she has been saying "I love you Mommy" and "I love you Daddy" out of the blue and quite frequently throughout the day. It is the sweetest. She also told Todd the other day, "Daddy, you're my best friend". Truer words have never been said. She is a sweet big sister to Penny, and frequently lays next to her and tells her in a sweet little voice, "you're my biiiig sister". We're working on explaining that Penny is actually the little sis, but it's still super sweet.

She also loves to tell people about Penny. She will point to Penny and say "that's my thithter (sister). Her name's Penny".

When Penny was born, she immediately started sleeping in till 8/8:30 instead of her usual 7/7:30, which as been really nice, except that her naps have been hit and miss, and I fear that she is fazing out of them.

She had her three year well check recently and was in the 82% for height and in the 60% for weight.

A few of Lyla's cuties from the past few months:

We went on the train with my mom when she was visiting and Lyla said "Grandma's gonna buy us our chickens (tickets)"

She calls dandelions her "enchanted garden" and loves to pick them and blow them

I asked her, "What color is our house?" and she said "Blonde!" Actually a pretty good answer because it is yellowish/tan

She calls the headrest on her carseat her carseat's ears.

She was singing one day "Twinkle, twinkle like a little star...lead me guide me walk beside me"

"I do my loculars (binoculars)...come 'splore with me!"

Back in May, she fell and hit her tooth and it was bleeding a lot in her mouth. she had her hands over her mouth and when she finally looked at them later they were all bloody. I was worried about her seeing all the blood, but she looked down and said "Uh oh, have strawberries on it".

We sure love our firstborn!

Lyla's Third Birthday

We kept Lyla's birthday pretty low key again this year. I think next year we will officially start having birthday parties, but we skipped that this year.

We kicked off birthday week with a visit to the Pediatrician on the 28th. This is a big deal because Lyla loved going to my doctor's appointments with me while I was pregnant with Penny, and got to go to one of Penny's visits as well, so it was a big deal that it was finally her turn to get a check up! She loved the whole thing, and was enthusiastic about getting a shot. It was just a flu shot, but I decided to go ahead and get it because she loves to pretend to get shots, and I thought we might as well make the experience authentic. I think it hurt more than it does when we play pretend, but she was a good sport about it, and we went and got a donut after the appointment to offset her pain.

 On Lyla's birthday, I went to the grocery store before Lyla woke up and picked up some balloons. Then, when Lyla woke up, we went in and sang happy birthday to her. She was grinning and when we were done, she asked "Is it my birthday?". When we told her "yes", she was so excited because she has been asking us for a long time if it was her birthday yet. Then we led her out into the family room and showed her the balloons and she was super excited about them and that the birthday banner was up. She played with the balloons for a while and then we had Ears for breakfast, which are her favorite. After that, we gave her a small gift of a wooden wand that you decorate yourself, and she had a great time painting and decorating that.

After her nap (which she decided to skip that day....) we picked up Daddy and headed up to Kangaroo Zoo with Mya, Owen, Mimi, and Aunt Liz. It may not have been the adult's favorite place, but the kids had a great time! After that we headed up to Mimi and Papa's house for Pizza and cake and ice cream. Lyla requested a pink cake and was excited that it was finally time to blow out the candles. She was spoiled (and overwhelmed) with lots of presents, including a doctor's set, which she loved playing with that night and has enjoyed ever since. Todd, Penny, and I have enjoyed getting lots of check ups since her birthday! Overall, it was a really fun day and I think Lyla had a great time. She seems to understand pretty well that she is now three.

Lyla and her balloons

Opening her first birthday present

Getting measured at the doctor--she was in the 82% for height this year and 60% for weight

Waiting for the doctor to show up

Lyla and Doctor Schmidt

Lyla and Owen before Kangaroo Zoo

The birthday girl

Lyla and Papa before presents

We saved one of her presents for the next morning--this is right after she opened her robe

Penny at One Month

Penny is one month! She is the sweetest little thing. She is a great eater and sleeper. She usually goes to bed around midnight, wakes up once to eat, then goes back down till somewhere between 7 and 9. She cries very infrequently, can be a little fussy, but never for very long periods of time, and looks like she might be close to smiling. Every once in a while she makes some really loud moaning/purring noises that are really funny. The biggest complaint about this little one is that she spits up all the time! Lyla pretty much didn't spit up...like I didn't even carry a burp cloth around with me, so that's taken a little getting used to. We are so glad to have Penny as part of our Family!

First Half of 2015

Here are some of the going ons of the first half of 2015...

Ready for Church on Easter Sunday

Lyla waiting for the neighborhood Easter egg hunt to begin.

They had a huge turnout this year!

Getting ready for the egg hunt at Debbie's house

Lyla with some of her cousins

This year Lyla definitely understood the egg hunt thing a lot better than last year. As her mom, I also learned that you are supposed to have a basket of sorts to collect the eggs in, so we both came a long way since last year!

Lyla at Bear Lake in June for my family reunion

Lyla and Dad

Lyla got her first taste of Aggie ice cream--and she even chose Blue Mint!

Todd's Birthday

It was such a joy to welcome baby Emily here safely on Todd's birthday. She has been such a healing influence for our entire family.

Lyla and Mya on the giant slip n slide at the Barfuss Family Reunion

She was pretty stoked about it

Lyla and her dad are always cute together

Lyla getting pushed by Uncle J on the Forth of July

Our fam on the Fourth

Grandpa and Lyla

Lyla doing Daddy's hair

Lyla meeting baby Emily and getting some good big sister practice in

Baby #2

Did I mention that we're having another baby! Baby girl #2 is due October 15th, 2015. I found out I was pregnant the day before Valentine's day, when Lyla and I were in California. Initially (for like 15 minutes), I was thinking that I would wait till Valentines day to tell Todd, but I quickly decided that I didn't want to wait, so Lyla and I Face Timed him and shared the news. I prepped Lyla before to say "big sister", and she actually did a better job translating it to her dad than I expected. She also held up the pregnancy test for him and the great thing about doing over Face Time was that I was able to take some screen shots of Todd's face. We were both pretty happy about the news, because it felt like we'd been planning this baby for a long time, and everything was finally coming together.

Todd's reaction to the news

The day I flew home from California was the first day the nausea started. I was 4 weeks, 6 days, but I later found out I was really 5 weeks, 6 days. Here I sit at almost 30 weeks, still feeling the nausea everyday, but thankfully it has gradually eased up quite a bit since week 17/18 or so. Sometimes I can't believe that its been almost 24 weeks since then because I still feel like I have a ways to go. Luckily with Lyla I learned through experience that even terrible pregnancies come to an end, and I am excited to get through the next 2 months or so to baby time!

We found out on May 29th that our baby is a girl! Todd and I were both surprised at how unprepared we were for the news. Todd was really hoping boy, and even though my final guess was girl, I was still caught a little off guard. I think we were both tearing up a little when the tech left, but not the same way as at Lyla's ultrasound. I was thinking about my girl Lyla and her dad and their sweet relationship, and picturing this other girl forcing her way in and pushing Lyla out. Todd was wondering how on earth he could have the capacity/strength to care about another girl the way he does Lyla. Anyways, I write this down because even at the time I knew we were being silly, but the feelings were still there. The more time goes on, the more excited I am about having two little girls and a sister for Lyla. I know by the time she is born, we would never choose to have it any other way!

Trying to tell Lyla about her baby sister after our appointment

As a side note, anytime we would ask Lyla if she wanted a baby brother or baby sister, she would say sister. Every time. My sister claims that the kids always know, so her final guess was girl based on that. Lyla was right!

Also, in the beginning of the pregnancy I was really thinking boy, but the closer we got to finding out, the more I started thinking girl. I would say my final guess was also girl. We are excited, and October 15th can't come soon enough! We're excited to meet this girl, and maybe more excited to be released from this prison that is pregnancy!

Mother's Day

Here is a snap from Mother's Day 2015, and one below from 2014. I sure love my girl and am so grateful to be her mama!

Love this little girl of mine. 17.5 weeks pregnant with girl #2 here.

I realized that Lyla and I had accidentally matching outfits from this skirt that I made last summer, and this dress that Laura bought her. I figured mother's day was as good an excuse as any to match my girl!

Mother's day 2014

Our Girl

Lyla (around age 2.5) continues to get older, more fun, and more challenging all at the same time. She keeps us constantly entertained with the thing she says and does.

She is so manipulative in the way she asks for things. She will put on the sweetest little voice and say things like "want to go outside with us?" or she will come into your room while you're still in bed, climb up on you with her face half an inch away from yours and ask with a big smile "want to go watch Daniel Tiger on the TV?". It is almost impossible to say no. 

Basketball is the sport she is most aware of and if she sees me putting on running shoes or anything remotely athletic, she'll ask "you play basaketball, mommy?"

One morning when I was laying in bed feeling terrible, due to the pregnancy, she looks me in the eye and says "Don't be sad. Get better". Then a minute later she declares "Mommy better!"

If she can't get at something, she'll say "I can't reach it. My hands are big!". She always says it a little sad/questiony/ and matter of factly at the same time.

Sometimes uses "gurrr-riffic" as an expression in every day life, thanks to Daniel Tiger.

Lyla was in bed one night with her door closed and Todd sneezed from the other room, and we hear Lyla yell from her crib "Bless you!".

We were driving in the car and she exclaimed, "Look at that clouds! Up on the sky!".

Lays down on concrete steps, "That's cozy"

Lyla can identify pretty much all her letters (capitals, that is). She loves to sing the alphabet song too, but she always skips a chunk of letters.

Loves to say "Mun more time." very matter of factly when I tell her that we are done with something. I always thought her tone was funny, and then one day I realized that she was imitating me when I tell her she has one more time. 

Lyla is great at shapes, and also at identifying them in real life. For example, she will lay on her back at church and start listing off, "rectangle, circle", because she sees that the lights on the ceiling are shaped like that. She was holding two crayons and they made a "V" shape in her hands and she said "Oh, a triange!". She pointed to my glasses and said "mommy's glasses....rectangle" to one of the lenses. She likes to sit in the bath when the water level is right and lower the knee on a straightened leg and try to get the water to make either a diamond or a circle on her knee as it goes down. She seems to have a very practical grasp of how shapes translate to the real world. I am impressed!

Likes to declare herself as "Super Lyla" and even referred to me as "Super Mommy" the other day.

On a less cute note, Lyla has become obsessed about doing everything herself. All we seem to hear these days is "I do it!", "I can do it", or "I want can do it!". She tends to freak if you don't let her try herself, and I thought it was bad, but over the weekend it got about 5 times worse. The melt downs after not letting her do things that she really can't do (like zip up her dress) are epic. And seem to happen all day long. We are trying to stay patient and figure our how to navigate this phase. Just when we think we're experiencing  the terrible twos, something else happens that lets us know we haven't seen anything yet!