Lyla Says

I was watching Ivy one day before Christmas and I asked Lyla who was coming over and prompted "baby..." And she yelled back "yeesus!" (Jesus)

When we've had Christmas music playing in the car, she'll sometimes exclaim "yesus music!"

Whispers "oh gosh" to her self when she drops something/ something goes wrong

If she doesn't like something, she says. "No I like it".

She's pretty good with song lyrics. One of her favorites is "Ain't it Fun" by Paramore. The chorus says "Don't go crying to your mama, cause you're on your own in the real world" She sings "cryint a mama, on own, in weal wold"

She still loves Taylor Swift and can finish all the lines in "Shake it Off" or "Blank Space". When "Blank Space" comes on, she says "Taylor Swift!"

She also loves to sing songs from Daniel Tiger. "Ok sad times. by little, by little, better again" ("Its ok to feel sad sometimes, little, by little, you'll feel better again")

We like to ask her "Who loves Lyla?" and she always responds first with "Daddy love you", and then will go on to list other people..."Papa yuh you, Mya yuh you, etc". We all love playing that game

When she does puzzles, instead of saying a piece "goes here", she says "comes here". She also likes to tell me "good job Mommy" when I put a piece together.

She's very good about saying thank you and sometimes says "Thank you so much!", but it sounds like "Thank you that much!".

She loves to jump on her mattress before bed and say "Buncy Buncy" (bouncy bouncy)

When she wants us to go somewhere she will grab our hand and say "come on Mommy (or Daddy), a go!"

When she wants something (usually good looking food), she'll say "I want summa dat"

She still loves loves Daniel Tiger and the ways she says the characters names is so cute. Prince Wednesday sounds a lot like "french fry", Miss Elaina is "Salaina", Katerina Kittycat is "Keena", O the Owl is just Owl, and she does pretty well with Daniel Tiger.

Lyla at Two

A few things about Lyla...I started this when she turned 2, but a lot has changed in the last 2 months. Especially her speech.

When I ask Lyla to ask nicely for something, she always says "watient!" (patient) **now she says "pain-tient"

Is starting to put words together and make small sentences "I want more" or "Daddy's cup"

Is really good at assigning ownership to things. Last week her cousins came over and had some snacks, and now when she sees the bowl that Emme used, she points at it and says "Emme's!", or "Eliza's" for the cup Eliza used.

Loves to dance still. Shake it off by Taylor Swift has been her favorite for months, but she also really likes "cool kids" by Echosmith.we get lots of demands to hear both of them around our house.

She knows most of her colors, and loves to point them out when she sees them. Orange seems to be her favorite so far. She loves to ask for "yellow spoon", " blue one", "orange sippy"

Gets so excited when football is on. If she sees a tv with a game on, she yells "football!!". She also has been trained to say "go Broncos!"

She looovvvees snow. She is always asking for snowballs that she can eat. She has always loved ice, so it goes right along with that.

She is still obsessed with her dad. Todd and I switch off getting up with her in the mornings, and she usually calls for him when she wakes up. When its my morning, I stand outside the door and tell her its Mommy, not Daddy, and she usually screams "no!", and throws herself down on the mattress and screams for a bit till she can get it together and be ok with Mommy ;).

She will go limp and lay on the ground and say "I dinosaur". We're not really sure where she got it from, but its pretty cute until you're in the middle of the grocery store and she does it.

She asks Todd every day when he comes home from work "Fun work, Daddy?". It's so cute and sweet.

I thought that she had hit the terrible twos early, but I was wrong. She appears to have hit them now, and they live up to the name. It is still sooo much fun around here though!

Chicago!

In early December, Andy and Julie took Todd, Lyla, Laura, and I to Chicago to visit Spencer and Sydney. It was so much fun! We loved seeing where they lived, seeing the sites in the city, and getting to know their ward.  We had such a great time and ate way too much food (two kinds of deep dish, lots of ice cream, the best pumpkin pancakes at Bongo Room, and Sprinkles cupcakes).

We also got to see A Christmas Carol at Goodman's Theater, shop at the coolest Macy's, see the American Girl Doll store, and visit the Shedd Aquarium. I never thought that I would want to go to Chicago in the winter, but I really loved going right before Christmas. It felt so festive to see all the decorations, and having a little cold felt like we were getting a little of the real Chicago experience--but on a very tame scale. Sydney and Spencer were the best tour guides, and we love that we can now picture their lives in Chicago! It was such an awesome trip, and it already has me pining to go again someday.

Us on Michigan Avenue!

We started the trip off right with a visit to Shake Shack

Did you know that there's a river through the city? I didn't!

It was so fun to share the trip with these two

Exploring the American Girl Doll store

Julie with Julie

It might be a good thing that we already got Lyla a doll for her birthday, or you better believe we would have walked out of there with a Bitty Baby

She had a blast playing with the babies

But Gwen is still her favorite baby

Our family at the American Girl Doll store

Lets be honest, this stop was for me, not Lyla

At Millenial Park by the Bean statue

Bean Selfie 

Laura Bean selfie

Family Bean selfie!

Julie was super patient while Syd and I tried on fancy dresses at Macy's. We were both seriously wishing we could go to prom again!

Lyla's favorite trip--playing with Gwen's binky

Sprinkles sampling

The two people who made it all happen! Love them!

Hot Chocolate the size of our face!

So long Chicago! Thanks Andy, Julie, Spencer, and Sydney for the best trip ever! It was definitely one of the highlights of 2014!