Speed Racers

Lyla has started riding in the car, and she is cracking us up in it. She LOVES it! She gets so excited that she kicks her feet on the bottom of the car and squeals and laughs. Because she still has such little hair, we think it's so funny because she looks like such a baby riding in the car, but as long as she's got her seatbelt on, she does great and has a ball!

Oh, What a Night!

Last night was a very special night for Nina and Emme. Shenley and I took them to Disney on Ice at the Patriot Center. Since Mark was out of town, Lyla stayed home with a babysitter (Ryleigh stayed home too), and the girls got a special night out. We started the evening by going out to dinner, then we went to the show. The girls had a wonderful time, and we think they really enjoyed the special evening out. I took a lot of pictures, so click on the link below to view my web album!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amandabeth2/030?authkey=95vHhNligj0#

Swingers!

For those of you thinking this was a juicy post about Mark and I, shame on you! I'm speaking of the children!

Buddies

We are very lucky to have great buddies that live in our neighborhood. Nina and Casimir are great playmates who were born only about two weeks apart. Casimir became a big brother in July to Benjamin (in the picture below with me and Nina), so he and Lyla are only a few months apart. Caz and Ben's mommy and daddy are very cool, so get togethers are a lot of fun. Teresa took these pictures for us the last time we were over. Caz has taught Nina how to play grocery store, and Teresa and I are quite confident that we're raising the world's two most enthusiastic cashiers!

It's the Little Things

If the little things in life ever drive you crazy, then you're right there with me on this post. When we were getting ready to move, it was all those little things left to pack that really don't have a well labeled/organized box to go in...they seem to take forever to pack. In my teaching days, it was the little administrative duties that would seem to pile up. In my life as domestic survivalist, it's feeding time. Lyla is lightning fast with her little hands (thanks, Mark). I try to put the spoon of food in her mouth, and no matter how fast I try to get it out of her mouth after putting it in, she grabs hold of it with a baby death grip, and smears it everywhere. Those of you who know baby feeding, know that there is an inordinant amount of baby food that the baby pushes out of the mouth and proceeds to drip down the chin and onto the neck and chest. A "good" baby feeder, uses the spoon to efficiently swipe the food leaving the mouth and re-feed it to the baby. At least, that's how they do it in the movies. As I'm watching Lyla's food drip down her chin, I'm wrestling with a 6 month old to try to get the spoon while losing the battle and watching the food then fall to her neck and onto her chest. For my toddler, she is a self-imposed pastatarian. She will not eat ANY meat products, and we've tried them all...many times. No matter how I try to hide it in her food, disguise it as something else, put eyes and ears on it to make it look cute, demand that it be eaten, or give her no other food until she eats the meat, she won't eat meat. As I get these guys set up to eat, I realize that I have no idea what I'm going to eat myself. Where's the personal chef when you need one?
Ok, all of that to say, those little things get me bogged down. I don't know about anyone else out there, but it's so easy to focus on the little things. I have a friend, Megan, who is focusing on the big things. She and her hubby are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. While they wait for their child, Meg has taken on the challenge of raising awareness for the plight of children in Ethiopia (www.run4ethiopia.com) by running the Richmond Marathon on their behalf. I'm inspired to pick my head up from the little things and remember that there is a whole, huge world out there who would love to have picky eaters be their problem. They'd just be thankful for food, freedom, a home...you get the picture.

Mousey's 2nd Annual Hawk Hunt

Today was the much anticipated 2nd annual hawk hunt, held at Mousey and Poppy's house. For those of you faithful blog followers, no, you didn't miss anything. This is the 2nd hawk hunt, but we weren't really invited to the 1st hawk hunt (Nina was too young). However, this year, the hawk hunt was a very highly anticipated event. Those of you who know my mom know that she is extremely creative. She created special invitations that she mailed to Emme and Nina, they were given instructions on what to bring, and when they arrived, they were given nets, magnifying glasses, snacks for the hunt, animal books, etc. to take with them.

This was a special activity for just the big girls and Mousey, so Shen, myself, and the little sisters stayed behind.
When we did take a walk to find the hawk hunters, we were labeled "invaders" and had to return home. From what we heard, the hawk hunt was a great success. With their binoculars, they saw quite a few hawks, a hawk nest, and other interesting things in the woods and in the field.
Ryleigh will most likely be able to join the hunt next year...
Lyla will have to spend another two years chewing on toys before she'll be old enough to join.

A Porch Pinic and Meeting Jaden

Today, the girls and I had a porch picnic. That's code for we went out in the grass and the mini-crickets and ants were too annoying, so we came up with a "porch picnic" to make it sound fun. Lyla loves playing with this little piano that Grandma and Grandpa gave Nina as a baby. It's gotten a lot of use between the two girls. Nina was entertained by a grasshopper that came up on the porch and was hopping around our picnic. Even on the porch we couldn't escape them!

Yesterday, my friend, Christa came to visit and brought her 3 month old son, Jaden. Christa's husband used to play for DC United but has since moved to the Chicago Fire, so she and Jaden made the trip from IL to come visit friends here for a few days. It was great to catch up with her, and the girls uncharacteristically napped for two hours together, so I was very happy to get some time to talk without being distracted!

Jaden, Lyla, and Nina

Not Exactly an Action Film...

If you're interested in seeing what Lyla is up to (a.k.a. watching herself in the mirror), and you don't mind over a minute of not that much action, this video is for you!

Rough Week for Lyla

To start, I took Lyla in for her 6 month check up which was rough because she got some shots, but it was also rough because the doctor noticed clicking in her right hip and suggested x-rays to make sure there wasn't a bone problem. The next morning, we waited 1 1/2 hours for her to get x-rays on her hip. She was so tired by the time they took her back to the x-ray room that she layed completely still while they took x-rays of her hip (which was a good thing). The x-rays came back ok, but they noticed the groove that her hip bone sits in is a little shallow, therefore we'll have to watch for signs of dislocation while she's a baby. That was followed up by being on the receiving end of a toy thrown by her sister. The toy hit Lyla in the eye, thankfully missing her eye ball, but cutting the area of the lower lash. It scared me to death because I looked down at her, and there was blood pouring from her eye, and the cut was so close to her eye ball, that I thought it was actually coming from her eye ball. After panicing, I raced both girls to the doctor where the pediatrician cleaned up the blood and saw that we "dodged a major bullet" and that no damage to the eye had been done. Once the swelling went down, the cut healed quickly, and she was back to her old self again. It's been a bit of a tough week for her, but hopefully this coming week will bring much better things to blog about!!!

Time at the Pond

Hanging out at the pond... Shhh, be quiet (she did say that).

6 Months Old

Lyla turned six months old yesterday. It's hard to believe she's already half-way to a year. She is still such a sweet little girl who loves her sister, chewing on anything and everything, and log rolling all over the room. She's very tickelish, and she's still considered quite tall for her age.

A Little Bit of a Pest

Even though Lyla is sweet and so good, she is getting to be a little bit pesty, but in a funny way. She has definitely got some tricks up her sleeve to pest her sister. Here she is in Nina's bed stealing Nina's treasured blanket. She is a major hair puller - both to me and Nina. She actually did a double fisted hair pull on Nina yesterday that made Nina start sobbing.
Being a younger sister myself, with an older sister almost exactly the same amount of time apart as Nina and Lyla, I know that little sisters definitely have an important role to play in being a pest to their older sister, but it's good to remember that there are plenty of happy sister moments ahead.
Congrats to DC United for winning the U.S. Open Cup championship last night. The girls and I didn't make it to the game (sad), but I watched it on TV, and Nina got to wear Mark's medal around her neck this morning.

Feed the Turtles...Bread?

We walked over to the small pond today to feed the turtles. We feed them bread, and, surprisingly they eat it sometimes. This guy here was our main visitor. There were about seven others who swam over, but he seemed to be the most interested in the bread.
Lyla was just interesed in hanging out and watching us throw bread into the pond.
If you click on this picture to make it bigger, it's kind of cool because of the way the feathers and rose are laying together at the edge of the pond. I think they just happened to fall that way (there are a lot of rose bushes in the community), so I thought it was pretty neat.

The Tale of Two Siblings

They look happy here, right? Lyla's face might not be all that convincing, but Nina sure looked happy enough. The three of us look pretty happy here as well...when did things turn south?

Lyla is thinking, does this qualify as sister abuse? A lizard lure on my head (placed there by Nina) isn't exactly the look I was going for. Even here, when Nina climbed into Lyla's stroller before the game started, she looks pretty happy. This was just evidence that I wasn't insane to taking them to the game this Saturday - they did actually look happy for a time. Fast forward to half time of the game when the three of us are walking through the parking lot to the car (two of us are crying - guess who?). Oh well, it was a try!