Lila’s getting older by the day. She’s walking, running, talking up a STORM, and has a brand new fresh sassy attitude to go along with it all. She certainly has a mind of her own, and isn’t afraid to show it (to us, anyway–she’s still shy towards most people she’s not around a lot). She’s such a tomboy too–certainly not delicate or cautious. She’ll dive head-first off the couch if I let her, and doesn’t even flinch over skinned knees.

She can tell us the sounds a snake, owl, monkey, cow, sheep, and pig make, and sometimes a dog and cat too. Her pig says “la la la!” though, after the Sandra Boynton book. It’s adorable. She can also say a ton of words…off the top of my head: mama, dada, Lila, hi, bye-bye, all done, whoa, tubba (tub), pizza, cheese, water, bubbles, dog, ball, up, Roxie (this one is a stretch, but I can recognize it), and sometimes Gracie (her cousin).

In April, we attempted pics of Gracie & Lila at Easter…these were interesting.




We did also take some cute ones of them on their first Egg Hunt:


We also took the girls with some friends of ours to the Boston Marathon, which I posted about on my business blog here.

And lastly, we found out that Lila’s going to have a new cousin around November 10th! I’m trying to work on an 11/11 Birth Day for Gracie’s new little brother or sister, so we can share a birthday.

May has been an absolute whirlwind as well. So much so, that I’m SUPER behind on photos for May. But here are a few recent ones of the little monkey.

(Water table fun with her 2 best friends.)

(Isn’t her bathing suit the cutest thing ever??)

I’m working on getting caught up on the rest of the photos, and trying to post more! We have a super busy and fun-filled summer ahead of us, can’t wait!

Before I get to them, here is my disclaimer:

the weather was rotten this day. Wet, rainy, windy, cold, and DARK. Any of you who have been to my house know this is a recipe for disaster when it comes to photos. Add in about 50 people (including 12+ kids under the age of 4), and…well, it’s not pretty. It’s FUN, but not pretty.

I was also so busy playing hostess, that I didn’t take ANY of these. My super star sister and father in law took them. I took the liberty of turning them all black & white–lifestyle photography just looks cooler this way. And since it’s my blog, I can do what I want.

Without further ado (and yes, Easter is up next, you will see a repeat of these dresses, and in color too!):

(Apparently my kid hates cake. She must be adopted!)

(Saddest birthday girl in the world…)

Lila wasn’t really as miserable as you’d think. She was totally overwhelmed by all the love, that’s all. She takes after her mom, and isn’t much of a fan of attention. I will be more on top of my game next year, promise! Thanks, C & G, for capturing the images you did, we really appreciate it!

Here are some additional pics, as always!

My weekly project photo is now up on my biz blog. But you guys know I always post extras here, so I came right over to do so. We were outside yesterday, enjoying the balmy 40 degree weather, and wishing for spring.

And woke up to snow. UGH. Mother Nature, seriously. There are a lot of moms and little kids DREAMING about the park, going for walks, running around in the grass, swings, slides, and wagon rides. Cut us some slack, will ya?

Onward to the photos, I have to get moving on that birthday post before she turns 2!

(LOVE this pic!! She’s such a goofball!)

SO, this week’s post is just going to be a regular post. I have posted my weekly image over on the business blog, and added the color version below, along with a couple of extras. I don’t have much new to talk about, except for Lila now saying “hi, Lila!” if I say it first. She also nods, and it’s HILARIOUS.

Without further adieu, because I need to get to bed, as we’re going to the NICU first thing in the morning, before her party.

Today, Lila:

- ate 3 good meals, for once; she still threw a lot on the floor, but a lot made it into her mouth, without a struggle
- took 2 good naps: over an hour each
- gives “hugs”, and omg, it is the best thing in the WORLD. If I ask her for a hug, she will lay her head down on my chest, and say “awww”. I about died.

Her cold is almost over too, YAY. Hopefully I can get rid of the chapped cheeks before Party Central next week.

I had to document some of today, so, bonus pics too!!

Seriously, with the red hair. Whose kid is this?? She is a bit clingy these days, so this is typical for us. I love it.

ALWAYS with something in her mouth.

Eating my lens cap.

Super charged with static electricity, from playing on the couch.

Oh, how I love good days.

For now, here are a couple of random pics I never put on here.

(August 2009, in her room.)

(November 2009, on our way to get our Christmas tree.)

If you’re on my Facebook, you know that Lila took her first “official” steps this week. Real, intentional steps. She’s not walking yet by any means, but she will take steps here and there if we set her up to do so. She gets SO excited, it’s adorable.

I am working like crazy these days, to get everything ready for her birthday next week. I can NOT believe she’s going to be one. Our plan for the day (yay that it’s a Saturday) is to go to the NICU at Children’s in the morning, and say hello to everyone, drop off some goodies, and show off what an amazing job they all did last year. Then it’s back home for celebrating with family and friends!! And lots of tears from mom, I’m sure.

Let the countdown begin.

She was a champion traveler. She not only was happy and quiet while we were checking in (with 20 minutes until our flight took off…that was interesting) and going through security, she was awesome on the plane. Smiling, happy, chatting, and waving at everyone. Her ears didn’t bother her at all, and she didn’t get loud or upset on either flight. I’m now in the process of booking our trip to Hawaii.

Kidding! (I WISH I were making that phone call, haha.)

We flew to DC to see Jon’s family. And given my no-longer-shocking tendency for impeccable timing, we flew in Friday morning, right as their Epic Snowstorm was beginning. We were housebound for 3 days, barely making it out of there on Monday, before the next storm hit. We did have a great time with everyone though. Lila napped pretty well, and slept fine the 3rd night–the first 2 nights, she decided it was Wheeee!! Playtime!!! from 9:30pm-12:00am, so that was fun.

Here are some pics I took over the weekend, I think when we left on Monday, the snowfall was around 28″ for them.

(this is their front yard; there is also a buried car in this shot!)

The guys went out to shovel on Saturday afternoon, after the snow started to let up.

While Grandma and Lila and I stayed in. Those guys are so good to us!

(Lila’s new buddy, who was super tolerant…quite the opposite of our monster, Roxie.)

Our trip out of all of this was quite interesting. Jon’s mom lives on a hill, in a valley. That probably doesn’t make much sense. Let me put it this way: we had to go down a 1/3 mile long driveway (down a hill), to go back up a hill that is their road, to get out to the main road. And their road was not plowed. A tractor had made a small path, that was still snow-covered, but allowed people to walk up to the main road, or the tractors to come down. The tractors were plowing the driveways, as plows hadn’t made it down to this area yet. The one plow that did come, broke.

(looking up the street)

(the tractor plowing their driveway)

(the broken plow–you can see the sheer volume of snow here!)

So to get out to the main road, Jon and his step-dad took our rental car, and cautiously went down the driveway. Then backed up on the road, to get a running start, and just went for it. They made it up to the top–we were all SHOCKED, and came back for Lila & I. We all walked down the ice-covered driveway (I was wearing Lila in an Ergo carrier), and walked up the road to the car. About 1/2 way up, their neighbor came up behind us on his tractor, and Lila and I got a ride to the car. Oh yes, you read that right! Lila’s first tractor ride. Sitting in her Ergo, strapped to me, standing on a tractor. It was definitely interesting.

Sooo, that was our adventure-filled weekend! We made it to our flight home, with 13 minutes to spare, and came home to grass (brown, but still), it was so strange.

Don’t forget to head over to the biz blog for more pics from the weekend!

I’ll keep this short, because I’m posting this week’s image/update tomorrow or Wednesday, and that’ll be a good one, from our trip this past weekend (see: Lila’s first plane ride! 28″ of snow! Lila’s first tractor ride! Lots of exclamation points involved!). In short, last week was low-key, just errands, napping, and hanging out. Still loving Mickey, and standing on her own for a second or two at a time.

You’ll want to go to my biz blog for the project image, but here are some old pics I was FINALLY able to edit while we were away. I can finally say that I am totally caught up on editing 2009 pics. No, SERIOUSLY. I can barely believe it myself. It feels awesome. These are from Nov/Dec.

And one newer one, from last week.

O.

M.

G.

I am speechless at how quickly the last year has flown by. There were times when I felt it couldn’t move any slower, but wow, here we are. We are planning her party (well, one of us is), and it just feels surreal! I was going to write a “Dear Lila, you are 11 months old” post, but I’ve decided to save it all for the Big Post in a month. I should start writing it now though!

Lila’s latest “trick” that makes us stop everything is when she decides to stop holding on to anything, and just stands there. STANDING. On her own. EEEK! She realizes what she’s doing after a couple of seconds, and immediately grabs on to something, or sits down quickly, as if she couldn’t believe she was doing it either. She now likes to “walk” everywhere, holding on to my fingers. It won’t be long now!!

Lila also had her first ear infection last week, so we had to cancel our trip to see Lila’s grandma, grandpa, and great-grandma over the weekend. We have rescheduled though, so we will get to see everyone soon! I’m a bit nervous about her first plane ride, but I’m hoping she once again proves me wrong and is a great traveler. If not, well, it will just have to be cocktail hour when we land–at 10am.

My latest project post is up on the biz blog. My parents were here this week, watching my niece. She was pretty sick last week with pneumonia, and was in the hospital for a few days. But she is on the mend, thankfully. We spent a couple of days with them, I love how comfortable Lila is getting with people. She no longer screams if I leave her side, and recognizes them when she sees them, with a little smile and a shy wave.

Here are some extras from the past couple of days. Be sure to check out Week 4 over at MJP too! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

(saying “hellooo”!)

(Grandparents/family, don’t worry, I will be uploading ALL new pics to Lila’s galleries for you very soon! Like this weekend. Promise. And I have a BUNCH, b/c I am trying to stay on top of editing this year. So far, I am totally caught up!)