Dancing Queen

First Swim

We are lucky enough to have a dear friend and neighbor, Teresa, who not only begs to babysit Lyla but also happens to have a pool. (woohoo) So we slathered on the sunscreen and had a ball. Lyla loves her baths so it was no surprise that she loved the pool. She loved to splash away just like in the tub and was tougher than the adults were when it came to adjusting to the cold water. By the way, I think Teresa is as bad as I am when it comes to taking tons of pictures of Lyla...I guess she just brings it out in people. Summer is here and you know where you can find us!

Roller Coaster

We rolled the windows down on the way home from dinner Saturday night. Lyla's hair was all over the place. She looks like she is riding a roller coaster. If only I could have gotten her to put her hands up for the picture. If she is anything like her parents, she'll have them in the air one day.

Undecided

I was feeding Lyla dinner last night and she kept giving me mixed signals. She would push the spoon away with her hand which usually means she is full. Then I would ask her if she was "all finished" and she would shake her head. So I would ask if she wanted "more" and would get the head-shake again. Then she started adding the word "no."

She is talking more and more & mimics well, too. Lyla saw a kitten the other day and I said "look at the kitty cat" and she said "caa." A neighbor met us at the fence to give Lyla a dress she had bought and I told Lyla to tell her "thank you" and she said "tank." Then today at her friend AR's 2nd birthday party she "tanked" her Aunt Ashley for telling her she had a pretty dress then someone asked Lyla if she was going into the living room and she said what sounded like "yes." The best one so far was when Daddy came home from work yesterday and she waved saying "hi, dada." We were both so excited.

Kisses

playing peekaboo

walking or dancing?

Lane needed some camera time, too

Lyla tries to give Lane a kiss

Can you tell that Lyla loves her Easter Bunny?

Happy Father's Day!

For Seth's first Father's Day, Lyla got him a precious card (complete with a traced hand) and an electric ice cream maker. I made peanut butter cup for him today and will try strawberry tomorrow. It's the perfect gift because everyone can enjoy it! They stamped Lyla's footprint in the nursery at church today and put it alongside the following poem. I don't think it could be more fitting considering Lyla's latest milestone.

Walk a Little Slower Daddy

"Walk a Little slower, Daddy" said a little child so small.

I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see;

So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.

Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be.

Then I will have a little child who'll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!

- Author Unknown

Walking update: I guess I saw this coming but now that Lyla is walking, there is no turning your back on her...not even for a second. All doors except the one to her bedroom will now have to be closed and lower shelves cleaned off. We started counting her steps--first 6, then 10 and finally 21...we stopped counting after that. She thinks falling down is funny especially when you say "boom." She just walks all over the place and if she falls down, she pops up and keeps going. She loves walking around barefoot and gets mad when we put shoes on her feet. She's not sure about walking in shoes yet. Enjoy the clip.

Hope everyone is having a Happy Father's Day!

Another first...

As the author of this blog, I have the power to be selective about what gets posted. I mostly try to post about Lyla...because she is the most interesting family member these days. Let's face it, people don't check in regularly to see about Seth's day at work or what I am fixing for dinner each night. However, I will change gears for a moment and tell you that I used a lawn mower for the first time in my life today. Not to be sexist or anything but growing up with a dad and brother (and having a pretty steep front lawn), it never even entered my mind to mow the lawn. Then I married Seth, a John Deere mechanic who is somewhat particular about lawncare and has always been afraid I would break the mower. Plus I think he secretly enjoys it. But today I finally asked if I could give it a try. I didn't really have the option to "baby step" into this either...as you can see, I went straight to the hummer model of riding lawn mowers. I think my face in the first picture pretty much says it all, don't you?

p.s. I have been trying to upload a walking video tonight too but it just won't work. Sorry, I'll try again tomorrow.

One small step...

...but one GIANT leap in the Martin household. This is just a snippet of Lyla's first baby steps. I tried and tried to capture more steps but her feet seemed to be glued to the floor. Then when she was just playing in her room (and the camera was safe in the kitchen) she took 6 little steps in a row. Before today she had taken a step or two as she would lean toward things or people but now she is taking them in the middle of the room with no nearby destination. Her confidence is definitely building which means our hands will really be full soon. Lyla is so thoughtful to be working on such a nice Father's Day gift for Daddy. I mean, does she have good timing or what?

Counting down

Today begins the countdown to Lyla's first birthday. One month from today she will be digging into some birthday cake...she won't understand why but she won't care either. Here are just a few little stories to share. Probably not a shock to anyone but she was called the "chatterbox" of the nursery Sunday. And just last week at her Granny's office she stood on the desk and appeared to be preaching to anyone listening. She was a riot. Lyla also likes to make herself comfortable in any situation. Examples: 1) she usually kicks back and props her legs up when she is in her stroller 2) while I bagged our groceries this past week she turned herself completely sideways in the cart and had her legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles and 3) my personal favorite--I had to put a phonebook behind her back when she's in the high chair because she kept pulling her legs up and to the side and even got her foot stuck a couple times. The phonebook seems to be working for now. She can wave (and sometimes say) "hi" and "bye" and sometimes we think she is saying "doggy" but we're not sure. She squeals, mumbles and as you know, she has gotten pretty good at growling on cue. One of the sweetest parts about her growl is that since her daddy is the one who taught her, she associates growling with him. You can ask her, "where's Daddy?" and she will growl. And just last night when he walked in the door he growled and even though she couldn't see him yet, her face lit up with excitement that Daddy was home and she took off for the door. And now for the video--my dad asked me if his granddaughter was going to talk to animals because now she is learning how to cluck like a chicken. Maybe she will be Dr. Doolittle, who knows...

Did someone say bugspray?

We joined some friends from church for a fish fry and a few games of cornhole this weekend. Seth's crappie was once again a big hit...and I enjoyed my bbq chicken. :) The Shorts and Bransons were the best hosts, as always. We enjoyed a good meal, played cornhole by the light of tiki torches and didn't call it a night until some time after midnight. As usual, Lyla was the life of the party and was pretty much passed around all night. She loved swinging and crawling around and walking in the grass. However, she was so worn out by bedtime that her bath was a less-than-pleasant experience. She slept well, though, that's for sure. The mosquitoes were out in full force but the good news is that they seemed to stay away from Lyla. All I can say is summer is here and my legs are itching.

Shawn & Lyla...have a birthday just around the corner

Rachel, Lyla & Suzanne swinging and watching cornhole

Lyla loves the grass

Someone is getting sleepy

Shane walks Lyla around the yard

*Some people (you know who you are) insist on pronouncing crappie incorrectly--please feel free to listen to Webster's pronunciation.*

Can ya hear me now?

Windblown

We have been trying to keep the windows open as much as possible these days until recently when temperatures hit the upper 80s and even 90 today! Lyla's toy basket is by a window in the front of the house and these pictures were taken on an open-window day. Gotta love the windblown look.

Camera Happy

If you only knew how often I fill up my 2GB camera card, you wouldn't believe me. So, I'm not going to tell you. Ha. Anyway, I was snapping pictures away last week in an effort to find the perfect picture to submit to Good Morning America & Baby Talk magazine's cover contest. Unfortunately, Lyla's tongue and interest in the camera made this very difficult. We finally decided on a picture taken a couple weeks ago. However, since Lyla doesn't take a bad picture (not that I know of, anyway) I thought you would like to see some of the "honorable mentions."

I have a video showing Lyla squatting and standing on her own but it isn't uploading for some reason. I'll keep trying. Most of the time she stands up and claps for herself because that's what we usually do when she stands. Seth even saw her move her foot yesterday so that first step could happen any day now. She is already so active and hard to keep up with--I am not as anxious for her to walk as I thought I was. She has all the time in the world to walk, right?