She's going to be my Drama Queen

Last night my mom, aka Cita, took Leila and I to an outdoor play at Demons Park. It was Rent! Which is like our favorite play. We saw it when we went to New York City on Broadway during our Mother-Daughter trip back in 2006. Love it! It was so much fun. You bring your own food and drinks and you sit on blankets. We had seats in the premiere blanket seating (oh lala... lol) and got there early enough that there was only one couple in front of us. Leila loved it too! Of course she had a blast smiling and laughing with strangers near by and Cita and I enjoyed some wine and watching her. I have to say Leila has got rhythm. Anytime there was music being played, she was clapping and bouncing her cute little butt to the beat! Here are some pics from the play:

We ran into a friend of my mom's, Michele! She was a blast from the past. Havent seen her since i was in high school. Boy is she funny!

Leila also got to meet the cast! They were all very nice!

Here she is with "Angel"

Here with Mimi and Maureen

Leila Flirting with "Mark"

It was such a great night. I love my mom so much and she nailed this gift! Quality Time with my favs!

Oh and i forgot to mention... We found a tooth! Leila's first tooth has broken through! Yay! After 5 months of our Doctors telling us she is "teething" we see some results!

Oh and we did have a brief standing up by herself. As in she used my leg to stand up, let go of my leg, and then fell down a couple seconds later! But its progress! She is such a smart and beautiful baby! (I know i'm biased) :)

I'm 8 months old... and boy have I grown!

April 21st was Leila 8 month birthday and its amazing the milestones we have crossed. As you know Leila is on solids, but we are pretty consistent to eating 3 meals a day! Yay! It seems that her favorite foods now are the ones mommy makes. (not just tooting my own horn, Brian noticed this!) She has mastered feeding herself gerber lil munchies and any small pieces of fruit you put in her hands. When it comes to favorite foods, there isn't one that she hates. A few flavors that need mixing, like organic spring veggies but with time she eats most. She is definitely a fruit lover! Gets that from Me i think. I am still nursing 3-5 times a day, but she is on mostly food now.

As for movement, she is in constant motion now. She can crawl all over. I have already noticed that when its quiet that means she is typically doing something she shouldn't... like shredding paper! *Side note: When i was little I couldn't pronounce my R's very well, so when watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles i used to call the bad guy the shweddah instead of Shredder*. That has now become Leila's nickname because she will shred any paper product into the littlest pieces. Besides the mess, its the cutest thing. She makes a face like "Ooh look what I'm doing." She has also been pulling herself up on anything. Who knows maybe walking will be soon!

Now as you can see I can talk, but little miss Leila has become quite the talker herself. No true words yet, but the volume has definitely increased. She is constantly laughing and smiling. She is a very happy baby. No teeth yet, but i believe they will be here relatively soon. You can feel them right under the surface. Her favorite playlist is the genius to Layla by Eric Clapton. We use this and slow dance with her at nap and bed time and it works great. Her favorite movie is still Neighborhood Animals by Baby Einstein, yet Finding Nemo is a close second ;)

She is wearing clothes from  6-9-12 months depending on the maker. She still lets me put bows and headbands on her head, but is getting better at removing them, thanks to daddy i think. Her favorite Toy right now is a pink golfball and the foul baseball we got at the rays game, pretty much anything that rolls.   She has recently become not a fan of the car seat, i believe due to our 7 hour drive down to the keys, so we are working on getting that back on the good list.

Overall, she is a happy, smiley, gabbing, singing baby girl who loves playing inside and outside!!

                                   Happy 8 months baby Leila!  

Key West... Family Vacation plus some!

This past weekend we went on a quick trip down to the keys. And Boy was she ready to go...

Leila, Brian, Nate, A.P. and I loaded up the buick and road tripped all the way down south. If you have ever been down there, it is a very long drive. Once you hit Key Largo and see the crystal clear blue water and white beaches you, or atleast me, get really excited! But then you have 2 more hours in the car until you get to Key West. But boy was it worth it. 

When we first got there, we headed straight to the beach. Played in the sand and water. Leila loved it. The waters are filled with more marine life than the st. pete beaches, so we saw some crabs, fish, and sea squirts. Being the science nerd I am, i was sure to explain to Leila ALL about them. A.P. seemed interested too. After the beach we went to Conch Republic Grill. Leila loved it because there were two huge fish tanks and she loved watching them swim by. 

The second day in Key West, Brian, Leila and I went on an adventure downtown. I was itching to absorb all the culture and show Leila the sights. Brian, however, thought it was hot. It was fun to walk the streets and look at everything. We should have picked a better time when it wasnt as hot because I would have loved to stay longer. After downtown we went back to the hotel and I got some free time. Layed out by the pool and soaked up some rays while Brian and Leila took a nap!

Our next adventure was on a glass bottom boat. The Keys are a great place to snorkel, but since Leila cant swim yet, we thought the next best thing would be to experience the coral and other marine life through plexi-glass! Plus it was a sunset cruise so after seeing all the cool fish we watched a beautiful sunset. 

On our last day in the keys we did some more exploring. This time we started a little earlier. First we went to the Keys Aquarium. There was a touch tank, turtles, sting rays, SHARKS, octupus, jelly fish, and a lot more. The octopus was very active and fun to watch. Of course right as the feeding and guide started, Leila fell asleep. Brian and I still enjoyed learning new things. We also went to the southern most point of the continental U.S. only 90 miles from Cuba, 120 miles from Miami, and 127 miles from the closest Walmart... as they tell us! lol.

After the aquarium we all regrouped and headed off to Fort Lauderdale to watch the Florida Marlins play the Pittsburgh Pirates. We didnt go because we love the teams, but because one of Brians goals is to go to all the Major League Baseball stadiums. We can cross that one off our list. It seems to be a pattern, Leila was on yet another jumbo tron! This time we got a picture, not a great one, but here is our little cutie!!

Overall, We had a great time. It was a beautiful place filled with great memories with great people. I love my friends and FAMILY!

Play Ball!

Tonight was our first Rays game. Second Twins game, but who's counting. And boy was it eventful! Our friend Nate, who works for the twins, got us great seats behind home plate. Behind the netting, where you would classify it a safe zone! But after that game, there was no safe zone! We had three foul balls come our way. The first to the right of me. Like right to the right of me. Nate caught the ball, via his back and seat, and gave it to Leila as a gift! The second ball went to the guy one row, I repeat ONE row directly in front of Leila and the third a good distance to the left of her. It was like a war zone. All of this took place in about 2 innings. You bet i was covering that beautiful baby with my life. Other than that craziness the game was a lot of fun.

Before the game, I made a circle me bert sign. For all of you who dont know, Bert Blylevin, an announcer for the Twins, circles people that make signsthat are funny or creative. I guess in our case because we had a beautiful little baby with us. Bert always comments on how many days til his bday, so on the sign i put "Circle me bert" and 129 days til Leila turns one. Which on a side note, makes me a little sad. But we were on TV. Bert Circled us! Leila's first TV experience. After that one of the Rays camera guys came. He was uneasy about putting her on camera because Brian and I had on Twins jerseys, but i assured him she was born here in the sunshine state, and was also a rays fan. She received a First Rays game pin and was then put on the jumbo tron. This was during the 9th or 10th inning, so she wasnt as smiley. She was about to pass out! but none the less, she was on two forms of tv in one night! What can i say, the people want what the people want. lol :)

So one thing we forgot about sporting events was Leila's reaction to cheering. If you yell, scream, or whoot loudly, Leila cries! Not very cool when at a baseball game. The first time it happened, it scared her for a second and then she was fine. We only had a couple of crying sessions throughout the whole game. You would never have guessed she had been crying because she would stare in all directions and have a huge smile on her face! She loved the people and music being played.

If you watched the game, you know it ended in a walk off home run by one of the rays players. We wouldnt know because I was changing Leila's diaper in the bathroom! Talk about a poopy situation! lol.


Here are some pictures from the game.... Looks like a lot of fun right!!

Here is my first foul Ball... Thanks Casilla!

Tomorrow we are going to hit up the library for some mother goose time, maybe a playdate, and definitely the beach. We are going to show our visitors what Fort DeSoto looks like!

An Adventure a day, keeps cabin fever away...

Today was another great day filled with friends and fun! We went to the Aquarium with our new play date buddies Emma and Brett! We had a blast, Of course you all know I loved it! Its science... everywhere! Who wouldn't love it!! So last time we went to the Florida Aquarium with Grandma Carla and Braydon, and Leila was 4 months. Im sure she loved it and had a blast. But this time she was moving all around. Crawling. More awake and aware of her surroundings. We saw sharks, fish, birds, salamanders, and more! We had so much fun that Leila, Brett, and Emma were all wiped out by lunch! Thats a good time!

We have packed this week full of play dates and fun things to do, so we are excited! 


Leila has been amazing us with how much her distance has grown. Before she would just crawl in the room you put her in. She didnt venture too far. Then she started following you when you walked out of a room. Now she doesnt even need you to be in a room to crawl into it! We received a pink golf ball, Thanks B. Ross, and she loves it! She rolls it around and when it gets away, she follows it. Like a hawk because she's not the biggest fan of sharing yet! lol. She pulls herself up on to everything. So if you stand still long enough, you will have a new friend! The crib has been lowered and the bumpers removed! She is getting so big! And I dont have enough time to pause and think about how much i love the stage she is in, because it changes! like instantly! But she is melting our hearts and molding our lives everyday! 

Fun Fact for the Day

Its funny how life changes when you become a mom, well parent. You go from focusing on you, your plans for the weekend, or how you are going to wear your hair to focusing on this little bundle of joy! Noting everything she, or he but in this case she, eats, drinks to how many times she pees and poops. Its funny that i can write about peeing and pooping. I'm sure just a year ago i was embarrassed to say the words out loud. But everybody poops. And thanks to Brian he has helped me become more open about this. Not too open, but enough. Its also a fun topic to bring up to say my 17 yr old sister who gets embarrassed by anything. As all of you moms know, you have to keep track of all of their bodily functions to report back to the doctor to let them know your baby works.


Well Leila wasn't a pooper. So i was always excited when she did go #2, even if it was only once a week, holy uncomfortable. *Man this may sounds really weird to those of you without kids. You can skip this blog and wait for the next. I'm sure it will be a lot more interesting to you.* But back to Leila. My mom always joked that when its her 2348698 poopy diaper i wont be excited anymore. Well I am happy to say... still excited! My baby is growing, talking, crawling, eating, and yes you guessed it... Pooping! 


Thats all for now. I just wanted to share with you my enjoyment! 

She said Mama... April Fools... No Really!!

So April Fools is one of my favorite holidays. Not quite sure why its a holiday but i love it. Practical jokes all day long and you get off the hook when you say April Fools. I decided not to test my luck this year and opted out of not doing any practical jokes. I was going to do the whole pregnant one with Brian, but too soon! :) But instead of a doing a great practical joke... i heard THE best words/syllables come out of Leila's mouth. pause for effect. MA-MA! Thats right no joke... she said it. And is saying it. And keeps saying it. Its awesome. Who would have known she would learn from her coaching so quickly... lol!

Another shocking... or should i say shot-ing... event that happened this past monday was a trip to the Doctor's office. I called in because i felt a lump on her chest. Just on one side and not the other. So i went in to get everything checked out. When you nurse your baby, they get your hormones through the milk and can cause enlarged breast tissue in the baby. They tell you that when they are first born, but i didnt know or should i say forgot, and that is what the "lump" was. Phew. I was relieved... but not for long. The nurse came in and said since we were supposed to come in and get vaccines on thursday we can go ahead and take care of them today. WHAT! First of all I had forgot about thursdays appointment and i wasnt emotionally prepared for shots on monday! I did think on the plus side she will sleep the rest of the afternoon and i had ALOT of house chores to do. Leila got two shots, one in each leg. The nurse put the band-aid on the wrong spot. We got home and she went to sleep.... for 20 minutes! and this was her normal nap time. 20 minutes. That wasnt even long enough for me to put a list of things i had to do together. (I work better when i have a list). Then she was up... wait for it... for the rest of the day. Say bye bye to the half completed to do list and hello to my fussy, teething, not in a good mood baby. :(  One way to cheer her up was with food. I made some whole wheat spaghetti and let her play with it. It was a blast for both of us! 

Tuesday was another storm filled day so we stayed inside. Missed Mothers group and the market but had a lot of cuddle and story time, which i loved! She seems to want to go from barely crawling to full fledged walking. She pulls herself up on the couch every chance she gets. The getting down part is still a little questionable. I either hear her attempt, which ends in crying mostly out of shock, or a whimper for me to come get her. I love watching her grow and move, but i wont lie its a little exhausting. She is CONSTANTLY on the move! 

Wednesday was productive. Finally got to that house list, gym(x2), and cleaned out the car! a woo hoo! We did have a minor melt down, which i dont blame her. Her teeth are right under the surface, says the doc, and she may be experiencing some discomfort from the shots. No symptoms, just fussy. But tomorrow is another day! I am hoping, actually praying, for a good nights rest and a great weather and baby tomorrow!

*p.s. Go UND Hockey! I hope they make it to the frozen four. (this is for you brian)*

oh wait whats that i hear in the baby monitor... someone is awake! Gotta go!