Leila's First Christmas

Just a quick update to put down some thoughts about Leila's First Christmas...Everything went really well. Leila did great considering that she was low on sleep and high on activity!
Christmas Eve both mine and Cory's families came over for some snacks before we all headed off to church. Church was very good, as it always is on Christmas Eve...a wonderful service to really pull to the front of your mind the reason for the celebration. Leila got some great toys and clothes from Cory's parents and sister Donna and was off to bed at about 9:30...an hour and a half past her normal bed time. Christmas morning came and after breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Coobs we all headed off to Lowden for our Howard family Christmas morning, where Leila got a bunch more toys and clothes and spent the day getting constant attention from her loving family. Here are some pictures from the events...

Me, Cory and Leila before Church


Leila's special gift from Grandpa Howard...a homemade rocking horse!


Leila taking a Christmas snooze with her new train under the Christmas tree


And last but not least...Leila in her Christmas outfit from Aunt Donna, sitting in her new kiddie couch.

Some recent pictures

I mentioned in my last post that we are working on sleep training this week...well here are a few pictures from today's efforts. As you will see, not successful.







And just for fun...This is what about 7 months will do...notice both the size of Leila and expression on the face of her momma! :)



I could use a really long nap.

Crawling!

It has been a while since the last time I posted and in that time Leila has started crawling! For a month or so now she has been doing some army crawling to get around, but last Thursday morning she was on the floor with her toys while Cory and I were getting ready for work, and she put one knee in front of the other and was off!
She started out kind of slow and wouldn't go far before giving up, but a week later, there is no stopping her! :)
We are adjusting to keeping the baby gate shut and one eye on the moving target and so far so good. So far the best part of Leila crawling has got to be watching her chase after Zoey. Leila will crawl right into her and head butt Zoey in the belly! So far Zoey has taken it really well and just move away when she gets fed up, but Leila just keeps chasing her and grabbing her tail and rubbing her head on Zoey's fur. We are trying to be very careful and be sure to praise Zoey for her good behavior and amazing temper when it comes to Leila...we have yet to catch the fun on the camcorder but we will one of these days!

We are looking forward to Christmas break when Cory and I will get to spend a week at home with Leila working on some sleep training...the sleep training we are not so much looking forward to...
We will definitely post some pictures from Christmas and a full update on all of the wonderful boxes and crunchy paper that Leila will enjoy! :)

I hope everyone that reads this has a wonderful holiday and a happy new year...for those that don't read...bah humbug!

Grandpa Ed's Birthday Party

Saturday afternoon we celebrated Grandpa Ed's 70th birthday at Biaggi's in Cedar Rapids. Leila had sent out an invitation to all of her Aunts and Uncles on Cory's side of the family and we had reserved a private room in the restaurant.
Cory's brother Evan and family weren't able to make it because of the weather, but the rest of us had a really good time. Leila looked so cute in her little teal velvet dress.
For the first time as parents, we forgot to bring the diaper bag with us...it was one of those days when I was very thankful to still be nursing so we didn't have to worry about what to feed Leila, and we lucked out and didn't have to change a diaper in the couple of hours we were out, or we would have had to run to K-mart.
Leila behaved really well and was very good about being passed around to everyone in attendance. We think that Grandpa had a good birthday, and it was really nice to get together with the family, since we had spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family this year.

Not only did we forget the diaper bag, but we also forgot the camera and the camcorder. Here are a few of the not great quality pictures that we were able to get with our camera phones.

Here is a picture of some of the party attendees...


Here is Leila with Aunt Donna and Uncle Chuck...Chuck is reading her hand puppet book to her :)


here is Leila with her Grandma Sandi


Last but not Least, Leila and the Birthday boy! :)

Here are some recent pictures

Here is Leila sporting her poncho...made by myself, Andrea and Mom


Here is Leila hanging out in her jammies


Leila and her Buddy Bryce. He is 13 months old and the son of our friends Matt and Cindy Weber.



Here is my project from this afternoon...a taggie blanket for Leila


And a couple of Leila's 6 month photos.