Here is Leila and I hanging out in the yard while daddy was hanging up her swing.
Here is Leila enjoying said new swing
Bath time!
And last but not least...Here is Leila sitting in her chair feeding her baby...she does this several times a day and it is SO CUTE!!!!!
It seems like Leila gets smarter and smarter all the time! The latest adorable thing she has learned would have to be her interaction when we read her favorite book.
Leila will find Moo Baa LaLaLa on the floor and bring it over to Cory or I to read to her. The book goes, "The Cow says moo. The Sheep says Baa" At this point Leila starts saying "no, no, no, no" Because the next page says, "Three singing pigs say LaLaLa. No, No you say, that isn't right!"
Later in the book it says, "The horse says...." And Leila says "Neigh!"
She loves that book :)
Here are some more pictures of Leila. We had a busy weekend at the Coobs house. Friday night Leila's friend Lilly came over to play. Lilly and Leila had a lot of fun and played together very well!
Here is Cory reading a book to the girls
Cory and I joke about how they look kinda drunk in this one, they are in their jammies and this is towards the end of the night...they were very tired!
Here they are sharing the ever popular purple chair
Two bodied one headed baby!
And Leila and her dolly
We feel so blessed to be able to celebrate Leila's first birthday. April 22nd came around a lot faster than I expected it to.
When I was a child my mom made each one of us birthday cakes every year on our birthdays. We got to pick what we wanted it to be and Mom would find the pan, buy it, bake it and decorate it. I wish I had some pictures of those cakes on my computer, but unfortunately I don't. Well, in keeping with my mother's birthday tradition, I decided to make Leila's cake. I was pleased to find that the North Liberty library has TONS of cake pans that they are available to borrow. I borrowed a daisy cake pan, as well as a miniature daisy so that I could make Leila her very own cake to destroy.
Here is Leila's cake....give me a break, this is my first birthday cake!
Here is Leila taking her first taste of frosting
Digging right in!!
Cleaning up the mess in the kitchen sink!
And Leila and Mommy before church
My beautiful sister Dani and her Prom Date...oh how cute!
There are more pictures, but I didn't want to overload :) If you want to see them, let me know!
Leila had her 1 year check up yesterday with Dr. Powers. She weighed in 22 lbs and 14 ounces, 30 inches tall. 75%ile for both height and weight. Leila isn't walking yet, I mean, why would you walk when you can just make mom and dad carry you, duh??!!?
I hope you enjoyed!
Well, our Easter weekend didn't turn out like planned. Cory was sick so he stayed home and we didn't make it to church (don't tell).
Leila and I rode to Tabor with Dad and Dani, and we had a really good time. Leila was entertained the whole ride there by her aunt Dani.
Here are some recent pictures. First, Leila in her Easter dress. The dress didn't last long since it makes it impossible to crawl and it was cold.
Here is Leila modeling some of her new summer clothes
And what she prefers to wear...
Sleeping beauty
And Leila enjoying the view
It is Sunday afternoon, and as much as I hate the fact that tomorrow is Monday, back to work, I love weekends and being able to be with my family.
Yesterday we went to visit Nanny Nancy, who will be Leila's new day care provider. Nancy is a very nice lady, and she has a great set up in her house for watching children. Leila will be one of 6 little girls at her new sitters. I am a little nervous about her being with so many other kids, with only one person for supervision, but Nancy has lots of experience, a very safe area for the kids and she seems to really enjoy what she does.
Leila's first day there will be next Monday, April 2nd. I am going to go with her for the first part of the day, until she seems to be adjusting well to Nancy and the other girls. We hate to leave Marla, Leila's current sitter, but she is moving away with her family when her sister graduates Dental school in May.
After we dropped in to play at Nancy's and let Leila get accustom to being there, we went to Lowe's and bought a new ceiling fan for Leila's room. Daddy installed the fan while Leila and I hung out and watched. It looks really nice, and we already used it today for Leila's nap. It is nearly 80 degrees outside, so Leila is wearing some shorts for the first time this year.
Cory is not feeling well today, maybe a result of the drinking and card playing we did last night with Andrea and Steve after Leila went to bed. Either that or he has some kind of bug, so Leila and I have been hanging out, reading about the Hungry Caterpillar and playing with an endless basket of toys.
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the wonderful weather!
It is finally starting to get warm outside!!! We have been enjoying the warm weather. We had to clean out the garage to make room for Daddy's new car. We bought a Chevy Equinox a couple of weeks ago, and Cory is loving it.
We also took a quick trip around the block to see some of the other Spring 06 babies. It was funny to see all of the kids together...we stood them up in a line and one of the neighbors took a picture...hopefully we will get a copy of it to share with you all.
Here are some pictures from this week. We have started to explore the world of hair accessories, so maybe we won't hear, "oh what a cute little guy!" At least not as often. :)
Here is Leila helping me hang up all of her clothes and pack away the too small.
Here she is all ready for church this morning...
This is what happens right after Mommy picks up the toys so she can vacuum.
Here she is feeding Zoey. I think this is why Zoey puts up with Leila's tugs on her tail
And here is Leila's fish face :)
Here are some pictures from dinner tonight...Leila fed herself some yogurt on a spoon! Aunt Karen mentioned that she used thick yogurt to get her kiddos started on spoon feeding so I thought I would give it a try. Leila was very excited :)
You can also see Leila's black eye in these pirctures...
I told you she was excited...
I am so ready for spring to get here, I can't even express how much I hate winter...snow be gone!
I haven't written in a while because our computer was out of operation, and we finally got everything fixed this weekend.
Leila has been doing some really cute things lately :) She makes this face that I call her frog face. She sticks her tongue out and sucks it back in over and over. She smiles and knows how cute she is!
She has a little car that you can adjust to stand up so that she can hold on to it and walk. She has mastered this now, and pushes her way around the house.
She is eating all grown up foods these days and she loves to feed herself.
We also experienced our first baby injury this weekend. Leila has a little bit of a black eye that she got while playing with her pan on the living room floor. It looks pretty sad, but she got over it fast.
Here are some pictures of our princess :)
She is 10 months old, came across a pacifier in her toy box and NOW decides that she likes to suck on them!
Leila loves her dog Zoey...she especially likes to harass her while she is lounging around by pulling on her tags. Zoey takes it like a champ!
We made a trip to Champaign last week and Uncle Evan bribed Leila to hang out with him by giving her his watch.
Fettuccine Alfredo is good!
The Coobs family hanging out!
Much love from the Coobs family, Stay warm! Spring is just around the corner!!!
Daddy had just gotten back from his trip to Orlando, and he brought along a friend for Leila
Leila hanging out with Aunt Andrea and Uncle Steve
Just because she is cute
Cory is out of town this week, so I am testing out single parenting...I think I am going to try to keep him around I have decided.
While Cory is hanging out at Walt Disney World for a "conference" Leila and I are freezing our butt's off in Iowa. We had a snow storm today and the snow has been blowing all day. This is when it would be nice to have Cory around to scoop the snow...oh well I guess, I have just learned to accelerate very strongly as a pull out of the garage, and hope for the best! :)
Cory will be back on Thursday evening and we can't wait.
In other news, we got a new camera, so I am going to post some new pictures. Leila is standing and walking along the furniture like an old pro... she will be walking in no time!
Here is Leila making faces at Zoey while she is stuck out on the deck in the cold
Here is Leila showing us how big she is
And Leila hoping to get her turn to check out the new camera
The Howard/Coobs/Smith family decided to start the new year off right this year. We spent last Sunday preparing a meal for the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City.
We had a pretty good experience, it was stressful making sure that we had enough food and getting everything done in time, but we got a lot of thank yous and I appreciated being able to offer something to families that are under a lot of stress.
My next project on my quest to do more good things for other people this year will take place in February. Andrea and I have signed up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Iowa City. This is another good cause that I am excited to be able to help out with. If you want to read more about the project we are going to be working on, there is info here: http://www.womenbuild2.blogspot.com/ .
I will try to post some of Leila's 9 month pictures this week after I have a chance to scan them. They turned out really good, and Leila had a good time. She is getting to be such a big girl...she sleeps all night long in her own bed and loves to give kisses and clap her hands...I can't believe that she is only 3 months away from being a 1 year old! Where does the time go?!?!?!
At her 9 Month check up she was in the 90th %ile for everything...weight, height and head circumference. She was 21 lbs 10 ounces, 28.5 inches long.
I am on my way to reaching my one year of nursing goal!!
It is January 15th and we have finally gotten our first snow storm of the year. I can't say that I am excited about it, I hate snow. Cory and I both have today off of work for MLK Day, so we have spent it hanging out at home, doing laundry and using our new vacuum cleaner.
Leila's sleeping habits have really improved lately. We have to give a lot of the credit Marla, Leila's babysitter. She has been working with her at nap times, and she lets her cry...something that I have had a hard time doing, though I think it is necessary. Today Leila took a two hour nap, in her crib. Yes, in the crib! AND last `night she slept 8 hours, in her crib. Shocking I know. We are almost there and it is beautiful, now if only she would do this long enough for me to get used to it and actually sleep through the night instead of waking up and wondering what she is up to.
I have been planning to update and kept forgetting since new years. New Years Eve we drove back from Tabor through a snow storm (no fun). When we got home we hosted a small get together with some friends. It was nice to have people to hang out with at home since it really isn't cool to bring your baby to the bar with you. Here is a picture of Leila and her friend Bryce hanging out on the kiddie couch on New Years Day.
Here are a few other pictures since it has been a while...
Here is proof that we really needed the baby gate :)
Here is Leila sitting on the car that Great Grandma and Grandpa Howard got her for Christmas...I think this is her favorite new toy!
And here is Leila giving mommy a kiss...one of her new tricks.
