Video of our little soccer player

Sorry

I am officially the very worst blogger on the internet. Not only do I rarely include any substance in my entries, but I am now also slacking on my picture entries.
Life has been busy, Work is work. Cory has been traveling fairly frequently all year and my job has presented me some personal challenges that have taken a lot of energy to deal with.
Leila is doing wonderfully, she is growing so much and changing everyday. She keeps coming up with new ways to express herself. She has lots of words and she also does lots of sign language. She picks up on things so quickly that Cory and I are constantly amazed.
She loves to carry the phone around with her and say "allo? allo?" Ever since she started walking she has been unstoppable when it comes to getting into things. She loves to empty out the cabinets in the kitchen and climb under the computer desk and shut off the surge protector. She can be so frustrating and yet so freaking adorable all at the same time!
Leila loves animals and every time she sees a dog or a cat she is sure to point them out to us. At the mall there is a pet store where there are tons of cats in the windows...I think Leila could stay there all day, running in front of the windows and laughing at the kitties.
She especially loves her dog Zoey. When Zoey gets worked up and runs around the house Leila just laughs and laughs, it is so cute to see them playing together.

For the last few weeks my sister Andrea and her husband Steve have been staying with us while they wait for the closing date on their house. It has been a fun time so far, Leila loves the extra attention and I love having someone else to share the cooking with! Everyone thinks we are going to end up at each other's throats, but I don't think people realize how much time we spent together before they were living in our house. I was a little nervous that it was going to be like living in a frat house with Cory and Steve playing video games all the time, but so far that has not been the case at all, though Cory did buy himself an enormous TV and has an xbox 360 next on his shopping list, so things are bound to go downhill.

We are constantly being challenged with daycare issues it seems and we have yet another big change coming up. We have always been happy with our care providers, but unfortunately, with our first babysitter she was planning to move away and we needed to switch. When we found our current provider in April we were very excited to have found yet another wonderful care provider. Unfortunately for us her life is taking her in a different direction and she will be moving out of state and retiring at the end of this month. I hate to have to transition Leila yet again to an other's care. It makes being a working mom even more of a challenge, but that is a post in its own. I decided that things happen for a reason and even though Leila was only with this babysitter for a few months, there is a reason she came into our lives and we are doing the best we can to help her get ready for her big move.
Which brings me to the latest change for Leila...starting in September she will be attending a daycare center. From the time that we knew we were going to have to find childcare I did not want to send her to a center. I had the idea in my mind that they were impersonal baby factories. Well, after dealing with the uncertainty of an in home provider we decided to check out centers. We visited a couple of them and we were very impressed with Leila's new school...She will have less kids per adult at the center and lots of different activities to stimulate her little mind. The center offers structure and contact with kids her own age. Hopefully the center will add some stability and we won't have to transition her again until she starts school. I am very hopeful about the change and I feel like we are doing the right thing. Parenting is a hard and expensive job but the perks are amazing!

And now for the pictures....

Leila playing in the pool


Yeah, she pretty much spent the whole summer in a diaper


Her new favorite hang out


hanging out with mommy


and these last three at with Grandma and Grandpa Coobs at a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for Cory's Aunt and Uncle




I also have a cute video if I can ever get it to upload. Hope you all have gotten your fix, sorry it is has been so long.

It has been too long

It has been so long since I updated. Well, right before my last picture update, on June 24th, Leila started walking on her own!
Her and I were at my parents house for the day. Leila had something in each hand and my sister told her to go take that to mommy, and she did! She just took off walking, and she hasn't slowed down since! Leila has also gotten to go to the swimming pool a couple of times lately, and she loves to swim.

Here are a couple of pictures of Leila from recently...

Playing with Zoey


Trying out Zoey's new bed :)

Some recent pictures

Leila had her first trip to the Zoo! We went to the Niabi zoo with our friends the Weber's so Leila and Bryce got to see lots of animals.
Here is Leila on the way to the zoo


Checking out the Alligator


Monkeying around with Bryce


Riding the ChooChoo Train with Daddy


And This is Leila on the ride home


The next day was Father's Day. We spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa Howard's house in Lowden. Leila had some Pineapple upside down cake


And played in the pool!

My little book worm

Reading Little Quack


I am not sure that she is getting the full context of this book, what do you think? :)


Ok Mommy, now you read!


Where is that belly button?


Found it!

Pictures!

Today Leila had a lot of fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and I have photo proof.

Here is a video of Leila playing with a bowl of water on the patio.


Here are some photos of the water incident...





Leila had her toes painted...



And dug through Grandma's purse...


played in the swing with Daddy...


Read books with Mommy...


Checked out the lilies with Grandma...


Overall a very big day.

And last but not least, here is Leila yesterday trying on her new garage sale shoes...she loves them!

some updated pictures of the princess

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!!!!!

Update on smartie pants

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 :)

At Grandma's request...

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

She's 1!!!

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!