Leila's Birthday Buddy

Sawyer Patrick Smith was born this afternoon around 4:15. On his big cousin Leila's 2nd Birthday. He is a beautiful little boy, I just couldn't get over how sweet his little features are! I didn't get any great pictures of him, my flash was just too bright, but I did get a few.
Leila loves "baby Sawyer" and when he cried she wanted to give him a blanket and make him all better. She was really excited to see him and she did great following the gentle rules.
Here is our new little family member!

Leila at 2

Tomorrow is Leila's 2nd Birthday. At 1:35 AM on April 22nd of 2006 Leila Brianne Coobs came into this world. When I was laboring in the hospital our nurses and doctor asked us if we knew what we were having. We said no, but that we felt like it was probably a boy. They asked us what we were going to name our child and we said that if it was a boy, we would have to wait and see him before we decided between two names. If it was a girl, we were going to name her Leila. When Leila entered this world the doctor held her up and said, "It's Leila!" I will never forget that moment.

I have been terrible about keeping a baby book. It is not at all a reflection of how much I love and adore my daughter, but I prefer to write things as they come to me, and share moments here on my blog. As Cory and I have discussed, we don't really care if we don't have a record of when each one of her teeth appeared, it is most important to us to remember her personality as she develops and to be able to tell her when she is grown about how proud of her we were when she did all of the actions to the wheels on the bus for us. In Honor of my baby's second birthday, here is a little bit about Leila as she is at 2.

Her Smarts-
Leila is definitely a smart kid, she can talk very clearly and she makes sentences of several words. Sometimes she gets her word order confused, but for the most part she is very good at getting her point across. "No Mommy, Leila do it."
She recognizes all of the letters in the alphabet, and they don't have to be in order, she really does know them. She can also recognize all of her numbers from 1-9. She can count, but she tends to forget number 4. When we are in the car I catch her sitting back there counting a lot.
She tries to sing the alphabet song, but she tends to skip big portions of it...still adorable though! She also knows all of her colors and likes to point things out to us and tell us what they color they are. When her daddy took her for a walk recently she saw a bird and she told him, "Look, a bird up in the sky!"
She loves to sing songs and has been singing happy birthday to one of her school friends all the time recently.

Her Moves-
Leila loves to dance, she does this really cute and funny shoulder shimmy move. She doesn't like to dance alone though, so she will bark out her orders when the music starts, "Daddy Dance! Mommy Dance!" So we dance, but it isn't nearly as cute as when Leila dances...though, if you try to tell her to dance, she will flat out tell you, "No." Leila makes the rules. Just recently she started doing summersaults. She does pretty good, sometimes she needs a little help to keep them straight, but she has been known to do it pretty well on her own too!
She is starting to use the potty chair pretty regularly. When we are at home, she almost never wets a diaper.
Her likes-
Leila loves to go outside. Spring in Iowa is tough on a little one, when one day we can go outside in a t shirt and play in the yard, and then next day the cold wind makes it a chore to go out even with a heavy coat on. We try to get out as much as we can. We like to take Leila on walks and to the park. We are very excited that we are getting a park in our neighborhood this summer so we can just walk to the playground! Her legs have recently gotten long enough to reach the pedals on her trike, though she of course expects mom or dad to push her still...pedaling must not be for princesses.
She likes to play with her balls and she will kick her soccer ball across the room and she likes to throw balls for Zoey to chase. She is definately a Leftie like her momma. :)

I could go on and on, and I may have to come back and add to this post, but I wanted to try to capture a snapshot of our lady for all of you readers. We really do feel so blessed beyond words.

Now it is picture overload!!!
First of all, Saturday night we went to the Grand March for my adorable sister Dani's senior Prom.
Leila loves Dani, as you can see.



Dani and her boyfriend Derek


Now on to the Birthday fun!!!

Looking at her Elmo cake with Aunt Andi


Elmo!


Opening gifts



Leila got some cool new shades, but I think her favorite gift would have to be her tea set!


Trying out the baby cradle that Grandpa Carey made for her


She was one tired girl after a napless day, so she took a time out in her cottage tent

I think she had a great time! :)

Livingroom Gymnastics

One of those days...

This morning we dropped Leila off at daycare and when I crouched down to get my morning goodbye hug, Leila's wonderful soft baby cheek was pushed up against mine and it took every ounce of will power I had not to just scoop her up and turn around and leave. It is kind of embarrassing when your kid is trying to get away from your overbearing embrace so she can get to the playing already. I could sure use another one of those baby hugs right now.

On to phase 2 of today's update. Comic relief. So we have been working with Leila on manners. She is really good at "Please" and "You're welcome", and needs a little reminder for "Thank you" and "Excuse me". So this weekend Leila and I are hanging out and this conversation takes place:

Leila: Farts and says, "I farted"
Mommy: "What do you say?"
Leila: "You're welcome"

This is now officially an inside joke at our house. All burps and farts are promptly followed up with, "You're Welcome."

So much for teaching manners.

The Camera has been located. Stay tuned for a video of Leila multitasking as she somersaults in the living room without taking her eyes off of the TV.

Disclaimer: We really aren't terrible parents, even though our 2 year old daughter does know and use the word fart and watches Family Guy (It really was just once). Really, we aren't terrible parents. Really.

Enough

I get a lot of junk email, I think we all do. This is something that I recently came across while wading through my inbox. It came attached to a heart warming story about saying goodbye. I didn't feel the need to put the whole story here in my blog, but if you want to see it, you can find it here: http://www.bobperks.com/wish.htm

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much
bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Goodbye."

This story and blessing made me ask myself the question: Do I have enough?

I am one lucky woman, I feel blessed everyday to wake up with my husband who I just know I was meant to be with and to get to peak over the edge of my daughter's crib to see her bright brown eyes looking up at me and a playful smile on her face.
My answer to that question: I have more than enough and I will always want more. In the words of my beautiful daughter when faced with the last cookie in the bag, "one more Mommy, please, just one more!" One more day with everyone I love around me. One more day of sunshine before the rain comes. One more.

I think we have probably all come to the point when God has cut us off of the cookies. Sometimes I have a hard time enjoying the cookie I have because I know it might be the last one. To me this poem, forwarded from a chain email, is a reminder to savor that cookie you have. So though I may be looking forward to my next home, my next car, the next big step for my family, I am reminded to thank God for all of the abundant blessings that I have right here. I have enough. I hope that you are able to ask yourself that same question and be lucky enough to share my answer.

Heard in our car this morning...

on the way to school.

Leila: "Hi Daddy"
Daddy: "Hi Leila"
Leila: "How doing Daddy?"
Daddy: "I am good, how are you Leila?"
Leila: "How doing Daddy?"
Daddy: "I am good, how are you Leila?"
Leila: "Good Daddy"

And then as we pulled up to Love-A-Lot, "Yay! School day!" I love that she loves school!

Lost Camera :(

For those of you that have been checking in hoping to see updated pictures of little Leila I am sad to report that our camera is missing. I do have a couple of pictures to offer you that Aunt Dani took on Easter though. She also took one of her picking her nose, but I would consider it cruel to post such a thing, so here is our baby.

My Smart Girl

Cory was traveling again this week (Boo!!! Hiss!!!) so Leila and I had a lot of one on one time. I can't tell you that I mind that part of the traveling. Sure, my house is a mess and we eat mostly premade crap, but I like to give all of my attention to Leila. She is a lot of fun!
So Tuesday we are driving home from daycare and I had given Leila a book to keep her busy.


I had the radio down so I could hear if she needed anything from me, and I hear coming from the backseat in an absolutely adorable little baby voice, "red shirt, blue shirt, yellow shirt, OOPS!!" I was totally shocked! She obviously can't read but she does know her colors (this I knew already) and I thought it was so cute that she got the book well enough to be able to "read" it. I was so excited that I had to call my sister right away to tell her all about it! :)

So if you read the 7 random things about me, then you know about my problem with the news. Well, the news around here is impossible to avoid, and it is heartbreaking. I can't stop thinking about this family, this poor woman and her children. I am only comforted by the thought that they are all in heaven together. Don't click this link if you are as sensitive as I am to tragedy.
http://press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080326/NEWS01/803260332/1079

My heart goes out to this whole extended family and all of the parents who have to explain to their children why they won't be seeing their friends again. I can't imagine the pain that this man must have been in to do this, but my heart goes out to him as well. On to day three of trying not to cry at my desk while I sit here unable to think of anything other than this sadness.

I always hesitate to write here until I feel like I have something to say...and I am not really feeling it this evening, but I have a bunch of pictures in my photobucket just begging to be posted.
So, on the way home from daycare we sometimes have snacks in the car to get Leila by. She loves these HyVee brand fruit snacks with curious george on them. She calls them "Monkey Snaps." So on the way home the other day she asked for monkey snaps so I opened up the package for her and handed them over my shoulder to her in the back seat. She promptly ate them all up long before we made it home. So she says, "One more monkey snap?" and she holds up her one finger. It was the CUTEST. I had to tell her no, and she responded "One more monkey snap, peas! One more? Two? Two?" Wow is it hard to say no to that kid!

Look at that face? Could you say no to this?


Leila loves to give her cousin hugs and kisses


Ok, disclaimer...please don't take note of the big fat momma doing pilates, but rather focus on how freakin cute it is that Leila tries to exercise with mommy.


This was our project two weekends ago, replacing the kid destroyed carpet with easy to take care of laminate floors. I am very happy.



Leila was a big help, as you can imagine.




And she seems to be happy with the new rug!


Zoey hates it, but I can't feel too badly for her.

Here is Leila and Daddy snoozing on the new rug


Now look at my sister. Can you believe she has a whole month left to go?

7 random things about me

This is tough, but I have been challenged by Jessica, so I am giving it a try.

1. I have a love hate relationship with my job. Somedays I am so glad to have it and it makes me feel important, and other times I just wish I could sit at home all day with Leila and go for walks and hang out with all the Stay At Home Mom's in my neighborhood.

2. I hate taking the same route over and over again, so I tend to randomly turn down the wrong street just to find a new way to reach my destination.

3. I can't handle watching the news...I get irrationally upset for people that are touched by tragedy, even if I don't know them.

4. I love homemade stuff. I am always trying to figure out how to make stuff myself instead of buying it. If I buy something I know I can make I feel like a sucker.

5. I am overly competitive, if I don't think I can win at a contest of any kind, I usually just won't participate.

6. I am addicted to Blogs. I read tons of blogs, blogs written by people I don't know. For some reason their lives are interesting to me. I am facinated by people of all kinds.

7. My Myers Briggs personality type is INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging) It is the least common of all of the types.

I am supposed to make others do this as well, but even with all of the blogs that I read, I don't know of any other bloggers that read mine, aside from my tagger that is! :). I guess that is the introvert in me, forever a lurker!

I know that I have a whole month of photo ops to add to this, but I wanted to preview it for you all here! I love this song and I hope you enjoy watching the pictures of Leila has she has grown.


Leila is 2!!!

Melting!

Today it was nearly 60 degrees outside!!!!
I took Zoey out for an outdoor run. It was nice to get out and not run around in circles at the rec center, but it was definitely noticeably harder to run outdoors than in. I can't wait until it is spring and I can run outside when I want and not come home with soaking wet feet from running through puddles. The puddles are annoying, but they are also a sign of the MELTING SNOW!!!

We spent some time outside this afternoon to enjoy the warmth and we took some pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

We will start with some randoms from Grandma day. My mom watches Leila on Fridays, and I guess this week Leila decided to emulate Zoey by resting on the back of the couch. (Yes, we have a cat dog.)


Aunt Cassie frequently comes by to see Leila and Grandma. Leila is wearing an outfit made by Grandma Lori, including the hat that I can't believe she kept on long enough for a picture!



For some reason, Leila really digs wearing our shoes. This time she found Mommy's shoes and decided to take them for a walk.



Here is Leila's alter ego, Naked Baby. She likes to play in just her diaper, and when she does she says, "I'm Naked Baby!!!" It is really funny, and I tried to get video of her saying it, but she won't do it with the camera on!



This week Leila helped me sort out the pots and pans cupboard. I figured she would be excited to get to take out all of the pans, and I was right.



Here is my sweetie lounging in her purple chair like a big girl.


And finally to the outside pictures. First of all, this is what our mailbox currently looks like. Considering it is almost 60 degrees and it has been melty outside for a few days now, this is pretty ridiculous.


Leila likes to pick up the ice chunks and throw them so they break on the sidewalk :)



And last but not least, after a tricycle ride around the driveway Leila enjoyed picking through the rocks.


Come on and get here spring!

Time

Lately I have really been enjoying going to church, aside from fighting to keep Leila happy anyway, but I was ok with missing this past couple of weeks. The last time we were there John's message was about a subject that I spend a lot of time thinking about. The message came down to priorities. We all have to keep our priorities in mind whenever a new opportunity or responsibility comes into our lives.
As a full time working mom, time management is a constant struggle for me. John put it quite simply when he said, "for everything you say yes to, you are saying no to something else." I really liked this idea, and now whenever something comes up that is going to take away my time I have to ask myself, "If I say yes to this, what am I going to have to say no to?" Sometimes I find that I can easily sacrifice something else in order to say yes, and other times this question serves as a perfect reminder of the things in life that I need to keep at the top of that priority list, even if it means saying no.

I won't get into all of the ugly details of my spinning mind, but I wanted you all to know that I am saying yes to updating this blog so I don't get hounded about it the next time I talk to anyone in my family, and in return I am saying no to going to bed early! :)

Things have been going very well at the Coobs house, we really are beyond blessed. Cory has gotten another promotion at work and is making his wife even more proud every day.

Leila is just amazing, such a funny little personality. Last Friday we went to this Mexican restaurant with Andrea and Steve, the food was terrible but the one benefit was that they gave you free dessert! Well Leila was eating her little dish of ice cream and she finished it off and said, "More!" Her daddy, who was sitting right next to her said, "I'm sorry Leila, you can't have more your dish is empty." Leila proceeded to reach across the table with her spoon and scoop the rest of Cory's ice cream up and stick it right in her dish.
That girl just kills me!

I am doing really well, Winter is always hard on my moods, and this winter has been terrible! I have been trying to keep on top of things by taking some vitamins and getting in some work outs. Last night I completed the work out for week 6 of 9 in the Couch to 5K program. I am up to running 2 miles, and it isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be! I haven't signed up for a 5K yet, but I was looking at the path for River Run online and it makes me nervous. I am really scared to actually sign up and commit myself to it. I think I might go run the race route when the weather gets a little better to help boost my confidence. I know that I can do it, and I have 2 more months to train, I am just a wuss.

If you have some extra prayers to spare, please say one for my friend Amanda and her husband Bryan. Amanda gave birth to their son Henry last week who died in the womb at 23 weeks. My heart aches for them and I know that they can use all of the prayers they can get to get through this very difficult time. It breaks my heart to think of anyone losing a child, but when it is my own dear friend I just feel so helpless to make things better. Life isn't fair.

I am sure that there were other things I was going to share, but now they have escaped me. We haven't really been taking all that many pictures lately, but I will leave you with this cute one that Cory took a couple of weeks ago. Right now it is his instant messenger picture at work, so everyone can see our little princess! :)

I know I know

it has been forever since I posted. Time just gets away from me and I like to take the time to write something of substance and I just haven't had it in me lately. Here are some pictures and updates on Leila.

Aunt Dani came to stay with us for a weekend and Leila decided that she needs an ipod. I think she will have to wait a few years for that, but she sure enjoying Dani's!


So it has been snowing like no other this year. I HATE winter and Leila does too, proven by the tortured look on her face when I took her out to inspect the snow. Yeah, I know I look stupid, big surprise.


She doesn't mind looking at it from inside though...


She has also decided that she likes the baby stroller as a nice portable Leila chair :)


Her buddy Bryce was over to play and Leila and Bryce shared some carrots and a chair, they are just the cutest ever!!!


One of Leila's favorite things to do is dance. She knows all of the actions to "The wheels on the Bus" and she loves to show them off! Her favorite song is Low by Flo Rida. She goes NUTS when it comes on and she sings "low low low." I took some video of her dancing to it tonight, but I haven't uploaded it yet.
Cory has been coming to the rec center with me some of the time when I go to run and lastnight we took Leila out of her stroller after running on the track and she could hear the music from the aerobics room. She started dancing in the hallway and wouldn't let us leave until she could dance to the whole song. In the car she sits in her car seat and she says "Daddy Dance!" "Mommy Dance!" "Leila Dance!" She just gets more fun all the time.

Here is a picture of her dancing to "Low" with her daddy. Cory made me promise not to get his dance moves in the picture:


Leila reading with her daddy. If she isn't playing with her letters, blocks or dancing...we are reading books!

Leila can identify all of the letters of the alphabet and she can count to 10...yeah that's right, she is a genius ;)

And one last shot of my little beauty....

Sorry for the delay

Because I promised pictures and didn't come through I will get to the good stuff first and the rambling later.

We really didn't get many Christmas pictures unfortunately, and we took none on Christmas Eve this year, the whole thing was kind of a blur...here is what we have though.

Here is Leila opening one of the only presents that she was interested in :) A "Product of University of Iowa Alumni" sweatshirt


This was her real interest on Christmas morning...the bowl of chex mix that Grandma Lori left on the coffee table


And her little buddy, Elmo! :) notice the m&m remnants on her face :)


Lounging with Molly on her new bed


And the new baby cousin, due April 08


Here is Leila with her gift from Santa Claus, a new baby stroller for her Cabbage Patch Newborn she really does like it though you can't tell from that face!


Great Uncle Don has a cat and Leila followed him all over the place!


Here is my beautiful girl just hanging out


And sporting her new bath towel from Aunt Sheila


Now on to the ramblings....

So lately I have been on a "me" kick. I got a couple of books for Christmas that I really wanted, both of them are all about mom's and how to be a happy and well rounded person. I am finding that so much of motherhood consists of guilt. I feel guilty for spending time away from Leila, I feel guilty for not making the most of the time I have with her, I feel guilty for working, I feel guilty for missing work, and so on and so forth...you get the picture.
Anyway, I have decided that I need to do better at taking care of myself, letting go of the guilt and making the most of my life. Nobody is perfect, but I am trying.

My first order of action has been to start an exercise routine, so I am doing a program called the "couch to 5K." You can read about the program here: coolrunnings.com but basically, in the course of 2 months it can take you from no activity at all to being able to complete a 5K run. I am only a week into the program, but I don't think I can let myself fail at this, it just may take me a little extra time. I am enjoying my time at the rec center too, it is nice to get out of the house and have a little time to myself, especially with the crappy winter weather we have had. So there is your update on me.

Now for the Leila update....well, we had a wonderful 10 day break from work/daycare and we all really enjoyed our time together, but since we have started back to our routine things have been really rough for Leila. Two weeks ago we could ask Leila if she was ready for bed and she would say "yes!" grab her blankie and wait for us by her crib...in the past week or so, things have done a complete 180, she now cries and cries when we try to put her to bed, it is really miserable but we are just trying to push through and comfort her as much as possible without completely giving in. I am really hoping that this passes soon. Aside from bedtime we also have the daycare drop off issue...she screams and cries and pulls at our legs and begs us not to leave her. It is TORTURE! Now, I have felt a lot of guilt about daycare over the last year and a half, but I have kind of put it to rest at this point. Leila gets a lot out of school, she learns new things all the time, she gets great interaction from the other kids and I really feel like this is good for her. That fact makes this so much easier to deal with, that and the fact that she is always having a good time when I come to pick her up in the afternoon. I just hate to think that my little baby is having so much anxiety, I hate hate hate to think that even at this young age, she worries. Parenting is a hard job and I just hope I am doing a good job for Leila, I love her so much.

Well, I will put in a little Cory update too...he is sick as a dog. I finally talked him into going to the doctor yesterday and pretty much every part of his head is infected. This has been a really rough week for the Coobs family, the weekend can't come fast enough!

On another note, the company that I work for announced to us yesterday that they are now going to deduct vacation time for leaves of absences, so now, if you go on Maternity leave you not only have to use your vacation time to make up for the lost pay, but you also won't be earning any vacation while you are out. So, maybe that isn't so terrible by the standards of others, but for me, it is just one more way to make life more difficult for working moms. You know, in Canada and most European countries, working moms get 6 months to a year of paid maternity leave? The United States doesn't have a lot of company in the group of industrialized nations that don't offer paid leave for their citizens, and yet the government wants you to think that they value families and that all women should breastfeed. I do have to give my company props, I was able to nurse Leila for a whole year because I had the luxury of a lactation room and the ability to pump whenever I needed to, but that is not the norm, and it is not the law. This is a big pet peeve of mine, which is why I have joined the group momsrising.org. The organization is based on mother's rights in the workplace, and family issues. Check it out if you are interested in learning more about the trials of women and the pathetic way that this country values family. Off of my soapbox for now.

Love to you all! Tricia