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! :)