Picture Time! Like I mentioned, we had a wonderful time hanging out with family and we even made a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo. Here are some photos from the events!

She doesn't look interested, but she did come around and pet Spud. How cute does Kenna look up on that horse?!?!

Grandpa has a bottle calf so Leila got to see him eating up close. She wouldn't touch him but she was sure interested in seeing him!

Leila got to hold Sawyer for the first time...with Mommy's help of course!

Look mom, there's a Monkey!

Playing on the metal gorilla's with Dani and Lexie

Super creepy albino crocodile, way too close for comfort

We got lucky and saw some really active animals during our trip to the zoo. This polar bear was swimming and playing with his ball, bouncing it against the rocks and catching it...very cool!


Leila demonstrating her favorite animal that we saw at the zoo

Leila and Daddy trying out Uncle Kim's new toy

Some recent pictures

Leila has had a couple of recent play dates. We went to see Amanda, Bryan and Lilly last weekend and then on Monday night Cindy brought Bryce and Eli over so we could take the strollers out and have dinner together.

Leila and Lilly, teaching each other their favorite tricks...I think they look like they could be sisters in this picture!


Grandma Lori with her Grandbabies on Mother's day


My Sweet girl looking out the window


Here are Leila and I checking out Sawyer

Mother's Day

I had a very good Mother's day. My sweet husband got me just what I asked for...a Nike + Sportband so I can keep track of my runs and chart my progress online. Hopefully it will motivate me to get back out there and actually run. (I am going to test it out tomorrow!) This is just the kind of jewelry that I was hoping for.


Next, My darling daughter Leila first picked me some beautiful flowers from our yard :)


And then, she brought me an adorable paper flower pot with Leila hand prints for flowers growing out of it...an art project from school. I didn't take a picture of that, but it is adorable. Cory brought her home from school and she brought the package right to me. I opened it and she tried to take the present back. Apparently she wanted that for herself, but I managed to get it away from her so that I could display it on our fridge. I was thinking about taking it to work, but Cory says that he would miss getting to look at is so I guess I will give him a break even though it is a Mother's day present! :)

On Mother's Day we went to my parents house in Lowden, where my sweet little sister Dani gave me a bouquet of flowers, just because she is the best. (Thanks Dani)

So, as you can tell, I was very blessed this Mother's day, but I have to tell you about the very best gift of all.
Sunday night we got home from our trip to Lowden at about 7:30. Leila goes to bed at 8 on most nights, and even though she had taken a pretty nice nap on the drive home, we decided to try out bedtime. So we carried her to bed and put her in her crib. Like most nights she whined a little bit and then rolled onto her belly and asked to be covered up by her nigh nigh blanket. So we covered her and went back out to the living room. We knew she wasn't asleep so we turned on the baby monitor so we would be sure to hear if she needed anything else. She was awake in there for about an hour, and it was so freaking cute to listen to her talk to herself in bed! I heard her say, "Baby Sawyer, Dani, Cassie, Andi" as if she was just listing off the people she had seen that day. Then she started playing our car trip game with herself. When we are in the car we will ask her what sounds different animals make, or we will ask her "who says quack quack." Lately she has been asking us the same questions, and we give her some wrong answers just to hear her correct us. We had played this game on the way to Lowden on Sunday, and now on Sunday night we could hear her in her room, "What does a cow say?" "quack! quack!" "NO!" It was so cute. I think that this struck me for a couple of reasons. First of all, I just think it is so neat to know that she remembers conversations so well when there is no one there to prompt her. And secondly, I think it seemed like she was laying in bed thinking about her day, and she was thinking about her family while she put herself to sleep. How sweet is that?!?! If you read my last post you know how important family is to me, and it just warms my heart to hear Leila talking about her family and remembering the fun day she had while she drifts off to sleep.
Go ahead and call me a softie but I am sure that I my eyes got a little misty while I sat here and listened to my daughter, my big girl. What a wonderful gift.

God Help Us...The Terrible 2's are here

This has been a terrible weekend as far as Leila behavior has gone. I love her to death, but it is getting to be very frustrating.
Cory hit the nail on the head this morning in the car while she was throwing a monster tantrum after church, "It's kind of interesting that Leila likes that Beauty and the Beast book so much...I think that title fits HER very well." and I whole heartedly agreed. She is a beauty, who has a tendency to morph into a beastly little thing.
Today we had a fit in the morning during church...she wanted to climb over the back of the pew and onto the table behind it. I tried to pull her back over and make her sit down, and she tried to bite me. Not good. Cory ended up taking her out of worship and downstairs to play on the playground equipment outside of the church. I understand that sitting quietly for an hour and a half is a lot to ask of a 2 year old, but I do have some concern about how that might look to Leila. "All I have to do is throw a fit and bite someone and then I get to go outside and play." I don't know what we should do in situations like that. But we had another fit when it was time to get in the car and leave. She screamed and arched her back so we couldn't buckle her seat belt. Cory fought with her for a while but finally we just said fine, that we would just sit in the car until she calmed down. That worked, she was diffused pretty quickly and then did a pretty good job after that. It seems like her little fuse is just getting shorter and shorter and it is getting harder and harder to get her to do anything we want her too.
After Church we went through the mall to look for some sandals for Leila and we ran into a couple coworkers. They were both also out for some Sunday shopping and we all happened upon each other in the middle of the mall and stopped to chat for a minute. One woman asked us what we were up to today and Cory mentioned that we had just come from church and were picking up a few things before nap time. She looked at the other woman in our group and asked, "Did you go to church today?" She answered no, and the first woman said, "Oh good, I am not the only one that skips church!"
We quickly confessed that this was our first time there in a couple of months too, and are not what one would call loyal church goers. This led to a discussion of church and why would one go or not go. I mentioned that for me, Church isn't so much for myself, as I feel pretty grounded in my faith (though, I do enjoy church and feel renewed faith from attending). I want to be sure that church is a part of Leila's understanding of the world.
These two paragraphs are related by a theme that is very important to me. As a mother, it is something that I grapple with all the time. How do I raise my child to be the best that she can be? I try to think about the way that I interact with Leila and the things that I teach her and talk to her about, and how those things might impact her development.

So I have an assignment for my fellow blogging mom's. Make a post on your own blog about your parenting values. What's important to you?

This is something that i think about a lot. And I fall short of a lot. For me, the most important things for me to teach Leila are as follows:
Compassion - I never want to hear that my child intentionally hurt another person, I want her to have the ability to put herself in other's shoes and treat people the way she would want to be treated.
Self Confidence - No matter what she looks like, or what she is good at or not good at, I really hope that my daughter will be better at recognizing her strengths and feeling comfortable with herself. Along this same line, I want to teach her self respect and personal value. I know that I set a bad example, and I need to be more careful about the way that I talk about myself, not just for Leila, but for myself as well. I am what I am, and I know that there is no better way to teach Leila self acceptance, then to have that quality myself, and I am not quite there yet.
The importance of family - When I was a teenager my great grandfather passed away. He had lived into his 80's and I have memories of him from my childhood, but he was a quiet man, and not someone that I was particularly close to. I remember that when it was time to make the trip across the state for his funeral, I begged my dad to let me stay home. I don't know what it was I didn't want to miss, but I don't doubt that I had my priorities out of line. My dad was angry with me and he said, "You may not feel like you need to be there but if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be here!" I felt terrible because he was right. And I packed my stuff and I went, I don't think that anything that anyone has ever said to me has resonated like that did. I hope that from then on I have lived my life with an appreciation for my family that I can pass on to my children. Not only would I not be here but for my parents and grandparents, but I would not be who I am if not for my siblings and my aunts and uncles and cousins. When we leave this earth, all we have to leave behind is what we created, and I learned that from my great grandpa, and my father, and it brings me comfort now when I think of my grandma Dalene and the love she left with me. I hope that Leila will understand that, and cherish the people that she is blessed to have along side her during this life.
Health - This is another tough one for me...I want Leila to eat whole foods, healthy foods, and of course, this starts at home. I am trying very hard to cook more, and cook healthier, but again, this is something I am not doing well enough with.
Gratefulness - I try very hard to be thankful for what I have, which is no small amount of wonderfulness. I hope that Leila will be able to see that when she sees other kids with more stuff, better bikes, bigger houses and fancier cars. We are beyond blessed, and I want to teach her to recognize that in the face of envy.
And last, but certainly not least...Faith. For me, faith is very strongly coupled with compassion and gratefulness. I will not be upset if Leila grows up and decides that she is not Christian. I will be sad if she doesn't grow to have faith in something bigger than herself, and a reason to live a compassionate and grateful life of love for others.

I know these are pretty steep expectations that I have put on myself, but I don't necessarily look at them as expectations for her. I adore Leila, even when she is the "beast."

If anyone has some parenting tips for me, I am all ears! Comment away!

Hello out there!

I haven't been the best about posting lately, but I have been meaning to log in and put up some pictures lately, I just haven't gotten around to it yet!
Things are going really well in the Coobs' household. Leila is currently entertaining the idea of potty training. She loves to wear her underwear, but we haven't been brave enough to venture out of the house without a diaper. She had her first accident today so I am sure we aren't going to be taking that step for awhile! I am not excited to be done with diapers...I am nervous for the days of having to find a bathroom at the drop of a hat and for now, diapers are easy, I just don't want to ignore it if she is ready and miss our opportunity to do this painlessly.
Today Cory and I ran/walked in a 5K race for the Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City. We didn't actually have a clock to see what our time was, but I was pretty ok with the results. I didn't run as much as I hoped to of it, but I feel good for going out there and giving it a try. I feel like I accomplished something, even if I didn't run the whole thing. Can I just say that I love my husband so much? Cory is a naturally thin guy who can, and does, eat whatever he wants to. He doesn't work out, basically because he doesn't really have time these days, but he still signed up for this thing and walk/ran right along with me. Having a supportive spouse is such a wonderful thing! Now if I could only get him to eat more healthy foods and lay off of the fat, we would both be healthier and maybe I could lose some weight!!!
My mom and dad watched Leila while we ran our race and after we were done we met up with them at Andrea and Steve's house.
Andrea is doing really good. She is a natural mommy, but I could have told you that a long time ago!!!!
Sawyer has already surpassed his birth weight and is nursing like a champ. I don't have any new pictures of the Smith family but I am sure you will see Sawyer's face on this blog again! :)

Leila and I Planted some flowers this week while Daddy was out with some friends. It went about as well as you can imagine planting flowers with a 2 year old would go. She wanted to have her own garden shovel, and Daddy happened to have left his grill tools on the deck, so...she improvised.


Here are some other shots of our project...







And one last one of Leila and I taken by Daddy

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!