An Oldie but a Goodie

This little dress was one of my favorites when Lylah was a baby. Nothing fancy, just cotton and my favorite color-yellow. Well, she had A LOT of clothes at that point in her life and the weather actually cooled off in September so she wasn't able to wear dresses long. I think she must have worn that little yellow dress once or twice...sad day....

except that our little lady is a bit of a small fry, SOOOOOOO....
why not re purpose it as a shirt!! We aren't going to talk about how close I came to tears when I found the baby picture and realized how much she has grown (for a small fry) and changed since the days of sitting in the bouncy seat on the kitchen counter! Instead, we'll just say we've worn mama's favorite "shirt" several times lately!!

Thoughts on signing

Once Lylah started waving, "bye-bye" we started introducing basic signs. I was so excited when she first sign "more" to communicate that she wanted more watermelon. Soon after learning "more", she started to sign "milk" and "water". We continued introducing other signs that would help our lil' lady communicate before she was able to talk. At one point this summer while at the library, I realized they had the signing time videos available for patrons to rent. Since then we have rented a couple every 2 weeks to watch and enjoy. I think we may be the only ones to rent them, which is okay because it means we get to choose which ever ones we want!! These videos are great not only because of the way they introduce the signs, but because they are very engaging and educational to teach verbal vocabulary as well. The thing I've heard the most as people have found out that we are signing with Lylah is, "well, will she ever learn to talk then?". The answer is, "YES!" When we sign with Lylah we always say the word too not to mention that we are always talking with her throughout the day. Research shows that babies who sign have a higher IQ and reading level later in life as well as less frustration as toddlers, plus it is so fun and super cute!!! In case you are wondering here are the signs our lil lady knows:

more, milk, water, eat, please, thank you, finished, play, play ground, swing, I love you, help, home, me, duck, bird, monkey, cat, rain, and even "signing time"

Here are the words she can say: mama, dada, hi, hello, bye-bye, bath, ball, balloon, bubble, baby, home, water, night-night, ruff-ruff (for dog), mooo (for cow), quack (for duck), uh-oh. That is a total vocabulary (including signs) of close to 40 words (and I'm sure I'm forgetting some). I also feel like signing has increased Lylah's understanding as well. We use lots of other signs with her that she hasn't started using yet, but knows and understands. She follows directions probably 80% of the time. The other 20% she is usually be stubborn :)

So if you have thought about signing with your child, then give it a try!! Remember that when babies sign they may not make the sign perfectly and that is okay. Lylah used to clap her hands for "more" but now she does it correctly. It is just like speaking in that she did what was developmentally appropriate for her at the time. We are very glad that we started signing with Lylah and we are even enjoying learning the language ourselves!!

I don't have very many pictures of Lylah actually signing, but I have accidentally caught a couple of her signing water.

signing water at the fountain at the Indy canal
signing water at the park when it was hot and she wanted something to drink :)

Look what I made!

I was able to find The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book at the Friends of the Library used book sale. So, this afternoon Lylah and I snuggled up with her caterpillar rattle and the book. She loved the holes in the different items the caterpillar eats. She also loved "counting" the food as well. She didn't love any of those things as much as she loved making her very own caterpillar puppet!! I just cut out some circles on my cricuit and helped Lylah glue them down. At first I did the glue, but then I let her help me which she loved!! It is so neat to watch her try to place the shape on the glue. Her little fine motor skills just keep developing! I remember when she would try to put her paci in her mouth and miss and hit her forehead! After I put caterpillar on the stick, she played with him and the glue stick for probably 15 minutes!! Cute, cute!

Another weekend, another bento

I love the weekends! I get to snuggle our little lady full time and I get to make her bento lunches too!! Here is the one I made today!

This bento had four heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches two of them complete with some fruit leather heart embellishments, veggie chips, avocado slices, and a plum slice smiley face with grape eyes and dried fruit nose and smile. Some fun facts about this bento: I did a jig in Aldi when I found veggie chips AND fruit leather (I love that place). Lylah wasn't as impressed with the fruit leather as I was :) I figured she wouldn't eat it yet, it's kinda tough. Okay with mommy because I really like that stuff!! Lylah ate the other food up, although this time she took her time!

Three Springs Park

We took a family outing to Three Springs Park on Saturday. Lylah liked it much more than the last time and I was able to snap some fun pictures. Enjoy!

Almost twins

Saturday afternoon Lylah and I got to hang out with our buddy MLK!! There was training going on for school so I watched her while her mom, Beth had her round of meetings. We had lots of fun! The girls really played well together. They hugged each other, they took turns (sort of) hugging babies, it was great. At one point I thought it would be big fun to take them to the park. So, I called our neighbor to and borrowed her double stroller. I was able to get both girls out the door by holding their hands. I was really proud of myself. So proud in fact, that as we were walking to the park I got to thinking about what if I had twins. The girls are only about 3 months apart so I figured it wasn't that much different. Still very proud of myself, I decided that I would be able to handle it like a champ.....then we got to the park.

Things went fine as long as the girls were interested in the same things. It was when they got going in different directions that really threw me off!!! Also, MLK is much more of a dare devil then Lylah is so at one point she was at the top of a piece of playground equipment while Lylah was on the steps of the equipment. MLK kept going back and forth while Lylah wobbled on the stairs. This of course was my moment of realization that a single handed park trip was not easy with "twins"! :) We still had fun and I actually did snap a picture of the girls in the double stroller and once we got home that I wanted to share. Oh, and just in case you were wondering...no toddlers were damaged during our little outing! That's a plus, right?

Lylah's first Bento Lunch

I've really gotten into reading about Bento lunches that other moms are making for their kiddos. From my understanding, Bento lunches are actually very popular in Japan where you would find all kinds of supplies and accessories. If you are interested in seeing some really cute Bentos check out one of my favorite sites. Mine was very simple, but boy was it fun to make and I really think my little lady enjoyed it too. She usually eats like a little bird, but as soon as I sat the lunch down in front of her she started scarfing it down. I mean really scarfing!! I still wasn't able to sneak the tomatoes or black olives pass her, but she actually almost ate everything else!! Another thing that really surprised me was that she didn't even mess with the tray. I thought she might try to tip it over or at least take the muffin cup out, but nope she didn't!! So cool. Anyway, maybe it was a fluke, but I'd like to think that she appreciated something fun and different for lunch. So here is what it looked like:

You can probably tell, but here is what was in Lylah's Bento:
whole wheat pasta tossed in some Italian dressing (with tomatoes and olives)
two sunshine cheddar cheese pieces
four heart watermelon pieces
a handful of grapes sliced
and 1/2 a chopped up hot dog (not healthy, I know)
I decided to link this up here http://www.bentolunch.net/search/label/what%27s%20for%20lunch%20wednesday check it out for lots more fun lunches!
There you have it!! Now here are some shots of Lylah savoring the goodness!