Yet another reason...

Yet another reason to be thankful for having an older sister with a baby! I get to steal all her ideas:) Josie loved LOVED her first "sandbox" experience so of course I could not wait to see if Lyla would as well.

Visit: http://www.threeschneiders.blogspot.com/ - if you haven't checked it out recently you will be amazed to see how much Josie has grown - she is a toddler:):)

So here we go - I put her in the "sandbox" which is actually Oats and here is the look I got. I explained that she was not being punished - that she should be having LOTS of fun!!!

She grabbed a handful and still wasn't sure what to think!

With a little encouragement she immediately started to get into it!

Now it's time to have some fun!

I started hiding things so she could find them...

And this went on for some time - over and over and over and over and over and over and over...

And over and over again I got this reaction from her - of course she had to show me what she had found and of course I acted surprised EVERY time!!!

Then she started to get really brave...

And really REALLY excited...

And then I decided to make it even more interesting by sprinkling the oats over her - a rainfall of Oats....

And I will conclude with this - WHAT WAS I THINKING!!! What do you get when you mix oats and water???? Oh my goodness what a nightmare. After shampooing her hair 3 times and 4 rounds of conditioner - I finally got the gooey mess out of those sweet curls - BUT SO VERY WORTH THE FUN!!!

Click below link for complete shutterfly album:

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4th full of fun!

4th of July in the City - we haven't been in the city for the 4th in 5 years. It was about time to see what the city had to offer. The extra added bonus was Michael and I had Friday off - so we headed into the weekend with lots of fun activities planned. We had to start off by dressing Lyla up for the occasion (Thank you Grandma Debbie)

Day 1: The perfect day to hang out on our rooftop.

Don't let this picture fool you - she kept them on for 3 seconds before she ripped them off.

That night Michael and I started to hear lots of BANGS so we quickly closed Lyla's door, grabbed the video monitor and went upstairs to find....

...a 360 degree display of fireworks - we didn't even have to leave the house. Without sounding too hooky - it was absolutely AMAZING! We will definitely have a rooftop 4th of July party next year. Seriously everywhere you looked there were fireworks. FABULOUS!

Day 2: To the lake and the zoo.

Daddy went to the driving range while Lyla and I went on a long walk. My thought was if we went on a long walk she would nap and wake-up just in time for the zoo - my plan worked - but I was bummed that she slept through this...

And even more sad about her sleeping through this - I discovered a bird trail - but it's not going anywhere - we will definitely be back for another visit!!

Next up - daddy joined us for the walk along the lake to the zoo. We entered through an entrance in the back and look what we found. All the times we have been to the Lincoln Park Zoo...I didn't know they had a carousel - HOW FUN! Lyla LOVED it. She held on tight and had a perma-grin the entire time!

The zoo was off to a great start BUT would Lyla squeal and squirm at the animals again? With her feeling secure on my back we hoped for the best.

SUCCESS!!!!

We decided whatever animal she enjoyed the best we would reward her with a stuffed animal to remind her of her "favorite."

It was a close call between a tiger and monkey...but the monkey prevailed!

And look at her go! She must have thought since she was carrying her monkey that she should put in a little more effort...YIKES!

And off she went with her new friend...

And when we tried to take it off - we had to put it back on...

And Day 3: More rooftop fun and lots of chasing Lyla around the house!

Here is our little gymnast in the making...

And here comes that chasing part...getting into boxes...

Getting into the refrigerator...

Getting into the cabinets...

And I could go on and on and on...

That took FOREVER so I think I'll wrap things up - this may have been the longest Blog posting yet...Whew!

Picky Picky!!!

Houston we've got a problem...Watermelon is just the start of it!! Yeah she looks adorable in the below picture - but looks can be deceiving...

Waffles...easy enough right! After devouring O's and mum-mums for months we thought she was more than ready and would love the yummy goodness of waffles. So we did what we've always heard - we tore the waffles in small bite sizes...and this is the look we got...the look I call "And what do you suppose I should do with that."

Followed by the - okay I'll give it a try but mommy I really don't want to...

Things got a little better when we allowed her to hold the entire "mini-waffle" on her own...

But as you can see she was still none-to-thrilled when we tried and tried to encourage her to eat more...

If only this was a true thumbs-up...because if she knew what she was doing she would most definitely be giving us a thumbs-down...

Next up eggs...Honestly why on earth did we think she would like eggs!! So here is the problem - she hates any food that is wet, slippery, slimy, cold, soggy, chewy...

And there it is again... And after she gave us this look I gave in and handed her some crispy, crunchy, dry, bland tasteless sugar free organic O's...

I welcome any suggestions - we most definitely have a picky eater on our hands...hmmmm I wonder where she gets it from :)

It's a GIRL - Jaida Louise Garland

It's a Girl!!! CONGRATS to the Garland Family who welcomed Baby "Girl" Garland last night at 9:52pm. It's hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago we had a surprise shower and were anxiously awaiting Baby Garlands arrival - anxiously awaiting if it would be a girl or boy!!!

Being experienced in the baby making area, with #3 on the way, Amy was definitely not expecting a baby shower. She was very surprised and I think annoyed...annoyed because she of course did not want anyone to go out of their way for #3 but more so annoyed that we were able to surprise her....because goodness knows it is VERY hard to get anything past Amy Garland!!!

Here we are "hiding" and getting ready to say SURPRISE!!!

Yep she was surprised...and of course she spotted the Baby Shower decor immediately...

We made sure to have lots of yummy food for one very pregnant mommy :):)

The surprise was a success...and a great opportunity for the Garland Family to sit back and relax before #3....

And a PERFECT opportunity to get all the kids together...the day got off to a rocky start with Lyla being a bully. We think this is a way of showing her true love for Tyson by pulling his hair and really getting his attention (Sorry Tyson....)

Thank you Natalia for entertaining the little ones...

And what's a BBQ/Baby Shower without a kiddie pool...

Thank you Ty and Amy for giving us #3!! What a joy Kade and Reese are - we can NOT wait to see what personality comes out of #3 :):):)

Thank you Aunt KC for entertaining...I hope you will come back again ;) The day concluded with everyone leaving to get their kids home for bedtime :):)

The next day- Sunday -we took Lyla to the Shedd Aquarium...holding out hope it would go better than zoo animals....

YES YES YES!!!!

We sat here for a very long time. A baby seal provided lots of entertainment for Lyla by swimming around and doing lots of fun tricks and flips!

Clapping for the baby seal...

I apologized to Lyla for not trying this sooner because she had so much fun riding on my back and of course I asked Michael a million times "What is she doing?"

The Polar Playzone is complete and it is fabulous. There are so many interactive activities for kids. We agreed we would get Lyla an annual pass for her 1st birthday!

And unfortunately this is when our camera died. We also took Lyla to the Planetarium and a long long walk along the Lake. I was able to get one picture on my camera phone before it died as well - my goodness what timing :(

And finally just a couple of pics around the house... Here is Lyla playing peek-a-boo with Dada... I see you!!!!!

Coming up next: LOTS of fun filled 4th of July weekend festivities. I hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend.