We had quite the busy month. We have our routine every week & along with our usual things we've been busy with play time & movie dates with friends!
Watching Layla learn is such a neat experience. She questions everything & wants to know all that she can. I've learned so much looking at things through her eyes. Two of her favourite subjects to learn about are astronomy & anatomy (particularly the skeletal system) She's going to be a SCIENTIST!!!
We have this huge book about astronomy & it has these great photos and so much information. I have a basic understanding of astronomy so I read about what the pictures are with her, but watching her & Jer go through this book is something else, he understands it all so much better & explains things to her to help her understand what she's looking at. And you can see her just soaking it all in, it's just so fascinating to her & she can do this for HOURS!
As you may know, we are a very active family. Layla has a lot of cute little outfits, but because most days we are outside running around or at the gym or out doing something active we usually wear clothes designed for this. It's difficult to find work out clothes in Layla's size because kids don't really care what they're wearing when they're running around playing, and most girls actually want to wear their cute outfits and dresses no matter what activity they are doing (when I was little I was playing in the dirt & catching lizards, but I just had to wear the girliest dresses to do so!) Layla likes to be comfortable & to my excitement we found some Nike running shorts IN HER SIZE!! I was so thrilled! They had 3 different ones and Jer told me to only get 1 or 2, but since it's so rare to find these in her size I convinced him to get her all 3!
Back in late April/early May (I can't remember) Layla collected some pine cones in the little forest at Heritage Park. She told me she had to make bird feeders with peanut butter & birdseeds. We've never done this before & I didn't even know how she knew that (best guess is that she saw it on T.V.) so we went out & bought some bird seed to make a pine cone bird feeder! Layla was thrilled & had so much fun making it!! We hung it up with blue yarn & left it in the little forest where we found the pine cone. Well this month we were walking through again & saw that the yarn was still hanging on the tree!! The pinecone was long gone, but Layla was just thrilled to see the blue yarn still hanging & was happy to know that the birds enjoyed her little pine cone treat.
Funny things Layla has said or done:
- Layla had her yearly check up this month & while we were sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor when Layla saw this sign. It's in every doctor's office & it is their system for assessing the pain a patient is feeling when they are sick or hurt. So we explained what it was to Layla & after studying it her conclusion was "those feelings don't have any hair."
- Layla was talking to herself one day & I had no clue what she was saying, so I asked her. She laughed & told me she was saying Spanish words!! She's been learning Spanish while watching Handy Manny & Dora the Explorer!
- "Is it Christmas yet?" "No." "Why is it taking so long for that snow cloud to come? Snow cloud is far away!"
- So I was watching a show (New Girl) that played ACDC's "you shook me all night long" & I look over to see Layla dancing her little butt off in the living room. She sees Jer & I watching her & says "This music makes my booty move!!" She likes to blame the music when we see her dancing, like she has no control over her actions & Gloria Estefan was right; the music really did get her!
- "Mommy, I farted on my foot. I think I need a bath."
- "Layla, how do you spell stop?" "Five." (She really does know how to spell stop, I don't know where this answer came from.)
- Layla laughs out loud at a random moment then turns to Jer & I and asks, "What's so funny?"
- She was running around with a mini gift bow on her shirt & exclaimed that she was "the fasterest" because of her bow!
Wearing daddy's hat. She thought she was pretty funny wearing this.
The base theater was playing 'Madagascar 3' one weekend, so we went with some friends of ours to the movie & went out for pizza before. Layla had so much fun with their 3-year old Jojo!
More gymnastics pictures!! One day at class her teacher let us know that the last 30 minutes of class was going to be free play, where she lets them run around doing the activities they want to do & that the parents were allowed to come in to take pictures! The kids had SO MUCH fun showing off to their parents & Layla was thrilled to show me all of the fun things she had been learning in gymnastics. It was really sweet of the teacher to include us in the class.
One day I was pretty much useless due to a running injury, so as I spent most of the day on the couch Layla had a movie on in her room & I made sure she was stocked up on art supplies so she could have fun. When Jer came home from work he went up the stairs & was surprised by something, so I went to check it out. Layla had drawn our little family and hung us up with stickers from one of her Avengers books! (Since she's not allowed to have tape without someone to help her.)
Since we live in base housing we are forced to listen to the fighter jets that fly ALL FREAKING DAY. & if you know me, you know how much I hate them. They are SO LOUD, sometimes they fly really low over the neighbourhood so our old, brick house shakes & I swear, I can feel my brain rattling against my skull. So the other night it was a little after 8 & they were flying non-stop in our area. Jer wanted to go outside to watch them so he took Layla out with him. Instead of getting ready for bed (since sleeping while those jerks are flying around is impossible) we all went outside & while Jer watched the planes we also played a bit of footie. Layla loves kicking the ball around with us!
When we took Layla in for her check up she had to get the last round of vaccinations (other than the flu vaccine, she's done until she's 11!) So she had to get 4 vaccines & was NOT happy about it. We tried to explain to her that they help her stay healthy, but she doesn't understand why they have to give her booboos. We were warned that one of the vaccines was going to really sting & would probably bother her for a day or so afterwards. So Layla hung out on the couch with Jer's iPad & some cartoons for a day. The next day she was pretty sore & was still limping a lot. It was hard to force her to walk when she was in so much pain, but she really needed to move around to get her blood flowing so her leg wouldn't hurt longer. I was worried she wouldn't be able to do gymnastics the day after that, and I warned her teacher she might not be able to do everything, but her teacher let me know that after being cautious in the beginning she was having so much fun that she forgot all about her booboos!
One day before ballet the youth center was conducting a fire drill, so instead of joining the students out in the rain we sat in the car waiting for the all clear! Layla had so much fun sitting in the front of the car. There are so many buttons and things to looks at and play with that she doesn't ever really get a good look at while sitting in the backseat. She had a lot of playing with everything & seeing what they did.
June was another active month for us. Layla loves going to the park or out in the back yard to kick the soccer ball around. Her gymnastics & ballet classes are really the highlight of the week (aside from playing with her friends!) She looks forward to her classes & is always sad when it's time to go home.
I love having a daughter. When friends find out that they're pregnant with a girl I always exclaim that girls are so much more fun! I know that this it just a matter of opinion & if I had a son I'd have just as much fun with him as I do with Layla. I only say this because Layla and I have so much fun doing girly things together. She LOVES having her finger and toe nails painted. We recently found these nail paint PENS so we can actually draw little designs. We now paint our toes and fingers about twice a week & Layla loves having polka dots, smiley faces, stripes, flowers, and anything else she can think of painted on her little tootsies.
The weather has been very, well, English! It changes so often throughout the day! One minute it's pouring rain, then the next the sun is out and it's blue skies as far as you can see! The sun is up so long here during the summer, so we'll have a few hours of sunlight in the morning, then a few hours of rain, then the sun pops out again, rain again, then the sun pops out again later that night just as it's finally setting. Layla and I have been taking advantage of the weather, whatever it is. If it's sunny, we're outside playing and soaking up some vitamin D. If it's rainy, we're outside splashing in the puddles!
A friend of ours received some bad news & was feeling sad one day, so Layla and I decided to cheer her up a bit with some smiley toes!! Layla laughed and wiggled the entire time I was trying to draw these on her toes, it tickled her!
This was after Layla's first ballet class. We're not allowed to sit in the room to watch the class, so afterwards I went in with Layla and asked her to show me what she has learned. She ran around the room so fast that most of my pictures didn't turn out well, but I got a few that I just love!! My beautiful ballerina.
