1 Year Check Up

Lyla Setzer's 1 Year Check Up.
Weight 17lbs 10oz.= 5% tile
Height 28 3/4 Inches =40% tile
Head 18 3/4 Inches =95%

Dear Kids,
This blog will probably have to serve as your baby books. I just haven't put forth the effort into doing a real scrap book of any kind. Sorry.
Loveyour terrible,
Mom

Things I have learned...

This is something new I am going to start trying to list every week or so. Some interesting facts that I might want to look back and remember one day.
1. Babies will put anything in their mouths.
2. No matter where we go Riley WILL have to poop in the public restroom.
3. I learned to knit this year.
4. You can not always reason with a four year old.
5. Rachel Ray sure does use a lot of ingredients I have NEVER heard of and CANNOT find at the store. 30 meals my ass!
6. Staying at home with my kids has been harder than I imagined.
7. No matter how cool her clothes might be, Barbie will always run around our house naked from about 5 minutes after she enters our home.
8. Sibling rivalry starts young.
9. Patience really is a virtue.
10. Last but not least,the show Toddlers and Tiaras scares the you know what out of me.

Happy 1st Birthday Lyla!

Happy Birthday to my baby! I can not believe it has been an entire year. This time last year I was miserable. No offense. You were supposed to be this nice neat planned C section. You on the other hand had your own plans. You came early, just like Riley. However, they told me to wait until my contractions were 5 minutes apart for one our or my water broke before we came to the hospital. Well I had contractions for 15 hours that were 10 minutes apart. I finally made the executive decision to head on to the hospital. Your dad suggested we wait until the contractions got closer together. However after 15 HOURS, I informed your dad that he could either stay at the house and watch TV or he could come with me to the hospital. We went in around 9pm and 11:10 you were born via C-section. You were perfect and looked exactly like your sister only about a pound heavier. My delivery and recovery were a piece of cake, it was just the labor that sucked.We have had so much fun this year watching you grow and loving you. Riley has loved being a big sister most of the time anyway. My hope is that you two will grow up and become the best of friends. We have had a great year. I lost my job when you were born, and since there are no other real jobs out there right now, I have been able to be home with you and sister. While we have missed the income, I have really enjoyed getting to see all the things I missed with Riley while I was working.

You are night and day different from your sister. Riley was independent from day one, you on the other hand have been attached to me from day one. While at times it is overwhelming, seeing as you don't even let me out of your sight to go to the bathroom, we have become very close. In addition, Riley did not walk until she was 18 months old, but talked at what seems like birth. (She hasn't shut up since.) You on the other hand want to go go go and follow right on sister's heels. You are climbing, crawling, cruising, and on the verge of walking already. You enjoy splashing around in the toilet and putting anything you can find in your mouth. You now dance when you hear music. You are clapping and waving. You can say, Mama, Dada, Nana, Pop Pop, Mermaid, and Baby. Just like your sister you know what you want when you want it. Unlike your sister, you can not talk and tell us.

We are so very proud of you and love you so much. We have had a great year watching you grow and go. Happy Birthday to you Lyla. May God watch over you and bless you. Also, Happy Birthday to your Pop Pop yesterday!

Smile for the camera!

I tried to take the girls to get their pictures made....as you can see we will have to go back another time :)

What a week.

OK so I just busted little Miss Lyla splashing around in the toilet. Grosser than gross. This baby is into so much more than her big sister was at this age. Lyla is now officially a climber. She eats dog food. Enjoys throwing plates out of the dishwasher and shattering them on the kitchen floor. She broke an aqua globe in one of the potted plants while eating fistfuls of dirt. She laughs in my face when I say NO NO! We are now just one week way from the big birthday number 1!

It just amazes me that my two children are SO different. Riley was not walking or even thinking about walking at this age. She was too busy talking, and talking, and talking some more. Lyla on the other hand could care less about talking. She has added a 4th word to her vocab. "Mermaid". What the hell, I have been working on sister, doggie, Pammy, something familiar. While mermaids are a popular item in our house I am just surprised to hear her bust it out the other day in the bathtub and again later to her dad.

Now on a side story on Friday we woke up to some jackass on our front porch. Turns out some of the neighbors down the street had some wild drug induced party and this guy was a guest of theirs. He managed to break into several vehicles and one garage on our street. John confronted him in our front yard and then chased him on foot for a while. Luckily he was caught by the police and is still in jail. Little did we know this jerk was also carrying a gun. I am SO unbelievably THANKFUL that he didn't use it on John. Makes me sick to my stomach to think of what could have happened. People are just crazy! I have called 911 three times this week. Once for the robber, and twice for wrecks I witnessed. I hope they don't like flag my number.

On the lighter side we enjoyed a wonderful dinner tonight with Max and Liz. They came over and Liz cooked us dinner. What a great person. Who comes to your house and cooks dinner for you? It was awesome we cherish our friendship with both of them. This week will be busy planning and preparing for the big bday bash. Riley is trying to convince me that Lyla would like some Barbie's, but I am not falling for that. :) I hope everyone has a great week, and by everyone I mean my mom who maybe the only person who reads this.

Home Again...whew

After more than a week in the Mountains of WNC we are happy to be back at the beach. Not so happy about the heat and humidity and the beach traffic, but thrilled to see John. I took the girls up to Asheville last Saturday to visit with my mom, grandparents, my dad, sister and brother. We got to spend a lot of quality time with those most important to us that we unfortunately do not see as often as we would like.

Lyla was great she actually let my grandmother hold her several times this visit. She is slowly letting those other than mommy have a place in her heart. Riley was thrilled to see Granddaddy Mease and Grandma Patty. We "helped" put up the corn that had come in. I had hoped we could have helped with beans, but my Mease Grandparents have their garden harvesting down to a science after all these years and I think we were mostly in the way.

We had a great week in Asheville we went to the drum circle, Mount Mitchell, and many other fun day trips through out the mountains. We missed John/Daddy very much. I think he actually got a little bored here without us. He said one to two days is enough peace and quiet. After that it gets a little lonely. However, last night when we were all piled in the same bed cris crossed over top of each other, he did mention he did no miss sharing the bed with so many people :)

I can't believe we are well into August. Baby Lyla turns 1 in two short weeks. She is so grown up. She too is tiny just like Riley and many people are shocked when they learn she is almost a year old! Where in the world have the last 12 months gone???