Harvey and the Magpie

The past few weeks, Harvey has found a nemesis in the neighborhood. There is a magpie that he hates and that hates him. Every morning we hear that weird magpie noise and look out to see Harvey fighting a magpie. At first we thought they were okay with each other. The magpie would walk around maybe 5 feet from Harvey and Harvey would just ignore it. Then one day while we were eating dinner, Harvey was walking around the railing on our deck and a magpie swooped down, landed behind Harvey and started pecking at him. Harvey doesn't have the most incredible balance, especially for a cat, and he didn't do a good job defending himself since he couldn't turn around to face the magpie. The bird flew off when we jumped up from the table to get a better look at what was going on. Ever since then every time Harvey goes outside we hear a magpie and see them facing off. No wounds yet, and we hope they they keep it clean, but magpies are annoying dirty birds, and we hope that it doesn't fight dirty. It has been hard to get good video of them fighting since they both will bolt when they see us coming. We did manage to get these two videos where Harvey seems to have the upper hand (sorry the second video is sideways).

The Latest

Lame title for this post, I know. I'm really not in a creative mood right now. I'm just getting over Strep Throat. Ugh. Layla is still recovering from a cold (courtesy of me). Double Ugh. At least Mitch is still healthy! Really though, we're both doing much better and we should be back to 100% in a couple of days.

Layla had her first trip to the pediatrician for something other than a normal check up. I had a feeling she had a cold since I had Strep. She had a lot of what I call "goop" in her eyes, a stuffy nose, and a tiny cough. But being the even-tempered, laid back baby that she is, she didn't even act sick or fussy at all. So I waited a day to see if she'd get better or worse before I freaked out and took her to the pediatrician. ( I LOVE our pediatrician, by the way. He's pretty much awesome.) The goop got worse so I made an appointment. For the record, I didn't completely freak out. I just wanted to make sure she was okay. And she was. No fever, no ear infection, no lung problems. Just blocked tear ducts and a very mild cold. Layla's already doing better today. Her eyes are hardly goopy at all and she doesn't cough as much.

I'm on my third day of antibiotics. I still have a cough, but overall I feel much better. I am extra tired from getting over the sickness, and I still don't feel like going anywhere or doing anything. But I shouldn't be contagious anymore, so I hope that means Mitch won't get sick!

What else? Last week Layla and I went shopping with Nicole and Oakley. I was in the dressing room while Nicole, Oakley, and Layla were hanging out just outside of my dressing room. I was trying on some clothes when I heard the following conversation:

Woman: What a cute baby! Is it a boy?

Nicole (in an annoyed voice): No ... No, she's a girl.

Now you may be wondering why this woman was confused about Layla's sex. So let me show you a picture of the outfit Layla was wearing when said question was asked and see if it confuses you:

Are you confused?

I didn't think so.

Last weekend Mitch and I decided to celebrate our anniversary. We had dinner at WingNutz and saw Iron Man 2. We really like WingNutz. If you like wings, I highly suggest it. They had about 30 different kinds of sauces you could choose from. Some sounded weird, but we liked the two we tried. Iron Man 2 was awesome! I liked it even better than the first one. It was easier to leave Layla than I thought it would be. I guess since I knew she was being taken excellent care of I was able to leave her and enjoy my date night with my hubby. She did great and was a little angel while we were away. Okay, okay, I did call my parents twice to ask how she was doing. Ha,ha. I can't help it! How would you feel if you were away from this adorable little face for 3 hours?

What else? Oh yes, tonight is The Big Night on American Idol, my favorite! Lee or Crystal? Originally I said Crystal. But now I would not be surprised if Lee wins. He seems to appeal to a larger audience. But I still say that Crystal is more talented. Lee kind of reminds me of Daughtry or Nickelback. I can't stand either of those bands. They have whiny voices and all of their songs sound exactly the same. I have a feeling Lee's album might be the same way. So my vote is for Crystal.

That's all.

Success

Layla is learning so much lately! Or maybe we are ... we finally learned which bottle she prefers to eat from (thanks again for the tip, Julia, it worked!) and we also learned which binky she prefers. I wasn't going to ever give her a binky, but she kept sucking her fingers. I figured it's easier to take away a binky than it is to make her stop sucking her fingers. (Lucky for us she actually likes a binky.) Now that she'll take a bottle and binky, Mitch and I can go see a movie, go to the temple, or do anything that requires leaving Layla for longer than 3 hours. Now that's what I call success!!! (The question is whether or not I can handle being away from her for that long ... she's so cute and sweet I just want to hold her and cuddle her all day long!)

But here's the best news ... drum roll please... Layla learned that she does not need to wake up at 2:30 a.m. to eat anymore! She slept from 10:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. last night and I was SO happy! I can't wait to see what happens tonight.She's also learning to coo a lot and likes to talk to Mitch and I when we change her diaper and play with her. She smiles at us a lot too. I love it when I wake her up and she smiles at me as soon as she opens her eyes. Melts my heart. I also love it when Mitch comes home from work, picks up Layla, and she smiles at him again and again and again. So cute! She is most definitely a Daddy's Girl!

Celebrations

We have a lot to celebrate at our house lately... Mother's Day, Layla's 1 Month Birthday (kind of a cause to celebrate, right?), and our 3rd Anniversary. My first Mother's Day was nice. Mitch always makes sure I feel extra special and loved. He gave me two dozen white roses and a beautiful necklace that I love. He also made me breakfast. But the best gift was his attempt to get up at 2:30 a.m. to feed Layla so I could get some rest. The problem was that Layla has only had a bottle twice before ... so it didn't go so well. Pretty much she absolutely refused to eat from the bottle. The good news is that I did get some extra sleep so I felt more rested the next day, and I really appreciate his effort. (Now we need to teach Layla to eat from a bottle! Any tips?)

We were able to spend time with my family and Mitch's family to celebrate our awesome moms. I must say, I understand my mom a lot better now that I am a mom. Funny how that works, huh? Here's my mom and Layla laughing at each other ... so cute!

Layla was such a good little girl all weekend while we shuttled her from place to place and passed her from person to person. I'm so thankful that she is such an even-tempered baby. She is having a growth spurt right now and is eating like a horse, which means I got absolutely nothing done today, but at least she's growing, right? I told Mitch I want to take a pic of Layla each month with the same object to see how much she's grown. I asked him what object we should use, picturing a stuffed animal or something cute in my head. Of course I should have known better when I asked an engineer to suggest an object because he suggested a tape measure. Definitely not cute. But I know exactly why he thought of it, I mean, it's only logical right? I said I wanted something to show how big she's gotten so what better than something to measure her with? Ha,ha. So, here she is on her one month old birthday with a measuring tape to see how big she is, kind of, since she rarely straightens out her legs. And don't worry, we'll use the tape measure next month too.

We also had our 3 year anniversary! I can't believe it's been 3 years. It went by so fast and we have done so much in the last 3 years. Mitch graduated with his Master's, I graduated with my Bachelor's, we remodeled a bathroom, the kitchen, and painted most of the house (it really needed some color), we traveled a lot (St. Maartens, Cambodia, California, London, Latvia, France, and New York), Mitch had his 5 year anniversary at work, I got a part-time editing job working from home, and our biggest accomplishment: we had Layla. Whew, that's a lot for 3 years! It's been the best three years of my life and not because of what we've been able to do, but because I've been blessed to spend them with Mitch. So, in honor of our 3 blissful years, here is a list of the top three reasons why I'm glad I married Mitch:

1. He always knows how to cheer me up and make me smile.

2. He is good at the things that I'm not so good at. For example, he has an excellent memory so I know I can count on him to remember things when I forget.

3. He makes me the happiest I've ever been.

And, he is such an awesome dad to Layla. He loves her so much and is so sweet with her. She is definitely a daddy's girl already! No one else can make her smile as much as Mitch does. It's pretty adorable.

The last three years have been great and the rest of our lives and eternity will be even better! I love you, Mitch!!!

Like father, like daughter

Everyone thinks that Layla looks just like Mitch. I agree. Except one thing: her lips. She definitely got those from me. It will be interesting to see how she looks in a few months from now. (I'm hoping she'll have Mitch's blue eyes and my eyelashes, but she'll be cute no matter what.) Anyways, not only does Layla look like Mitch, she also sleeps like him. They both sleep with their hands by their heads and their elbows out. And I ought to know because when Mitch sleeps like this it means I wake up to his elbow in my back! Ha,ha. I found Layla sleeping like that today. Awww, so peaceful.

And thirty minutes later, not so peaceful. She must hate her beautiful flower bow because when I checked on her, this is what I found:

Isn't it funny that she can sleep with that thing over her eyes? I took it off for her, like any good mom would do, after I took some pictures, of course! She didn't even wake up when I took it off, which means she's a heavy sleeper ... just like her dad. Well, if she's going to take after Mitch, let's hope she gets his brains too!

And again, GO JAZZ! Please beat the Lakers tonight!!!