Happy Halloween From Laylabug

I made Layla a Ladybug costume for Halloween (with a little help from my Grandma. Thanks again, GG!). I'm not a great seamstress, but I've always thought that homemade Halloween costumes are the cutest so I decided to give it a try. And since Layla is too young to decide on a costume herself, I decided that she should be a Ladybug. Or Laylabug, as I like to say.

But maybe she should have been a lamb. Because now she says "baa, baa" all the time. She just started saying it on Sunday. (B is her first consonant.) Only it sounds more like, "blaa, blaa" because her long lizard tongue always gets in the way. Ha, ha.

We still need to get the hilariousness on video. I can't help but laugh every.single.time she says blaa, blaa.

Maybe she should have been a lamb so she could say blaa, blaa while wearing a lamb costume. But don't you think she makes a cute Laylabug??? (I do wish the antennas would stand up straight! You can't really see them in these pics, but they're cute, I promise.)

Oh, and we took Layla to visit her great grandma at the old folks home. We had her dressed in her costume. Some older guy there thought she was dressed up as a space alien. It was super funny.

Bananas

Layla had bananas for the first time. She loved them. I loved watching the hilarious way her mouth moves when she mashes them up. She looks like a frog trying to catch a fly. Never mind that I sound like a huge dork on the video. First-time mom. Can't help it.

I Hate Being Cold

Which is one of the reasons why I hate winter time. But I've been trying to find things that I love about winter. I recently decided that I love hearing the heater come on in the winter time. Don't you get a cozy feeling when you hear the heater kick on? It makes me want to snuggle up to Mitch and drink some hot chocolate while we sit in front of our [non-existent] fireplace.

So this week when the weather man said it was supposed to be in the 40s, I told myself it would be okay because I would have that warm, cozy feeling when the heater turns on.

But the heater didn't turn on.

It broke sometime early Sunday morning.

We were cold for 4 days. We had to wait for the heater part to arrive in the mail. We dressed Bug extra warm and had space heaters around the house. We tried to avoid being home: Mitch went to work and Bug and I spent a day visiting a friend from Latvia, and my mission bff and her sweet baby girl.

And you know what? It really wasn't that bad. Not like we thought it would be. The space heaters did their job, Bug didn't mind the extra layers, and we had a good laugh about the whole thing.

Here's Layla in her pajamas with a jacket and slippers layered on top.

Harvey was sooooo sad that the weather was bad and he was stuck inside (even though it was cold inside, but warmer than outside).

Finally, on Wednesday, the heater part Mitch ordered arrived in the mail. It was only 20 bucks. I was reminded, once again, that I married a Smart, Mr. Fix-It-All who had our heater up and running in no time. I was also reminded of how blessed we were that the problem wasn't more expensive or a bigger pain to fix.

We're so happy to be warm again!!!

Note to Self

Tonight I had the opportunity to be a judge for our local elementary school's Reflections Contest. I judged the literature entries. The judging took place in the school library.

Which got me thinking ...

I would really enjoy being a school librarian. For many reasons: I love libraries, I love books, I love to read, I have an English degree, and kids are hilarious.

So note to self: when returning to work full-time, apply for a job as a school librarian!

6 month stats

Layla had her 6 month checkup yesterday. Here are her stats:

weight: 15.8 lbs 50th percentile

length: 26.5 in 90th percentile

She has been in the 50th percentile for weight her whole little life. She was always 95th % for length, but she's slowed down a little on her growing, which put her in the 90th percentile.

She received two shots and one oral immunization. She cried for about 30 seconds and then was back to her normal happy self. She's a tough girl.

Her pediatrician was impressed that she can sit so well already. He thinks because she is so strong that she will walk early (which means walking before 1 year of age). We'll see I guess. My mom started walking at 9 months, so you never know ... for now I'm just enjoying the stage where she can sit up and play, but she can't crawl or walk anywhere yet. It's nice!

Here's a video of Layla laughing. She thinks it's funny when I shake my head and make my hair move. She was kind of over it by the time we got the video camera out, that's why she sounds a little whiny. But it's still cute. Mitch and I decided that 6 months is our favorite age/stage so far. Probably because we have such a happy/hyper/excitable little girl.

Sorry, but you'll have to pause the music player at the bottom of my blog to hear the video. And don't mind that Layla is totally distracted by the video camera. It was really hard to keep her attention.

Lately

Guess who turned 6 months old??? I can't believe it! Time flies too fast. She sits up like a champ now. And she loves her baby food. Except for green beans. I don't blame her though. (When I was a kid I used to shove as many green beans into my mouth as I could, chew a little, then spit them out in my napkin when no one was looking. Then I would wad the napkin up in my fist, excuse myself to the restroom, and flush the green bean wad down the toilet. I know that 's a lot of work to go through just to avoid eating a few green beans, but I really hated them that bad. So I can't blame Layla for not liking them.) On the other hand she LOVES butternut squash! She's a happy, funny, hyper little girl. She loves to play and be tossed around. She loves Harvey. If you hold her hands while she is standing, she will actually take a few steps towards Harvey. I keep saying she's going to walk before she crawls! When she gets upset she blows raspberries while she whines. It's so cute and funny. When she gets excited she bounces. It's hard to hold onto her when she's bouncing in your arms! The last 6 months have been great though. Mitch and I love being Bug's parents. She makes us really happy. And I think we make her happy too.

We had some family pics taken with Mitch's family. We went up Ogden Canyon to have our pics done by the Bott sign (as in Bott, our last name). Get it? They turned out really cute! Good suggestion, Kathy!

I have relinquished all of Bug's physical characteristics over to the Bott family. I always expected our daughters to look like me and our sons to look like Mitch, but evidently I was wrong. So, I give up; I have too many recessive genes; Layla is all Bott. I used to think she looked exactly like Mitch, and while I think they look a lot alike, I actually think she looks most like Mitch's sister, Katie.

I guess if my own daughter isn't going to look like me, at least she takes after someone who is really pretty.

I signed up to feed the elders tonight. I decided to make a pumpkin roll for dessert. I used fat free cream cheese. Bad idea. It doesn't taste nearly as good and the consistency is off. I guess the elders can't complain when someone else is making them dinner, right?

We went in with some friends on season Jazz tickets again. I'm loving the new Jazz uniforms. We went to the first preseason game last week. Don't worry, despite the player trades that took place, the Jazz is going to be the same team as every year. You know, the Jazz team who leads their opponent by 30+ points in the first quarter, then slowly loses the lead, only to scramble during the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarter to pull off 4 point win. Ha, ha. Regardless, I love going to the Jazz games. It's something fun for Mitch and I to do together. I'm excited for this season! Go my favorite sports team!!!

I was really sick over the weekend. I thought I had strep throat. Turns out is was just a nasty virus. I lost my voice for the first time in my whole life. That was fun. This makes for the third strep throat/virus illness I've had in 5 months. Next time I'm going straight to an eye/ear/nose doctor to ask about having my weak/sickness prone tonsils removed! I am feeling a lot better now though.

Bug's Day In Pictures

I made it a point to take some pics today.

Here is Layla Bug's typical day in pictures:

She woke up and had rice cereal. These are the first three pics I got after I took out the camera. I didn't even have to try to make her smile; she just knew what to do. She's becoming quite the character.

She took a nap for 1 1/2 hours.

She bounced in her jumper. She likes to lunge at you if you sit close enough.

She took another nap for 1 1/2 hours.

We went grocery shopping in the rain, came home and made dinner.

When Daddy got home from work he and Bug hung out until he went to Scouts.

She went downstairs with Daddy while I made her some baby food because she is scared to death of the blender. Yummy, right?

She ate some green beans for the first time.

She wasn't a big fan. She gagged almost every time I put some in her mouth. The full body gag where even her shoulders shake. It was hilarious.

She practiced sitting up like a big girl.

Now it's 8 p.m. and she's ready to have some more mommy milk and go to bed. And that, my friends, is a typical day in the life of a 6 month old. Not bad, huh?

Side note: I will say that her favorite food is still Mommy Milk. I had a dream the other night that her first word was "momma milk" and she kept saying it to everyone and I was sort of embarrassed that momma milk was her first word. Ha,ha. I don't mind breastfeeding her, but the baby food is nice too because then Mitch can have turns feeding her. I think they enjoy that time together. I'm glad I chose to breastfeed and most of all, I'm glad that I can! It has it's challenges and it's not always convenient, but it's also a good bonding experience and I get to cuddle Layla several times a day. I thank Heavenly Father every day that I get to be her mommy. I feel so lucky!!!

Hyper

Can sweet potatoes make a six month old hyper? I'm beginning to think they can. Layla has been eating sweet potato baby food the last few days and about a half hour after she finishes them she gets sooooo hyper. It's pretty much hilarious. We have to put her in her doorway jumper to burn off her extra energy before bed. Speaking of bed, she has been sleeping through the night pretty well for the last month or so. I have only gotten up with her once in the last 5 or 6 weeks and that was last night. I think she's teething and I just felt so bad for her that I broke my own rule and went in and got her. Hopefully I didn't break her good habit of sleeping through the night!

General Conference was quite interesting with Layla around. It was kind of like church: I tried to pay attention, but ended up only hearing bits and pieces of what was said due to my constant doting on our daughter. Ha,ha. I did enjoy Conference though. I was able to go to the Relief Society session at the Conference Center and it was lovely. It's nice to hear from our Prophet and Apostles every 6 months. And Mitch and I had crepes for breakfast both days of Conference. We've made them our Conference tradition. Yum.

Because we spent so much time sitting around watching Conference this weekend, Layla learned to sit all by herself! She can't sit for long periods of time, but she does great in short bursts! It's amazing how much better she gets at sitting each day. She also rolled over all by herself today. (A rare thing for her.) I know she can roll over, it just seems like she doesn't care to. But today she really wanted this certain toy, so she rolled over and got it. She has to have some extra motivation to make her roll over I guess.

Anyways, all is good at our place. I need to take more pictures of Layla. I always forget. I'll post an old one since I'm too lazy to get the camera out right now. And thanks to everyone who voted for Layla! She had over 200 votes! That's a lot. We did see one kid who had over 1,000 votes though, so I don't think Bug will win, but it was fun anyways!