Busy as a Bee

Busy, as usual. Layla was invited to her first Halloween party and it was super fun! Luckily, my mom had previously spotted this adorable bee costume, so we were ready to par-tay! Layla can even say the word "honey," which is so appropriate, don't you think? 

Showing off her costume ...

Our friends threw the party; they read Halloween books, pinned the tail on the black cat, showed off their costumes in a costume parade, tossed some bean bags into the witch's cauldron, and had some yummy treats.

Layla is still a little young for some of the games, but she had a fun time with her friends.

Layla and Parker

There were about two dozen kids there, ages 4 and under, and they were surprisingly very well behaved.


My favorite part of the party was when our neighbor walked in holding her son's Elmo costume and Layla freaked out saying, "Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!" over and over and over again. Lucky for Layla Brayden didn't want to wear his costume!

Chillin' with Elmo

Thanks again to the Pabsts family for the fun party!

Yesterday was Layla's first week in Nursery ... wahoo!!! But in actuality, she didn't end up in there alone because the regular teachers were gone so they asked Mitch to come help. I'm sure she'll do just fine next week; she loves nursery! Who wouldn't love snack time, bubble time, coloring time, and play time???

Speaking of church, yesterday in sacrament meeting some cute kids in the row behind us were coloring in an Elmo coloring book. Layla saw and preceded to yell, "Elmo!" repeatedly. We distracted her with something else, and a few minutes later those sweet kids each gave Layla a picture of Elmo that they had colored. So sweet! It made Layla so happy.

Lately, instead of just Elmo and Ernie, she also has to have Kitty, Naa (which means "lamb" in the language of Layla), and as of today, Teddy. The funniest thing is to watch her carry around all five of them at once. You can't even see her face and I don't know how she sees where she's going. Absolutely hilarious. I need to get it on video. Tonight she wanted her friends to be at the dinner table with her. We humored her.



Then she wanted everyone to go "ni-ni" (night, night), including Daddy!

Layla has a few made-up words:

• Grammy = grandma
• Bapuh = grandpa
• GG = great grandma/grandpa
• Naa = lamb
• Ado = clean up (no idea where this came from ...)
• Waa = dog (although she said "dog" perfectly today)

We need to work on differentiating between the grammys, bapuhs, and GGs.

I made Layla a quiet book. Yesterday was the first time she's sat through all of sacrament meeting in months! Wahoo!

Shapes ... they velcro on and can be stored in the pouch.

Her favorite .. buckles. My favorite ... ice cream. Ha, ha.
Actually, it's a way to teach colors.

Numbers and counting.

In case you can't tell, it's a tent. It has a zipper and there's a dog inside.

I decorated for Halloween ... sadly, this is as crafty as I got due to my laziness and lack of creativity.

Mitch is still busy, busy, busy! But we're having fun and manage to squeeze in some family time.

Layla will randomly yell, "Happy!!!" throughout the day and it makes me happy. She is such a happy little girl.  I haven't done anything with potty training yet; I think I'll try and find some sort of plastic pants like the swimming panties to put over her underwear (I've heard they exist). Hopefully that will avoid getting too much pee on the carpet? Any ideas are welcome. But while we're on the topic, I have two funny stories about "pee pee." First, Layla's potty doesn't really flush, but it makes a sound when you move the handle, which is down really low so kids can reach it while they're sitting on the potty. So, tonight Layla was sitting on her potty (not using it, just sitting on it), and says, "pee pee," and then "flushed" the toilet with ... her foot. How creative. Totally made me think of a man who is too lazy to pick up his underwear so he flicks them up with his foot. Lazy, but funny, right?

Second, like most parents of toddlers, I leave the door open while I go to the bathroom, you know, to keep an eye on the little one, who usually wanders in at some point. Well, she's put two and two together and now she tells me "pee pee" when I go potty. Obviously, she's caught on to some other things as well because the other day she pulled a tampon out of my purse, said, "Ado, " (clean up) and then put the tampon in the toilet. What?!? Apparently I need to start shutting the door; she's way too young for that!

Anyways, on to another subject. My running tights are awesome and I am looking forward to winter running. Also, my favorite shows, Glee and Biggest Loser, are back on. Wahoo! Oh, and the NBA has cancelled the first two weeks of the season ... Ahhh! What does that mean for us season ticket holders?!?

Not Ready

A few weeks ago, I bought Layla a princess potty. It was on sale, I thought it was cute, and she seemed intrigued. I figured we could set it in the bathroom and talk to her about it; you know, get her ready for potty training. I've been telling her things like, "Pee pee in the potty!" and when I change her diaper I will point out if she has gone pee pee or poo poo, though almost every time she says "doo doo!" and refuses to admit when she only went pee pee. It's kind of funny, actually.

Yesterday I was doing my hair in the bathroom when I turned around and saw Layla sitting on her princess potty. She looked at me and said "pee pee!" I was so proud, and even more so when I immediately changed her diaper and realized that she really had gone pee pee!

Today we were playing when Layla squatted down and said, "pee pee!" She has told me before when she goes doo doo, but now pee pee too?!

But I must admit, all the excitement and pride has turned into fear on my part. I am so not ready to start potty training her ... I have no idea what to do, I really don't want to wipe up pee from our brand new carpet, and it's too cold out to be outside all day. I kept telling Mitch that we were going to potty train her over Christmas break, since he won't have school or work so he can help me. But I don't want to delay her if she's getting interested now, and no more stinky diapers is so appealing ... any suggestions???

Words

Let me just start by saying that I love General Conference. I look forward to it every six months. It amazes me that I can hear the words of a prophet of God and learn what God would have me know to help me be happy. How wonderful is that?! I especially loved a talk given by Elder Neil L. Andersen who spoke on the blessings of parenthood.  And of course, President Monson is such an uplifting speaker.

Speaking of listening to others' words, Layla has became quite the parrot lately! I wrote down six new words that she learned in one day! They were animal (amal), knee (me), shadow (dadow), cereal (ceweal), tiger, and happy. Of course, she can't say them all perfectly, but she does a pretty good job. And I'm mostly impressed that she understands what they mean—especially words like "shadow" and "heavy."  Other words she has learned lately are Oakley (Oaky), Natalie (Nanany), honey, no, yay, grandpa (bapa), and heavy. She always yells "Yay!!!" when she is excited and it makes me laugh every time.

It's been raining all morning. It was over 80 degrees yesterday, Monday, and it's predicted to only be 46 degrees on Thursday. What?! That's a huge change in only three days! The good news is that I bought some running tights so I can run outside in the cold weather; I'm pretty excited! Hopefully the inversion won't be too bad this year.

Mitch is still super busy. His work is really busy right now and school keeps him busy, not to mention Scouts, taking care of the lawn, oh, and spending time with his doting wife and daughter. I don't know how he does it, but he does it well and I am so proud of him! He is one of the most motivated people I know.

I keep thinking I should get out the Halloween decorations; I bet Layla would love them. But, they're under the stairs and a pain the the you-know-what to get to, so I haven't done it yet. Is that lazy or what? Actually, it's not really laziness, I'm just busy with other things. Maybe I'll do it this weekend.

Ernie Obsession

I let Layla watch one episode of Sesame Street most mornings while I get ready.

Watching Sesame Street

We finally learned who her favorite character is; last Saturday, for three hours, we heard nothing but, "Ernie!" (in a whiny voice) from our almost-18-month-old. Seriously, for three hours straight, it was nothing but "Ernie, Ernie, Ernie!" and it started to drive us nuts.

We couldn't figure out what she wanted, we only knew that she wanted "Ernie!" We tried having her watch Sesame Street and then Ernie videos on YouTube, but it wasn't enough.

So we did what any good parent would do ... we put her in the car, drove to ToysRUs, and let her pick out her very own Ernie doll. I know, I know, that's spoiling her, but it was the only thing we could think of to make her stop whining. And it worked!

When we got to the store, Layla wanted not only the Ernie doll, but the Elmo doll too. The spoiled little girl has her daddy wrapped around her finger, so when I asked her to pick between the two, Mitch said he couldn't make her pick and that he wanted to buy her both. He won. Actually, Layla won.

It was the ToysRUs giraffe's birthday,

so she even got a birthday crown.

Layla was SO happy. Now she sleeps with Ernie, carries him everywhere, and freaks out if she thinks we're going to forget him when we go somewhere. It's pretty hilarious, actually. She loves her Elmo too, but Ernie is definitely the favorite.

With her new buddies.

Sorry, about her lack of shirt.

This is just after a lunch of

yummy, but messy, peaches.

Of all the Sesame Street characters, she loves Ernie most. At least she picked one who speaks proper English. Does it drive anyone else nuts that Elmo speaks in third person??? I seriously can't stand it.Anyways, I guess we better figure out a better solution for the next time she becomes obsessed with something, besides spoiling her rotten. But for now it's okay because she won't remember and we're so smitten by her adorableness we can't help it.

Too Funny

We watched the BYU vs UofU game the other night with some friends. I honestly don't care who wins, I just think the whole rivalry thing is hilarious. Mitch is a Ute fan and this year, not only did the U win, they totally laid the smackdown! And not to mention the fact that BYU kept practically giving the ball away.

So when I saw this on KSL today, it made me giggle.

Happenings

We've been so busy lately and due to work, Mitch's school, and life in general, I don't have much time to blog about it. But it's good to be busy and we're enjoying life. Here's a quick run down, in no particular order, for memory's sake:

• We took Layla to the fair yesterday. She loved the animals and wanted so badly to touch them all. We tried to watch the sea lion show, but she wasn't interested, which completely surprised us. Who doesn't love sea lions?
  
  
  
• Layla and I went to California with my mom. The purpose of the trip was to attend the wedding reception of a close family friend, but we managed to spend time with my uncle and his wife as well. Layla loved dancing at the reception and playing with all the other kids all weekend long (the little boys all fought over who got to hold/feed/carry her). We went to a HUGE flea market in Pasadena with my uncle; I bought a sun hat and Kent bought all sorts of stuff. The only downer to the trip, besides not having Mitch/Daddy with us, was that we all had head colds, so some nights it was hard to get Layla to bed. But overall she did great and we had a fun time! While we were there, Layla learned to call my mom, "Grammie," only she says, "Mammie" and it's ridiculously cute! I really wanted to go to the beach while we were there, but it rained and even hailed the days we could go. Strange, huh?
  
  
• Layla got some new shoes. She absolutely loves them! She'll bring them to us and ask us to put them on, or try to put them on herself, which she can't manage to do yet, but we get a laugh out of watching her try! Oh, and I get a kick out of these jeggings (stretchy pants) she has, they're hilarious on her! So cute she has two pairs.
  
• Today I ran four miles with no knee pain. That's the farthest I've been able to run, pain-free, since my half-marathon two months ago. Wahoo!
• Mitch has his first test for school next week. I already know he'll ace it.
• On a side note, my mom recently told me something I never knew about my dad; he would trade all the horses, hunting, fishing, camping, etc. to live by the ocean. Well I must be more like my dad than I thought because that is my dream too! I think I was supposed to be a beach bum/surfer chic and live on the island of Maui or somewhere like that. But since I can't do that right now, boating at Jordanelle is the next best thing. We went with my parents and Katie over Labor Day and it was a blast ... until the boat broke! Ahhh! Mitch learned how to get up on the wakeboard, and was going for another spin when the boat stopped working. We had to be towed in. Total bummer. I was able to wakeboard before it broke and I learned how to move back and forth across the water. Katie got out of us making her try to wakeboard, at least. We still managed to have fun for the rest of the day though, eating lunch, and playing in the water. Layla LOVES the lake as do I. Can't wait for next year!
  
  
• Last but not least, Layla is adding to her vocabulary daily. My favorite word to hear her say is "waffle" because she says it so darn cute. She also yells, "Daddeeee!" when she is scared or wants to know where Mitch is. She said "apple" for the first time yesterday. I can't believe how fast she learns. She can recognize and/or say a dozen letters of the alphabet. She loves to read and learn and it makes me one proud mama!

Education

I love what the teachers did at this school to teach kids the importance of earning a college degree. I think this should be required in every elementary school, every year.

ksl.com - Teachers helping kindergarteners get ready for college

SANDY -- Some Kindergarten teachers took a step back in time Friday and donned attire from their college graduation day.

But this wasn't just a day to dress up; It's an important first step to get their very young and impressionable students excited about college.

They may be more than a decade away from picking a school, but these kids are learning young that the choice will be an important one in their lives.

"It's such an interesting and novel idea when they first realize that it's not Halloween, that we are really proud of our education," said Debbie Shumard, principal of Crescent Elementary School in Sandy. "They go home and they talk to their parents, talk to people around them."

That talk led to everyone in the future class of 2024 at Crescent Elementary school making a pledge to be college-ready.

They'll have plenty of help to get there.

We want them to think about what they are going to be when they graduate," Shumard said. "We are initially putting that in their mind that the picture of them, themselves, is what they want to be and picture themselves in that role later."

But the ultimate goal requires baby steps -- starting in kindergarten.

After finding little progress in test scores from the beginning to the end of the year, the Canyons School District launched an intensive teacher training program to bring those scores up.

The nearly 2,000 hours of coaching paid off: 86 percent of Canyons kindergartners knew what they needed to know before moving on to first grade -- a significant jump from the 65 percent who met the benchmark the year before.

Educators hope the year-to-year progress can carry kids through to college, and eventually their careers.

"Most kids don't realize that learning math, learning writing skills and reading skills really affect the quality of their life when they graduate," Shumard said. "We want them to know that they've got choices out there."