>Here are some pictures from dinner tonight…Leila fed herself some yogurt on a spoon! Aunt Karen mentioned that she used thick yogurt to get her kiddos started on spoon feeding so I thought I would give it a try. Leila was very excited 🙂
You can also see Leila’s black eye in these pirctures…
I told you she was excited…
>I am so ready for spring to get here, I can’t even express how much I hate winter…snow be gone!
I haven’t written in a while because our computer was out of operation, and we finally got everything fixed this weekend.
Leila has been doing some really cute things lately 🙂 She makes this face that I call her frog face. She sticks her tongue out and sucks it back in over and over. She smiles and knows how cute she is!
She has a little car that you can adjust to stand up so that she can hold on to it and walk. She has mastered this now, and pushes her way around the house.
She is eating all grown up foods these days and she loves to feed herself.
We also experienced our first baby injury this weekend. Leila has a little bit of a black eye that she got while playing with her pan on the living room floor. It looks pretty sad, but she got over it fast.
Here are some pictures of our princess 🙂
She is 10 months old, came across a pacifier in her toy box and NOW decides that she likes to suck on them!
Leila loves her dog Zoey…she especially likes to harass her while she is lounging around by pulling on her tags. Zoey takes it like a champ!
We made a trip to Champaign last week and Uncle Evan bribed Leila to hang out with him by giving her his watch.
Fettuccine Alfredo is good!
The Coobs family hanging out!
Much love from the Coobs family, Stay warm! Spring is just around the corner!!!
>Daddy had just gotten back from his trip to Orlando, and he brought along a friend for Leila
Leila hanging out with Aunt Andrea and Uncle Steve
Just because she is cute
>Cory is out of town this week, so I am testing out single parenting…I think I am going to try to keep him around I have decided.
While Cory is hanging out at Walt Disney World for a “conference” Leila and I are freezing our butt’s off in Iowa. We had a snow storm today and the snow has been blowing all day. This is when it would be nice to have Cory around to scoop the snow…oh well I guess, I have just learned to accelerate very strongly as a pull out of the garage, and hope for the best! 🙂
Cory will be back on Thursday evening and we can’t wait.
In other news, we got a new camera, so I am going to post some new pictures. Leila is standing and walking along the furniture like an old pro… she will be walking in no time!
Here is Leila making faces at Zoey while she is stuck out on the deck in the cold
Here is Leila showing us how big she is
And Leila hoping to get her turn to check out the new camera
>The Howard/Coobs/Smith family decided to start the new year off right this year. We spent last Sunday preparing a meal for the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City.
We had a pretty good experience, it was stressful making sure that we had enough food and getting everything done in time, but we got a lot of thank yous and I appreciated being able to offer something to families that are under a lot of stress.
My next project on my quest to do more good things for other people this year will take place in February. Andrea and I have signed up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Iowa City. This is another good cause that I am excited to be able to help out with. If you want to read more about the project we are going to be working on, there is info here: http://www.womenbuild2.blogspot.com/ .
I will try to post some of Leila’s 9 month pictures this week after I have a chance to scan them. They turned out really good, and Leila had a good time. She is getting to be such a big girl…she sleeps all night long in her own bed and loves to give kisses and clap her hands…I can’t believe that she is only 3 months away from being a 1 year old! Where does the time go?!?!?!
At her 9 Month check up she was in the 90th %ile for everything…weight, height and head circumference. She was 21 lbs 10 ounces, 28.5 inches long.
I am on my way to reaching my one year of nursing goal!!
>It is January 15th and we have finally gotten our first snow storm of the year. I can’t say that I am excited about it, I hate snow. Cory and I both have today off of work for MLK Day, so we have spent it hanging out at home, doing laundry and using our new vacuum cleaner.
Leila’s sleeping habits have really improved lately. We have to give a lot of the credit Marla, Leila’s babysitter. She has been working with her at nap times, and she lets her cry…something that I have had a hard time doing, though I think it is necessary. Today Leila took a two hour nap, in her crib. Yes, in the crib! AND last `night she slept 8 hours, in her crib. Shocking I know. We are almost there and it is beautiful, now if only she would do this long enough for me to get used to it and actually sleep through the night instead of waking up and wondering what she is up to.
I have been planning to update and kept forgetting since new years. New Years Eve we drove back from Tabor through a snow storm (no fun). When we got home we hosted a small get together with some friends. It was nice to have people to hang out with at home since it really isn’t cool to bring your baby to the bar with you. Here is a picture of Leila and her friend Bryce hanging out on the kiddie couch on New Years Day.
Here are a few other pictures since it has been a while…
Here is proof that we really needed the baby gate 🙂
Here is Leila sitting on the car that Great Grandma and Grandpa Howard got her for Christmas…I think this is her favorite new toy!
And here is Leila giving mommy a kiss…one of her new tricks.
>Just a quick update to put down some thoughts about Leila’s First Christmas…Everything went really well. Leila did great considering that she was low on sleep and high on activity!
Christmas Eve both mine and Cory’s families came over for some snacks before we all headed off to church. Church was very good, as it always is on Christmas Eve…a wonderful service to really pull to the front of your mind the reason for the celebration. Leila got some great toys and clothes from Cory’s parents and sister Donna and was off to bed at about 9:30…an hour and a half past her normal bed time. Christmas morning came and after breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Coobs we all headed off to Lowden for our Howard family Christmas morning, where Leila got a bunch more toys and clothes and spent the day getting constant attention from her loving family. Here are some pictures from the events…
Me, Cory and Leila before Church
Leila’s special gift from Grandpa Howard…a homemade rocking horse!
Leila taking a Christmas snooze with her new train under the Christmas tree
And last but not least…Leila in her Christmas outfit from Aunt Donna, sitting in her new kiddie couch.
>I mentioned in my last post that we are working on sleep training this week…well here are a few pictures from today’s efforts. As you will see, not successful.
And just for fun…This is what about 7 months will do…notice both the size of Leila and expression on the face of her momma! 🙂
I could use a really long nap.
>It has been a while since the last time I posted and in that time Leila has started crawling! For a month or so now she has been doing some army crawling to get around, but last Thursday morning she was on the floor with her toys while Cory and I were getting ready for work, and she put one knee in front of the other and was off!
She started out kind of slow and wouldn’t go far before giving up, but a week later, there is no stopping her! 🙂
We are adjusting to keeping the baby gate shut and one eye on the moving target and so far so good. So far the best part of Leila crawling has got to be watching her chase after Zoey. Leila will crawl right into her and head butt Zoey in the belly! So far Zoey has taken it really well and just move away when she gets fed up, but Leila just keeps chasing her and grabbing her tail and rubbing her head on Zoey’s fur. We are trying to be very careful and be sure to praise Zoey for her good behavior and amazing temper when it comes to Leila…we have yet to catch the fun on the camcorder but we will one of these days!
We are looking forward to Christmas break when Cory and I will get to spend a week at home with Leila working on some sleep training…the sleep training we are not so much looking forward to…
We will definitely post some pictures from Christmas and a full update on all of the wonderful boxes and crunchy paper that Leila will enjoy! 🙂
I hope everyone that reads this has a wonderful holiday and a happy new year…for those that don’t read…bah humbug!
"We are not put on this earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are always there for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you.
-- Jeff Warner
"What I want to say to you is that sometimes life catches you by surprise and you feel unequipped to handle what it brings you, but every bit of life you've lived before that moment equips you to live through it. That's what I would give to you."
-Fanni Victoria Green-Lemons (talking to her daughter)
If there is any secret to this life I live, this is it: the sound of what cannot be seen sings within everything that can, there is nothing more to it than that.
"The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one."
-Jill Churchhill
Jumping Daisy 