Layla at 21 months

Every six months, I have been writing a letter to Layla.  In the letters, I tell her about the milestones that she has reached, her personality and anything important that is going on in our lives. My intentions are to give Layla the letters when she is older so she will have an account of what she was like when she was little.

I'm not writing her a letter again until she turns two, but she has changed so much since she was eighteen months that I wanted to write it down.

At twenty-one months, Layla is such a character.  She loves to color, go on the swings and play with her animals and dolls. She loves dancing, especially to Usher's "DJ Got Us Falling In Love" and going to The Little Gym.  She can count to 12, although she always leaves out 4.  She is the greatest hummer ever and always hums entire songs while she plays.  Her favorites are the Caillou theme, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, If All the Raindrops, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  She has begun to string words together and is even making simple sentences ("Walking...Mommy walk, Daddy walk", "Elephant sit, monkey sit, roar (lion) sit". She just started saying "Love you" which melts my heart! 

Layla is more affectionate than any child I have ever met.  She loves to hug and kiss her family members.  One of the cutest things that she does is push everyone together for a group hug and then sing the "I Love You" song from Barney.  She takes good care of her dolls, and gives them bottles, burps them, and takes them for walks in their stroller.  She even takes them to the doctor and examines them with a magnifying glass (haha).  I think it's time to buy her a doctor's kit.  I know she's going to be a great big sister.

Layla is also really testing her boundaries lately, which makes her simultaneously infuriating and hilarious.  It is so hard not to laugh sometimes when she shakes her finger at me and says, "No, no no!"  It's slightly less funny when she climbs out of her bed in the middle of the night and insists on sleeping ON me, not next to me.  She's a picky eater, but getting better (and rounder!).  She's still a tiny little girl.  Now, she just has the big attitude to go with the little body.

It shocks and surprises me how smart she is, too.  She is a master negotiator (when I say two books, she says, "Five??", when I ask her to have a bite of chicken, she says, "Soda?") actress (pretends to take a bite of food, says "Mmm!" and hides it in her fist) and imitator (pretending to be people, animals, forms of transportation).  One of my favorite things that she does is categorize things.  She'll name different kinds of shoes, things that you drink, her favorite foods, etc.  Her dimply smile lights up a room and she elicits big smiles from total strangers wherever we go.  Needless to say, I am completely smitten with my little Layla!

May Celebrations

May has always been a very busy month for me.  My sister and my mom  have back-to-back birthdays that fall around (or on) Mother's Day.  This year, my sister's birthday fell on Mother's Day and my mom wasn't feeling well, so I celebrated my second Mother's Day as a mom with just Monte and Layla.

We had a wonderful day in New York City.  In the morning, we walked around Greenwich Village and window shopped.  It was warm and breezy, and Layla loved being able to break out of the confines of her stroller and walk on her own. 



We stopped a restaurant called Silver Spurs for brunch.  Monte had a delicious burger and Layla and I shared a Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries, blueberries and bananas. Yum!
 

After we ate, we hopped back in the car and drove up to Central Park.  We decided to take Layla to the Central Park Zoo.  I had never been before, and we all had a great time!  Layla especially loved the monkeys and the polar bear.

After New York, we stopped to see Layla's other grandmother.  By the time we got home, we were all exhausted! It was a wonderful Mother's Day.  I am blessed with a beautiful family.

*******************************

The next day, which was my mom's actual birthday, we celebrated at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch.  It was more of a party for Layla! She loves going to the Rainforest Cafe, eating french fries and seeing the animals. 

After lunch we spent the afternoon shopping.  MaryGrace had a lot of gift cards from friends and family.  In the evening, I made dinner (spaghetti and meatballs, salad, rolls).  As you can see, Layla was a big fan of the "meatmalls".

 Then it was time for cake! Unfortunately, my dad was sick and couldn't celebrate with us, and Monte was working all evening, but all in all, it was a fun girl's day!

Happy Birthday, Mom and Mimi!

Back from Spring "Break"

So apparently, blogging is a bit like exercise.   When you haven't done it for a while, it's reeaally hard to get back into the habit.  I cannot believe that it's been almost three months since I have posted anything, although I do believe I have a good excuse.  Monte and I are expecting another baby (hooray!)  We are very excited.  Unfortunately, morning sickness has kicked my butt once again and I am just beginning to feel human again.

Spring in New Jersey this year has been a wash, quite literally, and we are struggling to get the house and yard ready for the summer season.  Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating with us.  It seems that every time the sun finally makes an appearance, we are running around like madmen before the rain begins again.  In addition to the mundane tasks of dragging out patio furniture, getting the garden beds raked and ready for planting and general spring cleaning, Monte and I have taken on several larger projects (raised vegetable beds, a garden surrounded by a stone wall, landscaping a large portion of the side of our house) that are still works in progress.  I hope to have before and after photos up by Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer!

Until then, here are some random pictures from this spring.

Saint Patrick's Day lunch at Kilkenny House





Irish girls




Enjoying an ice pop at Tony's Pizzeria




Easter Morning




Easter Brunch at Ami and Poppy's house




Easter dinner at Grandma's House




Layla riding her new bike




Bryce and Layla at Rutgers Day




Layla and some stinky pigs




A day at Jenkinson's Aquarium




Eating breakfast in style




Layla's first train ride (Cranford to Westfield)

Weekend Update

What a fabulous weekend! It's funny how much more time I seem to have when I am disconnected from the world.  After Friday's storm, we lost our phone and Internet connection and it wasn't restored until about an hour ago.  We also had extremely limited cell phone service because apparently our house is situated in a black hole.  Who knew?  ;-)

Anyway, Friday was a relaxing night.  Monte and I stuck with tradition and made it a pizza night.  Layla joined us, but she ate homemade heart-shaped calzones with soy cheese and spinach and bacon pinwheels.  We were all very tired from an exceptionally long week, so we went to bed very early (9:30!) I don't know why I don't turn in early every night!

On Saturday, Layla and I met my parents and sister at Barnes and Nobles, where Layla went to story time and colored a picture, while I test-drove the Nook and got a free cup of coffee! When Monte got off of work, he took Layla shopping.  I got some housework done, read (The Winds of War by Herman Wouk) and went to Joann's Fabric.  In the evening, we went to our nephew Jordan's birthday party.  He's seven years old! When Monte and I first started dating, Jordan was only 11 months old.  It's been amazing to watch him grow up.  I love being an aunt to him and his brother, James, and my other nephew, Christian.   Layla is lucky to have these three wonderful boys for cousins!

On Sunday, we woke up early and went to breakfast at a diner.  We found two nearby estate sales, where we found some good deals.

We bought this end table for next to Monte's bed for only $20.

And I got these new photo albums for $3 each.  I was very excited to find these because I am in the process of putting ALL of my loose photos into albums.

We took Layla to the playground, but the ground was too wet, so we went home and pushed her on her backyard swing instead.  After lunch and a nap, we dropped off Layla at my parents' house and Monte and I caught a movie.  We went to see Unknown, which we both enjoyed.  Thanks guys for giving us some much needed alone time!

For dinner I made lemon chicken, garlic mashed potatoes and Asian-style vegetables. Yum! It was such a fun weekend.  I feel like we haven't been spending a lot of family together time lately, so this was just what I was craving.

Here is a random cute picture from a few weeks ago.  One of Layla's favorite things to do is to lead everyone in the room by their hand to our staircase.  She makes us sit down, and then she grabs a plastic circle (the rim of her toddler plate) and goes "Beep! Beep!"  She loves "driving" us around!

A Discussion of Gender

Yesterday afternoon, I just happened to catch the end of Oprah, which previewed Lisa Ling's new documentary "Our America", which airs on the OWN network on Tuesdays at 10/9c.   The short clip drew me in, so I watched the whole episode.  This week featured Transgendered individuals.  I was struck by six-and-a-half year old Hailey's story.  Hailey is an adorable little girl with dark eyes and dimpled cheeks who, for all intents and purposes, is male.  Hailey was born "Harry", yet knew from a very early age (toddlerhood, according to her parents) that she was a girl.  I need to commend Hailey's parents for their phenomenal, apparently effortless parenting of a child who doesn't fit into the societal norm.

The show was very well done, and it really got me thinking: What would I do if faced with the same life experience? And how much of a child's identity is based on what they see? Obviously, I am not the first person to ask this question.  Because of my educational background, I am all too familiar with the Nature vs. Nurture debate in the field of developmental psychology.  In fact, I did research on facets of this debate both as an undergraduate and graduate student.  However, now that Layla is moving from baby to little girl, along with the recent release of Peggy Orenstein's Cinderella Ate My Daughter, I have been much more aware of what kind of a role model I am to my daughter.

Not twelve hours after watching the show, Layla and I were getting ready to go out for the day.  We got dressed and I was putting on makeup.  If you have young children, you know how hard it is to get yourself ready and out the door in a timely fashion.  I usually try to give Layla something to occupy her for a few minutes while I brush my hair, get dressed etc.  Today, I gave her a few tightly closed items from my makeup bag.  As I was getting ready to leave my room, I noticed how quiet she was.  I peeked into Layla's room and this is what I saw:

Holy cow! Am I raising a beauty obsessed diva? Did I buy gender neutral toys and clothes for nothing? Should I throw away her dolls and stuffed animals and replace them with trucks and trains? Clearly not.  But I can't help but wonder if I am already placing my daughter in a neat little box (a pink, frilly box at that) marked GIRL. 

I would love to know what other people think about gender stereotypes.  How do we avoid the labeling of our kids? How does this extend beyond the issue of gender? And what are the long reaching effects not just on individuals, but on our children's entire generation? Leave me comments, please! I'd love to start a discussion.

 For more information on Lisa Ling's documentary: Our America

For more information on Peggy Orenstein's book: Cinderella Ate My Daughter

February

The first half of February is a blur, probably because we've only slept a total of a few dozen hours, thanks to Layla teething.  Here's a recap of what we've been up to:

Layla said bye-bye to her crib and got a Big Girl Bed! We are so proud of our big girl!

For her reward for sleeping in her bed for the first time, we had a tea party! Layla loves playing with my teapots, so she was thrilled when she got her own.

On Valentine's Day, Layla made pictures with sponge painted hearts.  Then we used a few of her pictures as our tablecloth.  For dinner, we made heart shaped whole wheat pizzas with soy cheese.  For dessert, we made Banana Berry smoothies (with spinach and peas....shhh!).  Can you tell my her smile that she liked it?

We made Daddy a card - I got this idea from Sprout Online.  It's the ASL sign for "I Love You"

After Layla went to sleep, Monte and I had dinner and some champagne.  A nice treat for a Monday night!

These are the beautiful roses that I got from my Valentine. 

And here's just a silly picture of Layla with her doll's clothes on her head.  

Hopefully, the tooth fairy will come and give Layla her teeth so we can all get some sleep!

The Best Meal I Ever Made

There is something about snow days that makes me want to cook! So after the latest storm dumped 15+ inches in our area, I headed to the kitchen.  One of the best things about cooking, as opposed to baking, is the fact that you seldom need a recipe.  Often, I apply this philosophy to my baking adventures, with disastrous consequences.  But on Wednesday I made the EASIEST AND MOST DELICIOUS MEAL I HAVE EVER MADE! 

Sunflower seed butter has become a staple in my kitchen.  It satisfies my peanut butter cravings (it has a surprisingly similar taste) and provides Layla with the fat and protein that is hard to get due to her allergies and pickiness.

Here is my Asian-inspired recipe:

Orange-Soy Drumsticks:

Combine 1 cup of sugar with 1/2 cup of soy sauce (I used a low sodium soy sauce) 1/2 cup of orange juice and 1 tsp of garlic powder.  Place drumsticks in a greased baking pan.  Pour marinade over drumsticks and bake in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees, turn chicken and bake an additional 30 minutes.

Linguine with Sunflower Seed Butter Sauce:

Cook linguine according to package's instructions.   Place shredded carrots in colander and pour pasta over to gently steam.  In a bowl, toss carrots and pasta with 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter and 1/4 cup of soy sauce.  Top with scallions and serve!  This would be delicious with a salad tossed with sesame ginger dressing and mandarin orange slices.



Layla loved this dish and even had seconds!