Family Fun with Ayla Hoo

After Ayla's 18 month Well-Check, I took her for Ritter's Ice Cream.  She kept saying "Cold" and letting it drip out of her mouth.  She's too cute in my opinion

Love me some "Mommy Ayla Time"

First official Dollar General Fit - We were down in Salem, way past her bed time and she wouldn't stop running around.  Nini put a gorgeous straw hat on her head and let her run around the store.  That night, we left the store with Elmo Hand Soap, just so that she would stop screaming.  :-)

Loving the Milk Stain on her shirt

Love a Man Who Cleans Naked.  hehe

I love the fact that Ayla gets to sit in my kid rocking chair and watch Elmo in Grouchland on a Saturday morning

It doesn't appear that she loves her daddy at all....does it.....

Ayla and I were waiting on Blair to give blood one morning, so we decided to get some McDonald's Breakfast.  She happened to see Ronald McDonald's statue sitting on a bench inside, and she was dying to sit on his lap, but when she got what she wanted, this is the photo reaction that I got.

Ayla got to be in the homecoming parade with me this year.  She dressed up like a little fairy princess and waved her wand the entire time.  She told everyone "Hello!" as she passed by.

Blair and I decided to go to the Franklin Central High School Homecoming Football game one Friday night.  We got hotdogs and drinks....and enjoyed most of the 1st Quarter before we left because Baby Girl was exhausted.  Nothing we would have rathered more!

Enjoying our backyard and a bonfire one evening on a weekend.  I thought she would like roasting marshmallows, but it ended up that I was the only one eating them....well....Baby Huff #2 and me  :-)

Summer and Current Daycare Photos



 

Why oh why are we so lucky to have found this daycare for our kids?  Ayla has transitioned very well into Miss Bridget's room.  She definitely missed Miss Melissa and Miss Cheyenne at first, and we do still have to go to their room to say goodbye each day, but she's a happy girl each day that she walks into her room now.  She takes about a 1 hour 45 minute nap each day and she does very well.  She loves playing with her friends in her room, and I'm so glad she has moved up.  She was definitely ready even though we hated for her to leave her favorite ladies.  Here are some of her daycare photos from summer up until now.  Because you know - our ladies take photos and post daily through text messages or through Facebook.  Like I said, we're so lucky.

Don't ask me why Ayla is always the naked one in all of the photos....she must take after her daddy

 

Loves "Didget" aka Bridget

Riding in a car with Autumn - doesn't surprise me that she's the one driving

Lily, Autumn, Ayla, and Vivian

She looks like such a little girl in this picture!

This caption on Facebook said - "How Ayla insists on eating her lunch today" hehe



Football Games With the Forsman's and Bennett's

Is it pathetic that when getting together with our friends anymore, we hardly take a single picture of the adults?  All I got done were these quickies before most all of us spent the rest of the night trying to watch the game, eat our own dinner, and chase our kiddos around the house.  It's hilarious how times have changed in just a few short years.  But the next morning after this gathering, all the mammas were texting back and forth about how much fun we had watching our kiddos play together.  So it's definitely a blessed time in our lives!

Baby Will - who is about as big as Miss Ayla

She's been making such silly faces like this one lately

Ayla Reaches "Year And A Half" Status

It's CRAZY that our little girl is now A Year And A Half - those words are weird to roll off the tongue.  She's so independent, intelligent, and opinionated!  Sometimes at night when I rock her to sleep, and her legs are hanging past my knees, arms sprawled out above my head, I try to remember when she was just this tiny little puddin' who I cradled in my arms.  It's hard to understand how much you can truly love another human being.  She's so impressionable, such a sponge right now.  It seems like she comes home from daycare knowing something new every day.  It's evident that she loves life, people, animals, experiencing new things.  She's not shy.  And she's going to be someone AMAZING one day.  There is nothing better on earth right now than watching her grow.  Right now, at 18 months of life, Ayla Can/Is/Does:

• Starting to gallop - it's adorable!
• Loves singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "The ABCs", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", and "If You're Happy and You Know It"
• Asks for her bed sometimes rather than being rocked to sleep
• Moved up to Size 5 Diapers
• Is now able to run rather than just walk quickly
• Can show you her hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, hands, piggy toes, knees, belly, belly button, and probably more, but I haven't noticed it yet!
• Starting to tell us when she goes potty or boo-boo in her diaper
• Likes to trick you - pretend she's giving you a kiss or a bite of something - and then takes off running or puts the food in her own mouth
• Pull herself up on her rocking horse all by herself
• Stands up in her highchair and then shouts "Sit Down!"
• Gets down from her big girl bed all by herself
• Likes blowing bubbles in the bath tub
• Tries to wash her own hair
• Is the sweetest little girl ever to strangers - she always says "Hi!" and "Bye!" to them.  People can't help but stop to have a conversation with her
• Takes 1 nap per day, between 1 hour 45 minutes and 3 hours (depending on if she's at home or at daycare)
• Is totally in to watching the movie "Elmo In Grouch Land" and "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"
• Started to spank us if she's upset at us about something - this parenting thing is hard!  Blair says she'll stop once she can talk, but I'm pretty sure she knows not to hit us already.  I believe we have a very determined little girl on our hands
• People say she's starting to look a lot more like me - it's nice to hear that every once in a while!
• Likes to pretend that she's going places - she'll pick up a lunch bag, put it on her shoulder, and say "Bye!"
• "Plays" with her daddy by doing something she knows she's not supposed to, then when he comes after her, she runs away giggling, hoping he'll chase her (he falls for it every time)
• Is starting to want to hang out in her "Big Girl Bedroom" - it won't be long until she's in it for good!
• Loves saying prayers at dinner and bedtime
• Still loves to read
• She's finally turned toward the front in the car.  We're not supposed to turn her until age 2, but poor girl's legs were so cramped!  We couldn't stand it any longer

How could we have gotten so lucky with having our little Ayla?  She's the best thing ever and such a wonderful gift to us.  Being her parents is the best job ever!

I took her to Meijer to eat a donut before daycare the morning that she turned 1 1/2.  It was completely adorable to watch her pick out the very donut she wanted to eat.  Then she held my hand all the way to the eating area, sat like a big girl, and ate practically the entire thing.  She did stop every once in a while to greet people who walked past her - as she just knew they would want to talk to her at 7:30am.  hehe.  I just love our little miss Ayla Blair!  I swear she's going to aspire to be a Wal-Mart greeter one day!  :-)