Spring has arrived (I think)

As the weather gets better and better I realize how much FUN summer is going to be. The best part of being a teacher (besides enriching the lives of our youth and making a positive impact on the work ethic of our future generations, tee hee) is summer!!!! Brett has even been able to bring Ayla out to my games and practices. She loves it , I especially love it. She just runs free. She yells "ball, ball, ball" I can't help but already see her skills developing :) So here are some of my early spring faves, Easter included...

Ayla in her Easter dress!

After our Easter egg hunt, she obviously hit the jackpot!

Ayla was the only toddler let alone kid at our Easter celebration at Brett's moms house:( However, it means the girl makes out pretty good in the egg hunt!

Spring means diggin in the dirt, however we still need to bundle her up!

One of Ayla's new favorite activities is putting on mommy's shoes, she was REALLY proud here because she fianlly conquered the UGGS!

Look at the big girl! Playing with some toys in the sink filled with bubbles. She is growing SO stinkin fast. Ignore the potty - it is there purely for looks. She sits with her clothes on and loves watching us go while shouting "potty potty potty". Only once has she let me take her pants and diaper off, she tinkled a teeny tiny bit. Its start, but we are defiinitely in no rush at all.

Neither Brett nor I have any sort of musical talent whatsoever. I do however remembering turning anything that remotely resembled a microphone into one. Lucky for her we have Pop Star Sing Along on the PlayStation!

AND this is our guitar from Guitar Hero. She straps it around herself and sings!

With daddy at the park. She continues to be fearless as she begs to swing, slides down the big slide all by herself, climbs the rock wall all by herself, and even hangs on the monkey bars (for maybe 5 seconds, but we'll take it)

This is purely for your viewing pleasure

18 months!

Wow, time flies! I can't believe Ayla is so quickly approaching toddler-hood. She is 29 lbs, 34 inches tall (yep thats 95% and 98% respectively). Growing like a weed and so much fun! She is becoming quite the talker, saying tons - among the most clear are: "mommy, daddy, bubbles, papa" (thats her grandpa!), "hi, bye, apples, elmo", and of course "no" and "mine". Recently when we ask her a question she can answer "ya", she used to this goofy giggle smile thing to signify yes.
When Brett first started this blog it was him doing all the updates and pics of our pregnancy. Then I took over and it became an updated daily blog about Ayla and my new life as a stay at home mom. Now it is a periodic blog about Ayla and our adventures with her. I am back to work full time this semester. After two weeks in, I have already decided that next year I want to go completely part time. Teach only in the mornings and be home by 1 or so! Possibly even give up coaching. Amazing how priorities change huh? I miss Ayla daily and want to be more present in her daily life. We just had a great midwinter break and I am already looking forward to spring break :) I start coaching in a week and am worried about even less time with her. Brett is an amazing father and she is becoming quite the daddy's girl - even pushing me away when Brett and I hug or kiss, ha! So I know she is in good hands, plus I am hoping the weather cooperates and Ayla and Brett can visit me a lot at practice.
Parenthood is challenging but getting easier, Ayla has so much energy and personality it is hard to complain about anything. We are approaching those terrible twos. She is becoming much more particular, especially with her clothes, food, and activities. Her socks have to be perfect, she will only feed herself, and constantly wants to be do bubbles out on the patio, going down her slide, and playing with balls. I am proud to say that everytime we see a basketball hoop she says "ba-ball"! She just moved up to the beasts group at Little Gym and is doing awesome, so close to attempting a forward roll all by herself! She is very social, studying adults and other kids, loves giving hugs and kisses. I would describe her as active, independent, strong willed, yet very loving and caring. Here are some pics of 18 month old Ayla Christina Thompson.

A quick visit from aunty Scooby. Another fave of Ayla's is starfall.com. She can click on letters to make the sounds, with fun illustrations, music and activities. It is hard to tear her away so when my sister came through the front door I was sure Ayla would smile a bit and then go back to her game. However, she got up ran to my sister and held her arms out for Christina to pick Ayla up. They have a ton of fun together. Here they are snacking on some dried apples:

A much needed visit from Justin, Jeni, and Abby - their 7 month old! A beautiful morning called for a trip to the park which included Abby's first time on a swing. It was ridiculous how many pics we took. Getting the girls to look at the camera, let alone smile at the same time was pretty much impossible - but the mommy's and daddy's managed

Ayla loves when we pile pillows on top of her then pretend to look for her. She will pop up and start to giggle. Oh ya and we can't really keep clothes on the girl...

One of her many favorite activities. Notice again...no clothes. I think she enjoys climbing up the stairs on the slide more than actually sliding down. Brave girl!

Dancing...wow, what'd ya know, no clothes!

If the weather is remotely nice, Ayla begs to go outside. We have an amazing park that we can walk to in 5 minutes. We also have a big toy right behind our complex for the more cloudy/rainy days. It is so great that Ayla is getting big enough to climb and play on the the jungle gyms, swing, and slide down the slides. Patience, as with most toddlers is hard for Ayla. We are workign on it. Hurry up daddy!
Hurry up mom, stop taking pictures, lets go OUTSIDE

Her furreal puppy. When you pull the rope in his mouth he pants, growls, barks. Sorry Ayla but this is as close to a pet as you're gonna get until we have a yard and soem space for him/her :(

Building with her mega bloks is another fave. She first dumps the whole box, then picks the ones she wants. I love to build, anything really. Furniture, contraptions, shelves. It is in my blood. So I get excited to see Ayla's talents, her grandpa would be so proud!

Dancing again, this time she managed to keep her clothes on.

Ayla and the amazing flip flop bath robe!

Ayla escaping after her bath...My mom got her this robe to put on after swimming. Once Ayla got a glimpse of the robe it became part of her bath time routine. She goes into her bedroom to get the robe before she gets into the bath. And will freak out if we don't put it on her right after we dry her off. She runs away because she knows we want to take it off to put a diaper on her and put her in her pjs. We chase her around the house so we can get a diaper on her! She won't even let us take it off to put her lotion on. She will only take it off once we explain we need to put her pj's on and bribe her with her warm milk!

Christmas 2010

We made it! We had SO much fun with all our family and friends. Ayla brightened up the holidays for us thats for sure! She was a blast...

Scott and Christina came into town, Scott for just a couple days - Christina for 3 weeks! Ayla really bonded with her aunty this trip, love it!

Christmas morning at our place

I appreciate the presents and all but I am hungry mom. She took it upon herself to grab a powdered donut out of Brett's pile of stocking stuffers!

Christmas Day at my mom's

Gettin down with the Dancing Santa

The day after Christmas with Brett's dad, Scott and his grandparents

Christmas Eve at Grandma Daryl's

She got her a little tikes slide. Ayla loves it! Goes down backwards, sideways, head first and refuses to let us help her. Gotta love her independence.

A few other pics...

Look at how much FUN they are having!

Helping Uncle Scott figure out his camera, lol

Ooooh, Santa

Last year at this time Ayla was four months and oblivious to the large man with the beard and a red suit holding her on his lap.

Uh, not so much this time.

We waited in line for over an hour as she got to run around the mall having a blast, waving at Santa numeroud times I might add. So I was pretty optimistic, then, as we approach him for the pic, she isn't so friendly...Are we torturing our kids by forcing them to sit on a stranger's lap? Do we feel better only because EVERYONE on Earth does the same? We all have that pic of us and our brothers and sisters screaming on Santa's lap. So I suppose I shouldn't feel THAT bad right?!

From screaming, to pouting, to self soothing while pouting...

MUCH happier when we get home. I am glad she doesn't know how to hold grudges yet