The New Adventures of Old Meg and Eric

Two Years

How is it possible that my baby girl is two years old already? I know times flies but, wow. I no longer have a baby in the house. This makes me sad. Really sad. But we celebrated anyways. I broke yet another one of my rules and decided to have a birthday party for her. My rule (pre-baby) was one party for her first birthday and that was it. I know I don't like having to go to the same kids birthday parties year after year and I didn't want people to feel that way about her. Too late. We invited about 30 people (just grandparents and cousins on my side, believe it or not) for a winter wonderland party at Mimi and Pop's house. I went WAY overboard, per usual.

When party day came, only 11 people showed to see all my hard work...I mean to celebrate! ha. The flu bug was going around and hit everyone hard. Regardless, we still had great time and the small turnout meant plenty of leftover goodies for us!

On her actual birthday, Mimi and Pop came over for dinner and homemade cake. She LOVED when we sang Happy Birthday to her.

We were supposed to get together at our house with the Laxton family to celebrate Lyla and Coty's birthday, but for reasons not worth mentioning in this blog, we decided to meet at the Patio for a family dinner. When the day arrived, it was our turn to get the flu so Lyla, who had a high fever, and I stayed home while Daddy represented.

A year in pictures. Like I said...overboard.

Winter theme.

Thanks Pinterest.

Bella was the only other kid there for Ly to play with!

B, Gram and Gramp all dodged the flu and made it.

Getting ready to sing.

My very homemade cake. It was delish.

On her birthday, Mimi and Pop came over to play with ALL of her dolls.

And her bus.

Seriously loves the birthday song.

This face....

More singing. This time at Beebah's with cousin Coty!

Frankenlyla

It was a pretty low-key day in the Laxton household. I barely got dressed. Lyla and I spent most of the dark, cold January day watching cartoons. It was a nice relaxing day. About 4pm, Lyla got down off my bed, where we were snuggled up. She was walking around the room for a few minutes and then it happened. I heard a thud. There was no immediate screaming but I jumped up anyways. When I got up I saw her face down near the edge of the dresser. By the time I got to her, the cries started and they were fierce. My stomach dropped in the moment I turned her over because I feared the worst. One look at her and I thought, "it's happening". Our first major injury. There was a gash over her right eye, just above the eyebrow. It was bleeding, heavily. I couldn't really see how big the gash was so I ran her into the bathroom and starting wiping the blood and putting pressure on it. Amazing by this time she had stopped crying. It didn't bleed long but when I saw the damage I knew that no ordinary bandage would fix this. I called Eric, who was on his way to the driving range (it was a crazy warm day in January). I told him to meet me at Silver Cross Hospital ER because Lyla "split her head open". I knew I had exaggerated so I quickly said "ok, no, she has a smallish cut on her head".

As I arrived at the ER a few minutes later, it was basically empty other than a few people who thought they were dying from the flu. There was no help desk so I walked around for what I thought was a few minutes while people just stared at me as I held on to an almost two year old with blood all over her face. Finally someone told me where to go. We had to wait a few minutes to be seen and by that time I was able to calm myself a bit. But, when Eric walked through the doors, I let it all out and cried like a baby. We sat in that ER room for the good part of the evening. The doctor said she would definitely need one or two stitches. Lovely. After two numbing treatments we were finally ready. I have to say Lyla was a trooper! Other than repeatedly pushing the call button for the nurse, she was pretty well behaved. When they were doing the stitches she did need to be held down by Eric and I (which was horrible) but who can blame a little kid for being scared. She ended up getting 5 stitches. Below are some scary pics. I spent the next day crying my eyes out that my little girls face was ruined and she would never be the same. I told Eric that was jinxed because everyone always talked about how pretty she was and that is why this happened. I know, overreaction, but remember, I am hormonal. Luckily, the stitches came out 5 days later and only left a small red mark which will not even be noticeable in a few months.

The before

The after. The after is scarier.

I Have a Secret

Today, I found out we are expecting LL 2.0! What a great way to start the New Year! Eric and I have been talking about it for a while (basically since Lyla was born) and today it became a reality. Given my history, we thought it might take a while, but very much to our surprise, it happened right away! According to babycenter.com the baby will arrive sometime in September! I always wanted a fall baby! Tonight while Eric was doing dishes, Lyla and I were playing with her new easel. I called Eric over to see what we made for him. Needless to say, he was shocked. In fact, he just stared at it for a while and then, without a word, went back to the dishes! Later he admitted he was definitely happy but in total shock!

Potty Training 101

So far, the worst parenting experience ever. After the holidays, there was a good stretch of time that I would be home with Lyla. Since she's been showing major interest in the potty, I thought this would be a good time to try training her. Of course I read about a few different methods and decided to combine a few. We talked about the potty for a few days leading up to it hoping this would help. On day one we went straight to underwear (with plastic training pants over them). I even put sham-wow's on the couch to avoid any messes.

The plan was to push liquids and take her to the bathroom every 20 minutes. If she went on the potty, she would get a reese's pieces candy. She never got any candy. She peed in her pants every time, just minutes after being put on the potty. I quit the next day. I was starting to get aggravated and I didn't want to turn it into a negative thing. I thought she had the concept but maybe not the self control yet, so I didn't push it. Maybe if I tried a little longer, she would have gotten it, but I just decided to pull the plug on the whole thing. Even though we failed, we still got some cute undies pics.

Just Because

No story behind this picture. It was just cute and I wanted to post it.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The most wonderful, the most stressful, the busiest, the priciest and the most most enjoyable time of the year. Yes, all wrapped up in one. Not much can be said about the holidays that aren't shown in this over abundance of pictures I took, so I will let them do the talking.

Christmas at Beebah's.

Just hanging out with her Great Grandma!

Lyla hasn't exactly learned where stickers go yet.

Reading about Thomas, the Elf on the Shelf.

Yellow family photo.

Cousies.

QB's first Christmas.

Me and my boys.

Gram and her two oldest girls.

Hanging with B and Shan.

Telling secrets with Dave.

Opening gifts from Santa!

She insisted on opening her gifts in her new sled.

Reading about potties.

Trying out her new NON electronic puzzle.

Pushing her Latina baby.

Look at this kid!

Playing with her princess castle.

Cheers. Her first time at the big kids Christmas Dinner table!

Trying out chopsticks.

Uncle Mike giving us the rules on our new family tradition.

Ending the night with a song!

Zoo Lights

In a post not so long ago, I mentioned the chaos that was our trip to the zoo. And yet, here we are, not even two months later, attempting it again. This time, however, we brought just a small crowd. Eric had to work so Mimi and Pop came along with us to check out the lights at the zoo. This is something Mimi tried to get us to do for years and yet, as soon as Lyla came along, we all jumped on board! It was a pretty cold night so we all bundled up and headed out. I guess the lights distract you from the fact that you see ZERO animals this time of year, but it was still fun to check out. Lyla decided she wanted no part of her wagon which meant a lot of taking turns holding her in her giant coat. It wasn't long before I was done and decided we had enough. Of course we'll do it again, but maybe we'll plan on a shorter trip!