15 Months!

Today was Laila's 15 month check-up! She weighs 21 lbs, 13 oz and is 30 1/2 inches tall! We are so thankful she is healthy and happy (most of the time!) and doing great! We praise the Lord that up to this point she has rarely been sick, just a few runny noses and coughs. Right now she has 6 teeth that have popped through (4 on the top and 2 on the bottom), but it looks like a few others will be coming in soon. Laila has added a few more words to her vocabulary (at least that we can understand) since the last time I wrote about her development at 12 months. Her new words are baby, bath, teeth, cheese, and up (she says uppy!). She has even said Mama a few times this past month...finally! Along with some of the new ones, her favorite words are still hi, bye, Scooter, Daddy, Papa, uh-oh, and Holly! She attempts a few other words like water, hat, and hair, but they are a little harder to understand if she doesn't use the sign with it. We have started doing a few more baby signs with her these past few months. These are the signs we've taught her up to this point: more, all done, water, milk, please, thank you, friend, play, ball, banana, bath, and baby. Laila absolutely loves taking a bath and brushing her teeth right now. Daddy is the one who gets her ready for bed most nights. He has taught her to fold her hands while he says a quick bedtime prayer....it is so sweet! Another one of our favorite things she does right now is how she smiles or shows us her teeth when we ask her too! We love her smile! A few of her favorite things right now are dancing (or shaking her head to the music), giving hugs and kisses, talking on the phone, listening to the alphabet song, eating goldfish (she also loves yogurt, cheese, bananas, broccoli, and applesauce), taking Scooter on walks, and playing peek-a-boo!

Mommy and Laila have also recently joined a "Mommy and Me" group and have been doing more play dates with friends lately. Although Laila seems to take after her Mommy and is a little shy at first :), she does so well sharing and playing with others. Some of my friends have commented on her sweet disposition. Laila is a sweet girl and has a great demeanor about her, although like I've said before, she will definitely let you know when she is not happy! We have had to be a lot more firm lately in our discipline with her and try to put an end to those little temper tantrums of hers before they get too out of control! :) I've been reading a book that was recommended to me called "Don't Make Me Count to Three" by Ginger Plowman (it's similar to "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp). I'm really enjoying it and learning a lot about discipline, but I feel like I still have so much more to learn. I pray the Lord will give Nate and I the wisdom and strength to know how to handle each situation.

On another note, Mommy has gotten a new part-time job! I am doing administrative and marketing stuff for a construction/roofing company. It is great because I am able to do most of it from the computer or by phone so that I can stay home with Laila. So far it is going well, and although it is only about 10-15 hours a week at this point, it is still great to have a little extra money coming in.

It looks like these next few weeks could be very busy for us. We are finally going to be moving into our own house again in 10 days! We are super excited! We've appreciated my parents generosity in opening up their home to us while we've looked for our own place and saved some money, but we are so looking forward to having our own space for our own little family again! Please pray for us that the move will go well and that it will be an easy transition for Laila. This will be our 3rd move this past year. We are so grateful that we'll be in a place now that we can stay for awhile!

Thanks for taking the time to read my long blog posts and look through the millions of pictures I take! It is so great to have family and true friends that care about us, pray for us, and are there for us no matter what. We love you all more than you know! xoxo

Enjoy the little photoshoot and two videos at the end that Mommy took of Laila at 15 months old!

Walking in Mommy's shoes!

Video of Laila at 15 months old

Video of Laila calling Papa's name and giving him a big hug when he came home from work!