The Schuck Family

June 21, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday to Laila!

Our baby girl isn't a baby any more!!! Laila turned 1 year old on June 2nd! On her actual birthday, the three of us had a fun day at the beach. The weather was perfect and Laila seemed to have a blast splashing in the water, playing with the seashells, and getting all dirty in the sand! It was wonderful to see her smiling so much and so happy! Her smile cracks us up with her two little bottom teeth and the way she scrunches her nose and eyes, but at the same time, it melts our hearts and brings us so much joy!

On Saturday, June 6th, we had a little birthday party with the rest of the family to celebrate Laila's first year of life. Uncle Matt volunteered to host the party at his house this year since we are between homes right now. It turned out perfect! Laila did so good, despite missing her second nap that day. We really appreciate everyone that was able to come out and help us celebrate our daughter's first year of life. So many fun memories made for us that day!

It truly is so hard to believe she is a year old already. It's so crazy to think about how much she's grown in every way these past 12 months. Last year at this time we were holding our sweet little 7 lb 5 oz, 20 inch baby girl. Now she is around 20 lbs and 28 1/2 inches! We are so thankful for a healthy and happy daughter! She is getting stronger and learning more and more every day. The past few weeks she has been standing a lot by herself. She has taken a few steps here and there, but she is still pretty cautious. It seems like she will be walking soon to us, but I guess we'll see when she's ready! She is starting to climb or attempt to climb everything as well. She can also get her self off of the couch or bed without help. It is so exciting to see her learning new things and understanding so much more of what we are saying. It's cute to be able to understand more of what she is saying too. Her favorite things to say are Daddy, hi, uh-oh, Scooter, and Papa. She can also do baby sign language for more, all done, and water. Those are pretty much the only ones we've taught her so far. Another new thing she has been doing this past week or so is clicking her tongue of the top of her mouth, which she thinks is so cool! Laila still only has two bottom teeth, but we are hoping the others will come through soon. She has been trying more foods lately, but I've been hesitant to give her some things until she gets a few top teeth. She is still nursing, but most of her nutrients are coming from solid foods now. This past week she has been acting like a picky eater and pushing things away. We hope this doesn't continue! Some of Laila's favorite things right now are being tickled by Daddy, her family, Scooter (when she is upset, usually I just have to say Scooter's name and she's okay again!), giving kisses (it's the best feeling in the world when she leans over to give us a kiss when we don't even ask for one!), playing peek-a-boo (it's so cute how she covers up half of her face or one eye and thinks she's hiding from us!), the song Head and Shoulders, brushing her own hair (or trying to at least!), cell phones and remotes (still her favorite toys), eating cheerios or puffs, playing her new mini piano (thanks Moss family), looking at books, pretending to talk on the phone, swinging, taking everything off of shelves or out of the cabinets, and holding up her hands to show big she is or how much God loves her (that's a new one we taught her)! Laila is also in a new car seat now. The pediatrician said she was big enough to be front facing, and even though I was still planning on waiting a little bit before turning her around, we decided to go ahead and do it now. She looks like such a big girl in her new car seat, and it's nice to be able turn around and see her face and see her checking everything out!

There are LOTS of pictures on this post! Hope you enjoy!!!

The Birthday Girl!!!

Celebrating Laila's actual birthday at Cocoa Beach!

Standing all by herself!

Taking a few steps!

Playing in the sand

Finding seashells!

Our footprints in the sand...Daddy, Mommy, Laila!

How big is Laila? SO BIG!

Giving Daddy a kiss! So sweet!

Oooh...it's cold!

Our little monkey trying to climb up the chair!

Mommy and Laila!

And the temper tantrums have begun!!!

All better now! What a fun day at the beach!

After the beach, Aunt Holly stopped by to say Happy Birthday!

Playing on my new play set from Grandpa and Grammy Lail!

The Birthday Day girl getting ready for her party!

Nate & Laila with John & Isaac

Laila's 2nd cousin Melissa

Laila with her Great Grandpa & Great Grandma Phelps

Laila posing with her beautiful antique chair that belonged to her Great Great Great Great Grandmother! Thanks again Great Grandpa & Grandma Phelps...we'll treasure it always!

Scooter even got to come to my party!

Isaac and Laila (guess she likes his shirt)!

Oma and Laila!

The Schuck girls!

The cute little Moss Family (baby #2 will be here in November!)

Laila's 2nd cousin, Ian!

Us posing with Aunt Bekah and Aunt Susie!

Aunt Bekah, Aunt Susie, and Oma

Laila with her Great Grandma Lail (G.G.)

Beautiful Grandmothers!

Melissa and Aunt Holly

Laila's Grandpa and Great Uncle Mike Lail

Nonna and Papa Schuck

Cake time!!!

Grammy Lail made Laila her very own banana cake and it turned out yummy!

The hat only lasted a few seconds!

Singing Happy Birthday to Laila!

Instead of blowing out the candle, Laila put it out with her finger!

I'm not quite sure about this yet!

Testing it out!

Mmmm...yummy!

(signing more please)

Look what Daddy did to my face!

Attempting to stuff a big piece in my mouth!

Sharing with Daddy!

Daddy liked it too!

Laila and Papa Schuck

Hey, what's on my head?!

Taking a break to play peek-a-boo!

Isaac is enjoying watching Laila destroy her cake!

Daddy and Grandpa Schuck helped make me a mess!

This is fun!!!

Daddy's turn to get messy!

Bless this mess!

Time for a bath!

Opening a card from Oma after getting all cleaned up!

Laila trying on her new cross necklace that Oma gave her. It was given to Laila's Great Grandma by her Great Grandpa, who are both in heaven now. We will treasure this necklace forever...thank you Oma for passing it on to Laila!

Gift time!

Giving her new giraffe a kiss!

How old is Laila? ONE!!!

Aunt Holly and Scooter!

Grandpa Schuck and Grandpa Lail

It's been a long day! Time to go home now!

Other pictures from this past month.....

Now that is a mohawk!

Laila loves to play under the table at Grammy's house!

Signing all done!

Keep Grammy Lail away from the scissors! She cut my bangs way too short without Mommy's permission!

Trying out the slide after Daddy and Grandpa put it together!

Our little Pebbles!

Video of Laila playing peek-a-boo!

May 17, 2009

Laila at 11+ months

I know I'm a week late, but I hope all you Momma's out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! My first official Mother's Day was very nice. I don't have any pictures from that day as we really didn't do much. We just stayed around the house for the most part and enjoyed spending some time together as a family. I couldn't have asked for anything better! I love our little family! I am SO grateful to be a Mommy to my sweet little Laila!

Well, Laila is 11 1/2 months old now and doing great! We can't believe we are going to be celebrating her 1st year in a few short weeks! It seems like she is learning so much every day. We love how she waves hi and bye, gives kisses and hugs, blows kisses, shows how big she is with her hands, and tries to imitate us in everything we do! It's amazing to us that she understands so much of what we are saying (now we really have to be careful about what we say around her)!! It is so cute how she tries to converse with us too. Even though she thinks she is having a full conversation with us, we have no idea what she is saying! Her little baby language cracks us up and is so adorable! Even though it is still baby talk and a little difficult to understand if you don't know what you're listening for, there are a few words that are becoming easier to understand like Scooter, Daddy, hey or hi, bye, uh-oh, Papa, Holly, and Joy. In fact, we determined at the end of April that Scooter is her first official word!!! (Scooter is Aunt Holly's dog!) Most people don't believe us when we say that, but it's true! At the end of this post you can watch a few video clips I took of her calling his name. She isn't saying it as clear as she does sometimes, but you can definitely still hear it. We think it's so cute to hear her say his name. She loves him! In fact, every time she hears a dog bark she says Scooter. She even tried to eat his food one time which horrified Mommy, but luckily Aunt Holly and Mommy were able to get it out before she swallowed it. Holly and Scooter have been staying with us these past few months, but they just moved to a new home this weekend. We are going to miss them so much, but I'm sure we will still see them a bunch. Hopefully it will work out for Laila and I to watch Scooter on some days while Holly is at work. Speaking of moving, for those of you who haven't heard yet, we are going to be moving to a new place in a few weeks too. The house we have been renting sold, so needless to say, we have been very busy looking for a new home. We don't know where we will be yet, but we are just trusting that the Lord has a plan and will take care of us. Please keep us in your prayers.

The pictures below are just random stuff that's been going on these past few weeks. Enjoy the short videos I've posted at the end as well and don't forget to turn off the music playing by scrolling down to the pink music player on the right side!!!

Laila and Aunt Bekah being silly! :)