Rachel & Ava's Birthday

Today we traveled up to Cedar Falls to celebrate Rachel & Ava's birthday. We lucked out with a beautiful day to sit outside, relax, and of course eat good food. We got a great picture of Grandma and all her grandkids.

       Poor Peyton is outnumbered! 

We also made a pitstop at Sailu & Kaitlyn's as they live just down the road and got to meet their beautiful baby girl Lyla who is 2 months old. 

11 Months Old

Leah is now 11 months old and turning into a toddler. As I watched her learn to walk I can understand where the term came from as she was very unsteady for a bit! She is still a very happy baby, a great eater and a great sleeper. At daycare she has starting doing only one nap during the day to help her prepare for her transition to the next room, mostly because she doesn't want to miss out on anything so refuses to take her morning nap! She is still eating two bottles during the day but I am officially done pumping at work. I have enough frozen to get through the next month and am still nursing in the morning and at night so we don't have to deal with preparing and washing any more bottles than we need too. Eventually I will need to come up with a plan to reduce/cut out her bottles but I am not quite ready for that and while she isn't the best nurser, she sucks down her 6 oz bottles during the day. She has been using a sippy for water the past several months so I am not too concerned about the transition.

Our goofy girl that can't sit still. She also loves to try and push everything

All smiles :)

Disney - Magic Kingdom

We spent basically all day on Wednesday at the Magic Kingdom. While Leah is still too young to really enjoy any of the 'rides' she did like riding around in the stroller all day and being outside. A lot of the rides there are made for lap children so she did get to come along on a few, I think 'It's a Small World' was probably her favorite with so many things to look at that were making noise and moving. It was a very long day for Leah and she hung in there great, taking a few naps along the way but was a trooper staying up until 10:30, WAY past her bedtime.

Leah and Hannah had the cutest matching Minnie outfits from Grandma Deaner

Taking the ferry over 

Morning nap 

Enjoying the beautiful day

On the train 

Tuckered out on the way back to the hotel for afternoon nap

Meeting Princess Ariel

Family Picture 

Can hardly stay awake at the end of a very long day. Poor Peanut! 

Florida!

We were fortunate to spend the last week at the beautiful Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando with my parents timeshare. The Meyers, Schmidts' and Salweys' all made the trip down and it was a great time. We got in late Monday with enough time for dinner and a quick dip in the pool that was right outside the tower at the resort we were staying at. Leah was a little hesitant at first but warmed up quickly and was soon trying to run back and fort between Brian & I. It was a zero entry pool which was great for the little ones. Tuesday & Thursday we also spent the days lounging at the resort, checking out the different pools and activities and soaking up some sun.

Warming up

Leah wasn't a big fan of the floatie :)

Playing with Dad in the water

 Eating a snack on Papa

Taking advantage of the babies napping to catch some sun and drink some Sangria

Where we spent most of our time, sitting in the shallow part of the zero entry pool

Getting brave! 

Playing (eating) in the sand

Out to dinner on Thursday. Brian's beer might be bigger than Leah :)

It was a great trip and Leah did so well being off schedule and most importantly, on the plane. Which is a good thing because as worried as Brian was I didn't know if he would let us plan another trip if this one wasn't a success :)

Tubes

We had our follow up ENT appointment on Friday and were informed that Leah would need to get tubes put in.  The good news was that they would be able to get us in on Tuesday, May 6th so before Leah's first flight to Florida! So Brian got to wake up extra early on his birthday to be to the surgery center by 6 for a 7 am surgery. Leah did great and everything went well, it is amazing how fast the whole process is! I think I had her back in my arms 15 minutes after they took her back. She was sad, grumpy and a little groggy at first but after a long morning nap she woke up her usual happy self again. Everyone says that tubes are life changing but considering that Leah has been a great eater and a great sleeper for us already I am hoping that she stays the same! :)

Other news, Leah got her first big goose-egg over the weekend.  Now that she can walk she wants to run everywhere. On one of her long stretches going the length of the living room she came up just a bit short and knocked her head on the coffee table. Of course, I wasn't home at the time so I got a panicked call from Brian which I quickly referred over to my mom. Since it was close to her temple we did call the nurse but by the time I got home she was calmed down and doing much better so we didn't take her in.

Poor Peanut! The picture on the left is right after it happened and the one on the right two days later. 

We Have a Walker!

Over the last couple of weeks Leah has become more and more confident taking steps on her own. This week she has made strides and now prefers trying to walk places instead of crawling. And she can now get from sitting down to standing up without pulling up on anything. I think its official, we have a walker! :)