Look at that...a knitted hat

Here is the finished product of few hours of knitting. I can't make much more than a hat or scarf, but I can do ribbing now and use double points and circular needles. The hat pattern is really simple. I just started with a chunky yarn on a size 8 circular 16 inch with 50 stitches. Knitted in rib and started decreasing after it was about 4 inches tall. Once it got too small for the circular, I transferred it to double points to finish it off. It's not necessarily meant for Layla, but she is my baby hat model.

Playing in the hamper

I just thought this was so funny. Layla likes dumping all the dirty clothes out of the hamper then throwing them back in. Today she dumped them out, turned the thing upside down, then hid inside it. The faces she was making were so cute. So much so that I stopped talking to the hubby on messenger to grab these pictures. Enjoy!

Keys Please!

Layla has taken a huge interest in playing with my keys lately. After she decided it was funny to stick the keys up her nose, I thought it would be best to not let her play with the real ones. I found her baby keys that I bought her awhile ago. Imagine my surprise when she started trying to open the front door with them! Just goes to show you its important to watch what you do in front of your kids. Whether its good or bad they will model it.

First Candy

I always thought I would NEVER give Layla candy until she was like 6 years old. Well, first I cracked by giving her cookies and brownies, so I guess this was the next logical step. We had just having dinner at my parents' and my dad asked if he could give her a sucker since everyone else was having one too. As you can see she ended up stealing mine as well!
All in all she did well with the candy and hardly even got sticky. When I took the sucker away after she dropped it she didn't even throw a fit. She did look like she really enjoyed the whole experience though.

Girls and dolls. . .

I always thought it was funny to see little girls that weren't much more than babies themselves playing with dolls. That said, Layla has decided that she likes a doll. As you can see she doesn't know how to carry her properly, but she does give the doll kisses. That's pretty surprising considering that she usually only kisses me.
She also said 2 new words today:
Apple and spicy.
She never ceases to amaze me.

I love my broccoli!

I think its so important to start little kids out eating a variety of food. We started Layla on a few solids around 6mos., then she got into eating more substantial amounts of food by 8mos. or so. I really never used pureed food except to mix with things or when we were traveling. As a result, she got used to textured and flavored foods right away. Her favorite food from 8-10 mos. or so was actually beans! They kept her system regulated for sure. She does have some food preferences, but only refuses to eat something if you've been making her eat it day after day. Right now she's like that with bananas. Tonight I made chicken and noodles and broccoli. She ate some chicken and noodles with her little fork, but surprised me with the broccoli. She has eaten it before, but went crazy for it this time. Together we ate an entire bowl just of broccoli. She definitely likes her meat and vegetables.

Potty!

We got Layla a potty even though she is just now 16 mos. She seems to have some awareness of being wet and not liking it! One of her favorite things to do now is to sit on her potty and brush her teeth at the same time. She has only gone in it 3 times in almost a week, but I feel like that's a good start considering how often we're not even at home. Here she is, enjoying feeling like a big girl. She was playing with my phone to distract her that time.

First Hairdo!

It's been annoying at times to have a litle girl with almost no hair. I would always see babies with tons of hair with cute hairdos and little headbands. Layla never has liked the headbands. I got her to leave one on for some pictures last summer, but that's about it. So the other day we were shopping and I saw some tiny rubber bands. People usually use them for little braids, but they work for little ponytails as well. Here she is: Layla the little white Somali.

January...that just about says it.

As for January, we didn't do a whole lot. The month started with some new years fun for mommy. Aka a night away from Layla. It was only the second time she has spent the night away from me. It was mostly cold in January, and we spent some time staying with friends in Chicago, getting snowed in for a couple days longer than we planned.

Layla improved her walking skills throughout the month and is nearly running now. She has learned to say the usual Mama and dada. By about the end of January she was also saying eat and doing the sign for it, and started saying no by the very end of the month. It always feels like she is mocking me when she says no. She also says up and hot and tries to imitate many other words.

Sorry no updates! Here's what we did in December. . .

So I know that no one probably ever looks at this blog anymore since I haven't updated in so long. For some reason I can't keep up with anything like this even though I'm online quite a bit. So here goes for my second try.
Layla and I have been pretty busy for the past few mos. In December we visited some friends in San Diego and went to a wedding.
Layla had a terrible night at the wedding for several reasons. The first of these was that I forgot her pacifier. The second was that the wedding started around 10 and lasted until 4am. Then there were the 3 nights of parties following that. She was a trooper and was great on both flights like she always is.