Miss Layla Michele

Oh where to start with my little Layla. First off she isn't little anymore. She is growing like a weed and is getting tall. Tall in our family is kind of a relative word seeing that we are a average/short family. However for now our children are growing much taller than we expected.

Miss Layla has entered into the wonderful phase of "WHY". No matter now many times I told myself that I would never utter the words, "because I said so" they seems to come out at leastonce a day. I love that she is curious about her world but at times I think why just mean "really mom, you have to be kidding me right?!" Whatever the reason it is a constant battle of the "WHY" all day long. Most of the time the trick is to stay calm until she answers herself.

For instance here is one of our conversations yesterday.

Me: "Layla please don't tie things around your neck."

Layla: "Why"

Me: deep breath...

Layla: "oh because I could choke."

Me: "yes Layla exactly."

Me: "Layla please don't run in the hall when you are pretending not to be able to see."

Layla:"Why"

Me: long pause

Layla:"cause i am clumsy and will hurt myself."

Me:"yeah Layla you can't keep safe while running if your eyes are closed."

Layla:"oh" followed by running off with ONE eye open!

Can you tell she thinks she looks great?!?

Layla however has passed the crying at night when we put her to bed almost entirely. She has come up with something new to bide her some time before actually going to bed. She gets up and has to tell us sweet things and blow us kisses. Most nights go like this.

"good night Layla stay in your bed tonight okay." "okay mom and dad."

We sit down on the couch to rest after the long battle of getting kids to bed. Just as we are settling in we hear a rustle and see toes appear on the side of the bookcase followed by a tufted of hair and then....

" I love you mom and dad I just need to give you one more hug and kiss." "Okay thanks Layla now go back to bed now."

"Have fun watching your movie mom and dad... I love you.... good night.... sweet dreams... oh just one more hug and kiss.... good night... see you in the morning.... have fun watching your movie.... have a good time together." and then you hear the door close. It is so very sweet and funny. And if you pass by her door you will hear her yell out... "Good night mom have fun with daddy!" or visa versa if Brian wakes by. it is cute and something I know one day we will miss.

This can repeat over an hour about 8 times. And in the morning when you peek into her room you see the barbies all tucked into beds that she must have been working on in between her appearances in the living room. I am glad that we are still so very important to our children and that they love us so much. Layla has so much love to give too.

Taking care of Isa while she is sick!

Layla has several new interests this year. First off we are very big on ice skating right now. Layla is going to go to the olympics one day and is going to compete in figure skating and bobsledding. These were our favorite competitions this past year. And since we watched the Ice Princess she knows that it is never too late to become a skater... thank you disney!

She also has taken to listening to the radio. By this I mean she turns on CD's in small radio we have in their room. We got the classic disney cd's from the Library a couple weeks ago and now that is all they listen to. However their favorite song will surprise some...."Portobello Road". And now that is her favorite movie... Bed knobs and broom sticks. And thanks to some singing goats we got for christmas we watch Sound of Music at least once a week and reenact the puppet show with our puppets!

Other than all this Layla keep busy by playing/bossing around her best friend and little sister Isa. Most of the time they have a super secret super club that is little girls only. Which I do love. I don't know what they would do without each other. When we leave the house they hold hands every where they go and at church they take care of each other in primary. They are the best of friends. They also have begun to develop their own language. They don't really use full words a lot or finish their thoughts because it isn't needed. They get each other on a level most wouldn't understand. Layla is a wonderful little girl who has a giant heart. She wants everyone to be happy. And she makes friends with everyone. She gets really upset when she sees people be mean to others. She also is very tender to the spirit. She doesn't like anything remotely violent to be on the tv or movie. Even some disney movies like sleeping beauty were hard for her to watch because they were just mean.

I love her tender heart and her sensitivity to the spirit. I hope she always keeps that.... I think we might all survive the teenage years if she is able to hold tight to that gift!

Totally enjoying her breathing treatment... one day we will move past these right!!!

The last little note here is that SLOWLY she is learning to recognize her letters and read names. She LOVES to draw pictures for everyone she knows and write little notes on them. She has learned to write 23 names and words and is developing so fast. She is though, still a little girl at heart and doesn't seem to want to "grow up" and leave the kiddy things behind. I am thankful for this. I will keep my little girls little as long as I can! So thankfully we are still into barbie and disney and could careless about Hannah Montana, boys, and that sort of thing! She is in no hurry to come a big kid. She loves being little and we love it too!

She really is an amazing big sister!