Summertime!

School is out and summer has officially begun!  We have had several playdates at the beach, pool and a water park the last couple of weeks!   Chris has been traveling a ton and has been gone more than he has been home so these playdates are essential to single motherhood survival. 

There are several little boys ages 2-5 months in our playgroup and I love getting to hold all these precious little boys!

Ayla is content to sit and play in the sand for hours, which makes the beach really relaxing and easy for me.  She is scared of the waves so I don't have to worry about her in the water.   

Styling shades on our way to a waterpark for another playdate

This waterpark looked so fun.  To bad Ayla was in a sour mood.  She didn't want to go play at all.  So we sat in the shade and ate snacks, fed the birds and watched the little babies the whole time.  

This is my view these days!

The urge to nest has hit and I have started to get things ready for our new arrival.  I love this rocker, it will be perfect for feedings while Ayla plays. 

Chris's poor office has been overtaken with baby gear.  I have pulled out all our stuff so I can start figuring out what-else we still need to get.  If anyone has opinions on favorite double strollers please let me know.  I can't decide what would be best. 

Ayla loves the baby stuff also.  She thinks she is still a baby.

A few pics from another playdate at the beach. 

Talk about worst nightmare!  I put Ayla down to take a nap!  I little bit later I walk by her room smell this awful overwhelming stench seeping out from under the door.  I peek inside to discover this!!!

All that brown stuff you see on her hand, crib and floor.  Oh ya that is poop!  She pooped then took off her diaper, painted her body and pillow, crib, everywhere with poop streaks and then threw little poop balls across the floor and threw her diaper out.  It was a disaster!  I wanted to die! I creeped in and cleaned up what I could without touching and disturbing her then waited till she woke up.  Of course snapping a few photos in the process to send to Chris so he could see what he was missing out on.  She woke up crying.  I rushed her into the tub and began scrubbing her down, she just cried the entire time.  She was so upset.   It was truly awful, and bonus Chris was out of town so I was on my own for the special occasion. 

Our neighbors that live a couple houses down from us have 7 kids.  There youngest is a little girl Makenzie who is 3.  Her and Ayla have become good friends.  Friday afternoon we went over to their house and all the kids were having a shaving cream fight.  Ayla was nervous to join in at first and just wanted to observe.  But then she started to get into it, slathering shaving cream all over her body and hair.  She was loving it. 

Our neighbors across the street have a duck living in one of there pots.  She is laying on some eggs which should hatch in about a week.  Ayla is obsessed with going over there to stare at the duck.   She loves to be outside and go for walks with zuri.  She likes to collect sticks and rocks, dig in the dirt and to squish ants.  

She is really starting to talk alot now.  She can actually carry on a little conversation now.  It is so cute!  I love her little voice and the way she pronounces words.  

She is quite the smarty pants.  She knows all her upper case letters and some lower case.  She knows her numbers 1-9 and can count to 5 by herself.  She  knows her colors, red, orange, yellow, pink, purple, blue, green, black, brown, white, and grey.  She also is starting to learn her shapes and knows circle, oval and triangle. 

She loves to color!  She asks to color ALL THE TIME!  Only bad thing is she is naughty and I can't trust her to color unsupervised because she likes to color on everything! I have cleaned crayon off of many tables, walls, doors, and floor.  

She also really likes to play with play dough.  We have introduced her to a few new shows she really loves, jungle book, peter pan, and Cinderella.  

Here are some typical conversions that we have. 

Me: Ayla, do you want to go play with the kids?

Ayla: no

Me: Why don't you want to go play with the kids?

Ayla: Why not?  

(whenever we ask her why, she answers why not)

Me: Ayla do you want to go the beach today?

Ayla: Beach?

Me: Ya lets get ready to go to the beach.

Ayla: Huh with a little head nod (I have learned that huh means yes)

Me: Ok lets go!

Ayla: K right 

(this is how she confirms she wants to do something, as in ok, alright, but she says k, right)

She is getting so big!  She is going to be such a great big sister!  I love my little girl, she is my special buddy.