this is long overdue... but it is very apparent that lela is now 1! yay! :) we celebrated with three little parties (hence the "carnevale" theme) - the first on august 14th with family in the US, the second on september 5th (her real birthday) with friends in germany, and the third on october 4th (also brant's welcome home) with her daddy.
over the course of lela's first year she has been a solid member of team reilly. she completed 12 flights before turning one, endured vegas (enough said), traveled to hotlanta, the big apple, phx, and all things michigan, of course. she managed to squeeze in some lovely germany trips, luxembourg, france, belgium, switzerland, the netherlands, spain, austria, and most recently italy. she can go through security faster than any straight-laced businessman and has left planes with no pants on more times than we can count. she eats healthy and sings often. she can go from wild woman to peaceful buddha all in the same minute. she has a laugh that could melt anyone and that we'll do anything to hear. she rocked our world from the minute she announced her presence at st. elizabeth krankenhaus wittlich. she is the joy of our life.
this fall has been busy with two sets of family visitors (we love company!), lots of traveling around, and then brant's fabulous return home from a lengthy deployment. we spent a week at home and then did a little over a week in the cinque terre, florence, and pisa. we ate our way through italy that's for sure - pizza, pasta, wine, gelato. love!
lela has been blossoming into a toddler...
- exclusive whole milk baby shortly after her first birthday
- standing solo (puts her arms up and in awe of herself every time)
- takes about three steps on her own and then likes to fall into our arms laughing
- signs for milk, more, and eat, but when she's not sure, she does them all in a rotating fashion
- speaks in full sentences, but we have no clue what she is saying
- loves to say "car" (ok, maybe 500 times a day) in her NJ accent and loves playing with cars
- says "apple", "mama", "daddy", and will repeat (or try to) most words you say
- loves dogs and cats and saying "woof woof" and "meeeeeeeeyuuuw" when she sees them
- learned pirate in italy and can "arghhhhh" like one too
- loves pushing her wagon through the backyard and having leaves dumped on her head
- stands up and acts like she has all this stuff to do while in the bathtub, milling around, pulling and pushing things, sorting her bath toys, eating bubbles
- blows on her food to cool it down... the food doesn't have to be hot, she'll still do it
- loves to double hug brant and i at the same time and is beaming when she does it, usually a three hug set
- imitates us saying "no no"
- likes clapping to commend herself for something
- can hold up one finger for her age and does "so big", often mixes these two up
- still loves her books and will read solo aloud to herself
- just learned "uh oh" and purses her lips into a little "o" while saying it
- likes looking for bugs and saying "bug", "hat", "bell", "cup"
- and the best of all.... when we say "lela lay down" she will fall to the side wherever she is... it is hysterical
anyway, peace to all. keep loving and laughing.
~s
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