The Aylagator

Dear Ayla,

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since I first held your tiny little hands and kissed your teeny tiny nose. You have changed so much in that year, from a helpless little baby to a toddler who loves exploring, playing and laughing! While the year has gone by so fast, it is hard to remember what life was like without you just one short year ago. You have added so much joy to our lives!

Stats:Height: 27 inches
Weight: 15 lbs 0.8 oz (I had to get that 0.8 in there)

You were super "lucky" that mommy's work continues to be on strike in September and you got to spend a lot of time with both mommy and daddy. Daddy was off of work to spend time and take care of you while mommy went back to work. You spent some more time at the picket line visiting mommy's work and you even ate raw patty pan squash there. This month you also enjoyed corn and pizza!

You had lots of friends celebrate birthday days, here are some pictures from Parker, Zylan and Andre's birthdays. You had so much fun celebrating with your friends, you missed Alex's birthday because you were sick :(

This month you started gymnastics. While you LOVE being in the gym, you still aren't too sure about being in a class. You would prefer to have the gym all to yourself, it also doesn't help that the class is right around nap time! You are getting very good at climbing up the stairs to the little slide, walking around boxes with support and playing in the foam pit!

Mommy went back to work this month :( but lucky for you, daddy got to stay home with you for a bit. For one last "fling" before going back to work, we went to the Great Escape in Langley. You had so much fun going down the slides and climbing up the stairs. We will have to go back again. The best story from that outing was that you went down the slide head first (dare devil!) and at the bottom I turned you around and told you to go feet first. Well, all the rest of the times that you went down, you looked down the slide face first, then stopped, turned around and went down feet first. You are so smart!!

During the summer, mommy and daddy took you to visit daycare once a week so that you could get used to it, This month you started to go there by yourself for a couple hours at a time. At first you cried when we left you there, but after a few days, you didn't cry anymore. You are such a big, brave girl. Here are pics from your first full day of daycare; before we left and waiting for breakfast.

The biggest highlight of this month was you turning 1! I still cant believe that you are 1 already! I did a cake smash with you just before your birthday. You were in such a good mood before the cake, and we got some great photos of you in your birthday dress and onesie. The tutu that you are wearing was made for you in December of the year you were born and it still fits. Cousin Sophia has a matching one!

After these cute pictures, we attempted to do a cake smash with you. You are such a girly girl and didn't want to get messy. We tried to get you to touch, smash, lie on and eat the cake, but you were having none of it!!! The pictures are cute though!!! You were so happy to have a bath and get cleaned up after!!

We also had your family party on the 5th, Lots of the family came to celebrate and daddy made you the coolest Alligator cake. He worked so hard to make it just perfect for you. You don't like sweet things and you barely touched any of your cake.

It has been so much fun watching you grow and learn so much this past year! I cant wait to see what the next year holds for you! Looking back on how far you have come since that very first day I held you, it is amazing to see how much of a character you are. You are so full of life, spunk and joy! You keep us on our toes!!!

Here are the last of your weekly pics, kind of a sad tradition to see end, but its getting way too tough to keep you still for a photo!

In your custom made 3 month size birthday onesie!

It has been an amazing year and I love you more now then I did a year ago! Everyday you amaze me!!

Love you Gator!

Mama

Dear Ayla,

What a busy month it has been! You have been working very hard on walking, but you aren't quite there yet. You are really good at cruising on furniture, using your walkers and going up and down stairs. You LOVE making a b-line for the stairs and then climbing to the top. You have no fear and are becoming a real life monkey!

Stats

Weight: 14lbs 10oz
Height:26.35"

We have had a very busy start to the month. This BIGGEST change in you, is that you now have teeth!!! In true Ayla fashion, you didn't just cut them one at a time, no, you cut the bottom 2 and then one of the top ones in 3 days! Boy was that fun! Its strange to see you with teeth now as you didn't have them for so long.

The first week of August, mama had to work and one day you came to visit. You LOVED playing in the gym. This is not surprising as you love exploring and being flipped! I cant wait until you start classes there in September.

In one weekend, you had 4 birthday parties, you popular girl!!! We tried to make it to at least part of each one. Peyton, Riley and Kate turned 1 and Tyson and Aliyah turned 2. You seemed to have a great time at all the parties. Here are some pics from Kate, Tyson's and Aliyah's bdays.

With daddy also being home, we are spending a lot of time at the park. You are enjoying crawling on the grass, swinging super high on the swings and of course, walking there on daddy's shoulders!

A definite highlight this month was taking you the PNE/Playland for the first time. We arrived at 3:00 and only planned on staying a few hours. At 9:15, you were still going strong. You tried your first mini-donut, ate BBQ brisket and went on 4 rides; the merry-go-round, the honeybee train, the giant slide and the tea cups!! You loved it!!! I think you wanted to rides to go faster!!We can't wait to take you back again!

You had your first major illness this month :( 4 of your friends had hand, foot mouth disease and we were worried that you had picked it up too. Although you had a fever for almost 3 days you had no spots...phew!!! You were super cuddly those days, that was the only perk.

Here are a few random pictures from the month. One for the Cartwheels staff party, one of you eating a plum and the last one of you chilling in the back yard. While you love food, fruit isn't your favourite, however, you did like it better when we gave it to you whole. Now that you have some teeth, this is a good thing :)

You are still enjoying the Whitecaps games, but some of them are harder than others. You like to be in the action, even if its around nap or bed time. You are a party animal! Here are 2 pics of you with Asher at one of the games this month.