The Revenge of the Black Bean...

IMG_5954.JPG, originally uploaded by sassylou.

Leila is an active little toddler and is definitely keeping us on our toes. I love this first picture...it reminds me of the Wicked Witch with the striped socks under the house...but of course our little lady is more like Glinda! Click on the photo for more recent pictures marking:

1. Leila's 1st burritto. Fast forward to our babysitter calling me the next day at work exclaiming about how much Leila is pooping and how black it is. Thanks to cloth diapers, I could take a peek for myself in the old diapers when I picked her up. I would have called too. Had I not known about all the black beans she had eaten, I might have been worried. Lesson...too many black beans does not make for a pleasant diaper(s).

2. Leila's fun at bathtime. She is enjoying baths and has finally gotten over being scared at having her hair rinsed. We enjoy playing with all of her curls and giving her mohawks...doesn't every parent?

3. Leila's introduction to drawing. From the pics, you can see not too much extensive crayon work was going on. She seemed way more enamored with putting the crayons in her mouth and running around the house in circles. She would stop for a crayon switch out and repeat.

4. Leila went back to her park where she had her tree planted for her baby blessing. She had a blast swinging on the swing with our friend John and playing in the fountain. Leila loves this little park and it was a good chance to run off some energy...she had all of us exhausted by the end of the day! Her tree is growing nicely and it is so wonderful to have a lasting way to mark her life and growth.

L-Mobile

IMG_5808.JPG, originally uploaded by sassylou.

It's been a whirlwind few weeks for the Ghezali family. We have been on the go. We celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary and went down to Santa Cruz over the 10/5 weekend. It was a family affair and we rented a great little cottage right by the beach. Straight from there I went on a business trip for 9 days and just got back this last Monday. Now Leila and I are both sick...me from fatigue, Leila from me. Trying to rest up and recuperate, but work is non-stop right now. Leila is on the go...amazing how much she has changed just in the short time I was away. She is running around the house, talking on the phone(s) all day and cradles it in the crook of her neck. She has complete conversations, laughs into the phone (I guess the person she is talking with is entertaining?) and asks a lot of questions in a raised tone at the end of her sentences. Guess she will be racking up quite the phone bill when she grows up. If she isn't "on" the phone, she is pushing all of the buttons and playing with our answering machine ad nauseum. One of her favorites is to push the "page" button to make all the phones in the house beep. Amazing how they find out all the little tricks...

She is also saying some real words...although the pronunciation on some leaves a little to be desired. Some favorites: hi, bye, doggy (all animals), diggy (kitty for our cat Hobbes), shoes, ba (banana), eat, out, and of course momma and daddy. She definitely is mimicking us a lot...she is "coughing" just like mommy right now and is repeating a lot of the words or sounds we make. It was much too long to be away from my little girl and we have had a ton of fun catching up even if we both don't feel at the top of our game. Daddy was a great caretaker while I was away even if the house looked like a tornado had hit it when I got back. I think Leila had taken out every single toy in the house down to the very last block. Good times.

Click on the photo for all of the pictures from our Santa Cruz trip.