Moving into the second year

Layla is now TWO YEARS OLD, as I may have mentioned, and here are her stats from our recent doctor's visit:

She is 29.5 lbs
She is ornery
She doesn't like having her ears looked at, her hips checked, or her diaper taken off.
She doesn't like having her diaper put back on after it's taken off.
She is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight (!!!)
She doesn't like shots, but if you give her an Elmo sticker when you give her the shot, she won't notice the shot.

The doctor told us we could bring her back in 6 months, if we felt like her verbal development was slow and we were concerned. After Layla loudly shared some of her opinions with the doctor on that, it was mutually agreed we probably wouldn't need to bring her back for another year.

Layla has learned a lot of new words, and routinely asks "What's that?", but she also often resorts to screaming as an effective means of communication. We are rapidly learning to ignore her, but this has made it hard to go out in public again. And I think our neighbors are considering extra soundproofing for their houses. She also likes to dress herself (she can get her shoes on, sometimes her socks, sometimes her pants, definitely a skirt, and loose shirts almost make it). This, combined with all the nerve-rattling screaming she's been doing, means she often ends up at daycare wearing outfits we didn't exactly approve of. But, it helps us think outside of the box. For example, who ever made the rule that you can't wear tights over pants, and your mommy's sports bra for a hat?

We are also amazed at Layla's ability to listen and remember what she hears and sees. At the Sunday Market about a month ago, we bought a dinosaur with some money. This morning, she found $10 and immediately took it to her dinosaur (the same one), although I'm not sure what she thought the money was supposed to be for. When we tell her a friend is coming over, she remembers and asks about it. If we promise something, she expects us to follow through. What a new kind of stress we face!!

Meanwhile spring has sprung and we can finally go outside again... thank goodness! It was a long, rainy, cold winter. We have busted out into the wild and Layla is spending most of her time at her favorite place... the playground. Or, as below, examining the wildlife on our own block.

I'm still here!

Whew! Another busy couple of months just flew past. We had TWO grandmas in town (one after the other) and several back-to-back trips by the Studly Hubby and I (literally - he flew out an hour before I landed..!). Plus a Big 2-yr-old's Birthday, a Catastrophic Missed Trip to LA, a crazy gluten-free diet and lots of extremely hectic stuff going on at work for both of us. Fortunately we made through it all and are now emerging on the other side. Whew!

Some details:

I found out I may have a mild allergy to gluten, a possible explanation for my hard year last year (gluten allergies create lots of trouble absorbing nutrients, and that combined with breastfeeding was probably a big burden on my system). I've always suspected this, and to help me sort it out I went to a food allergy specialist that has me taking a storm of probiotics and other stuff in addition to a crazy strict diet. I've given up gluten, dairy and soy milk to see if it helps (a little helpful so far, although I haven't gone through any official tests yet). It's been weird, to say the least.

The 2-yr birthday went very well, Grandma L was in town and the Studly Hubby was out of town. We spent the day doing all of Layla's favorite things including some birthday cupcakes at the gluten-free coffee shop. Layla finished the day off by throwing up all over her room which I hear is common on birthdays. Too much sugar + too much bouncing = upset stomach. Or, it was just another stomach bug (that would be #4 for the year). She was fine the next day.

The Catastrophe was unexplainable. One minute we were walking into the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight and the next minute we were somehow missing the flight. In between there were long lines, some problems with our baggage and security, a busy toddler, and a harried walk-run to the furthest gate in the airport (a little tough with a busy toddler). After we missed our flight we tried to re-book and found we absolutely couldn't do it without paying $600 per ticket change (apparently they hate when you miss your flight). We went back home, disappointed, exhausted, and shocked. In my rich history of flying, I've only ever even come close to missing a flight once - this was my first actual missed flight. We now have credits with Alaska for the tickets and we are considering Hawaii as a consolation.