What happened to August?

Summer has come and gone, it seems. I'm still not sure where the last month went. We have been pretty busy with road trips and vacation and starting back to work. Lyla is growing and changing like crazy. We have had lots of "firsts" this month--first time to the pool, first vacation, first swing, first wedding. I love the stage she is in right now. It is quite an enchanting age. I wish I had a slow-mo button to make it all last a little longer. She is "talking" and interacting with us. She loves to try to sit up and stand, but she is still immobile. It doesn't take much to elicit a smile these days. She is quite the little social butterfly!

Our giggly girl

First time to the pool!

Jay's grandpa passed away at the end of July, so we made a few road trips to Illinois around that time. He had been in poor health for nearly a year, but took a turn for the worst this summer. We are so thankful that he was able to meet Lyla before he passed and that we had the opportunity to tell him goodbye and spend time with him before he went. Although she only knew him for a short while, Lyla was very blessed to have such a good man as her great-grandpa. He had such a kind heart, and we know that we will see him again. We were truly able to celebrate his life at the visitation and funeral, but that did not make it any less difficult to see him go. Having a young one at the funeral was good for everyone, especially Jay and his dad. Young ones seem to remind us of the cycle of life at those times.

Lyla and Avvie at Grandpa's funeral

In mid-August the three of us took a summer vacation to Grand Haven, Michigan with Jay's family. I suspect that it was just a ruse on Jay's parents part to spend as much time with Lyla as they could, but regardless, we all had a good time. :) We had a good week of relaxing days, and at night, Jay's parents volunteered to babysit so that Jay, Craig, Rachel, and I could go out for a little while and enjoy some time as adults.

The week after we got back from Michigan, I started back to work. It has been a rough couple of weeks, for sure!! It was nice to get back to an environment that included something other than baby drool and spit up (although, I still see a fair amount of that at work!), but it was even harder to leave her than I thought. Even Lyla seemed to notice the change, and she was pretty unhappy about it. I had started her on the bottle at 3 weeks old, just so there would be no problems with her transitioning to it once I went to work. She did really well taking it, even going so far as to let me give it to her. Then, THE day that I went back to work, she screamed and cried and absolutely refused to take it. I feel like we have tried everything to get her to take it and wish I could say that she has gotten better about it, but she's not there yet. Oh, the best laid plans...

Lyla and Nana swinging

Lyla just turned 3 (!!) months. I can honestly say that I don't know what we did without her around! Our friend Amanda came again to take pictures of her. As always, they turned out to be fantastic! I'll leave you with one of our favorites. If you have the time and feel like browsing through all 175 of them, here's the link:
http://mcunningham79.shutterfly.com/
Password is LylaJane.
Enjoy!