Spring was here.

Spring is here!! Or was here, it's rather confusing because it got nice out. Then over the course of like three days everything in Grand Rapids bloomed. Then it got hot out (granted it was hot on my San Diego temperature scale... so like mid-80's. It's going to take some readjusting when the 90+ degree whether gets here).

But then, out of the blue (or gray, rather) Fall decided that it wanted a piece of the action. Temperatures dropped to the 50's, then the 40's, then the 30's. Rain fell. Snow threatened. Until we finally succumbed and turned the heat back on in our house. Fortunately, I think it's temporary. And soon we'll be back outside enjoying the verdant beauty of Grand Rapids. I'm sure you all remember what the outside looked like in February. This is the view out our front door now. Beautiful.

One benefit of the nice weather (while we had it) was that we got to spend a lot of time outside. It seemed like Lyla and Katherine were taking walks outside everyday. Their number one "going for walks" buddies are our new neighbors (Mandy and their one-year-old Ian). But Katherine has managed to invite practically everyone she knows to go on a walk with her. Part of the reason is that we got passes for the season to Meijer Gardens. Instead of getting the second pass in my name, we got a general guest pass so Katherine can invite anyone she wants. I think if you average it out, she's gone every other day for the past two weeks.

Here are Katherine and Lyla standing in front of some tulips in the Gaslight Village.

Here's Lyla laying out at a nearby park.

Here's Lyla all tuckered out after a long day of getting pushed around in the stroller. Rough life that kid has.

So as you can see the nice weather has been fantastic and after being cooped up all winter, we've fully embraced spending time outdoors. It's also been nice just to be able to explore our community. The first 4 or so months of Lyla's life were pretty much spent in our apartment. So we're really grateful to get out and explore with her.

But, like I mentioned, it's gotten cold again. Hopefully it won't last too long. We hadn't packed away winter stuff yet, so it hasn't been too hard for Katherine and I to go back to putting on jackets and long sleeves.

It's been a little more difficult for us to dress Lyla because it seems like in the past month, the warm weather came and we no longer needed to dress Lyla in a onesie, a jumper, and an outer-layer. But over that period of time she's grown like an inch or two longer. So she doesn't fit into a lot of the jumpers we have. And we don't have that many long-sleeve onesies that are in the 3 to 6 month size. Fortunately, we have enough to get by; but if the weather stays cold, Lyla's not going to be exhibiting too much variety in her outfits.

I wanted to show this one that she wore on Saturday. It was a gift from her cousin (not sure if either Emily or Allison wore it because you don't really need long sleeves all that much in Texas and Georgia). Anyway, it's girl camouflage. Girly because it has a pink ribbon on the shoulder and says "Cutie" in pink on the front; yet practical... for when you take your baby hunting... which I can't imagine we'll do. But after all, this is Michigan. Anything can happen.

Who wears short shorts? and eats bananas? and is super cute?

Ah, summer. Technically it's spring but the 70+ degree weather has us thinking otherwise. We made summer preparations in order to go to Meijer Sculpture Gardens this weekend, namely Katherine and I wore sunscreen and Lyla wore shorts. I must say, baby-short: utterly pointless, totally cute. -->

Lyla has had quite a week. Many many milestones for the little girl including, well, first time wearing shorts, the first time rolling over (back to front and then back) by herself, the first time stepping on grass, and the first time eating solid food.

Katherine had noticed that Lyla had been eyeing her food lately and had read that that's one of the signs that babies are ready to try solid food. I pointed out that Lyla eyed everything as if she wanted to eat it (a point I demonstrated by holding a credit card in Lyla's reach only to have her grab it and put it in her mouth). Undeterred (or determined to make sure it's real food that Lyla puts in her mouth), Katherine mushed up some banana and fed it to Lyla. Lyla loved it. She even cried when Katherine stopped feeding her.

So on Friday we fed her again (this time with daddy present). Lyla wasn't as excited but she sure did enjoy it. And with two people it was easier to catch it on film:

So, yeah, Lyla's totally cute.

Snow bunny

With Spring so teasingly close, Katherine and I have been getting more and more excited about being able to take Lyla outside. For Lyla's entire life, whenever we've taken her outside, it's been with her in her car seat, under a blanket, under a kind of fleece sleeping bag. Recently, if Lyla's awake when we're going out, she'll try and push the outer cover off of her face. And Katherine and I (being the bad guys) put it back over her head (after all, I'm no expert, but I think sub-20 degree temperatures aren't good for a baby). So warm weather means introducing Lyla to outside, blue skies, green grass, colorful flowers, tall trees... a whole new world.

For Christmas, Lyla received a cute little pink snow outfit, complete with ears and flaps that (when folded up to cover the ands and feet) look like paws. So cute!!! The problem, Lyla was way too tiny for it. The picture below was taken around Christmas, with Lyla sleeping peacefully inside the body of the suit, arms and legs flapping empty at the sides.


Fast forward to the beginning of March and you'll see that Lyla has grown quite a bit. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it isn't enough to fill out the suit yet to be practical. So tune in next winter for some serious one year old cuteness.

One other byproduct of Spring's imminent arrival is that all winter gear is on serious sale. For example, a full on winter coat that I considered buying in November for $60 at Target was on clearance this past week for $7. Now I'm no math wizard, but that's like 7/60th of the original cost. Taking full advantage of fractions, Katherine picked up a snow suit (sized for a one year old) at the local Meijer for some extremely reasonable price.

Lyla got super excited when she saw it, put it on and immediately hit the slopes. Here she is after a long day of snowboarding.