Birthday Weekend

In late June, the whole Henrickson side of the family met in Tennessee for the annual Birthday Weekend Extravaganza. It was made extra extravaganzy because Uncle Mark was going to drive a race car on the Bristol Speedway, the "world's fastest half-mile" or as I like to call it "tiny, loud, death trap". 

It was great fun to see the whole family and get Layla some more time with her grandparents, and great aunts and uncles, and uncle Matt.

the birthday siblings

As you can see, we all have matching hats, as we were Uncle Mark's RACETEAM!!! 

When the guys walked in from "safety training", they were playing "the final countdown". It was pretty epic. 

Uncle Mark did great. We were all very proud. And Layla was actually fine at the race track, which surprised us a little- it was super loud. We had a wonderful weekend with everyone. 

The ride home was a little less fun. Here are Layla's moods as the ride went on:

the pout

One night, Mike and I decided to grill out and were just sitting on our back deck with Layla. She and I were having a nice time, lots of spitting and slobbering and cooing, and all the sudden... this.

We couldn't stop laughing. It was hilarious. This was back in mid-june, so at this point, Layla was just really starting to be ok with tummy time. Mike got some great action shots of the squirt.

We both put the second one on our phones as our backgrounds, and every time I open my phone I start to laugh. We have had so much joy with Layla. At this point, if I am remembering right, Layla was sleeping through the night pretty well. We have established 8pm as her bed time, and she seemed to be ok with it. If she went to bed at 8, she'd get up around 2 and then at about 5, so that worked ok for me and work. 

It was hot hot hot during June, so we went on a lot of evening walks, Layla, Opie and I, to give Mike some alone time. Layla switched around to be front facing in her Bjorn (big girl!!)

well, hello again!

Apologies for the long absence. I went back to work. I don't want to talk about it.

Since my last post (June 2?!!!?) Layla has grown so much! As of today she is 5.5 months old. She is starting to interact more and recognizes both Mike and I. Her eyes are still gigantic and blue. Her hair is still brown, but there are little blonde streaks (hairs) in it. She hasn't developed any stranger anxiety yet, which is great. All the grandparents, except for Bob and Margaret, have been able to see her at least twice, and sometimes more! She is such a loved little girl. She is getting baptized on Sept 29, which will be a wonderful celebration!

I am going to try to go back through the last couple months based on the pictures we have and get updated. Back in June, I got the opportunity to go to my sweet and amazing friend Jordan's bachelorette party. I was so glad to go, but it was in Las Vegas, and I had to leave my sweet baby girl for the first time. Even though she was in excellent hands, with Daddy and Nana K, it was so hard for me to leave her. I cried for a while on the way to the airport, and as soon as I landed, Mike had sent me a bunch of wonderful pictures so I would know everything was ok.

before mommy left. mommy crying more than Layla.

The bachelorette party was wonderful, but I was very happy to be back home with my lovely girl.