So as for the week in review, we had a lot going on. Starting with the Greek Festival in Dallas, a visit to OK City and a trip to the Owen's Family Farm! And I have to apologize in advance for the iPhone photos! I forgot my nice camera the entire week!!! What was I thinking?
On Saturday we went to the Dallas Greek Festival with Carmen, Bao, and the kids.  Luna loved the playground, the music and the yummy food!

On Sunday, Luna's friend Alex came over to play and it was so cute when they both sat down in her chair together! 

On Monday, we both woke up extra early to go to a Missoni photo shoot.  A friend of our neighbor Heather had a free offer to take photos of a girl in their baby Missoni clothes from Target.  So we took her up on her offer and met her out in Rockwall at the Harry Meyers Park.  It was a really neat public park that a lot of photographers use.  Luna really loved it and got into her 'poses.'  Monica did a great job on the pics!!!  If you are interested in booking, email her at [email protected].

Tuesday morning we headed up to the Arboretum for a play date.  We were planning a road trip to OK City that day and I wanted to wear out Luna so she would sleep in the car.

After she ran around the kiddie area and saw the petting zoo, off Todd and I and Luna went to OK City, and she FINALLY fell asleep by 1:30pm, but then she woke up when we pulled into Love's for a break.  I even drove the car around while Todd was inside but I think our dog Chica got too excited and woke her up- oh well, at least she slept for a good 1.5 hours. 

We made it into OK City and Luna was so excited to see her Aunt Heather, Uncle Rey, Cousin Carolyn and Rey, Jr. And what did I do again? Forgot my camera!! So we sadly don't have any family pics :(  We did end up going to their super nice country club for dinner and sat outside on the golf course.  Luna ate the most I have ever seen her eat, maybe because it was a buffet.  She also kept batting her eyes at her 12 year old cousin Rey.  So cute!

The next day we went to my grandparent's house to see Momo and Popo.  I forgot my camera of course, but then remembered to get my iPhone as Luna watched her great grandfather play the piano for her.

We had to wake up bright and early on Thursday since Todd had to get back to work.  We made it in just in time for Luna to take a nap.  After her nap, we headed out to her friend Caroline's house for the last sun in the fun day.  She had her sprinklers and baby pools out and Luna got to wear her swimsuit one last time for the summer!

Today we ventured up to the Owen's Family Farm- you know, the sausage company?  They have a Fall Festival with pumpkins, goats, cows, and hay rides.  Luna LOVED the animals and got a lot of licks from the goats.  She also enjoyed the hay ride with all of her friends: Ella, Alex, Jack, Tessa, Addison, Zoe, Alejandro and Emerson.

After Luna's afternoon nap, our neighbor Delaney invited us over to finger paint with Jillian and then Heather and Jack came down to play too.  They loved getting dirty!  Thanks for having us over Jillian :) 

Tomorrow is our Lake Highlands Oktoberfest!  We can't wait. Kubys is catering, as well as The Grape, Upper Crust, Fat Daddy's, etc.

As most of you know, we moved into our house a year and a half ago when I was 8 months pregnant. And the kitchen was remodeled but the oven was still the original 1958 oven (pale pink but painted black by previous owners). We figured we would just replace it soon. But we didn't realize all of the carpentry work that would be needed or having to find a non-standard sized 24 inch oven- and wall ovens are not cheap! 

So after several contractors, bids and ideas, we finally got the oven, as a birthday and Christmas gift from my dad and Sherry too, so we were overjoyed! AND we also got a great contractor referral from a neighborhood friend Erin!

Basically we had to add a space above for our microwave and we had to go with a counter one vs. a wall one (cheaper and more practical) and so they moved the oven lower, added a drawer at the bottom and a cabinet above for storage! We are sooo excited

Here are the befores:

And here are the afters:

So, as you know I am still trying to enter contests to win things to simplify my life.  Right now, I am entering one about Moby here.  It's on a blog I read called Between the Lines, and she is giving away........an iPad 2!  Just sign up for the app Moby to be entered.  Moby is a free app that is like a GPS system for families to check in and let each other know where they are and is especially good for teenagers!  Crossing my fingers that I win because an iPad would make my life with Luna so much easier than using my Laptop to blog!  Just check out her sweet face:

Luna turned 16 months on Sept. 13th.  As usual, each month she turns older, I can't believe it. It flies by!

Normally I post all of her updates each month, but this month, she has grown so much it's hard to keep up and post. One day she isn't doing something and the next day she is!  For example, we have rubbed California  baby lotion on her body after bath ever since she was a newborn.  And today? She reached for the lotion, pushed the pump dispenser and rubbed it all over her belly.  So cute!

Here are just a few of the cute things she is doing and updates:
Verbal: New words are 'honey', 'Luna' and signing 'thank you' now

Social: She is still very social, trying to catch stranger's attention but is also now very clingy. She is going through the separation anxiety phase for sure!

Food: Still loves her avocado, cheese, turkey, yo baby yogurt and black beans. She now likes Red Kidney beans. We ate at Cane Rosso the other night and she just loved their pizza!  She is now liking corn more too, but still a pea favorite. 

She is now drinking milk but the Horizon Vanilla kind or the Almond Milk mixed with 2 %.  I am trying to go down to 2 breastfeedings a day, one in the morning and one at night, but still feeds in the middle of the night, so I make sure she goes at least 6-8 hours between feedings during the day.

Sleep: She is sleeping from 7-7:30pm each night and wakes up once to nurse. Ugh.  Still trying to get rid of that one, but the cry it out is just not happening, she screams bloody murder.  And she naps once a day from 12-3pm.

The big milestone this month is that Luna is in Mom's Day Out. As you saw in my previous post. She's been twice and so far is doing well, although I pick her up early at 12pm before nap time so she can sleep at home.  Plus I have noticed she is extra clingy that afternoon and the day after, so I am still going to slowly transition to her staying there during nap time.

We also started Kindermusik again on Thursdays and love it!!  This semester the lesson is on birds and Fall. 

There is so much she is doing now, so keep checking back for all of her new cute updates :)

My mom, aka Coco, babysat for us Friday night so Todd and I could have a night out on the town.  We decided to go to one of our favorite's Nick and Sam's Grill and sit out on the patio for a nice evening.  The weather was perfect and the food was as good as always, except they changed the menu and raised the prices! Darn recession. But their prices are still cheap. Nothing on the menu is over 20$.

Have any of you ever entered a Blog Giveaway? They are now the latest thing as vendors will send merchandise to bloggers to review and then they are able to give them away. It's a chance for people to learn about new products, but also for bloggers to get major traffic. I have yet to make it to the big time on this blog or my counselormom blog, to have a giveaway, but I just had to mention that I won my FIRST blog giveaway!!! I have been entering for things I really want/need like a new stroller, iPads, toys, clothes, and most recently, one for school labels.  And I WON! I won a 50$ gift pack to Mabel's Labels for Luna's Mother's Day Out. I was soo excited. They are washable labels for her clothes, lunchbox, food trays, and anything she basically takes to school. Even a label for her shoes!

I was getting a little annoyed at all of the giveaways I was entering and not winning a single thing, like even a 5$ Starbucks card, and was beginning to think they were rigged and the bloggers were keeping the stuff for themselves or giving it to friends :)  But then I won something I really needed, so now I am entering even more! It's a lot of work tweeting them daily and posting their blogs on my FB wall for exposure, but hopefully it will pay off in the end!

Right now I am wanting to win one of those Keurig Coffee makers because my lovely fancy Cuisinart one that grinds the beans for you, is just taking too much time in the mornings with Luna- cleaning out the grind container, cleaning the pot, filling it with water, cleaning the filter, etc. The Keurig is just popping it in and that's it- and for 1 cup, just what i need. 
If you are interested, here is the link of where to enter: http://www.betweenthelines-kel.com/2011/08/keurig-travel-brewer-giveaway-from-one.html

Yesterday was Luna's first day of Mother's Day Out at CCDC (Christian Child Development Center) at Lake Highlands United Methodist Church.  After Luna was born, I had heard great things about this preschool and that it was hard to get into so I needed to enroll my child as soon as possible in their Mother's Day Out program.  So we went to the orientation 'waiting list' information seminar back in January and got on the wait list. Luckily Luna got in because of her birthday!! So we picked Wednesdays as her day, although they do offer 2 day a week Mom's Day Out.  Most of her friends did not get in :(  But we decided to go ahead and enroll her there since it would be harder to get in later for preschool.

BUT, I had my reservations about putting her in a MDO because I have been having so much fun with her, and in just a few years, she will be sucked into the mandatory school system for the next, oh, 18 years, so why rush, right?  But I know it's good for her because I have yet to put her in any church nursery, gym daycare, or other childcare setting yet, and she needs to learn to be away from me for a few hours.  What I didn't realize is that this MDO is from 9-2:30pm and as most moms were happy about the 5.5 hours of free time to get stuff done, I was still not wanting her to be gone for so long at 15 months old. 

We had Meet the Teacher last week and her 2 teachers are Mrs. Jennifer and Mrs. Chris.  They are both very enthusiastic and love children, have been in Lake Highlands since the 1970's and have teenage children of their own.  Luna warmed up to the room and did not want to leave, so that was a good sign!

So when Todd and I dropped her off on Wednesday morning, she was glad to see her friend Clay as they are going to be in the same class together!!  His mom Erin, is a friend of mine in our playgroup and we hope our littles will keep each other company during the day.

When we got up to the teacher Luna looked at all the toys and actually reached for Mrs. Jennifer!  What a relief that was, and Luna was happy and did not cry. I told her I loved her and I would be back to pick her up very soon.  Todd said she was off playing already and snapped a quick picture of her as we left. 

Her schedule is play time from 9-9:30am. Snack at 9:30am and then they will go outside, sing songs, read stories and then will have lunch at 11:30am.  We bring their lunches packed in their backpacks, as well as a change of clothes, diapers, sippy cups and a nap mat.  I asked to pick Luna up at 12pm before nap and the teachers were okay with that. Whew!  If they weren't going to approve that, I don't know what I was going to do! 

When we went back, we met with the director to introduce ourselves as she is new this year and she walked with us to Luna's room.  Apparently the lights were already off and the little ones were going to sleep already. The teacher brought Luna out to us and she was clutching her little blankie and reached out for me.  No tears though, so that's good. The teacher said Luna must have known we were coming because she refused to lay down on the cot. Ha!  I was wondering how on earth they were going to lay down on a cot after sleeping in a crib for so long.  I felt so much better that she had a good day and feel a little better about dropping her off again. Hopefully she will go back next week and be all happy again when we drop her off, and doesn't start realizing that CCDC means 'away from mommy' day :)

Here is the lunch I packed for her first day: Pimento cheese sandwich, peas, black beans, blueberries and strawberries.

Here is Luna getting ready for school.  She really wanted to wear her backpack, so cute!!

The Drop Off!  We allowed Luna her paci today too because it was a special day.  And I was planning on going to the gym after I dropped her off, hence the no make-up in the photo. I was thinking I could run over to the gym real quick in case Luna had a meltdown and they needed to call me and pick her up.  But luckily I never got the phone call :)

This post is full of pics as I just kind of grouped everything together but saved the best for last- Luna feeding her baby doll via video. 

This past Friday we met our play date friends, Luna's BFF's at Ikea for breakfast and some shopping.  Luna went home with a new Easel, a tunnel and some frames for her artwork she made this past summer in art class.  Her mom also brought home some kitchen goods too :)

This weekend we went over to Luna's friend Mila's house to see Aunt Carmen and Uncle Mish.  We were so amazed that she is now 6 months old and has grown so much!  She is such a cutie!

Saturday night we headed out to Dough Pizzeria for dinner, one of the 3 in Texas that is certified from Naples, Italy.  The food was pretty good and fresh, but the prices were a little high. 20$ for a cheese pizza, and the size was small too!  We met our friends Heather and Brian and Luna's friend Jack.  They had a great time playing with the dough as we waited 45 minutes for our pizzas.  She was like, 'what is this play dough stuff doing at a restaurant?'

Oh and guess what finally came in the mail over the weekend?  Her Pottery Barn chair!  She just loves this chair and climbs all over it, grabs her books and brings them to the chair to read. Just adorable!!

On Monday, my mom and sister came over for a visit and Luna had a great time dancing and singing with them.

Today we made it to a really cool story time at It's A Grind downtown. I had my iPhone so the photos are not good, but it was a full hour of story time, singing songs and playing with play dough!  And they closed off this room for us to use so they could all run around.  The story teller was very good too, she was one of those old fashioned kind that can tell a story without a book and the children were super impressed with her story skills!

This afternoon we headed out to the park to meet Caden and Alejandro.  Yes, we made it to a park!! The first in 3 months!!  Going to the park is a whole new experience now that she is walking.  And it was so nice outside, we hope this weather lasts for a long time!

The best for last.  Luna feeding her baby doll, she is now doing pretend play and it's so cute! 
And tomorrow Luna is off to her first day of school at MDO. I am not ready for her to go off to school yet:(  She is just still too young to me an I am not ready to let her go. I am already planning on picking her up early before nap.  I'll update you all and post about it tomorrow.

Luna has loved walking around with her baby doll lately.  She even wanted to take a bath with it so in she came. Luna even helped wash her doll with her washcloth too.  So today I decided to venture out to get her a stroller and doll bottles and shoes.  She LOVES the baby shoes and has to have them on her feet at all time.  Here's a video of Luna trying to figure out her new stroller!  Oh and please excuse the commentary from me :)