Leah Update

Recently, Leah has become quite the little ham.  She just learned a new trick: Saying "Please!".  Peanut will scrunch up her face and give a cheesy grin, and say "Peese" in a funny, nasal voice that makes us all giggle.  Click HERE for a cute video of our little girl saying please!:

At 17 months, Leah:

 -Runs around everywhere and gets into everything.  If we forget to close a door or baby gate, we find Leah splashing around in the toilet bowl water, placing anything that she can find in the garbage can, attempting to walk down the stairs by herself, or raiding the pantry for snacks.  I (almost) forgot the constant close supervision that this exploratory age requires and how I collapse into bed each night after such busy days chasing a toddler on the move!

Sharing her stolen loot with Winnie.

Look at that mischievous face!

-Is clingy and attached to Mommy.  She's very sweet and cuddly, but usually does not want to be put down when I need to make dinner or do some other crucial 2-handed task.  At the same time, Leah is exploring her independence and no longer wants to stay in her stroller or the grocery cart.  She is very interested in walking and "helping" me on all errands and excursions.  Thankfully, she's still very laid back and is easily distracted, and is an extremely easy child overall, but often does not like being confined in her car seat, which should make our upcoming summer travels interesting. 

-Has had a recent language explosion.  She understands everything that we say and can follow multi-step directions like, "Find your shoes and bring them to Mommy."  Leah can make lots of animal sounds when asked: "What does a (insert farm/zoo animal of choice) say?"  Her current favorite noises to make are: monkey, elephant, cow, sheep, horse, dog, bear, and monkey.  My favorite is tiger/lion.  Peanut proudly declares, "ROAR!" in the tiniest, cutest, non-scary voice.

-Loves pointing to body parts (nose, eyes, ears, hair, hands, fingers, toes, feet, and belly) and adores her baby dolls.  She says, "Baby" very clearly, and kisses and hugs her dolls very sweetly.  She pretends to talk on the phone, and likes to brush her own hair.  What a girly girl!

-Wags her finger at Luke when he has to go to time-out.  We sing an "Uh-Oh" song when Luke misbehaves (a Love and Logic discipline technique that really works for our little man), and now Leah echoes us, repeating "Uh Oh" in a sing songy voice.  She looks just like a little Mommy, waving that chubby little finger at her brother.  It's very hard to be a strict disciplinarian and keep a straight face with this adorable-ness happening at the same time. 

-Has all of her teeth except her 2 year molars, and her hair is long enough (at last) to use those tiny little baby bows.  She's been wearing lots of adorable sundresses and bubbles lately, and I can't wait for her first ponytail/pigtails someday soon!  Leah loves her sparkly shoes and wears them over her footie pajamas, which is quite fashionable, we think:

-Is weaned from breastfeeding and is finally drinking enough milk out of a cup daily that I am no longer worried about her hydration/nutritional intake.  It was a long 16 months, but we did it with no formula or bottles!  Hooray!

-Is a fruit monster and devours every possible fruit known to man.  Her other favorite foods are diced squash and sweet potato, and any type of bread/bagel/pasta.  She's a carbo-holic like her parents and brother, and ate 4 pancakes for breakfast yesterday.  Leah still refuses to keep a bib on, so she usually dines naked which makes for an easy clean up as we take her straight to the bathtub after dinner. 

-Seems to be getting very tall and lean lately.  I'm holding on to those last baby rolls (she has one deep thigh crease remaining in each leg that is absolutely delicious), but they won't be here for long.  She has transitioned from 2 naps/day to one nap (R.I.P. 2nd nap- I miss you!), and we are working on having that nap occur later than Leah's desired time of 10:00 or 10:30 a.m.   Right now, with both kids at home every day in the summer, our ability to go places in the morning is limited when Leah naps so early and it also makes for a really long afternoon when she's up by lunchtime.  So we're trying to delay this nap until after lunch and get on more of a set schedule, which hopefully will happen soon.        

-And speaking of sleeping, we have big news!  (Drumroll please....)  Peanut is FINALLY sleeping through the night consistently.  We still have a night every once in a while where Leah will have her marathon crying session for several hours in the middle of the night, but for the most part, I think we have gotten through the worst.  I'm still so envious of people who tell me that their infants sleep through the night after just a few weeks or months, since both of my children were such terrible sleepers for so long.  But our newfound nighttime rest has been life changing this month, and since I also just reintroduced caffeine into my diet after a 6 year break, I'm feeling like I have enough energy to take on anything! 

Our sweet girl loves blowing kisses, waving (with quite a Diamond Jubilee/regal flair), and is so affectionate and loving.  She adds so much "cuteness" to our days, and we are enjoying her immensely at this fun age.  Oh, how we love her so!