Sweet Potato

 

Our little Sweet Potato, Leah, has had quite an eventful week.  On Friday, she underwent a procedure to determine the cause of her raspy, hoarse voice and she had to have general anesthesia.  Although I was extremely anxious leading up to Leah's surgery, she had no idea that it was happening, and I was very thankful for that.  All went well with Leah's procedure, and she was completely unphased by the anesthesia.  She played and acted normally all day afterward, despite the doctor warning me that she may be sleepy and disoriented.  We are relieved that Leah's procedure is over now, and that we have some answers to our questions about her voice.   

 

You can see in the above picture that Leah is becoming quite a girly-girl.  She refers to her jewelry as her "pretties" and is a little drama queen at times.  In fact, earlier this week she decided to have a temper tantrum while she was wearing her sparkly shoes and necklaces.  She paused in mid-cry, looked up to see if anyone was paying attention to her antics, and I told her, "I can't take you seriously while you look like such a diva..."  

 

While Leah is always girly, sweet, and loving, she can also be tough!  Some of her favorite toys are her brother's 'struction vehicles and cars, and this picture says it all.  Here is my pink girl wearing a construction hat and playing happily with a race car ramp.  She is the only girl in her Kindermusik class again this semester, and can hang with the boys with no problem!

 

Leah has recently had one of those phases where she has literally changed overnight.  I remember these stages with Luke, where you put your toddler to bed at night, and when you get them in the morning, you notice a visible growth and change.  Leah looks like such a big girl now, and although she will be 21 months this week, I continue to think of and refer to her as an 18-month old (to preserve any part of her baby-hood that I can).  Thinking that Leah will turn 2 soon is overwhelming to me!  She is talking very clearly in sentences, has a word and label for everything, and some very cute nicknames for things.  She calls herself "Yee-Yee", (because we often call her Lee-Lee), loves Minnie Mouse, and has started to be interested in Elmo. 

A few months ago, I saw that Sesame Street Live was coming to Greenville this weekend, and remembered how much fun I had going with Luke last fall.  I was hesitant to pay lots of $ to buy tickets this year, because I wasn't sure if Leah was old enough to be able to sit through the show, and also wondered if Luke had outgrown his Sesame Street days.  However, thanks to winning a free Family 4-pack of tickets, we had the opportunity to go yesterday, and it was wonderful.    It was adorable to see how excited Leah was to see Elmo and his friends live and in person, and she happily posed for pictures in the Play Zone at Sesame Street Live before the show:

 

 

Leah's favorite person continues to be "Bubba".  When we drop Luke off at preschool in the mornings, Leah cries for her brother and wants him to stay with us.  I thought she'd be so excited to have some 1:1 time with Mommy, but she asks me repeatedly each day, "Bubba, School?"  and I have to reassure her that we will pick him up soon!

 

True to her sweet, affectionate personality, Leah snuggles up next to her big brother, plays with his hair, and loves him to pieces.  Here she is, watching Saturday morning cartoons with her favorite guy:

 

 Leah and I are doing some fun things together in the mornings while Luke is at school.  We've gone to the zoo, the park, jumping places, and have done some shopping, shopping, and more shopping!  Here she is, enjoying a picnic with Mommy on the back porch:

Leah is starting to enjoy drawing and paint with water pictures, too, and this gives me hope that I may have a child who enjoys crafts in the future:

What a fun age my little Sweet Potato is right now, full of love and joy and smiles!