You talkin' to me?

Leah's always been a chatterbox, even with her baby babble, though it seems like her language has had another explosion in the past week or so. She is constantly imitating words and phrases from us or from movies she's watching. She's trying to sing a lot more songs now too - she impressed me by singing a verse from "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush" in Target yesterday, all in the correct rhythm and doing The Wiggles' hand motions as she sang.

Her most used phrases lately include:

"Look at me!" - usually said with her blankie over her head
"Funny guy/Daddy/Popel/Leah!" - everyone is funny these days
"Ice cream? Ice cream goooood!" - no longer calling it "cuh cuh"
"Come on!" - she uses this to help call the dogs or to keep Momma from browsing in Target ;)
"Eye you." (Love you.) - She's been saying this every time we hug. It's the best.

I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting. But she's definitely using more and more "real" words instead of baby babble and talking in lots of sentences, which is exciting.

Little Traveler

As most of you know, Leah is quite the excellent traveler! She & Momma drove up to Pennsylvania last week and then returned this past Tuesday. She behaved extremely well in the car, especially on the ride up when the portable DVD player wouldn't work for more than a few miles. Instead, we listened to six Wiggles songs over and over, sang nursery rhymes, said silly things, and Leah looked at books, babbled to her animals, and napped. Momma was so impressed and so grateful. Thankfully, a new DVD player performed perfectly well on the journey home, allowing us to shave an extra hour off our original trip.

During our visit, Leah spent several evenings in Grammy's pool, once again explored her Uncle Ryan's toybox, visited with Popel & Grandma, played in three different parks, made everyone watch "Bolt", ate lots of goodies, and showed extreme pride and satisfaction in garnering applause from extended family after knocking a stuffed dog on the ground and shouting, "Ta da!"  Looks like we might have a little actress on our hands. ;)

We also got to meet another mom & toddler (Rachel & Ethan) from Momma's message board for April '08 kids. It was a blast! Ethan is the sweetest little boy, so willing to share his toys and to play with anyone. Leah gets a little upset when anyone invades her personal bubble so she freaked a little bit when Ethan followed her into a playhouse. When we told Daddy about this, he said with pride, "Ah, that's my girl!" Silly. Still, I think the kids had a good time together overall, and Momma definitely enjoyed it.

We had a great trip and we hope to be able to do it again in the near future. :)

Leah's Cast of Characters

This group of mutts is what I like to call "The Usual Suspects". From left to right, they are, in Leah's words: Funny Doggy, Bolt, Little Doggy, Big Doggy, and Kitty. Leah must have at least one (but usually more) of these animals with her at all times. They come with us to Kroger, the library, heck, any old car ride really. Sometimes, a baby doll (or two or three!) gets thrown into the mix as well as a random teddy bear. Some days, she's very attached to a certain one or two, and then her preferences change again the next day. But these five animals definitely seem to be the favorites. And at bedtime, you better make sure they are ALL in the crib with Leah, lest you want to incur her wrath. ;)

The following is Leah singing with the end of "Bolt". She knows when it's coming, so you may notice she sings before the last line actually begins, and stops before the singer does. Still, you get the idea. :) She's very big on imitating various songs, dance moves, and scenes from her favorite movies lately, so I hope to catch more on video.