Tearfree!

If you remember, when I posted about the potty rewards, I mentioned that Leah had finally been enjoying bathtime again after a couple months of pure agony. Ha. Not so fast. She quickly began hating it again. Anytime we started the faucet and declared it was time for a bath, Leah burst into tears. When I pressed her on what was wrong, she would tell me the tub was dirty - she'd see a dog hair or a piece of fuzz and it was the end of the world.

Truthfully, I think that was a cover for the real issue: the feeling of having to pee when she saw and/or heard the water rushing. I noticed that she would keep her legs closed tightly, crouch over, and practically do a little dance. Yeah, you know the one. Clearly, this was still an issue.

And when Leah had her three year checkup a couple weeks ago, she FLIPPED OUT. There were no vaccinations that day, nothing seemingly scary or out of the ordinary. But as Leah screamed and cried over the simplest actions (getting her height measured, the nurse sticking a thermometer in her ear to check her temperature, the doctor wanting to look in her ears or listen to her heart), it because obvious that her brief catheter experience at the hospital in December intensely impacted and frightened her. :(

However, for reasons unbeknownst to me, Leah has asked for a bath three nights in a row now and has not shed one tear! Granted, I've sat in the tub with her upon her asking me to, but if that means a calm experience, I'm all for it. I am not sure if something has just clicked in her mind or what, but I'm grateful. One step at a time.

Also, for the last week and a half, Leah has woken up dry every single morning. So, at the very least, I know when she finally does overcome her fear and relax enough to go potty, she will be a rock star. :)

Leah's 3rd Birthday

Leah turned 3 this past Sunday! We had a fun, busy weekend with grandparents, Aunt Laurs, and Uncle Ryan here to celebrate. Leah was her typical bossy self, summoning people to her bedroom to play and telling others they weren't allowed. Truthfully, I think Leah was overwhelmed with so much attention focused solely on her from eight people instead of just Dan & I. Still, she did pretty well considering all the excitement! We were shushed from singing "Happy Birthday" though. ;)

Leah's party theme this year was, of course, The Wiggles. I ordered two Wiggles balloons from Ebay and got a bunch of other latex balloons, streamers, plates, and napkins in the Wiggles' colors: blue, purple, red, and yellow. Originally, we were going to do a Big Red Car cake, but Leah's favorite Wiggles' character is Dorothy the Dinosaur, so we did that instead. I baked it from scratch and decorated it free hand, and I think Leah really enjoyed it.

Dan stayed up late the night before her birthday to put together her kitchen that we gave her. Poor Daddy was so exhausted! Leah was very excited that morning to see it. A big grin spread across her face and she said, "I wanna play!"  Leah received a lot of other awesome gifts: play food and dishes for her kitchen, gardening tools, puzzles, some plush characters (Curious George, Miss Piggy, and Bert from Sesame Street), a see-saw, clothes, and other toys and items that I'm forgetting! We are so thankful that Leah is so well taken care of by her relatives. :)

Another exciting piece to the weekend was the delivery of a new wooden playset for the backyard. Dan & I purchased this with part of our tax refund and it was not necessarily intended to be a birthday gift; just something fun we wanted to do for Leah with the summer ahead of us. But because of the delivery schedule, it ended up being installed last Friday, just in time for her third birthday. So, I suppose she's a little spoiled. Ah well. We love this monkey. :)