I Can Do It Myself

This seems to be Leah's three year old mantra: "I can do it myself." She is very independent and tries her best to be self-sufficient. When we change into pajamas at bedtime, she wants to be the one to take off her clothes. If we're playing outside and she wants her sidewalk chalk, she'll go back inside and get it on her own. When we come inside, she refuses any help to take off her shoes. As long as her cup is on a shelf inside the fridge that she can reach, well, she can get it herself. And so on. It's really rather nice!

Leah is becoming a great helper as well. When she sees me unloading the dishwasher, she always comes over, grabs the utensils, and neatly puts them away in the drawer. She'll also set her plates, bowls, and cups on the counter. One day, a couple weeks ago, I shook out our small kitchen rug before washing it. Before I could sweep up the dirt that had fallen out, Leah grabbed her own broom and told me, "I can do it. You don't sweep." When she was done, she even grabbed her little dustpan and threw all the dirt in the trash! I could get used to this!

At the Sandcastle

A couple months ago, Dan & I were still figuring out what we should do for Halloween. Did we want to trick-or-treat in town (as we ended up doing), go to a church's trunk-or-treat, go the library for their activities? I told him that a friend of mine from my mommy board was going with her family to Disney World right around Halloween because apparently, they do a trick-or-treat type of event right in Magic Kingdom. We were curious, so we looked it up on their website. And yep, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is held on select nights throughout September and October. It sounds spectacularly fun and age-appropriate for Leah...

So, that is what we're planning to do next Halloween. :D

However, we may have made the mistake of already telling Leah this. Naturally, she was curious about what we were looking at on the computer since we seemed rather excited by the whole thing. So, we showed her some pictures of Disney World, telling her it was "Mickey's House", and showed her Cinderella's castle. We told her we'd like to go there sometime, where we could see so many of the characters she knows and loves from her favorite movies.

And now, every single day, she talks about who we're going to see "at the sandcastle" (because, yes, ever since going to the beach, every castle is a sandcastle!). Here's a sampling of what we hear regularly:

• "Are Bolt, kitty Mittens, and Rhino going to be at the sandcastle?"
• "I want to hug Cinderella and Snow White."
• "I want to sit next to Miss Piggy."
• "The Wiggles won't be at the sandcastle. They're at their house."
• "I don't want to see the mean ones, just the nice ones." (the mean ones are the villians - Scar, Jafar, the Wicked Queen, and so on)
• "Simba, Pumba, and the meerkat - they'll be at the sandcastle?"
• "Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder - they'll be at the sandcastle?"
• "Woody, Buzz, and Jessie - they'll be at the sandcastle? And Rex and Slinky Dog and..."

You get the picture, I'm sure. ;)  Whenever we put on a different movie or she remembers a different character, she asks about whether or not they'll be there and tells us if she wants to hug them or sit next to them. It's awesome she's so excited (and frankly, so are we!) yet it's obviously difficult to convey to her that it's going to be a loooooong time until we go. It may be a long year...

...but on the plus side, when I asked Leah if I could hug Flynn Ryder, she said yes. ;)

Family Art

Oooh, posting two days in a row. ;)

Like I mentioned last month, Leah's drawings are getting better and better. Lately, she is all about drawing faces, people, and animals. I think we sit outside with the sidewalk chalk nearly everyday, unless it's raining. Dan and I usually draw too, as have other relatives when they come to visit. I tend to repeat the same objects - flowers, birds, trees - and I can sometimes sketch a decent drawing of an object that is in front of me. Dan is much more creative and artistic, able to draw various Disney characters and objects from memory.

This is best illustrated with pictures.

Here are a couple of Leah's recent drawings, a smiley face (which looks like it's in a lightbulb!):

and what she described to me as "a bear with sneakers":

Cute, right? :)

Here is a sketch I did of Mickey Mouse, while looking at a toy that Leah brought outside:

And here is Dan's drawing, from memory with NO visual aids, of The Little Mermaid:

What a show-off. ;)

The Fairest of Them All

We had a really nice Halloween yesterday! As you can see, Leah dressed up as Snow White this year. Over the last month or two, she's been working her way through many of the classic Disney movies and really loves the princesses. So, it became inevitable that she would choose one for her Halloween costume. After looking through a few ads and going to the store, Snow White was the clear winner in her eyes. The sunglasses give her a modern twist, yeah?

Yesterday's trick-or-treating was the best one we've had yet. Since our neighborhood is too spread out and rural for traditional trick-or-treating, we went to a small town just north of us (same place that Leah's dance class is held). They do a trick-or-treat the local businesses type of event. It was more crowded than I expected, though it was very organized, with local police directing traffic and guiding all of the kids & parents in a clockwise direction for a decent flow. Such a pleasant experience compared to the high-end neighborhood we visited in the past. I also liked that it was held from 4-6pm, before it gets dark (which is great for young children) and before all the teenagers really come out. Then, we could relax at home for the rest of the evening!