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.

Storytime Success

I was so proud of Leah at Storytime today!

Quick background: we've been going to the library for months now. In the beginning, she used to need maybe 10 minutes in my lap to "warm up" before she got excited, stood up, or clapped along with any nursery rhymes. For the past month or so, she had been sitting in my lap for almost all of Storytime and I was starting to wonder if it was worth it to keep going. Then, last Wednesday, she barely sat in my lap for two minutes and was up on her feet, imitating the motions to the nursery rhymes, and jumping/dancing right along with everyone else.

This morning, however, I was SO impressed. Not only did she not want to sit in my lap at all, but she sat a little bit of distance from me. She participated in every single song and had a lot of the moves down pat. I was thrilled! I noticed the librarian and other parents smiling at her and her enthusiasm. She looked like such a big girl, and I was beaming with pride. That's my little monkey. :)

The Pout

This is the face of Leah not getting her way. In the past week, she has become the queen of the pout. Doesn't want to nap? Pout. Warned about throwing toys or going into timeout? Pout. Wants ice cream instead of dinner? Pout. It's rather amusing to Dan & I, really, because we don't fall for it. She hasn't gotten her way once with that face, yet she still tries it. I'll be curious to see how long it lasts. ;)

Little Firecracker

Summer reached its unofficial midpoint this past weekend, and we had a very enjoyable 4th of July. We tried a new park, where a dog diving competition was being held throughout the weekend. It was such a cute event! Leah loved seeing all the doggies and clapping for them as they splashed into the water. As you can tell, she also enjoyed the playground there, climbing like the little monkey she is. ;)

We took Leah to her first fireworks that evening. Instead of going directly to the park where they were set off, we ended up at a nearby medical office complex where we had a good view, yet the booms weren't loud enough to scare Leah. It was perfect. She absolutely loved them, exclaiming, "Pretty!" and calling out various colors. She seemed rather disappointed when they ended and they were all she could talk about the rest of the night. Even as the week has gone on, she mentions the fireworks here and there, so it definitely made a good impression.

Sadly, Leah seems to have given up The Wiggles for Barney again. :P Every once in awhile, she asks for The Wiggles but mostly, it's the dinosaur she wants to watch as she eats her breakfast. Momma & Daddy are a bit sad by this. ;) We decided not to order tickets for The Wiggles this summer. Available seats were at the far end of the arena and with Leah being unable to really see them up close, it didn't seem worth it, at least not at this age.

One interesting trend Momma has noticed is Leah's current obsession with cereal. She's always liked it, but lately, it's just about ALL she wants to eat. Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix, Raisin Bran, Honey Bunches of Oats... you name it, she wants it. What really makes this amusing though, is that Momma craved cereal like a mad woman while she was pregnant. Could not get enough of the stuff. After talking to some mommy friends, apparently this correlation between cravings and favorite foods is quite true among other toddlers too. Ha!

Activities, Meltdowns, and Motherhood (oh my!)

A couple days ago, in order to ward off a post-nap whine fest (which often happens, by the way), I showed Leah the stickers that came with her new Sesame Street coloring book from Grammy. As you can see by the front of her shirt, she loved them. She adorned Momma, a baby doll, and Bolt in stickers as well. If only we had a photo of all of us. ;) A couple things from my own childhood that I would love to introduce Leah to are paint-with-water books and Colorforms. I'm thinking Colorforms are probably a no-show nowadays, but I've heard that I should check Walmart for the paint-with-water books. No luck so far at Target, TRU, and Barnes & Noble.

Speaking of B&N, we left that store in a tizzy today. I allowed Leah to play in the children's section for awhile as I scoped out the activity books. They had a train table and a bunch of little stuffed animals that kept her occupied. The problem came when it was time to leave. In the not too distant past, Leah would return stuffed animals to their proper shelves ("to go sleepies") when asked. I don't know if she was simply tired & cranky today, or if she was just being 2, but boy oh boy, what a meltdown! I had to carry her kicking and screaming from the store to the car because she wanted to leave with more stuffed dogs and cats. Ugh. This is becoming an increasing trend too: major meltdowns in public. At least at home, when she flips out about something or yells because she can't get her way, I can ignore her and not give her the attention that she wants. But in public, I have to deal with her. It's exhausting.

Still, as most children do, Leah makes up for it with moments of cuteness and silliness. A couple nights ago, after playing outside in the hot and sticky air, I told her she could have some ice cream. (Or "cuh cuh", as she calls it.) I opened the freezer and the first carton I pulled out was vanilla. I show Leah and she shakes her head and says, "No cuh cuh." Then, before I can even fully pull it out of the freezer, she spots the Cookies & Cream carton, points, and says, "How 'bout cuh cuh?" The girl knows what she likes, I'll tell ya. Made me laugh. :)

~~~~~~~

I read a book this week regarding motherhood. It's a short book (roughly 80 pages), which began as a letter that a mother wrote to her two young daughters: "Lift" by Kelly Corrigan. During one of Leah's naptimes, I read it cover to cover. I was so affected by it, so emotional. She tries to illustrate to them what life is like now, in the beginning, in the years they won't remember as they grow. This blog, as mundane or as silly as it's been, and not nearly as beautifully written as Corrigan's book, will hopefully be something that we can share with Leah in the future, to capture a little snippet of what her early years were like.

Corrigan wrote, "If John Lennon was right that life is what happens when you're making other plans, parenthood is what happens when everything is flipped over and spilling everywhere and you can't find a towel or a sponge or your "inside" voice." Ah, so true.

But my most favorite passage from the book is this:

"I am your mother, the first mile in your road. Me and all my obvious and hidden limitations. That means that in addition to possibly wrecking you, I have the chance to give to you what was given to me: a decent childhood, more good memories than bad, some values, a sense of tribe, a run at happiness. You can't imagine how seriously I take that - even as I fail you. Mothering you is the first thing of consequence that I have ever done."

Love you, Leah. Terrible twos, meltdowns, and all.