Pumpkin Time!

Last weekend, we visited the pumpkin patch! Leah had such a blast walking around, trudging through the vines, picking up the smaller pumpkins, and taking a ride in the wheelbarrow courtesy of Daddy. We ended bringing home three larger pumpkins to carve, two little ones that Leah wanted to paint, and a jar of apple butter. Yum.

We spent Saturday evening cleaning out the seeds and pumpkin guts from the ones we wanted to carve. Leah dug her hands right in to help out just as she did last year. She seemed to enjoy squishing it all through her fingers.

These are our final products:

Momma carved the traditional jack-o-lantern face as well as what is supposed to be an owl on the far right. Daddy carved Stitch on that middle pumpkin, and Leah painted the small ones yellow and red. :)

Autumn Activities

Autumn is here! Well, somewhat. We're still wearing sandals and t-shirts here in the South, but the summer humidity is gone and has been replaced by lovely breezes. And though it gets warm in the afternoon, our mornings and evenings are cool and relatively crisp. October is my favorite month here!

Naturally, we're spending a lot more time outside. Leah loves walking through the yard with her hunny pot collecting acorns, pinecones, and leaves. She gets very focused on her work, as you can see. Leah is such an outdoorsy girl and loves tramping through our wooded areas and exploring.

We've also been doing a LOT of chalk drawings on the driveway. Leah's abilities are always improving and lately, she's very interested in drawing faces or people. Or, if I draw something like a jack-o-lantern, she'll come up and add some arms and legs to him. She even added a face to the rainbow I drew last night. Super cute!

Sweet Ballerina

Time to get caught up; it's been nearly a month since I last posted.  What's new?

• Leah is potty trained! She hasn't had an accident since August 22nd. Woo! She still asks for and uses a pullup for, ahem, #2, but I'm fine with that for the time being. I've heard from several other moms that it can take awhile to get comfortable with that. No worries.
• We were supposed to begin the next round of her parent/tot dance class tomorrow, but apparently, not enough people signed up for the weekday slot. Fortunately, a Saturday class starts next month, so we're all signed up for that one.
• Leah is in love with the dress-up tutu she found in her closet last week, as you can see from the photo. She's worn it every single day since Friday, even if only for an hour. She calls it "my ballet" and insists she can put it on herself. :)
• She is becoming more and more of a Disney fan, working her way through the Disney princesses and discovering Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and the gang thanks to Dan's collection of all the old cartoons from the 1930s. Leah's current favorite is Snow White (though we skip through several scary scenes), but she also dearly loves Cinderella, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and of course, Rapunzel from Tangled. Mulan was another recent favorite in our house too.

All Aboard

This past Sunday, Leah was treated to a choo-choo ride at the mall, celebrating five days in a row of using the potty!

After the initial potty success that I posted about, Leah seemed to backtrack a little and wanted nothing to do with the potty for the next week. Then, last Wednesday evening, we sat with her in her room for close to two hours, near the potty, playing, talking, tickling, running water, anything. We finally succeeded in making her laugh so hard (at a somewhat inappropriate word!) that she relaxed and peed on the potty again. That began our five-day stretch of using the potty at least once per day!

Monday was a no-go, but for the last two days, Leah has used the potty twice each day, which is an improvement! For now, the trick seems to be recognizing when she has to go and making it to the potty on time, which I know will get better with time. I am just SO thrilled she is using the potty at all. She wants to wear underwear all the time and only asks for a pullup when she has go #2. It is wonderful! I have been looking forward to this for months and I'm so glad we're finally at this point.

For the record, the Pez dispensers have all been cashed in and some have since been refilled. ;) Woo hoo!

Potty Success!!!

Last night was a BIG night in our house: Leah peed on the potty for the first time! WOO!!!!

If you've kept up with our blog, you know that this is a huge milestone after all of Leah's potty fear after her UTI. For months upon months, we have suggested and encouraged her to sit on the potty, though nothing would happen. We allowed her to follow us to the bathroom whenever she wanted, so she could see it wasn't scary. We bought a bunch of Pez dispensers as incentive, which have sat untouched on top of the bathroom shelf since winter. We promised her rides on the choo-choo train at the mail. I bought special Pixar character underwear. I've tried to bribe her with every sweet imaginable - cake, cookies, ice cream, lollipops. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Until last night. :D

Dan asked her if she wore any underwear yesterday, to which she replied no. I told him I suggested just sitting on the potty a couple times and she had refused. We both just sighed and shrugged. I decided to try again. I sat in the bathroom with Leah for a little bit, but again, nothing happened. However, she decided she didn't want to put her pullup back on, nor did she want underwear. Just her shorts. OK, whatever. We went outside to play and on a whim, I brought the potty out there with us.

After a short time, I asked if she could sit on the potty again for a few minutes before she chased a ball with Dan. While she sat there and Dan chatted with her, I walked over to her water table and began pouring water from one cup into another to make that trickling sound, trying to trigger something! Soon after she noticed this, she said she wanted me to pour some water on her. I poured it on her hands and feet. Then, she wanted the cup herself and began dumping it all over her body - all while sitting on the potty. It was hot, so Dan took the dogs inside during this. Soon, the water table was just about empty and Leah asked for more water.

I figured, Oooh, maybe the sound of the water filling the table will do it, so I went to grab the hose. It was kinked up and as I finally got it untangled, some warm water that had been sitting in the hose dribbled out, partly on Leah. Then, I hear, "Momma! Momma!" in the tone of voice that usually means she has to pee. I ran over to her and made sure she stayed seated on the potty and sure enough, SHE WAS PEEING IN IT!!!!

I exclaimed, "Leah! You're doing it! You're peeing in the potty!"

As soon as she was done, I went crazy cheering and clapping and giving her TONS of praise. She got a huge grin on her face, got up and looked in the potty, and told me she wanted to show Daddy. So, we ran in the house and got Dan and we had a mini cheering section going on! We immediately told her she could have some candy and remembering the Pez, she told us exactly which one she wanted. :)

I am so relieved. I know this is only the first step, but this is a HUGE one. She wanted to wear underwear to bed, which was fine with me because she wakes up dry nearly everyday. I was hoping to get her to pee on the potty first thing this morning, but unfortunately, we had a couple accidents. No big deal, though. I am going to spend the next few days encouraging her to sit on the potty every so often and hopefully, we can repeat this success and get her trained. I just feel ten times better knowing that the big hurdle of the first time is done! We will get there!

Letters Everywhere!

For the last couple months, we've been working on letters with Leah. We write them with chalk, we play with the magnetic letters on her easel, we play with an electronic Sesame Street letter game, or we sometimes watch Leapfrog's Letter Factory. She is doing so well! Lately, she loves when I write a letter and ask her what it is, or similarly, ask her to point to a particular letter on the Sesame Street toy. She clearly loves the praise when she's correct and is proud of her accomplishments.

There are only a few letters (N, V, Z) that stump her. I found that one of the best ways for her to remember her letters is to give her a familiar word or person/dog she knows that she can associate with it, such as C is for Cookie or H is for Hud. So, if anyone has any fun suggestions for N or V, let me know! I'm trying zoo/zebra for Z.

The other thing I really love about her interest in letters is that she notices them everywhere now. On storefronts, on posters at the library, on someone's shirt, etc. Last summer, she did the same with her colors. She pointed out various ones she saw, which gave her a lot of practice and helped her master them. It's really awesome to see her doing the same with the alphabet.

Wiggly Party & Winnie the Pooh

Last Tuesday, we took Leah to see The Wiggles perform in Atlanta! We all had so much fun. Dan took the day off of work and we went to their 2:30 show. From watching The Wiggles' live concert DVD, along with info from friends, we learned that many kids bring roses for Dorothy the Dinosaur (Dorothy's favorite thing in the world) and bones for Wags the Dog. Naturally, we decided we must do the same. ;)

When we arrived at the theater, Leah was a bit apprehensive. For the couple days before the show, I believe she thought she was going to meet The Wiggles; she told us who she wanted to hug when we saw them. So, I think as we walked inside, she expected them to be right there waiting. We checked out the merchandise table, where Leah decided on a plush red guitar with the line, "Play your guitar with Murray" embroidered on the strap.

Our seats for the show were amazing - 5th row! Again, Leah got a bit nervous as each Wiggle came out onstage. I pulled her onto my lap, started singing along with the songs, and pointed various things out to her and within no time, she relaxed. She did a few dance moves to various songs and overall really enjoyed the show. I was so glad!

Truth be told, I had an excellent time as well. I've enjoyed watching The Wiggles on DVD or YouTube with Leah and was really looking forward to the show myself. They are so talented and put on such a fun show for kids and parents alike. I think I snapped a gazillion pictures!

This past week held another new experience: Leah's first movie in a theater. We took her to see Winnie the Pooh! She really did great. When the previews began, and a few were super loud and intense, I noticed that she grabbed Dan's arm and was a little freaked out. Then, when the lights dimmed way down for the start of the movie, she came and sat in my lap again and remained there for the duration of the movie. About halfway through, she asked me if we could turn on the lights. ;) Other than that, she seemed to enjoy the movie and was so excited as each character appeared onscreen. Once we got home, she immediately gathered up all her Pooh stuffed animals to play!