Leah currently weighs 24 pounds and is 33 inches tall. She is still wearing size three diapers (which are starting to get snug). She wears mostly 12-18 month clothes and size 4-5 shoes.
Leah's communication has made progress, even though she isn't really saying any new words regularly. She has become more verbal lately by starting to babble more and use nonsensical words. She uses "bye, bye!" frequently - after she uses the potty and is flushing it, whenever we're leaving somewhere, if she's going to bed, and she even uses it to let me know that she WANTS to leave somewhere. She understands a lot more when I am speaking to her. She listens to commands like, "Get a diaper" or "Lift your arms up." One thing that she communicates FREQUENTLY is her desire to go outside. She goes and finds my shoes or daddy's shows or her own and brings them to you. As soon as we get our shoes on, she runs to the door and holds on the knob until you open it.
Needless to say, we spent A LOT of time outside this last month. Leah loves going to different playgrounds in the area. She is fearless when it comes to climbing up really tall ladders, going across treacherous bridges, and going down twisty slides. She really loves holding onto bars and hanging there. She is constantly pointing at the monkey bars at the playground in our neighborhood. She likes to swing on the big swings with and without Mommy and she also discovered swinging on her belly. She's still not tall enough to get on any of the swings on her own though.
When we aren't at a playground, she loves to just walk around (especially on Daddy's shoulders) and enjoy nature. She loves picking flowers, digging in the dirt/mulch, playing in the water hose, and just going on simple walks. Every time we go into the garage, she climbs into her red wagon and points to the handle. Recently, a neighbor gave us a water table that she has had a blast with. She uses it every day that it is warm enough. Her fascination with wheels has also continued and she has been known to climb on her friends' bicycles and tricycles. She climbed on her 5 year old neighbor's bicycle (without any help) and tried to ride off with it. Luckily her feet didn't reach the pedals!
It doesn't matter rain or shine, Leah can't resist being outdoors. One day it was pouring down rain and I decided to open the front door to let her watch the storm. She walked right out the door on her own and was immediately drenched, so I decided to let her play in the area in front of our house since there is no danger of cars. She was content there for a while until she decided that she wanted to go to the playground in the center of the neighborhood. She took off running up the hill and out of my sight during a particularly heavy downpour. I had to run and catch her becoming drenched myself. As soon as she saw me after her, she started giggling and running even faster! On a different day, I was able to keep her inside for a pretty major downpour only to have her soak herself later in the puddles. I'm not really sure what we're going to do this winter!
We also were able to go on lots of "field trips" with our different play groups this last month. We made a visit to Greenbrier State Park where Leah enjoyed playing in the sand at their lake beach and getting in the water a little bit. We also got to visit a children's science museum. Even though it was inside, Leah still had a good time! With the school year starting up again, Library programs are starting again, so we have registered for classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and will be attending some others on Mondays and Fridays to keep busy. Leah loves being around other children!
All of this play has led to many successful nap times, but unfortunately about halfway though the month Leah transitioned to ONE nap a day. Booo! :( She's been napping from around noon to 3pm. She still is nursing when she wakes up in the morning, before her nap, and before bed. We cut the after nap nursing when I started doing after school care for some kids in my neighborhood.
At the beginning of this month, we were given an art easel by a different neighbor. Prior to the easel, Leah had been barely showing a budding interest toward writing utensils. Now, I need to make sure that they are all put up somewhere where she can't get them. I've already cleaned crayon out of the carpet after some mishaps decorating a large box. Chalk is a good way to start because it easily comes off of everything and I have been able to teach her not to draw on furniture or the walls without having too much of a clean up. Grandma H. gave us some really great sidewalk chalk which we have used to decorate the driveway on several occasions. She only makes little marks and sometimes circles and spirals, but she really enjoys it.
At the beginning of this month, we were given an art easel by a different neighbor. Prior to the easel, Leah had been barely showing a budding interest toward writing utensils. Now, I need to make sure that they are all put up somewhere where she can't get them. I've already cleaned crayon out of the carpet after some mishaps decorating a large box. Chalk is a good way to start because it easily comes off of everything and I have been able to teach her not to draw on furniture or the walls without having too much of a clean up. Grandma H. gave us some really great sidewalk chalk which we have used to decorate the driveway on several occasions. She only makes little marks and sometimes circles and spirals, but she really enjoys it.
She is starting to understand the concepts of matching when it comes to putting pieces in her shape sorter or putting pieces where they go in a puzzle. She is progressing fine motor to place the puzzle piece in it's place, but most of the time she just places the pieces close to where they go. In this clip, Leah completely surprised me by putting BOTH pieces completely in their places. She wasn't doing that the day before!
Leah has always loved taking things OUT, but recently she has started to put things away too. This morning when I got her out of the crib, she usually wants to nurse immediately, but she pointed at the floor and had me put her down. She walked around her room picking up her stuffed animals (that she had thrown out of her crib) and tossed them back into her crib. She found a Tupperware container on the floor in the laundry room that she had put there recently while destroying my Tupperware drawer. She picked it up, walked over to the drawer, opened it up, placed container correctly in the drawer, and then closed it. My heart did quite the happy dance! I can't wait until she can clean up her own messes!!!
During bath time each night, Leah has started to figure out our routine. Every night she starts by playing with her bath toys. When she is ready to be cleaned she points to her soap and with some prompting will lay down to get her hair wet. She always asks for a squirt of soap on her hand and rubs it on her body. The last couple of nights she has decided that she can clean Mommy with the soap and rubs Mommy's face. She loves the bath bubble machine that her Grandma and Grandpa H. got for her this last Christmas. She turns it on and then off again and pops all of the bubbles in between.
As part of our nightly routine I have always attempted to read Leah a story of two to try to calm her down, but she is at her craziest when she is tired. Most nights, "reading" to her still consists of her running in circles around her room or pulling all of the books off her shelf while I read a story or two or three in the rocking chair. Her most recent thing has been to grab several of the books and "hide" behind the rocking chair and look through the pictures while I read. Leah also starting jumping during this time. We were in her room preparing for bedtime and she just started jumping in the air and landing on her diaper. She now will climb on the couch or on our bed to do the same. It looks like it should hurt, but she thinks it is the best.
Luckily the reading is starting to sink in even if she isn't sitting to listen to the books. One time during the day, I was letting her roam the house while I watched an episode of Downton Abby. It suddenly became quiet, so I ran upstairs to find her. To me absolute surprise, she had climbed up in her rocking chair and was "reading" a book to herself. The best part was that she was mimicking voice sounds and different inflections as she read.
Each night, Doug and I usually watch an episode of Star Trek. Leah dances every time to the opening and closing sequence. It doesn't matter what she is doing or where she is in the house; she will stop and run to the tv and start dancing. She's already taken some of my best moves. ;-)
Leah guilty pleasure right now is climbing up on the table. She CONSTANTLY wants to be up there and I feel like I am fighting a losing battle. I will take her down and she just climbs right up again. Sometimes if she doesn't finish her dinner, we'll leave it there (I'm not preparing anything special!) and she'll sneak up on the table and finish her dinner. Other times, she up there for pure fun. She finds standing on the table thrilling. She's even fallen off the table once in an (unsuccessful) attempt to climb into her seat. Nothing can dissuade this child!
I love this little girl with all of my heart. I am grateful that I get to spend all day every day with her as a stay-at-home mom.
