30 seconds later though... (Yes, my flash was a little out of control.)
Haha! Anyway, here's the update on Leah.
Communication-wise Leah is understanding more each day, but she still isn't saying much. She likes to chant mama or dada quite frequently. She regularly says uh oh, kitty cat, bubble, bye bye, no, and yeah. Ball, baby, fishie, ba (pointing at a banana), "booh" for book and "Dar" for our cat Darwin are new this month. A lot of her communication is achieved through pointing and grunting at this point. I just add words to what I think she is trying to say before completing the requested grunt. Sometimes, she talks to herself in a nonsensical language while playing. Here is a little video I captured of her in the tub. It sounds half like talking and half like singing to me.
She was able to identify her belly button first back in June when we were visiting Utah, but now in addition to her belly button, she can identify her head, nose, eyes, feet, hands, and most of the time her mouth and ears. The song, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" is very educational! :)
She "reads" books to herself using inflection. She likes to toss a bunch of her books behind the rocking chair in her room and then she sits behind the chair to look through them. She is mostly gentle with the paper pages. We only run into trouble if the book has existing rips. Her favorite book right now is "The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" which was actually one of Doug's when he was little. She waves hello to the little mouse in the beginning of the book and points at the strawberry on the different pages. We also picked up another book recently at a yard sale for free where you have to find a red fish hidden on each page. She loves flipping through the book and pointing quickly at where the fish is.
She was able to identify her belly button first back in June when we were visiting Utah, but now in addition to her belly button, she can identify her head, nose, eyes, feet, hands, and most of the time her mouth and ears. The song, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" is very educational! :)
She "reads" books to herself using inflection. She likes to toss a bunch of her books behind the rocking chair in her room and then she sits behind the chair to look through them. She is mostly gentle with the paper pages. We only run into trouble if the book has existing rips. Her favorite book right now is "The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" which was actually one of Doug's when he was little. She waves hello to the little mouse in the beginning of the book and points at the strawberry on the different pages. We also picked up another book recently at a yard sale for free where you have to find a red fish hidden on each page. She loves flipping through the book and pointing quickly at where the fish is.
Leah's understanding some basic things that we ask her to do regularly. You can ask her to find certain objects and she will look for them. She will also go get her favorite book if you ask her. She runs upstairs to her bathroom if you say it's time to go potty and she will get shoes for everyone in the house if you mention anything about going outside.
She understands the trash can and its purpose pretty well. You can ask her to throw something away and she will run to the trashcan and throw it in. She has actually picked up trash and thrown it in without being asked if she is in the mood to do so. I always do a quick check to look in the trash can for anything that shouldn't be there and she usually does pretty good. One night she had gotten into my closet and was play with some lotion. She was trying to squirt some into her mouth and I said, "Yuck! This is yucky!" and she ran over and threw it in my trash can. Haha! I guess I have been referring to trash as yucky.
Go find mommy's phone is a particular favorite of mine. Leah has started becoming very insistent that I check my phone if it makes any sort of noise. A few nights ago, I was in the bathroom when I heard my phone (which was on the higher bar counter) make a single "pop" with a Facebook notification. I did not witness, but only heard the following... Leah scooted her play table over to the counter, climbed onto it, reached up and grabbed my phone, and then ran to bring it to me... Beating on the bathroom door. Wow.
The other day I was on the phone with my mom and Leah grabbed the kitty bowl and was about to dump it out. I firmly told her, "Leah, put the kitty bowl back (pointing)." She actually returned it! I exclaimed, "Wow! She actually LISTENED to me!" while on the phone. Haha.
Each night, Doug announces out loud so that Leah can hear that it's time to feed the fishies. She will squeal and run over to the fish tank. She points to where the food is up on the bookshelf and jumps up and down excitedly until Doug picks it up. She loves watching the fish and does a good job feeding them (besides that one time where she dropped her carrot in...).
She understands the trash can and its purpose pretty well. You can ask her to throw something away and she will run to the trashcan and throw it in. She has actually picked up trash and thrown it in without being asked if she is in the mood to do so. I always do a quick check to look in the trash can for anything that shouldn't be there and she usually does pretty good. One night she had gotten into my closet and was play with some lotion. She was trying to squirt some into her mouth and I said, "Yuck! This is yucky!" and she ran over and threw it in my trash can. Haha! I guess I have been referring to trash as yucky.
Go find mommy's phone is a particular favorite of mine. Leah has started becoming very insistent that I check my phone if it makes any sort of noise. A few nights ago, I was in the bathroom when I heard my phone (which was on the higher bar counter) make a single "pop" with a Facebook notification. I did not witness, but only heard the following... Leah scooted her play table over to the counter, climbed onto it, reached up and grabbed my phone, and then ran to bring it to me... Beating on the bathroom door. Wow.
The other day I was on the phone with my mom and Leah grabbed the kitty bowl and was about to dump it out. I firmly told her, "Leah, put the kitty bowl back (pointing)." She actually returned it! I exclaimed, "Wow! She actually LISTENED to me!" while on the phone. Haha.
Each night, Doug announces out loud so that Leah can hear that it's time to feed the fishies. She will squeal and run over to the fish tank. She points to where the food is up on the bookshelf and jumps up and down excitedly until Doug picks it up. She loves watching the fish and does a good job feeding them (besides that one time where she dropped her carrot in...).
This girl loves routines and many times will prompt me to start whatever is next in our daily happenings. In the morning if I haven't gone running by myself yet, we usually run together (I push her in the jogging stroller.) One morning, I woke up early enough to go by myself, but when Leah woke up she picked up our shoes and started putting them on my feet. She missed our run! She is pretty good in the jogging stroller and enjoys the wind in her face.
One evening, I was going on a long run (about 5 miles with some friends) where we ran through 3 different neighborhoods and into town where Oktoberfest was going on. There was a live band and many kids were on the dance floor, so I decided that I would let Leah out of her stroller to dance. Only, I looked down to discover that one of her shoes was missing (my favorite pair)! The next morning I retraced our route and luckily was able to retrieve her shoe about halfway!
Her nap/sleeping schedule right now is that she wakes up around 7:15-30am. We either go for a run or have breakfast. Depending on our day's activities, she may go down for a nap around 10am if she is getting grumpy or she'll last until noon. I was missing the two nap schedule, but she's not napping very well in the afternoon anymore, so it's best to wait until noon to put her down. She'll sleep between 2-4 hours. She needs a little crib time to herself after waking up or she will be a grump for the rest of the evening. If she is in a foul mood, we usually just put her back in her crib for about 10-15 minutes and that does a pretty good job of "reseting" her foul mood most of the time. We start our bedtime routine around 7/7:30 and she's usually in bed a little before 8pm. She sleeps well through the night. Sometimes she wakes up for a little while and cries early in the morning, but I just leave her in there and she's asleep within a minute or two. She is flexible if we don't end up sticking to this exact schedule which is really nice.
Leah has become very observant and likes to learn and copy things that she's sees me and others around her do. I have had to become more aware of exactly what it is I'm doing. One evening we were eating dinner and Leah dropped something mushy on the floor. I picked it up and flung it into the sink a few feet away from me. The next moment, I caught Leah picking up her food and flinging it at the sink... only her aim isn't as good. Oops!
Now that it is Fall and the weather is cooling down, we don't have as many opportunities to get outside. Leah showed a little bit of resistance to long sleeves, socks, and tennis shoes, but she has adjusted pretty well. She loves to crunch leaves on the sidewalk. I've also caught her crunching bugs in her hands. Ugh! So far she's gotten a cricket, a stink bug, and this poor snail we found on a walk. (I absolutely cannot squish any bugs, so this really grosses me out!)
We have scrambled eggs almost every morning for breakfast and Leah has been watching me stir up the eggs and add milk. She wanted to help so one morning I scooted over a chair and let her stand and watch. Now every morning she scoots over the chair, climbs up, hands me the eggs one at a time, and then mixes the eggs and the milk. (We've only had one unfortunate egg mishap!) One morning while I was throwing away the eggs shells, I caught her tasting the raw egg gook on the fork. Oops!
Leah's hair has grown to the point where I can put piggy tails in! Her hair is still rather thin and fine, but I can still get it back. She is actually pretty cooperative for this process. She stands up on her stool in front of the sink and plays in the water while I put her hair up. It's a good system... And I just LOVE how cute she looks with her hair up!
Leah interest in the light switches in the house has definitely grown. Whenever we are leaving a room, she will point to the light switch and insist that I pick her up so she can turn it off. One of her favorite things to do is to turn off the lights around the house before we leave to go somewhere. She has such a look of achievement after she turns off a light. It hasn't been very clear, but we think we've heard her say, "ight" (light) while pointing up to the switch.
This last month, we were able to go on some fun outings. Leah and I were able to go apple picking with some friends. It turned out to be a misty, rainy day, but I think we still had a good time. The branches were low enough that Leah could pick the apples herself. Unfortunately, she is still working on developing her chompers (9 teeth at this point) so she didn't get any really good bites out of the apples. She did enjoy lobbing the apples at me when I was taking pictures and actually nailed me pretty well and knocked my phone out of my hand! She also liked to help by pushing the wagon everywhere when she wasn't in it. We made an apple pie with our pickings last week and need to make another one soon.
Every year, our small town throws a big Oktoberfest. This year, they had a fun little area for kids with games, little playground equipment, and bounce houses. Leah and her BFF Brooke rode in her red wagon together for the festival. They got to sit in mini little race cars, play little games, and win candy. Leah had her first lollipop and made quite a sticky mess of herself. She was so exhausted that she took a nap in the wagon on our way back home. I think they had a good time!
Leah has gotten even better at putting together puzzles and fitting the shapes into the correct places on shape sorters. She still has difficulty getting the pieces to wiggle into their places, but she understands now how to rotate them a little better. This picture of her below is at our weekly library program "Babygarten" where she is now the oldest in the class!"
Leah loves to listen to music. If she hears anything with a beat, she will start to bounce a little. She is also getting better at doing the motions for song that we sing. She will clap for, "If you're happy and you know it..." and she likes to roll her hands for, "The wheels on the bus." There is a song we listen to at Rhyme, Rhythm, and Tune Time at the Library called "Arms Up!" and after about 5 weeks of hearing the song she now listens and raises her arms, claps her hands, stomps her feet, and covers her eyes.
At church, she makes herself busy in the pew with puzzles, books, and digging through my bag, but every time the organ starts playing she climbs up onto the pew so she can see, grabs a hymnal, and starts flipping through it. Sometimes she even watches the chorister and moves her arms to the music. She had her first official Sunday in Nursery and did great! She barely noticed that I left the room and stayed in the whole time (over an hour and a half) without a tear or even a check-in from mommy. After church, she was trying to step in a puddle of water after church, so daddy flew her to the car to keep her out of mischief and I snapped this picture. She's holding her art from nursery.
I am very fortunate that Leah is a great eater. She recently has started liking spicy foods and wolfs down spicy mango and chicken curry with rice. She has to take a drink after every bite, but she clears her plate. She is also good at eating her vegetables (better than mommy!) and many times will eat 2 or 3 servings of carrots, peas, broccoll, etc. She has developed a love for dipping things, especially anything in ketchup! For Family Game Night this month, we had traditional Irish fish and chips. Leah ate THREE fried fish filets. She is getting better at using a spoon when she chooses to use one. Sometimes she'll eat with her hands, others times she will INSIST on having a utensil. She can scoop up her food pretty well... She just has difficulty getting that spoonful into her mouth.
Leah's love of drawing has continued to grow. She now can get the caps off of markers and pens, so I have to be very watchful. She loves to draw on her chalkboard and we've even caught her standing on the front tray so that she can reach the very top of the board.
Another thing that Leah has been doing lately is giving kisses. In one of her favorite books about kittens, she has a particular page with a meowing kitten that she likes to kiss. (I've had to clean food bits off this kitten on multiple occasions!) I also have an informational book about cat breeds that Leah likes to look at and give kisses. She started kissing the kitties in books, but she has moved onto kissing family members and babies. Her cousin Jacob (at 4 months old) came for a visit and Leah was constantly giving him kisses. We just had to make sure that she wasn't head banging him in the process. She gives kisses to Grandma and Grandpa H. whenever we are saying goodbye and has even surprised some of my friends with a kiss when they were expecting a hug.
The nighttime routine with this girl is fun because she gets a little crazy before bedtime. After bath, I bring her into her room for story time and close the door. Her room isn't that big, but she starts running from one end to the other back and forth while I sit at the rocking chair waiting for her to settle down for a book. Most of the time, I end up starting the book without her and she occasionally runs over to look at the pictures. The other night during this whirling dirvish, she realized that she could fit under her bed. She did this at least 5 times before I caught her to wind down for bedtime.
I love being this little girl's mommy!
