Leah is officially 2 1/2 years old today. She is 36 inches tall and weighs 28.8 pounds... Since we're living in Abu Dhabi, I guess I could post it in in metric as well, so that is 91 cm and 13 kilograms... :) She is wearing both 2T and 3T clothing, but the 2T dresses are starting to get a little short on her because she is so tall.
Leah is such a big girl... she decided that she wanted to be in charge of her own photo shoot. You can see the little remote in her hand.
I don't know if I can officially say that she is potty trained because she still has the occasional accident, but she's doing pretty well. She lets me know when she wants to go potty, but we still need to work on her pulling up/down her panties independently and also getting on the potty since it is too tall for her. We put a diaper on over her clothes for the car, but she has been going out in panties for about two weeks. Unfortunately, those two weeks have not been without incident. We went to a doctor's appointment earlier this week and she peed while sitting on my lap during the appointment. We were a 30 minute taxi ride away from home and it was only the beginning of my appointment. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience. She is doing pretty well at night and will wake me up in the middle of the night calling, "Potty!" rather urgently if she needs to go. She is in a big girl bed now, but she still doesn't quite get that she can leave the bed on her own to go.
As far as eating goes, she has gotten a bit pickier in the last few months. Every morning, we eat scrambled eggs and cereal. She insists on counting the eggs and "assisting" in cracking them. She loves breakfast and usually finishes everything. If you ask her what she wants to eat, the answer will be "eggs," so we'll say that's her favorite food. For lunch, we usually have PBJ, egg and cheese sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, or yogurt. I still do not cook anything special for her for dinner, but we will give her a yogurt after she has tried at least one of everything. Last night it was a noodle, a small piece of chicken, and a miniature asparagus. She sat at the table for about 30 minutes refusing to eat until daddy played "Open the Hanger" with her and her food. She's been eating a lot of yogurt lately.
Leah plays very well independently and loves her dedicated playroom here in our home in Abu Dhabi. She likes to make believe that she is cooking different meals in her play kitchen. She puts food on plates, puts them in the microwave to "cook" them, and then serves you. She'll also get you water from the fridge dispenser and she likes to make tea. If she's not playing in the kitchen, she usually is playing with Play-Doh. I haven't seen it here in Abu Dhabi, but luckily we have a bunch that we got as presents at Leah's 2nd birthday. She also likes to play with her doll babies. She has a doctors kit that she treats them with and she feeds them whenever mommy and daddy aren't available to eat her yummy creations. She also likes playing with her Little People and puts them in the bus or airplane and drives/flies them around. She enjoys doing puzzles, making towers with her MEGA blocks, and making random silly creations with Mr. Potato Head. She is getting better at cleaning up, but needs to be reminded to put away her toys before taking out something new.
Even though it is literally 100 degree (Fahrenheit, of course) out here, that doesn't faze Leah. She loves riding her tricycle around the compound, pushing her stroller, playing on her Power Wheel 4-Wheeler, or riding on her scooter. We picked up a little outdoor playhouse from a friend who was moving away and Leah loves playing in it. Since our kitchen is outside here, I am constantly going in between the two and it is nice that she has outdoor activities that she can do here. I am still kicking myself that I didn't bring Leah's water table or sand box. Yes, I did say sandbox! Most of the ground here is sandy, but we actually have some sort of lawn and we have a bunch of foster kittens that use it as a bathroom, so it would be nice to have her covered sandbox here.
Leah is a pretty happy and content child, but she occasionally has times where she gets upset. Her latest thing is that she will say, "Happy.. happy... HAPPY!" sometimes through tears to try to cheer herself up again. Recently her emotions have become a little erratic. I'm not sure if this is standard toddler behavior, but the smallest things can set her into a fit. We've been trying to teach her how to calm down and she's be hanging out in time out pretty frequently just to get her composure together again.
Leah still is my little shadow and likes to help with everything. She cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner with me every single day. She insists on cracking eggs and adding different ingredients. She loads the laundry and puts in the soap and helps me vacuum and mop. She even goes running with me every morning. She is my mini me... and MOST of the time, I wouldn't have it anything other way.
Leah is communicating more and more each day. She uses 2-3 word sentences and is learning new words each day. She knows all of her colors, can count and identify numbers up to 5, and is working on letter sounds at school. She loves to sort objects by color and I have caught her organizing her toys by color multiple times.
Leah loves to sing! She knows most of the words to "Popcorn Popping" and "Twinkle Little Star." Doug and I have caught her singing out loud to herself and it is the best! Each night we sing several songs before bedtime and she makes requests as to which ones she wants to hear. Her favorite book right now is "Good Night Moon." Her favorite thing to do is find the mouse each time it changes places in the great green room.
Right now, an average day for us starts out between 6:15-6:30am. We go for a run (I push Leah in the jogging stroller), we make breakfast, get ready, and then are out the door to arrive at school by 8:30am. We are at school for 4 hours Sun-Thurs (standard school/work week here). We get home a little after 12:30pm and eat lunch. Leah goes down for a nap and usually sleeps about 2-4 hours. When she wakes up, we're usually ready to start making dinner. We have dinner by 5pm, watch a show on TV ( Leah usually watches something on her iPad or plays in her toy room) and them we usually play outside in the evenings... she likes to ride her tricycle and we like to go to get ice cream at the little Baqala market that is inside our compound only 4 villas down from us. We start bedtime rituals around 8pm. It usually involves lots of jumping on mommy and daddy's bed, stealing Jumper (Daddy's beloved childhood stuffed frog), reading some stories, brushing teeth, getting in jammies, and singing songs. She is usually in bed by around 8:30.
Leah is still adjusting at school. It's pretty tough to understand that you need to share your mommy with the other kids. We're together for about 2 of the 4 hours while at school. She still gets emotional each time we have to part ways, but is fine minutes after I leave. She loves messy play and recess and is learning to sit at circle time. Her teachers love her and she is learning tons. She looked a lowercase 'a' yesterday and said "a a apple."
I love this little girl and I feel so lucky that I get to be her mommy!
