Tricks and Turks

Leah learned a new "trick" last week. I call it, her Who-needs-these-nasty-diapers trick. In one quick movement, she yanks open those straps and steps out of the diaper for some naked freedom. Just look at how pleased she is with herself:

Naturally, this has made things difficult. We used to let her run around in just her diaper all the time. Now "just her diaper" turns into no diaper at all, with the potential for accidents on the floor. It's like having a puppy again! The solution? Pants over her diapers at all times.

Leah isn't the only one learning new tricks around here. Just look at Bosley demonstrating his sweet hiding skills...

... ok, maybe we have to work on that one.

Below, Leah is becoming accustomed to farm life. She really wants to catch one of those turkeys...

If only we had Heidi or Rowdy sitting next to Leah looking at the turkeys as well... what a sweet photo that would be!

Happy First Birthday Leah!

In honor of Leah's birthday, we started off the day by going to the Angleton Rec Center where they have this cool indoor swimming area, complete with slides, current pools, and fountains. What kid wouldn't have fun at this awesome place?

As you can see above, Leah had a blast! She loved floating/swimming around the current pool with us and splashing in the water. It was great watching her take everything in and enjoy herself. I attempted to take her down one of the little slides, but that didn't go over so well. Maybe next year!



After a nice afternoon nap, we celebrated Leah's birthday at her Oma and Opa's house where we ate dinner, opened presents, and had cupcakes.

Leah is inspecting one of her gifts from Oma and Opa.

Looking at her new See 'n Say with Daddy.

She loves pushing around her cart from Aunt Jess. The funny thing is, whenever she pushes, she sings too. :)

Even Harry gave Leah a birthday present-- sloppy doggy kisses. (As you can see, she is a willing receiver of doggy kisses.)


Anxious to get to that cupcake!

Yum! A first birthday is not complete without cake being smeared all over the baby's face. Leah's initial instinct was to smush the cupcake as much as possible between her fingers. Once I showed her that she could eat it, she proceeded to do so while mumbling "yummy, yummy, yummy." She is correct-- cupcakes ARE yummy!

After the cupcake, Leah was on a sugar rush for a good hour and didn't crash until 9 that night.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes, cards, and birthday gifts for the little miss. It means a lot to us, and though Leah doesn't understand appreciation yet, we sure do.

And happy first birthday Miss Le-le Pants! May all your birthdays be this joyful!

August 11, 2009

Leah turned one year old on Tuesday. I never actually thought I'd be sappy about it, but it hit me pretty hard. On Monday, the day before her actual birthday, I kept getting teary-eyed whenever I thought about the fact that it had been one year since Leah had been born. One whole year! And though I knew nothing drastic would change from August 10 to August 11, having Leah hit the one year mark was like she was no longer my itty bitty baby anymore. The line from baby to toddler was drawn.

This past year has been amazing. I never thought I would find so much joy in watching this little girl grow. My friend Paige said it best when she said, Being a mom is beautifully and strangely exciting. I couldn't have come up with truer words myself.

Psalm 16:6 reads, The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

Beautiful indeed.

Fabulous Tuesday heads to the beach!

This Tuesday, Leah and I headed to the beach with my mom and sister. We didn't stay too long because it was hot and we got cranky, but it was a fun adventure!

Upon arriving at the beach, Leah had to take a moment to contemplate life.

She then played in the water with her Aunt Jess.

Leah refused to keep her hat on, and so I first "fixed" the situation by slathering gobs and gobs of lotion on her head, hair and all. She was a bit of a greasy mess. So then I fashioned a new "hat" out of her little underwear/diaper cover pants she was wearing with her dress earlier. For some reason, she didn't mind leaving this on her head. She looked like a little french girl with a beret! :)

Getting in some obligatory cuddle time with Oma.

Of course she stood up mid-photo, hence the cut off head.

My little miss and myself, enjoying the surf.

A quick list

Leah has been growing up like crazy in front of our very eyes. Just take a look at the things she's been doing these days:

• Three weeks ago, we put cabinet locks on all of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets. It was a complete pain to do so, but we figured it was worth it to prevent her from pulling things out of the cabinets all the time. This past weekend, Leah figured out how to open them. I stood there and watched her study the way they worked, and then use her little brain to open the doors, and not just once, but a few times. Not kidding.
• She knows that turning the radio on involves pushing the button on it, but she also knows she's not allowed to touch the stereo. So if she wants me to turn the radio on so that she can dance, she goes over to the stereo and then sways back and forth, looks at me, and repeats until I turn it on for her.
• She is repeating words. So far she can say Da-da, Ma-ma, Mommy, dog (doh), duck (duh), yummy, and meow.
• She waves bye bye when you ask her to do so.
• She points at her duck in her room and says "duck" when you ask where her duck is.
• She is now on the verge of running, because walking is just too slow.

Miscellaneous

About a week ago, my good friend Dinah came all the way from Boston just to spend a few days with us. We had lots of fun hanging out and Leah showed Dinah all of her favorite tricks.
They got to read books together...

...and even went out for lunch together.

Sometimes we don't feel like bringing Leah with us when we go out. So then we put her in Heidi's kennel... juuuust kidding. She just likes to hang out there.

And here are the boys, showing each other some love.

Daddy's little helper

Soooo Jared likes to do home projects. They always turn out well, but what he seems to have a tendency to forget is that these projects take time to make, and they tend to take a bit longer than he originally expected. His latest project involved building a few shelves to keep in our laundry room for storing food and such. Luckily, this time he had a little helper to make his shelf building task a little easier.

Apparently it's very important to chew on the contact paper roll, prior to using it.

Leah likes being Daddy's helper!

And here's the finished product-- a nice big ol' shelf to hold all of our canned goods (canned by Jared himself!). The shelf is next to a refrigerator, just to give you some sense of scale. It's pretty big!