SuperFun

I now subscribe to the belief that the best thing about the Super Bowl is the food... right Leah?

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I love football... but for the first time, I only watched a few seconds of the whole game, didn't see a single commercial, and missed most of half time. But we ate... and we played!

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And I just had to share these pictures that made me laugh. Maybe its the running narrative in my head that makes me laugh, but still. At any given moment I can look at Leah's face and she just cracks me up.

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"Mom, unless you have more food for me, I'd appreciate it if you didn't continue to interrupt my serious business."

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"Look Carter, here's the plan.... and we don't have time for any funny business." '

"I've heard just about enough of your lip, Carter!"

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"Man, it's hard work bossin' this guy around. I'm worn out!"

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Who Dat? Ready for bed! These kids have style don't they?

There were adults there and a couple more kids even, but keeping a close eye on BossyBoots Curley took up all my picture taking time.

look at her grow... 1 year check-up

No-Neck No-More! She turned ONE and grew a NECK all in the same week! You can just barely see it... but its better than nothing! You can see here that her chin doesn't appear to be attached to her chest anymore! This just might be the last one of these updates... I have to stop somewhere. There is a point where a girl doesn't appreciate having her height and weight posted all over the Internet. We'll see...

Height: 28.5 in (25th %ile)

Weight: 18.5 lb (25th %ile)

Noggin: Still disproportionately topping the charts

Teeth: 6 (with about 4-6 more trying to push through)

Will: STRONG, very very STRONG

Laugh: contagious

Daddy got to come to the check-up! What a pair. They are hilarious to watch. No one can make her laugh more than Daddy. No one makes him smile more. "Look lady... I know I'm cute but don't you have enough pictures of me already?"The answer is NO!! There will never be enough!!

She seems to be fitting nicely into her one-year-old stage. Though I fear she may be on the fast track to the terrible twos! Here are a FEW of her newest things:

• Usually follows a definite daily pattern (and can RESIST change a bit... unless its a really FUN change!)


• Usually examines objects before putting in mouth (You can take away the putting in mouth part of that. But EXAMINE is her middle name. Actually her newest nickname is Inspector... DO doo do doo DO, Inspector Curley)


• Utters a few words (sometimes utters, sometimes hollers... whatever)


• Loves rhythms and rhymes (the girl HAS rhythm)


• Loves to make parents laugh (we have the biggest giggle fits together... I usually end up in happy tears)


• Shows more negativism, such as resisting naps, throwing occasional tantrums (She's advanced in this developmental category for sure!)


• Continues to prefer people to toys (thousands of wasted dollars I'm sure)


• Crawls rapidly (not to mention silently...she's like a phantom when she gets tired of walking and goes back to speed-crawling)


• May begin to walk without assistance (She now prefers walking to crawling!!)

It just keeps getting better!

Showing Off

Please excuse a little showing off. I've just recently started taking more video of the little chick, and I've discovered that my lame email won't upload video! What? So this is how the grandparents get to see what they crave.

Please also excuse the laundry pile... and the fact that I forgot to turn off sesame street so she won't take her eyes off the TV!

Beans, Beans she's good for your heart...

Happy Birthday Beans! She's 4 years old today and got to do quite a bit of frolicking in the snow. She thought it was the best birthday ever. You know originally we wanted to have Leah on 2/12... so both our babies would have the same birthday, and since we got to schedule Leah's arrival... it was tempting. But when it came down to it, Kevin didn't want Beans to get short-changed by having to share her birthday.

We went to say goodbye to Daddy this morning. We were so glad he randomly parked in the front of the house last night. We were the only people outside in our own little winter wonderland this morning.

A few attempts at having her sit for a photo op. And then what she really wanted... more frolicking. She usually isn't allowed to cross the street, but today you couldn't even tell where the street was! This was yesterday afternoon in the backyard.And this morning...No need to be jealous of all my friends in the northeast anymore!

Last thing. This clip is from a week or two ago. For a while Leah has been showing her affection to Beans by leaning over and pressing her forehead to her and saying "mmmmmm" and giving a few good pats. But the busier she gets... the less time she has to show affection.

Birthday Girl!

2/9/09...

Who is one year old today?

ME!

She took her first steps about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Now she's doing 4 and 5 at a time! Birthday Bath!

What a sweet, sweet, wonderful year!

Happy 1st Birthday Leah Caroline!

(You know there is more to come, I just have to sift through the 600 pictures I've taken in the last 24 hours.)

Pops b-day

We had Pops' birthday celebration last weekend. The girl looks like her Pops!

She was mad when we traded her Meyer lemons (that she was chewing the peeling right off... yuck!) for this lousy asparagus stalk. But she chewed a bit anyway.

Pops acting silly when the trick candles re-lighted. I was so excited they actually worked! I always try these things and they never work!

Then the party got pretty wild... can't even show you the rest of the pictures! ;)

Volume

So Kevin has always told me I am loud. I don't mean to be, I don't try to be, and truthfully I never really believed that I was. Although my parents and other family members have always told me the same thing... And then my mother-in-law told me the other day how surprised she was that Leah was getting SO loud... because Kevin never was. So, I guess its probably true about me, and I guess she got that gene from her mama.

I was trying to capture one of the MANY humorous moments in our day today. Leah was jabbering UP A STORM... kind of like a crazy person if I'm being totally honest. Jabbering and climbing in and out (and in and out) of her chair at lightning speed. So I pick up the camera and of course she stops doing it... but I accidentally caught this little display of her volume experimentation.

Bow Headed

Leah's Grannie gave her a much needed bow holder for Christmas! You know, all the money I've saved by using cloth diapers and making my own baby food all these months has already been spent (plus some, I'm sure) on BOWS! Ridiculous! But oh-so-cute.

And yes... I was the one who said I wouldn't put the brain-squeezers and giant bows on my little girl.... but.... I found out that sometimes a girl needs a bow! Especially when she looks an awful lot like her daddy in a dress. (I try to be reasonable with the bow size though.)

Bitty was over at our house and Leah would point to a bow on the bow holder and Bitty would take it off and put it in Leah's hair. So Leah would point to another... and on and on until Leah had 10 bows on her head. Then Leah took them out one by one and put them up to Bitty's head... here are the results of their little game.

These days, if I put a bow in her hair then she has to pull it off, check it out and then try to put it back on her own head... which doesn't work. So I have to do it. But since SHE didn't do it, she has to pull it off, check it and try to put it back.... and round and round we go. So we're having a hard time keeping bows on these days.

Let 2010 Begin

I know its February and no one cares about New Years anymore, but I just have to get it done. I've been feeling so inadequate in the blogging arena.

We spent New Year's with some good friends. We only had to travel about an hour away, but we packed up what seemed like our entire house and spent the night in one of their extra bedrooms. All 4 of us. Yes, you heard right, we took Beans too. Our friends have two of Bean's sisters... and they invited Beans to come too. How lovely!

What we all forgot was, while those other dogs just hang out in the back yard doing dog-things, Beans spends all her time pouting on the opposite side of the yard from her sisters, wondering why she has been relegated to the backyard with these ANIMALS... or whining at the back door waiting for someone to let her into the house with the other humans.

We had such a great time though! Side note -- Leah started clapping on New Year's Day! I was so excited. I'd been trying to get her to clap for months! And out of nowhere it came. Now she claps when you ask her to, when she's excited, when she sees someone else clap OR when she's TICKED OFF! She puts her mad face on throws a little clapping fit! Oh my! I have to try REALLY hard to keep from laughing. (She also cut her two front teeth that weekend.... :( Ouch... Those are biggies...)

Anyway, that night we put Leah to bed in her portable crib in our room and we played some games. But another thing we had not considered was sleeping all together in the same room. Beans hasn't slept in our room since we brought that crying baby home from the hospital almost a year ago. (Leah woke her up every 3-4 hours and she was SO over it after a few nights. She found a new spot in a chair by the front door.) Then Leah moved out of our room back in April or May. So we've had relatively peaceful sleeping arrangements ever since....

...Until that night when Beans' tail thump thump THUMPing on the crib woke Leah up.... Then once they fell back asleep Beans' whooping and sleep-growling woke me up. And Kevin got up about 4 am to go hunting which woke us ALL up again. :) It's the stuff memories are made of!


So since then Leah has been VERY busy...
doing puzzles...
learning about barnyard animals and their sounds...

"That heifer has to be around here somewhere!"

She's been talking up a storm... she says Mama, Daddy, Duck, Doggie, Stopper, Apple, Bottle, Moo, Bye-Bye, Hello and more! But let me translate a few things for you in case you run into her sometime and don't quite understand her language...

apple = bapple bapple bapple

stopper (pacifier) = toppa or boppa

doggie = docky

bottle =bobble

moo = ummMMm

thank you = nnn-que

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She's never actually said "hello" but she puts the phone to the back of her head (no, not her ear...) and says "woh?" and today I'm pretty sure she said "heh-woh?" And after her bath every night, I say "bye bye bathwater" as we watch and listen to the water go down the drain. And she says "bah bah ba-wa-wa." She talks ALOT but mostly we haven't the foggiest idea what she's saying. But we know she's serious about whatever it is.

Her Great-Grannie brought this tiger over that used to be Kevin's when he was little. She stays very busy moving the tiger's hat back and forth across the room, filling it with blocks, putting it on her head, putting it on my head, putting it in a chair and starting all over again.

It's gonna be a busy year!

A Time-Lapse Christmas

I'm just going to time-lapse our Christmas festivities for you so I can feel caught up without spending the actual time it would take to get caught up!

Mainly in our house Christmas was about Jesus. We celebrated his miraculous birth and what that means for us. We read the Christmas story to Leah and I envisioned many years of reading this story together and talking about its meaning. And I hope she comes to understand in her heart, as well as her mind just why Jesus came to Earth and made such a deep impression in time.

Some other fun stuff from Christmas... Since she's a little skimpy in the height department, I bought her this cute shirt (and a cute brown bow to match) for the holidays. I didn't want there to be any confusion.

Snow on Christmas!! Perfect!!!
She got this polka-dot arm chair from her Bitty and Pops.... she gets in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out.... all the day long. Makes us tired just watching her.

She got her first stocking too!
Wrapping paper and ribbons still fill her play room... in February. It looks like we have only given our baby a bunch of trash to play with, but they are her favorites.

Grannie and GranStan gave Leah a super fun gift too..... no, not a box to sit on... although that's always fun...

A RED WAGON! With a canopy, cup holders and cushioned /convertible seats! Fancy! She loves it so!

And her Abby Cadabby doll...

The dads had cigars on the porch with Beans as they enjoyed the burning pinion wood in the new chiminea! (A gift from the Kevin's parents) Inside, we were having Keurig-brewed tea and coffee from our new coffee maker! (From my parents)

That quick overview doesn't do justice to the many parties we attended, families we visited, gifts we exchanged, food we ate or celebrating we did, but it will have to do. I hit high points anyway.... Leah's first Christmas highlights and Jesus, of course!

(Beans is still celebrating. She has been festively wearing her Christmas collar a little longer than usual this year. We keep forgetting to change out the tags. )

Project Puree - Corn Fed

So, this is not the most exciting stuff that's been going on in our house, but I happen to have the pictures organized better than anything else. (So keep tuning in!)

About a month ago I decided that, difficult as it was, I needed to stop making baby food and use up what I had. So, I abstained for several weeks, and THEN.... you guessed it... I had zillions of baby food jars to fill! SO I went on a filling spree!

• Carrots and zucchini... old faves...

• Asparagus/zucchini and...
• Several fruit mixtures. Pear/blueberry is the big favorite.
  
• Steamed rice and corn... mixed with peas and carrots. This one looks gross and it is SUPER sticky but SHE LOVES IT! Not sure if its the rice or the corn she loves so much, because I mixed them, but she dances in her seat when she eats this one. (She dances when she eats any fruits, cheerios, oatmeal or any food off of her mom or daddy's plate too.)

• Green beans (my first successful batch... the trick is chop them small - half inch or so - and steam them to death... I boiled them the first two times and they were a stringy mess
• Mango/Pear
• Mango/Blueberry
• Mango/Pear/Blueberry
• Mango/Nectarine (I eat this one.... so yummy)
• Pear/Nectarine/Blueberry
• Pineapple/Banana (First banana mixture I have been able to keep from turning brown, due to the pineapple's acidity) It's Leah's favorite behind pear/blueberry and applesauce straight up. She told me.
• Green Bean / Blueberry -- I actually don't recommend this one. I tried it and thought it was fine. The blueberry flavor takes over, but the texture is green-beanish. Weird. Leah eats it but seems to like it less and less each time. I know.... I got carried away.

She also does lots of big girl food these days. But due to teething (about 6 teeth at once) she has major appetite and mood inconsistencies. ;-) (That's the nice way to say it.) The grapes in the picture above are frozen, and if you don't know about the yummy-ness of frozen, red, seedless grapes, let me inform you... I have been freezing them and snacking on them all my life. They taste like candy... so good! Wash them and then put a bunch in a freezer bag. You'll thank me!

Leah loves them cut into little pieces. Good for cutting new teeth, too. The yellow lump seen above is a frozen, steamed apple. When I'm making apple or pear sauce I freeze a few of the quartered, steamed fruits for Leah's gnawing pleasure later. Cold hands... soothed gums... full tummy!

Not pictured here is spinach and a 5 lb butternut squash that filled tons of jars and big tubs. I made several interesting b-nut squash batches...

• b-nut + green peas + spinach (good way to hide those high vitamin veggies if your little squirt won't eat them)
• b-nut + pimentos
• b-nut + sour cream
• b-nut + prunes (old favorite... careful with prunes... a little goes a LONG way!)

Gotta get blogging! Happy Groundhog Day everyone!!