a few of Leah Curley's current favorites...
So you think Leah can dance:I have music in my vessels so part of me wished for a mildly-musically-oriented child. So far I don't think she can carry a tune in a bucket, but the girl has rhythm! She loves to sing, but she REALLY loves to dance. She LOVES to spin and twirl. She especially seems to love Tejano music, and her fancy footwork looks a little salsa and cha-cha to me. She is always moving to the beat when she is watching TV or listening to music on the radio. She did not get a love of dance from her father or myself, but I'm now finding myself inquiring about starting her in ballet or tap or whatever the heck you do with an almost-2-year-old.... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME???????
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Let's Pretend:Cooking and eating top her list of favorite things to pretend. She "eats" alot of things and when it's time for a real meal to be over and she gets down to "play," she usually "eats" some more. We were so proud when she was "eating" only the animals from the Nativity scene. We thought we had just been training her well and she'd learned that its ok to eat certain animals, like turkeys and chickens etc... Even though it was a donkey and a camel, we were impressed. Then the other day I saw her munching away on the Angel of the Lord... When she's not pretending to cook or eat, she feeds her Penguin (Percy) or her baby doll (Baby) or she pretends to put on "mack up." She's also been known to pretend to "fix a boo boo" if she finds anything resembling medical supplies. (Since Christmas, her cooking and eating obsession has gone to a whole new level due to her new KITCHEN! But that's a whole other post!)
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Reading list: Her current favorites are the "
Beast" book (
Beauty and the...) and
Fancy Nancy - Splendiferous Christmas and "Baby Jesus book" (
Christmas in the Manger). I love how she says "fan see nan see." And I love how she puts on her Baby Jesus finger puppet to read the Manger book and points to each page with Him. (Finger Puppet Baby Jesus has temporarily gone missing, should be interesting to see where He turns up.) There are other books she will let me read to her throughout the day, but when its Leah's turn to choose... you know what to expect. The girl is consistent.
Can I just say a quick and sarcastic THANK YOU VERY MUCH to my friend Teriann who gave Leah the
Beauty and the Beast book.... which has about 8000 words per page and about 600 pages! Not that I don't love reading to her, I do! But come on! Thankfully this is usually a Daddy/daughter tradition before bedtime. She would listen to him read the phonebook I think. He doesn't even have to do cool voices to keep her interested! Its like magic! (For Christmas she received a plethora of new books so we'll see what the new favs are.... so far
47 Beavers on the Big Blue Sea is my new favorite.)
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Mommy please, eat first:
She says this about 47.5 times a day. The girl loves to eat (except for when she doesn't) and when she is in the mood, she can eat more food than me. A FEW of her current favorites are waffles, pancakes, bread (any and all types), chicken ("daddy's chicken" to be exact... cooked on the grill and really "(s)picy"), turkey (which, in her language, sounds a whole lot like tee-tee but whatever), peanut butter crackers, "basketballs" (breakfast bars... extremely hard to say) apples, grapes, and anything she sees you eating or drinking... Oh, also "candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup." (The 4 food groups according to ELF and Leah C.) Careful cause she'll snatch a candy cane right off your Christmas tree and have it opened and half eaten before you even know what hit you! She'll eat some veggies too... peas and broccoli without even being threatened!
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Drink and Be Merry:
Apple juice and milk are the usual; hot tea at Bibby's house in her very own cup, iced tea from daddy's cup whenever he has some, and most recently Orange juice... followed by lots and lots of mmMMMmMMMmmm's. She wouldn't even try it for the longest time! Oh, and chocolate milk... obviously.
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Loud and Long and Clear:
Laughing, yes laughing is a favorite pastime. She has several varieties: a fake laugh, a funny-down-to-your-guts belly laugh, a silly giggle, and a silent-so-the-only-way-you-know-she's-laughing-is-to-look-at-her-bouncing laugh that she gets when she's hysterical. I've actually been worried about her oxygen level a time or two. She will go a LONG time without breathing and turn funny colors for a good laugh. Sounds familiar. She giggles at most things I do, almost all of what Kevin does and practically everything she herself does is amusing as well. She is beginning to take great pride in getting us to crack up.
Just recently I confirmed something regarding her giggle-obsession which has been happening for months now. It is both precious and maddening to me that Leah knows the difference between obedience and DISobedience. When asked "What should you do when mommy tells you to do something?" she almost always self-corrects quickly and says "obey obey OBEY!" But occasionally she does something like this... The other day after committing a "no-no" she was getting a firm talking to when she just started spewing all the funny things that usually make us crack up... if I had it on film no one would believe that this 22 month old girl was SO STINKING MANIPULATIVE! Just one thing after another waiting for me to crack. It's C-r-a-z-y! (I didn't crack that time... I'm wise to her game and my constitution strengthens with each incident.)
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Espanol:
Leah is obsessed with Caillou (is that spelled right?) which is easily the most annoying show on PBS. But it is pretty cute to hear her sing (and I mean she belts it at the top of her little lungs) the theme song to this show. It has also opened the door to teaching her a little Spanish since my parents bought her a Spanish Caillou book. (I have tried once or twice before to teach her some of what I know, but since I barely know how to teach a toddler my own language, she has just looked at me crazy or ignored me... so we just move on... back to learning English.) But she IS learning it! She knows the Spanish word for bed, although she usually says mama instead of cama unless we remind her, and she knows the Spanish word for pajamas which is of course... pijamas... but it just sounds cute when she says it. (Pee Yamas) Gracias Caillou!
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