Ava's new tricks

Some of these are not new tricks, but just a look at the super fun cuteness in our home these days...

 

She's the peek-a-boo queen!

Nap time... she was sitting up with her feet out of the crib when she finally gave in and "fell" asleep.

You can see Ava's first goose egg on her forehead, on the right side of the picture...

She bonked it on a table trying to stand up and let go. She didn't get the memo that she is JUST a baby! Girl, you are 7 months old... You are NOT a toddler! She cried hard for a minute.... Then there was this...

No problemo...

Boxes are fun!


So are cribs! We dropped her crib mattress down a notch and 3 days later I found this!

So down another notch we went!

Where to next??



Smiley Curley....

Staring contest...

Gig 'em!

She is the smiliest baby ever!!!!

She can get both feet in her mouth at one time!

Friday before last was tooth-day! Her first tooth cut through on 11/15. Her favorite thing to chew on is fabric... Anything made of fabric. Like burp rags...
Or bunny love's ears...
My scarves are another favorite...


I don't think I mentioned Ava started crawling a few weeks ago... And pulling up and trying to stand and walk and climb all at the same time! 
She's a busy busy busy girl!


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So I know what we did last summer - Princess dance camp

Some of our baby boot camp/playgroup girlfriends invited Leah to do princess dance camp this summer. Would this interest my girl you think? Um... Dancing in a princess dress of her choice on recital day... Enough said.

Princess dance camp was the first time I have ever dropped this child off for a program of any kind... and left the building... yes, she's a bit sheltered... But neither one of us shed a tear! :-) And yes, I prayed a lot as I was away from her... So.... Here we go! She's growing up faster than I can believe.





Day 2... They had free-style dancing, learning routines, crafts, princess movie time and lunch time each day.


Friends...

Silly friends...

Recital day! Leah had the biggest entourage of all... it was a little embarrassing in the tiny room! :)
 


Daddy was standing by the music and was asked to start each number. The girls would yell "Hit it Mr. Kevin!" And he would start the music.... with his fairy princess wand???


Sissy... (that comment is for the picture below... not the one above...  hahahahaha!)

Cinderella and Princess Aurora...

Aunt Les...

Daddy...

Pops...

Gig...

 

Bib...

And I was there too! Taking pictures. :)

They learned 3 routines... This was by far my favorite. Not the best one, just my favorite because of Leah's moves as she gets in to it. They did jazz, tap and ballet routines in 3 days!

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A little wheeze

This video was a hidden camera operation. I was reading in the living room one night and Kevin decided to watch some of the "hunting videos" he and a friend had made while at the deer lease one weekend. He put on his headphones and hit play. He had no idea that once all the wheezing and hysteria began, I hit record on my phone's video camera. :) There was a point where the dusky, purple-ish color of his face actually had me worried, but I know CPR, so I kept rolling.

They say its a sign of good character if you can laugh at yourself. I'm not sure if this is what they mean...

a little bit loud

Check out this video of Leah getting shushed by her friend Blakely. Leah sure enjoys the plethora of dress up clothes at Blakely's house... and the bouncy bed that Blakely's mommy let's them jump on... but she doesn't like to be shushed!

Oh...and if there is such a thing as toddler track and field, Blakely needs to sign up! She is gonna be a high jumper or hurdler one day.

a little caroling

Last year I wrote about Caroline... Leah's middlenamesake. This year at our annual Christmas Eve breakfast I captured a little video of the two girls doing some Christmas caroling. There is NO MISTAKING which child mine is... and you will notice my pleas to "sssshhhh" and "don't yell" go completely unnoticed. But I am trying my darndest to educate her. We talk daily... hourly even... about when we use quite inside voices and when its ok to use louder voices... but I myself only just learned how to whisper a few months ago... so what can I say?

I call it "Caroling by Caroline Leigh and Leah Caroline."

You may want to turn your volume down...

All Caroline wanted for Christmas this year was her 2 front teeth!

All the kiddos

And Aunt Leslie

a little steel trap

I used to have a crazy memory too. I can still call the roll from my kindergarten class. I could look at a sheet of vocabulary words and memorize what the sheet looked like in order to recall the words for a spelling or other such test. I only had to see a movie, tv show or commercial one time to have it memorized. Many things have contributed to the loss of my memory over the years... not the least of which was carrying and delivering this little bundle of joy... who just the other day recalled when I got a speeding ticket almost A YEAR AND A HALF AGO and decided to bring it up out of the blue. Suddeny it was Leah's speeding ticket and she put herself in jail because she didn't have the money to pay it... and I caught a little on video...



Oh be careful what you say, little mouth... Leah is aaaalways listening. It may not always seem like it, but you can be certain she is locking it away for use at a later time.

a little ham

Leah's new favorite movie is Veggietales: Princess and the Popstar. When her friend Lillie came over today, they hopped up on the piano bench and Leah burst into one of the (very melancholy) songs from the movie. You'll see that once they've finished that song she hops down and says "Now its time to get ready for the Ka-Chow show!"

Leah turned around to me later and said "Excuse me mommy, we're getting ready for tonight's show." After this they sang several more songs together, including Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle. I wish I had the entire show on video! It was spectacular.

Enjoy some ham!

m m m o p

Action!

Take 2!

-Posted from my iPhone

2 fish

It wasn't quite as impressive as the miracle Jesus performed, but it was miraculous to us! Back on Memorial Day, Leah and her daddy thought it might be a good day to go fishing. Leah picked out a Lightning McQueen fishing rod at the store and her daddy taught her all about the rod, reel, line, hook and the bobber. Then they practiced a little reeling for a bit.

We dug up some worms out of our flower beds and headed down to Kroger pond so Leah could try her hand at fishing. The first video is their very first cast. And the second video is their third cast.

You will have to pardon my excited voice... I was excited! And you will have to excuse the grandmother-length videos... you know the ones that are longer than anyone really wants to watch... except for grandmothers. :) (Actually, they are only about a minute a piece... and jam-packed with exciting fishing!)

Oil Spill Anniversary Post

Lately we have been playing in the kiddie pool every single day... and Leah's CONSTANT chattering while she swims and plays always brings this video to my mind... one of her greatest hits, to be certain.

It just so happens that I posted it for the first time exactly one year ago today.

Some things will never change.

one little leah

We were on the way home from Relay for Life... waaaaay past Leah's bedtime... when she decided to sing the "ten little monkeys" song as a means of keeping herself awake. She knew if she closed her mouth for 2 seconds she would just fall fast asleep. So she sang about ten little monkeys, then 10 little mommies, 10 daddies, 10 Beanses and 10 of everyone else in her extended family. My personal favorite was "10 little Popses jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head. Pops called the doctor and the doctor said 'No more POPS-ES JUMPING ON THE BED!'" You know what all caps means!

So the video is just for your listening pleasure, as it was after 10 pm so you can't see anything... I only caught the last verse, one little Leah...

bursting with pride...

My cousin Brad released his album today on itunes! He's recorded his own original songs and I'm so proud of him! Not only is he talented, but he's one of the best, sweetest guys you'll ever meet. I am sooooooo proud right now! :)

Here is the link to preview his songs and buy them if you like! I think you will!!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-way-i-feel/id433219394

Check out his video too! So great!!

If you can't see it just click on this link: Brad Cooper Promo Video: "Unordinary Love"

Congrats Bradley!!!!!!

Really Really Really Good Friday

I heard this song for the first time a few years ago. God used it to totally transform the way I worship Him. I can't get it out of my head these days. I've been using this blog to boss people around this week.... so if you didn't buy pink shoes like I told you to, at least do this next thing... and listen to this song. :) I believe God gave us the gift of music to bring us closer to Him, and few current songs do that like this one does for me. TRUTH in every.single.word.



.

...Of mice and men and doodle bugs

What fun we had one weekend getting messy with sidewalk chalk, pulling weeds and playing with bugs...

(you might want to enlarge to get the full effect)

The doodle bug survived, but not without some serious injuries. I, too, have my own Lennie story. I kept it for a long time as one of my darkest secrets, but when I told some friends recently, I was rather surprised to find out how many people had their own Lennie stories. So here it is. Maybe this will free you to tell your own story. ;)

I was in Lubbock, living alone for the first time... well not alone, Lowly was living with me. Lowly is the Corn snake that my sister had kept as a pet in her room since I was in 4th grade. For years my sister had to buy a couple of live mice on a monthly basis to feed her little constrictor. Over the years she began to feel an attachment to the little rodents and developed feelings of guilt that she couldn't shake at feeding time. So after having Lowly for over a decade, she asked me to adopt him. (We already knew Lowly was a HER at that point but its hard to make that change after so many years... I know how Sher must feel.)

So Lowly came to live with us (me and my roommate Sara) in College Station. When we graduated, she moved on to Lubbock with me as well.

One day at feeding time I had a particularly jumpy little mouse in a brown paper sack. I was terrified of letting one of these critters get loose in my house (it had happened before) and when I saw it was jumping higher and higher I grabbed the top of the sack and closed my fist tightly over it so as not to let the little guy get out. And then, when I let my grip relax just a bit... thud... the dead mouse dropped to the bottom of the brown-paper-sack-of-death.

I'd just killed an animal with my bare hands... I was horrified and began to bawl. Though I don't care for mice and always watched with great interest as Lowly hunted, killed and swallowed her prey, I never wished to have had such a direct "hand" in the death of any animal. (Unless it is a possum on my fence threatening my baby Beans... and even then I'd like to use a weapon, not wring its neck with my bare hands!!!)

I called Kevin to come over and console me (and help me decide what to do with the now dead mouse that super-hungry-Lowly kept circling around but would not eat.) He laughed heartily at me and called me "Lennie" and "Mouse-slayer" for a while. So glad I called him.

How germs are spread:

Last week, Leah woke up one day with a super high fever just feeling cruddy. So she spent most of the day in mommy's bed watching tv and reading books. (What did moms of sick kids do before there was tv?)

Mid-sneeze...

'

The blanket and baby dolls I understand, but why did she need to snuggle with her wrench?

Plus it looks like she is getting ready to "wrench" one of her babies!

'

Isn't she sweet? Sharing EVERYTHING!

thirsty!

As I mentioned in this post, our girl loves hot tea and was only convinced to come in from the snow on the promise of hot tea. The only problem with this beverage is how long it takes to prepare! She was patient though... I can't even count how many times she said "There it is, have hot tea" while we were waiting for it to steep. :)

The Best One

The funny-in-your-guts-belly-laugh, if encouraged, (and if it initiates near nap time or bed time) almost always leads to the apneic laugh. (For those who desire a more lengthy video, this blog won't let me upload but these tiny little clips. Good news for those who are bored by long video clips. ;)

The Fake One

O little town

How still you lie indeed... when put to bed by a sweet little mama. Leah has really been into the mommy thing lately. She feeds her babies and animals and sometimes she puts the whole Christmas Nativity down for night night. Even gives a good night kiss.

And just in case Baby Jesus isn't warm enough...

"Here you go baby Jesus, cover up."

And here is a still shot if you didn't catch that.Back story... Over 5 years ago before we were going on vacation, Kevin bought himself some flip flops made out of beer cozies. The salesman said "You will never find a more comfortable flip flop." And he was right. Kevin has worn the heck out of those flip flops. And for years we've looked for replacements exhausting our options to no avail. All the while, Kevin continues to wear the old ones. While we were in Mexico this summer we noticed that when wet, they now exude a funky brown foamy substance.... So my mission since then has been to find some new ones as quickly as possible. To my surprise a local mall opened a flip flop shop this fall and when I walked in and told the guy what I was looking for he knew exactly what I was talking about. He took me straight to the back corner where they were sold out of ALL BUT ONE... a single pair of size 13 beer cozy flip flops for my fabulous, funky foaming, flip flop wearing hubby. He was so happy. He said it was his favorite Christmas gift of the year! This was the sticker that came off the new ones and who knows where she found it? She came around the corner of the living room holding the sticker saying "Baby Jesus cover up!" It was like the moment she saw this sticker she had its purpose in mind. Leah has been obsessed with covers lately.

The Imaginarium of Leah Curley

Leah has 2 imaginary friends that we know of.

Baba is someone that Kevin and Leah talk to on the phone in the evenings. Actually Kevin started this one back when Leah was tiny and all she said was "BA BA." She was probably 8 or 9 months old. Kevin would pick up a cell phone and talk to Baba in crazy voices and Leah would laugh hysterically. Technically I guess you could say Baba is Kevin's imaginary friend who just wants to speak with Leah on occasion.

Her other friend is Dobby Dobby. He lives in her belly button and is apparently just as hilarious as Baba. She's always giggling when she talks about him. If you ask her what's in her belly button, she'll consistently tell you "Dobby Dobby's in there." If you ask her where Dobby Dobby is, she tell you "in there" lifting up her shirt and pointing to her belly button. Sometimes she just calls him by his first name. "Dobby's in there." The day we went to the doctor someone else was in there too...

Makes you want to get inside her little brain doesn't it! :) I laugh at her all day long. Speaking of laughter... my wheezy smoker laugh is more annoying all the time!! I guess its my attempt at quieting my usual cackle for the sake of the video camera, but I think the wheeze is worse!

(This day these videos were taken, we'd spent the morning playing with friends, gone to visit daddy at work, and taken him to lunch. In the car on the way to lunch she told me "Mommy, ear hurts mommy." I took her to the doc that afternoon and sure enough, she was beginning to get an ear infection. By that time she looked like she felt bad. Doesn't her little swollen face make her look pitiful? Poor.Baby.Girl.)