Workin' 9 to 5 (or maybe just noonish)

I only work as a nurse part time since becoming a mom (and sometimes I feel like I'm too busy to work my 4-8 hours a week!) In fact, I work so few hours that I get paid in pennies, nickels and free immunizations. So last week Leah and I went up to the hospital to get my annual free flu shot and then we stopped by to see my friends from work.

Then we ran some other errands. Most importantly, we met Daddy for lunch at the Black Eyed Pea. How come only people of a certain age seem to like many of our favorites like "the Pea" and Luby's? The Curley's and the elderly... Anyway, Leah put her menu on her head and asked daddy to make her a hat... so he did. She was so still and so pleased with that hat on her head.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE getting to have lunch with Daddy!!!

On the way home she did this almost the entire way. Is it my singing, Leah?

inch

Kevin and I were riding his 4-wheeler one morning. Out of nowhere, an inch-worm appeared on my hand and just began inching along! I made Kevin get a video. It is mainly for my own entertainment... I do know how to enjoy the simple things in life. Really. Simple. Things. :)

Kevin likes to try and make me think that I'm the only person who would ever care about watching this... but I believe he may be wrong. You are amused aren't you? Admit it! You smiled.

genealogy

Here's a little bit of Leah's genealogy - my side of the family. (Eshy is Leah's Aunt Leslie... sometimes Ashy, sometimes Assy, but always her #1 favorite aunt :)

And if the tape kept rolling, you'd hear it a few dozen more times... The stories she tells about Bibby, Pops and Eshy often involve a dramatic re-enactment of some interesting thing that happened during our most recent encounter with the family.

But you haven't seen drama until you've see Leah re-tell about a time when she was sad because we dropped her off in Sunday School or because she fell or because she bit her tongue. She can fake cry and everything!

Here's another one I finally got uploaded. This may be my favorite. The girl makes me laugh. (Like a smoker, apparently)

my dog beah

I don't know if she just doesn't like the name Beans or what. She can say Beans, and used to call her that, but lately Leah has changed the dog's name to Beah. Pronounced just like Leah. She says it so much that Kevin and I have started to call her Beah too! Her name doesn't make quite as much sense though... Refried Jumping Beah Curley doesn't have the same ring.

Anyway, here's a little story about Beah, Leah, Mommy and Daddy...

GiggleGiggle

Leah says names... all kind of names... she names people and animals and she lists them over and over....and over... but for months now she's refused to say Grannie. Not in an offensive way, for she is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY about her Grannie and GranStan... but she must not have perfected their names yet. (She simply smiles and rubs her chin when we talk about GranStan... He has a nice beard that Leah loves!)

Early on in her speech development she was saying "giggle-giggle-giggle" and we had no idea what she was talking about... then all of the sudden it started coming together.... I finally captured evidence of Grannie's new name on video.

Of course my favorite part is at the end. Grannie (GiGO or Giggle) was in fact at the store when we talked to her on the phone... and we had discussed Grannie being at the "sto" at great length after getting off the phone.... But Leah changed her mind. No... No.

More funny videos to come.... but don't hold your breath... each one takes me about 24 hours to upload on the stinking blog. Anyone have a suggestion?

Thank you God for Fall...

The horribly oppressive heat and humidity of this summer did not bring out my grateful side... but now that Fall is here and my chronic heat stroke is resolving, Leah and I walk around thanking God for everything He has made.


Thank you God for grass, trees, ponds (and the men who made this particular pond near our house) and ducks.Thank you God for bread to feed the ducks... or to eat... even though it was stale, then frozen, then thawed....

Thank you God for Daddy.

After we fed the ducks all of our stale bread... we did a little playin'

Swinging was ok....

Playing in the tubes was cool...

But sliding was where it was at! She started at the regular old slide, then moved to the taller one, and finally mastered the giant twisty slide!

I have tried to convince Leah that she doesn't have to say "Cheese" when she sees a camera or when I ask her for a smile. Because this is what I get and I already have plenty of these cheesy, crooked, jutting-lower-jaw pictures of her. But I keep getting more!

Ready, Set, GO!! Static!!
That hair is a result of her lightning fast speed as she came down the twisty slide... no less than 35 times. :) Thank you God, for allowing us to take care of this sweet girl of Yours!

Happy 10.10.10!

This was one year ago (10/11/09) on our way home from church... her daddy and I saw a very similar sight today was we looked in the rear-view mirror on our way home from church... I wish I'd taken a picture today.

Topless Tuesday

Granstan's birthday got a little messy... I removed her spaghetti-stained shirt and forgot to re-dress the poor topless baby before we took pictures!


His birthday was 2 weeks ago and wasn't even on a Tuesday!! I just like the title. Happy Birthday again, Granstan. Glad we got to celebrate with you!

the cat and the bat

Leah's latest phase has her only saying the sound an animal makes rather than naming the actual animal. When we put on her new halloween jammies last night (purchased last November for $5!!) we practiced saying "bat and cat" over and over. This morning she woke up telling me all about her cat and bats.


Then at breakfast she put 3 pieces of banana in her mouth at once and began telling me another story.

yeah yeah yeah

Put this video on a loop and watch it for about 5 minutes. Then you'll have a little taste of what my morning was like. :)


Leah's friend Lillie is considering whether or not she wants to continue this friendship...

(I wrote this 2 weeks ago, but was having trouble uploading the video til now.)

whiskers on kittens

A few of Leah's favorite things right now:

Wearing accessories, especially hats...boots...

hats and boots...

sunglasses...
and jewelry... wearing all of her Grannie's jewels at once!!

One of her best 2-syllable words is NECKLACE! :)

She also loves pretending.... she loves to host tea parties and even Beans gets to eat some cake and have some tea... and she loves to pretend with her baby doll. Baby doll gets 3 meals a day.

She has had so much fun in the water this summer... I have hundreds of pictures of her with the water hose in the backyard, at various splash parks in town and playing outside in the water at her grandparent's houses too. I don't know if you know this secret, but all water parks and splash areas are more fun when you are wearing your regular clothes and don't have a swimsuit on... At least Leah Curley thinks so. She always enjoyed them, but whenever we went near any water features in her regular clothes, she was more enthusiastic than usual. :)

Favorite foods of the moment: chocolate ice cream, yogurt covered raisins, waffles (faffels if you ask her), toast (because she likes anything that comes out of the toaster I think...), PB&J sandwiches, PB&Banana sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza and pretty much any snack foods or stuff that is sweet. lovely

Favorite words of the day:

• faffels (waffels)
• tash (trash... she's obsessed with trash right now... she loves it when she finds a random piece of trash that needs throwing away)
• I go (when she is ready to go, you know it... yesterday on our way to her Bibby's house she said "I go I Bibby" over and over for about 5 solid minutes)
• I eat, I up, I down, I daddy, I o-side (I want one of these things)
• No (means NO... unless she is confused and means yes)
• Pees (Please... so sweet, and says it appropriately when she wants something... like stickers from our checker at the grocery store)
• Cheeeese (when you say "can you smile?" or when she wants some cheese)
• Pees (also means actual peas which she enjoys eating, or acorns she finds, or beads that look like peas etc...)
• Que (Thank you.... so I have to drag this one out of her, because she's usually already enthralled with whatever it was that she got with her "please" but its one of my favorites so I added it)
  

memories

This was a year ago today... Don't know why... just feel like reminiscing.

a little backwards

She actually walked about 5 steps like this. Don't ask me why my snow boots are out...

The Year of the Hunt

With twinkling eyes, Kevin informed me the other day that "This is the year of the hunt!" And the year is already in full swing. Dozens of dove lost their lives this labor day weekend in Hood and Concho counties... as Kevin was 1 bird short of getting his limit for 4 days of hunting.

But today seems like it may already be a highlight of the season. Kevin and Beans left the house at 4:45 this morning for opening day of the early teal season, which lasts for about 2 weeks in the middle of September. Each hunter can shoot 4 Blue or Green Winged Teal ducks each day of the early season. And they did. (Blue was the color of the day.) Beans was the only dog this morning and she happily fetched up all the birds for the hunters, once even getting 3 from the water at a time! Kevin has never been more proud of her. She LOVES to hunt!! (I wonder if his other little girl will love it as much? He just asked me if I thought Leah would be ready to go with him next year.) The date says 9/10 but it was really this morning.

These guys have been known to do a little Sunday-morning-pre-church-duck-hunting (only occasionally "losing track of time" and staying too long so that they miss church and have the opportunity to dine on a particular lumberjack breakfast not far from the pond) They have even had the occasional pre-work-weekday-hunting experience.

I'll not be able to re-tell the tale of the morning's hunt with as much exuberance as I just heard it told, but the pictures are worth a glance. If you see Kevin any time soon, you can be sure you'll hear the story firsthand. Thanks for the pictures Keith!

i've got so much honey...

...the bees envy me

.