Monday, July 26, 2010

doctor week, fun weekend!

Last week was doctor week. We had Leah's 15 month appointment, a checkup for her birthmark, and I had a dentist appointment. All good appointments :) Over the weekend, we played a ton. Luke worked from home on Friday, so Leah was able to see him during the day, which was great. On Saturday, we ran errands together, and did some gardening. On Sunday, we went to church, did more gardening, and went to the pool! It was so fun. Leah loved hanging out and splashing around in the wading pool the best.

Monday, July 19, 2010

15 month checkup

Leah checked in at 35 inches(>100%) and 22 pounds (35%) today. One shot, which she took like a champ. We'll head back in for her when she's 18 months (with her new little sister in tow!)

Saturday, July 17, 2010

parades and swimming and gardening. :)

Last weekend, Leah and Lenna were in the Redmond Derby Days parade - the girls had a blast in their decked out red, white, and blue wagon. During the week, we had our last week of swimming. Leah had such a blast. They have a blue floating mat for the kids to crawl across, and the first week, Leah was so scared to go across it. On our last day, it was no big deal and she went across as many times as they'd let her.

We went to the park a whole bunch too, because Leah talks about it pretty constantly. If you ask her about what's at the park, she'll tell you about the 'dwings', the 'dlide', the 'wocker' and the 'pinner'. And as soon as we get within sight of the park, she starts climbing up and out of her stroller in happy screams. She can climb up the stairs to the slide all by herself now, and get positioned and come down all by herself. It's crazy awesome.

Today Daddy was home, and so we did tons of gardening. We took two trips over to home depot, and Leah loved smelling the Jasmine tree.

With all that we've been doing, Leah has been a sleeping machine. She asks to go to bed around 6:30, and sleeps until about 7:30. She lays down for a quiet time in the early morning for about an hour (just hangs out in bed and relaxes), and then goes down for a big 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. I'm writing this so that when this sleeping schedule changes and I'm not this lucky anymore, or when Rory is here and I'm sleep deprived and have no "me" time, that I'll remember that I once totally had it made. :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

To my Leah.

My sweet Leah,

I love you. When I was pregnant with you, I thought so much about what you'd be like... what you'd look like, what you'd feel like when I snuggled you, what it would be like when you said mommy for the first time,

I knew you'd be cute, and I knew we'd have lots of fun, and I knew I'd love you even if you cried all the time and you made me go weeks without sleep... but I never realized I could love you as much as I do.

I think you're absolutely the coolest person I've ever met, and I tell you this almost every day now, but I really want to be like you when I grow up.

I want to be nearly-constantly joyful like you are. Not just content, but joyful.

I want to be more enthusiastic like you are. Not just going along with what other people want, but pushing myself to find something exciting about it, even when I'm not at first. I love that you always take a few moments to scope things out, but once you realize it's something fun and good, you're all over it. You went from crying in the pool two days ago to jumping in and going underwater (and giggling about it) today. I will always try to give you a couple moments to check things out, and I hope you'll forgive me when I get too excited and push you into something that I know you'll love.

I want to be more honest like you are. You don't over-dramatize. You aren't passive-aggressive. You don't hold grudges. You let me know when you're not happy, and then you move on.

I want to be an explorer like you are. You patiently sit and discover things. You have an incredible attention-span. You let people teach you things without worry that they'll think they're smarter than you.

I want to be tough like you are. You shake off cuts, trips, falls, bumps and bruises like no one I've ever known. I worried when you were a newborn that you had the weird illness where you don't feel pain. Turns out you do feel pain, you just don't let it ruin your day. Blows me away.

I want to be as self-confident as you are. You don't care at all what you're wearing, or what people think about what you're wearing. You don't care that most of the time you have your lunch on your face or have really sweaty feeties. You don't care that you have a big red bump on your head. When kids come up to investigate your birth mark, you just smile and try to play with them. I know some of this may be that you just aren't aware of what you're wearing, or what you look like, but it makes me wonder if maybe I wouldn't be better off not studying myself quite so much.

I desperately want to love like you love. In your 14 months with us, you've managed to learn so much about different ways that different people want to be loved. Daddy likes to play, Grandmas and Grandpas love to read, and Mommy LOVES to snuggle. Your kisses are perfect. Today you lifted up my shirt and said "kiss the baby" and kissed my belly. I have no idea what you think is going on in there, but you know it needs a kiss. You're going to be a rockin' big sister.

At about 9pm every night, I miss you so much and sometimes want to sneak in and wake you up to snuggle and play. And in the morning, hearing your little voice calling daddy to come get you is the best alarm clock ever.

I love you. I hope I can show you how much I do every day.

summer is here!!!

Summer finally finally finally came to Seattle this week. On the last day of non-summer, Leah was in the 4th of July parade in Kirkland. Her wagon was all decked out, and she looked pretty cute in her red, white and blue. The next day, summer came at about 4pm, just in time for a BBQ at the Lundells'. Tuesday was our very first day of swimming lessons - it was a bit chilly in the morning, but started to warm up. And on Wednesday, it was so so so hot, so we swam all day! We had swim lessons in the morning, and headed over to Clara's pool to swim in the afternoon. Leah is doing so well in the pool... she went from being shivery and sad on Tuesday to jumping off the side of the pool and going underwater today. She loves it. We have her pool and water table all set up for some post-nap fun this afternoon.