Baby Proofing

Most of winter break was spent baby proofing our home. Leah has been army crawling for a few months now, but since she has started pulling herself up we had to bust out the baby gate. While we were putting it up she was right next to us checking it out. I'm sure she was thinking, "oh no, one more thing for them to say 'not for babies'" ha! In any case, she doesn't get upset by it being up. She actually enjoys standing while holding on to it. So far, so good!

Kids & Technology

Since Leah was born she has been fascinated with our cell phones, lap tops, and ipads. With her new mobile abilities; however, we no longer let her "play" with our phones. Trevor was organizing our office and found my old touch-screen instinct phone. He charged it and it does everything except connect calls. She is in cell phone baby heaven! It lights up, vibrates, makes noise. She pretends she is texting and holds it up to her ear. Now, I just have to make sure she doesn't accidently dial 911.

Pulling Up & Standing Up

A new milestone, Merry Christmas. We found Leah in this position after her nap. She didn't even make a peep, no struggle to get in this position. All we heard in the monitor was "ay". It was almost as if she was calling for us to check out her new skill. Trevor and I went in together that afternoon and the next morning, just to show her how excited we were. I have a feeling this will be how we find her every time. I can't believe how quickly she is growing.

Merry Christmas

So this is the ONLY picture I have of Leah from Christmas. Uncle Mario was so happy to take this pic with her. We took many minutes of video recording, but this is the only snapshot! We spent Christmas Eve in Des Plaines and Christmas Day in Clinton. Leah got a lot of clothes, and so many new toys. She loved unwrapping and knew that once the paper was gone, it was time for the next present! It was a beautiful weekend of family, food, faith, and fun.

Leah's First Homemade Loaf of Bread

My Nonna has always been a fabulous cook. Her specialty is her bread and cookies. Since I was young, she has made bread on a biweekly basis. We'd all go over there and snack on fresh, warm bread with different cheeses, Italian cold-cuts, and olives. We are preparing for Christmas, so of course she has completed her holidays cookies and today was bread day. Bisnonna made Leah her very own "baby" loaf for her to have. (Bisnonna forgets that Leah is still working on getting more teeth). Leah loved looking at it, holding it, and licking it. No bites were taken, but Leah was right there with us experiencing the tradition!

Daycare Christmas Party

Today at daycare was a Christmas pajama party with a Polar Express theme. All the kids made a train car and sat in it to watch the movie. Leah's was made for her, but she obviously felt like a big kid sitting in it with the other kids. The big kids made gingerbread houses on this day as well. Looked like a fun time!

MaMa's 80th Birthday

Yesterday was MaMa's birthday and today we celebrated with a family dinner. We ate chinese and had my mother-in-laws fabulous chocolate cake for dessert! Leah was so happy and social the whole time. We were a bit nervous because her naps have been horrible due to teething, but again she surprised and impressed us with her adaptability! Leah is MaMa's first, and currently only, great-grandchild so of course they have a special bond. Hopefully they will have many more birthdays together!

LaDona's Birthday

Today is LaDona's birthday. Since it's the weekend, and we wouldn't see her, we sent LaDona this picture. LaDona has taken such great care of Leah as her daycare provider. I was a mess about going back to work, but after a few weeks of seeing how happy and well taken care of Leah was, I too adjusted. She loves her as if she's her own child and I know this because Leah leaps from my arms when I drop her off every morning...what more could I want! =)

More Teeth

Leah's two top front teeth are in! Of course, this also means crabbiness and stuffy/runny nose. Poor kid, she is a trooper as always. Completely content during the day, but nights are tough on her. I HATE sleeping all stuffed up, so I completely feel for her. The good news is though, she can start eating small pieces of table food. We already tried baby puffs (which melt immediately) and she had some difficulties choking those down. So hopefully the two top teeth will help this process along! Now to REALLY make sure I get EVERYTHING off my floors...ha!

All Kinds of Play

The joy of being a baby is playing. Although Leah get super excited over certain toys/dolls, she is also great and just playing with whatever is in front of her. Whether it's a doll, car, or a basket of randoms she is perfectly content.

Gaining Independence

Although she prefers to be with people, Leah is doing really well playing on her own in the walker. She scoots herself to the fridge and plays with the magnets at daycare. But, usually she look at us like, "Pick me up already".

The Many Faces of Leah

Smiley face, food face, funny face, "you lookin at me" face, etc. I love them all!

Pulling Up

Yet another milestone...Leah is pulling herself up completely on her own. She was army crawling like usual, when I took notice that she was reaching up to her animals on her saucer. Little by little, she worked her little arms up the sides, and got in a kneeling position. She's still too wobbly to actually stand up on her own, but she stayed kneeling for about 3 minutes playing with the animals. She would randomly turn to look at us and laugh, I think she knew she had achieved something completely new.

First Craft Activity

I forgot to put this up a couple weeks ago when we actually got it. Leah is the baby at daycare, so she rarely brings home any activities or crafts. However, for Thanksgiving this is what was sent home in her bag. A fine motor finger painting craft. And, of course, it's still hanging on our fridge! =)

Little Miss Social

Leah has been a people person for a long time. But, most recently she LOVES being with anyone other than me or Trevor. Therefore, daycare has been a GREAT thing! All the kids get along so great, and LaDona's daughters are good helpers. These are some pics of her socializing!

8 Months

Well, 2/3 of the year spent together! Leah is eating some new foods, meats, and hates them! Am I raising a vegetarian? HA! She gags at the smallest taste of any meat, so we've had to trick her by mixing it with some straight vegetables. Poor kid, I don't blame her...but she must get used to it. She is starting to nap for longer amounts of time, a whole hour and a half! Hey, I'll take it! She is practicing using a spoon herself, and is also drinking out of a sippy cup, although she prefers just the cup...she thinks she's older than she really is. She claps her hands to "patty cake", and she tips over to "I'm a little teapot". She has been crawling for about 6 weeks, gives kisses, and waves good-bye. We are just so blessed, and very excited for Christmas! =)

Catching Up

I am finally off the couch and feeling better. The flu hit me hard, but today I had to run some errands. My mom came to help with Leah since I am still trying to play catch up with rest, so we decided to go get her a stocking for the mantle. It is so exciting to finally see three hanging next to each other. There were also some great sales, so I decided to buy Leah a walker. She is SO sick of just sitting in a saucer! She almost refuses to sit in it, so we felt it was time for something new and mobile. She LOVES it! Even though she spends more time laying under it more than she is in it. The new independence is quite exciting, as you can tell from the picture!

Mommy & Daddy Have the Flu

Well, Trevor and I are both victims of the stomach flu! Which means...we had to ship Leah off to my parents' for a couple days. We spend most of today sleeping, and we both need to return to work tomorrow since finals are only about 2 weeks away. But, we definitely need to get our house disinfected before Leah can crawl around in here! These are some pics that my mom sent. One was her ride home (not missing us at all), and the other was bath time.

See Ya Later November

Well, it is finally the end of November! This month has been forever long, and really a bit of a pain. I am glad to see it end! The most exciting thing about this month is Leah's mobility. She has been a perfect army crawler! And, most recently the back-and-forth rocking has begun! I love these pics that our daycare provider captured. Each picture is best representation of November: here...I...come!

Playtime with Daddy

Trevor has been waiting patiently for Leah to get to this stage, the stage where he can rough-house with her. He is fortunate, because although she loves dresses and bows...she laughs hysterically when we get loud and wacky. Here is what defines wacky in our house: rolling together on the floor, crawling after her as we scream "I'm gonna get you", dancing the tango and quick step (which we saw on dancing with the stars), and squealing "it's bath time"! Now that you have all those images in your head, you can see why we are enjoying this stage so much!

6 Month Photo Shoot

A bit delayed, but here are some pictures from Leah's 6 month photo shoot. Love, love, love!

Finally Home

We spent this whole weekend with both sides of our family. Which means we spent 6 hours driving in the car. Luckily, the minivan has made our travels much more enjoyable and roomy. This was the last picture of our weekend. Complete exhaustion.

Happy Thanksgiving

We have had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend thusfar. We have spent two days in Des Plaines, and will spend the next two in Clinton. Being a mother this Thanksgiving has made me reflect more emotionally than I have in the past. The frustration of sleepless nights, the exhaustion of long days of working as a teacher and then coming home to my mommy job, the heart ache when she is sick...is all worth it. It is your heart, moving around outside of your body. Oh so very thankful this year for so many things: most importantly, a healthy daughter, loving and helpful family, friends who make me laugh, a job that gives me satisfaction, my health, and overall happiness.

Busy Girl at Daycare

Leah has been very busy at daycare. She has been reading books, playing with puzzles, learning to share, crawling around, and her favorite...holding the remote control. Daycare has really helped her be to a social kid and have very little stranger anxiety. Most of the little friends this week got the flu, so hopefully they will all recover and be back to play on Monday after the long holiday weekend.

Fifths Virus

Well, Leah has gotten her first virus. Started with a couple days of a lower grade fever and picky eating. I thought she was teething, but a day later her whole body broke out in a rash that had a texture when touched. The doctor tested for strep, but it was negative...thank God! Therefore, the assumed virus is called fifths. A lot of my work friends said their children have gotten this and it passes within a few days. Fever went away and no other symptoms. So, I guess, this is the virus to get if you have to have one. So glad the fever broke, she is back to her old happy self again!

Traveling Girl

I am very fortunate that Leah is a good traveler. Mainly, because we have to drive quite some time to get to our parents' homes. She usually starts to smile as I excitedly sing, "we're goooooing on a caaaaar ride." Of course, Trevor thinks I'm nuts...but she's never quite as smiley when daddy is the one packing her up. Trevor and I also LOVE just driving around town: driving through the country, looking at big expensive homes, and driving across town to our first home together to see how the neighborhood looks. Hopefully, Leah will continue to love drives and this can be something we all do together once in a while.

Who Wants to Play?

Leah is definitely to the stage of wanting to be entertained. She does okay playing alone for a while, but wants to either play with someone or be in the same room with people. This seems fine, until mom has tons of house chores to catch up on and dad is just plain exhausted. I snapped this picture while balancing laundry, cooking and organzing clutter. Trevor decided he would just "play" with the baby while I did all that. I love that Leah is just staring, wondering, "what does he think he is doing? This is not playing!" I couldn't resist this photo opportunity.