Leah’s Water Fun Birthday Party

 

Last Saturday, the 18th, Leah had a super-fun 4th birthday party with all her friends from church. I wanted low-key but still memorable, so we set up a kiddie pool, slip ‘n' slide & sprinkler in our backyard. I had planned some games, as well, but really they just enjoyed playing around in the water all afternoon. We had a total of 6 kids, mostly 4 year olds, along with Andrew & one big sister. I think they all had a blast!

 

 

This whole tub of water balloons was gone in seconds. Who needs organized games when you can just throw them at your feet?

 

Not all of them enjoyed the slip ‘n slide, but it definitely got some use!

  

We set up the food outside. I wanted somewhat of a princess theme, but not overboard. Mostly just girly. I kept the cake simple and sweet, with a princess crown and wand.

     

The candles had a hard time staying lit outside, but she loved being sung to. And they all loved the food!

  

The birthday girl had no problem being the star of the show. She talked non-stop the whole time, telling her friends what to do and telling all kinds of stories about her day. I have no doubt she enjoyed being the Princess.

Time for presents! She got fairy wings with a wand, 2 versions of the Candy Land game, a doll whose hair you can style, some puzzles, and dance leotards. Andrew even got a present! Someone brought him a dump truck—he was in heaven!

 

 

 

After it was all over, this little girl was ready to go inside and play with her new things. She said the presents were her favorite part. She and Andrew snuggled up on their new bean bag chairs from Grandma.

 

10 Funny Things (Leah @ 32 Months)...

I know I have done a list like this before, but I like lists. And I like Leah. And I want to remember some of the funny things she says and does. 1. She likes to pretend that big floor lamps are "scary monsters." And she wants Mommy or Daddy to "hide from it" with her. In our room, that consists of going under the covers on the bed. Beneath the covers she says, "Is it still there?," peeks out, screams gleefully, and goes back under. 2. In the morning, her usual cry is "Mommy, I all done sleeping!!" (To which I would love to reply, "I'm not!") She can also be heard saying, "My cover's messed uuuuuup!" 3. We have been learning a hymn a month in our family devotion time, and sing it at bedtime. She now knows all the words to "In Christ Alone" if you sing it along with her. And she carries a tune really well! She is also starting to make up some of her own songs now, and they can be funny!

(She can sing it much better than this-- she just acts silly outside!)

(Here she's working on a "school" worksheet from a new Tracing book I bought her to start learning how to print letters! She understood drawing the straight lines, but not so much the curved lines, like in a maze. She seemed to enjoy it-- at least the part where she got to use a dry erase marker & wipe it clean afterward!)

4. She has a growing selection of VHS movies (Disney & other cartoons), thanks to Nana and various consignment sales I've been to. She will "fixate" on one movie for a week or two until I convince her to watch something else, or bring a new one out, and then she'll move on to that one. She'd watch her weekly favorite 2 or 3 times a day if I let her! Currently, her fave is Mulan, as well as Princess Stories, which are a series of cartoons with some of the Princesses in them. Before that it was Jungle Book 2 (and to this day she still calls Andrew a Jungle Boy when he acts crazy!). Though I usually don't sit down and watch the whole thing with her (neither does she, really-- she plays while watching)-- I can probably sing the songs from all of them! 5. Though she really hates anything in her hair (bows, etc.), her Daddy has convinced her it's fun to put them in just to "show Mommy." So he'll go upstairs, put rubber bands in for pigtails or a ponytail and then make her really excited to show me. (Of course, they come out seconds later, but hey, it's better than nothing). She LOVES to be a "princess" and show me or Brett how pretty she is! 6. She apparently has a lot more friends than those friends even realize. She can play with random kids at the park for just a few minutes and when they leave or go somewhere else, she will say, "Where did my best friends go?" Or, after a Sunday school class cookout where Leah got to play with lots of kids, I heard her say, "These are my best friends!" 7. She has some pronoun trouble; for example: "She's going to she's house." or "He has he's hat on!" 8. Though she really does show great concern for her little brother most of the time (and loves to make him giggle and teach him how to get into mischief), she still hates when he goes anywhere near her toys (and all the toys in our house are hers', apparently). We have been working on sharing, though, and lately she will take him a big pile of baby toys, that she does acknowledge are his. She will surround him with them and then declare, "I was good sharing!!" And she's so proud of herself for sharing his toys with him! When he's moved on to another toy, she will tell me "He gave this to me," so happy that he "let" her play with one of his toys!

(No, I do not normally make a habit of letting my children play with electrical cords. They're actually Andrew's current favorite toy, and you can see how his sister encourages his obsession!)

9. She is able to spot even the tiniest Dora or Disney Princess or Elmo from long distances and will loudly and excitedly announce to everyone that she sees it.

10. She has started to reach the questioning age-- though she doesn't know "why" just yet, she still asks, "What's that?" or "What are you doing?" or "Where are we going?" (and sometimes even if I've told her the answer many many times-- she will ask until she learns it for herself). Though she can be whiny and not always express herself in ways I like, and though she can be irritable when she doesn't obey or do what I expect of her, Leah is a fun little girl, very bright and imaginative, and you never know what to expect!

"Leah-isms", Christmas edition

Leah has really started to express herself a lot more lately and also really just start to "get" things. I wish I could video her saying all the cute things she says, just so I can remember them later, but for now, writing will have to do.

- She really seems to be excited about Christmas this year. She loves to see Santa Clause and waves and calls out his name whenever she sees him out & about. When we first put the tree up, we kept asking her "Isn't it pretty?" so now every day she makes sure she says, "Our tree's priiitty!" (And we must turn it on the minute we enter the house. We have it hooked up to a Clapper, and it's really funny when she tries to clap to turn it on!)

(We made sugar cookies this year-- she actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought she would-- especially since I told her it was okay to eat the batter-- and it took up a lot more time than I thought. Maybe next year we'll attempt decorating the cookies!)

- All snowmen are "Frosty the Snowman" and reindeer are all "Rudolph, red-nosed reindeer." Whenever she hears Christmas music, she makes a request for "Charlie Brown song" from her current favorite movie Charlie Brown's Christmas (or "Smis-mus," in Leah's words).

- When she really likes something, she says, "Oooo, I wub it, Mommy!" And she has mastered "I don't like it!" When we walk in a store with toys or something she recognizes, she always says, "oooo" or "wow!"

- She repeats everything she hears. Last week I kept telling her how pretty she looked in her church clothes, so she went downstairs and said, "My dress is priiittty, Daddy!" Melted my heart!

- Throwing something away or getting rid of it is also known as "FWISH it away!" (Don't know where she got that, but that's what happened to her boo boo as of late-- the doctor "wish"ed it away!)

- Lately she "needs" everything! "I need one more book..." "I need juice!..." "I need another one cookie..." And she will let you know until she gets whatever it is!

- Much to my dismay, she has become a TV junkie. She knows the order of the cartoons on PBS that she watches every day. She also loves America's Funniest Home Videos and watches it with Daddy many nights of the week. When it goes to commercial, she always says, "It's comin' back!" Even when the show is off, she says "It's comin' back!" And we have to just agree with her, or she will get upset. (Well, it is coming back, eventually.)

- She is definitely getting ready for potty training. The past few days she has been telling me, "I didn't poop." I think it's mostly because she hates getting her diaper changed since the MRSA incident. But it's funny how she tells me when she didn't go, but not really when she did!

- She is always bossing things around. She yells "No, ma'am!" to pretty much anything that doesn't do what she wants it to do, especially books. And Andrew.

10 Things About Leah...

Funny things I want to remember about Leah @ this stage:

1. She is afraid of birthday cakes. Well, not the cake itself, but the blowing out of the candles-- as a result of her own birthday party experience. She watched some clips on America's Funniest Home Videos of birthdays and cowered and whined the whole time. Weird...

2. She is currently standing on the second step in our house and yelling something that sounds like "I'm stuck!" (although it comes out "I suck"). I go over there to help, and it turns out she's just tricking me with a huge grin, to get me to come flip her upside down on the steps. Who knew a 2-year-old knew how to be deceptive?


3. She loves to ROAR. "I yion, Mommy..." (I'm a lion.) She goes around roaring all the time. There is a big inflatable spider at the Food Lion where we shop. Apparently, the spider also says "Roar!" She talks about the big spider every time I tell her we're going to the store (no matter what store it is).


4. She's learned how to jump. And it is really cute. She especially loves to jump on our bed, and fall down.

5. The other day she tried to order a "juice box, please!" from the drive-through window at the bank!

6. She has tried, more than once, to "nurse" her Elmo doll or some other doll, by lifting her shirt up and holding the doll up to her. She will tell me "Elmo eating, Mommy."

7. Sarah's dog is Sam. When Leah visits Sarah, she will occasionally help Sarah give Sam her medicine, which she takes wrapped in a slice of cheese. Now, when I give Leah a slice of cheese to eat, she holds it down, saying, "Here, Sam!" Also, whenever she packs up her purse and pretends to leave, I will ask her where she's going. 90% of the time, she says "Sarah's house."



And some not-so-funny things I love:

8. She loves singing from the hymnal. We have family devotion most nights of the week and she just loves to help Daddy get the hymnal and always "conducts" while we sing a song. If she can get her hands on a hymnal, she loves to flip the pages and sing. Most songs have the words "Jesus," "Mommy," or "Daddy" in them.

9. Bedtime is my favorite time of day to spend with Leah. No matter how rotten or whiney she's acted all day, she is almost always sweet at bedtime, and she always looks adorable in her big girl bed. She loves to brush her teeth with her "Elmo toothbrush" and then we sit on her bed and read a book or two. Then she giggles as she lays down and then we say our prayers. Lately I ask her what she wants to pray for and she always gives a really good answer-- "church," or "Daddy safe" or "Grandma." And if I leave anything out of the prayer, she will remind me! I am so thankful for a little girl who already has an appreciation for things of the Lord.

10. She adores her baby brother. She asks about "Baby Andrew" first thing in the morning when she wakes up and any time of day when he's sleeping somewhere out of her sight. If other kids try to touch him, she stands over him and says "No!" She brings him toys to play with (even though minutes later she grabs it back, saying "No, mine!"). She now wants to "hold" him all the time, and she loves to get up in his face and kiss him.

19 month old "Leah-isms"

Little clips about Leah at 19 months:


- Leah thinks yogurt should be a part of every meal. She begins asking for it ("a-ga!") when she first wakes up and doesn't stop until she gets some. However, if I'm lucky, I can pass off applesauce as yogurt, and sometimes other snacks will also temporarily distract her (especially "ti-ti"-- cookies, which can be anything round & sweet). She has gotten very picky with food and it is a struggle to get her to eat almost anything now.






















- For some reason, when Leah wants to color, draw, or type, she calls it "E-I." Apparently those are the only letters of the alphabet that she has picked up, so anything involved letters is "E-I." She is really getting more and more interested in coloring lately and will use a variety of colors in her scribbles. She also loves to play on the computer keyboard.




















- She is really into saying "hi" and "bye" lately. She will say hi to random strangers at the grocery store (unless of course they say hi to her first-- then she is silent). She says "bye" to Brett every day when he leaves for work. She will put her diaper bag over her shoulder and walk around saying "bye" to me as if she's leaving. Here's a video where she can be seen first of all trying to turn on the TV, and then "packing" the remote, her cup and 2 pacifiers into a box and declaring "bye." (Sorry, it might make you a little dizzy at the beginning. She loves the camera too much!)













































- She loves to put on her jacket ("die"-- don't know where that one came from) and has almost figured out how to get it off herself. When its' time to go, she will wait at the coat closet for me to get it out for her and say "die" until we put it on. She also loves her socks & shoes and will "help" to put them on as best as she can!


- She loves to "roar." She has a book called "Roar" with a lion that is one of her current favorites. She will also go into our room in the morning if Brett is sleeping and wake him up by yelling "roar!"


- She loves animals and is getting really good at recognizing them. This is her favorite puzzle. She can usually point to any animal when I name it, and knows almost all of their sounds (with the exception of the horse and sometimes the pig). When she finishes the puzzle, by the way, she exclaims, "Yay!!" and claps, very proud of herself.
















- She covers her eyes when she wants to "hide" from someone. And when playing peekaboo, she usually hides and says "Ya-ya" (her name for herself) loudly, as if we are supposed to be finding "Leah!"


- She apparently is learning motions to some songs in preschool, and imitates a few of them if I sing the song to her. Right now all she knows is "If you're happy and you know it" (she puts her fingers on her cheeks at the part that goes "and your face will surely show it" & it is very cute!) and "Jesus Loves Me" (she puts her hands across her chest, like the word "love"). I love that she is picking up things at school!


- She likes "dubbas" (bubbles) in her "bap" (bath).


- She really doesn't play with many toys, but rather finds her own things to play with. She especially loves books, though, and is almost always perfectly content to sit down and be read to (unless she is feeling more independent & then she would rather sit & read herself). She is picky about her books, too-- they cannot have a lot of words, they usually have to have either a) an animal; b) a Sesame Street character; or c) babies. She may make exceptions for pop-up books or books that have things to touch or do. She always has to have a book when she's in her car seat, and usually insists on carrying one around.























- The kid is in love with apple juice. She must have it first thing when she wakes up in the morning ("juice," said with a pouty face) & from her nap. She will sit & drink an entire cup and then promptly announce "mo'." I have to water it down or should would have teeth full of sugar.





















- She still loves Elmo and will actually sit and watch his cartoon for up to 30 minutes sometimes. I hate to use the TV as a babysitter, but sometimes I've gotta get dinner cooked.... [Insert whiny-faced Leah here]





















- She is very much going through a "mommy-only" separation anxiety phase. She doesn't mind being left at school-- she never cries, but she hates staying with Daddy when I have to leave to go work at night or just go out of the house. She gets over it, of course, and has fun, but she always pitches a fit, and it's not easy on her Daddy. I'm hoping this is a quick phase!



- And for fun, a picture of her baby brother growing inside Mommy's belly (at the end of the 5th month, week 23). I am working very hard on getting her to say "brother" or "baby" or anything! We read her a book about a little girl getting a baby brother. We talk to her about a new baby coming to her house. So far she doesn't get it. We will get there...

Funny Toddler Things

Here are some funny things Leah has said/ done the past few weeks:


- When I tried to tell her the stove was HOT, she started to blow on it, like we do to her food when it is hot.

- When she sees the hair dryer, she tries to imitate its sound. She likes to stand right underneath me when I dry my hair and make the noise.

- She LOVES to go to school. Apparently, she also likes a little boy named Jack in her class. Every time I ask her if she likes school, or if she wants to go to school, her reply is "Jack Jack!"

- She is also in LOVE with Elmo and says his name very clearly. Pretty much 6 out of 10 hours she is awake during the day, I hear "Elmo! Elmo!"

- She has a bit of a shoe fetish and if Brett or I ask her to get our shoes, she will go to our closet and pick out a matching pair (the shoes match each other, but not necessarily what I'm wearing-- although Sunday she sized me up when I asked her, as if she was trying to decide which would look best).

- She is obsessed with her belly button. Anytime she sees mine, she has to check for hers'. She also likes to pick up small crumbs off the floor and put them in her belly button (or her toes, or her ears).

- When she is getting ready to pick up something she is not supposed to have, sometimes I will say, "Oh, no you don't!" Now, when she goes to grab the remote control, I believe she thinks "Oh no" is it's name, because she will reach for it, saying "Ohno!"

- She seems to understand when we are praying, and at the end she always says "A!," her version of "Amen."

10 Funny Things

10 Funny Things Leah does that make her so lovable & so much fun lately:
(This is mostly so I can remember these things when she's whining 60 million times out of the day.)

1. She has learned to say "hi." After I take a shower, I open the door to the bathroom and there she is, sitting on the floor with a big grin-- "Hi!" She will also say it to me when I pick her up from school. Many times she adds a big wave.

2. She has become very cuddly in the mornings and after her nap when she first wakes up. She'll lay on my chest for a few minutes to wake up. She's soft & cozy and fun to hug. Then when she wakes up, she's AWAKE and starts giggling and is ready to go,go,go.

3. She thinks the craziest things are funny. She especially loves to put her finger in my mouth. (It is even funnier, though, when I pretend to be a monster and eat it.) She thinks its hilarious when I put things on my head & let them fall off. She also laughs sometimes when she's getting ready to get into something she knows she shouldn't, like the toilet paper roll. And lately it's funny to scrunch up her body at diaper-changing time so I can't pull her legs down to get the diaper on. It's frustrating but I can't help but laugh.

4. She knows the sound a dog makes, and every once in awhile, if she sees one, she says "woof." (This happens almost every time we get out of the car at home now, too, because there is a dog across the street that is constantly barking. She looks around for him saying "oof."

5. She just started calling a balloon a "bop" because I sometimes take one that we have & hit her on the head with it, saying "bop bop bop." So now that's the name of it.

6. When Daddy comes home is apparently the funnest time! If we wait outside, she starts to giggle & squeal and curl up her little body from the second she sees his car. She always starts to point at him before he even gets out of the car. The other day she even said, "Daddy!" Of course, then he picks her up & tickles her and there is much more giggling & squealing. (I'm not too offended, though, because usually after that's all over, she holds her arms up for me to pick her up & hold her. If both of us are home, she prefers me.)

7. She loves to be my "helper." She likes to "help" me: turn off the light switch, buckle her car seat (since she's in her new one now!), pick up leaves or crumbs off the floor (she looks up & hands the item to me-- at least she doesn't put them in her mouth!), "wash" the bathtub with her washcloth, unload the dishwasher (of course, I put plastic dishes where she can reach them so she doesn't break things), etc....

8. She is finally interested in books. I can give her one to look at and she will sit & flip through the pages, sometimes pointing her finger at pictures or words, and sometimes even make sounds like she's "reading." She loves to look at a book when she's riding in the car. And she'll sit still long enough before bedtime for me to read some to her.

9. She is so tender with her dolls & stuffed animals. She always picks them up & hugs them to her, patting them on the back. She will sometimes try to "feed" them with a bottle or cup.

10. When she does not want to take her nap or go to sleep, she will "rebel" by throwing things out of her crib: the pillow, the paci, the blanket, Pooh, and-- the other day, she even threw out her pants! When I went to get her, there she stood, giggling, wearing nothing but a onesie.