Smartest girl alive

I know Mike already blogged about this, but I wanted to tell it too in case you don't check Mike's blog. Last night he called me into the craft room where he and Leah were playing around on the Paint program. He said, "Watch this," and he wrote H-A-T on the screen. Leah spelled it out first, then proceeded to say the sounds for each letter. It took a few tries to blend it together, but without help from us she figured out it said hat! Next we did frog, but I think that was too hard (the F-R blend AND the unusual O sound), but she got the next one, pig. It was pretty exciting.

I have to say though, I attribute a little of it to this new DVD we got called Letter Factory by Leapfrog (they have it at Target for $10). I was at the bookstore the other day in the children's section and I overheard two women talking. One said that her son had been watching this video and within a week was sounding out small words. So we ran right over to Target and picked it up. Leah has watched it twice and already is understanding letter-sound relationships. The next DVD in the series is the Talking Words Factory, which teaches them how to put sounds together to make words. In fact, this pack may be your best bet as its got the whole series plus Math Circus. It got absolutely fabulous reviews. I highly, highly recommend either the pack or the first DVD to see how it goes. I wish I had seen the pack before I bought the first one by itself.

MNO

Mom's Night Out (MNO) was a blast last night. I made the Tokyo Tuna (we never buy tuna so it will be fun to eat something unusual) and I won the door prize of a dessert. I chose Key Lime Freeze. After the event, about 8 of us went across the street for a glass of wine and chit-chat. I really got to know about 3 of the moms and liked everyone I met. I am definitely looking forward to more events with this group.

Leah has had a low grade fever since yesterday afternoon. She is staying home from school today and will hopefully make a full recovery by tomorrow afternoon so she can attend a classmate's birthday party.

Our new haircuts

What do you guys think? You can't really see my color because I took this in my bathroom and the light stinks.

We confess...

Leah was not RIDING a snowboard. Mike's snowboard hangs on the wall in the music room. She was tugging on a little string hanging from it and it fell on her face, right between her eyes. Mike thought it would be funny to write it like she was actually snowboarding. Maybe she will in March!

Snowboard accident

Leah had a snowboard accident. Here is the result:

First Born Survey

This was stolen from Facebook. I don't like to put too personal of stuff on there for people I knew a million years ago to read. So you want to participate, feel free.

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your first born!

Let's see how much you remember!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Scared, excited

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Not on a planned pregnancy

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 26

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Peed on a stick at Stacy's house the week of her wedding

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Mike & Stacy were waiting downstairs

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Oh yes!

9. DUE DATE? May 19, 2005

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not really

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? milkshakes and cereal

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? my sciatic nerve

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Girl

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Oh no!

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 50

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? yes, several

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? The first in N.O. was a surprise. I was barely pregnant but I wouldn't be back there until after the baby was born, so they threw me one anyway.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? nope

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 41 hours

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Mike, Stacy was in the back seat and my mom was following

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Mike, Stacy, my mom

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? Thank god for epidurals

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 6lbs 11oz

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? May 17, 2005

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Leah Cathleen

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 3 1/2

As the world turns

We finally had no drama today. Erin was not sick, she napped 3 hrs. Leah watched Tinkerbell while I napped. She said that she had a headache a lot of the day and a tummyache at times. Don't know what that was about. Hopefully she doesn't get that stomach bug tonight.

We loaded up and went to the mall this afternoon to buy Leah Crocs with the fur lining because she HATES socks. I mean writhing, fit-pitching every time I ask her to put socks on. She claims they feel funny. So I thought maybe with those Crocs she wouldn't have to wear socks as often. And I got a pair too at buy one get one 1/2 off. We played at the playplace, then went to Toys R Us to buy Ian's birthday present. I did not have a stroller the entire trip but Erin did SO well at the mall. She stayed close and listened when I talked.

All in all, much better day. Thanks for listening. :)

Night of the Living Dead

As I am sure you can ascertain from my last post, last night was straight from hell. Leah woke up coughing at like 9pm, but she fell back asleep before I could get back upstairs with her warm juice. Then at 1:30 Erin woke up throwing up (BAD, all over her bed and onto the floor. Her room reeked of vomit all night) and continued to throw up every 1/2 hour until 4:30.

At 4:45 just when I was dosing back off for the first time, Leah comes into our room claiming she has to pee. When she has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, she usually comes into our room so she doesn't wake Erin up by using their bathroom (so sweet). Anyway, I hear her in the bathroom quietly crying to herself, so I go in to check on her. She says, "I don't ever want to play in the pile of leaves again." What? "Or on Daddy's ramps." I have no idea what she is talking about, so I bend down to comfort her and I see dried blood smeared from her nose all the way to her left ear. Her hands and her jammies have dried blood on them. I started to freak out a little but she said she wasn't hurt. Her nose looked full of blood so I had her blow it. There was quite a bit of blood and some was a little clotted so it came out in big globs (TMI, I know). When I tried to wipe her hands, she started freaking out and talking about splinters. I think she was dreaming of when we took her splinter out and thought that is what I was doing. It makes sense with the not playing on the ramps, because that's how she got the splinter to start with.

Anyway, she was scared, so she climbed into out bed for the rest of the night, which is a SUPER rare occurrence in our house because I usually don't get any sleep with her there. She always crowds against me and somehow wedges her elbow right under my shoulder blade. But I managed to sleep a little before I got up to call and tell Laurie Erin wouldn't be going to school today.

I want a nap!

Baby talk

Conversation with Leah at bedtime:

We were talking about whose birthday is next (is that grammatically correct? whose?) and I told her it was Ian's. Here is how it went:

A: You know whose birthday will come before Ian's? Baby Weston's! (Tiff is ready to POP!)
L: Can I go see him when he comes home?
A: Sure. And after Andy's birthday, Ian's new baby brother or sister will be born.
L: When will my new baby brother or sister be born?
A: I don't know. There is no baby in my tummy yet.
L: Why not?
A: Because we haven't tried to have a baby yet.
L: Can we try tomorrow?
A: No, baby. But we will soon.
L: How does the baby get in your tummy? Is there like a control that puts them in there? (I guess she meant like a remote?)
A: Daddy helps put the babies in my tummy. He helped put you in there. He helped put Erin in there.
L: I didn't see him put Erin in there.
A: That's because it's a secret.
L: No, it's not, Mommy.
A: Oh, look at that! Song is over. Good night sweetie.

AHHHH! I got out of that one as delicately as I could. How much am I going to have to tell her? I want to be as honest as I can without giving too much info. Hopefully she won't remember to ask about it again tomorrow, but I wouldn't put it past her.

Pajama Day

Leah is SUPER excited because tomorrow she gets to wear her pajamas to school and bring her blankie and a teddy bear. Tonight she made Mike ask her at least 3 times, "Do you know what tomorrow is?" And as she lay in bed she told me, "Mom, I will remind you in the morning that I don't have to take my pajamas off." I told her that I wouldn't forget. She said, "I will remind you anyway."

I love that school can make her so giddy.

Triathlon bummer

I logged onto the tri website on January 5th (the day after they opened registration) and the race we wanted to participate in was already full.

And there went my triathlon hopes. Just like that.

Mike and I are still going to do a "triathlon" in our own neck of the woods. We plan to swim at our gym, then bike and run from there to get a time for ourselves. It doesn't matter now when we do it, so there is no particular date. Just a day that it isn't too cold would be good.

Because of this issue, we pondered briefly on the idea of trying to get pregnant in February. We would only have the one shot. That baby would be born in November. That would give us time to attend Brittany's wedding in January. If it didn't work, we would have to wait until at least June in order not to conflict with the wedding. And if we are already waiting until June, it may as well be July so we can enjoy our cruise witha clear conscience. So we are back at July again.

In other news, Mike & I decided to start Erin at Leah's school in February on Tue/Thurs. Chase started there today, so they would be in the same class. Then I would have time to spend one-on-one with each kid. And I know Leah needs it. She rarely gets time alone with me. It will be fun to do errands with just her since she is easier to handle.

I think that is all that is new with us.

Back to school - NOT

I was very much looking forward to Leah returning to school today. Alas that is not the case. She was up a lot of the night with fever AND coughing. Leah often coughs to the point of throwing up, so that happened too. I ended up sleeping in her room from 5-7:30am after being up with her at 4. It was a strange night, she fell asleep the night before at 5pm and slept til 7:30. Then she was awake until 9:30, but coughed in her room from 9:30 until 11 when she finally threw up. It was a miserable night all around. Thank goodness Erin slept all night.

My goals today are to complete my chores (clean the bathrooms and vacuum upstairs), ride our new (to us) stationary bike for 58 minutes, and stick to WW points for eating my meals. I also wouldn't mind napping when Erin naps due to lack of sleep last night. So that means I need to complete these things while she is awake. No easy task. At least Leah will be lounging watching TV most of the day (and I don't have to feel guilty about it, she's sick) so she will be pretty easy to handle.

Now that we are back to our boring everyday life (which I am pretty happy about for now), these blog entries will be pretty boring to read, I bet.

Oh my God, PLEASE stop the coughing!

My two girls are currently coughing fiends at night. They are in the middle of a raging cold and the drainage is awful. BOTH of them have coughing fits that last upwards of an hour at night. Thank goodness lately Leah's have been coming AFTER she wakes up in the morning, but Erin's came last night RIGHT after I had finally dropped off to sleep at 12:30. She cried and cried while coughing, so I went in and rocked her during which she promptly fell asleep. This happened 4 more times over a 2 hour period. Then when Leah wandered in at 7am, she laid in our bed and hacked up a lung for like 20 minutes. Over the monitor I could hear Erin start in too and all I could think was, Oh sweet Jesus, please save me from the coughing.

From one to the next

Leah woke up at 10:15 throwing up. 3 rounds so far. Here's hoping it passes as quickly as Erin's did...

Leah's Thanksgiving feast

I love being a mom. We got to go to Leah's preschool today and attend her Thanksgiving feast. Before the lunch (potluck), each class sang a song. Leah's class sang a funny song about the Pharoahs (for the lyrics, click here) and they dressed up as Indians. The four year old class were Pilgrims, the ones and twos were turkeys. I got a little teary watching her up on stage performing.

Both 3 year old classes

Leah rocking out

How adorable are these munchkins?

Confession

I have a confession to make. I thumped my daughter this morning. We were on our way in to school from the car. Ian was asking Leah a question and she wouldn't answer him. He kept saying, "Leah? Leeee-aaaaah?" over and over. I was behind Leah and I thumped her on the head. Not even hard, just to get her attention.

And she lost it.

She started crying so hard you would think I backhanded her. Screaming crying. In the parking lot of their preschool. With all the other parents watching. And some teachers.

Everyone was asking her what was wrong and did she fall down, was she okay, etc. It was such drama. The worst part was I knew it was my fault. Even though she was crying a disproportionate amount to what I did, I still knew I caused it. I felt awful.

When we got to her classroom, her teacher swooped her up and cuddled her. I tried to explain what had happened, but they kept saying things like, "Mommy didn't mean to thump you." That made me feel even worse. I did mean to thump her, just not enough to hurt (and I don't think it did hurt, I think it was all drama). It wasn't as though I lost my temper and spanked her. I wasn't even mad at her. I was just trying to get her attention.

I took her back and got her all calmed down, but then she didn't want to stay at school. I had to promise her McDonald's for lunch and to watch a movie when she got home.

I feel like crap about it. Some parent I am.

Various & sundry items

Item 1 - After I dropped our camera in the lake in Michigan on the first day of our trip, we weren't sure what to do. The camera dried out and worked fine, but a water spot dried somewhere inside making not only the view through the camera blurry, but the image itself. We took it to a camera shop at the end of August. The man said that they would let us know, but if the spot was in a certain place, then they would not be able to get to it. About 6 weeks later, the repair shop called and said that they were able to improve the image, but not completely get rid of the spot. They were not charging us for the repair since they weren't able to fix it completely. I said thanks, then promptly forgot about the camera since I couldn't really use it. They have called us twice to remind us to come pick up the camera but it has never been convenient (it's about 30 min away). Finally yesterday I stopped by to pick the camera up. The battery was dead, so I took it home to charge just to see what the picture quality was. You be the judge:



Item 2 - I took the girls to Monkey Joe's today after their flu shots. Leah's preschool sponsored a session there. I had not been there with Erin since she was too little to let out of the stroller. Well, today she LOVED IT! She climbed around the toddler areas. Then I took her down some of the bigger slides and she screamed and clapped and grinned her little head off. In the big bouncy house, it was very slippery. Erin rolled around chasing the beach balls that were in there. I got sweaty chasing her around. It was such a good time. Too bad my new and improved camera was at home on my sofa.

Item 3 - I have decided that Erin is in the most physically exhausting stage (for a mother) and Leah is in the most mentally exhausting stage. I CONSTANTLY have to be chasing Erin around. If a gate or a door opens she is through it before you can even think about closing it. She is all the way to Chase's house before I even get out of the garage. She is always finding something on my floor to put in her mouth. If I open the fridge, she is immediately climbing the shelves calling for her "na" (milk). If a chair is not pushed in at the kitchen table, she is climbing on it and soon will be on the table too. Yesterday I was putting her to bed when the timer on the stove went off (I had cookies in the oven). I shut her in her bedroom and went down to get the cookies out. I did not lock the upstairs gate because I was coming right back and Erin was shut in her room. She can't open doors. But Leah can. When I came back upstairs 30 seconds later, Erin was on the second step from the top, just sitting there. Leah, of course, had no idea why I had shut Erin in her room. I almost had a heart attack. That kid!

As far as Leah being mentally exhausting, she is just constantly asking questions. I have to explain everything. The one we discussed today was, "Where was I before I was in your belly?" I tried to explain nowhere, but that was not making her happy. So I told her a little about the eggs in the Mommy which is where all her kids are before they grow in her belly. Then she wanted to know how the baby comes out. I just told her that you go to the hospital and the doctor helps the baby come out. She didn't question that any further (thank goodness) but did declare that she wanted a girl doctor when she was ready to have her own babies. How am I supposed to keep up with this little smartie?

Leah can swim

Not only that, but she can swim underwater too! We went to the pool this weekend. Last time we were there, Leah decided to swim without her life jacket on and she did really well. She still doesn't like to jump in and she won't go where she can't touch. But either way that's great! SO this time I told her about closing her eyes and holding her breath. She took right to it! I have to get her some goggles before the next time we swim. If I can convince her to put them on (she doesn't like the way they feel), she will LOVE being able to see all over the pool. Without further ado, I give you Leah swimming!

Leah's first fib?

On Wednesday evening, we were waiting on the porch for Mike to come home. Leah was pulling a few weeds in the garden when all of a sudden she shouted that her hand was hurting. I looked and it was the tiniest scrape, no blood even. So we patched her up.

The next day she told me it was hurting again. She claimed the scrape was from a "mean girl" at school. She told me this whole elaborate thing about how the girl wanted Leah to "be in her family" but Leah didn't want to so the girl scraped Leah with her fingernail. I asked her if she told the teacher and she said yes and the girl got sent to time out.

The whole story sounded suspicious to me, so I asked her teachers about it today. Both of them said they had never heard a thing about this incident. So I will have to talk to Leah about it later today.

I wonder though, because a couple of days ago, Ian came home telling us about a "mean boy" on the playground who was bullying him. So did Leah feel the need to have her very own mean kid story? Or are the kids at this school pretty pesty?

I am inclined to believe that Leah has told me her first fib. I hope this is not how things are going from here on out. I enjoy having Leah tell me straight out that she hit Erin, so I can put her into time out based on her own word. :) But I guess they all figure that out sooner or later.

Update: Leah and I discussed things later and she did finally admit to me that she made the story up. I told her it's okay to tell me interesting stories as long as she says, "Mama, I'm just teasing," if it's not a true story. I think she kinda gets it.

The bread winner

So yesterday morning, Leah got up and was in the bathroom with Mike while he got ready for work. I didn't hear the whole conversation, but I assume she asked why he had to go to work. He answered that he had to make money so that we could pay for our house. And my darling girl said, "I have lots of money in my piggy bank. I can pay for our house." I teared up, it was such a sweet thing to say. Mike told her that she had a LONG time before she had to worry about money. I love that kid!