Leah at 18 months

Our little Leah is officially a little girl but she will forever be my "Baby Love." Leah turned 18 months and is the joy of my heart. She still loves me and needs me in a way my older kids have outgrown. Leah knows that she is sooo cute and adored in our family but she in turn loves each family member as well. She says "Abi" really well and likes Abi to read to her, or hold her or help her with things. Talmage is really good to play with her. When Daddy comes home at night she runs for the door with up stretched arms squealing "Dadoo, Dadoo." In the middle of the night or when hurt or sad she still calls out "Mom, Mom," though.


Leah is really enjoying the Christmas season. She helps un-decorate the lower branches of our tree. She points at our tree and says, "Pretty, On!!!" indicating that she wants us to turn on the lights. Our Little People manger set is her favorite though. She always seems press the star to turn on the song during family prayer. She likes to carry the characters, especially Baby Jesus and the animals around, even to bed. So far she has only looked at the presents under the tree but she loved dancing on the unrolled wrapping paper as we tried to wrap presents. It made a nice crinkly sound. We went and visited Santa after the Downtown tree lighting and she did really well. At first she was curious about this strange man, then she got close enough to him that Abi could hold her for a picture and finally she let him hold her for a picture, but just for a minute.


Leah remains tall and skinny but her weight and her appetite are picking up. She is 33 1/2 inches tall which is the 95% for height, and 21.4 lbs for weight which is the 10%. I think that is the highest percentile for her weight since she was born. Leah had gone through a really picky stage but she is surprising me how much she will eat at some meals. Here she is eating a favorite - Mac & Cheese and peas. She also loves instant oatmeal, cream of wheat, tomato soup, any pasta with tomato sauce, apples without the skin, grapes, yogurt and anything with sauce. We have to be careful to keep all ketchup, jam, salad dressing etc. out of her sight or she will holler "Sauce" and climb on the table and will not be redirected until she has a big pile of "Sauce" on her plate in which she is sticking her fingers and then licking them off.



This picture is deja vu as I have one of Abi also clomping around in my shoes in her PJ's. Leah loves to put on her "Shuzy" and then will grab your hand and lead you toward the door to go "Side"/Outside. With the recent cold and snow I haven't taken her outdoors much. After the first snowfall, I bundled her up in snowpants, boots, coat, gloves and hat. She tromped around for a minute, tore off her gloves and refused to put them on again, started eating the snow, and then tripped and face planted in the snow and started crying. That ended our first snow outing. Leah's vocabulary is really expanding. She knows most parts of her body, titles to our family, foods like apples, cheese, "tookie", "Nack"/snack, "Juz"/ juice, "Mik"/ milk and water. She also knows to brush "teeth" and bath. Leah enjoys a few "Mooovie"s including "cars" and "Doggy" or 102 Dalmations. She also likes coloring pictures, playing with her toys and jumping on our little trampoline downstairs. Leah can communicate most of what she wants with words, Uh-Uh's, or by taking your hand and pulling you over to what she wants you to do. She adores Nursery and her leaders. Leah is a joy to all of her family.