Sunday, April 10, 2011

Big Steps for Leah

There are big changes occurring in the Meek house. We are all busily preparing for the arrival of our baby girl in June. For Leah that means transitioning from "the Baby" to a "Big Girl." Although if you ask her she will say, "I'm not a Big Girl, I'm Leah. I'm a princess." In fact one of her favorite activities is to dress up like a princess. She also loves princess movies, princess Barbies and singing the songs off of Disney Princess movies. Leah has a great imagination. She will turn almost anything into a mommy, daddy, baby, Princess, or King ______. She is a happy little girl that loves playing games, especially Hungry Hippos and Candyland, playing dolls, play dough, painting, coloring and "helping". We are also working on becoming potty trained, but definitely at Leah's pace and direction. This means that she pees in the potty when she wants to to get jelly beans, 3 for each success. ( She's obviously my daughter if she can be bribed so easily with jelly beans.) Some days she will initiate, some days I ask, and some days she refuses all together.

This weekend Leah also moved from her converted crib/ toddler bed into a Big Girl Twin Bed. She was thrilled. Like all other furniture, Leah thinks it is a jungle gym however. She is quite the climber. Leah helped pick out her new pink sheets and this fun fuzzy pillow. She loves her "ABC" as she calls it comforter that was originally made for Abi's first bed and then cut down for Leah. But the biggest step was getting rid of the "Minky" or binky. I had put it off and off, terrified of sleepless crying nights and nap times. She fussed a bit each nap and night time but we tried to redirect her attention with a new blanket and lots of songs. Eventually she went to sleep without it. We are 4 days out now and she doesn't even ask anymore. Hooray!!!