27 months already!!!

As I was fading away into dreamland last night, I realized that I had not done Leeza's 27th month post! Yesterday, December 5th, marked the date. :)

I have been blogging frequently so I don't forget anything, and I have already spoke about this is another post, but I am just BLOWN AWAY at how much Leeza is changing, and how she is a different lil girl than the lil girl who spent her first Christmas with us last year. Of course, OBVIOUSLY, she is a year older, so she has become a total indepedent verbal kiddo who surpassed speaking in sentences and just skipped to full paragaphs, seemingly overnight. :) I love how sweet and affectionate she is. I remember worrying last year at this time that Leeza just wasn't "a huggy and cuddly kiddo" like Sean was. I used to LOVE to read him books, all snuggled in my lap. Leeza wasn't too keen on that. Now, of course, is a totally different story and she wants like a million books everynight, and SHE has to pick them out. She is so affectionate and gives lots of hugs and kisses. I'm so happy! I really was suprised to learn this is a "learned behavior" and it just make me sad that she had to wait 11 months to learn what it felt like to give and receive unconditional love. She has taught us all so much about that.

She is LOVING the holidays. She was so much fun on Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and now she is learning all about Christmas. She loves the lights, the decorations, the tree, Santa...all of it! So much so that this morning as I took her daily picture, she picked up a star ornament off the tree and accidentally dropped it and it smashed. "i SORRY MOMMY" , says Leeza. I mean, seriously, it's hard to stay mad at that!



Yesterday we attended Patti's annual Christmas party. We have never missed one...they started when Sean celebrated his first Christmas. Sean didn't go for the first time, but he had a good reason. He went to Nana and Papa's house to help Jillian and her boyfriend Kris decorate their house for Christmas. He said "Mom, it's family or friends, and I have to pick family"....sometimes he suprises me with how sweet he can be. Sean is VERY family focused though, which I hope continues as he gets older and family becomes "uncool".

Leeza was so funny. First, Santa had to read "It was the Night Before Christmas" and Leeza kept saying "Santa all done mommy? Santa all done?" OVER AND OVER. There wer about 60 kids there and then she had to wait until he called her up there to get her present. She RAN up there and just lit up on his lap. I'm so bummed cuz my picture ended up crappy, but other people were taking pics with her mac daddy camera so I hope I get a better copy.



She got a Christmas Elmo, that sings Elmo's version of the 12 days of Christmas. She liked it,but when we got home, she was more excited to tell Daddy that she got a candy cane from Santa. :)








Sean helped decorate with a happy heart, and even found some Santa socks that he wore. Leeza likes to touch everyhing (of course) and Sean picked out a dancing Santa at Home Depot that dances in flip flops and a bathing suit. It's Leeza's favorite. She presses it ALL THE TIME and does a lil Leeza dance. It's really cute, even if I do get a tad tired of hearing it.

We watched Rudolph for the first time. I got teary eyed just watching it with her, seeing her joy in seeing Santa. She's just so happy and so joyful and I love seeing the holidays, and frankly, LIFE thru her eyes. Rudolph fascination only lasted about 10 minutes. However, Elmo's Happy Holidays dvd is watched EVERYDAY, and she is mesmerized. I love it, because it teachers about Hannukah, and Kwanza too. Elmo is so educational and entertaining for adults too. She also loves Elmo and Abby's Christmas Countdown,which i find hilarious. Sean even likes it. :)

The other night in the tub, we were playing with the foam letters and numbers. I let Leeza keep the letter if she got it right. It turned into a fun game, and I was suprised that she got every single letter and number right except for W (she thinks it's M)and she didn't know the H. We do work on letters a lot,and we have an abc puzzle do we everynight, but she always plays dumb. She does the same with colors. However, when it comes down to it, she knows them all. She's so funny. I give huge kudos to Sesame Street because they do such an amazing job with reinforcing letter and number recognition.

She loves the peg puzzles, and we gotan Elmo and Abby and zoe puzzle and I got it out the other night. I HATE PUZZLES, but toddler puzzles are perfect...I can eventually figure those out. Leeza was more interested in messing the pieces up and throwing them on the floor. She still asks to do it though, so maybe in a week or two or three she will show more interest. Things seem to change so quickly at this age. I'm always amazed at how much lil kids know and how much they watch us. I was drying my hair and Leeza is turning her head upside down "drying her hair" and then wants my lotion, my jewelry, etc. She is such a lil mimic..like all kids this age. It's really cute, but I worry about allthe bad habits I am passing on as well. :)

I am having so much fun dressing her in holiday apparel. I found SO MANY CUTE handmade custom things on Ebay. In fact, I even made a friend. She made Leeza a lil dress that says Elmo Loves Leeza, and sent it to Leeza for Christmas. How sweet is that?









I know I buy her too much, but I can't resist the custom stuff. I have found incredible deals,and seeing her all festive makes people smile. We get stopped often and she is always complimented on her outfits. They ask if I made them..HA HA HA.
um,NO!!! i CAN'T SEW! but..I can find people who do. There are a lot of people who love to dress their daughters in boutique custom outfits then sell on Ebay. I have gotten lucky and no one has bid against me on several cute things. When things get pricey, I am outta there. :)

Leeza is doing great...she is smart, indepedent, and sometimes infuriatingly so..but I know that her determination and resilience are what makes into a successful smart woman...so...WATCH OUT WORLD!! :)

Awesome pictures (by Jenny)

Jenny (Roxana's mommy) is an AMAZING photographer. I LOVED THE PICS she took, so I had to create a blog post for them. I REALLY love the one of Leeza and I ..both "donning our gay apparel".

It's amazing what a difference a professional makes. I get some decent shots of Leeza...due to daily pictures and lots and lots of VOLUME, but they don't hold a candle to the pro's. :)

What a difference a year makes!

It's SO AMAZING to me how fast kids change...you blink and they're suddenly older, wiser, and doing "more tricks". The coolest thing about keeping up with this blog is that I can so easily to back to last year,at this same time, and remind myself what we were up to. In many ways, it doesn't seem that long ago. Leeza had only been home for a little over a month when December was upon us. She liked Christmas, but honestly had no clue what was going on. I think she was on total sensory overload. :) This year, she is sooooooooooooooooo cute! We are headed to Dallas this year for over a week over Christmas, so we decided to skip the real tree and make it easier and get an artificial pre-lit one. Joe and Sean were putting it up and Leeza walks out to where the tree is and says...'Ooooh pretty tree and LIGHTS!" She is SO cute with all the decorations and notices Santa everywhere we go. I suppose her many custom ebay Christmas outfits help, plus we have SO many Christmas books (gotta love that dollar section at Target!!)

We were putting the stockings out and Leeza ran over and said "Eeza's boots" and puts them on her feet. It's really so cute. I love watching her delight.







The BIGGEST change I notice in Leeza from a year ago is NOT, believe it or not, the fact that her hair is growing. :) The change that warms my heart is that she has morphed from a child that I just thought "didn't like to cuddle" and was "too active to sit in my lap for a book", into a total cuddle lovey munchkin. YES-LORD KNOWS SHE IS EVEN MORE ACTIVE...and EVERYHING IS "EEZA DO IT, EEZA TURN", but she has learned to realize how awesome it is to cuddle and give hugs. Last night, she was laying back in Joe's lap half asleep, and I said, "Ok, sweetie, time for bed" and she said "No, Eeeza with DADDY". MY DADDY...and snuggled in closer. MELT MY HEART! I lifted her up and she said "Mommy's bed"...OH NO, my lil sweet. "EEZA'S BED" is where you sleep. :)

The other night, she was in Daddy's lap and would say "MY DADDY" AND give him hugs and kisses, then go over to me and sit in my lap for hugs and kisses and say "My mommy", then go back over to Joe. This went on and on. She often will say 'Eeza, mommy, daddy, Sean, GIGI, "CHEWY" (how she says Joey). It's like she is really grasping that she has a family that she loves.

It's been such a joy to watch her shine and watch her learn to love and cuddle. I would have NEVER imagined that this is a "learned behavior" but it makes sense. From the day he was born, Sean was held and cuddled and read to. Leeza didn't have that and didn't meet us until she was almost 11 months old. I see my darling nephew, Holt, who is 7 months old now, and it makes me all teary eyed and makes my heart actually HURT because I didn't get to love Leeza when she was this age.

Although at times infuriating, like, last night, when I had to "shoo her away" cuz i was taking the VERY HOT dinner out of the oven, and in a span of 5 minutes she emptied ALL my moisturizer out and rubbed it into her arms, and legs, and into my carpet, and, when i sent her to her room for deliberately dumping a glass of water on the floor, and she got into her ointment for her boo boo and almost emptied it rubbing it into her legs,and yes, into the carpet, I am so grateful to have EVERY SINGLE MOMENT with my daughter. Even when she insists on getting into her car seat BY HERSELF, and if we don't have time, or if the car is FULL of people (at carpool) and there is no room to do so, and she stiffens up and screams BLOODY HELL, I will be grateful for her strong will and independence. I know that is how she survived almost 11 months with no mommy and daddy and family to cherish her.

Here are some cute pics of her and Sean, and Miles, who sleeps outside her door at naptime. :)







It always pays to have my camera close by. Sean and Leeza were playing in Leeza's room and this is what I find. Sean was in Leeza's bed, with her beloved elephant and "soska". At 11, Sean is still MOSTLY pretty good with Leeza. He does lose his patience sometimes, and she is also at the age where she LOVES to "irk" her brother, but she CLEARLY adores him and I know he loves it when she RUNS to greet him and give him hugs and kisses.

Another Leezapoolooza ..this time with Roxana!!

We are SOOOO LUCKY to live in Florida, because it's a vacation destination for so many people..SPECIFICALLY, Kaz cuties!! Leeza and I have gotten to get together with so many people, we feel blessed. When Jenny told me that John's aunt lived her and they were coming for Thanksgiving, we were SO excited! Leeza and Roxana were both born in Kostanai, and hail from the same baby house! I followed their journey to Roxana and hoped I'd get as lucky! Leeza and Roxana could not look more different....with Leeza's blonde hair and blue eyes...and Roxana's gorgeous big brown eyes and long curly brown hair. Leeza is 27.8 lbs compared to petite Roxana's 24 lbs. However, both girls are SMART as a whip! I did notice that Roxana seems to be a much better listener than Ms. Leeza, and also seems a bit more "chill" than Leeza.







It was black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, so I started my day meeting my BFF's for shopping!!! I was excited to "don my gay apparel" FALALALLALALALALA and to also "don my darling daughter". I have had so much fun with Halloween outfits, and Thanksgiving outfits..so I was ready to "bring on the Christmas outfits" :) Like mother, like daughter, I suppose. :)








It was a chilly day for Florida, but I wanted to take the girls to somewhere fun so they could run around, and I could chat with their parents. :) I picked them up around 1030 ish and we headed to Clearwater Beach, to play in the playground right at Pier 60. It was fun. Lil Roxana got cold, but her daddy is soooo snuggly!! It was so fun to see them....they are such a lovely family!!







We stayed at the beach for about 2 1/2 hours, and then I took them to John's aunt's house. It's such a small world....she lives about 2 blocks from our old house...from the house that Joe grew up in!!

John also reminds me VERY MUCH of Joey. Leeza thought so too, and kept saying "Chewy is RIGHT THERE, pointing to John. They both have a beard and moustache, and are both so very nice. I really didn't draw that conclusion until Leeza pointed it out. She LOVES "Chewy" very much...and followed him around the house and brought him books. It was really cute...i wish he didn't live all the way in California!














We had a such a wonderful time with the Morgan's....and look forward to many more Leezapoolza visits!! :)