Well, Hello Chubby!!

Leeza, Miles, Sean and I went for a walk this morning around our neighborhood. It was a gorgeous 70 degrees with a nice breeze...a wonderful morning to be out and about. One of our neighbors, an older man who always rides his bike, said Hello, then asked if he could "take a look at our new addition." I see him often, but usually I just say Hello and keep walking so I guess that is why he wanted to get a "sneak peak" at the lil girl from Kazakhstan.
He greets her and says "Well, Hello Chubby!!"



Now, as a girl myself, that comment got my dander up a little bit. I know that my daughter has some "beefy legs" (but we prefer to call her "athletic") and actually, I really do ENJOY having a daughter with some substance to her, who happily eats my cooking and gets excited at every meal, especially after having Sean, who had "chicken legs" and was really a scrawny kid until he was about 5.
However, being a girl who is constantly at battle with her own self image and always worried about her weight, I found myself resenting his comment. I know I need to just "let it go", as he is a very sweet man who I know meant nothing mean spirted about it. His next sentence was, "How old is she, about 6 months?" I told him, oh no, she is 16 months. He said, "oh, that tells you how long it's been since I've had lil kids in the house". He then said, "so, is she walking around then?" I laughed and said, "more like RUNNING around" and he said that must be how I stay so thin. :)

Obviously, he is a nice man and it bugs me that I am so sensitive about it. I guess it's just my "protective mother bear claws" coming out. :)
Sean said, "well,Mom, her legs are Huge!" Thanks Sean-you're a nice big brother.




Home 12 weeks (as of tomorrow)!



Tomorrow marks 3 months of us being home with Leeza. We have settled into a nice routine, and I'm quickly forgetting what life was like before she came along! My days of yoga are long gone, but are about to replaced with new, fun things like our first "Kindermusic" class tomorrow, and "Toddler tumbling" we want to try next week.

Leeza's newest thing is bringing us her pink potty. We think she is starting to figure out when she has to go potty. Of course, we have plenty of "false alarms", but she does go about 80% of the time, so I think those are pretty good stats for a 16 month old kiddo.

She is becoming more and more independent, and her newest thing is that she won't let me feed her anymore. She will let me feed her a couple bites, but then SHE WANTS TO DO IT. She ends up grabbing fistfuls of food and using the wrong end of the spoon, and usually half way thru she hands me back her spoon or fork for some help. She also has to have a washcloth on her tray because she stops to wipe her mouth after each bite. It's so funny-she is really "girly". :)
She continues to be a "hearty eater" and I have stepped it up and started cooking more because of her ravenous lil appetite. Sean likes very little that I cook, but Leeza LOVES IT ALL! She is a refreshing change in that aspect. :)

She is a big chatty Kathy, and talks ALL the time, and loves to get her purse, hike it up on her shoulder,and cradle her cell phone in the nook of her neck and chat away. I can't imagine where she learned that...

She also loves to wag her pointer finger and say "ne ne ne" (no no no!). It's really funny. We are a big American Idol family and Leeza was sitting next to Joe on the couch. When all the judges told some wanna be singer "No", Leeza is wagging her finger at the TV "Ne Ne Ne"


She also loves shoes..and had a hissy fit the other day because she wanted to wear 3 shoes at one time, but alas, she only has 2 feet.

Her and Miles are great buddies. He tolerates her climbing all over him, but she rewards him for his patience by sneaking him food. She goes into the pantry and carries out the wheat thins. She kept asking for them over and over. I was starting to wonder how she was eating them so fast, when I realized she was going behind the counter and feeding them to Miles. I locked Miles up in our room, but 5 minutes later, he's out again because Leeza went and let him out.






I am continually amazed at how smart lil ones are and how much they understand. Leeza LOVES the bathtub, and "swims" in the tub now. I cannot wait to start her in swimming lessons. I tell her to float on her back, and she does it. I tell her to flip over on her tubby and kick, and she does, complete with putting her face in the water. I have no idea where she learned it either...kids are so amazing!

Leeza is physically strong (she has really strong abs!), and she also has quite the strong lil personality. I would defintely describe her as sassy, but I also admire her determination. She is a lil spitfire! I think we will probably have our hands full, but that's ok. She's a joy to have around, despite the occasional tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants. :)



Leeza clearly adores Sean. When we went to get her up this morning, her whole face lil up when she saw her brother there. Usually, on weekdays, it's only boring mommy and her buddy Miles, but Sean is off today for Martin Luther King day. I will close with a video of "a shoot out"

Tampa-Kaz girls unite..FORM OF..cuteness!!!

I used to watch some cartoon when I was a wee one called Wondertwins. They would touch their rings together and say...WONDERTWINS..FORM OF...(whatever they said) and they would turn into that thing. Alexa and Leeza were the Kaz "wondertwins" today and they were defintely CUTE! Alexa is really just adorable and sweet. :)

Adorable, petite lil Alexa, 19 months old, born in Taraz, Kazakhstan, daughter of the lovely Shannon, met Leeza (who looks huge to me, next to Alexa), 16 months old, born in Kostanai, Kazakhstan. They are only 3 months apart, and, hopefully, (if their mothers have anything to say about it) they will become the best of friends. :)

We met at International Plaza, "the fancy mall" in Tampa. They have a total kick @$$ play area, all Tampa Bay Ray themed (our baseball team). When you step on the bases, they play that baseball song (dananananananana!) The girls got a kick out of that.

Typically, Leeza doesn't really "play' with other kids..it's more "parallel play" at this age but she seemed pretty into Alexa. I'm sure it was because Alexa was so cool. Leeza also liked Rylie Tennen..I think she just knows a cool Kaz girl when she sees one. :)

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, where the girls split a bowl of Mac and Cheese. Leeza shared her "elmo crackers" very sweetly with Alexa. Alexa then shared her bread with Leeza. It was all wonderful until I got my food. Leeza then proceeded to have a screaming hissy fit. She finally calmed down after I let her sit next to me and play with my chapstick. Alexa just looked at her like, "whoa, chica, calm down...". I was trying to reach the snack container that Leeza dropped on the floor, which was also when she was having her spaz attack. The manager later came by to see if Leeza was ok, he thought she fell. She was just being dramatic and trying to lay accross the floor, and put in a show for all the incoming lunch crowd.

It's kind of funny-had that been Sean acting like that (back in his day, not now, when he's 10)I would have been a frazzled mess. Now, I'm like, whatever Leeza, chill out, and let Mom finish her chardonney!! :)

I put Leeza in the ergo and out we went, and then she was perfectly happy, and we ran a couple other errands in the mall and she immediatly crashed in the car on the way home and is sleeping angelically right now!

It was so great to see Shannon-and see her sweet lil girl. It was cute the way the girls actually played together and shared their snacks.

We are super lucky cuz tomorrow we are driving to Orlando after school to meet the infamous "Tougy", daughter of KJ and Steve. They are flying into Orlando for a conference for KJ and then a Vero Beach vacation. We are meeting them and Sandi for dinner. :)

I am so anxious for Sandi to come home with her lil munchkin so that we can all get together and celebrate her precious Kaz kiddo too...who I am SURE will not have hissy fits in Cheesecake factory like my 2 year old...oh wait,she's only 16 months...

I will close with the rest of the pics I snapped with my iphone cuz the girls were just toooo adorable. :)

Laughin Leeza!!!

16 month checkup for Leeza!

We FINALLY got to the doctor since having Leeza home 11 weeks!!
Between waiting for her insurance cards to finding a pediatrician (using a different one than Sean's), and being lucky in that she hasn't been sick since she left the baby house, we got her in after being home almost 3 months. :)

My lil girl has gained 5 lbs since she's been home! She left Almaty at 18 lbs and is now a strapping 23.1 lbs, and 30 inches long, which puts her just below the 50th percentile on height and weight. :) She has a small lil head though, and that is at 10%, but I know lots of smart people with small heads. :)

The doctor was WONDERFUL and was familiar with Leeza's scary Kazakh diagnosis. We are going for an EKG on Friday since she had an open window in heart, but she thought her heart sounded fine, and noticed how very "purposeful" she is in her movements. She also noted that Leeza is a "determined" little girl and we can start using "one minute baby time outs". LOL

Poor Leeza had to get 3 shots, and she cried, but considering I had to wake her up from sleeping at 9:15 to go the dr, and she only had one small itty bitty yo baby yogurt for breakfast, and we were there from 10:15 to almost 1:00, I think she did just fine. :)

We have to go draw some blood and I get to collect stool samples (yum yum!) but they thought she looked great! She is hitting all her milestones, so that's good too.

She defintely has a temper goin on. Last night, I was mean mommy and made her get out of the tub. She doesn't like to dry off, she likes to run away naked and wet. However, that is NOT SAFE, so I was drying her off and she had a hissy. I FINALLY let her go and she was so MAD at me. She turned around, and held her arms up like she wanted up, THEN, she REMEMBERED she was mad at me, and dropped her arms down, clenched her fist, gave me a dirty look, screamed, and ran the other way. HA!!

She is now also "curious George" and is into everythign since she's a walkin, running, maniac, so we had to put the cabinet locks on. Joe put them on, and she went immediately to try to open it. She turned around and looked at him and he got the EVIL LEEZA LOOK! It was FUNNY! Those sweet blue eyes can look mean when they're mad. :)

Her new favorite game with Sean is "Hide and seek" where he hides from her, then jumps out and scares her by SCREAMING VERY LOUDLY. She laughs hysterically. He also gets right in her face and ROARS really loud, which she finds equally hysterical. He is going to make the poor child deaf. I think she may be a future rocker...rebel child who listens to loud music and ignores her mother....

Won't you PLEAZA vote for LEEZA??!

My BFF Karen, the amazing and incredible photographer, is having a contest for "Best Image in 2008" and you CAN VOTE!

In honor of Leeza's "sweet 16" today, will you please vote for her? She is number 21!!


Here are the instructions!

I'm sending this email because I'm running a "Best of 2008" image contest, and I chose one of your images from our session for the contest.
There are 21 images competing, and anyone can vote for their favorite.
The one who receives the most votes wins an 11x14 gallery wrapped canvas of their favorite image from our session!

Anyone and everyone can vote, the only limitation is that there is only one vote allowed per household. So, tell your friends, coworkers, neighbors, Facebook friends, doctor, dentist, lawyer, whoever... and have them vote!

To vote, go to www.karenharrisonphotography.com and click on "Enter Blog".
Once you're on the blog, check out all the images in the contest, and then vote on the right-hand side, by clicking the circle next to your favorite image, and clicking "vote". It's easy and takes about two seconds! The contest is open from now through 11:59pm on Sunday January 11th, so make sure to get your votes in before then.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Good luck, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Karen

PS - The number for each image is above that image, so make sure you're choosing the correct number when you vote :-)

Sweet 16 today!!!

Sweet 16 starts today-as Leeza turns 16 months old today. She started off her day by sleeping in until past 11 am. We got home from vacation in Arkansas last night and days with later bedtimes, inconsisent naps, and hangout out much longer than expected in airports wore her out!

At 16 months, I would say Leeza's favorite thing to do is EAT! She loves to eat, most any kind of food. Her newest thing is talking to everyone and pointing her finger at them. As we boarded planes to go visit my sister in Arkansas for New Year's, she's pointing at people as we pass them on the way to our seat and jabbering away. I think she is going to be "one of those" (bossy girls!!)

She still loves her ergo, and I am already dreading the day she gets to big for it. I use it for the mall, grocery store, and "hiking" thru mountain towns (like Eureka Springs, Arkansas) that has hills that rival San Francisco. She is getting heavier, but the ergo is still incredibly comfortable for both of us!

She cut 4 new teeth recently and now has a mouthful of 12 teeth, which is good since she loves to eat everything we do!

Her hair is getting longer, but even dressed to the nine's in pink, and with her lil earrings, and even her darling lil Leeza bracelet she got for Christmas, she is still OFTEN mistaken for a boy.

She has a plethora of toys, but prefers to get into her brother's things, the dog food, and her latest fascination is the toilet.

She has a bit of a temper, but is pretty good at calming herself down and out of them-but I see "shades" of "the terrible two's" coming.

She can meow like a cat, moo like a cows, bark like a dog, and pucker like a fish, and loves the "itsy bitsy spider" song complete with motions.

I find it so amazing that we have only known her for 5 months but it seems like we've known her all 16. :)

Happy Sweet 16 sweet Leeza Grace!!!
We sure love your sweet sassy face!