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!! :)