The family that runs together...

Sean wanted to get in shape and lose some weight before football starts (practice starts Sunday 1/30. For about 3 weeks, Sean and I (and Leeza, in the BOB stroller) have been running for 15 minutes every day after school. Sean HATES to run. I told him it would get easier, but the first couple of weeks were tough. He was not what I'd call a "happy runner" and he didn't talk at all. Leeza and I would talk, but Sean would only "grunt" responses. One day last week, we changed our route a little bit and I didn't tell Sean our time. We ran for 16:40. He wasn't a grumpy runner, but i would not move him to the happy category either. However, I could tell it was getting easier and he was proud when I told him he ran 1:40 longer than he'd been running. We took a couple days off this week due to inclimate weather and Sean's splitting headache, but the last 2 days, we've gone. Yesterday, Sean ran 16 minutes and was pretty happy. Today-he TALKED and LAUGHED with me the whole time, and his breathing was very controlled. I was SO PROUD OF HIM! We ran for 16:40 and I would venture to say it was "fairly" effortless. Sean seemed to enjoy it.

Leeza is our little cheerleader telling us "Sean, you're almost done" and when we're done, she says "Way to Sean, good job running"

Then today, when we got home, Leeza said she wanted to go running. I get the dog, and off we go. She is running down the street with her crocs and her jeans and she ran for 14 minutes! I was seriously impressed with her endurance. She talked the whole time. Toward the end, she talked about how starving she was and how I didn't feed her lunch (and I reminded her she had 2 waffles) and then she said she wanted hot cocoa. She only stopped a couple times to look at some footprints in the concrete sidewalk and got really mad if Miles tried to keep pace with her and yelled that SHE WAS THE LINE LEADER.

I love my kids. :)

Holy Moly Growth Spurt!

I knew that Leeza was growing because it seemed like 'all of a sudden' her pants were too short, and clothes that fit 2 weeks ago didn't fit anymore. Granted, she was still able to wear almost all the clothes she wore last year too, but some of those 2t jeans, in addition to being capri's now, also won't button!

Another indicator was that we started having some real issues with Leeza's sleep patterns. She is a girl who NEEDS her sleep-and while she is much more of a "night owl", since she no longer naps, I was having a hard time getting her to sleep before 11 each night, and she was sleeping until past 10! Some mornings she's wake up uncharacterically early, and on those days....her mood was just not sunshiney! We had more melt downs, public fits, and ugly days than I care to remember. I was at my wit's end, and asked for some advice on facebook. I got over 48 comments-and some very useful advice that included GROWTH SPURTS, and her diet. Leeza was past due for her 3 year old check up and I took the opportunity to change pediatricians. While I liked her pediatricians, I just felt they were a little 'old school" when it came to my spirted lil girl and I really wanted some out of the box thinking because Leeza does NOT fit into any kind of box I've ever wrapped. :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE her new doctor. I actually met him 3 years ago as he helped us with our physical paperwork for Leeza's adoption. We needed a physical and my dr was out of town and he did the exam, paperwork, and even called a notary in for us. When we got home, I was unable to get an appt with him in a timely fashion (we already had to wait 3 months for her insurance card) so I found someone else. In the meantime, I sent Jillian to see him, plus numerous friends. I was so happy when one of my friends told me he was accepting new patients. He has 3 adopted kids of his own and I just love his style and his bed side manner. When I told him about our recent sleep issues and the resulting horrid behavior issues, He confirmed what I was already thinking. I was suprised to see that Ms. Leeza has INDEED had a huge growth spurt...she went from 36 inches to 39 inches (74% on "the charts") and gained 4 lbs, from 29 lbs to 33 lbs! Plus, she has made huge cognitive leaps too...her reasoning, vocabulary, etc blows us away every day. She has not been interested in writing her name, or really drawing much besides scribbling. Then, out of the blue, we were doing sidewalk chalk in the driveway and she does an L e e z a and draws a lil stick man with head, hair, arms, legs, eyes, nose and mouth. Huh? Of course, I asked her to replicate for her daddy and she just mad scribbled instead. :) But, lots of stuff going on her that brain of hers so I can see why it might be hard to get to sleep. :) She also asked me the other day...."where were YOU born?" I said, Georgia, and she asked where Daddy and Seanie were born, and then said "i was born in Kazadon". I love how she says Kazakhstan. :) She also talks about her "kazadon disney friends" and how Nina painted her nails blue then we went on the Peter Pan ride. Her recollection on things blows me away. I love watching kids learn. :)

I started trying to figure out "what was different" in her diet too that could possible cause her new inability to settle her spunky ass down at night. There was ONE THING that was new-I let her pick out some new "gogurt" and it was Scooby Doo. One of the ingredients is RED DYE 40. Red Dye 40 is evil and can cause all kinds of issues. I am not sure if that attributed to our "days of evil" but I can guarantee I won't buy that ever again!

I am happy to report that we seem to be back on track (for now) and that for the last couple of nights Leeza has sletp from 9:15 ish to 9:15 am and our days have been much cheerier.

She is soooooooooooo funny and despite the power struggles, for the MOST part, we really enjoy her. The other morning, Sean was wetting his hair down for school (he wakes up with bed head) and Leeza asked him if "mommy was going to do a braid for school" because I wet her hair to braid it. HA!! Whenever Sean gets annoyed with her and tells her "she has no friends" she tells me "MOmmy-Seanie is saying bad words to me". One of her best freinds at school, Alana, has a new baby sister just born the other day. I asked Leeza if Alana had a baby brother or sister. Leeza told me matter of factly "She has a baby brother and his name is Jesus". Umm, whatever...she has a sister named Jaden. :)

Sean is on the 7th Harry Potter book and has been reading the series. Leeza asks him if he wants Harry Potter figurines (cuz she loves her Disney figurines) and if he wants to get some Harry Potter jammies. :) He doesn't. :) She was all about getting some matching ones but oddly Sean doesn't like to match like we do. Whatever. :)

We have been running every day for 15 minutes with Sean, as he is trying to get in shape and lose some weight before football season. He HATES RUNNING and I am REALLY proud of him for his efforts and persistence. He is a trooper and I am so impressed with his healthy eating habits and dedication. He's lost 4 lbs and he is looking good and breathing a lot easier. He is not really what I'd call a "happy runner" and doesn't like to talk much. Leeza, riding in the stroller, is a "happy rider" and likes to "be the line leader" and entertains us with saying "she is winning" and we are "losing" then she likes to ask Sean questions. Although the first week he just got annoyed and grunted, now he actually can answer her and actually laughs some. I think we've made progress. Yesterday, we ran for 16 minutes and 20 seconds. When we got close to home, my lil cheerleader said "Seanie, we're ALMOST HOME!! You are doing a good job!" Then, we got home and she tells us "Good running Seanie and Mommy, I'm so proud of you". Then she wants to go running, and she takes off down the sidewalk as I struggle to keep up. Love her enthusiasm, and I hope it keeps up because she has the endurance and energy to be a strong lil triathlete. :)

Leeza's Christmas concert at school 12/17

I am finally able to start catching up on Ms. Leeza's 'digital scrapbook'. She had missed 3 weeks of school due to a horrid cough that turned into an eye and ear infection etc, so she missed a lot of "practice" for her lil preschool's concert. However, she did pretty well and knew most of the words. I was a proud mommy. I love her lil preschool. It's such a cute lil school and her teachers are awesome. Ms. Kara and Ms. Cindy are so sweet and this is their 2nd year to have Leeza and I love that they "get her" and don't get mad I let her sleep and we often come to school an hour late. :)









She came home singing "Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel, I made it out of playdough" which made us crack up. Yesterday, one of her lil friends' Alana's mom had a baby. I asked her if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a boy and his name was Jesus. HA!

Leeza wants to have a "toxic party"

Two weeks ago, I had a girls night out and Leeza stayed home with Daddy. When I left, she was rather engrossed in Scooby Doo and didn't really realize I was leaving. At bath time, she got mad and wanted to know why I wasn't back. Joe told her I had a "ladies night" and she was VERY upset that she was not included because as she told her daddy "MOmmy is a girl, and I am a girl" and I should be at the ladies party. I love her so much. She can be a real pain in the butt, but man, can she be cute!!!



So, the next night, she packed up her suitcase and told me were were going to have a girls night and our own "toxic party". I started working for a fabulous new company in September called Ava Anderson NOn toxic. All her products score a "zero" on the cosmetic database and we threw out all our previous toxic products-including shampoo and chapstick. Leeza recognizes the Ava Anderson logo but she calls it "toxic". I need to get to to add the NON to that part. :)

Leeza's version of the Scooby Doo song

oh my.

Christmas 2010

Ahhh I am so behind on getting this blog updated, but today is ONLY January 17th, 3 weeks after Christmas, and while we have a very stormy Martin Luther King day today, and no school, and both kids are sleeping, I am trying to get caught up because this is my digital scrapbook. It also makes me realize that though I have days that I feel VERY UNACCOMPLISHED, I am reminded that I do place a lot of effort on activities and fun for Leeza (and Sean) and it makes me feel less unproductive. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was sad too, because it was our first Christmas without Nana, Joe's mom. She passed away in September of this year. However, her grandkids really stepped it up to make sure her traditions were honored. Jillian made the calarami, and zaplas, and smelts on Christmas Eve, and Sean learned this year to make Papa's famous Christmas cookies. He spent many days at Papa's rolling dough and making cookies. Leeza and Joey and I went over to Papa's for a couple days too and learned how. Sean taught me..I had never made "homemade cookies" where you roll the dough out, use cookie cutters, and decorate cookies before. It was actually really fun, and very special to have Sean so invested in helping Papa, as he hurt is back and was unable to make them. Leeza even got in on the action by decorating them with sprinkles. :) I am really really proud the way my children (and of course my amazing husband) stepped up and helped Papa thru his first Christmas in 56+ years without his wife and how we all came together. That's what Christmas is all about--that is dressing Leeza up in gay apparel and celebrating Christ's birth! :)
















I love decking the halls and donning gay apparel. I have several Christmas shirts and a Christmas sweater myself, but of course, the queen of gay apparel is Ms. Leeza Grace herself. LOVE LOVE LOVE dressing her up...and with her attitude, I totally deserve the joy that I get in dressing her up. That is the one thing she never fights me on...she loves to look cute and tells me "thanks for buying me SO MUCH FUN CLOTHES MOMMY". The gay apparel brigage begins the day after Thanksgiving and continues until Dec 25th. Last year, I went NUTS on ebay and got too many things-but all homemade items at great prices. I did buy a couple things this year, but I controlled myself much better and she was able to wear almost everything from last year too!!! She spread so much Christmas cheer everywhere we went. :)






























Christmas Eve, we went to our church's family service. It was nice, and we got our picture taken by the tree, as is tradition.:)



Christmas eve was awesome. Jillian made Nana's calamari (squid) a few weeks prior, and froze it, and I had it in the crockpot all day. It's Nana's tradition and Jillian has been her apprentice for the last couple of years. After church, Papa and Paul came over and Jillian and Papa coooked the zaplas (fried dough-another Italian tradition). It did Papa good to be involved. :)




Another Nana tradition is "smelts". I have never really cared for them, but I tried one. They weren't bad! Paul proudly mixed them in the flour while Jilly Bean "fried em up".





Joey made his killer salad!



The table was beautiful. I used my mom's china. Whoa...first Thanksgiving, now Christmas.


The stockings were hung, near the chimney with care...






In hopes that St. Nicholas..soon would be there...







Of course, Leeza is the last kid up on Christmas morning..around 9:30. She walked out and said "Mommy...WHO LEFT ALL THESE TOYS?" I said "Santa Claus came" to which she responded "Who are they for?" She cracks me up. Leeza wanted "every princess toy there is" and I think she got that. She also got a CARS ramp that she loves just as much, and a dollhouse. The talking Cinderella vanity mirror is a HOOT! We had a very nice Christmas day, cooking, playing with new toys, and chilling out. I felt very blessed indeed. :)







Sean was a trooper playing princess with Leeza.












































Behold my homemade cobbler.....and Leeza in her new princess Snuggie and Sean is in his Snuggie of yesteryear....awwwww...they match!






And my favorite picture. This was Leeza at Christmas dinner. She fell asleep, bread in hand. All in all, a very very good day, indeed.