Leeza turns 18 months today!!!

My baby is officially a year and a half today! We have known our lil angel for 7 months, and have been home for just over 4 months.

If they could just stay little til their Carter's wear out...man, is that ever true! Carter's has some cute stuff too! I am addicted to all the cute lil munchkin clothes that are out there. At least I don't go shopping for myself anymore-because soon she is going to be taking over my closet because she is rapidly outgrowing hers. She needs a walk in closet-and a shoe closet too. Isn't that the norm for most 18 month old children that look so cute in EVERYTHING?



This was made for us!!!




She CAN still wear many of her 12 month size clothes-but some of them have been retired so OF COURSE she needed some new spring clothes in 18 month sizes. A friend of mine at Sean's school saw her and said "She always looks so cute, I never see her in anything twice. She dresses how YOU USED TO DRESS!" ha! I guess if I have to be addicted to SOMETHING, cute Leeza clothes is not a horrible thing commpared to all the awful substances out there. I recall loving buying Sean clothes too (before he had an opinion) but the choices for boys are so much smaller. I also rationalize my addiction in that I may as well dress her how I want to NOW, because she does seem like the type of girl who is going to have her own opinion, and it will probably happen soon. She does seem to have her own sense of style though, so I hope her tastes mirrors her mommy's. :)






She is learning so much so fast. She is doing an incredible job mastering the fork and the spoon, and we finally found a cup that she is happy with. She didn't 'get' the sippy cups, so we were just using a regular cup but that is a pain because she is not old enough to do it herself. I got her some cups with the lid and the open spout and that was the perfect solution. She now happily totes that around the house, in the car, and in the stroller. She also CHUGGED a chocolate milk at Chick Fillet in her new cup. It was a great way to get her to drink milk (she won't drink it anymore) but then of course she hardly ate anything else. She LOVES pushing around the laundry basket, with various random items from the house stashed away in it. Sean said he finds weird things in his backpack when he gets to school that she's "dropped in" as she passes by. HILARIOUS! She really loves her umbrella stroller and does many many many laps around the house, and outside on the back porch. Sean asked her the other day.."Leeza-don't you EVER just "chill?" She is DEFINTELY not the "chill" toddler that her brother was. She doesn't stop, not for even 5 seconds. It's just not her nature. :) However-I did like how the boat "chilled" her out for a lil bit. She happily sat on my lap and was a lil cuddle bug, even with the big lifejacket, and just seemed to love being out on the water. She even fell asleep on my lap, which hasn't happenned since Kaz. :)



Walkin with her "baby"...trainin,, trainin, trainin! Never a complain'!



Chillin on the boat with "Gigi" ..her big sissy...



Fast asleep on Mommy's lap....that hasn't happened in a very long time...I LOVED IT!



She is still obsessed with Miles water and food and "sneaks" over there when I'm busy and ducks behind her high chair and eats his food. When she is caught, and I say LEEZA!, she kinda cowers, blinks her eyes, then holds her arms up for me to lift her up. The look on her face is a mix between "Please don't beat me" and, "I'm so cute, pick me up!". She CRACKS ME UP. Since we are training for the 3 day walk, she is in our new awesome stroller a lot-but I'm lucky that she likes it. However, we still use that ergo for any trip to the mall or the grocery store. I love that ergo and it gives me snuggle time with my wild girl.



Busy afternoon-just had to take her on "one more errand" but she'd had enough....



She LOVES going to Gymboree and it's so awesome watching her skills increase. She is adept at climbing up the slides there now and I love watching her get stronger and stronger. We went to our first Kindermusic class for the 18 months and up kiddo's yesterday. She was BY FAR the youngest kid there but the teacher thought she would do better in there than in the younger class. She kept going up to the stage, taking all the instruments out, would bring them back to me and put them in my lap (before the teacher got to them) and when the teacher would tell the kids to "sit on their bottom", she was running around the room. I was actually a lil horrified and I figured they'd kick us out. However-after class the teacher said she did great and several parents said their kids screamed and cried the first few classes and that it was great she was so happy. Maybe she will get better the more times we go....and I don't expect her to behave like the 2 and 3 year olds because she is so much younger. She has fun, and I have fun, and I think it will be a good learning experience for both of us. Joe says, "Of course they said she did great, they just want your money."

I just heard about a "Mom's morning out" on Thursday's from 9-2 I am going to look into. I think it's so important that Leeza interact with other kiddo's and I can use that time for doctors appointments (Or reading blogs or facebook..who am i kidding..)! Now that she's 18 months, she is old enough for gymnastic classes too, and that looks like fun. Swimming lessons are on the agenda too. Who knew there were SO MANY THINGS to keeep us busy. The weather has been gorgeous so we have spent some time at the park and she loves the slide and the swing in just in general running around.

She talks INCESSANTLY. She mimics almost everything we say, and doesn't get the pronounciation yet, but the tone and the pitch are identical. A week or two ago we were at Publix (grocery store) and I put bananas in the car and she busts out with 'BANANA' ...all 3 syllables. I had heard her say "Nana" but not BANANA. I got so excited and kept making her say it all thru the store. LOL Of course, now she won't say it anymore. The words we can clearly understand are Mama, Dada, "Non" (for Sean),Gigi (her sister, Jillian), Nana (for her grandma, and, short for banana), BANANA, night night, bye bye, hi, and car. She can tell you a few animal noises such as cat, bee, and my favorite, fish. :)

She will proudly show you her pretty bracelet, her earrings,bellybutton, bellybutton ring (KIDDING!) her nose, tongue, teeth, mouth, hair, toes, feet, hands, fingers, and knees. She can recite the alphabet in English, Russian, and Japanaese and can write her name. HA HA, I'm so kidding about the alphabet and her name. I just want to make sure I document these things for her so she can read this someday when she's a pre-teen or teen with a big attitude. :)





Her temper tantrums are funny- and thankfully don't last very long (yet). She LOVES her big brother and loves to get his stuff. She takes special delight in conficscating his cell phone and his PSP and going into his room. It's good for him to have a lil sister to bug him since he's been the "baby" of the family. She loves being in carpool and being around all the boys. The girls all fawn over her, but she seems to prefer the crazy boys and likes to be right in the middle of them, running around like a wild banshee. That's my girl!

Boring video...but I wanted to post it for her (since this is her blog after all) so she can see herself eating yogurt when she was 18 months old. :)