Leah's Big Girl Room

Welcome to Sassy's Big Girl Room! We call it the Pinkalicious room (after Leah's current favorite book).

We (mainly Chris) moved all the furniture in and got the room set up over Christmas vacation. We moved the doll house upstairs to serve as a doll house/book case/toy holder. It looks really good in her room.

Brain-Brain still thinks the bean bag chair is his. Leah and I find him sleeping on it when we go up for nap time most days. I bought the pink lamp for my classroom, but rarely used it. It works perfectly in Sassy's room and didn't cost us anything (for once). The chandelier Daddy installed does not give off much light, so we needed another source of light.

I really like Leah's bedding. Grandma bought her the most comfy chamois sheeting for Christmas. It is very soft (I may have napped in the bed a few times myself).

Surprise! There's Leah fast asleep in her big girl bed. Leah is getting used to her new bedroom. Sometimes at nap time, she'll still ask to sleep in the "white room". We let her nap in our room over most of Christmas break. Yesterday she went happily into her room for nap. She has been putting herself to sleep consistently (no more rocking at nap time). She is turning into a big girl!

Little Miss Sunglasses

Someone is really into her sunglasses. She askes to wear them most of the time we go somewhere. She especially likes to wear them at nighttime. Our little movie star.

Painting

We let Leah use some paint last weekend. She was really into it. She created an exceptional abstract pink flower. Her use of color was amazing. Then she created several gray pieces--she just kept mixing the colors together. We finished by making a handprint collage. Painting kept her busy for close to an hour, and she was upset when she discovered she had used all the paint and we had to clean up.

Daddy's Girl

For the past few nights, Leah has been doing some serious stalling at bedtime. She asks Daddy to get her grapes, cheese, Kermit, a drink-a water, the list goes on and on. It is an urgent matter.

New Doll House

Auntie Renee brought over cousin Hannah's doll house/bookcase for Leah. Leah's reaction was, "Whoa, Big House!" After Auntie left Sassy immediately started gathering all of her friends and loading them all into the house. "All friends" (as Lili calls them) were stuffed into one room. I see this doll house getting quite a bit of use! Thanks, Auntie!

Sick Sassy

Sassy showing off her new trampoline. At gymnastics class they have the kids jump on the trampoline with a block on their head. Since we don't have any large foam blocks, Sass substituted Big Bird.

Poor Sassy was sick for a week of vacation. What began as a low grade fever grew into a real fever (102.7) and stuck around for a few days. Just when Dadda and I thought she was on the road to recovery, she threw up. Poor girl. She was so freaked out by vomiting. She calmed down after being cleaned up, given new clothes, unlimited access to her DVD collection, and heaping helpings of Pedialyte. She also was allowed back into Momma and Dadda's bed so they could monitor the situation. Let's just say that's where she thinks she belongs...and the transition back into her own bed isn't going so well.

Even when she's sick, Sassy works so hard to stay positive. Sure, she's needier (very much so), but she still wants to jump on her trampoline and run laps around the house.

Cousins!

Leah and Lucia have been enjoying their play-dates. Leah is getting better at sharing and it's fun to see them interact. Today they let me take their picture with the "Big Teddy". I think there are some awesome shots here!

Christmas on the 28th

My family had our Christmas celebration on the 28th. Poor Sassy woke up from her afternoon nap feeling sick with a slight fever. We gave her some medicine and she fell back into a deep sleep. Chris and I were pretty sure we wouldn't be celebrating Christmas that day. She woke up after 2 hours in a great mood. Luckily the celebration was at Aunt Renee's, so we knew that if Sassy had a hard time we could be back home in a matter of minutes.

We were 2 hours late, but had a nice time. Leah got a singing Ernie from her cousin Lucia, and she hasn't stopped carrying him around since. You could tell Sass was feeling a little down, she stayed close to Mama and kept her Nuk in for most of the evening, but at least we were able to celebrate with family.

Sassy is still feeling a little down today, so we had a low key day at home. Hopefully she recovers soon. Chris just remarked, "she acts just the way you do when she's sick". I have no idea what he meant by that.... Our last Christmas picture of a family of three!

Holiday Gathering at the Z's

On the 26th, we went to Baby Lukey's house to have a holiday celebration. Leah had a lot of fun playing with baby Lukey. Leah really enjoyed playing with Lukey's Christmas presents. Her favorite part of all, though, was Lukey's piano. She really enjoyed playing and singing her alphabet, over and over again. I really like the picture above; Lucas was feeding Leah a piece of apple. Leah is unsure whether this is a kind gesture, or whether Lucas is invading her personal space.

Robin and I have been best friends since 5th grade and are now both expecting girls due 2.5 months apart! How exciting!

Too bad the kids wouldn't cooperate for a picture, though.

Christmas Morning

Santa came! As usual, we do piles instead of stockings. We go in order, left to right, by age. The first pile is for our baby in the making--a GIRL!, then Sassy, then Momma, Daddy, Grandma, and Grandpa at the far end (he did get presents, Santa wasn't quite done when I took this picture).

Leah Bean really likes this blue bouncy donkey!

Ooohh--new books, too! Sassy's favorite presents from Santa were 2 new rubber duckies for the bathtub, new bath crayons, 2 new chapsticks, and a large collection of new books. Sassy had a lot of fun looking at her new presents.

After we all opened our stockings, we made Christmas breakfast. Leah has been on a scrambled egg kick and greatly enjoyed the eggs and french toast.

Trampoline

Sassy's big present was a personal trampoline. In short, she loves it. She jumps on it several times a day practicing gymnastics moves such as: scissor jumps, jumping with knees up, jumping while balancing things on her head, and jumping and ending in the splits. She has even attempted to do somersaults on the trampoline. For the first few days, she kept saying, "Thank you, Mamma and Daddy!" while jumping. What an appreciative girlie girl.

Jumping makes a girl thirsty!

Early Presents

We wanted Sassy to have a fun, non-overwhelming Christmas, so we let her open her presents over the course of a few days. Here she is opening her first present of the 2011 Holiday Season--a name and number puzzle! Sassy loves this puzzle and has completed it several times since opening it.

The next present she opened was a new Abby Cadabby outfit and "Abby in Wonderland". She loves both, and has watched her new DVD several times since opening it. This morning, she watched it twice in a row!

Leah also got a new beanbag chair for her big girl room. It seems as though brother Brain has staked his ownership over the chair, though.

Splitz--Ribbon Day!

Here she is saying "TA-DA!"

Leah finished her final gymnastics class last week. For a special treat, they inflated a bounce house for the class. Leah wanted nothing to do with this. She did enjoy the other 2 rotations they had that day (her favorite was a rock wall that had letters to climb instead of rocks--she had more fun naming the letters than climbing). At the end of the class, she got a ribbon and a candy cane. Leah has already asked to go back to "dance class". We signed her up for another session which begins in January--lucky girl!

Pants Off Dance Off

BFFs

Leah loves Brain Brain. She loves following him around and hugging him. Every morning, she looks for Brain Brain to jump into bed. We got a shipment of diapers a few weeks ago, and both Lili and Brain were intrigued with the box. It wasn't Brains idea of fun to stay in a small area with a toddler who wants nothing more than to lie on him, so we had to bribe him with a baggie full of treats.

Leah is getting good at the fake smile. It makes me smile just as much as a real smile!

Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree is up and looking fabulous. Every morning Sassy asks, "turn on Christmas tree, please!" Then she talks all about the "pretty lights". She's pretty good about not playing with the tree or ornaments, but last night a stuffed duck did get stuck 1/2 way up the branches.