Opening!

A little clip from package opening. Leah got some great musical instruments from Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt. More music videos to come.

Using three instruments at once. One is never good enough when you can use THREE!

Christmas

Well I had no idea how much fun Christmas could be. Leah LOVED it! Really the whole Christmas season. But Christmas day was the best. She was SOOOOOO excited to open each and every package! "What's it gonna be, what's it gonna be?" She would say this while shaking in anticipation. And thanks to everyone for all the wonderful gifts. I will try to post some pictures or video of the ones I can. Happy New Year!!!

The Magnadoodle was a big hit from Santa!

Leah may have been a bit disappointed that the Buzz Santa left her did not walk or talk or anything. Of course now, almost a week later, she loves him!

Leah also requested "nail polish like some lady" from Santa. She tells me about 3 or 4 times a day "I like the nail polish" while staring at her fingers or toes. Very cute.

Of course the Dinosaur from Uncle Adam was a hit!

As well as the baby from the Carvers.

Leah also really LOVES this barn she got from Grandma Mary and Papa Joel. Each piece was made by Grandma Mary which makes it even more special! Playing whith it in the nude is preferred. 

AWWW.

New Turtle

Leah received a great belated birthday gift from her cousin Chloe and LOVES it! So much that she specifically asked me to take these pictures of her with it. Cute!

Social Skills.

The last few months Leah has had a hard time being around other kids her age. She loves to hang out with babies or older kids but the two to four range is trouble. Maybe just one of the problems with being the only child? Not for long I guess. This is how a recent photo shoot went with her BFF Miles. Yes it ended with a few tears too!

                                                 As you can see, Miles had a great time!

Ready for Christmas?

Leah is!!! She has been singing Christmas music for weeks now and in convinced that Santa is bringing her "Buzz" and "nail polish". Where she gets these things? I don't even polish my nails nor does anyone she sees on a regular basis. I have one very old strip of polish on my big toe(we are talking over a year old) and from this she has decided she wants nail polish. Wow, we are in for it!

Watch what you say!!!

Leah picks up on EVERYTHING right now! This is a great example. For many months Leah has been counting to twenty in Portuguese VERY well. That all changed when Dave decided to make up a counting song. In the song he repeats the number 4, only because it went with the music. Well now whenever Leah counts in Portuguese, she repeats the number 4! David!!!

Giggle box.

Plumbers Diaper

The solution for plumbers crack, cloth diapers!

Ajuda Papai (Helping Dad)

Leah had a really great time helping Dave install our new dishwasher this week. She really loves pretending to use the tools. I am sure she will learn a thing or two about how to use them growing up with Dave! This is how it started.

Then it was this for a while.

Then a little of this.

And ended with her being a baby of course.

Grandparents Time

As I mentioned , Leah can't get enough of her Grandma Mary and Papa Joel. Today they came out to help with our disaster clean-up. But first we had some fun time.

Wind Disaster

We had very high winds here in Farmington starting very early Thursday morning and into the afternoon. It did so much damage around our neighborhood. Really the most damage I have seen from a storm in my lifetime that I can remember. Here are some shots of our yard.

 This is how all the fences look.

And many of the roofs. So sad. Dave is up repairing our roof now. I see so many others out doing the same today. Good luck to all before it rains or snows!

Birthday Fun!

Leah had a great time with her inflatable dinosaur form Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt!

Then and Now.

 Wow. This first picture was take 10 months ago. The second, on the way to her birthday party. So much growth in 10 months!

The Birthday Girl!

Leah is Two years old today! We did it- survived the first two years!
But really we have a very happy two year old on our hands. Leah spends 80% of her time dancing and singing around the house these days. It is a very fun and happy time.

A few things I want to remember;

Leah is VERY excited about Christmas this year. She loves all the lights, music and decorations. Good timing too, I was getting really tired of listening to George in the car! For the last few months, all Leah has wanted to listen to in the car was either Curious George audiobooks or her star CD. I am VERY grateful her focus has changed to Christmas music. Lets just hope I can make it through 4 weeks of it!

Grandma Mary and Papa Joel. Grandma Mary and Papa Joel. Grandma Mary and Papa Joel. I must hear her ask about going to see Grandma Mary and Papa Joel at least 10 times a day. This has just started since we returned form our vacation. It was a long one and the longest Leah has gone without seeing them so I think she just can't get enough right now. She will even ask Dave and I to leave when she is with them to have them all to herself! I will admit, it's REALLY nice!

A new love for cooking has developed. Leah will play with her play kitchen and pretend to cook but also really loves to sit up on the counter and help prepare ANYTHING. This should be a fun year for Christmas cookies!

 Leah is starting to pick up so many things in other conversations and on the radio that I don't even really hear. It takes me a while to figure out where she is getting these from. The other day we were driving in the car listening to Christmas music and the advertisements that come with them. She suddenly said "mom you choose wisely". WHAT?  I repeated it to her to make sure I heard correctly and yup. Hmmm. Then I remembered a commercial on the radio a few minutes before talking about "choosing wisely". WILD.
My favorite part of Leah's language now is when she gets so frustrated she stars mixing English and Portuguese. I know I should be feeling bad for her but it's so funny and cute!

We broke down and let Leah have her first real dose of TV on our trip. Well mostly on the flights. Even still they are doing something right because the two shows we let her watch (Elmo and Toy Story) are always on her mind. Sometimes I think they are the most memorable part of her trip! Every store we go into she wants to "look for Woody". We have been home almost two weeks now and I don't think this is wearing off any time soon. No plans to let her watch more TV in the near future but I did break down and get her a Woody for her birthday. Bad Mom! Bad Mom!

One shot is of Leah making a "STAR" birthday cake(at her request). The other is her first birthday gift of the day. I let her dump the "baby straws". The forbidden "baby straws".

And last, a few 2-year favorites:
Stars
Moon
Books(still)
Letters
Numbers
All animals and insects
Family
Helping Dad do anything
The beach
Music
Dancing while Dad plays the guitar
Claire, the cat
Pretending to be a star
Snuggling with Mom

Dancing with Dad.

Dave and Leah have many songs they made up and sing all day. It's very cute. They never sing any real songs together because Dave is incapable of learning lyrics. So all the songs they make up say the same thing over and over. You may ask yourself how he is a musician then? I have no idea. The good news is Leah has a great memory for lyrics and has started singing many songs on her own after only hearing them a time or two. Now Dave just needs to learn the music to go with them. Perfect!

Still hard to get pants on her!

My Sunshine.

Guitar practice

This is how Leah's lessons go as of late. Poor Dave.

More Island

Junkaroo practice.

Okay, it's not a costume but this is about as much as we can get Leah to wear right now. She is going to have quite a shock tomorrow when she has to put on CLOTHES! I think I can count on one hand the amount of times she has been dressed since we got here.

More Beach!

These will keep coming for 5 more days. Only 5 left! I can't believe of our 17 day vacation we only have 5 left!!!!!! I am starting to relax a bit more around Leah being in the ocean. The waves have been so mellow and she is REALLY having great time now!

Lizard Friend

Buried

Leah can't get enough of being buried in the sand.