George and Senora

Today we adopted the two sweetest kittens ever! They have been named George (after Curious George) and Senora (from Leah's favorite song Jump in Line). Leah was VERY excited! We played with them all night and gave them a good bath. Lets hope Clare, our adopted stray, likes them as much as we do! They will stay inside until they bond with us and the weather warms up. Then hopefully they will be good mousers here on the farm!

Long winter nights

Every night after dinner we have a dance party. Leah is almost always naked. Today we had a mid day dance party due to the rain and snow and Leah actually had clothing on! I had to get documentation of it! This is her favorite song to dance to this week. She calls it "work work". I am always amazed at how many of the words she knows to the songs we dance to. If you listen close you can hear her singing along.

29 Weeks.

Holy contractions!!!
I had MANY contractions with Leah from about 20 weeks on. I ended up having fetal fibronectin tests every two weeks(all negative) and just concluding that I have a Irritable Uterus. Lovely sounding right! I made it to 40 weeks with Leah, she was born on her due date.
This time around I and my midwife have been much more relaxed about the contractions. They started a bit earlier(around 17 weeks) and have been stronger but nothing that I concerned myself with. Well about 5 days ago  Kate flipped. She is head down and my irritable uterus is not liking it one bit! These damn contractions have been from 2-15 min. apart now and STRONG for 5 days. The good news, so far they are not productive at all. The bad news, my uterus feels like a big bruise. For now I am trying all the usual tricks,  TONS of water, magnesium, sitting around doing nothing. No luck yet. I am not sure about taking any tocolytics unless really necessary, they just have so many side effects. I guess if this continues for the next 11 weeks my uterus will be so strong she will just launch out of there right? On the bright side, time flies with a two year old in the house!

Update.

The potty training seems to be a real success. Leah had one accident at Grandma Mary and Papa Joel's but otherwise had done so great! She is even starting to wake up dry from her naps! Wahoo! Here are a few shots to show off her haircut from last weekend.

Big Girl!

This is a delayed post from Leah's 2 year check up. She is doing great and GROWING! Here are her stats:

Weight 30 lbs.  80%
Height 36 3/4 inches  97%
Head 49  85%

This means if the prediction is right, she will be almost 5"11" as an adult? Whew! I guess I am 5'9" and Dave is 5"11" so may not be far off. Our pediatrician says she is the weight and height of the average 3 year old girl. My poor back.

Children's Museum

Leah had a great time last week at the Children's Museum with Isaac, Miles, Kameron, Tori, and Grandma Mary. The best part was we had an adult for each child so it was very easy to keep track of them all. She still talks about it daily and we hope to get back there soon! These are a few shots of her with Isaac, the rest did not turn out so well, bummer.

Clementines and other songs

Leah and I are smack in the middle of a huge clementine addiction. Okay, mostly me but Leah really enjoys them as well. This is Dave and Leah's half english, half portuguese adaptation of the "Lemon Tree" song made to fit with the current favorite fruit!

Leah has fun right now making videos of herself singing and dancing then watching them instantly on the camera. These are a couple more she made yesterday.

Snowman

  We have been waiting for some good snow to use this great snowman kit that Grandma Schmidt made for Leah. I put in a request for three more, Dave can't stop with just one!

Public Restrooms

Leah did it! Last night she got over her fear of going on big toilets and in public restrooms! She was so excited about it that she went 4 times in about 2 hours! We were at Trolley Square for a family night out. And toady marks day 5 of no accidents. Whew! I think she really gets it. I am still a bit in disbelief. I am surprised daily about how independent she is about the whole thing. She only tells me she needs to go if she has pants on and needs help getting them off. Or if we are somewhere other than home and she needs help finding the restroom. Otherwise, it all on her own.  It's all a bit bittersweet I will admit. My first baby is growing up!

Adventures in potty training.

Well today was day 5 of active potty training. By active I mean the first two days we hardly left the kitchen. It was a long two days but totally worth it! Today marks day 3 of no accidents and no diapers during waking hours! I actually packed away all the cloth diapers yesterday, it felt so good. A 3 month break from washing diapers Woo Hoo! Now let me say there will be diaper wearing for nap and bed time for a while still, not ready to tackle that yet. We have always used disposable for these times.  I am so proud every time she walks over and goes without me saying a word about it. Did I mention poop too! Ya, she's got it down! Today was our longest trip away from home(we were gone about three hours) and success! Keep your fingers crossed for us it will last through a new sibling arrival. Next project, learning to go on other potty chairs (i.e. at the grocery store). I will keep you updated. The suspense!

Happy Birthday Dave!

For Dave's birthday this year we had a nice mellow day. We went for a little family hike and then out to lunch. Leah is a great little hiker. And not only a tree hugger but a tree kisser!