Down on the Pumpkin Farm

Today, we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and check out a local pumpkin farm. Most of the fall harvest festivities seem to be starting next weekend, but there are quite a few of these places in the area so we decided to get a head start on pumpkin picking. There were only 2 or 3 other families there at the time we were there, since it's still a little early in the season. But I'm sure next weekend will be a zoo there.




There was a little animal farm that we could walk through and feed the animals, and Leah loved looking and pointing at all of them. She enjoyed grabbing the grass to feed the goats, and would not let go of it and even carried her handfuls of grass during her little train ride.




We put her in her own car at first, but she got a little scared, so we switched her to the caboose to sit with another girl and she sat and smiled at us during the long ride around the farm.




She just loved running around and pointing and shouting about everything. It was a lot of fun and we're looking forward to taking her to some other farms over the next few weeks.





They didn't offer a hayride to the pumpkin patch, so we just picked out a cute little one for her.

First music & movement class

Today, Leah and I went to our first Kindermusik class and she was very excited to be there. There were about 10 families there, and since it was a sibling class, with some parents bringing two children of different ages, it was a pretty lively class. The kids ranged from tiny infants parked in car seats to tall and talking pre-schoolers. The instructor was young and had a really nice singing voice. We will actually be in a different class at a different location and time starting next week, but attended this class just for this week because our instructor was not able to be there during this first week of class.

During the times we all sat around in a circle, when the kids were supposed to be sitting on their parent's lap tapping their instruments and singing, Leah was often the one running around loose. She liked taking other kids' instruments and handing things to people and smiling at everyone. But she was really good at putting things away when we were done using them. During the quiet time, when the teacher turned off the lights and pretended it was nap time, Leah was the only one up making noise ..... running laps around the group in her loud shoes and pointing at the bright light coming in through the window and shouting "dat!" "dat!" over and over again. During the story time, when the teacher read a book to the kids, Leah was the one standing right in front of her pointing at the book and babbling and trying to take it out of her hands. I had to go pick Leah up about 3 times and bring her back to sit with me. Let's just say she was being enthusiastic.

She hated the "movement" part of the class, when we were all up moving and dancing around. She would get really anxious and whine to be picked up. So I'd have to run around with her in my arms. She does the same thing during Little Gym circle time. She never likes the part where we walk or run around the circle, doing various exercises, and always wants me to hold her instead.

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to bring cameras into class, so no pictures until the last day of class.

A Quick, Rainy Roadtrip Down Memory Lane

Over the weekend, we took a roadtrip back to John's hometown in New Jersey to attend his highschool reunion. What would have taken about 7 hours ended up taking us almost 11 hours, with all the pit stops we had to make. We couldn't quite coordinate all our potty, meal and gas breaks since this was our first long roadtrip with Leah. But on the way home, we were much more efficient and in-sync and managed to get home in record time.

Leah did great in the car since we brought a lot of her favorite toys, books, and snacks along. And she was so excited in the hotel room and had a lot of fun playing with the phone and running around exploring. She loved standing on the little balcony in the mornings while we were getting ready and watching the ducks below in the courtyard.



We went on the tour of the highschool to see what had changed. Nothing much apparently. Leah was probably the youngest child there, as many of John's old classmates now have teenagers. Leah had fun running down the hallways and sitting in the desks and playing with the computers.






Since it was raining really hard that day, a lot of the day's outdoor activities were cancelled, so we headed to one of the big shopping malls to hang out. John took Leah on the merry-go-round and said she enjoyed it, especially when she saw me each time around, but was a little scared, too. We let her out of the stroller to run around for a little while and she loved it.




The whole weekend, we got a lot of practice eating with her at restaurants. We found that what works best is putting her in our portable booster seat and sitting at a booth. That way, she has her own tray table and most of the mess ends up falling on the booth instead of on the floor. When she sits in one of the restaurant highchairs or in her booster seat attached to a chair, she drops tons of food onto the (carpeted) floor and leaves behind quite a mess. We take her out to eat a lot at home, and had nearly decided to stop going to restaurants with her because of her table manners. Now we have found a system that works and keeps her happy.





Leah and I skipped the main evening party since it was her bedtime, but since she took a late nap in the car, she wasn't exactly in the mood for sleep. It took hours to finally get her settled down, and she finally zonked out right before John came back.

Potty time!

I bought a little potty chair for Leah last week before we went away for the weekend (more about that later) just to see how she would respond to it. Even though it might still be a little early for that, I figured it would be good to introduce her a potty chair and start talking about it. When I first brought it home, she immediately sat on it and thought it was the coolest new toy. She kept taking out the potty bowl insert and putting it back in backwards, or trying to wear it on her face or head, or put her foot in it. She also enjoyed carrying the potty around upstairs and putting it in the shower stall.

Well, today I went ahead and sat her on it for real while reading magazines, and within a few minutes, she pooped in it! I made a big deal about it and later on in the day, I put her on it after her nap and she did a pee-pee, and again I made a big fuss. So, we'll keep working on it and see if she's still interested in it and starts making a connection. I'm not planning on switching to training pants anytime soon or anything like that, it's way too early for that, but just giving her a chance to practice. Any tips or tricks on potty training are welcome!

Her own little desk

The other night while we were getting ready for bed, Leah cleverly re-purposed some stacking, nesting tables into her own little desk. She did this all by herself. I had these rounded nesting cubes sitting in the corner of our bedroom for no apparent reason, and sometimes she liked to climb on them. These little tables have been moved all around the house and I never know what to do with them. Well, Leah had a great idea. She decided to pull out the smallest of the cubes and use it as a stool and sit there like it's a little desk. It fits her just perfectly, and she can even rest her feet on the other cubes. So now when we're in there getting ready in the morning and at night, she likes to bring her books up to it and sit there and read. It looks so comfortable!

Labor Day weekend

Over the long Labor Day weekend, there was a lot going on in our neighboring town of Hudson, so we ended up hanging out there both Sunday and Monday for their annual Taste of Hudson event. Not only was there a lot of food, there were also a lot of info booths and vendors and other things going on. So we gravitated toward the little kids area to give Leah a chance to play at the Little Tikes Land and to find out about Kindermusik classes and other services.

Leah just loved trying out all of the little houses, huts, swingsets, cars, basketball hoops, sandboxes and tables that were just her size.






We ended up spending most of our time there, just letting her play. She got to play with crayons and scribble for the first time. She didn't know how to hold the crayons, and every time we'd try to help her or show her what to do, she'd make it clear she wanted to do it herself! She ended up putting them in her mouth and trying to bite them, so it might be a little too early for an art project.




She also had a lot of fun playing with sand. After finding out that sand isn't edible, she had a great time scooping it and pouring it.



We put her in one of the Little Tikes cars and she really enjoyed moving it around and playing with the steering wheel and honking the little horn.



One of the ladies representing Little Tikes said she thought Leah was so cute and just loved watching her running around playing with all the toys and sitting in the little car. So cute that she actually gave us the little car for FREE! She said they donate all the equipment at the end of the event, and decided Leah should take it home and have fun with it because she was just the right age for it and seemed to really enjoy it. It was such a nice surprise and we couldn't believe it.



So now instead of going around the neighborhood in her stroller, something we started doing lately now that the weather is getting nicer, she'll now get to go for rides in her new little car.

We also picked up some info about Kindermusik classes, since we've been interested in something like this but haven't decided where to go yet. I put my name in for their raffle and just found out that I was the winner! We'll get a nice gift basket, plus $100 off their fall tuition. So that makes our decision easy. We'll start next week and I can't wait to see what Leah thinks of music classes since she really responds to music and dance. Plus, it'll just be another nice way to get out of the house and meet other moms and kids.

We went back to the Taste of Hudson on Labor day, too. And this time some random lady thought Leah was so cute that she gave her her son's balloon. I tied it to Leah's belt loop and she had so much fun running around with it.




She also got to play with another sandbox and some other equipment by Step2 this time, although we never quite made it over to the big Step2 play area since it started to rain before we could get there. Who knows what freebies Leah would have gotten over there!

Fun with cutlery

Leah has decided lately that she needs to have her own dishes and cups and silverware. Previously, I had been just putting her food on the sectioned tray that comes on the highchair, and I had one plastic suction-bottomed bowl I would give her. But all of the sudden, she decided she not only wanted the contents of my plates, bowls, silverware and glasses, but the very plates, bowls, silverware and glasses themselves. For a day or so, I even let her have them. She loved eating off of a real plate with real silverware and drinking out of a real glass. Don't worry, no dishes or babies were harmed in the process. So after that, I decided to go out and get her some of her own stuff. She loves playing with them, stirring the spoon and fork in the cups, and spends most of her mealtime playing with everything and sorting her food.

Kissing and Flossing and Brushing

These days, when we say "can you give mama/papa a kiss?", she'll give us a sweet kiss on the cheek or on the mouth, along with the sound effect "mwah, mwah". When she's playing with her Little People figures, she'll also have them kissing each other. It's so fun now that she's at the stage where she understands and can respond to things we say. I'll say, "go give that to papa', "go find papa" or something like that, and she'll run over to him.

Whenever I'm flossing my teeth, I always have to get an extra piece or two for Leah and it becomes a big sit-down affair. She loves to pretend to floss her teeth and started this quite a while ago, actually. But nowadays, the funny thing is, is that she tries to floss our teeth, too. We sit down on the floor, and she goes right up to us and is in there with both hands trying to floss, quite determined to figure out what she's supposed to be doing. It's cute because she'll be in our mouths looking really serious,but then look up and give us a big smile.

She definitely does not like getting her teeth brushed, however, and would prefer to be the one brushing our teeth. It's always a struggle, even with the two of us holding her down. But with almost a full set of teeth, there's no way around it. Pretty soon, I'll bring her in to see a pediatric dentist for a quick check to see how her teeth are doing and how well we're doing with the toothbrushing.

She can accurately point out all kinds of things now, when we say "where are your......?" So, when asked, she points to her nose, toes, eyes, mouth, tongue, teeth, fingers, hair, belly button. We're still working on finding her ears, though.

Daddy!

Leah just loves her daddy. And just recently, she has started calling him Daddy. This is interesting to us because we have always referred to him as papa, in the typical Dutch style (mama and papa instead of mommy and daddy). She uses papa and dada while babbling, but just lately, she's very deliberately calling out to him, "Daddy!". During the long holiday weekend, she has been saying "Daddy" all the time. She shouts out to him when she's looking for him and wants his attention. It's super cute. She is also using mama while babbling and seems to be calling me "Ma!". But sometimes she uses this when calling him, too. So far, no "mommy", so I guess I'll just have to wait my turn!

Crazy about animals

Like most kids her age, Leah just loves animals, mostly dogs and cats, but she's starting to get really excited about just about all other animals, too. We're always showing her animals in books and on tv. And since I'm a certified pug and cat lover myself, there's always a plentiful supply of pet paraphernalia in our house that she has access to. I'm very happy to pass down my love for animals to her and am hoping to join forces with her to lobby for a new pug someday.

Funny things she's doing nowadays are: Imitating animal sounds. I got her an animal sounds puzzle last week, and she always repeats "maw, maw, maw" after she hears the cat meowing, and she also tries to imitate the dog barking. She thinks the other sounds are pretty cool, too, but doesn't quite know what to do with them yet.

Also, when we're looking through books and magazines and she sees a cute picture of a dog or cat or teddy bear that she likes, she has started leaning over and hugging the picture and going "aaaawwww" and even kissing the picture and going "mwah, mwah"! It's hilarious!

She has also started saying "doggie" instead of just "dog". She's getting very vocal and talkative these days and just goes crazy when she sees animals on tv or in person. She ooo's and aaah's and starts shouting and exclaiming all kinds of jibberish in a really loud voice.

Her babbling is getting much more interesting these days. She says a lot of the same things over and over. I'd really love to know what she's saying. But I have the distinct feeling that once she starts talking, she'll never shut up!