High Chair/Low Chair

I decided to go ahead and put Leah's high chair on the lowest height setting because she's been trying really hard lately to climb into it for mealtimes. Ever since I did this, it's been her favorite thing to play with. She loves to play on it and climb into it all by herself when it's time to eat. When I'm getting food ready, I say "ok, go get in your high chair, it's time to eat" and she runs over and hops into it. She thinks it's pretty cool to be able to get in and out all by herself. I just park her so she can see the TV and she sits and watches Sesame Street or Clifford while she eats and she really enjoys herself.

Monkey Girl

These should be in the reverse order, but you get the picture. Don't worry, I was right there and only snapped photos when I could do it quickly.

She made it all the way up to the top all by herself. She's so strong! But she was so mad because what she really wanted was to squeeze through the banister to get on the stairs themselves! But it was time for her bath and I definitely didn't want to get her started playing on the stairs, which could last forever.

No No No, Me Me Me and other new discoveries

It started about a week ago. Leah was practicing the words "No No No" and shaking her head No when we'd ask her a question or offer her something, and using "Me Me Me" when she wanted something. She usually stomps her feet in both cases for full effect. John told me that during the week he was taking care of her, she would "Shhh!" him and shake her head No when he started singing. And one day she didn't like the outfit he picked out and she wanted to choose a different one. We've got one sassy girl on our hands, I'm afraid.

Leah has also figured out how to open doors and is letting herself out of her room in the morning. She's finally able to reach the door handles. Our house has door levers instead of knobs, and she is now tall enough to get up on her tippy-toes and open them all by herself. John said she just started doing this a few times while I was away. On the morning that he left for Shanghai, he had forgotten to put the baby gate back in place at the top of the stairs, and I found her at 6:30 am with her door open, standing and crying at the top of the stairs. Thank goodness I caught her in time since she likes to think she can walk down the stairs forwards like we do. And just today, I saw her coming out of the laundry room, and I always keep that door shut. She can open the pantry door, too.

Singing. She started this several weeks ago. Leah loves watching Sesame Street and particularly loves Elmo. I always sing the Elmo song to her, the one that sounds like Jingle Bells, and she sings it all the time now, too. When I say the word "sing" or "can you sing?", she starts "da da da, da da da". And she says the word "sing" and starts singing spontaneously just by herself. It's really cute.

Acting out songs. When I'm singing to her in the car, I can see she's doing the motions along with the song. I play the CD from Kindermusik for her in the car and sing a lot, and she is really catching on and recognizing the words. For instance, she acts out the "If you're happy and you know it" song and "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and just about any song that has the words jumping, stomping, waving, wiggling, etc.

Blowing her nose. She's been doing this for quite a while, too. Whenever I'd hand her a Kleenex, she would practice and imitate me, but now she's actually getting good at it. It's great since she always has stuff in her nose that I can never get out, so when I give her a Kleenex and say "ok, blow your nose", she'll do it, and she blows hard, too.

Trying to get dressed. She really wants to figure out how to get her clothes, socks, and shoes on. She sits there for quite a while working at it and gets really frustrated. But she doesn't quite realize that pants don't go on your head or around your neck. One thing she's gotten good at lately is unzipping things. So it's hard keeping some sweatshirts and sweaters on her because she's always unzipping them and taking them off.

Waving Hi and Bye Bye to everyone. She used to just open and close her hand, and it was usually facing her, but lately she's figured out how to do the beauty queen wave. She loves saying Hi to people while I'm strolling her around. And she says Bye Bye when we're leaving and going back to the car.

Blowing bubbles in her drink. We always give her a cup to drink from, and she can control it and drink really well from it without spilling. Nowadays, just for fun, she loves to blow bubbles in it. She's also figured out how to make a bunch of silly sounds with her mouth by patting her mouth or running her fingers over her lips.

Coughing. She just started developing a cough yesterday (we'll have to get that checked out) and she would ask "Dis?" while she was coughing. She always loves to learn the words for what she is doing. So I'd tell her that she was coughing and pat my chest and cover my mouth, and now she does that, too. When I say the word "cough", she does it. She even does it in her sleep. Last night, she started coughing in the middle of the night while she was sleeping, and asked "Dis?" and coughed a little more and then fell back asleep.

Clifford the Big Red Dog

The weekend that I returned from my trip, John told me that Clifford was making an appearance at one of our local Barnes & Noble bookstores on Sunday. He happened to notice this when he and Leah were there during the week, and since Leah absolutely loves Clifford and watches him every day on TV, we had to go.

First, a lady from the bookstore read a Clifford story, and then Clifford arrived. Leah definitely recognized him and was pointing and waving at him and shouting "Doggie! Dogggie!". She got to go up to him and meet him and gave him "high-fives". The guy playing Clifford had absolutely no personality, but Leah didn't seem to notice.

Afterwards, she had fun playing with all the other kids at the train table and running around looking at all the stuff. We usually have her in a stroller when we're in stores, so this was a big adventure for her to be able to run around the whole bookstore by herself!

Conversations with Leah

Tonight, while I was putting Leah to bed, it was starting to rain outside pretty hard. She pointed up at the ceiling and asked, "Das?". So I said, "It's raining outside. That's rain. Those are raindrops falling on the roof." To which she immediately replied, "Woof woof, doggie! doggie!" and fell asleep.

And whenever I say the word Shanghai to her, she replies back with an enthusiastic "Hi!".

Hanging around

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Here's a little video from Halloween week when Leah started hanging and swinging on the bar by herself at the Little Gym. The second part of the video was from the 13th. It's now her favorite activity there, and she spends most of her time doing this over and over again until she's tired. She can also climb the baby rock wall all by herself and slide down the other side.

She practices at home by hanging on the kitchen counters and table!

First Haircut

When I got back from Shanghai, I suddenly noticed how long Leah's hair was getting in the back. But since it's still so baby fine and wispy, it was starting to look a little scraggly. So one evening during her bath while her hair was wet, I got the urge to do something about it. I tied the bottom of her hair into a tiny ponytail and snipped it off before she even knew what was happening! Of course, I will save it for her baby book.

Before


After

I had to make a few corrections over the last few days just to even it out, and since she never sits still for a second, that has been a bit of a challenge. But I think it looks really cute now that it's blunt across the bottom. Sadly, it does makes her look older, though. sniff...sniff...

Back home

Well, John's first time playing Mr. Mom went pretty well, even though he said he was in survival mode all week. I'd say he exceeded expectations. He actually managed to keep Leah diapered, dressed, fed, and entertained all week. He even took her out every day on little trips to the park, the shopping mall, the bookstore, out for lunch and to her gym and music classes! But two things he couldn't quite figure out were: putting barrettes in her hair to keep it out of her face, and taking pictures. He only took two lousy, dark pictures of her the whole week! But otherwise, he did a great job.

I had an interesting but exhausting time in Shanghai and couldn't wait to come home. John and Leah missed me a lot, too. I got a huge, beaming smile from Leah when she first saw me on Saturday morning, and when we went out to eat that day, she couldn't stop hugging me and giving me kisses in the restaurant. It was so precious! It's good to be home.

Role Swap

This week should be interesting as both of us will be thrown out of our comfort zones. John is taking a week off to play "stay-at-home-dad" while I jet-set off to Shanghai by myself for a "business trip". We're currently investigating a possible expat assignment in Shanghai and need to do a look-see trip to find out what we think of potentially living there for a few years. Of course, we'd prefer to go as a family, but since Leah is not technically an American citizen until her adoption is finalized and, additionally, can't travel out of the country until she has a U.S. passport, we have to go separately. We also don't feel we can leave her with someone for a whole week, as she hasn't even been cared for by a babysitter yet.

So wish us both luck! We're going to need it.

Wild Turkey on the Loose

It was a lot of fun taking Leah out trick-or-treating for the first time. We first hit our neighborhood for the first hour and then raced over to some friends' house to join them. Leah was a little confused about what exactly was going on at first, but soon caught on. She carried her little basket around and was holding it out for people to put the treats in, or grabbing the treats herself. Of course, should couldn't just take one!

She scored a whole bunch of full-size candy bars at our next door neighbor's house, who thought she looked so cute. When we caught up with our friends later, it was really cute to see the little girls together. Leah had so much energy and was running all over the place, and always in the wrong direction. She had such a great time, she started crying when it was all over and we had to leave.