The Daintys

Alas, our Christmas break has thus far not been what we dreamed of.  Here's a run down of our past couple days: Wednesday, December 16 th , I came down with a nasty little virus and missed two days of work.  It was a little annoying to have to use a few of my precious sick days so close to break, but what are ya gonna do?  So I slept, and drank tea, and slept, and as I was getting all mentally prepared to go back on Friday and see my sugar-high sixth graders... Leah got her first stomach bug Thursday night.   It was awful.  I took her to get a few vaccinations that afternoon, and right after getting the shots she got sick.  All over the two of us.  (I should mention, that if you're reading this while, say, eating dinner, you might want to come back to it later...)  The nurse said she had seen it happen before, it was probably just because she took in too much air crying after getting poked.  However, she disproved this hopeful hypothesis later that evening.  The poor little gir

Well, we did it.  We braved the cold weather and the crazy suburbanites.  We passed construction and mall traffic.  We wore long johns and boots.  We let out the straps of the car seat to accommodate Leah's many layers.  And we went to get our Christmas tree.  We found this tiny family farm where we (ahem, Ryan) cut down our tree.  It is quite perfect - on three sides at least - and Leah is fascinated by it.  Well, maybe less by the tree and more by the lights.  (See pictures below.)  She "helped" her daddy untangle the lights...except then she did not want to give them up!   "What is he DOING?" Leah started a little game of tug-o-war... In the background, "Peace on earth and mercy mild..." is playing... Leah eventually forgave her daddy for taking the lights when she saw how pretty they were on the tree!

Leah is officially one year old!  Tuesday was her first birthday, and along with that - her first cake!  She also took her first steps on Monday as both Ryan and I were sitting there, so that was exciting as well.  We were both glad to be there when it happened!  Now she is attempting to walk more and more...often times at greater speed than she can control...  But now, back to that cake: "Check please!"

I love Halloween!  On what occasion other than Halloween can you dress your little one up in tulle, styrofoam, and wire wrapped in nylon, and watch her wiggle around the house while the dog tries relentlessly to figure out what these wings strapped to her body are...  I know neither Leah nor Lucy really appreciated the homemade ladybug costumes, but I will cherish the pictures of them looking out the front door at the trick-or-treaters forever!  Now, Ryan and I are going to watch (another) creepy movie.  Eeek! All the kids at a friend's halloween party last weekend...

Our first attempt at capturing Leah at 11 months  was clearly not very successful. ...But, we got some goodies the next day! (Something about Leah in this picture reminds me of her Aunt Teresa... maybe it's the strawberry tint to her hair?) (If only we had the screechy noise to go with this picture in an audio file!)

Leah had her first spaghetti dinner this week, and it was extremely entertaining,  so we'd thought we'd share these pictures!   Here she is, nice and clean at the start of dinner. It didn't take her long to figure out she liked it! I love the foot sticking out of her high chair... "More please!" By the end of dinner, her legs were plastered with noodles. We put her right into the bath to avoid any possibility that she might become a snack herself to a certain canine...

Leah is ten months already and she will be one before we know it!  She continues to be a very active little girl and she is learning so many new things.  Here are some snippets of what's new in Leah's world. 1. Advanced Acrobatics and Climbing Skills Leah has taken to weaving in and out of the table and chairs. She does some excellent push-ups. This is nothing compared to climbing up the entire flight of stairs from the basement! 2. Balancing She can balance on a chair, and she is starting to stand alone for short periods of time. (Before plopping gracefully back to the ground.) 3. New Facial Expressions This is her new "What's-your-deal?" face. And this one is my FAVORITE. This is her look-at-me-I'm-so-cute-and-I-know-it face.

For labor day weekend we took a mini road trip to the Chicago area to visit Great Grandma Grace, Grandma Rutecki, and Aunt Teresa.  We also took Leah to her very first professional baseball game: White Sox vs. Red Sox.  (You can guess what colors Ryan was decked out in.  Fortunately, we had a cute baby with us so we did not get harassed.)  Leah enjoyed clapping along with the crowd, trying to swipe the beer bottle from the cup holder attached to the seat behind us, trying to swipe the cell phone belonging to the man next to us, and throwing crackers and the guys in front of us.   Here, of course, are pictures:

Aunt Jessica has been anxiously awaiting nine month photos of Leah, so here they are Auntie!  Leah was nine months a few days ago.  At her checkup she weighed 19 lbs, 10 oz and she is 29 inches long.  Our infant car seat can't be used past 30 inches, so this weekend we took a trip to Babies R Us with BOTH grandmas to get a new one.  We made a tunnel out of the box and Leah had a blast crawling through it.  We would close the flaps and she figured out how to slither through and then she would crawl out and clap for herself.  So cute!  (There's a video down below.)  She is in such a fun stage right now.  She is not walking yet, but she crawls at the speed of light when she wants to, and she can pull herself up to stand on the furniture and walk holding on.  She's also starting to wave bye-bye and babble with new sounds.

Well there I was in the kitchen, doing some dishes, while Leah was playing with her books, and Lucy was quietly gnawing on her rope toy. Or so I thought... until suddenly I heard a big noise near the table. I turned around to find Leah and Lucy quite ecstatic about a can of Gerber Puffs that had been completely emptied onto the floor! As far as I can gather, Lucy got the canister off the table, Leah took the lid off, dumped the contents, and both of them dug in. I started to scold Lucy, but then realized that this was one of those priceless baby-and-her-puppy-moments that I would miss someday, so I got my camera instead. At least I had just vacuumed! "Hey Lucy! That one was mine!" Lucy now has a palate for banana flavored rice puffs after finishing off this mess...

Although school does not start until next week, I have already been going into school to work in my classroom and to reorganize a section in our library.  Miss Leah has been my little companion on these trips which means I spend half of our time there cleaning up things she pulls off the shelf, but I'd rather spend the time with her than without her!  If only I could bring her with every day once school starts!  Here are pictures of her "helping" me... Organizing school supplies... Here she is during the two minutes she was interested in her toys... But that was before she found this cool crinkly stuff! As you can see, I still have plenty of work to do. More fun things to climb on, and in, and around, and over...