Hi. Thanks for reading. I treat this more like my own diary because I really don't know if anyone besides my mom reads this. I would love to hear from you and know that you dropped by. Sometimes I just feel like I'm talking to my future self who won't be able to remember all the glory of toddler days... just like the now me can't remember the wee small baby days.
So let Lea and I know you stopped by for a visit. On the bottom of each post is a comment button. I believe you can post without signing up for anything so say hi or leave other comments.
For those who are truly committed to the Lea updates (like Grandma Lynn) and have a my.yahoo page or other similar home page, I can help you put what is called an RSS feed into your home page. Its a nice feature Blogger offers and it makes it so Grandma Lynn and Daddy know when I update the blog because a blurb pops up on the yahoo home page. So if you're interested drop me or Dan an email and we'll help you set it up.
Again thanks for reading. We love you ... you ... you ... you (that's the echo of the great abyss I sometimes feel I'm typing into, tee hee)
POSTSCRIPT: So my mom said she tried to post a comment and it got lost. So I thought I'd add a helpful tip. Unless you have an account, such as other bloggers like Kris & jerry, select anonymous and then just put your name in the comments. Please let me know if you have troubles. Perhaps that's why no one comments, because they make it difficult. Thanks!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
tell me all the things...
So I believe it started the night we took the sippy cup out of the bedtime ritual. I said "You're big girl now who can sit in a big girl chair, help set the table, brush your teeth... You can do a lot of things now that you're a big girl and big girls don't need a sippy cup at night." Well now, months and months and months later Lea still says "Tell me all the things I can do," or for short "Tell me all my things." So we go through lists and lists of things Lea can do... Lea can say the abc's, sing the teapot song, help us unload dish washer, help Mommy make cupcakes, crack eggs, play hide and seek, and the list goes on and on. It changes from night to night with a few standards.
Then a few weeks ago Lea surprised me with the sleepy-time stalling technique of an insistent request to "Tell me all the things YOU can do." All the things I can do? ... well who knew there were things Mommy can do too. Some of the things Lea can do also... I always say "I can brush my teeth. Hey, you can do that too!"
So then after a few days of hearing what Mommy can do we started "Tell me all the things Daddy can do."
"Well... Daddy can Drive a truck, take out the trash" at which time the set dialouge seems to lead to Lea saying "lift heavy things." Yes, Daddy is our lifter of heavy things!
Once Lea learned that she can stall only so long with Mommy and Daddy things we moved on to thing Grandma can do. Then tell me the things Becky can do, Teresa can do... well it was getting out of hand.
We've pared this stall technique down to a pretty regular part of bed time where we list 5 things each for just the three of us.
5 things Lea can do, 5 things Mommy can do, 5 things Daddy can do and when I thought Lea has pretty well covered all her bases, she surprised me once again with her latest: Tell me all the things WE can do. I assumed this meant things like brushing the teeth that we all do (since I highlight the things that us grownups do that Lea can do too). So we listed the things all 3 of us can do: Brush teeth, empty dishwasher, set the table, draw pictures and dance around.
I like listing our accomplishments nightly. Its almost as big of a pick-me- up to this 36- year-old as it is to a wee small 2-year-old! And I have to admit that I started saying as one of the things I can do is "Make curtains!" since they are hanging right there. That makes feel especially accomplished while telling all my things.
And now for an awkward transition to videos that really have NOTHING to do with the "tell me all the things" story, but are cute:
One GREAT thing Daddy can do (and ONLY Daddy can do) is make Lea walk on the ceiling. This is ADORABLE!! I love when they do this, but as you can imagine its hard on Dan.
What can grandma do? Be a soft touch. When Lea is at Grandma's she gets ice cream every night. I think that's what grandmas are for right?
What can Lea do? Well Lea can throw like a champ. I guess she'll play softball in the summer olympics and hockey in the winter games! This is at Grandma's house feeding Mary the donkey. Very fun, here is a shot of Lea hurling the apple over the fence.
And a video of all of us out with the donkey.
And what can all 3 of us do? Drive a car. Well, Lea can pretend at least and she's pretty cute when she does it.
Then a few weeks ago Lea surprised me with the sleepy-time stalling technique of an insistent request to "Tell me all the things YOU can do." All the things I can do? ... well who knew there were things Mommy can do too. Some of the things Lea can do also... I always say "I can brush my teeth. Hey, you can do that too!"
So then after a few days of hearing what Mommy can do we started "Tell me all the things Daddy can do."
"Well... Daddy can Drive a truck, take out the trash" at which time the set dialouge seems to lead to Lea saying "lift heavy things." Yes, Daddy is our lifter of heavy things!
Once Lea learned that she can stall only so long with Mommy and Daddy things we moved on to thing Grandma can do. Then tell me the things Becky can do, Teresa can do... well it was getting out of hand.
We've pared this stall technique down to a pretty regular part of bed time where we list 5 things each for just the three of us.
5 things Lea can do, 5 things Mommy can do, 5 things Daddy can do and when I thought Lea has pretty well covered all her bases, she surprised me once again with her latest: Tell me all the things WE can do. I assumed this meant things like brushing the teeth that we all do (since I highlight the things that us grownups do that Lea can do too). So we listed the things all 3 of us can do: Brush teeth, empty dishwasher, set the table, draw pictures and dance around.
I like listing our accomplishments nightly. Its almost as big of a pick-me- up to this 36- year-old as it is to a wee small 2-year-old! And I have to admit that I started saying as one of the things I can do is "Make curtains!" since they are hanging right there. That makes feel especially accomplished while telling all my things.
And now for an awkward transition to videos that really have NOTHING to do with the "tell me all the things" story, but are cute:
One GREAT thing Daddy can do (and ONLY Daddy can do) is make Lea walk on the ceiling. This is ADORABLE!! I love when they do this, but as you can imagine its hard on Dan.
What can grandma do? Be a soft touch. When Lea is at Grandma's she gets ice cream every night. I think that's what grandmas are for right?
What can Lea do? Well Lea can throw like a champ. I guess she'll play softball in the summer olympics and hockey in the winter games! This is at Grandma's house feeding Mary the donkey. Very fun, here is a shot of Lea hurling the apple over the fence.
And a video of all of us out with the donkey.And what can all 3 of us do? Drive a car. Well, Lea can pretend at least and she's pretty cute when she does it.
Craft Corner
Now I have no assperations of becoming one of those blogs. In fact I don't exepct to have much entertainment value outside of friends and family (although I hope I do provide smiles for those I love), but we have had a few fun crafts that I'm happy to share.
Craft #1 Ordinary old painting. Mostly included for obligatory cute photos. Over the weekend Lea painted. She took bright beautiful colors of pink and purple and turned them into brown. At one point, as she began to paint her entire arm, she had achieved Hulk green. She would take great handfuls of each color and make big smudgy hand prints and then smear it. She does finally get the idea of finger painting so we will do more of that! Before, no matter what kind of paint we used, she wanted to use a brush. So I'm happy she's finally into getting her hands dirty (I'll regret those words I know!) But I do remember my little one-year-old princess who would get a grain or two of dirt on her hand and stick it out for me to brush off.
Craft #2:
Two weeks ago Grandma saved up eggshells and then helped Lea plant seeds in them. With a small bucket of dirt and spoons Lea put dirt in the eggs and then took the tiny seeds and put them on the dirt and then covered them. We got a bit of dirt on the chair and floor, but really not too bad. Lea put a few more seeds in each egg than I think grandma intended, but the more the merrier.
Lea has gardening experience as she helped me replant our 2 Rosemary plants that we got for Christmas. She was a big help and we talk about Rosemary like they are girls. She is good at taking care of Rosemary, very considerate. Right now she loves to water both Roesmary plants with the big watering can.
This weekend Grandma came in to visit and babysit this weekend and brought a few sprouts for us to replant. They are still in their shell where I think they have room to bloom for another week. But here is a week's worth of Basil from seed.
Craft #3 was much more for Mommy than fun for Lea, but if I can't toot my horn here I'd be darn tootless! So I made curtains for Lea's room. Not the most complicated of sewing project, but it took me almost all day, none the less.
I did much of the work during nap time, but when Lea was around I encouraged her to sew shoelaces through shape cards that we have, so that she could sew with Grandma while I used the sewing machine.
My mom helped quite a bit. The loops that hold the curtains to the rod were tiny (by my silly design) and we had to turn them from inside out, which was tedious and time consuming. So THANKS mom! It was like working on cute little caterpillars. (Plus we had fun watching Tiger Woods play in the desert.)
And if I may indulge in a Lea story (again, what better place!). My mom also used scissors to clean up the stray threads when I finished a curtain. Well Lea has become OBSESSED with scissors. Dan took her with him to a computer job at a church where the woman entertained Lea by letting her cut things out. Well I've told Lea she is not old enough for scissors and she says "When I am older for scissors" which means "I'm not old enough yet," after hearing me repeat it 100 times. So she visited my office on Wed. Lea loves to visit with Kristy in sales (Who under the bribe of toys Lea agreed could be her new mommy [sniff]). Kristy said that Lea tried every trick in the book to get the scissors... "I'll just hold them for you," "I'll put them away." But Kristy did not indulge (Thank you!) And over the weekend, Grandma related that Lea last weekend asked for "red scissors for her birthday." I guess the upcoming 3 years-old is believed by the wee one to be the harolded age of scissors. And we will probably get some of the kindergarten scissors for her to use under supervision. But the obsession of scissors... RED scissors continues.
So back to the curtains....
I LOVE the colors. The sun was shining through as I took these photos so I don't know if does them justice, but the room is mint green and the curtains are mint and pink stripes. I also made Lea a pillowcase to match, but Grandma put her to bed Sunday and said she wasn't having any of it. Pillow had to be just pillow. So , we'll make it a sleeping bag for a stuffed friend or something.
And craft #4 is honestly mostly so I'll remember where I put the recipe. For Christmas Lea got bath paints in 3 bottles with Sesame Characters on them. Green is in the Oscar bottle, Yellow in Big Bird and Red in Elmo. Well I encouraged her to be frugal with the paints or rather dictatorially rationed out the paints for each bath, but the time finally came when they were almost gone. So I found a recipe for bath paints and mixed it up. It works really well, except now I let her use as much as she wants so she uses the whole batch each bath. It makes for a sudsy bath, but clean is good.
Bath Paints
You'll Need
1/3 cup mild clear Joy dishwashing soap [Note from JYN: We couldn't find joy so we used ivory hand soap - the only one without a "keep out of eyes" warning. I think baby shampoo would work too]
1 tbsp cornstarch
Food coloring
Directions:
1. Mix cornstarch and liquid soap in bowl.
2. Pour into ice cube tray, filling about 1/2 full.
3. Put 4-8 drops of different food coloring colors into each section and mix till blended (toothpicks work great for mixing).
5. Give to the kids and let them at it!
6. This washes off your child, and will wash off the walls too!
And that concludes this month's craft corner!
Craft #1 Ordinary old painting. Mostly included for obligatory cute photos. Over the weekend Lea painted. She took bright beautiful colors of pink and purple and turned them into brown. At one point, as she began to paint her entire arm, she had achieved Hulk green. She would take great handfuls of each color and make big smudgy hand prints and then smear it. She does finally get the idea of finger painting so we will do more of that! Before, no matter what kind of paint we used, she wanted to use a brush. So I'm happy she's finally into getting her hands dirty (I'll regret those words I know!) But I do remember my little one-year-old princess who would get a grain or two of dirt on her hand and stick it out for me to brush off.
Craft #2:
Two weeks ago Grandma saved up eggshells and then helped Lea plant seeds in them. With a small bucket of dirt and spoons Lea put dirt in the eggs and then took the tiny seeds and put them on the dirt and then covered them. We got a bit of dirt on the chair and floor, but really not too bad. Lea put a few more seeds in each egg than I think grandma intended, but the more the merrier.
Lea has gardening experience as she helped me replant our 2 Rosemary plants that we got for Christmas. She was a big help and we talk about Rosemary like they are girls. She is good at taking care of Rosemary, very considerate. Right now she loves to water both Roesmary plants with the big watering can.
This weekend Grandma came in to visit and babysit this weekend and brought a few sprouts for us to replant. They are still in their shell where I think they have room to bloom for another week. But here is a week's worth of Basil from seed.
Craft #3 was much more for Mommy than fun for Lea, but if I can't toot my horn here I'd be darn tootless! So I made curtains for Lea's room. Not the most complicated of sewing project, but it took me almost all day, none the less.
I did much of the work during nap time, but when Lea was around I encouraged her to sew shoelaces through shape cards that we have, so that she could sew with Grandma while I used the sewing machine.
My mom helped quite a bit. The loops that hold the curtains to the rod were tiny (by my silly design) and we had to turn them from inside out, which was tedious and time consuming. So THANKS mom! It was like working on cute little caterpillars. (Plus we had fun watching Tiger Woods play in the desert.)
And if I may indulge in a Lea story (again, what better place!). My mom also used scissors to clean up the stray threads when I finished a curtain. Well Lea has become OBSESSED with scissors. Dan took her with him to a computer job at a church where the woman entertained Lea by letting her cut things out. Well I've told Lea she is not old enough for scissors and she says "When I am older for scissors" which means "I'm not old enough yet," after hearing me repeat it 100 times. So she visited my office on Wed. Lea loves to visit with Kristy in sales (Who under the bribe of toys Lea agreed could be her new mommy [sniff]). Kristy said that Lea tried every trick in the book to get the scissors... "I'll just hold them for you," "I'll put them away." But Kristy did not indulge (Thank you!) And over the weekend, Grandma related that Lea last weekend asked for "red scissors for her birthday." I guess the upcoming 3 years-old is believed by the wee one to be the harolded age of scissors. And we will probably get some of the kindergarten scissors for her to use under supervision. But the obsession of scissors... RED scissors continues.
So back to the curtains....
I LOVE the colors. The sun was shining through as I took these photos so I don't know if does them justice, but the room is mint green and the curtains are mint and pink stripes. I also made Lea a pillowcase to match, but Grandma put her to bed Sunday and said she wasn't having any of it. Pillow had to be just pillow. So , we'll make it a sleeping bag for a stuffed friend or something.
And craft #4 is honestly mostly so I'll remember where I put the recipe. For Christmas Lea got bath paints in 3 bottles with Sesame Characters on them. Green is in the Oscar bottle, Yellow in Big Bird and Red in Elmo. Well I encouraged her to be frugal with the paints or rather dictatorially rationed out the paints for each bath, but the time finally came when they were almost gone. So I found a recipe for bath paints and mixed it up. It works really well, except now I let her use as much as she wants so she uses the whole batch each bath. It makes for a sudsy bath, but clean is good.
Bath Paints
You'll Need
1/3 cup mild clear Joy dishwashing soap [Note from JYN: We couldn't find joy so we used ivory hand soap - the only one without a "keep out of eyes" warning. I think baby shampoo would work too]
1 tbsp cornstarch
Food coloring
Directions:
1. Mix cornstarch and liquid soap in bowl.
2. Pour into ice cube tray, filling about 1/2 full.
3. Put 4-8 drops of different food coloring colors into each section and mix till blended (toothpicks work great for mixing).
5. Give to the kids and let them at it!
6. This washes off your child, and will wash off the walls too!
And that concludes this month's craft corner!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
From the mouths of toddlers come God's words
At dinner tonight Lea blew Dan and I away with "Let's hold hands."
"Ok," I thought "She's kind of in a hand holding phase." So I held her hand, thinking it would be hard to eat that way, but what the heck.
"Now Daddy say the words!" announced Lea.
"Ok, Daddy say the words," I encouraged. So we said grace at dinner. Dan said a very nice prayer. Where Lea came up with it I don't really know, but when out the blue our 2 year old asks to say grace, we oblige.We go to church semi-regularly and we say grace at big get togethers, but this was pretty special to me. It was a really touching moment.
"Ok," I thought "She's kind of in a hand holding phase." So I held her hand, thinking it would be hard to eat that way, but what the heck.
"Now Daddy say the words!" announced Lea.
"Ok, Daddy say the words," I encouraged. So we said grace at dinner. Dan said a very nice prayer. Where Lea came up with it I don't really know, but when out the blue our 2 year old asks to say grace, we oblige.We go to church semi-regularly and we say grace at big get togethers, but this was pretty special to me. It was a really touching moment.
Friday, February 15, 2008
The many faces of Lea
Lea has become quite a good pretender. And as a creative person and dutiful mommy, I encourage pretending. From early on we played "pretend ball" as a way to play ball in the car and not cause accidents or drive Daddy crazy while driving (we do a good job driving him crazy other times.) So now with a little encouragement Lea has begun to play different characters, for lack of a better word.
Here is clown nose Lea. A light up clown nose we got at the circus. She enjoyed wearing that around the house for a day or two.
And Super Baby soon became Super Lea when she pointed out that she was not a baby. Super Lea (and occasionally Super Mommy) save the stuffed animals by moving them to the safety of the Elmo tent. Our pretend play does not yet have very complicated story lines, but that will come I'm sure. Especially considering how overly dramatic Lea can be. But for now saving the animals one by one is fun for us super heros.
And sometimes the cape is less super and more royal. While at grandma's over the weekend Daddy made Lea the best crown in the world. We found a royal Pooh bear cape for her majesty and and Princess Lea (Insert Star Wars joke here) was crowned. Lea would insist that Mommy put on the crown (although it is custom fit for Lea) and I did the ol' "elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist" wave and affected a queen mother voice that Lea seemed to love.
But mostly we pretend to be animals. One morning, seemingly out of the blue Lea asked me for a monkey tail. "Ok I thought, how fun, its monkey day!" So I made a monkey tail out of construction paper (reinforced with packing tape, but it still tore by lunch time — Its hard being a toddler's tail) and a nose with double stick tape. Then we went and found some dark socks for monkey paws. Dressing up seemed to be more fun that actually pretending to be a monkey. I don't think the monkey costume stayed on too long, but it was fun.
Then I came home last night after Aunt Teresa had been over all day. Teresa said "Did she show you how she can be a Turtle?" Well then Lea turns aournd and puts a pot lid on her back and waddled around the kitchen. Daddy helped when she got on all fours and she crawled around with the pot lid on. But watching her walk with both hands and the lid behind her back was hysterical! She is such a clown!
We played princess and the dragon last night, with out any dress-up and very little props. Lea has a fold out book that she put up and called the tower. Daddy was the dragon (who was told to be quiet by Princess Lea and then whispered, he was a funny quiet dragon). Mommy saved the princess by showing the Daddy Dragon play cookies and tossing them over his shoulder to distract him. Then Queen Mommy and Princess Lea rode away on the horse. And we all lived happily ever after (or at least until Princess Lea woke us up at 7:30 this morning).
Here is clown nose Lea. A light up clown nose we got at the circus. She enjoyed wearing that around the house for a day or two.
And Super Baby soon became Super Lea when she pointed out that she was not a baby. Super Lea (and occasionally Super Mommy) save the stuffed animals by moving them to the safety of the Elmo tent. Our pretend play does not yet have very complicated story lines, but that will come I'm sure. Especially considering how overly dramatic Lea can be. But for now saving the animals one by one is fun for us super heros.
And sometimes the cape is less super and more royal. While at grandma's over the weekend Daddy made Lea the best crown in the world. We found a royal Pooh bear cape for her majesty and and Princess Lea (Insert Star Wars joke here) was crowned. Lea would insist that Mommy put on the crown (although it is custom fit for Lea) and I did the ol' "elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist" wave and affected a queen mother voice that Lea seemed to love.
But mostly we pretend to be animals. One morning, seemingly out of the blue Lea asked me for a monkey tail. "Ok I thought, how fun, its monkey day!" So I made a monkey tail out of construction paper (reinforced with packing tape, but it still tore by lunch time — Its hard being a toddler's tail) and a nose with double stick tape. Then we went and found some dark socks for monkey paws. Dressing up seemed to be more fun that actually pretending to be a monkey. I don't think the monkey costume stayed on too long, but it was fun.
Then I came home last night after Aunt Teresa had been over all day. Teresa said "Did she show you how she can be a Turtle?" Well then Lea turns aournd and puts a pot lid on her back and waddled around the kitchen. Daddy helped when she got on all fours and she crawled around with the pot lid on. But watching her walk with both hands and the lid behind her back was hysterical! She is such a clown!
We played princess and the dragon last night, with out any dress-up and very little props. Lea has a fold out book that she put up and called the tower. Daddy was the dragon (who was told to be quiet by Princess Lea and then whispered, he was a funny quiet dragon). Mommy saved the princess by showing the Daddy Dragon play cookies and tossing them over his shoulder to distract him. Then Queen Mommy and Princess Lea rode away on the horse. And we all lived happily ever after (or at least until Princess Lea woke us up at 7:30 this morning).
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Aunt Kailtin Comes to Town
Aunt Kaitlin came to town at the end of January. We had a wonderful evening visiting.
Lea got to play marbles at Grandpa's house with Kaitlin and they had a ball (literally and figuratively, I guess)
Then we had a wonderful dinner at Macaroni Grill with Grandpa, Aunt Teresa, Robert, Aunt Bonny, Lalanya and Kaitlin. It was a good time. Lea didn't want to go home!
Lea got to play marbles at Grandpa's house with Kaitlin and they had a ball (literally and figuratively, I guess)
Then we had a wonderful dinner at Macaroni Grill with Grandpa, Aunt Teresa, Robert, Aunt Bonny, Lalanya and Kaitlin. It was a good time. Lea didn't want to go home!
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Happy Traumatic Two & a Half Birthday
So it was a peaceful Friday evening, January 25. Grandma was in town and we thought, "What the heck, let's go out to dinner." We'll go to the new place Iron Chef, which is like Benihana and Lea will enjoy the show of cooking and we'll enjoy the food.
Well, we forget how little Lea is. She uses big sentences and really communicates with us, as well as seems to understand when we explain things to her. We forget that she's only two and a half, she is just our little person.
Well, when the chef at Iron Chef began his show and poured oil on the gril and set it on fire she let loose with tears. Happy Half Birthday sweetie, we're going to scare the bejeezus out of you. So we calmed her down. She sat in my lap and ate soup and some veggies. She even smiled at the chef once or twice. Then, suddenly with a wee bit of warning the chef did it again. He set onions on fire to make a little choo-choo stack that steamed. Well no amount of train talk was going to make him a good guy again. Nope, it was over. She hugged me with a pat on the back and tears at the corners of her eyes, voice shaking, trying to be calm and said "I don't want you to be scared either mommy." We moved to a table in front and finished our dinner. Lea got a lot happier, especially since the staff fell in love with her, felt bad and gave her animal crackers and lollypops. So Lea had a $40 plate of animal crackers and we had a great story.
I found the yummy rice recipe so thought I'd share. Now I guess we don't have to go back, tee hee.
Benihana Fried Rice
1/2 teaspoon chopped onion
1/3 teaspoon chopped carrots
1/3 teaspoon chopped green onion
4 ounces steamed rice
3 pinches of salt (optional)
7 teaspoons cream butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon oil
1 ounce cooked chicken
1/4 teaspoon sesame seeds
3 pinches of pepper
1 teaspoon soy sauce
Scramble eggs and chop after cooking. Sauté chopped onion, green onion and carrots until done and mix with chopped scrambled egg and chicken. Break off chunks of steamed rice and mix with vegetable, egg and chicken. Add sesame seed and salt and pepper, stirring well. Add cream butter and soy sauce into the mixture, stirring well until done. Makes one serving.
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