A molar!

After several nights of at least one wake-up, Leah slept through the night last night. We all appreicated that! Her sleep issues were teething related - her bottom left "1 year" molar was coming in. It started to break through the gums a couple days ago, but now it's fully in. The bottom right molar is visible below the gums, so we could be in for some more sleep disruptions soon. But hopefully she gets a little break in between.

She now officially has 9 teeth. I don't think it's making much difference in her chewing ability yet, but we're certainly on the way to real chewing. Fortunately she has been eating pretty well lately. If she's really hungry she'll even eat some vegetables at the beginning of a meal - she's been chowing on broccoli recently. And she now likes meat - she's had lots of pork tenderloin and turkey this week.

Meanwhile, she continues to walk walk walk. Her balance is great and she's getting a bit faster. She's still a bit timid whenever there's a little step or change in flooring, but she's starting to get a bit more confident.

Leah's been enjoying exploring the apartment...even carrying things around with her as she goes:
She walked at the playground for the first time a couple days ago...look at that concentration: Showing off her walking skills for her friends at a playdate:

Checking out the toys at Erica's birthday party: And back where it all started...the Dojo:

She bangs, she bangs, and she moves, she moves

OK - I think this time Leah is actually walking. She walked a month ago...for one day. And then she stopped. Other than a couple steps here and there, Leah has taken a break from walking. But Friday she decided to start it up again. It's been three days and she has continued spending lots of time walking...sometimes she still crawls or bear walks or cruises...but lots of walking. And today she even walked all over the apartment - I think that seals it.

At the Dojo on Friday:
At Cadman Plaza on Friday: More Cadman Plaza on Friday:
At the Pierrepont Egg Hunt on Saturday:
At the park on Saturday:

At Cooper's birthday party on Sunday:

More of the birthday party:
And still more of the birthday party:

Leah's Texas trip

I took Leah to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Texas for Passover from April 7 to 14. The trip started on her 14 month birthday - hence no blog post for that. She spent the day on a plane with me. She was very good - played, slept, ate, only fussed the last few minutes. She did even better on the trip back - slightly longer nap (45 minutes instead of 30) and better playing and more time eating - no fussing - just a little restlessness, but who can blame her.

We did lots of fun stuff in Texas. Grandma borrowed lots of toys and books for Leah to play with at the house. We went to 3 different playgrounds, the zoo, the botanical garden, the Japanese tea garden, and 2 different duck ponds. It was about 75 and sunny most afternoons, so we loved the weather and spent lots of time outside. We also did lots of shopping - including getting Leah her first real sneakers and some other cute sandals and dress shoes. She's loving walking while holding on to a finger or furniture or anything else - so the shoes came in very handy for all of our outdoor activities.

Leah continues to expand her vocabulary - she can identify her head, feet, belly, belly button, and nose - and she can say eyes. As you can imagine, when she says eyes it sounds a bit like another body part - a$$. But hey - we know what she's saying. She's also getting very good at hi and bye and continues to wave at anyone and everyone.

So many toys to play with and so much space to play in Grandma & Grandpa's house:

We went for Seder at the Tobey's - and Leah very much enjoyed getting kisses from their little dog: Leah was a bit afraid of the bird being up so close at the zoo:
Grandpa played guitar for Leah - she seemed to enjoy it and even danced to the music - but her attention span was short as always:

Leah went up with the other kids for the four questions at the Temple Seder, but we decided she was best kept in the highchair:

Leah spent some time exploring the house in her diaper between daytime and nighttime outfits...she just looks so cute that way:

Leah looked like such a big girl dropping the bread into the water to feed the ducks...although we did have to stop her from eating it several times:

Hey - there's a duck - enjoying the bread from Leah:
Walking all over the botanical gardens with some help from Grandma & Grandpa:
Trying to walk up the slide at the playground, just like the big kids do:

We went to the zoo zoo zoo

Well, I haven't posted in awhile because Leah has been a bit sick...just a lingering virus...but she can't seem to kick it. And in order to help get her healthy and to avoid infecting friends, we've been pretty much just hanging out at home. After a week, she's still getting a bit of a fever in the afternoons and has a lingering cough and runny nose, but she's also got her first molar coming in, so maybe that's not helping.

Yesterday we had gorgeous weather - 65 and sunny - so we finally decided to get out and about. We took a family field trip to Brooklyn's Prospect Park - only about 30 minutes away by subway. We walked through the park and went to the Prospect Park Zoo. Right nearby we came across the Prospect Park Carousel and went for a ride there.

The zoo was lots of fun. Leah was fascinated by the sea lions and the ducks. She didn't seem too interested in most of the other animals, but she did look and point and smile and laugh. She might have been a bit afraid of some of them - no different than her reaction to most dogs - good to look from afar but they better not get too close.

She was not thrilled by the carousel ride. She seemed to like sitting in my lap on a horse until the thing started moving. The up and down part was fun - but when the carousel started spinning faster she turned around and clung to me - definitely not enjoying the ride.

And we leave for Texas tomorrow, so we've had an exciting day of packing today.

Leah was very happy to sit on the horse with Mom before the carousel started moving:
Not quite so happy once it started though:Her smile came right back when we stopped to watch the ducks though:

And after the excitement at the zoo, we went to the big lawn to practice walking:
She really likes walking as long as she has something or someone to hold on to - be it a hand or Baba's pant leg:

Leah's favorite books

Just a few weeks ago I was telling Shafi that even though we have lots and lots of books for Leah (yes, I did go a bit overboard in that department), at some point she will want us to read the same ones over and over again. Little did I know it was about to start. She now has 2 favorite books. I've got them both pretty much memorized cover to cover. She brings them to me at least twice a day - and sometimes more like half a dozen times. She stands in front of me holding them out until I read them - and not just one reading each time - several readings each time. If I stop before she's done she stands there and yells at me - "ahhhhh" - until I continue.

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? Oh the wonderful things Mr. Brown can do. He can sound like a cow, he can go Moo Moo.

Now this book I really like. It's full of cute pictures and sounds - I like making the Moo and the Buzz and the cork going Pop Pop.

Eeyore Has a Birthday, however, is not a favorite for me. It's an abbreviated version of that story. I do make the Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet voices - which is probably part of Leah's affinity for the book. But the story is very very lacking when it's told in 12 board book pages - for a total of about 15 sentences.

I'm sure her favorites will change soon. Hopefully. But it is awfully cute when she goes to the bookshelf and picks out these same 2 books - no matter where on the shelf they are located (as long as they're on the bottom 3 shelves of course, since those are the only ones she can reach.

Leah got out one of her favorites when her friend Ellie came to visit...she started out reading it to Ellie herself...but eventually she brought it to me to read to both of them:

While she does love her books, we don't read all the time, Leah also gets in lots of play time:

And in case anyone was wondering, no she's not walking. She has taken a step or two each day. On Thursday she took about 4 steps when her friend Ellie was here. And at the Dojo yesterday she walked several steps several times with lots of encouragement from all the other moms and babies...but still not as many steps or as many times as she did in the park a week and a half ago. We all know she's capable. But apparently Leah prefers crawling or the security of walking while holding on to something or someone. I'm sure one of these days she'll decide to really start walking...certainly by the time she's 2 or 3.

My poor baby girl has her first ear infection

We'll hope that it's her last...but that's probably wishful thinking. Leah has had on and off fever between 100 and 102 the last few days but we thought it was just a bit of a respiratory virus. But last night she just couldn't sleep. She went to bed at 7 and went right to sleep, but she woke up about 10:20. I held her for awhile and I put her down. We went back and forth between holding her and listening to her cry for a long time. Then when we realized something must be wrong because she just doesn't usually cry like that, I closed the bedroom door so that Shafi could sleep and I tried my best to get Leah to sleep.

From about midnight to 2 a.m. I tried everything - pacing, sitting down, reclining, sitting up, pacing. Nothing kept her calm for more than a few minutes other than pacing - and she gets heavy! Finally a little before 2, I put her in her stroller and rocked her back and forth - and in about 3 minutes, she fell asleep. Unfortunately that sleep was short. From then until about 5:30 a.m. she slept for between 10 and 30 minutes at a stretch in the stroller. When she would wake up and start to cry I would get back up and rock the stroller some more. Around 5:30 that no longer worked. But by then she was so exhausted that she was willing to fall asleep on me while I got to lie down in bed. Eventually I was able to shift her to next to me...and we slept until about 8:30.

We went to the doctor at 10:30 this morning. She said Leah has a respiratory infection - we should watch for bronchitis or croup - but at the moment it's neither. She seems to be breathing fine - just has a nasty cough and a runny nose. And she has an infection in her left ear. So we got an antibiotic and in about 2 days she ought to be feeling better. We're now trying Motrin to help the fever and the pain and it seems to be helping. Leah napped about an hour and a half this afternoon, so we'll see how she does tonight. She did go right to sleep when we put her down at 7. And the doctor said she'll no longer be contagious once the fever has been gone for 24 hours - so hopefully the fever will be gone tomorrow - and soon we can start getting out and about again. I think we both go a bit stir crazy being stuck at home.

On a more fun note...Leah's been saying "wee-ah wee-ah" a lot lately. And a couple days ago it struck me that she was saying it after I said "Leah." Indeed - I'm pretty sure she's trying to say her name. So now when we ask her "What's your name?" she says "wee-ah" - it's incredibly adorable. I'll see if I can catch it on video soon.

These Robeez were made for walking

This makes that earlier standing post awfully anticlimactic. This afternoon Leah started walking! We met some friends in the park to enjoy the beautiful weather today. Leah was showing off her new standing skill - and just as I was commenting on her good standing but fear of actually taking a step - she took a step! Then she took a couple more. Then I got out the camera and got some great video - and she kept getting up and kept walking. So adorable.

We're in for a whole new world. And we'll have to buy some new shoes to give her some good outdoor protection and support!