Leah is 20 months old!

Since I haven't posted in a month, I figured I should add something today. Nothing really new to report though. Leah's vocabulary continues to increase daily. She's putting longer strings of words together - "all done mommy shower", "more potatoes please", "leah shoes off".

Leah is now counting to 13 - yes, she's added 2 numbers in the last month. She's very proficient at identifying colors now - red, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, black, purple. Her repertoire of songs is growing, as well. She sings her ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle very well and also gets parts of Itsy Bitsy Spider, Ali Galoo, Elmo's World, Old Macdonald. And she frequently sings along with a few words of various songs from the "Kids Music" playlist on my iPod.

She's doing many many animal sounds - she seems to remember pretty much everything I've taught her even when we haven't practiced in a few days - I guess I ought to think about adding some more animals. She now loves elephant sounds. She tries to do it and it comes out more like a raspberry - and she frequently requests that Shafi and I make an elephant sound, "Mommy elephant" or "Baba elephant". I told her I don't like being called an elephant but she persists and I give in.

She's also doing many body parts now - I guess it's time to add more of those too. She'll point to what I ask her to or sometimes she'll just randomly point and tell me what the body party is - we've mastered head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, ears, cheeks, chin, shoulders, belly (also tummy), belly button, arms, elbows, hands, fingers, legs, knees, feet, and toes.

Identifying her belly button (with no prompting - she's become a bit of a flasher):
Eating her favorite lunch (peanut butter & jelly sandwich - which she just calls "jelly"):
Clapping along with Elmo - she loves this book:
Playing with stickers - apparently it's really fun to put stickers on her belly and knees:

Leah is 19 months old!

I haven't posted in several weeks...lots to report. Leah's 19th month of life was one of big leaps and bounds - especially in her vocabulary. She's combining words more and more these days. She asks to play with the "George puzzle" - which is a Curious George puzzle in the nursery at the gym. The tells us to get out of bed by saying "Mommy down. Baba down." She tells us when she's done with whatever may be going on - "all done draw" seems fairly self explanatory - and also when she wants whatever we have - "Leah bite" or "Leah sip" - or sometimes when she's cold - "Leah jacket."

More exciting than all of that - she counts to 10 - and sometimes 11. We were stuck on "two three four six" for quite awhile. Then we added five in the right spot. Eight nine ten came soon after. Finally we got her to add the one. But the real holdout was seven. Of course we didn't want to pressure her - the counting was really all on her own - but when she kept saying "one two three four five six eight nine ten" we were just terribly frustrated that we couldn't even get her to say the word seven. Then all of a sudden she said it when asked - and added it to the sequence. And if she's in the mood she'll even perform her one through ten skills when asked to count.

Leah now loves carrying on pretend phone conversations on her play phone - she can really go on for awhile when she feels like it. She's very into her crayons and sidewalk chalk and requests "draw" several times a day. She also likes for us to draw things for her - I'm getting pretty good at drawing Elmo - Leah even recognizes it without my telling her what it is.

Leah's playground skills are continuing to improve - running faster, climbing better, she can even go up a few steps without holding on. And she's mastered the spiral slide - no more getting a foot caught and spinning around head first. She also loves hanging from a bar overhead and swinging back and forth - although she hasn't quite mastered the drop - sometimes falling a bit awkwardly and bumping an elbow or head.

She's also got an expanding palate - she now identifies and requests bacon - and she's eaten shrimp a couple of times - although she never wants more than one in a sitting. And her flair for dancing continues. She dances at home with her baby doll, at weddings, at the playground - pretty much any place that there is any music Leah is happy to break into a little hip shimmy. And of course we all love watching her move.

But the most exciting new development for me - she says "I love you." And today she even added "I love you Mommy" (see video below).

Showing off her hanging skills:
Just being so darn cute at the playground:
Climbing - already halfway up before I can even get there to make sure she doesn't fall:
Mmm - bacon is good:
Showing off her dancing skills at Water Taxi Beach on Governor's Island:

Leah's 18 month check-up

Leah had her 18 month check-up today. She got a clean bill of health. She's 34 3/4 inches - still off the charts - or the ">97 percentile." She's 26 lbs 12 ozs - 80th percentile. And her head is in the 85th percentile. She was a bit better with the doctor today than the last few visits. She screamed a bit while being checked out - but Dr. O'Connor was able to distract her for much of the time with her tape measure. She got one shot today - she handled it pretty well - cried when the needle went in - stopped after about 30 seconds of hugging and soothing.

Not too much else to report. We are going to experiment with not giving her milk before bed. Two reasons behind that - try to stop the overnight diaper leaks that have been almost nightly these days - and also cut the calories from milk to try to get Leah to eat lunch. So now she'll be getting 8 ounces of milk mid-morning (11ish) and 8 ounces of milk mid-afternoon (4ish). I was not sure whether she'd protest the lack of bedtime milk, but tonight went smoothly. Following a large dinner - 4 ounces or so of chicken, lots of broccoli, a little rice, half a kiwi, and a dozen or so grapes - we had a bath and read several books and she went right to sleep. Now we just wait to see whether the 8 ounce reduction in pre-bedtime fluids will mean no leak.

And the next well-visit isn't until she's 2!

Leah found some sunglasses at the playground last week - after I rinsed them off she very much enjoyed showing them off:
Enjoying a hot day in Central Park with friends on Sunday:
I like to call this Leah's SI Swimsuit Edition pose - very sultry and dumping water on her head:
Having lots of fun playing a little hide-and-seek at the Children's Museum yesterday:
Ahh - that check-up was well worth it for the lollipop afterwards:

Leah is one and a half!

I have nothing major to report on Leah's half birthday. I got her a tee ball set. She wasn't all that interested in it...but we'll keep trying. I also got her a see and say - the thing with the animals around it that you pull the lever and the arrow spins and tells you about the animal - the cow says moo. That she's excited about. It took her a little time to figure out how to pull the lever all the way - and it doesn't work if you only pull it part way. But after about 10 minutes of frustration she became a real pro.

I took her out to breakfast. She had silver dollar pancakes...and ate most of them. And for the first time she seemed to like the OJ...usually she has one sip and doesn't want more. Today she drank about 1/3 of the glass...although the glass is probably only about 4 ounces.

Otherwise it was a pretty average day. This morning we hung out in Cadman Plaza with Leah's friend Avery (girl Avery). And after naptime and lunch we hung out with Leah's friend Asher at the playground.

Mmm...orange juice:
Leah likes to take a bite or two of several pancakes rather than just eating one at a time...she goes back to them eventually:
Leah and her friend girl Avery having fun with some sidewalk chalk in Cadman Plaza:
And then at the playground this afternoon...loving the sandbox..."shovel. shovel. shovel.":

Sightseeing in DC

Took me awhile to get to posting about our trip. We went to Washington DC last weekend for a friend's wedding. We made the trip Wednesday night to Sunday morning so that we could have plenty of time for sightseeing. It was actually Leah's 3rd trip to DC but the first time she was old enough for much sightseeing.

We drove Wednesday night around 7 p.m. - and Leah managed to keep herself awake in the car until 10 p.m. She didn't fuss much - mostly played and sang and such. We turned the music off - didn't make a difference. We tried ignoring her...no difference. Of course once she fell asleep it was only about an hour until we arrived at Uncle Howard & Uncle Charlie's house. She fought going back to sleep in the pack n play but of course eventually she did.

Thursday morning we went to the National Zoo. She loved the lions, elephants, panda bears and gorillas.

Leah and Baba watching the mommy gorilla nurse her baby:
Leah and Mommy watching the panda bear have a snack:

Thursday afternoon we went to the National Mall - we only had time to see the Washington Monument up close. But Leah's favorite part was the flock of Canadian geese nearby.
Leah sitting on a bench in front of the Washington Monument surveying the scene:
Uncle Alan (my brother) took off Friday to hang with us. We went to the sculpture gardens at the Hirshhorn and the National Gallery of Art and also took a stroll through part of the Hirshhorn's collection.
Taking a rest in the Hirshhorn:
Leah telling Uncle Alan what she thinks of one of the sculptures:

Then we spent the afternoon at a nearby playground before having a tasty German meal at Old Europe.


Saturday morning we had a nice brunch out with Howard and Charlie and strolled around Georgetown by the water a bit. And then we went to Lisa's wedding. We all had a great time. It was a short sweet ceremony followed by a tasty BBQ meal and a fun band and dancing.

The wedding was about an hour outside of DC - beautiful surroundings:Shafi and Leah went to explore the grounds...Leah absconded with my friend Jamie's purse:
Leah got her very own dance with the bride:
And also with some of the groom's family:

Sunday Aunt Rachel and Uncle Alan joined us for a visit to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Leah enjoyed the fish and butterflies and stuffed animals. But despite being an obvious princess, she showed little interest in the hope diamond.

Leah in awe of the enormous whale on the ceiling:
Leah loved the fish...would have stayed there watching them all day:
And of course she was mesmerized by the giant butterflies:
And it seemed she didn't realize a giraffe was so big!:

Overall we had a great trip and the drive home went well. We had a nice lunch at Cracker Barrel and then Leah took a nice 90 minute nap. We're already looking forward to our Thanksgiving trip.

Running, talking, playgrounding

I haven't been blogging much lately. I think it's only because we've been keeping ourselves so busy and I don't really have any new milestones to report. Leah is busily running everywhere - in the park, at the playground, at home. She really wants to jump - she squats down and gears up for it - springing up with as much force as she can muster - but not actually leaving the ground. It's incredibly adorable.

She's talking a lot. Still adding new words daily, but I've given up on keeping the list...I think it's fair to say that if you use a word a lot or attempt to teach her a word she will begin using it. Luckily I have been successful in watching my language around her! Recently she's added words like kiss, hug, glasses, gorilla, and outside. And she's been increasing her 2 word combos. She happily says hi and bye to everything and everyone - bye boat, bye gorilla, hi Baba, bye diaper - she's also added things like no sit, shirt wet, and hot eggs.

Leah is also continuing to get teeth. Her top molars are about halfway present (the outer half is clearly visible but the inner half hasn't found it's way through the gums yet - on both sides). Her top eye teeth are through the gums and on their way to being useful teeth. Her bottom eye teeth are getting close - the left side is clearly visible but not yet broken through the last bit of gums - and the right side outline is there but no white showing yet. So - sooner rather than later Leah will have 16 teeth. Then most likely she'll get a bit of a break before those 2nd year molars come in and bring her total up to all 20 baby teeth. Luckily the last several have not been nearly as bad as the bottom molars were - at least so far.

There are so many cute pictures from the last few weeks that I'm having trouble deciding which to post here - so here are a few - but please visit the Picasa site to see more of Leah's 18th month.

Leah wore her new bikini to host her first pool party last week - 3 of her friends came over to splash around in the baby pool with her:
This fuzzy giraffe shirt from Uncles Howard & Charlie is definitely a favorite:
Leah now climbs on anything and everything...including the ladders at the playground...making her Mommy very nervous:

Who is that?

Everyone has a name. Leah has discovered this fact and is now calling quite a few people by name. Her name was first...then Baba...then Mommy. I believe GG (great grandma) was next. She's got Grandma down, although apparently she thinks Maca is the appropriate word. Sometimes she gets Grandpa too - Gumpa. She's been calling many of her stuffed animals by name - there's puppy and baby - and Rusty (the bear) and George (Curious George, that is) and Elmo, of course.

The first of her friends to be called by name was Asher. She doesn't spend that much time with him, but she seems to have quite a love for Asher. She now thinks that Ring-Around-the-Rosie includes "Asher Asher" before we all fall down. She's also got Cooper down. She's been calling Malia by name and even points down the hall towards her apartment calling "Ma-ee." She knows that the building's maintenance man is Ray - although she seems to think all middle-aged black men are Ray. She's also got a handle on Jackie the babysitter - but seems to think all babysitters are Jackie (including Millie at the gym). And Patsy the maid - who only comes every other week - but for days afterwards Leah says "Patsy?" whenever she hears someone coming to the door during the day. She talks to Shafi's parents on the phone about once a week - they are Dada and Dadi - and at other times she sometimes points to the phone and says "Dada?"

We're still working on the names of Leah's other friends. She's pretty good at repeating them when asked, so no doubt it won't be long before she's addressing everyone appropriately.

She continues to add quite a few new words per week - not quite a consistent pace - sometimes 3 a day and sometimes a day without. And she exercises her vocabulary quite a lot - answering a lot of questions, making request for favorite foods. Yesterday morning when she got up and asked for Baba and I said he was busy she said "Work?" and I said no he's still home. She asked "Sleeping?" and I said no he's on the potty. She then said "Potty? Potty?" and dutifully waited for him to emerge from the bathroom.

She still loves bath time - often asking for "Bath" or "Shower" when we're in the bathroom. Yesterday she asked for the potty during dinner. I put her on it and she actually went pee pee. So now she has another butterfly on her arm - the first one has mostly faded away, so she's pretty happy to have the new one. Hopefully that will continue to be incentive to use the potty. And maybe one of these days she'll even tell me before she needs to poop instead of after she's already done it.

Leah's latest bath time ritual - standing in front of the tub spigot with a light shower raining down on her head - and playing with the bucket:
All dressed up and ready for Peter Luger's lunch for Father's Day:

Hanging out at the bar waiting for our table - we had a 2 hour lunch and Leah behaved pretty close to perfectly - in case you're wondering, no, she did not eat the steak, but she was pretty happy with a combination of broccoli, creamed spinach and potatoes:
Having lots of fun at a going away party for a friend - Leah loves sitting on Mommy's lap: