movin' on up

dear little leah, 

i'm so sorry to have neglected this blog, but we've been b-u-s-y! rest assured i have not neglected YOU. i have lots to catch up on and i will once we're all settled. 

you, my friend, have been a champ during all this upheaval in your life. you are currently sitting on your bed in the front room watching up on the iPad while i finish my to-do list. so many great changes await you in new hampshire and i can't wait to see how you will learn and grow and whose hearts you will melt.

i'll be back in a few weeks with, i'm sure, a lot to write about. the least of which being a 5 day car trip for you.

thanks in advance for being so great. 

love you lots. 

love, 

mommy

onto number 4

dear little leah, 

today you finished potty chart #3...the one we've been working on since december 4th of last year. it took awhile, but you've been on a roll as of late. i have a feeling this next chart is going to fly by. 

plus, you're getting to be a pro at telling me when you're done {a kiss} and choosing your stickers. your eye gaze is amazing on the potty.

hip hip for persistence!!

and...hip hip for dates with dad! you earned it. 

love you bunches. 

love, 

mommy

standoff

dear little leah, 

tonight we had a standoff at dinner. 

voices weren't raised - we both kept our cool. thank goodness. i think we're both getting better at that. 

in the end, i'm not really sure who won. you didn't eat, so one point for you. but you stayed at the table until i was good and ready to let you down. you did eventually swallow the three bites i ever-so-sweetly jammed into you rmouth - even after they sat stagnant in your cheeks for well over 10 minutes each. yuck. 

you pursed your lips. you turned your head. you resorted to burying your face on the table. now that's what i call selective rett syndrome. 

i know you were tired. and possibly you were bored? maybe you weren't feeling well. i'm 99% certain it wasn't the food. i know you love lasagna. and yet there we both sat. for 45 minutes. that's my idea of a friday night. um, no. not really. 

how about no standoffs in the future? a little girl can't live on hollow bones forever. but either way, i love you. 

love, 

mommy

my little yogi

dear little leah, 

thanks for your tips on my yoga technique this morning. it was super helpful. 

love you. 

love, 

mommy

a good day!

dear little leah, 

so much to catch up on, but that's for another day. because today, TODAY, was a good day. 

i don't often write about your good days. it seems i need the therapy that comes from writing only on the bad. but i wanted to let you know that you do, indeed, have good days. you have great days! like today. there was no crying when entering/exiting the car. you ran into school and went up the stairs without hesitation. your teachers reported that you had an amazing day with no crying, sitting for 20+ minutes for art and story time, a great day in the motor room, and approximating names/answers/songs! 

i know! and it doesn't stop there.

as i picked you up for school, you squealed with delight and ran into my arms. you walked down the steps without hesitation {just with my hand} and ran to the car without crying. a. ma. zing. 

at home, we danced and giggled and played all day long. you sat in my lap a lot. i mean a lot a lot. even while i folded the laundry. it melted my heart! 

you got to play with baby bailey {who learned to walk while we were away - not such a baby anymore!}. we played dress-ups and ate cherry tomatoes {a new favorite snack} and danced our little hearts out. we even chased your bubble bug because the sun decided to show its face. finally. 

you ate dinner with ease and with a smile. you had three poopy diapers which is definitely not normal, but it didn't matter because you sat calmly while i changed each of them. you splashed like a crazy woman {happy, but crazy} in the tubby and you sat calmly in my arms as we read the dancing jellybeans. and now you're sleeping calmly in your bed - that you climbed into all by yourself.

see?! a good day all around. 

hooray for good days! 

hooray for you!

love you, little leah.

love, 

mommy

leah's mother...

dear little leah, 

one of my favorite parts about mother's day - even before you made me a mother - was hearing and reading all of the funny things young children had to say about their moms. our church congregation often prints a program of what kids have to say about their moms and it is sometimes tears-rolling-down-your-cheek funny. last year, i realized i would most likely never know what funny things you had to say about me because you can't communicate with words or signing like most kids can. 

but i was wrong, little leah. oh so wrong. 

in church yesterday, they did print an insert in the program and you said you loved the bows i put in your hair each week. i knew it. i knew the fits you throw each and every morning were all for show. you're such a faker! and, so, we will continue to comb your hair daily. thanks for letting me know. 

you also made a bookmark with all sorts of fill-in-the-blank information about me. and boy did it make me laugh. {okay, so i know your helper and teacher actually filled it out, but i'm sure you helped them??} 

in case you can't see the picture clearly, it reads:

"My Mother...Is 23 Years Old and Weighs 100 Pounds; She LOVES to Eat chocolate But HATES to Eat brussell sprouts. Her Favorite Season of the Year is spring, and Her Most Favorite Holiday is Valentine's day. She Likes to Spend Her Money on shoes, but doesn't Like Spending Money on car repairs. If She Could Go Anywhere in the World She Would Go to Europe. But the Best Thing About MY Mom, is That She is MY Mom! XOXO HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY MOM!"

Now let's clarify:

• i am not 23. not that i wouldn't love to have people think i look that young, but i don't look that young nor did i give birth to you at age 19.
• i am not 100 lbs. but thank you. really, truly, thank you. 
• i actually don't love chocolate. not a big temptation for me. gummy things? pie? now we're talkin'. 
• i LOVE brussell sprouts. in fact, we had them for mother's day dinner. 
• i don't love spring. well, it's not that i don't love it, but i don't love how it teases me. hot? cold? snow? rain? just make up your mind! i love autumn, leah. autumn. 
• as for valentine's day. way wrong. i have never loved valentine's day. but, lucky me, it's you dad's birthday, so we get to celebrate him instead! yay for daddy!!
  
• you do get three points, however. i do love buying shoes. i do not like spending money on car repairs {that was brilliantly safe, now wasn't it?} and i would go to europe...how did you know!? :)

 

i guess i don't have to worry about missing out on those funny things you'll say, huh? thanks for making mother's day #5 so great. 

love you, little leah. 

love, 

mommy

and we'll never know why

dear little leah, 

you threw a doozy this weekend. a serious tantrum. and i will never know why. ah, well. lucky for us, it was at stanford campus right as an auditorium full of parents and new undergrad admits were being let out of a session. that was a nice welcome to standford for them, don't you think?

luckily you redeemed yourself in your beautiful cherry dress watching tangled and eating snacks on the couch with dad today. {dad was also enthralled with the movie, contrary to what this picture might show.}

we still love you. 

love, 

mommy

i told you we had great friends

dear little leah, 

your dad and i jetted off to new hampshire last weekend to check out our soon-to-be stomping grounds. you know that. you spent three nights having sleepovers with a few of your sweet little friends under the care of their amazingly generous parents. um, i guess you know that too. but, the fact that we can leave you for an entire long weekend and not even fret is a feeling i can't even describe. when you were first diagnosed i really wondered if your dad and i would ever be able to travel again at all - let alone leave you with someone else while we did so! 

if you're wondering, i'm 110 percent certain you had more fun at home than you would have had on our red eye flight, freezing "spring" weather {it snowed and hailed while we were there!}, and delayed flight that turned into nearly 12 hours on the way home. 

we got great texts and picture updates throughout the weekend that helped us to be at ease and also made us smile and miss you oh-so-much. 

hot tubbin' it with em, syd and aubo {yes, you're giving em kisses}

 nice {lack of} coordination on the facial expressions, girls. guess we packed the wrong swimsuit otherwise you could have been triplets!

 swinging with miss emery - apparently you both thoroughly enjoyed the ride

 i'm glad no one else knows what to do with your braced arms on the swings either.

 twinner jammies with syndey

 snuggling up in your ever-popular blow up bed with waverly and emerson. apparently waverly followed you around all weekend calling out "eah! eah!"

 modeling your "yo yo's" before church with emerson

sunday, while dad and i were waiting for our plane at the boston logan airport, i got the following email from one of these sweet friends and i thought you might enjoy it.

Hey Maren,

I hope you had a good trip and get to catch up on some sleep tonight.  The jet lag from coast to coast can be terrible.  Leah was such an angel this weekend.  I was actually very sad to drop her off at Jaimi's.  Just wanted to share with you a few things that I learned about Leah this weekend.

1. She thinks it's hilarious when I sneeze, even if it's the 20th time I sneeze, it's still just as funny as the first time.
2. She really, really, really likes Ritz crackers.  She seriously ate half a sleeve of Ritz crackers at the park on Friday.
3. She doesn't mind sharing her swing with Emery.  She seemed to love being able to combine two of her favorite things, swinging and babies.
4. She makes really cute sighing and humming noises when she's falling asleep.
5. She definitely prefers the pool over the hot tub.
6. She loves to give Emery kisses.  Emery's head bore the evidence all weekend (so cute).
7. She's a good sharer, she happily allows two other toddlers to snuggle with her in bed.
8. She loves chocolate pudding and boy does she get excited over a cheeseburger.
9. She can move those little legs of hers so fast.  She kept up with the quickest of them during Music Makers.  I think she really enjoyed herself.
10. She's one darling, lovable and smiley little girl. 

Okay, I already knew that last one.  Thanks for trusting your little one with us this weekend.  We had a blast.  I really hope Leah has as much fun as we did.  

Kristen

i love you little leah. thanks for being a sweetheart this weekend. and thanks for being so cute. that helps too.

love, 

mommy

just call me a slacker

go ahead. i deserve it. just call me a slacker. a month and a half with no letter to my little leah!? it's absurd, i know. because i'm such a slacker, you might never have known that you...

got a haircut, 

 had a birthday,

 dressed up a bazillion times with your friends,

 got sick,

 rocked the rain gear,

 went to work with dad,

 got caught looking at inappropriate menswear at the store,

 had lots of picnics with mom in the front room while it rained,

 had a birthday party {yes, a month late}

 had your four year checkup {and only cried one tear after your immunizations!},

 watched lots of march madness with dad,

 practiced dressing in winter gear in preparation for your move to new england,

 fell asleep in funny places,

 became impatient when mom didn't feed you fast enough, taking matters into your own hands {or mouth?},

 played the wii with dad,

 chased your new bubble bug,

 smelled the pretty flowers,

 were the cutest green leprechaun we've ever seen,

 had your third visit at the natural history study in oakland {this time with dr. nuel},

 sabotaged mom's emails on multiple occasions {you think it's hilarious to haphazardly whack the keyboard},

got you first pair of flip flops,

swam like a fish for your first {and second} pool days of the year,

and fell asleep in more funny places.

 

really, it's been a fun-filled month. we've jumped in puddles and jumped in pools. grown a year older and blown a year's worth of boogers. fought a fever and partied and played. sorry to slack off on you miss leah. it shouldn't happen again. thanks for putting up with me, sweetheart. 

i love you bunches!

love, 

mommy

I love you miss leah beah...

dear little leah,

Aside from your mother, you are the most precious thing in my life. You are one of the things that makes life enjoyable. Even though your condition has at times cast a dark cloud over life, you have a unique way of shattering that sadness with your bright rays of happiness. Here are some of my very favorite things about you:

1. I love the way you follow me around the house on Saturdays and Sundays. During the week, I leave early for work and come home late. I don't always get to spend the amount of time with you that I'd like. Believe it or not, when you follow me around the house on the weekends, it makes me feel important. I love getting up to walk from one side of the house to the other and hearing the pitter-patter of your little feet hit the kitchen floor only seconds after mine. You're my little buddy, and I hope you always will be.
2. I hate (and I mean really hate) hearing people chew their food. It grosses me out. It takes over all the sounds in the room. It's disgusting. BUT, I love hearing you chew! It is one of the cutest little sounds I know. I'm not sure why it doesn't gross me out. Maybe you just know how to chew with style.
3. I love after you've taken a bath, and you're in your fresh jammies. You're adorable and you smell so good. I can usually smell your shampoo on my hands for hours after, and I love it!
4. I love rocking you to sleep in our wonderfully fashionable orange rocking chair. If I could, I'd hold you and rock you in that chair forever.
5. But, if I held you in the chair all night, I wouldn't get to see you wiggle in your bed. That's how you settle in for the night, and it cracks me up.
6. I love when we're sitting at the kitchen table having dinner and you keep looking at me out of the corner of your eyes until I look at you. Once I see you, I lean my head over until my forehead touches yours and you just stare into my eyes and smile. I love that.
7. Last but not least, I adore your squinty, smiley face. You know the one. It always makes me smile.
   

Your mom and I are very lucky that we have our own personal angel living at our house! I love you so!

Love,
Daddy