WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

I am still in disbelief! I am going to tell this story from the beginning, so hold on tight. It is no lie that Ed and I are no spring chickens, and parenting a two year old after the two big ones left us tired and dry, has been a bit of a challenge. Not a bad challenge, a perfectly wonderful challenge, but a challenge. One that I welcome and love and would not trade this "perfect" child for the world. `Our challenge is not our child but re-training our old, tired bodies for the extreme hyperactivity of our two-year-old. Let's just say we have been literally running a marathon for a year and a half without sleep. However, for the past two weeks, Leah is becoming more a little girl and less a toddler. The speech and occupational therapists have noticed too. Her language has improved so much and I have actually taken her shopping twice without the stroller, which serves as a restraint! PROGRESS!! But today! Well, as most of you know, she has been experiencing sleep issues. And although we have had good nights and bad nights, she still wakes up every night. For 2 months she has been starting off in her bed (which in itself is a miracle) and at about 1 or 2 am wakes up and comes to our bed. While in our bed she still has night terrors in her sleep. Most of the time they last less than a minute but they happen every couple of hours. For the past week there have been no night terrors!!!!!! Then this morning I was awakened by Ed saying "bye" when I jumped out of the bed realizing Leah wasn't in it! Yes, people, she slept soundly, in her own bed, ALL NIGHT!!!! Will it last? I don't know, but we will celebrate regardless. Thank you. God, for the gift a good night's sleep.

One More Chance!

We have been awarded one more chance! I know I was more excited than Leah!. Thanks to Jasmine! Leah's little friend Jasmine started "Fairy Ballet" class last week. They really enjoy playing together so Mimi let Leah try out the class one more time. Mimi also has an assistant now, so its a little easier. As the parents watched from the window, I was almost too afraid to look but the other parents told me to come see that they were all doing great. Great is was. They were all so cute. Leah seemed to stay with the group better so Mimi's assistant, Chelsea, was able to get a couple of pictures. She is still learning to listen and follow directions but she seemed less distracted this time. It was a huge improvement. The children are allowed to bring a stuffed animal or doll to class and she even shared nicely. At the end of each class the children get to color a picture that goes along with the theme of the week. That part is too much for Leah as she is still unable to sit and work on one task for over 3 seconds, but we are working on it and this will help her with that as well.

Leah's First Expulsion

Leah has been expelled from Mimi's "Fairy Ballet" class. The studio has a wonderful program for children ages 2 and a half to 5. Leah started in September. We were all worried about how she would do but she surprised us and followed directions, got along well with others and did great. The program is really cute and the girls seem to love it. She did so great that I decided to enroll her twice per week instead of once. BIG MISTAKE!! Saturday's class has another little girl who is just like Leah (Minus the hyperactivity) and the 2 of them together was more than Mimi could handle. Let's just say that the only thing that was not happening in that class was actual ballet. Mimi was so angry the last time she asked me not to bring her back. I was so sad that it has taken me a couple of weeks to write this post. What, you ask, could this sweet child have done to put her loving and doting big sister over the edge? Well, where do I begin? Michelle's exact words were "she is very distracting to the other girls who pay no attention to me because they watch Leah to see what weird thing she will do next". This class uses lots of props, Leah plays with the props when she is not supposed to, takes things away from the other girls, when coloring a picture of first position she scribbled on the other children's papers, she no longer follows the steps and does her own wild dance instead, in which of course everyone then stops to watch her. OK, she is only 2. Michelle didn't start ballet until she was 3. We will give it some time and start over. Despite this rocky start she is still my favorite little ballerina and I have hope that she will calm down some by the time she is 3.

Mimi Opens New Dance Studio

Our older daughter, Mimi, started her own dance and performing art studio. Quite an accomplishment for someone so young. "Meems" has always worked very hard at everything she does and we are very proud of her accomplishments. She is still in college and hopes to attend her classes in the morning and teach in the afternoons. Our entire family has come together to help her; Dad, her brother Dan, and uncle Rich installed her dance floors, installed doors and walls, etc; her uncle Mike who lives in Phoenix is doing the studio's website, her aunt Ly had organized a team to paint, which is made up of cousins, Mom has organized the office and procedures and advertising, and Leah is our model and her images adorn the walls at the studio. We needed "art" for the walls so we dressed Leah in a tutu and let her play. Check out some of the images below. Who needs to purchase art when we have access to this face?

"Arroz con Huevo Frito"

What???? OK, let me explain. White rice and fried eggs is a very important dish for our 2 older children. They would be extremely happy to eat nothing else the rest of their lives. They were horrified that Leah would never experience such pleasure because we were told on "Gotcha Day" that Leah was allergic to eggs. Imagine the horror! Well, one day, in the car,on the way to Disney, we stopped at a McDonald's for breakfast. Michelle ordered an egg mcmuffin. Suddenly, I look back and Leah had taken out the egg and was eating it. Imagine my horror imagining the worst of allergic reactions. Well, nothing happened. Leah is not allergic to eggs. The pediatrician asked me to try again. I did and nothing happened. Danny and Michelle were so happy that they made her a plate and sat, camera in hand, to watch her eat it. Leah loved it.

Leah Rocks!

We have always known that Leah loves music and dancing, here is a preview of our little rocker imitating her sister as she was listening to the rock group Paramore.




Michelle was listening to music as she dried her hair, Leah insisted on "helping" but could not resist the temptation to move to the beat




Dad was playing guitar and needed a drummer! Of course we had a volunteer who shakes a mean booty.

She has a thing for watermelon..

↓↓↓ Chinese Watermelon Art.... never seen anything like this ↓↓↓

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If Leah's obsession for watermelon continues, shes having a watermelon party with these carvings and these cupcakes↓↓.... end of story.
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Our funny, funny child!

Everyone that knows us knows that Leah is a lot of fun. We literally spend the days laughing with her and at all of her craziness. I was really behind on posts but rather that entertaining you with each of her sillies, I thought I would dedicate this post with some of Leah's funnies.

We don't know why but she found Home Depot hilarious!




We took a trip to Ideal Baby Store for a new car seat. We decided not to take her in the stroller thinking how difficult could it be, two adults, one 2 year old, we had it under control. HA! She ran around touching everything and tried out some of the car seats and even a bed. Isn't that a joke, she hates beds! Finally after chasing her around the store she decides to "hide" behind a dresser and shout BOOB! (She means peak-a-boo).





On this day she decided she needed a monkey tail. She wore it all day and was not happy she could not bathe with it. This is an important tail to our family you see. This was the tail off of a monkey that belonged to Leah's older brother when he was little. He is now 21 so the tail, not the monkey, has history. He tore the tail off the monkey, played with that for years and we never saw the monkey again. But the tail lives on. One day, Dad decided to wear the tail around the house to make the children laugh. Well, he forgot all about it and went to the grocery store wearing it. Oh what I wouldn't give for the surveillance tape from that day.











I read in a friend's blog once how interesting it is when Daddy dresses the children; usually not matching, etc. Well when this Mommy came home one day, I found a ninja! He swore she liked it, but is this a happy face?








If she even smells a camera, she shouts "cheeeeeeeeeeese" and poses. Here she is in pajamas way past bedtime but I couldn't resist.




Not your average trip to Olive Garden. This muchkin is into everything and we are usually exausted by the end of the day, after we literally had to remove everything from the table to keep her from throwing it (she's a lefty and if major league baseball saw her, women will be allowed to play baseball) anyways, the waiter asked if we wanted "cheese" and that was her cue to break in a pose and shout "cheeeeeeeeeeeeeese" at the top of her lings.

Gotcha Day 1st Anniversary

One year ago today we celebrated the arrival of our third child into our family. Each time a very different experience, but each time a very special time in my life. What a gift it is to be a parent. My children have given me so much joy that words could never express. Leah's arrival was a long time coming. For so many years we prayed for her, cried for her, and the wait was very difficult. Many times I felt it would never come. But on June 30th, 2008, she was placed in my arms, rather, I grabbed her from the director of her SWI before the poor man knew what was coming. I laugh about it now, but I imagine he must have thought this poor child was going to a lunatic. But at that moment, after waiting for so many years, then on top of it all, Leah was the last baby in our group to arrive, I just wanted my baby. It seemed like forever that I watched and enjoyed and cried with other families in our group as they experienced their moment. Now it was my turn, suddenly all I could hear was my heart beating and Leah crying. She was scared and confused but she never once rejected us nor did she ever try to pull away. I felt that although this was so confusing to my littlest angel, she could feel how much we loved her and knew we would always love and take care of her and somehow trusted us. Despite the fact she loved and missed her nannies, I knew she knew we were her forever family when just hours with us she would not go to strangers or anyone but us three. I have very mixed feelings about this day. It will always be a very special and important day for me. How can it not? I love this child more than life. But at the same time, it was a sad moment for all of the children. We all knew their lives were going to change for the better, but they did not. They were all scared and confused and for this my heart aches.

David's Birthday Party

This is the first time Leah sat by herself at a birthday party and ate with all the other children, like a big girl! The party was at the Little Gym and after they played in the gym they went into the party room, sang Happy Birthday, and ate pizza. Yes, Leah ate it. But what excited her the most was using a regular cup. She was so happy that we did not give her a sippy cup in front of her friends! Now, everytine we are at the gym, she points to the party room and sings Happy Birthday.

Leah's Spring Photo Shoot

The Sunday before Mother's Day we finally got around to getting Leah's first professional pictures done. This was the third attempt. The first had to be canceled due to a hurricane warning, for the second Leah was very sick and nothing was going to get in the way this time. It was 91 degrees, she was cranky, and a sinus infection was lurking its ugly head, but we got through it and the results were great. There were too many to choose for this post, my favorite ones were her serious expressions where you can capture her stunning features. Am I bias? But isn't this one beautiful child?