The darndest things

Whatcha doin' honey? (Leah says this to anyone and everyone. It must be the precursor to "why?" because she asks about every 15 seconds.)
What's this? (Usually I can ask her right back and she'll tell me what it is.)
Oh, poor panties. (When she has had an accident)
Are you blooding? (When someone gets an owie. You have to be bleeding to get a band aid at our house.)

slipperly (slippery)
rackinaw cheese (macaroni & cheese)
poopace (toothpaste)
p butter delly (peanut butter and jelly)
Pliget (Piglet)
Floodle (Pluto)

The other day for lunch I was feeling lazy and gave her a slice of bread with peanut butter on it. (She usually only eats the peanut butter anyway...) She said "I need jelly." I slathered some jelly on top of the peanut butter, after which she replied "I want to hide it." So we ended up with a complete sandwich anyway. She is very resourceful with her words!

She's such a big girl!

I can't get over how grown up my little girl is. She wears big girl panties, can say the alphabet and count past 10, knows the words to songs and nursery rhymes, can open door knobs and even the fridge, and so much more. On the other hand, she still sleeps in a crib and has a binky. When does the baby stage truly end and the big girl stage start?

Fun times for Leah

Here are a few photo highlights from the past few weeks. Leah had the opporunity to ride on a horse! There are two horses that currently live in the field behind our house, and we can always see them from the kitchen table. We decided to trek out to feed them some oats and apples, and they were docile enough to pet and ride. What a treat for Miss Leah! She really enjoyed riding the horse.

Here are a few pictures of Leah playing with the little girl across the street. These two have a love-hate relationship. They will hug one second, and then push each other away the next. They get along great until they both want to play with the same thing, and then they fight like cats! I guess that's just how it goes when you're this age.

Samuel's 4 Month Checkup

Samuel had his four month checkup yesterday.

Length: 24.5 inches, 25- 50th percentile

Weight: 14 lbs 6oz, 50th percentile

Head: 42.5 cm, 50th percentile

Compare his growth to his 2 months checkup. If I remember correctly, Leah was always tall and skinny(75th and 25th percentile), so Samuel seems like a chubster even though he is pretty average size. Samuel didn't like his shots at all, but Leah enjoyed comforting him by patting his head and holding his hand while he was getting his shots. She is such a nurturing big sister!

The only concern we discussed with the Doctor is that Samuel has a fairly marked asymmetry of his head shape, so he will probably need a helmet in the next couple of months. :( There must be something about the second child; I'm so distracted by a potty-training toddler that I haven't even thought about solids even though I know we tried starting Leah on solids at four months. I'm in no hurry this time, maybe because it's not quite as exciting as starting your baby on solids when you've never done it before. Is this how middle-child syndrome starts?

I can't believe how fast Samuel seems to be growing! He is always such a happy baby and is always ready to smile!

His latest milestones include:

• Discovering his hands, holding his hands together, and bringing things to his mouth
• Rolling around (although not rolling over)
• Reaching for things (and very determinedly!)
• Sleeping through the night regularly
• Baby babbling, and with lots of drool
• Recognizing faces of family members
• Enjoying his baths
• Being so super cute! He already needs another hair cut!

In Their Sleep

Here are my two little angels sleeping. It is the best moment of my day to sneak into their bedroom at night, tuck them in, and watch them both peacefully sleeping (and even snoring), and sigh in relief that we survived another day.

Potty Progress

Here's Leah potty chart. This picture was taken 2 weeks ago when we started, and since then, she has filled 3 rows with stickers (and therefore earned three prizes)! Every time she goes, she gets a treat from the treat jar. I thought she would pick the same thing every time, with the options being cookies, candy, fruit snacks, or popcorn, but she picks something different every time. Several times she's even asked for "bubbles." This is what "bubbles" looks like:

She will stand at the sink and play with bubbles for hours if we let her. It's a really great trick for me when I need to get something done.

When the entire chart is filled, Leah gets to go to Chuck-E-Cheese! We are making progress, and she's learned how to go on command, but we still haven't had much luck with #2. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be! Leah loves to wear big girl panties, but some froofy character is a must. For those of you who think this next picture is indecent, just remember that it's my kid, not yours, and all you can see are her knees:

When I took that last picture of Leah, I looked over to see Samuel being really cute and anxiously awaiting some attention from me, so I took this one:

And here's a cute picture of Leah ready to splash in a puddle: