Bad Dream

Mom: Did you have a bad dream?

Leah: Yeah.

Mom: What happened in your dream that was scary?

Leah: A pumpkin.

Mom: What was the pumpkin doing?

Leah: It was growling at me.

Mom: Awwww. Did you growl back? You should make him smile. Sing "When you chance to see a frown..."

........

Mom: You should just run away from the scary pumpkin.

Leah: (with comprehension, her face lightens in joy) Yeah, because he doesn't have any legs!

Rude Awakenings

We are trying to get Leah to stay in her bed a little later. Since moving the start of our bedtime ritual from 8:30 to 7:00, or right after dinner (I said start time, mind you), she has been waking up before 7:00am. Just ask my Dad, I am not a morning person. (Of course, I am writing this at 11:00 pm). 8:00 is much more preferred than 7, and you'd think that with the shortening days, our potential sleep time would be increasing. This is not so.

At least she can stay in bed until the sun rises, right?

We've tried encouraging her to look out her window to see if the sun has "woken up" yet. We've tried setting her up with a bowl of cereal, a sippy cup in the fridge, and the Disney channel just a button away. We've tried encouraging her to go potty all by herself in the morning. But not only can we not train her to let us sleep just a little bit later, but she wakes up the baby with her loudness and then there is no going back to sleep for anyone.

Here are some of the things we've heard her shout--repeatedly--first thing in the morning when we're trying to get a few extra minutes of shut-eye:

IS THE SUN AWAKE YET?
IS IT MY BIRTHDAY? CAN I HAVE MY BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES? (no, her birthday is "not ready yet")
I GOTTA GO POTTY!
I'M HUNGRY SOME FOR LUNTZ.
MOM-SAY 'BLESS YOU'

And on the off-chance that she's downstairs, hopefully watching TV:


MOM! MOM! WHAT'S IN YOUR PUMPKIN? (the candy jar--it's candy corn)
WHAT'S NEXT? (Handy Manny)
WHAT HAPPENED TO WOODY? (his arm ripped)

Of course, there are those rare mornings that she trots into my room and climbs into bed with me and we snuggle and make faces at each other for a few minutes before going down to breakfast.

Ah, the joys of parenthood!

Miss Independent

Leah wants to do everything herself.

If I open the fridge to take out a sippy cup, a cheese stick, the milk jug...anything, Leah will most likely replace said item, close the fridge, and start over, doing it herself.

Opening doors, turning on light switches, putting her potty seat on the toilet, turing on or off the TV, turning on the faucet, zipping up her pj's-you name it, she wants to do it herself. For every one of these activities, she will un-do whatever it is that I've done so that she can do it herself.

Here's the best one yet: we were at a store when she had to go. It was a really nasty public bathroom and I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. She went. I flushed and proceeded to the sink. She immediately started crying "No, I want to flush!" She then proceeded to remove her pants again and start the entire process over. And going through the motions was not good enough. She had to sit there and wait for more pee to come out before she could be done and do the "flushing" herself. Yeah, makes a lot of sense.

Now why can't I get her to dress herself?