Leah Crawling & Cruising

This post is a little overdue! Leah is incredibly mobile. She rolled and scooted super early, and could get all the way across the room just scooting slowly on her back without making a noise.

Once, having placed her in the middle of the rug, I came back in the living room and couldn't find her for a minute. Leah was under the couch, quiet as can be.

I shouldn't have been surprised, since this happened when she was not quite 3 months old!

Here is a picture of her trying really, really hard at 5 months:

And still not quite there, but so close at 5.5 months. It's been very exciting at our house for the big kids.

I wanted to get a little better video, since she really can go a long way (from the living room all the way through the kitchen to the dining room, for example) and she gets up on all fours to do it, but after several attempts, this is the best effort I have on camera.

6 months old:


Now she's crawling fast and cruising along the furniture. James very, very, very excitedly reported that she let go and stood for a second (this was independently confirmed later).

Leah at 9 months old:


Amelie walked at 11 months, and James walked at 14 months. Somehow, I think she'll be sooner -- and the 3rd baby is the one you'd like to stay put longest! She keeps us on our toes, that's for sure. 

Putting up Lights

Here are James and Leah helping Sam put the Christmas tree up.

Baby Leah discovering the tree. We got a prickly one and so far it's worked to deter her from pulling off the ornaments. We only put up the non-breakable ones just in case. Amelie and James have probably been somewhat limited by the prickly branches, but they've still done a fair amount of rearranging (or rather knocking off and putting back on).

Here's the finished product: 

We also put up just a few lights outside. Here's James, helping again. 

The finished outside lights: 

Festive mantle. I love sending and getting Christmas cards, but I'm so behind this year! We have a stack that still need to be stuffed/sent. 

Girl Scouts

Amelie's girl scout troop hasn't been super active (which is fine by me - she's involved in a lot of stuff!) but we did go to an activity put on by another girl scout troop who was fundraising for The Humane Society a little bit ago. The girls made bandannas and cat toys and dog treats and played an animal game and listened to one of the dog trainers, who brought a real live (very, very well behaved dog). We donated some supplies as well. Leah was with me in the ring sling, but she's not pictured :)

Amelie's good friend Hattie is pictured, however!

Decorating a bandanna. Amelie's says "Adopt me!"

Decorating cat toys:

Decorating cookies (there was lots of decorating): 

Then there were animal races: 

 

See the high-five?

The other troop (of middle schoolers, I think) had set the whole thing up, divided the girls into groups, and made the various stations. 

Eye Doctor

James had his first trip to the eye doctor. He was very impressed with all of the gadgets.

There was just a mild amount of cheating where James wanted to uncover his eye and peek out.
Amelie had been before. I keep thinking that they're going to say she needs glasses (I got mine in 2nd grade, and she's in 2nd grade now), but he said it was still not necessary. The doc did say that she's slightly nearsighted in one eye and slightly farsighted in the other, but neither are serious enough at this point to need correction (and they somewhat cancel each other out).

Leah came with me in the sling (not pictured). Until next year!

The Nutcracker

Holly and I took the big kids to see The Nutcracker Suite at Jesse Hall on Monday. I'd taken Amelie when she was 5 and it was magical, and they both have an inordinate love of expressive dance, so I thought James would have a good time, too.

My first clue that he might not was that he didn't want to wear fancy clothes or have his picture made.

Waiting on the show to start:

In retrospect, James was getting sick and the show was too long and late for an under-the-weather kiddo. I'm afraid he spoiled some of Holly's good time, too, and of course we were trapped in the middle of the row. When I took Amelie, I was very careful to get an aisle seat in case we had to leave, but she had no problem and I didn't think either of them would need to make an early exit. Of course, when we got home and were talking about it later, he said he liked the show and wanted to go again next year (NOPE).

I tried to wake this one up -- I thought she might be mad about missing parts! -- but she slept soundly through the  last 20 minutes, thunderous applause, and the house lights coming up. We didn't get home until 10:00pm. Scandalous!

Sick Baby

I downloaded the Blogspot app so that I can upload and post straight from my phone without getting on the computer, so hopefully I can update the blog in a little bit more of a timely manner. 

Anyway, this is a test to see how that all turns out.

Also, Leah is sick(ish) and probably will stay home with Sam tomorrow. Nana Jana says the kids make the cutest faces when they’re sad, and it’s terrible, but I agree! 

School pictures

Hey! The kids had school pictures made ... a month ago! Actually, Amelie's came in and then we had to wait on the ones from preschool.

Amelie had Opinions this year about what to wear and how to do her hair for pictures. I'd suggested braiding it or putting it in a ponytail, since she plays so rough & I didn't know when in the day they'd do the photos, but she wanted it like this:

 Leah was 6.5 months at the time of the pictures, wearing a sailor suit from my friend Caitlin.

And there's James at 5 years old and in pre-K.