kisses

Leah started making kiss sounds now. I kiss her and she still gives kisses like babies do where they open their mouth and lean in but after we do the *muah* sound, she works hard to make a smack sound. It's so cute.

She's been biting me HARD. THe other day she bit me and I said firmly, "NO BITING!" and I set her down. My friend was with me and Leah turned and looked at Danielle and started laughing and then just played. Danielle tried not to laugh but was telling me that Leah might end up being quite an awnry little thing. I have to agree with her. Other parents are like, OH just tell her no really firmly and it will work. Um, yeah. Not so much. I have yelled OUCH. I have said NO. I have even tried ignoring. And I have bite marks on my body that are purple. Thank you, Leah.

We took her to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum and saw the bald eagle. She waved bye bye to all the animals there.

She still holds up her diamond in the sky daily....pretty much any song I start to sing, she throws up her diamond at some point.

She's talking a lot more with her mama's and dada's and baba's although I don't know is she knows who is who.....in the middle of the night when she is hungry she yells Mama, so maybe she knows.

I can't believe that she is just about 11 months. Time is flying by.

Right now we are in the midst of packing our apartment. I love Walnut Creek so it will be sad to leave, but a new adventure might be fun :)

10 months

Well, Leah is 10 and a half months. She is speed crawling now, still often with one leg out like a spider. She is also pulling up and standing.

We went to a play group today and she was the most vocal onethere, screaming andpulling up on things. One mom said that she looked like a wild little thing. Oh, little girl...

She started doing hand motions to twinkle twinkle little star which is pretty cute.

Leah has had a lot of doctor's appts in the last 2 months. I haven't blogged about it because I didn't want to answer a lot of questions from people and didn't want to have lots of people tell me what they think I should do....It was too stressful for input. I worked closely with Leah's doctor and got her a neurologist because she was shaking involuntarily. After two brain EEG's and an MRI, they are starting to think it's infant shudder syndrome which isn't a big deal and she will most likely grow out of it. They did find a mass on the bridge of her nose (I asked them to look into it because I felt the bump a few months ago and no one thought it was anything). The MRI showed that it is indeed a mass of some sort but they don't think it is cancerous. It may be attached to her brain so we have a an appt with a neurosurgeon next week as well as with a head and neck surgeon. She may need to have surgery (Well most likely will) which is sucky. They are thinking it is a dermoid cyst. This can apparently have things like hair, nerves, teeth, or be a twin...it's a defect from in utero. How crazy would it be if Leah was supposed to have a twin but it got absorbed in her body. So funny. I am going to ask them to tell me what was inside of her cyst if that's what it is.

Staying at home with her has been so great. I enjoy being with her and taking her to the park...we usually get up in the morning, have breakfast and then go for a walk to the park. We go on the swings and play on the grass...then we walk back and she falls asleep and I leave her in in her stroller and she sleeps about 20 min at home (just enough time for me to make a pb and J sandwich)....then we eat lunch and play in the apt. with her toys. After that we usually go out somewhere either to a friend's house or park or what have you....She takes a second nap around 2:30 and I lay with her to make sure she doesn't fall off the bed (the crib setting is too high and since we are moving, Julian doesn't want to take it down to lower it since he is going to take it down soon anyway)....then she gets up and I feed her again, and we usually go back to the park and play and then come home and make dinner....Then Julian gets home and plays with her, gives her a bath, and it's bed time....

So far being home with Leah is fun...it will be an adjustment when I watch my teacher friends start up the school year.....but for now, this is where I want to be. I felt like I was missing out too much and every day I thought about how I wanted to be there with Leah....I know that no matter whether I work or not, Leah would be fine and turn out well whether with her Lola or if she had to be in daycare--I just want to be the one with her because I don't want to look back and regret the time I didn't have with her and can't get back. Even if I stayed home until she goes to Kinder, I will still be under 30 years old and can have plenty of time teaching...If I end up going crazy, which is entirely possible, then I will work part time or even go back full time....because it won't do Leah any good (or Julian or me) to have a crazy mom. We'll just take it a day at a time. But for now, this day, things are perfect. :)

9 months

Leah started crawling a few days ago. She is so cute and is getting around. At first she looked like a little spider by having one leg up and one bent the whole time...now she can crawl on her knees, though.

Her 3rd tooth popped through and I think the 4th one is coming soon :)

We went to the Tilden Park Pet Farm today. It was fun to see the animals and feed them lettuce. We had a picnic with our friends and their baby. It was a great day:)

2 teeth

Leah is getting her second tooth in. This has not been fun. She was up every single hour last night...and then today she has been super weepy and screaming and upset. We gave her some tylenol and teething stuff and hope this stops soon!

We got her hair in her first pony tail and it looks super cute. I'll have to post a pic later.

play date

We met up with our zzq4z2szz1a (that is leah) playgroup and she played with 6 or 7 babies. She was the only one who didn't want ot put things in her mouth. It was so funny. She has this rabbit that has teether toys (yes, she is teething but other than being fussy and showing teeth, you wouldn't know). So I gave Leah the toy and she just stared at it....then one baby grabbed it ant put it in his mouth and she watched. She took it back but then a few minutes later a little girl took it and put it in her mouth....then 2 others did. When you looked around the circle, they were all grabbing things and trying to knaw on it but Leah just looked at those babies like, "EEEEW. You fools are crazy."

Right now we are watching Kendra (classy) and Julian is feeding the baby some applesauce. She is making noise like ahheyyyyguu ahhhhh.

I cut my hair and have a mom-bob. It was time. I wore the bun every day and couldn't ever do it. So, it's about 4 inches shorter and easier to manage. I am sure it will still be in a bun a lot but at least there is potential to wear it down. When we got to the park for our playgroup picnic, lots of the moms had cut their hair too. I guess it's just the thing to do when you have an 8 month old :)

first tooth

Well, the results were good for Leah and she is fine! I am happy.

My first Mother's Day has been great. Last night we went out with Lola and Grandpa to a steak restaurant. Then this morning I went to Pilates and came back and Julian made me chocolate chip pancakes. Then we went to downtown where I returned something I got about 3 years ago and still got 20 dollars back.

I realized that Leah has her first tooth coming through...there were three little bumps so I felt and it's her tooth. And then....I cried. Not for long though.

Right now I am making dinner and we are just hanging out. It was a great day :)

dr. appt

Well, today we took Leah for a brain scan because the doctor wants to make sure she is not having seizures. I am sure it will turn out okay but it was pretty sad to watch her all sad-faced. They had us try to kee her up until midnight an then up at 5am....she ended up going to bed around 11pm bc she couldn't stay awake any longer....then today she fell asleep sitting up. At the appt, she had 27 little electrodes hooked up to her head and they wrapped her head in gauze. She was crying and it was so sad but she did look so cute. We will find out her results by Monday they said..... Prayers and good thoughts are welcome, but I have a feeling that things are okay so don't worry.

We did take pics of her on our phones and I'll have to find a way to upload them...