Walking Is For One Year Olds

So...I sorta forgot to mention that Leona had her first step! It was actually pretty funny. We were in Eri's room after she & Eri woke from naps. She was standing next to his bed (remember, the crib side is off, so he's in a "big boy" bed). She let go of his bed, took a step back, brought her leg back, and then took a step forward and just stood before deciding she'd climb into his bed. It was hilarious. She repeated the 1-step walk a bit later. But today she took 2 steps with Rich watching. She is starting to enjoy walking with someone holding her hands, and she'll stand for quite a bit now & then just decides it is faster to crawl.

There really is no benefit to Leona walking. Or perhaps I should say, I do not benefit. She is pretty fast as a crawler & I'm thinking as a two-legged operator, she'll be pretty darn quick. Plus, she's such a monkey, she doesn't need to realize that while standing on two feet, the opportunities are much more exciting for scaling furniture at that height. And, it's not like her pants will be less worn...my kids are constantly naked because A) it's summer & B) I'm sick of using SHOUT on all of the clothes.

She's starting to mimic a lot more words & she's pretty good at saying "uhh-ohhhh"...after dropping her bottle/cup/bowl/plate/toy/etc. numerous times. On the phone, she likes to say "hi" but when you're in person she prefers waving, and then doing her squinty smile and tilting her head with an air of shyness...although I'm starting to think it's just her being silly. She definitely recognizes Tucker & Massy and when she hears one of them bark or shake (the sound of their collars & ears), she looks up for them. Her most hilarious sound by far, though, is the hissing. It's like she is most fond of the letter "s". When she is excited about something, she'll just keep saying "hssssssssssss".

She's still a very good sleeper, but Eri is testing her napping skills. He is napping minimally since the disappearance of his paci & crib railing. Not cool. Not cool at all. Most of the time he plays quietly in his room, but sometimes he tests the vocal cords.

It's pretty obvious when Leona is sleepy. She shows the normal signs of crankiness, but her sleep routine consists of an intense fight of the diaper change only to cry louder when she's hovering over the crib just before let down. She whimpers a bit more until she finds a blanket (her yellow one made by Aunt Marie is preferred) and her paci & then she will start curling her hair behind her ear. It's pretty cute.

Last week we had her 1 year check up (just a bit late) only to find that she had an ear infection (boooo) so she's loving life right now because the taste of bubble gum medicine is making breakfast & dinner even more fun. They took her blood for screening of anemia & lead poisoning. That was not cool at all...as well. The lab techs had difficulty & after trying in both of her arms (picture me holding her down) they sent me back to the pediatric clinic where the pediatric nurses took the blood from her hand (lucky me got to restrain her again). The poor thing was so upset by that point it was not a fun day. Her hand is still bruised!

On a less yucky note, we found out she is weighing in at 18 lbs exactly! She's still a little peanut. But a fast one.......