Dear Leah,

It happened so quickly this year. You were two and then we blinked and you turned three. Two was still a baby number, but three is so old sounding. You have grown into that number just as most kids do. Your chubby baby legs are now long and thin. You little baby curls have grown into beautiful, long hair. You carry on conversations with us like you're talking to a good friend. You are growing up way.too.fast!

This year has been filled with so much change for you, but you've handled it all so well. At the beginning of the year, your baby brother joined the family. You were so loving and welcoming...sometimes a little too much. Oftentimes our biggest worry everyday was whether Joel would survive all the "love and care" you'd give him. There were times when we'd turn our back for a second and you were trying to pull him out of his swing to hold him, or you'd shove your dirty hands in his face trying to "gently" pat his head and calm his crying. Though there were many moments of worry, we also knew that you meant it all with the purest and kindest of hearts. You are such a little mommy and love caring for others.

Your world also changed when you were dropped off on your first day of preschool back in August. For a little girl who is used to spending (almost) every waking moment with her Mama, we were quite worried with how you'd react to preschool one morning a week. For the first few drop-offs you were fine, but after about a month, you started to rebel. By the second or third week of full on tantrums, we decided that bribery with suckers was the best solution. And it worked. And it's still working. You, though you're clearly not hesitant about leaving us anymore, know that you can still work the system and get yourself a sucker once a week!

The suckers are just once of the many ways in which we know that you are wise beyond your years. You definitely like to "work the system" as we call it. You can still whine, hold your arms up, and say "hold me" to Daddy and he'll pick you up without a second of hesitation. You are known to yell and scream "I can't do it", but then ten seconds later out of sheer determination, you accomplish whatever task you had started. You are fiercely independent and want to do EVERYTHING by yourself. Your token phrase for several months this year was "all by myself". Whatever you were doing from putting on shoes to going to the bathroom to getting dressed, you were so proud when you could tell us that you did it without our help.

You are definitely determined and perhaps our most strong willed child. You know what you like and you know how to get what you want. Disciplining you is a much different challenge than with your older brother. Fortunately, for your sake, having a baby around allows you some wiggle room to get away with a lot more than you should. But, on those occasions when we have picked and chosen our battle (which we have to do with you or else we'd ALWAYS be disciplining) and it comes time to address the issue, you get very upset knowing that you have let Daddy or Mommy down with your behavior. You seem genuinely saddened and need lots of hugs and reassurance to know that despite your bad choices, we still love you to pieces!

And we do. We love you to pieces. You are the kind of kid that is so easy to love. Even though you are a challenge and you rarely give us a moment of rest (we still can't get to you sit for more than 10 minutes at a time and live for those 2+ hour naps you still take), you are the most delightful little girl around! You are incredibly polite, saying please and thank you for everything...even meaningless tasks like helping you brush your teeth earn us a big thank you. You have a smile that lights up a room and eyes that twinkle beneath the most beautifully long eyelashes a girl could wish for. You always want to help around the house (unless of course it has to do with picking up your toys). You sing and dance as you go about your days that are filled with play, play, and more play. And perhaps your most wonderful characteristic is that you already have a love for Jesus and questions galore about the God who created you. You are a perfect example of the children that Jesus taught us about in Mark 10:15-16...

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. 

You are just beginning to understand, but your faith is stronger than most grown adults. We pray that this strong faith and your sweet innocence grow more with each passing year. Happy third birthday little lady, lady bug, Leah Lee....we love you SO much!

Christmas 2012

Just in time for Christmas, we all got our health back. There are still some sniffles here and there and a few nasty sounding coughs, but the fevers are gone, the house was scrubbed from top to bottom, and the celebrating began. Here's how our Christmas 2012 looked:

We FINALLY got to get together for the traditional Lamont family cookie decorating day. It was so much fun to have the little kids together to play and decorate. The adults also had a good time. We learned that cousin Kate is an amazing cookie decorator, cousin Brandi has never eaten gingerbread before, and baby Avery is the most adorable thing you've ever seen!

We also got to enjoy a visit from Grandpa and Grandma Sturm the weekend before Christmas. The kids had tons of fun opening up and playing with all their new stuff!

We got all dressed up and headed to church on Christmas Eve.

And followed up church with a yummy dinner at Grandpa and Grandma Lamont's house.

We came home and put out the cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. The kids slept soundly and in the morning we read the Christmas story from our Advent book. Shortly after that, the kids ran downstairs to open their gifts from Santa and Daddy and Mommy. We then had breakfast with Grandpa, Grandma, and TiTi, followed by more present opening.

We spent the morning hanging out and playing with our new stuff and then got ready to head out to Indiana for Christmas with the Lamont family. The kids had a great time with their cousins and even got a visit from Santa (which Leah DID NOT like). We ate a delicious dinner, had way too many desserts, opened our grab bag gifts, and headed home very ready for bed!

We are so thankful to have had the chance to celebrate. It was a close call this year with the flu bug hitting us at the last minute, but praise God for good health and the ability to make such special memories this Christmas!

11 Months

It's just so hard to believe that our baby is one month away from hitting a year old! As with all of our kids, the second half of the first year goes SO much faster than the first half. I really try to cherish these baby moments because they are the last ones we'll (hopefully) have. Joel is still such a wonderfully easy baby and is incredibly lovable. He has the most animated expressions and babbles a ton. He also has the world's most adorable curly, baby hair!

EATING: Joel still takes 4 bottles a day, but doesn't seem to prefer getting his calories through formula. He is much more interested in eating food! Joel likes eating little bits of whatever we are eating. He doesn't seem to like feeding himself much, so we still have to use a spoon to give him food. We also still try to sneak in a a jar of baby food at lunch and dinner so that we can make sure he's getting enough fruits and veggies. He really doesn't like eating fruits and veggies as finger foods, so mushed up and on a spoon is how we do it! He's played around with sippy cups, but doesn't seem to have the hang of it yet. He's going to have one more month to figure it out though, because we plan to make the switch as soon as he hits a year!

SLEEPING: His sleeping schedule is still great! He goes down around 7:30 or 8 at night and sleeps until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. He takes his first nap around 9:30 and his second nap around 1:30. His naps vary from a little over an hour to 2+ hours in length. He knows what it means when you ask, "Do you want to go night-night?", because he'll pop his thumb in his mouth and rest his head right on your shoulder. He is still having some moments of what appears to be separation anxiety because he will cry every once in awhile when you put him to bed. We started to notice it only happening at night and not naps, which made us realize he might just be afraid in the dark. Sure enough, we started putting his nightlight on at bedtime and that seemed to do the trick!

MILESTONES: Joel is getting much more interested in walking, but doesn't seem to have the confidence to try on his own just yet. He loves to walk behind toys that can be pushed and gets so into it that when he pushes to a point where he can't go any further (a wall, couch, table, etc.) he screams and cries. He's still crawling all over the place and loves to crawl up the stairs, which keeps us very busy with all the sets of stairs we have in this house! Other than that, there  isn't much new going on in Joel's world.  

All We Want for Christmas...

IS TO BE HEALTHY!!!!

It was December 12, and my neighbor came to pick up her daughter, whom I had watched for the day. We chatted about how her final days before Christmas break (she's a teacher) were going and she mentioned that so many of her kids were out sick. I knocked on wood and said, "I'm so glad my three have managed to stay healthy for about a month now". I should've never.EVER.said that!

Fast forward about 2 hours and Caleb was happily running and playing. He ran upstairs to the bathroom, I heard the flush, and then he came down to tell me that he had just thrown up. Though I was shocked, I didn't think much of it because he continued to run and play. Plus, if you know Caleb, you know he has been known to throw up even without any sickness in sight. The kid has a very strange stomach I guess!

After another hour or so, I decided it would be safe to leave Tyler with the kids so that I could head to Bible study. Thinking that Caleb's throwing up was just a fluke, I drove off to the peace and quiet of my weekly adult interaction. As we neared the end of the evening, I noticed I had a text message on my phone. Poor Tyler was home dealing with a tired baby, busy 2 year old, and a kid who had just thrown up all over the bathroom (right after his bath, of course). At that moment, my heart sank and I knew we were done. Hello sickness. Nice to see you again!

We have since spent the past week dealing with throw up, runny noses, bad sleeping, high fevers (Leah's reached over 105), and lots of crabbiness! The worst part of it all is that both of us got hit with it as well. There is really nothing more challenging than caring for 3 sick kids when all you want to do is lay in bed all day and get better yourself! We've had to cancel making gingerbread houses with the neighborhood kids, breakfast with Santa, Lamont family cookie decorating, and a couple days of preschool to boot.

On the bright side, we've done nothing by stay in our jammies for days on end. The nightly bathtime/bedtime routine is much easier when fevers are too high for baths and there's no need to change out of pajamas you've been wearing all day. I haven't cooked a meal in days because nobody wants to eat. And we're all getting to spend extra time snuggling and enjoying the beauty of sitting on the couch with nothing but the Christmas tree lights to brighten the room. It's definitely the most wonderful time of the year, but this wasn't what we had in mind for a fun Christmas season....better luck next year, I guess!

10 Months

Though this picture doesn't quite show the happiest baby in the world (which Joel usually is), it does pretty much sum up the past month of his life. We've battled some major teething issues along with two nasty colds/coughs. He, Mommy, and Daddy have felt like zombies at times because of the lack of sleep we've been getting!

EATING: Joel still takes 4 bottles a day...each are about 6 ounces. He still struggles to take down an entire bottle because he's just too interested in the chaos around him. He's eating baby food still (mostly because it is convenient and assures me that he's at least getting some good nutrition throughout the day). Every so often, he gets tastes of what we're having. He really seems to like grilled cheese, mac n cheese, black and kidney beans, bananas, and pasta. He doesn't like to feed himself, but prefers to be fed off of a fork or spoon. I guess he prefers to not make a huge mess, which works out in our favor when it's time to clean him and the highchair!

SLEEPING: His sleeping schedule is still fantastic! He goes down around 7:30 or 8 at night and sleeps until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. He takes his first nap around 9:30 and his second nap around 1:30. His naps vary from a little over an hour to 2+ hours in length. With the teething/colds, we've had some rough patches where he's been up for several hours in the middle of the night. Mommy feels bad and will hold him and rock, but Daddy thinks he should toughen up and cry a bit. It's a hard call because we don't want bad habits to form, but we also know that he is out of sorts with his teeth coming in. He's also started to show signs of separation anxiety when he's put to sleep because as soon as he gets laid down, he'll start to cry as if he doesn't want to be left alone. We're hoping this is also just a result of his "sickness" and not a new habit that will be tough to break.

MILESTONES: Joel is still crawling all over the place. He's interested in so much of what is going on around him and loves to explore. He's not too sure about trying to cruise or hold hands with someone to walk (he just kind of stands there and looks confused). Joel's also started to finally wave bye-bye. He seems so proud of himself when he does it! Along with new motor milestones, he's added 4 teeth to the top. These ones have been pretty rough coming in and hopefully it will only get better and easier with the next teeth!

Thanksgiving Feasts

I could probably write a list of a thousand reasons why we are so thankful to have found Kids & Company Preschool for our children. This is Caleb's second year in the program and Leah is in the youngest class this year, which only meets once a week. From the short amount of time that we've been part of this preschool, we have loved so much about what they do to nurture, love, and educate our kids. Caleb grew so much last year in so many ways and is continuing to be impacted by his experiences this year. Leah is becoming much more brave about being dropped off and spending time away from familiar faces for a few hours. She is following directions better, listening more, and has an improved attention span.

One of the best parts of the preschool is how much effort they put into making experiences memorable for the kids. Every year, they go above and beyond to put on a Thanksgiving feast for each class. I got the pleasure of being there for Caleb's class party before the feast. The kids played games, made corn muffins, sang songs, and had a blast celebrating together. While some moms hung out with the kids, other moms worked like crazy in the kitchen to prepare a delicious meal. Caleb managed to chow down and eat several helpings of food before the yummy ice cream with chocolate syrup for dessert. Leah's class celebrated as well, but parents could only join in for the feast at the end (they know that if we come sooner, kids will just cling to Mommy instead of participating). Leah did a great job of staying in her seat and eating her meal. I fully expected her to be the child that couldn't sit still, wouldn't eat anything but the ice cream, and would spill half of her food on the floor. I was pleasantly surprised by how well she did!

3 Little Pumpkins

There's no doubt that we've had the cutest pumpkins on the block over the past several years.

Though they all have their own distinct qualities, I do find it funny how the boys look fairly similar and Leah is just a completely different child. I always knew she'd be unique!

The feelings that came with putting this costume on a baby one last time were felt much deeper than I thought they'd be felt. Who knew a little fleece pumpkin suit could have such a significant impact on a mama's emotions?!? 

Halloween 2012

We had another wonderful and memorable Halloween. The month of October in our home was filled with decorations, coloring books, stories, snacks, and anything else Halloween. The kids definitely got into it, but they sure haven't outgrown their fear of all the not-so-kid-friendly Halloween things (scary decorations, spooky stories, freaky costumes, etc.). In fact, my two favorite stories from the past month involve their sweet innocence being challenged by  all that Halloween has to offer. 

The first was when Caleb came home from preschool complaining about kids telling scary stories. In my former-teacher/mom mode, I kind of just listened to his complaint and brushed it off as no big deal. He, however, came home the next time complaining about it and so I told him he needed to either ask his friends to tell less scary stories or just go find other kids to play with. He reported back the following day that "that didn't work and he couldn't just walk away because it was happening at carpet time". When I told him that he needed to express his concern to his teachers, he responded that he "couldn't because they are on the phone." Again, in my former-teacher mode I know that the reality of what happens at school is often faaaar different from how kids explain it to their parents (as if your teachers are really chatting on the phone for 2.5 hours while you preschoolers run wild....ok, buddy). So, the next option was to make sure Caleb brought it up to his teachers by having him talk to them before class started. When he went to school the following day, he marched right in and with all his 4-year-old confidence, he told his teacher that he doesn't like scary stories and he wants his friends to stop telling them. Now, I know that he can't always have things the way he wants, his teachers would never allow other kids to intentionally frighten him, and kids will keep telling stories regardless of what my sweet, innocent boy wants....but I'm still quite proud of how he handled the problem he was faced with.

The other story highlighting the innocence that I never want my kiddos to lose comes from Halloween day. The kids were all dressed and ready to head out for trick-or-treating. Leah was waiting outside staring at our pumpkins by the front door. She had her back to the sidewalk behind her and didn't hear the trick-or-treaters approaching our front door. When she looked up, there were three pre-teen boys dressed head-to-toe in black with white "scream" masks on. To say they looked frightening is an understatement. To a little two year old girl who wasn't expecting to see anything when she turned around, they were the scariest thing she'd ever seen. I can completely understand why she screamed loud enough to surely be heard down the street. She followed her screams with tears, hyperventilating, and a sprint through the front door and into the kitchen faster than the gold medalists in the summer olympics. We managed to pull her back outside several minutes later to start trick-or-treating, but it wasn't until about 10 houses in that she finally let her daddy put her down to start getting candy.

I know I can't shelter them forever and their innocence will be lost with each passing year....but for now, I'll cling to it as long as I can. These are my babies and sometimes I just want to keep them that way!

Anyhow, the rest of our Halloween festivities can be summed up with pictures:

Pumpkin Carving:

Trick-or-Treating at school

The Lake Road Kids' Halloween Party

And of course, Trick-or-Treating (Caleb refused to respond to his name for the entire hour we spent walking around....he ONLY responded to Batman)

9 Months

Our little peanut is already 9 months old! We go to the doctor in a few days for his 9 month check-up. After that, he'll be there for his 1 year. Where is the time going?!?

EATING: Joel takes 4 bottles a day...each are about 6 ounces. This month, he's learned how to hold the bottle himself. Sometimes I will let him sit alone and have his bottle, but most of the time I just can't pass up the chance to sit and snuggle with him on the couch while he's taking it. He's my last, so the rules about pushing independence have to bend just a bit! He's still eating mostly baby food. He definitely prefers fruits over veggies, but we're still doing an equal amount of each during the day. He's getting okay with table food, but seems to have some issues when the texture is odd. He's also realized that he can throw things on the floor from his high chair. Chesney seems to really be appreciative of this latest discovery!

SLEEPING: His sleeping schedule is still fantastic! He goes down around 7:30 or 8 at night and sleeps until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. He takes his first nap around 9:30 and his second nap around 1:30. His naps vary from a little over an hour to 2+ hours in length. There have been times over the past month when he has woken during the night and started "talking", but he has never gotten to the point of crying and needing us to come in. Maybe we have another sleep talker (Caleb does the same thing at times). 

MILESTONES: Joel is a big mover now and gets all over the place by crawling (not the army crawl anymore). He's started to realize that there is freedom beyond the confines of his "baby jail". Most of the time he cries the instant you put him into his big caged area. When he does get freedom, he is into everything! He's even figured out how to climb up the stairs (with very close supervision, of course). A few times, he's experimented with standing by himself. He doesn't seem to realize that he's doing it though. The only other big milestone from the past month is that Joel now has 2 teeth! He was quite crabby while they were coming in, but that could also be because he was fighting a nasty cold at the time.

A Perfect Fall Day

When it's mid-October and the weather is in the high 60s/low 70s, there is nothing I'd rather do than take a walk in the woods. I can remember so many times that my dad would take us for walks and bike rides through the forest preserves. My favorite of those memories are from the fall, when the leaves were bright and there was a smell in the woods that you could only find at that time of the year. 

Though we're not ready for super long walks and 10 mile bike rides, it's still fun to get the kids used to the sights, sounds, and smells of the woods. I want to instill the same love of nature in my kids that my dad instilled in me. With that said, we recently took advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed to Pilcher Park to play. While I sat with Joel, the two older kids could just run and have that sense of freedom that is hard to find in a fenced backyard. It was such a joy to watch them squeal with delight as they threw leaves in the air and stomped around to crunch the leaves under their feet. There wasn't a single moment of whining or complaining and that, my friends, is music to my ears!