Hidden Ability

For those who don't know, Leslie hates to color. Anytime I get the crayons out, she spends the entire time sorting them and dumping them from one container to the other. We can always tell which paper is her's at school or Sunday School because the only mark on it is where her teacher wrote her name. The only way I can get her to color is to threaten putting them up. And even then, she doesn't actually try to go in different directions... or even look at the paper most times. Hates, hates, hates to color.

However, she might be hiding some natural ability yet. I guess I just haven't inspired her in the right way because she found a pencil this last weekend and made beautiful pictures on several walls and tiles around the house. Drawing not only her regular lines but big circles too! I made her help me clean it up (which I think she thought was kind of fun) and she definitely knows it was naughty and will get a spanking if she does it again. But, part of me can't help but rejoice in the small glimmer of hope that I might have a coloring buddy after all. I wish the pictures turned out better because this was by far her best art work to date. Hopefully, I can get some recreations in the near future... only on paper this time.

Funny baby

We were getting ready to go out yesterday and Barry picked up Leslie's shoes and said "I've got san-dles!" Leslie ran up to him, climbed in his lap, and with the exact same tone and inflection said "I've got fe-et!"

She always finds the funniest ways to make us laugh:)

Sleepy games

Here's some cute pictures I took last night while I was playing on the computer and Barry and Leslie watched and waited...

Here's Leslie lounging on the bed with her daddy...



Here she is playing the "Night-Night Wake-up!" game and having Daddy "pat her bottom."

This was a very popular game around our house until I picked her up after school one day and the teacher told me Leslie got in trouble at nap time for pouncing on all the kids and yelling "Wake-up! Wake-up!" We've had to introduce some more constructive games into her playtime that won't get her sent to time-out:)

And when all else fails, she pats her own bottom to help her go to sleep:)

The kid loves to sleep! Wonder who she got that from?

Big girl bed

At almost 2 1/2yrs old, we finally took the side off of Leslie's crib yesterday. It has a front rail piece we added on to keep her from rolling out, and I left the bumper pads up for now since she likes to snuggle up against them. It's been a surprisingly easy transition. I've had zero trouble with her getting up. She slept in this morning, but I am a little anxious on how things are going to play out when decides to wake up at 7:15am and I can't leave her in her bed to play until what I consider a more appropriate time:) She's such a big girl...


Now if only I can get her out of diapers!

U. Mass Game

We made it back to Lubbock this weekend to watch Tech "shellac" the University of Massachusetts. Leslie LOVES LOVES LOVES football games. Every morning she wakes up saying, "I go football game!" Finally, on Saturday her request was answered... Barry went to dress her and from the other room I hear, "I love my jersey. I love my Tech jersey. I love my big Tech jersey! I go see Uncle Willy! I do Jasmine and Dora puzzles at football game!" She doesn't like watching the actual game, but everything else is just like a big old party for her. She eats cookies and reads books and does puzzles all afternoon. I guess I'd like traveling alot too if everywhere I went people smiled at me and told me how adorable I was:)

Between football games and our regular 2 hour wait times at the pediatrician, we thought we would invest in this "kid tough" DVD player for her. It definitely served its purpose getting us through the final quarter...

I strongly recommend one for anyone who has a sickly child and uses Dr Nabulsi:)

Funny moments

I wish I could have a video camera going all the time to catch Leslie's funny little moments. Here's a couple of last week's best...

Mom's been really sick with migraines this last week, so I ended up making Will's birthday cake. Leslie came in the kitchen as I was taking out the beaters and getting ready to pour the mix into the pan. She looked at what was going on and said very matter-of-factly, almost confrontationaly, "That's my chocolate. I eat that." I told her it was for Uncle Willy, and she kept repeating herself, "That's my chocolate. I eat that" like I just wasn't understanding what she was saying. I ended up letting her lick the spatula and that was enough chocolate to meet her demands. Funny baby.

I always read books with Leslie before bed. It seems to become exponentially harder every night as my belly grows, and Leslie loses lap room. I was trying to readjust tonight and get us comfortable for her last book, and she got all antsy and didn't like that I was trying to move her. So she moved back to her usual spot on my lap and started telling me to open my legs. I thought she didn't like that I had them crossed opposite as usual, so I switched them and tried to start reading. But she kept saying , "No- open" so I just uncrossed my legs entirely and once again tried to start our final book. But that was not what she wanted... So, she said, "No mommy. Abre! Abre!" ("open" in Spanish) I opened my legs and let her sit on the little bit of chair between them, and she was happy. I guess at least she's learning something for Dora:)

Football season opener

We finally made it to a Tech football game this last Saturday. It was a night game, but we woke up early and left so we could get some shopping done in Lubbock and have Will's birthday lunch.

Leslie (who is usually not a get up and go morning person) was all smiles all morning. She loves wearing her "big t-shirt" #5 Crabtree (Tech's amazing reciever) jersey, and she loves having her hair up in little Princess Leia type pig tails. Here's a picture of her before we left that morning...

She was amazingly good for the game. Like a typical girl, she thought the actual football portion of the game rather boring, but she loved watching all the pregame show.

Here she is wearing her Crab hat (for #5 Crabtree.) She makes crab hands, too, but i couldn't ever catch a picture.

After the game, we went back to the bus and had a snack and changed into PJ's before hitting the road. She took a picture with Uncle Willy since it was his birthday.