A Little On Leah

I know Leah shows up in almost all of my posts, but it has been a while since I've done a post about her. Plus I had all these fun pictures of her that haven't fit with other posts and I wanted to have them included in our family history. 

So Leah will be turning 4 in just a couple months. This girl is still full of energy, spunk and determination. She likes to sing, dance, dress up, watch her TV shows, play on the computer, do puzzles, draw, do art projects, have books read to her, play with friends and cousins, go to Grandpa's house, go to Grandma Leslie's, help cook and do laundry, jump, climb and just generally run amok. 

Some of the things she doesn't like include going to bed by herself, being told she can't do something she's determined to do, and leaving Grandpa's house. 

After three and a half years, Leah is finally figured out how to be a better sleeper. It is unusual for her to come sleep with us during the night. Naps are starting to be rare now too. She usually doesn't take one, but on days when she's really tired she'll ask for one. And if it is too late in the day for a nap, she'll cry if she missed her chance at taking a nap. And bedtime is a lot better now too (usually). While I'm taking care of Corbin, Ross will get Leah ready for bed, read her stories, and lay by her until she falls asleep. I'm sure there are many nights when Ross falls asleep before Leah. Some nights I wake him up when I go to bed, other nights I just let him sleep until he finds his way into our bed. One night I went in and found them both asleep like this. I thought it was so sweet with Leah and Ross both laying there in almost the same position. I had to get a picture of it. 

Like I stated earlier, Leah loves to do crafts and art projects--especially if it involves painting, cutting, gluing or stickers. I've been trying to take her to the "Van Gogh to Play Dough" program at the BYU Art Museum. But it is very popular so we usually only get in every other month. Here's a picture of her playing with some of the toys after one of the classes. 

This girl is full of spunk. Here she is ready to go one day. Pretty sure she picked out her own clothes this day because they don't match. And she has on her hat she loves to wear. She calls it her "Kansas City Mickey" hat. (When Mickey Mouse dresses up in his adventure gear for an Indiana Jones type quest, he goes by "Kansas City Mickey.")

Here she is after Millie's birthday party. It was a Mr. Potatohead themed party. Leah had fun wearing the stick on mustache she got. I teased her that she looked just like her Grandpa Tucker. 

We don't know why, but Leah has an obsession with things like cords, strings and ropes. Whenever she gets her hands on one, she has to swing it around and tie it around something. It is so hard to get her to leave them alone. She also loves sticks and stick-like objects. But we have to be careful with those too because she'll use them to hit anything nearby. Her love for climbing and jumping on or off of things hasn't slowed down either. These kinds of things keep us on our toes with her. 

Leah loves to take pictures whenever she finds my camera. Here's one of her many "selfies."

Leah LOVES to dress up. Here she is all dressed up from head to toe, including accessories, and dancing around in her room. She is always good for providing some entertainment.

Another selfie I found on my camera.

Another outfit assembled by herself. 

Leah loves riding carousels. This was taken at a mall near our house. Caden had come down with my parents for a football game and we had gone out to dinner with them afterwards. So while we were waiting to be seated, Leah was sure we needed to go up and ride the carousel. 

When we are in the car, Leah insists we listen to "her" songs which usually means a soundtrack from a Disney movie or one of my Disney CDs. Sometimes I'll get stories on CD from the library to change thngs up a bit. Currently we've been listening to songs from "Frozen" over and over again. But when she falls asleep (which often happens) I turn off her music and listen to what I want instead.

Leah loves these pink snow boots. She definitely got plenty of use out of them this winter. She wore them most days, even when there wasn't a chance of snow.  

One night I told Leah to go in her room and look at books while she waited for me to get ready for bed. When I came in to read to her, I found her like this. I guess she was too tired to wait up for me. By the way, she's sleeping on pile of blankets that her and Ross had made. She calls it a nest.

Leah has really enjoyed taking her dance lessons. She is good at following the teacher and actually doing the dance steps. She even has a cute little dancer's body. She has dancing in her blood. It will be interesting to see if she wants to stick with it and dance on toe shoes like I did. Her teacher even suggested moving her up to dance with an older group of girls. But she loves going to dance with Kylie and Millie. So we'll leave her there for now.

Some of Leah's favorites include:
Color: still Red--given a choice she will always choose things that are red
Foods: String cheese, shells and cheese
TV Shows: "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," "Sheriff Callie's Wild West," "Wild Kratts," "Cyberchase," and most other shows on Disney Junior or PBS Kids
Movie: "Frozen" and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Super Adventure"
Song: "Let It Go" from "Frozen" and "I'll Make a Man Out of You" (or as she calls it, "The Moon Song") from "Mulan"
Book: "The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss
Places to go: Her Grandpa Tucker's house, Jump On It (or as she calls it, The Jumping Place), Del Taco, and Provo Beach Resort

We got a flat tire one day and went to Les Schwabs to get it fixed. Leah thought hanging out there was so cool. She loved the free popcorn and playing with the blocks and coloring books. She even loves that they have a little TV in the kids area too. She doesn't pay attention to the movie they have, but she still thinks that the movie needs to be playing for her. So when I got another flat tire, she insisted on going with me again. While we were there, we built this block tower together. Now whenever we're out driving and go past a Les Schwabs she says "Look mom, it's the tire store!"

Leah is totally obsessed with "Frozen" right now. She's seen it a couple of times in the theater and a few times at home. She loves to wear her Elsa dress, and her Elsa t-shirt. She sings along to all the songs and claims that "Let It Go" is her song. She even wants her hair done in a French braid most days. She calls it "Elsa hair."

She also likes other princess things. Cinderella is her favorite princess, besides Elsa. But Mickey Mouse is still one of her all-time favorite characters. She's not what I would call a "girlie-girl." She's much more of a rough and tumble girl with a girlie side.

At the beginning of January, Leah started going to Primary and she loves it. We have had no problem getting her to go. She has even said a prayer and given a talk in opening exercises already. She wasn't shy about doing it at all either. She likes to sing the songs and her teachers say she is good during the lessons and knows the answers. I'm glad she's better in primary than she is at home. We have the hardest time getting her to be reverent and respectful during our FHE and family scripture time. 

Leah likes to be independent. She likes to do things for herself like dishing up her food, getting her own snacks, pouring her own drinks, choosing her clothes to wear and washing her own hands. This is a blessing and a curse. She has a stubborn streak and can get pretty upset if you don't let her do things herself. Lately she has started climbing on the counters to get things. This makes her parents (especially Ross) get very upset. But we haven't been able to get her to stop.

Leah is a great big sister. She loves Corbin so much. Usually she is really good at playing with him and helping take care of him. She loves to see him climb the stairs and often tries to get him to follow her up them. Sometimes she gets territorial with him and will push or hit him (for which she will get in big trouble). But overall, I've been really happy with how good she is to him. And Corbin thinks Leah is just great. And now that he can walk, he will chase her all over and try to do everything he sees her do.

So there's a little about Leah. It seems like a lot now that I've taken the time to write it down. But Leah is such a ball of energy and so full of personality that this really is just a little bit about her. But we love her so much and everyday I am glad to be her mom. Even those days when she's pushed me right up to the end of my patience and past it, I still love her more than words can say. Momma loves you baby girl!