1 STANDING...finally!

It was a rainy day here in Houston today, so we were trapped in the house all day. I could tell Leighton was getting a little antsy by late afternoon. Here she is in the prowl with her graham cracker in the playroom.
She's an expert with the sippy cup now. I guess something I've learned is...kids will eventually do everything, so there's no need to sweat it when they aren't doing something. I was so stressed about the sippy cup, and looking back, I shouldn't have been. Same with her eating, and pretty much anything else. Kids all do things at different paces, and they all end up in the same place. In any case, I love the look on Leighton's face when she drinks. It's impossible to explain and it's probably only a face a mommy could get attached to. But I love it. Let me out! Let me out! She wanted to go outside. Try explaining to a 15-month old that it's raining.
So Leighton hasn't stood up ever. When we were at the doctor's office last week, the doctor asked if Leighton was standing. I said, no. She said "not even when you stand her up in your lap?" Uh, no. I know the hip brace set her back a bit, but I've been waiting for her to stand any day now. The doctor said we needed to get more aggressive about trying to making her stand. So I ordered that Pottery Barn chair and has it done the trick! (I actually realized we don't have anything really for Leighton to pull up on, but this chair seemed about the right size for her to hang on to.)
Leighton likes to stand in her chair and look at us on the sofa. This seemed like the right time to clear off everything from the coffee table. I left some coasters, which she likes to throw on the floor and then put back on the table or hand to me.

I've put a bunch of pictures of Leighton on the coffee table and she sure does like to look at herself. Here she is pointing at the cute baby.
Words are starting to fly out of her mouth. New additions: poo-poo, please (which sounds more like cheez, but I know she's trying), no, and yes. It's funny, everyone says kids learn no first and then repeat it again and again. She barely has said no one time. Maybe she really will be an agreeable kiddo!

4 Excuse me, but I think you've got my chair

Somebody is pretty excited about her new chair! She's been climbing in and out of it all morning.

1 15-month stats

Grab a tissue: This might very well be the last scale picture I can take of Leighton. It's getting REALLY hard to get the picture, as you can see. She's growing right off the screen!

If you can't read the weight, it says 20 pounds, 13 ounces. Which I thought wasn't much of a gain, but my doctor informs me that it's great and that most kids at this age sort of level off on their weight gain (after going off formula), but Leighton has moved up in her growth curve. So that's good news! She's the 20th percentile for weight. Her height is 30.5 inches (50th percentile).

I had to get a picture of this poster that Leighton and I look at every time we go to the doctor. She likes it because of the babies. I like to try and figure out the gender of the babies (that one with the clip is obviously a girl). The others...I don't know! Every time I decide, I change my mind. Boy! Girl! No, boy!

Leighton got two shots today, but it didn't put a damper on her mood. She was crawling up a storm when we got home. Wonder what she's looking at?
Ferdie! I haven't put any pictures of him up in a long time, so I thought I should. He hangs out in whatever room we're in during the day. Of course, he runs away every time Leighton goes up to him (which is very wise on his part), but he stays in the general area. The past few days, he's figured out that it's a good idea to hang out underneath Leighton's high chair while she's eating so he can eat all the food she drops (saves me from cleaning!).
I take Leighton to Barnes and Noble often because she loves to look at all the books and crawl around in the children's section. We went this afternoon and I bought her a book I'm really excited about: Corduroy!
This dress is SO cute, isn't it? I just bought it yesterday...at Costco! It's Baby Lulu. And precious! There's little matching shorts underneath there. If you've got a little girl, get thee to Costco right away!
I forgot to note one more thing in yesterday's 15-month post. (I try to write down everything having to do with Leighton, but it really is just impossible to document every little thing.) In the past week or so, instead of putting everything that she finds on the floor in her mouth, she hands it to me. Very clever, huh? (I'm still keeping a close eye on her anyway.)

4 15 months!

Leighton is 15 months old today. Wow. I can't believe it. Everyone says to enjoy this time because it passes so quickly, and they are right. I saw this picture I took of her today and she is totally growing up! She might as well be driving already (not). As a kind gesture, I did not schedule her doctor appointment ON her semi-birthday. It's tomorrow morning, so I'll have all the exciting weight and height stats then.
Leighton has two areas where all her stuffed animals are. She likes to take each animal out one by one. I think I'm going to have to relax my need to constantly tidy, because it's getting harder and harder to keep up.
It was such a beautiful afternoon that I decided to bust out Leighton's new swimsuit and baby pool. I have to say, I sat down next to her and just looked at her in that tiny little pink swimsuit. It made me very, very happy. I still have to pinch myself--I can't believe I have a daughter! It's awesome!

Playing in the pool was only fun for so long, so I recruited Tasia and Kyra from across the street...we actually had to upgrade to their baby pool because ours was too small for all three of them. While we filled up the pool, Leighton showed off some of her crab walking skills. Her little buns were coming out of the back of her suit...I had to get pictures of it!

Check her out! She moves quickly like this. I love that little chunky baby leg. I could just eat her up!
Here are the girls in the pool. Leighton loves being around Tasia and Kyra. It's so nice to have young girls on our street to play with.

I feel like I should do some sort of summary for Leighton's 15-month development. Let's see...

• Words: Mama, dada, brother (note: "brother" is what she calls our cat Ferdie...this is in no way any kind of announcement), meow, cat, hi
• Favorite foods: Grilled cheese sandwich with sweet potato puree, yo baby, baby goldfish
• Favorite book: Cat
• Crawls everywhere, crab walks, and often sits at the front door pointing to go outside
• Naps for roughly two hours every day
• Still sleeps all night...from about 8 p.m. to 8 or 9 a.m.
• Starting to get frustrated when she can't do something or figure something out (are the terrible twos on their way?)

Overall, Chad and I just can't believe how much we love this little girl. I can't tell you how many times EACH AND EVERY DAY we say to each other "Love her. She's the best. The best thing ever." She really is. Every day is a new adventure...we can't wait to see where she takes us!

1 Please, make yourself comfortable

Ok, it looks like I forced Leighton into this swing (which is clearly not really appropriate for her to use anymore). But she LOVED it. She was giggling and laughing and having so much fun. Of course by the time I got the camera, she was over her excitement and ready to move on to the next activity. Oh the days and nights she spent in this swing! It was definitely a lifesaver on many an occasion.
Leighton is crab-walking. Meaning she's on all fours walking. It's really cute to watch, and I've got a feeling this is the precursor to walking. Gone are the days when she used to just sit in one place and play. This girl is all over the place now and it's hard to keep up. The upside of all this movement is that Leighton has been taking longer naps in the afternoons--even a 3-hour nap a couple of times!
Uh, ok. Get comfortable little lady. Leighton has been putting her leg on top of her high chair while she eats. I tried to put it back down where it belongs tonight and she just stared at me and pulled it right back up. So if that's how she wants it, that's fine with me. Pretty funny!

2 Feeling very blessed

A friend of mine shared this story with me, and it's made me pretty sad. Apparently, this has been in the news a little too, but I just heard about it. I feel very connected to this story. The woman was due, with a girl (like me), right around when I was due with Leighton. She had complications during her pregnancy, was on bedrest (like me), and ended up delivering her daughter 2 months early. Her daughter, Madeline "Maddie" passed away last week from complications stemming from her premature birth. I have been reading her blog, post by post, from the very beginning and I can't believe how much we have in common. It breaks my heart for them and I can't even imagine how painful it must be to lose a child. We are so, so lucky and blessed to have our healthy girl, and I have a whole new level of respect for my high-risk OB who watched over me like a hawk while I was pregnant. I understood at the time why I was on bedrest, but now I really, really get it.

Reading about Maddie brings tears to my eyes. She and Leighton were basically the same age, doing the same things. She even said "da-doo" like Leighton does.

Grab a box of Kleenex and read about an incredible journey:
The Spohrs are Multiplying

(The purple blog is in honor of Maddie.)

2 Found: Belly button

Leighton has found her belly button and she loves to lift up her shirt and look at it. A lot. And the she likes me to pull up my shirt and show my belly button.

We've moved on from her favorite snack of Yogurt Melts to goldfish and graham crackers. I taught her how to user her front teeth to bite off the end of the graham cracker, which is a change from me hand-feeding her every little bite.

0 Happy Easter!

I had so much fun last night setting out Leighton's Easter basket! I can't imagine how fun it will be when she actually knows what's happening. Here's the spread she woke up to this morning in her playroom:

Out of everything, I think she's most excited about this little pink Little People car. She's played with it all day. She loves wheels.
Her other favorite item is Knuffle Bunny Too. We read Knuffle Bunny to her every night, so I knew she would love the sequel. Here she is in her little monogrammed Easter dress. I think she looks adorable!



We took her to church for the first time and left her in the nursery this morning. It was tough leaving her there! I had waited so long for many reasons: church nurseries (or any other gathering of babies) are known for major germs, so I was trying to avoid that. We also have a tough time getting it together in the mornings to make it there on time. But we went, and I think she did just fine. Of course I wanted to cry during most of the service! When we went to pick her back up, she was just thrilled to see us. I'm glad we got that first time over with.

A big storm hit Houston right after church, so I tried to hurry and get some pictures outside as the raindrops started to fall.



It only rained for about an hour, and now it has turned into a beautiful afternoon. We've had a lovely day here today. We spend most holidays in San Antonio because both of our parents live there, but I will admit it was nice not to be on the road today (but we love and miss you Granna and Grandpa and Nonny and Granddaddy). Chad and I both napped this afternoon while Leighton napped, so we are all rested and happy.

2 Easter egg hunt

We went to the St. Martin's Episcopal Church Easter egg hunt this morning. We're not actually members there, but Gordon and Leslie are and they were going, so we tagged along. The actual egg hunt was pretty wild. By the time we got out there, all the eggs had been picked up (not that Leighton at this age has a clue about hunting for eggs).

However, a very nice woman dropped one of her eggs for us so we could at least have one egg in our basket. Here is Leighton actually getting the egg.
Leighton's experience with the Easter Bunny was very similar to her time with Santa: Not good. She was fine in the line to get her picture taken. In fact, she was pointing at the Easter Bunny and smiling. But once Chad sat her down in the bunny's lap, that was it. I was secretly pleased that she cried because I think it makes for a pretty cute picture (am I evil?).

We thought maybe if Chad sat down with her that she would be happy again and smile, but that didn't work either.
After our bunny torture session, we found a nice, quiet spot and sat down for a bit. When we were in line to get our pictures, two very sweet little girls in front of us gave Leighton several Easter eggs because she only had one and they had baskets full. So that was very sweet of them to share. Leighton enjoyed shaking all of her eggs, and Chad and I enjoyed eating all the candy that was in them.


Small detour during our quiet time! For those of you not familiar, this is Leighton's serious pooper diaper face. I didn't realize what was happening cause I was snapping away with the camera, but then I looked up and saw what our sweet little angel was doing on the church lawn.



Overall, I think Leighton's first Easter egg hunt was a success. Yes, she cried with the Easter Bunny. Yes, she pooped right afterwards. And yes, she cried when we tried to give her balloons. But she loved her eggs, loved people watching, and even loved the little bit of sugar cookie we gave her. We're looking forward to tomorrow morning when the Easter Bunny visits the house and fills her Easter basket with all kinds of goodies!