1 Splish splash

I was giving Leighton dinner tonight when she spotted Kyra and Tasia across the street running around in the yard. I don't know if I've mentioned, but Leighton LOVES those girls. She calls them "Kia" and "Tia" and she loses her mind every time she sees them. Tonight she let out the loudest scream I've ever heard come from her, so off we went to see what the girls were up to.

They were playing in the sprinklers, so I decided to let Leighton join in on the fun after she sat patiently watching for awhile.
She had so much fun! The girls are so sweet to Leighton and I love having little girls so close for her to play with.
Of course, once she spotted a Dora item, I could no longer get her to look over at me.
Yep, still interested in Dora. By the way, her diaper weighed a TON. I don't think they are made to hold that much liquid!
I thought this was a sweet picture. The girls really do watch out for Leighton and love playing with the "baby."
What a fun Thursday night! Not exactly what I had planned but certainly a lot more fun than sticking to our usual routine.

4 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Happy Leighton:

Unhappy Leighton: What's happening? Chad and I are crossing our fingers that Leighton is teething right now, because she's started to be a little feisty the past few days. It may just be that she's getting to that age...she gets frustrated when she can't do or say something. I certainly can understand that. I'm trying not to react and to stay calm and patient and help her work through it, but it sure does stink when she throws her sippy cup at my face!

Nonny brought Leighton this cute outfit (among many others) when she was here a couple of weeks ago. It's adorable and fits perfectly. Leighton looked so preppy to me today with her little collar. Sidenote: Yes, I know Leighton's hair is getting a bit shaggy. But girls have got to grow it out sometime, right? I have tried and tried to put bows in her hair to pull her bangs back, but she pulls them out pretty much as I put them in. I had an idea today though: I might wear her bows in my hair for the next few days so she sees how much fun it is and maybe she'll want to look like me too. We'll see...
Case in point for not spending money on kids: She has two super cute chairs and where does she choose to sit?
I love playing hide-and-seek with Leighton, mainly because I can usually see her and she often toots or burps or makes some noise but she has NO idea she can be so easily seen. I love it! Here she was hiding behind the coffee table yesterday:

2 Good morning, sunshine

Leighton woke up from her nap this afternoon with her hair all wild and crazy. I thought it was funny:
I have discovered one of Leighton's favorite new places to poop: in the corner of the tee pee. I was taking all these pictures of her this afternoon thinking it was so cute how she hides in the corner. Then I smelled something...

One of my favorite favorite things is when Leighton's little behind comes out of her diaper, like this. I just want to squeeze it! By the way, these are her fun new shoes that squeak when she walks. She loves them and had them on all afternoon.
Leighton loves getting ready for bath time, and she will also stand here when I take a bath. Love her little legs.

1 18 months

It's hard to believe Leighton is 18 months old today. Where has the time gone? She is more and more fun every day. She's talking up a storm: her latest thing is saying "I'm sorry." Sometimes it's appropriate; other times, it's totally wrong. But it's adorable. She loves to play with "dashes" also known as glasses. I let her play with an old pair of my sunglasses when we're in the car and she always seems to put them upside down on her cheeks. She can point out hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, and ears. She loves babies, gatos (cats), and anything having to do with Dora.

Nonny and Granddaddy surprised us with a visit Saturday. Leighton had so much fun with both of them and it's so nice to see Leighton's growing relationship with each of her grandparents. Look at this big smile we got from her with Nonny:
Leighton likes to hold on to her "gato" when she's eating. Today we tied a balloon to her chair and I gave her a Dora napkin. It was like a party! She was thrilled!
I think she's totally over her sickness now. Her appetite is back and in full swing. Thank goodness! I was starting to wonder if she would ever get over that.

2 On the mend

Leighton is doing better. We did go to the doctor Monday and he said she has a virus, which caused all the vomiting last week and the rash over the weekend. Nothing we can do but let it run its course. She is eating more and more each day, and she's drinking her normal amounts, so that is good.

Exciting news: She's walking! Ok, not all on her own, but she'll walk if we'll hold on to her hands. (I know this is a little later than most kids, but we don't care.) She is so proud of herself when she tries something new, and of course we just pile on the compliments and praise!

I thought I should write down the books we read her every night before she goes to bed so we don't forget someday. She likes these same ones, every night:

• Knuffle Bunny
• Knuffle Bunny Too
• Princess Baby, Night-Night
• Howdy, Reveille
• Brown Bear
• Goodnight Moon (which she calls na-moooooon)
  

2 Sick baby

I haven't posted all week because Leighton has been sick and this is really all there has been to take a picture of:
Tuesday night when we put her to bed, she woke up a little later and started throwing up. Chad and I tag-teamed and changed her and her bedding and put her back to bed. We ended up doing this about 4 more times. Bless her heart. She hasn't vomited since then, but for the rest of the week she was just sort of blah and she won't really eat or drink a whole lot. I've been talking to the doctor's office and I think I'll take her in the morning because I just want to have her looked at. She eats every now and then:
And she is playing a little bit. But definitely not her normal full-energy self. Plus, yesterday we noticed she now has a rash on her front and back, so we're just a mess over here!
My parents were here for the weekend to go to a wedding, and I got a great picture of them with Leighton before they left. You have no idea how hard it was to get Leighton to smile. Chad was behind me jumping all around and we were all singing and being crazy. And it worked!

4 Fossil Rim

We went to Fossil Rim for the 4th of July with the Donoghues, Bomersbachs, and Fulghums. We got there Friday afternoon and had a great, chaotic time with 8 adults and 7 kids under 4. We rented out The Lodge there, which had 5 bedrooms, so it was fun to all be in the same place with the kids running around (or crawling, in Leighton's case).

Saturday morning, we went on a wildlife tour on this open bus, and we saw some animals up close! Leighton loved it.



Leighton especially liked the zebras (or, zeebas, as she calls them). We all got a cup of food and could either throw the food on the ground or let the animals eat out of our hands (depending on the animal).


That's David Donoghue behind me playing peek-a-boo. It was fun...we had all four January babies together for the first time and it was interesting to see the differences and similarities between them all. For one thing, all the other babies slept at some point on the bus ride, but not Leighton!

That's Mary Louisa's hand next to me feeding this animal.

The giraffes were WAY cool! They came right up to the bus and stuck their heads in the bus to eat. That's Chad's hand feeding this giraffe!



Leighton got very excited when I said "baby" when these guys passed by. Leighton loves a baby!

Look at how beautiful this place is. I highly recommend a visit!

Leighton also liked the cheetahs...mainly because she thought they were giant kitties. She said "meow!"

This is our group at the end of the tour:

Mary Louisa and Ryan got giraffes and had fun riding them around the rest of the weekend.

Bob was sitting there having an innocent moment with his son, John:

Next thing you know, he has his other son naked on his back and Leighton sitting on his other knee!

This was not an easy picture to obtain! But we did it! And they all look adorable. Here are the January babies, in order of birth: David (January 14), Leighton (January 20), Grant (January 25), and John (January 29).

We were so confident after getting that picture that we tried for one with all the kids. No dice!