Puzzles!

So, we got Leala a set of wooden peg puzzles for Christmas. I was kinda iffy about getting them because it said for 3 years+, and she wouldn't have even been 2 yet. But Kevin and I agreed, that even if she couldn't do it, she could practice and would be able to do at some point or another...

There are 4 different puzzles: farm animals, zoo animals, numbers (0-9), and the alphabet. So we started out with the farm animals. We thought it would be the easiest one for her to understand first. So within 15 minutes of working with her on it (this was actually 5 minutes one night and then 10 minutes the next day), she could do the entire puzzle by herself without any help! She could also say a few of the animals. So then a couple of days later, we pulled out the zoo puzzle. Same thing happened. And then the number one.. And then the alphabet one... She's insane.. she literally mastered 3 year+ puzzled in a matter of minutes...

So, of course, my husband being the man he is.. got both animal puzzles out, mixed all the pieces together from both puzzles and put it all out in front of Leala.. She then put both puzzles together at the same time... So then we tried all 4 puzzles... Same thing... She's a genius, I swear.. Oh and remember, this was all before she turned 2! Oh and of course, my husband turns the pieces over, so she can't see them before she picks them up either!

They are so cute playing together!

She looks SOO grown up here.. so little, but grown up!

Potty Training & Random Pictures

To start out with, if you're weird about potty talk, skip this post! Just enjoy the pics and move on. :)

So.. we started the whole potty training thing in January.. We had already introduced Leala to her own potty and she 98% of the time went number 2 in there, but we had a problem with peeing.. She had done really well with waking up and telling us she needed to go pee, but she got sick in December I think, and then all that went away.. So we had to start from scratch when it came to peeing.. Anyway, all of that was before we started *really* trying in January..

She's wearing her panties and some vinyl liners to help not make such a big mess.

So on January 7th, we explained everything to her about what she was supposed to do and what she wasn't supposed to do.. And we put her in panties. We spent the day asking her every 5-10 minutes (I'm sure it wasn't, but it seemed like it) if she needed to go potty. We had 8 accidents her first day. The next day, we did the same thing.. Every day she wore panties during the day at home and a pull-up or diaper at night. And at the beginning, she wore a pull-up or diaper when we went out. The second day she had 4 accidents...

Playing with Daddy!

Her accidents went like this (starting on the first day): 8, 4, 4, 5, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and so on! On day 6, she was day-potty-trained! It was a lot of work and tough to do, but we are beaming with joy to see that she could do it! We've had maybe 2 accidents since then, but even then it was only a drop (oh and we've had company for 2 weeks and had 2 parties and she was still good with it... didn't get too busy playing and forgot or anything!!).

Wearing her panties and monkey socks..

The entire time we were potty training, she stopped peeing at night in her diaper. Every morning, she'd wake up and say "pee!". She's so smart and such a fast learner. We still put her in pull-ups at night, just in case, but she doesn't pee in them. One night, Kevin even forgot to put a pull-up on her and kept her in her panties and she didn't pee in them. We'll soon tackle panties at night (not that it would really be a problem, I think), but I'm waiting for things to settle down before I do that. Things have been crazy these past few weeks.

Anyway, so our little girl was potty trained before she even turned 2! We are so proud of her and cannot believe we have such an amazing little girl! It was a great feeling to give away her diaper pail to my expecting sister-in-law (who now has such a cute little baby girl)!

Here are some random pictures taken at the beginning of January too. Thought they were too cute not to share!

This is what I woke up to one morning.. silly girl!

She is so cute! She didn't know which "baby" she wanted!

Here I Am, Again..

So, here goes another attempt to keep up with this blog.. I really want to just get caught up in sharing what has happened with us the past couple of months and then be able to blog as we go. It would be nice to blog about the normal everyday things that I would usually forget unless I wrote about them.. And then in turn, I could look back on my posts and use some of it for scrapbooking later.

So here we go again... I'll try to stick with it this time!

Having the Boys Over

Kevin has 2 younger brothers and since we've had our new place, we've had them over more and more. Things have been crazy the past month, so they haven't been here too often, but still. It's good bonding time to just hang out and have fun.

Leala has this thing where each day we're around other people, she picks out a special person for that day and she hangs on them all day... She wants them to be the one who puts her in her booster chair. She wants them to be the one to take her to the potty... She wants them to be the one to give her medicine. You get the point.

Anyway, the boys were over at the beginning of January, and Leala picked Jerry to be her special person that day. Here's a few pictures of their little moments together.

Good times...

She's such a ham!

Beautiful Baby!

She loves her Uncle Jerry!

I'm Awful, I Know..

Yes, I'm talking about Christmas in March... And it's not even about the Christmas coming up in 9.5 months.. It's the one that happened last year.. haha... One last post on Christmas, I promise!

These are the pictures from Christmas Day night - just me, Kevin and Leala.

I love my family!

We kept the mattress in the living room for Christmas Day too, so we just opened presents there. hehe..

She was so happy to get her own laptop!

Oooo!

Helping Daddy put together her baby chair.

Office supplies for daddy!

Taking a stroll with Holly.

Dress up!

Beautiful Princess!

Little Cowgirl!

So cute!

Mommy helping her fix her cowgirl wardrobe!

So much going on...

I've had so much going on lately, that I just haven't been able to blog... I had stayed up to date with all of your blogs, up until about 2 weeks ago, but caught up today.. I will again, be trying to blog more and keep up with things...

In the past month or so, we've had company for 2 weeks, 2 birthday parties for Leala.. and have been sick for 2 weeks... So it's been tough and will continue to be tough, I'm sure, but I'm trying to make it all work out..

I have a to-do list that I am putting together... which includes long-term things and short-term things.. I just have a lot to do and am trying to get everything organized so that I can do it all. I will try to play catch up on my blog soon, so that I can be telling you all about more recent events, but before I can do this, I need to edit pictures and so on... like I said, this goes back to my to-do list...

Anyway, point is, I'm still here and I'm still alive, just buried under a months worth of stuff, a months worth of pictures to edit, and 2 weeks of snotty tissues... I'm sure you all understand.. just bear with me.. :)