My Leah

I've been planning on writing a post about Leah today. Something the encompasses and describes her. The problem is it makes me all emotional and then I can't write.

I'm gonna try. Maybe I'll just start with things she loves.

Leah's beloved foods (she's listing these to me while I type) - spinach, oranges, carrots, celery, broccoli, crab rangoons, sesame chicken from the thai place, grits/eggs, mac & cheese, peaches, bread

She also like hollandaise sauce - when she asks for that it's "eggs with sauce please".

And sometimes she asks for alfredo and sometimes when she can't remember the word she says "noodles with that one sauce - the white one".

She still won't eat sandwiches. If you give her a plate that has turkey, cheese, lettuce, and bread, she will eat it. But if you actually stack that into a sandwich? Forget it.

She doesn't like any red meat, no ground meat patties! She loves ham (with a passion) and chicken if it's cooked well. She does not like fish but really likes crab - but not lobster. (she told me to add that. I don't think I've ever shared lobster with her). I can get her to eat salisbury steak - which is of course a totally different texture of ground meat. She will eat the meat in a taco sometimes.

She likes candy as much as the next kid I think but she regulates herself very well. She had free access to her halloween candy and she was still only eating 2-3 pieces a day and sometimes none. When it had been 3 days since she got a piece out of there I threw it away. She hasn't noticed. Currently she wants any candy with peanut butter inside of it. She LOVES peanut butter. No peanut butter sandwich (I keep trying) but she'll eat a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter and be blissfully happy.

Leah still rarely stays in her bed through the night. She loves to come and snuggle. And even if she's been in my bed all night she'll wake me up and say "I want to snuggle with you" and fall back asleep for another hour. She's very physically affectionate. There is a lot of hugging and kissing and random "I love you"s. She likes to tell me "You're my favorite best mommy!"

She's also very compassionate. I've blogged about that a little before I think. She worries about other kids being sad or making sure Drew & I get some of whatever treat she's having - or have one of our own. Especially Daddy. She always makes sure he's getting some too. Her favorite cousin - she just adores - and they fight and both act obnoxious sometimes as kids do - but Leah says things about her like "She's mean sometimes mom but I love her. I love her the most of all my cousins!" The other day we took E to story hour with us and Leah asked her if she wanted to come play and E told her "no" and Leah said, "Do you want me to come play at your house?" "No. You can't come to my house and play!" And I swear if I was Leah I would have burst into tears and the look on Leah's face, she was clearly hurt but she said "Are you okay Elaina? Are you sick?" And E just wouldn't answer her. I was driving then so I just started driving straight to E's house. I was so mad. I hate being that mad at a 4 year old but it seemed like mother bear instinct, kwim? And I love E! I told her mom about it and she said she's been acting like that to her sisters too. Anyway - I know it's just a phase. My point was that Leah was so compassionate in response... then I started to ramble.

On Wednesday at church we did a Veteran's Day dinner and invited all the veteran's we knew. As I still helping get things out of the kitchen, etc but I stopped to make Leah a plate and asked her where she wanted to sit - She did not choose the teenagers that she knows (there were no other kids there), she asked to sit in the middle of six people - a very elderly man on her left, elderly woman on her right, across from her was her primary teacher and her mom, and then another older woman and her husband on the other side of her primary teacher. And my wonderful child just sat there and had conversation and ate her dinner like it was the most normal choice in the world for a four year old. Later several of those people commented to me about it. They totally enjoyed her company and her primary teacher said she used all her manners and was so polite. Love it!

She is learning how to read and progressing so fast it's rather scary. A couple more months of these lessons and she'll just be reading. Right now she walks around sounding out words to herself. If she hears a new word she says it very slowly and asks me how it's spelled, etc. I love her loving to learn. She's so interested in everything. She knows that I can show her just about anything on the computer. Yesterday she asked if I could show her "different colors of hermit crabs". I didn't even know she knew what a hermit crab was! We found a picture of a hermit crab in a soccer ball shell. Totally cool. lol

Leah is also incredibly mouthy sometimes. I often say - and have been told many times - that when she's a teenager... I'm screwed.

I love her spunk, her heart, her spirit, her adorable face, the shape of her little body, her hair, her chocolate-y eyes (which I sometimes ask her if I can lick), every single part of her!

Happy Birthday beautiful girl!