A Whole Two Years!

This entry is especially dedicated to my two year old daughter:
Leah,
Two years ago you entered our lives at 5:05pm, announcing your arrival with a hearty cry that reassured us you were healthy. I'll never forget that moment when daddy yelled out that you were a girl (we had kept it a secret) with tears in his eyes. He will never admit to being teary-eyed, but don't worry, we have pictures! The first two months are a blur of diapers, feedings, and when were lucky, sleep. Soon though, we rejoined the living and began our new lives as parents. Even now, two years later, I am in awe that you are mine, that God has entrusted you to ME. You are so mature and independent for two years old that part of me wants to freeze time so that you stay little forever - and part of me cannot wait to see what the future holds for you... what kind of little girl will you be in school.... what kind of teenager will you be? I pray that you keep God first....keep your values strong... and live up to your potential.

At two you are going through quite an independent stage. You now say "I will do it myself" as clear as can be ...and you say it about 100 times a day. Anything from dressing yourself, to buckling your own carseat, to washing your hair in the tub... anything but cleaning up your room or picking up toys... then you look at us wth these hopeless eyes and say "I need hewp." Daddy falls for this much more than I do! There are some thing we obviously need to restrict you from doing by yourself like pouring milk into your cereal or juice into your cup... but, for the most part, we let you try to do most things on your own - even if they are not done to perfection.

You are also a great big sister. This is something that will probably change someday - but for now, you are absolutely in love with your little brother and call him "my" Logan. You get upset if he cries and demand that we make him stop - and it's a good thing that we usually can. Once we caught you trying to shove something into his mouth - you were only trying to share your snack with him "to be nice."

This past month you have turned a huge corner and you no longer cry when we leave you at church nursery. For four weeks in a row now, you kiss us at the door and walk away to play. This is a huge change from the girl that would be like a cling-on! Wrapping your arms around our legs while the teachers try to peel your clutching claws from any limb you could get at. You are growing up!

You love books (always have) and have learned a lot from them: Colors, numbers through ten, and most letters (recognition). Your favorite books are animal books for some reason, and you have recently discovered the Berenstein Bear books. We read before bed every night and if discipline is ever necessary - books are the things that hurt you most! take away your nighttime books and you will cry for a good, long time!

You are still a little peanut. We visit the doc on Friday so I'll have weight and height specifics then. But it is obvious when comparing you with others your age that you are small! Small but powerful!

We love you little lovely lady Leah!

Mommy and Daddy

April Update

Well I did not meet my ambitious goal to post within two weeks...but I was able to meet my realistic goal of a month. Things are going well here at Casa Armenderis... Logan is growing and changing every day. The biggest accomplishment lately has been the addition of smiles - mostly in the morning but if we talk goofy enough to him we can get a smile most times. He also sleeps really well(much better than Leah did). At first he would wake every three hours to eat, which was exhasting, but he would always go right back to sleep. Now, he goes about 7 hours (usually about 9-4) and then will go back to sleep for another couple hours or so. He is mostly happy and content. He is the perfect second child because he knows he cannot have all of mama's attention.

Which brings us to Leah...miss independent...miss "I do it myself." She is nearly two and asserting her independence like crazy. I know Ishould be grateful that she wants to do most things herself.... but, at times, all I can think about is the fact that I can do it ten times faster than she can. And when it comes to cleaning up her room or toys, it's not "I do it myself," it's "I need help." But she has mastered putting on her pants, shoes (mostly on the wrong feet), and socks. And despite her pleas for help, she can clean up her own. She is now completly toilet trained except for naps and overnight. And we recently turned her crib into a big bed which she really likes. The first few nights she would get out of bed and play with toys or come down to see "whatca doing," but she quickly learned we were not playing that game. I am finding that I love the age she is at right now... she has quite a vocabulary and makes me laugh nearly everyday with something she says or does... and she is just old enough to be helpful with Logan by getting a diaper for me, throwing away a diaper, putting his nuk back in his mouth, and it melts my heart when Logan cries and Leah will walk over, bend down, get really close to him, and ask "whatsa matter?"