Our "baby" is two!

Leah had her second birthday last week. Happy Birthday, Leah! We love you!

Number Two!

We are excited to announce that we are expecting Baby #2 on June 3, 2010! Yay! :)

P.S. Here is how we told our families, around the table at Thanksgiving dinner. We just took off Leah's sweater, and waited to see who would notice her new shirt!

Eat it, duckies!

The other weekend, some friends of ours took us to the Arboretum here in Seattle. It was very pretty there, and they have a duck pond :) We brought a lot of old bread and Leah had lots of fun feeding them. When we ran out of bread, Leah started picking up handfuls of gravel and tossing it in front of the ducks (she couldn't quite throw it far enough to hit the ducks, thankfully). "Eat it, duckies!"

Here is a really cute picture that our friend took (thanks again, Emily!):

Ferry!

Last Saturday, we went exploring! We drove over to Bremerton and caught a ferry across Puget Sound back to Seattle! It was really fun, and a great way to see a lot of sights!

Our cute girl

Leah loves to wear her "big jacket".


She even likes to put it on herself!


And this is just a cute Leah in a cute dress :)

Nursery Battle Scar

This (see arm) happened sometime during nursery this past Sunday. Both Matthew and I were in with her the whole time, and neither of us heard any shouts or hollers, so it's still somewhat of a mystery... Though it is quite cute when she says "kiss owie" and kisses her own owie :)

"Leah Stories"

Whenever I talk to my mom on the phone, she asks me to tell her a "Leah Story". Of course, I can never think of the really good ones right there on the spot! So, this is for my mom, and anyone else who wants to hear a good story (or five or ten) about Leah... because I've got a few saved up: (WARNING: Leah is really cute, so this is going to be long.)

• Leah found her daddy's contact case the other day and immediately said "Wash chin!" Then she rubbed it across her chin, my chin, and Matt's chin. (Since then, she likes to help "wash" just about anything... with her hand, paper, a towel, or whatever she has nearby.)
• Whenever she sees a picture of a temple, she says "Temple, oh goodness!"
• When I go to change Leah's diaper first thing in the morning, she has started saying "Oh, man!" My best guess as to where this came from is me saying "Oh, man!" if there is a leak (which is not that often, really) or if her diaper is messy. Oops!
• Leah loves to point out if something is big or little. She will use her big voice or little voice accordingly. For example, a little cow says "moo!" really high, and a big cow says "MOOOOOO!" really deep.
• When she's happy, she will say "Woo-hoo!"
• If you say "Row row row your", Leah will say "boat, mewwy mewwy mewwy" (for merrily... etc.). If you say "If you're happy and you know it", she will say "clap hands" and clap her hands.
• When I am brushing my hair, sometimes Leah will say "Pretty Mommy!" :)
• When I get out a cookbook, or set the timer in the kitchen, Leah will say "Twenty minutes!" (This goes back to one time when I was looking at a recipe and said "Okay, Leah, it needs to cook for twenty minutes.")
• Leah likes to run up to me and say "Boo!" Then she asks me, "Boo Daddy?" I say "Okay" and she runs up to Daddy and says "Boo!"
• Leah also likes to tell me what color I am wearing: "Blue Mommy" or "Green Mommy" or whatever.
• Just now, Leah sneezed and I said "Bless you!" She then proceeded to say "Bless you, Mommy" to me (I fake-sneezed for her and she thought that was pretty fun) and "Bless you, duck" to the stuffed animal duck that was nearby.
• The other day, our box fan was down on its side and Leah said "Oh no fan. Boo boo fan. Up-daisies fan!"
• I was laying down yesterday and Leah approached me and said "Wrong, Mommy?" like she was asking me what's wrong!
• One more (for now): Last night, she tripped a little and fell on a couple of her toy cars. Immediately she pulled them out from under her and said, "Sorry, fire big truck. Sorry, taxi." :)
• Nope, she just did one more. She dropped a small ball behind our TV stand, which is slightly inaccessible to a toddler. She said, "Mommy, ball!" but I didn't really know what she wanted. I looked up to see her grab her penguin toy, drag it over to the TV stand, and say, "Penguin, get it, help!"

"Good girl, Baby!"

Leah really likes pretending these days. She likes to feed crackers to her tuffed animals, and offer water to the folks on TV. Most recently, though, she likes to help her toys play with other toys. Here, she is helping her baby doll play with a toy. If you listen closely, you can hear Leah instruct the baby to use her finger, and every time the baby gets it right, Leah congratulates her with a "Good girl, Baby!"

Also, listen for Leah saying "Bonk eyes!" as she, well, bonks the eyes of the animals on the toy.

Words we're going to miss.

Leah has her own little versions of words that I hope she never grows out of! I don't really encourage the right pronunciation for a few of them yet, because they are just so darn cute (especially in her sweet little toddler voice), but she will probably figure it out on her own one of these days. Anyway, here are some of our favorites:

Finging (finger)
Fum (thumb)
Pang-oons (penguin, singular)
Juffuff (Joseph)
Bassik-ball (basketball)
Widdit (ribbit)
Tee-Wets (T-Rex)
Bummy (bunny)
Dah-bidge (garbage)
Wah-wap (lap)
Effatent (elephant)
Boom (spoon)
Duh-duh-yoo ('w')

New place

Here are some pictures of our new place. (You can click on it if you want to see it bigger.) It has been perfect for us!

Seattle is fun!

We are very happy living here in Seattle. It has been really fun learning about it and discovering all the little things that make it different and exciting! I just wish I had my camera for everything that we see! Speed bump alternatives, Fifth-floor Target stores, airplane parts that decorate parks, cars parked all along every road, even if it's supposed to be a lane... etc.

Also, everyone that we met here has been so nice! Example: Tonight I found our church building and went to the Relief Society broadcast. I checked ahead of time, and it started at 5. I ended up the only one in the chapel listening to it! On my way out, a lady asked me if I was inside listening to the broadcast. She told me that the whole stake was eating dinner together and was going to listen to the rebroadcast at 7. So she invited me in to have dinner and sit with her. I said, "Oh, but I didn't know about it and I already ate!" She said, "You can eat a little more, come on!" Anyway, I felt so welcome :)

Okay, on to the pictures.

This is a park along the lake that is a five-minute drive from our place, with said decorations:

There, we learned that ducks like to eat apples!

And here is Leah just being cute. She loves her "-tories"!

She pulled all her toys out of her toybox, and then climbed in the box. :)

See-tattle

That's how Leah says the name of our new stomping grounds. We're here, we made it, and we've spent our first full day in our new place! It has been very crazy, but very good and successful. We are still getting organized and settled, so I guess I will wait to post any pictures :)

Three more days in Ridgefield.

In three days, we are moving to Seattle! It seems weird that it is coming up so quickly. We are both excited and sad. Excited for a new adventure in a new place, and sad to leave our families. We have had such a nice time being here with them! We will only be two and a half hours away, so we will still be much closer than we used to be, but much further than we are now.

Also, we have a new family picture (thanks, Dad!). See a tiny version of it to your right. :)

Last week

Last week, my brother (Bryce) and his family (Kathy and Elina and Aaron) all came over! Bryce went with my dad to Alaska, and the rest of us played around here all week long. We had so much fun! Other than playing Farkle, which I have already talked about, we...

...played golf!


...made sushi!


...went to the beach!




...went to a kid's club!


...went to the zoo!




...went on a lot of walks!


...had lots of fun inbetween!


Thanks for coming, everyone!

Farkle

When Bryce and Kathy were in town last week, we played Farkle.

I actually tried to score points, too!

Where's the garbage?

You are looking at Leah's first made-up sentence. She has memorized several small phrases (where-is-it, I-love-you, here-we-go, etc.) and can say "hi" and "bye" to things on her own (hi fan, bye doggy, hi dress, etc.), but her first real made-up sentence came yesterday:

She loves finding pieces of paper and plastic, crumpling them up, saying "garbage", and throwing them away. We were in a room without a garbage can last night, and she found some garbage. I said, "Leah, go put that in the garbage in the other room." She replied, "Where's the... garbage?"

I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST SHE IS GROWING!!

Vacation!

Matthew and I went on a vacation last week! We took a couple days off of work and headed out to the beach. Our parents were soooo wonderful to watch Leah for us so we could get away! I was a little nervous because I had only left Leah for a couple of hours at a time, only a few times, and never overnight. I think I handled it pretty well though. I mean, I think she handled it pretty well, considering.

Anyway, we stayed at a campsite at Cape Lookout and a hotel right on the beach at Lincoln City. It was SO nice and SO fun! We went to four or five different beaches, went to the aquarium, went whale watching, had a campfire, found tidepools and treasures, did a little shopping, ate really good, and went on as many walks as we could! It was perfect!

Leah's latest antics

Leah learns so much, so fast! She picks up 2-3 words or phrases each day, my new favorite being "I love love love you". She knows a few colors and about half the alphabet. Here she is telling me to be quiet, showing me a couple of emotions, and making all sorts of animal sounds :)

Big berry

My dad planted some new blueberry plants this season. Leah calls them "big berries" in the deepest voice she can muster.

Six down, twenty to go...

No, this isn't the latest word in the language I'm creating. It's all the letters that Leah can recognize! Point them out in any order you want, and she can tell you what they all are!


If you're thinking that this is the number of dollars I earn per hour, guess again. It's the rough number of words that Leah knows! My favorites being glasses, oh-no, sorry, pretty, and bicycle.


And this is just the number of degrees I wish it wasn't right now.

Harry Potter :)

Our friend Crystal had two extra tickets to the midnight showing of Harry Potter 6 on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning?) and invited us to go with her and some other friends (Thanks again, Crystal!). We had so much fun! The movie was great! A bit depressing at parts, but fun anyway. I hadn't read the book since it first came out a few years ago, so the story was almost all new for me. When I saw parts I did remember though, they were just as I pictured them!

Anyway, this was the first movie that Matthew and I have been to since Leah was born. We just end up waiting to rent movies when they come out. It was so nice to be able to put Leah down to bed and leave her with my parents so that we could go out (Thanks again, Mom and Dad!). Of course, we got to bed about eight hours after Leah did, and she got us up about three and a half hours later, but we survived in the end and are glad we got to have such a fun night/morning :)

This post brought to you by the number 2...

Leah has a favorite number! This is how I found out:
Me: "Leah! One..."
Leah: "Two!"
Me: "Good job! Three..."
Leah: "Two!"
Me: "Hmm. Five..."
Leah: "Two!"
Me: "... One, two..."
Leah: "Two!"
Me: "Okay. One..."
Leah: "Two!"
Me: "Good job!"

Playing with Malia

Leah's cousin Malia came over to play the other day. I'll let the pictures tell the story :)

Leah's learning to pretend and make up games

Leah put a tupperware container on her head yesterday, turned to me, and said, "Hat!"

Also yesterday, she put some crackers in a cup, put a ball on top of the cup, and asked me, "Where is it?", like she was hiding them for me to find. I said, "I don't know, where is it?" She took the ball off the cup, looked inside, and said "Peekaboo!"

I tell you what... my job is a lot harder than it was when I worked in the office, because I watch Leah at the same time, but it is definitely a lot more fun and entertaining with these little games she plays with me during work :)

Shoes

I never thought Leah would do this, because I'm not really into shoes (though I do own some). But today, all on her own, probably for the same reason she likes to wear tutus, Leah ... well, see for yourself. I guess she's just a girly girl. That, or she just likes to be a big kid :)

Beach Trip

Matthew and I took Leah on her first beach trip on Wednesday. First, we went to Astoria and stopped for lunch. Then we went to the Astoria Column, and then it was off to the beach. As you can see, Leah had lots of fun! (We did, too!) It is interesting to think what it must have been like for her. She had probably never imagined anything like this before--a great expanse of flat, wet, soft stuff, and lots and lots of water moving around on the ground! It was cold and very windy, but she had a good time splashing in the wet sand, and dancing, and running. Afterwards, we went to a couple other lookout places (in Fort Stevens and Hammond) and then headed back for home. We even stopped at Matthew's old mission president's house. He just happens to live about a half hour away from us right now! So we had a very nice day, and hope to be able to have many more days like this in the future.

In case you were wondering, Leah was verrrry good on our trip! We think it helped that we were outside so much. She took two naps in the car, and even ate a lot at lunchtime!

Some updates

Well, not a whole lot is new with Matthew or me (other than going on a real date last night!!), but plenty is new with Leah! Every day there is something new. I love re-discovering things with her... it's almost like everything is brand new as I watch her learn about the big world around her. So, some cute (or maybe just notable) things:

• There is a light waaaaay down at the end of the tunnel. Leah's diaper days are numbered! For the last three days or so, she has said "poo" every time she messed her diaper. On the list of things to get for our new apartment in Seattle: potty training seat.
• Leah is learning her first color! She will point at my jeans and say "boo". Then point at the blue house and say "boo". The the blue car and say "boo". Don't try to trick her yet though... she may just get confused and call everything blue.
• She can tell my parents' two black labs apart, and call each by name.
• Her newest word is "owie". She sliced her little thumb yesterday with a tape measure (didn't know those were so dangerous) and got a bandaid. Since then, even today, she will hold up her thumb and say "Owie, owie, owie, owie, owie..." I think she is better though.
• Yesterday, Leah picked me a Leah-sized bouquet of dandelions. Then she proceeded to pick a couple dozen more, tear them to pieces, and throw them to the ground while saying "Doh!!"
• She says "weeeee" when something is fun! Example: hills.
• Long ago, Leah learned how to draw. She is still learning what to draw on. Paper, yes; bananas, no.
• Once she was drawing on a piece of paper with Grandma and me. Whenever one of us would draw something for her, Leah would take the pen and scribble right over it! Every time. Either she is grasping the concept of coloring, or she is trying to enhance our little drawings. Or she just thinks we do a bad job.
• Whenever she hears music, or the word "dance", she dances!
• Leah loves big chairs. She doesn't so much love her high chair.
• Her favorite food might be rice. It might be green beans or bananas or grapes or crackers. It might rotate.
• The most impressive animal she knows is a squirrel.
• She has a verrrry good memory. You can tell her what something is once or twice, and she'll remember it a few days later.
• Today Leah hid her face, said "Where is she?", unhid her face, and said "Peekaboo!"
• She is starting to combine words, such as "Bye, doggy."
• She will sometimes stick her finger in her mouth and say "Sshhhh..." if you try to get her to whisper.
• Her pronunciation couldn't be cuter!
• When Leah wants something, she will point and say "day-go"/thank you. When it is not clear what she wants, I'll say "What?" and try to hand her something. If I'm wrong, she'll say "no", I'll say "What?", and we'll get a little game going. Sometimes she'll try to play by herself, saying "Day-go. Wat? Day-go. Wat? Day-go." :)
• Leah knows what letters are. We have letter magnets and try to tell her what letters they are. For the last few weeks, she has pointed at letters (even just on a page or a sign) and made letter-like sounds. One time, we were out for dinner, and there were numbers on the side of the table in front of her high chair. She started trying to name those off, too!

Grandma's Necklaces

Leah loooooves to play with Grandma's necklaces. The more, the better. She would also like to apologize to Grandma for the ones she has broken :(

Walk Pictures

Here is a little visual to go along with my last post.


"Bee!"


Walking out to the dogs ("Dah-gee! Wuff!").


"Sha-tah! Taow!"


Just walkin' through the grass.


Picking flowers.


This has become Leah's "spot". She will sit down right here every time we go for a walk. She won't sit anywhere else.


Picking grass.

Walks

I like to take Leah outside on a walk most days. Here is how it went today:

After lunch, I pick Leah up and say, "Leah, do you want to go........ outside?"

"Saass!" This is her interesting word for 'outside'.

We get on our shoes ("shoosh") and I help her out the front step. Immediately she sees the container of bubbles on the porch rail. "Pop. Pop!"

"Leah, let's go for a walk first, and then we can do bubbles."

"No!"

"Want to go see the doggies?"

"Dah-gee! WUFF!" She is persuaded to follow me off the porch and begin our walk.

Just a few steps out, I hear "bee!" and sure enough, an unidentified insect flies by. "Hap!" I look down, and Leah is holding up her hand for me to 'help' her. Unable to refuse, I hold her hand and guide her to the dog kennel. We turn the corner at the side of the house and come within view of the doggies.

"Dah-gee!" Leah starts dancing away towards the dogs.

We stay and play by the dogs for a while, and then head for the back patio. As we walk past the windows, Leah points and says, "Bah-bah", her word for all of her grandparents. "Yes, Leah! Bah-bah" (whichever one) "is in there!"

We get to the edge of the patio, and Leah does something she has never done before. She voluntarily plops herself in the middle of a patch of buttercups. (It just so happens that I had done something I have never done before too. I left my camera inside.)

Here Leah discovers the joy that all kids everywhere discover at some point in their childhood--picking grass. I sit down next to her and am taken back to those late summer days about fifteen years ago, sitting in the middle of the field with my soccer team, listening to the coach explain a new drill... and picking grass.

Leah snaps me out of my flashback with "Fa-wa?" I look down and she is holding a flower out for me to take. Well, I can't pass this up. I accept the flower and pull out my cell phone to take what pictures I can. After one or two, Leah reaches for the phone and says "Day-goo!" ('Thank you', here meaning 'Give that to me'.) I hand her my phone, and she sees the picture of Matthew on it. "Daddee!"

After we get our fill of grass-picking, we get up and visit the doggies once more. Then we make our way back to the front door, but not without Leah remembering the bubbles. "Pop!"

"Okay, we'll play with the bubbles for a while." I don't know who enjoys this more, but we both have a fun time. Before my head gets too light, though, I put the bubbles away and bring Leah inside. And now it's nap time. But that's another story.

Seattle... and chocolate.

Last week, Matthew and Leah and I took a day trip up to Seattle. We wanted to check out the neighborhoods around campus and get some research going on where we want to live in a few months. We also had to drop off a few things at school. While we were up there, we decided to try out a few fun things around the city! We went out to eat, visited Matthew's aunt and uncle, went on some pretty drives, and spent some time on campus, which was beautiful. We heard about this park along the Puget Sound too, called Discovery Park, and decided to check it out. We thought, "Cool, a park along the water, I bet that will be a great place to take Leah and have a nice afternoon!" Well, it turns out that almost all of the roads are blocked off to visitors ("Authorized Vehicles Only"), and you have to park and hike across the 500+ acre park just to get to the waterfront. Try that with a grumpy 18-month-old! We didn't. We just found this "view point" a ways out from the water that was obstructed by trees. And then Leah slipped through a hole in the bench and hurt herself :( And then we left.


Our "view". At least we could see some of the Sound, and it was a beautiful day!


We couldn't drive through Tacoma without stopping at the Brown and Haley factory! We got all kinds of discounted chocolate, including a dozen raspberry mountain bar "boo-boos" for a buck!

Who knew such a tiny little place could make us so happy? ;)

18 months old!

Our sweet little "baby" has turned 18 months old! Sometimes it seems like time has gone so fast, and other times, it seems like she has to be much older than that. She has grown up so much in the past year and a half. She has learned so much and almost seems like a different person!

With 18 months comes nursery! I guess I didn't realize that I get to go, too. Well, if I want to keep Leah from screaming, anyway. The nursery leaders are very good and kind, but whenever I sneak a couple steps to the door while Leah is looking away, she starts frantically looking around and crying. It's like there's some Mommy sense, like an invisible string that starts tugging at her when I start to go too far. It doesn't help that nursery is during her normal nap time, so she is too tired to play very well. We'll work on getting her more used to nursery, so that soon she can be comfortable and happy with all the other cute little kids.

Okay, okay, here are some of the latest pictures. There is a picture from Leah's first experience with bubbles, her first trip to a strawberry patch, and another picture too cute not to post :)

Oh, "no"!

Leah has learned a new word: "No". She is becoming more defiant, more independent, and... more attached. What? You would understand if you spent all day with her :) She likes to do things her way, that's for sure! She also likes us to do things her way. And this is her new way of telling us what she doesn't like. It's really cute though (watch me eat my words in a few days, I'm guessing), because she bunches her little brow into a scowl and then uses her sweet baby voice to say, "no!"

You would think that this would turn her in to a little rebel, but she is also perfecting her "thank you"s. Well, it sounds more like "day-goo" right now, but it's pretty recognizable every time! She says "day-goo" whenever she wants to give, take, or exchange anything. We give her something, "day-goo". She gives us something, "day-goo". Repeat until bedtime.

Since this is the "Brewer Family Blog", I suppose I should update you on the rest of the family then. Matthew and I have officially become enhanced residents of Washington. Well, our new drivers licenses are enhanced anyway. Also, I worked about 15 more hours than my usual 20 last week. It was a little crazy watching Leah while working for 11 hours on Friday, but luckily she found interest in the Curious George movie... twice. Who knew the Man in the Yellow Hat actually had a name? Anyway, she was a real good girl, and we are both glad to be back on the 4-hour-a-day work schedule. Matthew has been working extra too, so we have both been busy. We love our evenings together, and the weather has been perfect at night to take lots of little walks through this beautiful area we now live in.

More later!

We Love the Northwest!

Matthew and Leah and I have spent a little over two weeks in the Northwest so far. We have loved it! Matthew started a new job for the summer and I am back to work with my same job. Leah has reached all new levels of cute and learns new words faster than I can keep track of them! Her favorites are Hi, Ruff/Huff/Fuff, and Doggy. She says Hi more times each day than I can count! She loves going outside to pick flowers (fa-wa) and to see the doggies. She started doing this cute little prance-walk, too... I have a poorly-compressed video of it among some random pictures below.







We hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls with Matt's family!