My curly, dimpled lunatic

I was once told by an English teacher that "A child is a curly dimpled lunatic" and that I was such a child. He was quoting a line from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature.

"The child with his sweet pranks, the fool of his senses, commanded by every sight and sound, without any power to compare and rank his sensations, abandoned to a whistle or a painted chip, to a lead dragoon or a gingerbread-dog, individualizing everything, generalizing nothing, delighted with every new thing, lies down at night overpowered by the fatigue which this day of continual pretty madness has incurred. But Nature has answered her purpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic."

I always thought it was a fitting description of who I was as a youth.

Leah fits the bill more than I ever did.

What A Feeling!

I love Leah's clothes. No matter what she wears, what style, everything and anything always comes out looking great on her. Yes, I know, I am biased but that doesn't mean it isn't true ;)

This morning her outfit reminded me of jazz/hip-hop dance inspired outfits. She began the morning with her impersonation of Jennifer Beals in Flashdance. Another movie that she has watched and enjoyed just as much as I have enjoyed it over the years. I am getting Fame for us to watch this weekend.




I'm gonna knock you out.


Much Too Cool

Big Girl

Leah is growing up so quickly. Every day that passes she is doing something new and 'grown up'. I cannot believe she will be registered for Kindergarten come February of next year. It isn't that far off.

She dresses herself most morning, with little to no help anymore.




The Many Faces Of Leah



Towards the end of Spring or so Leah received a lil mini blueberry bush from Ruth. A few months later and the bush is doing very well. Leah helps water it and keeps an eye out for nasty pesty insects interested in eating it all up. She is very proud of it. As she should be.




Time to leave for school.



As you can see we've been on a Hello Kitty kick as of late. Well the last year or so. Leah picked out a lot of Hello Kitty outfits when we went back to school shopping.

The Wiggles are made of Awesome!

Today went to see the Wiggles thanks to Ruth. In Leah's words "The Wiggles are awesome!" It was a fantastic show. We had a great time. Leah danced her way through it.

We forgot the camera, otherwise we'd have about 100 pictures I am sure. It was a lot of fun.

White Post Farms

White Post Farms has a couple of weekends out of the summer where they have special activities. This weekend was their Bouncer & Water Slide Weekend.

We had a great time

Leah now feeds the animals by herself. No fear. Just over a month ago she was still afraid of them.


Matt still does the majority of the feeding though. Mostly because he enjoys it much more than Leah.


Leah says she was just acting like a bridge troll in this picture. She was in fact throwing a tantrum because I wouldn't let her stick her finger into the monkey cage in order to feed them.


Bet most people don't realize deer love ice cream cones. (Personally I think they taste a lot like Styrofoam)


Leah enjoying the train ride.


Leah riding a pony.


Waiting to go on the water slide.


Up the slide she goes.


The look on her face on the way down. I don't think Leah had any clue what to expect as she went down. She didn't know how fast or just how little control she would have.


We went to a birthday party a few months ago and they had a huge bouncer and Leah wanted nothing to do with it. It sent her into hysterics. A few months later and she went on all the bouncers, had a ball. You couldn't get her out of them.

White Castle Break

Today we went to Kohl's and bought some more clothes for Leah. We got a great deal on her clothes, her shoes, and on luggage. Great deal on luggage. We <3 Kohl's.

Afterwards we took a White Castle Lunch Break.

Friday at Roosevelt Field Mall

After work today I picked Leah up at school and we took the bus over to Roosevelt Field Mall. We've been doing 'Back To School' and Fall/Winter shopping this past week. We also do some great window shopping there. Leah took a nap on the bus (it is about a 45 minute ride there) and I relaxed.

We window shopped for a bit. Then we got a banana-berry smoothie. Did some more shopping at the toy store and bookstore. Matt met us at the Food Court, we had dinner and headed home.

Posing Ham

Leah modeling the new leggings she received as a birthday gift from Katie.

Lil Bear Factory

Leah received some great birthday gifts. Most of them we can all do together in some way as a family. Today she decided we should do these Lil Luvables. We did all three plushies that came wit the stuffing station and also another bear she got that has a recorder in it. She put the message "I love you" on it and every time you squeeze the bear it says "I love you" and it is Leah's voice.

Matt helped her with most of it and even though he won't admit it right away I think he enjoyed doing this more than Leah did.

Maybe he should go work at Build A Bear :P

Presenting: Princess Leah Annelise

Leah received a lot of great Princess dress-up clothing for her birthday. A beautiful dress from Ruth. Tons of accessories too.

Leah's Straight Hair Day

Leah has been asking me to straighten her hair over a year now. I told her once she wasn't a tot anymore that I would but only if she was sure she could sit still for the whole time. Today she told me she thought she could.

She also spent about 30 minutes practicing her ballet turns. She has come a long way from where she was September of last year. She used to be quite clumsy on her feet, a year later and she has gotten a lot of the technique down.




The hair is straight!

Pool Break

Afternoon At Belmont Lake Park

We spent the afternoon at the park. Went on the peddle boats, played in the playground, walked around, had some snacks. A really nice place to spend the afternoon.