The Missing Tooth

Leah's two front teeth have been very loose for several weeks. I have been trying to talk her into pulling them out, but she has been very careful of them. She said they were hurting her and didn't want them to be touched. I was being to wonder if they were ever going to come out.

Leah came home from school yesterday very excited to show me her surprise! She lost one of her teeth at school. Her tooth is already making it's way in. Without her teeth, she looks so different. I can't get over how quickly she is growing up.

They put her tooth in a little treasure chest for her to bring it home. Leah's other front tooth is also very loose so I have a feeling that she will be asking for her two front teeth for christmas!

And the school year begins

Leah is officially a first grader! I am so proud of her, but I am not ready for what this means. She will now go to school all day instead of just 2 1/2 hours. This is a huge adjustment, especially for mom! Leah got on the bus this morning at 7:55 and won't get off the bus until a few minutes after 4. She does have a long bus ride so I am sure there will be a lot of times when I drop her off and pick her up from school, but today I wanted her to try the bus.

Leah had her open house on Monday night. We were able to go to the school together and met her teacher. Leah only knows three or 4 kids that are going to her elementary school from kindergarten because of how the kindergarten center works. I was worried that she wouldn't know anyone in her class. However, the 2 kids that Leah knew best are in her class.

I took the opportunity at Open House to get a few memorable pictures!

Getting ready to go in.

Waiting in the gym with all the school supplies.

Leah's desk. We were able to put all of Leah's school supplies where they needed to go and get her desk ready.




Leah loves her new classroom.

7:00 came early for Leah. I had to wake her up and she wasn't happy about it at first, but then when she woke up enough to realize what today was the excitement set in. She was up and ready to go. It was a challenge getting her to eat breakfast since she was so excited, but after several trips outside to say good bye for the cats we made it through a decent breakfast. Caleb told me that I had to wake him up so that he could watch Leah get on the bus, but I didn't have to, all the commotion was enough to wake him up and Alissa is always up early.

Going out the door. Leah's lunch box is in her book bag, but I think she has one heavy bag because of it. I might have gotten a little carried away, but this is her and my first packed lunch! I had to make sure it was a well balanced meal! :)

Waiting on the Bus! We were out a little early since Leah was so excited to get out.

She had to tell the dog goodbye, who after this jumped on her and got her shirt dirty! Luckily I got it out.

Here comes the bus.

Leah's off to school.

The kids in Leah's class are our neighbors and ride the bus with Leah too. It was very comforting for me this morning when she was so excited to get on the bus and then I could see the two kids sitting in the front seat and her piling in with them. They were just as excited to see her and they all wanted to sit together. At least she has some good kids to go with her on this first day of school adventure. Mom still misses her a lot.

Dance, Dance, Dance

This past year Leah has been involved in several different activities including, gymnastics, karate, and ballet. I am not sure which was her favorite, but we are probably going to try and narrow it down a bit this next year and maybe try some new things. With dance, it worked out good because she started in January and it replaced gymnastics that she had been doing all fall. I tried a different dance studio and I found a place that I liked much better than the studio she went to last year. I liked the atmosphere much better, everyone is important not just the kids who are doing competition.

This past weekend Leah had her dance recital. She looked so cute in her ballet outfit. She loves to dance on the stage and she also loves to watch the other dancers. I think that her favorite part of dance is the end. I am not sure if she'll do it next year or not, but I am sure that I will have Alissa in dance at some point. Alissa was doing all the dances in her seat during the recital. She was trying to do the same moves as those on the stage. It was very cute.

Here are some cute pictures from the recital.

The family waiting for the dance recital to start.

Leah posing for a picture before she went on.

Her class waiting on the stage for their turn.

Leah's performance.

Beautiful!

Leah's Birthday Party

It's hard for me to believe that my first was born six years ago tomorrow! Time flies and I know it's only going faster and faster with each year. Leah's birthday party was Saturday and it really did go pretty well. It was a ton of work, but it was worth it to see her having such a great time. The whole party I was hopping from on thing to the next and the couple hours flew by. It was a perfect weather day. It was sunny and warm. We did everything outside. For those of you that weren't able to come. Here are some pictures from the party.,

The cake

The Pinata

Cutting and Eating Cake

Opening Presents

Leah's Performance

Leah had her first school performance last night. It was titled "I'm Proud to Be An American". It was a singing event where the entire Kindergarten Center sang several song. Then each individual class a a special song. It was cute watching them. Some of the kids really knew the words and were very into singing and others didn't know any words or were too distracted looking around at everything to sing. Leah was definitely in the later group.

These type of things are totally for the parents, but I love to go. Rod loves how I always have to get there way early to make sure I get a good seat. I guess it's a good thing that they only have this stuff once or twice a year. Caleb is having his preschool 'graduation' this Tuesday night so we have another even to look forward too. More performance blogging to follow.

Waiting for the performance to begin. Doesn't everyone look so happy?

Leah's Outfit for the occasion. Leah posing before we left the house.

Loving the Curls

If you did notice in my previous post that Leah's hair looked different, then here the scoop. During spring break we took a trip to my Dad's and Jean's house. Jean offered to cut Leah's hair and she was so excited. She'd been begging to have her hair cut short to her shoulders. We compromised a little below her shoulders. It will be nice a little shorter for the summer. However, I prefer her hair longer, but she gets to choose since it is her hair, right?

While she was getting her hair done by Jean after the hair cut, we were talking about sponge rollers. I wore them as a kid and wondered how they would do in Leah's hair. Jean had some older ones that she said I could try out. We tried them out on Friday after bath. Although she thought I was crazy expecting her to sleep in them, when she work up with curly hair she was in love! She has been wanting the rollers in every night so that she has "beautiful" hair every morning. The old sponge rollers weren't holding up. The foam was falling about and shrinking with each use. I finally went out and bought her new ones. The new ones actually don't work quite as well, but well enough.

I know this will wear out, but for now we'll all have to get used to curly haired Leah. Caleb said that she looks like a grandma with the rollers in, but I think it's cute!

Leah's Growing Up.

Leah decided this week that she wanted to learn to ride a bike without training wheels. We really hadn't wanted to push her, but when she said that she wanted it, we decided that we needed to work with her on it. I think she decided it was time since our new neighbors include a girl who is probably 9 or 10 and rides without training wheels. Although the process started off as an exercise time for Rod (running after Leah and trying to hold on), Leah picked up quickly. When Rod took a break, next thing we knew, Leah was off riding on her own. She is getting better every time she tries to ride. She is still learning how to turn, but I think that the training wheels may be gone for good. I am hoping for no big crashes. So far we only have had small ones and one where she crashed into Alissa. I am very proud of her. I don't think that I learned to ride without training wheels until I was 8.

We practiced in the next door long drive. It gave Leah a long straight stretch and the other two love to ride over there too.





Since this post is mostly about Leah, I think it is an appropriate place to include Leah's latest fashion idea. She often will make her cat Harvey do more than any cat would want to. She makes him play baby and puts bracelets around his neck. However, the most recent shocked even me.

Yes, Harvey is sporting a lovely pair of barrettes on his ears. They were in there good because I didn't find him until he had been wearing them for around an hour. You can't really tell, but Leah also used quite a bit of hair spray on his head and gave him a spike hair do. When I took the barrettes out, Harvey's ears where rather squished and had barrette marks in them for quite some time. That cat is certainly very tolerant of Leah.