The Hanson Family: Wahoo! Leah's 2

Dear Leah,
It's hard to believe it has been two years since I held you in my arms for the first time and looked into your big blue eyes. The sparkle in those eyes captured my heart and you ran away with it. The years have gone by faster than I could have ever imagined. Each and every day I watch you grow and become even more amazing then you already are. Even as a baby your personality was all your own. You laughter is contagious and your smile lights up the room. I am looking forward to many, many more years of your smiles. You are my greatest accomplishment and I can only hope that your accomplishments make you has happy as you have made me. And I want you to always know how much you mean to me. I love you to the moon and back, Sassy.

Love Forever & Ever,
Mommy

This is such a fun age, here are some things I want to remember about you right now. You love to dance. Whenever there's a song or music on one of your shows, you bust a move. It's the best dancing I've ever seen. And when you want me to dance with you, you say "Dee! Dee!" which is your word for dance. You have started to sing. You don't know the words, but you hum and make song like sounds along with the music. Your singing combined with your dancing makes for quite a performance. For the majority of the past year, your favorite show has been the Backyardigans, but now you like to watch Lady and the Tramp or "The Doggie Show" as we call it, Snow White Beauty & The Beast and Tarzan. And you crack up laughing when baby Tarzan sneezes on the Momma gorilla. You are still Momma's girl. You and I are best friends and I hope it always stays that way. We do everything together and when I spend even 5 minutes away from you, I miss you. You love your Daddy, you run to give him "huggies" when he gets home from work. You love to play "Hat." I don't know how this little game started, but you bring me a blanket, and you lay down on the floor and say "hat" and I throw the blanket over your head, and then we do it all over again. It's a little weird, but you love it, for whatever reason. You love to play Patty-Cake, you hold your little hands up and say "pat" then you do your best to follow along with the motions while I sing. You love the bath. Sometimes you take a bath twice a day. When I rub you down with lotion, you insist on putting some lotion on yourself and then you lick the lotion off you your arms, and when I say "Eeewwww!" You laugh and do it more. You think it is hilarious to make us sniff your feet and you make a little sniffer face when we do it. You love books. Each night we read a story. After your bath and you're all dressed you run off to your room and come back with as many books as can fit in your little arms. Sometimes you sit with me and Daddy and listen while I read, and turn the pages, sometimes I read and you "read" a different book at the same time, and sometimes I read while you do other things trying to stall before going to bed. Most nights you go down with out a fight. You sleep with a pillow, covered with your Zebra blanket, with "Buddy" your giraffe and Lady the dog, tucked in next to you and a sippy cup of juice. Most nights you sleep from 8 pm to 8 am. Without waking at all. You are wearing a size 24 Months - 2T in clothes, a size 5 shoe and a size 5 diaper. Your hair is growing, but it is still a lot shorter on the sides, then it is in the back which gives you a little comb-over mullet, or the "business-man do". It's naturally curly, but very fine, so the curl doesn't hold for long. But I am able to do a few things with it to dress it up, if you're willing to hold still long enough. You understand way more than you are able to verbalize which is frustrating for both of us. But when I don't understand what it is you want or need, you take me by the hand and show me. Most of our day is spent with you dragging me around the house. You started saying your own name, which is so cute because you can't say your "L's" yet, so you call yourself "Yay-ya." This past month you started dance and gymnastics. And you love both of them. You love to look at pictures and point out the people you love, especially Papa. This has been the best two years of my life :)

Stats:
Weight: 26.5 pounds - 50%
Height: 33.25 inches - 30% (Looks like she's gonna be a shorty)

So we started off the day with your first gymnastics class. You looked so cute in your striped tights and leotard.

Getting a drink from the fountain...

Leah really loved gymnastics. It's a parent/tot class, so I do the class with her. Daddy, Grand-Mo and Poppi were able to watch through the windows, but the reflections off the class made it hard to get a picture. It was very obvious after only a few minutes that Leah marches to the beat of her own drummer and that we need to work on her listening skills. Hopefully gymnastics and dance will help her to improve those things.

The we had a special pancake breakfast