Fumble Drills!

I'm in the process of preparing Lea for sports. We've been working on fumble drills lately. She, or I, drop the ball. We wait. I yell "Fumble!" we both dive to cover it. The a scrum ensues and we fight, scratch and claw for the ball. She usually wins, and we repeat. I guess this is the upside to having a kid I keep hearing about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gz39hfzJrE

Coherent Photos to Accompany Incoherent Thoughts

Here are a few more things that Lea's learned in the past few months:

She learned to change Scout's boppy (diaper)...

Lea also learned how to be a very serious panda for Halloween...
She also learned how to say "CHEESE!" for the camera...

She also learned how to put on her shoes...

She also learned how to try to avoid Santa...

No coherent thoughts

December.

We've gone 3 full months without a single coherent thought. Not to say there weren't times when I had good things to post. Here then gone. I blame school. And Lea. And the Internet.

Here are things that we've (Kate and I) have said in the past three months and or random occurrences that I have remembered. Hopefully this serves as a highlight reel, granted there will be no actual highlights.

Lea don't put the light bulb in your mouth.

Lea don't stand on your Micky DVD.

Lea don't stand on the laptop.

Lea don't climb the cabinets.

Lea we don't destroy things at daycare.

Lea Santa is not the doctor, no need to freak out. (more on that once the picture is uploaded)

"Baby!", Lea. "Do you see a baby?", Dad. "Noooooooooooooo" Lea giving Dad a look like he's an idiot.

Lea-1, Christmas Ornaments-0 (so far)

Lea don't steal the kitty.

Lea don't sit directly in front of the tv.

Lea now sits in a booster rather than I high chair.

Lea thinks she is skilled in the use of both the broom and vacuum. Both have become nap time jobs.

Lea believes the toothbrush is the greatest invention in the history of mankind.

Follow-up, she also believes that toothpaste is the greatest food ever invented.

The plastic pumpkin is not just for Halloween.

Candy takes very little time to become addicted to.

Lea is a very serious panda. (Picture uploaded eventually)

Lea talks. A lot.

Lea thinks all strangers will take her from her greatest love. (Answer: Mom)

Finally, until I remember to post again. Here's another video. Taken today. Was much more loud and annoying in person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYGSXbB39I

Pittsburgh, Bipedal Motion, Teeth

Hello,

It's the end of July. Lets review.

Lea is now walking on her own. See video: (far warning you have to turn your head sideways when you watch this video because I'm not smart.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dupgETCfQw

The whole walking thing started about a week ago. She just decided that she was going to throw off the shackles of crawling and rise like the primates of old...or yore...or whenever our hairier forefathers stopped drooling on themselves and started walking like real Americans. (That's right, I said it) Granted there is still the occasional drooling on herself. I'm sure that will go away before her 18th birthday. If not, we'll find some stylish bibs.

We spend some time recently on the road. We drove to and from Pittsburgh. That's from Des Monies. In case your wondering that is transversing Illinois, Indiana and Ohio (with a quick roll through West Virginia on the way back) (And no I will not make a joke about hill people in West Virginia, that's low brow people, nothing but high class and too many commas in this blog)

In Pittsburgh Lea got the chance to hang out with her cousins Sam and Lauren. (Son and daughter of Pam [My...Steve's cousin] and Phil [Steve's friend from high school who is now married to his cousin Pam and happens to be a doctor]. Yeah, I know doctors, two of them. Who wants to touch me? I digress. It was good times, we really enjoyed it. Lea didn't freak out too much in the car as well. She decided that she needed to check out the shower in one the hotel rooms. This brings us to our second video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ohWNJt2J3I

And no we did not force her into the shower. She entered on her own accord.

Also, this past weekend we had the chance to brave nature with Kate's family. I'm not the most "outdoorsie" person in the world. I tend to enjoy nature from the inside, preferably from my couch and nature being whatever is on the discovery channel. Okay, when I say we braved nature, it was from an air conditioned cabin/house. Actually it was a remarkable structure, which happened to be rounded. Amazing acoustics. Would have been fun to to play playstation with surround sound hooked up. That would make nature come alive!

Back to where we were. The house was in Decorah, IA. Which is in the northeastern corner of Iowa. Very pretty. Luther College is there, which I think is a rival of BVU (school that graduated me into the world of adulthood), so I think I'm supposed to hate them. Really had a hard time getting wound up about it. If you don't count all the rocks I threw (with my mind).

Lea did well with this trip from the most part. She was picky about who she'd warm up to and who she'd avoid. She also is not a huge fan large groups of people, so that made her a bit pickier.

I'm sure I'm forgetting more than I'm remembering. Pictures below!



Lea and Lauren. Lauren is only 6 months old and she's already as tall as Lea. Her mom is 6'2". She may grow up tall. Just a guess.

Katy, Lea and Steve with Pittsburgh in the background.

Lauren and Lea playing. Did I mention how tall Lauren is? She's also super happy. So is her brother Sam. Sam is the only kid I've ever met who happily marched himself to bed for a nap. And slept for 2 hours. Unreal.


Downtown Pittsburgh. Cool place. Need to go back.

June = Whole Lotta Dad Daughter Time

Happy summer everyone (granted I believe the first day of summer is technichally June 20th [according to google that is]),

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break. What? Not everyone gets a few months off during the hot time of the year? Well be sure to know that I, so far, have been enjoying my break for the both of us. Assuming only one, or anyone, is reading this thing.

Update from the Sand household:

I am currently taking a Macroeconomics course because the State of Iowa believes that a Masters in Social Sciences is not proficient enough training to grant me an all social studies educators license. So that's fun. I've been telling myself that I don't care about my grade as all as I pass, which means I get to obsess over all the minute details to ensure that I ace the stupid course. Stupid learning.

Kate is still doing something for the government. If you remember a month or two ago, the federales almost shut the whole thing down-which would have given her a nice little unpaid vacation. Alas, the machine continues to chog along. No break for Katy. She's also conintuing to hound me to post on the blog, which must have worked because here I am typing away.

Lea. Okay here's the reason everyone is read. The kid is growing and growing. Still built like Kate with my head. I'm still thinking that's going to be awesome when she's in middle school. She's still not walking yet, but very interested in the idea. She can stand on her own, and balance without help for a decent chuck of time. Will take some steps by herself, but crawling is her perferred method of travel. She will still drag her head while she crawls, not as much as she used to. I attempted to snap a picture of it, but everytime she'd look up and come after the camera. I've got loads of pictures of Lea reaching out.

The remaining 6 teeth are all pushing through at the same time. This causes Lea to turn into the little ball of hate (which I'm told is the nickname of her Aunt Joy, so she's in good company) at times. On the bright side I'm told that this will be it for teeth for awhile--but at this rate her wisdom teeth will be in by the time she's three.

She's also gained a little interest in watching TV (as you'll see from a couple of pictures below). She gets pretty excited for Sesame Street. She really doesn't have a favorite part, nor does she pay attention for the entire show. She kind checks in and out, but is very happy for 5 minute periods. She's also started (as of yesterday and this morning) sitting on my chest to watch TV. I think of how my older brothers used to do the same thing when I was younger. Funny how life is cyclical.

Currently she's taking a nap, I'm hopefully that I can finish and post before she awakes. Here are some pictures from the last week or so.

Here's Lea is Lea looking cute in a new dress. When I picked her up from daycare this day she was in a onesie. Turns out she was stripping and crawling around in her diaper only. Just what a father wants to her about his daughter. Lea and I had a long talk afterwards. I'd talk, she'd get books for me to read her. I think we had a break through.

This is my "Lea looking cute with dad on the couch" picture. She likes sitting on the coach with us. Sits like an adult. It's weird.

Lea relaxing watching TV. She did this herself. This is not faked or Photoshoped. Turns out her and dad have at least one thing in common.

Same picture better angle. Fantastic.

Very Hunger Lea-piller

Happy May!


Lea has decided that she is going to eat us out of house and home. She currently eats three suppers. After her supper, she proceeds to thief Kate and my supper. It's ridiculus. She's never full. Amazing. Here are some pictures from Lea's second supper tonight.



Spagetti plus meat sauce is awesome. Add Lea to the mix and it becomes epic. Here are the results.

Here are two pictures from Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Evans farm. There's more on the way. The first one proves that Lea is evil. Seriously. Pure evil. (they get less evil as they grow up and learn "morals") The last one is just cute.

Easter Part II

Here's our annual post-Easter blog posting. (Redundant?) Not much new to report on other than Lea is doing all sorts of goofy stuff. She's got some new behaviors that we're going to attempt to capture on film and post on before I describe them. They're interesting, in a cute bald headed baby sort of way. (Baby, or toddler? Not walking yet but a little past the baby stage I think. Hummm.)

Here are two videos of Lea's first attempts at walkingish. There with her walker. Funny thing is she's better with the walker a week ago when this was recorded. Now she gets all fired up and wants to push too fast--ends up pushing it by walking on her knees.

Pictures from Easter coming later this week. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2zvqMCcG80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykdGC2xQ5hI

It's that time of month again...

I guess blogspot won't let me have paragraphs. You'll have to place the paragraph breaks in your mind. Apologies. Hello everyone. If you remember, this is a blog about Lea Grace Sand. She's little, loud and tries to pull out her father and mother's eyes. True story. We think that's how she decides she likes some one. She goes for the eyes. She's launch a sneak attack on me today. I was laying on the floor not paying attention to her. She ninja'd her way over to me and tried to get my left eye. Nearly worked to. She's learning. Testing my defenses. Kid's turning into a velociraptor. Because of that I will never forget that she's on this earth to replace me. Here are a couple of links to new videos. The first video is a new game Lea I and play. It's called "Dad Yells at Lea to Scare Her. Lea Laughs Hysterically." It's played by me yelling at Lea and then she laughs hysterically. This one is best played with sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh-A3-IW9Mk The second video is the reason we usually cannot record her doing anything cute. We were attempting to capture Lea as she preforms her new professional wrestling move. Lea will get in moods in which she preforms a flying head butt on a pillow. It's very funny. Unfortunately you'll have to take my word for it because when we attempt to capture this event it all ends the same way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FptfGSNJNos Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

He he he.

Lea with Grandma and Grandpa Evans. They were just back from livin' the good life in Texas. Lea and her "little" cousin (by 1 week) Chole. Yes we let Lea play with pill bottles if it prevents her from screaming. They have child proof caps on them. (Like we were going to get Mom and Dad of the Year anyway. How would they even pick that award. Stupid Academy. Whatever.) Lea and Chole with Kate and Aunt Chrissy. These pictures are from when my brother Jason and his family made a recent trip to Nebraska. Kate and I were able to cruise down I-80 to visit my folks as well. All was good, except Lea not wanting to sleep at Grandma and Grandpa Sand's. That was a long evening.

Lea and Chole with myself and Uncle Jason. I've been told that Jason and I look alike. I guess. See you in April!

Photo time

So...I just realized that we had several adorable pictures of Lea that were on the camera, but they hadn't be shared with the world yet. Shame on us! So here are a bunch of random photos:

This was supposed to be a photo of Lea's first time standing up by herself on the ottoman. Apparently Kate was a little late with the trigger finger.

Lea dressed eerily similar to Grammy Su...pink turtleneck and khakis

Laundry fun!

Photo of a rare Lea smile after a napless Saturday that turned into trip to Pella. It helped to have puffs along apparently.

Lea with Aunt Em & Aunt Summer

Lea with her shades and her nerdy onesie (curiosity of Grandma Kathy)

and Kate's shades...

Sickness and a Video

Quick update today. The family Sand has been fighting a nasty cold this weekend. Of course it's over my (Steve) three day weekend (parent teacher conferences). Lord knows Lea only gets the nasty stuff when I'm on break. Who says kids are dumb. We have been doing everything as a family this weekend. Sneezing, hacking, coughing, running our noses and other delightful things. The best part of the whole plague is the cough all of us have. It's like a three part choir of hacking. Same exact cough, three different sizes.

Lea has been fun this whole time as well. Running a fever off and on-which makes her boat loads of fun-snotty nose and decreased appetite. I've also discovered as her health decreased, her behaviors regressed as well. No standing on stuff. Less climbing mom and dad. Our attempt at conversion to full time sippy cup blew up when the cold hit as well. So close.

Here is a video of happier times at the Sand household. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7jK5l7nVsQ

Birthday Wonderfulness and New Skills

Here we are one year into our lifelong experiment called child rearing. Let's take a look at the grading sheet!

So far I'd rate us as a 7 out of 10. Stern but fair.

Perfect marks for cuteness, adorablility and cheeks.

We lose points because Lea is not holding down her own job, working complex equations, hunting, lock picking, para trooping, pickpocketing, brake dancing, and some other things I haven't taken the time to make up.

I was recalling the fear and something that resembled excitement, but was more like fear, again, we were staring down a year ago. In hindsight I have to admit it hasn't been too scary. Except for all the scary parts. (She is bound to replace us, I will not forget that) Thank God for nurses and the epidural.

Hear are some updates:

She is now able to easily stand up on furniture. She picked that one up quick.

Found out today that she can climb stairs. Great story. She was downstairs with Kate. I hear, "Lea? Leeeeaaaa?" I look down the steps and see my spawn smiling at me three steps up. One more thing to worry about. FANNNNNNNN-TASTIC.

She loves food.

She turned 1. Family was able to come over and watch her make noises and be cute. No screaming!

Here are some pictures from the birthday funness.

Lea attempting to win one of the party games. (Two Pyrex bowls were stuck together. Everyone was challenged, one reigned supreme. His name was Luke. He is now was a legend in our house. And he is Lea's uncle. And tall.)

Lea opening presents. Mostly toys that make loud noises. Amazingly, I've already become desensitized.

Fun picture of Lea and Uncle Chris. Sorry Joy. I could have not posted this picture. But I did anyway.

NOW WITH EVEN MORE PHOTOS!

Not much new to report with regards to Lea. She's loud, fun, and now feeds herself. Granted she only feeds herself puffs, but it's a start.

Here are some more pictures from the last month or so.

Lea and Sloane. I believe Lea is plotting her future stealing of Sloane's sock. Or not, she is only 11 months, come on.

Lea wanted quesadilla's this night. She was not impressed with the mushed up green beans we forced on her. She does love cheese though. So that's something.

Mona Lea. Smile is a little less mysterious though. Fun note, we took her to the Science Museum where they currently have an awesome traveling Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. (Seriously, very cool. If you live near Des Monies and you haven't been yet, head butt a wall, and to the exhibit. Okay, you don't need to head butt a wall. But serious, go see Da Vinci. Get cultured people) Were was I. Oh yeah...so she was super cool at the exhibit. We let her crawl around in the Mona Lisa exhibit. No punch line. It was cute.

Lea no longer fits in her swaddle.

Nope.

Lea the Thief

Two posts in back-to-back? What is this, five months ago? Ahahahahahahahahahaha.

But seriously people. That was weak.

Okie dokie let's talk Lea. (Heavy on the nerd talk in the next paragraph. Please don't judge. If you have never played an RPG in your life some of the terms may be foreign. If you have no idea what an RPG is either look it up, or skip to the pictures. If you are interested in playing an RPG I suggest anything from the Dragon Quest/Warrior or Final Fantasy Series. Wizardy was cool, but they are no longer produced. I also love the Legend of Zelda, but it's not a traditional RPG. I will punch myself for making you read this. Sorry.)

Just saying that she steals was inappropriate. I believe she has taken a new profession--Thief. Personally I would have liked her to become a Mage, Warrior or Martial Artist--but who am I to judge. Regardless, she has set forth on the path of being a Thief. She is doomed to pickpocketing and only being able to use a bow and arrow, or a dagger--as well as being the first one to die in her party (Why do thieves have such low HP?). Although, it would be cool to have a baby pickpocket. No one suspects the baby.

Lea also worked hard at trying to pull herself up on the couch. She was tired and was less than successful. This led to tears. Tiny, tiny tears.

SUPER FANTASTIC PICTURE TIME!

Starbucks Lea! I couldn't be prouder. (Seriously, greatest.....picture.....(wait for it)...EVER!)

Starbucks Lea 2.

Starbucks Lea 3.

Lea's 3rd favorite game. Stealing whatever mom and dad use once it hits the floor. Cups, mugs and water bottles are her choice toys.

Lea leveled up after this theft. She is now a Level 5 Thief (+6 Purloining, +4 Skulduggery)

New Year New Skills

Here's a quick recap of the past couple of months.

We traveled lots for Christmas. Lea got sick the first full day away from home, which was as awesome as it sounds. She would let anyone touch her but Kate for three days. Fantastic. She punished us when we got home by waking up every two and a half hours. So counting our travels, we slept a total of 5 hours in four nights. To top all that off her little virus attacked her little tush the first full day back. She had diarrhea for two and a half days-then gave it to me. Kids, the gift that keeps on giving the whole year round. (I was planning on a marathon posting secession the week I had off from school, but the sickness drained all motivation-not that I have any motivation when I'm feeling normal.) So yeah, that was Christmas. (Lea did get spoiled with gifts. Everyone was too kind in giving our little monster lots of things to play with.)

Lea recently learned to play peek-a-boo by herself. She unplugs the computer from the power source and tries to plug it back in, nearly successful. Lea attempts to put my ring back on my finger. And yet she still will not feed herself.

She also steals. In the past couple of weeks, Lea has stolen a pacifier (right out of another child's mouth) and a sock (right off another child's foot). We've been able to settle out of court with the parents of the victims.

While visiting our pals the Van de Walles (castleofvandewalle.blogspot.com) in Perry, a pet dog was being naughty. The dog was wanting to lick Lea, so he was placed in his kennel. The pup wanted to talk with the rest of us, which led him to being muzzled. Once the animal was locked away and silenced did Lea preceded to crawl over to his cage, multiple times, to mock the poor animal. Yes, this is my daughter.

Enjoy the pictures.

*Note: There are no X-Mas pictures because I'm dumb and my wife is forgetful. E.G.- the camera was left at home.

Lea's favorite past time.

Lea's second favorite past time.

Lea and her BFF Sloane. (And Kelly and I doing our best high chair impressions as we quietly discuss how much better our lives our since the girls have taken over every waking moment)

Lea the thief trying to make amends by attempting (failed) to place the stolen sock back from whence it came.

See you all in 2012