A Smorgasbord of Updates

I just can't get enough of these sleepy pictures of Leila. (Keen Small Hands observers might notice that Louie looks a little different, a little younger perhaps. That's because this is Louie's younger brother, Larry. Louie went missing for a couple nights, but we eventually found him hidden in one of the drawers of her bed. Whew!)

I took Leila to her first of at least two weddings this year. What made the wedding such a special occasion, for Leila anyway, was her special "party shoes." I had actually hidden these silver slippers in the closet for fear of her obsession with the shiny party shoes. Indeed, she loved them! But I promptly stashed them away again until we bust them out for the next extra special occasion later this year (woohoo, Adrienne's getting hitched in 4 months!) The bride and groom provided oodles of small bottles of bubbles. Leila hoarded them and entertained herself quite well. (Adrienne - got bubbles?)
Say cheeeeeesseeee!
My brother Kris (now correctly identified by Leila as Ungkel Shisssh instead of Ungkel Shit) graduated from Infantry School (IBOLC) this past Thursday at Ft. Benning. I'm so proud of him. Unfortunately, Leila did not make the cross-country flight, but she was really excited that I was traveling on an airplane. She was even more excited when I told her that she had been on an airplane as a baby: "Leila go airplane, baaaby," she repeated several times before I left, while I was gone and after I returned. I'm grateful to my parents for watching Leila while I enjoyed this special ceremony for my brave brother.
I got to participate in the ceremony by applying his Infantry rope.

And, the real news is that Leila is ... drumroll ... practically POTTY TRAINED!! I'd say that she's about 90% there. It's really been an amazing and fairly rapid evolution, especially considering her fiercely persistent resistance for the past 6 months. About 10 days ago, I gave her some pull-ups to try and a book about a girl named Hannah who learns how to use the big girl potty. Though Leila was scared to make the peepee, she was inspired by Hannah. You could see the book working on her like the strongest kind of peer pressure. She couldn't visit the potty without Hannah. While I was in Atlanta, my parents continued the efforts, with a steadily improving success rate. By the time we were back home this past weekend, Leila was eager to show me her skills. She's been getting to the potty about 9 times out of 10. She's even done two poops on the potty, but is still a little bit of a naysayer when it comes to grunting out the number twos. We're on our way to diaper liberation, woo-hoo. Yeah, Leila!
I think her favorite part of using the potty might actually be dumping the pee in the "big potty." (She learned this from Hannah.) Wait a minute... favorite part of using the potty? - the candy, for sure. She always gets a jelly belly after a pee (two for a poo) and can hardly contain her excitement when she receives her reward. Other favorite potty-time activities include pulling down her pants (being the exhibitionist that she is), and that initial sound of success (the little whistle of the tinkle, which signals that candy is imminent). One of my favorite parts is how she keeps her pants around her ankles and, on the occasions I'm not in the bathroom with her, she waddles out to show me the evidence of her pee in the removable potty cup.

And lastly, a little insight into Leila's fearless spirit and taste for wild adventure. Kinda scary, right?