"I Did It!"

This morning as I was combing my hair for work, Leila came out of her room and stood by the bathroom door watching me. After telling me that "Kitty was scared" (since everything is SCARED right now) I asked if she wanted to sit on the potty?

"Yeah" (all calm like...)

So I sit her on the potty while I continue combing my hair. A few minutes later, there was a little tinkle in the potty. She looks at me and says quietly, but with excitement in her eyes "I did it!" She got some toilet paper, wiped her body, jumped off, flushed the toilet, then went to lay down to put a new diaper on. She acts like this is an old habit already.

Let's HOPE this is the start of something wonderful!

Hank and Darla

When Shawn and his family were in Utah, the other half of their family stayed in my parents backyard. Darla is the Bull Mastiff on the left and Hank is the Boxer on the right. They are both pretty awesome dogs in their own rights.

Anyway, Leila LOVES dogs. However, she is also allergic to them (which means we will never have to own one!) Her babysitter has a dog and our neighbors have a dog. That will be good enough. So, you THINK, she should be scared of these large dogs. NOPE. Not at all. In fact, I think she is less scared of them than Kiley is (who lives with them!)

EVERY day she wanted to feed them. Often times, that is how we would get her do quit crying or to do something she was asked...by bribing her that she could feed the dogs. It was great. The dogs are gone. No more dog bribes. But she still talks about them frequently. Isn't she the cutest snot ever?

Darla is UP IN HER FACE. Not scared. She LOVED it.

When Shawn and Michelle loaded up to go, (Kiley stayed for a few days and flew out there with Grandma Ford) it was sad to see them go. It was so fun to have them visit for an extended stay. It was also sad to see the dogs go, just because I know how happy they made Leila.

I hear the argument ALL the time that Leila would love to have her own dog. Again, the babysitter has one and the neighbors have one. THOSE dogs are already cared for without my help. That sounds good to me!

Update...

I love to read blogs. I love to have my blog updated. I hate to factor in time to do it. Sorry.

When Shawn and his family were in the process of moving from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast, they stayed at my parents for about two weeks. The Saturday before Halloween, we went to Wheeler Farm. That place is pretty cool...if you have kids who are excited about farm animals. I loved these pictures on the tractor. Leila did not seem to be too scared by the animals.

She walked right up to every fence and just stared. She also loved to watch the ducks/geese. ESPECIALLY when she figured out that if grandpa or daddy held her, she could sit on the fence. We watched the birds for quite a while. We started to walk to the little Country Store to get a drink. Leila was running behind Kuso, and ahead of me. She tripped on a tree root and face planted. Hard. Like hard enough that Troy and Kuso HEARD her face plant. On the dirt. MOST times when she falls, she hops up and says "bing" then keeps going. Not this time. I was right behind her and when I picked her up, she was bloody. I think her top lip was cut from the inside from hitting against her teeth and her top teeth bit through the lower lip. BOTH lips were cracked and bleeding. There was a VERY brief moment when Kuso asked if we should take her to the hospital (in Samoan language that doesn't necessarily mean the emergency room...just to get checked by a doctor.) But we got some napkins and got her cleaned up. She cried and screamed and cried and screamed until grandpa bought food to feed the ducks.

He said "Wanna go feed the ducks"

"Yep." Done crying.

The next few days she would mention "my mouth hurts." But that has been the most dangerous injury she's had so far. As awesome as it would be for this to be the last time she gets hurt, I'm sure we'll have more experiencing healing wounds.Feeding the ducks AFTER the fall. Still content and happy.

But, as seen below, she clearly did not learn to not run because she and Kiley ran down this path. I love it.

Papa and his girls.

(Leila is playing "Find Leila!")

I think I'll try and take Leila back to the farm in the spring when there are some baby animals. AND it's got some cool places to take some pictures when we are ready to tackle that at some point.