10/28/02 - Leah is back! She slept through the night two nights in a row and appears happy and energetic again. We're almost done with the antibiotics and there's no more fever. She has a faint rash from the vaccines. The teething continues, but the tablets seem to be soothing the pain.

LEAH STEPS OUT! When she's in the mood and we're together on the floor, Leah often likes to take 5-15 steps towards us. We count aloud with each step. When she gets near, she breaks into a huge grin, picks up the pace and flings herself into our arms. We shout "Yaaaay!" and hug her. In addition to walking in a straight line, she can often turn without falling. Leah now has a good pair of sandals and sneakers. She's not that crazy about wearing them and hasn't done any walking or standing in them yet. She prefers bare feet. Who can blame her? But if she wants to walk or stand outside the house, she's going to have to wear shoes. Socks just don't cut it any more. She takes them off anyway.

10/31/02 - Happy Halloween! Check out Leah's Halloween photos.

11/1/02 - This evening, we wasted one hour at Walmart trying to take a new portrait of Leah. She was in a good mood when she awoke from her nap, so we headed over. She played patiently in the waiting room for half an hour, but once it was time to take the picture, she fell apart. The guy snapped one mediocre photo, then she cried hysterically. Her nose started to run. After relaxing her, I sat her down again. The guy handed her two toy boats to play with and they peaked her interest. I asked him to take the photo, but alas, he had left the booth to go chat with some cashier. By the time he got back, Leah was done with the boats and started to cry some more. We gave up and left. Oh well. Rather than waste her cute outfit, we snapped a photo for her journal. Here it is on the right-- jeans, sandals and a flower top.

11/20/02 - Leah is walking with more confidence and frequency now. She often waddles across entire rooms with ease. She has also mastered walking up and down a footbridge using handrails. Leah likes to climb onto and into her toys. We've had to rescue her more than once when she got her foot stuck inside a chute. Leah is making more complex sounds, but not too many words yet-- just "eh-deh" for dad, "muh-mum" for mom, and "bah-bah" for bye-bye. She is very sweet, particularly when she walks over and hugs you!