Friday, October 30, 2009

Leo's been here 18 months


It’s Leo’s half birthday! He was super sick on Wed. and part of Thursday but he rallied and appears to be perfect, just in time for the 18-month chair pics and Halloween!
Here are the cute things he does lately:

We can practically have conversations now (which is awesome because I love to chat too)! The other day I tried to list out all the words he could say. I thought of over 50. The rest of the day it was like he was trying to tell me all the words I left off because there were a lot: Texas, Meow, bowl, etc. So I think with all these additional ones we’re at least at 75.

His favorite word is "no" and he answers every question with "no." Funny that he can say so many words but "yes" is not one of them!

First three syllable word: umbrella. That’s the one good thing about all the rain we’ve been having—Leo learned a new word! He says it like, “Uh-bell-lah!” He was trying to push the umbrella down the other day and I said, “No, it goes over our heads” and he said, “Oh ah heads.”
Speaking of sentences, he can say a few of those: “I made it!” He says this because it’s in his book, “Leo the Late Bloomer.” He also says, “Bye bye, Mama” and “bye bye” to other people and animals (which is technically a sentence)!

He also says “bye bye” to inanimate objects like balls. Whenever we leave to go somewhere he says, “bye bye, ball” or he gets real specific like, “bye bye, football” or “bye bye, kick ball.”

He really likes to say “sleep sack” except he says “seep slack.” When it’s time to go to sleep he says “seep slack” and when he wakes up he says, “bye bye, seep slack.”

He likes to say good night to Elmo: “Night night, Nu-no.”

When we read him books, he often knows what’s coming before we say it. Like in the book, “Moo, Baa, La la la,” we say “The cow says” and Leo says “Moo” and then we say, “The sheep says” and he says “Baa” and we say, “Three singing pigs say” and Leo says “La la la.”

He loves animal sounds—he knows the ones above plus neigh (which he says with that horsey-vibrato), meow, bow wow wow, quack, oink and roar.

I guess his eyes are sensitive to light because whenever he sees the sun he says, “Eyes!” He also says this if he starts to cry.

He knows how to say his name but I’m not sure he likes it. When I say, “Is your name Leo?” He says, “No!” I say, “What is your name?” “Baby.”

And just this week he started saying, “No no, Leo” but it sounds like, “Nono, ee-oh.”

He likes to pick up my purse, put it on his shoulder and say, “bye bye.” This is not Frank’s favorite thing that he does!

He’s funny with food: If he’s eating something and I bring out the next thing, he spits out what he’s eating. I have to remember not to let him see the next “course” until he’s completely chewed up the last bite of what he was working on. The mention of “pancake” if he’s eating egg means all the egg is going to come out on the bib.

He says “Mmm goo” meaning “Mmm good” when he eats something he likes.

He’s good at feeding himself with a spoon and before every bite he says “Beeg bite” as in “big bite.”

He likes his frozen mini pancakes so much he actually points to the freezer and says “pah-cake!”

He knows what’s next in the routine: Like when we get him out of the bathtub he says, “teeth” meaning it’s time to brush teeth. But he tried to trick us the other night. We said, “What comes next?” and he said, “Play!” He also starts singing “Tinkle tinkle” and doing the hand motions to “Twinkle Twinkle” as soon as we cut off the light.

He loves to throw balls in the sink; I’ll be cleaning dishes and I find a football.

He knows whose house is whose: We’ll arrive at Claire’s and he says “Kit Kat.” We go to Chantal’s and he says says “Ike.” Okay, so maybe he knows which animals live in which houses.

He understands possession: “Dada bike” and “Mama bike”

I can give him directions to follow like, “Go get that dish towel for mommy” and “Go get your Elmo book out of the drawer.” He knows what I’m saying! Sometimes he even dries a dish or two!

When I say daddy’s at work he says, “mow.” He thinks Frank mows lawns for a living.

He knows all the movements to his favorite songs like the Wheels on the Bus and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I don't even have to do the movements. I can just say, "The driver on the bus says" and he motions with his hand and says something like, "Moo back" for "move on back."

He likes to play with the computer mouse so this took me about four hours to finish :)



















Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Extra! Extra!

Someone at the Y saw this in the local neighbor paper and cut it out for me. I didn't even know about it! Well, I knew there was a photographer there but I was hoping she was hearing my silent prayer: "Darn. I didn't shower. Please don't use my picture." I'm not convinced that we're doing the right moves to the Itsy Bitsy Spider but I am encouraged that we're in sync.


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Fill 'Er Up

Granny Jo asked me the other day if Leo still liked to play in the car she and Popsy gave him for his 1st birthday. Boy, does he! I told her that everytime we go in the garage, he gets in his car. He can open the door, climb in and drive away (except he still has trouble going forward).

He likes to turn the keys and say "KEY!" and honk the horn and say "BEEP!" He noticed the other day that the car has "EYES!"



But when it comes to putting gas in the car, well, he's a little confused:









Wednesday, October 21, 2009

3rd Annual Trip to Helen

The first year we moved here, we discovered Oktoberfest in Helen, Ga--just about an hour-and-a-half north of Atlanta. We know it's cheesy but we don't care! It's free on Sundays, the trees are usually changing color, they've got beer and brats and most importantly, they do the chicken dance like every five minutes:

2007--pregnant with Leo

2008: with Leo at five months
2009: with Leo at 17 months




It was colder this year which made it even more fun! Here are a few pics from our day of German fun.

Don't worry, we didn't give him beer...just a cup!







Leo loved the one-man-band but refused to give him money. Just like daddy.

Look: Leo's hair is long enough to stand up!!


A glimpse of fall:





Thursday, October 15, 2009

Dundies!

I pulled a hanger out of the coat closet because it was all warped. I said, "It's dundies!" Now Leo can't stop saying it!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Potty Song

Granny Jo has this special song she used to sing with her kids when they were little and learning to use the potty. Leo's not close to potty training yet but I thought it would be fun for him to be able to at least do the movement to the song before Granny Jo comes in November.


It took him about one minute to learn it! See for yourself:




Thursday, October 8, 2009

Post Nap Performance

When Leo gets up from his nap, he's really hyper. Sometimes I just sit there and watch him do things like this:

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Having a Ball


I ran into a woman I know at a consignment sale; she’s a mom of a three-year-old. She was telling me tips on the types of trains I should get when Leo gets into that stuff. I said, “Right now he’s just into balls.” She said, “Yeah, at that age they’re all into balls…”


Um, I don’t think I explained myself correctly. Did I say he’s “into” balls? Because that’s putting it mildly. He’s OBSESSED with balls. Here is the evidence:

Every morning when he wakes up, I open his door and he can see into his play room. He always points and says, “Beeg ball!” about the biggest of all the balls he has.

And speaking of all the balls he has, let me count them: there’s beeg ball, two medium-sized blue balls, two small balls (one with Diego and one with Little Ensteins), a wire ball with holes in it, a football, a rubbery baseball, a small basketball and six little balls that go with his ball-popping machine. That’s 15 balls. And I’m sure I’m forgetting about some.

Yesterday we bought the little basketball at Target. He didn’t see it until the check-out lane. When he did he said, “Ball, ball, ball, ball, ball…” until the cashier gave it to him. Then he said, “Ball, ball, ball, ball, ball…” all the way out to the car and then throughout the rest of our car ride. When we went into the next store I told him we had to say “Bye bye” to the ball so he said, “Bye bye, ball” and then repeated that all through the next store. Then it was “ball, ball, ball, ball” all the way home as he held it in the car.

But he doesn’t just hold balls. He throws them. And he throws them really well! He holds them up over his head and launches them across the room. If anyone walks in the house, he tries to get them to throw the ball with him—even the cable guy and the exterminator.

He also likes to "Keek the ball." But if you "keek" the ball when he wanted you to throw it (or vice versa), watch out. There are lots of rules to his ball games.

When we arrive at any child care center (the Y, Mother’s Morning Out or the church nursery), the people working there immediately say, “Come on, Leo. Let’s go find a ball.”

When I tell him we’re going to the Y, he says, “Ball?”

When we get to the Y, he runs over to the window where you can see into the basketball courts. He watches the guys play basketball and says “Bah ball.”

He thinks anything round is a ball--fruit, vegetables, buttons, clocks. The other day he pointed at the sun and said, “ball.”

He likes to watch sports on TV just so he can see the ball. He even likes golf!

He loves his basketball hoop in the backyard and I think he would shoot forever if we would let him. He runs to the window and says, “Bah-ball!”

He’s developing more games with the ball—first there was high ball, then door ball and lately he’s taken to throwing the ball on the countertops and into the kitchen sink. My least favorite? Toilet ball.

Yesterday he and Frank developed what I guess we’ll call arm-basketball. Here we are playing it. Sometimes he misses and hits our faces; hence my reaction!




So maybe one day it will be trains or trucks or dogs or robots. But right now, it's all about the ball.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Take that, Tunnels

Leo loves slides. But there is one type of slide he always avoids: the tunnel slides. If they're enclosed and tube-like, he wants nothing to do with them. Whenever we'd approach one, he'd shake his head and say "No No."

But then, a breakthrough. At the Children's Museum he went through a tunnel slide that looked like a tree trunk:





Still, I thought maybe that was just a fluke. I mean, it DID look like a tree. It wasn't that long of a tunnel and it had a hole in the top.

But then, at a new playground this weekend Leo went down an honest-to-goodness tunnel slide!


Frank rolled a ball down the slide so Leo had to go catch it!


This pic below isn't a tunnel slide; it's just cute!



And just in case you thought that was another fluke, he tunneled some more at our regular park today!
Cure fear of tunnels? CHECK.
Cure fear of inflatable cars filled with balls? Still working on it.