Leo's been here 21 months

So glad it's 21 months and not 21 years! Not time to go to a bar with him yet.

(Thanks for the new kicks, Tia Kristin!)

Leo is demonstrating every day that he's getting closer to age 2--with his talking ability, new interests and tantrums.

He says lots of phrases and sentences including:
"Leo did that."

"I need that."

"I know, I know."

"I had it."
"Mama get."
"Mama make."
"Mama cook."
"Mama sit."
(We're working on adding 'please' into all of these phrases. Each can be replaced with Dada get or Nuh-no sit, etc.)
"Mama please take." This is my favorite phrase in this series because it means he's handing me his bowl and spoon rather than throwing it on the floor.
"My name is Leo."
"Mama play." (Right now he's saying "Mama play kick ball.")
"Play basketball."
"Basketball Outside."
"Up high. Down Low."
"Gah-doh up up" (Garage door up up)
"Leo bump head."
"Jump bed!"
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed." This is his longest phrase!
"Pants fall down." Sometimes he steps on his pants when he stands up in his crib. So when I go into get him, he says, "Pants fall down." Maybe I should teach him "Pants on the ground!"

Sometimes he surprises us with words we didn't even know he knew! For instance, my sister showed him a picture of him when he was a baby. He said, "Baby Ee-oh. Bald head." I don't remember ever saying "bald head" to him and neither does Frank!

He showed me his hand one day and it had black stuff all over it, probably from the car. He said, "Doity!" which meant "Dirty."

One day I was scolding him and I said, "Leo James!" He added "Simcik!" Frank said, "He pronounces it right and everything!"

I think he's got a good musical ear. The other day I sang, "I love you, you love me" (the Barney Song) which he's never heard and he said, "Flashing lights!" That might not sound brilliant to you but I knew that he meant, "That's the same tune as my school bus that has the flashing lights!" All the Fisher Price toys (airplane, school bus, dump truck, etc) sing that tune.

He's also really good at "name that tune" when I whistle. I was just casually whistling "Do you know the muffin man?" and he said, "Muffin Man! Muffin man!" I started whistling other songs and he guessed them easily! Blog to come on this one.

When I sing the ABCs I can usually pause at any letter and he can fill it in: "A, B, C, D, E, F..." and he says, "G!" He can finish with "X, Y and Z!"

He's not as good at counting but he does love the number "zero." One day his best friend John counted up to three so later I told Frank, "John can count! I wonder if Leo can count." Frank said, "Hey, Leo, can you count? 1, 2, 3..." and Leo said, "Cow Moo Moo!" So we'll continue to work on that one :)

Still loves everything to do with balls and has recently been exposed to golf (thanks, Grandpa Ron), bowling (thanks, Tia Thea) and volleyball (thanks, YMCA).

Oh, and he can say "YMCA" but he says it like this: "YM-SEE-A!"

Other destinations he knows: Tah-get, Best Buy, Mall, School (Mother's Morning Out) and everybody's house--Ee-oh's house, Dah's house (John's house), Dawson's house, Cah-Cah's house (Chantal's house). We just started music class again and when I talk about it, he's back in the habit of singing, "bah bah bah."

He's very interested in the potty and talks about it all the time. He won't, however, sit on his little potty although he does say, "Leo sit potty."

Other interests: "ooh ooh trains," "scubas" and Fisher Price little people. He has names for all of them inclduing a Hawaian lady he calls "Mommy" and a dorky tourist he calls "Daddy." Right now he's saying, "I get peace" which he said a lot yesterday and I don't know what it means!

We're amazed at how, when we read books, he can fill in a lot of the words. We just read the first part of the sentence like, "A cat and a rat and their new running..." and he says "Hats!" It really gets more impressive than that but that's the only example I can think of (since I'm being requested to "Mama set pins" for bowling right now).