Summer Solstice

Since June 21st was the longest day of the year, we had to find lots of activities to keep Leo busy:

 

We started with a shirts and skins basketball game…

 

 

 

Followed by Leo’s very first movie theater experience! We were supposed to see Curious George (someone he’s not really familiar with) but when we got there they were having technical difficulty with CG so they showed DINOSAUR TRAIN! Leo (seen her with Etienne in the picture on the left and John on the right), was stoked. (Plus, it was at the Studio Movie Grill—the very one in Georgia—so we all go to eat at the same time. As tempted as we were, none of us moms gave in to “Margarita Monday.”)

   

 

After a post-movie nap, Leo had Bianca and John over to his backyard for some inflatable pool time. Oh, and there is water in the pool; it’s just very shallow!

 

Father’s Day Fun

It started with letting daddy sleep in. “I wake up Daddy!” Leo said. “No, Leo. Daddy LIKES to sleep so he’s going to

stay in bed while mommy and Leo go on a walk.” The idea of someone choosing sleep over play blew his mind.

But when daddy did wake up (around 9:30, woo hoo!) Leo gave him his card, which instructed daddy to relax, just as Leo is doing in

this picture. (Yes, Popsy and GR, you received the same card but Leo’s artwork in each was unique.)

 

“I open the present!” Leo said and his nice daddy let him. Oh, another picture of Leo!

This one is for Daddy’s office.

 

 

Then we had lunch at Dreamland BBQ with John and his daddy. They let the mommies come along too.

(Someone had to distribute the lollipops, break up fights and wipe up sticky hands.)

 

More daddy-son time at the pool with Etienne and his daddy. (Mommies joined in for this one too. Daddies wouldn’t

be able to remember all the pool gear, snacks and sippy cups! But they DO let their little boys dunk them in the water.)

 

All the boys with their daddies! Happy Father’s Day!

 

Bye Bye, Basketball Season

Leo has not watched one game of the NBA finals but he’s been following it in the newspaper. He knew the Celtics and the Lakers were battling it out.  I was so relieved that it went to seven games—that meant more pictures in the paper.

 

“Where is the net?” he asked of this picture.

 

 

When I asked him who he thought won, he said, “The Lakers!”

 

He was right!!

 

Grandpa Ron tells us the draft is up next so hopefully there will be more pictures. Good thing Leo is also a fan of baseball.

“I am a baby!”

Ever since Leo met Baby Ryan (pictured above, born on May 27th to our friends, Chantal and Dave), he keeps pretending to be a baby. “I am a baby!” he says all day long. He likes to crawl around like a baby, cry like a baby and say things like, “Baby needs diaper change” and “Baby wants to hear the choo choo train song.”

Today I told him he needed to wipe his table (he has a few chores now!) and he said, “No, baby not going to wipe table.” I said, “That’s true. Babies don’t wipe tables but big boys do.” Then I told him all the other things big boys get to do—watch Dinosaur Train, play in their water table, go swimming, run, play with trains and Leo said, “Big boys wipe tables!” So he did wipe the table and immediately said, “I CAN watch Dinosaur Train!” which is what he always says after he does his chore.

But even after my motivational speech, he still corrects me when I call him a big boy. “No,I am a baby!”

Poor Man’s Pool

Leo was so impressed with the water table at Dawson’s house that I had to run out and buy one for him. (It also helped that while he plays at the water table, I can just sit on my butt and watch him).

 

Here is Leo with his buddies, Bianca and John, waiting patiently for the water table to be ready:

 

 

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Then they attacked that water table. We quickly gave up on trying to enforce the “no splashing” rule.

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Bianca decided she better step back when she saw how rowdy the boys were getting!

The Life of Leo

 

When Leo turned two we decided to let him watch TV. Okay, fine, he was 20 months but that’s close enough, right? At first he liked watching Sesame Street and Thomas. He would stand in front of the TV and dance and shout and interact with the shows.

Now he’s really into this show “Dinosaur Train.” It’s all he wants to watch. It’s actually a pretty good show. See, there are these dinosaurs and they ride a train. I guess you pretty much got that from the title.

The episodes are 15 minutes so I just let him watch that much at a time. We’re now in this habit of watching Dinosaur Train after each meal. It works out well because I can clean up the kitchen while Leo does this:

 

 

He looks like a lazy teenager! Oh, and he always puts this pillow down on the floor when I turn on one of his shows.

 

That’s why I like the following picture. It kinda sums up what Leo’s into these days:

1. Sitting on his pillow and watching Dinosaur Train

2. Playing basketball

3. Wearing a band-aid even though he has no visible injury.

And one more thing about the band-aid: when I put it on his knee (which is where he requests it even if he injures his arm or head), he says he can’t walk. And then he stands there stiff-legged and refuses to move. “I can’t walk!” he cries. The first time, I almost believed him. He was that convincing. Now I know it’s just an act. I tell him, “That is an Oscar-worthy performance you’re giving, but if you want to watch Dinosaur Train, you’re gonna have to walk into the living room.”

Works every time.

His Future’s So Bright

“I don’t like the sun!”

“Light off! Light off!”

“I want it dark!”

These are all things our light-sensitive son says every day. In fact, he dislikes light so much that he’s willing to wear sunglasses all the time.

 

People often say, “I can’t believe he keeps those on!” I can’t either. He wears them outside, in the car and sometimes requests them inside. “I want my sunglasses!” he whines.

 

Thank you, One Step Ahead, for making these sunglasses with a strap!

 

 

We even bought him a second pair because if he loses these, we wouldn’t hear the end of it.

He even slept with them on in the car the other day!

I’m not sure which he likes more—the fact that they shield his eyes from the sun or that people make a fuss over him when he wears them: “Look at that cool dude!” “Hey, are you a rock star?” “I like those shades!”