The Kid's Got Game

Leo practices his basketball skills nearly every day. The hoop he uses at the YMCA is the toddler-size and they told me yesterday that he played basketball the whole time I taught cycle. But his hoop at home is a little taller and he can make shots from the ground (not just when he has an advantage on the higher patio).

The cool thing about Leo (besides his b-ball talent) is that he never gets frustrated when he misses. He just says, "I missed!" and goes to fetch the ball. I also love his stance right before he shoots. Here are some "shots" of him playing his favorite sport on our driveway this weekend:

Leo's been here 23 months

If you ask Leo how old he is, he'll say "TWO!" That's because all his friends are turning two. He keeps saying, "It be Leo's birthday" because when it's a friend's birthday I say, "Soon it will be Leo's birthday."

Remembering the cute things Leo does and says at the end of the month is always tough so this time I kept little note pads upstairs and down so I could capture things as they happened. So here we go:

Cute things Leo says:

"I say no!" For instance, "Leo, would you like some oranges?" "No!" "Are you sure? They're really good." "I say no!"

"Be Patient." When he's waiting for me to make his Mac N Cheese, he'll say, "Be Patient!" or actually he screams and cries, "Be Patient!"

We heard an Ambulance and he said, "Ambilance!" I was surprised because I didn't know he knew that word. Then he added, "Not fire truck."

(Sorry if the following is clumped together; I have tried to put spaces in it but it keeps clumping.)

"I want lollipop!" He will chant this over and over and over again. When I don't give in, he'll say, "I need hair cut!" He knows you get a lollipop at the hair cut place.

"Please," "Dank-you," "I sorry," "Scuse me." We're working hard on manners but he generally only says these things when prompted. Every time he asks for food I say, "What do you say?" and he says "PLEASE!" and when I give it to him I say, "What do you say when I give it to you?" and he says "Dank you!" And today, when he pushed his friend Bianca and said, "She fall down!" I said, "What do you say to Bianca?" He said, "I sorry." Thanks, Granny Jo, for the book about manners. It is helping a lot.

"That MY ball" or "That MY train!" He says this when I say it's time to do something. "Leo, it's time to go bye-bye." "No, that's MY school bus!" I think he's trying to say, "No, I'm busy playing with this." I always say, "I didn't say it wasn't your school bus but we're still going bye bye."

"It be Leo's turn." He's learning (very reluctantly) about taking turns. Whenever it's someone else's turn he says, "It be Leo's turn!"

"It too big!" When I put something on him that he's never worn before he says, "It too big!" even if it isn't.

He doesn't quite understand choices. "Leo, do you want the blue spoon or the orange spoon?" "YES!"

"Mama be right back." He says this to comfort himself. So like on the way to the YMCA he'll say, "Mama be right back," to remind himself that I'm going to leave but I'll come right back. Oh, and he knows what I do while he's at the YMCA play center. When I come get him he says, "Mama teach bike class!"

"I try" means "I cry." Sometimes it's "I don't try" right before he starts crying. Now I can put together the one above with this one: The other day he said to me, "Mama, don't try" and I said, "Why would I cry?" He said, "Leo be right back!" Aw.

He's pretending all the time with his trains and his Little People. He'll pretend that Thomas is eating lunch with him. I'll say "What does Thomas want for lunch?" Leo says, "Thomas want Mac N Cheese!" And at the end he'll say, "Thomas all done!" He also goes up to his trains and says things like, "Hi, Percy! I'm eating banana!" He makes his Little People play Ring-Around-the-Rosie and Duck, Duck, Goose. He still makes them kiss. Sometimes a train will kiss a little person. "Thomas and driver kissing!" he says. The other day he was playing with his Little People Airplane and he said, "It flying to Baby Ellie's house" and I said, "Is Leo going to fly on the plane to Baby Ellie's house too?" He said, "No, I too big!" Ha!

He can say his ABC's sort of. He has the tune down and some of the letters. It sounds like this, "A, B, C, D, Uh, Uh, G, A, I, Ah Ah, La, La, La, La, P!" He can count to ten but sometimes he gets distracted and forgets that he was counting. When he does make it to ten it sounds like this, "One, Two, Fee, Foh, Figh, Sis, Se'en, Ate, Nigh, Ten!"

To get him familiar with his numbers we change the date every day on these little blocks that belonged to my grandma. When we used to do this at Christmastime we would follow that with moving the snowflake on the advent calendar. He STILL asks about the snowflake! And when I say, "No, we only have the snowflake during Christmas," he says, "Kiss-mas tee!" and points to the dining room where it used to be. I'm like, "Dude, it's been three months!"

He knows three states-- Georgia, Texas and Colorado. He often is correct when we ask him things like, "Where does Rah Rah live?" and "Where does Leo live?" but sometimes Rah Rah lives in Colorado and Leo lives in Texas and other mix-ups like that.

Whew, I've written a lot and nap time is short around here so I need to wrap it up. To sum up, he says a lot of funny things, has a lot of tantrums, sleeps very little, survives on a diet of Mac N Cheese and milk and loves sports, trains, books and people.

Namaste, Granny Jo

Leo loved doing yoga with Granny Jo.

The plank:




Downward Facing Dog:

Child's pose:

Tree pose:

And, of course, happy baby!

Mommy's Biggest Fan

Running a half marathon in the rain was tough but seeing Leo (and Frank and Granny Jo) at the end made it worth it!

When I saw Leo he gave me a big hug and a kiss.

And he told me all about how he rode the "choo choo train" (public transportation) to come "pick up mama." Oh, and he also said that the people on the train were "passengers." Impressive!

But I think his favorite part was going out to breakfast afterwards and being silly with Granny Jo:

Feeling Blue

Leo may be brilliant in a lot of areas but colors isn't one of them. I'm not worried he's color-blind or anything (okay, I was worried about that for a few days). He does KNOW his colors. He can say them all. He just doesn't seem to know which color is which. His favorite is blue. He often calls things blue when they are and even when they're not. I'll say, "What color is this?" and he says, "It's BLUE!" Of course when I say, "No, it's green," he says, "Not blue."

He even requests blue lollipops. Too bad I bought the assorted color bag. Hey, but if he doesn't know the difference, maybe I can tell him the red is blue. Now I'm really screwing him up.

Here's our little blue man:

This lollipop is actually purple but I thought this picture was cute. Daddy doesn't know that Leo needs a bib, even just for a lollipop!

NOT

Leo loves to not only say what something is, but also what something is NOT. He really seems to understand that some things are sort of similar but not exactly the same. Here are some examples:

His "snack trap" is always filled with either Goldfish or Cheerios. When I give it to him he says what it is NOT:
"Not Cheerios."

And if it's Cheerios, he says, "Not Go-fish."

Today he said something about Granny Jo. I said, "Granny Jo is coming to visit you soon." He said, "Not Rah Rah." (Not his other grandma.)

We went to Kohl's and I told him, "This is Kohl's." He said, "Not Target."

I asked him what state he lives in and he said "Colorado." I reminded him that he lives in Georgia and he said, "Not Leo's house."

I was emailing my friend Debbie and I told him, "I'm sending a note to Ms. Debbie." He said, "Not Cuhl." (Not Claire.)

And in an unrelated story, I give you another example of Leo's brilliance:

There's this really nice guy who works at the YMCA on Saturdays named Kevin. He always greets us at the door and he always wears a sweater vest. Frank and I have commented to each other that it's kinda funny how he always wears one (not the same one, just always an sv) no matter what time of year it is. At Christmastime we brought Leo up to the Y to have his picture taken with Santa. Leo was wearing a sweter vest so Kevin said, "A guy after my own heart! I love the sweater vest!" That's really the only time I remember Leo being around when we talked about Kevin and his sweater vest.

Well today I was about to put one on Leo and I said, "Look, Leo. You're going to wear this nice sweater vest" and he said--and I'm serious!--"Like Kevin."

????

I said, "What did you say?

He said, "Like Kevin!"

And just to be sure, I said, "Where is Kevin?" He said, "YMCA!"

OMG. I can't stress to you enough how little contact Leo has had with this guy and how not often we speak of his sweater vest. I think he remembers from that one discussion at Christmas!

I just have one thing to say: Not dumb.

From Dumb and Dumber to Debonair

Yesterday I got so fed up with Leo's long locks that I cut them myself. As soon as I finished I had flashbacks to Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber. See above. Now, the pictures do not do this disaster justice. You'll have to take my word for it--it was bad:

I don't know which was worse--the fact that his bangs were uneven or the fact that he had bangs at all.

So we went to the pros at "Snip-Its" (same place he had his first haircut). I said, "We had an accident!" Ms. Stacey said, "You're not the first mom to do this." She then gave Leo a "flip-it" do with a spikey look on top. She even gave me some hair gel so I could do it at home. So here he is today with his new look (courtesy of me--not as good as Ms. Stacey's):

Now if I have any trouble doing the flip on top (or if I run out of hair gel), this do can also work as the "regular" which is what he usually sports (top part over to the side). And of course every almost-two-year-old needs at least two looks!