Loving Leo

This year was Leo’s second Passover and Easter, and he had a blast at both holidays.  This year we wisely decided to forgo having a seder at our place in favor of “allowing” (strong-arming) our childless neighbors to host one instead.  Three toddlers were present, so the Haggadah was essentially a series of bullet points, but a good time was had by all, especially when it came to “finding” the afikommen. Leo also got to experience two easter egg hunts.  The one pictured above is at the park near our house. Looking at these photos makes me realize the extent to which Adam and I have embraced parenthood.  We not only go to an “easter egg hunt” in a park attended by hundreds of toddlers where all the easter eggs have been placed in a baseball field, but we post the photos of it.  Is that our child in a bouncy structure? Why yes, it is.  Did I really take a photo of that? It appears so.  And hold on, is that a family photo in front of a fire truck? Seems to be.  It’s funny how excited we get by family friendly events and gestures,  like when a restaurant provides crayons or the free balloons at Trader Joe’s.  Even more surprising is how it seems to suit us just fine.

1. ‘I love you sweetie’ (always to mama ; )

2. ‘Wanna hug a bug!’

3. ‘Kiss a fish!’

4. ‘A bunny in carrot car! Delicious!’

5. ‘Amazing race car!’

6. Turning everything into songs (i.e. “change a diaper”) and also singing his favorite medleys (i.e. “Frere Jacques/Las manitos,”  “A,B,C,D/Twinkle twinkle little star”)

7. “Iiiiiaaaaaaannnnnnn” (wailing for his best buddy)

Our trip to La Jolla featured some great cousin, grandparent, and aunt and uncle bonding for Leo, Legoland and the San Diego, and of course the beach. Here’s proof.

It’s been way, way too long since we posted any pictures on the blog, and we hardly recognize the little baby who appears in the last batch we posted. Leo is now very much a little boy, talking up a storm (and often in full, if rather uniquely constructed, sentences), demanding ice cream for dinner, being scared of fans and lawnmowers. Here is a very small selection of the many photos we’ve taken in the past few months:

Mama in 1977, Leo in 2008

It’s impossible to describe how much Leo has changed in the past month or so, and the photos don’t really capture it. He talks all the time now, mostly to order us around: he wakes up saying “all done” to signal he wants to leave the crib, instructs us to get him “up,” points out the trucks and airplanes on his carpet, says “hug” (our favorite) when we bring him into our bed, and then pretty soon is talking about how he wants some num-num. He even points to our coffee and says “kashi,” as if to rebuke us for drinking caffeinated beverages rather than eating bland but healthy cereal.

The pictures below include Halloween, with Leo dressed up as a little newsboy with a just-a-few-days early sign proclaiming Obama’s victory (hell yeah!), as well as some great outings we’ve had in a very busy few months: Leo’s first trip to Austin (the place where his parents met and where his buddy Elliot lives), a weekend exploring Sonoma and wine country with Grandma Patty, and most recently a Thanksgiving trip with his friends Henry, Jonas and their families up to Tahoe.

He also sings a lot (the title of the post is one of his favorite hybrid songs), in a near-perfect pitch he definitely did not get from his parents.

We’ve been very bad bloggers of late and have allowed the photos to really pile up on us. This batch starts with some photos from Leo’s first haircut, in Boston this August. Angelo, the Newton Highlands barber who gave Adam his first haircut when he was a baby, did the honors with the next generation. He kept Leo happy with a lollipop.

Other photos include bathtime with Ian, a gaggle of kids over at Henry’s house, the debut of Daddy and Leo’s matching old man hats, and more.

Leo is running around, having a blast with pine cones, twigs, and all of nature’s other great toys. His favorite words include: bus, thank you (well, ‘da-doo’), bubble, cat, moon, hat, taxi, apple, outside (’ow-side’), and of course, choo choo, which he’s now extended to “choo choo chain.”

He is so much fun.

This year’s summer trip to Newton and Gloucester (followed by a swing through Denver) was even more fun for Leo than last year, because he’s now old enough to really get down and dirty in the sand, the ocean, and the lake, and also to help his cousins Rosie and Gregory tear the house apart. In fact, it was so much fun for him that he decided to start walking and using a lot more words. Along with the perennial favorite “dat!” we also have “moooooooon” (said with that many o’s), “choo choo,” “uh-oh,” “Ro Ro” (for cousin Rose) and many others.

We didn’t bring our own camera, so we’ll be posting photos as we get them from friends and family. This batch, from Newton and Gloucester, are all taken by Grandpa Mike. Nice work, Grandpa!

Summer has always been a busy time for Leo B (well, at least for his first 2 summers in existence) and this year was no exception.  In between our nearly non-stop series of visitors, our nanny went on vacation. Luckily, it was Grandma Kay to the rescue! She flew in to watch Leo for almost a whole week, and even found his nearly non-stop teething-induced whining endearing (uh, ok!).    She bought Leo his very first pair of “walking” shoes, which he wears every day as he tears up and down the block pushing the “Radio Flyer” wagon that Aunt Fran and Uncle Jeff bought him–he uses it so much he’s kicked the wheels out of alignment!   We also took an epic trip to Mendocino to visit our dear friend Scrawnie K, an amazing artist who is doing a residency and teaching at the Mendocino Arts Center.  Who would have thought that having a baby redefines the experience of time, so that a 4-hour long car trip actually becomes 8 hours??  Still, once we got there we had a great time, and Leo’s new passion–the beach–was ready and waiting for him.

In the beginning, there was the word, and the word was dat! Dat! was usually, and most enthusiastically: a flag, truck (or anything with wheels, really), dog, child, or playground. Dat! was also airplanes, flowers, and waves. For a while there, Leo had been working on other words for these things, but once he discovered the power of a pointed finger and dat! the vocabulary-building was all over. Dat! was the way we knew he was up in the morning. Dat! was everywhere, all day. If you don’t believe dat! then come hear for yourself.

But let’s get down to business. Here are photos from Leo’s busy, busy summer. Messy shirtless meals, escaping the heat at the coast, hanging out in the bathroom with Henry, becoming a toilet paper mummy with visitor Anna Brown, and oh yeah being the guest of honor (thanks to Vas and Debbie) at a Hare Krishna feast. A what?! Dat!