We just finished up a month of visitors. Starting out with Nana, Pap and Mimi at the beginning of April to my dad, Papa, mid-April and my mom left right at the end of the month. It was a lot of fun having the grandparents visit and see all of Leo's changes. He really enjoyed having them here and quickly became accustomed to saying good-night to more than just us and BB (our cat). At the end of the bed-time routine he has taken to saying one (or all) of their names which he has finally mastered! The grandparents are thrilled that he can say their names and that he asks for them :) I love that he knows who they are and I am working on putting together a little photo album my mom bought him with pictures of all of his closest relatives: Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, and Cousins. That way we can say good-night to the pictures at least. I am positive it will become one of his favorite books very quickly. (Update- I was right! We look at the book a lot and maybe by the time we visit Florida in July he will be able to say his uncle and aunts names.)
During the past two months we had a trip to the tulip festival and I got some cute pictures of Leo. We also celebrated Easter and my niece Rebecca's second birthday! I frequent a cloth diaper store in our downtown and they occasionally have themed ultra-mini mini sessions for free and even allow you to choose one image for free so I made sure to get Leo down there in his cute Easter duds but he refused to smile... just as serious as can be, as usual.We managed to get our community garden plot partially planted while we had extra help. So far we have strawberries (the Hood variety) another strawberry everbearing plant, lavender (French and English), Cilantro, Rosemary, bush peas, broccoli rabe, and walla walla onions. We are planning on getting some potatoes (if it is not to late) and tomatoes planted soon. We also got to go to a Messy Madness playdate (set up by a mom from my mom's group) at Art a la Carte in Portland. It was a lot of fun to watch all the babies get into the paint and there were some cute photos taken of Leo that day by a professional photographer that is there to catch all the cute messy moments!
As you can see I am writing this piecemeal, but hopefully I will be able to get down some of my thoughts tonight and post it tomorrow. Right now Leo is experiencing an explosion of new vocabulary! It is like he just decided sometime between last night and this morning that he was going to try out more words today. Words Evan and I have heard today for the first time.... hammer
Melody (I said, "That is Melody", his friend, and he repeated her name!)
apple (he has been saying "ple" for apples but he said the 'a' part today too.)
tickle
turtle
pee pee
All of these words were said in context and usually right after we said the word. He also only said them once but from what I can tell this is just the beginning.
Leo has also been working on mastering the art of fine dining, with a spoon and not his fingers. He also will demand a bowl be put in front of him (it is okay if we hold onto it...for now, but it must be on his highchair tray). His skill with the spoon is pretty good but he ends up with a ton of food on his face. This morning he was eating applesauce and it looked like he had an applesauce goatee : )I know I talked a little about Leo's emerging vocabulary already but just to give you an idea of where he was at before these new words appeared on the scene...
mama, dada, mimi, papa, nana, pap, eas (peas), isps (snow pea crisps) nanas (bananas), ples (apples), ce (ice), egg... are you noticing a trend with his usage of the word's ending?
I think the only thing left to say is how incredible life seems right now, viewing it through Leo's eyes. It is just a thrilling whirlwind of new adventures and I love that. He is such a sweet boy and despite testing his (and my) limits sometimes he is very affectionate. The other day we were running errands and periodically throughout the day he would lay his head on my shoulder and in a sweet singsong voice would say "Mama" then smile and pat my back. Very random and very brief but I could hear and feel his love for me pouring out of his gestures and that one magical word "Mama". 