Off to Hilton Head

Work has been really busy so the blog is the first to suffer. I promised myself that I would post before we head out of town for the week to Hilton Head. We're spending Thanksgiving with Dan's family - Uncle Matt, Aunt Lisa, and Cousin TJ. We can't wait for a week of beach time!

New developments:

• Speech seems to be the biggest development at the moment. Every day there are new words and sounds.
• When I hold up one or two fingers and ask how many fingers there are, he tells me. (However, two seems to also be the answer for any number of fingers other than one.)
• I bought Leo a small pillow for his crib. He doesn't seem ready for a toddler bed yet and shows no signs are trying to get out of his crib. He likes to rest his head on something, usually one of his stuffed animals or blanket so it seemed time for a pillow.
  

Leo has shown more interest in his baby doll (who's quite androgynous). He likes to feed her, push her around in his stroller, and pretend that he/she's sleeping.

He found my cheap travel watch and it's been a huge hit. He insisted on wearing it in the car.

Kai had one more goodbye party on Friday. It's sad to think that the boys won't see each other for a long, long time. Here they are at age 22/23 months. (I love Leo's chill pose.)

Another Birthday, Another 7am Wake-up

Here's our birthing class nearly two years later (minus Maggie).


Kai is moving to Malaysia with his parents at the end of the month so we celebrated his birthday a little early. It's amazing to watch these tots grow together. We will definitely miss Kim, Damien, and Kai.

Sleep!

I don't think I've written about sleep in a loooonnnnggg time. But today is an all new high for us - Leo slept until 7:40am!! That's huge! Yesterday he slept until 7:05am. I'm hoping this is a new trend.

22 Months (and a few days)

I'm a few days late with the 22 month celebration. We celebrated November 4th by getting our H1N1 vaccinations in some random Williamsburg clinic.

Leo's really into stickers these days. He calls them "stickies" and likes to put them all over his body as seen below. As you can also see, food has yet to gain any importance in Leo's life.

It's interesting to see how playground equipment use goes in cycles. Leo loves sitting in the swings again and can stay for a good 10-15 minutes. Just a few weeks ago he wouldn't be caught in one for more than a second. He even tells us "go fast".

Gilly's back to his slightly neglected days. We've been feeling a bit guilty so we're trying to take him to the park more often. We ended up there this morning and it was a gorgeous day. We were out for nearly two hours. Leo has graduated from pushing his doll stroller to pushing his own stroller around.

I'm quite impressed with Leo's strength. This past week he's taken to swinging his full body weight on anything just about his height.

This afternoon we took Leo to Luke's 3rd birthday party. It was his first real birthday party since the ones around his first birthday. He was a bit overwhelmed by the controlled chaos and I think he'll sleep well tonight. Pizza was served for dinner. While all of the parents were busy cutting up the pizza, Leo grabbed his entire slice. I showed him how to fold it in half like a real New Yorker. He was very content to eat the slice by himself. (Notice the pinky finger in the air - we'll have to work on his Brooklyn technique.)

Halloween and Marathon

This week has definitely gotten away from me on the blog - my apologies.

Here's Halloween night with Leo as a shark (courtesy of Luke). He ended up taking a 3.5 hour nap in the middle of the day so we got a late start on the festivities. I thought it would work in our favor for the time change that night...but it didn't. We kept him up until nearly 8:30pm and he woke up at 5:20am.

He didn't want to wear the costume for very long. I think we got 30 minutes of him in it.

This video is before he put on the costume at a local Halloween block party. They had a live band which was the hit of Leo's night.

Since we were awake early on Sunday, we made it out for our regular dog walk and then back out to watch the marathon. Despite being tired, Leo was surrounded by lots of friends, including Lola (his six year-old girlfriend), baby John, Luke, and Aunt Jenne even swung by on her way to Paris for the week.

Weekend at Home But Still Busy

Lots of fun this weekend, even with one rainy day.

Leo is really into eating whole apples. I have at least three pounds of apples from my CSA and from the Morrisons' trip to Becket. Here Leo enjoys a pre-breakfast apple, legs crossed on our kitchen floor.

Leo and Rosie at the koi pond in the botanical gardens. They're both saying "cheese" which is new for Leo this week. I still think he thinks he's getting some cheese but he smiles anyway.

On our morning walk on Saturday, Leo insisted on bringing his own bag. He dragged it at least three blocks towards Choice, holding it the entire time.

We had a brief visit with the Morrisons on Saturday afternoon.

A brief glimpse of Leo's Halloween costume courtesy of Luke circa 2007. It's pretty freakin' cute.

Leo has a new fascination with fire hydrants. I've tried to make the correlation of where Gilly pees but he still insists on touching them.

After Leo's nap today, we met up with Amy in Dumbo. Leo ate an entire pickle and ice cream cone. Dan has some great photos that I'll post later.

Missing Daddy

Dan's in Europe most of this week for work. It was a good thing that Leo and Dan spent so much time together this weekend. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's making Leo miss him even more. As bath time and bed time approach, Leo says "Daddy?" He'll also say it when he wakes up.

I've been keeping him busy with playdates and music class. He loves the guitar so much that I broke down and bought him one at a local toy store. As you will see in the photo and videos, he won't let it out of his sight. His other favorite toy is the train set. So he found a way to play the guitar while sitting in the middle of the tracks - clever.

You can hear me whispering in the background - I didn't realize I was doing it but I think it's instinctual at this point

Taking Gilly for his morning walk