Leo is one!

The day has come, and darling Leo turned one!  He was sick at the beginning of the week and pretty contagious, so we decided to keep him home.  I had him all to myself that day and most of the week!  It was so nice to spend time together, one-on-one.  Lots of snuggle and play time and quiet walks.

Cupcakes were homemade carrot cake with three cups of shredded carrots.  So yummy!  Stacked and sprinkled with rainbows.  The stacking made Matthew really nervous, but I knew it was secure the whole time.  I took this photo of Leo with the lit candle after singing “Happy Birthday”.  He extinguished it with his fingers before I reach out and could stop him!  Ouch!  Luckily, his hands weren’t very dry, so he just startled a bit and then he was fine.

    

We were all pretty excited about the gifts.  Dean quickly busied himself with the barnyard and farm animals from him and Fiona while Leo opened his other presents.  Fiona could hardly contain herself!  Leo was really interested in tissue paper.

One of Leo’s gifts was this super cool fire/dump truck!  Is there really such a thing?  In any case, he loves it.

I love this photo below, with three sets of hands opening presents in the background while Leo runs off.

   

   

Happy birthday, sweet boy!  You have won our hearts!  We love Leo.

February Album: Adventures inside and out

This February, we managed to get out to the park whenever it was not raining and the naptimes aligned.  Which was pretty often.  It’s been chilly, but the kiddos don’t seem to mind.  They are from Oregon, after all.
  

We are all looking forward to spring and summer!  Luckily we live between two great parks that are fun to walk and bike to.

Nothing like fresh air for the soul.



I even managed to pack the kids a lunch one afternoon so we could spend more time outside.  The weather was decent, especially for a February!   That day my secret agenda was to get them all home to nap so we could make it to the family matinee at the Kennedy School to see the Muppet Movie… 

One of Leo’s first words is “cracker” – only it sounds more like “gak-oh”. Here he is holding one in each hand, his favorite way to eat them. 

Also, this month Leo started walking! It comes as no surprise, for the boy who rolled over at one week old and crawled at five months.  He is everywhere!  I’m pretty excited about this – it’s fun to have another little person walking around our house.  And he definitely seems pretty empowered by the walking.  I think that crawling was beginning to frustrate him – it’s like his whole world has opened up!  Watch out.

What else happened this month…?  We had a fun time visiting Vancouver’s awesome library.  It was designed by one of Matt’s professors in grad school at UW, and it has an incredible children’s section.  So, we ventured across the Columbia Bridge (seen from the photo with me and Leo, on the balcony of the library), and checked it out. 

 

We jammed out to our own music this month. 

Fiona continued swim lessons (this look that suggests to me that she is not about to get into the water until the class is about over).  She’s come around lately, thank goodness!  For this day, I needed my handy list of calm.

My curls came back!  They were on hiatus?  Well, yes, for about a month.  All this baby-making, breastfeeding over the past um… six(?) years has taken a toll on my hair, and my love-hate relationship with it was more hate than love.  My hair stylist said, “I know you, and I know you’ll go back to curls.”  She was totally right.

Sweet Leo, he just keeps growing.  Here he is at eleven months.

My sweet boys, what a gift.