Leo has invented a game.
Leo prefers to play this game with Papa but if Papa is not around, Mama will suffice. He tells us he wants to play it by grunting "Eh! Mm! Eh! Mm!" loudly, staccato, insistently, over and over until we play.
To play the game, upon hearing the grunting, the Parent must drop to all fours and crawl around the living room until Leo picks up his volleyball and throws it onto the Parent's back. The Parent must immediately drop onto his/her belly as if s/he has been wounded.
If the Mama is playing, Leo then laughs hysterically and crawls onto her back. Many variations including wrestling or piggyback rides follow, but when Leo says "Eh! Mm!" again, the game starts over.
If the Papa is playing, after dropping onto his belly, Papa immediately pretends to be asleep, and Leo puts on a face of exaggerated mock concern, punctuated with an "Uh oh!" or an "Oh doh" ("oh no"). Sometimes he will pretend to cry or even say "cry." Then he will squat down next to Papa and gently stroke his back. After a moment, Papa suddenly makes a robot noise, goes back up to all fours and starts crawling again. Leo laughs hysterically and prepares to attack again.
The game is super cute. I love how there are rules, and how it differs for different parents. I love that there is an act that goes along with it. I love that he made it up himself; I love his imagination. And I love that he even has a code grunt that means it's time to play. So clever.
----
Some new-ish cute words and phrases that I want to remember:
"Papa day!" - not sure what it means exactly, but maybe "Papa's home" or "Papa's here" or "Papa's home today" or something, although I think I say it now more than Leo does
"Deess!" - cheese, which he asks for every time we walk by the cheese sample station at Whole Foods
The other day, when we got on Skype with my parents, he immediately pointed up to the sky and said "Ah-pane" because Grandma always reminds him that he's coming on an airplane to visit her in a few weeks :)
Love how he says different people's names in different tones - Ah Why (Uncle Ryan), Nana, Granddaddy, Grandma, and my personal favorite, Grandpa - "Gap-paaaa!"
He says "no" fervently and insistently - it's still cute (for now)
Sometimes he sneaks into the bathroom and steals one of my makeup brushes out of the drawer, then runs around the house stroking his face with it. The other day he stole my eyelash curler and held it up to his eye. Ummm, whoopsie.
He knows so many of his body parts, I can't believe it. Eye, nose, ear, mouth, lips, teeth, tongue, head, hair, tummy, belly button, back, butt, leg, foot, toes...
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
a great day!
Today was a great day.
We had a rough night with lots of waking. L had a cold a few weeks back and he has a cough that just won't quit, and it wakes him up and requires a lot of rocking with Mama and cuddling. So I was really, really tired this morning, and we got up late, around 740, and we were supposed to be at the gym for kids' club at 8. So I didn't think we were going to make it. But then I got an email from a friend describing her awesome day and how she feels like she's just having a great day and kicking butt and it just kicked me into gear. We had a quick breakfast and ran to the gym late. I did a hard 30 minutes on the elliptical while Leo played at kids' club. He was happy when I picked him up and then we met some friends at a fun park, then came home for lunch and a looooong nap for each of us, then a really fun afternoon with several friends at this really fun little saltwater water park down the street - Seaside Lagoon! It was SO awesome - we LOVE the beach but the water here is usually too cold and the waves/currents are too powerful for wee ones to swim, and this place has an awesome, shallow saltwater wading pool - Leo had an awesome time walking in the water, grabbing handfuls of sand beneath the water, and even catching himself when he'd fall forward - I had a fantastic time, so much fun. I want to go back every day until the local schools get out for summer and it gets too packed.
When we got home Leo was in the best mood - he ate a great dinner and then had a fun bath and played until bed. He fell asleep smiling. I felt like such a CHAMPION!
Then, thanks to this awesome thing we are doing called The Fresh 20 I made an awesome dinner and left a plate in the fridge for Matt when he gets home from his shift late, late tonight.
I'm feeling really, really happy. Being a parent - SAH or working - is incredibly hard work, and it usually seems like the harder you work, the higher an energy level you FORCE yourself to operate on, the better the outcome. It's hard to rise to the job. I can't do it every day. Some days I feel like I'm treading water just to keep my head up. Some days, like today, are awesome in spite of the piles of laundry lying around the house. I can kick butt on laundry tomorrow. Today, I did a great job at helping my toddler learn, explore, and play; cooking; and working out. That's enough for today!
Good night :)
We had a rough night with lots of waking. L had a cold a few weeks back and he has a cough that just won't quit, and it wakes him up and requires a lot of rocking with Mama and cuddling. So I was really, really tired this morning, and we got up late, around 740, and we were supposed to be at the gym for kids' club at 8. So I didn't think we were going to make it. But then I got an email from a friend describing her awesome day and how she feels like she's just having a great day and kicking butt and it just kicked me into gear. We had a quick breakfast and ran to the gym late. I did a hard 30 minutes on the elliptical while Leo played at kids' club. He was happy when I picked him up and then we met some friends at a fun park, then came home for lunch and a looooong nap for each of us, then a really fun afternoon with several friends at this really fun little saltwater water park down the street - Seaside Lagoon! It was SO awesome - we LOVE the beach but the water here is usually too cold and the waves/currents are too powerful for wee ones to swim, and this place has an awesome, shallow saltwater wading pool - Leo had an awesome time walking in the water, grabbing handfuls of sand beneath the water, and even catching himself when he'd fall forward - I had a fantastic time, so much fun. I want to go back every day until the local schools get out for summer and it gets too packed.
When we got home Leo was in the best mood - he ate a great dinner and then had a fun bath and played until bed. He fell asleep smiling. I felt like such a CHAMPION!
Then, thanks to this awesome thing we are doing called The Fresh 20 I made an awesome dinner and left a plate in the fridge for Matt when he gets home from his shift late, late tonight.
I'm feeling really, really happy. Being a parent - SAH or working - is incredibly hard work, and it usually seems like the harder you work, the higher an energy level you FORCE yourself to operate on, the better the outcome. It's hard to rise to the job. I can't do it every day. Some days I feel like I'm treading water just to keep my head up. Some days, like today, are awesome in spite of the piles of laundry lying around the house. I can kick butt on laundry tomorrow. Today, I did a great job at helping my toddler learn, explore, and play; cooking; and working out. That's enough for today!
Good night :)
Monday, June 4, 2012
things I want to remember about right now
words:
Deetdee - kitty
Dee - keys
Dee - please (with sign)
Dee - cheese
Deet - teeth
Deh-deh - byebye (with sign)
Deh-deh - bellybutton (both of the "deh-deh's" are mimicking the pitches)
Ehw - ear
Ell-kaw - helicopter
Kaw - car
Dut - truck
Ow dye - outside
Muh - more (with sign)
Bah - ball
Bah bah - volleyball (um, we live by the beach)
Ga-gone - all gone (with sign)
Mum mum - mum mum
Da na na na na na na - banana
people:
Mama
Papa
Baba/Baba (Grandma/Grandpa)
Ca - Luca (his best buddy!)
others:
deet deet deet - the sound of the buttons on our door alarm
ar ar ar ar! - a puppy barking
aye dee - ABC
signs "Thank you" frequently
also signs "milk," "eat," "drink"
points to his ear when he hears a helicopter or airplane or any loud and exciting noise, "I hear a plane!"
"tickles" people that we are skyping with - especially Nana and Granddaddy
Blinks very slowly, dramatically and purposefully
Deetdee - kitty
Dee - keys
Dee - please (with sign)
Dee - cheese
Deet - teeth
Deh-deh - byebye (with sign)
Deh-deh - bellybutton (both of the "deh-deh's" are mimicking the pitches)
Ehw - ear
Ell-kaw - helicopter
Kaw - car
Dut - truck
Ow dye - outside
Muh - more (with sign)
Bah - ball
Bah bah - volleyball (um, we live by the beach)
Ga-gone - all gone (with sign)
Mum mum - mum mum
Da na na na na na na - banana
people:
Mama
Papa
Baba/Baba (Grandma/Grandpa)
Ca - Luca (his best buddy!)
others:
deet deet deet - the sound of the buttons on our door alarm
ar ar ar ar! - a puppy barking
aye dee - ABC
signs "Thank you" frequently
also signs "milk," "eat," "drink"
points to his ear when he hears a helicopter or airplane or any loud and exciting noise, "I hear a plane!"
"tickles" people that we are skyping with - especially Nana and Granddaddy
Blinks very slowly, dramatically and purposefully
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Aye dee
Matt is on vacation for two weeks. We are staying home. We aren't quite one week in yet. It has been, without a doubt or hesitation, the best week of my life. Here are some highlights.
- We bought a used electric hybrid bicycle off of Craigslist, and the owner included one of those green baby seats mounted on the front. It's awesome. With the electric motor it goes up to 20 mph. We bought another but it's in rough condition, we're hoping it can be restored so that we can take day trips up to Venice, LA, etc without the bother of traffic or parking. Leo loves it. LOVES.
- We clipped the tips off of all of Leo's pacifiers and now he's done with pacifiers. This is huge. At 16.5 months this week, he had gotten to the point where he wanted a pacifier all the time. It was interfering with eating and drinking. He'd drop them on the floor in grocery stores and cry, etc. We didn't just have a pacifarm in his crib, we had a pacimenagerie. He still doesn't sleep through the night consistently. And, he is talking a ton but it was definitely not helping his speech or pronunciation, and he's getting to that stage where he is frustrated when he can't communicate with us. So last night I sliced the tips off of all of his pacis (I saved a few in case of emergency). During his bath, he asked for a paci. We gave him a cut one and he immediately became ENRAGED and threw it out of his mouth into the water. This happened several times, followed by an intense pre-bedtime meltdown, then when I was rocking him to sleep - nothing. He was fine. He fell asleep in my arms as usual. He did wake up twice during the night but he was easily rocked back to sleep, and I did leave a few in his crib just to remind him (one wakeup sounded particularly angry). Today he's been fine. A couple of times he has chewed on a pacifier and then discarded it. He didn't even ask for one at bed. I clipped the remaining stash and in a few more days I'm just going to throw them all out. This huge for our little family. Magic.
- My heart swells with unbelievable love and joy at seeing Matt and Leo together so much. I never knew, never realized, could never have grasped the intensity with which I could love until I saw my husband be a dad to our son. And this week it's been in full force. Tonight, Leo was having his usual postbath-prebed-peridiapering meltdown when he suddenly reached down, tickled his own toes, and said "Weeweewee." It's because Matt does "This little piggy" with him. He was asking for it. So I did it. He was not amused. He repeated the weeweeweeing and Matt came over and did it to a chorus of laughter. I know that my greatest joy in this life is going to be being a parent with my best friend, the love of my life.
- We bought a refurbished, discounted Vitamix. Well hello, consistently smooth green breakfast shakes, we are happy to have you in our lives. (It hasn't actually arrived yet, but this is how I hope I'll feel after it does)
- And finally. Littlematt is obsessed with letters and numbers. He can't really tell the difference between letters and numbers, but whenever he sees them, he says "Ayyyye-dee! Ayyye-dee!" (His version of A-B-C.) And I mean WHENEVER he sees them. Every time. Think about how very surrounded we are by letters and numbers. I'll give you an example: 7am - we wake up. I go in to cuddle him and he spies the Huggies box on his shelf. Aye dee. Then I change his diaper and he finds his copy of Goodnight Moon (which we leave on the change table for his perusal). Ayyyyye dee. We go out into the living room to play and he sees his letter blocks...aye dee. We go out for a walk - license plates on cars (Kah)! Delivery trucks (Dut)! Signs; words painted on roads; shirts with writing on them worn by people (Hi) walking dogs (ruff ruff ruff). There are a lot of damn letters and numbers out there, folks.
- We bought a used electric hybrid bicycle off of Craigslist, and the owner included one of those green baby seats mounted on the front. It's awesome. With the electric motor it goes up to 20 mph. We bought another but it's in rough condition, we're hoping it can be restored so that we can take day trips up to Venice, LA, etc without the bother of traffic or parking. Leo loves it. LOVES.
- We clipped the tips off of all of Leo's pacifiers and now he's done with pacifiers. This is huge. At 16.5 months this week, he had gotten to the point where he wanted a pacifier all the time. It was interfering with eating and drinking. He'd drop them on the floor in grocery stores and cry, etc. We didn't just have a pacifarm in his crib, we had a pacimenagerie. He still doesn't sleep through the night consistently. And, he is talking a ton but it was definitely not helping his speech or pronunciation, and he's getting to that stage where he is frustrated when he can't communicate with us. So last night I sliced the tips off of all of his pacis (I saved a few in case of emergency). During his bath, he asked for a paci. We gave him a cut one and he immediately became ENRAGED and threw it out of his mouth into the water. This happened several times, followed by an intense pre-bedtime meltdown, then when I was rocking him to sleep - nothing. He was fine. He fell asleep in my arms as usual. He did wake up twice during the night but he was easily rocked back to sleep, and I did leave a few in his crib just to remind him (one wakeup sounded particularly angry). Today he's been fine. A couple of times he has chewed on a pacifier and then discarded it. He didn't even ask for one at bed. I clipped the remaining stash and in a few more days I'm just going to throw them all out. This huge for our little family. Magic.
- My heart swells with unbelievable love and joy at seeing Matt and Leo together so much. I never knew, never realized, could never have grasped the intensity with which I could love until I saw my husband be a dad to our son. And this week it's been in full force. Tonight, Leo was having his usual postbath-prebed-peridiapering meltdown when he suddenly reached down, tickled his own toes, and said "Weeweewee." It's because Matt does "This little piggy" with him. He was asking for it. So I did it. He was not amused. He repeated the weeweeweeing and Matt came over and did it to a chorus of laughter. I know that my greatest joy in this life is going to be being a parent with my best friend, the love of my life.
- We bought a refurbished, discounted Vitamix. Well hello, consistently smooth green breakfast shakes, we are happy to have you in our lives. (It hasn't actually arrived yet, but this is how I hope I'll feel after it does)
- And finally. Littlematt is obsessed with letters and numbers. He can't really tell the difference between letters and numbers, but whenever he sees them, he says "Ayyyye-dee! Ayyye-dee!" (His version of A-B-C.) And I mean WHENEVER he sees them. Every time. Think about how very surrounded we are by letters and numbers. I'll give you an example: 7am - we wake up. I go in to cuddle him and he spies the Huggies box on his shelf. Aye dee. Then I change his diaper and he finds his copy of Goodnight Moon (which we leave on the change table for his perusal). Ayyyyye dee. We go out into the living room to play and he sees his letter blocks...aye dee. We go out for a walk - license plates on cars (Kah)! Delivery trucks (Dut)! Signs; words painted on roads; shirts with writing on them worn by people (Hi) walking dogs (ruff ruff ruff). There are a lot of damn letters and numbers out there, folks.
Friday, May 11, 2012
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