overloaded

No posts for a while because we've had far, far too much to do. But, there's news to impart, so let this be the place to impart it.

First, very belated congratulations are due to Doug Sillars and his wife Katherine, who had their second child on Halloween, right about the time that my stepsister was having Carina. (The Sillars, by the way, had a boy -- Rowan Arran.)

On non-Leo fronts, I got it confirmed last night that the school where I worked last year did well enough in the state's testing program that everybody who worked there last year qualified for a bonus. It's being paid at the end of the month. In some ways, it means that much of the furor that resulted last year was already being fixed. In confirming the news with a friend, I also heard about how one of my former students described me as "cool." (When my name came up, she gave them a warning that I was a dear friend and that she wouldn't let anybody say anything bad about me, but it was still neat to hear that I was remembered as somebody who had made an impression.)

Now, about the little boy:
We're now regularly seeing him drink from either a bottle or a sippy cup one-handed -- and by himself. The solo part has been a useful trait a couple mornings this week, because we needed to let him do that while we finished getting ready. No pictures of this in action, unfortunately.

Our park doesn't have much in the way of playground equpiment, despite its size. So, last weekend we went to the next closest park, which got a major overhaul a few years ago and has scads of it. That trip included both Leo's first solo trip down a slide and proof that our one-story house isn't hampering his ability to climb. This picture is his second solo trip; we were still hanging on to be sure his head didn't get bonked. The close-up above was taken elsewhere in the park, and really cool. Below, there's a shot from later, while he was on the swing.


Next week, we head to Texas for Thanksgiving to visit my sister-in-law. We'll try to post something at least once to comment on how the trip was -- it'll be his first airplane trip, and the whole process will be about nine hours (six either on planes or in airports, plus another three driving to get to from San Antonio to Del Rio). I hate to fly anyway, so I'm really not looking forward to the process of getting there. The visit itself is likely to be just fine.

There's visible evidence of at least one tooth coming in on the top. Kirstin told me tonight that she thinks she feels a second one. He hasn't sat still long enough to try to get pictures of same.

The teething (we think) led to a fever yesterday afternoon that resulted in us getting a call from day care. I stayed home with him all day today, and will be home again tomorrow. In the event that he has to stay home on Monday, too, then Kirstin gets the draw.

In the last two weeks, he's made the transition from formula to whole milk. Last night was the end of the formula. I think that for the next several days, we'll continue to use a bottle for warming the milk up while we get him used to the idea of drinking it cold.

The other big news is that he's now walking more than he's crawling. I actually can't remember the last time I saw him crawl more than about 3 feet, and that mostly to get over to the scooter or a piece of furniture to pull himself up.

I'm sure that I'm forgetting something, but we can post about it later, when we remember it.