Big boy bed!

Now we just need to paint his room and when the weather gets cooler get him a quilt, etc.

Happy belated

Last week was Jeff's and my 10th wedding anniversary. We got these lovely flowers from his sister and her husband. We went to dinner at Jim Gould's.

Lemme can do it!

That's Leo's version of "I can do it" and "Let me do it".

Friday we ordered Leo's big boy bed and mattress, and it'll get here on Saturday. He is very excited.

We made it through our first day of Jeff's trip out of town. We dropped Jeff off at the train station at 8:30am on Sunday for his trip to Chicago. Then Leo and I swung by the Arboretum because we hadn't been yet. It's nice, and we had the place mostly to ourselves that early. We spent the rest of the day riding the tricycle, watching Monsters and Clifford (when it was rainy), and going for a walk around Meadowbrook followed by playground time.

Getting out of the house this morning at a reasonable time was only possible due to the grace of Curious George. I made it to work by 8:40, which is only an hour later than usual--not too bad, especially considering no one else really gets here until 9am anyway.

If you ask Leo where Papa went, he'll tell you: 'Cago.

the Big Banana!

The other day in the car we were trying to get Leo to say "Urbana," and he kept insisting that it's "banana," and the more we kept saying "Urbana," the more he laughed and said "banana!" vehemently. He thought we were being silly. I guess it's no surprise, since our fair cities get called Shampoo-Banana and Chambana as much as by their real names.

Squeezy box!

The Urbana Park District does it again with family-inclusive entertainment--this time at the summer Neighborhood Nights concert series. Tonight we went to Wheatfield Park, just down the street a bit, for Exorna. Leo liked the Irish music and especially the squeezy box (accordian). He got to meet a policeman, see the lights on the squad car, and got his own 'police badge'.

Jeff says, like Grandpop like grandson.



By the way, we're having 15 minutes of fame on the Gentrys' blog--they've got pictures from Strawberry Jam. There are some on their "Strawberry Jam" post and one or two more on their Flickr stream.

more splashings

So.... the pool in Champaign has two water slides, one of which can theoretically accommodate kids who aren't yet 42" tall if they're riding with an adult. The problem is, the teenagers who are the lifeguards aren't thinking when applying the "1 inner tube hole per rider" rule, and insist that Leo (or Mason -- Ken & Jeni had the same experience) be riding with his butt in one of the holes on the inner tube, meaning we have to use a double tube if we're going to take him.

He made it through a trip down with me without too much wiggling until we were onto the lazy river at the end. However, we switched and he rode with Kirstin the second time around (partly because I was sneaking in a quick trip down the larger water slide that he absolutely can't go on). Down the slide, OK. River, he starts wiggling enough that he flips them over.

I didn't see the flip, just Kirstin putting him back into the tube afterward. He apparently got completely dunked, but she didn't let go of him. He was a bit freaked out, but we got out of the river and he said, "again".

Sheesh.

Shenanigans

Leo checking out Mama's hat.













Leo deciding to paint the driveway.












Went to Strawberry Jam tonight--there was supposed to be free ice cream and free strawberries, but we got there too late to get either. Bummer!

Weds Tunes

Last night was another free concert at the Urbana Free Library. The Prairie Dogs set up outside in Cherry Alley in front of the Library and entertained us all.

Leo was interested in the music for a bit, and really liked the jugglers who were working in the back of the audience. He also liked playing inside the Library and got to collect three stickers because he's already had (at least!) fifteen books read to him this summer.

the great manipulator

Already it begins... at bedtime tonight could be heard the following conversation.

Leo: Papa, I want a cracker.

Papa: No, it's bedtime.

Leo: I'm gonna go ask Mama.

I agreed with Jeff, as we told Leo that if he didn't eat what we offered for dinner (chicken, applesauce, and carrots) he wasn't going to get anymore food later in the evening. He only ate his chicken, so no crackers for him.

Whoosh!

What a night last night. There were tornado sirens twice and lots of rain and wind and oh my goodness the thunder! Of course the sirens were both after Leo went to bed (about 9:30 and 9:45) so we had to get him out of the crib while we waited it out in the bathroom (the only room without windows). He slept through the first one, but the second was a 30 min warning, so we didn't leave the bathroom until about 10:15 when they gave the all clear. It was a fun night! (ok this link did go to the storm report from the National Weather Service, but the page keeps getting refreshed, so I don't know how to get a permalink to last night's report). There were lots of reports of hail, floods, and funnel cloud spottings.

help us all

This weekend Leo truly figured out the getting in and out of the crib by himself thing. He's been able to do it before now, but had not chosen to exercise that choice when we weren't in the room. Well, he took every opportunity to climb out and "surprise" us this weekend. He'd stay in the crib for 20 min, we'd think he was asleep, and then all of a sudden, thump, clatter, patter, patter, patter, Hi!