Christmas trip to NC

24 hours of driving over 4 days and three days of visiting. Six states (IL, IN, KY, WV, VA, NC). Two nights in a hotel (Charleston WV and Lexington KY). One really long audio book (Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol). Meeting a brand new cousin. One trip to church, one trip to wave at Santa, making cookies with Memaw and Papa. One day visiting with other cousins.

Leo did great in the car, mostly entertaining himself by looking out the window, playing with his dr. kit and Aquadoodle, and reading books.

Except for some rain and a very windy last day of driving, the weather cooperated (hallelujah!)

Leo loved cousin Sam, calling him Little Buddy and wanting to be whereever he was. He was so gentle and sweet with him--I hope this bodes well for when Bertie Bott arrives.

Leo got to frost cookies with Memaw and Papa and had a good time.

Leo wanted to help everyone open their presents, and couldn't wait to tell Sam what his present was (before it was opened).

Leo got to stay in PJs all day on Christmas--a real treat.

We were glad to get home and I was especially happy to see we'd gotten a good amount of snow (for central IL) while we were gone. It's just not the holidays without snow!

Sorry for the disruption

Looks like the template we were using expired...so I've installed a new one. I'm not crazy about it, but it'll do until it's time to rename and reorganize in honor of Bertie Bott, I suppose.

Pics and posts from Christmas forthcoming, just not tonight--I'm tired!

Recent Leo misquotes

1. Any piece of paper is now a "sign of document" (from the "signed document" in It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown)
2. "My stuffed animal has an owie--I'm a doctor who can make it better--I'm a vegetarian."

Things we are not going to name this baby no matter what Leo says

1. Leo
2. JoJo's Circus (a TV show)
3. Cameron Hunter (a male friend from school)
4. Alice (nice, but taken by Mason's sister)
5. Robot JoJo
6. Robot Eyeball
[more as he suggests them]

Class clown

The other day Leo was playing quietly by himself for quite awhile. Eventually he came out like this--basket on his head, sunglasses on his face, and slippers on his hands.

Tonight after dinner I was eating ice cream and Leo asked me what was making my belly so big. I asked him what he thought, thinking he'd say "the baby." But no he said, "ice cream!" Cute.

St Nicks

Leo enjoyed St Nick's this year--receiving a coloring pad, some Playmobil figures, some chocolate goldfish, and some chocolate.

Jeff was not very awake--it was pretty early on Sunday morning. Leo won't sleep past 7am on the weekends.

Random December post

Some of you have asked to see the baby-belly--here's a shot from today--23 1/2 weeks (which is 5 or almost 6 months, depending on your math).

















Leo made a "gingerbread house" at school on Friday. We thought it was quite clever that his teacher had them use a milk carton for forming the shape.

Leo has been enjoying participating in Jeff's and my alphabet game. You pick a letter of the alphabet and then in turn each person names a word starting with that letter, until one person can't think of any more words. It's harder than it sounds. Leo actually does a good job most of the time. Today while doing "p's" I said "pollyanna," and he said, "I think you mean Indiana."

Thankful Thanksgiving

We had many reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving--the baby on the way, surviving my health scare, good jobs, the stuff we need to live a comfortable life, and last but certainly not least, family and friends. We braved the friendly skies (after driving to the Indy airport) and flew to DC to see LL and Shannon. My mom and Erv drove from WI, stopping in PA to pick up my Aunt Mary Ellen. It had been almost ten years since we'd seen my aunt--far far too long.

We had an easy trip (except for Jeff, who gets airsick) and Leo showed again that he's a fabulous traveler. He was cooperative for the whole trip and was comfortable in the airport, on the plane, and taking the Metro when we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum on Friday. He enjoyed LL and Shannon's dogs (we all did).

It was so good to see everybody and we laughed a lot.
Packed and ready to go the morning of the trip. Ok, still needs to get dressed...













Looking at airplanes at the airport.













Playing with my iPod while lounging on me and my mom.












Playing cars with Aunt ME.













First Metro ride! (on our way to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum)












Giraffe!













With Aunt LL and the giraffe toy she brought back from Africa.












Sisters.





The rest of the pictures are up on Flickr.

Stockings!

In the effort to be crafty and save money, I decided to make the kids stockings. (Finally! I'd meant to do one for Leo for his second Christmas, but never did get around to it.) I got the fabric in South Bend, IN at a great little quilting/knitting/craft store when I was there for our last conference. Laura Gayle (who reads this blog) and two other friends were with me and said they wanted to see pictures when I was done making the stockings.











Detail on Leo's

















Close up on Bertie Bott's (don't know why it rotated itself, but I am too lazy to fix it right now).

Not exactly Bang on a Can1

The second Wednesday of every month, the local library has a concert for kids that they call Prairie Breezes. Tonight's edition featured a percussionist named Rocky Maffit, something that we figured Leo would like to see given how much he likes banging on things.

During his opening number, Rocky brought his djembe up to Leo and gave him a chance to beat on it. Rocky plays back the rhythm that Leo had beat and gestures to Leo to play again. Leo looks at Kirstin, who assures him that it's OK.

L: "But Mommy, I already had a turn."

R: (repeats what Leo said for everybody to hear.) "Now that's an Urbana kid. In Champaign, not so much."

Over the course of the evening, Rocky used not just the djembe, but an ocean drum, a gong, two different kinds of bells/rattles (a jingle bell set and a juju bean pod set) that tie onto one's legs, angklungs, and a talking drum. The part at the end where he tried to get audience participation going was the part where (to my great surprise) Leo decided that he wanted to go. Not until we were on the steps did it become clear that he wanted to go play rather than go home.

1. A reference to the Bang on a Can All-Stars

It's a....

Girl, at least according to the ultrasound techs this morning.

Here's a picture of her:

a few other things

The other day in the car...

Leo: Mom, why did Pluto get fired?

Me: Do you mean why isn't it a planet any more?

Leo: Yeah, why not?

Me: Well, they reevaluated the criteria and decided it no longer met the criteria for being a planet, so it was downgraded.

Leo: Oh rats. I wanted to go to Pluto.

The other day at dinner:

Leo: You guys can't talk to each other any more.

Me: Why?!

Leo: Because I want to ask you questions. I have lots of questions going through my brain.

Halloween!

Carol and Glenn visited Friday afternoon-Saturday morning. Friday afternoon we all went to Leo's school party, where he didn't want to wear his costume for more than 5 minutes. (Note from Jeff -- he did, too! More like 15 minutes, though.) Friday night we went to the potluck for my work and some of our student workers had fabulous costumes (Jared from Subway, Sherlock Holmes, the judge [Frollo] from Hunchback of Notre Dame).

Saturday morning we went to breakfast at Le Peep (and the wait wasn't too horrible!) Then came home and carved the new pumpkin. Well, Leo and I cleaned most of it out and Jeff did the actual carving, with a little design help from Leo.














Leo in his new glasses from the staff potluck--lovely.












Although it was a little chilly, it was a perfect night for Trick or Treat--almost full moon, crunchy (ok, soggy) leaves underfoot, a hint of woodsmoke in the air.











Leo and Mason and Alice--love the model numbers on the robots--their birthdays!












Leo as Charlie Brown from the Great Pumpkin (his bag had a sign that said "I got a rock" and Jeff as the WWI Flying Ace.

















Creative neighbors!













More creative neighbors!

After trick or treat we all came back to our house and watched the Great Pumpkin and had cocoa and hot cider. Another great Halloween!

Birthday addendum

Happy 4th BD Leo! This year has gone so fast, but so have all of the others. You are still a sweet and happy boy. You mostly use your manners, likely thanking us for making dinner, complimenting us on our clothes/my jewelry, asking how our days were...all things that make me smile. You ask for hugs a lot (although sometimes you are _too busy_ for hugs). You are very excited about your new sibling and frequently have things to say to him/her (Bertie Bott is our nickname).

Lately you've been using a lot of nonsense words--I think just to see if we'll laugh. You'll also append "booty" to anything, and I'm pretty sure you have no idea what it means. You think "Pants" and "Underwear" are funny and gross words and the same time. Not what I expected from your potty humor stage, but I'll take it. You are developing your sense of humor, and like to laugh when everyone else is laughing, even if you're not sure what the joke was. Sometimes you'll just repeat the last thing we said and laugh uproariously.

You have developed a bit of an obstinate side. Yesterday you _did not_ want to go to school and ran away from us when it was time to get dressed and clamped your mouth shut when we tried to brush your teeth. We weren't pleased. When we recounted the story to Aunt Cynthia she said that that wouldn't fly in her house. I said, "good luck with that"! What are we going to do, shove the toothbrush in your mouth? We usually take away something you want (like birthday cake after dinner) to get you to cooperate. You have a chore chart, which sometimes entices you to be good so you can get a smiley face. You get a smiley for each "chore" (brushing teeth, setting the table, etc) and when you get to 20 you get $2. We're going to have to start your own savings account at the bank soon.

You're still having fun at school and have been reading for a few months. You don't know all of the words, but you are getting good at sounding out the ones you don't know. I think you are really proud of yourself and we are proud of you! You've also been taking swimming lessons since this summer and enjoy it a lot. You aren't real comfortable with this thing called floating yet, but you love to kick and splash.

You are a confident, fun-loving, funny, and loving little boy and we love you lots!

Happy birthday Leo,

Mama and Papa

happy birthday!

Although Leo's birthday is today, the party was yesterday because it's a lot easier to coordinate parties around weekends. In off-loading pictures from the camera, I've also discovered that it's been a really long time since that happened, and thus a long time since the Flickr stream was updated. By the time you read this, that should have been remedied.

Planning for the party started nearly a month ago, with a desire for a robot theming (started probably by the request from the paci fairy a month or two ago). Kirstin found some inexpensive invitations, buttons, and stickers from a site new to us called Zazzle, and we put together a "pin the antenna on the robot" game. I have a colleague who does cakes as a side business, and she quoted us an extremely reasonable price for the number that we thought we might need to serve. (We ended up with half as many as we thought we'd have, so we've got leftovers.) We invited Mason, Josh (whose dad works with me), and four friends from school, three of whom came.

Rather than wait until after dinner tonight, we let him open presents yesterday morning. He got a couple sets of winter PJs, a couple of books, and a set of Cars cars. Most of his grandparents contributed toward the purchase of a two-wheeled bike, which we're going to wait until spring to get because the weather is about to get too icky to ride bikes in much. We know where we'll get it (it's the same place as we got his helmet).




This week is conferences for me, and my parents are arriving on Friday and leaving Saturday morning to go visit my niece for her birthday on Saturday. We've otherwise been really, really busy, and I'm really, really tired, so I'll let the picture speak for the rest of yesterday.

pumpkin leprosy

So last week while I was in the hospital Leo and Granny Marge carved a pumpkin. We put it out on the stoop on Tuesday and by Thursday it looked like this. We got a new pumpkin last weekend and will carve it and put it out just before Halloween.







More Leoisms from this week:

Mama: Leo, I'm going to take you to get a haircut on Saturday (something Jeff usually does).
Leo: (looking worried) Can you take me to the mans? Because I'm not supposed to go to the girls.
________

Mama: Leo, you and Papa are handsome.
Leo: I'm not handsome, because I'm a rock star and rock stars aren't handsome because they play guitar.
_____
Mama: Owww, my foot's asleep!
Leo: (coming over to investigate) Mama, is your foot asleep? (to the foot, loudly) Wake up Mr. Foot!
_____
Leo: I'm just a little bit freezing, I need my bathrobe.
______
Leo: Daddy, when can I get married?
Daddy: Who do you want to marry?
Leo: I'm not sure yet.
Daddy: Then don't worry about it just yet.

...and another one

Leo: Mama, is Bertie Bott awake? I have to tell her [no we don't know the gender yet] something. (Leans in close to my belly) Bertie Bott, wake up!
Mama: I think she's awake now.
Leo: (Leans in close again) Bertie Bott, guess what? It's K's (a friend from school) birthday!

Even more Leoisms

Leo watching Grandma put on her makeup one morning when she was visiting..."We're not supposed to draw on ourselves." Specifically she was enhancing her eyebrows (i.e., drawing them on) and Leo also pointed to his and said "Mine stay on all the time."

...
(before my surgery)

Leo: Mama, why do you have to go to the doctor?
Me: So she can fix something that's broken.
Leo: Can I see? Open wide!
Me: Not like that Leo, it's not something you can see.
Leo: Broken, like cracks?

...

The grownups were talking about someone who had died of cancer and out of the blue Leo says, "I want to be a doctor when I grow up. And a construction guy." I reply that these are great things to be. He responds, " I want to be something when I grow up like you guys are something and grown up."

random boy sillies

Part I:

The other night (Wednesday), Leo and I started watching Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The character of Lady Tottington appears for the first time. Go follow that last link and look at the picture. We'll wait; come back when you're done.

OK, ready?

Leo asks me, "Daddy, why does she have Cheet-o hair?"


Part II:
Marge & Erv are here for a few days, visiting. Some time earlier today, Marge said something to Leo about king-sized pillows. Tonight at bedtime:

L: "Mom, we forgot 1 thing."

K: "What?"

L: "The princess pillow"

K: "The princess pillow? What's that?"

L: "The. Prin. Cess. Pillow."

K: "I heard you, but I don't understand what you meant."

L: "The princess pillow. You know, for Grandma."

K: "Oh! The king-sized pillow."

Funnies

Me: Leo, did you put your acorn in my flour sifter?
Leo: It's not your sifter mom, it's everyone's sifter.

Later at bathtime...

Leo: (crying) Soap got in my eyes.
Me: No it didn't, and anyway it's tear-free. Which part of tear-free don't you understand? (said nicely)
Leo: I don't understand any of it.

playing in the dirt

I am starting to think only three people read this blog, based on the lack of reaction (except for you PA) to the last two posts!

Anywho, Leo had a blast at swim class tonight--it's only 2-4 kids (depending on who shows up) in his section, so he gets lots of attention. He cried when it was time to go home because he wanted to keep swimming. Class ends at 7:55pm and by the time we get him dry and in pj's and home and then eat snack and brush teeth it's after 8:30pm. He's going to be crabby in the morning. next week I will remember to take the snack with us so he can eat it in the car on the way home.

This weekend the weather was nice, so we played in the yard.

For those who didn't figure it out the first time....

Note to people who follow us on feed readers: The entire content of the previous post, and the rest of the content of this one, are images. You might need to read the actual post instead of just the feed. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

We need to paint another room...

Stolen moments

So, I've been sick pretty much all week. Saturday Leo went with Jeff to run errands in the morning while I went with Jeni to a consignment sale, and then Jeff dropped him off at home with me because he had an event all afternoon. So I was snoozing on the couch when they got home. Leo went to play by himself for awhile, and then, as is his habit he announced he had to go to the bathroom. When he got done I asked if he flushed. He said, "No, I didn't want to wake you up." How sweet is that!? After Leo had some lunch he went down for a nap and I explained that I needed to nap too, and could he please at least sleep for three hours? He slept for four (and so did I).

We also arranged to have the pacifier fairy come on Saturday night and he traded Leo his pacifier for two new robot toys. Leo has now slept two nights and one nap with no paci. He did complain at one point that he really wanted one big robot. But when it's 9pm on Saturday night and a robot has been specifically requested, the paci fairy takes what he can get.

On Sunday Leo was playing me a lullabye on the keyboard (again while I dozed on the couch) and he was singing about superheroes and rocketships.

Jeff has decided that Leo's superhero alterego is Distracto Boy.

Leo has been getting better about eating what we eat for dinner. Last night was tangy three-bean soup. Leo declared it was "the best soup of love of all."

Misc

Yesterday after dinner our neighbors called. Look outside they said, there is a hot air balloon over your house. So Leo and I went out and joined them on their lawn, and sure enough there was a hot air balloon travelling over our house. It was low enough that we could hear them fire the torches, but not so low that they could hear the boys shouting "Hello up there! Where are you going?"

Later in the evening I took Leo to the first session of his new swimming class. This one will meet once a week and he gets to go in the water by himself with the teacher (no parent). At first he was trepidatious, but once he got his feet wet, so to speak, he had a great time showing that he could blow bubbles and kick his legs. At one point the teacher started to take Leo out of the pool because he thought he had said he needed to use the bathroom. No, he was just excited to try the platform that we told him about (that they use for the little kids who can't touch the bottom yet). The class is later in the evening because there were so many people on the waiting list that they added this new section--it doesn't get done until 7:55pm--so Leo will enjoy a late bedtime on Tuesdays. But boy was he crabby this morning!

The tree guys came and went yesterday--they couldn't plant the tree where we wanted because still too many roots from the old tree. I thought we'd gone far enough away, but between where the old tree was and the gas line, I think we're going to have to put the tree in the middle of the yard. (I'm only partly joking.)

I think we've mostly settled into the routine of the semester. Too much to do and not enough time to do it in, but we're not complaining too much.

Fort

Yesterday was a bit dreary and rainy, so we spent extra time in our PJs and played fort for awhile.

Tree

Yesterday morning we went to a nursery to pick out a new tree. We had a really good experience at Country Arbors and would recommend them to anyone in the area. They know their stuff, are patient and friendly, and don't try to sell you more than you are asking for. We picked out a Canadian Red Cherry which will have white flowers in the spring. The nursery will be planting it for us in a few weeks (they have to call the local utilities first and get the all clear).

Monkeys

We went to a birthday party for one of Leo's school friends at the Little Gym yesterday. The kids had a blast. They got an hour of free play/games and then cake and presents.

Leo had never been to a Little Gym or anything similar, but I'm pretty sure he had a really good time.

Tree go bye-bye

This is what we saw when we came home from work Monday night.

The landscapers took down our elderly, sickly crabapple and left a pile of sawdust and what you see in the next picture.

We had sent the quote back asking them to go ahead and do the work, but never got a confirmation on _when_ they were going to do it.








They returned on Tuesday and finished the cleanup.











That corner looks really naked. We'll be going to a nursery in the next few weeks to pick out a replacement tree. Leo had a lot of fun playing with the sawdust pile while it lasted.

I definitely have to get curtains for the front room now, as it it's too bright in the late afternoons in there now. That's also a trip for a weekend.