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Happy New Year!

By Jess
It's hard to remember last New Year's, when Leo could not yet walk. I do remember, as late as August (my last post, in fact), wondering if he would ever stop making that TV-static-noise.

What a different boy he is as 2012 begins! His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis. There are still some quaint Leo-isms, like "la-lahp" to mean "water", but most of his words are spot-on and he strings them together to tell great stories. A few examples:

Two weeks ago, I was pulling cookies out of the oven when Leo came around the corner. I told him it was hot, but he was already backing up and saying "Hot. Hot." Then he surveyed the scene, and looked up to where the cookies were cooling. "Cookies! Cookies. Eat. Those. Please. Happy."

"Check" is one of his words, and I want to laugh almost every time my little investigator wants to follow-up on something unknown, whether it's a beep outside ("Beep! Truck! Check.) or to see if we have more pears (Leo: [more] Pear. Me: I'm not sure we have more pear. Leo: Check.).

The Tuesday before Christmas, we spent an overnight in downtown Indianapolis on a mini family vacation. The hotel was dead, so we had the pool to ourselves the next morning. I don't think a day has passed since then when Leo doesn't reminisce about the fun we had. "Swim. Mommy Daddy lap. Splash! [Chicken-talk hands to mean shadow puppets.] Ack (Alex) too. Fun."

He's also started "singing". The other day he was singing Rock-a-Bye Baby to himself. "Rock. Baby. Blow [actual blowing]. Fall." One night shortly after I gave the boys Christmas songs to listen to (John Denver and the Muppets), Leo was up very late and when I went to check on him, he was contentedly lying in his crib singing a stream-of-consciousness Christmas song. (He says "Christmas" sort of like "Mistmas".) "Mistmas Tree. Pretty. Christmas. Snow. 'Na [Santa]. Lights." He also knows several of the 12 Days of Christmas, and some of his ABCs.

He is sweet and affectionate, offering spontaneous hugs "Hug," with little arms outstretched.

"Lap!" is self-explanatory.

"Pretzels" and "Bless you" sound very much alike.

He used to cry and scream at tooth-brushing time, but now he asks to brush his teeth (I think toothpaste was a great motivator). He can reach the toothbrush and cup by himself, and can turn the water on and off upstairs. He always wets his toothbrush, then asks for toothpaste. After chewing on it a while -- now he's started spitting, like he's seen his big brother do! -- he'll rinse the brush again. Then Mom fights for her turn, and I count to six (for the six parts I need to brush), and he helps count some of the numbers. He always nails "six". Then I rinse his brush and put it away and he helps himself to a glass of water.

He's very interested in counting, but the numbers are hit and miss. He usually starts with two, goes back to one, and then two, three. When we count the arms on the starfish in one of his magazines, he counts, "one, two, arm, arm, arm."

And now, I think I hear the boys hollering upstairs.

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