Double the baby

It is a bit hard to grasp but Leon has now doubled in size since his birth day. He did great at his four month doctors' appointment charming everyone with happy smiles - until the shots came, anyway.

With his percentiles of 27 for weight, 47 for height, and 95 for head circumference, the nurse described him as a "smart string bean," which we take to be a good start. He is now over 14lbs and although he grew "only" seven inches he is outgrowing not only most outfits but also the sideways laying in his crib, resting in the bouncy chair unbuckled, and being shuttled around the houses in a one-handed hold.

Still, he has plenty of skills that make up for the loss of tiny-baby status. Most notably, he seems to actively observe the world and try to figure it out. Here is Leon focusing to comprehend the activity at Dari's daycare birthday party (too loud and chaotic even for the older ones among us ;):

Just today, his favorite moving object, Dari, showed him what the deal is with the satiny lovey blanket that Leon got (and that Dari's had since he was about four months too). Leon figured it out right away. The plan is, that this will help him with transitioning to sleep and, eventually, with teething as well. Did I mention he's growing up way too fast?

PS: This year's awful mosquito season got Leon too and he misses napping safely outdoors while in Slovakia.

Going With the Flow

Considering how little he still is, Leon has endured all the travel and other adventures that Mommy and Dari exposed him to amazingly well. He celebrated the opportunity to face forward in the baby bjorn for the first time by joining us on our trip to the castle ruins and seemed to be taking it all in. Shielding him from the sun was a bit of a challenge because of his new-found squirming and hand sucking skills but Leon would agree that the views were definitely worth it :). With sun protection in mind, we also found some unusual nursing / burping spots that he was totally cool with in the end.

Before leaving Slovakia, Leon got to hang out with Bimba the way he likes the best - ready for a fun chat :)

 He did not skip a beat when we were on the road again, and made himself comfortable at our airport hotel room right away. 

He peacefully slept through the check-in process, which can be a little tedious with all the baby gear and necessary special tickets + tags. He took a break from napping only to let Mommy change a huge diaper BEFORE he got on the plane (something she was quite grateful for) and then nodded off again for a nice nap in the bassinet that he finally warmed up to this time around. Who could ask for more?

 The special baby challenges were not over back home either. Jetlagged, Mommy forgot to bring a diaper on a walk to the playground but rather than cutting Dari's playtime short, she decided to improvise a little and used the swaddle blanket we had on hand as a cloth diaper. Leon's response - cool, I have a diaper AND shorts!

Once home, Leon has been checking out some new toys he's been slowly (or quickly?) growing into. Thankfully, one of the main criteria for purchasing our jumparoo was its stability around older siblings and at the time we did not even realize how much we'd appreciate that feature. Dari has been VERY eager to show Leon how to operate all the attached toys. Meanwhile, Leon has been more interested in Dari's antics, which there is always an unending supply of. So it all works out.

Summer is Nice

Leon has been all smiles lately. He has now settled into a schedule that includes long stretches of him wanting to "talk" to people and if they help him play with a toy, that's even better. He's making progress grabbing items and putting them in (okay, near...) his mouth and really seems to enjoy the growing control.

He joined us for a visit to the village museum and added it to the list of semi-exotic places to have his diaper changed. Otherwise he slept through most of the outing, as he did with our trip to the swimming pool. It's a good thing kids under five get in for free :).

He made up for this absence from summer sports / activities by dipping his feet in the boat-turned-pool that Dedo set up for Dari in the garden (complete with sun-heated water). He was very puzzled by the experience. Although that's basically what his life has been like in general lately - part of being three months old, I guess. He really did not know what to make of the remote-controlled tractor that his big brother got as a present. Still, he could not take his eyes off it and it was pretty funny to watch him mesmerized for a very long time.