Listen up!

Very recently, Leon decided that he has observed enough of the world to begin participating more actively in the verbal communication that he was somewhat indifferent for quite some time. The biggest inspiration and motivation for expressing himself has been communication with Dari. At first they started exchanging playful screams (to the delight of our neighbors, I'm sure) but more recently he has been actively copying all the sounds he hears, including coughs and sneezes, which is kind of funny.

He also understands much much more than you might expect and I cannot say anything about leaving the room in any way because he has all those phrases down pat! Yesterday, I told my Mom that I was going to go pick up Dari from school, to which Leon responded with desperate whimpers and when he kept saying "Da, Da, Da!" (his name for Dari) I asked (not exactly expecting an answer): "Do you want to come with me to get Dari?" Leon did not skip a beat and responded with the sign for "please" so I had no choice than to take him with me.

 

It worked out too, because as it turned out, Dari was working on a superhero cape when we arrived (a sheet of paper with some drawings that gets taped to one's shoulders to serve its intended purpose) and he announced that that one was for Leon, for when he grows up. Is your heart melting yet? Leon thought that Dari was talking a bit too long with that though, walked up, pulled Dari's sleeve and was very adamant about "explaining" why it was we were there :). Too funny. It is really fun to watch them play together although I am cringing half the time, when I look at the combination of a wobble-bobble-climber and an excited runner/kicker.

Speaking of which, Leon had his first slightly more serious bump, when he hit the side of the coffee table this past weekend (completely unassisted - did I say wobble-bobble?). Wounds freak me out, and this one right below his lip looked deep-ish, so I took him to the ER just to make sure it did not need any attention (it did not). There Leon charmed the nurses with his winks and blinks and got a great kick out of getting his pulse measured, which involved attaching a light to his finger (yay, stickers!), effectively converting the measuring device into a pull toy... what else, right? Leon followed that up with pushing a wheeled doctor's chair around while we waited to be seen and walked away with a puppy-shaped balloon sculpture. Hospitals are so fun!

Slovak Summer

Leon had a lot of fun exploring the immediate neighborhood surrounding his Slovak grandparents' house. The top entertainment item on the list: their two cats. He did not call them "meow" or any variation of "kitty" in either language but rather "tah" - of course, right? It makes no sense but I guess that's what it sounds like to him. The cats, on the other hand, were less than enthusiastic about Leon's presence and they barely tolerated his squeaky shoes, running away when he came anywhere closer than two feet. Luckily, Leon did not find this frustrating but rather entertaining and did not mind squeaking on as he chased after them. This was frequently very entertaining.

He also tried to make himself useful, in the typical one-year-old way of mimicking all behaviors he thought looked interesting or important. Picking up apples that fall off the trees early (and threaten the lawn if not collected) and then placing them in a toy dump truck was something Dari was prepared to do the minute we arrived in Dulice. Leon wasted no time in joining the party, promptly picking out a smaller dump truck in Dari's now-shared lineup. Efficiency was hardly the ordering principle and most apples that got collected were dumped a few feet over or thrown, with a splash, into the pond. But Leon thought he was doing something very helpful and, naturally, no one questioned it :). Sometimes, Leon pretended to be a load of apples himself and allowed his big brother to cart him around the garden (under close supervision).

 

  

Leon also got a haircut while in Slovakia but not the view, not the cat, not the rotation of four adults, nothing could keep him still long enough. If you don't look super closely, it looks fine. Conveniently, most people are distracted by how much the haircut brought his appearance closer to Dari. 

Discoveries

Baby Leon has had a great summer. Little by little, he is making the transition from baby to toddler but thanks to his healthy appetite, he may hold on to that cute baby roundness for longer than other kids his age. He had his 15 month checkup in August, which revealed that he is totally well-proportioned but it is something about his cheeks that gives him that continued baby look.
 

Also, until very recently he preferred "just" observing all the happenings around him and absorbing it all like a sponge. This may give the appearance of baby-ness but really it is closer to in-depth theory development. Everywhere he goes, Leon is famous for his side-ward examining glance, with which he welcomes everything and everyone new. You can almost see him thinking: "okay, so what is THIS novelty that I am seeing and how do I make sense of it?" I like to think of it as a budding skeptical attitude of a future scientist. Other, less partial observers just crack up at the innocent curiosity and disarming charm with which it strikes them. It is nearly impossible to capture on camera (because he knows cameras and tries to snatch them) but here are some pictures that come close.

Of course, Leon got to practice this "look" a lot when we traveled to Slovakia, especially while flirting with fellow passengers on the plane. He just loves to communicate with people but he is very particular about only doing this from the safety of Mommy's arms. At the height of his separation anxiety, I literally had to hide so that he could spend some quality time with tetinka, strejda, Bimba, Dedo and starka. To be clear, he warmed up to that very quickly and had a great time but I had to be out of sight not to interfere with those situations. Here, his squeaky shoes (meant to help keep track of the baby) came in very handy - every time I heard him approaching I casually ducked out of the way.

There is one hiding game that Leon enjoys a lot better and that is looking for Dari, who loves to hide in more-or-less plain sight (like under a cover on the sofa, or under a desk, or behind a curtain). Dari gets a great kick out of everyone pretending to not see him, which, of course, Leon does not know how to do. So we would be walking around in a room asking "Where's Dari??" and Leon would simply walk up to him, lift up the cover or the curtain and give us the look that could be summarized as "duh... righ here!" It is therefore not surprising that the first question/sentence he went for was "Kde je Dari?" which means where's Dari? in Slovak :)