Learning

Leon has been making strides in learning about the world. These are very visible and often hilarious. First of all, we are learning a couple of new words every day, and I know that his vocabulary (or rather the ability to pronounce all the language he already understands and processes) is about to explode. So far, we are mostly at one-word observations. For example, Leon has learned to say "WOW!" and it can be pretty funny to see what impresses him. So far, the winner in general impressiveness is breakfast, specifically the Slovak variety of cream of wheat (decorated with a smiley face ;). He'll keep saying wow until he finally can't because he has to start eating it. Leon also has a few key phrases. One such phrase is "no more" which he basically uses to fine tune his use of "all done." He pronounces it as either a toddler or a rapper would: "No mo' " - if that is how you spell it. Leon also uses "no mo' " to inform me that there is no more (breast)milk - which alone is entertaining because he says it kind of matter of factly but with a tone of surprise and expectation. Yes, he can pack a lot of expression into his little voice. The other night he took the no-more-milk thought a step further and when he saw a toy cow, complete with udders, he pointed at her and said "no mo' " - so apparently there is not enough milk anywhere in this world ;).

Leon is doing great at his daycare and really enjoying all the fun the teachers plan for them. We get a biweekly schedule of everything they do and I found the most recent one especially entertaining and even inspiring when I saw the "inclement weather activities." It went like this: Rocking back and forth on the rocking chair - Pretend picnic on carpet area - Glittery sand with big bugs in sensory table - Draw with wet chalk on butcher paper - Walk on bubble wrap (What do you hear?) Sounds pretty awesome to me! Regardless of the weather, Leon is always having a good time there.

He is also getting better at associating situations and routines with actions to be taken. While he is still quite clingy with separation anxiety and prefers my arms to anyone else's, this magically reverses at bedtime, when he is eager to go look up Bimba, only so that she can hold him and so that I don't put him down. In a similar attempt at avoiding the inevitable, yesterday, when we were done reading books and he knew it was almost time to turn off the light, he walked up to his dresser pulled out his swimsuit, sat down, and demanded I put the shorts on him. Time for pool, Mommy... Too funny! It the picture below you see Leon delaying bedtime by sneaking a story with Dari, who graciously tolerates him pointing out every single cat in the Busytown books with a "nau" (and if you haven't seen those, there are a LOT ;).