Christmas and Snow

This past Christmas was the first one that Leon was somewhat aware of, at least in the sense that something else was going on than the usual. He seemed to enjoy trying new foods and was fascinated by the decorated tree, threatening (sometimes fatally) the bauble decorations, especially. Of course, that is what one is supposed to do at his age and fortunately it all went without any injuries :).

Another novel experience for Leon was snow. Actually, there was not much of it at first but that did not stop him from insisting on getting pulled around on the sled in Bimba and Dedo's garden in Slovakia. Eventually there was much much more snow to play with and our main challenge was convincing him that he did, indeed, need to wear all his cold weather accessories.
 

 As always, Leon was closely shadowing Dari in all that he was doing, whether it was poking around the pond to "wake up" fishies or joining forces to pull a(n empty :) sled, once the heaps of snow finally arrived.

While Dari was getting his first skiing lessons, Leon was perfectly content to play a little ski bunny and lounge around, displaying perfect winter weather / ski-resort competence :).

Leon had a lot of fun indoors in Slovakia too. He discovered Dedo's old camera collection and had a lot of fun with before it was safely place out of his reach. My favorite part about the picture below is that he is wearing my old sweater (in case you were wondering about his decidedly 80s look)

He went on a few fun play dates with new friends (kiddies of Mommy's friends) and below you see him hang out with Mas(h)ka. As if there were not entertainment enough, Bimba and Dedo took him and Dari to an indoor gym on one rainy day and he really got into all the mazes and climbing areas there. Although, apparently, Leon is NOT a fan of the ball pit...

Leon has always been best buddies with great-grandma (Starka) and in the pictures below you can see them sharing a laugh and also Leon giving Starka a lesson in using the iPad!

He had a great time in Slovakia and when we were settled in the airport hotel room, Dedo was able to snap this picture of Leon, which would easily find its place in the country's tourism promotion catalog.

You should not, therefore, mistake Leon's excitement on the plane for exultation about leaving Slovakia, he was just happy (as was I) that he scored a free seat yet again!! (that would be 4/4 if we count the Thanksgiving trip to KY as well). We definitely made the most of the lap-child savings!