Water Play

Leon has had a lot or opportunity to play with water lately and he really enjoys it. He has always been a fan of bath time but with the warmer weather we have taken advantage of outdoor water sources as well. The pool in our neighborhood was undergoing some renovations and it took some time for them to open it for the season. In the meantime, the little baby pool especially, but the big one as well, had a lot of tree debris and algae in them. This, for some reason, fascinated Leon. He considered it a a complete treat to "go see the yuckies," to where he would use the potty and send Mommy off easily at daycare drop off if only she promised they could go look at the dirty pool later.

Temporary refugees from our pool privileges, we also ventured into the relative wilderness that is Little Falls Park near our house. Those falls are located on a small creek, which Dari and Leon love playing in, mostly throwing rocks in and uncovering what is under them. Our original objective was to go fishing but we have yet to see any fish.

Leon's daycare also started having the kids do water play for part of their outside time and Leon is a big fan of the sprinklers and hoses. Whereas last year he was a little reluctant to dive in and stayed mostly on the edges of that and of our community pool, he jumped right in this year and is eager to go in the big pool also. He is potty trained enough to where he could do it but the older ladies using the pool were eyeing him with great suspicion, last time he was considering going for a "swim." For now he reconsidered and is satisfied to splash in the baby pool but we might have a neighborhood feud on our hands, should he change his mind.

Birthday

This post comes very very late but I have actually taken notes without publishing them, so it will not be all digging from memory and may capture the amazing growth Leon has been busy with in somewhat real time. Just pretend you are reading this at the end of April ;). The biggest news from April was that Leon turned two. We celebrated in a few installments. Leon had some Mickey Mouse pancakes on the actual day of his birthday and got hooked on blowing out candles and admiring the smoke that followed.

He also celebrated with his friends at school and then we had a big party that we used mainly as an excuse to hang out with all our friends and to celebrate the first year in our new home, which has gone just great. Leon enjoyed the attention and was a big fan of the birthday cake and cupcakes, which big brother Dari helped decorate.

It was right around his birthday that Leon really started putting words together to express more complex thoughts, often surprising us with the sudden accuracy of his expression. The ones that struck me the most were the three below: very caring, very opinionated, and very self-aware, in that order.

Don't cry, Dari.
Too much banana.
MY purple ball (yeah, somewhere along the way he started learning colors too).

Leon is growing into a a very caring little boy, ready to check on anyone who may express any signs of discomfort, like the man who coughed at the other end of the parking garage one day and Leon asked right away if he was okay ("man okay?"). Similarly, whenever I sneeze, I get the inevitable "bless you Mommy" and I have learned not to act too upset when I stump a toe or step on a Lego block (and we all know how painful THAT is) because Leon gets way too worried about my well being.

Finally, we have made some great progress potty training Leon (and this is early June speaking) but even a month ago Leon was very eager to please us by at least attempting to go. Conversely, he would always praise both mommy and Dari whenever they "succeeded" in using the potty appropriately, saying "good job Mommy or Dari" - too funny!