Maine

In mid-May, Leif had a chance to meet many members of my (Amy's) extended family for the first time at a reunion in Biddeford Pool, Maine, where my cousin's husband was graduating from medical school. Unfortunately, Aaron and I did a pretty poor job of remembering to actually dig our camera out and use it at opportune moments; I guess we were too busy having fun! In Leif's case, "fun" on this trip largely meant having Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa take turns watching him while he opened and closed various doors around the rental house approximately 8,000 times, turned the oven light on and off, rocked in the rocking chairs on the front porch, and practiced climbing up and down the stairs in the kitchen. He seemed to take meeting all the new relatives in stride, although he found he was not quite able to hold his own yet around his vivacious three-year-old cousins, Vivian and Rosie, who sometimes had very firm ideas about what little kids were and were not supposed to do. No doubt next time he sees them he'll be somewhat steadier on his feet and better able to hold up his end of the discussion.

We did manage to get *a few* good photos -- enough for you to get the flavor of the trip!

Leif with me, his uncle Erik and cousin Vivian


Leif meets his great-uncle Gaylord


Leif meets Cousin Susan and shows off his teething drool (the last of his one-year molars popped through on this trip)


Thanks to the rainy forecast, Leif scored his first raincoat at the beginning of the trip, an adorable red coat covered in doggies that was on display in the entry to Whole Foods, of all places.


Despite having dreary weather pretty much all week long (we did see **one hour** of sunshine on the last full day of the trip), we did manage to make it out to the beach across the street from our rental house a number of times. Leif showed some interest in the ocean and recognized that it was "wa wa," but he generally seemed much more interested in walking on the rocks. His frequent exclamation "Ock!" over the course of the week meant either "I want to walk on the rocks" or "I want to rock in the rocking chair," depending on the environment at hand.




Early on in the week, we took a trip up to the Portland Children's Museum for some indoor entertainment. After learning that we could get in for free using our membership card from the Minnesota Children's Museum (a member of the American Children's Museums consortium), we went back two more times! Leif especially enjoyed the water table, a music/rhythm exhibit that had a video of a traditional Nigerian dance playing on continuous repeat, and a mock spaceship where he could press buttons and toggle switches to his heart's content.


We also had a chance to see my good friends Tamara (in Boston) and Shuli (in Portland, ME) and their families several times over the course of the week, rounding out an enjoyable trip.

Leif uses his words

Leif has been trying to say (and sign) more and more words lately, which is both entertaining and useful. You can hear two of his favorites ("gah ga" for cracker/food/eat and "nana" for banana) in this video. Another frequent one is "wa wa," although he apparently was not thirsty when I was shooting this. For posterity, here are some of the other current entries in Leif's budding lexicon:

- knot (he can sometimes pronounce this fairly accurately, although it often comes out as "non" or "na")
- "ba" (for bear or ball)
- "nen" (for muffin or again)
- "guck" (for truck or duck)
- "gock" (for walk or lock)
- "ka" (for car, and often for other wheeled objects like bikes and strollers)
- "woof" (exclaimed just about whenever he sees a dog, or any of the various other four-legged creatures he thinks are dogs)
- "dah" (for dog, although these days it seems he is more likely to go straight for "woof!")
- "op" (for hop/rabbit)
- "apoh" (for apple or pineapple)
- "av" (for avocado)
- "sos" (for socks or applesauce)
- "off!" (applied to lights, his clothing, and especially his bibs at meal times; also used to ask us to let him into the office upstairs when he wants to play in there)
- "ot!" (for out, particularly when he wants to escape his stroller or his high chair)