Row, row, row your boat

For some reason, Leif has been finding it absolutely hilarious when we (particularly Aaron) sing "Row, row, row your boat" to him. He giggles and giggles and asks for it over and over again ("Nen, nen!"). We even got through tooth brushing with no screams of protest for a few nights, as Leif was laughing with his mouth open wide enough for me to brush his teeth. Aaron gamely sang the song on continuous repeat until I was finished.

Unfortunately, it seems like the novelty of the song is starting to wear off a little, but we're glad we captured Leif's cascades of giggles on video before he got tired of it.

Take 1



Take 2

Boo!

Leif has really been enjoying hiding in one of our tall kitchen cabinets lately, which coincidentally has been nearly empty while Aaron works on making some additional shelves to put in it. Initially, Leif would sit in the cabinet with his feet sticking out, but he eventually figured out (well, OK, I may have shown him -- I took pity on the poor kid continuously trying to close the cabinet doors on his own feet!) how to climb *all* the way inside and then shut the doors behind him. Here is a video of him when he was still in the process of figuring it out -- he has all the steps down except getting his fingertips out of the way at the end, when the doors are almost shut. Rest assured, he has figured that part out by now and is not still squishing his fingers every time!

Grocery bag fun

Random items around the house continue to make great toys. Case in point: my enormous insulated Trader Joe's grocery bag, which Leif loves to drag around the living room and dining room and even hang around his neck on occasion (this despite the fact that the bag is about as big as he is!).

Puzzle

In early July, Leif had a "Eureka!" moment with his puzzles: he suddenly GOT how to do them. He had been half-heartedly playing with them for months but quickly giving up in frustration when he couldn't match the pieces to the correct holes or turn the pieces *quite* the right way to make them fit. His favorite for the moment is his animal puzzle (he likes to make all the animal sounds as he places the pieces). And of course, he loves it when he has a cheering section looking on!

Playing with cousin Rachel

Aunt Jessica and cousin Rachel came to visit Minnesota in late June - early July again this year. Now that Leif is ambulatory, he was able to interact with Rachel much more than last summer (when he was only 4 months old and she was 16 months old). Rachel warmed up to Leif quite quickly and declared him to be one of her "fofs" (friends). Leif was a little more cautious, but his big cousin definitely fell into the category of fascinating older kids. We were all amused to learn that Rachel's preferred nickname for Leif is "Rake" (logically enough!).

Here are the two cousins enjoying a wagon ride around Granny and Grandpaw G.'s house, courtesy of Auntie Sarah. Auntie always knows how to have a good time!



And here they are playing in our back porch....