Van Cleve Park

Leif's Uncle Erik and Cousin Vivian (now known to Leif as "Viv," which is within reach of his current pronunciation skills) were in town recently to look for a place to live when they and Aunt Tami move back to Minnesota (!!!!!!!!) in December. Actually, for Vivian it will be a move *to* Minnesota, not a move *back to* Minnesota; at nearly 3 1/2, she is a North Carolinian born and raised! In any case, we are all very excited to have them (back) in town.

After the first day's house-hunting appointments were done, Leif and I were able to meet up with Erik and Vivian at Van Cleve Park, a great park located in the Como neighborhood just north of Dinkytown. Erik and I swapped kids for a little while, which meant that Erik got to join Leif in running back and forth across a wooden bridge shouting "Eeeeeeeeee!", while I got to assist Vivian in preparing for some kind of important (imaginary) ceremony and "sweeping out the courtyard" (because "that is a job that grown-ups can do"). Leif also enjoyed playing on the large rock and crawling under/through the interesting bike rack that you see in the pictures below.

We are already looking forward to next spring and many more fun play dates with Erik, Tami, and Vivian at Van Cleve Park!

Legos

Ah, for the days -- could it really be just a few weeks ago?! -- when Leif could play in the back porch in shorts and a t-shirt. Now, increasingly often, I have to tell him it's too cold to play out there...a message he is not very receptive to. He seems to take after his dad and is impervious to the cold.

As you'll see in the video, his lego stacking skills are coming along nicely!

Front entryway

If Leif is ever getting a little stir crazy but I don't want to take him outside for whatever reason (raining, almost nap time, etc.), I just open the door to the front entryway and I can pretty much count on another 10-15 minutes of happy, independent play. Not that there is much space out there, or much of anything in the space that seems all that interesting (at least not to an adult). But Leif still gets inordinate pleasure from playing with the shoes on the shoe rack, trying to pull out the sticky drawers of the storage bench, and now also playing with the lawn furniture cushions that we are temporarily storing there. I will be very sad when the weather gets too cold for him to play out there!

Bath time fun

Leif LOVES bath time, and recently he especially loves to throw all of his bath toys, foam letters, numbers, and "splash cards" (flash cards made of foam that stick to the tub wall when wet) out onto the floor while exclaiming, "Bye, five! Bye, N! Bye, duck!", etc. We didn't manage to capture his most enthusiastic moments of doing this on video, but the following two clips will give you the flavor of bath time with Leif.

Leif, Eric & Hal

I should have included this in the One and a Half Cakes blog post I put up a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't have our new(ish) videos loaded onto the computer yet. At their shared one-and-a-halfth birthday get-together, as you'll note in the video, Eric and Hal were more into interacting and giving things to each other; Leif was more into doing his own thing and protecting his stuff. I'm sure one of these days Leif will discover "MINE!" as his new favorite word. (So far he has not picked up on either "MINE!" or "NO!" -- and hopefully he won't for at least a few more months!)

What does Leify say?

Continuing in the same vein as the last post....

Roaring with Auntie

Leif always has a good time practicing his animal sounds with Auntie Sarah (a.k.a. Auntie Ooh-Ooh Ah-Ah) when she comes over. This video was taken in late August when the G. and B. clans were over to celebrate Leif's one-and-a-halfth birthday.

Big shoes to fill

One of Leif's recent obsessions is putting on Aaron's and my shoes. He's not so intent on walking around in them yet (as his cousin Vivian does in this video at just shy of age 2), although he is beginning to try. For the time being, he mostly seems to get a kick out of the balance challenge posed by simply getting his feet in and out of the shoes without falling over. Even with a nearby wall or someone's hand (or leg, as the case may be) to hold onto, it can be a tricky process. But he is always oh so pleased with the result!

One and a half cakes

For the last year or so, Leif and I have been in a sporadic small play group with two other moms and their little boys who are very close in age: Molly's son Hal is two weeks younger, and Monika's son Eric is a month younger than Leif. We thought the boys turning 18 months old was a good excuse to invite Eric, Hal, and their parents over for dinner and one and a half cakes in mid-September (yes, as I learned, Kowalski's will actually decorate half of a cake for you!). Big boys that they are, all three of them sat at the table and even dug into some cake with their kiddie forks. It was fun having all three dads there as well, since our play group is usually just moms and kids.

(For comparison with the pictures below, here is a picture of Leif and Hal meeting for the first time in August 2010, at age ~5 months.)

Happy one and a half, Leif, Eric, and Hal!




Monika provides some technical assistance with the cake