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....

Buckles

Leif has had a fascination with buckles for quite some time, although he (fortunately) still seems to be pretty far from being able to either open or close them on his own. When we got a new booster seat recently, Leif enjoyed having it on the floor for the first few days so he could sit in it and play with the buckles whenever he wanted. Depending on his mood, I sometimes have a hard time getting him to come out of his high chair -- or, on occasion, even his car seat -- because he wants to continue to sit there and play with the buckles. (Linguistic side note: If it sounds like Leif is saying "cracker" but he is anywhere near a high chair, booster seat, car seat, or anything else with straps and buckles, there is a good chance he is actually trying to say "buckle"!)

Yogurt

At Leif's 15-month doctor appointment in June, the doctor suggested that I start encouraging Leif to use a spoon to feed himself yogurt (which I give him three or four times a day since he more or less refuses to drink milk), rather than me always spoon feeding it to him. Leif has taken pretty enthusiastically to this new system, although he is still busily experimenting with different ways to hold the spoon. He also does tend to have a "eureka" moment in the middle of eating any given bowl of yogurt when it seems to dawn on him that it would actually be easier, and apparently provide much greater tactile satisfaction, to simply scoop up the yogurt with his hands. Ah, well -- as long as a good portion of the yogurt ends up in his tummy, I can live with this system (for now)!

Broom

When Leif and I came outside one afternoon to find Aaron busy sweeping the sidewalk with a huge broom, Leif was VERY, VERY enthusiastic about helping. It was hard to lure him away from this task -- even a promise of a ride in his little ka [car] could not compete with the allure of pushing the big broom with Dad.

Sleep eating

Leif normally wakes up at around 7:00 or 7:30 a.m., but on occasion he will surprise me by popping up in his crib, wide awake, at 5:30 or 6:00. On those days, it's a bit tricky timing his nap(s) since he's somewhat short on sleep from the night before and off his usual schedule. On the day this video was taken, I seem to have waited a bit too long before getting Leif in his high chair for his pre-nap snack.

No problem, Mom, I can eat and sleep at the same time!

Blast off!

Leif really likes it when Aaron plays "3, 2, 1, BLAST OFF!" with him. In this video, you can also make out one of Leif's favorite expressions, "Nen!", which means, "Again!"