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)

Children's Museum

Since Leif is extremely enthused these days about any new place where he can walk around freely and practice climbing on things, we decided to take the plunge and get a membership at the Minnesota Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul. So far Leif and I have visited the museum twice, and we had a great time both times. The Habitot room was excellent exercise for both of us -- for Leif because of all the carpeted steps and ramps he got to toddle up and down and up and down, and for me as I followed along closely behind him, nervous about him getting overconfident and taking a tumble or getting plowed over by one of the older kids zooming around the room. (I did find it a little odd that the room is designated for ages 6 months to 48 months -- way too large an age range, if you ask me!)

On our second visit, we explored the Our World exhibit. Most of it seemed aimed at older kids, but Leif seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. He especially liked the water tables -- it was his first time playing in one. A wall with six small doors that Leif could open and close was also (predictably) a hit.

I'm a-gonna drive my car

Now that Leif has been walking for almost two months, the next logical step in his ever-increasing mobility was bound to be...DRIVING. We just thought we had about 15 more years to go before that step! Guess not. Leif seemed to enjoy his new mode of transportation (and Mom and Dad of course enjoyed pushing him). Leif says thank you again to Granny and Grandpaw G. for the flashy new wheels.

Leif-in-the-box

Another great toy in our front entryway: the box into which our mail falls (at least on good days, when the mailman manages to push it all the way through the slot). It has nice, low sides and there's even a bench next to it that Leif can hold onto while he is climbing in and out...and in and out and in and out and in and out!

Shoes

Leif has discovered the joy of taking things out of their containers and down from their shelves (and sometimes putting them back). He particularly likes pulling laundry out of baskets, reorganizing the drawers in the kitchen, and, most recently, removing all the shoes from the shoe rack in the front entryway. He occasionally tries to put some of the shoes back on the rack, but that is a little bit challenging (and/or boring) for him at this point. It crossed my mind that we could get an enclosed shoe cabinet so we wouldn't have to deal with perpetually having a big pile of shoes in the entry, but then I thought, what we really have here is a great toddler toy that we didn't have to go and buy because it was already here, just waiting to be discovered. Why mess with a good thing? :)

Bib gallery redux

Leif acquired enough bibs in his first year that he certainly doesn't need any more at this point, but sometimes I just can't resist. Cheap thrills!




Although at 13 1/2 months, Leif still has very kissable, pudgy cheeks, you can see that he is no longer quite the round-faced cherub that he was when I posted the original bib gallery back in early September 2010 (when Leif was about 6 months old).