time for some reading...

here's leo with two of his favorite books...

whispers in the woods & the very lonely firefly.

a wonderful weekend...

it started with our anniversary...five years. i've said it before, and i'll say it again...i have the best husband in the world. leo and i had lunch with brian...we packed a picnic and ate outside. what a gorgeous day it was.


on saturday, we went for a nice, long walk. and then to the beach. where brian and leo built a bunker. it was pretty funny...it was just a big hole that leo couldn't get out of. he was laughing at brian building the walls, and he'd try to climb out every so often, but he never complained. i think he just dug hanging out in a hole. with daddy. more pictures here.



then...we went out to dinner. i can't say enough what a wonderful dinner it was. it was just...wonderful. i don't know if it's just because we don't go out to dinner that much anymore...or that the food was so good...or that leo was a champ at the restaurant...or that i just have the best family in the world...

whatever it was...

it was wonderful.

to top it off, we got ice cream for dessert.

and then, yesterday, we spent some time apartment searching. and then at the park.

see? a wonderful weekend.

need more pictures? find them...here.

11 months old!

so, looks like i haven't been to good with writing these days.

in the meantime...leo is 11 months old now. aye...it really does fly by! we've been doing a lot lately...last weekend, we went to the skirball center for a concert and to the noah's ark exhibit.

drumming at the rhythm child concert
drumming with daddy

gettin' some love from jillian :)

zipping around noah's ark

brian and leo had a boys night on sunday...while i had the pleasure of having a girls night out. i came home to leo passed out on brian's chest while brian was watching a movie. i love my boys :)

a couple of weeks ago, we headed into downtown la for a renee & jeremy concert. it was pretty hot, but leo didn't seem to mind. he was so fascinated by all the tall, shiny buildings...just pointing away at all of them. he was also a big fan of the water fountain in the park where they played.

renee & jeremy up on stage

a group of campers were also at the concert...leo decided to crawl over and sit amongst them. the girl he's looking up at had on some pink sparkly shoes...leo was impressed.

the cool fountain

as for the the little man...here's some updates...
-he has officially mastered the stairs outside the apartment. in fact, there was never even a trial and error time. he crawled up to them and up he went. now, looking out the window isn't good enough, because the stairs just call his name.
-he stood (once) for a couple of seconds all by his lonesome!
-it looks like tooth #8 is making it's way out...he's up to four on the top and four on the bottom.
-he's a BIG fan of making raspberries on our tummies...especially brian's.
-he claps when we ask him to.
-he moves up & down when we sing "bumpin' up & down..."
-he says "mama" and means it!
-he gives open mouth kisses...smack on the mouth.
-he's still not a fan of diaper changes.
-he LOVES his ukulele.
-he wants very little to do with the inside of our apartment lately...he always wants to be outside.
-he knows the hand movements to "open, shut them."
-some of his favorite books right now..."head to toe," "my friends," "whispers in the woods," "the very lonely firefly," and "ten little ladybugs."
-when we read "head to toe" he'll imitate the movements in the book when we do them. his favorite is when the "ape thumps his chest"...he'll climb up to me and hit my chest.
-he likes to hide the magnets under the refrigerator...he stretches his arm as far as it can go under there and pushes them in.

just standing in his basket

someone wanted to crawl towards the sprinklers...and found a puddle along the way


he was just a little excited about the puddle experience :)
the boys...fast asleep...one arm up

oma comes to town

leo noticed the stars last night. he looked up, saw one, smiled and pointed. *sigh*

oma was in town for the week. it was a spur of the moment visit, and it was wonderful. although, leo was not in the best of moods at the start of the week, being that it looks like he's got a mouthful of teeth emerging all at the same time. (by the way, #6 has officially arrived...his bottom left next to the middle). oma estimated that he'd warm up to her by friday (the night before she was leaving), and that was just about what happened. while oma was here, we went to the beach, saw brian's improv show, saw meredith baxter at trader joe's, went to the annenburg pool, and did a lot of shopping (and she spoiled us, too :) it was a really nice week.

dippin' their feet in...
he loved the hula hoops...
this next one is when oma decided to give leo the whole bowl of rice at pf chang's...he went to town on it. and then he made this face...

"don't you take this rice from me...i swear...you don't know what i'm capable of..."

leo's been very curious about things lately...and pointing at everything. i love that little chubby handed point. it's a little crooked...his hand aims in the right direction, but his puffy finger shoots off to the side. he's also got some new tricks...he puts his hands up when we say "how big is leo?!", and when he hears a dog, he gets pretty excited and goes "oofff". sometimes he mixes them up...we'll say "how does the dog go?" and he puts his hands up. he's trying :)

he's also loving playing chase with brian. as soon as brian gets down on his crawlers, leo starts giggling and crawls away really fast. then he'll get a good distance away, stop, and look back for brian.

yesterday, after oma left, we headed to the promenade for a ziggy marley concert. we have his kids' cd, so we (or i) was pretty excited. then we took a nice long walk along the park to see the HUGE waves that have been around the past couple of days. they're enormous!





and this is leo from a couple weeks ago...helping me make some sandwiches.

10 months old!

so the little man is now 10 months...

i feel like he's really starting to show his personality. and he's kind of goofy. if all the hand-twirling and tongue-flapping didn't tip us off before :)

he's definitely gaining some independence...when we go out somewhere, he doesn't hesitate to crawl off and explore. he checks in every once in awhile...he'll look for brian or me, or crawl back...but he's been very curious and digs exploring. he's getting louder, too...he's yelling and "blah, blah, blah"-ing a lot...and sometimes kind of grunting for our attention.

i really love how much he likes being around other kids...he gets a big silly grin when they come near him. today, we were hanging out with some friends, and he was lightly tapping one girl's head with a big smile, and then later, he and another girl were banging on a bowl together. (quite the lady-killer...hangin' with two girls in one day ;) )

some other things...
-he's been LOVING blueberries lately
-also into...garbanzo beans, pancakes, still loving bananas & sweet potatos, necatarines, apples, all kinds of grains...rice, barley, oatmeal, amaranth, and we just learned that he's a big fan of spinach
-he's standing a lot now...pulling himself up on everything. and he's a lot less wobbly
-he pants and crawls really fast when he gets excited
-he still loves looking out the window...especially now that he can crawl over to it, and pull himself up to look out (and to poop, we've discovered)
-he claps
-he points! (i think this is the cutest thing ever...especially because he often does the tongue exercise while he points.)
-he imitates sounds..."ffff" "p" (after we say "up"), "ba"
-he does a lot of imitating, in general...clapping, waving, tongue exercises, shaking his head, squeezing his eyes shut
-he loves playing with the springy door stops
-he has his two teeth on the bottom, and three on the top, with the fourth one soooo close to coming out
-apparently, he gets a kick out of getting hit in the face with his ball (it's a soft ball, thank goodness)
-he loves playing peek-a-boo at the coffee table...he pulls himself up to stand, and then squats down, and bounces back up again, over and over...and laughs and laughs!
-he's big into clearing off any flat surface...magazines, mail, phones...whatever's in his way
-he's feeding himself finger foods
-he's not into diaper changes again. and now that he's mobile, it makes for a very interesting diaper change.
-he gets sad when he sees brian or me leave :(
-he still has no hair

here's the ten month pictures...

fourth of july weekend

we had an unexpectedly busy weekend. on friday, we headed to griffith park. it's a bit big to enjoy (and boy, is it hot out there), but we had some lunch and sat by the merry-go-round. that night, just as leo was falling asleep, fireworks started down at the beach, so we all ran down to the park to watch. i think the run was the best part for leo...between getting whisked out of bed, being out after dark, bumping all around in brian's arms while watching me run behind...it was all pretty amusing for him...he was giggling like crazy. as far as the fireworks went...he was definitely interested, but not overly. for some of it, he was more interested in how the trees behind him were lighting up than the actual fireworks...it's always neat how kids notice the typically unnoticed.

yesterday, we headed down to redondo beach for a bbq at some friends'. afterwards, we drove to pacific palisades to watch the fireworks.they were much closer than the other night's, and leo was a little more cautious this time, but still interested. he did a lot of tight-lipped staring and teeth grinding.


then, today, we went to a bbq with a bunch of moms i met at the moms' group. it's definitely nice to be at things with other kiddos. although, leo's been having some sensitive moments...one of which happened there. he crawled up to a friend of ours, then up onto her lap...hangin' out there...then...realized it wasn't me...and boom...straight into the silent cry. and then into the all-out big-teared cry. same thing happened the other day, when our friend, deanna was holding him...he was perfectly fine, looking around, then started kissing her cheeks, and when he pulled his head back and saw that it wasn't my face...silent cry to big-teared cry all over again. silly little guy.

some pictures...

leo digging in the key bowl. this could keep him occupied for days.

leo helping todd fix his bike tire...and...just for the fun of it...leo's poop face. while pressed up against the window.

i'm a stay at home mom!

after many, many discussions, and a lot of thinking...we've decided that i'd resign from my job. it wasn't an easy decision, but we know this is the best decision...and i'm so excited! it's kind of strange that i won't be going back in september, but whenever we'd think of someone else taking care of leo, it just didn't sit right with either of us. so, leo and i went down to torrance on friday, and i handed in my letter of resignation.

phew. decision finally made.

leo's now pulling himself up on everything. and he's now attempting to move around while he's pulled up on something. the other day, he got himself in a bit of a pickle...he pulled himself up on the side table, and stepped up onto the bottom shelf of it...and then was pretty much stuck...with his little fingers starting to lose their grip. he just let out some peeps to be rescued, but he seemed to scare himself a little...poor little guy.

he's also been panting a lot...when he gets excited, he'll start crawling really fast and panting. (this often happens when he notices that the fridge is open...a new favorite.)

and he's now working on tooth number 6.