Four months later and I'm finally posting that Leo, did in fact, turn 1 this past June.
Behold the cuteness and the end of babyness and the emergence into toddlerhood.
The weekend of his birthday we had a little family party here at the house.
Henry had to get in on making a decoration or two.
Birthday boy with his presents and some blowup animals since any balloon he sees he tries to pop with his teeth.
We had some pizza before the party because it was Henry's end of the season party for soccer so once we got home we were able to get right to it.
My nephew Apollo being a ham/mad scientist.
Between Henry, Thea and Apollo's help, Leo made short work of getting through his presents and then it was time for cupcakes and happy birthday. I need to upload the video of us singing to him because he has such a confused, "I should be happy right?" look on his face the whole time.
I'd say 1/4 ended up in his mouth, 1/2 on the floor and 1/4 all over his body.
A little bit about Leo since he's been 1. He started walking maybe two or three weeks before his first birthday but wasn't really super stable doing it until a little after. He says 'mama' 'dada' 'nah nah' for night night, bye, hi and his favorite is 'shoes' which sounds like 'sszzzzhhhhhooooosssss' but it's the word he says most consistently and distinctly.
It makes sense he loves to say shoes because he wants to be outside all the time. He also likes getting in the van to go pretty much anywhere, as long as it's before nightfall. He still gets upset about driving at night. Half the time he'll fall asleep, the other half he'll just scream and I have to sit back with him and sometimes nurse him.
Yup, he's still nursing. I have tried to night time ween him with no success, partially due to no diligence on my part. I tried to sleep train him to go down in his crib and sleep there and he screamed and gagged himself into throwing up four times, for two and a half hours. So he's still in our bed for half of the night/morning. Basically what I'm saying is he is the typical indulged youngest. I'm hoping once the kitchen remodel is done at the end of October I can work with him to get him sleeping the night in the crib so we can eventually move him out of our room.
He's gotten a lot better about screaming in the last month or so. It use to be every second he was unhappy or not getting what he wanted he screamed until I nursed him or he got what he wanted. Now he's more easily engaged in a toy or something else but we still have our days. He'll even go around the house and play with toys or look for something to get into.He's still a good little cuddler and has not slowed down on sprouting teeth. Henry had maybe 4 at his age. He likes eating, especially whatever we have, and eggs are probably his favorite. He also loves climbing on the table, sigh. He loves the chickens, Daniel Tiger, getting scared, scribble scrabbling and following his siblings around and occasionally harassing them. Kid definitely goes for what he wants, no matter who has it. Still loves mommy the most but he will actually stay with daddy or grammy if there is some distraction. He's finally coming into a little personality and it's mostly mischievous, silly and inquisitive. Should be interesting to see how the three very different personalities work together.
While I like to say "three broke me," and I mean, it did in a lot of lacking sanity ways, it has also humbled me and made me realize how special each individual is and how much I love each and every one of these kiddos for who they are. I'm so glad we have our little Leo lion in our family. It wouldn't be nearly as full of fun or love without him.
And lest I forget, Thea wore the birthday hat the rest of the party after Leo because whooooo's birthday was next but this little girl!
