LEIF IS ONE!!!

It's hard to believe that our little Leif is already a year old! He's getting to be such a big boy and learning new things each day.

Leif is expert at throwing things on the floor. He loves to watch as he drops something and as soon as Austin or I pick it up, he'll drop it again. As I've learned with Asher, this phase will last for a long time yet, so we have resigned ourselves to picking things up for him until we get sick of it, then just hoping that he will move onto something else.
Leif is a ravenous eater. I swear he eats more than Asher most days. When he sees someone eating something and he feels like its not getting over to him fast enough, he will howl and whine until he gets food in his mouth. He is especially vocal while I am peeling Cutie oranges. Those seem to be his favorite food, although he will eat just about anything given to him.
Leif loves to stand up and cruises around a little, but doesn't show much interest in walking yet. He likes me to help him stand up, but if I try to get a step or two out of him, he automatically drops all his weight onto the floor.
Leif is delighted at the game of passing something back and forth with me. He is thrilled with himself when he passes something to me when I ask him to, then even more excited to get it back into his hand. This is a very easy and effective way to entertain him and get him giggling.
Leif loves to babble and when he is really talkative, he puckers up his lips for some reason. He says "dad" in reference to Austin, but when I try to get him to say "mama" he just laughs at me. My feelings aren't too hurt though, because Leif makes it very obvious that I am his favorite person with his separation anxiety. He's got a pretty bad case of it lately and wants to be with me all the time. I think our trip to Utah intensified it a little because he has been a little bit better since we've gotten settled back into home. He will usually fall asleep on his own now after I nurse him and he's okay staying in a room by himself or with Asher or Austin for at least a few minutes.
Something that I love to see Leif do is lie around and kick his feet in the middle of playing. Maybe a lot of babies do this--just hang out and look around--but Asher never did this, so we love to see Leif take a break in the middle of his playing to lie around and check out the world. Also, if someone leaves a blanket on the floor, Leif will go roll around on it and shove his face into it.
To celebrate Leif's birthday, we had crepes for breakfast.

 Then after his nap, my mom and I took Leif and Asher to downtown Fort Collins. We stopped by the toy store to pick out a toy for Leif then we stopped by the cookie store and everyone got a cookie.

 Leif liked playing with his, but didn't eat very much of it. He seemed to like drinking water out of a cup instead. We also went to the fabric store and kitchen store, but that was more for us than for the boys, although Leif was a pleasant little fellow the whole time (not something I could say for his older brother :) For dinner, my mom, Austin, and I took the boys to The Olive Garden where the boys could both enjoy some pasta.

Then Austin insisted that we go to Dairy Queen for dessert. Leif doesn't really like ice cream, maybe because its too cold for him, but he ate a little and enjoyed dancing on the table and flirting with the girl behind the counter. Here he is checking her out.
All in all it was a very fun birthday. We will have his birthday party along with Thanksgiving celebrations.

28 Months

Asher is getting bigger and bigger. Its fun to watch his personality get bigger and bigger too, although its not fun to hear his often-repeated "No, Mom". He usually says it when I ask him to do something he doesn't want to, but sometimes he just says it for no apparent reason. And yet, somehow I still find myself arguing with him "Yes, Asher" even though I'm not sure what he is saying no to. I've found that when I catch myself doing that, if I just say "No, Asher" back to him, he stops pretty quickly. Something else that Asher says quite a bit lately is "Oooh", like he has made some great discovery. From everything I can tell, he has made no such discovery and is just saying it to entertain himself while he is playing throughout the day or maybe because he heard someone, somewhere, say it once.
Asher is full of energy and if he doesn't get it out by running or some other physical means, he tends to take it out on his brother. Sometimes while they are sitting next to each other Asher will suddenly reach out and pinch Leif or pull on his clothes as hard as he can like he just can't contain himself. He also loves to jump on and wrestle with Leif but can't understand why Leif cries and mom and dad scold when he jumps on on lies on Leif's head. He also is very good about getting toys for Leif or trying to make him feel better when he seems upset. Asher prides himself on being a "good boy" and often tells us that he is one, or nods confidently when we say he is a good boy.
Asher isn't much for eating lately, unless it's a treat or Cheerios (he would happily eat those for every meal), but he does love cuties oranges. These are the only pictures I got of him-they aren't even in focus, but that's what you get :)