25 months

Leif is getting bigger and bigger. He has even come to accept the fact that he is getting a new baby soon and he is happy about it. Instead of saying that he is a baby, he says that he is a big boy. He tells me it is his baby and pats and kisses my belly quite often. Leif loves to jump and gallop lately and when he isn't doing that, he shuffles his feet around and walks like a little old man. Leif has just started making silly faces out of the blue. Asher started this much earlier because Austin always made silly faces at him, but Leif just kind of started it on his own. The other day I was feeding the boys lunch and all of the sudden Leif started blinking a lot and squeezing his eyes really tight when he shut them. At first I thought he had gotten something in his eyes, but then he lowered his eyebrows a bunch and smiled at me. He was quite delighted that mom and dad both laughed at him so much after that.
Leif continues to be quite sensitive. Sometimes very little things can get him upset. At least once a day I find him just lying on the floor with his blankies taking a break. Sometimes this is to calm him down from whatever upset him and other times its just what he feels like doing.
Leif loves to play with Asher. Their favorite activity is to jump off a desk onto the giant beanbag in our living room or off a wood chest onto Asher's mattress in their bedroom. They like to make up different names for their jumps (although 99% of their jumps look exactly the same). Leif most often does the "Dusty Jump" which is named after his favorite character from the Disney movie "Planes". He is obsessed with this movie and asks to watch it several times a day. Austin lets the boys watch it while I'm at work on Tuesdays, so Leif often tells me "Go work, mom. I watch Planes". But of course on the days that I do have to go to work, he cries "No go work. Stay home with me".
 Here are the photos I got of him playing with the new train tracks the boys got for Christmas.

Christmas

From about 4 am on, I was only half sleeping just waiting for the boys to come bouncing into our room. A little after 6, Leif came out of their room and stood in the hallway saying "Kismas? Kismas?" Then he shuffled his way into our room (this is his newest favorite way of walking just to be silly). Apparently a very dirty diaper is what woke him up, so I took him into our bathroom to get him cleaned up and Austin talked him into getting into the shower with him to get really clean. Afterwards, Leif wasn't sold on getting dressed so we all tucked back into bed and he rolled around giggling for about an hour before I told him to go get his brother up. I was surprised that Asher slept so long since most mornings he is up at 5:45 am. He wanted to get in our bed and snuggle a bit too before he was ready to go down to see what Santa left. The boys were most excited about their stockings, probably because they just wanted the instant gratification of all the candy. I tried to keep their stockings away until the end, but somehow Asher ended up feeding Leif an entire pack of Pez while we were opening presents. Eating candy before breakfast was a huge highlight of Christmas for both boys. After they opened presents the boys played with the toys for a bit while Austin made crepes for breakfast then we ate crepes with strawberries and whipped cream. The rest of the morning was spent playing with toys, watching Christmas movies, and eating a little more candy. Leif was not pleased with an early nap, but he slept for a bit while my sister and I played Candy Land with Asher. This is the first time he has ever played a board game, but he did pretty well. He only wanted his piece to land on blue spaces and a few times insisted on sliding his piece all over the board while knocking over the other pieces, but I think he'll figure out the rules soon if we keep playing with him. After Leif's nap, we went to Grandpa and Grandma's house for more presents and Christmas dinner. They boys were quite spoiled and got very thoughtful and fun presents. We even got snow in the evening, so the boys woke up to shovel it this morning, although it didn't last long before they were too cold. Here are the photos I got of Christmas morning.

Thanksgiving Birthday Boy

Our little Leif turned two years old today! We spent a few days at Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's house, so he had a delightful day playing with the toy tractors, running around outside, and being silly. About the time that we were having Thanksgiving dinner, Leif decided he wanted to be a grumpy goose so he ate a little bit, but mostly he wandered around the house or laid on the floor pouting. We waited a few hours to have pie then we put candles in a pumpkin pie and let Leif blow them out. It took him a few tries to get both candles out and he seemed to be more interested in the whipped cream and ice cream than the actual pie, but he did eat some and liked it.

 On Saturday, we went down to visit my family. My mom and stepdad had a planes party for Leif, which he was very excited about. They had little toy planes hanging from the ceiling fan that flew around above his green plane cake. Asher was happy to help Leif with his presents. He was good about letting Leif open the presents and didn't interfere too much, but later when it came to actually playing with the toys, he wasn't so generous as to let Leif play with his own toys. We make all toys "everyone's" toys anyway though, so we are just trying to help them be good about sharing and taking turns with the toys. One of my favorite parts of the party was my grandma blowing out the candles with Leif. I actually think that she was the one that blew out the candles, but he thought he was the one that did it. Again, he happily enjoyed his ice cream while mostly ignoring his cake.

Leif is getting so big. He is great at talking. He speaks in 5 or 6 word sentences a lot of the time and almost all of it intelligible, but that might just be because I'm his mom and listen to him all the time. Leif loves to walk up to me and say "you sewing mom?" or "you washing dishes mom?". He is also a little love bug and says "I love you, mom" all the time. Leif loves to help me around the house- particularly with washing dishes. As soon as he sees me at the sink, he pushes a stool over and tries to get in on the action too. Most of the time he just hold dishes that I already have in the drying rack under the water or takes dishes that aren't clean yet and puts them in the drying rack, but he's trying to be a helper.
I can't believe this sweet little guy has been with us for two years already- where did the time go?

23 Months

So, about a week after Leif's 22 month mark, I realized that I hadn't done a post on him. I decided it was too late to try to catch up and decided to just wait until 23 months. Leif is a funny little fellow. While he is getting much more comfortable with other people, he likes to make sure I'm there and paying plenty of attention when I am with him. Many times throughout the day he says "Hey, Mom" and waits for me to say "Hey, Leif". If he is close enough to me when he says it, he will pat me softly. Its so sweet. He also likes to come up to me and put his arm around my legs or back (if we are on the same level) and lean his head up against me. He does it to Austin too, but not quite as much. He is such a little love bug.
Leif continues to love to cook. We have a big ordeal on our hands if I won't let him sit up by the stove and do whatever I'm doing while I make dinner. He is happy if I just give him and empty pot and spoon to stir while I'm cutting and preparing food, but once I actually start cooking he has to be involved too. We have been really harsh about telling him how hot it is and that he is not allowed to touch it, but it still scares me a bit to have him there, especially when he and Asher start arguing about who gets to sit where and with which spoon.
Leif's favorite book of late is "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" which he just calls "Two Fish". We have to read it every naptime and bedtime and he almost always wants me to read it over and over, but I just tell him no. One time is usually my limit, sometime two. I like the book, but it gets a little repetitive. Austin hates the book and won't ever read it. Yesterday I got out "Where the Wild Things Are" just for something new to read and it has become an immediate favorite. In the last 24 hours I have read it no fewer than 20 times. He also likes to carry it around and "read" it to himself. I caught some pictures of him doing that this morning. Please note that the book is upside down :) Even when I turned it around for him, he turned it back.

Something I think is quite peculiar, but Austin thinks is normal, is that Leif insists that Asher's name is Leif too. I've asked him to say Asher so I know he can say it pretty clearly, but whenever he refers to Asher he calls him Leif. He has a funny thing he likes to do if Asher leaves his dinner uneaten (which is about 95% of the time) even if Leif hasn't eaten all of his dinner he says "I eat Leif's food all gone" and runs over to Asher's chair to eat his food. Sometimes this spurs Asher to run over and eat his own food, but not always. Leif is very fond of bossing Asher around or telling him he can't do something. Asher usually gets all upset and says "Leif said I can't . . ." and I have to remind him that Leif isn't in charge and just because Leif said he couldn't do something doesn't stop him from doing it.
Leif has now reached the age that Austin likes the very best. He can communicate (even though he doesn't always use that skill) and he is super fun. He and Asher love to get into all kinds of trouble together and we love being the parents of these silly boys. Here are the rest pictures I got of the two little trouble-makers together checking out their jack-o-lanterns.

Halloween Themed Sleepover

Its been months since we had Paul and Ben over for a sleepover, so we decided it was time. Amanda came over for the first few hours too, but she isn't quite old enough for a sleepover yet. We started the fun out with sugar cookie decorating. Amanda was part of that, but preferred to wander around the kitchen instead of sitting up to the table. She didn't really want to decorate either, but just told me what she wanted. Asher helped me make cookies the night before and wanted to make a special cookie for Amanda. First he wanted to make a monster truck or something like that, but I asked him to think of things that Amanda liked and he came up with Olaf (the snowman from the movie Frozen) so Austin helped him make a special snowman cookie and I helped Amanda decorate it. Her only real stipulation for any of her cookies was that they were purple and on a purple or pink plate. The three older boys actually put frosting on their cookies and got bored of the project after about 30 minutes. Leif spent most of the time just painting the plate with different colors of frosting (he may have gotten a little onto a cookie or two) and he was the one that lasted the longest at the project. He stayed and worked by himself for about 15 minutes after everyone else had run off to play somewhere else. Leif just loves to cook and I'm sure that was a delight for him.

 After cookies we had a scavenger hunt with all the clues on little paper pumpkins. The original idea was to have the scavenger hunt in the dark with flashlights, but it was still light outside when we were ready for a new activity, so we just did it without flashlights. Of course Paul and Ben were way ahead of all the other kids and we had to keep reminding them to wait for everyone, but the younger three got bored of it after a few clues anyway, so they just finished it off themselves. The prize at the end was the Peanuts Halloween movie (which, by the way, wasn't nearly as good as I remember it, although all the kids seemed enthralled) a bag of popcorn, and a bag of Halloween M&Ms. I wanted the kids to eat something besides sugar though, so I said they had to have some pizza before any more treats. Austin conducted a few rounds of Halloween Bingo while I cooked the pizzas and we tried to force everyone except Ben and Lief (who have always been known as the good eaters) to eat at least three bites. Then we moved into the living room for our movie and treats. The rule was supposed to be that the kids stay on the blanket on the floor to have their snacks, but you can see how well that worked.(as a side note, Paul isn't wearing his shirt just because he got frosting all over it and Asher isn't wearing his clothes just because he enjoys running around in his underwear as much as possible.)

After the movie, Renee and Justin came to pick up Amanda and after quite a bit of reading and singing, I finally convinced Leif to go to bed in his crib. The other boys ran around with Austin doing who knows what for an hour or so then they wanted to watch another movie, so we got them all settled for sleeping and let them watch the Curious George Halloween  movie and we went upstairs. Austin is always up later than I am so he went an turned the movie off for them and everyone slept soundly as far as I know. Asher slept in the living room with his cousins for the first time and did very well. In the morning everyone was sleeping as I got ready to go running. Asher woke up just as I was leaving so I sent him upstairs to play with Austin for awhile so his cousins could sleep. When I got back half an hour later everyone was up and eating bacon and running around. When I got back from the shower everyone had had a healthy dose of whipped cream sprayed straight into their mouths. We made crepes for breakfast and Austin judged the boys' crazy jumping contest, assigning random amounts of points to each boy as he jumped from the couch to the love sack. All in all it was pretty fun and quite exhausting. I was a bit of a grouchy monster in the morning because my lower back has been hurting and got really bad after my run. Good thing Austin was there to be the fun uncle, even if he teases way too much.

21 Months

Wow I'm behind! Leif turned 21 months old a few days ago. I realized the day after that I had forgotten to take photos of him, but then totally forgot about it again. I just happened to get this one picture of him yesterday morning because I thought it was funny, then I remembered this morning that I needed to blog about him. Leif's personality is shining out more and more.
Just in case you are wondering, yes, Leif does get up on our bathroom counter quite a bit even though I tell him constantly that he shouldn't be up there and get him down over and over again. He really likes to play with all of our bathroom stuff that is otherwise inaccessible to him. The sink seems to be a safe place for him to be since its unlikely that he is going to fall out unexpectedly, so I think I'll just let him play there from now on while I'm getting ready.
Leif volunteers for just about everything. He says "I do" or "I do too" to everything I ask. I often ask them "who likes _____?" or "who wants to _____?" so when he hears his brother say "I do", he has to get in on the action and copy him. But he also enthusiastically says "I do" when I say "Who is silly?" or "Who did this?"
He continues to eat twice as much as his brother most days and get really grumpy when he is hungry. We have to be really careful about not letting him go too long without eating though or he will get so grumpy that he will refuse to sit down and eat.
Leif loves to say "go away, pees" (please). I don't know where the boys picked up on telling people to go away, but I remember that Asher started it about a week before Leif did and we must have given him too much attention telling him not to say that to people that he liked the reaction he got out of us and just kept saying it. Of course his little brother picked up on it soon after, but added "pees" on the end. So now Asher says that too. I oscillate between ignoring them and telling them they shouldn't say that. I should probably just ignore it and let it die out.
Since the last time I blogged about Leif, we have moved the boys into the same room. Leif decided that they were going to be in the same bed too. When he saw Asher on the mattress the first night we tried to put them to bed, he refused to stay in his crib and was on the verge of falling out of it when I grabbed him and let him sleep on the mattress too. The boys aren't the best at going to sleep after I do their bedtime routine and turn the lights out. They stay up jumping on the bed, wrestling around, or digging in everything in the room and making a huge mess. Sometimes they turn the light back on and sometimes they just do their mischief in the dark. We have to go in a lot to turn the light back off and get people into bed. We try not to go in too often though, because it almost feels like rewarding them with our attention. Anyway, Leif has been getting a lot less sleep lately because they stay up so late and Asher wakes him up at the first sign of light. We have blocked the window out quite a bit, but Asher still seems to know as soon as morning is here. He does sleep in until about 7 some mornings though, so maybe he will start doing it more often. And we are hoping that the excitement of being in the same room will wear off soon and they will sleep more. We still have Leif take a nap in his crib by himself during the day, so he usually gets some good sleep there.
Leif has been cutting teeth like crazy (after months and months of having only 4 teeth). Poor little guy asks us for ice cubes a lot and always wants his binki, so he gets it more often than we ever let him have it during the day before.

20 Months

In the chaos of getting back home after being gone for a week, I completely spaced doing Leif's monthly post. Today has been the first day that I haven't been trying to get the house clean and organized, trying to catch up on scheduling for Austin's work, or taking little people to doctor/dentist appointments. We had some down-time this afternoon at a park when it hit me that I hadn't posted for Leif.

Leif is about the same kid as ever :) He can get upset really easily, but you can also make him laugh pretty easily. He is getting bunches of teeth in, so he has been crying a lot lately, but he still sleeps like a champ! Poor thing had only four teeth for over six months, and now they are all coming in at the same time. Here are some pictures from our afternoon at the park. Leif played in the sand a little but then was only interested in "Eat!" I let him have some fruit snacks and teddy grahams, but then made him wait until dinner (he wanted to finish the whole bag of teddy grahams and was offended that Asher wanted to have some).