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?