Loving Leo

In the beginning, there was the word, and the word was dat! Dat! was usually, and most enthusiastically: a flag, truck (or anything with wheels, really), dog, child, or playground. Dat! was also airplanes, flowers, and waves. For a while there, Leo had been working on other words for these things, but once he discovered the power of a pointed finger and dat! the vocabulary-building was all over. Dat! was the way we knew he was up in the morning. Dat! was everywhere, all day. If you don’t believe dat! then come hear for yourself.

But let’s get down to business. Here are photos from Leo’s busy, busy summer. Messy shirtless meals, escaping the heat at the coast, hanging out in the bathroom with Henry, becoming a toilet paper mummy with visitor Anna Brown, and oh yeah being the guest of honor (thanks to Vas and Debbie) at a Hare Krishna feast. A what?! Dat!

 This Fourth of July the Rose-Levins gathered up Leo’s friends Henry and Ian to attend a quintessentially American event–the rodeo.   Who knew that there were conservative Republican cowboys a mere 20 minutes from Menlo Park? It almost felt like we were back in Texas for a while, and we got some twinges of homesickness. We spent the rest of the day barbecuing veggie sausages while Leo B. played with his new obsession, the American flag, which he calls–what else?–”dat!” (more on “dat!” later). Leo can spot a flag from a mile away, and even stole one from Walgreens (hey, what’s more American than shoplifting?).

We also had the great pleasure of meeting Leo B’s new comrade-in-arms, Fausto Delfin, who is the brand new baby of our dear friends Teresa and William. It was the first time in a while that either of us had held a newborn, and we couldn’t believe that Leo B. was ever that small.   If you want to reminisce with us about how much Leo has changed, read last year’s fourth of July post here.

As Adam is fond of saying, Leo’s true loves are wine and women. Wine he gets a sip of every Friday night at Shabbat, and we usually have to pry him away from the cup (uh, should we be worried about this?). And he definitely has a soft spot for the young ladies. Whether in cafes or on the street, Leo makes sure to try to catch their eyes with loud cries, followed by coy smiles. If you don’t believe us, check out this video of him flirting shamelessly with our friend Sarah–now where in the heck did he learn to do that???

Until recently, Leo was content to be a loudmouth, bossy, fairly immobile baby. That all changed at his 12 month check-up, when Dr. Schillinger gently admonished us to quit catering to his every need. We were skeptical, but sure enough, once we stopped bringing him his coffee and New York Times, he started crawling with a vengeance, going from the classic baby crawl to the monkey crawl in a week’s time. Now he’s a loudmouth, bossy, mobile baby. Here are a couple of videos where he shows off his new moves.

In the wake of a flu shared by the entire family, with an ear infection thrown in for Baby Leo, we headed off to Monterey for a weekend of sun and fishtanks. Below are pictures from the weekend, as well as from the first few visitors in a long succession of guests we expect throughout the summer. Pictured here are Grandma Kay, Grandpa Rock, and Jessica “Scrawnie” Kreuter.

Also, there’s Leo’s new green bicycle seat, which has made it an even faster trip to the frozen yogurt place.

Here are a few pics of Leo and his buddy Ian who share a nanny together during the week. They’re a regular Bert and Ernie…

It’s so hard to believe that our little baby is already a year old! When Leo was a newborn, everybody would say “It goes by so fast,” and at the time, I didn’t believe them. The sleep deprivation and the adjustment to being a new mom sometimes made it seem like time had all but come to a complete stop–sometimes in a pleasant way, but often in a stressful way. Over the past year I’ve had to stop myself from wishing Leo would reach the next stage in his development–sitting up, eating solids, crawling, talking–and enjoy each day as it comes. Because every time he grows out of doing or wearing something, I get nostalgic for the “old days.” Sometimes I can’t even believe this is the same baby!

Leo celebrated his birthday with a lot of neighborhood friends and his grandma Kay and Grandpa Rock. We were also visited earlier in the week by our dear friends TC, Kymberlie and their adorable 15 month old baby Elliot, who Leo was fascinated by. All in all, I would say Leo has had a spectacular first year. I wouldn’t trade a single moment of it for anything. Happy birthday, little boy.

Better late than never, here are some photos from our family vacation last month at Aunt Fran and Uncle Jeff’s place in Kiawah, South Carolina. Thanks to guest photographer Michael”Grandpa” Rosenblatt, whose work behind the camera has resulted in his near-complete absence from the photos below.

We also want to thank our beloved niece and nephew, Rose (almost 4) and Gregory (2 in August) for showing Leo such a great time. Gregory shared his toys and ran around the house saying “Leo Leo Leo” (in fact, it’s hard to tell whose name he uttered more, Leo’s or Thomas’, of Thomas the Tank Engine fame). Rose helped change diapers, made artwork that broadened Leo’s aesthetic tastes, and generally treated him like visiting royalty.

Also, thanks everybody for not letting him get eaten by an alligator. Or us, for that matter. Those critters are going right under zombies and sharks on Adam’s “If There’s a God, What the Heck Was He Thinking When He Made That Thing?” list. And say what you want about the zombies, Adam won’t listen.

Leo is 11 months old today! Pics of his recent trip to South Carolina to visit with his cousins are coming soon–in the meantime, here’s a shot of him at breakfast today, covered in what is his only true food passion–blackberries!