Leo Update

Leo's now a couple of months over four, and a handful and a half. The changes at this age aren't quite as marked as those of a baby, but they're still significant.

He’s turning into a really interesting little boy. He’s super affectionate, funny and very energetic. He runs around a lot outside, looking for acorns, playing with bugs, frogs, or anything else he can get his hands on. He notices everything and finds it all fascinating, just like his papa. He’s past the “why?why?why?” stage, but still curious about his world, and the questions he asks are often extremely inciteful. But he is also a terror. He is stubborn, willful and very particular about how things need to be done (qualities I respect, though not always in a four year old). He’ll get wild and play too rough, and getting him to stop and listen to the word “no” can be very taxing.

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He and Nicky play a lot together. It’ll often end in tears, with either Leo taking away a toy or Nicky inadvertently throwing something at Leo’s head. But up until the tears point, they are very cute.

Now that there’s no school, he has extra energy to use up. Luckily he loves to do the homework we set for him. He’s getting good at numbers and words and relationships between several items. He loves to do puzzles and can do up to 100 pieces very quickly, more than 100 a little slower. When he’s a good boy (which is surprisingly not every day!), we play Treasure Hunt. I hide clues over the property, and he has to read a word to find the next one. There’s now about 10 or so words that he can read instantly, others he has to sound out. He loves it and cries when he’s lost the right to play.

Much more than Nicky, Leo likes being the center of attention, which is hard when there’s a baby around. In May, we got to visit with Abe’s family, and Leo really thrived on the extra attention. It’s a shame our families don’t live closer.

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He’s a very independent little guy and always has been. For a long, long time now, he has been able to dress himself, wipe his butt, brush his teeth, get up in the night to pee, etc. He still has some issues when he wants to do something by himself and can’t, but he’s learning to handle the frustration a lot better.

He likes to help whenever he can, whether cooking, cleaning, some outside project, with the animals.
In every way, he’s growing up, and we think he’ll turn into a wonderful person, if we don’t kill him first.