Bem-vindo a Portugal

Ready for the Adventure

Our Portugal adventure has begun. Life here (at least for Leif  and I) is slower. We are adopting the culture, and it feels oh so strange coming from the hustle of life at home. People are relaxed and family oriented, with long meals and breaks in the middle of the day. Everyone has loved Leif and talks and plays with him when we are walking around and playing at the park. He hugs waitresses and people we meet and they give him hugs and kisses on the head (not strange here-I promise!) it is such a kid friendly culture.  There is an amazing kids park and cafe in the park to get an espresso and run around in the sunshine. (Espresso for me, running for Leif) Leif is really loving it here. He is running over the cobblestones, chasing pigeons and finding dogs. Talking constantly and interacting with everyone and everything in his environment.

"Whoa, check this out!"

Leif the Viking

We had a great Halloween, celebrating with cousins at Gigi and Popi's, celebrating with baby friends, and trick or treating with the Burns family. Leif had a great time! Leif wasn't as interested in candy and would instead try to walk into people's houses, pushing past the candy bowl. Our little social butterfly.

At his baby Halloween party he ran around talking and yelling like a viking. He even stood on the first step of the stairs and hung on by the baby gate and yelled down at the other kids. They were just all down there quietly playing on the floor while our bossy little monkey man tried to keep the party going.

He had a blast at Gigi and Popi's and loved seeing his cousins.

Happy First Birthday!

What could be better than a pit of balls for your birthday?

playing in his tunnel and new castle with Pop Pop (there appears to be good hair genes in Leif's future)

Happy Birthday 

blow out your candles

Leif update

Looking at the cover photo I can't believe that that little baby is now such a big boy. For the last week every night after Leif goes to sleep Zan and I have been staring at him saying "he is so big." 

Our guy is walking now. He started taking a few steps at around 10 1/2 months and now is walking like a little drunken sailor all over the place. He loves to wrestle and be held upside down, and tackle you. He mimics the little high pitched yell I do when I play with him and it is hilarious.  One of his favorite games right now is to find Ruby in the house and searches around saying "dog" until he finds her. At the zoo and the fair every animal was a dog. He also loves searching for the wild bunny we have that lives in our yard and feeding him carrots.
 

Leif and his best friend "dog"

At the fair with Mormor...working on horse. They were all "dogs" to Leif

Besides dog he also says dada and mama, bun (for bunny), and ba (ball).

sweetness

playing (which involves a lot of destruction)

cousin love

loves brushing his teeth while we sing the Raffi song (he has 4 teeth)

Gigi got him started on the garlic fries at Mariner's games. He loves 'em

End of summer and so many changes

WHOA! Where did the summer go? From what the blog tells me it was just the 4th of July. Our summer was full of fun and adventures and weddings. LOTS OF WEDDINGS.

First, Emily's wedding. What an amazing weekend of relaxing and celebrating with friends. 

Then Kate's wedding:

Amazing "big city" kid-less wedding

Zan and his ladies

Meghan's international wedding:

diplomacy is exhausting

Finally Matt's gigantic bash

A very happy 4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July in Cannon Beach with family and friends. Leif went in the Pacific for the first time, in his stylin' suit and hat. There were parties every night and plenty of fireworks (poor Ruby spent the weekend drugged, and hung over.) A great weekend with lots of kids, laughter, and family time. 

First time in the ocean

                                                          

                                                                            And he's off

Brrrrr

Glorious sun! Ahhh

The ladies loved Leif. Try saying that three times.

Everyone gets their turn to hold Baby Leif

Happy kids

My, Oh My

June 23rd marked Leif's first Mariner's game.  Gigi and Popi drove up for the weekend as a belated Father's day for both Dad and I.  It was a wonderful weekend and great game.  Raul Ibanez hit 2 home runs and Morales hit a 3-run homer in extra innings to beat the Oakland A's.  However, Leif seemed more interested in his Mariner Moose trading card.

Let the races begin!

Our sweet baby Leif is growing so fast. He is eating more and more solid food, says "Dada" and "baba" and "Ma." He has two little teeth. He has so much personality and loves to laugh, dance and play games. He reminds me so much of Zan how he can sit and focus and figure something out with his little tongue sticking out.  He loves making music, playing with doggies, and crashing.

First tooth!

Ouch!

After months and months of crankiness and sleepless night on and off he finally has his first tooth on the bottom right. Phew...now just for the rest of them!

8 month update

Leif is going to go to a woman's home once a week while I work so we can start to have more family time on the weekends. Her name is Jessica and she is the wife of one of the Social Workers I used to work with. They have twins who are 22 months and then the daughter of one of the OB's I work with goes there as well.  I am excited for him to be able to play with the other kids, and think it will be a great environment for this busy, active little boy. I wrote up his schedule for her, as well as his likes/dislikes. Thought I would post it for the memories.

Leif's general schedule 

8:00-8:30am morning nap

8:30 Zan will drop Leif off

0900 wakes up, eats a bottle (4-5oz)

        plays, books, music etc 

11ish (or sometime in between 0900 and 1200 he eats solids) 

1200 eats a bottle (4-5oz) 

1230-1pm Ergo and falls asleep (usually takes a 2 hour nap) 

2:30-3pm wakes up, eats a bottle (4-5oz) 

3-4:30pm Plays, outside, etc...

4:30pm Janna will pick Leif up

We are really flexible, but this is his basic schedule. Feel free to give him solids when you feed the other kids lunch etc, or feed him bottles early or later if his cues are different. 

Eating:

So far he can eat squash, sweet potato, banana, apricots, black beans. He can't tolerate rice or avocado right now. He loves water in his sippy cup.

Likes to play with: instruments, shakers, etc. New and fun textures (fluffy, rough, etc), balls. He likes to examine tags on things. Books that rhyme or have things to touch in them. Crawling, pulling up on anything and everything, creeping along things while standing. He LOVES outside. Loves to crawl in the grass, look at trees, birds etc. He can usually do well with just free play and exploring when things are set out. 

Naps: We put him in the ergo 15min or so before it's time to sleep and then put the hood up and a pacifer in his mouth and he goes to sleep. I usually lay him down right when he starts to close his eyes and is drowsy and then he will get comfortable in bed, usually rolls over and goes to sleep. He sleeps well with white noise.

Comfort/cranky/teething- he loves his pacifier which I will put in his bag so you have extras. He can have acetaminophen and or ibuprofen for pain which I will put in his bag with dosages. Teething rings, Sophie the giraffe is one of his favorite things to chew on. Ergo and swaying and shushing. 

Tired? Who's tired?

tickle tickle

Pretty sure he has been watching Ruby play with her toys

Mover and a shaker

True to his middle name, this boy is on the move. Last week I looked up and he had pulled himself up to his toy chest looking for another toy. 7 months...oh jeez, this little boy is going to give us a run for our money. Good incentive to keep in shape :)

Let's all head down to Tulip Town

Well technically it is up to Tulip town...

Leif was not impressed

With Auntie Kathleen

ohhh maybe he does like the tulips!" 

Uh Oh, maybe a little too much