Sean and Aleece

Now that Kalven is mobile he just loves to move.  He goes everywhere, the unfortunate thing is he tries to go places that he does not fit and gets stuck.

He usually does not realize that he is stuck at first and is still all happy go lucky.  But when he finally does realize it he gets mad!

Another part of the ever mobile baby is he loves to climb stairs.  He will just head over to them when ever he feels like it.  He has so much fun climbing them he often looks around to make sure everyone else is having fun too!

Thankfully his balance is better and he does not lean down the stairs, causing him to fall.  We don’t worry about him anymore, Kalven is an old pro at stairs.

This was a while ago, but I just got the pictures off the camera and found it again.  Anyway…

Aleece loves to walk through the discount section at Target.  One time she found a container of like 20 or so glow in the dark bracelet/necklace things.  For like $1.  She picked up 2 containers.  I told her for a dollar get 5 or 6, Leif would LOVE to play with these!  So she went back to the aisle and grabbed a few more.  When we got home we went to the downstairs bathroom (only room in the house besides the laundry that has no windows) and we tried some out.  Sure enough, the glowed!  We were waving and shaking them around to streak the light.  Then I had an idea.

If I grab my camera and turn the shutter speed way down we can paint with light.  I got a couple pictures, mostly just goofing around, but boy was it fun.  Leif did not care about the camera, he just liked the glow in the dark.

So, it’s been a while since I have had a picture post.  I think that Leif’s birthday is a fun excuse to have one!  Here we go…

It’s the Birthday boy in his ultra-cool shades!

The birthday boy is urging the kids to come play.  There is a pool and toys over here!

Kalven likes the rocking lizard, so does Leif.

Leif convinces Grandma Jan to take a dip in the pool.

And the master chef shows off his talents at the grill.

Ayris got changed and is ready for pool time!  Kalven can not be left out either.

Summer time and a pool, does life get any better?

Ah, adding in balloons makes it better!

Kalven loves his Godfather Tommy.

Watch out Grandma, Kalven is stealing you food!

Birthday cake!

We lit the candles and had Leif blow them out inside, there was a bit of a breeze.

We are singing to Leif and all he is thinking is “When do I get to dig in?”

Ah, finally.  Cake Time!

Gotta stop for a family picture.

Present time!

What good is opening presents if you can not play with them.

“What do you mean ‘Some assembly required’?”  Oh well, good thing Leif likes to help.

Uncle Tommy likes his balloon.

If you want to view all of our pictures you can go to our web album.

Leif is actually doing pretty well on potty training.

On his good days he will recognize the feeling associated with having to go to the bathroom and he will rush off all by himself.  His aim is even improving.

Leif started off thinking that you just sit on the toilet a while, then pull some toilet paper off, throw it in and then flush.  Aleece has molded this behavior so now Leif will rip off just a little paper, wipe down his legs, the seat and the floor.  Leif pretty much cleans up the messes he makes by bad aim.

Leif has gotten to the point where he goes so much now that he does not ask for treats every time.  We still make sure to praise him though, keep his spirits up.

But we still have “bad” days.

About every 1-3 days Leif will just refuse to use the bathroom.  Right now the challenge is stretching out the bad days.

But the good days are enough right now to get us through.  It is so cute to be playing with Leif and all of a sudden he goes “Uh! Oh!”, grabs his crotch, and runs out of the room.

Saturday was my birthday.  Got up in the morning with the kids and just before breakfast Leif comes down the stairs giggling with a bag in hand.  I think he likes presents.  After breakfast we went for a photo shoot for the kids, gotta keep those pictures on the wall up to date you know.  After the photos we had to wait about 15 min for them to load the pictures into the system so we could order.  We usually spend this time by walking around the mall a bit.  Leif was a really good little boy.  he held my hand and did not try to run away at all.  He did want to ride the escalators a bit, up and down, then up, then down, then up, then…well you get the idea.  It was lots of fun.  After we ordered pictures it was back home where we played a little before lunch and then naps.  Dinner was a BBQ at a friends house, but we called it an early night.  Storms rolled in and all our windows were still up so we went home to close up the house.  Aleece and I finished the day by watching an oldie-but-goodie movie.

A nice easy going day, perfect.