Boyhood...

 I wonder if there is anything better than you in your red shoes, with popsicle all over your face checking out the chickens... You have become pretty emotional and willful lately. Feisty. I love it.

 And when I see you with dad, it melts my heart.

 This is literally how you walked out of the room the other day after a nap. You found my cougar hat on the bed.

You have been melting my heart all over the place lately, but the best thing had to do with this little piñata dinosaur. We had it for Jonah's bday and you LOVED it. A couple days later, jonah and I noticed that it still had one chocolate in it.. of course we had to get it out. But it was stuck. We had to use scissors to get it out. I didn't realize how attached you were to it. When you saw us cutting the dinosaur you got so upset. You started to yell at us. So i stopped and tried to put it back together. I saw your little chest puff up with utter emotion--Just WELLING with emotion. I held my arms out to you and you RAN to me and BURST into tears. I have never seen you filled with so much feeling. It was so sweet, little lion.

Leo Love

Leo, I cannot get over you lately. You have changed from a baby to a kid overnight. We just stare at you in amazement. The way say "shh" with your finger over your mouth when we walk by a bed, how you can go find your shoes, when you say my name, how you play with jonah, how you wave goodbye and hello.. but mostly your sweet kisses. And how much you love dad. Oh, and how you stomp your foot when you dance.. how everything is a "cool" seat. But my most favorite thing is hearing your little feet and seeing you stumble out of your room when you wake up... and then you RUN to give me a hug. No one needs to tell me these are the best years of my life... I am very much aware of that.

Aw Leo Love

It's almost your birthday. And I am getting a bit sentimental. I told you all about our hospital stay tonight and you listened really closely. I bought an In Style magazine because Alina bought me one last year when you were born. An In Style magazine. Ha. Love you, ferocious lion.

Dear Leo,
We moved into this house and it was just a house. With sad colors of paint. And a couple sad mattresses thrown on the ground. But then you learned to crawl here and it became our home.    


                                                

Chillin'

Dear Leo,
Your are pretty chill....

 For example we can take you out to eat and you will just chill with us... as long as we are holding you. It's amazing.

 Unless you feel your supervision is inadequate.

Foodie

So far....

Mangos, then peaches, cereal.... a couple squashes..apples and carrots. And a drop of chocolate uncle Ty accidentally dropped in your mouth. 

Dear Leo,
We were pretty nervous about getting you down to your new home in Arizona. It was an 8 1/2 hour drive from Moab and generally speaking, you hate driving. On the way down to Springville from Grandma and Grandpa McSwain's (our first leg of the trek) we really REALLY wanted to stop one more time at Eva's Bakery in Salt Lake City. We justified it by saying that we should really stop to get a treat for Ty and Bre for driving down with us. It was a huge risk. You were being good and we knew it wouldn't last. We did it anyway and of course you started screaming after our stop. I had bought some mangos for you (your very FIRST solid) but decided to save it for this very trek to see if it helped to distract you at all. So when you started crying, I opened the first pack and put a bite on your pacifier. It was magic. And that trick got us all the way to Safford.

It got a little crazy. A couple of times I had to wipe you all the way down and change your whole outfit. But it was worth it.