Halloween!

Here's Lennon helping scoop the insides out of our pumpkin.

Here's our little devil with her sparkly pitchfork.

Cake!

Today Lennon woke up from her nap while I was reading in bed and eating a piece of leftover birthday cake. She sat up, climbed over to me, and finished my cake, still totally groggy. Then she picked up the plate and spent the next 3 minutes licking off every last bit of frosting.


Such a funny little girl. And so much like her mommy.

Fun with Spoons

Today at breakfast I showed Lennon how to balance a tiny demitasse spoon on her tiny nose. She thought it was hilarious.



She's trying to help me out with my spoon.


And here's Trooper wondering what Lennon and I are laughing at.

We have the most fun at breakfast time.

Chickens!

Last Friday we brought our two new 11 week old cuckoo marans pullets home. At first they were extra cautious when I went into their pen, but they're warming up to me quickly, so the past two days I've been bringing Lennon out with me to watch them. She absolutely loves them! She throws cracked corn at them by taking one or two pieces at a time and chucking them as hard as she can at the birds' heads. Then she follows them around calling "Chicken! Chicken! C'mon, chicken!"
I do have to hold her back when she tries to chase them to give them kisses. This girl LOVES poultry!

Breakfast Time

This is our typical breakfast conversation. (It's a little long, but I just really don't feel like editing it right now.)

No!

Lennon has discovered the power of "no". She has also discovered the joy of nudity. She is officially a toddler.

New words are arriving every day; I love being able to communicate with Lennon. The other day we had this awesome conversation:
LB- Room.
me- Which room?
LB- Lennon.
me- What do you want to do in your room?
LB- Toys.

Genius!

Spring!

Spring has arrived and Lennon's been having such a wonderful time playing outside in the sunshine. She hasn't been very interested in toys, but has been helping us pull weeds, pot plants, and dig holes. Today her favorite game was pulling up handfuls of grass, putting them on Trooper's head, then pointing and giggling at him. Troopy is such a good sport and usually just stood there with his little green wig.

Lennon's Doggies

Lennon is starting to understand the concept of "gentle" so we've been allowing her to spend a little more time interacting with Trooper and Chloe. She's been chasing them around the kitchen table, petting, hugging, and kissing them. She tells them: no, out, and eat; she can also say: Bubba/Bubby, Chloe, doggy, and beagle. This morning she was even trying to "read" a book to Trooper, showing him the pictures and making animal sounds for him. Lennon loves her doggies!

Hiding

Sometimes when Lennon gets upset with me she tries to hide her face in a corner.

Lennon and Lola

Extended Rear Facing

We often get asked why Lennon's car seat is still rear-facing even though she meets the requirements to be forward-facing. Although 1 year old and 20 lbs is the minimum requirement, most car seat technicians are now recommending to wait until the child is at least 2 years old and 30 lbs to turn the seat around. We'll probably turn Lennon around when she's two, maybe earlier, maybe later. I think both of our car seats have a maximum rear-facing weight of 35 lbs, so we have quite a while (she's only 23 lbs). As for now she doesn't seem to mind sitting backwards, so backwards she will remain. Here's some good info on extended-rear-facing.

Lennon Loves the Baby

Since we moved back to Petaluma our computer has been in a non-child-friendly room, so I haven't had many chances to use it for long enough to upload videos or many pictures. We just moved the computer into the room where we spend most of our time, so hopefully I'll get into the habit of posting regularly.

Lennon is wonderful! She has started trying to repeat everything we say and is still learning new signs. Her favorite word right now is "please" (which sounds more like "peash"), because she knows that's how to get whatever she wants. Every time we see a little kid she gets super excited and yells "BABY!", then she tries to hug and kiss the kid.

Whenever I take out the video camera Lennon runs toward me and grabs the screen so she can see herself in it. In this video I flipped the screen around so she could see "the baby" in it while I was taping her. This was a couple of months ago so she wasn't talking as much as she is now, but you can see her sign: mom, sleep, all done, baby, and please.