Leo has about a thousand and one adorable faces that he makes - The Rock where he raises one eyebrow, the toothy smile, the sleepy eye-rub face, the excited eyebrow raise, and more. A face that he has mastered over the last month or so has been dubbed by Carol as the Pickle Puss.
The Pickle Puss - Leo's newest face that is used in all settings. Wants to get your attention? Pickle puss. Wants to give a kiss? Pickle puss. Wants to reach for something? Frustrated? Happy? Angry. Pickle puss! Why does he keep doing this? We don't know. But it's impossible to not make the face back at him!
Here you can see a couple of Pickle Puss examples in the wild:
Here's a video of Leo helping us open our brand new mattress:
And here are a few bonus pictures from this past week, just for reading the blog:
Oh my gosh, our baby is one!!! Can you believe we've had an entire year with this happy, snuggly, silly, amazing little guy? Our lives have totally changed since February 8, 2017, and we have loved it.
Things take a lot longer than they used to (getting ready every morning with a baby who insists on being held), we wake up earlier in the morning than we used to (but luckily Leo usually sleeps and/or entertains himself until about 7:30), and we have different taste in music than we used to (helloooo Moana, Muppets, and sleepy time lullabies). But when this adorable little man wants to snuggle with you, it just melts your heart and validates the entire lifestyle change.
The night before Leo's birthday, we celebrated my Labor Day. A friend brought this idea up to us and we think it's fantastic. Why is Leo the only one who gets to celebrate? After all, I did all the work! So on February 7th, I got to celebrate my way. We talked about what we were doing this time last year (including on February 6th, when my labor actually started), so drank some wine, watched a movie, reminisced, and talked about how lucky we were that Leo is such a good baby. But then again, we always talk about how lucky we are that Leo is such a good baby.
Since you don't just turn 1 every day, we decided to have a party for our big boy! Carol and Joe even flew in town to celebrate with us! One of our favorite things to read to Leo before bed is Dr. Seuss books so we decided to have a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party. I was prepping by cutting out tiny Leo heads and fluffing paper fluffs for the last month or so. You know, I love arts and crafts. We were all so excited when the day was finally here!
Leo helped us set up for the party in his jammies. And he was testing out the big boy chairs:
Here's the living room with paper and crayons on the table and toys out for the kids. What do you think? Does it look Seussy enough in here?
And here is the good stuff - the room with all of the Seussy snacks!
We had Green Eggs and Ham, we had Hop on Popcorn, we had Truffula Fruits and Pink Yink Ink Drink:
We had the Lorax (made by Grandma Carol and Poppa), we had One Fish Two Fish, we had If I Ran the Circus Animals, we had Brown Bar-Ba-Loots and more!
We'r ready to party!!!:
Our guests started to arrive and the Hermans got the party started! They helped color in the sign on the coloring table, they started racing cars, and they found the biggest hats they could find:
And now, it's time for Leo to have his birthday cake!
I made him a cute little hat and put it on, and this is what he thought of it:
We sang Happy Birthday and then let Leo enjoy his very own cake. How did he eat it? Very strategically. First he ate the red border off of the top. Then he enjoyed the blue, then he realized there was cake inside and had some of that too:
For those of you who weren't at the party, you can relive all of the cakey glory by watching it on video!: www.thestamms.blogspot.com
We had about 30 people come all together, including 8 kids - we had a full house!
Never to play favorites, Zee can entertain all three of his grandkids at one time:
Leo is so lucky to have all four of his grandparents here to celebrate his big day with him!:
We had a fantastic day celebrating Leo's 1st Birthday with so many friends and family. Thank you, everyone, for being a part of his special day!
The Stamm Family February 8, 2017 and The Stamm Family February 8, 2018:
Leo has a new friend. And he doesn't even have a name. Who is this mystery friend? He has a little teddy bear that has been sitting on Leo's bookshelf for the last 11 months. Last week I put this little teddy bear in his crib with him to see what would happen.
Leo LOVES his teddy bear!
They spoon, Leo uses him as a pillow, his lays his arm over the bear as they sleep - it's rare that they aren't touching while Leo is sleeping.
In fact, now when we take Leo out of his crib, he looks down into his crib at the teddy bear until I take the bear out and Leo holds him by the arm. This morning, I was nursing Leo and he was holding onto the bear and playing with his ears. It's quite the budding bromance. I tried to take a picture but every time Leo saw the phone, he swatted at it. I'm sure you'll see many more photos of the teddy bear in upcoming pictures.
The only problem is the bear doesn't have a name yet. We're taking suggestions!
Here are some bonus pictures - yesterday Leo had a "sick day" - he had a fever on Sunday night but hasn't had one since. Since the flu is really hitting hard, we decided it would be best if he had the day at home. We spent most of the day reading stories, practicing drinking out of water bottles, and changing out of wet shirts because drinking out of a water bottle is hard.
And here is a video of Leo trying broccoli for the first time! He has had it pureed before but never in its full form. If you're reading this in an email, click here to see the video: Leo tries broccoli
