Baking Chocolate Cake

You know what this cake needs?


Tasting!


Hands-on involvement!


Keeping your eyes on the prize!

Max and the Maximonsters (Where the Wild Things Are)

So Leo dressed up as a shark...

and read with Papi all about another little boy dressed as a wolf, who did loads of naughty things and got sent to his room.

Thank you for the photos Mamie!

Made by Lait Eau

The other day, Leo reminded us how he learned his name with this creation:


Milk-water, lait-eau, Leo!



Here's a train locomotive he put together from some multi-colored pasta his Papi gave him:



A train bridge:



A stylized car:



A laptop. The screen, he says, is flickr, and the keyboard is youtube:



A ticket inspection. This is the only piece of work in this post that isn't all Leo's work. The controllers on the local train are unfailingly kind to him and make funny faces on our tickets:



An ultrasaur! Don't worry if it is hard to see...



... because Leo's here to explain it all:

translation: [dad] so what is it? [leo] an ultrasaur - a dinosaur that has a long neck and is bigger than a titanosaur. [dad] wow-wow-wow. [leo] with... he has... this one is multicolored, with very very long legs [dad] yes, where are the legs? [leo] the legs are there, and there's another part there, and a part there like that, and another part there. [dad] and the head? [leo] the head is at the end there, that's the head. [dad] and the tail? [leo] the tail is there, there. [dad] it is very nice. [leo] yes.

School Photo Fall of 2010

At Léo's daycare, they took some school photos back in October or so. Note the beautiful sweater knit by Mamie!

Word up

We feel pretty good about the name we chose for Léo. For one thing, he has figured out to spell it (note the accent on the E!):


Léo was quite proud of himself.


We were proud of him, too, but we were even more amazed when this happened... Léo made himself an elevated train (un train élevé):


Then he asked for the letters L and V. And spelled "élevé"! (phonetically)


He is not always so serious. He can be pretty silly about what letters he strings together.


But he is pretty sure there is a "P" in "pluie". After that, he's got ideas on what isn't in it...

Léo's enthusiasm for writing means that sometimes when he sees me pick up a pen, he wants it for himself to draw and write. Which leads me to have to make my lists in the next writing implement available (in this case a red crayon). Paul thought this was a pretty funny list.


Thanks to Natasha for the great wooden letters!

The Flying Bag (Le Sac Volant)

Mostly, Léo's stories have to do with trains.







Maybe trucks and diggers.




Or planes.




But occasionally, it'll be something else: frogs having a party, or animals hatching out of eggs. On this day, he made himself a flying bag (akin to a flying carpet, but more snug).

Happy Halloween! (a mere quarter late)

A week or so before Halloween, Leo donned his Bob the Builder plaid jacket, and built himself...


...a Monster Truck!


On the bright day in question, Cousin Simon stepped out in style, clad in pumpkin.


He was joined by Tonton Vlado, a crypto-samurai, and Cousin (Danny) Buzz Lightyear, ready to explore the farthest reaches of their neighborhood in a quest for candy.


Leo wore a builder's cap.

Noemi was decked out in orange and black.


As the evening wound on, Leo got more interested in shaking up leaves than shaking down neighbors for candy.

Danny got in on the act too!

Happy Snowy New Year (a mere month late)

We had a visit from Auntie Rebecca for Christmas. We made a French Yule log:

yum!

The day after Christmas, it snowed A LOT:


So Leo got into his bear suit, extra scarf, and jacket to go shovel the snow:


Later, it snowed some more. Paul and Leo did their best to build a snowman with the very powdery snow, but it was really more of a snow cone. With eyes.


Then it snowed again. This time the snow was perfect for building a real snow man!


Paul gave him some eyes made of sippy cup tops.


A good thing, too, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the snow man at all, especially after it snowed again:


Where did our backyard go?


The snow is higher than Leo now. If we make it outside maybe we will take some more photos!

le vent du nord / the north wind

Leo very much enjoyed his birthday (which has been continuing for several days now). Here's "le vent du nord" on his second round of blowing out the birthday candles (once was not enough, so he did an encore):



Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts for Leo on his birthday!

Men at work

Leo has learned that, with a little work, anything can become anything else. He's been industriously applying this principle to our house, where little now remains that is not part of some kind of train. Everything in the sitting room is a train. Everything in the dining room may also be a train, but it is hard to get in there to check (because of all the trains). The kitchen? Full of trains, apart from a fire station whose engines seem to spend most of their time putting out train fires. The interior of the fridge has, through constant vigilance, remained train free, but its magnet-encrusted exterior has not escaped so lightly.

Today, for a change of pace, Leo went to chez Mamie et Papi, and worked on converting his tricycle to a tow truck. Here's Leo and Papi in serious discussions of how best to fabricate the hook:

(thanks Mamie for the photo!)