Lily & Leo

Happy 4th birthday to my petite prince Leo! Leo weighs in at 33lbs (24 percentile) and stretches 41.5 inches tall (77 percentile)!  What a tall boy!  At his annual check, he had to take 3 shots, and that last one was a live virus so you can tell it hurt the most, poor baby!  He will have to come back in November for this chicken pox shot and the flu shot as well.  I know he won’t like it (who would?) but it’s for his own good and he stopped crying within a couple minutes and was happy again! He was being friendly to everyone at the doctor’s office so it’s nice to know he doesn’t hold a grudge haha.  Leo is still not eating much solid foods, mostly just mashed up foods that I made him and recently he’ll eat more soft crackers like ritz, cocunut butter crackers, and gnaw on eggless cookies till it’s soft enough for him to eat.  He really likes bananas and yogurt and fruits as well as long as it’s massed up.  He has a major sweet tooth so he loves lollipops and candy!  He also really like cold water and and slowly learning how to drink from a cup too!  He understands the motions, he just needs to have more control so that water doesn’t spill all over the place.  I do have these special cups that have an insert in them that slows down the water flow, so that helps minimize spillage too, you can check it out HERE.  He’s so smart and observant, and imitates a lot now.  It’s so fun to see what new things he picks up each day!
Leo really likes music and loves to wave his arms in the air, that’s his signature dance move, it’s toooo cute!  He likes interactive toys that would light up or play music as well.  He’s recently taking a liking to the ipad and phone to watch youtube kids and play on the app ABC Animals!  He’s very into alphabets songs and games, probably because that’s what he’s learning in school.  His teacher said maybe he’ll be a teacher one day because he likes to stand up in front of the class and point to the calendar and numbers and pictures and babble like he’s teaching the class, imitating the teacher!  That’s so adorable!!  Leo also likes watching birthday videos of people singing happy birthday to little kids and watching them blow out the candles and then clapping in celebration with them!  I though maybe he’ll be super excited when we sing happy birthday to him for his birthday but he just got shy instead, but he still clapped at the end haha.

Back in April we had the annual Starfish 5k Dash for Chromosome 18 Society and Organization and Leo and Team Leo raised the most amount for solo and team entry!!  They sent us two trophies and I’m just so happy and grateful for all the supporters of Leo and helping me with bringing more awareness and resources for this cause.  We had some difficulty dealing with some discrimination at Leo’s day care, but the lesson is to always speak up and stand up for what’s right.  We managed to get in touch with the higher up people and talk to the right people to set things straight.  We mostly we able to educate the staff members about Leo and his chromosome disorder and I feel like learning and bringing more awareness makes all the difference.  For those directors and supervisors and managers, I am grateful for them and all their help for making Leo’s day care environment more inviting and inclusive of him.  Little changes can make the biggest difference!

Leo is starting to work on bending his knees more to learn how to jump. He’s starting to when he dances and plays.  He knows how to say “done” very clearly now and he’ll try to say “thank you” but it’s not quite as clear but I understand what he’s trying to say.  He definitely picks up signs much quicker and easier than verbal words but it’s all part of learning communication so I will continue to sign and speak to him verbally.  He also upgraded to a big boy’s twin size bed a couple months ago and he loves it!!  The big mattress is so much more comfortable than the crib mattress and he has more space to stretch his long legs and I feel like he sleeps even longer too, which is impressive since he already sleeps a lot!  He looks up to Lily a lot so I think he’s happy that he has a big bed just like Lily now too.  Leo is also using the booster car seat like Lily now too!  What a big boy!  He loves playing with cars and it’ll be cute to see him zoom across the room on the floor pushing his little cars and trucks around!  Leo is very curious about the world and his surroundings, he likes to observe everything and take it all in.  He’s also very sensitive and sweet and when someone’s not feeling well, he’s very curious and tries to go over to them and wait it out and then try to give them a consoling hug.  He’s super sweet and caring and I just love seeing him grow into such a kind soul.  His laugh just melts my heart too and he is such a happy go lucky kid.  I’m so grateful!

Enjoy Leo’s birthday video below!  I just can’t stop smiling thinking about my little Leo!  What a wonderful year it’s been watching my petite prince Leo grow and develop!! He’s such a big ray of sunshine and happiness, it just melts my heart. I’m so lucky to be his mommy!! Happy 4th birthday my littlest love!!!