4!


Here's Leo the morning he turned four wearing the crown Eric made him and reclining on the fabulous L.E.O pillows that arrived in the mail from Luke & Oona in Chicago. He was so incredibly proud of himself all day and genuinely joyous over all he's achieved. We are so proud of him and ourselves.

He ignored us most of the day, during his birthday bash at the park, running freely with his BFF Ryder and friends all around the park - making brief appearances to blow out candles or to reject our carrot pizza. He was too zonked and sugared up from the mound of presents we opened when we got home to do much of a debrief - but it all came rolling out of him once he was tucked tightly into bed in the dark laying on his new pillows - replaying every interaction he had all day: "Ryder didn't want lemon cake, only chocolate cake. why?"

We are so grateful to have him in our family: His sophisticated humor, making jokes with eric at the dinner table in his mission control astronaut voice: "I'm going to sneak a bite of that cake. over."

The real friendships he's developing at school, his keen observations about the social world around him; his work as a brother & how he's learning to have a relationship with Rosie even as she has impeded his privacy, crawls over his lego towers, and limited his time with us.

We're in awe of and sometimes even mourn a teeny bit his gigantic leaps out on his own.

His fabulous accumulation of knowledge, about the moon landing, and volcanoes, and random things like chimneys and satellite dishes. His love for the nutcracker ballet and need to tell and retell and act out the story over and over again. Usually on our couch pillows, and with legos and in his new puppet theater. His mutual love for the part of the story where younger brother fritz breaks his older sister's new nutracker toy and need to act out both the part of fritz and the part of clara. Rosie is also often cast as the part of Fritz. "we are both fritzes" he told me. But also his love for the beauty and magic of the dance. His recalling of every little detail of our adventure there from the cookie at intermission to the photographs projected onto the curtain at the overture to the way the couch moved upstage.

Congratulations Leo.