Our most precious memories from December and part of January:
Having little Leo early in the morning, and walking him into the room where Guillermo usually was on the computer. Guillermo would look up when he realized we were coming into the room, and with a big smile on his face exclaim, "A - MI - GUI- TO!!!" This in turn would make Leo break out into a huge smile and usually stick his whole fist into his mouth, because he was just as happy to see his abuelito. Then Guillermo would spend the next 5 minutes or so holding Leo and we'd put him on the futon where he'd happily play with us or the pillows or look at an animal book with Guillermo.
Then I would carry him into another room where there would always be a little electric heater going. Leo was fascinated with that heater and would always stare at it. We'd sit on the bed in that room and read the same two or three books every morning. After that little morning ritual, we'd head out to his playground in the living room.
We had a Snoopy plush that would play music when you'd press his paw. Leo loved that Snoopy and while we'd dance in place to the music, the sweetest sounds would sometimes come out of his mouth.
Leo seemed to love sitting out in our garage and listening to classical music with his abuelito. Guillermo would take him out there and they would both just peacefully listen to the music. Leo never seemed to tire of it. We set up some lawn chairs in the garage and would sometimes sit in them with the garage door open. It was a perfect place to sit especially when it was very cold and windy. We'd feel perfectly comfortable in the garage.
Before Christmas we had some nice warm weather so we took advantage of that and would do a little walking when it was dark outside to see the houses decorated for Christmas. There were several houses that Leo seemed to enjoy. One house was close to ours and had two big inflatables. One was a penguin and the other was a snowman. Leo just loved going out to look at the penguin and the snowman! Another house had an inflatable that was a Christmas tree with a Santa that would pop up out of the top of the tree and then go back in. Eva and I really enjoyed the evenings that we were able to walk out there and show Leo all the lights and decorations.
Guillermo loved holding Leo to look out the back patio windows. Leo was fascinated with the squirrels that would frolic out there and watched in amazement when huge flocks of doves would fly up from the neighbor's yard. It seemed there was always something going on back there!
One day Fernando and Eva needed to go to the credit union and also do some grocery shopping. They dropped Guillermo, Leo and I off at a nearby park while they took care of business. Oh my goodness what a nice time we had. First we hung around the playground for a few minutes so Leo could watch the other kids playing, which seemed to fascinate him. Then we took him with the stroller down the walk to the trails where there were lots of trees. He seemed to really enjoy that. He just lay back in his stroller and watched the scenery go by. It was very peaceful on that walk and we were just going to do a tiny little piece of that walk (because it was a LONG way back to the playground if he started getting upset) but we ended up doing another section of that trail because he seemed to be enjoying it so much. Then we went back to the playground. We sat among the children playing which he seemed to really enjoy. Then he and I took a slide down one of the tamer slides - not really sure how he felt about that.
There were other memories, and if some come to mind, I'll include them......
