Future Vacuumers of America

On a recent weekend day, Leif watched from his booster chair in the kitchen, totally rapt, as Aaron vacuumed the rug in our back porch. Since I appreciate how great it is to be married to an ardent vacuumer, I was pleased to see that my first-born child is showing this proclivity as well. Granted, this is not the most action-packed video, but make sure you watch the whole thing so you don't miss the touching moment at the end when Leif solemnly takes the Future Vacuumers of America (FVA) pledge: When he grows up, "Leif is going to vacuum eeeeeevvvery day!"

Leif takes time to smell the flowers

Another belated summer post....Aaron took Leif on quite a few before-dinner walks and trips to the playground this summer to give me some relative peace and quiet (having only Bjorn to deal with) and time to prepare our food without a demanding two-year-old underfoot. We don't have any photos of Leif's favorite nearby destinations -- the chicken coops some neighbors up the alley keep in their driveway and the fire station at the end of the block -- but Aaron did get some sweet shots of Leif literally taking time to smell the flowers along the way. Fortunately, he has not been too intent on trying to pick neighbors' flowers yet, although he does really enjoy popping the little purple buds off of hosta plants. Since I remember doing that as a kid myself, I can't blame him too much for not being able to resist that temptation!

State Fair

It seems I still have some blogging about the summer to catch up on! It's hard to keep posts in order of when things actually happened when I have at least four different sources of material to work from (my camera, my phone, Aaron's phone, and our video camera), and we load the photos/videos from each source onto our computer irregularly and at different times. In any case, here's a photo to commemorate this year's Minnesota State Fair, which Leif attended not once but *twice* in its ten-day run.

After going the first time and getting a taste of what the Fair had to offer, Leif was very explicit about his goals for his second trip there with Aaron on Labor Day: "Leif DOESN'T want to see any animals. Leif wants to see CARS at State Fair!" (Trucks and tractors also made the cut.) Even now, in mid-October, Leif continues to request return trips to the State Fair, and we have to break the sad news to him again and again that the State Fair comes but once a year, and he has a long wait ahead of him before he can go and climb in all those cool vehicles again. Good thing there's the auto show in March to tide him over until then!